Jeffrey Smith's Blog

Word to Your Mother

We think in linear fashion. God does not. The name Alpha and Omega buries that notion. That is why Jesus is seen in the book of Revelation as a slain lamb by John and is later referred to as the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. How can He die before there was anyone to die for? I think you get the point. That is why Gods Word is to be viewed as a complete work. God did not give Moses instructions to start out the first page of his book with the words "Old Testament". God did not give Matthew instructions to start out the first page of his book with the words "New Testament".

 

John 1:1 tells us that Jesus IS the Word. Not just the New Testament, the whole thing. Some people do not hold a very high view of scripture. If someone holds a very low view of scripture, they are likely to change God’s Word, interpret its meaning so drastically wrong that it becomes invalid, or just write part of it off. God’s written Word is the single most incredible thing we possess as believers. It is a miracle. You can’t fully understand one part of the Bible without the rest of it. It is inseparable. Jesus obviously held scripture in high regard.

 

1) “For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished.  Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:18-19 RSV

 

2) "It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid."  (Luke 16:17 NAB)

 

3)"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place."  (Matthew 5:17 NAB)

 

So did Paul and Peter.

 

4) "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness..."  (2 Timothy 3:16 NAB)

 

5) "Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the Holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God." (2 Peter 20-21 NAB)

 

Jesus came to fulfill the law. He did not come to abolish it. To not make a distinction between abolishment and fulfillment is to err.

 

There are 3 main types of Old Testament law.

 1.    Ceremonial Law- This has been fulfilled in Christ and as we participate in communion we look back on what all these laws looked forward to, the victorious Messiah.

2.    Civil Law- The civil codes have lost their context now that salvation is in Christ because we all live in different countries with their own civil laws, in a spiritual kingdom, and not in Israel, a temporal nation.  They are transformed into the practical application of church discipline.

3.    Moral Law- This law reflects God’s changeless character. It remains unaltered, although in Christ we are no longer condemned by our sins against it.

 

I’ve heard it said that “passages like Deuteronomy 28, don't apply to us any more. If they did, we couldn't get the blessings without also getting the curses.”

 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

”Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us… “(Galatians 3:13 NKJ)

 

He became the curse. If while redeeming us from the curse He also nullified us from the blessing, we’d all be up the creek. He fulfilled it.

 

The shadows, though dimly lit, of the Old Testament become the white-hot light of Christ that illuminates such blessing that we are literally called “co-heirs” with Him.

 

It is discouraging to see trends that seem to be occurring around Christianity where people insert and remove serious doctrinal issues of the Christian faith at will. This shows a very low regard for scripture and it is dangerous to say the least. God’s Word is a miracle. It is life, it is hope, it is salvation for those that believe and it is to be held in high regard.

 

 

 

 

 

Fear vs. Hope

Living life with a Biblical worldview can sometimes be uncomfortable when conversations with certain people reach a point of contention. Such a moment occurred with me the other day when I was asked, very frankly, by a self proclaimed atheist if I believed in a literal hell. My answer apparently enraged her. She considers the notion of hell to be a contrived means of manipulating weak minded people into following a bunch of made up rules so that organized religion can manipulate people to eventually drain them of all their money, intelligence, and free-will. (or something like that) Though it is not a very original argument, I was enjoying the conversation.

She told me that I can only compel others by fear because of the prospect of hell. This brings up an interesting point. Can we effectively preach the gospel without preaching hell? 

A couple of points to ponder.

1. Jesus clearly taught on hell.

 Matthew 8:11-12, Mark 9:42-48, Luke 16:19-31

2. Since God is omnipresent, hell is the presence of God in His full judgment and wrath.

3. Hell is just because God is just.

4. Hell is ETERNAL.

There is no such thing as just disappearing when we die. Jonathan Edwards said,  “Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God.”

When I answered the lady I was talking with I told her that I am compelled to preach BECAUSE I believe there is a literal hell. I told her my favorite part of the preaching is actually the hope of finding Jesus.

We need to preach with a balance. Preaching only hell would promote fear with no hope. Preaching only hope would make people lax because they wouldn't understand what they were being saved from. Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to save people from what??? Hell. 

Talk about hope, but don't back down from reality. People need the truth even if it is hard to hear.

Spiritual Gifts: Part III

Spiritual Gifts: Part III

 

Alright, this has been a fun “mini-series” for my blog. We will close it out today with Part 3. The chapter we have been studying begins by Paul stating his desire that this wild church at Corinth would stop being ignorant about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I believe there is a lot of ignorance even today about these gifts.

 

Paul masterfully addresses the subject in question in chapter 12, writes chapter 13 about the superiority of love over any gift (one of the major problems still…no love), then addresses the protocol necessary for the functional use of the gifts in public.

1 Corinthians 12:3-6

3            Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

4            There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5            There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

6            There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

 

It is important to realize the context here because clearly Paul is identifying the potential for people to misunderstand the gifts because they do not percieve the use of them the same as someone else. I will say this before I continue. Christians, that is people who follow Jesus Christ, need to come together more than ever in the world we live in. Arguing over doctrine damages the Body of Christ. It also weakens the Body of Christ. If you find a Christian that believes differently than you it is apropriate to discuss it with them once or twice, but Titus Chapter 3 tells us that we waste our time arguing when a persons mind is set.

 

So, the Spirit manifests Himself in various ways. 1 Corinthians 12 goes on to list 9 different “spiritual gifts”. I am going to categorize them according to their function and I will them elaborate on each a little further.

 

First, there are three vocal gifts.

The vocal gifts are those expressions of the Holy Spirit that say something.  The vocal gifts are: prophecy, different kinds of heavenly languages, and the interpretation of those languages.

 

1.     Prophecy-  Prophecy is the ability to hear and speak a word directly from God that, edifies, exhorts, and comforts others. (I Corinthians 14:3) It is spiritual, not intellectual, such as the natural ability we also have to discover the truth and the skill to figure out how and when to share it.

2.     Different kinds of languages- Acts Chapter 2 tells an incredible story of Jesus disciples receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit that He had been referring to. (John 7:38-39) In this instance the Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in other earthly languages. Those that heard them each understood in their own native tongue. Paul also refers to other types of spiritual languages in 1 Corinthians 14:13-18. Here there is a personal prayer language that he is talking about where his understanding is unfruitful but his spirit is edified, then there is a corporate spiritual language that he is giving directions to Corinth about. This is an unknown language that needs interpretation. Let’s look at point #3…

3.     Interpretation of languages- If someone spoke out publically in a service in an unknown language it would be confusing to everyone there if there was no explanation for the babbling. In my previous reference to 1 Corinthians 14 Paul even says let he that prays in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. So, there is the personal level of interpreting your own prayers in a heavenly language and there is the corporate interpretation of a heavenly language spoken in front of others.

 

* It is best to never speak in an unknown tongue publically unless you are absolutely certain you are able to interpret it yourself. Knowing this, prophecy is superior in that it eliminates the possibility of ruining a service by some strange utterance that is not interpreted. This disclaimer includes praying in your prayer language publically. If unbelievers hear you (or Christians with different beliefs) it can destroy the ability to move forward in that service.

 

Second, there are three revelatory gifts.

The revelatory gifts are those insights of the Holy Spirit that enable people to know something.  The revelatory gifts are: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and discerning of spirits.

 

1.     Word of wisdom- Let’s not make this more complicated than it is. This is supernatural wisdom on how to deal with any situation. If God has ever moved in your life and you walk away saying, “Wow, I just said that?”, you probably just had a word of wisdom.

2.     Word of knowledge- The Holy Spirit will give His people supernatural information at times, things people could not have otherwise known. It can be regarding anything. When Jesus told the woman at the well that she had 5 husbands plus the one she was living with, that was a word of knowledge.

3.     Discerning of spirits- Being able to spiritually recognize the motives in peoples hearts is a direct gift from the Lord. Romans 8:27 refers to the Lord as “He who searches the hearts”. When God shares that information sometimes it is to warn or protect us, other times it is to give us peace about a person. This is one of my favorite gifts. What a tool for living life!

 

Third, there are three power gifts.

The power gifts are those manifestations of the Holy Spirit that do something.  The power gifts are: the gift of faith, the working of miracles, and the gifts of healing.

 

1.     The gift of faith- Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith. All believers have some measure of faith. The gift of faith is a supernatural measure of faith to believe for things that we would otherwise be unable to believe for. There are times when we feel hopeless but God instills such great faith in us that He is going to do something amazing. This is not some great trait of our own, it in fact a gift of the Holy Spirit.

2.     The working of miracles- I’ve heard it said, “If you don’t believe in miracles don’t worry, you won’t get one.” The dictionary defines a miracle as “an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.” Each believer has access to the gift of miracles. John 14:12 challenges me as much as any verse in the Bible. I need the gift of faith to embrace it fully. It says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Jesus did some amazing things. He also gave us His own authority to do those things and greater things.

3.     The gifts of healing- Jesus not only healed people, but his followers did the same. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that His suffering purchased our healing. This gift is two-fold I believe. One aspect is the ability to receive healing from the Holy Spirit for any sickness at any time. The other is the spiritual gift to encourage others in receiving their healing.

 

 

I believe that the greatest use of all the gifts is in the personal day to day life of the believer. If every believer exercised these gifts in their own personal life with regularity, not only would the corporate use of the gifts be more effective and reliable, but believers would be much more mature and full of faith.

 

All these gifts function in the realm of faith.  They are received by faith, and they are exercised in faith.  They are not signs of "spirituality," but they are a sign of faith and believers should strive for spiritual maturity as they incorporate them into their lives. The use of the gifts should NEVER replace personal prayer time and time spent growing in God’s Word.

 

If any of these gifts confuse you please do not be discouraged. God gave them to you because He loves you and wants to bless you. Pray about them. Ask God to give you greater understanding. Receive them and exercise them in faith and the desire to be a great blessing to those around you and to the church.

 

Be encouraged in your faith! Wow, that took a long time =) 

Spiritual Gifts: Part II

Better to Receive?

If God gave you a gift would you receive it? That is the question I ended Part 1 of this blog with. I think when the question is asked with no context, almost anyone would enthusiastically say, “Yes!” God has, in fact, given us many gifts. Salvation is the greatest gift of all.

Rom 6:23



23            For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I am happy that I received God’s gift of salvation. When it comes to the gifts He has given us there is such an awesome degree of intentionality on His part. It makes me want to treasure the gift all the more. As a shepherd, or a pastor, I appreciate the gift God has given me to help lead people closer to Him, to watch over them and to build them up. We see in this scripture that the Lord gave these gifts, which are many times are vocational, specifically so Christians could be built up.

Ephesians 4:8, 11&12

8            When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.

11             And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 

12             to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

What is really cool about God’s gifts is that He never regrets giving them. (Think of gifts you’ve given ex’s…Grrrr)

Romans 11:29

29            For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

I am trying to stress how special we should feel when offered a gift by God. The true value of a gift is when it is received with joy.  

In the final installment of this blog on spiritual gifts I will address the gifts themselves and I will try to outline their functionality for the individual believer and for the church as a whole.

Until then get in a receiving kind of mood ;)

Spiritual Gifts: Part I

A Wild Church

<sub>1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14 have always been so awesome to me. Let me explain why. The church Paul was addressing the church at Corinth, one of the most immature, enthusiastic, sinful, yet hopeful churches imaginable. They were messing everything up. They didn’t know how to do communion. They were going wild using spiritual gifts without order. They were having orgies and yet still showing up to worship passionately. They were trying to one-up all the other leaders in the church with their deep spirituality while still practicing extreme paganism. These people were wild, but they loved Jesus. They were new in their faith but they didn’t quit just because they were doing it wrong. They kept pushing forward (with the help of one extremely wise apostle).

In these chapters you find an amazing story of Paul explaining the “gifts” of the Spirit to these energetic people. The context of these chapters is one of rationale and gentle correction. He is not chewing them out. He is lovingly explaining why they are doing things wrong and how to get a proper perspective.


Go!

"Spiritual gifts” is really a beautiful term. I love gifts. Most people do. I also love giving gifts. At Christmastime, my favorite part of our tradition is handing everyone their gifts from me and saying, “go”. (Ok.OK. receiving an autographed Bobby Bowden helmet doesn’t exactly stink). It is generally rather insulting to the one giving a gift if the other person will not accept or receive that gift. In Nigeria I had a precious, hard working man that came up to me with a huge smile on his face after my teaching that night. He explained that he had been liberated by the message and he would never be the same. He took off his watch and put it in my hand. It was a gift. My first thought was to graciously decline but I looked into this mans eyes and saw through his adorable toothless smile that this gift represented much more than a watch,  and to receive it would mean the world to him. I put this cheap watch on my arm and watched the tears stream down his face in gratitude. I received it gladly.

I am going to write a part 2 for this topic and I will explain some of the functions of the gifts for our lives. I felt it was best to start the concept with the framework so you can meditate on what a gift is.</sub>

_{If God gave you a gift would you receive it?}

_{Part 2 is coming soon…}

Living Martyrs

I received an email from a person who was thinking about the story behind “How He Loves” by John Mark McMillan. If you are unfamiliar with the story I suggest that you search You Tube for the testimony, it is powerful. The idea is that a young man said in a prayer meeting that he would die if it led to a youth revival in this nation. That night he died in a car accident. The song was written by his best friend the next day about the young man meeting God for the first time.  This email was pressing on me because the person was wrecked at the fact that they did not believe they could literally lay down their life for a stranger. They began to feel guilty because of their concern for their children and their own life above self-sacrifice. I have been studying a lot lately about love. The giving of one’s self to prefer another, actually really simple, yet complex stuff. I wanted to post my response to the email in this note as I felt it shed some light on this subject of sacrifice. I asked the person if they would mind me posting this in my blog and they said, “No”, so here it is: It is a process, when living for Christ, to become accustomed to death.  I believe when you look at the apostle Paul, he typifies this statement perfectly. He was already used to death BEFORE he came to Christ, the killing and persecution of Christians. We find through his writings even more talk about death. "I die daily, It's no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me, to live is Christ to die is gain", it goes on and on. The thing that makes this dudes life so legitimate in this area is that he spent so much time in jail learning how to die to himself, then he eventually had his head cut off. So he could be described as having "a life of death". When you are maturing in Christ, or even extremely mature in Christ for that matter, it is easy to ask yourself the question, "Do I have what it takes to lay down my life ?". Sometimes this is more of a contemplative thing as we try to search ourselves for fortitude. But as we see with Paul, the laying down of one's life is a process of maturity. When Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a brother", there are so many layers to that. The first layer of that is "love your neighbor as yourself", not running into a burning building to try and see if you can rescue anyone. If literally dying for another person were the purpose of our lives, it would be extremely non-spiritual to choose a career that was not life threatening. There is a death that must occur in order to truly PREFER someone over yourself. That is hard enough by itself. As beautiful as the story is of John Mark McMillans friend who said he would lay down his life if it brought revival to this youth of this nation, it is not any greater of a statement than people who die daily to themselves, that Christ may have His way in the lives of everyone they meet. In fact it is the SAME THING. I would call this, with great respect to all men and women who have literally given their lives for Christ, being a LIVING MARTYR. The thing that becomes so difficult about being a living martyr is how many TIMES you must die.  Google "Maximilian Kolbe" and read his beautiful story. It is self-sacrificing to say the least, but I believe we must learn to give our life away regularly in order to fulfill our greater destiny or else martyrdom would be the goal of our faith. The Bible says it is appointed ONCE for man to die, then the judgment. When we leave this earth, it is at our appointed time. Everyone dies. Making sure everything in between was the way the Lord wanted it is the hard part. God bless There is a lot of dying to do while we are living. Luke 9:23-24 23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

True Dat

American culture is changing at this moment faster than I ever witnessed in my lifetime. Political and religious stereotypes are meshing into something that is nearly indistinguishable.  I don’t often use German philosophy to illustrate spiritual truths, but Hegel’s concepts of thesis (truth), anti-thesis (the opposite of that truth), and synthesis (a blending, or new idea from both) to me is applicable right now in our society because something new is being created.

I am concerned because I do believe in truth and I believe the ever quoted John 14:6 speaks of that kind of Truth. “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. No eisegesis here, simply pointing out the fact that Christ is inseparable from His Word. Jesus then in John 16:13 promised of the Holy Spirit that we would receive after His ascension, “Yet when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. “ John 8:31-32 corroborates. "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Truth is becoming a philosophical conversation rather than an absolute in our world. 

It is interesting to me that world history’s earliest recorded civilizations, the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Sumerians all were very religious and they all built temples of worship. At the center of these temples were idols, statues, and carvings of various gods and animals. This was the center of their worship, images that represented their gods. When God gave Israel instructions for setting up the temple. The holiest place of all was the holy of holies. Only the priests were allowed to enter. But what was there? A statue made by the finest sculptors of the day? Any images at all that depict the person of God? No. At the center of worship in the Temple was the Ark of the Covenant and inside the Ark was what? God’s Word. He is inseparable from His Word and He has always held His own Word in high regard. John 1:1 refers to Jesus as the Word.

Never be afraid of absolute truth when proclaiming God’s Word or reading it. Debates rage that men have the right to examine it,  take it apart, put it back together again and keep what is left. The argument is based on the premise that, “man wrote it, man delivered it, and man voted on what to keep and what to ditch”. This doesn’t say much of our view of the sovereignty of God, or His ability to keep His own Word intact despite the fallibility of man.

People do not want to be told what to do…period. That is what all of this is about. I watched a couple walk away from our church after 18 years because they were confronted about an issue that was not handled properly. Poof…gone! I am certainly not saying that I like being told what to do either; I am just saying that no one does. That presents great offence when reading the Bible. It claims absolute truth and it is always telling us what to do…and what NOT to do. No wonder people are trying to change it. It stings. But it also gives life and hope and peace. It corrects in love and truth.

People would be much better off to reject it than try and change it. Trying to change God is not a good idea. (Especially when your football team is losing…He doesn’t seem to care) As Christians we have a responsibility to understand the Bible and to demonstrate the truth contained therein. If we do that in love we help truth shine in a foggy world.

 

Booksmart

Remember Algebra II? I do. Let me prove it: -b ± √(b2 -4ac)]/2a. I can recite that to you at any given moment. The Quadratic Formula. On this test my score was 100%. Not because the principles and concepts of the Quadratic Formula are embedded in my brain, rather I had a teacher who sang it to me to the tune of, “When the Saints Go Marching In”. I will not make you wait much longer to decipher the meaning of this blog. I walked into a Christian bookstore the other day and something hit me… The amount of books in the store made me feel weird. Topics ranged from “becoming a more liberal conservative” (no comment) and “having great Christian sex” (uh….) to “what’s wrong with the Church” (wow, thanks for the diagnosis). Writing a book is no crime, (neither is writing a scarcely read blog) but how necessary are these books? I sometimes shudder as I hear my church members talking about the Christian books they are reading. People are reading more books about how to read the Bible, more than they are actually reading the Bible. “But Pastor Jeff, the Bible can be confusing…” LAME! So can the DMV line. In classic Seinfeldian tone I offer the question, “Who are these people”? A book I recently read talked about revolutionizing the way we reach out to the world. Ok…sounds cool. When I read the bio of the author, his only credentials included “going on a few short term missions trips”. I do not want to diminish what this man has done nor do I want to discourage people from writing books. I feel there are many who have a powerful call to write. My point is simple. People need to stop writing books when they have not lived out the subject matter. If you are going to critique the entire Body of Christ on It’s problem, you better have demonstrated It’s solution in a very tangible way. These contemplative questions do not lead to answers in my opinion. They lead to more questions. I have had the opportunity throughout my years of ministry to speak with many brilliant theologians. I have met men that are so knowledgeable about the scriptures that they could recite entire chapters by memory! But many of those same men have no passion for the things of God and some have been self-proclaimed agnostics. How sad to know all about the Creator yet fail to know Him. Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. I couldn’t agree more. James 2:18 says , "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. I want to live the kind of life that affects the people around me. If my theology only leads me to heady discussions of the Godhead and not to a life lived unto Him, I have a flawed theology. Knowing about Him should make me want to know Him more. Imagine a chef that no longer enjoys food. What a tradgedy! There is nothing wrong with knowledge, the pursuit of knowledge, nor the sharing of knowledge. But knowledge gained through experience is far more valuable than knowledge gained through the written page. Go live it.