Tonight was a wonderful night of teaching at the Transformation House. I've been leading lessons through John Piper's book The Passion of the Christ that brings to light many reasons given in Scripture for the suffering and death of Jesus. Lesson 27 teaches that Jesus suffered and died to become a sympathetic and helpful priest. The gist of it is that through his life and death he subjected himself to the same weaknesses, sufferings, and temptations that we face daily because we are human. Accordingly, he is able to sympathize with us in our weakness, because he himself suffered when being tempted.

Of course, this isn't just a theological or intellectual exercise. Knowing that Jesus is sympathetic is supposed to give us confidence to approach him in our times of need. What are those? I'd say any time of temptation, conviction, or suffering. Any time we're tempted to look at ourselves in light of God's Word and allow our failures to overshadow God's grace toward those who believe. Knowing that we'll find sympathy with Jesus instead of a rebuke, we are to approach him with confidence for mercy and for grace to help us make the right decisions or persevere through hardship.

My pastor preached a sermon this morning on the fear of the Lord. More specifically, it was a word from Joshua 24 on ways Joshua endeavors to cultivate the fear of the Lord among the Israelites and how he doesn't shy away from challenging their response. I won't go into much more detail, but his message did remind me to put together a few pieces of the Scriptures I've seen to grow in my understanding of the Lord.

It can be dangerous blogging about a topic like this, read by people from various faiths or understandings of Christianity, without providing a robust definition of what it means to fear God. However, for the sake of this post, I'm going to point out one of the most easily understood definitions I use. Proverbs 8:13 says, "The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil."

That's simple enough... no caveats required. To fear God means to hate what is evil, specifically what God has declared is evil. This includes things ranging from pride and arrogance to immorality, hatred, and murder. When the concept of fearing God becomes a little heady or non-practical, this definition gives it feet. It's immediately applicable... if I want to discern whether I'm living in fear of the LORD (as we're called to do, for example 1 Pt. 1:17), I can look at my life and ask whether or not I'm hating what is evil or partaking in it.

James 2:15-16, "If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,' but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it?" James is making the point that faith without works is dead by showing how good intentions aren't enough to clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Our desires must be backed up by actions if we ever want to convince anyone that we really do desire these things. Similarly, the mere recitation of a creed or doctrinal belief won't be enough to prove that you really believe it... at least not to God. Saving faith invariably produces change and motivates obedience in a Christian.

And so I speak to husbands, because I am one. "If your wife is tired or stressed from the pressures of work, keeping the home, or life in general, and one of you says to them, 'Just relax, babe. Remember, what matters is your attitude and not a day's agenda,' but you don't do your part to pitch in and take care of some of the things weighing on her mind, what good is it?"

The weeks since the Drupalcon have been a blur, but now I'm fairly well without an excuse for not posting to the blog. I've kept quite busy with work, church, and home related activities, and I think I've started at least a couple blog posts that never saw the light of day. Perhaps for now I'll simply say a blurb about two books I'm reading, post a short poem I wrote for my pastor while he studied for tomorrow's sermon in the same coffee shop as Christina and me, and write a summary thought related to Easter.

This post is a little late in coming, but I wanted to write a few thoughts down about my most recent lesson at the Transformation House before I forgot them forever! I teach Bible studies at a rehab center for men who come to the house understanding that they are helpless to break free of the destructive addictions that have ruined their lives. Together we seek their freedom from and persevering victory over these things through the gospel, the Christian teaching that Jesus died on the cross to atone for our sins and that through faith in that fact we are freed from sins here and now in increasing measure and ultimately forever in heaven. Unfortunately, often times these truths are afterthoughts following a relapse or distant in times of trouble. Our lesson last Tuesday looks at the reality of the situation... Jesus' nearness in trial to save us in spite of weak faith and hearts that cower when tempted to fall again into drug use, alcoholism, sexual immorality, and really any sort of sin that may ensnare a man.

One of my favorite stories in the gospels is that of the rich young ruler found in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). I've taught this passage several times to recovering addicts with varied results, and the general conclusion is that we're just as helpless to save ourselves as that man was. The rich young ruler was seeking eternal life from the one man alive who could have led him to take hold of it, and even though he lay at the Savior's feet, he was still miles away from salvation.