The Yoke of Slavery

*Edited July 11, 2015*

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).

We are free!  We have been delivered from the curse that the Law pronounces on the sinner who has been unsuccessfully striving to achieve his own righteousness.  We now embrace Christ, His righteousness imputed to us, and the salvation granted through Him by grace and are justified and righteous by His merit alone (Romans 5:15-21; see also Philippians 3:9).  St. Paul exhorts us to stand firm in this grace because of the undeserved blessing of being free from the Law and the flesh.  A better translation for "subject again" is "to be burdened/oppressed by" because of its connection with a yoke.  A yoke refers to the wooden crosspiece that was used to control domesticated animals, fastening it over the neck of two animals and attached to a plow or cart that they are to pull.  Here's what it looks like:

The Jews thought of "the yoke of the Law" as a blessed thing — the essence of true religion and salvation.  Paul, however, argued that for those who pursued it as a way of salvation, the Law was a yoke of slavery because all the Law does is reveal our sin and thus condemn us, hence the imagery here; the Law cannot save us, but the Gospel does.

The use of the Law is to make our sins known, and immediately following must come the Gospel, which is the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Christ.  When Christ died on the cross, our sins died with Him.  When He rose from the dead, our sins were left in the dark, empty tomb.  This is why Jesus said, "Come to Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).  Look at the image above again.  What those two oxen are carrying looks heavy, right?  Without Christ, the Law casts the weight of our heavy sin upon us, and we lack the ability to cast our sins off us.  Jesus, however, takes the yoke of our sin off, and He invites us to carry His light and easy yoke of peace and meekness.  In Christ, the shackles are off and we are free in Him.  Read these revealing words by St. Paul:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ were also baptised into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.  We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin...  For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus...  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:3-7, 10-11, 14; bold prints added).

Read that over again if you must; read it as many times as you need to in order to fully grasp this amazing concept.  We are no longer slaves to sin, therefore do not allow it to throw a yoke upon you and carry the condemnation it has in the Law.  We are under grace, not Law.  Paul continues, "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:16-18; bold prints added).  We are no longer slaves of sin but slaves of righteousness!  Now, do not think of "slave" in the modern, worldly sense.  Like Paul says in verse nineteen, he was speaking "in human terms because of [our] natural limitations."  He used similar language so that we would understand.  In the original Greek, the words "slave" and "servant" are the same word (δούλος).  So this "slavery" is not chattel slavery as we often think, but rather one of loving service.

We are servants of righteousness — the righteousness of Christ that we receive through faith (Romans 3:22).  The yoke of Christ is His righteousness.  Take this yoke upon yourself and learn from Him because He is meek and humble and He will give you rest.  The yoke of sin is hard and heavy, but the yoke of Christ's righteousness and grace is easy and light.  Whenever you are struggling with the burden of the sin that enslaves you, remember these words by St. Paul in the Spirit and especially the words of Christ.

The Christian Church Needs to Unite

*Edited July 10, 2015*

John 17:20-23, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.  The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You sent me and loved them even as You loved Me."

These beautiful words that Jesus prayed on the night He was betrayed were not only for His disciples, but also for us ("those who also believe in Me through their word").  What did He pray for?  For us to be united so that the world may believe in Him.  What's the benefit of believing in Him?  Freedom from our original bondage to sin and the promise of salvation.  Sadly, however, we're not united.  There is a plethora of divisions among us, so many different denominations — Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Episcopal, Lutheran, Catholic, Roman Catholic, and heretical sects like Mormons, Calvinists, and the Westboro Baptist Church.  These divisions amongst us have created a spirit of enmity among some (not all) churches, which was no doubt Satan's influence.  Because of our minor theological differences (and major ones for the heretical sects), not only have we divided ourselves, but some also take pride in their denomination as if that is their identity as a Christian.  Rather, our identity is in Christ alone.  St. Paul spoke against such nonsense.  He wrote to the Corinthians:

"I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement.  For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.  What I mean is that each one of you says, 'I follow Paul,' or 'I follow Apollos,' or 'I follow Cephas,' or 'I follow Christ.'  Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Or were you baptised in the name of Paul?  ...For Christ did not send me to baptise you but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17).

Today, we are no different than these Corinthian Christians.  The current condition of the Church is this:  we take pride in saying, "I follow the [place your denomination here] church," or "I follow John Calvin," or "I follow Martin Luther," and so on.  (Let me make it clear that John Calvin is heretical and Martin Luther is not.)  Paul asks the rhetorical question, "Is Christ divided?"  The way this question is asked in the Greek is asked with the expectation of a negative answer:  No.  It's a rhetorical question.  Paul writes a little later in First Corinthians, "What then is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.  So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth" (3:5-7).  Because Jesus gives them the opportunity and the ability, our leaders (pastors and other leaders) plan and water the Word, but God is the one who causes it to grow in our minds and hearts, for Jesus Christ is the Word (John 1:14), of whom we are all under.

Jesus Christ was crucified for us, and we are baptised in Him.  Therefore, despite our differences of opinion, we are all under the grace, mercy, and judgement of Christ.  Just like all of us "ordinary Christians," our leaders are only sent to preach the Gospel.  When pastors baptise us, they baptise us in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), not in their own names.  When we put the words of our leaders above that of Christ, or attempt to be imitators of them rather than Christ (Ephesians 5:1), then our focus is no longer on Him, but on our leaders, and the power of the cross thus becomes void because we have followed a path of heresy or false doctrine.    Paul points out to the Corinthians that they were neither baptised in him, or Apollos, or any of the other teachers; but rather, they were all baptised into Christ.  Likewise, it doesn't matter if you were baptised in a Baptist church, or a Lutheran church, or whatever church it is.  Again, you were not baptised in the pastor's name or whomever it is that started the church (e.g. John the Baptiser, John Calvin, Martin Luther); you were baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  For example, as a Lutheran, Lutherans are not baptised under the name of Martin Luther, but rather we are baptised into Christ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  I was baptised at a non-denominatioal church years before my Lutheran confirmation; I was not baptised under the pastor's name, but the Holy Trinity.  We are all under Christ.

The core dilemma is that we are divided instead of united, and now I'm going to discuss what problem it has caused.  Going back to Jesus' prayer, He prayed that we be united so that the world may believe in Him, according to His commission:  "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:18-20a).  The purpose of Christendom is discipleship, and it's easier to do that when we're untied.  We assume that having logical arguments and debates with atheists is legitimate and plausible and will eventually win them over, but Jesus said that the world will be convinced by our unity.  How will they know by our unity?  Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:  just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).  In the secular world, loving one another as we love ourselves sounds like the Golden Rule in life, which stems from the Law of Moses that states we must love our neighbours as we love ourselves.  It's not really a new commandment if that's what Jesus is saying.  What makes this commandment new is that we love one another as He has loved us.  That's what He says.  Even when we hated Him, He loved us and saved us through His death.  Now, Jesus commands us who have been saved by Him to love one another as He has loved us.  This type of love for one another is how people will know of our unity, but that unity will never happen so long as different denominations exist, which to me seems like will be the case until Christ returns.  I think we've all heard from unbelievers that a big reason why they don't believe in God is because of the divisions of the Church — all the different denominations.  Looking at it from their perspective, I can't really blame them.  After all, why would anyone want to be part of a people so divided?  This is a problem.

This is why I am calling for the need to change our division.  There are a number of individual churches that are united within their congregation, which is great; but we are called to be united on a global scale!  And we're not.  So I urge you, put aside your denominational differences and just love others as Christ has loved us because set against eternity, what does your denomination matter?

Witnessing the Gospel

*Edited July 10, 2015*

The purpose of witnessing the Gospel is not to convince people.  Rather, it's informative — to inform people about the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Think of a witness on the stand in a courtroom:  canceling out perjury, he doesn't give his account to convince people what happened, but to let them know what he knows.  If they don't believe it, that's not his problem.  So when you witness and people don't believe the Good News that you tell them, that's not your fault and it's not your problem.  When we hear the Word of God, we are responsible for it — responsible for believing it or rejecting it.  St. Paul said, "...I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet' " (Romans 7:7).  What such true words these are!  The only reason we know what it means to sin is because the Law in God's Word tells us what sin is, and the vitality of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to make known the free forgiveness of sins through God's gift of grace.

We are all sick in sin, and how can we know we're sick if somebody doesn't diagnose it and then tell us about the remedy?  Jesus said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick... for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:12, 13b).  Adding to this, Morton Kelsey said, "The church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners."  We don't go to the doctor when we're healthy, but when we're sick.  Think back to your childhood or more recent times in your life when you've refused to go to the doctor when you've been sick or hurt.  Times when you've said, "I don't wanna go to the doctor.  I don't wanna take that medication."  It doesn't matter if this was during your adulthood or childhood.  We have all refused to accept sickness and take its remedy in the physical sense at some point in our lives.  In the same way, we do this with our spiritual sickness as well.  We are all sick sinners, and there are many who refuse to accept the fact that they're sick in sin (which is diagnosed with the Law) and then refuse to believe and take the remedy for sin (forgiveness through the grace of Christ — the Good News/Gospel, which are the same word in Greek, εὐαγγέλιον).  When we Christians go out to make this remedy known (the Gospel), we are not the doctors — Jesus Christ is the Doctor (yay Doctor Who reference!).  Through witnessing, it is not our duty to force the remedy upon them.  It is our duty to offer them the remedy through the diagnosis of the Law, and it is up to them whether or not to accept the diagnosis and take the remedy given to them.  If they refuse, there is nothing we can do about it.

So, as we all go out into the world to tell of the Good News of Jesus Christ, I exhort you all to refrain from debates and arguments with those who reject the truth.  When we go out to preach the Good News, we must have the fruits of the Spirit within us (Galatians 5:22-23).  When we preach in condemnation or persuasion tactics, we are not practising these fruits of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.  The purpose of arguing and debating is the attempt to force someone to accept our truth, but that is both impossible and unchristian.  It is unchristian because God has not called us to debate and argue with others in animosity.  And it is impossible because such people who debate and argue against us have already made up their minds; they are not looking to be convinced out of their current position and they therefore cannot be moved because they're perfectly comfortable where they are.  No one wants to move when they're comfortable.  That's why it's always hard for me to get up off the couch.

I exhort you all to just simply make known the Gospel as statements of fact, and if anyone chooses to debate against you in a hostile manner, withdraw from their presence; nothing good will come of it.  Engaging in their hostile behaviour will not lead them to repentance, but will only draw them further away from the Lord.  And do not be weary; you have not failed.  Rather, you have planted a seed.  St. Paul teaches that Christian teachers plant and water, but it is God who causes the growth (see 1 Corinthians 3:5-7).

Faith Is A Gift, Not Something You Purchase

I have come across numerous Christians, and still do today, who become amazed at what "such great faith" I have.  They're astounded at my faith, as if it's something that I created.  Let me make it irrevocably clear:  I did not create my faith.  I did not get to where I am in life at the moment on my own.  Faith is a gift from God, and I got to where I am today and continue to progress with the strength of God, not mine alone.  Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  I shouldn't need to explain this passage, but I feel that I must.  Through faith in Jesus Christ we are saved — delivered unto salvation — at the expense of God's grace.  We didn't make any of this possible; it was all God, and it is therefore a gift.  As it is a gift, we have the choice of accepting it or rejecting it because of the free will given to us by God.  The former has its promises, and the latter has its consequences.  Accepting the gift is still not your own work, for it was given to you.  You didn't purchase the gift, but rather Christ paid the ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

Just as the Word itself says in the aforementioned verse, it is a gift of God.  Any person who says otherwise admits an immediate contradiction of God's Word, and must be treated as heresy.  And as it says, faith is "not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  If I created my faith, I would be able to boast in my actions, my will, and the things that I have done to bless my life.  But no, that is not so.  I boast in God's actions, God's will, and the things that He has done to bless my life because of the gift He has given me, paid by the ransom of Jesus Christ.

People of all ages have stated their wonder at my faith, and then they find it as no surprise because I am a prospecting pastor.  I must be reiterate:  I did not create my faith.  But I must supplement something to this message:  You don't need to be a pastor in order to have astounding faith.  If you're Christian and you're reading this, you have the same gift I have.  My faith is no different than your faith; it is the same faith given by God.  How you choose to live in it on a daily basis is what can differ between us.  The only thing that's different is how you decide to respond in your faith, not faith itself.  Yes, as a prospecting pastor I may meditate on the Word and read the Word more than the average Christian, but what's stopping you?  You don't need to be called to the office of pastorship in order to constantly live in the Word.  All Christians should live in the Word constantly.  One's role in the Church should not determine how often one spends time in the Word and with God on a personal level.  All Christians have a purpose in God's will, not just pastors.  Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose."  The subject of this verse is, "those who love God."  Who are these people?  You.  All Christians on the global level.  These people — all Christians — are "those who are called according to His purpose," and "all things work together for the good" of these people.  As united Christians, our purpose as a whole is to "make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything" Jesus has commanded us (Matthew 28:20).  As individuals, our purposes vary, which is something you discover on your own as you seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  I cannot tell you what that purpose is, and you cannot decide what that purpose is.  Rather, the Holy Spirit gives it to you (see 1 Corinthians 12:1-11).  Whatever gifts He gives you and whatever purposes, it all functions in one body, which the rest of First Corinthians 12 covers, but that's a topic for another day.  My personal purpose is to serve the Church, God's people, and to spread the Word as often and as much as I can.  My purpose may be a lot different from yours, but just because God has commanded me to be ordained as a pastor in the future doesn't mean that you, as a Christian and child of God just like I am, shouldn't constantly live in the Word, which means to meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1:2) and to read it frequently.  Stop being complacent and indolent and dedicate yourself to the Lord as a child of God must.

I preach this message today because I am sick of people marvelling at my faith when it's not something I created and then doing nothing to commit themselves more to the Lord.  It bothers me strongly when Christians are astounded at my faith.  Don't marvel at me; marvel at God and what He has done in my life.  Recognise that it is God who has done everything for me, and does everything for you.  Yes, my temperament of being self-disciplined coupled with self-determination plays as an effort to seek God, but that is something everyone can work at.  Also, it is God who does the work.  I wasn't always self-disciplined and determined to seek the kingdom of God.  For one, I used to be atheist; and two, once I accepted the gift of faith I was spiritually immature for a while.  My experiences in the army have helped with the formed character of self-discipline and self-determination, but my decision to seek first the kingdom of God is the primary role.  It's not the decision to seek God's kingdom that has enabled His blessings, but rather as that is a response to my gift of faith, God decided to work in me.  "For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).  So you see, it is all God.  It is God who is working in me to desire His good purpose and to work for His good purpose.  I don't exist for myself; I exist for God.  I don't live for myself; I live for God.  I live to serve Christ and those I love — my family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Sins We Carry, Sick and Wounded

Over 5,000 years ago, an infant was born.  An angel came to a man named Joseph in a dream, telling him not to be afraid because his fiancé, Mary, would immaculately give birth to a son, and that they were to name Him Jesus because He will be the saviour of His people — coming Messiah.  It was this boy who grew into a man as any human male does, but what was special about this boy was that He is the Son of God who became the most momentous decree from God in human history as He became the beacon of salvation, and of hope to the entire human race.  Billions of people are familiar with this story, whether they believe it or not.  For many Christians, the question we're all faced with when we first believe this is:  Why?  Why would God, the Creator of the universe and therefore the most powerful Being in existence, send His only Son into the world only to die?  I approach this topic because the answers to this question are either not known because of the naïveté of complacent Christians, the misunderstanding of God's grace, and/or the answers most people have are false, and it is my goal to make known the real, truthful answers with support from Scripture.  There are multiple purposes why God sent Jesus, but I will be focusing on what I believe to be the three primary reasons.  God sent His only Son to fulfil the Law, to save sinners, and to be the propitiation for our sins.

The first purpose for Jesus coming into the world was to fulfil the Law.  Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfil" (Matthew 5:17).  Why would Christ need to fulfil the Law and what does He mean by "fulfil"?  Jesus needed to fulfil the Law because as we are imperfect human beings, it is impossible for us to keep the Law perfectly.  As Paul writes later in Romans, "For what the Law could not do, though weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" (8:3-4).  Jesus fulfilled the moral law by keeping it perfectly; although He was tempted in every way as we are, He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).  He fulfilled the ceremonial law by being the embodiment of everything the law's types and symbols pointed to, and He fulfilled the judicial law by personifying God's perfect justice (Matthew 12:18, 20).  Jesus' fulfilment of the Law was to demonstrate that it is not through works that we are saved, but rather through faith.  Going back to Paul again in Romans, he writes, "Where then is boasting?  It is excluded.  By what kind of law?  Of works?  No, but by a law of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law" (3:27-28). Paul also writes to the Ephesians that no one can boast of their salvation because it was not their works that enabled it, but rather it was the gift of grace through faith given by God in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).  How Jesus fulfilled these laws exactly will be covered later.

The second purpose for Jesus coming into the world was to save sinners.  Jesus said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17).  We are all sick, wounded sinners who need healing, which only Christ can offer.  This is the reason why God, " 'gave His only begotten Son, [so] that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life' " (John 3:16).  Because we claim to be rational beings, we seek logical explanations for actions done, demanding a detailed report that explains why and how something was done.  However, God does not give us a detailed report for His actions because He doesn't need to explain Himself to us!  Also, we're ultimately incapable of fathoming how He chooses to work.  "What God declares, the believing heart confesses without the need of further proof.  Indeed, to seek proof is to admit doubt, and to obtain proof is to render faith superfluous" (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy).  Understanding why God did this for us is not the objective; the objective is to accept this gift with our entire being.  "Christ's sacrifice, offered once, has appeased God's wrath and has removed the sin of His people.  Christ's intercessory work continually applies all of the benefits of that death to His people" (Geoffrey Smith, Parkwoods Orthodox Presbyterian Church).  Because of God's love and grace, Jesus Christ interceded for us to pay the penalty of our sins so that we don't have to.  His sacrifice was a one-time deal, and the blessings we receive through His death and resurrection work continually for all of eternity.

The last primary purpose I will be giving was that Jesus came to be the propitiation for our sins.  Now, how did He do this?  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John1, 14).  That's how it started.  In the beginning of Creation was the Word, who was with God, and that Word was and is God.  That same Word became flesh, and He walked among us and talked with us as we witnessed His magnificent glory, God's "only begotten," ergo Jesus Christ is not only one with God, but He humbled Himself into the form of human man for us, "full of grace and truth."  Jesus did all this to be "a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).  The price of Jesus' life as a blood atonement (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22).  This prophecy was fulfilled on the cross when Christ offered Himself up for the divine punishment of sin on our behalf (Isaiah 53:4-5; Luke 23:44-46).  A little later on, in praying to His Father, Jesus prays, "My Father, if it possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39).  In the Old Testament Scriptures, a cup was often used as a metaphor for God's divine wrath against sin (Isaiah 51:17, 22; Habakkuk 2:16).  The following day, Jesus would "bear the sins of man" (Hebrews 9:28), and the fullness of divine wrath to be poured upon Him (Isaiah 52:10-11; II Corinthians 5:21).  In His humanity, Jesus was fearful of His imminent death.  However, He prays for God's will to be done and not His own, revealing how Christ in His humanity voluntarily surrendered His will and His life to the will of God.

We know how the rest of the story goes.  Jesus is betrayed, sentenced to crucifixion, He dies, and is resurrected after three days, the sacrifice complete.  By serving His three primary purposes of fulfilling the Law through being the propitiation for our sins in order to save sinners, we who accept Christ are saved.  Because we are utterly incapable of fulfilling the Law, Jesus did it for us.  Because we all suffer the illnesses of sin, Jesus came to heal us.  Because we are incapable of saving ourselves, Jesus came as the propitiation for our sins to save us from the condemnation and damnation of sin that could not be done through the Law, so Christ fulfilled it in paying the ransom for it by giving His life.  It is not only loving Christ, but also allowing Him to love us.  "If we believe in the exciting message of Jesus, if we hope in vindication, we must love and, even more, we must run the risk of being love" (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel).  By repenting, loving Him, and letting Him love us, His sacrifice is complete, and we are delivered into salvation.  The sins we carry, sick and wounded, Christ has conquered on the cross.

Being With God

I spent the first sixteen years of my life separated from God.  Of course, as an infant and toddler you can't be guilty of that, for you are incapable of being cognisant of God's existence.  I estimate that around the age of five you have the cognitive ability to understand God in a small enough way to make the decision to accept Christ (or at least His existence).  I say that because that was around the age I first knew of anything beyond human existence.  So, if we want to be technical here, I'd say I spent 12 years separated from God, from when I was 5- to 17-years-old.  I'm seven years into my faith now — just seven short years.  It feels a lot longer than that, though.  In that short time, however, God has revealed things to me that I never anticipated to know, and He has set the course of my life on several amazing journeys, especially now as a prospecting pastor doing my undergrad; and the ultimate journey towards salvaging my salvation when Christ returns.  In just four years after giving myself to Christ, God revealed to me His plan for me to be a pastor and the necessary steps to take in order to get there.  At times I feel that I'm not worthy of this great calling, although I am grateful for it.  I have Christian friends who've been in the faith much longer than I have, and yet God has bestowed upon me this calling of being a pastor in order to teach them (and myself, of course).  As I write this God is telling me that it is not the quantity of faith, but the quality of faith.  God doesn't call the qualified; He qualifies the called.  I may not feel worthy, but apparently God thinks I am and He is working in me and through me, qualifying me more and more — perfecting my faith.  But I still wonder, "Why me?"  Yes, I take pride in my faith (without the sin of pride) and it is better than most peoples' faith I know, which I do not take comfort in but am rather disturbed by it.  At first glance my faith is great, but I fall back into sin just like anybody else, yet God not only forgives me every time, but he also still holds on to this calling He has given me.

So I grow ever more curious of just what His purpose is for me, specifically.  What great accomplishments does He have in store for me?  I have goals, I have visions — I have dreams I wish to achieve for the sake of God's glory.  For the longest time I've seen myself the head of an organisation that takes in abused and troubled children and educates them spiritually and maybe even academically.  I am no intellectual of business by any means, so I have no idea how this would be achieved.  Whether this is just a desire of mine out of compassion or something God has placed into my heart to achieve, I do not know.  Perhaps it is because my confidence in achieving this is lacking, which I now see is a problem with trusting God.  I just don't know if He wants me to do this.  If it is, I'm sure He'll reveal to me in time how I'm supposed to achieve it.  I have this overwhelming desire to preach to youth, from middle school to college age, especially the younger ones approaching or already in their adolescent years.  Adolescence is such a fragile state of faith, for in adolescence we are just formulating a sense of independence and identity.  Because we are searching for this new independence and identity, the danger is choosing to become independent of God and not gaining one's identity in Christ, and as it appears to me this happens far too often.  That was me for most of my adolescent years, for I was seventeen when I came to Christ — the brink of adolescence and just approaching early adulthood.  I can understand where each of these kids are coming from because of my own darkness, and I just desire to preach to and guide each one of them I come across.  Adolescence is a dangerous time of our lives where Satan targets us heavily to inspire independence from God.  This is because as we transition from adolescence into adulthood, we transition from using our emotions to using our intellectual capacity, and Satan doesn't want us to use our brains for God.  (It is a psychological discovery that adolescents primarily use the amygdala of the brain that is responsible for emotion control, and after the transition into early adulthood we begin to use more efficiently our prefrontal cortex that is responsible for logic and reasoning and abstract thinking.)

I've spent more years of my life away from God than I have with Him, yet God has this great plan for me.  Not including infancy and toddler stages, I've spent 11 years away from Christ and 7 years with Him.  I always wonder where I'll be at in my faith and in life after 11 years of being with Him, then 16, then twenty...  I suppose this is one of many things that makes God so amazing, that it doesn't matter how long you've known Him; the only thing that really matters is the quality of your faith in Him.  Faith cannot be calculated or measured by human instruments.  Only God knows the exact amount of your faith, and if it is great, He'll probably let you know, whether it be through trials (as a test and/or discipline) or blessings.  I've always had such a strong desire to increase my knowledge in God's Word, which is probably why the past seven years seem so much longer because of all the knowledge and wisdom God has already revealed to me.  Time certainly flies by when you invest all or most of your time in God, and I can now agree that life is, indeed, short.  It's strange thinking that I'm already 24-years-old, almost a quarter of a century, and even stranger thinking that it's only been seven years since I've known Christ and that it seems much longer than that.  (Yes, I know that 24 years is youth, but for me, in the present, it's a long time.  Anyone older than that, it will not appear so due to different vantage points, but all these blog entries are from my vantage point.)  Maybe it's the quality of my faith that distorts the time.  Time, after all, is only a meagre perception.  I have come to personally know Christ so well in just this short amount of time that it doesn't seem like it took seven years to know Him this well, and yet I still have so much to learn!  Basically what I'm saying is that what takes some people ten or fifteen years or even a lifetime to know Him on a personal level has only taken me seven years.  I'm sure others can relate to this.  This is a great sense of accomplishment for me not so I can gloat about it (and I don't), but on a personal level because of how miserable I was for all those years without Christ and the many years I spent in self-loathing.  I don't boast about my faith; I boast about Jesus Christ and His amazing love and God's awesome power.

Dark Times

It seems as though all the nations of the earth have gathered together and devised a scheme against Christians, having made a vow in their hearts to defy the One and True God.  And it seems as though the rulers of the nations have conspired to agree to become self-appointed theologians and distort the holy Word of God.  Politicians pride themselves in their professionalism, and like fools they trust their own misguided scriptural interpretations as opposed to the professional interpretations of Spirit-filled theologians.  And like fools, the world decides to follow the misguided interpretations of politicians.  God's Word is not good enough for them, and as a result they create their own words.  Like the Pharisees of Christ's day, the politicians of today are self-righteous by their own merit, thinking that somehow through their political works of human law they will be saved.

The days pass by quicker each day and I see more wolves in sheep's clothing.  For such abundant iniquity I fear for my brothers and sisters' future.  But such persecutions must pass in order for us to meet our Lord and Saviour.  The wicked shall not prosper for long, for their perishable fate is inevitable.  Still, I pray for the abundant lost souls to remove the darkness from their eyes, for such an eternal fate brings a sadness to my heart.  It is right to accept the inevitable fate of the wicked, for the Word of God says it will be so, but it is wrong to tolerate such destructive sin — apathetic towards such bondage.  For we have all suffered under such bondage, and it is likely that we have all come to Christ due to another human being's intercessory work in our lives, to whom we owe our ultimate gratitude, for without such people we would not know Christ.  Ergo, the practise of evangelism hath been commanded (Matthew 28:19-20) to share and proclaim the Good News of forgiveness and the eternal life that God has enabled us to receive through the Light of Jesus Christ the Messiah, all according to His grace.

I'm afraid to admit that we live in dark times, but there is a lingering light.  The times may not seem dark to some of us, for it is a subtle darkness.  There is nothing that so defines the works of Satan than his subtlety.  It is his subtlety that has led to numerous Christians tolerating sin, forgetting and misunderstanding grace, becoming self-righteous and judgemental.  It is his insidious, patient subtlety that has caused Christians to preach Law and ignore grace.  Such Christians have caused a public rejection of Christianity — causing those outside the faith to believe that Christianity is about judgement and preëminence, carrying the "holier than thou" persona.  But not a single Christian is a judge, and neither is one preëminent.  We are all equally sinners, all equally guilty of sin, but through Christ we are all enabled to become equally forgiven whilst maintaining equality among all others.  There is a lingering light.  There are the significant few Christians who see the danger the Church is in and aim to change that.  Many aim to muffle the light, but the Light of God cannot be extinguished.  The Light of God shall prevail; it is only a matter of time — time that we must be patient with.  We know not the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:36).  We must live each day, however, as though we expect His coming to occur at any given  moment.  We must prepare; we must be ready.  The coming of the Son of man is the lingering light at the end of this dark tunnel we currently live in.

I now give encouragement with the words of Paul:  ...we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  For we who are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death works in us, but life in you" (II Corinthians 4:8-12).  Our enemies and our personal tribulations may afflict us, but they shall never destroy us.  At times in our lives we may become bemused by the tribulations we face, but we never lose the hope we have in Christ.  Our enemies may persecute us, but our God shall never forsake us.  Our enemies may strike us down, but they shall not destroy us, for whoever loses their life for the sake of Christ shall find it (Matthew 16:25).  We will always carry about in our bodies the dying of Christ — those who hate Jesus Christ will take out their vengeance on we who represent Him, our sufferings the badge of our loyalty to Christ.  As Christ was delivered to death (and indeed resurrected), there is the potential that some of us may be delivered to death for Jesus' sake, and indeed be resurrected with our King.  We must be willing to pay the price of death if it means salvation (life) for those to whom we preach.