abiding through grace

The Monstrosity of a Faith that is Alone

2011-05-30T18:39:00.001-07:00

I am currently reading John Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied published in 1955 by Eerdmans Publishing Company. This little book (180 pages) is an amazing dissertation on the meaning of the atonement, how it was accomplished, and how it is applied to sinful man. Murray, a Scottish theologian who died in 1975, spent most of his career at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

In Part 2 of this book, Murray explains what he sees as a Biblical sequence, or order, of application of redemption. I highly recommend this little book.

He walks the reader through each of these sequential steps and explains how one follows the other with Biblical evidence. I was particularly struck with this section in the chapter under Justification and wanted to share with you and explain it further.

Quoted from page 131: "It is an old and time-worn objection that this doctrine ministers to license and looseness (he is speaking of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone). Only those who know not the power of the gospel will plead such misconception. Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone."

This is an argument we often hear and Murray challenges it strongly by claiming those who make this claim do not know the power of the gospel. Those who say that justification by faith alone will lead to a life of looseness, continued living in sin, and an attitude of living free have a point, but it is short sided in that they do not know how this same justifying faith powerfully changes the person.

Continuing with his quote: "Justification is not all that is embraced in the gospel of redeeming grace. Christ is a complete Savior and it is not justification alone that the believing sinner possesses in him. And faith is not the only response in the heart of him who has entrusted himself to Christ for salvation."

So, the believer puts his faith and trust in Christ and then he is done?

Is he complete?

Is his work finished or is more expected?

Is there more to the story?

Murray points to the fact that there is more to the response of faith than just believing.

Will we go on sinning?

Or will our lives be different?

Our faith cannot be alone, there must be a response of holiness and works of the faith along with their belief (James 2:17-20). But then does that mean we are saved by works? Not even close.

Continuing with the quote: "Faith alone justifies but a justified person with faith alone would be a monstrosity which never exists in the kingdom of grace. Faith works itself out through love (Gal. 5:6). And Faith without works is dead (James 2:17-20)."

The so called believer who has faith without works is a MONSTROSITY that can't exist in the kingdom. Faith comes with works. Fruit will follow faith.

Are we without the response of holiness, service, and works of the faith?

Are we a deformed monster that is not actually part of the kingdom since faith cannot exist alone?

Are we living a lie?

Has there been a fruitful response to our belief?

More from Murray: "It is living faith that justifies and living faith unites to Christ both in the virtue of his death and in the power of his resurrection. No one has entrusted himself to Christ for deliverance from the guilt of sin who has not also entrusted himself to him for deliverance from the power of sin. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

Wow, do you hear that? No one has entrusted themselves to the deliverance of the GUILT of sin (i.e. forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ) who has not also entrusted themselves to the POWER OVER SIN…or in other terms the power given to us through our faith to NOT SIN. This is awesome. Shall we live in sin then since we are free not to? God forbid! Let it not be so! We must embrace and trust the power we have over sin that comes with our faith and justification in the eyes of God. Because we have faith we will fight the temptations that come and we will wage good warfare against sin (1 Tim 1:18-19). We will also love others, serve others, die to self, and give sacrificially because of our faith. We possess these things as an integral part of our faith. It is the natural response to our faith.

Examine yourself as I examine myself. Are we mutant Christians who have a dead faith because it is without works? Are you a monstrosity in the kingdom of God?

A Healthy Diet – Spiritual Nutrition and Fitness for the Church (Part 2)

2010-11-27T16:54:00.000-08:00

A Healthy Diet – Spiritual Nutrition and Fitness for the Church (PART TWO)
The importance of personal character development in the proper functioning of the church.

Proper function of our physical body

Most people would agree that there are two essential things for strong bodily health: nutrition and exercise. We need to eat the right food and we need to move our bodies in some form of exercise to strengthen our bodies in order to see proper function, health and fitness.

Eating the right kind of food in our modern world is a challenge with all our fast food and processed foods. Man was designed by God to function physically on natural foods found in fruits, vegetables, water, and meat. At the grocery store you have to spend double in order to buy organic foods that make an attempt at natural foods. Our bodies will function better when we eat the correct portions of natural foods; we’ll just feel good. In contrast, however, if we eat pizza for breakfast, heavy greasy excess calories for lunch, and a massive feast of processed foods for dinner, we won’t feel so good. Ironically, we may not realize it, but we’ll feel rotten but we have adapted to it and consider the weight gain, lack of sleep, and exhaustion as normal. So it is with the Body of Christ.

Matthew 4:1-4
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus, in refuting the Devil’s temptations, compares the importance of the Word of God to food. In fact, Jesus elevates the Word of God above sustenance, claiming that we live alone on the word of God. This is a spectacular statement and continues to weave the body analogy throughout scripture. Again, Jesus deals with our need for physical nutrition in John 6. The crowd was looking for Jesus having just the day before been fed through the miracle of the fish and loaves, and Jesus challenges them by stating that they are looking for him for food. The crowd then wonders if Jesus will produce a miracle similar manna from heaven as during Moses’ days in the desert. Jesus responds like this:

John 6:31-66, 48:

31 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…48 I am the bread of life.

This passage from John Chapter 6 would take weeks to flesh out completely, but, Jesus makes a very important point: “I am the bread of life.” Jesus is the bread of life and alone we’ll live on the word of God. The Body of Christ will only find its nutrition and proper sustaining food in Christ and the Word of God.

I propose then, that the proper function of the church is dependent on what’s on the menu and what is in our diet. Are we a church that eats fast food sermons full of shallow useless trans-fats? Are we a church that eats processed purpose driven Bible studies? Are we a church that lives on 30 second microwavable frozen prayers? Or are we a church with deep biblical sermons, that finds is true knowledge, wisdom and sustaining truths from the Word of God? Are we a church that only eats meals from the bread of live, Jesus Christ? The body of Christ that fills itself with weak Christless Christianity will not function properly. However, the Christ driven church will be empowered and functioning properly. We must fill ourselves with solid biblical preaching, deep beneficial Bible studies, long personal and intimate prayers, and frequent intimate fellowship with other believers. Proper function of the church is dependent on proper nutrition and proper nutrition for the Body of Christ is reading the Bible, prayer, and fellowship. Building these character traits into the members of the church is essential for the church’s health and fitness. All the members must be healthy and their character being developed in a godly way.

The other element to caring for our fragile earthly bodies is exercise. When we are young and active our bodies react well and are functioning properly. However, as we get older we realize that focused purposeful exercise is required to keep it functioning properly. Walking, jogging, playing basketball, and many other options are useful for keeping the body active. Without strength building our muscles will atrophy making us useless. Without aerobic activity our lungs will also become weak and unable to handle any difficult activity. Imagine after not exercising for years having to suddenly run five miles to save your life. Just running the five miles would kill you. You would not be able to get through the challenge. Exercise also helps fight off injuries and illnesses. So it is with the Body of Christ.

Paul tells his readers about training in godliness and building up the Body of Christ in several places. In Ephesians he deals with growing strong to avoid being tossed around. The body must be equipped to handle the false doctrines to come.

Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul compares physical exercise and training to spiritual training:

1 Timothy 4:7-8
7 Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Bodily training is of some value, but training in godliness is everything. The Body of Christ must be exercising spiritually in order to stay strong against false doctrines, spiritual storms, and spiritual injuries or illnesses. So, how does the church exercise spiritually? There are several ways.

Discipleship is a form of exercise for the church. Within discipleship training, the mature Christian (teacher) must work through teaching and discussion points and transferring one’s faith and Biblical knowledge to the disciple. The disciple will be challenged on many topics stretching them and making them grow. Another exercise is ministry. Whether teaching Sunday school, ministering at the elderly homes, visiting someone in the hospital, or cleaning the church toilets the Body of Christ will be exercising its individual gifts and unity. These are both great benefits to the church. Prayer is another obvious exercise (probably more of an exercise than nutrition described as above). Other ways the church can train and exercise is evangelism, outreach, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and giving to the poor. The act of giving and serving builds strength in godliness.

The church body will not be able to stand against false doctrines or trials and tribulations if it isn’t actively working in the areas of discipleship, serving, teaching, ministering, evangelism, and prayer. The body will be weak and when a challenge comes, the church will be like the person trying to run five miles. It will be a sad display of weakness. Again, as with our spiritual diet, our spiritual exercise is a major part of character development that needs focus in order to keep the church healthy and fit.

Conclusion

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit uses the picture of the church being like a body in order to give the Corinthian church a simple example of unity and how the church shall function, since they were in complete disarray and dysfunction. We, as readers today, can learn just as much from this analogy. It is a blessing to Christians that the Holy Spirit would use language that we can so easily relate to. I have stretched Paul’s analogy to look into how we develop the character of believers in the church in order to function properly in love and unity. The properly functioning church will glorify God above all and will be a beacon of the gospel to the ends of our dark world. The proper function of the church starts with character development of each member, from the newly saved to the senior pastor. With the proper healthy diet, the members will grown in the proper character traits such as dependence on the Bible, dependence on Christ alone, a life of prayer, and regular intimate fellowship with other believers. With proper exercise and training the members will gain strength and endurance through discipleship, ministry, prayer, serving, giving, and evangelism. A church loaded full of strong healthy and fit members will make for a strong, fit and properly functioning body.

-Keller Hackbusch

A Healthy Diet – Spiritual Nutrition and Fitness for the Church (Part 1)

2010-10-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

A Healthy Diet – Spiritual Nutrition and Fitness for the Church (PART ONE)
The importance of personal character development in the proper functioning of the church.

The Church as the Body of Christ

The Christian Church is an assortment of many different people from different places and backgrounds with different testimonies and levels of maturity. Each believer is a member of the generic global church and each of these members has an impact on the church as a whole. The leaders of the church are faced with this reality and have a duty to influence the character development of each member by teaching and discipleship training. So, how important is character development in the proper functioning of the church? Let us first look at a picture of how the church functions as outlined by the Apostle Paul.

Paul uses the analogy of the Church as being similar to the human body; the Body of Christ. He writes about this in his first letter to the Corinthians in Chapter 12, verses 12-30. The Corinthian church was fractured by divisions in thought and behavior. Paul’s teaching of unity and the working together of the members as one body is as relevant today as in the first century. Paul introduces his letter in an interesting way, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with a all those who in every place call upon the name of our lord Jesus Christ…” (1 Cor 1:2). Paul calls them out in how he addresses the church as those who are called to be saints together – they must not have been “together”. Clearly, the Corinthians were a model of a church not functioning properly.

The word picture of the church as a body is obviously not a literal description of the church, but is a very helpful depiction of how the members of the body work together for God’s glory and the proclaiming of the gospel. Paul argues, just as the body is one and has many members, and all members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. (1 Cor 12:12).

1 Corinthians 12:12-30:

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

The body is one with many members and as one member of the body is injured or broken it will greatly impact the effectiveness of the entire body. Take for example a broken foot. Anyone who has had a broken leg, ankle or foot knows that you become immobile very quickly. A small body part such the foot can immobilize the entire body for a long time. You can barely get around the house. You can’t drive your car very well. You can’t play basketball. You can’t go on a hike. You become handicapped. Consider pneumonia, which is an inflammatory condition in the lungs. Your body will not function properly when you have pneumonia. Proper function of the body requires the health and fitness of each member. So it is with Christ.

Without taking it literally, we could see that maybe the arms of the Body of Christ could represent the deacons and elders who do the work of the church. Maybe the legs could represent the evangelists and missionaries taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. The mouth might be the preachers proclaiming the word of God to the rest of the body. Most children would claim that their mothers are the eyes and ears of the body, always catching them in the act! There is no Biblical definition of what the body parts represent and it would be foolish to stake claim on knowing that the thumb is represented by any person in the church. There are many members and all the members work together as part of a unified body. However, Paul extends his analogy in his letter to the Ephesians and does define one body part; the head:

Eph 5:23:

23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Although this passage is specifically dealing with marriage, Paul is describing marriage as a picture of God’s relationship with us. Christ is the head of the Church and therefore the head of the Body of Christ. Christ is the leader of our unified body, all unified with Him working together for the Glory of God.

So it is with Christ, Paul states.

In Part Two, we will extrapolate Paul’s analogy by considering the effects of character development on the proper function of the church in terms of the effects of diet and exercise on the proper function of the body.

by Keller Hackbusch
October 2010

Part 4: What Vine Are Your Abiding In?

2010-09-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Part 4: What Vine Are You Abiding In? Why does Christ tell us these things?

Why does Christ tell us that he is the true vine? Why is he stopping the disciples late at night to teach them good gardening tips? Is it so that we will bear fruit? No – God produces the fruit when we abide, and we abide if we are in Christ. We will quickly look at three reasons why Christ teaches these things.
First, look at v 8:

“…by this my Father is Glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

We will be seen as Christ’s disciples by our fruit and our fruitfulness glorifies God. It is about God! Our fruit good works, love, joy, patience, and all these things, are to glorify God - to the glory of God alone. We prove to be his disciples meaning that we are proven to be in the family of God by who we are...it is a family resemblance to the ultimate fruit bearer.

Christ’s second reason...verse 11:

John 15:11
11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Christ wants us joyful. When we abide in him, we will have true joy. In fact, we will have his joy in us. The verse states specifically, “than my joy may be in you.” This is a big deal. Think about who we are talking about:

Jesus Christ – the one who the universe was made through and made for
Jesus Christ – the one who defeated death and is savior of all who believe.
Jesus Christ – the infinite and holy son of God
Jesus Christ – the one who holds the stars and molecules together with the word of his power

What do you think his joy is like? Is that something that you desire? Do you want to have the all powerful, infinite, and holy God’s joy in you? I do! So, just abide in him. He is telling us how.

Ok, now, the third reason...verse 12:

John 15:10&12
“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love…this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

We used these verses early and remember what we said…you don’t keep his commandments in order to abide, but because you are abiding you end up keeping his commandments. Because you are abiding you end up loving one another as he loved you. Again, don’t miss this bombshell. If we abide, we will love one another as CHRIST LOVED US! This is huge! Again:

Jesus Christ – the one who the universe was made through and made for
Jesus Christ – the one who defeated death and is savior of all who believe.
Jesus Christ – the infinite and holy son of God
Jesus Christ – the one who holds the stars and molecules together with the word of his power

Do you want the love he has for us in you for each other? Yes! Christ loved us by:

Coming down from Heaven – loving us before we even knew he existed or needed him
Becoming nothing by his humanness
By stripping away all his glory for humility – ultimately humble
By dying on the cross in our place – loving sacrificially

Do you want to love like that? I do! – Then abide in Christ and God will bear this fruit of supernatural love through you.

4th Point: How Do We Abide?

Who do you spend the most of your time with? Do you love that person? Can remember being a little child when something scary happens and you run to your dad and jump in his lap and he makes you feel safe. Can any of you remember what this feels like?

This is abiding. How then do we abide?

If you love Christ you will stay near to him. You spend time with those whom you love. You abide by loving Christ and staying with him.

Abiding is the act of resting in Christ. You can’t rest in him if you don’t trust him to provide and keep you safe first. You can’t trust him until you know who he is and where his heart is. You can’t know who he is without spending time with him.

To know him, you develop a life of reading your Bible everyday and put the words inside you. You can’t abide if you don’t spend time getting to know him. You develop a life of continuous prayer. You can’t abide if you don’t spend time getting to know him.

Once you know him and trust in him, you will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…God will bear fruit through you in spite of you.

Conclusion

Finally, in closing, let’s look at a bunch of verses to pull it all together:

1 John 2:24-25
"Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us —eternal life."

Eternal life. Abide in the vine and let the gospel abide in you.

Matthew 13:3-8
"And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

The first two soils (people) here reject Christ outright. However, the third is our branch that is cut off and thrown into the fire. This seed grows, which is parallel to abiding in Christ, but this seed never really has a full connection and is choked out by other things as a vine that does not bear fruit. However, the fourth seed grows and bears much fruit.

Non-Abiding Branches - Don’t get comfortable and don’t get a false confidence – Be sure. Look at this Psalm from Asaph:

Psalm 50:22-23
"Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"

Those who forget God are not abiding. Those who offer the fruit of thanksgiving are and see the salvation of God! Don’t forget God in the little things.

More non-abiding branches from Psalm 28 – these Psalms are God speaking to us through his prophets and drawing a line in the sand. In this case we read a passionate Psalm from David:

Psalm 28:5
"Because they do not regard the works of the Lord or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more."

Do you hear the similarity to Jesus telling us that those who are not bearing fruit will be cut off the vine and burned? Here, the message is the same, he will tear them down and build them up no more…they will not be attached to the vine.

Non-abiding branches and the abiding branches from the Psalms is a constant theme as we from each of these passages. This is David again:

Psalm 27:4-5
“4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock."

One last uplifting Psalm:

Psalm 33:20-22
"Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you!"

Now that is abiding in Christ.

As everyday goes by, you will be challenged more than ever in your life. You will experience things that test your faith and pull you in directions that you didn’t expect. Don’t let this world derail your faith. Abide in the true vine. Keep looking and praying for areas for God to prune in your life. Hold fast to your faith and be at peace in all things in Christ. Don’t try to put on fruit superficially – no fruit suits - but abide in the vine and everyone around you will see the fruit develop in huge clusters. This will glorify God.

Keller Hackbusch

Part 3: What Vine are you Abiding In?

2010-08-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

Part 3: 2nd Point: What fruit are you bearing?

Back to our passage in John:

John 15:4 “…As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

So, what kind of fruit are you bearing? Are you bearing any fruit at all? Surely you are.

The purpose of this useless branch – notice how the branches are pruned and taken away, but never the vine – is to bear fruit. There is no other purpose. In order to bear fruit the branch must be fully connected to the vine. The branch gets all its sustenance from the vine. All the water and nutrients come from the roots to the vine to the branches in order to bear fruit. If the branch is disconnected or partially connected, it will NOT bear fruit…and we know what happens to that branch.

Jesus mentions “FRUIT” 6 times in this passage, do you think he is serious about it?

BAD FRUIT

Are you abiding in one of these unTRUE vines? One of these FALSE vines described earlier and are you bearing BAD FRUIT? Give me some examples of BAD FRUIT…

Romans 1:28-32
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Any of these sound familiar?

Colossians 3:5-10
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Any of these sound familiar?

Galatians 5:16-21
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That is some BAD FRUIT. Rotten, horrible, deadly fruit.

Do you really want to be bearing the fruit of the world? Do you really want to be bearing the fruit of Satan?

GOOD FRUIT

Now, let’s talk about some good news, those branches that are truly connected to the vine and are abiding in the vine will bear GOOD fruit. When you have the Holy Spirit in you, you will be free from this bad fruit. These vines get their nutrients and water from the vine and the fruit will grow. Your fruit may be meager and weak…maybe one little sickly grape. Will you be able to spend your life like this? No, God will prune you. But even that meager fruit bearing branch will get the attention of the Father and he will move you to be more fruitful. He will work in you and on you.
Give me some examples of GOOD FRUIT…

Best verse is of course Galatians 5:22, which is the continuation of the verses on Bad Fruit above...the fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Does any of this sound familiar?

How about 1 Corinthians 13:
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Finally:

Colossians 3:12-17
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Now, pay special attention to this:

John MacArthur asks a great question: “Can we put fruit on?” He describes the Christian who reads Galatians 5:22-23 and decides to work hard to bear fruit. He spends all week working to love everyone…then he spends next week trying to be joyful…then the next being patient…you get the idea. None of his efforts will be lasting or real. John 15:4-6 you CANNOT bear fruit on your own…you can do NOTHING without Christ.

You can do nothing without abiding in the vine. You can’t put your fruit on…and run around like the Fruit of the loom guys in big puffy fruit suits. Put on fruit isn’t real and it doesn’t fool God. Jesus isn’t saying, “abide in me by working really hard to bear fruit. Let’s look at verses 15:4-5 again.

John 15:4-5
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Now, let’s couple that with verses 10 &12 to for more detail:

John 15:10&12
“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love…this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

Do you keep his commandments in order to abide? Or do you keep his commandments because you abide? Do you love one another in order to abide? Or do you love one another because you abide? You love one another because you abide…keeping his commandments is subject to your abiding. You can’t keep his commandments on your own.

So, how do you bear fruit? How do you bring forth godliness and holiness and Christ-likeness? You simply abide in Christ and GOD will bear the fruit through you. Stay near Christ, rest in him, abide in him and you will naturally be fruitful.

Again, this is very important:

You don’t bear fruit by doing things…doing things (being obedient and doing good works) is the Fruit! The fruit is what you are doing…you only do things because God works in your through the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Obedience to God is the fruit from abiding, not the act of abiding. I want to say that again. Obedience is the fruit from abiding, not the act of abiding. Abiding is resting in Christ fully.

Praise God it isn’t about you! Praise God you don’t have to work at being fruitful, you just have to be IN HIM!

Keller Hackbusch

Part 2: What Vine are you Abiding In?

2010-08-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

Part 2: What vine are you abiding in?

Jesus looks in the eyes of his disciples, who are probably a bit shell shocked, and tells them:

John 1:1-2
“I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away…

Jump to v 6

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

AND BURNED! Do you see this? Jesus is comparing the non-abiding branches to the abiding branches and those that do not abide do not bear fruit and are completely worthless and he cuts them off and he burns them. Just an hour or so earlier, Christ pointed out how one of his disciples was going to betray him: Judas. He is telling the remaining disciples about Judas – the betrayer of Christ. He is comparing the abiding disciple to the non-abiding disciple represented by Judas.
Think about Judas, he was with Christ everyday for 3 years. He heard every sermon, went to every Sunday school, did every bible study, and he went to every retreat and every church event. He may have even gone to the singles dinner. Here is the unbelievable thing: I’m sure he even sat in a quiet place with Christ – his loving mentor and teacher – listened to him teach about himself and his fulfillment of prophecy and the law.
Can’t you see Jesus and Peter or John sitting along the shore of Galilee talking intimately? Or Philip sitting with Christ under the shade of a big tree? Judas did this as well. He was face-to-face and sitting close to Jesus learning one-on-one with the creator and savior of the universe…he sat listening to Jesus. Can you hear it? “Believe in me, Judas, and it will be counted to you as righteousness.”

Do you hear it?

ABIDING

But, he was with Christ and never abided. He didn’t stay close to Christ. His life was not for Christ. His heart was set on something else. He was not IN HIM. Judas didn’t abide in the true vine.

What are you abiding in?

Are you abiding in Christ?
Or are you abiding in yourself?
Are you abiding in video games?
Computers?
TV?
Sports?
Your friends?
Your parents?
How about religion and good works?

What is it for you? – What false vines are you abiding in?

For me it is usually work, family, house, computers, and books that I am drawn to abide in.

No matter what you are abiding in, you’ll bear fruit. But you’ll notice that Christ quickly points out that the vinedresser – who is the Father – takes away the branches that do not bear the spiritual fruit of godliness. These fruitless withering branches are worthless. Think about this – the branches from a grape vine are the most worthless of all trees and wood products. They serve one purpose only…to bear fruit. The withered branches can’t be used to build a house. They can’t be used to build anything. They can’t even be burned for heating a house or cooking. They are worthless. The withered branches are tossed in God’s rubbish pile and are BURNED.

C.H. Spurgeon put it this way in his sermon, “The Fruitless Vine,”

“If it were any other kind of a tree he would at least reserve it for chopping up to make a fire within the master’s house, but this is much an ignominious thing, he throws it away in the corner and burns it up with the weeds. If it were a stout old oak, it might have the funeral of the Yule log, with honor in its burning, and brightness in its flame; but the fruitless vine is treated with contempt, and left to smolder with the weeds, the refuse, and the rubbish. It is a miserable thing.”

DO NOT become one of these branches. You must abide in Christ to have eternal life. If you don’t abide, you will fall in line with those like Judas who knew Christ, but never abided. They were never in Him. They will never inherit the promises of eternal life.

Jesus uses the word ABIDE – 11 times in this passage (if you count v 16). You think he is serious or what? Listen to the definition of abiding:

Abide:
a) to remain
b) in reference to place: to sojourn, tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually
c) in reference to time: to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure
d) of persons: to survive, live
e) in reference to state or condition: to remain as one, not to become another or different, to wait for, await one

This is such a blessing. Wait on Christ. Do not depart. Continue in him, endure…Abide in Christ is the point. He wants you abiding in him. He does not want you abiding in other things. Find rest and peace in Christ.

Moses, in Psalm 91, provides a great definition of abiding for us (my favorite).

Psalm 91:1-2:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Abiding in Christ is to rest in him, to rest quietly without fear or anxiety to the point that you doze off comfortably in your savior’s arms – at peace.

PRUNING

Now, even the branches that are abiding in Christ and are showing fruit get some treatment from the Vinedresser. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes. The Father will prune you in order that you bear more fruit. Do you hear this? God wants you to bear fruit and he will prune you so that each season you bear more and more fruit.

Pruning – this is another one that you have to hear the definition: “to reduce especially by eliminating superfluous matter for more fruitful growth.”

Each one of us here this morning and me have superfluous matter in our lives and the Father is coming to reduce it! He will. I have been through this. I can speak of personal experience on this one. God does not want you to remain where you are…he wants you to be more fruitful. He will remove things from your life so that you will be more fruitful.

Pruning hurts. No doubt about it, pruning is a painful experience that God will take us through. The Father’s desire is to conform you into the image of Christ and he’ll do that be cutting away the junk from your life. That junk might be a job, or a friend, or money, or comfort, or luxuries, or your health. These things will hurt when they are cut off, but you will become more fruitful the next season IF you are abiding in Christ.

James 1:2-4
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The word “changed” or “transformed” here is Meh-ta-mar-pha-toh, which is obviously related to our own English word of metamorphosis, which means to change in appearance, condition or character. Here is another passage dealing with the Father transforming or pruning us:

Hebrews 12:7-11
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

When you abide, you will bear fruit, but God will prune you in order that you are made perfect and complete lacking in nothing – IN and THROUGH CHRIST.

Keller Hackbusch

Part 1: What Vine are you Abiding In?

2010-08-05T20:09:00.000-07:00

Part One - What vine are you abiding in?

One of my favorite passages in scripture is Jesus’ teaching on the vine and the branches. Recently I had a chance to work through this passage with the high school group at our church and look at what it means for Christ to be the Vine and for the believer to be the branch in relation to the changing and transforming nature of their young lives. Here is the passage:

John 15:1-11
15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Background and Context

Before we get into the meat of this passage we need to consider the context and set the stage a bit. Just two chapters previous to this we see Jesus and the disciples entering the upper room to celebrate the Passover together. This was probably a few hours before Jesus teaches on the vine and the branches. In the upper room, Christ knows he is on his way to the cross and he knows the misery and suffering that is to come. He takes time during this last supper to teach the disciples massive truths. From chapter 13 to our passage in chapter 15 we see all of this:

- Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and introduces servant leadership – love one another (John 13:1-17) – remember this
- Jesus tells of a disciple who will betray him. (John 13:18-30) – remember this
- Jesus introduces communion – (Mat 26:26-29)
- Jesus introduces the new covenant of his blood (Luke 22:20)
- Jesus introduces a new commandment – love one another (John 13:31-35) – remember this
- Jesus foretells of Peter’s denial (John 13:36-38)
- Jesus drops the deity bomb by declaring that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through him…and if you have seen him you have seen the father. (John 14:1-14)
- Jesus promises the Holy Spirit (John 14:16)

After all these huge topics that Christ slips onto his unsuspecting disciples during this little Passover dinner, says in v 31: “Rise and let us go from here!” The disciples I’m sure are sitting at the table looking at each other asking, “What did he say? Another is coming? A Helper? What was that about eating his body?” – and Jesus gets up to move on…probably leaving the disciple scrambling to catch up with Him.

According to Harry Ironside in his commentary and also in Morgan’s commentary, there are a couple of possible reasons why Christ compares himself to a vine and defines himself as the TRUE Vine.

1. As Christ and the disciples leave the upper room at night – probably dark by then – and walk past the Temple, they would have passed by the temple Gates which have a huge golden vine with hanging fruit – representing the Old Testament references of Israel (Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah,, Ezekial) as the vine. You could see Christ stopping the disciples in the tracks and point up to this vine above the gates and say, “I am the TRUE VINE – abide in me.” Now, there is a whole rabbit trail – more like a freeway system to follow related to Christ as the true vine in reference to the Old Testament passages, however, we don’t have time to deal with now.

2. The second possibility is that as they were walking through the Kidron Valley on their way to the Gethsemane, they passed a vineyard along the path, and again, you can see Christ stop the disciples and say: “I am the TRUE VINE!”
Neither of these can be confirmed historical or biblically, but they provide us with a nice picture of this late night adventure.

This passage, John 15:1-11, is about as famous of a scriptural passage as you can find in the Bible and we can’t get anywhere near being able to deal with everything, so I have boiled it down to four points that I want you to learn, own, and live out:

Point #1 - What vine are you abiding in?
Point #2 - What kind of fruit are you bearing?
Point #3 - Why does Christ tell us these things?
Point #4 - How do we abide? – The practical side

Keller Hackbusch

Why Would You Want to Read the Bible?

2010-07-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Why would we want to read the Bible? The Bible tells a story of our fallen nature and our redemption. We need to see these truths. According to the book of Hebrews, the word is shaper than any two-edge sword piercing us to the core and leaving us exposed to Him whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:12-13

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

If we must give account, we’re in big trouble. According the Paul in his letter to the Romans, all men have sinned, none are righteous and all have fallen short of the glory of God and all are dead in their trespasses (Romans ch. 3). How can we possible give account, exposed of the truth before out creator when we know all have sinned and fallen short? We look to Paul again and to a beautiful passage describing the Gospel in Colossians.

Colossians 2:13-14

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Our debt has been cancelled? Christ nailed it to the cross by being nailed to the cross. “He who knew no sin became sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Again from Colossians, Paul layouts the results of this debt being nailed to the cross. By cancelling our debt on the cross, we have forgiveness of sins and we have been transferred from darkness into the kingdom of God – from eternal death to eternal life through Christ’s work on the cross alone.

Colossians 1:13-14

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Finally, to complete the loop, Paul shows in Romans 8 what the rewards is for this cancelling of our debt. We are now made brothers with Christ. We are adopted into the family of God, given a new birth right and now a new inheritance…the kingdom of God.

Romans 8:12-17

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

We read the Bible so that we can see the great truths of our need for redemption, the debt we owe, to whom we owe it and the good news that the debt has been paid and we have been adopted through faith in Christ into the family of God and have a new inheritance that is eternal reward. Why wouldn’t you want to read that?

Keller Hackbusch 7.6.2010

The Cost from Glory to Humility - Part Two

2010-01-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

Have you ever considered Jesus Christ before the incarnation - when he was born into this world as a baby?

Did he exist before then?

Was he created by God the Father at his birth?

Or has he always existed?

There is a fairly easy scriptural answer, but I want to look at a lot of scripture concerning Jesus while NOT on the Earth. Jesus answers these first questions himself in Revelation chapter one, verse 8:

I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

He also states later in Revelation that he is the first and the last. Jesus has always existed from the very beginning of beginnings as stated in John chapter one, and we can see that he IS the beginning in Colossians chapter one. Paul tells us in this Colossians passage that everything was created for Christ and THROUGH Christ. How could something be created through Christ if he did not exist before time and creation began.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1:15-18

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Knowing that Christ, the Son of God and second person of the trinity has always existed and he was integral in creation, we must ask why he would leave the glory of Heaven to come to Earth. Before looking at why he came and how big of a sacrifice his coming was, we must build the contrast between Heaven and Earth. Jesus’ life on Earth will be examined in Part 3.

We have to remember that the spiritual realm that God inhabits is outside of time and space so when we look at visions of Heaven from the Old Testament and the New Testament there is no chorological order. Visions from Revelation are not chronologically after Christ dies on the cross. These visions of Heaven and our Lord are representative of Christ’s glory.

Isaiah’s memorable vision is a good place to start.

Isaiah 6:1-5

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

This picture of the Lord on his throne with winged seraphim creatures worshipping him is beyond what our imagination can visualize. Isaiah tried to put his vision in words that we could understand, however the best we can do is get the general feeling. As the Lord sits on his throne with the train of his robe so long and majestic that it fills the whole temple, we have to remember that he is the person who created the entire universe and upholds it with the word of his power (Hebrews 1).

John’s vision from the Book of Revelation is similar to what Isaiah experienced. While Jesus Christ was on Earth he never experienced anything like this scene from Heaven.

Revelation 5

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Similar to Isaiah’s vision, those who are near the Lord can not help but to break into song and worship him. They all fall to their faces and cry Holy! And Worthy! Why would Christ leave this realm to be born in a manger?

Finally, let’s look at one more vision. This is Ezekiel’s account of when the Heavens opened up and he could see the Lord on the throne. These strange creatures and wheels are Ezekiel’s best attempt at describing the indescribable. Is the Lord Jesus Christ surrounded in worship and glory in Heaven? I think so.

Ezekiel Chapter 1

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.

Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads. And under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings.

And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

We will all fall on our face when we see the power, glory, and majesty of Christ in Heaven. Those who believe will be entered into his glorious presence forever and will be able to join in the joy and awe creating worship of he who is worthy! We’ll all cry Holy! Holy! Holy!

Why would Christ want to leave this realm? Why would He want to become a human and wander the dusty trails of Israel and be persecuted and hated? It is beyond our understanding; however, Part Three will address what life was like on Earth for Jesus. It was nothing like Heaven. I hope this demonstration of Christ’s glory in Heaven will remind us who it was that became a baby and died for us. How could one man die for the sins of many? He had to be infinitely valuable to pay the price. The scriptures above point out Christ’s infinite value.

by Keller Hackbusch

The Cost from Glory to Humility - Part One

2010-01-10T22:40:00.000-08:00

Over 2000 years ago Jesus Christ, the perfect, sinless, and eternal son of the living God - who is and was and always will be - left the splendor of Heaven and entered time and space here on earth which is temporary, fallen, corrupt, and full of darkness. He shed His robes of righteousness and glory to become like us – human. He left His magnificent crown on the cushion of the throne at the right hand of the Father to be born in a stranger’s barn in a tiny worthless town in Israel. This is no simple matter.

Have we ever gazed into the depths of the transformation the Son – the second person of the Trinity – underwent? Do we understand the cost of Jesus Christ’s voluntary descent to the ranks of mere mortal man?

I am afraid that we rarely, if ever, consider what Jesus actually did for us 33 years before going to the cross.

Why would Jesus lay His crown down and leave Heaven?

Why would Jesus leave the infinite joy of fellowship with the Father?

How could He who created the universe for His pleasure sacrifice for the creation?

How could He who the angels bow down to become a servant to sinful man?

I want to look into these three points:

1. Glory before the manger.
2. Humility and sacrifice on Earth
3. Why would Christ do this?

I hope to reveal the contrast between Jesus Christ’s infinite glory and His infinite humility over the blog posts to follow.

Hebrews 1:3
"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

by Keller Hackbusch

A Message of Joy!

2009-12-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

All was quiet under the stars. The fragrant smell of field grass lingered in the calm cool air. Each pinpoint of light from the distant stars above joined together and pooled into a subtle glow across the sky. Deep darkness fading into the belt of stars was accented by one particular star hanging low and heavy just above the horizon - as if it was hanging from a string. The muted sounds of sheep whispered down the hillside to where the shepherds congregated. Two of the shepherds lounged lazily on the grassy slope. They picked at the blades of grass and pebbles while the others stood above them sharing amusing stories. Each shepherd carried long wooden staffs, crooked and gnarled in their natural shape but worn smooth from years of use. The recent appearance of the star was odd as it seemed so close that it consumed the horizon.

Suddenly the tranquil night sky and grassy hillside exploded with devastating white light as if the sun exploded. The shepherds stumble back and shielded their eyes. Then out of the light, an angel of the Lord stepped forward only a few feet from them. The shepherds fell flat on their faces and trembled in fear.

The angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

The shepherds, although shocked and afraid, rose to their feet together and listened to this supernatural being from Heaven speak to them. They were raised with stories of prophets and miracles, but none could have ever imagined the glory and power from the Lord in this one angel before them.

The angel continued, “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

The shepherds listened intently and leaned closer. Again, as suddenly as the angel had appeared moments ago, a multitude of the heavenly hosts were with the angel. The sky opened up and more of Heaven’s glory blasted the poor shepherds. The Heavenly Hosts praised God by saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased!” Their collective voices stormed down and destroyed the peaceful calm. The hillside was aglow like nothing they had ever seen before.

Then, nothing. The multitude was gone, the angel was gone, the voices were gone, and the shining glory was gone. All was quiet and dark again as if nothing had happened. Sheep scattered about spooked and uneasy and the shepherds knew life would never be the same.

Immediately the shepherds looked and one another and said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

This is the story found in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2 verses 8 through 15. It is a story of simple men who were given an amazing message – a message we are given every year at Christmas: “I bring you good news of great joy!”

Good news of great joy? What good news could this be that brings great joy?

It is the message from a loving God who came to earth to redeem us. He came as a baby so that he could live a perfect sinless life while growing to be a man who would obediently be persecuted, beaten, bloodied, nailed to a cross, become sin (the sins of the whole world) and absorb the righteous wrathful judgment of the creator of the universe. His death paid the price for our sins and because of him, those who are in him have become the righteousness of God and will inherit the kingdom of God as heirs and brothers with he who died for us.

Philippians 2:5-11

” Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Romans 3:21-26

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Now, this is a message of great joy. Will we be like the shepherds who ran to Jesus after they received the message?

Keller Hackbusch

What Child is This?

2009-12-20T16:56:00.001-08:00

What are we really celebrating this week? Why do we stop everything and celebrate the birth of a baby 2000 years ago. What baby is this? This classic Christmas carol from 1865 written by William Chattertan Dix tells the story so well.

What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

He is the glorious living God. He came - born as a baby - in order to die. He died for us; for our sin. We have inheritance into the kingdom of God through Him, which brings us great everlasting joy and hope.

What child is this? This child is our hope, our Lord, our joy, our peace, and our salvation. Are we remembering what child this is this Christmas?

Keller Hackbusch

Matt Chandler...be encouraged

2009-12-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

The Village Church (Dallas, TX) lead pastor Matt Chandler was diagnosed with a frontal lobe brain tumor. Chandler is a healthy young man (35yrs) with great zeal for the word of God and preaching his savior. This sudden diagnosis is shocking and sad for those who have been following Matt for a while. I pray for recovery and strength for his wife and kids. Matt is very encouraging and this video is true to his spirit and faith. Matt will not waste his tumor, but will instead glorify God with this surgery and tumor and recovery.

Watch this video and be encouraged by Matt's courage and faith.

Matt Chandler Video

http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=363

Keller Hackbusch

Take Your Eyes Off the Mirror

2009-12-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

Are you happy being who you are?

Do you have good self-esteem?

Good self-confidence?

Does it really matter?

Are you comfortable in a room full of strangers or do you compare yourself to everyone; focusing on your flaws?

I think many of us struggle everyday with who we are. I’m not talking about how we wish we could lose 20 lbs or how I wish my hair hadn’t started falling out in my mid-twenties. Those are minor cosmetic issues. I’m talking about the big stuff that becomes chains shackling us to the walls in the dungeon of depression.

Our society is going through many trials in these difficult times. Many are losing homes and jobs, going bankrupt and feeling like failures.

Do you feel like a failure?

Do you feel not good enough?

Are you jealous of those who seem successful and have it all?

Do others have better jobs?

Are others more attractive?

Is their house, wedding ring, or motor home that much bigger and better than yours that you feel like a loser around them?

Do you ask why them and not me?

These thoughts of discontentment will eat away at our self-confidence and self-worth. But what is self-confidence and self-worth? Where does self-confidence and self-worth come from?

We need to start by taking our eyes away from the mirror for a change and look up. We need to look up toward our creator and savior Jesus Christ. We spend so much time looking at ourselves and comparing ourselves to other people that we don’t have time to look at God. Let’s get into the encouragement that can only be found in the Word. Here is what God says…

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Each one of us is uniquely and specially made in the image of God, which means we each carry unique attributes of God. We are all different, but no less made in God’s image.

Psalm 139:13-14

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

God crafted our bodies, minds, and spirit in our mother’s womb in a unique and special way. We are wonderfully made in an awe-inspiring and fearful way. We are no accident. We are different, but each one of us is formed by the hands of the living God, who is infinitely holy, perfect, and good.

Isaiah 43:1-2 & 7

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine… 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

God is very serious about these facts: He made us in His own image. He uniquely formed us from the inside out in our mother’s womb. He made us for His glory – for His purposes. Based on these scriptures (many others tell the same story), we should be able to deduce that we are not a freak occurrence of nature or and accident. We were not the results of strange biological evolutions or random chemical combinations. Each and every one of us was uniquely planned, creatively designed, precision engineered, and delivered with a purpose. God made us the way we are for a reason…for His glory. God made us just as we are for His purpose and His glory alone. There is nothing more valuable or perfect in the universe than God’s delight, purpose, and glory.

I hope you find comfort and confidence in this. We can not compare ourselves to others when we know we are unique for God’s purpose. We should instead search out where God has gifted us and apply our lives fully to those gifts and let God do the rest.

But why has he made us this way or that way?

But, if God makes us in His image, why is everyone else more interesting, more desirable, more rich, more important, more everything?

Is it not enough that you are the image of God?

My current favorite passages of scripture finish the story. These verses add power to our created nature and they describe the scope and depth of the power of the God who created us.

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Ephesians 1:11

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…

These two phenomenal verses show that God’s will and purpose rules our existence. All things work for good – good in God’s eyes, not our own – and He works all things according to his predestined purpose. We and our lives are chosen and planned before time began in order to fulfill God’s ultimate design, purpose, and pleasure. This is good news. There are no mistakes and no failures…ever. Everyone has a purpose.

Not only do all things work for good, but all things are being maintained and held together by Jesus Christ. Right now, Christ is holding the stars in place in the sky, choosing the exact amount, size and speed of the rain drops falling in another part of the world while He is orchestrating the events of your life. I’d even argue that He is beating your heart to keep you alive.

Hebrews 1:3

…and he [Jesus] upholds the universe by the word of his power…

Colossians 1:17

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The best part is that it is all good. It was all planned to be this way. You were planned to be this way. Have hope and have courage to serve your purpose to God’s glory. Find your purpose and work it out.

If, however, you are not encouraged and you still want to complain to the all knowing living God, I would caution you. We must be careful in complaining to the creator. Gratefulness and thankfulness should rule our hearts. We in today’s society have lost the healthy respect for God. We need to know our rightful place in the universe. This verse helps keep perspective:

Romans 9:20

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

Do we have higher standards than God? Or should we find peaceful contentment in how we were molded? Should we change our self-consumed focus from what we don’t have to God, His purpose, His glory, and His genius? I’d say so.

Scary Reading in the Dark

2009-11-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

Just the other day as I was reading Psalm 119, I was struck by fear. It wasn’t the global fear of God caused by his greatness, holiness, and power but the sort of fear that is followed by the words: “oh, my…did I just read that?” Have you ever had moments like this? It was a moment of revelation.

It was late and I was reading in bed with a small flashlight. My book light is broken and I was trying not to bother Maria as she slept, so I fumbled around awkwardly while trying to read the small words on the page. That night, by accident, I found that reading the Bible at night in the dark with a flashlight is a fantastic way to read the word of God. Something about the darkness and spot light adds a unique quiet focus. I had been reading Psalm 119 during the week before, but this particular time I was hit straight in the head when I reached verse 67:

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”

The word afflicted jumped off the page at me. So, I read it again. Before I was afflicted I went astray. Yikes, before I was afflicted? But now I keep your word. I know that as a Christian we should expect affliction, but this was like a neon sign saying, “You will be afflicted.” God wants me to keep his word and commandments, but the author made it clear that he could not keep them until after he was afflicted. He learned something during his affliction that changed him. This is not comforting in a worldly sense. Who would want to learn this lesson? My mind immediately shot to Hebrews chapter 12 and the description of how a father will chastise and discipline his son if he loves him. Better yet, the father disciplines his son because it is the best thing for him and seems painful but later yields good fruit. (Hebrews 12:3-11) I think of my own pitiful weak parenting and see this truth materialize everyday.

The thought of affliction is a very scary thought for me. When I read affliction I see visions of death, pain, loss, misery, and physical and emotional struggles. My wife and I recently went through a bout of affliction at the beginning of 2009 and my heart is still recovering from the wounds. Several tragic things happened in a span of a few weeks. First, my father-in-law passed away and although it was not a surprise, due to his health, it has been terribly sad. Then a major part of our business started to crumble beneath us, which led to me parting ways with a business partner and dear friend of mine of many years. Finally, to top off the challenging period, our brand new puppy, who was merely twelve weeks old and we brought him home the week following my father-in-laws memorial, suddenly developed a health condition that caused several strokes, blindness, and toxins in his brain. Within forty-eight hours he went from being an adorable puppy that brought great joy into our life to a horribly sick and miserable creature. We had to put him down and face death again eye-to-eye and our frailty face-to-face.

During these days when sadness dominated, I kept remembering a single verse that others I know spoke to themselves during struggles and pain: “You are good and you do good.” I knew this verse was from a Psalm, but I couldn’t remember which one. The truth behind the verse gave me great strength. In a simple sentence, I knew God was good and no matter what happened to me it was good because God was in complete control and it would ultimately work out for my good, as stated in Romans 8:28-30. Regardless of how bad or painful it was at that moment, it was working for the greater good in God’s plan for my life and those around me. I knew this and my entire understanding of who God is, what his character is, and what plans he has for me were all incorporated within this simple disambiguated verse: “you are good and you do good.”

I sat on Psalm 119:67 for several minutes as the last few months flashed before my eyes. I saw the days pass by and even relived many of those feelings in that moment. I read on to gain more understanding of this affliction and the results that came from it. The next verse can be classified under supernatural happenings or as a providential God appointed meeting. I read verse 68:

“You are good and you do good; teach me your statues.”

What! Are you kidding me? This is no exaggeration. I wish I was clever enough to create something like this. The disconnected verse that helped me get through my time of struggle, loss, and sadness mysteriously appears immediately following a verse describing affliction and spiritual growth. This is phenomenal. God is very mysterious, but oh so glorious! I continued to read and found the conclusion to these verses in verse 71:

“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statues.”

At this point the verses on discipline come together with Psalm 119. You are good, you do good, and it is good for me. Do I know that these sad events in my life were caused by God as a personal affliction to move me to a new spiritual place? No, I have no idea. I may never know. Do these verses make it any easier to deal with? Yes, it is comforting to hang on to. However, these sad times did move me to a new place and in the end, it was good for me. The view I have of God is a tiny bit clearer now than it was before…before I was afflicted. I’m not sure that am keeping His word or statues any better, but I do have a continually growing affection and desire for God. According to Mark 12:29-30, the scribes ask Jesus what was the most important commandment of all? His answer: “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

I find great strength and joy in interpreting Psalm 119:71 like this: It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might love you will all my, heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don’t want to be afflicted again, obviously, but somehow I just know in my heart that my spiritual maturity is depending on it.

by Keller Hackbusch

Book Recommendations

2009-11-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

One Thing
by Sam Storms

This is a fantastic book from beginning to end. Dr. Sam Storms is a passionate guy and i appreciate his writing and preaching very much. This book will stretch the limits of your faith and truly show you that the closer you get to God...the bigger He is. It is worth reading just to get to the last chapters when Storms describes Heaven by describing what it will NOT be. This book is very encouraging.

Dr. Sam Storms: http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/about-sam-storms/

Enjoying God Ministries: http://www.enjoyinggodministries.com/

Book Description by the publisher:
The goal of our creation was not simply that we might be happy but happy in appreciating God's own glory. Not in reviewing our own accomplishments or in the enjoyment of our own sensual appetites. Not in the development of a healthy self esteem or in the acquisition of a four bedroom home with a three car garage. We were made to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Nothing is more important than understanding this truth. This inspiring work helps us see that beauty has the power to convince the inquiring mind of truth. The soul's contact with God's beauty elicits love and forges in us a new affection that no earthly power can overcome. Enjoying God in the revelation of his beauty is the solution to our struggle with sin, the catalyst for substantive and lasting change and is the soul's satisfaction, with which no rival pleasure can hope to compete. So what is it about God that when known and seen and experienced empowers the human soul to feel sickened in the presence of sin and satisfied in the divine embrace? That word again Beauty. Apatheism affects not just those outside the church but those inside the church who can't be bothered with their own religion let alone someone else's.

Faithfulness and Holiness
by J.I. Packer and J.C. Ryle

One great thing about long flights for work is that I can usually read for several hours...unlike my typical week day. Today, i finished a great book. it took me a while to get through it, but it isn't exactly the lightest subject. I do recommend it for anyone interested in spirituality or Christian Theology.

J.I. Packer wrote the first half of the book about the author of the second half of the book J.C. Ryle. Ryle is a late 1800's early 1900's British Anglican bishop from Liverpool. Packer does a great job giving a brief synopsis of Ryle's life leading up to the book Holiness by J.C. Ryle.

Ryle's life is very interesting...he went from total wealth and privilage to complete poverty overnight when his dad's business (banking) went bankrupt. Ryle was a pretty hard dude, but a wonderful writer and communicator of tough subjects.

The book Holiness is all about the element of holiness in the Christians life. His chapters deal with: Sin, Justification vs. Sanctification, What is Holiness and why is it important, The Fight of Faith and the spiritual warfare, The Cost of the Christian Life, Spiritual Growth, and the Assurances of Your Faith. Its cool stuff.

Christ Died for God

2009-11-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

Christ Died for God

By Akash Sant Singh

Associate Pastor of Community Bible Church (Reno, NV)

www.cbcreno.net

What were we saved from?

Our sins?

Yes.

Hell?

Yes.

The sting of death?

Yes.

But those pale in comparison with this profound reality: on the cross, God through Christ saved us from Himself. That’s right – God through Christ saved us from Himself. From His wrath, His holiness, His justice. And Because Jesus Christ fully satisfied God (propitiation) on the cross as our Divine Substitute, we need to never fear of eternal judgment, condemnation, wrath or punishment for our sins. The penalty of our sins have been fully quenched in the once for all vicarious penal substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the Good News of the gospel beloved.

God treated Christ on the cross as if He lived our life, so that we by grace through faith in Him, can be treated as if we lived His life (2 Cor. 5:21). He was clothed with our sin (thought sinless and holy); so that we might be clothed with His righteousness (though are sinners and sinful). That is the great doctrine of imputation.

When the fullness of that wrath was embraced by Jesus on the cross He cried out, "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken Me?" Some commentators think that at this point on the cross that God simply turned His back on His Son in shame for He could not look on sin. That that was the forsaking. That represents a very shallow, sentimental view of what our Lord endured on the cross - but I submit to you, is thoroughly unbiblical.

Where does this view come from? This belief stems from inaccurate rendering of a verse in Habakkuk 1:13 where the prophet says,

“Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, And Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor. Why dost Thou look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why art Thou silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?” (NASB).

Notice, it isn’t that God cannot look on sin; but He cannot look on sin with favor. Consider these verses:

Jeremiah 16:17 "For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes."

Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good."

The Lord “sees” all things continually – including our sin. Nothing is hidden from His sight (Heb. 4:12-16). So the forsaking of Jesus on the cross by the Father couldn’t have been a simple turning away of the eyes of God from His Son because He cannot look on sin.

His holiness demanded a sacrifice; His justice demanded satisfaction; His righteousness required perfection. God had to be satisfied before we as sinners could be justified!

Therefore, Jesus was, as Hebrews 2:17 says,

"that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people" (emphasis mine).

That phrase "in things pertaining to God" in the Greek is: pros ton theon. It means "face to face with God"; and this occured on the cross. Don't miss this amazing picture of redemption: the Son faced the Father from the cross; and the Father faced His Son on the cross; and He poured out upon Him the eternal wrath that we deserve in hell forever. "Amazing love how can it be..."

Christ was absolutely forsaken; He bore our sin, its guilt, penalty, and shame. And He bore the wrath of God that burns against us. He drank the cup of wrath; He became the curse for us; he endured the shame of the cross for the joy set before Him; He was bruised, crushed, chastined for our iniquities. Once again beloved... hear this today: the Father faced the Son on the cross; and the Son faced the Father from the cross; and He “bore God’s wrath—all of it” as our divine Substitute in His once for all propitiatory sacrifice on the cross for His own.

The death of Christ was both a propitiation AND an expiation of sin. Propitiation refers to the turning away of wrath by an offering. God's wrath was satisfied and His justice meted out by Jesus’ once for all sacrifice on the cross. Expiation refers to covering sins and in specific, the guilt of sin. By the vicarious penal substitutionary atonement of Christ Jesus on the cross, our sins and their penalty are removed from us. The atonement satisfies both the demands of the Father and the needs of Christ's people (1 Pet. 1:2).

As C.H. Spurgeon can only say:

"When Jesus gave himself for us, he gave us all the rights and privileges which went with himself; so that now, although as eternal God, he has essential rights to which no creature may venture to pretend, yet as Jesus, the Mediator, the federal head of the covenant of grace, he has no heritage apart from us. All the glorious consequences of his obedience unto death are the joint riches of all who are in him, and on whose behalf he accomplished the divine will. See, he enters into glory, but not for himself alone, for it is written, "Whither the Forerunner is for us entered." Heb. 6:20. Does he stand in the presence of God?-"He appears in the presence of God for us." Heb. 9:24.

Can we now say with confidence this day with Paul himself: "If God be for us... who can be against us?"

Aren't we grateful to the Lord this day that He has not "rewarded us according to our sin, nor dealt with us according to our iniquity?" (Psalm 103:10). In Christ all our "sins are forgiven for His name's sake" (1 John 2:12); He has "forgiven us all our transgressions" (Col. 2:13). And if all our sins are forgiven by Him, can we not forgive the purposed wrongs that others do against us?

Christian, God for Christ's sake forgave us; we for Christ's sake must forgive each other. Remember, the measure of our love is the extent of our ability to forgive! (1 Jn. 2:12; Col. 2:12ff)

Divine Appointment - Part 3

2009-11-08T22:29:00.000-08:00

…Continued from Divine Appointment – Part 2.

(Divine Appointment - Part 1)

Flash forward a couple months again. I recently had a trip to Mesa, AZ for a state airport networking conference and I thought there would be a chance that Dennis would be in attendance. So, I contacted him and told him that if he came I would love to talk adoption. Dennis did come and God worked in a major way again. We connected in the morning and decided that if neither of us had other clients to take out to dinner we’d get together and discuss adoption. Dennis also told me that he brought brochures information on an adoption agency for me, which was awesome.

We did in fact end up going to dinner together to discuss adoption and Dennis also invited another guy who worked for the government and had adopted as well. Surprisingly, there were six total in our dinner party: me, 2 of my employees, Dennis, an employee of Dennis’s and the government guy. Out of the six of us, two had already adopted internationally and two of us were very interested in adopting soon. I was shocked to find out that one of my employees was also planning to adopt. We violated all the rules of business that night by diving head first into the topic of our faith. I had my suspicions and I hoped that Dennis was a Christian and I was excited to find out that Dennis has a deep genuine and powerful faith – as did Dennis’s employee and the government guy. We spent the evening talking about God’s glory through adoption and what God was doing in our lives.

For several hours we discussed their specific experiences and all the options. This meeting was encouraging beyond words. After our excellent dinner – food and conversation – we went our separate ways back to the hotel to turn in since it was getting late. While we were sitting in a restaurant a block away discussing God’s goodness, the majority of the conference folks were partying in the hospitality suite late into the night. As I passed by the hospitality suite on my way to the elevator I was incredibly thankful for God protecting me by keeping me from that part of the conference. It is always difficult to avoid the cocktail parties and late night events at these conferences.

Dennis drove back separately with his co-worker as did I and I took a long time talking with my employees before making our way to the elevator where we surprisingly ended up on the elevator with Dennis. This was a surprise because we’d taken so long getting there. Then, ironically, Dennis was on the same floor as I was. We stepped off the elevator and spent another half hour talking about our faith and our goals as business owners from a Biblical and Godly perspective. This was amazing. We even talked about our mutual desire to preach and attend seminary and our struggle with God’s calling. Dennis had words of wisdom in suggesting that we were both not only the preachers of our families, but also the preachers of our businesses. We both have great ministries right in front of us in our businesses. At the end of this conversation Dennis asked if he could pray for me and my family. He prayed a wonderful prayer of encouragement for our faith, adoption, business, and friendship. As we started walking to our separate rooms, Dennis offered, “tonight was a divine appointment by God.” All I could respond with was, “Amen.”

I was so encouraged by the way God works and how he puts people together. In a strange town at a business event God knitted two of His spiritually adopted children together through a passion and a heart for earthly adoption.

Praise God for His divine appointments. Look for them and be blessed.

Romans 8:28-31

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Amen.

By Keller Hackbusch

Divine Appointment - Part 2

2009-11-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

link to Part 1

Previously, in Divine Appointment – Part One, I tried to build some frame work around the idea that God ordains everything that happens in our lives. He ordained what you had for breakfast and that you are reading this right now. Since writing the first part of this topic, I’ve decided that I must add the new post: “Divine Appointment – Appendix”. This new “appendix” post (to be posted next) will be more scripture to enforce this belief.

My fascinating divine appointment went like this…it was actually a series of divine appointments.

My job requires me to attend tradeshow conferences several times a year where I travel to places around the western US to attend classes and network with clients. This networking process is something that I enjoy because I get to know new people who have interesting stories. One person with an interesting story is a civil engineering client I have known for about five years now. I’ll call him Dennis for the purposes of this post. Dennis and his wife have two biological children and two adopted children. I know this information because I did an interview with him for a project in Santa Fe, NM several years ago and we spent most of the day working together. Typically at events like this you get to know each other, but the personal information is limited. Limiting personal information exchange is usually recommended because often people have radically different lives and can completely disagree on important issues. This can and will strain professional relationships.

I have always been taught to not mix work with religion or politics. I’ve never been good at following this rule since I am passionate about my relationship with Jesus Christ and because I am a political junky. I am, however, always careful to not overstep the bounds of professionalism.

During this trip with Dennis years ago, I learned a bit about my associate’s adoption and the process they went through. This was very interesting to me because my wife, Maria, and I have been very open to the idea of adoption since we were dating. I told Dennis that someday I’d like to talk to him about his adoption in more detail.

Flash forward to August of 2009, the scene of a powerful divine appointment. I was sitting in my Pastor’s office just after our weekly men’s prayer group talking about how Maria and I really feel that God is calling us to add to our family. We were talking about getting pregnant, but we have had complications in the past so I was expressing my concerns. He asked a very innocent question: “have you guys ever considered adoption?” Well, of course we had, but not like we are now. I spent the next couple hours in my pastor’s office talking about adoption as a beautiful picture of the gospel – how God adopts us into his family, how he pulls us out of the orphanage of the world and our sin. We watched videos on the together for adoption website (www.togetherforadoption.org) and some others as well as discussion Russell Moore’s new book, Adopted for Life, (www.russellmoore.com) which I took home with me that afternoon. I had never had God speak to me so powerfully in such a wonderful way. My heart was broken and reset on God’s new agenda for me.

I can’t tell the whole story of how God has given us a heart for adoption at this point because it will take up too many inches of blog space. Maybe I’ll post on that another day. I’ll sum it up here simply as Maria and I are now looking into which agency we are going to use to adopt.

…Continued in Divine Appointment – Part 3.

by Keller Hackbusch

Painful Numbers

2009-11-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

Since I was in engineering school for 7 years and have been working as an engineer in the industry for 14 years now my brain thrives on numbers. I think numbers. It drives people crazy, but you can pretty much break any issue down to pure numbers and quantify the results to make a point. Often, the output of one of these data calculations makes a strong impact. Let me show you what I mean.

Recently I had a conversation with a couple of my friends regarding how often we read our Bibles. The answer all of us commonly give is, “I don’t read enough.” Or, “I wish I could read more.” Or, the worst of all, “I’m just too busy to read the Bible. I can’t find time to fit it in.”

So, we’ve all been there and we all have friends that have been there. Maybe we haven’t just been there, but maybe we are stuck in that rut now! Maybe this blog post is a little painful and these numbers will make it worse. It hurts, but we are in it together.

Let’s take the schedule of a typical week: 7 days full of working, sleeping, eating, driving, etc.

A 7 day week consists of 168 hours, which expands out to 10,080 minutes. Yes, 10,080 minutes…I think you can see where we are going with this.

Let’s now remove the minutes for sleeping, working, and driving since it is pretty hard to read while doing these tasks. Eating doesn’t count since I read while I eat all the time. Typically the average person sleeps 8 hours a day, works 8 hours a day (5 days a week) and drives 1 hour a day. (8*7+8*5+1*7) = 103 hours, this now expands out to 6,180 minutes.

10,080 – 6,180 = 3,900 (65 hours) left over.

So, what are you going to do with your spare 3,900 minutes a week? I’m asking my self the same question.

Can we spend a measly 15 minutes a day (105 minutes a week) reading the Bible and still have over 3700 minutes leftover? Can we spare 15 minutes a day reading the “word” of the glorious, all powerful, omnipotent creator of the universe who is our savior and our refuge who sacrificed himself for our sins and paid the price forever and ever and he who blesses us continually and he who we will spend all eternity worshiping in Heaven? Will we spend a few minutes a day with Him and reading what He has said to us?

Romans 7:12-17

by Keller Hackbusch

Pastor Voddie Baucham on Brokenness

2009-11-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

When i started this blog I had the goal in mind to encourage the believer and this video clip is just that...encouragement for the believer. When i think of people that encourage me, I think of gifted preachers and authors like John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Paul Washer, and Voddie Baucham.

If you have not started reading or listening to Pastor Voddie Baucham yet, you better get going on it.

This video clip is #4 of 6 parts on youtube from a message he gave last year at the True Church Conference at Grace Life Church of the Shoals in Muscle Shoals, AL. You can get the rest of the message there on www.youtube.com. Voddie's message centers around Psalm 51 and how God may have forgiven our sins, but He does not remove the memory of those sins and we are unable to forget the wretchedness that we were. We are then found broken and brokenness is a blessing from God. Voddie describes his own condition:

"I'm not who I aughta be, but hallelujah! I'm not who I was!"

To that, i say Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen! Watch and be encouraged.

Voddie's Ministry Website

http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/home.html

Voddie's Church Website:

http://www.gracefamilybaptist.net/GFBC2/Home.html

by Keller Hackbusch

Anniversary of the Reformation

2009-10-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

This picture depicts the events of October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of The Caste Church in Wittenberg, Germany and flamed the fires of reformation. We would not have our protestant baptist, methodist, lutheran, pentecostal, community evangelical churches if God had not worked through his servatn Martin Luther to protest against the use of indulgences and fighting for the belief that Salvation is by Faith in Christ alone.

Luther on Justification:

"The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31)." [Luther, Martin. "The Smalcald Articles," in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005, 289, Part two, Article 1.]

Here is another great quote from Luther on spiritual warfare provided by my pastor, Akash Sant Singh:

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides that one, is mere fight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." -Martin Luther

The 95 Theses - Read Luther's words that helped create the protestant churches of today.

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/95theses.htm

Because He is God

2009-10-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

BECAUSE HE IS GOD

By: Akash Sant Singh

Associate Pastor of Community Bible Church, Reno, NV

Because HE is holy, His anger burns against sin.

Because HE is righteous, His judgments fall on those who rebel against Him.

Because HE is faithful, the solemn threatenings of His Word are being fulfilled.

Because HE is omnipotent, no problem can master Him, no enemy can defeat Him, and no purpose of His can be withstood.

Because HE is who He is and what He is that we now behold what we do - the gathering clouds of the storm of Divine wrath, which will shortly, burst upon the earth.

Because HE is almighty He is one who speaks and it is done, who commands and it stands fast. He is the One with whom "all things are possible" and "who works all things after the counsel of His own will."

Such is the God of the Bible, the God who throws out the challenge:

"To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?" (Isaiah 40:18).

And as though that were not enough, in the same chapter He asks again:

"To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth...Hast thou not known? Has thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:25,26,28).

God Who Can Be Known

2009-10-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

God Who Can be Known

Akash Sant Singh

Associate Pastor of Community Bible Church, Reno, NV

How are we to know what a right view of God is? Who is to make the determination and how can we trust it when made? What standard do we apply? What measuring rod do we hold up as the plumb line to evaluate the personhood of the Creator of all things? Who is arrogant enough to say, "I know the mind of the Almighty." "I understand with absolute certainty the fullness of His character and attributes. Let me tell you about His ways, His acts, and explain Him to you."

We know, first of all, that the existence of God can be seen from His creation. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)

But we only come to really know Him-His character and attributes-through one source alone: the Scriptures! The Bible is God's autobiography. It is the divine disclosure of the self-revelation of who He is and His redemptive plan for fallen man. Because He is God we don't have the right to redefine Him on our own terms.

Romans 16:25-27 "Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen."

Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

1 Tim. 6:3-4 "If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing;"

If you desire to know Him, to worship Him, to walk with Him, to love Him, to serve Him, to pray to Him, to fellowship with Him, to commune with Him, to adore Him, and to obey Him, you must come to His Word. We are not slaves to our instincts. We are responsible.

Divine Appointment - Part 1

2009-10-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

I want to share an astounding story about what happened to me the other night, but I want to take some time first to build up the frame work around a biblical concept. I’ll tell my story in the next post – Divine Appointment Part 2. There are a couple of common phrases that we Christians often say which can become meaningless when we over use them. These phrases, however, have roots in some seriously important theology. I understand that I may be a bit of a theology nerd and a doctrine junky, but I think these things really matter. I believe it is important to know what we believe and why we believe it. I believe that we need to be able to express our beliefs to others with clarity and confidence. Back to our sayings…

Have you ever heard a Christian friend say any of these (or said these yourself – we all say them)? “Oh, you should have been there…it was a God thing.” “I’m sure it had to be a God thing.” “I guess God put that one together.” “Now that was a divine appointment!” I hear it all the time. What do these sayings or phrases mean to you? To most, I suspect, these sayings would mean that God has just done something miraculous, something big and obvious in their life…blessed them in some way. Maybe money showed up in the mailbox unexpectedly or maybe there was a conversation revolving around God that really touch the person or had one of ‘those’ spiritual conversations. Maybe you randomly bumped into that long lost friend that has been in your prayers. So, what does this saying really mean beneath the words? What message is our heart actually delivering? I think it reveals a belief that some things come from God and other things are random events that occur every day within our chaotic world. When we say “it was a God thing” we are also saying that there are things that are NOT a God thing. I believe that this question really dives to the core of how we see the structure of the universe. Does God work to fit His will, purposes, and events into a chaotic and random universe? Or are even the universe’s random events set in motion by God? My barometer is the Word of God, so let’s take a snapshot of a few verses:

Hebrews 1:3: “…he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” – Everything, all the time, is held up by Christ’s word.

Job 1:21 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” – Earlier in Job we see that the Father actually commands Satan to test Job and after Satan takes everything away from Job and this was his response.

Genesis 50:15-21 “15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” – This topic is too deep and powerful to discuss quickly here, however, look at verse 20. It is clear that God purposely caused and worked out everything we read of Joseph’s life in the Book of Genesis.

Ephesians 1:11 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…” – God works out everything according to the purpose of his will. He does all things for his pleasure and his plan.

What is the point of these verses? Simply this: Everything is a God thing. The fact that you awoke this morning and your heart was beating was a God thing. The fact that you are reading this blog post right now is a God thing. These things have been ordained and predestined by God for his purposes – all things all the time. The fact that you were not run over by a bus on your way to work was a God thing; however, had you been hit by a bus on your way to work that would have been a God thing too! God orchestrates everything and there is no such thing as random events! As R.C Sproul wisely states, “There isn’t a maverick molecule in the universe.” Everything and every event are under God’s divine control and purpose down to the way the leaves turn colors and the way that the stars sit in the sky. Everything from how the spiders make their webs to who we bump into in the grocery store…and it is all meant for good. God executed a divine appointment in my life the other night. Long ago God the Father set in motion a plan for that night’s events, he worked it out exactly as he had planned, and it was a great blessing.

Continued in Part 2…

FORGIVENESS

2009-10-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

Forgiveness

Occasionally we all have to deal with ugly things, and I encountered one of those things...i'll just call it drama for now. In order to deal with my own issues of forgiveness, I worked my way through these thoughts.

Forgiveness is very difficult in this society and time in human history. We inherently are much more concerned about ourselves and our own feelings…or what we deserve…or bla, bla, bla…me, me, me. It’s true. But once in a while we come up with the bold and honorable plan to be bigger than the other person and forgive and forget. We forgive and move on and feel that we did the right thing. We were the bigger person. This made me think about what this means.

Pondering such lofty thoughts can be dangerous to your health. It may even cause you to lose your life. Lose it to gain it again.

Why are we bigger than the other person when we forgive? I’m convinced of this: He who is in us (God in the form of the Holy Spirit) is greater than he who is in the world (Satan) (1 John 4:4) and we can be bigger than others in the ensuing drama because we have the power of God in us and we will overcome it all! This is so encouraging. If you believe in the one true God of the univers - the God of the Bible - then you are not of this world and are not bound by the chains of un-forgiveness and selfishness. We can actually be different…be bigger.

Better yet, logically we must forgive others because we have been forgiven. Not only are we forgiven but we are forgiven by an infinitely valuable and perfectly sinless God. If He can forgive us of much more heinous and ugly sins against him - who is an infinitely greater and more powerful being - can’t we forgive another hopeless fallen sinner? We are all in this together. (Luke 6:27-38, Matthew 18:22-35)

Ok, so I can forgive them of this or forgive them of that but isn't this is the real world with bad people? How many times are we to let them “wrong” us before enough is enough? Jesus tells Peter that we are to forgive seventy times seven…not a literal 77 times, but over, and over, and over again with true forgiveness each and every time! The point under the logical argument behind “forgive as you have been forgiven” means that you must continue forgiving indefinitely because that is what God does with us. (Matthew 18:22) Obviously, Godi s infinitely more forgiving and infinitely more patient then we are as well. We should thank God daily that He isn’t like us.

But why? Why do we care? Are we to let everyone sin against us and treat us poorly without recourse? No revenge? (his is a dangerous topic for another day) No paybacks? Why forgive indefinitely? The apostle Paul drops a bombshell with this one from the book of Romans 8:28-30:

"All things work together for good in the lives of those who love God and who are called his purpose which he predestined to conform to his image."

So, if we love God and are called by him to his purpose, we are predestined to conform to his image, which can be defined by infinite love and infinite forgiveness. When we actually conform to his image God is glorified! When we forgive, we are conforming to Christ’s image! We end up glorifing God and we point others to him. How amazing. We know that we can not forgive through our own earthly and selfish hearts. We have to desire something more and something supernatural. We need something bigger than us in our hearts. Our forgiveness of those who sin against us actually shines a light on God because he is the one working through us! I can do all things through him who strengthens me! (Philippians 4:13).

Praise God for his word and for using silly little things to reveal the great spiritual secrets of the universe. Do we have people in our lives to forgive? If so, let’s do it today.