by Joel V Webb | Jul 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
An image that is used in Scripture, and by extension preaching is the idea of being pruned. When a plant grows, sometimes the way that it is growing does not contribute, but actually takes away from the fruit production of the plant. Jesus talked a lot about the fruit we produce, and it’s importance for the Kingdom. We know for all of us that there may be things (even if they are good) that need to be pruned and removed so that we can actually be the most fruitful.
This principle is pretty accepted across the board as part of Christian growth, and can be applied not just to individuals, but to organizations like churches and denominations as well. The message of the Gospel never changes. And sometimes the structure, organization or method that we proclaim that message needs to be modified or adapted to be more effective. Cut off the excess to bear more fruit. This is normal and expected. As the world around us changes so do the methods and way things look.
But this is not always the case. We often ask the question (personally or corporately), “there’s not a lot of fruit, so there needs to be pruning”, or similarly ask, “things seem really small and cut back, maybe were preparing for fruit!” And these certainly could be legitimate. We could be in a season where things have been hacked back to prepare for new growth that will bear fruit. But sometimes things being small is not because of pruning…it can be because of rot.
Something my pastor has said before, “we often say if there is opposition that it must be the enemy. But we never ask the question, what if it is God?” WHAT? How could God be the one opposing us if we are His people? Very simply, He will if we are not bearing the message of the Gospel and representing His Kingdom.
If we (individually or corporately) acting as ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom do so in a way that actually harms, abuses and hurts people, do we think that the Lord would support that? Yes, He is long suffering and great in His mercy. AND THANK HIM FOR THAT!! Because we all need His mercy. But even Israel was eventually judged for their injustice and evil committed.
There are sadly so many examples of churches that while bearing Christ’s name have used it to domineer, control and tell people what to do. These places are hiding holes for spiritual, emotional and sexual abuse. And while many of these organizations had their hayday (IBLP etc…) the abuse and fruit become evident very quickly. When people start leaving when they realize what is going on the response often inside these organizations is just like the false prophets of the Old Testament who opposed any message that was not positive.
I recently heard such a message from an organization I am very familiar with that has demonstrated many of these qualities. Their message will often be “God is pruning us so we can be ready to bear fruit!!!” The expectation of some kind of revival around the corner that will fill their seats because they are small.
Is this a possibility? It could be. But we also need to ask, could it be for the other reason that instead of being pruned we are actually rotting? Have we, or I for so long refused to look at the truth of what is going on around me and am sadly self-deceived into thinking whats actually happening is God preparing to move through us, rather than against us?
I ultimately believe that God is for us, and He loves us. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. And, He also opposes those who oppresses and hurt the helpless, and misrepresent His name. So it is a possibility that it could be God allowing the fruit of out tree to bloom to show other to steer clear. As Jesus said, “you shall know them by their fruit” (Matt. 7:15-20).
What can we or should we do? We should all pray and ask the Lord to open our eyes through His Holy Spirit to the blind spots in our lives. If pride or deception has blinded me it is impossible to see on my own. I need the help of the Holy Spirit, through my brothers and sisters in Christ to lovingly tell me where I have erred and where there is rot, so I can subject it to the loving work of Jesus to change and transform.
This can happen in a corporate setting as well. It is and will be painful if it ever happens at all, but it is worth the pain because of the gain in Jesus.
I humbly pray this for myself, and for all of us to know the one who took our place.
DV
by Joel V Webb | May 22, 2024 | Uncategorized
Many in the Church feel there is
really only one of two options. We either give in to the political and philosophical
ideas of the right-wing in order to pursue God’s call for the Church. Others
feel to give into the political and philosophical ideas of the left-wing as the
way to pursue God’s call for the Church. What’s crazy about all of this is that
for those on both sides (myself included) we often don’t even realize that we
are doing it!
For the right it’s the presupposition that
most evangelicals who presume the American dream is an extension of the Gospel if
our nation follows God, waiting to be raptured from trouble. For the left, it’s
the idea that the liberation the Gospel speaks of needs to be exerted
politically for the oppressed using any means necessary to bring in the New
Heavens and the New Earth. Is there some truth contained in both sides. Sure.
But both sides are often taken too far into error that loses the saltiness that
Christ’s followers are supposed to have, trading it in for dichotomy of
politically exclusive choices.
Liberation is certainly a theme in the
Scriptures. God leads His chosen people from Egypt. Once slaves, they were
taught how to be free people, being distinct from the nations around them.
Likewise, the Gospel provides us with liberation from the powers of sin and hell,
giving us the freedom to live truly as God intended us to. But what we
unfortunately see from many of the ideas espoused by those in the Liberation
theology camp is a dangerous blend of Christianity’s call to pursue justice and
help for the needy into a Marxist infused political machine that doesn’t
distinguish itself from the excesses of the political left. Justice without
truth isn’t really justice at all.
Likewise, the far right gives into its
own excesses by shrugging its shoulders much of the time at pain and suffering,
expecting to be whisked away from tribulation at any moment. So often the
vision is really focused inwards, not paying attention to the ways the Church
has historically served as a demonstration of the love of Christ. There has
been no greater witness of the Gospel throughout history than the physical ways
Christians have put themselves out of comfort to work for others good, in the
same way Christ did for us. Often, the issues our society is facing are dealt
with suspicion and fear, rather than understanding and love that leads to
truth. Justice without love isn’t really justice at all.
All of this means living life in
tension. To not give into the ever-encompassing ideas of one side exclusively makes
you a target for both sides. But to do so is to deny dividing points the world
gives us, and instead shows the third way that Christ offers. When we start
with the cross, we know that all of us are guilty. We are all oppressors who
will sin against another image bearer of God. There are no exceptions. And at
the same time we are all under the thumb of sin, desperately in need of
liberation and freedom that is only found in Christ.
The only truly innocent victim was Christ; the only unredeemable
oppressor is the devil; and the only perfect liberator is God. – Biblical
Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin
by Joel V Webb | Mar 29, 2024 | Uncategorized
Good Friday…a seemingly paradoxical kind of day. One that
represents suffering, pain and death. For us as humans,
disillusionment, fear, betrayal and cowardice. What can be good about
this day?
Of course having the
knowledge of the end of the matter, that answer seems easy. But put
yourselves in the shoes of someone who really didn’t or couldn’t
of known what was happening. This day, when Jesus was brutalized,
beaten and crucified seemed like a complete and utter defeat. All
hopes being dashed and destroyed in but a few hours.
This day, Good
Friday had been preceded by thousands of years of broken human
history of pain, suffering, injustice and sin as humanity did what it
does best; trying to make our own way instead of following God’s.
What we see on this day was the answer to all of that. The story is
an amazing one. How God chose a special people to reveal Himself to
the world be living differently. But even that was not enough because
they often failed and became captive to the very things they were
supposed to show others there was a different way.
The many sacrifices
that allowed temporary fellowship between God and man were now
complete. The promised One who would crush the serpent’s head
accomplished His mission.
If you don’t know
the story, check it out. See what lengths that God has gone to
reconnect with His beloved creation.
While we do have the
joy of resurrection ahead, that does not mean now on this Friday we
can’t lament and acknowledge the pain we all feel and suffer. And
yet, in that pain there is the torn veil. At the moment of Christ’s
death, the symbol of separation was broken to now show the way is
open, and we can now go boldly before our King, friend and Savior!
On this Good Friday,
let us all be thankful for the greatest gift of love that any of us
can and ever will receive. Salvation and forgiveness of sins that
comes from Jesus on the cross.
by Joel V Webb | Mar 11, 2024 | Uncategorized
Whenever I tell my wife that I love her, what usually
happens is she smiles, and says “I love you” back, something chuckling out of
the joy that came from that statement. The question is, what came first, the
statement or the reaction? From this
example we obviously know that it was the statement that produced the reaction.
If I were to confuse the order of things and just go after the reaction, that
would cause problems because it is the knowledge of my wife knowing that I love
her, more than any other human that produces it, not the reaction she gives
that produces the love from where the statement derived.
In many ways, the Gospel is the same thing. There are so
many expected outcomes when the gospel “good news” message is preached. But
what happens when we start to focus on making everything about the results of the
gospel, rather than the source of the results? The equation gets messed up
because without the source, the results become shallow, and even perverted.
An example of this is good works. This topic gets dealt with
throughout the New Testament, and was s driving force behind Martin Luther at
the beginning of the Reformation (so much so he didn’t like the book of James
being apart of the canon of Scirpture!). We know that no one can be saved by
good works. If that were the case than the gospel would not be good news! It
would be dead religion, seen so many other places in the world with people hopelessly
trying to do enough good to pay off their debt. We also know that when a person
has received the free gift of salvation, and the transformation into a new
creature that follows, it is good works that then come from that person (James
2). This is something that any Christian within the classical consensus can
agree on.
What we are now seeing is the proper equation of the gospel
becoming inverted in other areas of the faith, and it is potentially making the
impact of the gospel lessened as it is no the focus, but rather the results of
it are.
Scripture is replete with commands for those who follow Christ
are to do justice (Isa. 1:17, Mic. 6:8, Amos 5:24, Ps. 33:5, Luke 18:1-8, and
there are so many more). To be just, and to treat other image bearers all as
equal is a non-negotiable in the Church. I have come from a background that
doesn’t focus much on there here and now, mostly being concerned for the
here-after (for various eschatological reasons).
But what can also happen is a complete pendulum swing to the
other end of the spectrum where the focus of all our Christian lives becomes “justice”
(often defined in modern political terms). This is not all bad, history
demonstrates that almost all of the advances in human rights, and righting
major injustices have been spear-headed by followers of Christ. Though we do
have to be careful that the work of our lives does not move from preaching the
gospel, to preaching justice. Or, by conflating “doing justice” with preaching
the gospel.
Justice, true biblical justice that transforms the world
into the creation God intended it to be does not come about by pouring all of
our energy into the singular focus of justice. Rather, justice comes as a
natural outworking and product when the gospel is preached, and people are
discipled into followers of Jesus. This call and command is not calling us to
be apolitical (as has been the fault of some in the Church in the past), but to
rather be wholly informed in what we do by the gospel in every area we work.
If God has called us to focusing issues of justice (racial,
socio-economic etc…) than how we address those issue must be informed by the
gospel, rather than our gospel work informed by philosophies and worldviews
produced by the world seeking to side-step dealing with issues of sin.
This is a hard line to walk, its one that I am working on
myself as we speak. I am compelled by the experiences of those who have face
injustice to act from the love of Christ to see people transformed by the
gospel (and likewise the systems that are made up of people), and on the same
hand in the sure knowledge that it is only the gospel that addresses the issues
in a constructive and renewing way. That while not always easy, produces the
result of changing hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit, not trying to
coordinate political power to overthrow something.
As since the early Church, the Gospel will conquer the world
not through power, but through love.
by Joel V Webb | Mar 6, 2024 | Uncategorized
There is a deep tension in our society right now when it comes to the issue of race and racial relations. Up until recently, I have found many of the methods to identify and answer these questions to be severely wanting. They would either deny there is a problem or take the problem so far as to think racism permeates every single part of life, separating people into classes originally devised by Marxist ideology.
So what are we to do? How can we address these questions thoughtfully and realistically while still remaining faithful to the framework of Scripture? One thing the dominant perspective gets right is stating that there is a problem. The thing it fails to do is offer the only true answer to the problem: the ultimate atonement for sin on the cross.
In Tony Evans’s book, he lays things out frankly and honestly. He does not pull punches in seeing how the Bible addresses the issues of racial tension we are seeing today. And this goes for both sides of the aisle. Racism is real, and it does exist, and those who are followers of Jesus deny the basic reality of a person being an image bearer if they are racist. There is no room for racism in God’s Kingdom. Likewise, he leaves no room for those who seek to divide us by our melanin levels, as is with the derivatives of critical theory. He shows that in the gospel, there is a unity in Christ that bridges all divides and brings true reconciliation.
At the end, there is a provided list, particularly for black and white Christians, of serious questions to be considered. I found it challenging and hopeful. While it certainly pressed points of things I have not considered before, it is done wholly in the love and grace of Jesus, and it does so for both lists. Whoever reads it will feel challenged to do better and to love more.
I highly recommend this book. It provides a path forward that is not found at the whims of questionable philosophical origins and frameworks, and is wholly built upon the transformative power of the gospel. Unlike some of the other options that are out there to wholly focus on what makes us different and always left me feeling misunderstood or angered, Evans’s take points us ultimately to the cross that reconciles us all together to God. If the divide of sin and death could be resolved, so can our divisions over race as well.
You can find the book here – https://a.co/d/aT1WgNE
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