by Joel V Webb | Feb 22, 2024 | Uncategorized
One of my favorite songs
of all time is In Christ Alone written by the Getty’s. In its last verse
comes a very rousing theme of being secure in Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear
in death—
This is the pow’r of
Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to
final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no
scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His
hand;
Till He returns or calls
me home—
Here in the pow’r of
Christ I’ll stand.
“No power of hell, no
scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand.” In a previous church context I
was a part of I was told we could not sing that 4th verse because of that
particular line which struck the pastor as “too reformed” for his comfort, and to
not have to deal with whatever issues would come from a line like that, we
could sing all the verses but that one.
I sadly didn’t push back
more at that time. I should have. Unfortunately in our day and age the concept
of perseverance of the saints has been relegated by many to be only a doctrine
of the Reformed tradition. I argue it is not. While the Wesleyan Arminian take
on the doctrine may be somewhat different, the core element is the same. If we
are found in Christ, we are secure in Him. This thought is directly talked of
in Romans 8:38b-39, “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell
can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth
below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the
love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing is ever able to
take us from God’s hand. If we remain in Christ then we are secure in Him. Of
course, we can choose to walk out of His hand if we so choose. The question can
then be raised, “what does it mean to be found in Christ?” Simply put it can be
asked, Am I, having recognized the truth of the gospel, that Jesus alone is my
hope for salvation by His death and resurrection and no works of my own,
and through the enabling power of His Holy Spirit I am living as a
representative of Christ and His Kingdom, allegiant to Him alone. If the answer
is yes to that question, truly and honestly then you are found in Christ.
How does this look in
practice? We are all human. We suffer and struggle with the reality of our
fallen humanity. Maybe there is a habit that we have desperately been asking
the Lord to break in us. Does that mean I am not saved if I stumble and fall?
The question is, like King David after his sin concerning Bathsheba and Uriah:
do I remain loyal to the Lord alone? Unlike the other Kings in Israel’s history
before their captivity, they would start worshiping other idols. Even though
David horrifically sinned, he remained loyal to God.
So as we look at our own
lives, we may have times where we stumble and fall (I certainly have in my
past). But, if we remain loyal to Christ, pursuing Him and getting back up
again with His help we will be found in Him and persevere no matter what comes against
us. No power of hell, or scheme of man can ever pluck us from His hand!
by Joel V Webb | Jan 19, 2024 | Uncategorized
I just finished watching The Bible Collection: Jeremiah which is a dramatization of the life and ministry of the weeping prophet Jeremiah. Following his life from a young age, up till just after the destruction of Jerusalem it shows the near impossible situation that he was dealing with. I recommend checking it out as it brings the story to life (Watch The Bible Collection: Jeremiah | Prime Video (amazon.com))
We know Jeremiah was not believed by the leadership of Judah. They had failed to do what they were supposed to. Honor God in all things, and rule justly. The decrepit nature of the nation was becoming more apparent as they were falling into the same behaviors that landed the northern kingdom of Israel into exile. It is from this place that Judah was conquered, and the entire time Jeremiah went unheeded. His calls for repentance and justice fell on deaf ears.
The parallels seem to be deafening to our current day in various ways. While we don’t have the intertwining of faith and politics that existed in the OT period of Judah, there still is influence that has been missing. Since the early 19th century, much of the American Church has gotten so enthralled with “getting out of dodge” when it comes to our eschatology. Why does it matter what goes on here if we are going to be raptured up anyways! That or any other number of variations of the same idea. Instead of being the Kingdom of God on the earth transforming the creation through the spreading of the gospel we become so internalized with ourselves, and this has led to so much rot.
The Church in many places has left our mandate to take care of the orphan and widow to the government. We all can certainly agree this is a less than ideal situation. But as we know history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it certainly does rhyme. This abrogation of our responsibility has led to what we have. A more often than not overbearing government that regularly interacts outside of its Constitutional bounds to “take care of us”. If we are truly desiring justice to prevail, we in the Church must take up the mantle and example of the Early Church.
What would happen if that changed? If the incentives were corrected and people looked to God’s people for what they were supposed to do as part of their mission of restoring creation through the spreading of the gospel.
Jeremiah 3:12-13, “O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the Lord, have spoken!
by Joel V Webb | Jan 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
We look at the world around us and wonder what is going on!? We see so much polarization, conflict and no matter what issue it seems there is either one side or the other.
What do we do? What is our path forward?
The question among most faithful Christians is “do we have the right position?” This is an important question to ask. Is the position we have truly grounded in a faithful interpretation of Scripture. Are we in line with what Christians have believed for most of our history and is it in line with God’s story seen in Scripture.
I don’t think for most of us this is the issue. For many we seem to be inside the big tent of orthodoxy. Yes, we don’t all line up exactly on every single issue, but overall, we are in agreement about the big stuff.
So, then what is the problem? Why is it that in some towns there needs to be 2 pastor’s prayer groups. Not because of schedule, but because some feel they can’t be in the same room praying as others. Why are we so quick to circle the wagons when our issue of choice comes up?
This comes down to not being an issue of position, but of posture. We spend so much time making sure we are thinking the way Jesus wants me to think about this thing (which does have importance), and taking no time to think “how would Jesus have gone about this?”
If we are honest, we realize that in most cases we would be with the group of people who were ready to stone the woman in adultery. How many of us would truly be the ones standing in the way of that. Yes, we are to follow Jesus faithfully in all things. Though we seem to get that confused with living our lives with rigid legalism, that if no one lines up then “TO HECK WITH EM”.
The last couple days I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. This side of new creation we are ALL going to image Christ imperfectly. No matter how hard we try, or how good we think out theology is, it’s going to be imperfect.
Maybe what needs to happen in a world that is rife with conflict, and people going to either side of the spectrum on any given issue to be the person standing in the middle. Yes, having a position that is consistent with a faithful Christian witness, that does not compromise the truth. And a posture that is loving and merciful, being a healing balm to a world that is hurting and in search of something more than the next talking point.
