the 46th week

Monday. I biked to and from The Anchor for coffee and scripture, and after doing some "autumn wardrobe" shopping (I got a new pair of hiking boots and some button-up shirts), I went to Eden Park and hung out at the Duck Pond reading the Book of Titus and pondering life. I met up with Ams at her apartment, and I accompanied her as she ran some errands around town. We headed up to Mason and spent the evening hanging out with Blake, Traci, and Jeff. On my drive home I called Jobst and we caught up. I haven't really talked to him since we met up at Frisch's eons ago. He's going to become a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church this December; I'm hoping that two Sundays from now I can go with him to his church to (a) see him and (b) experience the orthodoxy. I'll be house-sitting in Dayton all weekend so it won't be too far of a drive.

Tuesday. I went to The Anchor and had Dusmesh buffet for lunch before working my 2-10:15 at Ridgecrest: Ben, Jason and I walked to the library and U.D.F. (they love it; I compare it to how when I was a kid, I loved being able to walk around the neighborhood and go to--you guessed it!--the library and U.D.F. with Chris, Pat, and Lee). When Jason saw me, he beamed larger than ever and gave me a big ol' bearhug. "I like you, Anthony!" he shouted. Jooniper told me, "All day Friday he couldn't stop talking about how much he missed you when he was on vacation and how he couldn't wait to see you again." 

Wednesday. After my time at The Anchor I explored La Boiteaux Woods, climbing down gullets and perching atop a rock on a dried-out creekbed to read scripture and pray. I worked 3-5:30 and then had an interview with a church an hour and a half east of here. I think it went fairly well, though some of the elders didn't like my humor (it's the kind of back-and-forth banter they like over there at Scion TC). They asked if I had any plans on getting married in February. "Funny story..." I told them. They asked my personality type, and I told them how I'm introverted. I mentioned how most ministers are introverts, and the senior minister backed me up on that. They said they'd contact me in a few weeks if they want me to come in for a "trial Sunday" to see how I do; they have one more interviewee. Some of them did have an issue with me not being married, but I took the line that because I don't have family obligations, I'll be able to devote more of my time and energy to ministry. 

Thursday. I went to the Anchor for coffee and scripture before working 8:30-4:00 with the guys. Mikaela relieved me. It's great to be able to see her again; I usually stay an extra ten-fifteen minutes just hanging out with her. "We should get coffee sometime!" she exclaimed. I'm totally down. I went to The Anchor after work to do some writing before spending the rest of the evening at Winton Ridge smoking cigars on the deck in the autumn chill, drinking wine, and eating pretzels with John, Brandy, and Andy. 

Friday. I had the morning off, which consisted of biking to & from The Anchor and watching movies in my apartment: Iron Man 3 and Flight. I met up with the Tomeos for dinner and drinks at Rock Bottom. Lennon was consumed by The Diary of a Whimpy Kid and Adler was toting around a book on all the Disney princesses. "It's the latest rage at the library," Tibbles quipped. Eric got me up-to-speed on the going-ons at Tazza Mia: the cafe's entirely gutted and the roaster has been reassembled at Rhinegeist. He's working his ass off but loves the fact that the cafe is closed. "It's a relief for everyone," I mused. He told me I need to come down to Rhinegeist and see him when he's working. "Bob has a big fridge by the roaster that's filled with dented bottles and cans of beer that we can drink whenever we want." I like the thought of lounging on the sofa, drinking beer, and hanging out with Eric some Monday morning.

Saturday. Jessie and Tony are in town, so Jessie and I met up at The Anchor for coffee, breakfast, and catching-up. She's always so supportive and encouraging; I'm grateful for the enduring friendship we've had. "God knew we would need each other," she said. I like to think she's right. I worked 10:30-1:00 with Aaron in Delhi, and then Tyler came down from Mason and we got beers from Party Source, dinner from Burger King, and we spent the evening hanging out, laughing, and reminiscing. 

Sunday. I was up until 3:30 AM last night talking on the phone with an old friend. I woke early and went to The Anchor but got a massive headache; I'm assuming it's because of all the beer I drank last night. I skipped church to try to sleep it off, and before my 8-Midnight shift I went to The Anchor for coffee and scripture. I headed home around midnight, the warm air blasting through the vents, listening to Christian music and feeling optimistic about life.

[sunday meditations]

1 PETER 2:4-5

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

PETER LAYS THE FOUNDATION, so-to-speak, for what is to come. He’s about to look at the Christians’ social situation in the midst of persecution from a reworked point-of-view, shedding light on what’s going on as persecution draws near. How the Christians perceive themselves as persecution grows influences how they will hold up when the crap hits the fan. Thus far throughout the letter, Peter has been striving to orient the Christians’ mindset and behaviors around the death and resurrection of Christ and what that means from a cosmic perspective; he’s been encouraging the Christians to look at their world in a different light, a world in the light of the gospel. This world isn’t some pie-in-the-sky existence but a world that’s in the process of being reborn; not all is well, but the promise that it will be stands. It’s easy for Christians to waver under persecution when their worldviews haven’t been reshaped by the victory of Christ, and a healthy understanding of a world wedged between Easter and the Consummation gives strength to sturdy hearts. It’s for this reason that St. Peter looks at the Christians’ social situation from a renewed perspective, where one of the Christians’ greatest concerns—honor and shame—is both satisfied and vindicated.

1 Peter 2.4-10 is a goldmine ready to be plucked, if only we stop for a few moments to listen to the dimming echoes. Many commentaries skim over this passage, pointing out a scant few items-of-interest before getting into the “codes of conduct” coming on the heels of this text. While glossing over things we don’t understand can be tempting, we do so to our own disadvantage; and if we take the time to look at the passage in a fuller sense, not only do we find gems worth treasuring, but the rest of the letter begins taking on a new shape. Because there’s so much here to look at, we’ll be taking these verses in bits-&-pieces.

* * *

“AS YOU COME TO HIM…” Peter isn’t addressing individual Christians but the church as a whole. He’s pointing to all the churches in Asia Minor, the Christian communities facing the onslaught of persecution, and he’s envisioning them as a single organism standing before God. The Greek verb he uses literally means “to approach or come near”, and in a strict sense it refers to someone approaching or entering a deity’s presence. The Septuagint used this word to describe the priest’s act of approaching God to worship and perform the priestly duties. In a more secular sense, however, the language swallowed up a “royal” tone, which isn’t surprising, since the Emperors welcomed (and, at times, demanded) worship as gods. The “coming near”, then, can be read in both a religious and political context. Which is it? The answer is both.

In the religious sense, the church comes before God as a body of priests. What this means will be fleshed out shortly, but a word: many commentaries will equate this “coming before” as a reference to acts of prayer, quiet times, and the like. Though these are all valuable practices, Peter envisions something much larger. The Greek verb is present-tense, indicating that this coming near to God is a habitual thing; not to say that it’s habitual in the sense of sporadic or scheduled, but that it is a continual and unbroken act. Any idea that the religious sense of this phrase is lost under the shadows of the political must make sense of the fact that in the same breath Peter identifies the church precisely as a holy priesthood.

This isn’t to say that the political sense of the word should be tossed aside. Remember that the gospel is primarily a kingly message: it is an announcement that Jesus Christ has defeated evil and death, that he is the King of the World and his kingdom is coming and is unstoppable. The political nature of the message can’t be lost: at the simplest level, if Christ is King, Caesar is not. And proclaiming that is High Treason. The royal images invoked by the Greek phrase take us straight to the royal throne room, where we’re kneeling before Christ who is King. Notice that Peter doesn’t say we’re coming to God but to Christ; we’re coming before the one who defeated death and evil and who stands over the kingdoms of the world. This “coming to Christ” is an act of submission, an act of professing our loyalty to him and his kingdom. It’s no accident that St. Peter takes the “holy priesthood” in 2.4 and reworks it into a “royal priesthood” in 2.9.

* * *

THE RIDDLE OF THE STONES. Throughout this passage, Peter will draw out the metaphor of the stones from multiple angles (Christ is the Living Stone; he is the Corner Stone; and the church is comprised of living stones being built into the cornerstone). The repetitive use of the word “stone” (he uses it, or a variation of it, seven times) invokes the image of a building, and Peter narrows this focus down to the church as a “spiritual house”. With the priestly echo throughout all of this, it’s almost certain that Peter is referring to the church not simply as some “spiritual structure” as a nice analogy but, rather, to the church’s truest eschatological identity.

The structure Peter’s envisioning isn’t the Jerusalem temple built of brick and mortar but the temple reworked around Christ. On Messiah’s to-do list was the rebuilding of the Temple, and this “rebuilding” took place in a way wholly unexpected. All along the Temple pointed to Christ: Jesus didn’t rebuild it brick-by-brick but, rather, consumed the Temple in himself. The Temple with its sacrificial system pointed to him all along: the Temple was the place where God dwelt, the place where forgiveness of sins could be experienced, the place where God’s healing went out to the world. After Easter, the Temple served no purpose; its purpose and function had been swallowed up in Christ, and thus it was both rendered invalid and doomed to destruction for all the corruption that had happened within it (a destruction wrought-out by the Romans in A.D. 70). Now, the place where heaven and earth meets is Christ and, in a strange way that must be felt out with much fear and trembling, the church as well.

In the end God didn’t intend to rebuild Solomon’s Temple; no, he was going to replace the entire system with a renewed humanity in Messiah. In 2 Corinthians 6 St. Paul identifies the church as the new Temple, where God dwells in the Spirit, a people redefined around Jesus and hailing from all sorts of backgrounds. It is almost certain that this vein of thought is what Peter’s after, since the reworking of the entire sacrificial system around Christ is integral to what happened with the cross and resurrection.

Beginning here and all the way through verse 10, Peter takes language formerly applied to Israel and applies it to the Christians in Asia Minor. This harks back to his identification of Christians as “elect” in 1.1: Israel hasn’t been dismantled, nor has it been left untouched: it has been reworked around Jesus Christ, and the church is now Israel. The wording for “living house” can also refer to a large family or community, such as “the house of Israel”. Most likely Peter is playing on both the senses of the church as the temple and the church as a household (such as we find in 2 Samuel 7.5-16, a prophecy pointing towards Christ’s messianic rule). Taking Israel’s vocation and relocating it on the church in Christ, Peter writes that the Christians—living stones being built into a spiritual house—are to be a holy priesthood.

* * *

THE CHURCH AS A HOLY PRIESTHOOD. The doctrine of the priesthood of believers is rarely addressed in Christian communities, and when it is, some parts of that doctrine are emphasized far more than others. Grasping the ins-and-outs of this doctrine can only be done when we grasp what it means to be a priest in the Jewish sense, since it is from this background that Peter writes.

Harking back to ancient Judaism, we find that priests served as mediators between God and the people of Israel. The functions of priests were many, but at the top of the list was the role of offering sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. While there were plethora priests in ancient Israel, there was only one High Priest, and this person would enter into the holiest section of the Temple and slay a bull for his own sins and a goat for all Israel, and he would sprinkle the blood throughout the Temple. At the heart of what it means to be a priest was to offer sacrifices on behalf of someone else (most Israelites made their own sacrifices and offerings for their own selves, but priests were those who interceded for others). In this sense priests were mediators between God and the people, standing “in the gap” as it were, between God and the wider world.

When we come to the New Testament, this train-of-thought isn’t abandoned but reworked. All those in Christ are priests, and Christ is the High Priest (Hebrews 4.14), since he offered to God the sacrifice of his own perfect self, so that he could make atonement for humanity and “bridge the gap” between God and the world. Peter’s identification of the church as a holy priesthood is yet another example of how defining “the people of God” has been wrapped around what Christ has done and will do: the original bearers of the title “kingdom of priests” were the people of Israel (Exodus 19.5-6), and now that title has been applied to those who are members of Christ.

Thus we have the doctrine of the priesthood of believers working on at least two levels: (1) the role of priests in the strictly religious sense, and (2) the nature of what it means for Israel to be a “kingdom of priests” and what that means (in both identity and practice) for Christians today. Fearing that I may be too brief, here are three different ways this doctrine fleshes itself out in the church:

Equal Access to God through Christ. Christ is the only mediator between God and man, and it is for this reason that Hebrews calls Jesus the supreme “high priest” who offered his own self as the perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 7.23-28). Christ’s sacrifice was a once-for-all sacrifice; because his sacrifice was perfect, it doesn’t need to be redone year after year as it was with the original system (which pointed to Christ all along, as it were). Because Christ’s sacrifice was perfect and complete, it guarantees that all those in him now have equal and unburdened access to God. All those in Christ are invited, even summoned, to come before God’s throne, without fear or terror, but with humble confidence and Christ-centered boldness.

Standing in the Gap. Looking at all Israel as a whole, we see that their identity as a “kingdom of priests” and as a “holy nation” (from Exodus 19) came with a certain responsibility, that of acting as God’s emissaries in bringing the world to God. In Romans 2.17-20, St. Paul draws upon this in his labels of “the Jew”: they were guides to the blind and lights to those in darkness. These identifications (or, rather, functions) are drawn from Isaiah 42.6-7 and 18-20: these are things the Israelites ought to be doing! “Salt of the Earth” and “Light of the World”: these weren’t pretty figures of speech invented by Jesus but ideas integral to Jewish identity. The people of Israel were to stand in the gap; like priests standing between God and the Israelites, so Israel as a whole was to stand between God and the wider world. God chose the people of Israel not just so he could have a people of his own possession (as if he were lonely and aching for friendship) but that so he could bring justice and healing to the world through them (as an aside, the Israelites failed miserably, and that’s one of the key reasons Jesus came: he was the perfect Israelite, doing for the world and for God what Israel was supposed to do but consistently failed to do). Christians with the privilege of access to God through Christ also have the responsibility, precisely as a holy priesthood, of standing between God and the world, inviting the world back to God. This is, in one sense, a call for evangelism; and in another, it is also a call to advocate justice and political responsibility.

Although we’re getting ahead of ourselves, in 1 Peter 2.9 Peter identifies the church as a royal priesthood and as a holy nation (harking straight back to Exodus 19, emphasizing again the point that the privileges and responsibilities of Israel have been relocated on Christ and those who belong to him). These royal undertones carry much meaning, and we’ll address them when we get to that part of the passage. Suffice it to say for the moment, the doctrine of the priesthood of believers involves not only privilege but also responsibility.

* * *

OFFERING “SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES”. Christians are a holy priesthood, being built up into a spiritual house, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. When it comes to the nature of these spiritual sacrifices, there’s much ambiguity, and biblical scholars often find themselves overwhelmed by Peter’s vagueness. Traditionally-speaking, there have been two different takes on the sacrifices that Peter envisions.

Good Words. Looking forward to 1 Peter 2.9, we find that being a part of the royal priesthood and holy nation isn’t a private affair. Thus reducing the doctrine of the priesthood of believers to the single point of unfettered access to God through Christ misses the mark. Christianity has never been about a privatized, existential religious experience; it’s about the public proclamation of a historical event that has changed the course of world history, and Christians are to make this known. Christians have been compared to “trumpets and newspapers,” living and breathing news agencies proclaiming what’s happened in history, what that means for us in the present, and what that means for us (and our world) in the future. The spiritual sacrifices may very well be referring to the act of heralding the gospel.

Good Works. The ambiguity of Peter’s speech leads many scholars to embrace the phrase as a “blanket term” referring to one’s lifestyle. One of the responsibilities of kingdom-membership is the responsibility of embracing a new kind of living. This isn’t done simply to please God (as if by adhering to arbitrary rules and regulations we could appease him); while honoring God in our lives is certainly important, in the sense that our obedience does please God, living a holy lifestyle reaches beyond heaven’s doors and spreads throughout our own fallen world. The Christian lifestyle—mocked by some, despised by others, and cherished by fewer—ought to make people turn their heads, scratch their beards, and wonder what’s going on. When God’s people live out their identity in Christ, the end result is (hopefully) non-believers glorifying God on the day of his visitation (1 Pet 2.11-12).

While these two takes on “spiritual sacrifices” are wholly important, there’s a third option that’s been growing more popular: that this “spiritual sacrifice” is, quite literally, the sacrifice of one’s own mortal life. Thus far throughout the letter, Peter has spoken much of both Christ’s suffering and subsequent glories. These aren’t by-the-wayside quips but echoes of the Christians’ impending future: the onslaught of suffering with the promise of glory on the other side. We’ll do well not to forget the reason Peter’s writing this letter in the first place: to encourage and prepare the Christians for the impending persecution. In 2.20-25, he’ll write that Christians are called to follow in Christ’s footsteps; this isn’t so much a call to holy living as it is a call to suffering. As Christ suffered, so, too, his people will suffer; and when that happens, it isn’t something that should cause us to question God’s love: it is an unfortunate reality of what it means to be a person of God in a world that remains, for the most part, hostile to God and his ways. Much of the latter part of the letter, following the “codes of conduct” on the heels of 2.4-10, involves what it means to partake in both Christ’s sufferings and glory. Thus the “spiritual sacrifice” that Peter’s speaking of may very well be the sacrifice of one’s own life (with the promise of glory on the other side).

While it’s tempting to try and figure out which sense, exactly, Peter’s taking regarding “spiritual sacrifices”, the reality is that we simply don’t know. His language is vague, and it’s possible that Peter’s ambiguity is intentional, begging itself to be worked-out by those to whom the letter was written.

* * *

We’ve covered much in 2.4-5, and there’s more to come. A synopsis of sorts would be beneficial, but for fear of being long-winded, perhaps it’d be best to simply (and humbly) rewrite 1 Peter 2.4-5 in a language we can understand:

As you kneel before King Jesus, who was rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s eyes, you are being built up together as a new temple, as a new community reworked around Christ, and your identity is Israel: a holy priesthood. As the reworked Israel, your privilege of covenant-membership comes with the responsibility of proclaiming the gospel, living a renewed lifestyle, and (if it comes to it) following in Christ’s footsteps by offering your own lives in obedience to God: for just as Christ suffered and was glorified, so, too, you may be called to embrace the same. (a paraphrase)

Follow Me (IV)

On the Church

"Instead of a building, [in the New Testament] you see a body made up of members and a family made up of brothers and sisters who together have died to themselves and are living in Christ. Christians are joined together by Jesus' death, his Spirit, his gospel, his sufferings, and his life. Biblically, a church does not consist of people who simply park and participate in programs alongside one another. Instead, the church is comprised of people who share the life of Christ with each other on a day-by-day, week-by-week basis." (153)

"[The] New Testament envisions followers of Jesus living alongside one another for the sake of one another. The Bible portrays the church as a community of Christians who care for one another, love one another, host one another, receive one another, honor one another, serve one another, instruct one another, forgive one another, motivate one another, build up one another, encourage one another, comfort one another, pray for one another, confess sin to one another, esteem one another, edify one another, teach one another, show kindness to one another, give to one another, rejoice with one another, weep with one another, hurt with one another, and restore one another." (154)

"In the gospels, Jesus only talks with his disciples specifically about the church on two occasions. The first time is in Matthew 16, when Peter confesses Christ as Lord and Jesus responds that the church will be built on that confession... [Then, two chapters later, according] to Jesus, when a brother or sister is wandering into sin, caught in sin, or unrepentant in sin, then the church should confront that person and pull him or her back to Christ. In Matthew 18, Jesus outlines a process for such restoration that eventually leads to removing unrepentant sinners from the church altogether, if necessary (a process we see enacted in places like 1 Corinthians 5)." (155-156)

"[Church discipline] is at the top of the list [of things we should do as the church], right after the importance of confessing him as Lord. Church discipline is not supplemental for Christians; it's fundamental. Church discipline is not optional; it is essential." (155)

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, 'Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin." (156)

"I think about Jesus' words in Matthew 18 and wonder why his initial instruction concerning the church wasn't about creating an environment where people feel warm and welcome, but instead about creating a community where sin is confronted simply, openly, and severely." (159)

"This is how God grows the church: through holiness in Christians. God grows his church by creating disciples who are serious about reflecting the righteousness of God and honoring the holiness of God. We must not buy into the ludicrous idea that we need to make it easy for people to join the church, hide a commitment to holiness from members in the church, or dumb down talk about the seriousness of sin in the church. If we do these things, we may draw a crowd, but we will miss the very point of the church. Anybody can draw a crowd, but the church is distinct." (160)

"All throughout history, God has purposed to raise up a people who by his grace are so holy and so pure and so abandoned in their obedience to him that they dread the thought of disobedience. A people who are so serious about sin that they help each other avoid it at every turn because they know how dangerous and deadly it is. God has determined to display his character through a distinct people who show a watching world that he is great, holy, powerful, and pure." (160-161)

"As disciples of Jesus, we have died to indifference to sin in our own lives and in the lives of people we love. We know that Christ has paid the ultimate price for our sins, and the last thing we want to do is to treat his death as if it is not most precious to us. When we tolerate sin in our lives or in the church, we trample on the sacrifice of Christ. We don't just follow a Savior who pardons our sin; we follow a Savior who purifies us from sin. And we treasure his death enough to treat sin seriously in his church." (161)

"If you claim to be a follower of Christ, I encourage you to consider your present commitment to a local church. Are you sharing your life with other believers in a New Testament kind of way: loving one another, serving one another, caring for one another, and watching out for one another, even to the point of disciplining and restoring one another when necessary? Are you serving Christ under the leadership of good, godly pastors who teach God's Word clearly and model God's character faithfully?" (171)

"According to [Eph 3.10], when people in the world see the life of Christ in the church, they will believe the love of God for the world... God's design is to show the greatness of his character to angels and demons alike through the portrait of his church. His plan is to take men and women like you and me, who were once objects of his wrath, and transform us into objects of his affection. God brings us to life, forgiven of sin and filled with his Spirit, and he raises us up to reign with Christ as an eternal pronouncement to the hosts of heaven and the devils of hell that he is all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful, and worthy of all praise from all people for all time." (172)

Follow Me (III)

On the Will of God

"If my kids were to say to me, 'Dad, this week, we will do whatever you think is best for us,' how do you think I would respond? Would I make their week miserable? Certainly not. I would honor their trust by leading them toward whatever is best for them. Now I'm not perfect, and I don't know what's best for my children 100 percent of the time. But God does. He is a perfect Father, and he makes no mistakes. He desires our good more than we do. Shouldn't we gladly surrender our will to his?" (130) 

"Is your heart wholly and unhesitatingly surrendered to the will of God, no matter what it is? If not, then what might that say about your relationship with God? Are you underestimating God's care for you, as if he doesn't know what is best for you? Or are you overestimating your wisdom before God, as if you know better than he does what is best for your life?" (131) 

"[God's] ultimate concern is not to get you or me from point A to point B along the quickest, easiest, smoothest, clearest route possible. Instead, his ultimate concern is that you and I would know him more deeply as we trust him more completely." (131)

The Will of God Revealed

"This is God's will in the world: to create, call, save, and bless his people for the spread of his grace and glory among all peoples. This will is not intended to be found; it is intended to be followed. We don't have to wonder about God's will when we've been created to walk in it. We have no need to ask God to reveal his will for our lives; instead, we each ask God to align our lives with the will he has already revealed." (135)

"The Holy Spirit dwells in followers of Christ to comfort and convict, to give gifts, and to provide guidance. THe Holy Spirit is the Christian's Helper and Counselor who opens our minds to understand God's Word and compels our hearts to offer God worship. Yet amid all of these things, one overarching purpose of the Spirit seems particularly evident from the moment he first fills followers of Christ. When Jesus promised to send his Spirit to his disciples, he said, 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' Jesus had already told them to 'make disciples' and preach 'repentance and forgiveness of sins... in his name to all nations,' for they were 'witnesses of these things.' His will for their lives was for them to witness, and he would send his Spirit to enable them to follow and fulfill that will." (136-137)

"So what does it mean to witness? Quite simply, it means to speak--to testify about who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and how Jesus saves." (137)

"If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you can officially consider yourself led to share the gospel! You don't have to wait for a tingly feeling to go down your spine or a special message to appear from heaven to lead you to tell people about Christ. You just open your mouth and talk about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and you will be carrying out the purpose of Jesus' presence in you. In other words, when you're telling others about the wonder of the gospel, you're carrying out the will of God." (141)

"[When] Jesus told his disciples that they would receive his Spirit and be his witnesses in the world, he wasn't just calling them to be nice to the people around them. Whether in a courtroom or any other circumstance, the basic function of a witness is to speak... [Ten] of the eleven apostles who heard Jesus' words in Acts 1 were not martyred because they went into the world doing good deeds; they were murdered because they witnessed to the Word of God." (141)

"On our own, we are destined to fail. Just think about the outrageous nature of the gospel we share. We tell people that they are wicked at the core of who they are, condemned by their sin, and destined for hell. Yet two thousand years ago, the son of a Jewish carpenter who claimed to be the Son of God was nailed naked to a wooden cross, and everyone's eternity is now dependent on denying themselves and declaring him Lord, Savior, and King. At first glance, that message certainly seems like a tough sell, doesn't it? How will anyone believe it? They will believe the gospel for the same reason you have believed the gospel: because the Spirit of God opens their eyes to see the glory of God and to receive the grace of God." (144)

Follow Me (II)

On Life in Christ

"[In John 14.6, Jesus] was not saying, 'Go this way to find truth and life.' Instead, he was saying, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.' The call of Jesus was, 'Come to me. Find rest for your souls in me. Find joy in your heart from me. Find meaning in your life through me.' This extremely shocking and utterly revolutionary call is the essence of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus: we are not called to simply believe certain points or observe certain practices, but ultimately to cling to the person of Christ as life itself." (54)

"For all who come to Christ and receive a new heart from him, the God of the universe looks at you and says, 'I have absolutely no record of anything ever having gone wrong in your life.'" (61)

"[When] you come to Jesus--when you unite your life with his--everything that belongs to him becomes yours... [His] righteousness replaces your unrighteousness. But there's more. When you come to Jesus, his Spirit fills your spirit. His love becomes your love. His joy becomes your joy. His mind becomes your mind. His desires become your desires. His will becomes your will. His purpose becomes your purpose. His power becomes your power. The Christian life thus becomes nothing less than the outliving of the indwelling Christ." (66)

On the Great Commission

"When I look at the church today, it looks like we have taken the costly command of Christ to go, baptize, and teach all nations and mutated it into a comfortable call for Christians to come, be baptized, and sit in one location. If you ask individual Christians today what it practically means to make disciples, you will likely get jumbled thoughts, ambiguous answers, and probably even some blank stares. We seem to have exempted one another from any personal responsibility to fish for men, and I'm convinced that the majority of professing Christians would not say their purpose in this life is to make disciples of all nations. In fact, most would shrink back from this thought..." (69)

"Why are so many supposed Christians sitting on the sidelines of the church, maybe even involved in the machinery of the church, but not wholeheartedly, passionately, sacrificially, and joyfully giving their lives to making disciples of all nations?... [If] Christianity involves supernatural regeneration whereby the God of the universe reaches down his hand of mercy into the depths of our souls, forgives us of all our sin, and fills us with his Spirit, then a spectator mentality is spiritually inconceivable. For people whose hearts, minds, wills, and relationships have been radically turned upside down by the person of Christ, the purpose of Christ will reign supreme." (68-69)

On Adoption as God's Children

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! John cries. 'See it! See the delight the Father has in you and me as his children!' The rest of the New Testament beckons disciples of Jesus to see that God our Father delights in forgiving us, providing for us, leading us, protecting us, disciplining us, giving to us, calling us, and promising us his inheritance. God on high experiences pleasure in doing all of these things for us as his children." (103)

"Doesn't it take your breath away for a moment to hear God say, 'I love you'? To which we, in our sinfulness, must certainly respond. 'Why?' And then to hear him answer, 'Because you're my child.' To which we ask the obvious question, 'Why would I, a hopeless sinner, now be called your cherished child?" Only to hear him say, 'Because I wanted you, and I came to get you so that you might know me as Father.'" (104)

On Satisfaction in Christ

"We've all been created with cravings--cravings for things like air, food, water, and companionship. God told Adam in the Garden of Eden, 'You are free to eat and enjoy!' This garden paradise where Adam and Eve lived was not a place where humans had no needs or desires. Instead, it was a place where all of their needs and desires were met by the God who created them. The same is true in our lives. You and I have cravings that are designed to be satisfied by our Creator. God has hardwired us with desires for water, food, friends, meaning, and purpose, and each of these cravings is intended to drive us to God as the giver of all good gifts and the sole source of all satisfaction." (107)

On John 6:35. "To come to Jesus, or to believe in Jesus, is to look to him to satisfy your soul forever. To come to Jesus is to taste and see that he is good and to find in him the end of all your desires. To believe in Jesus is to experience an eternal pleasure that far outweighs and outlasts the temporal pleasures of the world." (109)

"[Many] professing Christians think that coming to Christ involves letting go of the things in the world that we love in order to embrace things that, if we're really honest, we loathe. We may be willing to 'make a decision for Christ' in order to save our skin for eternity, but truth be told, we really like the ways of this world and really want the things of this world. So we're caught in the middle. We think that we're supposed to try hard to follow Christ. Yet deep down inside, the pleasures  pursuits, plaudits, and possessions of this world seem far more enticing. Consequently, as we've already seen, the lives of professing Christians are oftentimes virtually indistinguishable from the lives of non-Christians. We claim faith in Christ, yet we are just as sensual, just as humanistic, and just as materialistic as the world around us." (110)

"When Jesus transforms our desires, we realize that the problems we have with sin in this world are not because we want pleasure too much; our problems are that we want pleasure too little. It is tragic when so-called Christians live just like non-Christians, running endlessly after the next temptation, the bigger house, the nicer possession, the newer pursuit, the greater notoriety, the higher success, and the more comfortable lifestyle. Such a quest for pleasure in this world reflects a lack of contentment in Christ. deep down inside, people seem to be afraid that if they let go of the stuff of this world, they will miss out on satisfaction in this world. But disciples of Jesus gladly leave behind the trinkets this world offers because they have found surpassing treasure in Christ. The passionate pursuit of true, deep, and lasting satisfaction always leads to Jesus." (112)

Follow Me (I)

On Genuine Faith

"[There] is a broad religious road that is inviting and inclusive. This nice, comfortable, ever-so-crowded path is attractive and accomodating. The only thing that's required of you is a one-time decision for Christ, and you don't have to worry about his commands, his standards, or his glory after making that decision. You now have a ticket to heaven, and your sin, whether manifested in self-righteousness or self-indulgence, will be tolerated along the way. But this is not the way of Jesus. He beckons us down a hard road, and the word Jesus uses for 'hard' is associated in other parts of the Bible with pain, pressure, tribulation, and persecution. The way of Jesus is hard to follow, and it's hated by many." (10-11)

"When Jesus calls Nicodemus to believe in him, he is calling Nicodemus to be born again--to begin an entirely new life devoted to following him. Likewise, when the Philippian jailer believes in Christ, he knows that he is joining a community of Christians who are being beaten, flogged, and imprisoned for their faith. The cost of following Christ is clear. In the same way, Paul tells the Roman Christians that to believe in the saving resurrection of Jesus from the dead is to confess the sovereign lordship of Jesus over their lives. In each of these verses (and scores of others like them), belief in Jesus for salvation involves more than mere intellectual assent. After all, even demons 'believe' that Jesus is the crucified and resurrected Son of God. Such 'belief' clearly doesn't save, yet such 'belief' is common across the world today. Just about every intoxicated person I meet on the street says he 'believes' in Jesus. Scores of people... around the world, including some Hindus, animists, and Muslims, profess some level of 'belief' in Jesus. All kinds of halfhearted, world-loving church attenders confess 'belief' in Christ." (15)

On Matt 7:21. "Jesus is not saying that our works are the basis of our salvation. The grace of God is the only basis of our salvation... But in our rush to defend grace, we cannot overlook the obvious in what Jesus is saying here (and in many other places as well): only those who are obedient to the words of Christ will enter the Kingdom of Christ. If our lives do not reflect the fruit of following Jesus, then we are foolish to think that we are actually followers of Jesus in the first place." (16)

"Spiritual deception is dangerous--and damning. Any one of us can fool ourselves. We are sinful creatures, biased in our own favor, prone to assume that we are something when we are not. The Bible says that the god of this world (Satan) is blinding the minds of unbelievers to keep them from knowing Christ. Couldn't it be that one of the ways the devil is doing this is by deceiving people into believing they are Christians when they are not?" (18)

"When we think of worshiping idols and false gods, we often picture Asian people buying carved images of wood, stone, or gold or African tribes performing ritualistic dances around burning sacrifices. But we don't consider the American man looking at pornographic pictures online or watching ungodly television shows and movies. We don't think about the American woman incessantly shopping for more possessions or obsessively consumed with the way she looks. We don't take into account men and women in the Western world constantly enamored with money and blindly engulfed in materialism. We hardly even think about our busy efforts to climb the corporate ladder, our incessant worship of sports, our temper when things don't go our way, our worries that things won't go our way, our overeating, our excesses, and all sorts of other worldly indulgences. Maybe most dangerous of all, we overlook the spiritual self-achievement and religious self-righteousness that prevent scores of us from ever recognizing our need for Christ. We can't fathom a Christian on the other side of the world believing that a wooden god can save them, but we have no problem believing that religion, money, possessions, food, fame, sex, sports, status, and success can satisfy us. Do we actually think that we have fewer idols to let go of in our repentance?" (22-23)

"For every Christian in every culture, repentance is necessary. This doesn't mean that when people become Christians, they suddenly become perfect and never have any struggles with sin again. But this does mean that when we become followers of Jesus, we make a decided break with an old way of living and take a decisive turn to a new way of life. We literally die to our sin and to ourselves--our self-centeredness, self-consumption, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, self-effort, and self-exaltation. In the words of Paul, we 'have been crucified with Christ and [we] no longer live, but Christ lives in [us].'" (23)

On the Human Condition

"In our sin, we have alienated ourselves from God and are hostile toward him. We are slaves to our sin and dominated by Satan. We love darkness and hate light. We live in impurity and wickedness. Our minds are depraved, blinded to the truth by the god of this world. Our desires are disordered, our hearts are sinful, and the wicked passions of our flesh wage war against our souls. Our bodies are defiled. We are morally evil and spiritually sick." (33)

"Our problem is not simply that we have made some bad decisions. Our problem is not just that we've messed up. Our problem is that we are--at the very core of our being--rebels against God, and we are utterly unable to turn to him. This is what the Bible means when it says we are dead in sin. When Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians and said, 'You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live,' he meant that they were completely dead. Not partially dead. Not almost dead. Not halfway dead. Not kind of dead. Completely dead." (34)

"[Our] sin is not something that exists outside of us. Sin is ingrained into the core of our being. We don't just sin; we exist as sinners. So when Jesus went to the cross to die, he was not just taking the payment of sin, as if it were separate from us. He was not just dying for our lusting or our lying or our cheating or our other sins. Instead, he was paying the price that was due us as sinners. He was dying for us, in our place, as our substitute... When Jesus was pulverized under the weight of God's wrath on the cross, he was experiencing what you and I deserve to experience. He was enduring the full punishment due you and me as sinners." (43)

"The only reason we can seek Christ in our sinfulness is because Christ has sought us as our Savior. The glory of the gospel is that the God of the universe reaches beyond the hardness of our hearts, overcoming our selfish resistance and sinful rebellion, and he saves us from ourselves. Such mercy magnifies God's pursuit of us and crucifies our pride before him." (47)

[the first of the month]

#UDFjunkies

Vacation is over, so it's back to being a surrogate father. Jason hadn't seen me for more than a week, and when he got off his bus from program he ran up to me and gave me a great big bear-hug. I told Lisa the Great Carpenter how I've been looking for other jobs, and I told her that if I get a ministry gig full-time, I won't be working at the House anymore. "Ben and Jason are going to lose their minds," she said. Jason likes to say I'm his favorite, but that may be because I trick him into thinking I give him extra ice cream every night I'm with him. As you can tell, I love taking pictures with the guys. My kids are going to hate how often I'll want pictures with them; it'll be like now, except on steroids.

Now that autumn has officially arrived, it's boot season!
I'll be wearing my cowboy boots until summer of 2015 hits.
I even went to the store and bought a new pair!
I've also decorated my Hobbit Hole with gourds and Indian corn.
Blake posted something on Facebook about being tired of pumpkins.
My Facebook app glitched, and my response went onto someone else's wall:

I decided just to leave it there.

September turned out being pretty good: lots of exploring in local parks, a night down at the Gorge, and vacation in Pennsylvania. I've got a few plans for October as well: hiking at East Fork Lake, bouldering at Clifton Gorge in Yellow Springs, and stargazing in northern Kentucky at a lonely pioneer graveyard I happened to stumble across while in college. I'm sure I'll be invited to a few Halloween parties, but I tend to not want to go to those. Oh, and let's not forget The Walking Dead! Season Five should be pretty epic. I'm also trying to be more regimented in my exercise; though I've been eating fairly well, I've been skimping on the exercise. I haven't been running as much as I should, and I've been doing weight lifting only about 2-3 times a week. I'm not too concerned about it, but I want to be more disciplined. At least I can now fit into my Callahan Auto t-shirt Sarah H. got me! Whenever I wear it, people start quoting Tommy Boy:

"Did I catch a niner in there? Were you calling  from a Walkie-Talkie?"

Each night while around the campfire after Dad went to bed I meditated on Psalm 107, recommended to me by my mentor. It's a great psalm, and here are some snippets (it's a long one, so I won't post all of it):

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Some sat in darkness and in gloom,

prisoners in misery and in irons,

for they had rebelled against the words of God,

and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor;

they fell down, with no one to help.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble;

he brought them out of darkness and gloom,

and broke their bonds asunder.

Some were sick through their sinful ways,

and because of their iniquities endured affliction;

they loathed any kind of food, 

and they drew near to the gates of death.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,

and he saved them from their distress;

he sent out his word and healed them,

and delivered them from destruction.

[The LORD] turns rivers into a desert,

springs of water into thirsty ground,

a fruitful land into a salty waste,

because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

He turns a desert into pools of water,

a parched land into springs of water.

And there he lets the hungry live,

and they establish a town to live in;

they sow fields, and plant vineyards,

and get a fruitful yield.

Let those who are wise give heed to these things,

and consider the steadfast love of the LORD.