the power of God

One of the biggest problems in the world today is that people have too small a view of God. It’s nothing new, of course. The ancient Greek mythology portrayed their gods as just a little bit bigger and more powerful, perhaps, but still basically like the human race, with all the foibles associated with man. In Rome, they considered the Caesars as gods, and were instructed to worship them as such. The same is true of the Egyptians, who worshipped the Pharaohs and built massive pyramids to preserve their embalmed bodies.

Most modern religions have the same limited view of God as well. New Age reasoning, which has it’s roots in Middle Eastern Zen, believe that god is within us, and all we have to do is reach a higher state of consciousness to unleash the god inside us all. The Hindu’s believe that in reincarnation we can continue to come back to life in a more elevated position until we reach god status.

But Jesus, in rebuking the Sadducees, a religious sect of the Jews, made a statement that not only answered their foolishness, but speaks to the core of the problem of people of religion everywhere. In Matthew 22:29 He says, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Not understanding the Scriptures is a given, since most people don’t really seem to care about truth as much as what they think. But what I would really like to focus on for a moment though is not understanding the power of God.

Like the Egyptians, or the Greeks, Romans and Sadducees before us, more often than not, we think God is just like us. And Jesus says, you are mistaken. You don’t understand the power of God. We can’t comprehend a God that by the power of simply His Word, hung the Sun in space which is 109 times bigger than our Earth, and lit a fire in it that burns at 5505 degrees Celsius. Or we can’t imagine a God that can create a star called Betelgeuse, that is at least four times bigger than the Earth’s orbit. The earth travels at a forward speed of 69,000 mph and is spinning at over 1000 mph. It takes 365 days, traveling 69,000 mph to orbit our Sun. And Betelgeuse is four times bigger than that orbit. We cannot even imagine a star four times bigger than earths’ orbit, much less imagine the power that it takes to create such a thing by the word of His mouth. We cannot comprehend God. When Jesus said you don’t understand the power of God that is the greatest understatement of all time.

When I hear people say, “I can’t believe in a God that would allow this or that.” Or, I believe that God is like this….” I am reminded of what Jesus said. “You are mistaken. First of all, you don’t understand the Scriptures.” You need to learn what God says about Himself rather than forming your own version of God from your speculation. Secondly, you don’t understand the power of God. And an improper view of God leads to a wrong theology. Too low a view of God produces a shallow Christianity that is more concerned with things of this world than the things to come in the next. And the things of this world, the Bible says, cannot compare with the glory to come.

1Cr 2:9 but just as it is written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."

Jesse Hines in concert, 2/3/2011

What is love?

When I was a kid I used to try to butter my mother up sometimes, hoping to get her to do something I wanted her to do, by telling her I loved her. Her response would usually be, “Son, love is action! Go clean your room.” It wasn’t that she didn’t love me. She just knew that lip service isn’t really love. It’s just self service.

Right in the middle of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth there is the greatest section of scripture regarding love found perhaps in the Bible. Oddly enough, it’s sandwiched right between two chapters that are talking about spiritual gifts. But it’s placement is crucial for a proper understanding of spiritual gifts. Because Paul knew that love has to be the motivation behind any manifestation of the spirit through gifts or it is just a bunch of noise designed to attract attention to oneself.

In fact, Paul says that even “though I were to speak with language of men and angels, if I don’t have love I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.” 1 Cor. 13:1. That was referencing someone that banged a gong in a busy street to attract attention to himself. And he goes on to say, “if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” He uses hyperbole to show extremes of spiritual gifts, exaggerations, in order to make a point. And the point is all of that is just self serving showiness, resulting in a big zero in God’s eyes, unless love is the motivation.

So the logical question then is, what exactly is love? The Greek uses the word agape for love in this passage. Agape is the highest expression of love. It is loving through self sacrifice, giving, serving others, not oneself. You see, God gave the gifts for the building up of the body (1 Cor. 12:7). Love isn’t an emotion, or affection. In fact, Jesus said if we have the kind of love that He has for us, we will even love our enemies. That doesn’t mean that I have to like my enemy, or like what he may be doing, but I can love him, or serve him, by showing him mercy and kindness as God showed me by sending Christ to the world as my sacrifice.

Finally, Paul gives 15 characteristics of love. And like my Momma said, they are all actions. All of them are verbs. Check it out: love is patient, love is kind, isn’t jealous, doesn’t brag and isn’t arrogant. Love doesn’t act unbecomingly, doesn’t seek it’s own, isn’t provoked, doesn’t take into account a wrong, doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. That kind of love is a tall order. It’s impossible in the flesh. And that is why we must walk in the Spirit, using the gifts of the Spirit, which are meant to produce the fruits of the Spirit. And the first of the fruits is love.

By the way, The Beach Fellowship is hosting a mid winter concert with pro surfer/singer/songwriter Jesse Hines and another great musical act Esther Faith, who will be performing on Thursday, February 3 at 6:30pm in Bethany Beach, DE. Show will be at the Christian Conference Center on Pennsylvania Ave. in the octagonal building. Jesse will also show a short video highlighting his pro surfing career and give his testimony. Admission is free. Hope you will make plans to come and bring some friends.

a new year's warning

In Matthew 21:33 Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and the elders of the people in the temple of Jerusalem. He has just cleansed the temple of the vendors and merchants and money changers. And they are asking him by what authority He does these things. So He gives another parable in verse 33 which would have been very familiar to students of the Old Testament as these men were. It was taken from Isaiah 5.

In verse 1 you have a parable regarding the land of Judah in Israel. And God tells through analogy how he planted a vineyard which was Israel and protected and provided for her and nurtured her. How He did everything He could do for her. And as a result of His providence He expected to see Judah produce fruit. But instead, the parable says that Judah produced nothing but worthless sour berries. And so He pronounces a curse upon them and says that He will remove His protection from them and let the animals and the thieves and whatever else may come in and ravage the land.

I cannot help but see the parallels of Judah to the United States today. We too were a nation that benefited from the blessings of God in a very special way. No other nation on earth had the blessings that America has had. No other nation in the world was founded as we are on Christian principles found in God’s word like America was. God used primarily religious persecution to bring a great nation of people together from many foreign countries. And God brought across the sea people from every nation and tongue to become the greatest nation on the face of the earth. This fledgling country with just a ragtag army was set free from the great British empire. From the very beginning it was established in the name of God. There were churches built on every street corner. God’s word is written on our government buildings, its verses were inscribed on our monuments, even our currency stated our trust in God, and for almost 200 years our schools used the Bible as it’s textbook. Our country went on to export Christianity to the world through missionaries to every continent on the globe. Some of the greatest revivals known to man swept across this country, turning men’s hearts to God with great fervor.

Yet as time went on, we like Israel grew complacent, and we grew more and more materialistic. We became consumed with materialism and the passions of the flesh. And little by little America has become a nation that is not defined by their Christian values anymore, but defined by our decadence and rampant consumerism. Even in our churches today, there is no real desire for true righteousness and holiness anymore. The light of the truth, for the most part, has dimmed in most of those churches on every street corner in America today. There is no desire for holiness, but instead the truth of the gospel has been replaced by the prosperity gospel, that teaches that God has granted us His protection and blessing so that we can acquire more and more materialistic things that we might indulge our passions and satisfy the lusts of our flesh. We have found teachers who teach us what we want to hear, or like the Bible says, “tickle our ears.” Our churches are not a place where we go to cry and repent and call out to God for forgiveness of our sins anymore, but instead they have become a mockery of holiness, a similitude of a nightclub or a country club where we celebrate what we think is our preferred status of blessedness, rather than repenting of our harlotry and friendship with the world.

It’s a frightful thing when God takes His hand of protection and blessing off of a nation, or a church, or a person. His providence and protection is designed to enable us to bring forth fruit. But that must begin with fertile ground. The heart broken in repentance produces good ground, fertile ground. Yes, America needs revival. But it must start in the church, and specifically in us.

We have a choice. Mat 21:44 says, "And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust." Jesus is that cornerstone. We either fall on Him in brokenness and repentance, or eventually He says we will be broken and scattered like dust, just like Israel was in 70 AD, in fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy.