scriptural-sagacity

[scriptural-sagacity]

unapproachable

One of my most recent obsessions has been, in the titular words of A.W. Tozer, the pursuit of holiness.

Since I’ve written at length on this topic before, I won’t bore you, dear reader, with something that you’ve read a thousand times, either here or elsewhere. Rather, I’ll share something that came up this afternoon during a meditation. (Of course, it’s something that you’ve also probably read or heard before — I’m not claiming any degree of originality here.)

I’ve been in the habit of trying to make holiness approachable to everyone. In conversation, in teaching, and in preaching, I’ve been trying to make it so that holiness is something that isn’t as intimidating and unattainable as people make it out to be. It’s not something reserved for the most devout of saints and preachers. All Christians are called to be holy. Therefore, it must be my job to try to break down holiness and make it more understandable and more achievable to everyone who has ears to hear.

But something that hit me like a thunderbolt is that, for all these years of ministry, maybe I’ve been doing it wrong.

I think my great mistake has been that, in order to better connect with the students and peers with whom I hang out most regularly, I’ve been sacrificing true holiness with a facsimile reminiscent of what happened to the Corinthian church. I wanted oh so badly for everyone to be holy that I watered down holiness to something that it is not.

My crime is that holiness is not approachable. It is not something that can be brought about by force of will, nor is it something that can or will be attained by all who try.

No, holiness is something that will set aside the sheep from the goats. It is something that will challenge all who stand before it in order to enter the gates of heaven. It is something that will ask everything of you, that will demand you bring every last shred of your life into the light of the Lord so He can tell you if it is pleasing to Him or not. It is something that brought the most famous Christian figures to their knees in awe and terror, wanting to die rather than to face the full force of holiness embodied by the Lord.

You cannot have your life and the life of Christ.

Maybe this is why ministry has been so difficult these days: because I’ve been trying so hard to make holiness approachable to the people around me, without realizing that, without Christ, holiness will destroy all who approach its presence at the altar. I’ve been so disheartened by the lack of progress despite all my efforts, and never stopped for a moment to realize that my efforts have been rooted somewhere other than the Gospel.

There is no good will between the cross and the unconverted person. The cross is ruthless. To take up your cross means that you are going to die. As A. W. Tozer has said, to carry a cross means you are walking away, and you are never coming back. The cross symbolizes what it means to die to self. We die so that we can be born again in and through Jesus, by repenting of our sin (even the unchosen ones) and putting our faith in Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation. The supernatural power that comes with being born again means that where I once had a single desire—one that says if it feels good, it must be who I really am—I now have twin desires that war within me: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5:17). And this war doesn’t end until Glory. ~Rosaria Butterfield

I’ve been too apologetic and too meek for what the Gospel asks of us. That needs to change.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

sabbath potatoes

This morning, I was microwaving some baby potatoes.

It’s rare for me to have moments where I don’t really have a lot of thoughts going on in my head. I’m one of those people you would call a “chronic overthinker.” And yet the only really concern (more a musing than a worry) going through my mind was that I forgot to poke some holes in the potatoes and that the potatoes might explode. I literally just spent five minutes standing in front of a microwave with a blank mind, because I didn’t have much else to do.

I think this is something that establishing consistent Sabbath rhythms has taught me.

We live in times where we are constantly pushed to do things faster and more efficiently. Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping. We are constantly seeking out technologies that take all the fuss out of life. Smartphones have enabled us to receive the latest trends and news within seconds, no matter where it is in the world.

And at church, it’s not much different. There’s a constant push for kids to learn the Gospel faster and better, with the mindset that they need to be indoctrinated as young as possible. Since we don’t know when Jesus is coming back, we have to constantly be pushing ourselves to evangelize to more people as fast as possible. If we don’t see the fruit in our disciples, we ask ourselves what we’re doing wrong rather than understanding that maybe that’s the way that God is allowing things to be.

We live in a culture where slowing down and taking the time to relax and to think is derided and even punished. In the constant scramble to maintain firm control of every aspect of our lives, people have forgotten what it means to surrender control because we’re just not that strong. We forget often that God can and still does work despite our weaknesses and sin, because our protests against getting the reins ripped out of our hands are just so loud that we never hear the whispering voice of the Lord in the midst of the chaos.

Sabbath rhythms are an anomaly in this day and age. It’s so easy to be connected that we find it nearly impossible to disconnect for even a day without our brains wondering why it’s not getting those endorphins from the blue-lit screen. And honestly, people don’t really help either — for the past few weeks, even though I’ve told people at church to please let me take my Sabbath in peace, I’ve still been getting texts and calls from people asking me to edit their papers and organize some event.

We’ve forgotten what it’s like to simply sit with the Lord and be reminded of how deeply He is in love with us. In fact, it’s so sad that pastors boast about the fact that they work seven days a week for the sake of the Lord because that’s how powerfully the Spirit works in them. Literally, it’s the single one of the Ten Commandments that we brag about breaking.

And I might be young (for a pastor), but I have enough experience to know how inconsistent Sabbath rhythms can break people. I’ve seen people getting sick because of consecutive days of little to no sleep and crappy diets. I see people who wonder why they struggle so much with sin and life’s trials, and yet they never take the time to refresh themselves in the Lord because there’s no time. No wonder pastor suicide rates have been jumping through the roof — they take so much time helping and loving others that they don’t receive from the Lord the love they need. Pastors are humans too: weak sinners in desperate need of a Savior. We just don’t take that time anymore.

The mark of people who are in love with God isn’t just how much fruit they produce; it is the priority of taking time out of their weeks to remind themselves of that love. That’s why Sundays are filled with worship, sermons, and fellowship — not because these things are a hassle, but because these things are deep, healing joys that remind us of the Creator who has invited us into fellowship with Himself. No wonder the first thing that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden after being experienced was the Sabbath day; the first thing that God wanted His creation (including people) to experience was the abundance of His love and to teach them how to rest in that.

My Sabbaths are filled with lots of activity, eating, meditation, and reading. These are things that I enjoy, but also things that remind me of who I am as a child of God. I used to play a lot more video games, but I noticed that I would wake up the next day after a full off-day and feel completely unrefreshed. I reduced the amount of video games and YouTube to nearly nothing, and now I feel more motivated to work hard the other six days of the week. And doing so has mellowed me a lot — the key lesson I learn nearly every Sabbath is that God is indeed in the driver’s seat, and I’m just along for the tide. I don’t get stressed out of my mind like I used to over work, school, and ministry, because whatever happens happens for my good and God’s glory. It’s not that I’m lazy (in fact, I feel like I work way harder ever since I started practicing proper Sabbaths), but more that my life has been reoriented to acknowledge that being loved by God is more important than anything else in the world, and I need to take the time off and away to be reminded of that. Otherwise, my own sin and the outside noise will cloud the voice telling me that God and His people are worth fighting for.

And this is why the simple act of microwaving a few potatoes (they didn’t explode, hallelujah) was so revelatory so much to me. I used to worry a lot more that I didn’t have the time to take breaks like this, but proper theology has allowed me this time of solitude with the Lord. It’s a brief moment in a full day of being reminded that the God who loves me is in control. That even if I take this time, God will still bring peace and order out of the chaos that whips around us every day. That’s faith.

Thank God for potatoes.

[scriptural-sagacity]

monk boy: I am hungry and I want to have a steamed bun.

Seven: Is the steamed bun good?

monk boy: Very good, you want one?

[Seven takes a piece.]

monk boy: So? Is it good?

Seven: Though the wheat is from Hetao… the time of fermentation is too long, the time of rubbing the dough is too short, the temperature of the steamer is too high. It has been 5 hours for the steaming until now. This steamed bun is just so-so.

monk boy: Almsgiver is infinitely resourceful. Have a bite of the steamed bun and you can tell the whole story about it. Almsgiver, who are you?

Seven: A foodie.

monk boy: A foodie... But, I still think my steamed bun is more tasty. There is a thing that you couldn’t tell even after eating it.

Seven: What is it?

monk boy: This steamed bun, I planted the wheat, I fermented the dough, and I put the bun in the steamer by myself too. Therefore, my teacher thinks this is the most delicious thing I have ever eaten.

Seven: Well said.

~from the movie, "Cook Up a Storm"

[scriptural-sagacity]

passionless

Our society today emphasizes that we need to have some sort of passion for something. We deride people who don’t have a job that they love, and instead say that they should quit and do something else that they’re passionate about. If you don’t have something into which you’re glad to put your blood, sweat, and tears, then you’re seen as a failure. When someone is bored or even suicidal, our first prescription is, “Do you have any passions? Maybe you should try to do something that interests you to distract you.”

Of course, the inherent problem with that solution is that such people have probably already tried nearly everything under the sun and still come up dry. And even in the event that they find something to properly distract them, the boredom or the depression still lurks beneath like a shark. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a knife wound: It’s a temporary fix for something that needs more serious and proper attention.

Now, I definitely don’t think it’s bad to have passions, especially if the alternative is lassitude or suicide. But sometime in the past century, depression rates started to skyrocket. Nowadays, you don’t see a lot of youths with hobbies. And no, playing games on a tablet that you got for your sixth grade graduation is not a hobby. That’s an addiction.

And it seems to have come with an age where our success and our approval doesn’t come from ourselves. A hard day of work or spending time with wife and kids used to be all that we needed to think at the end of the day, “I accomplished something wonderful today.” Nowadays, we feel like we need to shake the earth’s foundations and influence an entire country in order to really feel like we’ve done something meaningful.

Our obsession with needing passions seems to be a result of a prideful culture. You can ridicule the elderly for being old-fashioned all you want, but back in the days before the entertainment industry and technology ruled our culture, people weren’t so focused on trying to make a name for themselves. Their primary concern was to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. They knew that it was hard enough to provide for the people close to them without having to impress the whole world. Every day wasn’t a struggle for comfort, although that might have been a luxury that people would be blessed to have. Every day was a struggle for survival, either for oneself or on behalf of close friends and family. And everything, from marriage to vocation, revolved around that.

Not so these days, at least here in America or any first-world country. Most people that are reading this right now have Internet access and an education. Either our parents have provided for us, or we’re well-off enough to watch videos on YouTube and go get dinner with friends. And because every day isn’t necessarily a fight, our eyes and our hearts begin to wander. Drugs, porn, and gambling aren’t poor-people problems — they’re problems for people who have too much money (or at least, enough money to get by fairly comfortably) and too much time on their hands.

But when we Christians tell people to “find something that we’re passionate about,” perhaps as a distraction or as a way to stop sinning, are we really helping the problem? We might think that we’re helping people to stop sinning, but all that is is covering a bigger problem with a lesser one. Telling people to find their passion isn’t really addressing the real issue here. The issue is that people need the Gospel, that the hope and joy we seek can be found in God through Christ. We tell people to stop doing one thing and stop doing another, but while we might think that doing drugs or having premarital sex is far worse than a passion like cooking or reading, the latter two pursuits can be just as idolatrous and God-forsaking as the former two when the heart is in the wrong place.

So what is it, exactly, that we Christians are telling our brothers and sisters to do? Find something that they love to do, instead of the pursuit of God and the joy of fellowship? Idolatry doesn’t just pop up when our hearts aren’t devoted to worshiping what they should be worshiping; it happens when we get bored or sidetracked from what it is that we should be doing.

And what it is that we should be doing?

Jesus dictated that the greatest commandments were to love God and to love others. The passions that God has placed in our hearts are not supposed to be the be-all end-all of our lives. Jesus did not die on a cross and save us solely because He wanted us to glorify Him with the passions gifted to us; He died on a cross so that we could glorify Him with the love that we show for our neighbors and enemies. The sole purpose of Christian actors and singers and musicians and athletes who have pursued their passions should not only be to glorify God through the art form; it should be to reach the unloveable and the lost. Christians passionate about biology, sports, math, language, etc. should not get lost in the fascination of their respective fields, but should approach their passions with an evangelical mindset.

But these passions are not the only way to love people. Some Christians, out of a job or taking a year off from college, look at serving at church like it’s just something to do in their spare time. But the reality is that, with the people whom you serve, their eternities are at stake. There is no such thing as easy or meaningless servitude. Jesus showed us that ultimate love means that we would die for people. People are looking for that kind of love, whether they know it or not. And to serve at a church the way that Jesus did and still does will prove something wonderful: that our true passion should be for God and for people. Every other passion is supplemental and secondary to this.

I wrote this as a response to two young sisters who were complaining that they had no passions. They served at church, but they were surrounded by people that made them feel like they were just wasting their lives. Their peers all had passions. Their friends all knew what they wanted to do with their lives, and were going places. But they were looking at futures where they just couldn’t see where God was trying to take their lives. They both said, “I feel like I need to find a passion.”

But as they sat across from me bemoaning their present state, I was reminded that I used to think and feel the same way. A lot of people think that I have a lot of things that I’m interested in, which is somewhat true. I love exercise, cooking and baking, science, philosophy, theology, music, psychology… the list goes on and on.

But those weren’t always there in the first place. They developed. Somewhere along my life’s timeline, Jesus captivated my heart and told me the greatest commandment. And what happened was that the passions for life started to pop up as I saw how different people were and how necessary it was to know how to do different things to reach them with the Gospel. Since I work with the youth, it was almost like I needed to become a renaissance man in order to reach them. Girls gravitate toward food, and so I learned how to cook in order to feed them. Boys love working out, and so I started learning about nutrition, diet, and exercise in order to connect with them. A rather quiet boy recently asked me about the workout supplement creatine monohydrate, and I was more than happy to respond. That boy’s been coming out to church and small groups a lot more often.

The apostle Paul put it like this:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. ~1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Jeepers, those last two sentences are incredible.

Paul’s vision was never set merely on the pursuit of the passions of this life. His eyes were ever fixed on heaven and the blessings that awaited Him at the end of time. We all say that people are going places if they are successful in the pursuit of their passions, but as Christians we should all know that everyone is going one of two places: heaven or hell. Those are the final destinations. Our passions in this life matter less than the passion that God has placed in our heart for Him and for others.

And so, to those two sisters, I say… it’s okay to not have earthly passions. It’s okay to have a boring life. It’s okay to not know what you want to do with your future.

Some people were blessed with passions right out of the gate. But you know as well as I do that those passions can lead people away from God as much as they can lead people toward Him. God be willing, those passions will develop. If your heart is devoted to the Lord and to others, if you are truly set on pursuing God with everything that you have, then God will grant you everything you need to do to be fascinated by His greatness and to invite others to be fascinated by Him too. The things that fascinate others will begin to fascinate you, because that’s what it means to love. But those passions aren’t supposed to be your heart’s desire. God is. People are.

And if you’re serving, it’s absolutely not wasted time, at least if you look at people as the beautiful, powerful, and wonderful creatures that God made us to be. Creatures designed in God’s immaculate image, designed for greatness despite our fall, designed to give and receive love that would sacrifice everything. Even if just one person is your passion, the work of your hands, the one whom you devote all your time and love, that is a wonderful calling. That is a worthwhile passion. That is something that will make God smile.

My dear sisters, I don’t have a lot of interest in life either. But the reason why I spent a long, long night talking and listening to you was because two of my passions were sitting right in front of me.

My passion is people. It’s the way that God intended it to be.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

the cost

It was a nice day. Poking around Los Angeles with friends and eating some good food.

But there was that whisper that hit me at the end of the day, as my friends were getting ice cream. I’ve learned to follow that voice, and so I followed it outside onto the ledge overlooking the plaza.

Sometimes I wonder: What has the gospel cost me? What have I been willing to give up for the sake of following Christ?

Especially here in the States, the cost of following Christ seems to be so little. There’s no pressure to sacrifice anything. Our friendships lack ferocity. Our relationships are all about what we can receive, not what we can give. And we think that fellowship entails hanging out, when the reality is that Christ is not on our lips, in our minds.

It was a nice day, yes. But how much of it was really about Jesus? How much of it told the world of self-sacrificial love toward one another? How much of it told of the joy of being saved? How much of it saw every unbeliever that walked by our little party, and knew that they very well might be walking the broad road toward destruction? How much of it showed the world how much we would be willing to give and how far we would be willing to go for God and for each other?

Just because we hang out with people like us and people who we like, does that mean that we’re loving them?

Can I really say that I’m living out a gospel of love when nothing is being or has been sacrificed?

And if God asked me to give something up — shelter, food, money, marriage — for the sake of spreading the Gospel, would I be willing to jump in head first?

God asked me if I was willing to give up a whole host of things this evening. I honestly don’t know if He’s asking me to give them up or just if I’m willing to do so. But the very fact that I’m hesitant points to the idolatry and faithlessness of my heart.

But I think God knows that too, and is so willing to extend His famous grace to me. He’ll give me time to think, to pray, to understand at least a piece of His mighty heart. And hopefully I’m emerge from these doldrums stronger and with a better understanding of my Jesus and His gospel.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

1 kings 3:5-14

On gifts, both spiritual and material:

If you set your heart on loving God and loving others, God will give you every gift you need to succeed in your servitude to others. It may not be the gifts you want, it may not be the gifts you think you need, it may not be the gifts you asked for, it may not be the gifts you expect... but if your heart is truly set on the glory of God, then you won't care, for your Father knows best. What He give you will be everything you need and more to glorify God in the way that only you, a beautifully made and unique heir to the Kingdom, can.

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ~Matthew 6:32-33

Seek the Giver, not the gifts.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

when someone asked me to pray about a big decision

“Have you been praying about it?”

Yes. Yes, I have been praying about it every time it comes to mind, every time I have some silence.

“What did God say about it?”

Nothing. It’s been a while. Actually, I can’t even remember the last time when I heard God’s audible voice. Have I ever?

“Then what are you going to do?”

What? You expect me to sit here and do nothing while the deadline quickly comes to make a monumental decision?

I have my Bible. I have the Spirit. I have the promises of a Christ who loves me so much that He would die for me. I have a God who will make sure that His children will, despite their sins and weaknesses, be used for the sake of His ultimate glory.

Sometimes God won’t tell you what to do next.

Actually, a lot of the time God won’t tell you what to do next.

But the time is coming when you need to make a choice.

And sometimes you just need to make a choice while trusting that, no matter what path you walk, God will let you know in due time whether it’s the right one or not. Trusting that God will use whatever path you selected to magnify Him. Trusting that the creative gene God placed in you and the Spirit leading you will make your flight straight and true.

Sometimes God calls you to wait for Him, and that’s fine. But sometimes the glory comes not in the obedience to the Lord, but in the choice that you make to follow even if you cannot see the ends of any of the roads ahead.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ~Psalm 119:105

That’s called faith.

~kkim~.

[scriptural-sagacity]

curveball

Just when I thought I had everything all figured out for the next few years, God decided I was getting too comfortable and dropped a potentially life-changing decision into my life.

It happens every single time. My lips say that we should be expecting change and great things, but God knows my heart is prone to complacency and my tongue is prone to saying things out of habit instead of heart. He looks at my heart, shakes His white-haired head, and says, “My ways and My thoughts are so much higher than yours.”

Whee...

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

brief meditation: forgiveness isn’t free.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ~Romans 2:4

God's kindness does not mean free grace to all sinners. God's kindness means free grace to penitent sinners. According to Romans 2:4, it is not God's kindness > God's forgiveness, but God's kindness > our repentance > God's forgiveness. That middle step is absolutely essential.

Repentance seems like such a simple step, but in our evangelical culture, we like to gloss over the fact that people need to face and confess their sins, for fear that it'll hurt people's feelings and turn them away from the Gospel if we tell them they've wicked.

But if you're not telling the world what they need to turn from, if you're not telling them what Jesus can save them from, you're not telling them the Gospel. A gospel without sin and without the response of repentance is only half the story. The full Gospel says that we are saved from our sins into a life of righteousness. And as painful as it is to reveal your wickedness to anyone, it is then and only then that you will experience the beauty of forgiveness, the joy of salvation, and the freedom that is in Christ alone.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

pure anger

It's been a while since I've felt this.

The first and only other time was when a friend told me her testimony of being sexually abused by her father.

The second happened a couple of days ago. Just when you think the world can’t get any more messed up... it happens again.

The best way to describe the emotion I'm feeling right now is a bubbling, black hotness in the middle of my chest.

It's moments like this that I understand what God must feel like when He sees sin. It's one thing to understand the love of God that forgives us of our sins and displays mercy and grace despite our weakness. But on the flip side, it is the wrath of God and His utter despisement of sin that makes us understand just how amazing His grace is. You will not grasp the full implications of the cross until you understand the gravity of sin.

It's also times like this where I'm thankful that God is wrathful. There is sin in this world, and there will come a day where every person will be held accountable for what he or she has done. The shameless evil that mankind is capable of... if you're not crying out to an omnipotent, omniscient God for justice, how can you call yourself a child of righteousness?

No, I'm not in a good mood right now. I'm about as pissed as I've ever been. It was the hardest damn thing in the world yesterday to keep myself from breaking down in tears and to put on a facade that everything was okay when what I actually wanted to do all day was to put my fist through the nearest wall.

But it is the wrath of God that has been communicated to all His children that reminds us that there is a reason to fight against the evil in this world. Our Father hates it. Our reaction to it should be the same, in our lives and in the lives of others. As much as we should be filled with love and light, we should be actively rebuking people for going against Scripture and keeping people accountable.

Honestly, I don't know if what I'm feeling is right or just. I think I've been affected by Christian society's call to always be joyful and always be nice and forgiving and loving and... whatever. I don't know what this same Christian society would say to Jesus using a whip to drive people out of the temple courtyard, flipping over tables, and calling people robbers. The Jesus I know isn't just love, He is ultimately holy.

I know that, in the end, I'll be all right. Most of the time I make decisions with my head, not my heart. But I go through phases of pretty extreme emotions, like God's trying to remind me that I'm not a heartless automaton. It's times like this where I learn not just what wrath is in words, but also what God's wrath feels like.

And the fury is being tempered by wisdom, and I can see the balance between feeling and thinking. God's reminding me that church isn't just a floofy place where we throw the word "love" around like candy. He's reminding me of Romans 1, where the wrath of God has been poured out against all mankind. He's reminding me of the prophets, who warn the people again and again that He is holy and that His judgment is coming.

And if these prophets have taught me anything, it's that it's okay to be angry at the things with which God is angry. Sin isn't just something to be tolerated because God is so forgiving. Sin is to be hated, to be fought, to be avoided with everything you have. Imagine yourself in God's position: you have children with whom you would love to spend an eternity, yet those children are hurting themselves and hurting others with something. Would you not want to do everything in your massive power to rip whatever it is with which your children are killing themselves out of their hands and destroy it? Would you not hate it with your life?

How can we say we love people when we don’t even want to acknowledge the sin with which they are crucifying themselves?

Praise be to God that this is what He did with the Gospel. That He sent His Son to die on the cross to be the rescue for all who would call upon His Name. This message is not hindered by sin, but reinforced by wrath. And in the end, it will give us hope and peace and joy to show how Christ can lift hearts that are broken by sin.

But for now, God's called me into a period to meditate upon His wrath again. That justice and vengeance are not mine, but His alone. That sin is indescribably wicked, far more than we think. That we are justified in our hatred of sin, but how we must divorce it from our hatred of people. That grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone are the only ways that we can escape from the wrath of God and find the love and joy that can be found in a purified life.

Pray for me in this season, that I would learn how to hate sin with all my heart and yet remind myself to love people with all my heart.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

seeing (through) the future

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done." ~Revelation 22:12

In the crush of our everyday lives, it's easy to forget the final words of Christ in the Scriptures. Even when we live evangelically, when we live with love, when we live with power... it is these words — "surely I am coming soon" — that should give more hope and passion than anything else.

We want to believe that people can get healed. We want to believe that people can prophesy in the name of Christ.

But what if God doesn't heal people of their diseases? What if God doesn't perform miracles to show His existence to the world? Does God cease to be good? Does God cease to be powerful?

Of course not.

The promise is not that this life will be easier or pain-free. The promise is that the time to come, at the end of days, will be better.

It is a blatant lie to say that every person for whom we pray and on whom we lay hands will be healed. We know this because almost everyone has attended a funeral of someone who believes in God; obviously God didn't heal them, or else they'd still be with us. There was some news article back in 2010 about a couple of students who tried to heal a man who had fallen off a cliff. The man lay there unconscious for about six hours while the students debated what to do when their prayers didn't work.

Prophecy, too, seems to fall flat even from the mouths of self-proclaimed prophets. Deuteronomy 18:22 almost condescendingly addresses the issue by telling people to test prophets simply by seeing if their prophecies actually come true. If they don't, then there is no need to fear the word of such people. God's command for the Israelites is to put anyone who speaks so presumptuously to death (Deuteronomy 18:18). I think people would tread more lightly if they knew the gravity with which God handles prophecy. And yet, with bravado and fanfare, we make celebrities out of people who call themselves prophets and talk about visions and futures.

Look: to say that God cannot do things is asinine. Of course God can heal people. To treat prophecy with contempt is forbidden by Scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:20).

As well, we WANT to heal people, not because it's cool but because it's how we can love people in a way that points them to a God who is greater. We WANT to perform miracles and prophesy over people because it's a display of mercy, grace, and power. These desires aren't wrong.

But we live in an age that is so experience-based that we need to keep coming up with new means with which to entertain ourselves and to evoke feel-good emotions, and the danger is always that we get so impressed with the gift that we forget the Giver, a God not of chaos but of wisdom. There's some video running around on the Internet about some guy trying to talk about Scripture with some girl who keeps saying, "GOD LOVES US! LOVE IS ALL WE NEED!" and understandably (though not altogether graciously) gets frustrated with her behavior. We live in an age that so feeds us what we want that we forget that this is not the age for which we were made.

We miss the point when we pray for God to heal people's physical bodies without considering that heaven and the new Earth will be without pain, without sickness, without death. When we pray for God to grant us a future where our schoolwork and our business will be blessed, stopping there without at least a second thought to building the kingdom through church work and missions is pretty much a sin. When we celebrate our freedom in Christ by doing pretty much whatever we want, the hedonistic enjoyment in the physical aspects of life wrestles with the call of Christ to abandon all and follow Him.

The things that this world has to offer are feeble and lacking compared to what awaits in the coming kingdom, and yet we seem to love to keep our feet planted in the world, feeding our emotions and our bellies with things that will rust and mold. We pray and ask for physical things, yearn for more and more experiences, and fail to understand when things don't go our way.

As good and loving as your intentions may be when you prophesy words of healing and hope into a person's life, there is a way to do so without speaking potentially powerless words with which the Lord will test you and to which the Bride of Christ will hold you. It is to profess that you believe there will come a day when things will not just be better, but infinitely more glorious and beautiful than what we can possibly imagine. Not just a time without pain, but a time without sin and death. Not just an age when people will laugh and rejoice, but an age where people will be so overwhelmed by the glory of Christ the King that there will be no words to express the abounding joy in their hearts. Not just an era when we will thank God for His provision and providence, but an era when the Bread and Water of Life will satisfy us and yet we will long for more.

The call is to live in this world with our eyes on the future. We cannot see or predict the immediate future, but we can all prophesy about the time to come: a new Jerusalem, a time when we will be granted crowns of victory and be made into pillars in the kingdom of God. This comes not from the hope painted in our minds by our wishes, but from the truth depicted in the Bible. We must look at this world through the future, by the future, because of the future.

This new lens will shift all your prayers, beliefs, and thoughts. There is suffering in this world that will not be healed as long as sin is in the world, but it will all be decimated as an enemy of Christ when He comes to establish His dominion on this earth forevermore. There is sin that ravages every human being, but we will be clothed in white and given new bodies that have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. We pray no longer for lavish homes, six-figure salaries, and a perfect family because we will inherit the earth, we will judge angels and sinners, and the perfected church will be our brothers and sisters. Joy will seep into every moment of your life when it is set upon the rock of Christ.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ~Colossians 3:1-4

Yes, yes, YES. Christ came to put our sins to death with Him on the cross, so that we would stand righteous before the throne. He is coming back — coming SOON — to establish His dominion forevermore, once all that have been called to His side are finally filled with His Spirit. We know not when that day is and it will come when we least expect it. But we live today, tomorrow, and the rest of our lives both in worship and in expectation of the beautiful day that is to come, when Christ comes to judge the living and the dead.

Brothers and sisters, remember this: This world is deeply, sinfully flawed. If you continue to look at this world and lament that God isn't answering your prayers, that God isn't good, that God isn't giving you all that your heart desires, you're not seeing God. You're seeing a projection of who you think God should be, and in doing so you are committing idolatry.

But if you look past this world into the promised land, into a land flowing with milk and honey, a land with no more of the hideous things that afflict our world, it will give you strength that you need to endure in this life. Fixing your sight on Christ will grant you peace and rest in this life. You will be assured that things will get better, even if it doesn't seem like everything — if anything — is going your way.

And the prayer is that God will preserve His saints and will never leave them without hope. When you are weak and weary, He will send you constant reminders through the church, through the Scriptures, through creation, through any one of many creative means that will remind us to soldier on. He is good, and He will always be to those who have put total trust in Him and have given up the world just to take up their crosses and follow Him.

No matter how good or bad your life is now, the best is yet to come.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

forgiveness: the hallmark of the christian

Forgiveness is one of the cornerstones of the Christian faith.

We believe in a God who loves us so much that He would forgive us of our sins through Jesus's substitutionary death. Because of this life-changing love that releases us from sin and frees us from our guilt, we demonstrate our faith in Christ by loving the world the way that He does: not just loving the world, but loving the world despite the things that they do to us. The deeper you dig into the sinfulness of humanity and the more the world hates you, the more you must bury yourself in the Spirit to find what it takes to forgive them for what they do to you. That's love.

But one of the strangest things is when a person tells you that he or she is a Christian, but then proceeds to call Becky a whore for stealing her boyfriend. When a Christian tells you that he refuses to talk to Jacob because Jacob told him he was doing something wrong. When a Christian tells you that he has a grudge against Lily for breaking an important promise.

The world looks at that, and no wonder they think we're all hypocritical liars. So many of us live like we don't even believe in the things that we talk about. We babble so much about Jesus forgiving our deepest sins, and yet remain bitter against someone for the lightest offense.

How can you possibly look someone in the eye when you do these things and say you aren't being hateful? Following up gossip and backstabbing with, "But I don't actually hate them, I just don't talk to them," doesn't fool anyone, and yet I can't count how many times I've heard such things.

You believe in a God of love and forgiveness, and that's how you show your faith?

We are called to forgive for two major reasons: One is because it's what Jesus would have done. It's what Jesus taught and the principle around which He based all of His healings and acts. He taught us to turn the other cheek and love our enemies because He did the same every single time He showed compassion. Every person upon whom He laid His hands was a sinner against His Father. Against Him. And yet He showed the depth of His forgiveness by giving them new life. If we want to be like Jesus, forgiveness is key.

The other is because it's the natural work of the Spirit of God in us. If His Spirit lives in us and He forgives, then we forgive. It's a spiritual version of the transitive property. The desire of our heart should be to forgive others for the wrongs they do us. It is both the innate and the dutiful proclamation of God's power.

In fact, forgiveness is a necessity. Because we live in a sinful world, we will encounter both friends and enemies who will let us down intentionally and unintentionally. Jesus warns us of the incoming hatred of the world toward all who would believe in Him.

Christianity isn't just a bunch of rules and beliefs that you think in your head. It's something that you do because of the changes that have happened in your heart. No one cares how much you know about the Bible, pray, and serve at church if you're constantly tearing people down with gossip and bearing grudges in your heart. God knows your heart, and He'll judge you not on your deeds but on the faith you have in a Christ that forgives you. And you won't be able to tell Him you believe in a God of forgiveness if you're not showing forgiveness to others.

Look, I get it: Forgiveness is hard. Sometimes it's near impossible. But I know people who have forgiven their rapists. I know people who have forgiven their parents for abandonding and even hurting them when they were younger. I know people who have forgiven the murderer of their children. It's not impossible. Nothing is impossible with God. He forgave all the things that the world did to Him, and His same Spirit gives us the ability to at least forgive people for small wrongs. But what a testament to His power when we are able to forgive people when the world says that we have every right to bear a grudge against them. What beautiful freedom! What glorious release!

If you can't find the strength to forgive, maybe it's time to pray.

God, remind us of the magnitude of Your forgiveness through Your Son, and may You inspire us to forgive our brothers, sisters, and enemies as children of the Most High!

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

love without love

More important than loving people is glorifying God.

Okay, some caveats on that statement: Our love for God is demonstrated when we love others (Matthew 25:40). It is both our obedience to the greatest commandment (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3) and the acknowledgement of the kind of sacrificial love that poured out from the cross. In essence, when we love people like Jesus did and does, we are glorifying God the best.

But the thing is that Jesus WAS God. There was no way for Him to ever forget the part of love that is supposed to say, "I'm loving people because it brings glory to God."

As well, it is impossible to love like Love Himself. As wicked, fallen beings who struggle with pride, hate, greed, lust, and all the other heinous things that infect us and taint our love, we will never be able to give God perfect worship through the way that we love our brothers and sisters.

Love is an amazing thing, and in its perfect form it essentially IS God (1 John 4:8). But the sadly watered-down version to which the world subscribes has poisoned our relationships and, worse, our view of God.

Why is the divorce rate higher than it's ever been, and why do so many people (and Christians!) approve of it? Because marriage is no longer about "Til death do us part," but about, "Til death (of the young, sexy, smart, fun person that I originally married) do us part." It's no longer a powerful, God-honoring covenant, but a self-serving formality.

Why does homosexuality run rampant? Because we've traded our reverence for God for our natural sinful lusts (Romans 1:26-27).

Why is the world okay with casual sex, and why does it laugh at virginity?

Why is the world intrigued by incest and adultery?

Because without God, without the definitive expression of the love of Christ in life and in death, our cheap attempts at imitation become a mockery of the King. The world scrabbles to find love while denying Love Himself.

Even for the believer who knows about God, it becomes easy to shed the Gospel because we think the gospel is too serious, or too challenging, or too whatever-your-excuse-may-be. We hide our lack of faith behind a guise of "love" because the world will flock to people who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear and who will give them all the care and attention and material gains they want. It's so damn easy to fool the church into thinking that you're a good person because you're so loving. It's so easy to receive affection and accolades on the basis of how much we do for others.

But without standing upon the Rock, all of it will be washed away. All things were made by God and for Him (Colossians 1:16). Above all things, we were made to obey and glorify and love God. Without God, there is no love. But that means that in order to consider love, we must consider a God whose greatness is seemingly blighted with less-than-savory attributes like wrath and jealousy. We must submit to a God even when our pride hates it. We must follow the ways of our God even when the world might hate us for condemning its ways.

Christian, are you guilty of this?

I know people who want to love. They play board games and video games with people, cook for people, open up their houses as a hangout spot on the weekends, go on explorations and road trips and hikes with people. They love to give out hugs and goof around with students. They are always all smiles and handshakes with their peers. But as they do this, you rarely or even never hear them talk about Jesus.

I know people like this.

I'm becoming one of them.

Damn, the introspective finger hurts like hell.

As I enter a new season of heading into seminary and training to become a pastor (whee...), it occurs to me how my interactions with my students and peers have changed. How much of my time with them has become less about teaching them or talking to them about Scripture and more about the time we spend eating together and shooting zombies at the arcade. People say that I am loving and caring because I spend so time with my students and peers. But part of me (a percentage of myself that is quite a bit larger than I care to admit) gets drunk on the attention and the affirmation. Part of me wants to take the glory that should be going to God.

The Gospel goes deeper than simply love. Love is the most important thing for the Christian to do, but there is no way to separate God from that. It is impossible to love people without telling them about Jesus, without telling them about His life in Israel and His death on the cross, without telling them about the God who will punish them for their sins if they do not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.

I'm supposed to start seminary at the beginning of January, meaning that I have a few months. Though it would be nice to keep working and earn some more money for the purpose of paying my way through seminary, God's been tugging at my heart to quit a bit earlier than I originally expected so that I can spend time with Him and find my roots again. In trying to work and still spend time loving people, the Scripture and the prayer has slowly been filtering out of my life, and it's killing me. Years of studying Scripture have branded the words into my brain, but it's just not the same. My soul itches for Christ and longs to drink deep of the fountain of His Word, but my flesh wants to take the easy and comfortable path.

God is calling me to keep loving people, but to remind myself of the reason why I love: because of Him. In all His glory and fearsomeness.

Without God, love has no meaning.

That means we must know all of God. When God is silent, we search for Him and His words through the Bible. When God speaks, we must listen. We learn about Him, talk about Him, serve Him, just as we should do with any relationship. This is the glory that He seeks, and that we must give Him.

And when we know God and are known by Him — not in His entirety, but at least in our submission to Him as King, Savior, Father, and Lord — that is when we can love.

Soli Deo gloria.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

Social networking encourages people to have a greater number of much shallower friendships. I know what 15 of my friends had for breakfast, but I don’t know whether any of them is struggling with major life issues. If this trend continues, people in 2020 will have hundreds of acquaintances, but very few friends.

Gervase Markham

[scriptural-sagacity]

Rebuke is one of the strongest weapons against pride. When a prideful person is rebuked, the unrepentant will get defensive, angry, and even belligerent in the process of trying to hide his arrogant heart. Unfortunately for him, this very reaction ends up revealing his sin instead.

[scriptural-sagacity]

when we make love into work, can we still call it love?

About two weeks ago, I was standing in the back of what I thought would be just another ordinary Sunday service. But as worship was starting, I saw one of my closest brothers, fresh off the plane from a missions trip. He and I had been involved in one-on-one Bible studies for about a year before he left. I hadn’t seen him in a month. I embraced him, and as soon as I did the fat tears started to push themselves out of my eyes. I cried for five minutes, longer and harder than I have in over a year.

Today, one of my students poked her head into the office while I was counting up the offering money. She handed me a postcard and said that she’d be leaving for college that week. I call her “the sweetest tomboy,” because she puts up a tough front but has a beautiful heart. I grabbed her in a hug, and when I let go I could already see the tears starting to well up in her eyes. She ran away before they actually came out.

I’m not an emotional person. About a month ago, one of my students half-asked, half-stated the fact that I don’t get moved to tears that often. I think that five years of devoted ministry has hardened me, and I’ve seen a lot, to the point where nothing impacts me anymore. I’m more of a reliable rock than a sympathetic shoulder. I won’t tell you what you want, but what you need to hear.

Honestly, when you hear that, you wouldn’t believe that I have anything to offer in terms of loving people. You wouldn’t think that a person who operates with his brain instead of his heart would be very successful in his interactions with his friends, family, and peers.

But the inescapable truth is that love, while demonstrated in the things that you do, was never meant to be merely an action. It’s a condition of the heart where the emotion is proven in the deeds.

God requires us to love, but you cannot force yourself to love. Love has never been something that you can fake. You can’t force yourself to weep with joy a lost-and-found brother. You cannot force yourself to grab someone in a bear hug. These are things that undoubtedly show that you love someone, but result from a heart that is genuinely loving, not from a mindset that is mechanically trying to force itself to love people.

Have we forgotten that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life? The same things applies here. I never thought that there would be people who actually make “love” into a work, the same kind of deed-based faith for which the Galatians were rebuked by Paul. But you see it everywhere: in the way that we make systems in the church, the way that we coerce people into service instead of making it of their own free will, the way that we require our teachers and mentors to organize outings and hangouts with students and disciples.

Yes, disciples can be made through such things. Yes, such guidelines can bring both student and teacher closer to Christ. Yes, love can be felt.

But honestly, there comes a point where it becomes less of an act of love and more of an act of service. And because that line is so blurry, it is difficult to know when that line gets crossed.

Relationships must be emphasized for the Christian, because all the church-y things that we do are all for naught if we have not love.

I must remind myself of these at all times, as someone who is not altogether sensitive and heartwarming. Though I have good eyes and good instincts, biting back on my tongue to not say everything that is on my mind is tough. Ministry work is draining, and the tendency for me is to fall into a routine where I just stop caring about people, though I put on a front where I’m still happy and joyful. But though the jokes come out and the friendliness is all there, the love is sometimes absent. And as a Christian, that is not something I can afford, both for my salvation’s sake and for the sake of the kingdom of God.

If I cannot force my heart to love — in other words, if I am a sinner who is unable to produce the works required for salvation — then my only defenses, the two bastions of any believer’s faith, are prayer and Scripture. The former to ask God to help me to love like He loves me, for love comes so unnaturally for sinners who were found drowning in pride like myself. The latter to remind myself of that love, and to constantly push me to become more like Christ and to challenge me every day to not stay complacent in where I am in my relationships with God and with my brothers and sisters.

God, help this heart to love. I know that it is not my work, but the work of the Spirit in me that produces the genuine overflow of love for my family, friends, mentors, and students. Though I can force myself to serve, to teach, to learn, to obey, it is possible to do all of these things without love. But it is love that makes these things powerful, for love produces unparalleled passion and interest in the people for whom I do these things.

But I need you to produce in this heart those emotions that override the apathy and pride in me. Please, God, don’t make my personal ministry toward my students and peers simply about servitude and teaching. Make it about love, the very thing I cannot do on my own. Make it about the kind of love that we were shown on the cross. Make it about You.

~kkim~

[scriptural-sagacity]

I think that, at the end of time, there will be two main questions: "YOU made it into heaven?" and, "How did YOU go to hell?