Gods That Fail

Vinoth Ramachandra:

The people of the modern West are better fed, better housed, better equipped with health care than those in any previous age in human history. But paradoxically, they also seem to be the most fearful, the most divided, the most superstitious and the most bored generation in human history. All the labor-saving devices of modern technology have only enhanced human stress, and modern life is characterized by restless movement from place to place, from on experience to another, in a frenetic whirl of purposeless activity. 

Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission p.12-13

"You No Longer Have to Spend the Rest of Your Life Chasing Your Tail"

Scripture, Culture, and the Human Heart

To illustrate, connect, and apply

So much to be said here. Thanks to my buddy Jeremiah Lepasana for finding this.

Praise Jesus for Romans 8

Defiant Grace

"Like a bad back that needs to return repeatedly to the chiropractor for straightening out, our understanding of Jesus needs to be straightened out over and over again as our poor spiritual posture throws our perception of him out of line--domesticating him and conforming him to our image, rather than transforming us into his."

-Dane Ortlund, Defiant Grace

Identity, Idolatry, and the Gospel (part 2)

So put bluntly, in modern terms, Herod was a tool. Cocky. He thought he was the man, and wanted everyone to know it. He was that guy in the clubs with the popped collar, stunner shades on, hair gelled stiff, using money like napkins. Think Jersey Shore.

Throwing dirt Lebron style on the top of Mount Carmel

As Jeremiah and I considered this individual, we asked ourselves an important question. What about the human heart leads to action such as this? Herod’s behavior certainly isn’t anachronistic. We’ve seen power trips like this all throughout history, and we still see them today. Trump. Where’s the commonality? That common denominator is idolatry. The sin of idolatry subtly ravages the human heart. Idolatry can be defined as looking to other things to provide the comfort, satisfaction, joy, peace, security, and rest that only God can provide. Ask yourself the question, “If only I had _______, then I would be OK.” Or, “As long as _________ continues to happen, then I’m OK.” Fill in the blank. For Herod it was power. It was control. As long as he was in control, and could CLEARLY demonstrate it, he was ok. Herod was defined by lavishness and opulence. It could be different for you. Financial security? Family? Job? Marriage? Social status? Car? House? Education? Sex? Influence? What is the one thing in your life that if you lost it, you would be utterly devastated? An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.

Now keep in mind Jeremiah’s last sentence. “We met Jesus.” We’re going there. I want to be clear on why we are going there before we do.

Jeremiah and I looked at Herod’s idolatrous situation, and ultimately ours, in terms of a two-fold identity. After a particular lecture in Caesarea, Jeremiah came up to me and applied these concepts of passive identity and active identity. Passive identity includes the factors you are defined by that are outside of your control. For example, your parents. Your neighborhood. Basically, the culture you were born into. This is very formative, and provides foundational nourishment through adolescence. Yet there comes a point where the individual delves deeper into personal autonomy.

We’ll call this active identity. From Jeremiah’s and my experience, we’ve seen this happen somewhere in the teens. At this point, the individual has had sufficient experience in the world, and starts making moves. Affections are stirred in particular directions, toward different things. Individuals start deciding who they want to be. What they want to be known for. This life long process of active identity and personal autonomy is an idolatrous incubator. You, me, and Herod place our identity and affections in these things that allure our hearts so effectively.

So what does Jesus have to do with this? In accordance with our trip, I want to demonstrate the character of God and idolatry through the Old Testament. This will help us make sense of Jesus. We are led to 1 Kings 18, where Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. This was a site we were blessed to visit a few weeks back.

The purpose for Elijah’s contest was to directly confront the idol of the Israelites.  King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were promoting a pluralistic society in Israel. They saw no problem with worshipping Baal one day, and the Lord on the Sabbath. The case is no different in our present day. We live in a society that is absolutely deistically pluralistic. In the text, Baal was not a concrete god as we see with other ancient gods like Zeus. Baal was understood in more of a generic sense. There was a Baal for everything, such as water, food, and land.  In our culture, these Baals still exist. Everything can be a Baal, and everything has been a Baal. How many times in our culture do we see success on TV, and think, “if only I had that, I would be ok?” When we see perfect women on billboards and think “if only I looked like that” or “if only I could date a girl that looked like her.” The possibilities are endless. There are Baals all around us. We undoubtedly live in Elijah’s pluralistic society.

            With idols all around us, it is imperative to identify these idols. In the text we see the NIV translation say “they danced around the altar they had made…so they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.” In their calling to Baal, we see the prophets do three things. They danced, they shouted louder, and finally they slashed themselves until their blood flowed.  These are perfect characteristics and demonstrations of how we act with our Baals. Our Baals need appeasement. They are demanding. They require performance. We dance for them.  When something has captured our hearts so intently that we will do anything to acquire them, we have been enticed by a Baal.

 In recent years Madonna has expressed that the only reason she keeps going, the only reason she keeps writing new songs is because she can only stay on the top of the charts for so long. She needs the feeling of that number one spot. It’s the same with athletes who cannot bring themselves to retire despite an age that screams laz-e-boy (Jordan with the Wizards?). After the economic crisis hit in 2008, a string of suicides followed among the formerly wealthy. These included David Kellerman, the chief financial officer of Freddie Mac. Another suicide following the crisis was Cristen Schnor, a Danish banker who hanged himself in a London hotel. Their Baals were their identity. Their Baals demanded performance. When we do not appease our idols, or get what we want from them, we shout louder. We try harder. When our idols ultimately leave us empty, when we call out and get no response, our worlds crumble. Our idols demand our blood, and it gushes out in pursuit of them.

            In the midst of our despair, we have a more beautiful remedy than we could ever imagine, and it lies within the place in which the fire came down. “Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” The fire did not fall on the Israelites watching, or further off into the mountains, but the fire fell on the sacrifice. The sacrifice on the mount defeated the idol, and was the means by which people believed.” The character of God as seen through the Old Testament is to save idolatrous sinners by means of sacrifice. Familiar, huh? Enter Jesus.

 In the same way, Jesus sacrificed Himself on Mount Calvary to eliminate our idols. He took the fire of God’s judgment on our behalf, so that we may experience the fire of God’s love. Contrary to our false gods who say “slash yourself for me,” Jesus, out of adoration, slashed Himself for us. His blood flowed in our place. Not due to our performance, not because we deserve it, but because He already loved us-because of His pure, satisfactory delight in us as we are now. The remedy from our idols, the cure for our Baals, is not an increase in performance or effort, but instead resting in Christ’s finished work on the cross. “For He was pierced for our transgression, He was crushed for our iniquity. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”

Identity, Idolatry, and the Gospel (part 1)

The following is a two part post looking at the nature of the human heart and how it intersects with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah will take the first part. Jeremiah is an unbelievably perceptive, analytical individual. He understands cultures and their particular tendencies, and what that tells us about humanity and the gospel. He’ll take the first part, and I’ll take the second. This is ultimately the written record of a wonderful conversation (among many) Jeremiah and I had in Caesarea. 

Jeremiah Lepasana

I’ve always found greatness fascinating. As a kid it made watching Jordan can’t miss events, and studying successful wartime presidents fun to research. At times, it even gave me an unhealthy curiosity for examples of greatness-gone-bad in the stories of Hitler and Pablo Escobar. Ambitious people are intriguing. They are dominant, and more often than not, ruthless. If you don’t believe me, just listen to Jordan’s Hall of Fame speech. Erik and I were talking about it the other day during an extended walk/hike. It’s crazy. Jordan could not help but give a verbal beating to all the people he already humiliated during his career.  He just gives beating after beating. It’s too amusing.

Here’s where I explain why this all matters. On this trip we’ve been running into countless of names and figures that at one point on another shaped history. You’re thinking, “right, no big deal, you’re on a history trip.” But let me tell you about one particularly intriguing personality, whose contributions to the Israeli landscape not only helps students better understand the story of Scripture, but also whose personal ambitions help me better understand myself.

Waves breaking over the barrier wall at Caesarea

The man’s name is Herod the Great. He was alive for parts of the 1st Century on both sides of 0 (meaning both BC and AD) and he built these incredible structures. Last week we visited the crown jewel of his desert fortresses at Masada. The thing was impressive, and totally unnecessary. He built it in the middle of the wilderness where there’s hardly any water. It’s right next to the Dead Sea. Our professor described the place as one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. I’m guessing it’s either because of the unusually high salt content in the water, or maybe because of the insane drop in elevation that makes sets it on the lowers point on the earth’s surface. Either way, there are some serious geographical difficulties.

It’s almost like Herod picked the most difficult project he could find just to make a statement. You don’t do that unless you have a lot of confidence. Like the kid at the local basketball courts who went out of his way to pick the two nerdiest kids to complete his three-person squad, just so there would be no discussion about who best was when they won. You hated the fact that he did that, but couldn’t help but be impressed at the same time, because he would win everytime. Herod had it like that. He was the king of Judea, and anytime he entertained people from Rome, he had food from Naples imported to the wilderness, just because he could. And he stomped on people in order to make it happen.

We visited five or so sites Herod built, and all of them seemed like they would have been remarkable. Aside from Megiddo, he built the Jews a lavish temple, his mother a winter palace complete with gardens and pools (also in the wilderness), and countless other temples for other deities. But at each place we visited only ruins were left. Our prof had to tell us to use our imaginations. On top of that, people hated the guy, so pleasant stories aren’t exactly told about him. Only piles of rock are left to speak for the legacy he hoped to build. They say when his death was nearing, he had popular Jewish leaders put in prison to be killed at the time of his death so that genuine mourning would take place when he died. Nothing he tried to build stuck.  Instead of story of massive accomplishment that is the story told of him. That can’t be greatness, but if not that, then what? Or maybe the better question is who? What force of nature from the 1st century still dominates conversation in the way Herod hoped to? Yesterday, we found the answer in a squatty town in northern Israel. We met Jesus.

Complete

"Nothing either great or small,
      Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
      Long, long ago.
"It is finished!" yes, indeed,
      Finished every jot;
Sinner, this is all you need;
      Tell me, is it not?
Cast your deadly doing down,
      Down at Jesus' feet;
Stand in Him, in Him alone,
      Gloriously complete."

-James Proctor

Paul's Confidence

Throughout my life with Jesus so far, a particular passage in scripture has really captured my attention. I always find myself coming back to it, never really diving deeply into it--not attempting to exegetically or hermeneutically disassemble it and make sense of it--I have more so just observed it from afar, as I would a potentially dangerous animal I'm unfamiliar with.

It wasn't until a week ago that I made any progress with this particular passage--nothing groundbreaking, you'll learn exponentially more from Doug Moo's commentary, but regardless, it struck me.

Romans 3:10-18: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.


I've always taken this passage and held it up as my mirror to look into, frightened by my reflection. That's the thorough description of Erik Most's depravity. It wasn't until I took my eyes off myself, looked through a broader scope, and realized that this is also the depravity of humanity as a whole...including the one writing the epistle, Paul.

 It seems as if Paul wants to make his point here very clear. He's not saying "you guys are pretty bad, but I'm alright." In the first 2 verses, 11 and 12, Paul uses words to reference the complete failure of all people 8 times. Surely he knows he's lumping himself into this group.

Why would Paul say such a thing about himself?! How could he! Especially in a culture that held the law in the highest regard! How could Paul say that in the midst of a culture that endlessly perpetuated the notion that righteousness is humanly resourced?

Well, If we keep reading through Romans 3, it is evidently clear that Paul has full confidence in an external righteousness. An alien righteousness. Paul can own his depravity with full confidence! "Yep! That's me! I'm the chief of sinners!" He can do this because he's insanely secure in the righteousness of Christ. To the degree that he expounds on his depravity, is to the degree that he is fully relying on the redemption that is in Christ, despite his depravity.

In the same way, lets not kid ourselves. We are not the people who our idolatrous, sinful hearts project us to be. We don't have it together. We're not sweet theologians. We're not awesome super Christians.  In thinking we are and we do these things, we unknowingly shackle ourselves to our own agenda and forfeit the reckless freedom we have in Christ.

So lets own Romans 3:11-18, because in doing so, we then cast ourselves on the resplendent majesty of Christ's righteousness. We are freed, like Paul, to stop trying to earn, deserve, and project. Were freed  to living with reckless abandonment knowing we are secure in the righteousness of another, Jesus.

Freedom

Tullian Tchividjian:

The gospel frees us from this pressure to perform, this slavish demand to “become.” The gospel liberatingly declares that in Christ “we already are.” If you’re a Christian, here’s the good news: Who you really are has nothing to do with you—how much you can accomplish, who you can become, your behavior (good or bad), your strengths, your weaknesses, your sordid past, your family background, your education, your looks, and so on.

Your identity is firmly anchored in Christ’s accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours. Your identity is steadfastly established in his substitution, not your sin.

Overcome My Unbelief

Mark 9:24 - "Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe; help my unbelief!'"


Theoretically, mentally, conceptually, intellectually, topically--Yes, I would say I believe in the gospel of Jesus

Yet

Practically, functionally, experientially--My heart is riddled with idolatry. My action, my sense of inner peace, the true rest of my soul--TRUE rest--the deepest, calming, chaos-ending sigh of the soul--simply does not reflect or depend on what I'm claiming theoretically, mentally, etc.

Therefore

Just like the father of the possessed boy, my deepest plea is that my entire being would be comprehensively convinced and absolutely swept away by the glorious grace that is in Christ, and that my unbelief would be overcome. It has to be external. My plea is for Jesus' accomplishment on the cross to accomplish the overcoming my unbelief.

The most beautiful thing is, He surely has done it, and he surely will do it.

"Through Jesus we don't need perfect righteousness, just repentant helplessness, to access the presence of God." - Tim Keller

Just repentant helplessness.


Colossians 2:14-15 - God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.


Lord, in Him, disarm the rulers and authorities of our hearts.

Good Things To Ultimate

"Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity apart from him. . . . Most people think of sin primarily as “breaking divine rules,” but Kierkegaard knows that the very first of the Ten Commandments is to “have no other gods before me.” So, according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God." -Tim Keller, The Reason For God

Idol assessment: What are your emotions driven by? What is/are the primary controller/s of your mood or overall disposition?

Still My Own

Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish ev'ry fond ambition, 
All I've sought or hoped or known--
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heav'n are still my own.

--Henry Lyte (1793-1847)

Too Good Not To Repost

King's Cross. Chapter 5. The Power.

Keller, commenting on Mark 4:35-41


"Jesus says, 'One greater than Jonah is here,' and he's referring to himself: I'm the true Jonah. He meant this: Someday I'm going to calm all storms, still all waves. I'm going to destroy destruction, break brokenness, kill death. how can he do that? He can do it only because when he was on the cross he was thrown--willingly, like Jonah--into the ultimate storm, under the ultimate waves, the waves of sin and death. Jesus was thrown into the only storm that can actually sink us--the storm of eternal justice, of what we owe for our wrongdoing. that storm wasn't calmed--not until it swept him away.

If the sight of Jesus bowing his head into that ultimate storm is burned into the core of your being, you will never say, 'God, don't you care?' And if you know that he did not abandon you in that ultimate storm, what makes you think he would abandon you in the much smaller storms you're experiencing right now? And, someday, of course, he will return and still all storms for eternity. 


If you let that penetrate to the very center of your being, you will know he loves you. You will know he cares. And then you will have the power to handle anything in life with poise." (p. 57-58, my emphasis)


In the middle of any storm, even the most tempestuous hurricane, he is infinitely more powerful. He can, has, and will subdue the storm like a compliant child. In the midst of my storms, I have him, and he is more than enough. 

A Strange Melancholy

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French aristocrat who lived in the 1800s. He was known as a political thinker, and his most famous work was Democracy in America. During his investigations of America and its political structure, he noted the following, as quoted in Tim Keller's Counterfeit Gods.

"A strange melancholy that haunts the inhabitants...in the midst of abundance..."

About one hundred years later C.S. Lewis stumbled upon the same conclusion:

"There is something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality..." 

de Tocqueville concludes:

"the incomplete joys of this world will never satisfy the human heart."

And Lewis, simply and famously:

"something has evaded us."

Colossians 3:1-5 - Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Incomplete joys. idolatry. Anything can be an idol, and just about everything has been. Its usually the best things that are.

Keller on rooting out our idols:

Idolatry is not just a failure to obey God, it is a setting of the whole heart on something besides God.   This cannot be remedied only by repenting that you have an idol, or using willpower to try to live differently. Turning from idols is not less than those two things, but it is also far more. 'setting the mind and heart on things above' where 'your life is hid with Christ in God' means appreciation, rejoicing, and resting in what Jesus has done for you. It entails joyful worship, a sense of God's reality in prayer. Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol.

Keller on Jonah and Jesus

Keller on Jonah and Jesus

Everyone should read this post, and this upcoming book. And the Bible.

My Heart Is Filled with Thankfulness

Came across this in church this morning. Peace to my soul.

Col 2:6-7 - "Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done."


My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who bore my pain; who plumbed the depths of my disgrace and gave me life again; who crushed my curse of sinfulness, and clothed me in his light, and wrote his law of righteousness with pow'r upon my heart

My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who walks beside; who floods my weaknesses with strength and causes fear to fly; whose every promise is enough for every step I take; sustaining me with arms of love and crowning me with grace.

My heart is filled with thankfulness to him who reigns above; whose wisdom is my perfect peace, whose every thought is love. For every day I have on earth is given by the King. So I will give my life, my all, to love and follow him.

Gen 22, Abraham's example

Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac is staggering. I yearn to view, feel, and hold the glory, peace, comfort, and love of Christ in such high regard that everything earthly, no matter how important or seemingly worthy, pales in comparison. I want to willingly sacrifice anything and everything that muffles the grace that is in Christ Jesus. What a wonderful Savior we have. Jesus, the great friend of idolators like me.

What else on this earth can we depend on wholeheartedly for this promise?

Gen 22:14 "The Lord will provide."


I don't want or expect anything else to provide. All I'm after is his provision. That's all I want. Out of his great love for sinners, he has provided on the cross.

What a sufficient, glorious, incomprehensible, graceful, affectionate, continually redeeming Savior.

Church Planting, Heroes-->Idols

The Church Planter’s Rude, Great Awakening


Certainly guilty of this.

Your Own Making

"The depth of the wound is your own making" -Tim Keller

Whatever you are going through in life--whatever consumes your thought, soul, and deed in a negative way, is ultimately, our fault.

All external factors in this life can and will impose themselves on us, yes, in a negative way. The particular action--job loss, failure as a parent, failed class, broken relationship, unrequited love, broken or troubled marriage, general anxiety, physical illness, general disappointment, faulty finances, overworked, etc.-- may have been imposed on us in an unjust way to the point where we are the victim by any standard.

But-- to the extent that we let that event ravage our soul, to the extent that our okayness--our feeling of being justified--is linked to that particular event is our fault. 


The depth of that wound is a direct reflection of our distrust in Christ's sufficiency. Every time we are met with a form of struggle, we must filter it through the gospel. The world imposes it on us and it may be unjust, but the moment it reaches us the gospel is thoroughly sufficient to ease the anxiety of our souls.

Here's the beauty. The only thing that will ever span the chasm of our wounds are His wounds. Isaiah 53. period. Our hope is external. Our idolatry--no matter how rampant--cannot cannot cannot affect our ravishing hope that is in Christ Jesus. If it were up to us to apply that filter, we would be absolutely wrecked. Christ makes his glory and mercy so evident that he directly intercedes on our behalf. If it were up to me, I'd be screwed. Seriously. Praise be to God.

1 Peter 1:3-9 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes through it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.