Thoughts From 1Corinthians 10 - Part 1

  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did 1Cor. 10:1-6

        I once confronted a youth who attended our church, went to the youth group my wife and I had at our house, went on a mission trip with me to Mexico, but now was having sex with his girlfriend and stopped coming to youth group and church. I met with him at his place of work and told him that he needed to stop what he was doing and get right with the Lord. I told him Jesus said that if you love Him you will obey his commandments and how can you call Him Lord if you don't do what he says. I quoted him some verses from Hebrews 10 and 1John which warned him that if he continued on this path, he wasn't really a Christian. In a few days I got a scathing letter from his mom stating how dare I question his salvation. She referenced the time he went forward and got saved and his baptism done by the pastor in our pool. If I forgot she had pictures she could show me. His Bible had the date of his salvation written in it for proof! Didn't I know that you can't lose your salvation?!

      Passages like this one and many others suggest that just because you start on the spiritual journey with Christ doesn't necessarily mean that your final destination is Heaven. The people Paul was talking about were Israelites (members of church), passed through the Red Sea (baptized), experienced the power of God, and yet most never made it to Caanan (Heaven). Why? Because God was not pleased with them, they chose idols and persisted in sin and desired to go back to their old life. I do believe the verses that nothing can separate us from God and no one can pluck us out of His hand. But what if we willingly crawl out of His hands? 

     Lately, in the pool, my young grandkids love this game where I hold them in my arms and say, "I captured you and I'm not letting you go." Then one of the kids has to come rescue them or they have to wiggle themselves or fight to get free from my arms. I see eternal security somewhat like that. If you really want to get free of God's embrace, He will reluctantly let you go but you can't lose your salvation. You can willingly give it up, though.

       Today, this young man is a successful businessman, married, has kids that I delivered but is not following the Lord. His mom is currently not in church. Are they going to Heaven, I don't know. Are Joshua and Caleb the only two of the million that left Egypt that we will see in Heaven? I doubt it. Can they come back to the Lord? Absolutely. Only God knows hearts, but this passage does serve as a warning that just because you "got saved" and were baptized isn't a "get out of hell free" card.

 A saved life is an obedient one. Learn a lesson from the Israelites.

Thoughts From 1Corinthians 3 - Part 4

 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

     I love a good preacher, don't you? I think the best sermons are where the speaker engages you immediately with a story or a thought-provoking question and then proceeds with fifteen or so minutes of scripture interpretation and then ties it up in the end by bringing it back to the initial question and answering it. I still remember hearing a message while visiting my parents at a place called "Bible town", which no longer exists in Boca Raton, and the pastor started, "If you were the richest person on the Earth, how would you raise a child that knew the value of money, understood hard work and didn't grow up to be entitled?" He then developed the idea that God is our Father who owns everything and we are His children who He is raising to turn out not like spoiled brats.

       The question is, how clever, crafty, engaging, deep, flowery do pastors need to be? Does a pastor need to know Plato, Socrates, Kant, Descartes, Nietzsche, or classic literature to be effective? I almost feel like Paul is saying that Apollos was learned and came into Corinth and wowed everyone while Paul came in and shared the basics of the gospel. That may have been why people were picking sides. I love a good Tim Keller message where he quotes C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton, but if I would play it for my mom, she would say, "He just needs to stick to scripture." She would pick any J. Vernon McGee message over Tim Keller any day.

     The fact is, no matter how clever or smart or wise you think you are, the wisdom of this age must bow to the fact that what we believe is unseen. We believe in a God who is Spirit who dwells in an unseen Heaven surrounded by unseen angels opposed by unseen demons and Satan, who teaches that dying is the way to living, being a servant is the way to get ahead, being poor is the way to get rich and so on. As Christians we shouldn't be anti-intellectual as knowledge and wisdom is important to allay our doubts and engage with people that are intellectual. However, at some point we need to realize that this only gets us so far. Adam and Eve were much better off before they ate from the tree of knowledge. Jesus said that we must be like a child to enter the kingdom of God. I think He was referring to a simple belief in the unseen. Our mid, intellect, wisdom, learning can only take us to the brink of the cliff as in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie. At some point we need to take that step of faith where intellect screams "NO!!"

There was an old song that went, "Gimme that old time religion

                                                        Gimme that old time religion

                                                        Gimme that old time religion

                                                        It's good enough for me.

  Is it good enough for you?

Thoughts From 1Corinthians 3 - Part 3

 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. 1Cor. 3:10-17

       This is one of those passages in the Bible that I have heard preached multiple times both in church but mainly in youth groups and I'm pretty sure it has been taken out of context every time. The first half of the passage goes like this; "If you are a lukewarm Christian or a backslidden Christian, you will get to Heaven, but when God judges your works, nothing will be any good - your works will all be burned up like wood, hay, and stubble. You'll get into Heaven, but you'll smell like smoke." The second part is given as the reason we should eat healthy, work out, not drink, smoke, or do drugs, take vitamins... Why? Because God is living inside our bodies. He used to reside in the temple but now we are the temple He resides in so we need to take care of our bodies. Do you want Jesus breathing in tar and nicotine?

      While both of these interpretations and applications hold some truth to them, I'm not sure Paul is talking about either of those here and those messages might be better preached from different texts. What Paul is referring to here in context is that he had laid the foundation, the gospel, to the Church in Corinth, and the church was formed. Then other preachers like Apollos would come along and build on it. They would teach the scriptures, and the believers would grow both in wisdom, knowledge, fruitfulness, and numbers ideally. Apollos was the right kind of builder but there would be others coming along distorting scripture either willfully or just misunderstanding it. Paul was jealous for the church and wanted it to grow into a beautiful bride for Christ not a disfigured one. This passage serves a warning to those who would follow after him to be careful what they taught. If like Apollos, they taught well and true, when Apollos got to Heaven his works would be Like gold or silver. Other teachers who distorted the scriptures and might have even done more harm than good to the churches, when they got to Heaven, their rewards would be absent because what they taught didn't pass the test. This first part of the passage does not appear to pertain to individual believers and their works but rather to teachers and what they taught.

      What about the second part? I've even heard of Church exercise classes as "Temple Builders" classes. Does this pertain to us taking care of our bodies because Christ lives in them? Probably not. Paul ends the passage saying "you together are that temple." He isn't referring to individual believers but rather the believers joined together are what Christ is indwelling. Therefore, in context Paul is saying that if someone comes in teaching falsehoods and messing with His church where He is present in our midst, He will deal harshly with them. Christ, like Paul is jealous for His church and will protect it and expose and remove false teachers.

     I think this is what the passage is about. Sorry, youth pastors, find another passage to convict your backslidden kids.

Thoughts From 1Corinthians 3 - Part 2

  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 

         Who your favorite on-line Bible teachers are tell a lot about you. For example, I like Francis Chan, Ben Stuart, Mike Winger, Paul Leboutilier which would put me in a conservative, non-charismatic, academic evangelical camp. My son goes to a church where they have several teaching pastors that take turns. I see the logic in that because everyone appreciates different styles of preaching and it's nice to get fresh illustrations, life experiences, and perspectives on scripture. The problem would be if one spoke at the 8:15 service, one spoke at the 9:30 service, and one spoke at the 11:00 service every week. I would fear that you would get 3 different churches in one church all following different pastors, all loyal to their preacher. I even saw that a little bit in my son's church where I heard both pastors and told my daughter in law that I really liked one of them better and she liked the other one much better. I was a little surprised that she could possibly like the one better and I'm sure was surprised that I could possibly prefer the other.

       Here in 1Corinthians 3, we have that going on but to an unhealthy degree. Paul planted the church in Corinth. He led them to the Lord by sharing the gospel, but he didn't save them, God did that. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria Egypt who was a Christ follower and gifted teacher and apologist who came along after Paul left and helped disciple the church. He didn't "grow" them, the Holy Spirit did. This was greatly appreciated by Paul because the Great Commission doesn't just say evangelize people but also to make disciples. Apollos was helping make disciples. The problem was, like my theoretical illustration of the three pastors dividing a church 3 ways, this was what was happening. There began to be two churches - The Church of Saint Paul and The Church of Apollos. Paul is appalled because there should be one church - The Church of Jesus Christ. Paul didn't save them - Jesus did. Apollos didn't die for their sins - Jesus did. This quarreling, jealousy, division was childish and totally missing the foundation of Christ that Paul had laid. He felt like he needed to go back to the basics with them.

      Who is the most important person in your church? Is it the pastor? Is it the biggest giver or the head of missions? Maybe the pastor of evangelism or head of the Children's ministry? The answer is yes, and you. We are all equal co-laborers for Christ and celebrity status or notoriety have no increased importance in the body. When we start inflating people, we are shrinking Christ. We become nothing more than spiritual "Swifties". Grow up and be Christ fanatics.

Thoughts From 1 Corinthians 3 - Part 1

 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?  1Cor. 3:1-3

 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Heb. 5:12-14, 6:1-2

         As we teach student doctors how to do surgery, we really won't teach them much if they still don't know how to tie knots. When you do a C-section, you cut a hole in the uterus, take the baby and placenta out, and because the body preferentially shunts blood to grow a baby, the uterus bleeds like crazy, or as they say in Tennessee, "right smart". The goal is to sew the hole up as quickly as possible to save on blood loss, so if the student doctor takes a minute to tie a knot securing the anchor stitch, the patient can lose several hundred cc's of blood. Being a beginner at knot tying discourages you as a supervisor and instructor to teach them any advanced skills. It's like, "Why should I teach you a purse-string suture when you can't even tie a knot!" Of course, we as OB/GYN's are nicer than that but I guarantee you general surgeons aren't.

       Paul is saying to the church in Corinth along with the writer of Hebrews that when he came, he gave them the basics. This is how you get saved, you repent of your sins and by faith receive the free gift of salvation, eternal life, and the Holy Spirit inside you through the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the grave. You become a new creation and start living like Jesus and fleeing sinful behavior.

     He says that he would love to teach them so much more about this new life, spiritual gifts, Heaven, ethical behavior in a fallen world, church polity, etc. but he can't because they are still acting like they used to. It's as if they need to hear the basics again like flee from sin. You repented of your sins, why do you keep going back to doing them? And the sins they are committing are common sense sins; they are baby sins. He uses jealousy and quarreling as examples. Anyone who has had children knows that every toddler does these. It's not like, "is it a sin to eat fruit from my neighbor's tree if it fell in my yard"? That's complex. No, "is it a sin to be jealous of someone who is getting more attention than me"? Of course, obviously!

     And what do we say when we keep messing up? "Well, I'm only human!" Paul says, stop with that excuse already in verse 3. You were only human prior to salvation. Now you are born anew into a regenerate state where the Holy Spirit, God himself, abides in us. We are no longer permitted to say, "I'm only human" because we're more than that!

      Is the Bible too complicated for you? Do you find yourself not understanding much? Maybe you need to start acting on what you do understand. Spoken like a General Surgeon.

Thoughts From Acts 5 - Part 3

 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. Acts 5:27-42

        Gamaliel was right, if this teaching is of God, no matter what you do to the followers of Jesus, it can't be stopped. His belief was incomplete though because if a teaching is from Satan it can't be stopped either like Mormonism or Islaam. The Sanhedrin was mistaken in thinking that they were in power or control at all. The reality is that there is an unseen world that is in control and although we have illusions of control and in charge of our destiny, if our eyes could be opened we would see, like Gehazi Elisha's servant, armies of angels in fiery chariots surrounding us. The Sanhedrin was like people in The Matrix having the impression they were living a free life in power in charge and living a great life, all the while being plugged into a large energy complex being used as a battery. (that made no sense unless you've seen the movie)

       The Sanhedrin wasn't in charge and Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not stand against His church. Nothing could stop the spread of the gospel and here we are 2000 years later and the gospel is still expanding. We saw 7 people baptized this past Sunday! Satan's main tactic now is having Christians suffer for proclaiming the name of Jesus, but that didn't work back then and it doesn't work now because suffering just brings us closer to Jesus and more passionate for Him.

       I love the last verse and would want it proclaimed at my funeral - "Jim never stopped proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah." Or better yet, " Day after day, Jim never stopped proclaiming that Jesus was his Lord and Savior, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the only way to the Father." Can that be said about you? I hope it's always said about me!

Thoughts From Acts 5 - Part 2

 

12 The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them. Acts 5:12-26

      When I was thinking about naming my OB/GYN practice, it didn't take long to come up with the name New Life OB/GYN. After all, we were bringing new lives into the world delivering on average two babies a day. But also, as a Christian who happened to be a doctor (not a doctor who happened to be a Christian) I was focusing on offering new life in Christ to the 30 patients a day that I saw. Paul talks about this new life when he says;

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

Jesus discussed it with Nicodemus in John 3 when he told Nic that he needed to be born again. The angel told the imprisoned apostles to go out and preach this "new life" and let them out of jail. This would happen to Peter again in Acts 12 and Paul in Acts 16.

       Christianity is mentally assenting to a new set of beliefs, but it is so much more than that. What it is at its core is becoming a new person. I often compare it to Peter Parker being bitten by the radioactive spider. He looked like Peter Parker, but he was a whole new person. When we turn from our life of sin, admit we were wrongly living for and indulging ourselves and turning to the author of life and the creator of everything for forgiveness, Jesus takes the penalty for that sin on Himself, makes us clean and then puts His life inside us in the Holy Spirit. We are a brand-new person. Like Peter Parker, we then spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how to use these brand new "powers" to their maximum.

       The apostles were given powers to heal and other miraculous powers. They really were given superpowers. I wish I could lay hands on a person and heal their pancreatic cancer. I'm sure many tried on Tim Keller without success. Today, now that this apostolic age is over, my superpowers are loving and forgiving the unlovable and unforgiveable. They are using my dwindling days to serve others rather than myself. They are using my saved-up money to meet other's needs rather than my wants. Basically, they are treating others as more important than myself which takes every ounce of His energy inside me. This love, if through Christ's strength, practiced correctly should have the same impact on the world around me that a supernatural healing shadow would.

      Through God's power working in me and my partner, dozens over the years came to a "new life" in Christ not to mention 20,000 other new lives born physically who still need to be born again. I'm sure by this time many have as I even see some I delivered in the community following Christ including my 4 kids who I delivered along with 5 of my grandkids who my partner delivered.

     This new life, as the apostles discovered is not a miserable life of self-denial but is a wonderful freeing life of new opportunities on a daily basis free from the emptiness and sadness that sin brings, the fear of aging and death, and the lack of hope that living for this world and self brings. As Steven Curtis Chapman said, "This is the Great Adventure" and I'm thrilled to be on it. Have you been born again?