Thankful for Light Shining into the Domain of Darkness

Right now I'm listening to "O the Blood" performed by Gateway Worship. It is my understanding that the lead vocalist on it is Kari Jobe. If you want to watch a video of it you can click here.

Last evening some of the guys from our church went to "An Evening with Matt Chandler". I had never heard him speak before and wasn't familiar with him. It was a tour for his forthcoming work The Explicit Gospel. The sponsors were Crossway which is a Christian not-for-profit book publisher and Logos Bible Software.

Matt's message was one that made me grateful. He spoke from Colossians 1:13-23. The part that really captured my attention was right at the beginning when we looked at what the domain of darkness was in verse 13. The verse in the ESV reads "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son..."

Matt explained that the domain of darkness is that place where people can't see. It's dark. They don't see that they just keep operating the same way they have been. It's without an eternal perspective. But God breaks in to bring light and show that there is something much more to our existence than family, work, hobbies, etc.

It's not really where I was heading with this post, but as an aside, those things still exist and are not evil. Most of us when we are converted don't move into an area of vocational ministry. Just like the shepherds had to go back to tending the sheep after they worshiped the newborn Jesus Messiah, we continue working and caring for our families. But the purpose behind our actions becomes radically altered. And in fact whole new goals and aspirations should arrive (spiritually growing in God's grace, being part of God's church in a local context, Church in a universal context, spreading the gospel). Overarching this combination of the life we were living and a whole new life though is that we are now transferred in to the kingdom of God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Everything that would be listed on our account of sins (past, present and future) is now paid in full by Jesus Christ.


Where I was going was a list I compiled a few years ago. On that list was many of the things I used to occupy my time, money, emotional energy and other resources. It was nearly 40 items long. Some of them were toys now sitting in a closet or the garage. Others were business ideas. Bad enough that I wasted time God had given me on some of those things, but I also took time from others.

Even though I believe I experienced conversion long ago, that did not keep me from operating in the flesh and seeking otherwise benign things. Was I in the domain of darkness still? No, I had been transferred, rescued, redeemed. But I was easily distracted from following God. Why? I'm not sure "why?" is the right question. I think the better question is "Okay, so now you know, what are you going to do about it?"


My answer is still being informed as I mature. I am getting better at putting distractions up against a filter based on God's redemption of my life and obedience to His Word. It began with His giving me sight to see. I think then I can choose to harden my heart and ignore Him or respond in repentance. In choosing repentance I say in effect "God, I don't want to waste my time on things that don't matter. Help me honor You with the things in my life. Help me to love and care for my family. Help me to do a good job at work. Show me how to be part of my church family. May my contentment with what You have for me show that I find You worthy and completely fulfilling."


As I close, it is my prayer for you and I, that the Name of the Lord Jesus be honored in our lives and in the lives of those whom we love. Amen.

 As I finish I am listening to "Great I Am" performed by New Life Worship. I'd like to share that one with you too. You can listen to it here. He is the great I Am.

A Grateful, Repentant Rebel

I would ask you to imagine with me the following scenario. But imagining it is not necessary. It is the reality.

There is sufficient evidence all around me to leave no doubt that there is a creator of this universe. The order and natural laws we see in place leave me no question that the creator would make himself known to his creation. This is what I believe the Bible is; it is the revelation of God to his creation.

As God’s creation, it might occur to me that I would have a relationship with him based on that alone. Though the analogy must not be taken too far as it potentially applies characteristics of the following people onto a God that is not like that. But just as in human terms the biological parents may or may not have a relationship with their children, God’s creating me did not obligate me to a relationship with him. It is not that he did not want one. It was not that he is absent, far off, disinterested, distracted, busy or otherwise occupied. No, God is near. But as others have said, he is a gentleman and will not force himself upon any man. So he created me and has given me the choice to have a relationship with him.

As much as it pains me to consider the following analogy, the pain cannot approach what God has experienced. Consider if one of my sons decided, once he was able to exert himself, chose to end his relationship with me – or said better that he decided never to begin a two-way relationship of his own choosing. That’s a difference; formerly he was obligated by proximity and dependence on me. But once he reaches an age of emancipation he chooses not to have a relationship with me. Like the prodigal son, he says in effect “I wish you were dead, give me what is mine by law and I will be gone.”

That is me. Although I definitely spurned the rightful authority of my earthly father, it pales in comparison to the willful disdain I have displayed that demonstrates my choices that not only means I have no relationship with God, it means there has been fixed a gap as wide as the east is from the west between the God of the universe and me. My actions are not those of someone standing up against a tyrant; there is no chivalry or commendable portion to my acts of rebellion. There is no feat of strength in my figuratively standing with a raised fist and saying to God “I am the only lord of my life and I will make of it what I want." No, I am a fool.

I take no pride in the exercise my arrogant self-will. As a matter of fact, my actions are the only evidence needed in the judgment that I am to be condemned. God rightfully will not permit a free pass for the actions of a treasonous rebel. I am without excuse and rightfully to be consigned to the sad, tragic end that is far from God, for all of eternity. To be without God for all eternity is far worse an ending than any we can conjure up in our imagination. Since no one on earth but Jesus has ever encountered the Father, how could any truly understand what it would be to be separated from him forever?

It would be easy to see how this situation might be irreconcilable. If God were a tyrant and intent on punishing me for my every action my fate would be sealed. The fact is that the moral laws of this universe designed by God demand that my actions are in fact punished and someone held accountable for them. The evidence, all of my rebellious and treasonous acts, must be assigned to someone and that person must suffer the consequences for seizing the rightful place of God as the sole source of authority (which is not tyrannical, since God as authority is what’s best because of who he is).

There is a literal account of all of my actions that spurned the law of God. The list is long. It is a grievous and extremely weighty matter. I can no more disavow my allegiance to myself as king as proven by these things than I could stop the sun from shining. That list is, individually and collectively, MY sin. It is a result of my choices. No one chose for me. I was not forced against my will to choose myself over any other. No, all the evidence is incontrovertible. It will not be disputed and there are no external factors. There will be a prosecutorial act for my sin. And the conclusion is foregone: It is upon my shoulders. How could it be otherwise? Who could rightfully take my guilty verdict? Could a friend, my own parents who would probably have given their lives to protect mine? My wife? Someone I bribe? What kind of God would permit another to be forever, FOREVER, punished for my decisions?

The connection here is between God and me only. There can be no other that enters into the equation. I am the accused, and I will be convicted. My actions are hateful, self-serving, betraying, seditious, fully deserving of the worst punishment imaginable. They are shameful. Hurtful. Purposeful. Painful. And they are the only evidence needed to secure a guilty verdict.

There are only two options that are tenable in God’s moral universe. Either I must pay for the penalty of my guilty verdict or God must pay for my penalty. There are no other options. The conviction stands. The list of wrongs has been ratified and is fixed. Two options: I pay or God pays. My payment for willfully choosing not to bow to God’s rightful place on the throne of my life (recall it’s what is best for me…not self-serving on God’s part), my payment for that is to be given for eternity what I had chosen for this life: permanent and eternal separation from God.

Or the other option is for God to agree to pay the penalty for my guilty verdict. This is no trivial matter. Maybe because I have grown up in a “Christian” nation, grown up in an evangelical church, my familiarity to the gospel has stunted my response to the incredibility of it all. This is not a matter of flippancy. We are not talking about a fine for a speeding ticket. I am guilty of intentionally assassinating God’s role in my life as king. The penalty is death – permanent, painful, and beyond comprehension. It is frightening – it should be. Again, my familiarity of the verses from the Bible, the story of God’s revelation, the calls of preachers to be reconciled to God for my sin, it all, in my case, has permitted me, to my own self-satisfaction, to build up a callous to the reality of these things.

God makes an offer to exchange my sin; no “exchange for my sin” is not accurate. God makes an offer to substitute another person for the penalty that is mine and mine alone. The only person not me in this equation is God. The only person able to act as my substitute, in the moral universe in which we live, is God. Not to get overly theological here, but that is behind the necessity of the virgin birth, Jesus must be God and man all at once or there is no substitution for my penalty. So that is what he does. Jesus enters our world as God and man. He has no wrong of his own for which a penalty must be paid. The guilt and shame for the full weight of all of my sin by my willful rebellion fell on the man who never did any wrong. Not only that, it fell on the God against whom it was perpetrated. And he paid, with his life on the cross. He offers me something that I could never achieve on my own.

In this remarkable, incredible, unbelievable, amazing, extraordinary, awesome, magnificent turn of events God offers me the opportunity to accept the payment of my penalty by him. He does not force it upon me. It cost him everything. If I accept, it costs me the option to be lord of my life. I cede authority in my life and bow my knee to the rightful King. And I begin a relationship with Him. My relationship with God begins at the cross. The resurrection of Jesus Christ that I celebrate today is God’s ratification on the sufficiency of His substitution. As Jesus said, “It is finished.”

God, I am sorry I preferred that You be dead so I could live the way that I wanted. I am unworthy of Your offer. I am unworthy to washed in the blood of the perfect substitute for my death, Jesus Christ. It is with a still-not-fully-comprehending, grateful all of me that I say “Yes, Lord Jesus, You are the only King and I accept Your gift. Help me to live the way You want me to live.”

Luke 9:23-27 pt I

So the next lesson I am going to work on is Luke 9:23-27, or Luke ix 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 in Jonathan Edwards notation :-). The ESV translates it as follows:

²³ And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. ²⁵  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷ But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

This passage follows on the heels of the Five Thousand Fed. The Bible contains quite a few examples of miraculous feedings. The several "I am" statements by Jesus particular to the book of John are inspiring to me. One of them is found in John 6:35: "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. ..." (ESV)

You Are Mistaken . . .

Everyone makes mistakes. Alexander Pope recounted an old saying when he stated "To err is human, to forgive divine." However, there are some things about which we cannot afford to be mistaken and remain in our error. The following link provides an examination of a passage from the Bible where Jesus tells some religious leaders "You are mistaken . . ." PDF of "You Are Mistaken . . ."

Is the Bible Reliable?

Is the Bible reliable? That is an important question. The following link will take you to a short paper I wrote on evidence to support the reliability of the Old Testament portion of the Bible. Evidence for Old Testament Historicity

Lust versus Desire...and What Are My Deprivations?

I state at the outset that I'm not sure what parts of my experience are peculiar to me and what parts are shared by my brothers and sisters in Christ. I firmly believe that the lens that we look through to gauge our world and life is not our experience, but the Bible. Our experience does not inform our Bible study, our Bible study informs our experience. I thought that yesterday's writing was a little weak on Bible and overdone on experience. I want to avoid a narcissistic bent to my spirituality.

Tonight I wanted to write about deprivation. It's a word I heard John MacArthur use in a sermon I was listening to recently. He was describing four portraits of the thankful redeemed (view sermon text here) from Psalm 107. In part of the sermon he described sinners as follows:

In verse 6 we find that this sinner comes to a petition. "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble." Israel cried to the Lord in Egypt and He heard them and delivered them. Israel cried to the Lord in Babylon and He heard them and delivered them. Cyrus made a decree that sent them back to the land to rebuild their city. They told God of their famished condition. They told God of their oppression. They told God they were lost in a wilderness, in a desert and God responded. They illustrate then sinners, sinners of every age of any time, even today, who recognize their aimlessness, who come to the end of the restlessness, who realize their hunger and their thirst, who know their deprivation, who have a grip on the danger of their condition. They're wandering in the wilderness of sin from place to place, from thrill to thrill, from job to job, from marriage to marriage, relationship to relationship, from experience to experience without ever finding any soul food, without ever finding any lasting satisfaction. They're trying to find the way to an inhabited city that will satisfy them and give them security and safety but they can't. They're looking like Abraham did in Hebrews 11 verse 10 for a city whose builder and maker is God. And in the midst of their desperation they finally recognize that's who they need, that only God can provide that refuge. And so they cry out to Him as all of us did in our lostness. The whole world is a vast and barren desert, a place that is a wasteland, empty, stark and threatening and deadly. And those who are desperate enough and hungry enough and thirsty enough and lost enough finally come to the place where they cry out to God. They call to Him as the King of an eternal city in which there are limitless resources, provisions, rest, security and satisfactions.

I have often told my friends how I have this list I keep of the 37+ things that I have spent time, money or other resources investigating. Some of these things are hobbies, business opportunities, or vocations and even ministry opportunities. The fact of the matter is that the number would far exceed 37 now since that list was made some time ago.

The problem is that I feel deprived. Feelings are so dangerous. I know that the Bible says that not only am I not deprived, I am the recipient of great riches (see Ephesians 1:8, 17). And what is interesting is that I have learned to turn over some of the areas in my life that are of great impact to me like health. I do have room for improvement in my health for sure. But I also trust God with my health. I have had some health scares personally and in my immediate family. I rely on His promise in Romans 8:28. I know that there is no guarantee of a life free of pain and disappointment. The fact is that everyone dies. We have no reason to believe nor any evidence that offers that the people brought back to life, like Lazarus, didn't die again. Absent the return of Jesus Christ, I will die some day. I'm not ready for that day, but I believe that God will give me the grace to handle it when it is time. He will give me the strength to endure whatever tests and trials come my way between now and then. I think I have learned to trust Him in that area.

But "What am I to do with my time here on earth?" Now that is a question that I have not trusted Him with. Or sometimes I think He's just not interested...not in a neglectful way, but a "there are many paths you can take that would please Me" kind of way. That it is more about the character displayed on the path than it is the details of the journey. I don't just mean vocation, but also hobbies, family time, etc. Take for example the time I have during the week. I am learning to do better at planning and prioritizing it. I still have work to do on my self-discipline and following through once I have made the plan. But nonetheless, I am grateful that I have a job that permits me to be home a good deal of time. I could normally fulfill my responsibilities with a forty-hour week and a few extra hours here and there. That leaves quite a bit of time. I use some of that time for devotion time and reading and writing about spiritual matters. I try, and am devoted to continuing to learn more and do better, to be a good husband and father by demonstrating sacrificial love. Sometimes that means listening or playing games or leading in family devotions. I also have responsibilities around the house.

Even with all of that there seems to be something missing...I'm not sure if it is discontent with some facet of my life or the feeling of fear that I am missing out on some things in life. Maybe it is a lack of willpower or self-discipline...maybe I lose heart like it says in Gal. 6:9: Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Perhaps my heart is not made for endurance; maybe I am growing weary very quickly. I'm not sure what the Bible has to say about boredom, but maybe I am spiritually lethargic and bored.

That's where I was going with the title about lust versus desire. I haven't left enough time here to examine the different contexts and Greek words from which we get our translation to lust or desire. Getting right down to it, I think that I very quickly lose sight of the desire to behold the glory of Jesus Christ which is a key to spiritual growth (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18. MacArthur calls it the master key to spiritual growth. See his sermon here.) And then I begin to be distracted by "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world." (1 John 2:16)

I think that the place to go from here is to focus on worshipping Jesus Christ and beholding His glory. Not so that He will give me growth...I remember a Piper sermon where he says you don't love someone because of the things they give you, that's not love, it's more like manipulation. I don't want to behold the glory of Jesus Christ so He gives me spiritual growth. I want to behold the glory of Jesus Christ because it is the truth and He is worthy.

In Our Despair We Cry Out to _____

It's a multiple choice answer for this fill-in-the-blank statement: In our despair we cry out to ____. Some answers might be:
1.) God
2.) Hobbies
3.) Alcohol
4.) The Apostle Paul
5.) Our pastor or priest
6.) Our birth parent(s)
7.) Ourselves and our plans

It presupposes you have been in despair. Have you despaired of your situation?

It seems absurd, doesn't it? Calling on some of these things while in the midst of despair? But maybe not...it depends on what the source of your despair is and also what you want your deliverance to look like. Or perhaps who you want to be in control. Maybe with just a few more resources, you think, you could get this situation in hand and everything would be just fine. If the source of despair is your marriage, perhaps your search for a solution is better information through books or in the person of a counselor. If your problem stems from employment maybe you will look for retraining or a new job. Those are, if used appropriately, legitimate ways to improve our situation. Faced with the same distresses, some of us will seek alleviation through illegitimate means. Alcohol, drugs, food, pornography, relationships, sex; all of these can be things reached for in an effort to medicate the pain that accompanies despair. They don't improve the situation, in fact they make things worse and you end up with the original problem plus those that stem from the efforts to fix it on our own.

The source of all despair is ultimately rooted in sin. Adam and Eve knew nothing of despair until they chose to disregard the Lord's admonition not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that point forward, the reality of man would include a sinful nature and sinful choices. Accompanying sin is the despair of the predicament. All too ofter we seek to salve the symptoms of our sin. 12 step programs, in-patient care, counseling, self-help materials, all of these things to address the ache of our heart or the symptoms of habits trying to fill that ache. Everywhere we turn in our own life we may find this despair and our attempts to fix it. But there is no "fixing" it, not with those things. Those tools may be coupled with some measure of self-discipline to provide some alleviation of the symptoms.

Despite all of these efforts the sin will remain. Nothing we can do will address the source of sin and its accompanying despair. So what do we do? We cry out to God in our despair. Why? Not just so that we may be delivered from our despair, although that is certainly part of it. But if that was the only reason it would not address the source.

When God rouses us from spiritual death (See Eph. 2:5) to life we realize our sin has separated us from God and we cry out to have that relationship restored and our sin forgiven. We long for the promise of God that He will forgive our sin and count us as righteous because Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. He promises to forgive the sin of those who call upon His name (that is to believe or trust in His sufficiency to save us from our sin, not simply that He was a real person) and who leave their sin behind.

We can't say with integrity that we wish to call upon / trust / have faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior if we are unwilling to simultaneously leave our sin. We set our sins aside and instead embrace Jesus becoming His beloved, His bride, His co-heir. But we can't embrace Him and become a child of God if we continue to hold onto our sin. He is not Lord if we continue down pathways that are not pleasing to Him. "Lord" is not just a word we plug into the name we give to Jesus. It is a reality that He is the owner of everything and as holder of the title deed to the universe and all therein we are obligated to render ourselves to Christ. It is this rebellion that is at the center of our sinful condition, so how can we go forward claiming to be a child of God, the bride of Christ, if we continue on in rebellion? We can't.

But if we are genuinely the saved of Christ the source of our despair is gone. So does that mean that despair will never be part of our Christian experience? Does anyone who experiences despair have cause to question the genuineness of their salvation? No, I believe a solid review of the Bible shows that those who desire to follow God and have been born again do still experience despair (see for example Paul's statement at 2 Cor. 1:8)