Question: How do I grow in my relationship with Christ?

This week we take a moment to give a short and succinct answer to a big question: how do you grow in your relationship with Christ?
 

To answer this question in a sentence: Come to church. Okay that may seem over simplified and too pastoral, but this is the scriptural and historical answer on how to grow in one's relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course no pastor is going to discourage you from spending time in the word and prayer at home on your own, but those things are not the ultimate expression of Christian spirituality. It is worship, rather, that allows an individual to grow but there can not be true growth outside the context of the church community. This is why Christians since the beginning of the church have gathered together to hear the Word of God read, to pray for one another, and to break bread in the same manner as Christ did in order to experience the presence of Christ in the gathered body of believers (Acts 2:46-47, 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:16, 12:26; Eph. 2:21-22, 4:15-16; Col 2:1-2)

The act of worship from the very beginning was an experience of sights, smells, tastes, sounds and touch. This is what is to happen in the worship service, we are to experience who God is and what he has done for us through Christ who came in the flesh and ate, breathed and walked among us. We expect his return and experience this through worship! Hearing the Word of God, having teaching that explains the Scriptures, hearing and singing songs of joy and sorrow, tasting and feeling the bread and wine and coming together to encourage one another is the essence of Christian worship. And this is how we grow. We come together to experience this one faith and continually learn what it means to be a disciple, in community, with others.  

To wrap up this short answer to a big question, here is what God's word tells us. Paul speaks of our one faith when he says, "There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV). This one body cannot be experience if the members are not present. Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5 ESV). Of course this verse has individual implications, but where is Christ most readily experienced today? In worship! If we do not abide in the body of Christ, how can we possibly expect to produce fruit. And finally, the writer of Hebrews gives us this familiar encouragement, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV). We can not stir up one another to good works if we are away from the body! We are meant to experience the hope of Christ in the body of Christ. Apart from that, we can not grow in our relationship with him.

If you truly wish to grow in the faith you proclaim, you will be involved in the body through service and worship. Individualism is not spiritual growth, it's a indication of our selfish pride and arrogance. One must be in the body of Christ to truly experience the grace of God and to grow in one's relationship with Christ. Is faith personal? Of course! But it's only personal in so far as it is fully expressed with other believers in the church. May God encourage our hearts and reveal to us our need to be connected to the body of Christ in order to experience Christ. Take care and have a great week! 

Question: Who is God?

This week we take an in-depth look at the nature of God and how we should understand and describe God. This week's entry is an abridged article from J. Hampton Keathley. The entire article can be found here.

Because the word trinity is never found in the Bible some wonder about whether this is a biblical doctrine or not, but the absence of a term used to describe a doctrine does not necessarily mean the term is not biblical. Historically, the church has believed that He exists in Holy Trinity or Triunity. The tri-personality of God is exclusively a Christian doctrine and a truth of Scripture. No man can fully explain the Trinity, though in every age scholars have propounded theories and advanced hypotheses to explore this mysterious Biblical teaching. But despite the worthy efforts of these scholars, the Trinity is still largely incomprehensible to the mind of man. Perhaps the chief reason for this is that the Trinity is a-logical, or beyond logic. It, therefore, cannot be made subject to human reason or logic. So what's the issue that faces us? The ultimate issue as always is, does the biblical evidence support the doctrine of the Trinity or tri-personality of God?

Because God's Word tells us that we should expect His revelation, the revelation of an infinite, omniscient, all-wise Creator, to contain an infinite depth that corresponds to His infinite mind. In Isaiah, God tells us about this and says: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). As simple as the Bible is in its message of sin and of free salvation in Christ, an incredible subtlety and profundity underlies all its doctrines. Even a child can receive Christ as his Savior, thereby appropriating the free gift of eternal life. Yet no philosopher has more than scratched the surface regarding the things that happened at the Cross. The Bible forces any reader to crash into the ceiling of his own comprehension, beyond which he cannot go until he sees the Lord face-to-face.

Probably no doctrine was the subject of more controversy in the early church than that of the Trinity. Certainly the teaching of "one God in three Person" was accepted in the early church, but only as this teaching was challenged did a systematic doctrine of the Trinity emerge. While the term Trinity is never specifically used nor the doctrine explicitly explained in Scripture, it is nevertheless implicitly stated. The church councils, in their fight against heresy, were forced to think through what the Bible says about how God exists. It was an era when the main dogmas of the Christian Church were developed. The word "dogma" came through the Latin from the Greek word dogma, which was derived from the verb dodeo. This word meant to think. The dogmas or doctrines formulated in this period were the result of intense thought and searching of the soul in order to interpret correctly the meaning of the Scriptures on the disputed points and to avoid the erroneous opinions (doxai) of the philosophers.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the distinctive mark of the Christian religion, setting it apart from all the other religions of the world. Taking the whole of Scripture, one can see that there is stress on: (a) the unity of God, one Divine Being and Essence, and (b) on the diversity of God in this unity, three Persons identified as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It speaks of these Persons in such a way that it ascribes absolute undiminished deity and personality to each while stressing that there is but one God in divine substance. It is the doctrine of the trinity that harmonizes and explains these two thrusts of Scripture-oneness in three personalities. When we see that the Bible teaches these three things: (a) there is but one God, (b) that the Father, Son, and Spirit are each God, and (c) that each is set forth as distinct Persons, we have enunciated the doctrine of the Triunity of God.

There is perfect equality in nature, honor and dignity between the Persons. Fatherhood belongs to the very essence of the first Person and it was so from all eternity. It is a personal property of God 'from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named' (Eph. 3:15). The Son is called the 'only begotten' perhaps to suggest uniqueness rather than derivation. Christ always claimed for himself a unique relationship to God as Father, and the Jews who listened to him apparently had no illusions about his claims. Indeed they sought to kill him because he 'called God his own Father, making himself equal with God' (Jn. 5:18). The Spirit is revealed as the One who alone knows the depths of God's nature: 'For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God ... No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God' (1 Cor. 2:10f.). This is saying that the Spirit is 'just God himself in the innermost essence of his being.'

It has to be recognized that the doctrine arose as the spontaneous expression of the Christian experience. The early Christians knew themselves to be reconciled to God the Father, and that the reconciliation was secured for them by the atoning work of the Son, and that it was mediated to them as an experience by the Holy Spirit. Thus the Trinity was to them a fact before it became a doctrine, but in order to preserve it in the creedal faith of the church the doctrine had to be formulated.

There are errors to avoid in a trinitarian understanding of God. Tri-theism is the teaching that there are three Gods who are sometimes related, but only in a loose association. Such an approach, abandons the biblical oneness of God and the unity within the Trinity. Sabellianism or Modalism is another. Sabellius (A.D. 200), the originator of this viewpoint, spoke of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but he understood all three as no more than three manifestations of one God. This teaching came to be known as modalism because it views one God who variously manifests Himself in three modes of existence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Arianism is the last major error to avoid. Arius taught that only God was the uncreated One; because Christ was begotten of the Father it meant Christ was created by the Father. Arius believed there was a time when Christ did not exist. Arius and his teaching was condemned at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325.

While there is no explicit statement in the Old Testament affirming the Triunity, we can confidently say that the Old Testament not only allows for the Triunity, but also implies that God is a triune Being in a number of ways: (1) The name Elohim, translated God, is the plural form of El. While this is what is called a plural of plenitude pointing to the power and majesty of God, it certainly allows for the New Testament revelation of the Triunity of God. (2) There are many instances where God uses the plural pronoun to describe Himself (see Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa. 6:8). (3) In the creation account, both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are seen in the work of creation. It is stated that God created heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1), but that it was the Holy Spirit who moved over the earth to infuse it with life in the sense of protecting and participating in the work of creation (Gen. 1:2). (4) Writing about the Messiah, Isaiah reveals Him to be equal with God, calling Him the "Mighty God" and "Eternal Father" (Isa. 9:6).

The case for the Triunity of God is even stronger in the New Testament. Here it can be unequivocally demonstrated the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. (1) The Father is called God (John 6:27; 20:17; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:1; Eph. 4:6; Phil. 2:11; 1 Pet. 1:2). (2) Jesus Christ, the Son is declared to be God. His deity is proven by the divine names given to Him, by His works that only God could do (upholding all things, Col. 1:17; creation, Col. 1:16, John 1:3; and future judgment, John 5:27. (3) The Holy Spirit is recognized as God. By comparing Peter’s comments in Acts 5:3 and 4, we see that in lying to the Holy Spirit (vs. 3), Ananias was lying to God (vs. 4). He has the attributes which only God can possess like omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10) and omnipresence (1 Cor. 6:19), and He regenerates people to new life (John 3:5-6, 8; Tit. 3:5), which must of necessity be a work of God for only God has the power of life.

All doctrine is practical and has specific ramifications to life. This is no less true of the Triunity of the Godhead which draws our attention to the concept of the tri-fold personality of God. This communicates all the elements of personality-moral agency, intelligence, will, emotion, and communion that exists within the three Persons of the Godhead. There is ... diversity in the life of God. God the Father designs, God the Son creates, God the Spirit quickens; a great diversity of life and operation and activity. For that reason we can realize that if the universe is a manifestation of God, we can expect a diversity of life within the whole of the created universe. We think that the so-called uniformity of nature is utterly untrue. All the wonders of creation, all the forms of life, all the movement in the universe, are a reflection, a mirroring, of the manifold life of God.

The doctrine of the trinity is truly beyond human comprehension or the limits of our finite minds, but it is nevertheless a vital truth of the Bible. It is a doctrine that is closely connected to other key doctrines like the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In fact, our salvation is rooted in the mysterious nature of the Godhead who coexists as three distinct Persons all of whom are involved in our salvation in all its aspects, past, present, and future. It encompasses everything we know and practice as Christians-our sanctification, our fellowship, our prayer life, our Bible study, or our corporate worship. May the Lord bless you in your study of His precious Word and in your walk with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


- J. Hampton Keathley via Coleman

Question: What does it mean to be "saved?"

As we continue in our series of "Q&A: Answering the Questions of God, Life and Faith" we pose a rather serious and overlooked question. We are comfortable with the language of saying "I'm saved" or "When were you saved?" but do we ever stop to think about the meaning behind such a concept. With this week's question, we take a look at the importance of knowing what salvation means and how to fully understand being "saved."

Question #3: What does it mean to be saved? Jesus says,"I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture" (John 10:9). Most of us are used to the language of 'saved' in the church. "Yes, I'm saved!" or "When did you get saved?" are things we hear often in our modern day church environment. So, what does it mean? Before we dive in, we must recognize that our object of faith must be the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus's "I am" statements in the gospel of John give us this affirmation. Likewise, the beloved apostle says, "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God" (1 John 4:2 ESV). We believe in a person, not an idea or concept or philosophy.  

Second, we must recognize that to be saved is more than just belief; its action that matches that belief. This is not works, but love. Jesus said, "Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me" (John 14:23-24). Likewise in Matthew's gospel Jesus says, "And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 27:37-39). So being 'saved' is a state of being that is manifested by love for God and love for others. Belief must be backed up by action! 

Third, we must consider what exactly we are "saved" from. Paul tells us, "But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed...Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God" (Romans 2:5, 5:9 ESV). Apart form Christ, we have stored up wrath because of our hard hearts and rebellion but for those who are in Christ, the wrath has been removed. He has taken our punishment for us! This is the culmination of the biblical testimony and the heart of the Gospel! Through Christ we are SAVED from God's wrath. We are not saved from Satan, sin, temptation or injustice rather we are saved from God's ultimate wrath.

The third and fourth points go together in a certain sense. These points point to a present and future reality. Being 'saved' is a total reorientation of your affections from the things of this world to God AND an change in expectation in what this world has to offer. This is the heart of repentance and the expectation of those in Christ who await the return of their Savior. We are not complete in all things until the second coming of Christ (1 Cor. 15:21-26; 1 Peter 13-16). We wait eagerly for his return, exhibiting patience through the act of prayer and gathering together to break bread in the same manner as Christ did for he said, "I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom"
(Matthew 26:29 ESV).  

Those who are saved believe in the person of Jesus Christ and back up their belief with actions which reflect a love for the Savior. They have a reorientation of their affections away from the world and to the things of God. They wait patiently, expecting the coming of their savior like a "thief in the night." We are to cry out everyday because we wait expectantly for the return of our savior when we can say, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come" (Revelation 12:10 ESV). 

 
- Coleman  

New Series: Q&A - Answering the Questions of God, Life and Faith

We all have questions. How were we created? Who exactly is God? What is my purpose? What is this church thing all about? We all have questions, and our goal this semester is to help provide parents and students with answers. We should never be afraid to ask questions, but we should also know that not every question we have will have a clear answer. That's where faith comes in. This semester our goal is to provide answers but also point us to the object of our faith, Jesus Christ the risen Lord!

So far this semester, we have already posed a couple of questions to students. Question #1: What does it take to follow Christ? For many the answer may be plain as day, but for others we may not be sure exactly what Christ calls us to do. Luke 9:23 provides the answer: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." And he (Jesus) said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:22-23 ESV)

If we desire to truly follow after Christ, the answer is sacrifice; a word our world does not wish to keep in their vocabulary. Christians throughout the ages have sacrificed their time, their possessions and their lives to follow after Christ and make his name known throughout the world. Tertullian, a third century Christian theologian said, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church" meaning that the sacrifice of those who came before us makes up the foundation on which we stand. Together as one body we are called to sacrifice in order that others may know his name and that we together may grow in holiness and humility.  

Question #2: What do you need to do to receive more blessing from God? Answer: Nothing. There is not one thing you can do that will cause God to love you any more or any less. We do not worship a God who will bless or curse us according to what we do or don't do. Rather, we worship a God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ and who has removed the curse of sin because of his son (Eph. 1:3-6; Rom. 5:15-17). We live in freedom because of faith in Christ. No amount of bible study, prayer or good works will cause God to look upon you with more favor and cause things to go better for you. Spiritual disciplines and worship come from a heart that is obedient to God and a love for our Savior (Rom. 6:9-14; 1 John 2:2-6). There is no more blessing needed.

As we journey through different questions this semester, I invite you do follow up and talk more about these questions and answers. What experiences do you have in denying yourself to follow Christ? What are you convicted about in regards to Jesus's call to believers? What about your thoughts on receiving blessing from God? Do you do things out of of love and adoration, or to receive a special "blessing" in order that things may go well for you? These are questions we should all consider and weigh through the impact of the answers. I invite you to ask your own questions and lets see if we can get some answers to the questions of God, life and faith together. Take care and have a great week! 

 
- Coleman 

Christmas Cruisin' 2010, ya' dig?

Make plans to attend this year's Christmas Cruisin' event, brought to you by the entire decade of 1970. Get your fresh threads, trucker sunglasses, and permed-out hair ready because this will be outta' sight. Christmas Cruisin' is our annual RidgeStudents Christmas event and it gets more fun each year. Spend the whole night with us as we play games, eat great food, do a Christmas style scavenger hunt, and much more. Invite friends and make sure you bring those canned goods as well. The student with the most canned goods brought will receive a $25 giftcard to the store of their choosing. Prizes will be awarded for most friends brought, best costume and more! DY-NO-MITE! PLEASE REGISTER ONLINE BY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 15th! Where: The Ridge Church. Must register online here. When: Friday Dec. 17th 6PM - Sat. Dec. 18th 7 AM Cost: $20 per student + 2 canned goods What: Invite friends from school, get dressed up, and get ready for the most funky night of your life.

Forgiveness and Resurrection - The Apostles' Creed Part 5

“The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body...”

The essence of the gospel is the work of Jesus Christ. Christ has secured forgiveness through his death and resurrection. Our promise includes sharing in the richness of this state of forgiveness and resurrection. Forgiveness has the power to break the chains of bondage that weigh down the human soul. Only God himself can forgive sins as he is the one who is eternally offended by man’s transgression. Only he can remove the separation between man and himself. Man needs forgiveness. We do not need more knowledge or more enlightenment. Ignorance is not our problem, rather, sin remains the essence of man’s predicament.

Today man continues to deceive himself in thinking that no forgiveness is needed for his present state. Man is not essentially good. On the contrary, he is essentially bad. This does not mean that man is a bad creation nor does it mean that the physicality of mankind is evil, instead it is our thoughts and wills that carry the mark of dissipation. Scripture indeed testifies to the sinful state of mankind. While freely choosing to do many good things, man is incapable of amending his ultimate wound, that is, separation from God. Only God himself can and has done this in the body of his Son, Jesus Christ. 

Christians believe in forgiveness for we have been forgiven. Forgiveness is a state of  reality for a believer in Christ; we have entered into the realm of being forgiven. We are constantly being made new by the work of the Holy Spirit which will culminate in the bodily resurrection of believers to reign one day alongside our God and Lord for God’s dwelling place is with mankind. The Christian hope lies not in soul-body dismemberment but rather in the full realization of our bodies into a glorified state. Christ’s resurrection inaugurated this event. 

The forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body are two realities for the life of the believer. We don’t have forgiveness without the resurrection. Our hope is built on this; that our sins are forgiven and that we will at one point in the future be resurrected unto new life. Imagine a complete, whole, and idealized life where there is no crying and there is no pain. Envision a life with no disease or cancerous intrusions. As believers, our lives do and will mirror that of the Savior. For we have died and been buried through the work of Christ, we too will be share in the resurrection of Christ Jesus. This is the gospel in which we take confidence. Without the forgiveness of sins and resurrection, there is no gospel.

The Church, The Holy Spirit, and the Saints - The Apostles' Creed Part 4

“I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints...”

As Christians, we believe in one God. As we believe in God the Father, we also believe in the Son. As we believe in the Father and the Son, we also believe in the Spirit. Neither one is the same yet they are all God. This mystery has been believed by Christians since the beginning. Yes it is a mystery yet this is how God is shown forth in Scripture. We believe God is one, yet we believe he exists as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This line completes the trinitarian view of our God. So what do we believe about God the Holy Ghost?

Scripture says he is our helper, guide, guarantee of salvation and is the sparkplug for our growth into holiness. The Spirit always points the way to Christ, he is not a team player. Without the Spirit in your life it is impossible for you to be a Christian; it is the guarantee of your faith and the way only way in which you can believe in Christ. Apart from the Spirit there is no faith in Jesus Christ for who he really is. It is also natural that this belief statement precedes the belief in the church. Without the Spirit there is no true church. The church, through the work of the Spirit, is how we grow in Christ-likeness.

The church is holy because Christ is holy. The church is holy because those who are in faith are made holy by the Spirit. The church is holy because it is set apart for a special work in this world. We are not holy apart from the work of the Holy Spirit forming us into the image of Christ. We are not holy apart from the reliance upon prayer and God’s word to grow us and conform us to his will. We church is holy because of who are Head is, which is Christ. We are catholic in the sense that we conform to the faith that has been believed by Christians for all of time and we share in fellowship with Christians no matter where they may be in the same fellowship. We celebrate our head through fellowship and communion. 

The Lord’s Supper we celebrate the presence of Christ among us in the body. This reality does not exist in any other institution in the world. The Lord’s Supper brings us together to proclaim the Gospel and continually and progressively grow us in the Spirit as we worship him together. We are saints because we now dwell by faith in the body of Christ and will one day dwell with him for eternity for his dwelling place is among men and we will be made new and glorious as he has been glorified. Saints are reborn by faith in Christ, shedding their old self and putting on the new self, which is Christ. We show this vividly through baptism. We become saints through faith in Christ as the Spirit changes our heart to love him and we show this faith through the act of baptism which we hold in high regard as it shows us who in fact is in communion and who is not.

So we believe in the Spirit’s work to make us holy; making us more like Christ. He convicts our heart, helps us, reminds us of scripture and holy acts. We experience this most vividly in the holy catholic church which is the keeper of the faith believed by all Christians throughout time and seeks to make Christ known in a world that is dying. We are a part of the catholic church in the sense that we affirm true Christian beliefs. As we confess we share in the communion of the saints who also affirm the faith and celebrate Christ through his Supper of bread and wine which is his body and blood poured out for us. We baptize those who by faith enter into this faith which shows the power of the Holy Ghost to change the heart of sinners and make them like Christ.