Perry mentioned this morning Peter's command to be "sober-minded" and not allow our minds to be numbed by anything. I have talked to a number of drug and alcohol addicts who say they used drugs or alcohol to do just that: to make their problems go away, to numb their pain. "Life is pain, highness, and anyone who gels you otherwise is selling something." forgive the Princess Bride quotation. Let's get back to the Bible: "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (Jn. 16.33) the world offers us plenty of ways to numb the pain that inevitably comes with life, or to forget our purpose for being here in the world. In fact, if we just follow the world's example we will become less and less mindful of God.
We can use lots of things to numb our minds: drugs and alcohol, of course, but also sensuality, amusement, a myriad of addictions, and more. In fact, any any cause or interest that we place in front of Jesus Christ and his kingdom will not only numb our minds but reduce our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and our sense of God-given purpose.
In two places, the Apostle Paul juxtaposes drunkenness to being filled with the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18 he says "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit..." Rather than being intoxicated with alcohol (or anything else that might "intoxicate" us, I might add), we ought to be intoxicated by God's spirit, moved to give all we are and have to him. This kind of Spirit-filled living will indeed make us look different from the world around us. We might even shock those in our culture by our God-directed living. Now that would be something!
2 comments:
I sit in the pew week after week, try to sing (not so good), and worship during that time; and I know that is a very important time. God usually has something to say to me, be it a conviction or just something to think about in the hymns we sing. I here things from God's word during the sermon too. There is just something about His word that comes to life with me each time our Pastor delivers the sermon as God instructed him to do.
Right off when Pastor Perry started Culture Shock in 1 Peter something came to me that I have been pondering, and really have not thought about before. In 1 Peter 1:1-2 (NASB) the words “the chosen” (v.1) and “foreknowledge” (v.2). Of all that Pastor Perry has delivered thus far, I am behind and struggling with the fact that God may not have chosen some to be saved. I suppose I can only ponder this and maybe shouldn't waist time, because it is up to Him to decide who will be saved. But up to this point I really did not consider that God may not give everyone the opportunity, even the one on death row in prison. I guess I assumed that He gives everyone the opportunely to believe in, and accept Jesus as Lord and Savor, but this may not be.
I looked into election and it seems that this is a somewhat contested. It seems to me to be a matter of who are the elect, how are the elect chosen, and how many of the elect are there. Then I found this in the Baker encyclopedia of the Bible, “The teaching of Scripture should not be overly systematized. In the words of the Westminster Confession, election is a high mystery … to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God revealed in his word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal salvation”
That passage brings some relielf but now I have another problem, what in the world is the “Westminster Confession”!
Thank You,
God Bless,
Mike Miller
Mike, I agree that the doctrine of election is a heady one. At its heart, it's to be encouraging to us: I read Ephesians 1:3-14 and come away saying, "Wow...God chose me!" As Pastor Perry said yesterday, "I can't figure out why God would choose me." None of us is worthy!
Christians have for centuries struggled with the nature of God's predestination and foreknowledge of who would be saved. This much most can agree on: we can genuinely invite all to be saved by God's grace (2 Peter 3:9), that none of us can earn God's favor (Ephesians 2:8-9), and that no one can say "God's being unfair" if he condemns them to hell, since they've willfully disobeyed God's holy standard (Romans 1:18-20, 3:10-24).
The Westminster Confession is a doctrinal statement from the Reformed tradition, written in 1646. It outlines what we would call "Calvinism." They're on the "harder" side when it comes to God's decree and election. You can read it in its entirety (if you so desire!) at http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/index.html
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