On Sound Doctrine

What is it about the Church today that we cannot agree on sound, Biblical doctrine? Why must we be ignorant to truth, and when we are not ignorant, we are squabbling over non-essential doctrines such as election or end times? Why can't we fulfill the law of Christ and love one another unconditionally, without divison? Brothers and sisters, let us never sway from sound teaching on the crucifixion and resurrection! but let us also lay down our contempt for one another when it comes to matters of personal conviction. Why must the church be divided like it is? Baptists and Free-willer's, Orthodox and Emergants, Catholic and Protestant. Let us know nothing amongst one another but Christ and Him crucified, and put to rest the arguments of ambiguity. Surely, we must be educated on these other issues and always seek out truth, but in the words of Jon Courson, "knowledge is like underwear, always worn but never shown." I do not suggest, even for a moment that we give up reasoning with one another - in fact, that is another lack I see within the church. I do suggest, though that we have love for one another, in spite of non-essential doctrinal issues. It breaks my heart that a Calvinist would accept me with open arms if I were to declare that I were a fellow Calvinist, while others would reject me. Or that a Calvinist would look down on me, that I am uneducated or not intellectual to not agree wholeheartedly with Calvin's stance on pre-destination and election. It breaks my heart that a pastor cannot share his personal views with his congregation, because he may be a stumbling block to an uneducated and unloving person. Whether he be led astray by his inability to reason through what the pastor said or brought into anger and backbitting because of his lack of unconditional love for all men.

Christians, let us not forsake the instruction and discussion of sound doctrine, and let us not forsake the acceptance of all believers in the pure essential Gospel as Brothers!

An Exposition of I Corinthians 15:32-34

1 Corinthians 15:32-34 ESV (32) What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (33) Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." (34) Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.Paul, speaking of the resurrection of Christ, makes the point that our "religion" doesn't profit us as humans at all if it didn't happen. If Christ was not raised from the dead, then "your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (17). If Christ was not raised from the dead, then there is no hope of heaven for Christians and no hope of a relationship with God (as this is the true reason for Christ's coming, life, and death - John 3:16 cr. John 17:3). The resurrection is a key doctrine when it comes to our faith in Christ and hope in heaven and an eternal relationship with the King.Paul then mockingly says that if the dead are not raised that we might as well just eat, drink, and die. He says this mockingly, as this is obviously the stupid thing to do. Even if we were to not have the hope of heaven, obedience is still due to God. Notice that Paul says that if there were no resurrection, there would be no human gain for all the work he had done. Doesn't this indicate that there is something still to gain by serving God? Yes. The gain is in God getting what He justly deserves, just as you would be getting what you justly deserve - death for sin. However, this is not the case, since Christ did raise from the dead. Paul tells us at this point to avoid bad or immoral company. In this context, I interpret this verse in a way that most do not. I interpret this verse to say that if we surround ourselves with people whose obedience is based solely on the selfish desire of the gain of heaven and not on the fact that God deserves it, we too will slack in our obedience.Paul then instructs the Corinthians to "wake from [their] drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning." The time has come for us, Christians, to stop living in darkness. We need to wake up for the night is far spent and the day is at hand. It is so easy to be an apathetic Christian, living in sin without regard for obedience. We need to get up, stop stumbling around, and follow after Christ, for "whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (I John 2:6). Christians, Paul tells us this: we need to wake up and stop being apathetic, for there are those who have not even heard of the Gospel of Christ Jesus - and His resurrection. We sit fat and happy in our "salvation" (I put quotes there for I would question if those are even saved) doing nothing while others are dying in their sin with no hope. This, as it was intended, should make us ashamed.Let us walk worthy of our calling, Christians. Let us wake from our sleep, pursue a relationship with God, obey for the sake of obedience and not for selfish gain, and proclaim boldly the Gospel and the joy of our salvation!

My Timothy's (Jr. High Ministry)

I love all the kids that I come in contact with and minister to in the Jr. High Ministry at my church. I serve as a counselor there and now have a summer internship there and man, is it ever a blessing. Ya, its true. Sometimes, the kids get annoying - heck, I'm sure you remember when you were in middle school - but for all the immaturity, its so well worth it. I just got back from a Surfing/Camping trip where we took about 60 Jr. Highers down in a bus to San Diego to a YMCA camp site and pitched tents on the beach right on the shoreline. You can imagine, I'm sure what a handful 60 kids on a beach for a weekend can be when you dont get much sleep... What I'm sure you cant imagine is how rewarding it is. There is this one kid. His name is Luke and he is probably the most amazing young man I have ever met. We talked the last night at about 9pm on the shorline for about 2 hours about what is going on in his life. I wont go into it too much, but its intense. Whenever I talk to a junior higher to counsel him, a few things are involved. A) I have to approach them, B) I have to pull information out of them, C) I impart wisdom on them that they did not already know. However, with Luke, it wanst like that at all! In fact, it was the opposite of everything I had known before! He approached me and asked to talk, he talked most of the time and I just listened (what I only do with older people) and he knew exactly what was right, wrong, and what he had to do! I almost forgot that I was talking to a Jr. Higher at all! He had more wisdom (Godly wisdom) than most adults I know! It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. And then a while back, there was this kid Alex. Although he's not in the ministry anymore (he grew up), we still remain good friends. There was some stuff goin on with him so I sat him down to talk about it. That little thing turned into a HUGE thing! He broke down that he was faking his faith around church and that he didnt really have it...or care. He and I talked for a long time that night (about 3 hours) and he ended up deciding to live it for real. He was never the same. He is a godly young man who loves the Lord and bases all his decisions on what his King wants. He is even going to become a couselor in the Jr. High Minsitry soon to give back to the other kids! I am so blessed by not just these two - they are only examples. I am blessed every time I hang out with these kids. They are rowdy, loud, rude, goofy, awkward, and - at times - annoying... however, they are also supprisingly smart, caring, spiritually grounded, and open. I would not be the same without these kids and this ministry.

The Truth and Myth of Salvation

If you were to ask a Christian who refers to themselves as “saved” what they are saved from, you are likely to get the response of hell. And when asked what Christ gave them when He died on the cross they will tell you that He gave them eternal life in heaven. I know they will say this, because that is the misconception that I believed for the longest time – that Christ freed us from hell and gave us heaven. Well, I am here to tell you that that is not true. In John 8:34, Jesus told the believers that “truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin,” but follows up in verse 36 with “So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” So we see that we were indeed slaves to sin. We were actually helplessly bound to sin with no means for escape from it, but Jesus makes this claim that the Son (Himself) is going to set us free from sin. We were not saved from hell primarily, but we were saved from our own sinful nature! Sure, we got to get out of hell as a bonus, but more importantly according to Christ, we got the key to our chains of sin. So He died that we might me “saved” from sin. So what did He die to give us besides this salvation from sin? Well, John 3:16 says that He died that those who believe on Him will have eternal life. So what is this eternal life? Once again, many will say heaven. Heck it’s what I told people it meant when I was witnessing. Boy was I dead wrong. The Bible actually has the definition of eternal life tucked neatly within a prayer from God the Son to God the Father in the garden. John 17:3 says “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Eternal life is to know God? Yes! Christ came to this earth and died on a cross so that we might have a relationship with God! God created us for the purpose of having someone to love and having someone to love Him back. He created Adam to have someone to hang out with. That is why He always went on walks with Adam, so that they could have fellowship. Then Adam and Eve sinned, and since God cannot be in the presence of sin, that fellowship was destroyed and a huge canyon was put between God and man (heck, it’s the picture on every tract ever produced…). But Jesus Christ came to this earth and died to be the propitiation of all our sin so that we could be spotless and pure enough to have a relationship with God again and go on walks with Him. Jesus died to restore the fellowship with God that we screwed up. If we live our lives in such a way that our goal is heaven and to not go to hell, not only are our lives pointless, but our salvation is meaningless. That is right, if you do not fulfill the point of your salvation (to have eternal life – a relationship with God) then your salvation is meaningless. Let our salvation not be meaningless and our lives have purpose – to know and have a relationship with God.

All I Know Is Christ...

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." - I Cor. 2:2 That is how I have decided to live life. A friend recently told me that "you can't preach the gospel to those that already know it" but to be honest, I think that this is dead wrong. Like Paul, all that should be on our minds is the gospel of Christ Jesus. What else matters?? Paul had what we would call a one-track-mind. If you went up to Paul on any given day, and said, “Hey Paul, what’s up?” I can guarantee that he would have one simple answer every time you asked the question – Jesus. That is how we should think! All that we should be thinking about should be what Christ did for us 2000 years ago. Why, you ask. Because that is the reason for our relationship with God and the reason for our salvation from sin and from Hell. The Gospel is the truth! Jesus said that “I am the way the truth and the life.” The truth is that, according to Allister Begg, those who love the Gospel want to hear it more. It should be the most exciting thing ever to know that we are horrible wretched sinners but Christ out of love died on the cross to save us from our bondage to sin and to death and give us freedom, life, and a relationship with Him! Just like a fairy tale that we as children asked our parents to tell us over and over again, we should have such a hunger to hear the Gospel of our salvation as Christians. I mean, really everyone, what else should matter more? "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." I Cor. 1:18 To us Christians, the gospel should be the power of God - the very essence of all that we believe in!! Let us never grow tired of the Gospel, but let us determine to know nothing else but just that - Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is what I have committed to know among all of you, so hold me accountable and understand when that is all I care to talk about. Many men (myself included) find it so easy to sit around and banter semantics for hours about the Bible about pointless things like pre-tribulation or post-tribulation rapture, or could Jesus have sinned, or Jashobeam or Josheb-basshebeth was the captain of David’s Mighty Men. However, what truly matters is that Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived a sinless life, and died on the cross to free us from our slavery to sin and to give us a sick relationship with Him (oh, and heaven too!). Why should it matter then, whether one believes that you can loose your salvation or another believes that infants should not be baptized? It should not matter to us one bit. What did Jesus do when the Pharisees came up to Him trying to trick Him with things they thought were contradictory in scriptures or were political hot issues? He rebuked them, calling them a brood of vipers and hypocrites! You see, when we try to argue over the little things that in the grand scheme of things don’t matter, we only do one thing – cause dissention between brothers and turn other people off to the Gospel message. If we lived like Jonathan Edwards and simply “set ourselves on fire [with the Gospel]” then “everyone would come around to watch [us] burn.” We as Christians should not seek to be right about this doctrine or that, because when the Lord God Almighty comes as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, I am not going to be asking Him who was right, I am just going to be on my face before Him worshiping Him with all of myself…and you will be doing the same. So let us get things right now and purpose to know nothing among each other and the rest of the world other than Christ, and Him crucified – the Gospel.

The Importance of True Love (LovexCore)

LovexCore is simply this; we are called to love to the most hardcore extremes. John 15:13 says that "Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (NIV) The love that is said here in the Greek (the original language the NT was written it) is the word AGAPE. There are a few different words for love in the Greek language and the most extreme word is AGAPE. Some of the others are PHILEO and EROS. PHILEO describes love that requires something in return and EROS describes erotic love. AGAPE is also described in I Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." Those are some pretty high standards of AGAPE; especially with the requirement of taking a bullet for a friend. So now you're thinking, what does this have to do with me? Nothing here tells me that I must have this AGAPE love... WRONG!! If you are a believer in Christ, you are required to show this AGAPE love and it is this love that is the main ID for a Christian. In Mark 12:31 Jesus told us that the second greatest commandment (second only to the commandment to love the Lord) is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. The Greek word used is (you guessed it) AGAPE! John 13:34 says "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." Then verse 35 takes it a step further when Christ says that it is by this AGAPE love that others will know that we are Christians when He says "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." And, yes, the word for love here is AGAPE. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the Greeks hardly ever used AGAPE because of its strength in meaning. Jesus Christ was one of the very few frequent users of this word. So we have established that we are called to have this intense AGAPE love for one another as Believers. We have also established that it is a difficult love to fulfill. It is involved to the point of death. So LovexCore is the lifestyle of love. The love that saved us 2000 years ago on a cross. LovexCore is true. LovexCore is pure. It is not a scene, it is a commitment. It is a calling. It is a command.

The Importance of Sexual Purity

I lead a pure life sexually. I mean no sex until marriage, no fooling around with girls of any kind, and the most extreme: no kissing. That’s right. Make fun of me if you want. I have never kissed a girl before. Nope. Never. Right now, I’m sure if you have never heard me say this before, you are thinking I must be gay. Well, I have news for you: IM NOT! I am a red-blooded, conservative, heterosexual, lusting guy and I have never kissed a girl. Now you are wondering, "well, if he's not gay, then why the heck would he not want to make out." Ya, I know. I’ve heard that I’m "missing out" on a whole lot of fun. But you know what? I don’t care. Don’t know what its like, so I’m not really missing out on it. But why do I do it? Well, why not. I’m gonna get married some day and my wife will feel soooo special just by the fact that she is the first girl I ever kissed. Why not save everything possible for your wife. Ya, I know it is a little bit extreme, but, hey, I’m willing to be extreme for my wife. Also, I’m deathly afraid of myself. Ya, that’s right. I am afraid of myself and what would happen if I gave myself the opportunity to bend the sexual boundaries I have put up. Hey, like I said before, I’m a red-blooded, conservative, heterosexual, lusting guy. I am afraid that if I give myself an inch, I will take a mile. Think about it this way: I don’t have to worry about screwing up and having sex before I am married if kissing is the boundary line that I refuse to cross. So even if I do screw up, I am still for the most part pure for my wife. So for my life, screwing up in purity doesn’t mean that I slept with some chick; it just means that I kissed someone and frankly, I can live with that on my wedding night. Besides, I am the bride of Christ and he romances me. He is all that I really need and to be honest, He is so much better than the best sex you will ever have! So why would I want to be a whore and go out and cheat on Him with all kinds of women, my wife aside? The number one thing to know about us is that we should not soil ourselves so constantly with this sex (or whatever it is) because the truth is that our bodies don’t belong to us. You say that "it's my body; I'll do what I want with it." Well, you're wrong! Your body is not your own (I Corinthians 6). Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. So I treat God's temple with respect by not corrupting it with sex, drugs, and alcohol. So, call me crazy, message me telling me how much I’m missing out on, make fun of me to your buds, call me queer, whatever. I know that my wife (who just might be reading this right now) will respect it and think that it is probably the most romantic thing ever. So there. Take your comments and tell em to her... She'll tell you off. And its not just about being pure by abstaining from sex, we should also stay away from pornography. That’s right, looking at playboy magazines or clicking on elicit websites is a sin. Why? Jesus said that if you have ever lusted after a woman (that means thinking about her and fantasizing having sex with her) you have already committed adultery with her in your heart (Matthew 5:27-28). For unmarried people, that is pre-marital sex. Also, Job, whom God said was blameless, made the vow not to set anything unholy before his eyes and that if he did indeed lust, that other men would sleep with his wife. If a man who was called blameless in the sight of the Lord made a commitment like that and we are called to be holy as God in heaven is holy, don’t you think we should make a similar commitment? I believe so. Purity is so important to God and should be to us as well. If you are in a sexual relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend and you claim to be a Christian, you eventually put sex and/or your partner as an idol above the Lord (which would be one of the 10 Commandments). And when you think about it, that woman will one day be someone else’s spouse. If I told you that someone was fooling around or possibly even sleeping with your husband or wife, you would freak out. I would even go so far as to say that you would want to go beat the junk out of that person. Well, when you hook up with some chick or some guy, you are actually messing around with someone else’s wife/husband. Yeah. Purity is greatly important to us not only as Christians, but as humans, and we should always flee youthful lusts and abstain from all evil with our bodies, the temples of God. Can you imagine going into a church or St. Paul’s Cathedral in the Vatican (the Pope’s church) and spraying paint everywhere, ripping up the floors, breaking all the expensive sound junk, and urinating on the pulpit? NO! Then why do you do that to the real temple…your body?