Faith Revolution

Well Done II

I wrote a long response to some comments to my last post that I though would be more appropriately posted here. 

Hi Doris! I am glad you found the site! Thanks for the comment.  I hope that you will keep checking in and comment from time to time.

 

You may very well be right. I can honestly say that I don’t know how it will all play out. But one or two verses does not a doctrine create!

 

As for the 1st Cor. passage, the Corinthian church were claiming superiority because of who baptized them. They were also challenging Paul’s apostolic authority. Paul is trying to bring them to the realization that it is God who does the building and not himself, Apollos or Peter. He conclused that discussion with this statement (vv. 18-23, NLT):

 

16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17 God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.

 

18 Stop fooling yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you will have to become a fool so you can become wise by God’s standards. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “God catches those who think they are wise in their own cleverness.” 20 And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are worthless.”

 

21 So don’t take pride in following a particular leader. Everything belongs to you: 22 Paul and Apollos and Peter ; the whole world and life and death; the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

 

Once again, the point is God and not me.

When we consider other passages, we see the equality of each believer. For example:

 

“In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.” Colossians 3:11

 

“28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians – you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.” Galatians 3:28-29

 

I also realize that there is biblical references to reward vs. punishment such as Col. 3:24-25:

 

“23 Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ. 25 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites who can get away with evil.”

 

There is also the parable of the minas in Luke 19 in which the better servant got the greater reward and responsibility.  But in the context, Jesus is talking about Himself being entrusted to the Jews and their rejection of Him as King.  I am not so sure it applies to the Kingdom of heaven.

 

11While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.[a]‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’  14″But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

 15″He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.  16″The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’  17″ ‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’  18″The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’  19″His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’  20″Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’  22″His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’  24″Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’  25″ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’  26″He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. 27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.”

 

Then I have to think about Jesus’s words in Matthew 18 to the disciples when they were arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom:

 

“1 About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Which of us is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” 2 Jesus called a small child over to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. 5 And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck.”

 

Now I have to reconcile that with the Luke 12 passage that you mentioned and ask: how can a little child who has not accomplished anything for God be the greatest? How can the least become the most if they are unable to accomplish as much as someone who has been given a lot? How do those thoughts fit in with a reward for works system in the coming kingdom?

 

Is it a reward/punishment system or an accountibility arrangement?

 

Once again, I ask, in our final state in the kingdom, will it matter or will only be concerned with Christ?

 

I submit to you how the 24 elders reaponded to their reward in the book of the Revelation:

 

“10 the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say,

 

11 “You are worthy, O Lord our God,

to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things,

and they exist because you created what you pleased.” (Rev. 4)

 

That is my point…it is not about me and my rewards. I even remember my Sunday school teachers asking “you don’t want to get to heaven and not have any rewards for Jesus do you?” Again, that makes it about me and how I feel.

 

Seriously, I want to reward Jesus with my life. That is my motivation. He gets the credit for anything that I accomplish here on earth or store up in heaven. It’s all His. I can not take credit for anything.  I hope that when I get there, I will have the opportunity, just as the elders did, of giving credit where credit is due.

 

I may or may not be wrong about the reward system in the kingdom, but I do know who gets the credit.

 

Jesus alone is worthy of reward.

 

April 27, 2008 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General, Pastor/Church Related | , , | 10 Comments

Well Done

This evening, someone asked via email my opinion “regarding degrees of reward in heaven and degrees of punishment in hell.”  I thought I would answer by posting some thoughts here. 

To begin with, please allow me to state that I mean no offense to the person (ok, it was Kim) posing the question by the way that I am going to answer the question.  But I am going to answer from my heart and also from reason and logic. 

Certainly the Bible has some things to say about heaven, hell and the affairs of man after physical death.  The Bible seems to talk about certain crowns that can be obtained, the re-creation of earth and the river of life.  It talks about ruling and reigning with the Christ because we are joint hears with Him.  The Scriptures mentions that God will wipe away every tear and that there will be no more pain or death.  Nevertheless, to put it rather bluntly, I have a hard time digesting various degrees of reward or punishment.  Why?  Well, I think that the question of degrees of reward, or reward for that matter is a rather humanistic question.  I know that for decades, and perhaps centuries before, we have been taught that one of the reasons we serve is to receive reward.  But I don’t think that’s the issue.

Let’s put a different spin on that issue.

If we are going to be living in a perfectly just and righteous setting, then where are the degrees?  Will I have a bigger mansion because I have dedicated my life to “full time ministry?”  If I sinned less than you, do I get to sit closer to Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb?  In other words, in a perfect setting, will it matter?  Will I even be considering reward?  Do you remember the irrelevance of the disciples’ discussion of who will be the greatest in the kingdom?  I just don’t think that when that day comes, I will even be considering rewards because I think that, If anything, we will realized how unworthy we were to be redeemed.

This leads me to another thought.  What about Jesus’ reward?  Didn’t He do all the work?  Shouldn’t we be figuring out a way to reward Him?  We can by being faithful servants and reaping the harvest He worked for.  One preacher years ago, I believe it may have been Paris Reidhead (Do you remember, Steve?) stated something to the effect that we should be willing to serve Jesus even if we spent eternity in Hell, simply because He is worthy.

As for punishment, here is something to consider:  Did Jesus have to die less for the liar than He did for the axe-wielding, homicidal maniac (to quote Vivian from the Young Ones)?  Or was the penalty the same?

The wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life.  Punishment and reward.  I believe the one who has faith in Christ will be restored to the point where they are naked and unashamed.  Degrees of reward will not be considered because Christ will be everything and the relationship with God restored to its origins.  That will be reward enough.  As for punishment, unregenerate man still living still has hope.  But with eternal death comes the realization that there is no hope for restoration and that one is eternally separated from God.  That is punishment enough.  No one will be considering degrees.

Must I say it again? 

It is not about me.

April 25, 2008 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | , , , , | 3 Comments

I Feel Used

So Bill Clinton is coming to small town Pennsylvania to stump for his wife. 

Interesting

Would he be coming to Clearfield, Warren, Brookville, Kittanning, and even Erie if the nomination were already Hillary’s?  Were they ever here before?

Of course not.

They didn’t need us people in the “flyover” portions of the state over the last 20 years, why do they need us now? 

Oh yeah…their power is slipping away.

Unfortunately, there are people who will get excited about this and not see it for what it is.

I will not be among them.

April 16, 2008 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | Current Events/Politics | , , , | 2 Comments

Walking Among Giants

In the early 1600’s, James I was the King of England.  The New World was being colonized by the British, Dutch, French and others.  The Salem Witch Trials were decades in the future.  The new world would have to wait at least another 100 years for the birth of its first president.  The trees pictured above were but saplings, reaching up as high as they could to get a glimpse of sunlight.  Who would have ever thought that 400 years later, I would be staring up at these giants. 

I had never walked through an old-growth forest before.  A few months ago, a friend was telling me about this old-growth forest located in the Allegheny National Forest in the north western part of Pennsylvania.  Today was such a beautiful spring day that I decided to ignore my ever-growing to-do list and make the trek to find this place.  I wasn’t disappointed when I got there.  When I parked the car and started down the trail, my first thought was that this forest was no different than any other that I had been in.  But then I walked up to these incredible creations and stared in amazement. 

It is a vast understatement to say that God is an incredible artist and creator.  One of the most important aspects of the walk of faith is to know that we are stewards of this beautiful garden that the Master has placed us in.  Many people think that it is crazy to protect natural resources.  Should we protect old-growth forests like the one I had the privilege to walk through today?

Yes.

Trees are a renewable resource.  They grow again.  They were put there by God for our use.  But these trees are four-hundred-years-old!  They are worth much more standing there than they ever would be if they were destroyed.  I would love to think that they will still be there when one of my great-great grand children vist Hearts Content Natural Area in the 22nd Century.

April 7, 2008 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | | 8 Comments

OK, I Relent!

Ok, Ok!  I give up!  I guess it is time to get back to blogging.  Seriously, I have been tied up doing some other writing and woring intensly on my main area of ministry, but I will do my best to provide relevant articles and updates as often as I previously did.  I appreciate that you all enjoy reading my thoughts and check in regularly.

Spring is finally here, or so it seems.  Winter is a beautiful time of year, but it is so nice to be able to go outside without freezing.  Because I plan on taking several backpacking trips this season, I have started walking several miles each day in order to get my legs, heart and lungs in some sort of shape.

We had a terrific worship time and dinner today.  The preacher wasn’t all that bad either.   You can listen to him here, if you like:  www.cambridgecma.org

I was talking to our bunch today about the exclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus.  Quite honestly, I don’t understand the thinking that there are multiple ways of finding God, salvation, etc., especially among Christians.  If Jesus claims to be the only way and you believe that, then there cannot possibly be another way because, if Jesus’ claim is true then any other way that contradicts His claim is excluded automatically.  That is simple logic.  Two contradictory claims cannot be true at the same time.  And for those who would claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth; that truth is relative, I wish to point this out:  you cannot assert that belief without making an absolute statement!

When you say that there is no absolute truth are you not making an absolute statement?

In all this discussion, however, we lose sight of the most important question:  Assuming that there is one God, what does He have to say?

I believe that He said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the father but by Me.” 

That’s pretty exclusive.

Someone who loves to ask questions (and give answers, for that matter) in our bunch asked my take on predestination.  I don’t usually approach that subject too heavily because it can detract from the Gospel and can cause division amongst the brethern.  But I may have some fun with it here to better answer her question. 

So stay tuned…

April 7, 2008 Posted by Clifford Cartwright | General | | No Comments