by Caleb Moore | Jun 20, 2017
According to Scripture, mankind began his journey in paradise. He gave humanity the best possible starting position possible. And as we all know, we were unable to sustain the sacred role given to us.
Although our sin interfered, God did not give up on His mission. He told Abraham that He would take him out of his land and move him to a better area. There he would be able to grow his family in peace and bless the nations. God put Abraham in Canaan. In a way, he was like a new Adam in a new garden, albeit a less perfect version.
Abraham was in the right place, but he still failed when it came to obeying without exception. The biblical narrative shows us once again the faithfulness of God when He does not let our actions get in the way of His perfect will.
He chose another man named Moses. Moses led the people of God back to Canaan, their version of paradise, and we are told it was flowing with milk and honey. They can’t even stay obedient long enough to make it to their destination, but eventually their children find themselves back in Canaan. God continues to put people in the right location, but they fail to be the right kind of people.
God’s chosen people fell into the same trap that we all do. We often think that if God would just position us with the right job, the right spouse or the right amount of money, we could do all that we are supposed to do. But the pattern of Scripture reminds us that even if we are in the right spot it doesn’t matter unless we are the right kind of people.
I know that I will never fully be the right person in the right place until Jesus returns, and the new heaven and the new earth are revealed. Some day, we will find ourselves back in the garden, walking with God and eating from the tree of life. Until then, the longing I feel inside of my heart for a better situation needs to be grounded in Scripture.
My situation will never make it easier for me to obey God. My problems are not due to my location or my vocation. My problems stem from something internal rather than external. Jesus has removed part of that barrier and will return to claim his final victory.
God is at work preparing us to be the right people and one day will put us in the right place. He has fixed our position before Him and will return to fix our location on earth.
Until then, know that what your heart is longing for is Eden. That longing will never be fulfilled by a bank account or a new location; it can only be fulfilled when we find ourselves back where we are meant to be.
Some day we will walk with God on the new earth and eat from the tree of life. Until then, God calls us to be obedient and live as though we already have one foot in the garden, making the most of his name and blessing the nations around us.
by Caleb Moore | May 30, 2017
I believe that a teenage girl became pregnant by a Spirit and gave birth to God in human form. As shocking and strange as it sounds to say it that way, this is the very story we celebrate at Christmas each year.
As a Christian, we believe many things that are seemingly unbelievable. I believe a man brought himself back to life, even though nobody else has ever done that. I believe Jesus turned one person’s small lunch into a meal for more than five thousand. I believe these things, even though I wasn’t there, and I have never seen anyone else do it.
Truth be told, Christians spend a lot of time talking about things that are very difficult to believe, but we spend very little time helping people overcome their doubt. I’m not talking about the doubt of unbelievers; I’m talking about the doubt of normal everyday Christians.
When I struggled with doubt, I was told I just had to have more faith. This is a good answer sometimes, but it is a bad answer if it is what you say every time. As a young man I got the feeling that the people who told me that just didn’t know how to deal with the tough questions. Telling me to just have more faith was their way of avoiding some of the real and difficult issues that trouble us when we are young in this faith.
In my search for answers, I delved into the world of apologetics. I learned over the years to trust the claims of Jesus and to trust the reliability of the Scriptures. Apologetics helped me a great deal, but it was not the cure-all for doubt that I had hoped it would be. My mistake was thinking that doubt was merely an intellectual dilemma, but it turns out that doubt is usually built upon an emotional foundation.
Take for example Fredrick Nietzsche. He was the philosopher famous for coining the phrase “God is dead.” Despite all his intellect and philosophical arguments, his younger sister recalled that at a young age he saw a pastor in the pulpit coldly delivering his sermons and he remarked, “Does that thing up there ever laugh or cry?” His sister argued, that it was this event that sent him on a path away from God. If this is true, then it was partly an emotional response, not a purely philosophical one, that directed his journey.
Gary Habermas is a Christian philosopher who has written a great deal on the subject of doubt. After struggling with doubt for many years, he has a lot to say on the subject that I find helpful. He points out that most of us think we are rational thinkers, but it is impossible to separate completely our emotions from the deep questions that we ask.
We can even ask factual questions about the Bible for very emotional reasons. Because we are both emotional and intellectual beings, we should give great care in asking about the person who is doubting and not simply try to plug in an answer for every question.
I think it is culturally evident in the way many churches have chosen to deal with doubt. Some have attempted to focus only on the love of God but ignore any verse that calls us to holiness. Others have attempted to teach theology until all doubt is dispersed. But because we are whole humans, we must learn to wrestle with the heart and the head at the same time.
I know many of you are struggling in secret. You struggle with how to love Jesus and love your gay neighbor without compromise. You struggle with the teachings on Hell and the loss of a loved one who wasn’t saved. Often times, these struggles lead us down a path of doubt. I don’t want to remove you entirely from the struggle because it is within that struggle that some of our greatest lessons can be learned.
What I do want to tell you is what I have found in Jesus is greater than any compromise I have attempted to make with my head or with my heart. The message of Jesus is the only thing able to bring the two together in harmony. I want to encourage you to seek out the root of your doubt. If it were an emotional experience that led you to where you are, then don’t be fooled by thinking it can be solved by simply learning more facts.
In one sense, we see Jesus struggle with apparent “emotional doubt” in the garden, before His death. So as you struggle, know that Jesus feels your pain. My prayer is that you choose to trust in God’s sovereignty and goodness over the temporary discomfort you currently feel. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You might be surprised to learn that many of the godly people you know have struggled with the same doubts as you.
I no longer struggle with the believability of God or the reality of a resurrected Jesus. My doubts now come from whether or not I have the time, talent or energy to love God the way He deserves. And of course, I know that I don’t know everything, so I trust that He will give me what I need when I need it. It’s a beautiful thing to Glory in God in the middle of our doubts.
by Caleb Moore | May 11, 2017
Community – it’s what every church says they offer, and it is what every Christian knows they need. Yet it seems to be as elusive as Bigfoot.
Let me be clear, community isn’t just time spent in the fellowship hall eating potato salad until we can’t move, although as a Baptist that is a big part of it. Christian community is composed of submission to Christ, submission to each other, accountability and forgiveness.
How many times have you been shocked to hear of yet another seemingly healthy couple announce a sudden divorce. So many people have put on their Sunday best, smiled and nodded politely, all while hiding the darkness deep within. These people are the causalities of our current model of community.
If we are going to find real community, we are going to have to be willing to take some punches. Community is rare because it is so emotionally expensive. There is a toxic mentality that blocks the front door to healthy community, and it’s something we all do.
We want grace when we mess up and justice when someone wrongs us. This combination keeps people from opening up because the fear of retribution is all too real. So struggling people get trapped between desiring community while fearing vulnerability and true openness. So, they resort back to the Sunday morning head nod and smile that lets those around them know everything is fine until one day they become just another victim of unhealthy Christian community.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians has helped me grow in this area. In the third chapter he tells us some of the attributes that come along with being a mature Christian. He tells us to be kind, humble, meek and forgiving. What’s interesting is that every single one of those can only be expressed in community. You can’t be kind and forgiving if you are isolated.
He then gave some examples of different types of community that we are in. It starts off with just general community then dives deeper into the husband and wife relationship and the parent-child relationship. Paul ends with what I think is the deepest level of community, the bond servant and master relationship.
It is this relationship between slave and master that we all enter into when we become Christians. Either we are slaves to sin or we are slaves to God, purchased with the price of the blood of Christ.
Unlike other slaves, though, we are declared by God to be adopted into the family, but the slave and master relationship still remains. So we are slaves who are also sons and daughters of our master. This is important for community because if we don’t acknowledge that we all have the same master, some people in our group will try and master the others.
Marriage relationships often get dominated by the most selfish person in the group. But if we are all slaves, then we have no choice but to obey our master when it comes to resolving conflict and healing wounds.
Community brings with it the same joys and trials as marriage. It shows us areas where we are weak, but gives us a group of people who are willing to stand by us as we grow.
So, if you long for community, I encourage you to find a group of slaves to fellowship with. Just because some people might know the Bible or have been in church for a long time doesn’t mean they are trustworthy when it comes to being in a healthy community.
You must be willing to submit all your worries and concerns and disappointments at the feet of the Master. When someone wrongs you, you are commanded to forgive. When someone shares their darkness, we are commanded to be light and love. This type of community builds a church instead of a church trying to simply create community through programming.
And if you can’t find this type of place, you may have to be the first one to role model openness and vulnerability, and others will follow. We are all just waiting for someone safe to talk to about the struggles that are real, raw and hidden.
by Caleb Moore | Apr 18, 2017
When I was growing up in church I was involved in Bible Drill competitions. It’s scary to think that I have reached the age where I now use the term, “back in my days….” But alas, here I am.
So, back in my days, we used to have competitions where all the kids would line up in a row, and the challenge was to see who could find a certain bible passage the fastest. This was a way to help us memorize the books of the Bible and also to help us memorize certain verses.
As my memory serves, I was pretty good at this, but it also helped that I knew how to cheat. You see, everyone who found that verse would step forward before the allotted time was up and then one person would be called upon to read it to verify that they had found it. I quickly learned that if I were called upon to read the verse, it would be a few more turns before I would have to read again. So, I could safely step forward and earn points without actually having found that verse.
It’s because of a past like this I am glad we are not saved by works because cheating at Bible Drill seems like a high level crime. In my defense, my parents told me that if I did well in Bible Drill that they would buy me a ninja turtle action figure, and I needed one more to complete my set.
I knew from all those years in church that lying, cheating and stealing was wrong. But the one thing they could not teach me was obedience. Unfortunately, without learning obedience, all the moral teachings I learned couldn’t keep me from being a Bible Drill cheater.
How then do we teach obedience? Well Jesus gives us insight on that in John 14:23 when he says, “If you love me, obey what I command.”
Love comes before obedience. People will obey to some degree if they are motivated by fear, but the greatest kind of obedience is one motivated by love. Love can not be taught, but we can role model what it looks like.
I can teach my children what love looks like by the way I treat my bride. Love is something that has to be seen to be understood. Jesus also said, “They will know you are my disciples by your love one for another.”
This means that people need to be told and shown the love of Christ. We show others what it means to love Christ by loving them the way Christ loved us.
I’m thankful that I grew up in a church that offered programs like Bible Drill, but these programs only tell one side of the story. I continue to learn obedience from all the godly people in my life who love me even though I’m a Bible Drill cheater. I see the fruit of their own obedience and the peace and sound mind it brings them.
by Caleb Moore | Apr 10, 2017
When I got home last Thursday night, I learned that the Untied States had fired 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria. This was of course a response to Syria’s chemical weapon attack that was reported to have killed more than 100 people. Was it the right response? I have no idea.
Violence seems to lead to more violence. As a Christian, I believe that certain wars and military actions are justifiable. We are called to protect those who cannot protect themselves. However, acts of war are never the ideal solution, and whenever we talk of such things, we must make sure the world knows that a better solution is available.
You see, 2,000 years ago, a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate entered into Jerusalem during Passover. He wasn’t coming to celebrate the Jewish festival; he was coming to make sure they didn’t riot. Each year thousands upon thousands of Jewish people would migrate into Jerusalem to partake in a festival celebrating that they worshiped a God who had freed them from foreign oppressors.
At this time, Rome is that foreign oppressor, and Pilate does not look favorably on such celebrations that threaten the peace of Caesar’s kingdom. So he wants to make sure that the boot of Rome is firmly upon the throats of the people.
Each year at Passover time, Pilate would come down from his home in Caesarea and enter into Jerusalem in a way that was designed to strike fear into the people. He had a large number of highly-trained Roman soldiers carrying banners, swords and spears. Their sheer number made it sound like thunder was coming from miles away. Behind the solders and chariots, Pilate could be seen riding on his majestic white horse. It had to be an impressive yet terrifying display of worldly might.
At the same time, Scripture teaches us that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives with his band of fisherman, riding on a donkey. People began to shout, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” There was already tension in the air, the faithful had been waiting for the Messiah to come and overthrow Rome.
There is even a prophecy in Zechariah that says the King will come riding on a donkey, and a few verses later we are told that this King will destroy the chariots of the enemy. Jesus accepting the title of King, riding on a donkey – these are declarations of war, and the Pharisees knew it. They immediately tell Jesus to silence his followers, but they cannot be silenced.
What we see pictured in the story of Palm Sunday are the two great powers at war. Pilate, entering Jerusalem from the west with all the power and might of Rome; and Jesus, entering from the east, with his fisherman and a donkey. What happens next is at the very center of the Gospel. If Jesus would have grabbed a sword and armed His disciples, He would have been no different than any other rebellious uprising. No, His way is different.
Instead, He absorbs all the wrathfulness and hatred the world could ever muster. There is no greater way to silence your enemy than to take His life, so they publicly humiliate Jesus and then nail him to a cross. The power of Rome is showing everyone else, this is what happens when you stand against us.
Those who opposed Jesus have a short-lived victory. He rises from the dead, and their weapons become useless. What good is a sword against a man you cannot kill? Colossians tells us,“…having disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:15). Jesus shows them what real power looks like. He doesn’t return violence with violence; He simply shows them that their power is no power at all.
The world has always been caught in the cycle of war. Violence always will lead to more violence. I’m not anti-war; it was good of us to defeat Hitler and the evil that he enabled. But wives still lost husbands; children still lost their fathers. The cost of such a war ripples through generations, and evil still exists all over the globe.
Wars of this type do bring temporary solutions but never THE solution. The only lasting solution that brings the peace we all so greatly desire is the Gospel. The Gospel is the greatest power, held by the greatest King. Some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the real King and only then will we have peace.