In what do we boast?

Webster 1828 dictionary says to boast is to glory in something, such as to speak of with laudable pride and ostentation (ambitious display) of merit or worth. It seems that the act of boasting itself is not the issue then, but the target of our boasting. That's why the question - in what do we boast?

I think most of us would confess that while we do sometimes direct our attention to the greatness around us, our most natural desire is to boast in ourselves - to want others to think well of us, to see us as worthy, desirable peeps. Even when we have low esteem and practice self-deprivation, we are boasting in pride of our self, focusing on projecting what we want others to think, to agree with us about our sense of unworthiness.The issue with boasting is not whether we think highly or lowly of ourselves, its that self is the target and source of our identity and value.


The prophet Jeremiah  (9: 23-24) reminds us "let man boast in this, that He (God) understands and knows me." Here the target of our boasting is not us but God. If we are to have any pride in our self its that God is the author of our self. He defines our identity and our value. He receives the glory, the laudable praise for everything about us. Our ambition becomes to display His merit and worth.

The Apostle Paul states that his ambition is to please God, which is to trust Him completely for well being of our self. When Paul looks at his own resume, he reminds us that he is Grade A prime beef. No one could boast about themselves as he could. Yet his resume is just, well lets say BS (manure), compared to his life being defined by faith in Jesus. 

In a world that is so unstable, where is stability? With a nature that desires to glorify self, in what should we boast?

A little pondering here can go a long way ..... 

through the eyes of a child

Recently I was asked to visit my granddaughter's 4th grade class on Career Day. This was a time the teacher had invited in mainly parents to tell the kids what they "did for a living" or what "job they had." I chose to take a little different approach and talk with them about what makes a career. I explained mainly that a career is a journey not a job and flowed from the "itches inside your soul", especially since I had personally done a number of different things from business executive to college professor, always considering what I was doing professionally as a calling.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to communicate with 10 yr olds because my seniors in college struggle much of the time getting what I trying to say. I found myself explaining many words like intrinsic motivation and psychology and manager, which caused me to stop and ask them questions along the way about what they understood. I was amazed at the time at what they could grasp and the responses they had to concepts I was sharing with them.

Yesterday I received a package from the teacher thanking me for my time and expressing how much the kids enjoyed my Career Day talk. That was nice and pretty much expected. What was not expected were letters the kids wrote me giving their perspective on what I was saying. On one hand they are hilarious but on the other quite surprisingly insightful. So I thought I would share a few of their comments on my blog.

"I think it is interesting that you work 2 days a week. I would really not like to have your job considering how much you work." (I think she means "how little I work", haha)

"I would not want your job because it's another time that you go to school."

"I think an interesting thing about your job is that you teach about jobs."

"I think it is very interesting that you gave us a college class when we are only 4th graders."

"I think I would not like this job because you see a lot of kids, don't you? Because you have to remember a lot of names."

"I learned that our career is like a journey. It is interesting that some of the students will come and ask you for help on certain things."

"I think it is interesting that you teach college students. I also learned you teach many subjects. I dont think I want to be a college teacher because sometimes college students are crazy."

"It was cool what you said, 'I teaching you kids college education, plus it was an hour long.'"

"I liked that you taught us all about what it was like being one (college professor)."

"I have never been good at Math like you are, but I am good at reading and writing. I also like Social Studies and Science. Do you use these skills in your job?"

"The most interesting thing about your job is you get to hang out (teach) with them. The cool thing is you go to a college. I've never been to a college."

"when I start working I want to be a prof just like you."

What was it Art Linkletter built a career on?   "kid's say the darnedest things!"

I am impressed with 10 yr olds!!  :-)

"Blessed are the meek"

I watch my wife with her dog Spot. I see Spot respond to her for her good pleasure. While he selfishly wants to go places and do things that he somehow knows he shouldn't, he refrains from his own natural desires and sits patiently watching Gail until he perceives she approves. He learns her wishes for him because he now belongs to her. He discerns when to sleep in the chair in the bedroom and when he can get in the bed. He waits til she is ready for him to sit in her lap before he jumps up. When Gail yanks on Spot's lease with disapproval of the direction he is going, he cowers in awe and respect for her intentions for him.

You may be asking about now, what does this have to do with the title of this blog. It seems Jesus had the image of a domesticated pet when He said, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." In the day of Jesus, the Greek word translated into "meek" was normally used to refer to a pet that was totally committed to its master. A domesticated animal that had every emotion and action in submission to the one in authority because of its desire to totally please that one.

Because Spot has proven to Gail that his actions are fully formed by his desire to please her, Gail gives Spot full advantage of our house. He is not penned up while she is gone. There are no places he cannot enjoy. In a sense he has "inherited" our home. This is the consequence of being "meek" and is what Jesus is pointing us to in this Beatitude. As we submit every thought, emotion, and action to the will of our master because we so fully desire the pleasure of His will, we inherit the dwelling place of our being, free to use and partake as we enjoy its provisions and privileges.

Interestingly, the Beatitudes begin each aspect of our life in Christ with the phrase " blessed are". Unfortunately this is often translated "happy are." However, the original word used here is makarios and means "the joy of being". The root word for happiness is hap. Happiness is our sense of favorable well being because or happenstances meet our approval. Blessedness on the other hand is a favorable well being independent of our circumstances. A well being of our soul that comes from inside, from the life of Christ in us. So this Beatitude is describing the nature of a Christian as being similar to Spot's. His well being is established by his desire to be fully aligned with Gail's will. His inner disposition provides his joy, the correlate to that is his full run of his domain, our house.

Such it is with those who trust Jesus for their well being, Our disposition is not one of fear or guilt or obligation, but of thanksgiving and peaceful assurance, which is the source of our joy. In concert with this is our freedom to fully enjoy and participate in the offerings of our domain, the earth in which we live.

Such are the musings of an old man whose wife has a pet dog named Spot .....

Behold the Lamb

In John 1:29 John the Baptist announces Jesus when he sees Jesus coming toward him. He shouts forth "behold the Lamb of God" speaking to the perfect sacrificial nature of Jesus. Sacrifice to the Jews meant an offering to God to appease Him for their own sin against Him. Sacrifice then to the peeps of John's time meant man's action toward God on their own behalf so they could then be acceptable to God.

John announces something astounding, that the person of Jesus IS the sacrifice to God on man's behalf. Interestingly, man is not the one making the sacrifice on their own behalf. God provides the PERFECT sacrifice when man cannot. It's God's act on behalf of man to reconcile man to Himself. BTW, that why Christianity is not a religion, which is man's attempt to establish his own relationship with God.

The point John is ultimately making about Jesus is that He "takes away the sin of the world." You ever thought what that means? Does it refer to Jesus's purpose is to correct all immoral behavior? Make peeps good enough for God by fixing what they do wrong? Does Jesus simply erase God's memory so He forgets what we've done or puts a blindfold on God so to speak so God doesn't see our misbehavior?

What are the key words here? First, world means inhabitants of the world or mankind. Next "take away" simply means that Jesus removes, not can remove but does remove. What does John mean by sin? This is where many peeps get confused. There are numerous different Greek words translated into the word sin. Most involve actions or behavior of humans, such as making a mistake, transgressing the law, or failing to meet moral code, and so forth. However, quite often in Scripture and in this case the word for sin, hamartia, literally means missing the mark. Its general application was to the true end of life and typically meant "to miss the true purpose of life as to not share in the prize." Thus, sin in this statement means that a person misses the point of the Gospel and doesn't see the Gospel as good news, not missteps in their life.

It would seem to me more beneficial for peeps, who wish to appease God so that they are acceptable to Him, to accept the sacrifice God made on their behalf than to produce acceptable actions on their own. The sin we should all attend to is not behavioral mistakes, moral failures, or transgressions of our actions but failing to receive the action God has already taken on our behalf, called the Lamb of God.

"Behold" means to see with absolute surprise. It is so amazing that our biggest and only failure is in receiving what God has done on our behalf in faith. Our eternal well-being is at risk but peeps of this world too often just can't believe this and so trust their own ability to be good enough for God and to produce from the world around them their own well being. This approach gets no piece of God's pie (provisions and privileges of the Heavenlies), and that's our sin.

probably worth pondering as much as our stock portfolio, or even where we going to go to dinner tonight :-)

the sign of a promise

Today at church a baby was baptized. This was a precious, innocent little baby girl beautifully dressed in her white lace baptismal gown. The preacher opened his comments with "I have some bad news for baby X. She has been born into a broken world. The world is brutal and will seek to harm her in many ways. In fact baby X will actually contribute to this brokenness with her own self centeredness."

I admit this is not the typical feel good infant baptism, but he was correct. The world is fallen, dominated by the Prince of this world, who works against God's purposes. We are all born with a sin inheritance, in bondage to self worship and gratification. I am sure the mom and dad of this infant already know how baby X desires to get her own needs met above the convenience and well being of her parents.

So what is purpose of the baptism? Obviously the child is not old enough to make a decision for Christ. She knows basically nothing compared to what she'll learn across her life time.

Baptism is a sign of what God promises baby X. Her parents want for God's sign of promise to be placed on her as she begins her life. No one but God knows her path, her decisions, her love for Him or not. However, we all who witnessed the baptism know that she has been committed to His promise with the sign of baptism. She will never have to live another day absent the knowledge of His promises.

God promises to protect her soul, to guard her heart. He does not promise the world will not create difficult circumstances for her, but that no circumstance can separate her from Him. He promises that she has all the privileges and provisions of the Heavenlies, His Kingdom, awaiting her and sealed for eternity. He promises that He will even love her forever no matter what kind of mess she makes.

Oh, BTW, her baptism reminds many of us that we too have been sealed with the sign of His promises. We may not be too good about keeping our promises, but He is perfect at it.

Good thing to ponder .......

the invisible and eternal

Paul tells the Corinthians "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Paul is reminding Christians that God works in the invisible and eternal realms of life. This is generally applied to our lives when we are having a tough go of it. That is primarily the context of this passage.

My question is why we don't apply this in other aspects of our Christian walk, particularly the aspect of "Holy living" as perpetuated by the notion of "the process of sanctification" (the topic of my previous post). The notion of cleaning up our selves to become more like Christ just seems to contradict Scripture in many ways. I have not been able to understand why theologians never mention the idea that sanctification means "set apart" but rather always focus on the process of becoming more Christ like. My question is in what way are we not Christ like from God's perspective and therefore need to become more so?

The reason it appears to us we are not Christ like is because our feelings and behavior, the visible parts of our life, seem far from being like Christ. This is true, but not the point. I believe that Christian theologians have to add to what God has done to and for us because our human condition forces us to accommodate the visible and temporal, but God doesn't. the Westminster Confession, one of the great reformed statements in history defines sanctification well in the beginning as an act of God's grace (although I still don't know why it does not say "God set us apart by His Grace for His purposes", that would be enough). But it has to add something about being renewed in Christ likeness as if there's more to be done that what God has done to sanctify us.

I could go on and on in my frustration about this but I will simply say,

if we as humans would anchor ourself in God's perspective, one that is invisible and eternal, we would not be tempted to define sanctification as a process because it would be natural (in our spirit) to see us as God does, a completed work in Christ. we don't need to be more righteous in His eyes, we already have the righteousness of Christ. It doesn't feel or look that way to us and others around us, but that's because the eyes are carnal, temporal and visible. we can only see sanctification as a completed work thru the eyes of faith, believing what God says about us, we are seated at His right hand in Christ Jesus right now, we are not working our way there!!
If anything is a "process" for us, its believing the sanctification we have, not trying to get more of it.

just something to ponder ......

A Preacher's misstep

I was visiting a Baptist church this Sunday, it really doesn't matter which one nor matter much that its Baptist, I heard a sermon that perpetuated what I find to be one of the greatest lies or missteps we get from the pulpit - The Process of Sanctification. I hear this all the time from Christians and they get it from preaching that just can't void itself of legalism. What? How can you say that Professor? OK, here's my case using Sunday as an example.

The preacher used some material from Wayne Grudem's book "Systematic Theology". He defines sanctification as a lifelong process of growth in the likeness of Christ. While spiritual growth  may be somewhat true of the Christian life, it is not what sanctification means. So how can someone just come along and define a word differently than its meaning? This is what our culture does, shapes words to fit what we want them to mean to perpetuate our own thinking, rather than to let the true meaning of words shape our thinking.

The Greek word in Scripture for sanctification is indeed derived from the same word for Holiness, but it means "set apart to Holiness", not the process of becoming Holy. The original Websters dictionary published in 1828 defines sanctification from the original language as "the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified, alienated from sin and the world (meaning the world's system, I call it social exchange) and exalted to a supreme love to God." Webster's then uses Scripture to illustrate, "God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Th 2 and 1 Peter 1). The key words here are "the act of God's grace". That is, it is God who sanctifies us in His action of choosing us.  

Some may say, "well Prof, aren't you just parsing words? In the end aren't these the same thing?" I say, "NO, NO, NO" to that. The problem is that the human condition is already bent toward legalism, the human's behavioral attempt at satisfying God through obligation to Him for what He has done for us. Grudem's definition and meaning of sanctification and the emphasis on "our process" just feeds peeps' already predisposed desire to contribute to their own Holiness. This desire we have to do something for God to make us "more Holy" is stinkin' thinking and robs us of our joy and burns us out. Working in our own strength to become Holy denies us reality of the finished  work of the Cross.

Let me illustrate. This preacher from Sunday included in his sermon notes a diagram from Grudem's book to help us understand sanctification as a collaborative work on our part. This diagram contrasts sanctification with justification, showing them to be somewhat opposites. He states that justification is a legal standing, accomplished once for all time, entirely God's work, perfect in this life and the same for all Christians. This is good, but that means sanctification is (according to Grudem) an internal condition, continues to occur throughout life, requires our cooperation, is not perfect (complete) in this life, and is greater in some Christians than others. WHAT?

Here's where this becomes dangerous for us. The preacher says, "have you developed a personal sanctification plan?" WHAT? You mean sanctification hasn't already occurred for me? You mean its something I have to make happen? Holy cow!! What a burden!!

In His final prayer Jesus cries out to God with His deepest desires, "sanctify them by your truth" (John 17). Jesus knew that only God sanctifies.  In fact God sanctified Jesus (John 10: 36). The writer of Hebrews says, "by that we have been sanctified." What did he mean by "that", our personal plan? No, he was referencing Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for us. See sanctification is not in contrast to justification, it is the other side of the coin. It is the state of Holiness we obtain by God's act of grace in our lives accomplished at the Cross. Its not something that has to be attained by us. We all have it equally and we have it completely. So why do peeps' all over the place talk about "the process of sanctification." Mainly because we don't feel Holy, we don't see ourselves as God sees us. Satan continually reminds us of how we haven't arrived yet.

It is true that we do not always act Holy. We are messy, flawed peeps in our behavior, but that does not make us something different than what God made us when He chose us and set us apart for His purpose. That is our sanctification. The problem is not that we are not fully sanctified, its that we don't believe it. We do not appropriate what we have. This truth has much greater impact on our life than the legalistic notion of our personal plan to grow in sanctification. Paul says in his first letter to the church at Thessalonica "that each of you should know how to process his own vessel in sanctification." Yes, we need to process the sanctification we already have, that came to us in salvation, but our life is not a "process of sanctification."

Amen goes here!!!
something to ponder when you want to kick legalism in the butt!!