Month: March 2013

Kind Intentions

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

We’re all familiar with the old saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Well, I don’t know about all of that, but I do know that the road to eternal life is paved with kind intentions- God’s kind intentions. Yep, Ephesians 1:5 tells us, “He [God the Father] predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will…”(NASB) I really don’t want to get into that tired old debate about the sovereignty of God vs man’s freewill, but rather the significance of the fact that in Christ, God had kind intentions towards us before the world was ever created.

a fathers loveI love the way the NLT renders Ephesians 1:3-8 “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.”

I think if the only portion of the Bible you had were these few verses, you’d have enough to ponder for the rest of your life. I mean really, let’s break it down.

1) We’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing that God has to bestow

2) As we stand under the scrutiny of God’s holy gaze we are holy and without fault

3) God planned all of this in advance

4) God has adopted us

5) God wanted to do this and it brought him pleasure

6) We are free and forgiven through Jesus’ blood

7) God has showered his kindness, wisdom, and understanding on us

8) All of this is brought about, contained, and maintained in Jesus

Man, talk about kind intentions! Can I get a witness?

And as if all of that were not enough, allow me to refer you to verse 19 & 20 of the same chapter. “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” The same power God used when he raised Jesus from the dead is the same power he exerts in your life. Say what? That’s right; the awesome resurrection power of God is at work in you my friend. That is, if you are in Christ. And if you’re not, the Holy Spirit can baptize you into him today. You can come and receive from the kind intention of God right now, and be filled with his precious Spirit who is the guarantee  that God will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.

Before there were stars, before the sun and moon were created, when the foundations of the earth had not yet been laid, God had kind intentions towards you, in Jesus. Only one question remains.What are your intentions towards him?

Body Life

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” (Ephesians 4:16)

Sometimes I wonder how it can be that even though I have been invited into this relationship with the living God, there are times when I feel so distant from the Lord. There are times when it is so hard to pray, so difficult to go into the prayer closet and seek His face. I mean really, here I am, involved with God almighty, and all I can muster up is a few measly moments of communion with him. He who deserves my every thought, my undivided attention, my absolute loyalty and devotion, so often finds me distracted and frigid. Dear Lord, how can I minister to others when it’s me who stands in need?

I think something we often forget is that fact that we so desperately need each other. I’ll even go so far as to say that you can’t truly grow and mature properly in Christ without consistent fellowship with the saints. As I sat in church this morning, after leading the congregation in worship with my fellow worship leaders, listening to my pastor preach; I was reminded of the reality of the fact that “…As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.” Just being with my brothers and sisters this morning brought refreshing to my soul, and strengthened my heart. Another verse that comes to mind is Colossians 3:16 where Paul said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Oh, make no mistake my friend, we are inextricably bound together.

For too long, we here in the West have turned inward and made the Christian walk a solo affair in which the body of Christ is just a fact of life we acknowledge as true, but impacts us  hardly at all. Let me just come on out and say it, “You wont make it alone” Yes, each of us are called as individuals who are to have that one on one relationship with Jesus. But while we are indeed called as individuals, we live as a body. We are not like a body, or similar to a body, but rather we are the body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Listen preachers, pastors, teachers, whatever; you need the body just like everyone else-perhaps more. Just because someone is called as the “professional, full-time minister” does not make them exempt from the ups and downs of the Christian walk. We all get tired, we all struggle, and the Body is that which the Lord has created to strengthen us and build us up in love. It’s sad, but for many, pride gets in the way and we put up walls keeping out the very ones who are to be our help. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!”

Are you tired? Has your heart gotten a little cold? Pastor, are trying your best to hide the fact that you’re struggling? We don’t have to play games with each other. Each of us was saved by grace, through the faith that we received as a gift from God. What reason do we have to be proud? I brought nothing to the table, and if He didn’t keep me I’d surely fall away. The thing is, it is His people that He so often uses that helps keep us together. If you’re in need of a nice cool refreshing drink of living water, it may very well be in fellowship with your brothers and sisters that you’ll find it.

(The Parenthesis) Living in the Spaces In Between

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

We read His-tory from the Old Testament on through the New Testament, and for so many of us, we don’t even think about that huge 400 year gap between the testaments. I mean really, there’s a huge space, a parenthesis if you will, between the Old and New testaments. Alexander the Great had come along, the Maccabean revolt, and so much more occurred in that space. When we open the New Testament, there are Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and many other groups that did not exist at all back in the Old Testament. They had sprung up in the “parenthesis,” complete with Messianic expectations that Jesus just didn’t quite meet. Hmm… the parenthesis.

Now in English grammar, a parenthesis is where you put thoughts or information that is not necessarily relevant to a complete understanding of the idea presented in the sentence or paragraph. In other words, if you didn’t have what’s in the parenthesis, you’d still be able to make sense of what’s being said. The parenthesis is not vital so to speak. But I want to suggest that in the dealings of God, it is those spaces in between, the parenthesis of life, which are vitally important to the way in which we think about God, as well as our becoming who God wants us to be. As strange as it may seem, I think the religious/political climate of Jesus’ day in many ways mirrors our own time. And if we aren’t careful, as the Church occupying the space between Christ’s first and second coming, we could end up like the first century Jews.  We could wind up being religious people, going through the motions, who really have no idea of who God is at all. And it all stems from what goes on in the parenthesis. Let’s look at some of groups that came on the scene in the 400 year parenthesis in Israel’s history, and see if we can learn some things from them.

We are all familiar with the Pharisees. They were one of the most (if not the most) influential groups present at the time of Christ. They had developed what was called the Oral Interpretation of the Law of Moses which sought to elaborate on the various nuances of the law. (It would all be later compiled as the Mishna.) Remember when Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath? Well, the reason they got so upset about that was that in their eyes He had broken the Sabbath. Jesus had instructed a man to carry his bed on the day when no work was to be done. Carrying the bed was work. And the time Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath, using His spit to make mud? Making the mud was considered work. They had actually begun to view their interpretations of scripture as holy as scripture itself, and this caused them (the majority of them) to reject Jesus. They had missed the point! They kept all the rules. They even added some, but in doing so had become hypocrites who, for the sake of their own traditions, made it hard for people to come to God. And if we as the church don’t have a righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees of Jesus day, as we occupy this space in between the first and second coming of Jesus, we could become hypocrites who reject what God is doing merely for the sake of our own traditions.

Now while we give the Pharisees a really hard time, in my opinion, it was actually the Sadducees who were the real bad guys. (One interesting note is that unlike the Pharisees, you never find it recorded in the NT that any Sadducee ever became a believer.) They were more or less the aristocracy. They were in charge of the temple, the priesthood, and oh yeah- buddy buddy with Rome. See, they had to have at least a decent working relationship with the local “Roman Civic Society” in order to keep things kosher. Be cool with Rome, and things could continue on as is. They rejected the Pharisaical oral tradition, as well as the resurrection from the dead and angels. In the parenthesis, they had developed a love for power and position, and were willing to kill to preserve it. “‘What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation’.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.’” (John 11:47b-50) They decided (along with the Pharisees) to kill Jesus and Lazarus too. Remember, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead and he was living proof that directly contradicted their religious beliefs, not to mention that an “out of control Jesus threatened all that they had come to love so much. The presence of True “supernatural” reality could undermine the prestige, position and power they had come to love in the parenthesis. We as the church of Jesus, in this time, must be willing to relinquish the control we so desperately want to maintain, and allow God’s Spirit to move as He so desires, even if it means the loss of our “respectability” and position. Ah, the parenthesis can be so dangerous.

(This post has gotten rather lengthy. To be continued…)

Love Song (Singing The Song of Solomon)

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

“I slept, but my heart was awake, I heard my lover knocking and calling: ‘Open to me, my treasure, my darling, my dove, my perfect one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.’ But I responded, ‘I have taken off my robe. Should I get dressed again? I have washed my feet. Should I get them soiled?’” (Song of Solomon 5:1-3)

Reading this, I couldn’t help but think of how often I respond to Jesus as Solomon’s bride did to him. How many times have I sensed the wooing of God’s Spirit, “Come, seek My face. Come and be with Me.” and failed to yield to his loving call. We can be so easily distracted by things, even good things, that we fail to remember that the most important thing of all is, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.”

How much we forfeit by busying ourselves with the lesser things, forgetting to choose the better part that is only found at the feet of Him whose “love is better than wine.” Who can compare to the Lord? Who else can but speak our names and the very love of God floods our hearts as His Spirit brings grace and mercy, restoring our strength with a mere whisper? “The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes…” I will wait for the Lord, for He will gladly sustain me with His word, words sweeter than honey, piercing my very soul. “Let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.”

Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips will praise You and I will bless you, lifting up my hands in Your name! I will sing to you O God for you are everything to me. “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” How can it be that You my Lord would love such a one as me? “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm…”

“I will seek him whom my soul loves. Draw me after you and let us run together! The king has brought me into his chambers.”

“The Bible” History Channel Style

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” John 5:39,40)

Tonight marks the airing of the first episode of the History Channel’s “The Bible,” and it seems as if a lot of folks are awfully excited about it. Me, I don’t know. I’m not in the loop as they say, and while “faith celebrities” like Warren and Osteen were privy to a sneak preview, like you; I’ll have to watch it like normal folks. As I have not seen the series, it would be foolish and presumptuous for me to comment on it; however, I will venture some preliminary thoughts.

I do frequently watch the History Channel, that is, when they actually air something reputed to be of historical relevance and not the so called “reality- TV” they seem to be promoting these days ( by the way, “The Bible” is produced by the reality-TV heavyweight Mark Burnett and his wife, the actress Roma Downey). On a number of occasions, when the History Channel has televised programs which utilize the Bible, I have observed gross mishandling of the scriptural texts. So, I suggest that if you watch this mini-series,  check out your Bible as to accuracy. The problem is, we live in a biblically illiterate culture. Many (even Christians) will accept the History Channel’s version of the Bible as “reality,” without having read the Bible themselves.

Most importantly, when the series moves into the New Testament, be discerning as to the way in which Jesus is portrayed. Watch to see if the History Channel’s Jesus is depicted as God. The Bible says that although Jesus is indeed fully man, he is also God the Son, the logos who is life itself. The Bible teaches that no one can “understand” God, come to him, or have any relationship with him, accept through Jesus. Jesus himself said in the book of John, “All who hear from the Father come to me.” I think the most important thing to watch for in this mini-series will be the way in which Jesus is depicted.

Regardless, of how it turns out, at least the series may prove to be a means by which the believer can enter into conversation with others about the Bible, in particular the Jesus of the Bible. So, if you watch “The Bible,” watch it with your Bible in your lap, be discerning as to how Jesus is portrayed, and be prepared to discuss it with those God brings across your path.