Wrong!

“We are loved because...” That sentence is the biggest single failing of our perception of identity. The reason that’s wrong is because we try to earn love. We try to base our identity on what we do, what we have, what we desire. We try to deserve love from others and God. But we never can.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 6

<idle musing>
He put his finger on the main problem we have—performance-based acceptance. God isn't like that—he loves us. He took the initiative; he is the one who pulls us out of the pit—even when we didn't even realize we were in the pit! How awesome is that?!
</idle musing>

Exalted King

There is a huge difference between the gospeling of Acts and our Plan of Salvation approach today, and alongside that difference, the gospel of Acts has almost no similarity to our Method of Persuasion. The difference can be narrowed to this single point: the gospeling of Acts, because it declares the saving significance of Jesus, Messiah and Lord, summons listeners to confess Jesus as Messiah and Lord, while our gospeling seeks to persuade sinners to admit their sin and find Jesus as the Savior.

We are not creating a false alternative here. The latter can be done within the former, but much of the soterian approach to evangelism today fastens on Jesus as (personal) Savior and dodges Jesus as Messiah and Lord. If there is any pervasive heresy today, it’s right here. Anyone who can preach the gospel and not make Jesus’ exalted lordship the focal point simply isn’t preaching the apostolic gospel.— The King Jesus Gospel, pages 133-134

<idle musing>
Amen and amen! A.W. Tozer used to bemoan the "Jesus as savior" approach to salvation. For him, either Jesus was preached as Lord or he couldn't be preached at all—no lordship, no salvation. It's that simple. I agree.

We need the full gospel—from Genesis 3, where God takes the initiative and seeks mankind as they try to hide, all the way through the descent of the bride clothed in white at the end of Revelation. God taking the initiative, humanity responding. Always God, always love, always reaching out to us...
</idle musing>

Hit the flashing animal

Remember those early Internet adds with the flashing animal running across the banner? You were supposed to hit it and then you won some kind of prize. I never did it, so I don't know what you would win, but for the last week or so, I had a sense of déjà vu on my Macbook Pro Finder window.

When I'm copy editing, I usually have a few windows open on my desktops (I run 4 desktops). For example, on the first desktop, I'll have Chrome open with a tab for Google, a tab for WorldCat, and a miscellaneous tab or two (usually Google Books, or some such); on the second desktop, I'll have Word open with the chapter I'm working on, the abbreviations file, and the bibliography chapter; I usually also have a Finder window open in case I need to access another file. On the third desktop, I keep my style sheet, any notes from the publisher on that book, iTunes, and Accordance with the Hebrew, Greek, and whatever English text the author is using. On the fourth desktop is my e-mail and RSS feeder. So much for background...

A few weeks back, I installed Google Drive and then we left for Wisconsin—and no Internet for a week. Everything was working fine—until the day we got Internet back. That day, for the first time ever, I got a blue screen on the Macbook! I rebooted and everything seemed fine. I save continually, so I didn't loose any work. For some reason, I didn't have the Finder window open on desktop 2 and the Word windows took up the whole screen, so I couldn't see the desktop.

Over the next few days, I noticed that the laptop didn't always wake up after going to sleep and I started to wonder if I didn't have a hardware issue. I did a bit of googling (on the iPad—praise God for a second computer!) and found this on how to reset the System Management Controller (SMC). Apple says that it controls

Responding to presses of the power button
Responding to the display lid opening and closing on portable Macs
Battery management

among other things. So I did the reset. Everything worked fine—until we got home. I plugged in the Time Machine backup (I didn't take it with me, depending on Dropbox for backup of the book I'm editing). Next morning, the computer wouldn't wake up. I did a hard reset and powered back up. I got the Apple logo with the spinning whatever, then gray screen. Yikes. I tried again. Same thing. Now I'm getting worried. I tried resetting the SMC again. Nothing. I tried booting into Safe Mode (hold down the right shift key while powering up) and got in. Whew!

I started editing, and noticed that the Finder window on my second desktop would keep showing itself over the bibliography window and then disappear. Hmmm...had I been hacked? I turned off wireless just in case. Still doing it...strange. I kept editing until lunch. I made lunch and came back to a nonresponsive computer : (

This time it didn't come back with any of the above techniques. Now I'm worried. I have a book that is due by Friday and I'm 2.5 hours from the nearest Apple store. I really think it is the logic board, based on my Google results. But I ran across a post that suggested I reset the NVRAM. How in the world do I do that? Oh, here it is. Apparently resetting the NVRAM will clear any kernel panics and reset a few other things. One thing that I had noticed was that I wasn't getting the normal Mac startup chime, but I chalked that up to the possibility of a bad logic board.

I reset the NVRAM, praying the whole time! Everything came back—including the startup chime! But what could have caused the kernel panic? Maybe my Time Machine backup drive is bad? I disconnected it and turned it off. I went back to editing...and noticed that the Finder window was doing its funky thing again. I moved to desktop 4 to check e-mail and noticed that all the folders on the desktop were flashing. Weird! Could this all be related?

Quick Google check on flashing Finder and Desktop icons. Hmmm...turns out Google Drive and Mavericks don't play well together! So far nobody else has mentioned that it also affects coming out of sleep mode, but I figured its worth a try. I quit Google Drive (I use Dropbox anyway) and uninstalled it. Flashing is gone!

Great! But what about sleep mode? I didn't plug my Time Machine back in, just in case it might be the culprit. I let the machine go to sleep multiple times and it came back every time.

OK, let's try plugging Time Machine back in...just in case, I closed all my windows : )

I made supper and came back. It started right back up. Great! Now, let's try it with a few windows open. It came back!

OK, now let's open all the normal windows back up and see what happens...No problems. Great, I'm going to bed!

This morning, the computer woke up with no problem! So, it wasn't a hardware issue after all. Now to finish that book before tomorrow!

Update 3/18/14: It isn't Google Drive. It just happened to me again. Not sure what it is...but I'm experimenting.

Be yourself

We simply cannot become who we should be. It’s impossible. The only thing we can become is who we are.

It’s the high and beautiful gospel indicatives that sustain the gospel imperatives. In Christ, we can become who we are.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 6

<idle musing>
In other words, be yourself. But, we need to qualify that with be your real self—the one you are in Christ. Don't be the moody, cantankerous, selfish, difficult person you used to be; be the new person you are in Christ.
</idle musing>

More than a transaction

Peter’s gospeling also puts the life of a live body on the bones of 1 Corinthians 15, and that means his gospel involved telling the full Story of Jesus Christ, including his life, his death, his resurrection, his exaltation, the gift of the Holy Spirit, his second coming, and the wrapping up of history so that God would be all in all. The reason we have to say this is because too often we have…

reduced the life of Jesus to Good Friday, and therefore
reduced the gospel to the crucifixion, and then soterians have
reduced Jesus to transaction of a Savior

The King Jesus Gospel, page 119

<idle musing>
I would add:
reduced the Christian life to a struggle to survive until death.
and then we wonder why there is not transformation...
</idle musing>

The order of things matters

The truths of the gospel support and sustain the commands of the gospel. If we do not first understand the truth about who we are—the truest thing about us—we will be crushed by the weight of the commands.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 6

<idle musing>
I know people like that, don't you? Sometimes I'm that person...I get focused on the do and forget about the be.
</idle musing>

How it's framed

The apostles were not like our modern soterians because they did not empty the gospel of its Story, nor did they reduce the gospel to the Plan of Salvation. In fact, the apostles were the original, robust evangelicals. It all has to do with how the gospel is framed. Peter and Paul framed their gospeling through the grid of Israel’s story coming to its destination in the Story of Jesus. Neither did they frame their gospel from the perspective of an atonement theory—whether the ransom theory or the penal substitution theory. Salvation and atonement flow out of the gospel, and Paul can call his gospel the “message of salvation” ([Acts] 13:26), but neither atonement nor salvation was how the apostles framed the gospel.— The King Jesus Gospel, page 117

<idle musing>
It's interesting that what most people consider the "center of the gospel"—atonement theory—doesn't even get mentioned in the early church. They were too busy concentrating on who Jesus is and was. It's telling that the most common manuscripts of the New Testament from the early period are the gospels. We tend to think of Paul first, then Jesus. Who got it right??
</idle musing>

Christ is your life

However, Paul proclaimed something much different from that in Colossians 3. He stated that Christ is your life. He is. Fact. Done deal.

He did not say that Christ is your life if you accomplish this, give away that, and forgive those. No. None of that. Paul stated, qualification free, that Christ is your life.

This kind of statement in Scripture is called an indicative—something that has already been indicated or declared about you as a fact, a truth.

Indicatives aren’t the only kind of statement in Scripture, however. There are also imperatives. An imperative is something we are supposed to do, phrased as a command or a direction. It might sound dry to talk about types of speech, but it is hugely important for this reason: when we confuse indicatives with imperatives, we sabotage our ability to live in our new identities.

Colossians 3 is full of indicatives. You have been raised with Christ. You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ. Christ is your life. All of these things are declared about you as facts that are already true.

The minute we hear these as instructions for us to accomplish—as imperatives—we hear a lie. Some of us have the feeling that all we hear in church or around Christians are imperatives. Commands that threaten our freedom. And some of us church types actually love imperatives, but for selfish reasons. See, if we keep all the commands and rules, we can chart our progress toward holiness and present ourselves as righteous people.

But both of those approaches are wrong!

Here’s why. Every imperative in Scripture is based on an indicative. In other words, we’re never asked to do something until we’re told something true about who we are.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 6

<idle musing>
Grammar matters! He's totally correct here. So often we confuse a statement for a command and consequently short-circuit God's plans for us.
</idle musing>

The twelve

So, when Jesus chooses twelve (Mark 6:7–13) and when he promises the twelve will sit on the twelve thrones (Matt. 19:28), Jesus evokes both Israel’s prophetic expectation and the fullness of God’s covenant people. But what might be missed is this, and I think missing this is a colossal failure: Jesus does not include himself in the twelve. He’s not one of them. He’s above them. He is the Lord or King (or Messiah!) over the twelve, not just one of the twelve.— The King Jesus Gospel, page 107

<idle musing>
I had never noticed that before...
</idle musing>

Thought for the day

 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,

for the rights of all who are destitute.

 Speak up and judge fairly;

defend the rights of the poor and needy. Prov. 31:8-9 TNIV

Ain't it the truth

Great paragraph in a good review of a book:

As I approached the end of the volume [Saebø's Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of its Interpretation, Volume III/1: The Nineteenth Century — a Century of Modernism and Historicism], Katharine Dell helpfully articulated what was beginning to take shape in my own head: “sometimes when we think we have a new idea we need to heed Qoheleth’s warning that ‘of making many books there is no end’ (12:12) and that there may be little that is ‘new under the sun’ (1:9) after all.” As an author who has also worked in publishing, I understand the immense effort and expense that goes into making books at all points of the process. We ought to have a significant and useful contribution to show for our investment when ideas see print, yet so many books cover the same territory using the same well-trodden paths. Knowing the story can spare us running in circles and spending our energy in vain.

<idle musing>
Far too many books I've read fall into the latter category...but then you hit a gem that makes it all worthwhile!
</idle musing>

Living a lie

You belong to Christ. You are hidden with Christ. You are God’s beloved. That is the truest thing about you, and therefore you must become that preexisting truth if you are to avoid becoming a lie. These things are true about you—now become what is already true.

Drive this truth, this identity, so deep into your psyche, your personhood, your sense of self-worth, that this truth becomes your fountainhead, the source of your life.

Become who you are.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 6

<idle musing>
Amen! Good preaching! We only need to become what we already are! I know it sounds almost too good to believe, but it is true. We are the righteousness of Christ; we are loved; we are accepted in the beloved. Believe it!

We become what we believe we are. We become what we focus on. If we focus on ourselves and our failings, we fail more. We begin to believe the lies that we can't do anything different—that we have to fail. But, if we realize that in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are more than that, we can become what we already are! Believe it!
</idle musing>

The Gospel according to Mark

Mark’s focus on the death and burial and resurrection is very gospel-like according to Paul’s and the apostles’ definition. A Greek reader feels this focus on the last week more than an English reader. The Greek reader encounters in Mark’s gospel the Greek word euthys, usually translated “immediately,” thirty-four times in the first nine chapters...It is obvious to a careful reader of the second evangelist that Mark couldn’t wait to get Jesus to the cross! Once Mark gets Jesus to the passion, the word euthys all but disappears.— The King Jesus Gospel, pages 83-84

<idle musing>
Indeed. You are almost breathless getting there, but once to the passion week, Mark slows down to include all the details. Another advantage to knowing Greek : )
</idle musing>

Thought for the day

"You know, people say that today. "Oh, I am just a saved sinner."

That is like saying you are a married bachelor. That is like saying you are an honest thief, or a pure harlot.

You can´t be a saved sinner. You are either saved or you are a sinner.

He came.

"Thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from their sins."—Leonard Ravenhill

Backwards, as usual...

As soon as we remove doing from the equation of life’s identity, we freak out. That message runs counter to everything we hear and everything we’ve been taught. As soon as we understand that it’s not what we do that primarily matters in our relationship with God, but who we already are in Christ, we can hardly believe it.

When something sounds too good to be true, many of us tune it out. We assume it must be false. Life doesn’t work like that, does it? It can’t be that easy, can it?

God is relentless, however, and He continues to call out to us. He continues to speak over our lives, just as He did for His Son, Jesus, at the Jordan River, telling us in no uncertain terms that we are His beloved children who bring Him pleasure simply by existing.

Before God tells us what to do, in other words, God tells us who we are.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 6

<idle musing>
As usual, we get it all backwards. Who we are has to precede what we do. If we try to do it the other way around, we will be like the hamster on the wheel—round and round we go, but we don't get anywhere.
</idle musing>

The Gospels

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves of a basic fact. The early Christians weren’t describing the first four books as a kind of literature, as if “gospel” was a genre of literature and already had a number in the Dewey Decimal System of ancient libraries. No, we need to say this loud and clear: they didn’t call the first four books of the New Testament the “Gospels.” Instead, they called each one of them the “Gospel.” They were saying there was one Gospel, but it was written down in four version, the (one) Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.— The King Jesus Gospel, page 81

Looking all around

We look around to find our identity. We want people to mirror back who we are, but this ends in distress. Or we try to look within to find an identity. We follow our desires, our hearts, our wants, and our attractions to know who we are, but we end up depressed.

When we look to God for our identity, however, we can find rest.— The Truest Thing about You, chapter 4

<idle musing>
Probably why we are encouraged to fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2)...
</idle musing>

Too true

“Gospels of Sin Management” presume a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind...[and] they foster “vampire Christians,” who only want a little blood for their sins but nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven.—Dallas Willard, as quoted in The King Jesus Gospel, page 76 (ellipsis and brackets are in the quotation)

<idle musing>
I've known people like that...Wesley used to say to pity them, they had too much of God to enjoy sin, but not enough of God to enjoy God!
</idle musing>

A true definition

Define yourself radically as beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is an illusion.—Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child as quoted in The Truest Thing about You

Things change

The Reformation did not deny the gospel story and it did not deny the creeds. Instead, it put everything into a new order and into a new place. Time and developments have somehow eroded the much more balanced combination of gospel culture and salvation culture in the Reformation to where today a salvation culture has eclipsed the gospel culture.— The King Jesus Gospel, page 72

<idle musing>
Things change—and not always for the better! We need to get back to a gospel-oriented foundation!
</idle musing>