More Like Whatever

So there's this song on the radio. I don't get it.

The song is "More Like Falling in Love" by Jason Gray.

Here's the chorus:

Its gotta be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in.
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance.
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now.
Its like I'm falling, Ohhhh.
Its like I'm falling in love.

Um. What?

Is the song really saying that knowing Christ (or maybe a conversion experience?) is more like falling in love than believing in something?

What about, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12)? Or, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31)? And what about, like, the rest of the Bible?

I'm having a hard time finding a text that says, "Engage in a Twilight-like romantic experience with a middle-eastern dude who lived two-thousand years ago who may or may not have performed some miracles and you will be saved, you and your household."

Believe in the name of Jesus. Then you have the right to be called a child of God. And when you belong to God, then comes the command to love him. And how do you love the Lord your God?

The song is confusing:

Give me rules, I will break them.
Show me lines, I will cross them.
I need more than a truth to believe.
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet.

Hmmm. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). The song seems to be indicating that some dramatic experience needs to take place and then rules won't be broken and lines won't be crossed. But the biblical portrait of the Christian life is like this: repentance of sin, faith in Christ, obedience of commands.

But that formula is just too religiony.

Love, Love.
Deeper and deeper.
It was love that made me a believer.
In more than a name, a faith, a creed,
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me.

I guess this experience deal is more than the name that will incite the bowing of every knee and bring every tongue to confess "that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11). Yeah. Definitely. More than that.

Atop the Christian music charts, Christian radio is playing "More Like Falling in Love" every fifteen minutes. But I guess Christian radio doesn't claim to be anything more than inspirational, encouraging, and positive.

I just thought that it might try and play songs that are--I don't know--Christian.

He Can Make Us Clean

It has been often said that it exhibits little faith to pray for God's will to be done in a sickness situation. Rather it must be prayed that God will heal regardless. Scripture explodes this fallacy.

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

-Matthew 8:2-4

The leper shows extraordinary faith, not because he says that Jesus will heal him, but because he says Jesus can heal him. Jesus acknowledges the leper's faith, as He does with others (Matthew 15:28; Mark 5:24), and says, "I will."

Some may argue that this goes against Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," but I will argue that it upholds the verse. The leper, being human, undoubtedly hoped that Jesus would heal him, but above the hope of physical healing he put his hope in the unwaivering promises of God by acknowledging that God was able to do all things. Not only that, but by saying what he did, he acknowledged that Jesus was God. That is the faith Jesus sees in the leper.

And because of that faith Jesus commands that the cleansed leper go and proclaim his faith to the faithless. The law required much of a leper after he was made clean.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop. And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water. He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field. And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but live outside his tent seven days. And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

“And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log of oil. And the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. And he shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy. The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Then the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand and dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and sprinkle some oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. And some of the oil that remains in his hand the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering. And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. Then the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean."

-Leviticus 14:1-20

But the law did not heal the leper. Jesus wanted it to be known that it was the power of God that healed the leper. No amount of faith in the law would heal the leper. Only faith in God could do that.

The Bible neither teaches that prayers of healing should be made with the assumption that God will heal nor does the Bible teach that one can be healed by performing the rituals of the law. And nowhere does Scripture teach that we have the power to command God's will by adherence to the law or by presuming healing in prayer. 

True faith lies within the understanding that God can do all things and resting in the promises that He has given us.

Battle Despondency Like Jesus

Taken from Future Grace by John Piper.

1. Choose some close friends to be with you (Matthew 26:37).
2. Open you soul to your friends (v. 38).
3. Ask for your friends to intercede and partner with you in battle (v. 39).
4. Pour out your heart to God in prayer (v. 39).
5. Rest your soul in the sovereign wisdom of God (v. 39).
6. Fix your eyes on all that God has in store for you (Hebrews 12:2).

Remember:

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
     and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
     the night is bright as the day,
     for darkness is as light with you.

-Psalm 139:11-12

Don't Equate Faith And Family

Often times when people are asked what they value most, they answer "faith and family." That's a cute cliche, but should we really put faith and family on the same level?

Don't get me wrong here. I think family is very important. I love my wife, someday kids (Lord willing), my parents, and my sister. That's not to mention my in-laws and my extended family. However, the reason I think that family is important is because it is a means to an end.

So, don't equate faith and family.

Faith represents a connecting agent; the God-granted allotment that allows us to be right with God. When we are justified by faith we are adopted as sons and daughters into a much larger, much more important family.

Take Jesus' words in Matthew 12:

While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

And in Mark 10:

Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Maybe when people say that "faith and family" are the most important things to them, they actually mean that faith is a far superior number one and family is a distant second. Maybe. But somehow the proximity seems unwarrented.

Faith is such an amazing gift. It is an awakening to the knowledge that we can be completely satisfied with all God is for us through Jesus. And when we have faith, we are sure of what we hope for, that is, that God is faithful to all the promises that He has made. We hope in God.

Family, while not on the same plain, is also a gift. But take note: the spouses, children, parents, and siblings God has put into our lives, good or bad, are only means to reach an end. The end is the belief that we can be completely satisfied with all God is for us through Jesus connecting us to a right standing with God, or in fewer words: justified by faith.

Praise God for each of these gifts, but don't equate faith and family.