On February 29, 2024
By Bill Smith
In Church, Discipleship, Theology, Worship
1
What is the church? Is it really all that important? If you ask evangelical Christians in America, you will get a variety of responses. In one survey, when evangelicals were asked whether or not every Christian has an obligation to join a local church, thirty-six percent of the respondents said, “Yes,” and fifty-six percent said, “No.” In another survey, a similar fifty-six percent agreed that worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid substitute for regularly attending the worship of the church. Many professing Christians see the church as a good but non-essential part of the Christian life. The church is an aid to my personal relationship with Jesus, but my participation in the church has little to no bearing on my relationship with God and eternal destiny.
Paul disagrees.
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On February 15, 2024
By Bill Smith
In Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom, Worship
1
Fasting is on the minds of many Christians around the world at this time because we have entered the season of Lent, a time in the Church Year that, among other things, focuses on Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness. Fasting is encouraged as the church disciples her members to take up their crosses and follow Christ.
Fasting has a long and sometimes muddled history. God has always approved of fasting if it is done within the boundaries and for particular purposes. It can be argued that a form of fasting existed before the fall as God forbade the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for a time. This pre-fall fast was a practice in patience, praying and waiting for the time God would allow them to eat and move into another stage of glory.
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On February 1, 2024
By Bill Smith
In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Theology
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Can I please God? Am I and my works ever worthy enough for God to say, “I am well pleased with you?”
There was a time in my life that I would have answered that question, “Absolutely not. I am a sinner and can never walk worthy of the Lord in a way that pleases him. It is impossible for me to please him because he is perfectly holy and tolerates no sin. My righteousness is only and exclusively alien. Christ’s righteousness is all that God the Father sees. Christ pleases God. Christ is worthy, but nothing about me is worthy.”
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On December 28, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Church, Culture, Discipleship, Theology
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God is an architect and builder. Creation is his house. One part of the house was finished from the beginning. God created his heavenly palace complete. It was a turn-key job. The earth, however, he gave to his son, Adam, as a project (Ps 115:16). God provided his son all the raw materials and the blueprint to complete his mission. Once the earthly house was finished, the breach between heaven and earth created on the second day of the creation week would be reconciled.
The original separation of heaven and earth was not caused by sin. The division was a design feature of the original creation, and the maturity of the earth was man’s mission before sin entered the world. When Adam sinned, the separation was deepened. From that time forward, the project to build a house in which God would be pleased to dwell, uniting his heavenly home to an earthly home, was crippled by sin.
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On December 7, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom
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One of the scariest prospects since the fall of man into sin is to be thoroughly known.We want to know and be known by others. There is a deep longing for this knowledge but also a great fear. We desire this sort of intimacy because we are God’s image-bearers. God knows himself infinitely. Father, Son, and Spirit are completely exposed to one another. There are no hidden thoughts, no secrets between them. The intimacy is perfect.
When the man and woman were created, they experienced this intimacy, immaturely but truly. That is one aspect of them being naked and unashamed. When they sinned, they hid. They hid from one another and God. But the desire to know and be known wasn’t taken away. We want to entrust ourselves to others without fear of rejection in complete love.
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On November 30, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Church, Culture, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom
1
We don’t like to wait. Everything in our world is becoming faster and faster, so we don’t have to wait. The information of the world is at our fingertips with our phones so that we can access it anytime we wish. We order packages online that, at times, can be delivered the same day. We are a generation of the immediate.
Built into the Church Year are times of waiting. Advent, the four weeks before the Christmas season, is one of those times of waiting. The Church Year is not a biblical law that must be obeyed lest you be in danger of hell. The Church Year is a discipleship tool, a time of instruction to teach the life of Christ in an embodied way so that people not only think about the propositional truths of Christ but also, in some small way, feel the rhythms of the life of the incarnate Son. Advent is the anticipation of his coming. Anticipation means waiting, and we don’t like to wait.
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On November 21, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Discipleship, Family and Children, Theology, Worship
4
One danger of any ritual is thinking it works for blessing standing alone. The water of baptism magically grants eternal salvation apart from faith. The bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper convey blessings no matter how you live outside of the church or if you participate in the worship service. The “sinner’s prayer” saves apart from participation in the body of Christ and without perseverance. No matter the ritual, there are always dangers of isolating them from a full life of faith, treating them as if they are magic spells.
Those of us who have the privilege of practicing full covenant communion (that is, welcoming our baptized children to the Table) are not immune from the danger. Just as some treat baptism as something of a finish line, so some parents and churches treat paedocommunion (child communion) as if eating the bread and drinking the wine of communion are all that matters for the children. They don’t have to participate in the rest of the service. They can be in a nursery or some other room in the building, cutting themselves off entirely from the rest of the congregation, but when it comes time for communion, they expect to be a part.
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On November 16, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Discipleship, Family and Children, Theology, Worship
1
Once upon a time, God created a man and a woman and put them in a garden. In the middle of this garden were two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. From the latter, they were forbidden to eat. From the former, God welcomed them to eat. The man and woman would meet God at the trees, and God would give them the fruit of the Tree of Life and, through it, share his life with them.
God blessed the man and the woman at their creation and told them to be fruitful and multiply. In their original state of righteousness, the children born would be sinless, just like their parents. They would come to the sanctuary-garden with their parents, meet with God, and receive the fruit of the Tree of Life with them when they were able to eat solid food. As man multiplied in this state, he would be truly fruitful; his children would be faithful worshipers and have access to God’s sanctuary-garden and food.
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On September 7, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Church, Discipleship, History, Theology
3
“Christian Nationalism” has been a hot topic and a mixed bag over the past year or so. Intramural debates and social media wars are fought over theological foundations, hermeneutical presuppositions, implementation of Christian Nationalism, and even race concerning what constitutes a nation. While the answers to all those questions are important, I believe it is inarguable that Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth and was promised the nations for his inheritance (Ps 2), not only desires but also commands that nations be Christian.
Before he ascended to heaven after his resurrection, Jesus, standing on a Galilean mountain, told his disciples that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him. He is Lord over all creation. The nations of the earth are to acknowledge and submit to his lordship. Kings and all those in authority are to pay him tribute as vassals; that is, they are to acknowledge his lordship through offerings that are, in effect, a tax that recognizes that he owns everything and that they exist by his sovereign grace (Ps 72:10-11; Rev 21:24).
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On July 27, 2023
By Bill Smith
In Discipleship, Wisdom
1
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born of adversity.”
~Proverbs 17.17
“Friends” aren’t difficult to find in our modern world. Say something spicy online or reveal yourself inappropriately, and people will flock to you, “friending” or following you. If you are extremely popular, you will have no lack of sycophants who believe everything you post is “fire” and will dote all over you, trying to get your attention and share in your perceived or real power. Finding good friends, those who genuinely know you and not only your online presence, who will be loyal to you in good times and bad, who will make sustained efforts to maintain a close friendship, and who will call you out when you’re stupid despite your fame, those types of friends are rare jewels. They are difficult to find but priceless.
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born of adversity” (Pr 17.17). As Solomon wrote this, “at all times” stands at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize the unshakeable loyalty of genuine, close friends. “All times” means precisely that: all times. These are good times and bad times, times when you are up and times when you are down, times when you are pleasant and times when you are unpleasant, times when you have an abundance to give and times when you have nothing to offer, times when you are well and times when you are ill. A friend loves you in all these times. He is loyal.
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