PILLARS 7 - The Glorious God Who Walked Among Us (Jn 1.1-5, 9-14)

Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity, somehow both the true God and true man.  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin (Mary).  He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as the only sufficient payment for man’s sin.  He was raised from the dead, ascended to heaven and will one day return as King and Judge of the whole earth.

We’ve been looking at the truths which support and secure our faith.   Truths which we find in the pages of this book, the Bible.  God’s Word (which is 100% true).  We’ve looked at truths about God, what He is like - that He is infinite, eternal, perfect, glorious.  How by glorious we mean exceedingly breathtakingly good.  That this gloriously good God created everything in the universe out of nothing, and everything He made originally was exceedingly good.  That He is infinitely powerful and in control of all things, and that everything that happens in the universe, even the hard things, He works out for good, and for the increase of His Glory.  Romans 8:28  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:18  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  2Corinthians 4:17  For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.  2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Which brings us face-to-face, literally, with the most mind-boggling amazing possibility in all of life.  Beholding the glory of the Lord.  [Ex 33.18]  Beholding God’s glory, His blazing, blinding, take-your-breath-away goodness.  Which is not only mind-blowing, but as we’ve seen from Moses, it is unsurvivable.  Feeble fallen human eyes cannot survive a full frontal glimpse of God’s blazing goodness.  And thus we arrive at what is perhaps the most mind-blowing event in all of history: John 1:14 And the Word [this infinite eternal glorious God] became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  THIS - was Jesus.

THIS is that most wonderful truth that makes this THE most wonderful time of the year.  Not the kids-jingle-belling and everyone-telling us to be of good cheer.  No - the truth is, because He loved us so much, almighty God squeezed Himself into a tiny womb and out of a birth canal and allowed Himself to (need to) be swaddled, wrapped up in a baby blanket in a [feeding trough] in Bethlehem. And we beheld His glory.  Infinity wrapped itself up in “finity”.  Eternity itself showed up in real time, bound by the constraints of space&time & frail flesh.  The God of all Creation, needing to be nursed - and rocked, and wiped - by this teenage girl who is now His mother?  Placing Himself in the belly/arms of one of His own fallen creatures.  We beheld His glory.  Really?  I thought glory was supposed to be this amazing larger-than-life encounter with God’s great majesty.  But Glory is found in the most unexpected places, the most unassuming guises.

Literally v14 says, He pitched His tent and camped out among us.  [tents - and stables: not where you look for glory —> palaces/cathedrals].  By all outward appearances, [this] is not where you would think to look for glory.  This was not how you and I would have drawn it up.  Not how we would expect the almighty Creator of the universe to show up and walk the stage of human history.  This was not center stage - it was backstage.  Some Palestinian backwater.  Part of some tiny religious minority.  The son of a poor carpenter and his teenage wife.  This is NOT where the world looks for any kind of glory, for a king.  Much less for salvation.  

The LIE comes in and says, this was nothing special.  Nothing to see here.  Jesus was nothing special.  IF He even existed (which is definitely a lie - hundreds of witnesses, mentioned by numerous ancient historians).  The LIE says, Jesus was just a good teacher.  A good example to follow.  Flat out lie [google, "the trilemma"]. Jesus was just a man.  Definitely not God.  Cuz that would be impossible.  Luke 18:27 But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”

This "impossible" incarnation - how can Jesus be fully God AND fully human?  Truly impossible to fully explain - OR understand.  Unfathomable.  Even theologians debated this for centuries.  How can it be both?  Cults have formed, heretics have been condemned, trying to land on one side or the other.  The True Church eventually decided and has embraced that we need to be okay living in the tension of the inexplicable both/and.  

But the world just tries its darnedest to dismiss Jesus altogether.  Cuz the world doesn’t want to deal with Jesus.  It can’t handle Him.  And it’s maybe not the seemingly benign truth about His miraculous birth, as significant as that is.  His mother was a virgin - she had never been with a man.  For her to have a baby (in that day certainly) would have been inconceivable.  Literally.  There IS some debate about whether the Holy Spirit used Mary’s egg, or if she was just a surrogate.  I lean towards the former:  Genesis 3:15  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”  Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.  Not something to be dogmatic about, either way.  It’s God’s Holy Spirit making it happen, either way.  Mary is a virgin, either way.  Miracle.  Amazing.  Fulfilled prophecy either way.  But 8lb 6oz Baby Jesus isn’t really why the world so wants to silence talk about Him.  Initially I was going to go so far as to say that the world didn’t try to get rid of Him until He started pointing out our hypocrisy and our idolatrous hearts and our need for forgiveness and for entirely new hearts.  But then I remembered that Herod actually did try to take him out as a baby.  Even Nativity Scenes are offensive, aren’t they?  The truth is, the world doesn’t want to hear ANYTHING about Jesus.  Don’t even mention His Name.  Unless of course you want to disrespect it or curse with it.  But otherwise completely remove Him from the conversation.  

The SALIENT point about this Baby, about this birth, of course, is that this Baby [was born to die].  His mission was not to simply take on human flesh, to crawl/walk among us.  His steps were to carry Him up a hill called Calvary where (tho completely innocent) He allowed His enemies to betray and abuse and torture Him, and execute Him as a criminal.  His mission was to take on evil, literally, to take on the sin of the world - and to pay the full penalty for all of it, to offer Himself up as the unblemished sacrifice for the sin of the world and take on the full measure of God’s righteous wrath poured out against it.  And even in death, even as He hung there on that cruel Roman cross, God’s glory was on display, blazing forth in that darkness [Matt. 27:54 Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”].  The world rejected Jesus then, and it rejects Him still today.  But for those who have eyes to see it, like that centurion, God’s glory is on full display.  Always.  For those who receive Him.  

He walked among us.  On the third day after He died, Jesus walked out of that grave, and walked among us, camped out for 40 more days [Acts 1:3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.].  Many convincing proofs.  Hundreds of witnesses.  Hundreds of fulfilled prophecies.  And perhaps the even greater miracle is, this same glorious Son of God stands ready to camp out in our hearts.  To walk with us, every day, every moment.  A friend who is closer than any brother or sister.  Always.  Jesus IS special, always and forever "1OAK" - and He makes everything good, even when it doesn’t feel good.  We are never alone.  No matter what you’re going thru, no matter what valley you and I are walking through, Jesus is still among us, walking right beside us.  Let every heart prepare Him room - is there room in your heart?  Have you received Him yet?

PILLARS 6 - God Pre-eminent (?) [Romans 11.33-36]

There is one God, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He is wholly perfect, breathtakingly good, and He is the sovereign almighty Creator and Sustainer of all things.

Last time we looked at the truth that God is good.  So exceedingly good.  And because He is good, He does good.  Everything He makes and does is good.  Even the things that don’t seem good, or feel good - God is somehow working all those things together for good.  Romans 8:28  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  This dovetails with the truth we consider today, that God is sovereign: He is in complete control of everything in the universe.  He possesses unlimited power and authority as well as the infinite wisdom and knowledge to wield it, to work all those things for good.  

He IS all-powerful (omnipotent).  How much power does He have?  He has the power to bring [dust] to life, to bring the dead back to life, to form and fire up 200 billion trillion [stars] with a word.  2 words, actually.  And He could turn 'em all off again…[snap].  Limitless.   Jer 10:12 It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.  Eph 3:20  God is able to do far more than we could ever ask for or imagine. He does everything by His power that is working in us.

And yes, He is all-knowing (omniscient).  He knows all things.  He sees all.  He sees every thing I do.  He knows every thought and intent of my heart.  He knows what I am going to say even before I say it.  Job 31:4  “Does He not see my ways and number all my steps? [an estimated 216million steps in a person's lifetime].  Hebrews 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.  1Chronicles 28:9  “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. Psalm 139:4  Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all.  The word is prescient.  God knows everything that will happen, and Tozer suggests He even knows everything that could happen!

But wait - there's more!  The sovereign God of the universe sustains my very life.  Job 33:4  “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  He watches over me, over you.  He cares about me and you.  Matthew 10:29-31 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” 

What’s more, He has a plan for my life.  A good plan, full of wonder.  Psalm 139:16  Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.  Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”  Psalm 32:8  “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.”  Unlike me.  Left to my own devices, I don’t make the best choices.  Genesis 6:5  Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  Numbers 15:39 “It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot.” [The Hebrew word for tassel is tzitzit - these were special devices to help people remember important things, and they were often dyed a shade of blue, which was very costly to produce and became a precious commodity in that ancient Near Eastern culture*].

We all need tzitzits, tassels - reminders.  Constant reminders.  We need help.  We need a Helper, one to rescue us from our very selves.  And the all-knowing almighty sovereign God Who made the universe AND me, He stands ready to help me.  Psalm 46:1  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Isaiah 41:10  “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

This all-mighty God Who knows all, He knows my heart (He made it in fact), and though He possesses all power, including the power to form my heart and cause it to beat and pump life-giving blood throughout my entire body, He never forces my heart.  Psalm 33:13-15   The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.  Deuteronomy 5:29 “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!”  Joshua 24:15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.

He gives us a choice.  It’s a divine wondrous mystery, the sovereign all-powerful God, He created and is in control of the entire universe, including you and me, and yet somehow still gives us a choice.  And He uses all 66 books of [this Book], His Word, to convince us to choose Him.  To follow Him.  And it should be a slam dunk no-brainer.  Because…

Last time we looked at the truth that God is good.  He is sooooo good.  And like everything else about Him, His goodness is superlative.  Good, better, best.  He is the best.  And 2nd place isn’t even close [Paul calls it manure].  God is so exceedingly good as to be incomparably better.  Better than anything or anyone.  God is better than ________.  Anything you or I might care to write in that space, God is better than that.  And if we have difficulty swallowing this truth, if we choke on this truth, we have yet to truly [...taste and see that the LORD is good. Psalm 34:8].  Psalm 63:3  Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You.  Psalm 84:10  For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside.  Philippians 1:23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for [that is] very much better.  He is so exceedingly incomparably better, that He deserves first place in everything.  In our hearts, in our lives, in all we do.  Our love for Him exceeds all other loves.  It makes other loves look like hate [altho it is not license TO hate].  Our devotion to Him trumps all other loyalties.  Or should.  They pale in comparison. 

He is way better.  His ways are way better.  What He wants is way better than what I think I want.  Ephesians 5:17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord wants.  James 4:15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” Mark 14:36 And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I want, but what You want.”  His way, what He wants might seem crazy.  It might fly in the face of what I think I want.  The opposite of what I feel.  Counter-intuitive, counter-culture.  In the words of Robert Frost, "two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference".

The LIE comes in and says, I am the center of the universe.  I am most important.  What I want, what I feel, comes first.  That’s a lie.  Too much navel-gazing.  And it betrays us into settling for so many lesser loves, counterfeit joys [as C.S. Lewis puts it, choosing to make mud pies in a slum instead of opting for a holiday at the beach].  I.e. it’s not a failure of our pleasure mechanism.  One look at the Starbucks drive-thru lines will confirm that.  It’s not that our spiritual tastebuds are malfunctioning.  We opt for lesser counterfeit joys because we just haven’t gotten a real taste of how good God really is.

We struggle here because we fail to see the Lord, how much better He really is.  But He comes first.  Pre-eminent!  What He wants comes first.  Such that the chief end of man then becomes to glorify God and [by] enjoy[ing] Him forever.  We glorify something, we show how good it is BY enjoying it.  1Corinthians 10:31  Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.  1Peter 1:8  And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.  Our greatest joy, our best life, is found right in the middle of what God wants, because He is what we really want…  May He grant us the grace today to get a real good taste of how good He really is, a real good glimpse of how great He really is, and to trust and enjoy Him more fully in all that concerns us.  He is better, He is worthy, and He's got this.

*At any rate the best and  [Vol. 2, p. 970]  costliest ancient dyes were the blues and violets and purples that were made from the secretions of various mollusks (primarily Murex brandaris and Murex trunculus) that swarm in the coastal waters of the eastern Mediterranean, particuarly near Sidon and Tyre (whence “Tyrian purple”) but also near Elishah (probably Cyprus). David Jacoby remarks that "twelve thousand snails of Murex brandaris yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment.”

Reminders: Tassels and cords and forehead bands, annual Feasts, holy days, rituals, memorials - Holy Spirit! [Jn 14.26]

Pillars 5: There is a God, and He is…so good. (Ex 33.17-23)

Ex. 33:17-23   The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”  And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”  Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

We’re looking at the truths that support and secure our faith.  There is a God, and He is infinite, eternal, and breathtakingly good.  The Bible is the Word of God - every bit of it is true.  Last week we saw that the God is the Creator of all things.  Out of nothing.  None of this is an accident…

Today we want to look at the nexus of our Creator God being breathtakingly good.  We sort of flew past God’s goodness the first time.  And it’s always unfortunate when we do that.  Because if there’s one thing the Bible is really serious about, it’s the goodness of God.  From the first chapter of Genesis to the final prophecies of Revelation - the message is, God is good.  God is so good.  We sing about it - cuz it’s true, and this pillar is a real game-changer.

Right out of the gate [Genesis 1] God’s Word tells us about His goodness.  Everything He made was good.  The light was good, the sun and [moon and stars] were good, the plants and trees were good, all the creatures He made were good, and it was all SO good, we read, “Then God looked over all that He had made, and He saw that it was very good!” Genesis 1:31.  Psalm 119:68  You are good and what You do is good.  And I would flip that verse: God does good, He makes things good, because He IS good.  Take-your-breath-away good.  Good begins with Him, and flows from Him, oozes out of every pore and fiber of His being, permeates everything He does.  

This Hebrew word for good means, that which is pleasing.  Think about the things that are pleasing to you.  Let’s get to that place in our hearts right now - what do you find pleasing?  Things that are pleasing to the eyes, to touch, to smell, to taste, to your heart.  How about this fall weather?  Or, the smell of [cinnamon].  Things that are pleasing.  How about a job well done?  Acing that test?  Nailing that shot?  Starting the guy who goes off in fantasy football this week?   Or, how bout a beautiful [sunset]?  Thanksgiving dinner.  Time with friends.  Even in a world full of chaos and brokenness, there is so much that is pleasing.  We can still see God’s unbelievable goodness in so much of what He's made - Psalm 19:1  The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.  And one way to think of glory is God’s incredibly pleasing indescribably great goodness.  Things that take your breath away.  And Just how good is the Lord?  Exceedingly great.  Mind-blowing, goodness on steroids.  And the better good it is, the harder it is to describe.  Pick any of your favorite experiences.  Your favorite foods.  And try to describe that to someone.  What was it like, they ask?  And you’re like, it was so good - I can’t even begin to describe it.  One of my favorite experiences is [downhill skiing].  When the snow is just right, and the slope is just right, not too steep but not a bunny hill, and you’re cruising down that hill, carving and cutting and hitting the bumps, spraying snow and maybe even catching a little bit of air here and there, a little spread eagle maybe - and if you’ve never experienced it, I really can’t begin to describe it to you.  Goodness is like that.  The better it is, the harder it is to describe.  I like the word, breathtaking.  The best things really do take your breath away.  And the Lord is better still.  SOOO good.  Infinitely indescribable.  And when He makes something, He makes it indescribably good [waaaaay better than Zaxby's, who use that slogan to describe their chicken].  

Now, from the beginning, not only did the Lord make every thing very good, He then blessed His creatures, He repeatedly showered extra heaping helpings of goodness on them so that they could be fruitful and multiply.  And fill the earth.  God does this throughout the Bible.  Even after the people He makes and the people He chooses rebel against Him, He STILL shows them His goodness [the Hebrew word is chesed, for grace and undeserved love and favor].  God delights to show His goodness to His people.  

So, back to our passage: Moses asks God, show me Your glory.  And what’s God’s answer?  I WILL make all My goodness pass in front of you.  He adds, you can’t see My face, for no one can see My face and live, so I will put you in this crevice and cover you up till I pass by, and then you can see My back, the backside of My glory.  All God’s goodness.  How much IS that?  Even just that backside glimpse was enough to bring Moses to his knees [Exodus 34.8 - Moses made haste to bow down and worship]. 

Glory is that which is weighty, heavy, impressive.  Makes people bow down under/before it.  And God Himself is saying, what is most impressive about Him is His goodness.  He wants the whole world to see His glory, His impressive breathtaking goodness.  Numbers 14:21 Indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 1Chronicles 16:24,29  Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him; worship the LORD in holy array.  That’s sort of the opposite of what we do tho, isn’t it?  We’re hard-pressed sometimes to see His goodness in our everyday lives.  We don’t hasten, we’re more slow to bow down and worship Him.  Lord, give us eyes to see, to recognize goodness.  Your goodness.  Give us knees that hasten to bow down.

Here’s a thought - the first time we see goodness, is when God creates light.  This light is inextricably tied to all of life.  John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The only thing God tells us was NOT good from the beginning was aloneness.  Living in a place of separation.  Genesis 2:18   Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  Fast forward to Genesis 3, man rebels against the glorious God Who made him and showered goodness on him.  What sets in is this Ultimate Separation.  Disconnected from this oh-so-good God - and the light begins to dim.  Life - and now death.  Good - and now evil.  Rebellion.  And in this state of disconnection and darkness we struggle to bow down AND to see God’s goodness.  We fail to see God’s good hand.  The two are related.

See, the LIE comes in and says, God is not good.  The lie goes, because this doesn’t look good - or feel good - then God must not be good.  Or maybe He doesn’t see or doesn’t care, cuz this is not good, not at all pleasing, this current reality.  We blame God.  Yes, sometimes God allows things that don’t feel good.  That certainly extends to many parts of creation which are broken as a result of the fall.  We looked at this last time - that there is this brokenness about the world.  Things break down.  Good things get broken.  But failure to see God’s goodness is debilitating…  Psalm 27:13  I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.  Despair means, down from hope.  “Diseases of despair”: depression, substance abuse, suicide - are epidemic in our society.  Loss of hope.  Brokenness, and busy-ness obscure God’s goodness like a solar eclipse.  But my circumstances, my feelings, don’t diminish one ounce of God’s goodness.  The key is having eyes of faith that see the unseen.  That’s what got Joseph thru those long years, languishing in prison in Egypt.  Trafficked by his own brothers.  Genesis 50:20 “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”  Do we believe this is true?  Romans 8:28   And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  Psalm 23:6  Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  Psalm 34:8  O taste and see that the LORD is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  Psalm 118:1  Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

That’s the starting point.  Give thanks.  Guess what?  This very week we have an entire holiday devoted to that!  Thanking God reminds us that God IS good, SO good, and it reinforces the truth that He does good.  That’s why the Lord tells us, In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1Thessalonians 5:18).

"Truth is the only safe ground to stand upon."

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

And we talked about the importance of humility as we handle the truth.  About the danger of knowledge puffing us up, tempting us to think that we are better that the person who doesn’t know what we know (or think we know).  About the need for Christians to handle the truth with gentleness and compassion.  And love.

Because the world is sending us a message.  A world which increasingly insists on deconstructing the truth.  Insisting that truth is relative.  That there is no one truth, no absolute truth.  There are many truths.  There are even truths that contradict each other.  Here’s where things have really gotten off the tracks.  Some people today want to reject either/or thinking.  They want to reject the law of non-contradiction, which says p ≠ not p.  If you reject that, then you think you can say, the Bible is true AND the Bible is not true.  Well, which is it?  Postmoderns want to say, well, it’s not an either/or.  That’s just Western thinking, they insist. They say it’s a both/and - which more of an Eastern mindset.  And so they try to reject to either/or, literally by saying, it’s either the both/and, or nothing.  In order to reject the either/or, they need the either/or to be true.  But postmoderns also are fully vesting themselves in the illogic of contradiction.  Sadly, a person who keeps contradicting themself is someone who can’t be trusted.  Confusion.  Feeling lost.  Embracing contradiction means life becomes full of uncertainty.  No wonder so many more people today are wrestling with depression and anxiety and suicide.

But why would someone want to embrace the both/and, the illogic that two things which contradict each other can both be true?  I think the world is sending a message.  Well, two actually.  The first message is an ancient one, that some people, many people just don’t want to believe the truth about God, because they want to run their own life.  That’s nothing new.  But I think there’s another message, and it’s partly in response to how the church has tended to handle the truth.  Many Christians over the years have come across as NOT humble, NOT compassionate, NOT gentle in how we handle the truth.  And I wonder if the world is saying, you know what, we’ve seen that, and we don’t like that.  We don’t want to be like that.  So if you disagree with me, if you believe something that contradicts what I believe, well, let’s just say we’re both right.  That’s certainly the easier/lower conflict way out.  What it really does is build the house of your life on the sands of illogic.  The "bedrock" people are seeking in relativism is nothing more than a sandy beach.  Feels good for a season maybe, but chances for surviving the storms of life are slim-to-none.  And in the end there’s no way to do it without appealing to logic.  You can't insist that there are no absolute truths without having that very statement be absolutely true.

There is a God, and He is SO good.  He showed it foremost by sending His Son to die for us so that we could experience His goodness forever, and He proved it by raising His Son from the dead.  Let's start with that truth...