But first, oh, accountability!
The intersect of writing about pursuing righteousness and actually doing the right thing, particularly during the Christmas / New Year’s Day Season, almost tempted me to quit this whole enterprise. Energy and resolve waned then I proved to myself that I am not there yet.
It is easy to write a theological summary about a Bible passage, book, sermon, or sermon series; it is hard to write “this is what I aspire to do about it,” because that means I have to do it. Real life people I know are reading and watching, including Darling Bride, Adult Children, church family, even co-workers. With that in mind, I’m mindful that I’m writing this not in a vacuum and hopefully a benefit to myself, my circle of influence (including you, dear reader). Accordingly, this post has been delayed a few days after repenting and recovering from not being able to keep it all together during Christmas weekend stress. Hopefully all is better now, so here we go…
College Park Church, our local church, recently concluded a sermon series on the Old Testament books from the Minor Prophets / . More detail about who they are and what their writings are about at the end of this (Note 1), first I’ll write about what I’m aspiring to think and do about what I’ve learned this Autumn and Advent season.
Each of the sermons built upon the foundation of RIGHTEOUSNESS, then each Book’s sermon went deeper according to that Book’s particular nuance.
What we mean by this is that Righteousness is
- Rooted in God (his character)
- Ruined by Man (our sin)
- Restored in the Messiah (the hope)
- Required of his People (individual, corporate, and social)
Rooted in God (his character)
Embracing God’s existence and His standard of Righteousness as worthy of allegiance is a mindset. Choosing to be happy because God has made Himself and his righteousness knowable, and that what’s right and true is good. Who I am, and why I am here has been answered (although not 100%, still questions…)
When asked (or if asked, or if challenged) on why I follow Jesus as a Christian, I start with “Christianity is the best explanation for the way things actually are” (note 2). The beginning of the universe, the question of evil, the longing of our hearts, a sense of morality, purpose, love, questions of life…Only God as revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in his Bible can answer our biggest questions. Not completely of course, but sufficiently.
Trusting that we have sufficient, appropriate evidence to support that “God is” can be both a blessing and a challenge. It is easy to measure my spirituality by how many truths I know and my ability to articulate it, (talk the talk – or “write the write?”), not so much walking the walk. So as I think about Righteousness being rooted in God, I rejoice in that but know that I have more work to do.
Ruined by Man (our sin)
This is a mindset as well just as is awareness that righteousness is rooted in God. It is one thing to agree that there is something wrong with this world, another thing to acknowledge we are part of the problem. I follow Jesus but continue to struggle with putting Him first and walking the walk.
More questions remain, such as “Why this, O God, why that, why disasters, why prayers unanswered the way we want? Generally to date I’ve thought that the more theological precision I attain, the better I will be and the easier bigger questions would be to answer. Instead, I should trust more in the Messiah (see next point).
Restored in the Messiah (our hope)
Mindset that moves to action.
But what actions? “Just do better” doesn’t seem to be sufficient. Fortunately, I remember that I read about, thought about, and wrote about happiness a couple of weeks ago, so I have someplace to start.
Whenever my faith gets stuck I go back to Jesus’s resurrection from the dead and go from there. For example, do I need something to be happy about? Peace with God because of Jesus’s resurrection and what that means for forgiveness of sins is happy news. Am I confused about a secondary piece of theology? The historical reliability of Jesus’s resurrection leads to the reliability of Christianity being true. Testing or temptation and a moment of decision? An essential part of being a disciple is observing all Jesus commands us (Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20).
Required of His People (individual, corporate, and social)
To quote Pastor Mitch while preaching Zechariah, “Jesus is someone to love, not some way to act.” Not that I’m separated from God, but there can be a drift, there certainly was this past week, and I’m sure there will be more in the future. I like things to be just so. Instead, perhaps think of the happiness that comes from “Taking the Adventure Aslan sends us” (Note 3), taking things as they come and trusting God’s sovereignty when things are not just so.
The sermon outline of Zechariah, the second to last Minor Prophet book, also the most messianic and apocalyptic of the Minor Prophets, was summarized this way:
- Return to God
- God will return to you
- Live for Him
- Worship Him
Zechariah also has a command to REJOICE! Hopefully none of us are dealing with the end of Narnia like King Tirian and the friends of Narnia, so if they can take the adventure Aslan sends them, then if things are not just so, we will do well to rejoice in the adventure Aslan sends us.
(Note 1) The Old Testament Minor Prophets books are called such because the books are smaller in size, not because the writers were under age 18 🙂.
Very brief history of Israel during the times of the prophets:
After King Solomon (son of David), the kings alternated between good kings and bad kings, resulting in a divided kingdom (two nations, Israel and Judah). Increasing idolatry and immorality resulted in both kingdoms falling to the Babylonians. Then Babylon fell to the Persians. Eventually Israel is allowed to return and rebuild the temple.
Our sermon series included
- Hosea
- Joel
- Amos
- Obadiah
- Jonah
- Micah
- Nahum
- Habakkuk
- Zephaniah
- Haggai
- Zechariah
- Malachi
(Note 2) Stand to Reason by Greg Kokul gets the credit for framing Christianity as the best explanation for the way things actually are, read more on the Stand to Reason article by Alan Shlemon here, https://www.str.org/w/christianity-is-the-best-explanation-for-reality .
(Note 3) To quote from The Last Battle, the final book of the C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia series. The full quote is “Nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us.”