Free At Last

To those who daily struggle with the evil in their hearts, to those who when wanting to do good find sin right there with them, to those weighed down by constant failure, I offer this brief note of encouragement: It is your heavenly father’s sovereign prerogative and promise to kill the sin in you and make you whole.  As one song writer put it, “our shepherd good and true is he, who will at last His Israel free from all her sin and sorrow.”  Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be easy.  You will fight and get beat down.  It will be a painful process, but make no mistake about it; you will win.  Sin will be defeated.

“Jesus’ blood alone can deliver from sin.  Live in His blood and you will die a conqueror-you will by the good providence of God, live to see you lust dead at your feet” (The Enemy Within-Kris Lundgaard).

Leithart on the Lenten Season and Fasting

“Lent is a season for taking stock and cleaning house, a time of self-examination, confession and repentance. But we need to remind ourselves constantly what true repentance looks like. “Giving up” something for Lent is fine, but you keep Lent best by making war on all the evil habits and sinful desires that prevent you from running the race with patience.

Going through the motions of Lent without turning to God and putting our sins to death is hypocrisy, and few things rile our God so much as hypocrisy. “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” Joel says.

So: During this season, don’t just give up soft drinks; mount a concerted campaign against impatience. Don’t just put aside your favorite TV show; subdue your anger. Don’t just fast; kill your self-centeredness.

This doesn’t make Lent a season for gloominess and defeat. On the contrary, during this season we celebrate the victorious suffering and death of Jesus, and we should enter the season trusting in the Spirit of Jesus, who subdues our flesh and molds us to the image of Christ.

Lent is a season for joy also because it is a motif in a larger composition. The rhythm of the church year follows the rhythm of the Lord’s day service. Each week, we pass through a small “Lenten” moment in our liturgy, as we kneel for confession. But we don’t kneel through the whole service, and in the same way we don’t observe the fast forever.

Jesus tells us to fast with washed faces and anointed heads, that is, to fast as if prepared for a feast. We fast properly when we fast not only in humility but in hope; we keep the fast when we fall before God full of repentance but also full of confidence that our Great King will raise us up.”

Salvation is not being delivered from time, space, and matter; that’s death. Rather, salvation is being delivered from death itself – NT Wright.

From Theology to Drugs

Looking back at my life, how did I go from studying theology in seminary to pharmacy school?  I must have been on something at the time when I made the decision to switch.  Seriously though, I think the reason for the dramatic change had more to do with practicality than idealism.  At the same time, it was a gradual process.  My move away from theology was a result of my deeper understanding of theology; specifically, my worldview was being transformed by the theology I was learning.  In other words, theology brought me to pharmacy.  Let me explain.  To most of my readers, what I’m going to say next is nothing profound.  It was profound to me who finally understood it; I mean, it changed the course of my life, literally.  The thing I realized was the beauty of the created order described in the first couple of chapters of Genesis, from the creation of everything to the appointment of Adam.  What this realization meant was a demolishing of a worldview informed by dualism.  In its place was a belief in the goodness of physical creation whose origin came from the fiat of a good creator.  No longer was the earthly set against the heavenly, fleshly against the spiritual, but God had declared all of it “good”.  For me, of course, this meant that the line drawn between secular and sacred vocation was erased.  The pastor, missionary, pharmacist, lawyer, postman, baker, artist, student, mother, etc, were all holy callings worthy of pursuit.  God’s world is bigger than the church.  Redemption reaches beyond her gates.  It emcompasses all creation, all of life.  In the end, the whole creation will bring glory to God.

Heaven or New Creation

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,

who thee by faith before the world confessed,

thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west;

soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;

sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;

the saints triumphant rise in bright array;

the King of glory passes on his way.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,

through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

and singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:

Alleluia, Alleluia!

I like this song because it captures the heart of the Christian’s hope and ultimate destiny. Unlike much of contemporary Christian tradition, this hymn embodies an important truth that has been undervalued and often confused with another accepted belief of Christian theology. I am speaking specifically about the church’s teaching on heaven.“This world is not my home; I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue”.
or
“When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.”

My criticism of the tradition is not that there is no such place called heaven, but that the church has placed too much emphasis on heaven at the expense of new creation. When one surveys the biblical evidence, the vast amount of support strongly favors the bodily resurrection of all saints and new heavens and new earth as the final hope of the Christian. Heaven, on the other hand, is hardly touched upon in the scriptures. The modern conception of heaven, as a place in the sky by and by where all Christians go after they die, is simply an inaccurate description of what the Bible teaches as the goal of all creation. History is heading towards a climax, but heaven is’n it.

I think there are two reasons for the misconception of heaven as our eternal abode. First is our dualistic view of the world. Many have the idea that somehow the physical is subordinate to the spiritual. And by seeking fulfillment in the spiritual, the physical becomes an obstacle to overcome. The physical is bad and the spiritual is good. This leads to the second reason for our misunderstanding, and that is, an incorrect view of physical creation. God made everything and declared it as good, both physical and spiritual. Though the world has been corrupted by sin, God does not intend to abandon creation by taking everyone He loves up to heaven to live and destroy everything else that’s left behind. But instead, He will redeem all creation. This was the purpose of the resurrection of Christ. Jesus’ resurrection was the first fruits of a new creation.

Heaven is a good place. It is where the Lord dwells. As the apostle says, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. But it is a temporary dwelling where “all the saints who from their labors rest” are waiting. And they are waiting for “a yet more glorious day” when God, the good creator, makes all things new; including our physical bodies. That is the hope which all creation is groaning for and to which all history is heading. That is where our eyes ought to be directed. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Alleluia! Alleluia!