Author Archives: Travis Biller

Educating Children God’s Way

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Introduction

What is education and what is its end goal? Throughout the centuries different cultures gave different answers. However, there is one culture that has been the repository of divine revelation. The Hebrew people were chosen by God and given the oracles of God that were meant to be a light to all nations (Gen. 12:1-3; Isa. 49:6). Unfortunately, the light God gave through his Word has not been embraced as God intended – even to this day God’s people struggle to teach their children in a way that results in a life-long commitment to God. The result is that people sit in darkness (Isa. 9:2). For that darkness to be dispelled a people must come to know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Ultimately, the light of God came to full expression in Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ – the promised Messiah. However, early in their history God revealed how a people (and individuals) come to know him. God gave a command, known as the Shema, that became central to the Hebrew identity. This paper will argue that Continue reading →

Our Hope

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Christmas morning. What a glorious day. Not literally, its cloudy and overcast. But spiritually it’s a day of rejoicing. Before the first Christmas the world was without hope. Sin reigned unchecked in the lives of all people, enslaving them into perpetual sorrow and eternal ruin. Death loomed over mankind without mercy, taking whom he willed when he willed. Before Christmas the grave opened its jaws with a fervent greed, believing that every soul consumed was forever lost. Darkness and evil rode upon the clouds causing the winds of despair to prevail in the hearts of men.

But then it happened. A baby was born. Not just any baby. The Son of God. The eternal Son of God. Let that sink in. He who is the eternal One, the everlasting God disrobed himself of his glory and clothed himself with flesh. The creator of all things now lay in a feed trough surrounded by poor parents and farm animals. The angels saw it and marveled. They rejoiced with an exceedingly great joy. The wise men discovered the birth and found him. They too rejoiced with unrelenting joy. Shepherds were told of the marvel, and they went and told all in whom they came in contact with.

On that morning hope dawned in the world. It was at first a faint flicker against the thick darkness of the world. But the darkness saw it and feared. God’s light was not to be seen in the realm of darkness and death. In desperation the darkness sought to shroud the light in death. The voices of the male children cried out from their graves. Mary and Joseph fled far away to save their lives. The darkness smiled. In its arrogance, it thought the light had been put out.

Silence. There was no hint of the light for another thirty years. The darkness was trampling upon the sons of men. Death, despair, fear, hatred, enmity, and strife continued unabated. The darkness was pleased. But then it happened. A miracle occurred. Light sang out into the darkness. It was a loud, piercing sound. It shook the gates of hell to its very foundations. The Son of God emerged. In the spiritual realm his glory was unveiled. The demons trembled. They begged him, “Do not torture us before the time!” They ran away from him in every direction, even hiding in the flesh of pigs to escape the piercing of his glory.

The Son of God marched in triumph over the powers of darkness. He raised the dead. He healed the sick, he gave sight to the blind. But then he did the unexpected. When the powers of darkness marshalled their army against him, he gave himself into their hands. They mocked him. They lied about him. They tortured him. And they finally killed him in the most humiliating and torturous way they could invent. The slow death of a cross.

He died. The glorious Son of God died on that cross. Hell sneered in victory. The darkness mocked. Evil’s greatest victory was won. Death eagerly embraced the Son of God. The grave enthusiastically opened its jaws. All was lost. The light was put out.

But only for a moment. Before the stench of death could set it, it happened. The light burst forth with an exploding power that death had never seen or experienced. It made every other light that ever shined look like a shadow by comparison. As this light rang out, it brought eternal ruin and devastation to the kingdom of darkness. Its foundations collapsed. Its gates fell. Its palaces crumbled. Its rulers ran away in fear. Death collapsed in despair. The grave was opened, the strength of its jaws broken.

The King of glory burst forth from the grave. He shined forth the light and life of the eternal God. He stood in victory over the enemy that was once so feared. Hope poured into the world. Love flowed from the light into any and all who would receive it.

And a door was opened.
The Father, he stood
Holding his arms to receive all who would
Come unto him broken by sin
To be free from death.
Eternal life for all who left
The world of despair, forever broken.
Guarantee, the Spirit our token
Now sons of God
Forever at rest.

Faith in Community

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Faith in Community

Introduction

Several years ago, there was a show on the TLC channel that followed the life of, what on the surface, seemed to be two ordinary parents. If you met them for the first time you would see a couple in their forties who had a toddler for a child. Nothing looked out of place. However, upon closer inspection what was seen was two very frustrated parents who have been parents of a toddler for eighteen years. Their daughter had a very rare condition where her physical development simply stopped at eighteen months old. Even though she was eighteen, she looked like, acted like, and thought like a child of one-year and six months old. There was no hope that their daughter would ever grow up.

There are many churches who have people that look perfectly normal. However, Continue reading →

The Spirit of Biblical Leadership

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Everything rises or falls on leadership, so the old adage goes. But, unlike the world, where leadership is grounded on things like confidence in self, emotional intelligence, and excellent communication skills, biblical leadership is grounded in one’s ability to die to self. The fundamental difference between the world’s view of leadership and the biblical model of leadership is best seen in the contrast between the leaders of the world and Christ. Unexpectedly, Christ’s greatest act of leadership was seen when he willingly died on a cross for those who would follow him. Many have died for the leaders of the world and for their vision of life; but Christ came to die so he could, in fact, deliver an abundant life – and only his vision of life will become an eternal reality.

However, this act of sacrifice did not begin at the cross, but began much earlier when, as the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ disrobed himself of his glory in heaven and took on human flesh to become a man. Over the centuries there has been no small amount of ink spilled in an attempt to explain this divine act. Today scholars discuss the Kenotic Theory of Christ. Kenosis is a Greek word that means “an emptying.” The word comes from the book of Philippians, 2:7. The text reads,

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:5-7 ESV).

It is the view of this author that for biblical leadership to be authentic, those who would aspire to positions of leadership in the church must reflect this act of self-emptying. Specifically, the nature of God expressed in Christ reveals that for leadership to effectuate the Kingdom of God it must necessarily be self-emptying, and therefore self-sacrificing. Therefore, denial of self as expressed through kenosis is not an optional characteristic of biblical leadership. It is its foundational element; without which biblical leadership, Continue reading →

An Eye-Opening Moment

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I had an eye-opening experience last week. I was driving to Shaw AFB where I serve. The weather turned bad and the rain came down in sheets. As I approached the base there was flooding on the roads and surrounding areas. When I finally arrived at the front the gate, I handed my ID card to the MP and said, “I heard there was an ark here.” He looked up from my ID, squinted his eyes and shook his head indicating he didn’t understand the reference. So, I said, “Noah’s ark?” He looked at me with the same lack of recognition. I finally said, “Flood, big boat, saved people?” There were cars behind me. The MP still didn’t understand the reference. He shook his head and said with a nervous laugh, “I don’t know.” He handed back my ID, saluted, and said “Have a good night sir” as he looked to the car behind me.

As I made my way to lodging I was a bit stunned. This was a young man in his early twenties and had no clue about Noah’s Ark. Given the weather I expected a short laugh at a corny joke. Instead I got an embarrassed “I haven’t a clue about what you’re talking about.”

I have been a pastor for almost seventeen years. It is so easy to become insulated from the outside world. And to remind me of that reality Continue reading →

Serving Who?

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“Did you really fast for me?” (Zechariah 7:5).

In the book of Zachariah, there is a tragic event that takes place. Sometime after the captives have returned home from their seventy-year exile, a group of men inquire of the priests and ask this question: “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?” Apparently, the people fasted and prayed during this period while they were exiled in Babylon. On the surface both the fasting and the question seem legit. After all, they were in exile being punished for their sin. Responding with prayer and fasting seems the appropriate thing to do.

However, God’s response to the question reveals a startling fact of the human heart (both theirs and ours). God responds to the question with these penetrating words, “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: when you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?” Ouch. I don’t think the delegation asking the question anticipated such a response. Maybe they thought they would be commended on how pious they were during those solemn times of fasting. Instead, God placed a mirror before their heart and revealed something they thought was hidden from view. God continues His response, “When you eat and drink, do you not eat and drink simply for yourselves?”

God saw their piety was, in fact, a self-serving act. During those years of hardship, they fasted and prayed because they wanted the hardship to end. But, God was revealing they should have wanted to draw closer to God, which would have led the people to live a life of obedience before Him. So, God says to them, “Should you not have obeyed the words which the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited?” In other words, should you not have responded during the exile the same way the prophets urged your fathers to respond before the exile occurred? Should you not have sought obedience to God during your time in exile?

Their fathers ignored the prophets. The message of the prophets was for the people to return to God. “Return to me and I will return to you” was the heart of God’s message (Zach 1:3; Jeremiah 15:19; Malachi 3:7). The message entailed more than simple obedience. It was a call to seek God and to love Him (Deut 6:4-5). Obedience flows from a heart of love (John 14:15). Their act of piety where they fasted for a month during those seventy years was not an act of love whereby they were truly seeking and worshiping God. It was an act of self-interest where they were seeking their lot in life to be improved. The fact they even asked the question betrayed what was in their heart. In effect they were asking, “Since things are improving for us, God doesn’t really need to us continue those times of fasting, does He?”

After seventy years in exile, nothing really changed. The hearts of the people were the same coming out of exile as they were going in. God was not the object of their love: comfort and security was. Their religion was skin deep. When life got better their desire to worship diminished proportionally.

“Did you really fast for me?” This is a penetrating question. It revealed that the people’s religious life had nothing to do with God. They went about their religious activities only because they believed it might make life better. Through Isaiah God said, these “people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me…” (Isa 29:13; Matt 15:8). It challenges us to ask the question of ourselves: why do we really worship? “Did you really fast for me?” Do we really worship to seek God? Do we really pray to discern His will? Do we really love God? Do we want to obey Him? Or, does our motivation lie elsewhere?

The next time we’re sitting in church we should let the question ring in our ears: “Did you really fast for me?” God already knows the answer. Do we?

Grace. How good it is.

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“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5).

There are many things that can be said about these verses, but I want to point out one area that we sometimes overlook. These verses, in a roundabout way, speak to the reality of God’s grace sinners receive when they come to Christ. We are not to stand in judgment of others lest we forget that we too are sinners who are guilty of sin. To not judge others does not mean we suspend our powers of spiritual discernment or ignore sin, but it does mean we recognize we are no better than others. Only a hypocrite can pass judgment on another without realizing how much he/she has received by way of God’s grace.

Grace is the overwhelming force of love, forgiveness, and acceptance that floods our life with God’s presence, peace, and joy. We sometimes forget that only Christ was without sin. We cannot make such a boast. It is through Christ that the floodgates of grace are opened to us. What if God did not give grace to sinners, and instead gave sinners exactly what they have earned through their sin?  Banish the thought! But, we don’t have to look far. Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone in scripture, and He took no delight in knowing people were going there. Indeed, He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Though judgment is real, God seeks to save sinners from eternal judgment. This is the point of the gospel, and it is why it is called “Good News.” It is good news because through Christ, and because of the cross of Christ, God saves sinners from the eternal doom of hell.

Yet, there are people (whom Jesus is speaking to in this text) who do not want to give away God’s grace through the gospel. Instead, they seek to stand over and above sinners as though they were, themselves, without sin. The absurdity is self-evident.

God’s people are called to make known God’s grace through the gospel. That is why Paul confidently proclaimed that, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). Those who are recipients of God’s grace know how good it is to stand under the shower of God’s love and feel the warmth of His forgiveness wash over their needy souls. As recipients of God’s grace, we are called to flood each other’s lives with the same love and forgiveness we have received. But, tragically we often don’t give God’s grace away as freely as we have received it. We want it for ourselves but find it hard to freely give it away. So, Jesus was warning that God’s people should not hoard God’s grace.

Jesus was teaching that those who have received the matchless grace of God should not be quick to pass judgment on others (as in sentencing them). To do so is to negligently overlook the sin and failures of their own lives before God. How can needy beggars pass judgment on other beggars? Or, how does a beggar become greedy thinking his crumb is a symbol of his great wealth? No, freely we have received (of God’s bountiful grace) and freely we are to give away (Matthew 10:8). When one beggar receives bread, he would do well to tell others how to get that same bread – and he would do well to generously share the bread he has freely received with others.

God’s grace cannot be exhausted. God’s people should rejoice in that truth and seek to give as much away as possible.

Look Up

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“They turn, but not to what is above” (Hosea 7:16).

Trying times came upon the children of Israel. They were threatened by foreign nations. They were facing a very real existential crisis. But, they did not know that turning away from God led to their problems – and the further they walked away from the Lord, the greater their problems became. Yet, when all seemed lost, they refused to come back to God. They refused to call upon Him. Instead they turned to false god’s. They turned to Ba’al, Marduk, Molech, and Ashtoreth, amongst others. They turned everywhere but to the one true God who was calling to them (Hosea 7:7, 10, 14). As they called to Ba’al they cut and mutilated themselves. As they called to Molech, they sacrificed their children. But, despite the intensity of their actions and the sincerity of their misguided beliefs, there would be no answer. They called, but silence is all they received. Yet, during all this, God was there watching them; and through His prophets calling them. The message was simple, “Seek me with all your hearts, and you will be found by me” (Jeremiah 29:12-13). God longed to save them, but they would not “cry to Him from their hearts.” Even in all their sin He was ready to save and protect them. How much sorrow do people bring upon themselves because they don’t “turn to what is above?” God never turns from people. People turn from God. God loves with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) and will gladly receive anyone unto Himself. There is no sin that can carry one too far away from His reach. No one is too far gone for the Lord’s help. He comes – He always comes – to those who look to Him and cry out to Him from their heart. When we turn to Him, even in the depths of our sin, we will be met with compassion, kindness, love, and hope. All we have to do is, “Look to what is above.” When we do, we will discover that God is already looking at us.

Agonizing Joy

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“And what communion has light with darkness? God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (2 Corinthians 6:14, 1 John 1:5).

Light and darkness are incompatible. Where the one is the other must flee. When I was a non-believer I detested the things of God. God was offensive to me. Of course, I couched my contempt for God in a different language. I cloaked my disdain in the language of righteous indignation. I piously proclaimed my own righteousness while heaping disdain on those who might dare to point out my deception. Then one day the light itself came. Uninvited, it entered my sphere of consciousness and began as a dim glow. Even when the light was barely visible it was enough to cleave the darkness that clung to my soul. It was through the light of the gospel that I began to see how the darkness obscured what was real. It not only clung to me, it enveloped me. It had entered my soul and was forming it, shaping it, sculpting it to become something entirely foreign to what God had created it to be. Of course, at the time I did not know that God had created my soul with a purpose – until the light came. Absent this understanding I let the dark shape me, believing that’s what I wanted.

At first it was painful. Upon entering one’s life the light hurts. There is an agonizing power in the light. First, it reveals what really is there. Part of the pain is in seeing this reality. All pretense to self-righteousness evaporates in its presence. It showed me who I really was. It showed me that my identity was far removed from the fantasies the darkness whispered to me in the night. It revealed to me what I desperately did not want to see. Looking into the mirror with the light on is not the same as Continue reading →

If?

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“If you are the Son of man, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40).

After all the people experienced and saw Jesus do, they yelled, “If you are the son of God….” Jesus gave sight to the blind. He healed all sicknesses, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. How short the people’s memory was when it came to remembering all he did for them. So they yelled, “Come down from the cross” as though that would be the definitive proof he was the son of God. Raising the dead did not lead them to consider the truth, but coming down from the cross would? This verse demonstrates how blind the human heart is when overcome by sin. The people were blind to Jesus’ true identity, despite his teachings and miracles. They were blind to the true ways of God, not knowing who God really is. They were also blind to the Word of God, not understanding the Scriptures foretold that the Messiah must suffer and die. And they were blind to the love of God, not realizing he was dying for them. No, the Son of Man did not come down from the cross precisely because he was the son of God.