EVERYWHERE

Everybody worships. Not everyone believes in God, or in gods, or in the God of the Bible, but everyone worships. Everybody ascribes worth to something, which is one of the basic definitions of worship.

My favorite book about worship, outside the Bible, is Warren Wiersbe’s Real Worship: Playground, Battleground, or Holy Ground?. Wiersbe offers this concise definition of worship…

Worship is the believer’s response of all that they are—mind, emotions, will, and body—to what God is and says and does. This response has its mystical side in subjective experience and its practical side in objective obedience to God’s revealed will. Worship is a loving response that’s balanced by the fear of the Lord, and it is a deepening response as the believer comes to know God better.

As I like to say, “worship is both revelation and response.” It’s tuning in to listen to a holy God, and it’s responding to what I hear and see. Genuine worship results in a net increase in my personal awe of God and ultimately changes my life in a way that is contagious. It makes me craveable, as Artie Davis [http://youtu.be/N0uTv0cuYkY] might say. 

Jesus once had an argument with a woman about worship. It’s recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter four, but the short version is that when Jesus got personal with her, she brought up an argument about the “right way” to worship as a diversion. Funny how the subject of worship often becomes the source of conflict when we’re trying to avoid the real issues of the heart. This woman’s understanding of worship was pretty normal.

• Worship is confined to a time a place (hence, a “worship service”).
• Worship is defined by our rituals and traditions.
• Worship is the sum total of the goodness I offer up to God.
• Worship is about receiving or “getting a lot out of” an experience.

Jesus challenged all of her assumptions – not with answers rooted in Jewish tradition, but answers rooted in the eternal fellowship He had enjoyed thus far with the Father. Out of that experience, Jesus revealed a different and better way to approach the subject of worship.

• Worship should be an everywhere, all-the-time activity.
• Worship happens in truth (the “real” world), but also in spirit (the “unseen” world).
• Worship is the response of sinful creatures to a holy God.
• Worship is about giving or offering up, which is far more blessed than receiving anyway.

When we fight about worship, we’re usually fighting like the woman in the argument. We’re fighting about when, where, and how. We’re arguing about externals, traditions, and preferences. When we fight for worship, we’re fighting with the heart of Jesus, who sought to establish a connection between broken humanity and a healing Creator.

John Piper is credited with saying that “missions exists because worship doesn't ” Right now, on planet earth, there are literally billions of people who are worshiping the creature more than the Creator (see Romans 1:18-26). They don’t know the One who showed up at the well that day, and we who do know Him are responsible. The woman at the well that day, out of the overflow of her *worshipful spirit*, brought an entire town to meet Jesus. Once she “got it,” she fought for worship. I want to fight for it too. He’s WORTH it.

FAULTLESS? BLAMELESS? REALLY?

I’m flawed. I have many faults. You know it, and I know it. I know the ugly side of Robbie better than anyone else, so when I read Colossians 1:22 this morning, a phrase jumped out at me that *seems completely impossible…

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. (NLT)

It’s Scripture, and Scripture is inspired, perfect, and without any mixture of error. But it just can’t be… “without a single fault?”  No Way? Really? Impossible!

There are two phrases in this verse that are stated in perfect tense. First, “He has reconciled you…” means that in the past, He reconciled you, and the effects of that reconciliation are permanent, remaining in the present and into the future. Also, “He has brought you into His own presence…” means that in the past, He brought you into His presence, and you remain there presently and into the future. For believers in Jesus, these two actions are done-ditty-done, never to be undone!!

Then there are two phrases that are present in tense, which in Koine Greek, means that the action is presently happening in an ongoing sense. “You are holy and blameless…” and “you stand before him…” are both present tense. I am holy, right now. I’m also standing before God, right now.

Physically, I’m sitting at my desk, with plenty of flaws and faults, typing a blog post. But as far as the way God views me, I am presently holy and blameless (because He has reconciled me to Himself through the death of Christ, forgiving my sins completely and transferring Christ’s perfect righteousness to my account) and I am standing in His presence.

I know. It’s a lot to think about. It seems abstract, but it’s true. But that last phrase is the most unbelievable part of it all… “without a single fault.” That’s crazy. That’s weird. I can hardly begin to wrap my mind around it because my personal experience is filled with fault. But my Creator has made the bold decision to see me as faultless on the basis of His Son’s faultlessness. I’m completely forgiven. All of my sins, past, present, and future, are absolved in the death of Jesus on the cross. And this is why I love Him, and have a passion for the supremacy of Christ in all things.  He first loved me!  Let this sink in....
...Without a 'single' fault.

 Unbelievable.

But God said it.  So BELIEVE IT! (Mark 9:34 - "I BELIEVE, help my UNBELIEF!)

So the man who has looked at pornography a thousand times, and who turns to Jesus… without a single fault.

The woman who gave up purity in a moment, or many moments, of ecstasy, and who turns to Jesus… without a single fault.

The teenager who has treated others with cruelty/unfair judgment, and who turns to Jesus… without a single fault.

I've often said that grace is scandalous, shocking, and seemingly unfair. But it’s more than fair. It’s Jesus, dying because of our sin, to reconcile us back to God in a way that sticks forever. YES!

Wanna be “without a single fault?”
Turn. To. Jesus.

Theology you can eat and drink. 

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE....Isn't Resistible

“I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners . . .” (Isaiah 57:18)

Learn your doctrine from texts. It stands up better that way, and feeds the soul.

For example, learn irresistible grace from texts. In this way, you will see it does not mean grace cannot be resisted; it means that when God chooses, he can and will overcome that resistance.

In Isaiah 57:17–19, for instance, God chastises his rebellious people by striking them and hiding his face: “Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry, I struck him; I hid my face and was angry” (verse 17).

But they did not respond with repentance. Rather, they kept backsliding. They resisted: “But he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart” (verse 17).

So grace can be resisted. In fact, Stephen said to the Jewish leaders, “You always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51).

What then does God do? Is he powerless to bring those who resist to repentance and wholeness? No. The next verse says, “I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners” (verse 18).

So, in the face of recalcitrant, grace-resisting backsliding, God says, “I will heal him.” He will “restore” — the word is “make whole or complete.” It is related to the word shalom, “peace.” That wholeness and peace is mentioned in the next verse which explains how God turns around a grace-resisting backslider.

He does it by “creating the fruit of the lips. ‘Peace, peace (shalom, shalom), to the far and to the near,’ says the LORD, and I will heal him” (verse 19). God creates what is not there. This is how we are saved. And this is how we are brought back from backsliding.

The grace of God triumphs over our resistance by creating praise where it did not exist. He brings shalom, shalom to the near and the far. Wholeness, wholeness to the near and the far. He does it by “restoring,” that is, replacing the disease of resistance with the soundness of submission.

The point of irresistible grace is not that we can’t resist. We can, and we do. The point is that when God chooses, he overcomes our resistance and restores a submissive spirit. He creates. He says, “Let there be light!” He heals. He leads. He restores. He comforts.

Therefore, we never boast that we have returned from backsliding. We fall on our faces before the Lord and with trembling joy thank him for his irresistible grace.

I certainly hope you found this to be a darn good cup of coffee!!

IF NECESSARY...USE WORDS?!

Preach The Gospel At All Times; When Necessary, Use Words” -falsely attributed to St. Francis of Assisi

The more I hear/read it, the more I want it erased from the memories of everybody who has had it inflicted on them.

“Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words” is one of those sentimental woolly headed pieces of nicety that sounds fine until you realize that it doesn’t really mean a thing. Well, not a true thing anyway.

It’s right up there with such classics as “Give someone your phone number; when necessary use numerals” or “Give someone a meal; when necessary use food.”

The saying is much loved by those who think that Christianity is more about what Jesus "would do" than that which Jesus "has done."

What does it mean?

It implies that WORKS ARE the GOSPEL. If I work hard enough, well enough, loving enough and it shows in my behavior...the person for whom I am working, will find salvation without my using words.
If you’re doing it right, you won’t need words. SALVATION BY OSMOSIS.

Just think, if my good deeds is your good news…that means you’re screwed.
News flash: the “good news” is not about what I can do, it’s about what Christ has done.

PREACH (defined)- speak, plead, or argue in favor of.

The History Part [my minor]

It is historically attributed to Francis of Assisi, not only as his wisdom, but also as the distillation of his life and ministry.  Problem is, there is no evidence that Francis ever uttered that phrase or anything similar. Another problem is that Francis apparently spread the gospel by… preaching!! Surprise, surprise!

From an article by Christian historian Mark Galli come these words:

First, no biography written within the first 200 years of his death contains the saying. It’s not likely that a pithy quote like this would have been missed by his earliest disciples.
Second, in his day, Francis was known as much for his preaching as for his lifestyle.
He began preaching early in his ministry, first in the Assisi church of Saint George, in which he had gone to school as a child, and later in the cathedral of Saint Rufinus. He usually preached on Sundays, spending Saturday evenings devoted to prayer and meditation reflecting on what he would say to the people the next day.

Galli goes on to make the perfectly reasonable point that the Gospel is a word centered communication that should be backed up by action. If you haven’t used words, you haven’t *shared the gospel, though you may have shared the definite effect that the gospel has on your Christian life.

I suspect we sentimentalize Francis—like we do many saints of ages past—because we live in a *sentimental and wimpy (cowardice) age. We want it to be true that we can be nice and sweet and all will be well.

We hope against hope that we won’t have take the trouble to figure out how exactly to talk to someone about the wrath removing gospel of Christ-our unbelieving friends will “catch” the gospel once our lifestyle is infected with it.

“Preach the gospel; use words if necessary” goes hand in hand with a postmodern assumption that words are finally *empty of meaning. It subtly denigrates the high value that the prophets and Jesus and Paul put on preaching.

Of course we want our actions to match our words as much as possible. But the gospel is a "message", news about an "event" and a "Person" upon which the history of the planet revolves. As blogger Justin Taylor recently put it, "the Good News can no more be communicated by deeds than can the nightly news."

The sentiments from Francis that probably gave rise to the saying attributed to him is his teaching that: "Gospel proclamation is inextricably intertwined with Gospel life"- which is the same basic position as Galli's.

Christian ‘Myths’ of this type are *propagated because people want them to be true. They line up with how they want to live. Enough people give them credence and then, regardless of what historians show actually happened, it becomes part of Christian expression.

Maybe we need a Christian version of Snopes.com where Christian Urban Myths can be stored in some form of repository and debunked.

When something as VITAL as the gospel can be clouded by this sort of fine sounding phrase --it can not be opposed too strongly.

Preaching over Coffee.
2 Cups of Coffee Later.
Robbs

FROM SOME HARM, NOT ALL HARM

And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. (Acts 16:25)

In this age, God rescues his people from some harm. Not all harm. That’s comforting to know, because otherwise we might conclude from our harm that he has forgotten us or rejected us.

So be encouraged by the simple reminder that in Acts 16:19–24, Paul and Silas were not delivered, but in verses 25–26, they were.

First, no deliverance:

“They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace.” (v. 19)
“The magistrates tore the garments off them.” (v. 22)
They “inflicted many blows upon them.” (v. 23)
The jailer “fastened their feet in the stocks.” (v. 24)
But then deliverance:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God . . . and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. (verses 25–26)

God could have stepped in sooner. He didn’t. He has his reasons. He loves Paul and Silas.

Question for you: If you plot your life along this continuum, where are you? Are you in the stripped-and-beaten stage, or the unshackled, door-flung-open stage?

Both are God’s stages of care for you.

If you are in the fettered stage, don’t despair. Sing. Freedom is on the way. It is only a matter of time. Even if it comes through death.

DON'T BE A DOVE SELLER!

...AND THOSE SELLING DOVES

All four gospels recount Jesus clearing the temple in Jerusalem. A provocative act that seemed to seal his fate during the Passover Week.

Three of the four gospels note that Jesus is targeting a particular group when He cleared the temple. The dove sellers.

 Mark 11.15-17
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Matthew 21.12-13
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

John 2.13-16
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 

Jesus also targeted the money changers. But for this post I want to focus on the dove sellers. Why target these people and these transactions?

As most know, the preferred sacrifice to be offered at the temple was a lamb. But a provision is made in Leviticus for the poor:

 Leviticus 5.7
Anyone who cannot afford a lamb is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the Lord as a penalty for their sin—one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.

By going after the dove sellers we see Jesus directly attacking the group who were having economic dealings with the poor. When the poor would go to the temple they would head for the dove sellers.

The point being, while we know that Jesus was upset about economic exploitation going on in the temple, his focus on the dove sellers sharpens the message and priorities. Jesus doesn't, for instance, go after the sellers of lambs. Jesus's anger is stirred at the way the poor -in the temple- are being treated and economically exploited.

What Made Jesus So Angry?

So what made Jesus so angry? The contrast he pointed out was between “my Father’s house” and a marketplace. “My Father’s house” means: This house is about knowing and loving and treasuring a person, my Father. In this temple, my Father has supreme place. He is the supreme treasure here. “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84:11). “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalms 73:25).

But that focus has been replaced by a focus on trade. And there is no reference here to the people who needed the animals—the poor, the pilgrims who were buying the doves and pigeons. The anger is all directed at those who were selling and handling the currency. Jesus could see through the veneer of religious helpfulness to the heart. In fact, in verse 25 John says, “He himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25).

He see's religion used as a front for something else. Empty forms of love for God plastering over the insatiable love for something else. Jesus boils when he sees formal godliness as cover for gain (see 1 Timothy 6:5).  

You can hear the zeal of Jesus burning in Matthew 23:25: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” You put up a fine display of religious helpfulness in the temple bazaar. But you are driven by the love of money, not the love of God.  And O how sophisticated and subtle it gets! Who but Jesus can ferret out the ways we rationalize covetousness.

What Jesus saw that day in the temple was not an isolated instance of questionable worship support. It was the outworking of greed cloaked with religion. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me” (Matthew 15:8–9). My Father is not being worshipped. Money is being worshipped—in my Father’s house; by exploiting the poor. 

HE WHO LENDS TO THE POOR, LENDS TO THE LORD! 

END TIMES in Les Misèrables

Les Misèrables recognizes, and affirms, the awful tension between what is and what should be: it trumpets that love has overcome the world.

Les Misèrables proclaims the Gospel.

Rejecting violence, revenge, and hatred Jean Valjean embodies that cruciform life as he loves all those around him, especially his enemy Javert.

The story rejects violent revolution as a means to success even as it *affirms* the *ideals* of the revolution.

The finale DESTROYS COMPLETELY the song of the revolution. In this, the eschatology of Les Misèrables proclaims the coming Kingdom:

Do you hear the people sing?
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest nights will end and the sun will rise

They will live again in freedom in the garden of the Lord
They will walk behind the ploughshare
They will put away the sword
The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes!

Furthermore:

Fantine:
Come with me
Where chains will never bind you
All your grief
At last, at last behind you
Lord in heaven
Look down on him in mercy

Jean Valjean:
Forgive me all my trespasses and take me to your glory.

Fantine, Valjean, Epinione:
Take my hand
and lead me to salvation.
Take my love
Cause love is everlasting
And remember the truth
That once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God


Because the truth of Les Mis is that Love—weak and slippery as it is—is the means by which the world is put back to rights.

And this Love comes through suffering!!

For to love another person is to see the face of God.

GOD in Les Misèrables

Theology of Les Miserables-Moral Behavior

You could teach a whole semester-long class on moral theology through the lens of Les Miserables, Victor Hugo’s epic examination of “the miserable”–the downtrodden and forgotten part of society. The story’s characters also highlight certain key approaches to ethics, effectively carving out a typology of ethical theories.

First, there are the egoists, represented by the Thenardier couple. They have no values outside of self-interest; they have no God besides profit:
Song lyrics:

But we’re the ones who take it
We’re the ones who make it in the end!
Watch the buggers dance
Watch ‘em till they drop
Keep your wits about you
And you stand on top!
Masters of the land
Always get our share
Clear away the barricades
And we’re still there!
We know where the wind is blowing
Money is the stuff we smell.
And when we’re rich as Croesus
Jesus! Won’t we see you all in hell!

Then there is Javert, the chief of police who chases Valjean through Paris and through the years after Valjean breaks his parole to become a new man. Javert is committed to rules and duties.
(like many church people)
For him, the good and the true is found in the law, not only the law of France but also the law of God reflected in the order of the universe. His soliloquy is very interesting:

Stars
In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night
Keeping watch in the night

You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same
And if you fall as Lucifer fell
You fall in flame!

And perhaps the best line in the play and in the film is during Javert and Valjean’s final confrontation, when Valjean tells him that he doesn’t hold a grudge, that he isn’t filled with hate towards the man who has haunted him for decades.

He tells Javert, “You’ve done your duty, nothing more.” There are two ways we can take this. Valjean could be *excusing Javert for his misdeeds since he was only acting out of duty. [This was the excuse made by the “good Nazis” at Nuremberg].

But Valjean could also be *accusing Javert with these words. “You’ve done your duty, nothing more” is precisely what is wrong with Javert.

See, Javert isn’t a bad guy, really. We misunderstand him if we make him a demon. True, he doesn’t know mercy, but that is only because he is so committed to the moral law. His story reveals the shortcoming of deontological theories–the law alone is not enough to make a person righteous or good. The law is a pedagogue. It points us to the end, but it isn’t an end in itself. In conflating the law with God, Javert misses who God really is–Love.

Then there are the various consequentialists. The best song illustrating consequentialism is the factory ladies singing “At the End of the Day” as they urge the foreman to turn Fantine out on the street:

At the end of the day
She’ll be nothing but trouble
And there’s trouble for all
When there’s trouble for one!
While we’re earning our daily bread
She’s the one with her hands in the butter
You must send the slut away
Or we’re all gonna end in the gutter
And it’s us who’ll have to pay
At the end of the day!

The ends justify the means for these women. And they show us too the fatal flaw of consequentialism–it allows the minority (Fantine) to be sacrificed for the sake of the majority.

Valjean toys with consequentialism but ultimately rejects it when the man mistaken for him is brought to trial:

I am the master of hundreds of workers.
They all look to me.
How can I abandon them?
How would they live
If I am not free?

If I speak, I am condemned.
If I stay silent, I am damned!

Which brings us to Valjean. He is a study in virtue ethics. “Who am I?” is the question that guides his moral choices. His powerful soliloquy by this title continues,

Can I condemn this man to slavery
Pretend I do not feel his agony
This innocent who bears my face
Who goes to judgement in my place
Who am I?
Can I conceal myself for evermore?
Pretend I’m not the man I was before?
And must my name until I die
Be no more than an alibi?
Must I lie?
How can I ever face my fellow men?
How can I ever face myself again?
My soul belongs to God, I know
I made that bargain long ago
He gave me hope when hope was gone
He gave me strength to journey on

Who am I? Who am I?
I am Jean Valjean!

What is fascinating about Valjean is how he must continue to re-ask himself the question “Who am I?” and how the answer continuously leads him to make different choices.

After his confrontation with the bishop who shows mercy on Valjean and gives him the means to become a righteous man, the question leads Valjean to break his parole, to take on a new identity, and to literally become a new man. He breaks the law here (which is why Javert pursues him) but who could blame Valjean?

He might have broken the law of France but almost anybody would agree that he does the "moral" thing here. And when he reveals his true identity to the courts, he fights Javert and again *runs from the law* to go and save Cosette. Again, he breaks the law of France but Valjean is definitely --still-on the side of the "moral" law.

And finally, when he finds out that his Cosette is in love with Marius, the question “Who am I” leads him to the barricades and then to the sewers to save Marius’ life. It isn’t that Valjean is above the moral law; it is just that he recognizes that the moral law does not always conform to the external law. One hears echoes of Jesus: “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.”

In the end, Valjean is a man, “no worse than any other man,” as he explains to Javert. The critical difference between the two is that Valjean is willing to live out a life of mercy. He is willing to both give and receive it while Javert can do neither!

When Valjean offers Javert mercy, saving his life at the barricade, Javert is tormented. His system is broken, his god is dead. As his world comes crashing down, he plunges into the Seine.

Valjean, on the other hand, looking up with shame into the eyes of the bishop whom he just stole from, chooses to accept mercy, and then give it in return–to Fantine, to Cosette, to Marius, and even to Javert, his enemy.

Victor Hugo apparently had a strained relationship to the faith but the story has a very Christian message: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

As human beings, we are made for mercy. It is in mercy that we live; it is in judgment that we die. Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel of John, “I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Jesus comes in mercy to lead us to life because we are incapable of finding it on our own, as Javert shows us.

Jesus in turn asks us to lead others to that life by loving our neighbor, by showing them mercy, by forgiving them as we wish to be forgiven.

In living a life of love and mercy, whatever our circumstances, whatever our class, whatever our faults, we come to know God, and we come to see God in this world, this broken and fallen and oftentimes all-too-miserable world he came to redeem.

WHO ARE YOU in Les Misèrables?

Theology of Les Miserables-Political
(from 3 Perspectives)

I am a hardcore fan of Les Miserables!! I can almost sing every line and every part (male and female) of the musical soundtrack. I find the movie & musical to be a profoundly spiritual, and distinctively Christian, experience. (Same goes for the book, which I read in college [1984]. Saw the stage production twice once in the 90's [my BC days] and again in 2003 AD!)

Thinking the other day about the book, musical, and movie- I had these thoughts about the political, moral and eschatological theology depicted in Les Misérables. I will cover political in this post, then moral and eschatological in the next.

I'm interested first in the contrast between Jean Valjean, Javert, and Enjolras (along with Marius and the other student-revolutionaries at the barricade).

Javert and Enjolras could be considered as two poles along a continuum in how one aligns political power with God.

On the one end is Javert who represents a conservative, even Constantinian, vision where God is completely aligned with the state, particularly the law and order aspects of the state (although Javert also espouses the capitalistic theology where "honest work" is the way we "please the Lord"). Thus, to fail in the state's system--politically or economically--is to fall afoul of God.

This view is at the *heart of Javert's theological condemnation of Valjean. Valjean is not just a criminal in the eyes of Javert, he's a sinner "fallen from God, fallen from grace." Thus Javert prays to God to help him find Valjean to restore order and harmony to the moral universe.

At the opposite end of the continuum from Javert we have the idealistic and revolutionary political theology of Enjolras. The wealthy student-revolutionaries are scandalized by the plight of the poor and plan to lead a violent popular uprising (Victor Hugo based these events on the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris).

Though Enjolras and Javert find themselves in conflict, I place them on the same continuum as each seeks to take or use political power as means to accomplish the ends of God. They are the poles of Constantinianism on the one hand and Revolution on the other. But both agree that we need to "take charge" of the world, violently so, for the Kingdom to come.

And picking his way through these political theologies is Jean Valjean, the hero of the story.

I'd like to use Valjean to make a contrast with both Javert and Enjolras.

Regarding Javert, we see how Valjean's grace eventually explodes Javert's worldview. This conflict, the conflict between grace and law, drives much of the dynamic between Javert and Valjean.

We come to see that God is aligned with grace and love as displayed by Valjean rather than with the justice embodied by Javert.

The love, grace, and mercy of God cannot be reduced to the way political systems define and enforce law and order or the way economic systems define winners and losers.

Valjean is poor and a criminal. That's how Valjean is seen by "the system," by Javert. But we see that the system is wrong and satanic. We see that Valjean is a saint. He embodies the truth of God.

The contrast with Valjean and Enjolras isn't one of direct confrontation as between Valjean and Javert. But I'd argue that a contrast is present in *how Valjean and Enjolras relate to the poor.

Les Misérables can be variously translated as The Miserable, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims. These are the people the story revolves around, and we see Valjean and Enjolras approaching les misérables in different ways.

Again, Enjolras's remedy is one of *violent revolution. And yet, these are idealistic, well-to-do "schoolboys" contemplating injustice philosophically and, one could argue, somewhat abstractly and distantly.
This isn't to be judgmental, just to draw out a contrast with Valjean's interaction with les misérables.

In contrast with Enjolras, Valjean's relationship with les misérables is more personal. For Valjean there are no abstract discussions about corrupt political systems, there is only Fantine.

Fantine is the embodiment of les misérables, her story is the incarnation of tragedy, exploitation and victimhood. (Incidentally, in the movie Anne Hathaway's performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" is utterly soul-crushing, the singular performance of the movie.)

What drives Valjean for most of the story is his personal, concrete and lifelong commitment to Fantine, in particular his commitment to care for Cosette, Fantine's daughter. And I'd argue that this is a contrast with the revolutionaries at the barricade.

For Valjean les misérables are not "the people" or "the poor" in the abstract but a particular person with a name. For Valjean les misérables is Fantine.

Incidentally, I think this is an important contrast for churches to ponder. For example, in my own faith community there is a lot of abstract talk about "the poor" and "the homeless." More, a lot of the members of my church are pretty passionate about "the poor" and "the homeless." But the vast majority of these same people don't actually know any poor or homeless people or count them among their friends. In short, they have no Fantine, no concrete personal relationship. All they have is the abstract radical rhetoric of liberals.

And finally, for my left-leaning and revolutionary friends who think I'm being too hard on Enjolras let me make a concluding observation.

I think it's noteworthy that in the story Valjean comes to care for Fantine because he is confronted with his own complicity in her tragic story. Valjean is both mayor and factory owner--politician and capitalist--and he presides over the systems that victimize Fantine.

Fantine's life becomes fatally tragic because Valjean, the politician and capitalist, "turned away." When Valjean is finally confronted with his sin he commits himself to the care of Fantine and Cosette. This is, we might say, the second conversion of Valjean in the story, a conversion that stands as an indictment of the economic and political systems that create victims like Fantine.

And what of Valjean's first conversion?

That occurred, as we all know, when Valjean is given the candlesticks by the priest as an act of forgiveness, mercy and grace.

A gift that buys Valjean's soul for God. And what we witness in Les Misérables are the cascading ripple effects of that singular act of love and kindness. That act of grace changes the world. That act of mercy saves Valjean who goes on to save Fantine, Cosette, and Marius. And even Javert.

Two candlesticks--one act of mercy--saved them all.

And in contrast to Javert and Enjolras I wonder if those two candlesticks isn't the political theology WE are all called to embrace.
[I know I WILL...Think on that].


The conversions of Jean Valjean can provide a lot of insight into our Christian lives.

The first conversion is the receiving of grace, and the turning away from a life of sin to "become an honest" [righteous/holy] man. But this is not enough.

The second conversion is the recognition that grace is intended to not merely make us honest people, but also to make us agents of love and mercy in the world.

The first conversion is a turning away; second is a turning toward something. Most of us, perhaps, are stuck in the first conversion. We turned away from sin and became better people. But the second conversion-responsibility to work for the good of others and to be Christ in the world--eludes us.

I would say there is a third conversion. Valjean has opportunity to keep Cosette for himself--She resides in the softest place in his heart. But instead of going to England like he planned, he recognizes that to love Cosette is to secure Marius. In order to secure Marius, it means he must go where Marius is-behind the barricades. Fight...and then even through the sewers. Valjean gives away his prize.

The second and third conversions really are an extension of the first conversion. Valjean spends his whole life *tested* to see if the 'moment of grace' was real.

"Who am I?
That is the song he sings.
Is conversion escaping his past or does conversion redeem the past?

It is telling that the only one who is not a "miserable" is the Bishop--He is the only one who is free. And it is telling that when Valjean finally comes clean about the past to Cosette that then he is free and dies. And then the first person who he sees at that moment is the Bishop. Valjean's whole life is redeemed.
No more secrets, no more shame.

These conversions really speak to the issue of having an "experience" of grace vs. becoming an "agent" of that grace.

We love the former but balk at the latter.

And...NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!

What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,“That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” (Romans 3:3–4)

Our concern with truth is an inevitable expression of our concern with God. If God exists, then he is the measure of all things, and what he thinks about all things is the measure of what we should think.

Not to care about truth is not to care about God. To love God passionately is to love truth passionately. Being God-centered in life means being truth-driven in ministry. What is not true is not of God.

Indifference to the truth is indifference to the mind of God.

Our concern with truth is simply an echo of our concern with God.

1) God Is the Truth

Romans 3:3–4 (God the Father): “What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.”

John 14:6 (God the Son): Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

John 15:26, (God the Spirit): “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me . . . .”

2) Not Loving the Truth Is Eternally Ruinous

2 Thessalonians 2:8–12: “They will perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”

3) Christian Living Is Based on Knowledge of the Truth

1 Corinthians 6:15-17: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her?”

4) The Body of Christ Is Built with Truth in Love

Colossians 1:28: “And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.”

How to Slide Away From God in 9 Easy Steps

How to Slide Away From God in  9 Easy Steps:

1. Stop meditating on the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. Neglect your devotional times in the Word & prayer.

3. Allow yourself to enjoy some small, sinful pleasures.

4. Isolate yourself from Christian fellowship in action & attitude.

5. Stop serving.

6. Stop going to church.

7. Determine that Christians are hypocrites because they
continue to sin.

8. Trade Christian community for 'distinctly' unChristian company.

9. Pursue rebellious & destructive conversation and fellowship.

Rather, Grow in the Grace of God:

And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.  (Acts 20:32 ESV)

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior  Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.  (2 Peter 3:18 ESV)

Cover to Cover? Why Read the Bible?

Reading the Bible cover-to-cover each year is a resolution that is both noble and realistic. Today we have many apps and guides to help us with the process of our Bible reading. But at the start of our new year it’s helpful to look at the aim of our Bible reading. Why do we read the Bible?

My mentor, John Piper, explained it this way:

I have a burden for my people right now, just like I do for myself, that we get beyond propositions and Bible verses... to Christ. I do not mean “get around” Bible verses, but “through” Bible verses to Christ, to the person, the living person, to know Him, cherish Him, treasure Him, enjoy Him, trust Him, be at home with Him. I want to count Him more to be desired than all other things — wife, husband, children, success in career, leisure, vacations, health, food, sex, money. He’s more precious.

Bible reading is meant to deepen our personal relationship with Christ.

Ideally, reading Scripture in communion with God makes it possible for our objective response to God’s word to merge with our personal response to him, as John Piper explained in his article on Bible reading published in the back of The ESV Study Bible:

"When we *seek* to enjoy communion with the Lord — and not to be led astray by the *ambiguities of religious experience — we read the Bible. "

From Genesis to Revelation, God’s words and God’s deeds reveal God himself for our knowledge and our enjoyment. Of course, it is possible to read the Bible without enjoying communion with God.

We must seek to understand the Bible’s meaning, and we must pause to contemplate what we understand and, by the Spirit, to feel and express the appropriate response of the heart.

God communicates with us in many ways through the Bible and seeks the response of our communion with him.

If God indicts us (2 Cor. 7:8–10), we respond to him with sorrow and repentance.
If he commends us (Ps. 18:19–20), we respond to him with humble gratitude and joy.

If he commands us to do something (Matt. 28:19–20), we look to him for strength and resolve to obey with his help.

If he makes a promise (Heb. 13:5–6), we marvel at his grace and trust him to do what he says.

If he warns us of some danger (Luke 21:34), we take him seriously and watch with a thankful sense of his presence and protection.

If he describes something about himself (Isa. 46:9–11), his Son (Mark 1:11), or his Holy Spirit (John 16:13–14), we affirm it and admire it and pray for clearer eyes to see and enjoy his greatness and beauty.

Reading the Bible from cover to cover in 2013 is a noble goal. And it’s a goal that positions us well to commune with God. Keep *communion* as your aim, and remember the words of Scripture are there for us to *know God’s heart*, to commune with the Living Christ, and to respond appropriately to his beauty and to his voice.

Drink Deeply! 2 Cups down.
Robbs

The SPIRITUAL CRISIS Today

“Alister McGrath, the Oxford theologian and penetrating observer of American evangelicalism, describes a “Crisis of Spirituality in American Evangelicalism.”

Evangelicals have done a superb job of evangelizing people, bringing them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, but they are failing to provide *believers*..."

...believers with approaches to living that keep them *going and *growing in spiritual relationship with Him.…

MANY start the life of faith with great *enthusiasm, only to discover themselves in difficulty shortly afterward. Their *high hopes and *good intentions seem to fade away. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh proves weak.… People, then, *need support* to *keep them going* when "enthusiasm" fades."

The book has grown out of the conviction that behind most wrong living is wrong thinking.

Jesus calls us, for example, to a radical purity. But I find that many Christians have no *categories for thinking clearly* about the *commands and *warnings and promises of Jesus. When he says that we should pluck out our lusting eye, he backs it up with a warning: “For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29).

Threats of going to hell because of lust are simply not the way *contemporary Christians usually talk or think. This is not because such warnings aren’t in the Bible, *but because we don’t know how to fit them together with other thoughts about grace and faith and eternal security.

We *nullify the *force of Jesus’ words because our *conceptual framework is disfigured*. Our Christian living is lamed by sub-Christian thinking about living.

I have found in almost forty years of preaching and teaching and struggling with people who *want to be authentic* Christians, that the way they think about Christian living is often +absorbed from the cultural air we breathe* [to include church culture] rather than learned from categories of Scripture.

Not only that, some of the *inherited categories of “Christian” thinking are so out of sync with the Bible that they work *against the *very obedience* they are *designed to promote.”

Claims of this book is that the Bible rarely, if ever, motivates Christian living *with gratitude*. Yet this is almost universally presented in the church as the “driving force in authentic Christian living.” I agree that gratitude is a beautiful and utterly indispensable Christian affection. No one is saved who doesn’t have it. But you will search the Bible in vain for explicit connections between gratitude and obedience.”

If gratitude was never designed as the primary motivation for radical Christian obedience, perhaps that is one reason so many efforts at *holiness abort*. Could it be that gratitude for bygone grace has been pressed to serve as the power for holiness, which only faith in future grace was designed to perform? That conviction is one of the main driving forces behind this book.”

Charles Spurgeon:

“We shall bring our Lord *most glory if we get from Him much grace. If I have much faith, so that I can take God at His Word … I shall greatly honor my Lord and King.”

Excerpt From: Piper, John. “Future Grace, Revised Edition.” Multnomah Books, 2012-09-25. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=545154355

DON'T READ YOUR BIBLE LIKE THIS!

When it comes to daily (or not-so-daily) Bible reading, January 1 can be a welcome arrival. A new year signals a new start. You're motivated to freshly commit to what you know is of indispensable importance: the Word of God.

Yet this isn't the first time you've felt this way. You were entertaining pretty similar thoughts 365 days ago. And 365 days before that. And 365 days . . . you know how it goes.

So what's going to make 2013 different? What, under God, will keep you plodding along in April this year when staying power has generally vanished in Aprils of yore? From one stumbling pilgrim to another, here are five suggestions for what not to do in 2013.

1. Don't Overextend

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!"

This hackneyed high school yearbook quote is bad advice for most things, Bible reading plans not excepted. If you shoot for and miss the "moon" of six chapters a day, you won't quietly land among the "stars" of three. You'll just be lost in space.

It's better to read one chapter a day, every day, than four a day, every now and then. Moreover, the value of meditation cannot be overstressed. Meditation isn't spiritualized daydreaming; it's riveted reflection on revelation. Read less, if you must, to meditate more. It's easy to encounter a torrent of God's truth, but without absorption---and application---you will be little better for the experience.

2. Don't Do It Alone

When it comes to Bible reading consistency, a solo sport mentality can be lethal. Surely that's why many run out of gas; they feel like they're running alone. To forestall the dangers of isolation, then, invite one or two others to join you in 2013. Set goals, make a commitment, and hold one another accountable. Turn your personal Scripture reading into a *team effort, a community project.

A daily devotional, too, can function as a helpful companion and guide. D. A. Carson's For the Love of God (Volume 1; Volume 2) (What I use!) and Nancy Guthrie's Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, How To Read The Bible For All It's Worth by Gordon Fee are excellent options.

3. Don't Just Do It Whenever

Every morning we awaken to a fresh deluge of information.

Therefore....
It is imperative, then, to set a specific time each day when you will get alone with God. Even if it's a *modest* window, guard it with your life. Explain your goal to those closest to you, and invite their help. Otherwise, the tyranny of the urgent will continue to rear its *unappeasable head.

What is urgent will fast displace what is important, and what is good will supplant what is best!! (yeeehaaa)

If your basic game plan is to read your Bible whenever, chances are you'll read it never. And if you don't control your schedule, your schedule will control you. It's happened to me more times than I care to admit.

4. Don't Live as if Paul Lied

Did you know Leviticus and Chronicles and Obadiah were written to encourage you? That's what Paul believed, anyway: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Rom. 15:4; cf. 1 Cor. 9:10; 10:6, 11; 2 Tim. 3:16).

What a sweeping word! Paul is going so far as to claim the entirety of the Old Testament is for you---to instruct you, to encourage you, to help you *endure, and to give you *hope.

Few of you will conclude Paul is simply mistaken here. Good Christians, after all, are happy to take inspired apostles at their word. But does our approach to our Bibles tell a different story? Do we act as if Numbers or Kings or Nahum has the power to infuse our lives with help and hope?

Whenever you open your Bible, *labor to believe that God has something here to say to me. Whatever I encounter in his Word was written with me, his cherished child, in view. So pursue God's graces on the pages of Scripture this year. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow everywhere await.

5. Don't Turn a Means of Grace into a Means of Merit

Your Father's love for you doesn't rise and fall with your time alone with Him. If you are united to Jesus by faith, the verdict is out, and the court is dismissed. You're as accepted and embraced as the Son himself. Period.

To be *sure, you'll "desire" to hear and follow his voice if you're truly one of his sheep (John 10:1-30; cf. 8:47; 18:37). Not always and not perfectly, of course, but *sincerely and *increasingly.

So commit yourself anew to becoming a man or woman of the Word. But don't overextend, do it alone, just do it whenever, live as if Paul lied, or treat means of grace like means of merit.

Your Bible is one of God's chief gifts to you in 2013. Open, read, ruminate, and obey. May you be ever transformed into the image of our incarnate King, and may he alone receive the acclaim.