4 Things Every Christian Should Believe In

I'm going to start this one by saying that you are probably going to be offended. My fiancee tells me that I like to stir up trouble. It's true. But she also tells me that I shouldn't do it unless there is a point. Trust me with this one there is a point. 

Over a month ago I talked about how our hope was not in heaven, but in the Resurrection. Last week I answered the question "How do we live in the kingdom?" This week I want to give some concrete examples of working in the kingdom. Let me also say, if you did not read my blog from last week do it now. That one is far more important. 

Your Kingdom Come

About a month ago I wrote a blog about Zombie Jesus. In it I stated that the resurrection is the Christian hope. I stated that because of the resurrection we have hope to be raised ourselves. I mentioned that our hope is not simply in heaven. I said that our hope is God's kingdom come . . . here . . . now . . . today. 

One of the comments I got about the post was a question on how to live out that kingdom. The statement was made that it is great to recognize that our hope is the resurrection, but what do we do with that? How do we live that out? Tell me what to do. It's taken me almost a month to come up with an answer.

Do Nothing.

Scars

So there is this passage in Genesis that struck me the other day. It is after Jacob wrestles with God. Jacob names the place Peniel. This is Hebrew and it means face of God. But what struck me was what Jacob said. He said that he had seen God face to face and had been preserved.

Preserved? Really?

In case you didn't know, God gave Jacob a limp. Seems interesting to think that preservation meant a limp. Some might say God cheated since he couldn't beat Jacob. But frankly I think that is a bad interpretation. I think this was God's way of reminding Jacob that God was always with him. Jacob's scar became something to treasure and not to disdain.

God is Not in Your Movie

So earlier this weak I posted this article to my Facebook page. Though I have said things about Christian movies before I did not quite expect the response I got. For the most part it was divisive. There were many who liked it, but I could tell that I had many people who were offended or at least confused that I would agree with such writing. Thus, I feel I need to do some more explanation. 

Truth: A Story for Good Friday

I wasn't planning on writing anything today. Its Good Friday and I am sure there are a million other blogs being written today. I have other things that I need to prepare for. Yet in this preparation I came across two verses in the Gospel of John that hit me like a ton of bricks. (Or a ton of feathers. They are the same you know.) So I guess then I have a blog for today.

Advent: Foreigners

No this isn't a blog post about how Jesus gives us Double Vision or how we are as Cold as Ice to God. Nor do I think that I am a Jukebox Hero. OK enough with the Foreigner references. Today I want to talk about something that I think we overlook in the Christmas story. Today I want to talk about how we, like Jesus, are all foreigners.

The Hesed of God

Any of you that know me or have been reading the last of my blogs know that I have been going through a lot the last couple of years. Though I wouldn't particularly wish to go through any of it again, these experiences have given me some perspective on a particular Hebrew concept.

Yes you heard me right, today is a linguistics lesson - sort of.

My last post was an interpretation of Psalm 136. You can look at that post here. Some of you may notice that I did not use love, but rather covenant faithfulness. If you look at the range of translations you will see things like lovingkindness and steadfast love. All this variation is because of one Hebrew word:

חםד

This variation occurs because we don't have a direct corollary to hesed in English. The Hebrew concept of this word is vast and relies on history of the people to fully flesh out. All the above translations are correct, yet they don't really get at the complete understanding of the word.

So what does hesed mean?

Well first lets look at Psalm 136. If you look at it in the Hebrew you will find that every single line ends with hesed. (Technically it's hasdow, but that is because the pronoun is part of the word in Hebrew. Ok seriously I'm done with the technical.) What I want you to see is that Psalm 136 is sort of describing what hesed means.

Here we have the Psalmist going through the history of Israel and describing how God protected and cared for them. He starts with the might wondrous miracle of creation. Yet the very next thing is the death of the first born of Egypt. Some might find this odd if we are talking about the love of God. Yet hesed is more than just love. In fact if we look at the rest of the Psalm it talks about striking down kings and bringing Israel into the land.

Now the NIV translates this simply as love. Which I guess is correct, but love is a word that we use so much and is used to translate three separate Greek words. Add to this the fact that we are talking about God striking down kings. Love is really not enough to understand hesed.

The NASB translates hesed as lovingkindness. This is better. But again we might come across the same issues. ESV has steadfast love. Again we see love as part of the translation. It would seem that the translators think this is part of the concept.

Maybe we need to rethink how we view love?

Let's think about what happened to the people of Israel during the time described by Psalm 136. They were in slavery to Egypt for generations. They were forced to build the pyramids for the Pharaohs. This was not a fun family vacation. If we look at Exodus 3 we find that God did not think so either.

“I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey"

We don't ever really know why Israel was enslaved. Often we can look at things like the Babylonian exile and see that Israel turned from God. However that does not matter. What matters here is that God has not left his people. He has determined to save them. God is not going to continue to let His people remain in slavery. Yet to bring them out He must show his power. He must defeat the so called gods of Egypt and slay the first born of Pharaoh. This is the love of God. A love so strong that He is willing to defend His people in any way He can.

I once heard Matt Chandler (yes it's that guy again from this post) talk about the love of God. He made the analogy to himself. Matt is a pacifist. He doesn't want to hurt you. But he also loves his family. And though he is a pacifist he will not hesitate to hurt you if you try and harm his family.

For love to be true love it must also have wrath.

See this concept of hesed is one that is so close to my heart. It is a lesson that God has been teaching me for the last several years. When I did my interpretation of Psalm 136 I chose not to use the word love. Not because I don't think that God loves us. But rather because I think we need a fuller concept of love. For me the love of God is shown through His covenant faithfulness.

God did not abandon Israel and God has not abandoned us either. His love for us is vast and unending. Yet we think that love is a feeling. Not for God. Love is a choice. He chose to die for us. He chose to give up all the privileges afforded Him because He was God and become human. God did not give up on us. In fact God made the first move. With Israel (bringing them out of Egypt) and with us (dying before we were even born). Our God is a God whose covenant faithfulness knows no end.

The hesed of God is something that cannot and will not be stopped. God is faithful. But not only is he faithful, He has promised good to us. That is the covenant part. Not only will God always be there to deliver us, but He has promised to do so. This is the covenant faithfulness of God. He will not break His promise. He will always be faithful.

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

In my own life I have wondered if God is really faithful. When my ex-wife and I had a miss carriage God was faithful. When my marriage fell apart God was faithful. When I lost my job as a teacher God was faithful. When I found a new job and remembered my calling God was faithful. When I had to move for the third time in a year God was faithful. When I was provided a home and a living God was faithful.

The hesed of God is not about never having troubles. The hesed of God is about knowing that God will never leave us. It is about knowing that God is faithful to protect us. It is about God remembering His people. When you are in distress remember that God will not leave you there.

May the God who brought Israel out of Egypt save you in your distress. May you grow in your understanding of His hesed. And may His praises ever be on your lips.

Amen!

Lessons from a Lion and a Wizard

Recently a friend of mine has been sharing with me sermons by a guy named Matt Chandler over at the Village Church. He and the church there have some really great sermons. You should check them out sometime. Seriously. Stop reading right now and go look at those. I'll wait

Done?

Well anyway Matt Chandler has been talking about the balance we need to have when it comes to God. How we need to understand that He is King and He is Savior. This reminded me of some of my favorite movies and how this message is shown in them.

Anyone that knows me will know I love movies. Its funny to me how often I look to scenes or themes to inform my life and my faith. I think most people are passive when they watch movies. They are there for entertainment and nothing more. I look to them to understand the message.

See I don't think that movies are passive.

I think that every movie is a story. It tells us something about ourselves, our society, or our God. It doesn't matter what the movie is, it can speak to us in ways that simple conversations can't. I am reminded of a professor I had at North Park Seminary. He was always talking about the parables of Jesus. (See he wrote a book on them. You should get it here.)

Professor Klyne Snodgrass was always talking about how Jesus told stories because it was the best way to break through the barriers that people have. When you tell someone a story they are not guarded. They listen. Often when Jesus was asked a question His response was "let me tell you a story." He did this because He knew that stories will always bypass our heads and speak directly to our hearts.

So what about my favorite movies?

Every Christmas my brother and I have a Lord of the Rings marathon. We get up early and we watch all three extended cut Blu-Rays (cause Blu-Rays are prettier you know) back to back. It is 12 hours of joy. I know some of you might think that sounds like torture. I understand. For me it is time with my brother and time with my God. See these are not just movies to me. They are ways to let my creator speak to me.

One of my favorite scenes in the Fellowship of the Ring comes after Bilbo's birthday party. He has used the ring to become invisible and is very proud of himself. Well Gandalf knows what's up and meets Bilbo back at his house. Now I could tell you more, but I'd rather let you watch.

Did you notice what happened in the middle there? Bilbo was consumed by the Ring. He wanted it for his own. Gandalf was trying to save Bilbo from temptation but he wouldn't listen. It was not until Gandlaf stood and displayed his power that Bilbo listened. And then, oh how beautiful, Gandlaf showed love to him. The King and the Savior.

"Bilbo Baggins! Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks! I am not trying to rob you! I'm trying to help you."

How often is God this way with us? How often do we think that God is just trying to keep us from having fun or from getting what we want? We think we know what is best. We think that we should keep our sin and our filthiness because it's ours. We rail and we kick and we scream and we complain to God that He is taking it away from us. We treat God like a robber come into our home to steel all that we have spent our time and our money on. And then

The Lion roars.

See this same friend of mine likes to think about God the way C.S. Lewis describes. She is always talking about how Jesus is a lion. The lion of Judah. Matt Chandler talked about this. He talked about how great it would be to wrestle a lion. But the thing to remember about lions is that they are powerful. They keep them behind fences at the zoo for a reason. My friend's favorite quote about Aslan goes like this. 

"'Course he isn't safe. But he is good."

God is not a robber. We think that what we have is ours. But it's not. We think that we want our sin and our filthiness. But we don't. God knows better than we do. God loves us and cares for us. And lest we forget. He is a God. He is King.

This is the God we serve. We serve the God that spoke -- let me say that again -- He spoke the world into existence. With a word He quieted the storm. Our God is so powerful that not even death could defeat Him. He is the God that forced idols to bow to His Arc. He is the God at the sight of whom the mountains run. 

And Blessed be His name.

He is the God who chose to come down and be like us. He is the God who cares for your every need. He is the God who loves so deeply that He cannot and will not let you continue in pain. He is the God that walks with you. And talks to you. He is the God that died for you. This is our God. 

He is King. He is Savior.