It seems like Christianity and Jesus are increasingly under attack. What's going on? What we'll be looking at is what happens when Christians use human wisdom to interpret the Bible, twisting scripture away from its intended message. This blog is dedicated to using Scripture itself to interpret and help us understand Scripture. You are welcome to add your comments and thoughts. Other viewpoints are welcome. Disagreements are welcome.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
John Wesley's Holy Club Daily Questions
John Wesley lived almost 300 years ago. In 1729 John Wesley, his brother Charles and other students formed the "Holy Club" at Oxford University. This was the beginning of the Methodist Church. These are 22 questions members of John Wesley's Holy Club asked themselves every day in their private devotions.
Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I relly am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?
Can I be trusted?
Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
Did the Bible live in me today?
Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
Am I enjoying prayer?
When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
Do I pray about the money I spend?
Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
Do I disobey God in anything?
Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
Am I defeated in any part of my life?
Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
How do I spend my spare time?
Am I proud?
Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
Most Americans think they are Christian... but is that true?
Are you a Christian? Are you truly a Christian or are you just calling yourself a Christian because... you've never thought about it. Or your family was Christian. Or you believe in God. But are you truly a Christian? Watch this video.
Are you a Christian? Feel free to comment on this video using the "comments" link below.
So You May Also Have Fellowship With Us -1 John 1:3
Over the past two weeks I've made ten posts based on 1st John. These give the characteristics of a Christian (or non-Christian). An index to these posts is provided below.
Are these ten points a test that can be used to determine a person's Christianity? Yes and no. You can not go through the list, checking of yes and no, and adding up your "points" to see if you are a Christian. The Christian walk is not a steady walk. At times we fall back, make wrong choices and just plain screw up.
Where you can see the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is in how the react to learning they might be have one of the characteristics the define a non-Christian. A Christian will be immediately concerned and looking for a way to change their life to address that problem.
We are now at the 6th characteristic than can be used to distinguish a Christan from a non-Christian..
#6 - "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if the had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us." 1 John 2:19
Those who are Christians enjoy the company and fellowship of other Christians. All Christians immediately have something in common, the Bible and Jesus Christ. Someone who does not enjoy the fellowship of Christians is probably not a Christian.
Although this seems straight forward, I do have a word of caution. Just because someone attends church, that does not make them a Christian. Just because a church calls itself Christian, that does not make that church a Christian church. Walking away from people or a church that is not truly Christian is not what John is talking about.
I've attended church services in mainline churches, and felt totally out of place. For example, this past summer I visited a New England church in which communion is all about radical hospitality and everyone is invited to partake of communion. This is not a Christian church. It is a church I'd leave and never return to. In doing so I would not be doing what John describes in 1 John 2:19, because in this case I am not leaving Christian fellowship.
John is also not referring to someone who leaves one Christian church to attend a different Christian church. There is no one church that has a lock on Biblical truth. Different churches have different missions, different styles of worship, offer different classes, etc. We may find our gifts to be a better fit with a different church, or with a different group of Christians, and that is okay.
The person John is talking about here is the person who rejects fellowship with Christians.
My wife became a Christian several years before I did. At times she would be working around the house and would be singing spiritual songs and hymns. I love her singing, she has a wonderful voice. But those songs grated on my nerves. I did not like them and I did not want to be around her when she was singing them. That's what John is talking about.
The third characteristic of a non- Christian, as described in the book of 1st John is: (See previous post.)
#3 - "The one who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going because darkness has blinded his eyes." 1 John 2:11
In this verse the word "brother" refers to someone who is a Christian. It refers to your Christian brothers and sisters. If you hate another Christian, you are walking in darkness.
Tony [not his real name], a member of our church had been divorced. He had met another woman and asked our pastor to marry him. The pastor declined on the basis that the Bible says you may not remarry while your original spouce is alive. Tony was upset and felt the pastor's manner had been rude when he told Tony he could not perform the marriage. Tony found another pastor who would perform the marriage, and has since refused to step inside the first pastor's church... not even to attend the funeral of a friend.
A characteristic of a Christian is that they are forgiving and do not hate any other Christian.
What is hate? The Bible is not talking about feelings. It is talking about actions. Biblically, hate is the absence of deeds of love. Love expesses itself in concrete actions of love.
"Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself." - Leviticus 19:18
Hate is considering your own needs first (1 Corinthians 13:5) and disregarding those who are truly in need (Luke 10:30-37).
Love is putting the needs of others before your needs. Whenever a Christian brother has a true need and you, as a Christian, do not help them, then you have hated your brother and you walk in darkness.
The Ten Commandments give us God's definition of love. For example:
If you love God, there is nothing more important to you than God; you do not have idols in your life; and you never use God's name in an inappropriate manner.
If you love your parents you honor and obey them.
If you love other people you do not lie to them; you do not steal from them; you do not murder--which Jesus defined as being angry at someone. God looks at your thoughts and sees your anger as being the same as murder.
This is why throughout the Bible love and obedience to God are equated as being one and the same thing.
A few years ago I attended a local festival. I walked around asking people the question: "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?" Out of about 300 people I spoke with that day, 290 said they were a good person. Most people think they are good. But the Bible, and our conscience, tells us something different.
If you answered this question by saying, "Yes" you reveal that, as 1 John 1:8 says, the truth is not in you. You are not a Christian.
The Bible tells we all are sinners: "For all have sinned..." - Romans 3:23
There is no one who does not sin. Based on God's standards, there is no one who is good. What are God's standards? Start with the Ten Commandments and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5,6 & 7). Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken something that did not belong to you? (Even something small?) Have you ever looked at another person with lust? Jesus said that if you look with lust you have already committed adultery in your heart. (Matthew 5:27-30) These are just three of the Ten Commandments.
On the other hand Christians know they are not good people, because they know they fall far short of God's standards for good.
"We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands." - 1 john 2:3
If when you face Jesus on judgment day, you feel you are good enough to get into heaven, then you are not a Christian. No one is good enough. We have all failed to meet God's standards and we owe the penalty for breaking His law... it's the death penalty. The only way we can avoid the death penalty is if someone else is willing to pay that penalty for us, on our behalf. And Jesus Christ did that on the cross.
"We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us." - 1 John 1:3
"I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life." - 1 John 5:13
1st John provides a list of characteristics that define someone who is not a true Christians. This series of posts looks at these characteristics as described in 1st John.
There is no scoring used for these characteristics. There is nothing in the Bible that says that if you met any of these criteria, you are not a Christian. John only says that he provides this list so that believers will know they are truly saved.
Here is the first one:
#1 - "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the true." 1 John 1:6
What does it mean to walk in darkness? Most of us believe we are walking in light... we think we are good people. Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
Have you been living with someone or having sex outside of marriage? Then you are living in darkness.
Do you regularly go out to get drunk or use drugs? Then you are living in darkness.
Are you looking at pornography, or spending a lot of your time reading romance novels? You are living in darkness.
Do you regularly use the name of God as a cuss word? Do you download copyrighted music from the internet? Do you regularly tell lies? Then you are living in darkness.
These are just a few of the clearer, easy to see examples.
In general...
If you are not actively trying to live a life in obedience to God, and struggling with sin, then you are living in darkness.
If you are not putting effort into knowing God, reading your Bible regularly, then you are living in darkness.
You can not claim to have fellowship with God and be willingly involved in sinful behavior. Sin separates us from God. You can not have fellowship with God when you are separated from God.
Do you know what it means to live in obedience to God? Do you know what sin is?
Definition of Sin
To sin is to disobey God, meaning to break God's laws.
"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact sin is lawlessness." -1 John 3:4
We are all sinners. We all break God's laws.
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." - 1 John 1:8
The difference between a Christian and a non-believer is that a Christian falls into sin and struggles with sin. A non-believer dives willingly into sin.
