Question: What is the difference between jealousy and envy? Why does God call himself jealous?

Response:
Jealousy - feeling resentment against someone because of that person's rivalry, success, or advantages.
Envy - a feeling of discontentment or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.

Jealousy and envy are a bit different (look to the above definitions). If one of us humans were to be jealous for our own sake it would always lead to sin. But when God is jealous in the Scripture, it is for the sake of His glory and for the hearts of His people.

Exodus 34:14
Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
God is jealous that we worship Him alone.

For 4 reasons:
1. Because He alone is worthy of praise.
2. God as our loving Father knows what is best for us.
3. God knows that other things as supreme to us will only destroy us.
4. God demands us to have Him as uppermost in our affections and devotion.

When God is jealous, it is right—to allow that anything else be God in our lives is flat out idolatry... and will only bring about death.

Community & the Christian

Question: What Scriptures should we study about community and the place of the church in the Christians life?

Answer: If I were you I would look at the book of Acts specifically 2:42-47. In this book we se the earliest believers assembling in large gatherings, small gatherings, serving the city in which they lived, and sending missionaries all over the world. You should also study Ephesians which talks a lot about the theology of the church in the Christian life. To love Jesus is to love His bride the Church. Every believer has the responsibility to go to a local church regularly (Heb. 10:25), serve a local church with spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12), and give to the local church (1 Cor. 8-9, 16:1).

Struggling with Sin and the Assurance of Salvation

Question:
I usually feel secure in my salvation because of my reaction to sin and to Jesus. But, there are times when I don't feel guilty, bad, or mourn my sin and that scares me because biblically, I know I sin. I'm not sure what to do because I don't want to feel guilty about it. Sorry for the vagueness, this mostly deals with drinking and swearing, but what should I do?

Response:
Let's deal with the sins you listed fist.

First of all, drinking is not a sin. Drunkenness is. Under-aged drinking is. Don't beat yourself up for things that God doesn't call sin. However, if you are getting drunk or drinking under age, repent (mourn for your sin and stop it) and trust Jesus for grace to cover your sins.

Swearing is a tricky subject because everyone has a different list of words which they consider sinful and God has not given us a list of words not to use—aside from taking his name in vain. The Scriptures do tell us to let no unwholesome words proceed from our mouths (Eph. 4:29), but again, defining what is ‘unwholesome’ largely depends on your audience and what might be unwholesome in their eyes. I can say "crap" or "frickin" around a lot of people—but not around my wife's grandma. In her sight, those words are unwholesome and offensive. In that case, it’s important to gauge the convictions of those around you and seek to be as loving to them as possible… and if that means restraining your mouth, so be it. However, if you are constantly talking about raunchy things and dropping the f-bomb like a drunken redneck at a Bud Light Kegger, you are, in fact, sinning. Repent and ask Jesus to clean your mouth and your heart out— for out of the heart the mouth speaks.

If you are struggling with your sin, that's a good sign. Read the previous posting on this blog about dealing with guilt. But if you are getting drunk and swearing like the aforementioned redneck and you are not struggling and battling with these sins, there is a problem with your heart. In Christ, we are freed from the sins that entangle us, so never be comfortable with the presence of sin. If you are not struggling and fighting the sin, than you are probably not saved. Someone who has God's Holy Spirit indwelling them cannot continue living in sin because the sin offends the Spirit which indwells you [Read 1 John].

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Predestination

Question (from Q&A card): If God predestined people to go to heaven, that means—in a sense—that God predestines people to go to hell. If so, is he sad about it? Think about it, don't just "whatever", damn it! How does God’s choosing us affect evangelism?

Response: Wow, that's a passionate question. Ironically enough, the whole idea of "damning it" does come from the idea that God damns people to hell...

Ok, now for predestination: the Bible does clearly say that God has predestined people to salvation. For example, Ephesians 1:5 says, "God predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will." God predestines people to salvation in Jesus. Here's the deal: all of humanity is born in sin and on their way to hell. God, in eternity past, sees this as a just consequence of human rebellion, but in mercy decides to predestine—choose, elect, and set aside—some people for salvation. The question always arises, "well, then why didn't He save everyone?" The answer is not given to us, but we can say it is just for God to allow people who choose hell to go to hell. Also, it is within God's prerogative to be merciful to whomever he pleases [See Romans 9].

The word "predestination" only refers to those whom God has saved. It never refers to those whom God has not saved. You might say that it is by default that He is predestining them to hell, which in one sense might be true, but it is more biblically accurate to say that God allows people to go to hell, which they themselves have chosen. Hell is a place created for the devil and his angels—not for men. But, when men decide to link up to the rebellion of Satan, they go to the place of Satan. He technically doesn't send them to hell because, due to the fall of humanity, all are headed for hell on their own accord. It never makes God happy to condemn the wicked: "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23).

Consequently, this does not affect our zeal in evangelism, because the New Testament clearly tells us that human will is indeed involved in the process to a degree. Take the apostle Paul as an example. He not only wrote most of the stuff in the NT about predestination, but he also spent his whole life doing zealous evangelism. This is not an oversight on his part, but rather a righteous response to the Gospel message … and to predestination.

- Harvey

Is Jesus first in life?

To what point should Jesus be a priority in my life? Sometimes I feel pressured by other Christians to eliminate parts of my life that I don’t feel are wrong.

“Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). –Jesus

My answer to your first question is that if Jesus is not the primary priority in your life then you are probably not yet a Christian but someone interested in Christ and on a journey towards Him. My answer to your second question is that if Jesus tells you to eliminate something (in the scriptures) then you must. If someone else wants you to eliminate something (without backing it up w/ scripture) then you have no obligation to their pressure.