When the Father Calls Your Name

Let me take you somewhere. Jesus has died, and three days later, you, a disciple of Jesus, head to the tomb early in the morning to mourn over the body of your lost Lord. When you arrive at the tomb, you see that his body is gone. You assume someone must have stolen his body and you began to weep because you will never be able to see the body of your Lord again. As your weeping, you turn around and see a man behind all of your tears whom you think is the gardener. He says "Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" and you respond "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." The man responds with one word: Your name. Then it clicks. You realize this man who you thought was the gardener is actually your risen Lord. What made you realize this? Jesus saying your name. When your heavenly Father simply says your name, you will recognize his voice and cry out "Father!" 

After you realize this man is not a gardener but your risen Savior, you embrace him with arms squeezing and joy in your heart. But Jesus says "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 

What would you do? Would you continue to embrace Jesus in fear that this might be the last time you see him? Would you began to weep because you feel as though Jesus didn't want you to simply be with him, but to be with others and proclaim him? Would you actually listen to Jesus and head out shouting to people you know that Jesus has risen? 

This is the story of Mary in John 20:11-18. This story paints an amazing picture of our walk with God. The first thing a Christian usually does as they come to Christ is weep, mourn, and wish they could see their savior. There is a sadness because we realize how rotten we are and how that caused a perfect man to be killed in the most gruesome of ways. After the Christian has mourned over the death of Jesus, they will hear God call to them much like Mary did. "Mary" Jesus said. It will most likely not be audible but you will understand and you will not know why you understand. Once you hear the Father say your name, you will be overwhelmed with joy and love for this man who died for you and you will want to cling to him for eternity. You will just want to be in his presence, no matter what that means. The Christian often says "if I must die to be with you than so be it, may it come swiftly." But don't forget Child of God that for a short while, we must proclaim his name to others. Jesus will say to us after we cling to him "Do not cling to me...but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 

All Christians, though excited to fully embrace Christ in the heavenly kingdom must attempt to remain focused on the life at hand and how it should be lived for God. Christians must start worrying about others souls just as much as their own. Keep eternity in view, but realize where your at now. 

We are the Branches, He is the Vine

The Bible says that a "good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit". By saying this, Jesus is expressing the concept that a child of God will look like a Child of God, while someone who isn't a child of God won't look like a child of God. Makes sense, right? Someone who has accepted the gift of salvation will be changed by the holy spirit continuously throughout their life. Someone who hasn't accepted the gift only has the hope of being changed by the world's morals and their own sense of what is right and wrong. Now someone is saying "but there are non-Christians who are better than some Christians". Well, there are two things that must be examined in this situation. Firstly, is the Christian your thinking of actually a Christian? Many people say they are Christian's but the Bible says many people will be self-decieved. Now you ask "How do I know if they are a true Christian?" Because they will look like a true Christian; they will know what they believe, they will be continually trying to improve, they will be talking to others about their faith, their primary goal in life will be to know God and to make him known. 

The second question you must ask is where did this Christian come from? Did they just become a Christian and were they living like hell prior to that commitment, and now they are struggling to get out? It is always important to see where someone is improving from, not just where someone is improving to. Did the non-Christian grow up in a place that was fairly easy to live with very few bad influences, and the Christian grew up in an abusive home where all his morals were torn to pieces? As people examine Christians, may they not only acknowledge our desire to be different, but our effort to do so as well. 

In John, Jesus says:

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." - John 15:4-6

Jesus says "the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." What does that mean? The first interpretation that comes to mind is that Jesus is saying we cannot do good things unless we abide in Christ. Now we have gone back to an original objection. "But non-Christians do good things!" you say. Yeah? By whose standard? By yours? Too bad your standard isn't objective. God's standard of good is what matters and everything should be judged according to it. Listen to me carefully. No one can do any good thing unless that thing is pleasing to God.  The only way to make what you do pleasing to God is to do it according to His will and for his will. We can all give money to a charity, but only a Christian can give money to a charity and please God through it. You cannot please God unless you abide in him for the good that you do. And only once you please God, is your work actually good. 

You see, the non-Christian cannot do good works because nothing is good unless it is done for God. What a lonely and sad life. The unbeliever tries to satisfy themselves with things of this world and tries to do good for the very purpose of doing good. But the believer is able to truly be satisfied in doing good because they do it for the sake of the Father, therefore it truly is a good work. 

The Bible says "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." (Ephesians 2:10). Quit trying to do good works for no purpose other than being called a good person. Truly be satisfied and do everything you do to the glory of the one who made you. Then, and only then, will your good works be satisfying and worthy of the goodness of God. 

The Second Greatest Commandment

Christian's are known as judgmental to many people. I don't need to give statistics to show Christian's or non-Christians that this is how American Christianity is viewed, it's become common knowledge. But there is more to Christianity's Judgmental attitude than meets the eye. Now before I make my point,  I don't want people thinking I agree with the way arrogant and prideful false-Christians pursue making everyone feel as though they are worthless and always in the wrong. As I talk about this subject, I want to make clear that when I say Christian, I'm talking about genuine Christian's; Christian's who have the fruit of the spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control". I'm talking about Christian's who desire to make a difference, Christian's who are truly children of God and still sin and are thankful for the grace God has given.

Keeping that definition of Christian in mind, let me now tell you something: All these Christians are trying to love other Christians and unbelievers. All of these Christians truly are trying to follow Jesus' commandment to love others. The problem isn't in the Christian's motive (again, remember the strict definition of Christian), it is in how the Christian perceives love. The problem isn't with who the Christian is, but what the Christian knows. For that reason, I want to humbly do my best to create a more correct view of how we are to treat others.

Some Christians go about loving others by being judgmental and blunt about telling them the truth, so to them, that is love. This view though, taken too far, can become destructive. Some Christians go about loving others by being tolerant. In other words, they don't disagree or really even tell people about their faith, they just "love" people. However, this view can be equally destructive to the Christian faith.

Christians have taken up some pretty destructive views that were arrived at on a road with good intentions. Fortunately, Jesus said more than just "love your neighbor"; that would have allowed for different definitions of love to be applied. He said "love your neighbor as yourself". This is what must be examined when the Christian is looking at how to love others.

Christians are not to only love others with their own petty definition of love, but to love others as they love themselves. So in order to arrive at a conclusion of how to love others, we must first figure out how we love ourselves. When you make a mistake, do you still love and forgive yourself? After you told your parents that lie, did you still love and forgive yourself? After you looked at that pornographic site, did you still love and forgive yourself? After, for a short while, you became numb to sin, did you still love and forgive yourself? When you were overweight and insecure, did you still love yourself? Humans in general have a tendency to have an easier time forgiving themselves for sins committed than forgiving others, but Jesus calls us to be equally forgiving. Here is another question for the Christian: when you sin, do you try to gently correct your sin? I know I do. And that is how we should love others; we should not be tolerant of their sin, but we should not be hateful towards them either. We should tell them the truth, but we should listen to what they have to say. We should correct their sin, but with gentleness and respect. We should tell them of their depravity while realizing our own. We should tell them of Jesus remembering we don't change people, God does.

The point is not to become too tolerant, nor too judgmental, but to find a healthy balance. But why correct at all if God changes people? Because God tells us to change, and as Christians, let's do our best.  We will fall, and when we do, may we be humble enough to apologize and help others realize that what was done was not a Christian action, but rather a poor mis-representation of Christ. The Christian must start and continue correcting his/her life for the sake of Christ. After-all, that is the evidence of a Christian's salvation.

The Sovereignty of God and The Depravity of Man

"Why did God make all these rules if he knew we were going to sin?" asked a student last night at a small fellowship-based youth group. That's a good question, isn't it? How would you answer that? I have heard many responses to this question, but few that are satisfying. One response I've heard is that "All of life is a test, and God is testing us by putting these rules in place".  Although this response does have some weight to it, it only deals with how a Christian could apply this to their life, it doesn't deal with the intellectual side of things, in fact, it raises more objections. Here are a few that come to mind: Why would God give us a test he knew we were going to fail? A test for what, I thought we were saved by grace? This answer doesn't get to the heart of the question because it doesn't deal with the ability of God to control everything (omnipotence) by his nature. In other words, it doesn't deal with the question of why God didn't prevent us from sinning if he had the power to do so. God is all-powerful. God can't choose not to control because if something else had control, God wouldn't, and therefore he isn't really a soveriegn God. People will say "so He can't choose to give us free will? Doesn't that limit God's sovereignty?" Let me ask that person a question: can God make a stone too big for him to lift? No, because no matter the size of the stone, God would be able to lift it. He would, by definition, have to be infinitely bigger than the stone. Therefore there are things God cannot do because he can't not do something. Sorry for the double negative. One of those things he can't not do is control everything, including us. That is not to say we don't have free will, it is to say God has control over our free will.

My goal is to answer this question while remembering the sovereignty of God. So let's go back to the beginning. Only God exists. Now it's important to remember at this point that God is omniscient (all-knowing). 

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:9

In the ability to know everything exists not only the ability to know the outcome of a created world, but the outcome of every possible world. In other words, God doesn't just know what is, but would could be. Before God created man, he wanted to create for the soul purpose of glorifying himself through us. Therefore, as he looked at all possible worlds he could create, he instantaneously knew the one that would bring him the most glory: the world we live in today. He chose to create this world because he would be most glorified by the people on it, the outcomes of their lives, the fall of man and the gift of God, and the grace of God shown to man because of man's depravity. It's important to realize God created not for us, but for him.

"Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'"

- Isaiah 46: 8-10

Getting back to the original question with the idea that we are created for God in mind, I would answer something like this: God did not create the rules for us. You say 'Why did God create the rules if he knew WE were going to sin?'. That makes the subject of the sentence more focused on us, not God. A better question would be 'Why did God decide to use sin in order to fulfill his purpose?' The question is not why did God create rules, for he did not create rules, his nature requires that if something be in his presence (as man was in the beginning) they must be perfect, and perfection has boundaries. If God is perfect, he can't look on imperfection. Furthermore, if God is perfect, than imperfection is possible. For example, if  people can get in an airplane, than not getting in the airplane is possible. However, if people can't get in an airplane, than getting in an airplane is impossible. Imperfection exists partly because God is perfect. But it mainly exists because God's character requires it to. 

God made rules in order to remain as God. We didn't follow those rules because God's purpose was to show us his grace and love through our depravity and therefore be further glorified through our better understanding of who He is. He didn't create the rules so that we would sin, he created us as who we are, knowing we would 'fall short of the glory of God'.