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Articles
“A Crystal Ball & A Magic Wand” Read
“Christianity: More Than A Passing Fad” Read
“Salvation: God’s Great Romance” Read
“A Crystal Ball & A Magic Wand”
by Ron Dunton
I have often said that I wished that when I graduated from seminary I had been given a crystal ball and a magic wand, because the two things people frequently want me to do as a pastor is tell them God’s will and fix their problems. All I need to do that is a crystal ball, so I can look into the future, and a magic wand, so I can make problems disappear. Sadly, I received neither when I became a pastor, nor does either exist, other than in the world of fantasy. So what do I tell people when they come to me, wanting advice regarding God’s will for their lives?
At a Bible study about 20 years ago, a friend shared an insight into two familiar Bible verses that I have never forgotten. The verses are Proverbs 3: 5-6…
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And lean not on your own understanding,
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.”
Reflect with me for a moment on what exactly it is that God promises here. First of all, what are the conditions? I must seek to walk by faith, trusting with all my heart that God is working out the plan that He has for my life that will ultimately be for my good. Second, I must not allow my finite, short-sighted, pragmatic view of the world to overturn my trust in God. Finally, I must determine that whatever I do, I will do it for the glory of God, submitting my life in obedience to my Creator.
If I do these three things, what does God promise to do for me? If I trust God, don’t try to live life by my own “smarts” and determine to serve God in all I do, does He promise that He will show me which path to take whenever I come to a fork in life’s road? No! He doesn’t! What does He promise? He assures me that, “He will make my paths straight”!
Search as you will, you cannot find an answer in the Bible to every question you have about what to do with your life! Shall I accept this new job offer or stay employed where I am? Assuming both jobs are moral and legal, you are free to choose either one! Shall I marry this young lady or that? Assuming that both are Christians, you may go to the altar with either one, if they will have you. Shall I attend this college or that one? The Bible may give us principles for the kind of people we should choose to learn from, but you won’t find the name of a single college located in modern America referred to in the pages of Scripture.
So how can I know what God wants me to do? First, study the principles God gives for the area in which you are making a decision: His guidelines for marriage partners, His directives regarding acceptable work, His wisdom regarding those by whom we should be taught. Second, ask others who are more experienced with God’s Word than you, “How would you apply the principles of the Bible to this situation?” In other words, “Get good counsel.” But then what?
Then choose any option that the Bible endorses and know that God will make whichever path you have chosen straight! He will “never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). “The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go!” (Joshua 1:9) He may not show you which path to take, but He will walk with you down whichever path you choose, going before you and beside you to protect you and to guide you. It’s no crystal ball, but it’s crystal clear. God calls us to “live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) But even though we can’t see the future clearly in a crystal ball, or fix our problems with a magic wand, we can know that God will walk with us into the future and meet us in every problem and keep us on the path that leads straight to heaven.
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“Christianity: More Than A Passing Fad”
by Ron Dunton
A couple of months ago, Christians were gearing up to engage a culture we felt certain would soon be swept up in controversy about Jesus. Do you remember the occasion? It was the impending release of the film “The DaVinci Code”. But the movie flopped at the box office and the furor that surrounded it melted away as quickly as snow in Texas. Observing that media whirlwind, I was encouraged that so many Christians were prepared to exploit the release of that controversial film to spark significant discussions about Jesus with their friends. Conversations about Jesus need not be a passing fad that comes and goes like the latest box office hit. Christianity, and Jesus, the person central to our faith, is more than a passing fad. Jesus is the focal point of history and the One about whom every man, woman and child must make a crucial and eternal decision.
Theories about Jesus, questions about whether he was divine–the same theories as were Dan Brown espoused in his bestseller–have paraded across history’s stage since the death of Christ, but Christianity has not died. Controversies about the authority of God’s Word, like those dividing the Episcopal Church today, have engulfed God’s people as long as there have been skeptics, but the Bible still has sold far more copies than any competing religious work–and it is still the truth. Whenever we are tempted to be silent, fearing we will be labeled as obsolete philosophical dinosaurs clinging to antiquated ideas that modern man outgrew centuries ago, remember that, in Luther’s great words, “God’s truth abideth still!”
The truth is that Jesus is God and became man. Reality is that He is the only way to God. As Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me”. The reality of this truth has not diminished over the centuries. That which was real in 30AD is just as real today. Jesus still changes lives! People today can and do still have a real relationship with a Savior who not only died on a cross, but rose from the dead. As much as modern man would like to dismiss these ancient truths, the fact remains that they are as true today as they were in Jesus’ day–and that they are still the only hope for healing the fractured lives of the people around us!
People need to hear these life-changing truths. Our lives need to be characterized by the way so many Christians responded to the release of “The DaVinci Code”. We must constantly be alert to opportunities to engage people in talking about Jesus!
How exciting it has been to watch people from our church reach out in recent months with the timeless truths of our faith! We have shared basic Biblical truths with children in our own Vacation Bible School, but also with kids across the street at our “VBS in the Park” and with children who live at The Springs of Indian Creek apartments. We have sung these truths along with the elderly at The Corinthians retirement center. We have lived out the truths of our faith by serving people in the food pantry at Christian Community Action and by rebuilding homes destroyed by Katrina in Bay St. Louis outside New Orleans. As the school year approaches we look forward to sharing these truths with young people at Polser Elementary School as our weekly Good News Club begins and as several of our youth begin mentoring students on a weekly basis.
Taking the timeless truths of Christianity to our community must be more than a passing fad for us! Our commitment to share the truth of who Jesus is and what He came to do must be as constant as the truths we are sharing. We must increase our creativity and each be aware of ways to love and serve people so that we can eventually engage them in conversations about Jesus. Imagine what God can do through us as more and more of us are involved in this great calling! I look forward in the coming months to hearing how God will call you to be a part of bringing the life-changing message of Jesus to the community around our church.
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“Salvation: God’s Great Romance”
by Ron Dunton
“Boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl; boy is rejected by girl; boy wins girl’s heart; boy and girl live happily ever after.” Is this the tired plot of some “chick flick” or romance novel–or could it be a theme God wrote on the human heart? God’s great romance is an often overlooked Biblical metaphor for the story of our salvation!
“God creates His people; God sets his affection on His people; God is repeatedly rejected by His people; God rescues His people; God brings His people to heaven to live happily forever.” In this Biblical metaphor of a great romance between God and the church, God Himself is the lover, the husband, and the faithful bridegroom; the church is the beloved, the wife, and the cherished bride. This story line that evokes such passion in our hearts illustrates the intensity of God’s love for His people and the lengths to which He has gone to make us His own.
While this metaphor of romance is developed throughout the Bible, it is most evident in the preaching of the Old Testament prophets as they call faithless Israel, God’s chosen people, back to their exclusive commitment to the God who saved them. The illustration is epitomized in the book of Hosea as the prophet is actually called to live out God’s message in his own marriage. “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD”, God tells His messenger (Hosea 1:2). So Hosea marries a woman with a history of immorality and has children with her. Inevitably, though, his wife leaves him for another love, but God commands, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods…” (Hosea 3:1). Hosea’s determined restoration of his relationship with his unfaithful wife is clearly God’s metaphor for His love for His people in spite of their sin.
Often the prophets tell the history of God’s people in the language of unrequited love: God pursuing His people, only to be repeatedly rejected. God chose a people to love, saved them out of slavery in Egypt, pledged to be their God at Mt. Sinai and settled them in the Promised Land. But when they were comfortable, they turned their back on Him, worshipping the idols of the culture around them, rejecting God by their fickle actions and committing spiritual adultery. Over and over the cycle is repeated: God’s people reject Him, but He rescues them when they return to His love.
The New Testament records the remarkable conclusion of this story of God’s love for His people. God’s one and only Son leaves heaven’s glory behind to enter our world as a man for the sole purpose of rescuing His Bride, the church. Christ’s sacrifice for His church is held up as the example to husbands of what love for a wife should be like, for Jesus “gave himself up for her…to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-26) Jesus’ mission to save His bride will not be complete until the day He brings us to heaven, an event Revelation 19:7 describes as “the wedding of the Lamb (Jesus)” for which “his bride (the church) has made herself ready”.
The story of salvation, God’s great romance, allows us a glimpse into the intensity of His love for us, His people. God loves us though we reject Him when we sin. God chooses the word “adultery” to describe the impact of our unfaithfulness. Why such a graphic word? Because what God experiences when we choose to disobey Him and follow our sinful desires mirrors what we would feel if we discovered our spouse had been unfaithful to us. With this language, God confronts us with how appalled He is by our sin, so that we can appreciate all the more the good news of the gospel. And what is that good news, if not God saying to His people: “I will take you back! I will be a faithful husband to you, my wayward wife! Nothing can separate you from my love!” Jesus has come and paid the price on the cross to redeem us from our prostitution to sin and take us to heaven as His beautiful bride!”
No sunset at the end of the movie is a suitable backdrop for such an expression of love! No swell of orchestra music can possibly evoke the necessary emotional response. All the tears we could shed or goose bumps we could experience would not do justice to this intensely passionate and completely faithful love of God for us. God’s pursuit of us–His people, His bride–is the great archetype behind every story of romantic love! Salvation is God’s great romance, and we, the church, are the object of His love.
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