The New Bereans

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other . . . Matthew 6:24

Few things bring more chaos and confusion into spiritual life, than attempting to gain mans approval. Paul makes the point abundantly clear, “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” He is not saying that no one will ever approve of you if you are serving Christ, rather, if you are seeking mans approval you will not be serving Christ.

The word translated servant here δοῦλος , literally means slave; it is not the Greek word for servant, it is not one of the six Greek words for servant. Why is this important? When Christ taught that no slave can serve two masters, his audience instantly understood. A slave is not an employee; you cannot have a part time master on the side. A slave is completely subjugated to his master, as a Christian is to Christ.

Where is this leading? I am leading to the opposing truth of my first point, just as pleasing man adds confusion, the pleasing only of Christ removes confusion. It makes decision making radically simple. When you aren’t trying to posture yourself in a position where everyone likes and agrees with you, but simply seeking Gods leading, and obeying his word, confusion will be virtually eliminated.

. . . I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.  John 15:31

Every believer eventually reaches a point of profound love for God without obvious expression.   When worship alone cannot fully display your love, what is a saint to do?  Paint a painting?  Plant a tree?  Sing really loud?  To show love for your wife you can buy flowers and chocolates.   To show love for a child, offer them ice cream.  But how do you show God your love? Jesus tells us how his love for the father is evident . . . obedience.  I know this is a four letter word among Christians today, but I bring it up because Jesus did.

Please do not misunderstand me, we are never told that it is possible to earn a spot in heaven, but we are repeatedly told to live a life that pleases God.  Our hearts are wrong when the idea of living a holy life causes us to recoil in horror.  According to Jesus, obeying God is of the best ways of expressing our love for God.

Using Christ’s measurement for love, our love for God should not be hard to gauge because its fruit is visible, obeying gods commands.  Much obedience = much love, little obedience = little love, no obedience = no love.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:21

If you have ever been caught in a back-eddy, after having been tossed from a raft, then you know the terror of struggle, and the panic you feel when all of your effort is required to get back into the current again.  Metaphorically this is the same result as a conversation between believers that I hear not infrequently.  Without fail there will be a brother or a sister who is grieving over the current state of things in the church and they will lament that we need to get back to the way things were during Christianities formative years.  The more “mature,” wineskin will respond to this requiem cynically by asking, “Which early church would you like to get back to…the Corinthian church with all its carnality…or how about the Galatian believers with all of their legalism?  Or what if we were more like the Thessalonian church; they were a bunch of louts and layabouts…”  Bla bla bla, around the death eddy the conversation swirls until hope is suffocated and the old wineskin cavorts away, skipping with glee, while his twin daggers of discernment and rebuke reflect a glimmer of pale light as he twirls and sheathes them.

With all of the precision and diligence of a grammatical Samurai, Arthur Katz dashes headlong into this vicious circle of puerile reasoning, hacking its foolish carnal logic to tatters.  The issue, he tells us, is with the term Apostolic, a term which was little more than an entitlement to me before I read this book.  Men like titles, so by nature when we see one, we automatically think in terms of hierarchy.  It takes a few hundred pages, but once done, Brother Katz has completely waylaid all misconceptions you may have had about this hierarchy whatsoever.

Early on in the book he says, “There is no man more qualified than the one who believes in his deepest heart that he is without qualification.  The whole preliminary work of God is to disqualify us before we can be qualified.₁“ He would then go on to point out that Moses was at a pinnacle in life when at 40 he had everything going for him, God would have nothing to do with it though as brother Katz would go on to say, “and yet God does not think it lavish, wasteful or extravagant to give Moses another forty years of waiting in the wilderness until he is completely emptied out–and then He calls him.₂”

You may be thinking…uhhhhh wait, Moses wasn’t an Apostle, and what does he have to do with the term Apostolic?  Everything!  Art had great concern that people today have no idea what it means to be sent by God, rather than sent by themselves, or their own efforts.  In a world of fast food, fast love, and quick religion, the joy of patience and the glory of Godly contentment has been lost.  Brother Katz takes off his kimono and drops the sword in favor of playing a violin with a rose in his teeth as he romances deeply with the idea of being patient for God’s calling.  Taking every discipline the Father sends for the joy that it itself is worth.  He asks, “Will we be willing to submit to waiting and to conditions of trial and preparation for true service when the whole religious world clamors for action?₃”

While ruminating upon Leviticus 8:15-17 he points out that: “God is not interested in the outer hide and the flesh; He counts that along with the dung.  The inside, in the inner man, worked by Him in the hidden places, born of inward wrestling, are the offerings of a sweet and pleasing savor before God.  We have been guilty as contemporary Christians of offering our personalities, our winsomeness and our fleshly abilities to God, simply because we do not have the inward parts to offer, never having learned to rest or wait before God.  We have despised the suffering, reproach and obscurity in which alone the sweet offerings are formed deep within us.  We have not esteemed such things as God esteems them, and have preferred to do without them.  We need the obedience and vision that will enable us to take our hide and flesh outside the camp and to exclude it from the holy place, as well as from the pulpit.₄”

If you have read many of our posts, you can obviously see that this man is right up our alley.  I have to thank sermonindex for first placing a sermon from Arthur Katz on my iPod.  After nearly having to pick myself up off of the floor because of the forcefulness and earnestness of his message, I soon started reading all that Google could muster about this man.  I bought his autobiography, “Ben-Israel, Odyssey of a Modern Jew.”  Having read it in only a day or so, it left me pacing to know what happened to him after he was born again.  Apostolic Foundations answered that question for me. I would suggest that this was probably his Opus.  Not having read any of his other books, I find it hard to believe this book could be topped.

There is no way this book could have been written, had it not been lived.  I am suspicious that Apostolic Foundations was only a perpetuation of what Arthur lived out.

I definitely recommend “Apostolic Foundations” to anyone at all who has a care to serve God in any capacity.  I would also suggest placing this book into the category of revival.  I do not know if that was exactly his intent, but I see revival written on every single page.  I was sent to my knees in prayer so many times reading this book that it took me a month to read.  I could hardly get through a paragraph without having to repent and ask for God’s grace to help me overcome.  I hope this review will inspire even one person to purchase this book and pray for its application.  Arthur Katz was a burning man with a precise vocabulary.  May his words catch others on fire. You can order the book here.  I only wish I had had the opportunity to hear him preach in person before he went home…

1.)    Arthur Katz, Apostolic Foundations, Burning Bush Publications, Third Printing: January 2002 © 1999 by Arthur Katz page 12

2.)    Ibid page 12

3.)    Ibid page 14

4.)    Ibid page 29

Clive Staples Lewis

As soon as I was able to crack the spine of a book with legitimacy and authority, based upon the virtue of the fact that I was going to imbibe the words contained within it, I found myself consuming, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.”  My mother must have put me on phonic steroids when I wasn’t looking, because I remember reading it when I was between kindergarten and 1st grade.  My mother was always faithful to make sure I had plenty to read and for her persistence, I am eternally grateful.

In my last year of High School, I became gripped with a terrifying doubt about the validity of Christianity.   Post modern reasoning wormed its way into my brain and began to create a mash of my faith.   I do not remember how many nights I wept while my mind raced through all the maddening scenarios that would occur in my life should I choose to disbelieve.  Sleep, in those days, was like a long distance relationship to me, and I could hardly afford a calling card.  Most of the tears I cried flowed from fear and loneliness while the nature of my doubts were not really relatable to anyone I knew.  These doubts were so ghastly to me; in fact, I hesitated to talk to anyone about it for fear that I would infect them with the same plague that dominated my every waking thought.  If I ever did, God please forgive me.

Eventually, by God’s grace, I was granted the gift of faith and all my doubts washed away, but that is jumping ahead a bit.  Before the gift was granted however, my weak colander of faith was filled over and over with the thoughts and musings of C.S. Lewis.   He was not able to answer all of my questions, but many of the things he said in Pilgrims Regress, Mere Christianity, and Surprised by Joy kept me tethered and sane.  Every time I began to slip into the terrors of my doubts I would remember something he said which would counteract my dark brooding.

If I am granted the privilege of meeting him in the after, I think it will be difficult for me to respect British propriety, for I suspect I will hug the wind from his lungs.  He was a Father who nurtured me into true faith.  As he would have worded it in: “The Great Divorce,” he blew on the little glimmer of a coal within my soul till the heat of life began to spark.  I have had many teachers in my life, but very few Fathers (1 Cor 4:15).  I suspect that his writing, combined with my Grandmother’s prayers, and the passion my Mother instilled within me for the written word, (God’s sovereignty notwithstanding) granted me the right environment where God eventually flooded my doubts with the light of Hebrews 11:1.

As a belated thanksgiving post, I offer gratitude up to the Father of Lights, who has blessed me over and over again with the writings of this powerful thinker.  I was heavily reminded about it all as I read “The Great Divorce” last weekend in one interupted sitting and was gripped all over again and lead to weep in a new way because of his writing.  During this second foray into his real solid land I was confronted by the depth of my sin, and overwhelmed by the Grace of Jesus Christ.  These tears were much more welcome, praise be to God, who is able to keep me from falling.

I would like to do something a little bit different here.  If you read our blog on any sort of a regular basis, I want to propose a question.  But before I ask it, I want you to commit to praying for a while before you respond.  And make sure that your response is biblical, and is not taken out of context.  If you have time to do this, I think there could be great fruit from the discussion.  Please keep the discussion civil, do not use ad hominem or straw-man reasoning either please.  Wikipedia is a great resource if you are not sure what those words mean.  Also keep in mind that I am fairly confident, at this point, only believers frequent this site.  So there is peace in knowing that this is an in-house discussion, but please do not use that as license to get frustrated.

O.K. here is the question:  What is legalism? As it pertains to Christianity!

Please remember to keep your responses based on scripture as much as possible.  If a side-topic comes up as a result, I will determine if it is worth pursuing in another thread, but please keep it as focused on the topic as possible.  And Austin, you cannot reply first .

The person who responds with the best biblical definition, and I have one in mind, I will send a book of my choosing.  I will wait a few weeks before deciding, based on when the discussion fizzles out.  And Austin can’t win…sorry bro.  If noone defines it as well as I am hoping then the book will go to the individual who contributes the best overall to the structure of the discussion.

One last thought, we are all on equal ground, for “God accepts no mans person.”  Galatians 2:6

In II Kings chapters 6-7 we read about a terrifying famine, one induced by fear of a marauding army of Syrians, who by attrition were attempting to starve out Samaria, a city of the Israelites.   The king of Israel, the one who is supposed to have it “all together,” is leaning on the hand of a captain who speaks on behalf of the king, and questions the words of God’s prophet.   He expresses doubt that God will do what the prophet Elisha claimed . . . words he would inevitably regret.  The king and the captain are fretting for good reason however; there are women in the city who are fighting over equal share to one another’s children for cannibalistic consumption.   This is certainly a situation not a single reader of this article could likely relate to.   Elisha, familiar with the workings of a prophet, is having just another crazy day on the job so to speak, another day, another catastrophic apocalyptic uttering, you know…pretty run-of-the-mill stuff.  Which sets the unlikely heroes of the story, in a crazy contradistinction from all the rest of this cast; they are four pathetic lepers who leave the “comfort” of their famine prison, with nothing to lose.

These are the weakest of the weak, the rejects of rejects, no-one would be haggling or fighting over their flesh . . . as it was abominable, flagging, and falling off of their wasted bones.   As they give up hope in their leaders, having not heard the prophecy of Elisha, they leave the gate of Samaria, which seems to mean certain death by starvation, and place their hands in fate where at least they have a fifty-fifty chance of living.   As they leave the city behind them, the distance between this pathetic gaggle and a king who had no clue what to do but moan in sackcloth, grew great.

The distance that grew was more than a linear one; it was a spiritual distance, for these fools saw the awesome hand of God’s power to deliver.  They witnessed, first-hand, the salvation of the Lord.   For God reveals himself to the foolish things of the world, he does not do so to the proud or arrogant, neither does he to those who exalt themselves above God.  We are never further from salvation than when we think we somehow are entitled to it. Sure the whole city had been saved as Elisha portended, however these men, these poor wracked jagged heaps of life saw the mighty hand of God, and they had the fortune to be bearers of the greatest news these denizens of Samaria had probably ever heard.

How did the captain fair?  Well as most stories go, the bad guy was trampled by a mob of crazy hungry people in a gate.  Why?  He doubted the salvation of Yahweh.

God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, all the carnal earthly wisdom of our current day amounts to nothing (I Corinthians 1:26-28).  While we in America are not currently enduring such radical travail, our leaders politically are not much different.  They always seem to think they can solve the problems of the world by relying on the council of the worldly wise.  And the worldly wisdom is always doubting God.  Is it not apparent that one of the crowning virtues of our post modern views is doubt?

I pray that God grants his church today, the resolve and determination to become weak that He might be strong, that we may see the salvation of His hand.  And that we would not fret because of evil doers and bad leaders, as Psalm 37:1 commands us.

“The wisdom that comes from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” –James 3:17

Read Acts 16:22-33 For Inspiration Reference

I am vividly aware this book has been reviewed probably thousands upon thousands of times, I am writing about it nonetheless, probably for the same reason so many other people have written about it…it is worth doing.

As an avid reader, I must state that this book is not for everyone.  I have read reviews by Christians who suggest that it is a, “Must read.”  While I generally agree with the sentiment, I also recognize that this is a difficult book.  Many of the things said require a lot of thought.   Not only do they require a lot of thought, but you have to be able to maintain a large mental log of points, because Chesterton takes about seventy pages to develop his thesis.  Not only that, but understanding some of his metaphors require some heavy mental boulder rolling, but it is calorie burning work, so it is certainly worth the effort.

The first seventy pages will cause many to wonder, “Where is he going with all these odd fractured points?”  I did this exact thing numerous times during my read, but he kept me going with many worthwhile quotable quotes, and barn-burning statements.   On occasions he rev’s his thesis’ engine with unique and entertaining humor.  All the while his observations made me feel as if I was seeing the world through the eyes of a six year old philosophical savant who also happened to be writing probably one of the greater apologetics penned.

When at first you try to wrap your mind around his thesis you will probably feel like a car does when it gets its front end wrapped around a tree.  I hope you have a lot of bondo and carnauba wax.  The scope of this book reminded me of project “Deep Impact,” where NASA hit a comet with a satellite, due to the difficulty of Chesterton’s thesis which was almost as complex to resolve as hitting a philosophical comet 83 million miles away.   Somehow he does it though, with striking clarity, if you are able to not jump off his train of thought.

Chesterton literally mows the forest of humanist philosophy with the fortitude and efficiency of Paul Bunyan.  His axe takes two or three trees at a blow, and does not relent from cover to cover.  I was stunned to realize that he had cut down trees which have found root and re-growth in the some of the institutional church today.  And herein lies the reason I want to recommend this book.  There are many things we believe with nonchalance, because we have been told to believe them.  We need to get our truth from truth, and Chesterton expends all his effort like a blacksmith in the foundries of war by reminding us that Christ is the truth.

There has never been a book of theology, or apologetics, that made me cheer or cry…but this one did.  At one point I jumped out of my chair and pumped my fist and wished to high heaven there was someone to share the moment with me.   The last two chapters actually had my eyes leaking a bit, and my heart threatened to beat itself out of my ribcage.   It is far from often, dare I say never, that apologetics does this.  Either I am twisted weird, or this book was actually that good.

The one thing I observed is that Chesterton keeps his quotes from the bible to a bare minimum, but I think he does this for a reason.  I almost can picture that the thesis and conclusion are like the great pyramid of Egypt that he is slaving to build, and once built he places at its top, a great golden pinnacle which is the scripture he references.  I think that it actually makes the passages he quotes beautiful in a unique way.   Almost as if he is endeavoring to give the bible its right place at the top, by building his analysis underneath the power of the word.  Another way of looking at it is like he is a man holding a torch aloft in a dark cave for many to find their way back to the light.

This is definitely a great book to read, Orthodoxy is one of the most adventurous and daring books on Christian Apologetics ever written, hands down.

Since this book is largely Chesterton’s personal testimony, it is worth being reminded that, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lived unto the death.” -Revelation 12:11

This book is posted online for free at this catholic website, I however never recommend reading books online, it is bad for the future employment of wood chips, and I am an equal opportunity wood chip employment advocate, unless of course you cannot afford it, or plan to buy it later anyhow.  If you are also a revolutionary like I am you can buy the real deal here, from the American Chesterton Society.

Aiden W. T.

My heart a grove of trees so tall
So tightly packed in concentric rings
I long them felled each one and all
Fly thine axe with silver wings
Pine of pride, Ponderosa of pity
Pity me O’ Pity me…
Sawtooth Oak your acorns spread
A canopy of earthbound salient dread
Agile and quick thou art when I
Forget His axe and plead thee die…

The handle hewn from Cross-Tree heart
Hard as ages and agile in hands
Whom never time touched yet I pierced through
You have an axe whilst I held a hammer
Hew them down I plead thee my banner

Fell them, fell them, into the ponds
Of water released after piercing thee in thy bonds
Trunks and branches so knotty and old
Gnarled and twisted, linked and enthroned
Elbows embraced in moss bearded bone

The hatchet head sharpened from words in thy book
Hardened and smelted thy shape it took
Fashioned through love and weighted with grace
Bound to the haft with Yahweh’s embrace
The hand which wrote on Bab-el’s walls
Mightier than the mightiest kings halls
Grip thine handle with all thy strength
I invite the accelerating arc of thy sovereign arms length

Hew them down, Hew them down
Till miasmic leaves blanket this earthen floor
From which I shall behold thy cities pearly doors…

This forest O Father is kindling to thee
Scattered among the dirt and the scree
Fallen like lost sons of ancient Anak
Through whom ran Caleb and Joshua’s attack
They seemed so mighty and loomed so strong
But thou makest giants lie where they belong

By thy redemptive grace I now implore
With head rested on Beth-El’s rocky pillow core
All around fallen timber this timber is yours
Thy path now lies straight through what once was detour
The corner stone upon thee now, I rest my head and look ‘round
Pillars erect thee upon this foundation (was once a seed from humble a nation.)

Build me with thy house of promise
Work and fashion for good I plead
Though doubt looms after the fashion of Thomas
Knit together I will be, fashioned for loves urgent need.
Now part of a tabernacle so large,
A Jerusalem of stone thy own reward.
This wooden heart thou regenerate,
As the Fathers required wrath,
Upon Salem’s hills, the Son did abate!

-Jeremiah Dusenberry

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?  Luke 24:5

Looking over much of what we label Christianity.  I see multitudes of walking dead.  An army like the one spoken of in Ezekiel, which was built of bones covered in sinew but utterly destitute of life.  Long ago Jesus told the Pharisees “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me“1. And many are erring in the same ways today.  Going to Bible studies yet lacking any real relationship with Christ.  In our preaching the fire and the passion are gone; in our congregations purity is the exception and rarely the rule.

Don’t get me wrong there are scattered saints and, passionate preachers throughout the land; but when you look at your average person identifying themselves as Christians, you rarely see anyone resembling an early church believer; and when you listen to your average Pastor, you often find someone sounding a lot more like Dr. Phil than John the Baptist.

Where is the fire?  Where is the purity? Where are the transformed lives? We have substituted entertaining for exposition, comedy for conviction, and principle for pragmatism.  We have built the church we desired, and we have the church we deserve.

What is the answer?  Repent!  Turn from your wicked ways.  Stop supporting pastors who make you fell comfortable living in sin.  Read your Bible, burn “The Prayer of Jabez,” and “The Shack,”.  Stop drinking from the fountains of Babylon, drink your tears instead.  Let the words of the Lord spoken through the prophet Joel be our guide. . . “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; “and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.” Joel 2:13

“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. II Chronicles 7:14

1. John 5:39 NKJV