Jojo Agot

God in a Time of Audio Visuals

God didn’t show his face to Moses because he knew humanity would be tempted to make visual representations of His face. He spoke and gave written words instead. The fact that God revealed himself through speaking and writing should give us a pause. We live in a time of audio visuals. We are tempted to think that the effectivity of the gospel lies in slick PowerPoint presentations and cutting edge video clips. The Bible tells us otherwise. God came to us through the spoken and written Word. No matter how technologically advanced we are, the medium by which God reveals himself to us is still through Bible reading and listening to sermons.

Many would say this is boring and primitive but this is actually where the second commandment makes more sense. God— the concept of God, the attributes of God, and the nature of God— can never be truly depicted with our lame visual aids. Our artistic expressions will never suffice. This is the reason why our concept of God has to rise higher than mere pictures and arts and videos. To know him, we need to go to the Word, and this Word-based intimation of God requires the highest order of thinking. This means that the posture of knowing God is that of hard work and concentrated effort, not laid back and slouchy.

Where Were You?

John Stott:

Herod and Pilate, Gentiles and Jews had together conspired against Jesus (Acts 4:27). More important still, we ourselves are also guilty. If we were in their place, we would have done what they did. Indeed, we have done it. For whenever we turn away from Christ, we are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace (Heb 6:6). We too sacrifice Jesus to our greed like Judas, to our envy like the priests, to our ambition like Pilate. ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ the old negro spiritual asks. And we must answer, ‘Yes, we were there.’ Not as spectators only but as participants, guilty participants, plotting, scheming, betraying, bargaining, and handing him over to be crucified. We may try to wash our hands of responsibility like Pilate. But our attempt will be as futile as his. For there is blood in our hands. Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading us to repentance). Indeed, ‘only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross’, wrote Canon Peter Green, ‘may claim his share in its grace’.

Common Memory

Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.

–Georges Erasmus

Are We Preaching Prosperity Gospel?

Every now and then, people would approach me and ask about prosperity gospel. The questions come in different forms but the gist always boils down to this: are we preaching prosperity gospel in Victory?

My short answer is “no”. My long answer is “Noooooo!!!” We preach finance sermons from time to time because money is one of the common idols of our day and one biblical way to battle idolatry is to expose it in the light of the gospel.

Black-market Relationships

Ray Ortlund on Proverbs 1:8-19:

Have you ever felt that envy and resentment deep inside? It is where violence begins. Your heart is lying in wait for blood. When this rage pops up to the surface, observe yourself carefully. You will probably recruit others to your cause. Sin tends to recruit. Watch those thoughts and feelings creeping into conversations with other people. You will want to get others on your side.
Look at [Proverbs 1:14]: “Throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse.” A cause, even a negative cause, provides a group to belong to. It is one way we nurse our grudges, and it feels good. But whenever we gather around grievance rather than Jesus, that is counterfeit community, black-market relationships, and that negativity is in collision with reality. It cannot succeed long-term.

An Unholy Delusion

Joseph Loconte on the Great War:

For the intellectual class as well as the ordinary man on the street, the Great War had defamed the values of the Old World, along with the religious doctrines that helped to underwrite them. Moral advancement, even the idea of morality itself, seemed an illusion. . . . [T]he war to make the world safe for democracy, the holy war to advance Christian ideals, was an unholy delusion.