Many long years ago, okay, 1990, I was pastoring a little church in the country. We regularly sang a song with the following line, ‘Enter into Canaan and possess your possessions for I will go before you saith the Lord.’ What has often come to me over the years is the question of whether we possess our possessions or they possess us. Now in the age of social media I believe that question is more urgent. Social media apps are designed to capture and keep our attention to make money for those who run them. Their presence in our lives is both pernicious and pervasive.

In line with this, years ago, I read some material from Dr. Carolyn Leaf about brain function and attention and she referred to the idea of multitasking as a myth. She called it ‘milkshake multitasking’ and her point was that neurologically we can’t focus on more than one thing at a time so when we attempt to do so everything is shaken up and done poorly. More recent research has demonstrated the cost of trying to multitask. A simple example. If you had 20 minutes to do a task at work and 5 minutes to check your personal email or other social media messages it could be done in 25 minutes, if done sequentially. If you attempted the same task by working for 5 minutes on your task, engaged for 1 minute glance with a social media app, then went back to your work task you lose time. Your brain takes time to refocus and transition from one task to another so your process takes longer than the 25 minutes allotted. Over a day it adds up to a lot.

Think of applying this to prayer. You begin, get distracted by something, come back, get distracted, and on it goes. Do you every really focus on the subject at hand – communion with the Lord?

Another issue is reading. If we do most of our reading on electronic devices we tend to skip over words more than reading on paper and we retain less information. Kindle devices seem to be a bit better and are more like reading a hard copy.

With this brief overview we can now look at how we can approach prayer and scripture. If your first impulse is to turn on or check our phone when you awake, resist the temptation. The social media apps on your phone are designed to capture and keep your attention. One of the inventions coming from the social media companies is infinite scrolling. When you finish one page another one automatically loads. They don’t have to function that way, they do because again, this helps to capture and keep your attention. With what they track and gather I am confident that for most of us the social media giants know much more about us and our likes and habits than our nearest neighbours!

My recommendation, set aside time in the morning to focus on prayer and worship, read a hard copy of your bible. Taking a few minutes doing it on your phone may seem more efficient, it isn’t, and will do more to fracture your attention. Scripture calls us to do a couple of things.

¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Psalm 46:10 (NKJV)

¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3:15 (NKJV)

These things require our attention and focus. The context of Psalm 46:10 is warfare and the message from Yahweh is to be still, relax and watch Him work. The context of Colossians 3:15 is setting our thoughts and affections on heavenly things and the result is His peace.

Doing these things require intentionality on our part. Distractions have always tried to turn us away from individual prayer and worship and our current culture works harder than any other time in history to draw our thoughts and affections to other things. If you are struggling, it a cultural battle not just an individual one. Seek His face for help and seek out help from godly friends.

Practically I know I check my phone and social media regularly during the day. I do this because I keep my notifications on mute 99.9% of the time. I only turn on the ringer on my phone on if I am expecting a call. Otherwise, I call people back. I know many years ago when I first had a work BlackBerry about a week into my having it, I walked across the street to the Rogers store and asked them how to turn off the vibrate on my emails. The staff person I spoke with was shocked. I explained that I received plenty of emails and I didn’t need to know every time I received one, I could simply check regularly.

These were simply strategies I used. I don’t know if this is an issue for you, I do know research says it is a growing problem in our culture so, commit some time, seek His face and decide if you need to make any lifestyle adjustments to focus your heart on Jesus.

I am returning to regular posts as my book is progressing well. For the next bit I am posting some articles I wrote over 30 years ago that are very relevant for today. In the early 1990’s I did a monthly article called The Apostolic Gospel and later compiled them into a booklet. Below is an excerpt.

THE APOSTOLIC GOSPEL: A HEART OF WISDOM

 “So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom” Ps. 90:12). In this hour the Holy Spirit desires to stir up in our hearts the reality of Moses’ prophetic cry to Yahweh. In this passage the Hebrew word translated as gain is bow or boh; it implies movement and means to gain or bring forth or carry. The Holy Spirit is teaching us that at the end of our days we will bring, gain, or carry the contents of our heart to the Judgment Seat. Moses’ desire is that each of us will bring to the Judgment Seat a heart filled with the fruits of wisdom. The Holy Spirit desires that we understand the requirement of presenting our hearts to Jesus when we stand before Him. Just as we can bring nothing to merit salvation, neither will we be able to present our own works at the Judgment Seat. All we can present is our hearts. All creation will know in that hour whether the treasure we have been carrying in our hearts (Matt 6:21) consists of gold, silver, and precious stones; or wood, hay, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12-15). As the contents of our hearts pass under the fiery gaze of Jesus’ eyes (Rev.1:14) all that is not of Him will be consumed. That which sprang from faith will remain as our dead works are consumed (Heb. 6:1).

Gaining hearts of wisdom is an area where we, the church, greatly need to be exercised, and it is one of the many areas in which the Holy Spirit desires to lead us “into all truth” (Jn. 16:13). There is a great need for us to understand the scriptural reality that “He has put eternity in their (our) hearts.” (Eccl. 3:11). When we understand that the foundation of eternity has been laid in our hearts our first choice is whether to spend that eternity in heaven or hell. If we choose heaven, we must further decide whether to truly live out of the eternity dwelling in our hearts. It is only in embracing this mode of living that we can ever hope to “gain a heart of wisdom” because our hearts are the centres of our value systems and the centres of our needs. They colour and touch every area of our lives. Wise hearts are those that have learned to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matt. 6:33) and come into agreement with Jesus and His values, “You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.” (Lk. 4:8).

To live this way, we need to understand that there is much more to the walk of a believer than simply being born again. The New Testament is filled with the truth that we have been empowered and are responsible to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and that we will be judged in terms of how well we have walked out that new life (2 Cor. 5:10, Rom. 14:10-12, Eph.2:10, 4:1, Phil. 2:12). Sadly, most of us in the church are either ignorant or terribly neglectful of these truths because we are so conformed to the world (Rom. 12:2, 13:11-14, 2 Cor. 5:15, Eph 4:1, 17).

A heart of wisdom recognizes that Jesus commissioned us (anointed, gave us authority and ability) to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I (He) have commanded (us)” (Matt. 28:19-20). This passage is pregnant with possibility and importance in terms of our calling, commission and responsibility as believers. We need to awaken to our responsibility! Paul said, “it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (Rom. 13:11).

To carry out the “Great Commission” we need to understand that not only are we called to make disciples of individual members of all nations (Greek ethnos, ethnic groups or nationalities, people groups), but we are called to disciple entire nations. The Lord has called the church, not democracy, communism, humanism, or any other created thing (Rom. 8:37-39, Matt. 5:14-16), to be the light of the world. With the calling we have both the authority and responsibility to speak to the situations and institutions affecting our nations, and to provide the light to lead them out of darkness (Eph. 5:8-14). I am not suggesting that the church should use political power to take over countries of the world, because His kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:36, Matt. 6:9-10). We are however called to give light to our leaders and to set an example for the world to follow, rather than us following the ways of the world.

For example, one time I listened to a “Christian” radio program talking about a talent contest for “worship” bands. Concepts like this make me wonder if we as the church have drifted so far away from the Lord that we are not even able to recognize or discern when we have embraced the ways of Satan? Have we invited him right into our midst, as Saul did by bringing king Agag back to Israel, thinking he could control the enemy he had conquered? Would we exercise any more discernment if we thought about having contests for the sermon of the week in our local assemblies? Do we not understand that our weapons are not carnal?

Our foolishness in these areas demonstrates an ignorance of the Lord, of His ways, and knowing the power of the cross. This is but one example of our many failures to walk out our commission to teach the nations His ways. The scriptures are clear that there will come a time when “the law shall come forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Is. 2:1-3). I believe there will be a literal fulfillment of this in Jerusalem, and through Israel, when Yahweh gathers His people back to their land. There is, however, also the reality that this prophecy speaks of the commission of the church to be a standard for the nations. This means that we have a responsibility to come to maturity and then teach individuals, people groups, and nations to discern between good and evil (Heb. 5:13-14).

To walk in this reality and truly walk out our calling in the earth we need to function in a much greater level of anointing then that which is presently observable in most aspects of the local church. We need to learn to go beyond our programs and ideologies and into the Holy of Holies to dwell in His presence and draw on His wisdom. All the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and the love that motivates them in 1 Corinthians 13 need to be drawn out from behind the veil so that they transition from hope to reality. We also need the fivefold ministry of Ephesians 4:11 to function in individual members of the body if the body is to be properly equipped to come to maturity. Much of the present day church is functioning in the spiritual gifts to a limited extent and some segments have discerned the need for the fivefold ministry. We are beginning to wake up to and walk in these job descriptions. With these signs of hope and life in this time of darkness, let us press in to see the glory of the Lord manifest to a needy world through a mature body (Is. 60:1-2).

I say these things not to condemn, but rather to encourage and exhort us to search the scriptures and follow after the exhortations in them. Jesus was very clear that our eternal position in His kingdom will be based on how we walk out His teachings (Matt. 5:19) and the words of Paul strongly exhort us, “Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15).

The Lord has a plan. We see the loss of the garden in Genesis 3 and the restoration of the garden and the city of God in Revelation 21-22. In regard to His planning scripture makes the following comment.

¹¹ In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, Ephesians 1:11 (NKJV)

Let’s linger on this phrase, “who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” God will accomplish His ultimate purpose in all of creation. Our hearts can rest confidently in this reality. At the same time, we have no guarantee that we will accomplish all He has prepared for us or how others will respond to His call.

¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

The ‘should’ in this verse implies something obligatory, in line with the famous Romans 12:1-2, an exhortation to present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice to serve His purposes. We also have Peter clearly stating Yahweh’s heart toward the lost.

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)

            Knowing this we still know that many will be lost because they choose to not respond to His calling. As noted at the beginning we began in a garden and we will end there. Yahweh will fulfill His overall purpose but who will be part of it is the open part of scripture that depends on the exercise of our will in response to His drawing.

I remember decades ago Rick Joyner sharing that he asked the Lord why he used John Wimber that way he did. The Lord responded along the lines of, “When I knocked on his door he answered.” Think of Ananias, in Acts 9:10-18. Yahweh appears in a vision and asks Ananias to go and pray for Saul of Tarsus. What if Ananias had rationalized that this vision wasn’t from the Lord because he knew the danger? The answer is Yahweh would have sent someone else and Ananias would have missed a deep and powerful blessing. What if those who rejected the outpouring of the Spirit at Azusa Street had said yes earlier? Who else would now be in the kingdom? What if Wilberforce had rejected his commission by the Lord to end slavery in Great Britain? It would have eventually happened through someone else.

What does this have to do with my title, The Place of Intervention? Where He first intervenes is generally in the calls and nudges to obedience. When our heart responds correctly, He offers more. A good scriptural example, one I encourage you to look up and read, is the broader story of Saul and David. I have heard many assert that Saul was the people’s choice and David the Lord’s choice. We can see from scripture that isn’t true.

¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” 1 Samuel 13:13–14 (NKJV)

Here the covenant that Samuel said Yahweh wanted to give Saul, to establish his kingdom forever, was the covenant that David received. Why? Saul’s heart stopped responding to Yahweh and shifted to responding to the people instead.

The place of intervention is the place of our meeting with Him and choosing to walk with an obedient heart. May we always choose obedience.

While hiking in the mountains with a group of people this past summer I was at the front and in conversation with someone near me I said, “When you are leading you need to pay attention to two things, people and pace.” The idea here being that you need to make sure everyone is okay on the hike and you need to set a pace that people can follow. Now, you likely noticed that I added the word presence to my title. I will explain why.

In carrying this idea over to our spiritual journey with Jesus I think these three elements are important. Who are we walking with? Are we able to walk together at a functional pace? Notice I said functional, not comfortable. At times we need our walk challenged. Lastly, and most important, are we walking in Jesus’ presence?

I enjoy hiking and I enjoy working with others. When I was working, at times I had staff who were open to having supervision while walking. It is hard to take notes but I found walking dialogue often more effective than sitting in an office. There is something about walking with others, which may be why Paul used the analogy.

¹ And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³ among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Ephesians 2:1–3 (NKJV)

¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

Paul describes our pre-conversion life as a walk, but a walk, ‘according to the course of this world’ whereas after our conversion our call is to walk in the ‘good works’ that the Lord prepared before for us.

Thus, when people say ‘God has a plan for your life’ that is true. There is no guarantee however that we will ‘walk’ it out. This is where people, pace and presence come in. What helps us walk it out is those we walk with. We need to find those we can keep pace with and also those who will push us beyond things we think we are capable of doing.

When I was younger, I learned a good deal in a few months from a gentleman name Rene. He wasn’t a spiritual mentor nor do I think he planned to be a mentor, he just was. My first winter out of high school I spent working for a trucking company moving oil rigs, at times in brutally cold conditions. I worked mostly with Rene Bilidou, farmer in the summer, truck driver in the winter. I was the swamper, which meant Rene drove and I walked and ran around behind the truck (imagine a very large tow truck to try and get the image) while we tore down and put oil rigs back together on oil leases and hauled components to the next site.

That is the background. Rene taught me many things, pushed me to do things I didn’t think could be done, and was patient in teaching me when I failed. Being 19 at the time, I of course had plenty of great ideas on how to do things, most of them wrong. Rene had the wisdom to let me try and fail so that I was in a more teachable space and then he would show me how to do things correctly. Rene was a practical rather than a spiritual mentor. In our Christian walk we need spiritual mentors who are also practical and walk with us like that, mentors who allow us to make mistakes, help us learn from them, and keep pointing us in the right direction.

This leads us to presence. The key factor in our walking with others is pursuing Jesus’ presence. We need to pursue Him ourselves and we need to walk with others who both pursue Him and push us to do the same. The potential for failure is this endeavour is readily available, for example, consider the following verse.

²⁴ God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Acts 17:24 (NKJV)

Paul said Yahweh doesn’t dwell in material structures and he also noted in 1 Corinthians (3:16-17 and 6:19-20) that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, his point being to affirm what he said in Acts. In the Old Testament the temple was built and sacrifices were made to create sacred space and Yahweh dwelt on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. Yet at Jesus crucifixion Matthew, Mark and Luke all reference the veil in the temple being torn. This meant two things, Yahweh was coming out of the temple and would be available everywhere (think of Acts 2 and the Spirit being poured out at Pentecost) and that as Hebrews says, there was now free and bold access to the throne of grace, the mercy seat (Heb. 4:14-16).            

Let me pull this back together. I am in Saville as I write this, and yesterday I visited an ornate old church building and as I left reflected on what I had been writing. Of note, I didn’t encounter His presence there. In terms of People, Pace and Presence, People walked together to build this and other amazing edifices (we have our own in North America) but at some point, they walked away from His presence and began following religion instead of Jesus. They reverted to thinking that buildings rather than His body, the church, could contain His presence. While we may use buildings to serve His purposes, it is people that host His presence. Thus, in our individual walks we need to find people with whom we can keep pace and with whom we encounter His presence.

Since it is quite evident that scripture teaches Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA), that is, Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross. My qualifier regarding PSA is that God’s wrath against sin is not some capricious emotion, it arises from His inherent need to execute justice and punish sin given that righteousness and justice are the foundation upon which His throne rests. Now we turn to how other views relate to PSA followed by whether the church fathers endorsed PSA.

We begin with the other views from my first post on this subject.  

•           The Ransom Theory. In this view, the atonement was payment made by God to Satan, because Satan held mankind in bondage to sin and death. Origen in particular argued that the cross was a ransom payment equal in value to man’s sin debt, a debt accrued since Adam’s original sin. At the cross, the death payment of Christ, the devil was obliged to release man from bondage. COMMENTS this view doesn’t’ fit with scripture as our sin debt was owed to God not Satan. Satan brough humanity into bondage and brought about the corruption of creation through their sin.

•           The Satisfaction Theory. This view of the atonement, sometimes called the “Latin view,” was primarily developed by Saint Anselm in Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man). This view sets God’s justice or honor against man’s immense sin debt. The satisfaction view is a reaction against the ransom view. Anselm argued that it was not to Satan but to God that man’s sin debt was owed. Now that man’s sin debt has been exacted from the Son, man can be reconciled to God’s divine justice. COMMENTS this is a variation of PSA.

•           Christus Victor. This view of the atonement argues—in the words of its best-known promoter, Gustav Aulén—that “the work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil” (Christus Victor, p. 20). This view is a reaction to both the ransom and the satisfaction theories. Instead of payment to Satan or to God, the death of Christ is seen as a conquest in a cosmic conflict. COMMENTS Christs sacrifice was a victory in a cosmic conflict but this view falls under PSA as a n aspect of it, it doesn’t replace it.

•           Penal Substitution. This view is often associated with the magisterial reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin. Some studies have demonstrated, however, that key elements of the penal substitution theory are evident in the early years of church history. The word “penal” refers to the divine penalty enacted at the cross. This penalty is more than payment for sin to God (though it is that); it is also the site at which God expended his wrath against human sin. God can be just and the justifier of the ungodly because Christ was our substitute on the cross: he paid sin’s penalty. By his sacrificial death he “cancel[ed] the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Col 2:14). Our sin, in this view, is imputed to Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to us.

•           The Scapegoat Theory. René Girard, a Roman Catholic philosopher, is the figure most often associated with the scapegoat theory. He appeals to the motif of the scapegoat, the azazel, from the atonement rituals in Leviticus 16. In this theory, communal tension that would otherwise erupt in violence is dissipated by redirecting that violence toward a scapegoat. When in Christ God makes himself the scapegoat, directing human violence toward an innocent party, he reveals the error in scapegoating and breaks the cycle of violence. This theory has wide acceptance in those (typically mainline) Protestant circles that tend to shy away from or reject substitution theories. COMMENTS The overall theory fails to align with scripture with the exception that Jesus bore our sins as the scapegoat. Scripture says He suffered, ‘outside the gate.’

¹² Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Hebrews 13:12 (NKJV)

Just as the scapegoat carried the sins of the nation away from the nation so Jesus took sin outside of Jerusalem to Golgotha. However, this theory presents more as humanism than atonement.  

 •          The Governmental Theory. Hugo Grotius, Charles Finney, and Wesleyan Methodism have championed this view. In the governmental view, Jesus did not pay a penalty for human sin; instead, at the cross he made a display of God’s displeasure with sin. COMMENTS certainly the Father is displeased with sin, we see this in PSA, but scripture is clear that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.

•           Theosis. This view is closely associated with Eastern Orthodoxy. It posits that the joining of man to divinity is the telos, the completion, of humanity. The cross makes theosis possible by its great act of transfiguration from death to life. COMMENTS partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1) is a fruit of Jesus sacrifice but as a stand alone theory it fails to deal with what scripture shows us about PSA.

•           The Moral Influence Theory. In this view, man’s greatest need is not to be reconciled to God; rather, man needs an ultimate moral example, and Christ provides this via his self-giving life and death. COMMENTS there is no atonement here and thus no dealing with the problem of sin, merely humanism disguised as theology.

•           The Solidarity Theory. This view argues that Christ at the cross identified with humanity’s suffering and overcame it. In doing so, he brought humanity into a new way of living according to divine justice. While considered newer, this view has roots within other, older views. This view most resembles Christus Victor, and N. T. Wright and the others who adopt the New Perspective on Paul have been this view’s most influential proponents. Jürgen Moltmann and his “suffering of God” theology, too, provide a variation on the solidarity theory.^[1] COMMENTS the primary problem with this theory is that while through the cross Jesus identified with us, and the suffering sin causes, it fails to address the need for justice and the penalty for sin being paid.

As a final point, I referenced the importance of looking to the church father. In his teaching on PSA Sam Storms has pointed out some of those who have held to PSA throughout church history, showing that it is not a product of the Reformation and Protestantism, it is a product of scripture and church history.

Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 275-339), Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300-368), Athanasius (c. 300-373), Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330-390), Ambrose of Milan (339-397), John Chrysostom (c. 350-407), Augustine (354-430), Cyril of Alexandria (375-444), and Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), all of whom advocated penal substitution in one form or another. Other significant figures who understood the atonement in this way include Thomas Aquinas (cf. 1225-74), John Calvin (1509-64), Francis Turretin (1623-87), John Bunyan (1628-88), John Owen (1616-83), George Whitefield (1714-70), Charles Spurgeon (1834-92), D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), as well as Billy Graham, John Stott, and J. I. Packer. These are only representative thinkers and represents a small fraction of those who have embraced the truth of penal substitution.

Thus, we close with the famous John 3:16.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (NKJV)

NOTE My next post will look at People, Pace and Presence. If there is a particular topic or subject you would like me to cover or address please let me know in the comments.

^[1] Mark Olivero, “Theories of Atonement,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018).