The Thrill of Victory

Goal! Touchdown! Score! Slam Dunk!

These common expressions get a crowd excited  in the midst of watching or attending a sporting event. More than a single play though, a last-second ending in which a team miraculously defeats their opponent to achieve victory serves as a fundamental benchmark of excitment in sport. As a University of Florida alum, I still recall fondly sitting in the student section watching my team block a potential game-winning field goal against South Carolina on the last play of the game to win 17-16. The Gators went on to win the college football national championship that year and that blocked kick and that game proved to be a decisive moment that season. I remember the true, unadulterated joy I felt as myself and 90,000 others simultaneously cried out in adulation for our team.

What is it about dramatic finishes that amazes us? Whether a movie with a plot twist, a great solo that ends with a flourish, or a myriad of other things, we as human beings have a love for the dramatic. The Bible shows us that our creator also had a similar flare for fantastic finishes.

Through Jesus' earthly ministry, he claims himself to be and is revealed to be the Son of God, God in the flesh. Despite this claim, and many miracles and revelations that reveal him to be who he claims to be, his contemporaries vehemently disagree with him and arrest him. He is tried in court and is ordered to be crucified. The claim that he is the "Christ," the Savior of God's elect people, looks to be in serious doubt. The drama peaks in Matthew 27:46 when Jesus cries out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Anyone reading this story would assume that at that point, the story was over. Jesus died, the victory had been achieved by the enemy, death had claimed another victim, and it was time for everyone to go home and go about their lives. However, the sovereign God of the universe proved that death would not have victory over him. Matthew 28 reveals that the Son of God had overcome the grave. When the two Mary's come to his gravesite, they are confronted by Jesus in verse 9- And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.

Wow! What a fantastic finish to this story, and as believers, what a fantastic story we have been made a part of. We have seen God come to earth and perfectly obey the law, defeat sin and death, all to atone for our sin and make us righteous. What a wonderful message!

After the Gator game, I called everyone I knew to share with them my excitement about the outcome of the game. Likewise, the disciples, after seeing Jesus alive, committed the rest of their lives to share the message that Jesus was alive and had achieved victory over sin and death! Our calling is the same... Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Amen.

Drew Taylor
RTS Orlando
MDiv Student (3rd Year)

What's Old is New

Being in seminary, I am constantly being "introduced" to a bunch of old dead dudes. Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Owen, Luther, and Edwards are merely a few of the men who faithfully preached God's word and were used to advance His kingdom. While the verbiage in these men's writings is often dense, their message is not.

The Gospel message has not changed despite the changing of nearly everything else in this world. We are sinners. We need to be saved from ourselves. God intervened. God came down as a man, Jesus. Through the life, death, and ressurrection of Jesus his elect people are redeemed to himself. Basic... I know.

So why bring this up?

Well... we Christians have distorted the truth and pushed the emphasis away from God and onto ourselves. Tullian Tchividjian, Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, spoke this week at our seminary orientation. Tullian, the grandson of renown preacher Billy Graham, had a very basic message for us future ministry leaders. "We have made the Christian faith about the LIFE of the Christian rather than the Christ of Christianity."

Let that previous quote sink in... Now think about how much of your life is dedicated to how you perform? How well you are doing in the process of your sanctification? How much are you doing for the kingdom? We have actually made Christianity about us! Does the New Testament have passages about how to live a life of holiness? Yes! Does it talk about sanctification? Yes! However, this is not the primary function of God's word. The primary function of God's word is to glorify God!

This is not a new concept. 16th century theologian Martin Luther stated that "Good seed cannot flourish when constantly dug up for examination." He was essentially urging us to not merely look inward but to instead look outward. To allow the work of Christ to continue to become more a part of who we are.

Let's look at the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:13- For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. As believers in Christ, we are given freedom from selfishness and self-reliance. Therefore, as Luther and many others before and after him have done, I also exhort you to live out of your freedom in Christ and tell others of what Christ has done and is doing in your life. Do not merely say Jesus you saved me, now I'll take it from here. Rather, tell those in your life how Jesus has saved you and that you are realizing your need for him more and more every day.

I close with Paul's words in II Corinthians 5:17- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Amen.

Drew Taylor
3rd Year MDiv Student
Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

Call to Worship

Picture yourself standing next to a small farm house, a few miles outside of a small town, where a small, neatly cut grass field plays host to a group of young children. In the field, boys and girls from the town run and play feverishly in the Summer heat, creating games from their imaginations as well as playing standard games such as softball or tag. As the sun begins to hide behind the trees, a bell from the front porch begins to ring as a woman's voice cries "dinner!"

While this may be an old-fashioned idea of family dynamics, there is a beautiful picture in the above illustration of a son or daughter being called to the home, to the place that they belong. Similarly, 2nd Chronicles chapter 30 provides a call for God's people, the Israelites, to return to their home. In context, 2nd Chronicles 30 explains life during the exile, when the Assyrians had been allowed by God to conquer the Israelites. King Hezekiah, the leader of the southern part of the "promised land," Judah, was calling the remnant of those Israelite exiles back to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Passover Feast, which had not been celebrated for many years. Rampant disobedience, idol worship, and Assyrian takeover had caused God's people to move away from the practice of keeping the Passover.

2nd Chronicles 30:6-9 is Hezekiah's letter to the remnant of Israel to return to the place that they belong... O people of Israel, return to the Lord, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hands of the kings of Assyria... Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord... Do not be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary... and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.

What a direct, pointed message! The narrative continues in verses 10-11 that some laughed, scorned, and mocked this call but that some humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. This can be seen today. We are called to gather together in community to worship the God of the universe. In the text, "return" also means "repent." The Israelites were called to come worship, and this was most directly done through repentance of sin. Likewise, we are called today to return to the Lord by repenting of sin. Very simply, take a moment to reflect on how you have sinned against God. For the Israelites, they followed after idols. Do we not similarly follow after idols such as money, sexual satisfaction, self-interest, comforts, and many more?

In verse 15, the assembly gathered together slaughtered the Passover lamb. Gathering together to worship, they recalled God's faithfulness, prayed for repentance, and physically removed their idols. The Passover lamb was merely a foreshadowing to the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy God's wrath, namely Jesus Christ the Son of God. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 5:7- For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

My challenge for you Christian is to return to where you belong. Worship with your local church body, remember to engage with other believers, repent of your sin before God, reflect on what Christ sacrificed on your behalf, and serve him in your community upon leaving worship. As the text states in verse 9, The Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him. Go back to where you belong, go in peace and worship our Lord. Amen.

Drew Taylor

MDiv Student 3rd Year

RTS Orlando

How Does Exercise Relate to Sanctification?

Interesting discussion with John Piper and Bob Glenn on how exercise/sleep delves into our personal sanctification... Be blessed.

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/how-does-physical-exercise-relate-to-sanctification

Drew Taylor
RTS Orlando 3rd Year MDiv Student

Oh, I'm Running to Your Arms...

I am by no means a musical expert. In middle school, as a sort of joke, I played clarinet in band class as a school elective credit (It was bad). However, the band Hillsong United has a song called "Forever Reign" that I highly recommend. The main chorus states "I'm running into your arms, the riches of your love will always be enough. Nothing compares to your embrace, light of the world forever reign!" Truer lyrics have never been spoken. The link is listed below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au3EGgISYMc

When I think of Paul's imperative exhortation to the Philippian believers to "Rejoice in the Lord!" in Philippians 3:1, I imagine running. This image became real to me over the 4th of July week when I went up to Birmingham, Alabama, and upon arriving at my destination witnessed two boys, 5 and 3, upon exiting the car, run into the arms of their aunt and tackle her out of their excitement. As I witnessed this unabashed happiness, I felt myself experiencing the feeling of joy that comes from the Lord when we are resting in him and are able to see something truly beautiful occur.

Unfortunately joyful moments are surrounded by many painful ones. Difficult circumstances arise in our lives that cause the joy we have received in Christ to be difficult to see. For the Philippians, their difficult circumstances came from the spiritual opposition of the Judaizers. The Judaizers were men who claimed to know God through their outward signs of religious practice, but were communicating doctrine or teachings that were untrue in regards to how to know God. A clear example of this would have been the physical act of circumcision, which these teachers claimed had to be performed in order to assure a person's salvation. Today, we face opposition from numerous sources. Any teaching that commands that we must add to the work of Jesus Christ in order to be saved is false doctrine and is untrue!

Paul speaks strongly to this point when he urges the Philippians in 3:2 to look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. These were strong words against those false teachers, words that incriminated the teachers as dogs or irreverent to the true holiness of God’s character. Paul uses the description of dogs to communicate the idea that these men’s attempts at religious obedience were filthy in the sight of a holy God, similar to how dogs will often role around in their own filth. Paul also claimed that those false teachers were evil or wicked, purposefully trying to confuse and manipulate people’s minds in order to justify their own actions. Essentially, the Philippian church faced a difficult set of circumstances by these false teachers that made the joy found in Christ difficult to see. What circumstances in your life have made you unsure if God was really true, really present, really worth worshipping?

Just as the Philippian Christians would have had trouble seeing the joy they had received due to the Judaizers false teachings pressing upon them, you are reminded to rejoice in the Lord and dwell on the joy you are given while dealing with difficult circumstances. I would challenge you to think about what it would look like to not be dependent on yourself and immediately rush to fix your circumstances. Rather, allow God to be the God who is worthy of rejoicing, allow him to take control and fight your battles and your circumstances.

The two little boys that ran with unbridled adoration and complete passion into the arms of their aunt that they had learned to unequivocally trust. Likewise, I challenge you to run into the arms of Jesus! To unashamedly run into his arms, knowing he loves us and calls us to trust in him. It is only in the arms of Jesus, that true joy can be found.

Amen.

Drew Taylor

3rd Year MDiv Student RTS Orlando

First Love

First Love
By: Drew Taylor

Darkness. That is the best description of what I felt as I walked through the seven-story mall in downtown Bangkok, Thailand on a Saturday afternoon in mid-June. Off for the afternoon while serving on a mission trip, our team headed to the mall to experience big-city life in the Far East. In the MBK Center, hundreds of people crammed the walkways, millions of lights flickered across stores that advertised cellphones, videogames, clothes, candy, and much more. Despite all the business, all I felt was an overwhelming sense of darkness. Half-way across the world, in one of the most prominent cities in the eastern-half of planet earth, I encountered many, many people who did not have a first love. David, in 2^nd Samuel 22:29 acknowledges God with the praise, “You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light.” In a spiritually dark place like Thailand, the feeling of darkness will pursue you aggressively. In America, the same darkness creeps in much more subtly.

We are living in a spiritually dark time in a spiritually dark country. The “already” of Jesus Christ’s inauguration of God’s kingdom through his life, death, and resurrection is over-shadowed by the “not-yet” of God’s kingdom on Earth failing to be fully present until Christ’s return. I am consistently guilty of falling on both sides of this pendulum. I’m either not accepting God’s grace while trying to righteously work for a righteous status with God through “ministry,” or I accept his grace cheaply, viewing it as license to sin and violate God’s holy law. Lately, it has been much of the former. While I have accepted the grace Paul talks about in Ephesians 2:8-9, I fail to accept the second half of the verse “not by works so that no man can boast.” Failing to live out of this grace and falling back into works based righteousness, I cheapen the work of Christ while attempting to increase my own feeble efforts. Maybe this is you… If so, you are not alone, you are merely hiding amongst the shadows of your own darkness rather than in the truth of God’s light provided by his daily grace. Jesus’ disciple, John, paints this picture beautifully in 1^st John 1:5-6, when he states that “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”

For me, it’s about failing to hold on to my first love. By loving myself first rather than God, I worship the idol of self, much like the Israelites loved the idols they had created to worship instead of God. This is communicated in Hosea 2:7, which compares the Israelites to a cheating wife. The verse states- “She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.  Then she will say, I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.”

Those people in the mega-mall in Bangkok did not have the Lord as a lamp, and despite being surrounded by people, wealth, and entertainment, lived dependent on themselves and thus in utter darkness. Sadly, many of us who know Christ and have experienced his light will often revert back to the darkness of worshipping an idol, worshipping self. When living as dependent children of God, we live as we were created to live… In the light. Fully alive. In love with our first love.

Drew Taylor
RTS Orlando MDiv Student (3rd year)
Pastoral Intern at Willow Creek Church (PCA)