The Great Privilege

This is one of the best sermons I have ever heard....and I don't say that lightly. I have watched it 4 times in the last week because it is just that powerful. I posted a ten minute clip of it a week or two ago, but this is the entire sermon. I pray that we will listen and take heed to this message.

"I don't need to be a prophet or a son of a prophet to know what your God is, I only have to watch your life. When Jesus Christ is just something you do at the beginning of the week, but yet throughout your life you are a practical atheist, I know who your God is and it is not the one who is the One true God. When you have just enough Christianity to make you moral and comfortable in the south, I know who your God is. If I could look into your mind to see what occupies your mind I will know what your God is."
-Paul Washer

God's Word of Promise is All We Need!

Here is a must hear message from Jeff Noblit of First Baptist Muscle Shoals, Alabama:

“The great need of the church, the great need- I have to say- of the professing church is to know God. We don’t know God! We have not studied, and meditated, and worked, and digged, and seen all the glories and the wonders of who He is! Therefore when He says trust Me, we don’t know who we’re trusting!” -Jeff Noblit

The Constraining Reigns of My Loving Father

It's been WEEKS since I've been able to write a blog post. And what a weird time that has been, considering I am a person who loves to write and finds it really easy to express myself through it. But man, these past couple weeks, it's almost like the Lord has put a reign on my fingers...literally restraining me from being able to translate my thoughts and all the things He is teaching me into a coherent piece. Even thinking about it right now weirds me out to an extent. I mean, what in the world? Day after day I would sign into my blog, look at it, long to contribute, and yet, there wasn't a thing I could do to make myself do it.

Well, God is good my friends. If there is one thing that I am learning, it is that God is indeed in control and sovereign over all things. And when I get comfortable in that and drift from the reality of that, He always finds a way to wake me up. There is a purpose for everything, and God is not just going around reacting to the things that go on in this world. No, in fact He is the one who ordains them. Everything that I do was predestined before the foundation of the world. A lot of people are uncomfortable with that. It makes them uneasy, and it might even go against the idea that they had of God in their minds. But I tell you, search the entire counsel of the Scriptures and discover the character of this God of ours. It is incredible and it will blow your mind. The more I learn about God's sovereignty, the more I want to submit myself to Him and His will...because guess what...I can't resist it. If God wants to do something then He will do it, and it is not without good reason- that reason being to bring glory to His Name! Wow. Talk about something that will change your perspective on life. I know that the Lord is in complete control over my life, and I know that because I am His child, He has promised to conform me to the image of His son. Therefore, I know that everything that happens to me is ordained by Him to further sanctify me. What an incredible thought.

(side note- I have been following Dr. James White's debate with Steve Gregg over Calvinism and Arminianism over at AOMIN.org for the past week or so, and well, the arguments in favor of the arminian point of view just make me sad. The God that it portrays is not one that is in control, and if I held to that position, I'm afraid that I would be at a loss for answers in my life right now. One can't read the Bible honestly and come to the conclusion that God isn't all-powerful and sovereign over ALL things (including the will of man), and if you think that He is not, then, I have to say, you have opened up a huge can of messy worms in trying then to determine what He controls and what He doesn't, leaving you with no real set purpose or guidelines for the things that happen in your life. I'm not going into a theological explanation right now, but I found myself compelled to mention this. You can get an archive of the debate at aomin.org).

Anyways, the Lord is teaching me that everything I have and everything that happens in my life is a gift from Him. I am a totally depraved sinner who deserves death, not mercy from my Lord. And like I said before, whenever this thought begins to slip my mind, the Lord is quick to remind me. My faith is a gift dependent on Him, and so is my repentance even, and so is my holy fear of Him. Without the Lord granting me these things then I am left hard-hearted and searching this world to fulfill my own lusts of the flesh. Eeek, what a terrible thought. I have gone through times where the Lord has withdrawn my repentant heart and has made me realize that it does not come from me, but instead, I am dependent on Him to be the author of my salvation. What a lesson to be learned. So when I found myself incapable of writing for weeks on end, I knew it must be for a reason.

And indeed it was. Not only was it to teach me that even my ability to write hinges on the grace of God, but also some other things as well- even though it took me weeks to see these things (leaving me in somewhat of frustration until then). But the Lord gave me this great sense of responsibility and made me realize that writing is a very powerful thing, not to be taken lightly. I mean, I am held responsible for every word that flows from my brain and onto this computer screen. There was this fear of accountability and it caused me to take a huge step backwards and view my writing from afar. This is not a light subject; this is the Word of God. This is the difference in where eternity is spent. This is the difference between living a life that is pleasing to your Savior, or storing up the wrath of God upon yourself because of sin separating you eternally from Christ and all His holiness. Perhaps I needed to see that in order to check myself. The devil would love to take this fear and cause me to stop writing, but I know that the Lord was just showing me that I am to stay continuously in His word and learning about His character and His will, because if I am not sensitive to His voice, then I can easily blurt something out on this blog that is not of Him. And that's a scary thought to me, because I know that I am going to have to give an account for every word that I write.

I went through something very similar about a year or so ago. All of a sudden I found that the Lord was putting a reign on my tongue in certain situations. It was right after the Lord had awakened my soul to His holy righteousness and had revealed to me my unrighteousness, and the Lord was in the process of revealing to me the idols in my life. And I literally found that there were times when the Lord had put such a reign on my tongue that I could not speak about things that I knew were idols in my life. I had lost my desire to speak trivial things, and then to help me out in that the Lord took even my ability to speak those things away as a whole. Again, it was an interesting thing to say the least (I speak in past tense, but it still happens to this day), but I realized that I am going to have to give an account for every idle word I speak. It's another example of not doing what is natural to you so that God may apply His supernatural work in you. Sometimes, like in these instances, He will make it so known to you that you are not doing the work that you almost feel like you can tangibly see the reigns placed on you. What a beautiful thing it is to see the work of God take place in your life!

One of the reasons that this lesson is so important in my life is because it is teaching me, like I said, to discern the Lord's voice. I mean His voice in the sense that He will guide my EVERY step through the work of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that thought alone blows my mind. But then to experience it?...wow. God is faithful to His promises. He promises to sanctify me and to grow me in holiness like my Savior Jesus Christ. And that entails me living a Spirit-led life. So now when I see that the Lord is literally restraining me from doing something, I learn to sit back and listen and to wait upon Him. Do you know what happens when you disobey and don't listen? You start to strive in sin. You start to try and come up with your own way of doing the things that come natural to you, and well, you end up in a big mess of sin. God has showed me through His word that no man can receive anything unless it is given to Him from heaven (John 3:27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven). Our inheritance was given to us from before the foundation of the world (Psalm 47:4)....so um, when the Lord says you can't have something, it is best to wait upon Him to show you what to do instead because otherwise you will strive in sin (and still not end up with what you thought you wanted anyways). So it's like a double loss. I write this knowing that this revelation has delivered me from so much bondage in my life, but I also write this confessing that it is a huge struggle for me. I thank God for His truth though, because it sets me free :)

Lord willing, (this idea brings a whole new meaning to the phrase Lord willing, doesn't it?) I will have more on this topic of waiting upon the Lord during times of tribulation and not striving in sin. There are verses that I want to share and examples that I want to point out from the Bible, but for now, I might have to leave it at this and just bask in the grace of my God for granting me the gift of writing again. Another thing that the Lord was teaching me in all of this was to just to make sure that I am not just typing words and not living them out. It is a great gift from the Lord to have the opportunity to live out your theology, because living it out makes it real to you. When you step out of faith and apply the truth of God to your life, then you find 100% of the time that God is faithful and keeps His word every time. This just leads to an increase in your faith and more belief in His promises and then to a more righteous lifestyle. But the flipside is that this must mean that the Lord must promise trials and tribulations to arise to give you the opportunity to step out on faith. But like I said, more to come on that point later. For now, consider these words from Peter, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to test you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, since you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy." 1 Peter 4:12-13.

Being constrained by the reigns of our Heavenly Father can be an uncomfortable situation...scratch that, it IS an uncomfortable situation. It can feel like the very fiery furnace itself. But speaking for myself, when the reigns are removed and I find myself left to myself for a little while, I run back crying out to the Lord to restore the reigns and to apply his discipline. Why? Because it is during those times that I know I am doing the will of my Father and I am able to take comfort that He is the one that is guiding me. Without the reigns- nope, I'm just a restless sinner who is not content with the world because I have tasted and seen that the Lord's way is good. I'm praying for my brothers and sisters out there that find themselves striving to control their own reigns for their lives. Let loose and quit striving my brethren, it is a glorious thing. God bless you all.

What Does It Mean to be Meek?

More to come on this topic. I have some stuff to write regarding it when I get the time. But for now I just wanted to get this up so you could see this AMAZING message from Mark Kielar on the TRUE definition of the word "meek." It is a six part playlist because it is the entire sermon, but it is well worth the listen :)

What Is The Link Between God's Word and New Age Heresy? The Emerging Church.

Click on this image below to go to a document that shows just how the truths of God's Word have been twisted and distorted to bring about a completely different religion altogether, which we refer to as "New Age" or "New Spirituality." False religions are everywhere though, so why is this one any different or more concerning? Because it is creeping into today's "evangelicalism" at a FRIGHTENING rate. In case you don't know much about this man-centered, man-made religion here is a quote on it....

"The hope of the New Age faith, or New Spirituality, is that when this One Humanity has achieved its 'divine potential' and all separation has been purged from the world, then world problems such as 'tribalism' and poverty and hatred and violence will be left behind. The world will then be transformed by this New Humanity into a divine new world of peace, love, good will, and sharing where everyone can be free to worship his own inner (immanent) 'God' of his own understanding in his own way. The call for this New Age 'kingdom of God' is now being so widely heeded, even in today's Christianity, that the building of humanity's Ark of Oneness is suddenly nearing completion."
-Tamara Hartzell

One might read that and say, that has nothing to do with the Bible, how is that linked with Christianity at all??? Logically, one would think that something that teaches the opposite of God's word wouldn't even stand a chance in the church. Wrong. So what has made this New Age shift possible within "Christianity?" Three words for you: THE EMERGING CHURCH. Take a look at this document and see exactly how the Emerging Church is an open door for all this heresy to enter into what we are calling evangelical Christianity in America (which, by the way, is no Christianity at all.) The obvious, clear-cut line between true Biblical Christianity and heretical, blasphemous New Age is being completely muddled and blurred by the Emerging Church, deceiving hundreds of thousands of people. These people are subtly mixing Christian dialogue with New Age beliefs, and the result is the most dangerous and downright deceptive road to eternal destruction. There is one God to be served and worshiped and who deserves all the glory in the universe, and He is the God of the Bible, not some ambiguous god of our 'inner beings' that is different for each person. Ew.

Agonizing Consequences of Sin

For anyone out there who is a born again creature in Christ but still struggles with past/present sin and its consequences. I think it is quite possibly one of the hottest most intense of all afflictions that God puts upon our souls during this bitter sweet sanctification process. The result is feeling like you have been put in an oven and God turned up the temperature to 400 degrees, but all for a loving purpose...and that is to refine the silver and get out all the impurities. Our human minds just can't wrap themselves around the concept of things getting harder before they get easier, but I know I am so thankful for the split second moments in time when the Lord gives me the eyes to see it and find hope in His promises.

Zechariah 13:8-9 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, says the LORD, two parts in it shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them as gold is tested: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, They are my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

Remember your brothers and sisters who are under great afflictions as we all endure the refining process of being conformed to the image of Christ. Keep them in your prayers, for we are all in this together. And do not forget the Great Comforter that we have on our side to lead us into all truth. Breathe your sorrows at the throne of Grace, for our God is faithful in hearing our cry. There is only one Comfort for our weary souls, nothing else of this world will suffice; run to Him.

The Natural Consequences of Sin
By Jeff Reed

God assures us, if we truly are repentant, we can receive forgiveness no matter what our sins. When we initially repent and are baptized, we are washed clean by the blood of Christ. As we live our lives as Christians, still not perfect, we are continually faced with overcoming sin. We are assured in Hebrews 4:16 that we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” The love of God for us is truly great.

I knew this when I was baptized over 13 years ago. I was eager to have my sins forgiven and washed away, and I assumed that now my life would also be perfect. I quickly learned I was wrong. I had received forgiveness, but I still faced the effects of my prior sins. Relationships with people I had damaged by my wrong behavior were still messed up. The effects of repeated sin on my character were still there. All the wrong television, movies, music, and twisted popular culture continued to haunt my thoughts. Eating the wrong foods for over twenty years would continue to have negative impacts on my health. The consequences of sin remained.

In Deuteronomy 28 God gives a list of blessings for obedience to Him and curses for disobedience. These were given to the nation of Israel at a national level. If they collectively obeyed His laws, great blessings would occur. If they disobeyed, there would be an opposite outcome. The outcomes are very natural and are part of the world He created. They are as natural as the law of gravity. If we toss an object into the air we know the consequence will be it will fall to the earth. Because the laws God gave Israel are natural laws, they can be applied to any nation at any time in history.

Let’s imagine that everyone in our country kept God’s law against murder. The consequence would be everyone would feel absolutely safe in every situation, time and location. But the reality is that even though the vast majority of people keep that law, because there are a few who don’t, and our justice system has become weak and ineffective, people are often faced with situations where they are on guard or fearful. It is why we have elaborate security systems, people carry personal weapons, locations are well lit at night, and many other precautions are taken to keep people safe.

We can apply these natural consequences to a personal level as well. If someone is an alcoholic or drug addict before they become a Christian, he will still be dealing with the consequences of that sin for the rest of his life. If someone engages in illicit sexual practices, before becoming a Christian or sometimes unfortunately after becoming a Christian, the effects of disease, broken marriages, unwanted pregnancy, and other problems will remain, even after repentance and forgiveness.

To truly repent is to also accept the consequences of our sin. In 2 Corinthians 7 Paul writes about the attributes of Godly sorrow the Corinthian church was displaying. He writes:

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” 2 Corinthians 7:10,11

One of those attributes is “the readiness to see justice done” even if that justice is applied to ourselves. Imagine if you have stolen something and were sentenced to jail time and community service. If you have Godly sorrow that leads to true repentance you will accept your punishment willingly.

King David learned this the hard way when he was faced with his own terrible sins of adultery and murder. Nathan rebuked David for his sins and David repented:

“Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die” 2 Samuel 12:13,14.

One of the consequences of his sin was the death of his child born to Bathsheba. David faced this with much sorrow. He fasted and pleaded with God to save his son. Afterward David had learned a great lesson and was able to write, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:4). He accepted the judgment of God and was ready to see justice done in his life. His true repentance led him to accept the consequences of his actions no matter how painful they were.

We need to be very grateful that God has and will forgive us. We need to learn the lessons of our lives and what the consequences of sin can teach us. God, by His Spirit, is creating Godly character in us by those lessons.

This article can be found here.

The Therapeutic (Non)Gospel

Here is what I consider to be one of the best articles I have ever read. David Powlison uncovers the deceptive message that this world is trying to serve up as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is called the "therapeutic" gospel and it has nothing to do with the message found in the Scriptures and yet it is sweeping the nation (and the world) and blinding the eyes of millions. Don't believe me? Look at the thousands who line up to listen to Joel Osteen tickle their ears every Sunday. It is a message that is appealing to the flesh and it is not centered around the message of Christ cruicified. This false gospel comes cleverly wrapped in a package labeled with Christian ideas so it is pulling the wool over many people's eyes. I thank God that He is preserving His true message during this dangerous time of half-truths (which is no truth at all) and I pray for discernment among His people so that we will continue to take a stand. To put it frankly, born-again believers who, through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, understand that this life is not meant for us to serve the lusts of our own deceitful heart should not/will not even be able to stomach this perversion of the truth.

This is a great article to forward to your friends who you think might be caught up in this. Compare what is described in it to what the Emergent church leaders are teaching today and you will find that their gospel is not the one of the Bible, but instead a therapeutic one. Please hear me when I say that the Christian life is not about coming to Christ so that our needs are met, it is about becoming A NEW CREATURE through faith in Christ which leads to sanctification and a whole new set of unselfish desires. It is truly an incredible, supernatural work of God in which you desire to live holy and bring glory to Him; it's not an all-inclusive train ride that takes you to your 'best life now' here on this earth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation for all those who believe, why do people think they have to change it? Because they don't believe in it themselves and they are blinded by their own sinful lusts. Pray for these people because their eternity is in danger. All the glory to Christ for saving us, brothers and sisters, from this mindset, for it is by His grace alone. Let this motivate us to study the scriptures like the Bereans and combat these lies with the truth. Ok, I could go on and on but I will stop and let the article do the talking :) Lord willing, take the time to read this entire thing; it is WELL worth the time. The article can be found here at 9marks.org.

The Therapeutic Gospel
By David Powlison

What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a "therapeutic gospel."

In his chapter entitled "The Grand Inquisitor," Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.

The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. "We have corrected Your work," the inquisitor says to Jesus.

The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.

THE CONTEMPORARY THERAPEUTIC GOSPEL

The most obvious, instinctual felt needs of twenty-first century, middle-class Americans are different from the felt needs that Dostoevsky tapped into. We take food supply and political stability for granted. We find our miracle-substitute in the wonders of technology. Middle-class felt needs are less primal. They express a more luxurious, more refined sense of self-interest:

-I want to feel loved for who I am, to be pitied for what I’ve gone through, to feel intimately understood, to be accepted unconditionally;
-I want to experience a sense of personal significance and meaningfulness, to be successful in my career, to know my life matters, to have an impact;
-I want to gain self-esteem, to affirm that I am okay, to be able to assert my opinions and desires;
-I want to be entertained, to feel pleasure in the endless stream of performances that delight my eyes and tickle my ears;
-I want a sense of adventure, excitement, action, and passion so that I experience life as thrilling and moving.

The modern, middle-class version of therapeutic gospel takes its cues from this particular family of desires. We might say that the target audience consists of psychological felt needs, rather than the physical felt needs that typically arise in difficult social conditions. (The contemporary "health and wealth" gospel and obsession with "miracles" express something more like the Grand Inquisitor’s older version of therapeutic gospel.)

In this new gospel, the great "evils" to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, the problem lies in my sense of rejection from others; in my corrosive experience of life’s vanity; in my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence; in the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off; in my fussy complaints when a long, hard road lies ahead. These are today’s significant felt needs that the gospel is bent to serve. Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained, and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches.

The therapeutic outlook is not a bad thing in its proper place. By definition, a medical-therapeutic gaze holds in view problems of physical suffering and breakdown. In literal medical intervention, a therapy treats an illness, trauma, or deficiency. You don’t call someone to repentance for their colon cancer, broken leg, or beriberi. You seek to heal. So far, so good.

But in today’s therapeutic gospel the medical way of looking at the world is metaphorically extended to these psychological desires. These are defined just like a medical problem. You feel bad; the therapy makes you feel better. The definition of the disease bypasses the sinful human heart. You are not the agent of your deepest problems, but merely a sufferer and victim of unmet needs. The offer of a cure skips over the sin-bearing Savior. Repentance from unbelief, willfulness, and wickedness is not the issue. Sinners are not called to a U-turn and to a new life that is life indeed. Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word "Jesus," but he has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus’ work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.

THE ONCE-FOR-ALL GOSPEL

The real gospel is good news of the Word made flesh, the sin-bearing Savior, the resurrected Lord of lords: "I am the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore" (Rev. 1:18). This Christ turns the world upside down. The Holy Spirit rewires our sense of felt need as one prime effect of his inworking presence and power. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, we keenly feel a different set of needs when God comes into view and when we understand that we stand or fall in his gaze. My instinctual cravings are replaced (sometimes quickly, always gradually) by the growing awareness of true, life-and-death needs:

-I need mercy above all else: "Lord, have mercy upon me"; "For Your name’s sake, pardon my iniquity for it is very great";
-I want to learn wisdom, and unlearn willful self-preoccupation: "Nothing you desire compares with her";
-I need to learn to love both God and neighbor: "The goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith";
-I long for God’s name to be honored, for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done on earth;
-I want Christ’s glory, lovingkindness, and goodness to be seen on earth, to fill the earth as obviously as water fills the ocean;
-I need God to change me from who I am by instinct, choice, and practice;
-I want him to deliver me from my obsessive self-righteousness, to slay my lust for self-vindication, so that I feel my need for the mercies of Christ, so that I learn to treat others gently;
-I need God’s mighty and intimate help in order to will and to do those things that last unto eternal life, rather than squandering my life on vanities;
-I want to learn how to endure hardship and suffering in hope, having my faith simplified, deepened, and purified;
-I need to learn to worship, to delight, to trust, to give thanks, to cry out, to take refuge, to hope;
-I want the resurrection to eternal life: "We groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body";
-I need God himself: "Show me Your glory"; "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus."

Make it so, Father of mercies. Make it so, Redeemer of all that is dark and broken.

Prayer expresses desire. Prayer expresses your felt sense of need. Lord, have mercy upon us. Song expresses gladness and gratitude at desire fulfilled. Song expresses your felt sense of who God is and all that he gives. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. But there are no prayers and songs in the Bible that take their cues from the current therapeutic felt needs. Imagine, "Our Father in heaven, help me feel that I’m okay just the way I am. Protect me this day from having to do anything I find boring. Hallelujah, I’m indispensable, and what I’m doing is really having an impact on others, so I can feel good about my life." Have mercy upon us! Instead, in our Bible we hear a thousand cries of need and shouts of delight that orient us to our real needs and to our true Savior.

GOOD GOODS, BAD GODS

Properly understood, carefully interpreted, the felt needs make good gifts. But they make poor gods. Get first things first. Seek first the Father’s kingdom and his righteousness, and every other good gift will be added to you.

This is easy to see in the case of the three particular gifts offered by the Grand Inquisitor’s therapeutic gospel. It is a good thing to have a stable source of food, "bread for tomorrow" (Matt. 6:11, literally). All people everywhere seek food, water, and clothing (Matt. 6:32). Our Father knows what we need. But seek first his kingdom. You do not live by bread alone, but by every word out of his mouth. If you worship your physical needs, you will only die. But if you worship God the giver of every good gift, you will be thankful for what he gives; you will still have hope when you suffer lack; and you will surely feast at the endless Banquet.

A sense of wonder and mystery is also a very good thing. But the same caveat, the same framework, applies. God is no wizard of Oz, creating experiences of wonder for the sake of the experience. Jesus said "no" to making a spectacle of himself in the midst of temple crowds. His daily faithfulness to God is a wonder upon wonder. Get first things first. Then you’ll appreciate glory in small ways and large. In the end you will know all things as wonders, both what is (Rev. 4) and what has happened (Rev. 5). You will know the incomprehensible God, creator and redeemer, whose name is Wonderful.

Similarly, political order is a good gift. We are to pray for the authorities to rule well, so that we may live peacefully (1 Tim. 2:2). But if you live for a just society, you will always be disappointed. Again, seek first God’s kingdom. You’ll work toward a just social order, enjoy it to the degree it’s attainable, have reason to endure injustice. In the end, you will know unutterable joy on the day when all persons bow to the reign of the true King.

Of course, God gives good gifts. But he also gives the best gift, the inexpressible Gift of gifts. The Grand Inquisitor burned Jesus at the stake in order to erase the Gift and the Giver. He chose to give people good things, but discarded first things.

The things offered by the contemporary therapeutic gospel are a bit trickier to interpret. The odor of self-interest and self-obsession clings closely to that wish list of "I want_____." But even these, carefully reframed and reinterpreted, do gesture in the direction of a good gift. The overall package of "felt needs" is systematically misaligned, but the pieces can be properly understood. Any "different gospel" (Gal. 1:6) makes itself plausible by offering Lego-pieces of reality assembled into a structure that contradicts revealed truth. Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was plausible only because it incorporated many elements of reality, continually gesturing in the direction of truth, even while steadily guiding away from the truth: "Look, a beautiful and desirable tree. and God has said that the test will reveal both good and evil, with the possibility of life not death arising from your choice. Just as God is wise, so you the chooser can become like God in wisdom. Come now and eat." So close, yet so far away. Almost so, but the exact opposite.

Consider the five elements we have identified with the therapeutic gospel:

1. "Need for love"? It is surely a good thing to know that you are both known and loved. God who searches the thoughts and intentions of our hearts also sets his steadfast love upon us. However all this is radically different from the instinctual craving to be accepted for who I am. Christ’s love comes pointedly and personally despite who I am. You are accepted for who Christ is, because of what he did, does, and will do. God truly accepts you, and if God is for you, who can be against you? But in doing this, he does not affirm and endorse what you are like. Rather, he sets about changing you into a fundamentally different kind of person. In the real gospel you feel deeply known and loved, but your relentless "need for love" has been overthrown.

2. "Need for significance"? It is surely a good thing for the works of your hands to be established forever: gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and straw. It is good when what you do with your life truly counts, and when your works follow you into eternity. Vanity, futility, and ultimate insignificance register the curse upon our work life – even midcourse, not just when we retire, or when we die, or on the Day of Judgment. But the real gospel inverts the order of things presupposed by the therapeutic gospel. The craving for impact and significance – one of the typical "youthful lusts" that boil up within us – is merely idolatrous when it acts as Director of Operations in the human heart. God does not meet your need for significance; he meets your need for mercy and deliverance from your obsession with personal significance. When you turn from your enslavement and turn to God, then your works do start to count for good. The gospel of Jesus and the fruit of faith are not tailored to "meet your needs." He frees from the tyranny of felt needs, remakes you to fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12:13). In the divine irony of grace, that alone makes what you do with your life of lasting value.

3. "Need for self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-assertion"? To gain a confident sense of your identity is a great good. Ephesians is strewn with several dozen "identity statements," because by this the Spirit motivates a life of courageous faith and love. You are God’s – among the saints, chosen ones, adopted sons, beloved children, citizens, slaves, soldiers; part of the workmanship, wife and dwelling place – every one of these in Christ. No aspect of your identity is self-referential, feeding your "self-esteem." Your opinion of yourself is far less important than God’s opinion of you, and accurate self-assessment is derivative of God’s assessment. True identity is God-referential. True awareness of yourself connects to high esteem for Christ. Great confidence in Christ correlates to a vote of fundamental no confidence in and about yourself. God nowhere replaces diffidence and people-pleasing by self-assertiveness. In fact, to assert your opinions and desires, as is, marks you as a fool. Only as you are freed from the tyranny of your opinions and desires are you free to assess them accurately, and then to express them appropriately.

4. "Need for pleasure"? In fact, the true gospel promises endlessly joyous experience, drinking from the river of delights (Ps. 36). This describes God’s presence. But as we have seen in each case, this is keyed to the reversal of our instinctive cravings, not to their direct satisfaction. The way of joy is the way of suffering, endurance, small obediences, willingness to identify with human misery, willingness to overthrow your most persuasive desires and instincts. I don’t need to be entertained. But I absolutely NEED to learn to worship with all my heart.

5. "Need for excitement and adventure"? To participate in Christ’s kingdom is to play a part within the Greatest Action-Adventure Story Ever Told. But the paradox of redemption again turns the whole world upside down. The real adventure takes the path of weakness, struggle, endurance, patience, small kindnesses done well. The road to excellence in wisdom is unglamorous. Other people might take better vacations and have a more thrilling marriage than yours. The path of Jesus calls forth more grit than thrill. He needed endurance far more than he needed excitement. His kingdom might not cater to our cravings for derring-do and thrill-seeking, but "solid joys and lasting treasures none but Zion’s children know."

We say "yes" and "amen" to all good gifts. But get first things first. The contemporary therapeutic gospel in its many forms takes our ‘gimmes’ at face value. It grabs for the goodies. It erases worship of the Giver, whose greatest gift is mercy towards us for what we want by instinct, choice, enculturation, and habit. He calls us to radical repentance. Bob Dylan described the therapeutic’s alternative in a remarkable phrase: "You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires" (from When You Gonna Wake Up?). Second things are exalted as servants of Number One.

Get first things first. Get the gospel of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and glory. Live the gospel of repentance, faith, and transformation into the image of the Son. Proclaim the gospel of the coming Day when eternal life and eternal death are revealed, the coming Day of Christ.

WHICH GOSPEL?

Which gospel will you live? Which gospel will you preach? Which needs will you awaken and address in others? Which Christ will be your people’s Christ? Will it be the christette who massages felt need? Or the Christ who turns the world upside down and makes all things new?

The Grand Inquisitor was very tender-hearted towards human felt need—very sympathetic to the things that all people everywhere seek with all their heart, very sensitive to the difficulty of changing anyone. But he proved to be a monster in the end. There is a saying in mercy ministries that runs like this, "If you don’t seek to meet people’s physical needs, it’s heartless. But if you don’t give people the crucified, risen and returning Christ, it’s hopeless." Jesus fed hungry people bread, and Jesus offered his broken body as the bread of eternal life. It is ultimately cruel to leave people in their sins, captive to their instinctive desires, in despair, under curse. The current therapeutic gospel sounds tender-hearted at first. It is so sensitive to pressure points of ache and disappointment. But in the end it is cruel and Christ-less. It does not foster true self-knowledge. It does not rewrite the script of the world. It creates no prayers or songs.

We must be no less sensitive but far more discerning. Jesus Christ turns human need upside down, creating prayer. He is the inexpressible Gift of gifts, creating song. And he gives all good gifts, both now and forever. Let every knee bow, and let everything that has breath praise the Lord.