What I read on the NY Times Website that didn't shock me...

...but scares me when I think about the nation my children will grow up in.

What I wish I would have applied then that I understand now

So I had the opportunity to share some truth with the entire high school today in chapel. The title pretty much sums up the jumping off point that I used to get started today. Over all I felt like things went rather well, and I've since received some positive feed back. (which i never really know how to take... i mean if you were blessed by something i said, i am thrilled, but only because God used me, so it wasn't really me that did anything other than open my mouth) But i thought i would put it up here for all 4 of you to read as well. Maybe it reminds you and encourages you. Maybe it helps you understand me better. Maybe God will use it here too!
So my background is pretty much the one where you grow up in a Christian home, you always go to church, and you know all the right things to say and how to act Christian. I got some more practice at acting Christian in HS since i went to the same Christian HS that i now work at. There are two things I am sure of as i look back at my "Christian" HS experience. 1) I was 100% sure i was a believer then. 2) I'm about 95% sure now, that i wasn't a believer then.
So as i thought more and more about what i would tell these students who sit where i had sat, and many of whom think like i thought, i decided that i would tell them what i wish i would have applied (not known, because most of us already know it) to my life then, that would have saved me a lot of trouble, hurt, regret, and pain now. What would I tell myself if i had the opportunity to go back and tell skinny little HS Mark, what would i want me to know? I came up with 2 things...
1) The decision you make now carry consequences far beyond HS. The decisions you make now set the stage for the decisions you make later. Good or bad. Don't be foolish enough (like i was) to think you can live for yourself now, and sometime later you'll get everything worked out with you and God.
The best example i can think of when it comes to this mistake (outside of myself), is David. Like I said, its nothing we don't already know. But take some time and remind yourself about the most infamous incident in David's life. Did good ol' King Dave set out that fateful spring to make a baby with another man's wife? NOPE! Then how the heck did it happen? It was all in the decisions. Look closely at the 1st 6 verses.
v1) "But David remained in Jerusalem": Nothing sinful with this decision. Maybe he just wanted to take the spring off. Maybe he wanted to stay home and spend more time with his family. There are a ton of maybes that we can throw in here, but one thing is for certain, you can't call the decision sinful. What seems to be the key here though, is that this isn't where David belongs. It wasn't the wisest decision.
v2) "and the woman was very beautiful...": Why does this phrase stick out to me so much? Well how did he know she was beautiful? He took a look that was long enough to allow him to observe those details; probably more than one look in fact. He found himself in a position that would be very tempting for most men... a naked lady in plain sight. Do i look away, or do i make a closer inspection. It doesn't seem to far off to say that David had crossed from a look to an inspection. Why was he in this position in the first place? See verse 1 again.
v3 "And David sent and inquired about the woman..." While we can make some educated guess as to why he makes this inquiry, he may have allowed himself to make this step based on some sort of feigned decency. "Who would take a bath on a roof like that? Out in the open for people to see? Who is this lady? What's her deal? I need to get to the bottom of this!"
From there its all down hill... once he knew who she was, he sent for her, slept with her, conceived a child with her, murdered her husband, and took her for a wife. How in the world did we get here!? See verse 1. The decisions we make now will set us up for the decisions we make later. We can't expect to be able to live our life for ourselves and make decisions based on what we want one day, and then expect to be able to magically switch gears the next day and automatically make good, wise, God honoring decisions. Don't hear me say that once we have made bad decisions there is no hope for change. The point here is, once we make selfish, unwise decisions, its easier to make more of those same decisions than it is to make wise ones in their place, and vice-versa.
2) The Christian life is just that... a LIFE.
What are you about? Here is a fun little exercise... ask your closest friend/family member to answer that question for you with complete honesty. See there shouldn't be a part of our life that is the Christian part of us that remains separate for the weekend us, and the "no one is looking" us. If we have been truly born again, then our life should be saturated with Christ. It should bleed over into every last aspect of who we are.
The best example from the Bible that i can think of for this is Judas. Why? Well lets observe a little bit about our friend, shall we?
Historical Background: The Jews are looking for a political Messiah that will throw off Roman rule and oppression and set up an earthly government that puts the Jews at the top of the food chain. This was the common understanding of the Messiah in this day. Judas is a normal Jew that would have understood the Messiah like the rest of the normal Jews of his day.
What we can learn about Judas from scripture seems to indicate that he was particularly fond of money, and most likely what he could buy/do with that money. He finds this guy named Jesus who people are saying might be the Messiah. He seems to be able to do some pretty incredible things. He hangs out in interest. Jesus then recruits Judas to be one of his students. BINGO! Free ride to the top! Judas has hit it big... man he can't even believe it!
The rub... As the movement gets rolling and things seem to be headed in the right direction, all of the sudden Jesus starts talking about dying and what have you. Maybe it was a mistake, or one of those tricky parables that Jesus likes to tell... but no... he keeps talking about it. He really thinks he is going to die! He wants to die!? This guy isn't the real deal! He is just like every other fake Messiah that tried to throw off Roman rule before! This is a sinking ship!! I have to get out of here, and fast. And on the way out, he figures out a way to make a little bit more money off this fake. Sell him out...
What went wrong!? Think about it! How could you walk, talk, eat, sleep, laugh, cry, etc. with the Son of God for 3 years or more and not really believe? How could you be a part of some really amazing things and not really buy into what was going on around you?
I think the answer is simple. The "Christian" Judas was only a small isolated part of who Judas was. It wasn't real. He had found a way to restrict his "Christianity" to a small part of who he was. He was able to play that part when he needed to, but it wasn't who he was, or what he was about. It never became his life. The proof is in the jello. when the pressure was on, and things started looking bad, the real Judas revealed himself. And we all know how the story ends for him... (ref Matt 6:24)

This one nagging question still remains... Why is the lie that, when you become a Christian your life won't be as good, fun, enjoyable, so believable? Am i helping to promote that idea with how i live? Are we promoting that idea as Christians in general?
Truth is: "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly"

Not too sure how this one is going to turn out. I am sitting here at my CPU. I should be in bed. I am coming to the end of another long week. I am acutely aware of the fact that trials are the best thing for me, but man I would much rather not put up with them.

James 4 keeps coming to mind these days. There is certainly a lot of things that I would like to have, maybe even want to have. Then there is this on particular thing that I REALLY WANT. And so far, nada. My faith is at least deep enough to be able to dismiss the little whispers of "If God was really good He'd give you whatever you wanted." Maybe its not even my faith, but the fact that I work in a Christian school and I see the result of parents who never tell their child "NO!"

What is most amazing to me about the thing that I want so bad is that it is a good thing. Really, honestly, truly. I would even go so far as to say that what I want is biblically something I should want. But that really isn't what amazes me. What really amazes me is that I am so depraved, so fallen, so twisted, so un-human that I can take this really good thing and want it so much that it becomes wrong.

Maybe we all need to read James 4 with a little more candor. Lets be a bit more real about our situation. What is it that I want so bad, that isn't God, that if I don't get, I can promise you I will sin about it. So what! I mean it's not my neighbor's wife that I want that bad. Its not untold riches that I desire to the point of committing sin to attain. It something that in just about any other situation God would smile on in delight.

Yet it is this very thing that God has seen fit to expose my own vileness with. Lord help me! help us! help us to be wretched and mourn. Help us to gain a proper understanding of who we really are. Lord, then give us the grace to change. Give us the grace to over come. Lord help us to trust that every thing you do is good. You cannot do evil or wrong. Help us to apply the truth about You and your Word to the specific and vile parts of our lives.

Lord help us to humble ourselves before You, so that we will be exalted by You and You alone. Lord you know... you know...

Survey Says!!!

(never really got into that show, btw) So how do we go about answering this question of Christ's ability to sin. (His peccability/impeccability) Well, first things first. Lets start with what we know.

1) Christ was sinless... If you can read through the New Testament and somehow come away with any other idea about Christ, throw that Bible away and find a real one. I mean, if you want to argue that the Bible teaches anything else, then stop reading, your wasting both of our time.

2) Christ's Temptations were real... The real deal for sure. If they weren't real, then passages like the ones we find Matthew 4:1-11 are so bogus that once again I would ask that you take your Bible and throw it away. Well don't do that... better yet, get on your knees, beg God for Mercy and Grace and read like your life depended on it. (eternally it does)

3) God cannot be tempted with sin... Jesus was God. 100% God. And so begins the rub with what we can clearly say is defined for us in Scripture. James 1:13 and Col 2:9

But that didn't really get us anywhere did it? I mean all it did was confirm that the question we are faced with in the person of Christ isn't something lame Bible teachers come up with to mess with their students. It's a real problem!

So what are we to do now? Well lets continue the consideration BUT FIRST let me just say that we are now leaving what is clearly, 100%, undeniably taught by scripture, and we are making some "observations" that still may help us come to some sort of conclusion.

Observation 1: If Jesus was only Human, and was still born in the miraculous way that He was, then we would be able to say that it was in fact possible for Christ to sin. Why? Because if you read Genesis 1-3, you will notice that there were 2 other humans in the same state and we all are aware of what they decided to do when faced with temptation.

Observation 2: The problem we have with our first observation is that it seems more likely that Jesus, from conception until death, never was simply just God, or just man. His natures were always apart of Him all the time. Thus we have to consider a different option if we are going to affirm that indeed Christ was tempted and could sin.

Observation 3: While we have observed that it seems safe to say that the two natures of Christ were never separated from one another, there are certainly things that Christ did experience only in His humanity. One example would be sleep. Jesus, being a man, slept. He even got so tired, that at one point he was sleeping through a violent storm while in a small boat in the middle of a large lake. But it is also clear from numerous passages like Psalm 121:3-4 that God never sleeps. So it would be safe to say then, that while the human Jesus slept, the divine nature did not experience the same state. SO... could it be then that Christ could have sinned and experienced temptation only in His humanity? Well not so fast... because we also observe at this point that it seems clear from Scripture that sin effects the entire being of the one that is committing it.

Observation 4: It is impossible for God to sin. Well duhhh, right. But the reason that it is impossible for Him to sin is because He is both infinite and holy. So there is no end to his holiness, which equals no sin.

So then, with these 4 observations in place. Understanding that Jesus was both 100% God and 100% Man, when we ask the question of whether or not it was actually possible for Jesus to sin; we must answer with an emphatic NO!!

See that wasn't so bad. "Ok", you say, "but what about Hebrews 4:14-16?" Doesn't seem to me that the author of Hebrews can really make a claim like that if the guy that was being tempted never really had ability to sin. I mean lets be honest, the thing that is so hard about temptation is that there is this pressure, tension, and mental/spiritual battle going on between what we know we should do, and what we shouldn't do (and there is a distinct possibility/probability that we could in fact do the thing we know we shouldn't do).

Glad you asked!!

Well? Was it?

Oh yeah, that nagging question that we were left with when we talked about the humanity of Christ. Could Jesus, the incarnate God and human being, have sinned? Well first off, is this question even that big of a deal? I mean yeah, maybe if your some big headed, think glasses wearing, dead language speaking theologian. But what about you? or you? Yeah you guys, the normal, every day, run of the mill American Christian. Well consider the possible outcome of either answer.

1) YES! Well ok, that means when we read Heb 4, we can look and say; "Man he really does know what I am going through! But then again, what if he had sinned? Now I seriously cannot think of a more terrifying thought. Thats the end of everything as we know it! (REM is playing softly in the background for effect) Leaves a big question mark behind the word deity when you refer to Christ.

2) NO! Well ok, that makes me feel a ton better about whether or not the world as we know is simply going to cease to exist all of the sudden because Jesus finally gave in to some temptation. But then again, when I look at Heb 4 with this answer, it seems.... well... disingenuous doesn't it? Really? Tempted like me in every way? Right...

So this one seemingly small and theologically obscure question has some serious weight too it doesn't it? How do we answer it? Which one is right? They both have issues, serious draw-backs even. I think I might leave that answer for another day...