Month: October 2018

Follow Me

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Matthew 5-7 is known as the Sermon on the Mount and there is a ton of great stuff in there. Jesus teaches on the Beatitudes, how He fulfills the Law, loving your enemy, giving, praying, and on and on. There is enough for a whole sermon series but what struck me was the 5:1 when it says Jesus saw the crowds and sat down. Jesus saw the great crowd and took a seat. He is so comfortable in His teaching and authority that He did not need to walk around and convince people of what He was saying. He just sat there and gave some of the most profound teachings recorded in history.

I am so amazed and thankful that we have a Savior who sits down. He is not worried about anything. He is not struggling to achieve. He is not stressed out about the future. He is content and can sit and rest. Not only that He calls us to do the same thing. Jesus says come to me all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Why are we not resting in Him? Why are we not coming to Him to lay down our burdens? He is seated why aren’t we?

If we are following Him and we trust that we know His will we can relax. We can take a breath. We can rest in Him. I am not going to tell you how to know you are walking in His will. He is your Savior. You seek Him for that, but I can tell you that He will reveal it to you. Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd and His sheep hear His voice. If you are His sheep, you will hear His voice. If you are not hearing it then press in harder. If you are not feeling His presence, then push in deeper. He might be calling you into a deeper level of intimacy. You also need to be in a position to and willing to listen to His will.

Why would God reveal His will if you are not going to obey? What is the point of instruction if you are disobedient? God wants and seeks willing hearts. He says that His eyes roam the earth looking for hearts attuned to His will. If you want to rest and to lay down those heavy burdens you need to be willing to obey what He is saying.

Jesus’ command is a simple one, He says follow Me. That is the whole thing right there. Just follow Him. If we do that we will walk as He walked, we will love our neighbor as ourselves, and we will love God with all our heart soul and mind. We just need to follow Him. It is terrifying and peaceful to follow Jesus. Jesus does not promise it will all turn out OK on this earth. He does not say He will reveal everything. He does not say I will explain later. He just says follow Me. It is simple and pure. It is true and light. It is the most basic command and it comes from the most glorious One. Follow Me. When we follow Him, we can hear His voice and know His will. We can trust His teaching. We can obey. We just need to follow Him.

Today I would suggest that Jesus is still sitting only now He is in heaven. He is sitting and speaking. He is saying follow Me. He is not worried or concerned about the future. He is not restless or unsure. He is not confused about options. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father saying Follow Me.

Just a thought,

Mike

Paths of Righteousness

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

I am going to start with I am not saying I am right I am just asking a question. Is it possible I have missed some of the meaning in Psalm 23:3? I have always read it that God will lead me along paths of righteousness for His name and that means he will lead me down the right paths for me. What if there is a bigger picture where God is going to lead me down the path of righteousness and right living for His name. What if part of the point (maybe the bigger point?) is about doing the right thing and living the right way because His name is on me?

What if the point is not about me going the right way for me but for Him? What if the purpose is to bring Him glory through right living in caring for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger? What if the Psalm is about the Shepherd and about the sheep?

I, like most people, love Psalm 23 because it makes me comfortable and happy. It reassures me that God will guide me, bless me, lead me, and protect me. I wonder if it should also scare me because that means God could bring me to places that requiring guiding, blessing, leading, and protection. By scare me I do not mean fear because God has said do not be afraid but His plans and ways should scare me because they mean I cannot succeed without His guiding, blessing, leading, and protection.

Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Maybe part of the point of these questions is to get us to call on God and ask Him tough questions. If we do there is a good chance He will move us to a deeper relationship with Him. That is pretty frighting because I just got comfortable here.

Just a thought,

Mike

Apologetics – A Big Story and Bridges

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

I want to talk about apologetics today. I am a fan of apologetics but I would never suggest it is a strong suit of mine. I am a simple man and have some pretty simple thoughts. That being said I think there are some things we can talk about. Specifically today I want to look at one method called the Big Picture and another called the Bridge Illustration.

The Big Story presentation starts with something that most people can agree, namely the world is a messed-up place. This is helpful because it seems almost regardless of where people stand on their thoughts about the divine they can agree the world is not right. It moves to a modified ontological argument because it argues that man understands that there is something more and that the world should be a better place. The ontological argument in its most basic form says that if we have a concept of a most perfect being or God then that concept had to have come from God because man could not dream up the idea of God on his own. The Big Story also has sprinklings of the anthropological argument as well as intelligent design arguments because it presupposes that people believe in absolute morality and believe the interrelated complexity of nature. From there it rejects Deism.

The argument continues not necessarily with a rejection of original sin but a statement of sin choices. The argument is that regardless of Adam’s sin humans chose to sin and selfishness as a lifestyle. From there the story moves to the incarnation as the answer to the question of why if God is loving does he not intervene. The Big Story shows that God does love and did intervene. Jesus took on the sin of mankind Himself and He paid the penalty for that sin. In return what is required is submission to Jesus’ lordship (leading). By following Christ and trusting in Him to lead we can be the people we want to be. Finally, it ends with allusions to the Bridge Illustration.

The Bridge Illustration answers the question of faith and relationship with God by saying that there is a God and man is separated from God and man’s good works cannot reach God. Just as in the Big Story, there are some presuppositions but not as many because it removes the ontological, anthropological, and intelligent design arguments and simply presupposes a belief in God. The Bridge Illustration moves on to say that while man cannot reach God, God can reach man. It argues that the central message of the Bible is that God loves His creation and has done what they cannot do making a way to Himself through Christ.

The Big Story is a fairly good presentation of the meta-story of the Bible. It coves God creating, man sinning, the world in despair, and God providing redemption. The problem comes from the many presuppositions it uses. The old adage that more is less can be true when speaking to people. Whereas the Bridge Illustration does use some presupposition it is limited to only a belief in God. Which one to use would depend on who you are speaking with and that situation.

I find that if I am speaking to someone who is more science-based the fewer presuppositions I have the better. It gives them less wiggle room to argue and more time can be given to the actual topic of God’s redemption of mankind. However, if I am talking to someone who is struggling with real-world problems the presuppositions are generally shared by them and I. We both agree the world is a messed-up place and that there has to be something more. We can agree that God would not leave His creation to fend for itself and that He wants to be part of it. It is almost as if the more presuppositions the better because they build to a big beautiful picture.

As for which I prefer I like them both. I am a fan of the meta-story of the Bible because it is the most beautiful picture I have ever heard. Yes, there are details that are hard to understand but that does not dilute the beauty of the story. It is the most wonderful thing I have ever heard. I am sure it has sounded like I am against presuppositional apologetics and to a degree, I might be, but it is still the best story ever. I also love the Bridge Illustration because it focuses in on Jesus and His work to reconcile us to the Father. It showcases the majesty of God. It is the focal point of this wonderful song that began before creation and rings out that God is with us. I could not pick one to prefer. I can only hold on to both and use them at their appropriate time.

Just a thought,

Mike