Jesus, Religion, Spirituality And The Search For Truth

   It's been a long and busy, yet satisfying day at work. I'll be heading off to cook dinner in a few minutes and then settle down to do some study on the background of the apostle Paul for my next post on the book of Romans. While I was relaxing after getting home after work, I had remembered a YouTube video that had caught worldwide attention on the Internet at the beginning of this year, and wanted to watch it again. Here is Jefferson Bethke's poem titled "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus", delivered in the style known as "Spoken Word". If you decide to watch it, please remember that you can view it in full 1080p HD!

   I didn't get around to seeing this video till almost a month or more after its release. In a television interview with Jefferson Bethke on GBTV's "For The Record" [1] (also available on YouTube), it was reported that this video was second on the list of the top 100 viral videos to be seen around the globe amongst all the video content posted on the Internet to date. "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus" has been viewed in excess of 20 million times to date, spawned several responses in Spoken Word format from Muslims [2], Roman Catholics [3], Atheists, and many other quarters, and generated plenty of debate and conversation on the topic of Jesus, religion, faith, grace and the Gospel. Nonetheless, I was still surprised to see it being discussed by none other than Ravi Zacharias in an interview with Shawn McEvoy, the Managing Director of the Christian website Crosswalk.com, on Dr. Zacharias' latest book "Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth In An Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality". Here is the video of that discussion:

   I watched these videos today because of their connection with some of the topics discussed in Paul's letter to the church in Rome - sin, religion, the law and rules, the cross, salvation, justification, grace, and the saving, transforming power of the gospel. These are some of the most important questions that a human being in search of truth will encounter and wrestle with. I want to think through these in great detail for myself as I study the epistle to the Romans. 

   It is clear that Jefferson Bethke has wrestled with these questions himself in his own life, as he makes clear in this video and others. He recites his history as a 22-year old who was conceived out-of-wedlock, abandoned by his father, brought up in the church and presenting the neat facade of a Christian who attended church on Sunday, while struggling with pornography, drink and sex on the sidelines during the rest of the week. Despite the differences people may have with some of his assertions, it is clear that the power of the true Gospel has met him head on, and he cannot but help talk about it and make much of Jesus.

   And with the head-on collision with the Gospel in my life as well, I can't help it either.

Grace and peace to you,

- The Wisdom Seeker

REFERENCES:
=========
[1] GBTV's For The Record Inteviews Star of "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus"
[2] Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus (Muslim Response)
[3] Why I Love Religion, And Love Jesus (Roman Catholic Response)

The Equation Of The Gospel

 "What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the Gospel?"

- John MacArthur [1]

Over the last two weeks, I've been trying to write a follow-up to my last post on the disturbing reality of the "prosperity gospel" and its purveyors. It's been difficult going, because I've also wanted to draw from my own experience of being blinded by subtle variations of the same message. That post still isn't finished, but I hope that I'll be able to dig deep down, find the right words for what I want to say and have it finished soon.

In the meantime, I've managed to finish reading through my Christmas present from my roomate Paulman - Tullian Tchividjian's "Jesus + Nothing = Everything". It's been a great read, one of those precious pieces of Christian literature that when I came to the end of it, knew that God had been at work in my mind and hear to propel a paradigm shift in my understanding of His gospel. I thought I'd share some of my impressions here.

"Jesus + Nothing = Everything" is more than an attempt at creating a catchy Christian jingo that appeals to our generation's short attention span. It is more than just another attempt to deliver an exposition of the New Testament book of Colossians. Pastor Tullian delves deeply, invigoratingly and refreshingly into the life-giving waters of the Gospel, and encouraged me to dive into its depths with him. By the grace of God and the working of His Spirit, I gained more than just an intellectual excursion through the core message of the Christian faith, more than just pithy and stimulating sayings or an entertaining read. No, much more in the little bit of poetry that I wrote to express my gratitude:

I see more clearly now the hollowness of the Nothing, 

The radiant brilliance of the Everything, 

And the pearl of Jesus, and Him alone.

The light of the truth is blinding;

How much better to be blinded by the truth 

Than to have the sight that never sees!

I think that little bit of prose expresses my sentiments about the message of Pastor Tullian's book. God in His mercy has been using to help me see and savour the wonder of His gospel, so that I might better understand the words of the writer of the book of Hebrews, exhorting me to join my fellow believers:

"lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV

I came across the following video depicting a section of a sermon by Matt Chandler, on part of the text of Paul's letter to the Romans. It fit very well with the exposition of Jesus + Nothing = Everything, and I wanted to include it here. It lifts my heart every time I hear these powerful words from the pen of the apostle that have saved lives over the last twenty centuries:

I could think and write all night without stopping on the blinding light of His word that God is beginning to breathe into my mind, heart, and life by the power of His Spirit. I feel like my head will explode if I think about this anymore; I'm so happy. So I'm going to stop here for tonight, and take my thoughts with me as I get ready for bedtime. As I wrote this post, I was listening to part of a sermon by John MacArthur titled "God's Own Defense of Scripture." I'd like to leave you with what he had to say; they were incisive:

"You can't be saved unless you know that God is too righteous to accept your works, and you're too sinful to earn salvation...Does the word of God have to be helped along because it is somehow inept, inadequate, irrelevant, antiquated? Do we need somehow to package it in some culturally sensitive way to make it feel like everything else in this culture feels in order to get an entrance? Do we have to beef it up, by making it seem to promise health, wealth, prosperity, healing, as if God was some divine Mary Kay passing out pink Cadillacs? Do we need to make a syrupy, schmaltzy appeal to the emotions of people based on their feelings, bruised egos, need for self-esteem, desire for trinkets and goodies, and somehow alter the hard gospel so that people will buy it? Does it have to be polluted with promises of material prosperity, material success? Is it insufficient on its own?"

- John MacArthur

The answer, as he clearly laid out, is no. The Word of God alone tells me that Jesus is my Everything. Nothing else. I'll say a happy "Amen" to that.

Grace and Peace to you,

 - The Wisdom Seeker

The Story Of My Life

     Hi! It's going to be almost 2 weeks since I last posted my thoughts in 'I'd Rather Be Shot' during my trip to Victoria. I'd fallen sick with a cold and sore throat after I returned to Vancouver, so spent the last week trying to recover from that. Although I haven't posted here during that time, it's been good in some ways. God has been using the down time to draw my attention to some things in my life that I've needed to see more clearly.

    Through 'Humility: True Greatness' that I read on my trip to Victoria and back, I've had to closely look at and acknowledge areas of pride in my life, and accept the blows of God's loving chastisement, rebuke and correction. I have to say that I've come out a much better man for it, seeing myself as a 'proud man pursuing humility by the grace of God', as C. J. Mahaney so succintly expressed it. I comprehended the magnitude of His gracious kindness towards me so much better now, and have had my thought process and perceptions changed; I constantly find myself thinking about how I can cultivate humility and mortify pride everyday. I've leared to see each day that I live through differently, as I realize God's graciousness and kindness to me and all of humanity in an abundance that we're all so totally undeserving of. In the process, I'm so much more aware of the depravity and sinfulness of my own heart, and the intensity of the battle for sanctification as God works on the transformation of all that needs changing...and there is so much that needs changing. Most of all, I understand and experience the person of Christ and the power of the Cross in a way that I have not grasped before.

    A. W. Tozer brilliantly described what I feel, along with anyone else who comes to that powerful experiential comprehension of the holiness of God, in the chapter on the holiness of God in his book 'The Knowledge of The Holy':

    'The sudden realization of his personal depravity came like a stroke from heaven upon the trembling heart of Isaiah at the moment when he had his revolutionart vision of the holiness of God. His pain-filled cry, "Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts," expresses the feeling of every man who has discovered himself under his disguises and has been confronted with an inward sight of the holy whiteness that is God. Such an experience cannot but be emotionally violent...We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness He cannot even imagine.'

    'Humility: True Greatness' reminded me that I have not even scratched the surface of understanding the holy God in front of whom I should tremble, having gained a small glimpse of the wretched sinner that I am without Christ and His Cross. God chose to use my favourite song of my favourite music artist to convict me about all of this during the last week. I first heard this song almost 12 years ago, played in the car of my dear friend and brother Kelvin Goveas, when starting my undergraduate degree in engineering at UT-Austin, Texas. This is 'Never Been Unloved', by Michael W. Smith:

    That song sums up my life without Christ. Every adjective rings true to the kind of person that I have been, the nature that still raises its rebellious head against the loving hand of my Heavenly Father, and every brother and sister that I have. This, truly, is the story of me: un-faithful; un-worthy; un-righteous; un-merciful; un-reachable; un-teachable; un-willing; un-desirable; un-wise; un-done; un-sure; un-broken; un-mended; un-easy; un-approachable; un-emotional; un-execptional; un-decided; un-qualified; un-aware; un-fair; un-fit; un-able; un-godly....

    BUT (And I'm glad that there's a 'but' in my story), the story of my life thankfully doesn't stop there. Because Jesus cared enough to love me, because of all that He suffered for me, I know that I have never been unloved by the holy God who has been kind and gracious in giving me the privilege of calling him 'Father,' calling him 'Papa'. Because of Jesus, grace upon grace beyond all measure has been poured out upon the life of this undeserving sinner, for which I am silent in humbled gratitude before my awesome God. He has accepted me where others have rejected, stood by me when others deserted, loved me when others hated, blessed me when others cursed, comforted me where others inflicted, lifted me when others struck down, been there when others have not. He was, is and always will be what none other can ever be. That's why, as Michael W. Smith so eloquently put it, 'He is still God, and I am still not.'

He is still God, and I am still not.

    I have said it before on this blog, and I will say it over and over till the end of my life and even beyond - I am a man who has nothing good to say about himself, and everything good to say about his God. I'm going to go listen to that song again. God bless. See you in the next post!

- The Wisdom Seeker