Jesus is NOT your homeboy!

Wow, first I wanna say to my two readers I am sorry for being away from my blog. Kids and work and life in general makes the time just slip away. But I have still been studying God's awesome word and have much I wanna blog on if I can keep finding time. So what do you think of the title of this post? I hope it captured your attention and makes you read on wondering what the heck I mean. This will reflect a little from a sermon John Macarthur did titled "The Forgotten Side Of God" with of course my own opinions and thoughts in it as well.

First I wanna pose a question to you: Where in the Bible does it say or elude to Jesus laughing? The truth of the matter is, it doesn't. Yeah I know, that's pretty amazing. It does say in John 11:35 Jesus wept. (That by the way is the shortest verse in the Bible) But no where in scripture will you find Jesus laughing. Now I will not claim nor want to imply that Jesus never laughed, I merely want to point out that the Holy Spirit never inspired any of the new testament writers to record such an instance. I am sure Jesus laughed with His disciples and followers, but still, we couldn't get just one instance of this recorded in the Holy Scriptures? This is just something I want you to think about as I write the rest of this post.

So when we die, if we are true followers and believers in Christ, are we just gonna roll up into Heaven and high five Jesus, say something like what's up bro, or how's it kickin? I don't think so. Look at John (who happens to be the "beloved disciple" ) in Revelation 1:17-18 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Wait, the beloved disciple saw Jesus and fell like a dead man? Do you guys see your friends and homeboys and fall at their feet like you were a dead man? Of course you don't. Society loves to make shirts, hats and whatever else to make Jesus out to be this cool hip pacifist that just wants to be our homies and hang with us. We have lost sight of God's greatest attribute. He is Holy!

Remember back in Exodus where Moses is just walking along and sees a burning bush? Exodus 3:1-6 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Look at that, God told Moses to remove His sandals because he was standing on Holy ground. Why was the ground Holy? Because God was there. God is Holy. You will see that illustrated constantly throughout the entire Bible. Moses also in this incident hid his face from God. God is so Holy Moses didn't even want to look at Him in the bush.

Revelation 4:8 And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!"
Isaiah 6:2 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

Look at these two scriptures and you will notice they are very similar. John had one vision and Isaiah had the other and they are describing the Seraphim angels that circle the throne of God constantly crying out Gods greatest attribute which as I mentioned before is Holiness. Look at Isaiah's vision description though. Notice the similarities to the Exodus passage with Moses we just looked at? The seraphim (which are "high-ranking angels") are covering their feet and faces. Like Moses, they do not want to look upon the Lord and they cover their feet, in my opinion, to show they can't even stand before the Lord. God is so Holy that these angels dare not look at Him but cover their faces, yet we have people running around saying Jesus is their homeboy? How disgraceful! It's like so many people want to make God "cool". God does not need people making Him "cool". Notice what the Seraphim are saying? What is God? Is He mercy mercy mercy? Is He cool cool cool? Is He (as so many want us to think) love love love? No, none of these. He is Holy Holy Holy! The only time God is ever described as something repetitive like this is in regards to His Holiness. The Jews used this when they wanted to make a strong point. Jesus did it in His time when He was about to make a strong statement. You will find 25 times in the book of John where Jesus starts a statement verily verily I say unto you (some versions truly truly). God is Holy above all other things.

Now there are many people out there that just concentrate on God's love. I used to. But there is so much more to God. Yes 1 John 4 says God is love. Because He is. But above all He is Holy. We really need to start pounding that into this day and age in the church. It is because of us losing sight of God's Holiness that so many churches are accepting things like homosexuality and abortion and idolatry. If you don't believe me just look around. the Episcopalians, the ELCA, the Methodist church, PCUSA, The Church of Christ. These are all churches guilty of one or more of the three I listed. All of them are going the way of idolatry. What I mean is, did you know that if you create a God that is not the one described in the Bible you are committing idolatry? Homosexuality is a sin in the bible. It is in black and white in the New testament and Old. But because these churches are trying to make God 'cool" and want the world to think the church is hip to the times they are secularizing the gospel message. I know a pastor from Ecla that when asked how they went when the Ecla split over this not long ago he said "Oh we are liberal, anything goes." Really!? Where is that in the Bible? Please note when I say liberal or conservative I am describing views on scripture and not politics unless otherwise noted. The sad thing is this guy is teaching people this liberal theology garbage which in all honesty is apostasy and idolatry. The same goes for abortion, go to RCRC and look at all the churches on this list who support abortion (I.E. the murdering of innocent babies).

God is Holy and calls us to live Holy lives. Lives that reflect Him, and as we see the Bible clearly shows He is Holy. We will stumble, that is true, but if you just want to claim Christ and no change has happened in your life I question your conversion. You wanna convert a truck into a car, you will see a change in the truck over time. Right? R.C. Sproul had a good quote that went something like this "Any attempt to understand God apart from His holiness is idolatry"

Lets look at another verse. One the "other side" tries to use as an opposition to all the holiness scriptures describing God. John 15 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. I love this passage and am so humbled that a Holy and awesome God would call me a friend. But I will not distort that and twist it to make God out to be my "homeboy". I would never disgrace my Heavenly Father and Creator. Do you? Folks, God is love, and yes, God does love all of us just as we are, however He loves us so much He won't leave us that way. 1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. That's a lot of people who won't enter the kingdom of God. But look close at that passage, it says and such were some of you. That's so promising cause God will change us from the sinful lives we live into followers of His holiness. Look within yourselves, are you worshiping and believing in the one true God, or merely one that society accepts? Read your Bibles, and obey what you read.

My prayer for us Father is that we see You for Who You truly are. That we put aside our preconceived notions of You and learn the truth about You from the Holy Scriptures written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. May we not lean on our understanding, rather lean on You and Your word. Thank you for Your word, Your love, and Your holiness. Amen

With love and prayers
Chris