Worship

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Ps 139:14

What is it to worship God? David gives here two reasons to praise God: we were made to fear and wonder at the marvellous hand of God. Another psalmist says: God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all that are about him. Ps 89:7.  Praise and reverence must accompany worship. I am ashamed to confess that I can't tell you the last time I have had an appropriate amount of reverence when in the house of God. Christ said, "If you love me, keep my commandments".  There is no way we can begin to fulfill our duty and obligation to our Creator, if we are unfamiliar with his Law and Instruction.

The first of the Ten Commandments is to have no other gods before the LORD. The second is to not make any graven image to serve or bow down unto. For God is jealous, we must serve God alone. How serious was he? Read for yourself the entire volume of inspiration. God will share his glory with no one. "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed". Ex 22:20. Israel was destroyed only when idols were mixed with the service of God. Israel was commanded to drive out the inhabitants of the land that God gave them and "Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to thee". Ex 23:32-33. The Church of the New Testament is likewise commanded to be separate from the world, not to compromise with and tolerate the frivolities and amusements that the flesh seeks; because serving the flesh is a snare. How different is that to the wisdom of man?

If I can make no other point, I want to highlight that there is no other priest in the New Testament than Jesus Christ.  A priest is one to bears the transgressions and petitions of the people before God; he performs the sacrifice. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: who gave himself to be a ransom for all, to be testified in due time". I Ti 2:5  Paul said he was an apostle to teach about Jesus and point children to the one and only Way to God. "Christ being come an high priest of good things to come...by his own blood he entered in once to the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us...but now once in the end of the world hath he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb 9:11-26.

At its core, Idolatry is the love of self and human invention: "Look what we have made".  "If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it". Ex 20:25. The tabernacle where God dwelt with Israel was built with very precise direction, after the pattern shown to Moses in the mount. No deviation from strict obedience can be considered proper worship. God struck down priests who did their own thing in God's tabernacle. God has declared man's righteousnesses as filthy rags, and will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent". Isa 64:6, I Cor 1:19.

That being said, below is a list of habits and doctrines that I believe are idolatrous and therefore shall endeavor to oppose and avoid:
Missing Church meeting for games/ amusement,
Mixing worship with games and amusement at Church,
The doctrine of Free-will, (e.g. the individual is the judge of Christ's sacrifice)
The doctrine of Armianism/Synergism, (e.g. Christ's sacrifice is perfected/applied by our work)
Papacy (e.g. A network of priests are a mediator between the individual and God)
Sacred Images
Seminaries (because it qualifies the ministry with human instrumentation and worldly wisdom)

I am carnal, sold under sin.  My flesh is constantly seeking glory and leading me astray even down paths of idolatry daily. Seeing we have these sinful tendencies in our flesh, the Church should therefore be the more adamant to stick to the simple instruction of the Word, and maintain strict separation from the world in order to be a place for worship to the most holy God

Evolution or Idolatry?

The expanding theory of evolution has pervaded our science and thought deeply, but it expressly and directly denies God his glory and contradicts Truth.

Scientific evolution is observable and quite easily proven.  It attributes great wisdom to the God who created living organisms and systems.  But the philosophical extension of evolution goes far beyond our observation and is supposed to be a viable explanation of our being.  Faith in the eternal, unchanging, power of God should never be compromised or undermined in the spiritual, mental, or physical realm by the ever evolving sophistry of worldly reason.  God is sovereign in the hearts of his people, and in the physical laws of HIS universe.

One thing I wish to stress is that our faith in God does not rest in our logic or reason.  By faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God (Heb 11:3).  There is no way we can see, with our eyes or scientific proof, how the worlds were framed.  The difference between our faith in God, and the insistence of secular thinkers to explain origins naturally, is an a priori difference.  Acknowledging God requires a conscious decision because the facts won't lead you there; the facts are interpreted based on the foundation of faith.

I have faith in God intrinsically.  It is written deep within my being so that I cannot begin to interpret my observations or trust nature's laws without nature's God being the foundation and first cause.  He alone is self-existent, eternal, immutable, and all-wise.  I believe main-stream "science" is absent that foundation and rests on arbitrary assumptions such as: we can trust our senses, natural law is constant and dependable, and human reasoning can lead to truth, to name three.  Yet while maintaining assumptions that make science possible, they deny revelation from the Holy One who makes those assumptions reasonable.

Therefore I believe main-stream science, insofar as it places human reason as more important than Divine revelation is idolatrous.  I want nothing of it.  I had much prefer lean on the sublime gift we have of inspiration in the Bible to guide my interpretations of nature.  It does not at all limit our ability to understand nature, but it allows the truth of nature to reflect so brightly on her Creator that I rejoice to see my God when his wisdom is displayed in nature. I further believe it is a mistake to ignore the timelines given in the Bible from creation to Christ in order to harmonize the Bible with the contradicting assumptions of Evolution.  I believe God is wiser than we are and that He did not use an extended "natural" process to form the universe contrary to the plain statements of Genesis.  God is supernatural. He said he spoke the earth into existence so I believe it.  He said he breathed life into man so I believe it.  He said that he was God in human flesh so I believe it.  He said that he would rise after being in the grave and I believe he is alive.  If we believe God works supernaturally according to so many statements, we don't need a natural explanation of creation that denies his supernatural account in Genesis.  Of course Genesis isn't a scientific account, but let's not pretend that creation was anything but supernatural. 

I understand that I cannot create faith in God, nor convince unbelievers to trust the Bible.  But I wish to encourage the faithful to trust the Bible instead of judging it by the arbitrary theories of the world.  I wish to reinforce the belief that creation was a miraculous work of God's power, and identifying theories that contradict the Bible as God-dishonoring.  Evolution (the extended, beyond-observation, theory) is idolotrous and is despised by God as is every false god in history.  I believe the Word of God and we can by obedience to that faith draw closer to our Savior. Let's love one another and never be ashamed to stand in the Word.  When the world hates us for it, remember that it hated Jesus first, and rejoice if ever we suffer any reproach for Christ's sake.

Life

Driving by three wooden crosses along the highway, I pondered the picture I was viewing.  People display the cross to make a statement of religious affiliation, or to remind ourselves of a horrific sacrifice.  However, my mind went directly to what those manufactured symbols are unable to picture: Our God is life.

I first noticed that no one is hanging on those crosses, which reminds me that Christ is alive.  That as a corn of wheat dies to yield much fruit (John 12:24), so his death produced our life.  And as he has life in himself (John 5:26), so will our life be eternal because our lives are hid in Christ (John 10:28, Col 3:3).

God is the source of all life (John 1:3,4).  Nothing has life without receiving it from him, and no one keeps it without being sustained by his word (Gen 2:7, Luke 4:4, Heb 1:3).  Why should we look to dead symbols (dumb idols) to represent a living God? It cannot.

Habakuk 2:18-20) What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

God has spoken, He gives us life and teaches us His truth by the Holy Spirit (Jer 31:33, Mat 16:17, 1John 2:20,21,27).  A handmade image is not a statement of faith; our conduct is a true statement (James 2:18).  If my fiance were present, would I use a photograph to brag about her?  Is the purpose of an image to associate one with the truth of God, or to associate one with a human sect?

 

Short Statements of My Philosophy

Beauty, love, and energy are sought by everyone; regret, sorrow, and failure are never welcome.  There is no exception to the before rule demonstrating common ground for all humanity: the former proves goodness is a free gift and the latter proves there is evil we must fight.

I don't know much, but I believe in God.  My belief in God is intrinsic, a priori.  That doesn't make me any more stubborn or blind than anyone else, because at the base of everyone's consciousnesses is a principle that proves everything they believe.

The accumulation of wisdom is my chief priority--it is not the attainment of truth but the discernment between truth and error.

Practice is much better than education.  Education introduces more ideas (of which there is no shortage), while practice separates the good ones from the bad ones.  Education is preferred currently for the same reason it is inferior: it insulates from failure and loss, the real teachers.

Our culture is demanding more free education and insurance; but of course we can't make anything free or secure, we can only hide the costs and hazards.

Insurance is designed to mitigate risk, but may accomplish the reverse.  By dispersing risk among many, actions are separated from consequences, less is learned and the whole gets closer to a large disaster.

To learn the most, we should observe everything that can teach us.  Pain, cost, failure, recession, anger, and war are teachers that are popularly avoided.  Therefore pain killers, socialism, the Federal Reserve, and pacifism make us feel good but keep us stupid.  They block information.  Why is war important?  It differentiates between the pleasant and the essential--indeed somethings are more precious than life itself.

I believe we should consider patriotic that which is faithful to freedom and virtue, not simply faithful to the United States.  How honorable is it to just go along with the majority?

I would like to see the slow and peaceful drift of the US toward a large and powerful central government, reverse in like manner back to more power distributed to the local governments.

Institutions that are too big to fail are too big to learn; bailing them out only defers the disaster until the problem has grown.  The biggest bailout is every time congress increases the debt ceiling.

If a partial government shutdown is a disaster, perhaps we are relying too heavily on something that lacks fiscal discipline.

How can we value liberty and institutionally embrace debt?  That is a glaring contradiction.

Moral integrity is speaking and acting consistently to conscience.  No one, not even myself can influence my conscience, but compromising conscience is a sure way to lose a grip on it.

God is love.  Therefore if I ever act contrary to love, I compromise my conscience.

God is truth.  Therefore if I ever deceive or justify error, I compromise my conscience.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22,23

Salvation By a Faithful Godhead

I would like to offer a definition of faith for your consideration.  Faith is the belief of one party in the integrity of that person or thing believed. Our banking system is fiduciary, based upon faith and therefore rests entirely upon the integrity of the people involved.  I express faith in the US government when I work for US dollars and my bank when I deposit to them.  A simple purchase carries with it a lot of faith: when I swipe my MasterCard, the merchant recognizes that my card is legitimate and has faith that MasterCard will pay him, MasterCard has faith that my bank will pay it and finally my bank has faith in me that I will pay it.  Without the integrity to pay what is promised, this system fails.  It's no coincidence that the Apostle Paul explained justification by faith in the 3rd chapter of Romans after confirming the complete inadequacy of mankind.

The first three chapters of Romans confirms the constantly apparent guilt and depravity of mankind.  The law declares the righteousness of God and reminds us how short we fall from the holy rule.  Then Paul states the mechanism of our justification in the most direct way it can be stated. Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God, without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

God's righteousness is witnessed by the law, but it declares us guilty and informs us that death is the only just punishment for sin.  But the great mystery: How can God be just in not punishing us with eternal death? But now, the apostle says, the righteousness of God is manifest without the law.  God is just because Jesus is our propitiation, set forth (foreordained) by God, and declared openly the righteousness of God by suffering the just punishment of our sins.  God forgave sins for thousands of years before Christ died because by His own oath He was made our surety. By God's faith in our Surety, Abraham and all the old testament saints were delivered from their sins (Heb 7:20-22).  And now this righteousness is manifest to us by Christ making good on his eternal oath when He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification.  Christ's death was a seal of His faith unto and upon all them that believe, and his resurrection was the seal of our justification by the Father (Romans 4:25).

Even as God was not obligated to create us, He was not obligated to redeem us, and He is not obligated to reveal any of His mysteries to us.  Yet in His infinite love He did all of those things.  The third chapter is closed with a very extraordinary statement: Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea we establish the law.  I believe the fourth chapter of Romans then presents us with the fundamental purpose of the law, which is for the human understanding of the righteousness of God.  The law is established by faith and obedience is the answer of a good conscience toward God.  As Abraham believed in God before he was circumcised, so all obedience is subsequent to and because of faith.  Righteousness was reckoned to Abraham because he saw and believed the promise of God--that God would provide Himself a sacrifice--not because he saw and believed in his own obedience.  Abraham, our spiritual ancestor, is an example to us; (Romans 4:11) that if we have been taught of God (John 6:45), so we should approach our savior by obedience to his law.  We find our righteousness and our comfort by not judging our eternal standing with God according to our obedience, but by judging well the faithfulness of Jesus.

Life Is A Gift Exchange

After reading Knowledge and Power by George Gilder I have been thinking about profit and the teaching of Jesus: It is more blessed to give than receive. The richness of capitalism lies in the way that profit is generated through a massive gift exchange.  I believe, and will try to show that, profit cannot be generated but by selflessness.  Profit is simultaneously misunderstood, envied, and pursued, but is generated almost entirely by acts that are essentially selfless.

Simply defined, profit is the value that one gains in excess of the value one surrendered in an event such as a creation, a construction, a purchase, or a gift. We love gifts because they are a surprise.  Something given for compensation, or received as expected isn't really a gift.  Giving the best gift is an art of love--it requires intimate knowledge.  The better you know someone, the better you are able to give something he values, the more profit you are able to create. Perhaps no one knows me better than I know myself, but so many times I have been given gifts that I valued more than anything I could have ordered.  Has it been so with you?

A market is the place where gifts are exchanged and currency is the medium thereof.  Currency is merely an expedient mechanism where the giver of gifts is able also to receive.  When the members are free to act on their own self interest, the producer who gains more knowledge about the needs and desires of other members is the one who will accumulate more power.  Academia in studying economics as a third party, tends to watch the flow of currency but misses the gift.  It can quantify the accumulation of wealth, but can't grasp all the true profit shared by the recipients of the gifts of the innovators.  The mainstream economic theory is based on zero-sum model--that value is defined by the marketplace and people get exactly what they pay for. How else but by a number of dollars can a PhD researcher evaluate it?  There is no way to quantify the contentment of placing food on your family's table, or the pleasure of discovering your new favorite song you downloaded for only $1.29! No, life is not a zero sum game.  We win together when we give of ourselves more than is asked, and we lose together when we give only for what we expect to be compensated.  Greed swallows profit.  

Psalms 4:5-8  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD. There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.  Thou has put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.  Jesus taught us to seek first the kingdom of God and all the natural blessings we need will be supplied by our Father.  Materialists are demanders.  They have no faith in God nor their fellow man, but depend on contrived ways to ensure market "fairness" so that they can be sure they will receive whatever it they deem to be just compensation.  The gladness in my heart from a communion with my Lord, is worth more than any increase of corn and wine.  Materialists trust in the government and human science to ensure our prosperity and safety.  Human science, first cannot account for our existence, neither can ensure next year's harvest.  I thank the goodness of God for my breath and daily bread; therefore, I can face an unknown tomorrow with great assurance.

Ecc 11:5-6 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.  In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. The moral of the story is to give yourself--work.  You have a gift, and if you haven't found it yet, keep working for others and trust in God.  Too many people see what they perceive as tragedies to others and are afraid of being burned by injustice and so keep themselves from giving of themselves.  But Ecc 11:4 reminds us that if our perceptions of the future keep us from sowing, we will not reap.  We can create profit by giving to others, but when we demand it, we will only be disappointed.

Psalms 139:16  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  Since God has perfect knowledge, I would expect Him to give the best gifts.  There are also demanders when it comes to religion.  Could any idea that our home in heaven is based in any capacity on our demands or requests be any farther from biblical truth?  Behold Rom 8:26-39:  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself matketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because be maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.  What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.  Who is he that condemneth?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Bible emphatically declares that eternal salvation is a gift from God; the profit of which is too wonderful for us to have even known what to pray for.

In summary, if profit were properly understood, no organization would ever call itself "non-profit"; trade is essentially a gift exchange; profit is maximized by the giver understanding the recipient; and the ultimate profit belongs to the objects of Christ's eternal love.  We have every reason to give give give.  Even if I never receive another gift (which is not according to the pattern I have seen), I still can't give enough of myself.