Thankful for a promise we can't comprehend

Happy Thanksgiving from The Electric Gospel.  We give thanks to God for the greatness of his promises to us -- including promises that we can't humanly understand.  I thank MacCartney Mendolla for sharing this week's message with us.

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Finding Comfort in Predestination

by MacCartney Mendolla

Predestination (or election) is a topic that Christians become squeamish about. However, the doctrine of predestination gives comfort to the believers because it assures them of their eternal life in Christ. Sometimes we want to put this doctrine on the back burner because it causes confusion, intimidation, and may cause “hurt feelings.” We don’t like thinking that our God wouldn’t select some for eternity in heaven. Our own human reason makes us feel uneasy about the doctrine of election because we like to think God chooses everyone to be saved.  Paul described the doctrine of election in this way:  God “chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:4-6).  These thoughts can make us uncomfortable because selection occurred before creation. Before we could even breathe or sin, God chose us. Our own human logic believes that if God created some to be elected then he had to have chosen some to damned. However, this is not the case. God wants everyone to be saved (as stated in 1 Timothy 2:4).

The doctrine of election also makes us uncomfortable because we don’t know if we have been selected, for that is veiled from our eyes. We cannot see the “list” of those selected. But we do have the Bible and it is God’s truthful Word.  “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).  Although we cannot see back into eternity and know who is elected, we can find comfort in our lives now and notice what God is doing for us and what he promises to do for us in the future. We also receive his Word by hearing, listening, and reading it. God has taught us to trust him.  And we do trust his promises, for God never breaks a promise.  This is the promise of God we hang onto:  “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).   

God elected some, but the Bible does not say he chose any person to be damned to hell. However, people can willfully reject God’s grace in Christ and not receive the inheritance of heaven, which is given to us through faith.  God’s election is not something by mere chance; rather, it is by God’s underserved love for us. Jesus said to his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16).  God chose us and there is nothing we could have done to become one of the chosen.  It is by grace that we believe in Jesus as our Savior and because of grace we will be in heaven.  Election is the starting point of our salvation and also a promise from God that we embrace by faith. The doctrine of election goes along with justification, sanctification, and salvation.

People all too often believe that they must do something to be saved. Unfortunately, no matter how many “good deeds” we do, it will never get us into heaven. Because of our sinful nature, we will never measure up to God’s standards of being holy and blameless. If it were up to works for salvation, grace wouldn’t be needed from God.  Paul affirmed this truth:  God “has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Timothy 1:9).  Because of Jesus’ redeeming work we can stand “holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4) already now and finally on judgment day. Jesus has already paid for our sins. Through him we believe in him and all he has done for us.

Christians, take comfort and reassurance in the doctrine of predestination. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith-and this not from ourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works—so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Take this gift given to us and believe in Christ Jesus our Lord who has saved us from hell and gives us eternal life through him. Continue to grow in the faith and knowledge of our loving God. Look forward to our eternity in heaven.

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"Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings" (Psalm 17:8).

Facing the future with hope

Emily Shank wrote the following message as a devotion project for a theology class with me this semester.  With her permission, I'm sharing it here more widely -- some worthy reminders for all people of faith in Christ.  

Trusting in God

by Emily Shank

                We all have times when we wish we had a crystal ball, something which will show us what our future holds, what the outcomes of certain decisions would be. There are times in our life when we face changes which seem quiet scary, when we are worried about things going wrong. There are also many things in life which are out of our control and make us feel anxious. Yet, the Bible promises us that we can find rest in trusting God. How can that become a reality though? It’s all very easy to say, but how do we manage to make it something we experience as an integral part of our Christian journey?

                Uncertainty about our futures can be unsettling.  I struggle when there seems to be a lot of uncertainty in my life. When my future holds a lot of unknowns.  There are many things to be concerned and worried about. When I was younger I think I enjoyed new things and embraced the adventure of change. I wonder what has made me want more consistency in my life? I think it also has something to do with experiencing too much change over the last few years. Being in college you meet new people and possibly change how you present yourself and also change certain ideas about your future.

                Trusting God is a fundamental aspect of our faith; we trust God to strengthen us during times of change. Trusting God brings comfort when we are facing situations out of our control which make us feel under pressure or anxious. Trusting God can bring us security, safety and rest.

God gives us his wonderful promise.  “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:  ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…’” (Isaiah 30:15).

Look at the words “in quietness and trust is your strength.”  There have been times when panic and stress have been more the emotions that I have felt. So, how do we know rest from trusting God no matter what life may throw at us?

1. Trusting God comes from knowing him and spending time with him.

Moses said to the Lord:  “Now therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider too, that this nation is your people.”  And the Lord said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest”  (Exodus 33:13-14).

Knowing God and knowing his presence with us through everything we face helps us in trusting him. We cannot know our future; we do not know what the outcome of the decisions we make in life will be; we will face change, trials and uncertainty. Through it all, one thing remains constant – God’s presence going with us.  As we take time to know God and spend time drawing near to his presence, we find it easier to trust him and find rest.

2. Trusting God comes from understanding our future and hope in him.

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

We will face hard times in life. There will be pain and difficulty, suffering and trial. However, God has a plan for us. A plan which gives us a future and a hope. We have an amazing promise of knowing our loving, wonderful Father God and above all things we can take joy, comfort and peace from this amazing, blessed relationship. No matter what we face in life we can be assured that we will spend eternity with him and that through the cross and resurrection of Jesus nothing can defeat us.

3. Trusting God comes from seeking God in His Word, through the counsel of others, and prayer.
 

God’s Word can provide us with so much comfort, strength and peace. The more we read it the more we understand who God is, his almighty sovereignty and his amazing power. He is faithful, full of love and completely just – our trust in him grows the more we read and understand the wonderful truths contained in His Word.

The support of other Christians also serves to strengthen us when we are struggling with the weight of worry and anxiety. We can grow in strength from their prayers, comfort and words. God’s presence is available to us through the Christians we have to lean on.

Trusting God, we go to him in prayer.  Whatever is worrying us, whatever uncertainty there is in our life, whatever causes us fear can be given to God in prayer. We won’t necessarily know answers but we will know peace and rest, having the knowledge that we can trust in his presence.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, please help to come to you with our daily struggles and to put our doubts and uncertainties to rest. Please help us trust in you completely by staying close to your Word, coming to you in prayer, and going to other Christians for guidance.  In your name we pray.  Amen.

Judgment Day - Books are Opened

It was my turn to lead college chapel service on Friday of this week, assigned to speak about Judgement Day.  You can view the chapel talk (from Nov. 14) on MLC Streams.  Or I've also included the manuscript of the message below, here on The Electric Gospel.  

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Balancing our Books

David Sellnow

All of us have a natural tendency to be bookkeepers.  We think like accountants, keeping track of things.  We keep track of every sort of statistic for our sports teams.  We use pedometers to log how many steps a day we are walking.  We monitor how many likes we have on Facebook or how many followers we have on Twitter.

You see the bookkeeping tendency already at a young age in children.  They like to keep track of the chores they have accomplished, get check marks on their chore chart or even better, little stickers or stars.  Little bookkeepers like to see their accounts growing.

I see the tendency in college students.  If you’re a college student, you may count up every point you can get on every assignment that you’re assigned.  And if an assignment is graded and the professor didn’t give you as many points as you wanted, you go up after class and talk to him and try to argue for more points.  Or you email the prof and ask, “Did you dock me for such and such?  Because I think I did such and such, or your instructions didn’t specifically tell me I had to do such and such.”  Or maybe you don’t have the nerve to complain to your professors, but you gripe among your friends about the grades you get.  “His grading is so unfair.  I deserve more points.”  Students are eager bookkeepers, wanting a gradebook full of points. 

Benjamin Franklin was a bookkeeper.  He kept books to chart his own good deeds each day. 

In 1726, at the age of 20, Ben Franklin set this goal for himself:  “I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time.”

In order to accomplish his goal, Franklin developed and committed himself to a personal improvement program that consisted of living 13 virtues, things like industriousness and temperance and sincerity and moderation. 

In order to keep track of his adherence to his listed virtues, Franklin carried around a small book of 13 charts. The charts consisted of a column for each day of the week and 13 rows marked with the first letter of his 13 virtues. Franklin evaluated himself at the end of each day. He placed a dot next to each virtue each had violated. His goal was to minimize the number of marks, thus indicating a “clean” life free of bad marks in his book.

Franklin admitted he never got the book completely clean.  (He liked beer too much, and flirting with women, and other foibles.)  But he said, “Tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, … yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been.”

[Information taken from ArtOfManliness.com.]

I don’t know how happy Ben Franklin was at the end of life when it was time for his final accounting before the Lord of all virtues.  But it seems he didn’t properly understand how the Lord keeps books in eternity.  And while Ben Franklin was more meticulous than most about his bookkeeping, I’d say the way he thought about the bookkeeping process of his life is the way too many people think of the books of their lives.  And that’s a problem.

The Bible section for today is a vision from Revelation that talks about books.  It’s also the section of the Bible that the website Listverse.com, which bills itself as “the original top 10 site” on the web, lists as the #1 Most Horrifying Moment in the Bible.

This is Revelation 20:11-15 ...

I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Being thrown into the lake of fire is indeed a horrifying thought.  But let’s talk about those books.  What are those books?  What’s in those books?  Everyone – whether great or small – has a book.  When Judgment Day comes, “the dead are judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”  Does that scare you?  Have you done enough for your account book to be in passable condition?

Well, actually, you know what the Bible says about how much you have to do.  You have to have a perfect book, a book that records flawless keeping of all God’s laws, impeccable and constant virtues.  You can be as diligent as Ben Franklin and still your book comes up short of what it needs to be.  So how can anyone be saved?  Those who are saved are those whose names are found written in the book of life.  If your name is in the book of life, the lake of fire poses no threat to you.  Don’t be afraid, Jesus saves you.

You do have an account book with God in heaven.  Think of it as a book that has two columns.  One column is for credits to your account of virtue – all the good deeds you are expected to do in keeping with God’s commandments.  The other column records your debits or sins – every time you have violated God’s commandments.  When the books are opened in heaven, you need a book that has a completely clean record in the sin column – not a single sin standing against your name … and a completely full record in the righteousness column – that every opportunity you ever have in life to do the right thing, do a good deed, fulfill a commandment of God, you have done so.

Does anyone have a book like that?  One person does.  Only one person.  One person who stood in our place and lived the life we ought to live, constantly and consistently obeying the Father’s will.  One person who was “tempted in every way just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15). One person has a record book with a completely clean, unstained column in regard to sin, not a single sin to list.  One person has a record book with a completely perfect, full account of good deeds in the column marked for righteousness.  Jesus Christ is the one person with a perfect book.  But when we become connected to Jesus, when the Spirit of God, through the Word of God, brings us to trust in Jesus by faith, our names are written in the book of life.  And for those whose names are written in the book of life, the book of Jesus’ life is credited to us also as the book of our lives – even though we didn’t do it, even though we didn’t deserve it, even though we haven’t lived it.  We are granted all the credit of Jesus—all the goodness and righteousness of his life.  We are forgiven of all the sins we have committed, on account of all that Jesus suffered in our place—even death on the cross under God’s horrible judgment.  As one of Christ’s apostles summed it up for us:  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  And so when our books are opened, they reveal these sorts of things:  Jesus will say to us, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:35,36).  We will wonder when we did all those things.  But all that Jesus did will be already credited on our account.  And on top of that, Jesus will say to those whose names are written in the book of life, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). 

So don’t fear the lake of fire.  And don’t fear that when your book is opened on Judgment Day, you won’t have enough in it. You won’t need to beg the Father in heaven to give you more points because you didn’t fulfill his assignments well enough.  You won’t be arguing that you didn’t understand his expectations and can he please just give you another chance.  Believing in Jesus Christ, your name is written in the book of life.  Believing in Jesus Christ, the book of your life that God opens on judgment day will show what Jesus has done for you and what you have done in Jesus.  And all will be well.

Don’t be afraid.  Jesus saves you.  

Heart, Soul and Mind

This week's blog post comes from a dear friend whose faith and passion I admire much ... and yet she realizes how much she needs the passion of Christ in order to be passionate for Christ.

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Passion for Christ

by Danica Scharlemann

Think for a moment of something that you are passionate about. Perhaps it's football--not only do you play, but you know the statistics of every NFL player and you know every rule to the game. You’ve joined every fantasy league you could. Every Sunday you are glued to the television; you never miss a game. You're simply addicted to the sport. … Maybe your passion is cooking. The moment you open the kitchen pantry, you are taken to another world. You instinctually begin creating formulas for fresh, delectable recipes. … For me it's piano. I've sat at the piano bench and lost myself for hours in the meditation of the sounds of each key. I wonder at the immeasurable amount of music that can be played with only 88 keys, 8 distinct notes, 10 agile fingers, 1 pianist.

Now, these are all great passions, wonderful blessings from our Lord, but think about how much time you dedicate to these hobbies. For some of us, they may consume our lives, at least for a season.  During his years of ministry among us, Christ preached, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind" (cf. Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27).  Read that again, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind." Have you ever done anything with all of your heart and soul and mind? God wants us to be passionate about him, loving him with every single part of us. If someone asked me to make a list of things I'm most passionate about, I doubt the first thing to come to my mind would be God. I would turn to things that interest or fascinate me, i.e. piano, math. I may mention my dedication to family and friends or loyalty to my place of employment. I don’t know how far down my list I’d have to write until I thought to mention God. Yet whenever I hear this passage, I simply brush it off as something that we are told time and time again, something that every Christian instinctually does. Yes, I go to church every Sunday. I've attended private Lutheran schools my whole life. For goodness sakes, I attend a college that prepares people to be ministers! Yet none of those facts are any type of proof that I love my Lord with ALL my heart, ALL my soul, and ALL of my mind. It’s as if we try to keep our relationship with Christ separate from our daily interests when we need to be integrating him into every moment of our lives.

We will always fail when trying to love God with all of ourselves. No matter how much passion we feel for our Lord, it is never enough. Yet, when we had no love for Christ, when we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). God felt so passionately for you, that he sent his Son to live perfectly and die gruesomely, just so that you may have life. This is the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He loves us with all of his heart, all of his soul, an all of his mind. His love for us is immeasurable--incomparable with anything that we have ever experienced.

Now I don't expect you to leave after hearing this and become some type of born again Christian, speaking only Biblical truths and studying only your Bibles. But perhaps if we spent as much time studying God as we do the football games each Sunday, perhaps then we may grow in passion for our Lord. Perhaps then we won't become stagnant in our studies of Scripture. Perhaps then we may begin to learn what it means to love our Lord with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds … as Jesus fills us up more and more in our hearts, our souls, our minds.