A Statement of Faith

Time and again the Bible says, "the just shall live by faith." So I awoke early Sunday morning to fill the buses for my church. I forgot that the buses would not run on Thanksgiving weekend but it is ok. The time was not wasted. The Lord spoke to me as I served Him. God impressed upon my mind this question: "Is your statement of faith more of an intellectual document or a play by play of your life?" So I ask you have you documented in writing just what you believe? If you have formed such a document, how well are you living by that document? Let me see if I can focus in a little more.

I believe that God is all-powerful. Therefore, I should be able to live in such a way that, by all evidence, I display confidence in God to provide for my daily life. I think this is why the Bible says be anxious for nothing. Do not worry is not a suggestion but a display of faith. Do I really believe God is all powerful when I feel the need to worry over so many things? I mean if He is the sovereign king of the universe then why do I worry about tomorrow or the actions of men who are in His hands. The apostles did not fear men because they truly believed God is all-powerful. I read Acts 4-8 last night and I could not get over how much resistance they faced and still kept declaring that bad men must come to term with a good God by repenting of their atrocities towards God and His holy Son, Jesus Christ. How could they do this knowing that they might be stoned for these declarations? Easy, they believed that God is all-powerful and could receive glory through their lives as he ordained them to take place.

I believe that God is all-knowing and then go around defeated or sinning as if God does not see what is taking place. When I act defeated and beat down then I am saying by my actions that I cannot hold my head up because there is no one to turn to in my time of need. But wait; is not God all-knowing? Does God not already know that I have faced adversity and is it not the Almighty who knows how best to use His power to receive glory through the adversity He has allowed to enter my life? How about this one, I try and hide my sins, even the ones in my head. Hello all-knowing God, maybe I should do as He says and confess those sins so I can be cleansed.

I believe God is present everywhere at all times. Does anyone even want me to expand on this one? I am afraid that if most of us got a grip on this fact it would not give us comfort but scare us because when it comes down to it are we holy people? It should give us comfort knowing that no matter what God is always there and able to give us instant wisdom to avoid sin and bring Him glory.

I believe that the Bible is inspired by God is profitable for all areas of life and then I line item veto the parts I do not like. Now do not act shocked by that statement. Chances are that if we were all honest we could discover the same in our lives. I mean how often do we cast every care and burden on the Lord? How about the one where we take of the down trodden of life because we might be entertaining angels unaware? I mean here is the all-powerful, all-knowing God giving me the ability to buy a gift card to McDonald's and then allowing a person to stand on a street corner at a red-light that I must stop at for awhile. I mean if I do what is right and meet the physical need of the person then can I trust that God will use that gift for His glory? I can if I believe the Bible and I am willing to do this to the least of these.

You see these are only a few of the things I say I believe and then find hard to live. I will know the power of God manifested through me when I stop living by humanistic mental assent and begin to live by holy faith. So I know where I need to grow in faith. I pray that very soon my life will be my statement of faith and anyone will be able to see it without reading the written document. How is your statement of faith?

To covenant or not to covenant, that is the question?

Recently Pastor Sean sent an email basically asking everyone to think on this question. As a member of the pastoral team I have had a little heads up in being able to think about this subject. I came to Berean almost six years ago and in the last few months I have learned that Berean has a covenant already in place. I knew it was there, I have read the constitution, but I did not really think about it as something that needed to be enforced. I find this strange since I have seen so much emphasis be placed upon the constitution. Here is a section of the constitution that is largely ignored. I mostly ignored it because I already practice it in my personal life; this is probably true of most of us. Therefore, when Pastor approached the subject of enforcing it I thought "no problem." I even went as far in my thoughts to say awesome this should put more of us on the same page and accomplish unity on a whole new level. However, this has not been the case, much to the sadness of Christ who prayed that we would be one.

So here are my thoughts on the covenant of Berean Baptist Church and covenants I have lived by in my life.

I have no problem making a pledge to live my life by a standard described in a document. As a member of the US Army I did this everyday for many years. I obeyed Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush as my commander-in-chiefs. I obeyed the officers appointed over me. I gave up some of my personal constitutional rights to defend others ability to live their life in full freedom of those same rights I gave up. I did this because I loved my country, I denied the GI Bill. I do not understand the big deal then about saying to my fellow Berean's I am with you all the way. I will do my best in Christ's power to live my life beside you in a way that is helpful to you and honors God. I am even willing to sacrifice some of my personal preferences in order to show you I love you.

I believe that a covenant is great. I have entered into a verbal covenant with Angela. That verbal covenant is our wedding vows. Whether I perform a wedding or attend a wedding I am reminded of my vows to Angela. If we are attending a wedding we hold hands and as the bride and groom exchange vows we touch each other's rings as a reminder of our covenant. Thus our rings are a reminder that we live in a covenant relationship with God and each other. So what is wrong with pulling out a document and reminding each other this is what we have promised to do unto one another?

Should a covenant be flexible? Sure. Think about the wedding vows again. I promised to love Angela till death do us part but those vows did not define the method of conveying that love. Sometimes I wash the dishes to convey that love. Sometimes I do the laundry to convey that love. Sometimes I take her on a date to convey my love. Sometimes I buy her flowers to convey that love. Sometimes I skip watching the hockey game on TV to show her that love. So what is wrong with saying we will leave some decisions of life up to God and our fellow Berean?

Should a covenant possess hard stances? Sure. Think about the wedding vow to keep myself to Angela and only her till death do we part. This means mentally, emotionally, and physically as I am made in the image of God. This means all of my being is reserved for her alone. No other woman is to have my mind, my heart, my attention, my anything as long as Angela lives. So what is wrong with saying to my fellow Berean's I promise you I will not or I will... whatever?

Pastor Sean is right we need to revive the idea of living by what we promise in our lives and in our church. If our current covenant is too rigid then let wise men and women rise up and declare the wisdom of God that they possess and give input into a covenant that honors God by allowing the body here to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. If it is what it should be, then let us begin to live and be accountable to it. If we believe that we can live without making those promises to one another then so be it. I do however, doubt that the last course of action would benefit or honor God's work here in this church. I mean without my marriage vows being what they are I could easily twist the lives of men like David in the Bible to justify having more than one wife and who could hold me accountable otherwise? The current state of Christianity is adrift and we need to declare what we will live by, document that, and be accountable to it.

To all my fellow Berean's and pastors, I am with you and I pledge to contribute to forming a covenant that we can live with and by, and then allowing you to hold me accountable to that promise for as long as I am a member of Berean.

Reformatting A Hard Drive

I have been doing a lot of computer work lately. I just finsihed in fact reformatting a hard drive. The computer had received a virus that would not go away. So there was no choice but to erase the old drive and reinstall everything. So the first thing I did is I made sure that everything was in order for the reformat. I separated the good stuff from the bad. Then I erased to old partition that held the corrupted files. Next I loaded a pure and clean version. Then I installed the lastest safety updates. Finally, I reloaded the good files and deleted any icons that pointed to the old corrupt files that had been erased so that there would be no record of them.

This reminds me of my history. I was born and for a time existed in a state of innocence. Then I began to allow corrupt files in my life. Before long I could not perform any function properly. Jesus came along and presented Himself as my repair man. When the Bible says the old things pass away and all things become new this is what it is talking about. Jesus erased the old partition of my sinful llife and replaced it with a pure and clean version. He then begins to upload critical updates like bible_understanding 1.0, and prayer_desire 2.1, and holy_living_anti-sin_protection_extreme_version (aka His Holy Spirit), daily_degfragmentation_utility (grace), and many other useful and helpful updates that did not exist prior to His repair work. Then He begins to test all these programs and change settings to until they are running at top notch performance (sanctification). However, the best thing is according to Acts 3:19 He erased my sin so that there is no record of the old corruption in the database of Heaven. Now as long as I allow Him to be the only operator of my computer (life) I will always run corruption free and at optimum speed.

Has Jesus reformatted your Hard Drive?

Good Times?

I was on myspace this morning and saw a bulletin that read "Please, bail me out my fine is $***." I thought to myself I am sure that this is another list of wrong things but let me see anyways. Sure enough it was a list of sins, most of which were immoral and some illegal. So I went down the list and began to total my fine. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, "Remember what you preached last night about repentance? Remember how you said true repentance means that you turn so much from your sins that even the remembrance of them makes you ill? You do not look too ill as you are about to broadcast and brag about how sinful you have been." So I responded, "I will not repost the bulletin." He responds to this, "No I want you to repost it, without the list and the true cost." So here is what I posted.

Please, bail me out my fine is HELL

The survey says this is fun to do. Remember the sins from which you repented and see the cost associated. Now add them together and post as the above mentioned title with the amount at the end. Well I broke one of these moral laws and therefore, the cost is HELL. Once again I find myself with a decision to remember sin and laugh, and broadcast my former self for all to read, or declare that I am dead with Christ, yet I live, but only by the power of Christ living within me. I decided to declare Christ and not repost a list of sins we all should avoid today and try to forget if committed yesterday. It might have been fun for you but it cost Jesus every drop of His blood. Remember the outcry over The Passion Of The Christ by Mel Gibson? That was mild violence when compared to the actually history books recordings of scourging and crucifixions.

There is no such thing as free salvation?

Sunday morning I was greeting people in the parking lot. I offered Carl Ternullo a bulletin as he got out of the vehicle. He asked how much it cost and I cleverly replied that it was free like salvation. However, I awoke with this morning with my mind troubled and the realization that salvation is not free. We preachers often preach free salvation to all who will come, repent, and recognize the complete truth about the sacrifice of Christ. Indeed it is true that Christ offered the living water freely to all who thirsted. So why did I wake up with the compelling idea salvation is not free? The truth is we do not pay for our salvation but it is still not free.

Think about the approach of Christmas. My children will open freely gifts provided to them without cost to them. However, my wife (who does the budget far better than I ever could) will be crunching dollars and cents between now and then to ensure those gifts are purchased. They are not free as far as we are concerned. I pray I am teaching my children to appreciate that which they are given because they understand it cost their mother and me something to provide them. If they appreciate this then they will take care of the gifts and treat them as precious because of their regard for us their parents.

So now I finally come to the point of the title. Salvation cannot be free if we use phrases like "the sacrifice of Christ" or "redeemed" or even "born-again." Have you ever seen a lady right after giving birth? Angela was exhausted, in pain, and shivering when it was over and it took sometime for her to recover. The physical toil of the muscles left her very sore and the loss of blood left her weak and cold. Being born once cost our mothers physical health for nearly two months of recovery time. Salvation is not free. What did it cost?

It cost Jesus his lofty place in heaven as He was God manifested in flesh and come to His own but His own rejected Him. It cost Him a life of comfort and ease. Prior to His open ministry there was probably some dads who wanted Jesus to marry their daughters. After all He would make the perfect son-in-law. But this was not His path as He set His face towards Jerusalem and got about His Father's business. He became a man of sorrow and despised of people. Salvation cost Christ before the first blow was delivered. Then that fateful day when He bled in the garden while praying, was beaten with the hands of priests, drug all over Jerusalem from one trial to another, beaten with the whip and rod, and then nailed to a cross where every drop of blood drained from His body and His heart ruptured. Yes, it pleased God to bruise Him and by His stripes we are healed at no cost to us, but salvation was not free.

I pray we learn to appreciate the cost of our salvation and treat this gift from God through Jesus as precious. Do not do this because it is the greatest gift ever, do it because you really do have and hold a regard for Christ. A regard so great that great is too weak a word to really describe what you feel deep within you. May it be so great that only the Holy Spirit can pray your true love as you thank Jesus for paying for your free salvation.