“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…”
–Romans 12:6
Something has been churning around in my gut for the past couple of weeks and it just won’t go away. So I concluded I ought to put it down on paper. It all centers on the word gift, and the difference between a gift I give to another person, (for Christmas or whatever) and the gifts God gives to human beings. Although the same word is used in both instances the meanings are vastly different.
If I were to give you a gift for your birthday, say a toaster, after you opened it you may do what you want with it; you could use it to toast bread, or as a paperweight, you could give it away, or even sell it to someone who needs a toaster. As the giver I hope you would use it and enjoy it forever, but after you’ve taken possession of it…my say in the matter is over. In our culture we resent those who try to give with strings attached, or even worse try to reclaim their gift.
Now when God gives someone a gift it is never meant to be hoarded, but invested in the way he sees fit, the parables of Jesus bear this out repeatedly. The master gives a gift then checks up on the receiver to see what he has done with what he has been given. A gift from him is never some bobble to play with, rather, it is a battle to fight, a mission to fulfill, or a quest to undertake. In the verse before us relating to spiritual gifts one could even say that God is not really giving gifts to individuals, he is giving gifts through individuals for the benefit of the body, and the lost.
What I’m getting at could really be summed up in one word, responsibility. We will be held accountable not only for every great deed, but every single word. We must never forget that the things he has given us are not ours to play with, but his to faithfully use for his own benefit.
“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. Luke 7:24-26
I find an irony in Christ’s description of John the Baptist, reminding me so much of our day. People desperately need a fresh word from the Lord, desperately need a prophet, yet they often reject them, because unlike the shaking reed they are insensitive, and unlike the nicely dressed, cultured, refined men of the court, they are uncouth or plainly dressed. People want a sensitive, tolerant, refined prophet of the Lord, but they will never find one for such a creature does not exist.
What does desiring this flavor of prophet say about us, and why won’t we find him? The question is valid. Why do we want Oprah friendly prophets? We want them because we don’t want to offend anyone. Being closed-minded is nearly equivalent to murder, and intolerance to child molestation. We want divine guidance and exhortation to do things which even the hedonists, feminists, and communists will applaud. We want our prophets to injure, “Thus saith the Lord . . . be nice.” or “Thus saith the Lord . . . Recycle.”
But this friendly prophet mentality completely misses the point of the prophet’s job. The prophets’ job is not to attach God’s name to whatever is culturally acceptable, the prophet’s job is to confront society’s accepted sins and anger nearly everyone in the process. According to no less than Jesus Christ a false prophet is one whom “all men speak well of” A politically correct prophet of God will not exist because a politically correct prophet of God cannot exist! The Prophet is an emissary from a perfect and perfectly immovable God who enforces laws so righteous that no one else can possibly keep them. The only refuge from his wrath is to commit yourself to His son, be bathed in His blood, and cry out for His mercy. Any emissary for this God will declare a message guaranteed to bring hatred, slander, and often death upon himself. After all the greatest prophet whom ever lived said to his unconverted brothers that, “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” This prophet’s name was Jesus…
Now do you see why we don’t accept this type of prophet? Here’s the dilemma, we want a prophet but godly prophets make us look narrow minded and un-cool. What are we to do? The frequent solution to this dilemma is what truly frightens me. Knowing that a true prophet will hurt our reputation but wanting a prophet nonetheless we accept a different sort of prophet altogether, one who will never offend, never challenge, and always affirm. In other words . . . a false prophet.
Situational ethics, modernism, and pluralism have infiltrated the mindsets of many who call themselves believers in Jesus Christ. These mentalities are massive roadblocks to true biblical discernment. If we approach the word of God predetermined to these mentalities, we will never pass through the gates of truth. Ever they will elude us, and ever we will meander down dank pathways.
One of these pathways is paved with the word, “Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming (MMOG.)” For years I had an addiction to this false reality, and for two years I have been praying about why it is that I am supposed to take a stand against it, and expose this darkness to the light of God’s word.
I was kept in darkness for years about this issue because I did not come to God’s word with an honest heart about it. I placed my hands over my ears and eyes by claiming that since the Bible does not explicitly talk about entertainment like MMOG’s that I was vindicated from biblical accountability. (As a word to the wise, you will never find any light or truth in the word of God about yourself and your circumstances if you have a prideful heart like I did.)
After fellowshipping with a dear brother in Christ today I knew it was time I finally get this off my chest and onto my hard drive. MMOG’s operate on probably the single most cunning principle, which keeps young men (and even increasingly young women) by the droves, coming back day after day, week after week, ad infinitum to an unreal world.
This singular principle governs probably every single MMOG on the market. I am sure I would be challenged to find even one that does not, whether it is Eve Online, World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars…or any number of others has, in the kernel of their design, a central hub of operation known as covetousness.
How is this so? Every single decision you make within these false realities is dictated by how it will benefit you or your “avatar,” or your brood/collective of avatar friends. Each one of these people shed whom they are in the flesh to take upon themselves a digital alter-ego, and run a nearly galactic rat race to get ahead of all competition through gaining 1.) unreal money which allows for the purchase of character modifications, and 2.) unreal character attribute upgrades. Both of these principles of covetousness are governed by two other principles, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Each upgrade or modification (mod) is more attractive to the eyes than the last was, and every attribute upgrade which applies to the avatar itself appeals to the pride of life, as the false character becomes increasingly more powerful.
So covetousness works through the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; however, these are just foundational concepts, not necessarily the fruit reaped. Rather, it is with raging frequency that one will find ensconced within the social structure of MMOG’s an endless trail of enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, (believe it or not you can actually get your avatar drunk in many games) sexual immorality, impurity and sensuality, and if it were possible, orgies, (often imitated through raucous gesticulating) and certainly last but particularly most common…sorceries. These happen to be listed in Galatians 5:20 as the “works of the flesh,” which Paul warns that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So the game itself subjects you to the principalities of the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…and those two principles manifest themselves through each person’s avatar toward every other avatar as the lust of the flesh.
James 4:6 says that “He (God) giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.” Pride is the one element which grace cannot penetrate. One must become humble to see the application of this truth from the word of God. On bended knee admit your digital sin; confess that Christ Jesus the son came to deliver you from your sin, to set you free from your unreal captivity (Luke 4:18.) If we do not repent of this we may just find ourselves gaining an unreal world, yet losing a very real soul. Do not let the principality of pluralism tell you that these things are OK because it is a gray area in scripture, or that you have the “liberty.” Though on the outset MMORG’s may seem innocuous, I would remind you that the whole of creation was subjected to its current tyranny and slavery to sin through the fear of death, (Hebrews 2:15) by one simple bite of a seemingly innocuous piece of fruit…fruit that tasted like godhood!
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.Psalm 126:5-6
We ought to tarry long on this verse and plumb the depths of it’s meaning. It’s message clearly ties together brokenness and fruitfulness, weeping and reaping. Although it’s terminology is agrarian and not theological, it is the exact same terminology Jesus used in his parables about evangelism. And since interpreting this verse in a strictly agricultural way makes absolutely no sense, I will interpret it using the parable of the sower as a cheat-sheet of sorts.
Jesus referred to the word as “seed” and and evangelism as “sowing seed”, so interpreting it through Christ’s teachings the message would go something like this: ” He who goes out weeping. bearing the word for evangelism, shall come home bringing many people with him.” When you interpret this verse through Christ’s lens you draw a strong and immediate conclusion, a bountiful harvest of souls is the fruit of a weeping evangelist. A fruitful harvest requires a grief-stricken messenger. Unless the man is broken the fruit will be nonexistent or sparse. Leonard Ravenhill put it this way “It takes a broken man to break men.”
The necessity of brokenness for fruitfulness should surprise none of us. Jesus mission on earth was to come and be broken in our place, so that we could be saved. The prophet Isaiah described Christ’s ministry this way “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 1 Jesus mission on earth could never have been completed without his being broken for us; why would we think we could successfully spread his message by any other means?
I have come to the conclusion that we have the concept of success all wrong. Which could be defined as the ability to reach a said goal. In the West we may understand the definition of success, but not the measure of it. Though we may have the concept right, we have the goal wrong. In America our goals are things like home ownership, retirement, or attaining happiness. But our time-line is far too short, and our perspective is far too close, to know what our goals really ought to be, or where true success really lies.
Since it is before God that we will be judged we need to measure ourselves by His standards. His value system is far different form ours because He is far different from us, “For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” 1 God is all good, all powerful, and all knowing. He measures us by our faith, which is seen in how closely we’ve followed his commands. Jesus told us the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 2 These should be our two primary success gauges; how we respond to God, and how we treat people. If we are failing in these area’s we are failures no matter how much money we have or how high we’ve climbed our career ladder. So we ought to calibrate our gauges well.
Are we loving God with all our heart, or with lip-service? Are we loving him with all our soul, our favorite activities and pastimes focused on him? Are we loving him with all our mind; is our thought life focused on sports, sex, or God? Do we love him with all our strength? How much effort are we putting into establishing His kingdom.
Do we value our spouse and treating them as God commands? Are we raising up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Are we being faithful employees? Are we helping others practically, and not just saying “God bless you”? These are the standards by which our “success” will be judged, and we ignore them at our own peril.
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8
In the midst of ash and accusation, boils and belligerent philosophy, a spark of trouble flew upward, beyond the lowly crags of mountain heights, into the deep blue etherium of divine contemplation. His name was Job, which means “hated, or persecuted.” According to his accusers, he must have done something to offend the Almighty. His suffering dictated that it must be so. It is no wonder that the oldest book of Hebrew lore deals with the deepest questions humans have tried to apprehend. In the midst of extreme suffering, we have all inevitably questioned the point of life. Job’s bitter query did not proceed until after seven days and seven nights of silence amidst the conjoining of dust, ash, rending, and “friends.”
There he sat in silence so long…I am sure the day of visitation was fresh in his mind…being replayed like a video again and again and again. No doubt his silence was one of agonizing mental anguish. Once the silence is broken, Job basically says that the day of his birth ought to be cursed into eternal blackness. (Job 3) His deep pondering begs the question. WHY LIVE??? Why live if suffering is our bread, if misery is our drink?
Once Job finally broke his silence…Eliphaz was quick to speak the abundance of his heart and accusation against Job. He starts off with a few quick words of flattery, probably out of cultural respect, then promptly begins to develop a thread of thought that Job must not be innocent, of course his suffering must be the result of sin because, “Who ever perished, being innocent?” Or, “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.” (Job 4:7-8)
Like so many councilors that lack any form of humility, Eliphaz completely ignores the questions Job raises, and displays the true motive behind why he sat seven days and nights on Job’s pile of ash. His motive was to bring accusation against his friend. Job had asked why it was that he did not just die when he was born. Then he would have moved on to the indomitable vault of equalization…the grave. Where the, “Prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.” (Job 3:17-18) Job was concerned with the deeply subterraneous questions of his soul. Eliphaz was concerned with emanating his own religious pomposity via his theology.
The temptation to give a ringside, blow by blow account is difficult for me to withstand; however, for succinctness sake we must jump forward numerous arguments later, after Job has received jabs, hooks, uppercuts and below-the-belt accusations from his “friends.” In the midst of his suffering and incrimination Job raises one of the single most important questions that suffering must force someone to ask. Keep in mind this is probably the oldest book of the Bible, if not one of the oldest written manuscripts ever. In Job 14:14, he laments, “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” God had not yet been fully manifest and in the Son, so total revelation about life and death had not yet occurred to humanity. Job did not know yet that eternal life was knowing the Father, and the one whom he would send.
Eliphaz proves his religious ignorance once again by calling Job’s questions an, “uttering of vain knowledge and a filling of his belly with the east wind.” Why think deeply about your pain Job? Just repent for your ox-dumb pride.
Job then responds to this indictment and receives one more from Bildad. It is at this point in chapter nineteen where Job reaches a crescendo of angst. He points out that his miserable councilors have accused him ten times, and he begins to lament that he has been forsaken by every last person whom he valued. He first laments deeply of God forsaking him, and how God had stripped him of his glory and crown. (Job 19:9) Job was destroyed on every side…troops had been raised against him, his brethren were put far from him, every acquaintance of his had become completely estranged from him. His kinsfolk failed him, and his familiar friends forgot him. Those most intimate with him, his maids and dwellers of his home, now viewed him as an alien and a stranger in their sight. His breath even became strange to his own wife. The word strange in the Hebrew is metonymous with the word for adultery. So it could be said that his very breath was as the breath of an adulterer to his own spouse. This gives us a sense of just how disgusting Job’s suffering was to his kin. His own children also rose up and despised him and spoke against him. All this would be bad enough but the dagger in his back is twisted a little bit more when he says that even his “inward friends” have turned on him as the hand of God touched him.
The Valley of the Shadow of Death by George Inness
It is as if the veil of fellowship had been drawn and stitched. It was woven from the fabric of solitude, and the stitches were the condescending glances of accusation he received. No man is more forsaken in the midst of people than this man. He was so alone that his bones clove to his skin and flesh. This was likely due to malnutrition from prolonged fasting. Eating no longer meant anything to him.
Finally, it is within this broad context that Job laments, “Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever. For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”
Was it not Christ our Lord, whom upon the cross asked from the bottom of the deepest well of trepidation ever probed, “My God my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Did not all of Christ’s sheep scatter into hiding? Did not Jesus become as an adulterer to them? Were they not completely ashamed of His suffering? Was Peter not in the valley of the shadow of death?
By now, I hope you have noticed the parallel between Job being forsaken by all, and Christ being forsaken by all, even His Father. These continuities are absolutely staggering. I will let your imagination continue to connect these concepts. It is at this point, of Job’s deep suffering, where deep calls unto deep. Some divine tremendous light has perforated the subterranean expanse of his tragedy, and he concludes the only thing an open mind, a humble heart, and a suffering soul can conclude…there must be, there has to be, I know there will be…a resurrection from the dead! My Savior will stand upon the earth someday and I will stand with him. So it was that He (our Lord), for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. The broadest depths of human suffering when contemplated with a view of God in mind, require resurrection to be true. Were it not, sanity would become pointless…
In reading through Genesis 46 today I again ran across one of those great scriptural themes, division. And it struck me because I’ve never thought of it as a major scriptural theme like faith or love, but it most definitely is. Joseph instructs his father and brothers to tell Pharaoh they are just shepherds, because “every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”1 This is quite important because their very livelihood caused a deep and immediate rift with their Egyptian hosts. They were completely separated from the world around them. This kept them from eating with or marrying, the Egyptians; it kept them from being absorbed into Egypt.
The world as in the Tower of Babel is always emphasizing unity but God wants no part of it. He is always dividing, separating and creating disharmony, case in point . . . the Jews. Out of the entire world God chooses one man, and from him, he builds a new nation, through which he will reveal himself to the world. He didn’t work through an existing nation he separated one man from his nation; He is a God of separation.
Jesus put it this way . . .
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36
If we are his disciples, we should expect division to follow in our wake. If no one hates or maligns us we should be quite worried, for Christ promises us that these are the natural fruit of following him. We are not to go out of our way to pick fights and be Jerks for Jesus, but need to realize that if we are living for Him, opposition and division will always follow.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. John 15:18
James Cameron’s newest film Avatar is taking the world by storm literally. It tells the story of a future corporation’s pillaging of a planet and the resistance they encounter from the pantheistic alien population (The Navi).
In considering the success of Avatar, one thing strikes me; it’s success illustrates man’s hunger for an authentic solid connection to a real and powerful God. This generation is not hungry for ethics, apologetics, or theories. They want spiritual reality, and they don’t expect to find any of that in church, so they look elsewhere. The Church, who’s job it is to display authentic spiritual reality to the world, has largely become a Christian country club.
The Church’s response to James Cameron’s jaw-dropping, breathtaking, and dauntless sci-fi epic will mainly fall into one of 2 camps.
1. Some will denounce it as evil, say it is opening people up to demon possession, or teaching them Gaia worship. 2. Others will try to put a Christian spin on it , making Angeltar comics, having “How to be an Avatar for Jesus” conferences, or some such nonsense. But neither of these addresses the real issue, the church has drifted far away from true spiritual communion with God.
I can almost guarantee that our response will not be the correct one. Which would be to return to authentic spirit filled Christianity. To stop imitating the world, or finding ways to increase attendance. Instead the church needs to pursue, seek, and serve God. To live lives of simplicity, humility, and prayer. To live a passionate life of love for God and our neighbor. Pouring ourselves out as an offering to God.
Here is the gauntlet that lays at the foot of the Church . . . The fake world and religion of the Navi appeals to people because of their passionate pursuit of, and relationship with their fake God. Which looks much more real and appealing than our fake pursuit of, and relationship to the true God.
