If you’ve been in very many discussions about religion with the general public, you’ve likely heard someone casually use the word legalism—most likely to criticize other religious folks who are serious about doing what God says. (“All they ever talk about is the rules. It’s just rules, rules, rules… They’re so legalistic.”) Some of us might think we’re legalists if we preach and teach the Bible’s specific commandments—that legalism essentially boils down to being “too conservative.” But Inigo Montoya can teach us a lesson: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

The word legalism has a specific definition. It describes the belief that we can save ourselves by perfectly following God’s laws. It’s not just being “conservative” or “serious about following God’s rules.” Legalism doesn’t need an external, divine Savior; it only needs an individual and their perfect adherence to a religion.

And that is a patently unbiblical belief. The nature and effects of sin are simply too damning to be overcome by ourselves, no matter how hard we may try. It is only by the grace of God, received through sincere, obedient faith in Jesus, that we can be saved. It’s absurd to think, after reading the New Testament, that we could ever earn salvation just through good works and religious fervor.

But we shouldn’t react by giving ourselves license to sin or be lax about it. Salvation brings transformation, making us follow God’s ways more ardently. “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Tt. 2:11-14)

The Bible opposes legalism, and we should too. It is “a different gospel” (Ga. 1:6-7), and preaching it denies Christ’s saving power (cf. Ga. 2:15-21). But we must understand its meaning. We don’t have to be spiritually checkmated if accused of legalism. The next move can be as simple as asking, “What exactly do you mean by that word?” Let’s not give up the chance to persuade someone to obey God, and let's be determined not to be crippled by an opponent’s misrepresentation of truth.

- Dan Lankford, minister

I once was blessed to hear a podcast conversation between two believers who had grown up attending what we could rightly call typical evangelical churches. Youth groups, concert-style worship music, big organizations, fundraising efforts, sports teams, bookstores and coffee shops in the building… were all part of the norm for their experience with religion and faith. But as adults, they had both left all of that behind and tried to lead a church environment guided by God’s word. What made the difference? Simply: the Bible.

Their experience is pretty typical of what happens for a lot of (though not all) people who grow up in religious families: they are taught religion as a largely feel-good, therapeutic, healthy addition to your life. Few of the tenets of the faith are taught as essentials to life—just “good ideas for a lot of people.” And while the Bible is often referenced, it’s rarely taught. They become what one of the podcast hosts described for himself: post-Bible Christians.

That particular phrase—“post-Bible Christian”—describes a danger that can plague all believers, both from liberal and conservative (and even very-liberal and very-conservative) traditions. Both are tempted to know proof-texts, but not really study and absorb the full context to understand God’s own heart (cf. 1 Sm. 13:14). Both are tempted to treat the Bible as a good motivational book, but not neglect to treat it as the very words of eternal life (cf. Jn. 6:68). Both are tempted to reference the Bible but not know it; to read it but not engage it; to accept it, but find that they do not actually like it.

I hope this reminds us of two things:

1) That if we are people who know the Bible well, we need to be compassionate in our outlook toward those who do not. We shouldn’t look down on them for not knowing (although we might rightly criticize their spiritual leaders for such failures); we should compassionately do our best to lead them deeper into God’s word and toward his heart. We should try to draw them toward a fuller experience with the Bible if at all possible. We should offer to study, to guide, to teach, and sometimes just to read it with them; because so many have so little exposure to the word. (By the way, this is why I started giving page numbers for Bible references when I preach; I want as many people as possible to be able to read along).

2) It should remind us not to get complacent with our own Bible knowledge. Complacency and self-righteousness go hand-in-hand, and they are the companions of spiritual failure (cf. Lk. 18:9-14). Members of the Churches of Christ used to be commonly called “people of the book,” and that was a wonderful reputation... but it’s one that I fear we could lose without deliberate choices. I find that saints in churches like ours—particularly teens and young adults—are often passionate about Jesus and church-related activities, but they don’t know their Bibles nearly as well as a previous generation did (for more specifics on this, see this article from a couple of weeks ago). It’s not just that they don’t know certain distinctive doctrines—it’s that they don’t know the Bible, and they haven’t learned to love it. We may be on track, without some purposeful, prayerful attention from all church leaders (cf. 1 Tm. 4:6-16), to creating our own trend of post-Bible Christianity. That’s a trend that we can counteract, though, and so we must, for the glory of God and the preservation of our souls.

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hb. 4:11-12)

- Dan Lankford, minister

Most Bible readers have heard often about the importance of context when reading and studying. For some believers, that means just a verse or a sentence before and after the specific thing we’re looking at. But often, the context of a particular passage includes a whole section of the book that it’s from.

That’s what we have with this week’s daily Bible readings. All week long, we’re following Israel’s journey from the Red Sea (which they crossed in ch. 14) to Mt. Sinai (where they’ll receive the Law, starting in ch. 20). I recently heard the Exodus simply outlined in three parts: the road out [of slavery], the road between [slavery and freedom], and the road up [to God’s promised rest]. We’re with them on ‘the road between’ right now.

As we said in this week’s Reader’s Guide, this is where Israel will begin to show their true colors… which aren’t pretty. They complain about God when they find places with no water (15:22-26, 17:1-7). And they disobey his simple instructions about manna, messing up in two ways: first, by trying to gather too much and hoard it for themselves (16:19-20), and second, by expecting to gather it on the day when he told them to rest (16:27-30). And if you know the rest of the wilderness story, then you know these events are only the beginning of their problems.

What was their core problem in these events? In all of those cases, they failed to trust that God would provide for them. They complained because they didn’t trust him to provide. They hoarded because they didn’t trust him to provide. They worked rather than rested because they didn’t trust him to provide.

Do we trust him to provide for us? What does our anxiety level reveal as the answer to that? What do our giving-versus-hoarding habits reveal as the answer to that? What do our work-versus-rest habits reveal as the answer to that? How are we doing at putting our full trust in our God while we live in this life—our very own ‘road between’ salvation and promised rest?

- Dan Lankford, minister

One of the main reasons (some might even say the reason) that Jesus so often ran afoul of the religious leaders of his day was this: He had total faith in God’s word and will, and they just didn’t.

When they pointed out what they saw as flaws or sins in his life, he showed them repeatedly that if they truly believed God’s word in their hearts, they would be happy to see his ways, hear his words, and accept his gracious dominion as their Messiah. But instead, they saw him as a sinner, because their faith was in their own ways rather than in what God had said.

Jesus pointed this out to them powerfully in Mark 7. When they criticized him for not living “according to the tradition of the elders” (Mk. 7:5), Jesus showed that they had more faith in that tradition than they did in God’s actual words. And their problem is always the problem when humans go beyond the word of God: we “leave the commandment” (v. 8), we “reject the commandment” (v. 9), and we “make void the word” (v. 13). He was very clear: in believing that their additions were required to make God’s word work as it should, they had rejected him. They lacked faith in him.

Hearing Jesus say that ought to be a check on our own faith. 
Are we satisfied with God’s will just as it is, or do we feel that we need to fence spirituality a little more properly than he has done? We too can fall into thinking that God’s words are sometimes not clear enough or conservative enough, so we make our own ‘traditions,’ thinking that we’re helping him. But let’s be warned: The Pharisees and scribes did that because they lacked faith in God, and we’d better be diligent not to fall into the same trap. Let’ be like Jesus and have total faith in the perfection of God’s word and his will.

- Dan Lankford, minister

“I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.” (Ex. 3:19-20)

“I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.” (Ex. 7:3)

“I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.” (Ex. 10:1-2)

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.’” (Ex. 11:9)

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File this one under: "Things in the Bible that are just cool."

In the section of Exodus that talks about the plagues, I love the repeated emphasis on God’s “mighty works” and his “signs” and especially his “wonders.” That language tells me that God didn’t just want to get Israel out of their bondage; he wanted his name to be heard, known, and feared.

The plagues against Egypt may seem harsh or overbearing to modern readers. But there was always an option for Pharaoh to stop the plagues; all he had to do was care more about people than about his own glory as king. If he would do that and relent, God’s “wonders” would stop, and history would revere Pharaoh for his graciousness. But he didn’t, so God’s mighty works punished them.

His wrath is not a side note to his character; it’s part of his very nature, and it deserves our respect. And when the final judgment day comes, we can expect similar “mighty wonders” to be unleashed against all the powers of darkness and evil, as God’s final judgment makes all things right in the new heaven and new earth.

- Dan Lankford, minister

When Jesus rose from the dead, everything changed. Realities as old as Adam & Eve were suddenly rewritten. Death was defeated by life. Fear was defeated by hope. And darkness was defeated by light. And yet, it seems that God saw fit to announce this universe-altering event to only a very small audience—a few women who misunderstood it at first, and a few men who doubted it at first. And that begs the question: why would God not alert all humanity to the fact that he is bringing life? Why not give the nations an indication that fear has lost to hope? Why not at least signify to part of the world that darkness was defeated?

He did.

The sun rose!

Every time a new morning dawns, God reminds all creation that something new is being done. Every morning, he awakens life, quells fear, and banishes darkness with light!

As he created the world, each level of his life-giving work was announced by the words, “there was morning” (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). When Abraham was called to demonstrate how God would bring us life in Christ, we are told Abraham “rose early in the morning” (Gen. 22:3). When the Psalmist talked about life in God, he said, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psa. 30:5). And when Jesus rose from the dead, even those who were unaware of what God had done were experiencing God’s gift of life as the sun rose.

A sunrise may be an unsensational daily event, but its significance in Jesus’ resurrection remains. The resurrection shows the ultimate manifestation of a daily-demonstrated truth: that God has always had a plan to bring new life with the rising of the Son.

 - Dan Lankford, minister

(originally published April 1, 2018 at eastlandchristians.org)

In epic narratives, the focus of events and character development understandably falls mostly on a few key figures. But the secondary characters are often important, impressive characters in their own right. Characters like Nestor (the Iliad and the Odyssey), Sydney Carton (A Tale of Two Cities), and Commodore Norrington (Pirates of the Caribbean) are often really interesting in their own right, if we take the time to fully notice what their experience is like.

The Bible features quite a few people who show up in its accounts in similar kinds of “secondary” ways. And one of my favorites is Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro.

Jethro is one of those God-fearing non-Israelites that we occasionally meet in the Bible. He stands alongside Melchizedek, Cornelius, and the magi who visited baby Jesus. And yet, Jethro is unique because of the life and leadership influence that he had on Moses—the prophet who led Israel to salvation and a new identity in God.

Jethro is described as “the priest of Midian,” which might be a bit vague, but could be meant to say that he was a priest of God similar to Melchizedek (Gn. 14:18). He is first introduced to us by the name Reuel (Ex. 2:18), which means “friend of God.” He was the figure who gave Moses a home and a family after he left Egypt (Exodus 2:18-21). Moses turned to him for a blessing when he went to Egypt to do God’s will (Ex. 4:18), and, as Hebrews 7:7 says, “It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior,” which shows Moses’ standing with his father-in-law. Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that when we next see him, we’re told that he blessed YHWH (Ex. 18:10ff) and he was welcomed into the fellowship of Moses, Aaron, and the elders of the Israelites (Ex. 18:10-12). And then, when Israel had come out of Egypt, Jethro visited them and brought such wisdom that the people’s entire system of governance and justice was changed based on his advice (Ex. 18:10-27).

Who was this man, Jethro? He appears to have been a man of character, generosity, wisdom, and faith in God. Was he of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? No. Yet he appears to have been a God-fearer. And through him, God’s people were blessed with deliverance and truth.

I think we ought to be thankful for Jethro’s presence in the story, even as a “secondary” character. The Spirit never gives a word of negative commentary on him, and he is a strong supporter of Moses at key points in the long account of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. He, along with several other God-fearing non-Israelites, show us that God’s favor is not determined by birthright, but rather, as the Scripture says, “the righteous shall live by faith” (Hb. 2:4, Rm. 1:17).

- Dan Lankford, minister

How serious are you about living like a Christian? And before we go any further, let’s be clear about what that question is really asking: It’s not about how serious you feel or believe that you should be about it, but about whether your life shows real Christian living. Maybe we could put it another way: If the God of the Bible—who knows all things, even our thoughts—were to describe your life, how serious would he say that you are about living the kind of life that a Christian should?

There are two eternal temptations for people who claim that Christ is their master: 1) To be so serious about morality that they convict every weakness or imperfection as a damnable sin, whether the Bible describes it as such or not. 2) To react to that by being so lax about matters of faith that we fail to live up to the standard of godliness to which we’ve been committed.

Neither of those are what we’re called to.

But it’s that second one that I think needs to be emphasized more in our current world. More and more, we seem to live in a world that takes an exceedingly casual approach to Christianity. It’s received with joy, but, all too often, at the cost of its requisite sobriety. And if we’re guilty of that, then we need to get our priorities straight and realign ourselves with true devotion of holy living that God has always required of his faithful ones.

• Many of us need a more thorough grasp of repentance—being truly brokenhearted when we sin, and not just shrugging it off and thinking, “Oops. Good thing that’s not a big deal.”
• We need to make real changes in our behaviors—getting self-control and actually doing the right things rather than excusing ourselves by just thinking, “I guess I need to work on that” or “I’m too tired/stressed/overwhelmed/committed/distracted for that sort of thing right now, but God understands.”
• We need a more serious approach to the Bible—that it’s more than supplementary material to our lives, it is the words of eternal life and of sincere Christian living. It’s worth knowing it deeply for our own sakes and for the sake of teaching others.

So seek the truth. Read it. Understand it. Face it honestly. Accept it. Turn toward it. And live it.

What does that require of each of us? It requires prayer. Work. Dedication. Thoughtfulness. Prayer. Hard choices. Repentance. Time. Prayer. Guidance and correction from spiritual leaders. Focus. Humility. Self-control. Prayer. Lots of Bible reading. Deep christian friendships. Accountability to others. And prayer.

If the gate is narrow and the way is hard, then we had better put our all into it.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Three times in the Exodus narrative, an individual or group bows the head and worships God.

• The first is when Aaron announces that God has heard them and has come to set them free from slavery (Ex. 4:31).
• The second is when God explains the punishment he will inflict upon Egypt on the night of the Passover (Ex. 12:27). 
• The third is Moses himself, at the moment that Yahweh reveals himself as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:6-8). 

These passages show us a pattern for worship. Not a pattern for corporate worship (church assemblies); rather, for personal worship. They show us the importance of worshiping God in our hearts and from our hearts. They show us worship as an act of the mind and the heart and the body, by which we laud and magnify God. At the moments in which they were truly impressed by God, the Israelites humbled themselves (“bowed their heads”) and lifted him up (“worshiped”).

Do you ever do that? Do you ever take a pause in your life to just praise God, either in your heart, through singing, by reading a psalm of praise aloud toward his throne, or by some other act of adoration? This is an important practice for his people, and it’s one that I fear (though I don’t know for sure) we neglect. Our worship assemblies are crucially important, but they are only a part of a whole life that is given in service and worship to him (cf. “spiritual worship,” Rom. 12:1).

The frequency and and depth of private worship may be a stronger indicator of our devotion to God than our attendance at worship assemblies. Like Paul and Silas praising God and singing hymns while in prison… or James’ prescription for a saint to “sing songs” when he is joyful… or the Psalmist who speaks of praising God for his wisdom “all the day”… Our daily lives ought to be defined by adoration and praise for God. It’s more than corporate religious activity; we too ought to frequently bow our heads and worship YHWH, just because he is worthy of adoration from our hearts.

- Dan Lankford, minister

The month of January has shown us some dramatic behavior of the natural world.

Fires that started in Los Angeles on January 7 have continued to burn and to spread. Nearly 16,000 structures have been destroyed and 28 lives have been lost. Mercifully, rain was predicted for the area this weekend, but the damage that’s already done is staggering.

Then there are the winter storms which have blanketed balmy Southern states with far more snow and ice than they are used to. All-time record snowfall in some areas like coastal Alabama and southwest Texas brought dangerous road conditions that led to the deaths of at least five people and the complete halt of a lot of infrastructure.

Times like these serve to remind us that while we may applaud ourselves for great human accomplishments, we remain nowhere close to omnipotence. In fact, we can be overwhelmed by the very things that we need and enjoy. Fire is a gift that brings warmth, sanitizes, and helps us prepare food. But right now, it’s a major threat to life. Snow is a gift of moisture to the earth and a thing of pure beauty. But right now, it’s a roadblock to human movement.

We need to occasionally be reminded of all that out-powers us. We can have some dominion over the natural world, but we will never have total control. That remains solely in the hands of the one who created it and rules it with just the sound of his voice (cf. Mk. 4:41). And so when we see the great power of God’s world, we bow our heads and worship him: the creator, the sustainer, and the sovereign ruler of it all.

- Dan Lankford, minister