sarkakaiaima

The Lord Jesus modeled for us how to walk with God. He did this by himself learning to walk faithfully in affliction. Thus this saying is true: “As with Christ, so also with those who follow him.” N ote once again in the text (Matthew 4:1-11): It was the Holy Spirit who sent Jesus out into the desert “to be tempted/tried by the devil.” (v.1) Here is what I think is the heart of the reason for God doing this. The experience is not unique to Jesus but rather the Lord went through this because it is common for human beings to be tried/tempted by the devil. Therefore, if it common for us then he must experience it firsthand himself as the incarnate Son of God. In this testing in the wilderness we see the Lord’s perfect faith-relationship with God and steadfastness of faith. We see that his character and moral center are rooted in God alone and thus he can see through the evil one’s temptations for what they are and stand firm. He has given us a way to stand strong as his disciples.

There are threads in these three temptations (Matthew 4:1-11) for they appeal to genuine human needs and aspirations. This is part of what makes them so appealing. All three urge for a person to be self-dependent and self-assertive in order to satisfy one’s own self-love to get what one needs or desires. All three temptations are countered with the necessity of trusting God to meet one’s needs and to faithfully listen with obedience to his word and his way of acting (“righteousness”) in and for his children.    At one of my former workplaces, I was able to drive company vehicles. But my use of those vehicles is restricted to the specific activities I do in the course of completing my work for the company. I can use vehicles only in the way specified in my job description. This is because the vehicles do not belong to me but the company. THE SAME RULE APPLIES IN THE KINGDOM—THE LORD FOLLOWED IT AND WE MUST TOO. The Lord overcame the trial and did not yield to the tempter’s decepti

The second temptation of the Devil to the Lord Jesus, as narrated in Matthew 4:1-11, was specific to who he was as God’s Anointed. For the devil knew that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. The devil did not dispute this fact in suggesting this tactic. Rather he is trying to bait him into showing off his divine power to do something that no ordinary human being could possibly do! The devil wants Jesus to act in a way that defies the means and method of God’s work. The Lord’s response tells us what kind of attitude is proper and right for a human being to have: One of humble obedience to God while seeking to excel in living out one’s calling—for God as the sole audience. The devil does bring to us a parallel temptation to that of Christ when he suggests that we use any worldly means to use our talents or influence in order to win the applause of others or to make money for ourselves. The Lord saw right through this because he understood that we are not to “put the Lord your God t

One of my relatives some years back purchased a piece of furniture for her home—a rather nice looking foot rest. Her son tried to sit on it and it began to give way under his weight. So she went back to the store and complained to them about the fact that it would not hold weight. They responded, “Oh, that’s not made to be used.” In other words, it was designed to only look fashionable in your living room! Who would sell furniture that was not made to be used—to bear the weight of use by people? But this is precisely how many people think of believing in God and Jesus is like: That faith is not really intended to be put to work—to be used in the hard reality of living. This is that kind of “faith” which James mocked when he said, “Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” (James 2:18, NRSV). What Christian people have gotten very good at over time is devising means and methods to keep themselves busy with religious activities in order to avoid a

            Every heresy is built upon (or as it were, around) some true affirmation about God. This is why religious groups claiming the mantle of “true” or “restored” Christian faith can have such an appeal. For they appeal directly to the Bible or some teaching of Jesus Christ but twist or contort the truth to fit into the warped contours of their own theology assumptions. (For example, every one of the heresies which the leadership of the Church dealt with, through Church councils, demonstrates this phenomena. (Indeed, case studies can also easily be done on Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Islam, and many other lesser known religious movements/groups.) The apostle Peter was right to warn the Church of all generations about those who “twist” (Greek: Literally “strangle”) the meaning of the Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:16) to make it appear to affirm what they believe.             Such I would propose is the case in our generation in America. We are obsessed with power and gaining t

For every fake there is a real article on which it is based. For every forged signature there is an authentic signature. And for every false and empty imitation there is a prior and original action rooted in true experience. This principle is especially true in matters of religion and spirituality.   The nature of spiritual longing forces one to move either toward authenticity or mask wearing. For every person has a fundamental decision to make: Do I want to deal with God and reality as it is? If the answer is no then one has a further choice to wrestle through: Do I completely give up on religious practices or do I maintain the practice so as to appear that I am a “spiritual person”? Perhaps you think this is odd that someone would consider this choice. Why not simply be authentic and honest about oneself and seek a remedy to one’s moral and/or spiritual challenges? Why not admit that I simply do not know how to relate to God and do not understand about spiritual reality? Bu

There is a pernicious teaching in some segments of the Christian church which needs to be named. This teaching goes by at least several different names: “Name and Claim It” or “Faith Healing” or the “Prosperity Gospel”. To put it simply, the substance of this teaching is this: If a person will have adequate faith in God’s promises of blessing and abundance (almost always meant to be material things or physical healing) then God is then required to grant that person what he or she is asking for. If you doubt me watch some of the religious television programs on cable sometime. Many (if not the majority) will teach some version of this doctrine. This is nothing other than a form of witchcraft dressed up rather shabbily in Christian terms.               This teaching presumes that there is some way to impose upon God binding obligations so that he must give us what we want. “I am believing God for a wife (and I already know who she is). She just has not come to recognize it yet.” The p

I have endeavored to be a student of Church history. This study has led me to one dominant insight which is very helpful in understanding my own behavior and that of others. Namely that the conception a person has of God will determine how he or she understands reality. The clearest examples of this come from people who hate others or even kill because of a specific ideology (tribalism, racism, Marxism, radical environmentalists) or theological beliefs (radical Islamic jihadists and sects within other religious traditions who persecute others to enforce what they believe upon others). In the case of those who would deny any specific category of belief in God there is a belief system which has a binding force upon their mind and allegiance. The truth of this phenomena is almost too obvious for us to notice. Perhaps we would not note it except that there are those who are so “extreme” in how they interpret and practice their ideology or theology. They are so dedicated to their underst

            Recently I went to do some target shooting with hand guns. This is something I do occasionally with friends or family. While getting set up for the shooting practice someone noted that the use of a scope is not particularly helpful when attempting to hit a target that is close to you. For the scope is designed to assist the person using the firearm to see a target from a distance with clarity and thus be able to hit it. This is the functional usefulness of the optics of the scope. However, the power of the scope to focus on the image works against the shooter if the target is too close because the shooter ends up seeing only one small portion of the target and can easily lose sight of where on the target he or she is aiming the gun. Thus the shooter’s ability to accurately see the target is inhibited rather than enhanced by the use of the scope.   Something like this happens to us humans when we utilize our own rational and emotional intelligence to analyze ourselves o

Preachers and Christians frequently speak of getting one’s “head knowledge” down into one’s heart. While common this statement is quite misleading if not qualified—for really what is required to know the truth is to receive truth into one’s heart by faith and submit one’s mind to God. Obviously we all hear and process truth statements about God, moral principles and foundational life choices through our intellectual faculties. But it is in the heart (the inner person) where we decide what to do with the truth we hear.   The mind is useful for reflection and to organize the content of knowledge but not to discern or decide the truthfulness of God’s revelation. The faculty of the mind, by itself, is simply not capable of doing this. Those who think so are simply fooling themselves and mistaking cognitive analysis for “independent” judgment regarding the truthfulness of a statement about Reality. For the mind is servant to the heart (that is, the seat of the will); to reverse this is t

Some years ago, while working toward my Bachelors’ degree, I took an introduction to psychology course. The class was generally not memorable except for one thing the teacher repeatedly said. “There is nothing quite so practical as a good theory.” I have come to appreciate the wisdom of this statement, for it fuses together what we so frequently (and unconsciously) separate in an unnatural way—intellectual thought processes from the practicalities of life. Examples of the reality of this fusion in life are many: The scientist testing a theory in “real world” conditions, a teacher employing well thought out strategies to present and get the children in the classroom to comprehend math concepts, the computer programmer who searches out what he knows about the specifics of the software and the hardware design to try to expand their usefulness and applications, the mother who intentionally and creatively implements principles of morality through her example and parental enforcement of bou

I suppose it is probably because I am not of Mexican or Hispanic heritage that I may have picked up on this (or perhaps not). Regardless, I noticed a man working outside at my place of work who was wearing a sombrero hat. This hat had quite a large brim--so much so that I could see that no matter what he was doing in the course of his work it completely shielded him from the hot Arizona sun. How brilliant to invent such a design for a hat. How entirely useful and also at the same time uniquely ascetically pleasing to the eye. I have begun this blog by meditating upon a hat because it appears this soul that this is a profoundly appropriate metaphor to capture the purpose of these ongoing blog posts. Life and thought and theological reflection are quite useless to one doing the thinking and pondering if they do not move toward practical insight for living righteously in the world. The Scriptures both contain and are God's word, given in different historical periods, to different per