Isaiah, Chesterton, and Isaiah

If I had my two year old son's energy and youthful sense of wonder, I could probably run a marathon every day.  I would never get tired, and it would never get old.  The way he runs back and forth across the same path on the floor over and over and over; the way he can keep singing the same song without it ever getting old; the way he can keep asking for the same book every night; and his ability to continue to be entertained by the same episode of the same children's show over and over again--it reminds me of something G.K. Chesterton said.

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
-G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

 I don't know the details of how God creates and sustains creation, but I believe we do see a faint glimpse of his infinite power when we see the vitality of children.  Even more astonishing is that we human beings have the least wisdom when our energy is at its peak.  Yet God not only has infinite power, but infinite wisdom to go along with it.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
-Isaiah 40:28-31

 Awesome.

Who is God?

I heard a quote recently that had more truth in it then I initially thought. It was similar to the following: A dog looks at his owner and thinks, “This person feeds me, and houses me, and protects me, and loves me… he must be god.” A cat looks at his owner and thinks, “This person feeds me, and houses me, and protects me, and loves me… I must be god.”

 

While humorous, I was brought to think on the radically different lifestyles that emerge out of the two mindsets presented here. The first of course being a life of gratitude, obedience, and joy with the second being a life of entitlement, stubbornness, and bitterness. And while it may be relatively easy to go through life without ever consciously thinking, “I must be god” it is certainly much more difficult, if not impossible, to go through life without subconsciously believing it. I would say it is especially true in this service centered society in which we live where people (or machines) do things for us all the time. But this kind of society also allows us to see this subconscious belief - where we will destroy phones, scream at ATM machines, and curse out slow drivers because “We are god and are entitled to get what we want!!!”

 

This is why the first step to get out of this mindset is to realize and fully believe that “we are not god.” Yes, we have a lot of things that nearly fulfill our every wish. Yes, we have people all around us who constantly serve us but the only reason that we have any of this is because other people took pity on us and helped us. It started when we were born into this world as a helpless infant and it has continued to this day. If other people did not take pity on us and help us nothing that we have accomplished would have been possible. We just don’t often realize it, as Dallas Willard explains, "People often do not want to accept that they can only live on the basis of pity from others, that the good that comes to them is rarely 'deserved.'"

 

I say this is the first step because I think coming to this realization produces a question. And that is, “If I am not god, then who is?” or in other words “If I am not meant to live for myself, then who am I meant to live for?” And while there have been many answers given to this question I agree with what the Bible says in Deuteronomy 4:39, “Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” There is one God and He is who we were all meant to live for.

The Lord has given us everything that we have – He has given us the ability to work, eat, sleep, laugh, and play. He is the ultimate provider and the giver of life. The question is how will we respond? Will we presume that this life that has been given to us is our own, that we are god? Or will we “ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name” and live a life of gratitude, obedience, and joy unto Him? This is the good life that God wants for us and the life that Christ calls us to with the words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

"Those Christians and Their Morality..."

“[T]hink of us as a fleet of ships sailing in formation. The voyage will be a success only, in the first place, if the ships do not collide and get in one another’s way; and secondly, if each ship is seaworthy and has her engines in good order. . . . But there is one thing we have not yet taken into account.  We have not asked where the fleet is trying to get to…”

-C.S. Lewis

Modern people feel pretty strongly about morality.  But based on the above analogy, we aren’t thinking very carefully about this subject (despite our feelings) if we haven’t answered at least three questions: (1) How must I live to avoid hurting others? (2) How must I live to avoid hurting myself? And (3) what am I made for?  Most people begin and end with the first question.  We often say it is okay to “do whatever you want as long as you’re not hurting anyone.”  But as Lewis goes on to explain, the second question is equally important.  How can you expect the ships to steer carefully to avoid colliding with one another if each ship is in such bad shape that it can barely be steered at all?  In other words, how can I avoid harming others if I don’t have any control over myself?  So some people will admit that you shouldn’t do things that are bad for you.

But is that enough?  Is it okay to do whatever you want unless you hurt yourself or someone else?  Returning to the ship analogy, we must first be able to explain why the ships are in the water at all.  Is there a destination?  Is there a purpose?  If not, the first two questions have no ground to stand on.  By neglecting to think about question no. 3, we’ve left out something essential to our ethics—the foundation!  How can we say the ships shouldn’t collide with each other if we don’t know why the ships are in the water to begin with?  Perhaps they’ve decided to destroy each other, like warships.  Perhaps they feel as if they were made to destroy each other.  Or worse—perhaps they feel that they were built to seek victory at all costs.  If you think I’m just exaggerating, consider the suicide bombers, kamikaze pilots, or the 9/11 hijackers of our world.  Could we condemn their behavior?  Could we condemn the cut-throat mentality of corporate America?  And how about people who set themselves on fire for political reasons?  What could you say to such a person? “Your life has no purpose.  So do whatever you want… but not that!”  The existentialist philosophers have been unable to provide any coherent answers.

As a Christian, I believe that morality must be grounded in the creator.  There is room for social and personal ethics, but they will only take us so far.  As 1 Corinthians 8:6 says, all things exist for God.  He is our foundation.  Without him, morality is subjective and arbitrary, and whoever has the most power wins, right or wrong.  But with God as our foundation, we will begin to find real, coherent answers to our moral problems.  Each one of us will feel uncomfortable with this at some point.  But if we are seeking a source of truth that transcends each individual, isn’t that exactly what we should expect?

In His Image

I'm sure that all have had a moment in their life when they were dealing with feelings of inadequacy.  As men, we constantly wonder, am I good enough?  Do I have what it takes?  We fear failure simply for the fact that it shows others that we couldn't do it, we weren't enough, we didn't have what it took.  The same goes for our spiritual walk.  Every time we hit a bump in the road or take a detour and fall into sin we end up feeling like we failed.  Even Paul experienced this so much so that he went on to say, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.... For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.... What a wretched man I am!" [Rom 7:15-18,24]

How many times do we look in the mirror, seeing only the sin that seems to keep us down, and think of ourselves as wretched men?  Some of you might say not enough and others might say all the time.  While the first response might point to someone who has yet to acknowledge their sin and give it up to Christ, the latter would suggest someone stuck in a narrow view of themselves wherein they only see their sin and are forgetting that Jesus died to cleanse us of the sin in our lives.  Scripture says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." [Rom 3:23]  The problem lies in that we live in a fleshly world when we were made for a spiritual one.  Too many times I think we don't read Rom 7:18 slow enough to realize that it is through our sinful nature that good does not dwell in us.  That doesn't mean good is never found within us.

On the contrary, upon the creation of man, God called us good.  In Romans 6, Paul says that only those who forsake the flesh and walk in spirit will see God.  While it's good to recognize this and understand that without the spirits' guidance, and certainly without Christ's blood, we would have no escape from sin, dealing with this problem is usually more difficult than simply acknowledging it.  It is, however, a good starting point.  In fact, it is the only starting point.  Paul doesn't simply stop at pointing out the sinful nature but, instead he continues on , saying, "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" [Rom 7:25]  Likewise, Romans 3 goes on to say we "are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ." [Rom 3:24]

I must clarify at this point that my purpose in writing this is not to give you some three step program on how to resist the flesh.  Anyone who tries to box the walk of faith into a system is missing the point.  Rather, my hope is that you will gain some perspective into who you are, or can be, through Christ by taking a look at what man was created to be.  The enemy would love it if we simply got stuck at looking at how far we fall short of the life we were created for that we fail to ever actually take so much as a glimpse at that life.  Many times we get so caught up in how much of a wretch we are and how much sin this flesh of ours has caused us to do that we neglect to remember one big important factor.  We were made in His image!  HIS!  As in the God almighty of the universe.  The creator of all things.  The alpha and the omega.  The great and wondrous hosts of hosts.

What are the implications of truly accepting this and holding on tightly to that fact?  Consider a sculptor who sets out to create his masterpiece.  Upon completing his work I would imagine he would take much pleasure in admiring it.  Now say shortly after he makes it, someone else comes along and places a scratch on it.  Would it no longer be his masterpiece?  Would he still not love it?  I would venture to say yes.  After all, the sculpture is a reflection of the work of the artist and not the vandal.  In the same way we are a reflection of our creator's work in us.  We were not made to sin but rather to reflect God's grace to the rest of the world much like Moses did upon being in the presence of God.  Therefore, I urge you to view yourselves as masterpieces of the one true God.  While we are full of scratches from this fleshly world, God still saw His original design as good and us as worth redeeming.  Thus, we have Christ, of whom we should hold on to, who is continually restoring us to our intended condition so that we may truly be the image of God for which we were created to be. 

The Self Centered Life

In his book, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis points out the following: 

There is a difference between a life that is selfish and one that is self centered: for in a selfish life my mind could be directed toward a thousand things, not one of which is myself. The distinction is not unimportant. One of the happiest men and the most pleasing companions I have known was intensely selfish. On the other hand I have known people capable of real sacrifice whose lives were nevertheless a misery to themselves and to others, because self-concern and self-pity filled all their thoughts. Either condition will destroy the soul in the end. But till the end, give me the man who takes the best of everything (even at my expense) and then talks of other things, rather than the man who serves me and talks of himself, and whose very kindnesses are a continual reproach, a continual demand for pity, gratitude, and admiration.

This quote struck me because in my experience I have found that it is terribly easy to fall into a self centered life that is not selfish at all. For example, take a man who spends every minute of his life doing things for others. It would not appear that such a man was living a self centered life. However, he would be if he was thinking of himself the entire time he was doing those things. It is important to note that this is NOT the kind of life that Jesus lived or that he wants us to live. Yes, he did live his life doing things for others. But no, his mind was not fixed on himself, but on God the Father the entire time. It wasn't a selfish life, AND it wasn't a self centered life. And THIS is the life that he calls us to as well when he commands us to, "Follow me". So I encourage you to reflect on your life. Who/What is it that dominates your thoughts? How would you classify your life? Selfish? Self centered? Or Christ-like?

And I believe that the true question is not whether your life is self centered or not because lets face it, to a certain extent we all live a self centered life. The better question would be whether your life is becoming a more self centered or less self centered kind of life. Do you find that God is on your mind more than he was before, or less? Do you find yourself more concerned with what God thinks of your actions and less concerned with what other people think or the opposite. Are you becoming more like Christ or less like him? As Lewis pointed out the selfish and self centered lives will inevitably end in ruin. However, Jesus himself demonstrated that the Christ-like life will endure and flourish even beyond the grave.

The Stepford God

People approach the idea of having a relationship with Jesus in at least three different ways. One approach is to simply reject the idea—to reason that there is no god, or at least not a god we can know. The second approach is an improvement, but not by much. Under this view, there is a god, but not a god with a mind of his own. You don’t follow god. He follows you. The last approach is to take Jesus as he intends to be taken—as Lord and savior. To demonstrate these approaches, I’ve used an illustration that other writers and speakers have used, which is based on the Stepford Wives films. In the 1975 film, the husbands kill their wives and replace them with emotionless robots. The robots look like the wives, but they exist only for their husbands’ personal pleasure. In the 2004 film, the wives aren’t dead, but they might as well be. Their husbands control their minds using microchips.

1. The Stepford God: The Original
God does not speak. We may have reasons to say that there is a god (e.g. the rational intelligibility of the universe), but not a god we can have a relationship with. If God exists, he is not concerned with human affairs. As far as we can tell, he has no interest in prayers, morality, changing people, suffering, death, or the afterlife. These are merely human concerns. If anything can be done about them, it must be done by us. We must build the solutions. And when all of our buildings collapse… well, let’s not worry about that. At least we tried. What we cannot build simply cannot exist. Anyone who says anything different probably isn't telling the truth. And if God says anything different, someone probably put a lie in his mouth. How do we know? Because “the true God” does not speak. How do we know? Well... we cannot be completely sure.  After all, that would make us omniscient! But we think the old philosopher was probably right: “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” But don’t worry. We have replaced him with our own creations, and they will probably work... probably.

2. The Stepford God: The Remake
God is not dead. God is alive and speaking. How do I know? Because he says whatever I want him to say. He does whatever I want him to do. And he gives me whatever I want. If things aren't going my way, I'm just not trusting him enough. But God wants to give me everything I want. He is always on my side, always agreeing with me and never contradicting me. He loves me just the way I am, and he would never try to change me. And he is very concerned with human affairs, especially mine. In fact, he is so concerned that he seems to have no independent will of his own. But he is not dead! I'm not sure why he would need to die anyway (then again, I am worth dying for). But I didn’t kill him... I only put a microchip in his brain.

3. The True God

“[T]his is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. . . . For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (Jn 17:3, 18:37).

There is a God, and we can know him by believing in his son. Jesus Christ lived, died, and was raised from the dead. As a result, we can have a relationship with God. This means that God is not distant, and we have something much better than an abstraction. We have direct access to the God who created the universe—and he loves us! Yet we do not just call him our loving savior.  We also call him our Lord.  If he is anything less than that, then how could we possibly call him God?

Worldviews: Destiny

"Human life and consciousness requires, by its very nature, a projected future." -Dallas Willard

The fourth question that we will look at in this series is that of Destiny: What does our future hold? It is essential to our existence that we hold onto a vision of what is to come. You could say that we are obsessed with the future, always moving and acting in response to what we believe lies ahead. The future is what gives meaning to our daily actions, its what enlivens and empowers us to continue and persist. It gives us hope. But there is seemingly an end point for each one of us, a finish line for our life. We call this death. The question is, if death is the absolute end for each one of us how can we possibly live with the knowledge that there ultimately is no future for us? We will look at three different ways that we can approach this:

The first is that we can simply ignore it. We can disregard the fact that we will ever die, we can remove it from our thinking. We can live as if this life will go on for eternity, as if death is so far away that it is infinitely minute and thus worthless to even consider. But this won't change the fact that death is coming, and there will most likely come a point where we must consider it and despair is sure to follow. The following excerpt from Jean-Paul Sartre's The Wall (can find it here - http://faculty.risd.edu/dkeefer/pod/wall.pdf) illustrates this point very well - this is from a man who is going to be executed the following day:

"At that moment I felt that I had my whole life in front of me and I thought, "It's a damned lie." It was worth nothing because it was finished. I wondered how I'd been able to walk, to laugh with the girls: I wouldn't have moved so much as my little finger if I had only imagined I would die like this. My life was in front of me, shut, closed, like a bag and yet everything inside of it was unfinished. For an instant I tried to judge it. I wanted to tell myself, this is a beautiful life. But I couldn't pass judgment on it; it was only a sketch; I had spent my time counterfeiting eternity, I had understood nothing. I missed nothing: there were so many things I could have missed, the taste of manzanilla or the baths I took in summer in a little creek near Cadiz; but death had disenchanted everything."

However, there is another option if we don't want to simply ignore it. We can vicariously continue through our fellow man. We can take "my future" and move it to "our future". The future of man or the future of this earth. Yes we will die but the human race will remain and go on to multiply and flourish. We can take heart that our race will not die out and we can do our part to ensure that it continues. But even here, the despair will set in when we realize that our race and our universe has an expiration date - eventually everything will collapse and there will be nothing left of any of us.

Is it inevitable then? Are we doomed to live in the dread and despair that death brings?

 

Absolutely not! There is third option that does not end in despair but in joy and it comes when we place our trust in the only person to ever defeat death, that is Jesus Christ who has "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." He says that "Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." Jesus Christ ensures our future and by doing so he gives meaning and hope to us right now. And when we die we will enter into the "joy of our Lord" (Matt 25:21), our bodies will be transformed into glorious ones (Phil 3:21), and we will rule with Him forever and ever (Rev 2:26, 3:21).

As such the follower of Christ is not afraid of death as others are (see http://www.dennyburk.com/chavezs-last-words-and-yours/) but can experience death with confidence knowing that better things await and can presently live a life full of love, joy, and hope that is only found in the one and only eternal God.

Worldviews, Morality: What is good?

In Plato's dialogue, Euthyphro, Socrates asks the title character whether that which is pious is loved by the gods because it is pious, or whether it is pious because it is loved by the gods. In other words, Socrates wishes to know if something is pious merely because the gods have ordained and determined it to be pious or is there actually a universal understanding of piety that the gods recognize and thus love.

I would say the same question could be asked of morality. Is something good, or evil, because God has stated that it is good, or was it good to begin with, and thus God recognizes and supports its goodness?

Morality in a Post-Modern World

The prevailing belief in our post-modern culture supports the latter proposition: Good exists in and of itself, and if there is a god, that being must recognize and support the existence of that good. Defining good, however, is much more difficult. In fact, this worldview has often refused to define that which is good, and instead chosen to focus on decrying that which is evil. Evil, of course, would be anything that harms or injures another individual who did not deserve to have that harm occur. Evil would include murders, thefts, assaults, defrauding, and a host of actions which cause pain and hardship to those who are undeserving. Good, as an undefined opposite, is simply everything else; those actions that do not directly cause harm or injury to other individuals. Thus, in popular culture, good is often left undefined, and in our increasingly post-modern culture, is a decision of each individual's conscience.

Religious Morality

In opposition, the vast majority of world religions would say that good does not exist in and of itself, but instead, by the decrees and determinations of God. That means that something that is good is only that which God has determined and decreed to be good; that which is evil is that which God has determined and decreed to be evil. In this worldview, there is a strict code of morality. There is no room for personal determinations or decisions on conscience. Instead, there is only a clearly defined code of moral law.

The Biblical View of Morality

However, God's view of good is starkly different from both of these views. The Bible doesn't tell us that something is good because God determined it to be so or because it was good and God recognized it as so. Instead, the Bible simply tells us that God -IS- good. In other words, that which is good is that which is from God, serves God, and pleases God.

For example, when the rich young ruler addressed Christ as "good teacher," and asked Him how to inherit eternal life, Christ's first response was, "Why do you call me good? No one is good - except God alone." (Luke 18:19) In this passage, Christ did not deny his deity. Instead, he merely refuted the young man's statement. The young man believed that Christ was good because of his value and wisdom as a teacher. Essentially, he believed that Christ was good because He could discern the moral code that would grant eternal life. But Christ's initial response was simple: there is no good, except for God. It's fitting, then, that Christ answered the young man's question with the simple command to "Follow Me."

Therefore, to be good, something must be related to or in service of God. In Romans, Paul quotes the Psalmist as saying, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God ... there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:10-12) Simply put, Paul recognizes that no one is good, and no one does good, because no one seeks after God. Goodness, then, is not something that can tangibly be pursued. It is not something that can be reached or obtained. Instead, goodness is the result of pursuing the will of the only One who is good, God. To be good, then, means to follow and seek after God. It means to obey His will, purposefully and devotedly.

Worldviews: Does Life Have a Purpose?

[A]ll things were created through him and for him. . . . [I]n him all things hold together. (Col. 1:16-17 ESV)

We were made to glorify God. Some skeptics say that there is no God and life is ultimately meaningless. But no healthy human being lives that way. So they say we must construct meaning for ourselves, claiming we can then be free to have more fun. As Albert Camus put it, maybe "the struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart." Here's the problem. If life is ultimately meaningless, everything you experience will be meaningless too.

You may still, in the lowest sense, have a “good time”; but just in so far as it becomes very good, just in so far as it ever threatens to push you on from cold sensuality into real warmth and enthusiasm and joy, so afar you will be forced to feel the hopeless disharmony between your own emotions and the universe in which you really live.
-C.S. Lewis

Continuing to perform a meaningless act does not make it meaningful. Life is absurd unless there really is an eternal, all-powerful God who gives meaning.

[W]hoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:24 ESV)

This verse reveals a paradoxical truth that is hard to surrender to. We love ourselves a lot! And freedom really is a good thing. But real freedom is not just freedom from. Genuine freedom is freedom for something. Consider the art we admire. No one sees Starry Night Over the Rhone and says, “Too bad Van Gogh imposed his will on that poor canvas.” What makes that canvas so amazing is that it reflects the will of an amazing artist. Similarly, when you submit your life to God, you can experience genuine freedom and fulfillment. If I live to glorify myself, concerned only with my selfish impulses and ambitions, I will shrink into despair and obscurity. But if I live to glorify Jesus, his word guarantees that I will be “raised in glory.” (1 Cr. 15:43).

Why bother with origin?

An imperative part of any worldview is the question of origin: How did we get here? This question has been debated time and time again. Why, then, is it so important as Christians that we know and understand our worldview? Consider Psalm 19:1: 

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." 

The psalmist here looks at all the glory and complexity of the world, and attributes it right to God. He cannot view the sky and the heavens without seeing they are a part of God's testimony of creation. The appreciation and respect for God is strengthened when the world is viewed as his "handiwork." We cannot view the world as something that occurred by chance, and God simply as an afterthought. The complexity of the world attests that it was designed. This is best put by this quote from Einstein:

“I'm not an atheist and I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations.”

From examining the most complex aspects of the sciences, it is clear that God's power is boundless and beyond what we humans can fully grasp. We can't comprehend everything. After making that realization, it's no longer a step of "blind faith" to believe the universe was created by God, but we then can see the complexity of the universe as God's handiwork.

Worldviews Apart

Every person has a worldview, a framework through which to interpret the world. When preaching the gospel, Christians should be prepared to present the Christian worldview to people who do not already understand or accept it. Over the next few months, we will discuss how the Christian worldview answers four very important questions:
(1) Origins – where did we come from and why does it matter?
(2) Morality – do good and evil exist, and if so, how do we know?
(3) Meaning – does life have a purpose?
(4) Destiny – what happens after I die?

Whether Christian or not, most people can provide some kind of answer to each question. But do the answers fit together coherently? Have we really considered the implications of our beliefs? Consider the question of morality. Some people say we have beliefs about morality, and they claim that these beliefs are nothing but beliefs. But then they insist that we can and must be good people. Similarly, some people say life is meaningless in the beginning and meaningless in the end. Yet they insist that we search for meaning during the present.

The myth of Sisyphus comes to mind. Are we like the condemned king, endlessly rolling a rock up a steep hill only to have it roll back to the bottom? Or is there something better?

The Fallacy of "Love"

“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.” - Rick Warren

 I'm not sure who this post is for. Is it for Christians who are struggling to balance the competing interests of loving those around them while holding fast to their biblical convictions about sin? Or is it for the multitude of non-Christians who refuse to understand how a person could 'love' them and yet vehemently oppose their way of life. I guess, in short, I hope both sides might find a bit of encouragement here.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest of all the commandments were, his response was simple and poignant, "Love God with everything you are, and then love your neighbors as much as you love yourself." (paraphrased from Matthew 22:37-39). Of course, the One who gave that command was also the greatest example of living such love out. No one in history, and no fictional character ever dreamed up, could match the outpour and depth of Christ's love. Every word, every action, every thought and desire was focused on first loving and glorifying the Father, and then loving and redeeming us.

But love, Christ's love, was not merely a gesture of goodwill and support. It was just not endless compassion, sympathy, acceptance and mercy. Instead, Christ's love was something much more powerful: it was the desire to see a fallen world redeemed to the Father, a desire to see individuals transformed from corrupted beings of darkness into vessels of the Father's glory. You see, Christ loved us with a fervent and unending passion, but He didn't love our lifestyle. He didn't love our vanity, our pride, our immorality, our wickedness. He didn't love our sin. He didn't love the life choices that prevented us from full fellowship with the Father. And so, He came to love us, and in that love, He showed goodwill, support, compassion, sympathy, acceptance and mercy, but He also rebuked, criticised, admonished and exhorted us. He embraced the sinner with open arms but also condemned the life that sinner lived. And ultimately, He died, not to save the lives of those who followed Him, but to give us a new life, one separate from the corruption and sin that plague us.

The gospels are rife with demonstrations of this love. In John 8, he tells the adulteress woman, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." Jesus loved her, He accepted her, He forgave her, but He also told her that her lifestyle was wrong and that it must change. He didn't condemn her, but He -did- condemn her lifestyle. He didn't tell her that it was her life to live how she wanted, or that she could choose whatever lifestyle best suited her. Instead, He loved her, and in showing that love, told her to change her ways.

So, then, when Christ says to love your neighbors as yourself, that doesn't mean we sit idly by and watch the world languish in lifestyles that celebrate the destructive power of sin. Instead, it means that we too should burn with the passion to see our neighbors embrace the grace and mercy of the Father and become those incorruptible, sinless vessels of His glory. Not because we've reached that stage (God knows Christians, including myself, have sins enough of their own) but because we know that we're called to something greater. So when Christians preach against all sorts of immorality, its not because we hate you, or fear you, or want to condemn you, or want to judge you and villainize you to make ourselves feel superior. Instead, we do it because we love you. We do it because our hearts are broken to see the corruption that runs rampant through ourselves and our neighbors. We do it because we want to see the mercy, power and glory of God realized in you, like it has been so wonderfully realized in us. So, non-Christians, realize that we don't hate you, but we also can't support a lifestyle that God has clearly condemned. He wants something greater for you, and so do we.

Has America Become Content With Superficial Christianity?

I'm not a big fan of excessive complaining, and I even consider myself an optimist.  But certain things about the expression of Christianity in America worry me, especially when I start to see them in myself:

Instead of trusting in the Lord, even with our money, we are content with putting “In God We Trust” on our money.

Rather than honoring Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts, we are content with honoring Him on our t-shirts and facebook profiles.

Jesus said to take up your cross and follow Him, but we are content with taking crosses and putting them up on our walls, and following Christian blogs, podcasts, and "tweets."

We were told to be diligent to make our calling and election sure, but we are content with being diligent in electing politicians who are Christians for sure.

When we should be asking if the Lord’s laws are written on people’s hearts and on their minds, we are content with having them written on courthouse monuments and in our nation’s statutes.

Are we becoming content with superficial Christianity?

Ministry

Convicted. That is the word that describes my experience whilst reading "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I will let his words make up the rest of this post.

"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will constantly be crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps - reading the Bible(Luke 10). When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God's way must be done.

It is a strange fact that Christians and ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God's "crooked yet straight path" (Gottfried Arnold). They do not want a life that is crossed and balked. But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.

Only where hands are not too good for deeds of love and mercy in everyday helpfulness can the mouth joyfully and convincingly proclaim the message of God's love and mercy."

Paul repeated the question: “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” And Jesus spoke in parables. So is doctrine just a bunch of trivia created by preachers and theologians—essentially theoretical—that might direct us toward God, but should not cause anyone to think he or she knows anything about who God really is?

J.F.K. once said, “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.”  This could probably apply to doctrine, which means instruction or teaching.  The bible discusses two types.  One is man-made (e.g., Mar. 7:1-16), and the other comes from God (Tit. 2:10).  As Corey and Matt explained, the bible—God’s instruction—reflects who God is.  So those who genuinely desire to know God must be open to his instruction (Joh. 14:15-17).  The danger of man-made doctrine is that it causes people to stray from God’s instruction (Mar. 7:1-16, Col. 2:8).  Those who promote it aren’t interested in building up the church or being faithful to the clear teaching of the bible—they’re experts in things that cause speculation, disputes, and moral uncertainty (1 Tim 1:3-11).  They often operate subtly.

In Genesis, for example, Satan could’ve openly told Eve, “Disobey God!”  Instead, he cleverly approached her when she was alone, asking, “Did God actually say . . . ?” (Gen. 3:1).  He apparently convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by getting her to question the authoritativeness of God’s instruction.  By causing confusion about what God has said, Satan causes confusion about who God is (see Rom. 1:18-32).  But our “God is not a God of confusion.”  (1 Cor. 14:33).  He wants us to know Him (Joh. 17:2-3).  This is why Paul prayed that we would “be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding . . . and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Col. 1:9-10).

Of course, we presently know only what God has revealed to us at this time.  But at some point, we “shall know fully.” (1 Cor. 13:12).  Meanwhile, we can be confident that what we know now is substantial (see 1 Joh. 5:20).  Believers “have the mind of Christ” and can actually comprehend “the thoughts of God.” (1 Cor. 2:9-16).  And what we learn about God through the Spirit is confirmed in the bible.  So if you reject or otherwise mishandle sound, biblical doctrine, you’ll be rejecting the truth about who God really is—this is not trivial (see Tit. 1:10-16).

Is it easy to follow God?

Is it easy to follow God? I think that depends on how much God you're actually following. I have observed a peculiar behavior from some, where the Bible is taken to a sieve, and any part of it that would make someone uncomfortable would be sifted out. What remains is a politically correct, albeit watered-down, version of God. A version of God that will tell you whatever you want to hear and that lives for you. A version of God that is butterflies and rainbows. A version of God that is easy to follow. Why are these thoughts peculiar? Because they are far from the truth that God wants us to have. If you remove parts of the Bible you are removing God's intentions for the world and for you. In fact, you're missing out on something.

The idea of being challenged by the Bible is not a new one. In fact, a man approached Jesus believing that he had it all together- he had kept all the commandments. Jesus then told the man something he didn't want to hear:

Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (Matthew 19:21 ESV)

What did this young, rich man do when he heard the Truth of God, straight out of the mouth of Christ? He left in sorrow, because he had so many possessions. Like this man, it is easy for us to get out of scripture only what seems relevant to ourselves, and to dismiss the rest as irrelevant, mistranslated, or metaphorical. The man in the verse thought that knowing God was only about keeping the Commandments, but it was quickly pointed out to him that there was more to it than that. He found out that in order to know the real God, not one just invented for his own reality, he must dig deeper. A God that has been sifted and watered-down is not the God of reality, not the God who promises eternal life, treasure and everlasting joy, but a false, shallow god. To have the true God means to take God in full, down to the core. It is imperative that we embrace all of God through the Scriptures and not hold back.

Can we really know God? More on this next post.

The Bible

This is the start of a four part series. We are starting with the following question:

How much of the bible do I need to accept in order to become a Christian?

In order to become a Christian you need to accept a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. There is not a set of certain propositions that you have to intellectually accept before you can become a Christian. “Christian” means “little Christ,” and it was a term used to describe some of the early disciples of Christ. A disciple of Christ is someone who follows Him, trusts Him, and continuously learns from Him how to live his/her life. To become a disciple of Christ, you simply have to accept HIM into your life, to put HIM above everything else in your life. No matter how much information you intellectually accept as true about Christ, you do not become a disciple until you accept HIM into your life, which means that it is entirely possible to believe that every word of the bible is true and still not be a disciple of Christ. And keep in mind that “accepting” Him also does not mean accepting an idea of Him that someone has created that is not grounded in the truth of the bible.

So where is the balance here? How do Christ and the bible fit together? The bible is entirely about Christ, from the beginning to the end. When you accept Christ into your life you get the entirety of the bible as well. The Christ that you have accepted is the same Christ that the bible extensively talks about. So how much of the bible do you “need” to accept in order to become a Christian? You “need” to accept Christ, and when you do you get the privilege of reading and accepting His words, the bible. Christ says himself that, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If we accept Him then we will also listen to and accept what he has to say to us. But this poses a problem for many of us. What happens when we come across some of His words that we don’t like? What do we do when the bible says something that makes us feel uncomfortable? This will be addressed in the next post.

Pointless Fighting Over Religion

For centuries, Jews, Babylonians, Romans, Muslims, and even Christians have fought for control over the location at which God told Abraham to offer his son (near Mt. Moriah, the present site of the Muslim Dome of the Rock). Originally the site of King Solomon’s temple, several other temples have been built on this land, destroyed, and rebuilt over time. People of various cultures have offered sacrifices and prayers to various gods at this spot. One might ask, "why couldn't they just get along and worship together? Don't they have anything in common?"

Well, to some extent, there is common ground. The common ground is the ground itself and the stories it tells. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe that God told Abraham to offer his son on a mountain in Moriah. There is disagreement over which son, as well as over the event's implications. Regardless, we can agree that God stopped Abraham just before he could take his son’s life on that mountain. As Abraham had already spoken, God provided the offering that day.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.(Gen 22:13)

God spared Abraham's son and provided the offering in Abraham's day, but he did not spare his own son when Jesus died on the cross. Abraham's "test" on the mountain in Moriah foreshadowed the perfect offering of God’s only begotten son as the ultimate sacrifice for sins.

Pilate went out again and said to them, "See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him." So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!" (Joh 19:4-5)

Interestingly, although we don’t know the exact geographic location of Calvary (a.k.a. Golgotha), the place of Christ’s crucifixion, it is believed that Calvary is at least within half a mile of Mt. Moriah (Heb. 13:12), just outside of the walls of Jerusalem.

The Uniqueness of Christ

People have argued about religion and truth for thousands of years. But at times, when we've been honest with ourselves, we have been able to agree about some things, including the condition of man. No matter how much good we do, there is always a feeling on the inside that something is still missing - that because we are all human, we'll never be able to get to the point where we can say things are just as they should be in our hearts.

We Christians believe that Jesus is the missing piece for every person-not more trying and more good deeds. That does not mean good works have no importance. However, doing good simply won't be enough to make things right on the inside. Even atheists have appreciated how Jesus gave us such an accurate description of our hearts.

Consider the recent conversion of A.N. Wilson, English writer and newspaper columnist. He attended theological college, only to drop out at the end of his first year. Persuaded by the popular mode of intellectualism, he thought that no one could know the truth about who Jesus was, and that we couldn’t rely on the bible’s account of Jesus:

“[W]e can accept some church version of Jesus, or if it makes more appeal to us, we can accept a ‘heretic’ version; or we can make one up by ourselves.”

An atheist for thirty years, Wilson reconstructed his own view of Jesus by looking to the very scriptures he claimed we could not rely on, and then by speculating that Jesus was something other than what was presented in those scriptures (e.g. that Jesus was probably married).

After thirty years of being a very vocal atheist, Wilson recently returned to the Christian faith, accepting the gospel and the biblical view of Jesus in what he calls a road to Damascus experience:

“In the past, I have questioned [the gospel’s] veracity and suggested that it should not be taken literally. But the more I read the Easter story, the better it seems to fit and apply to the human condition. That, too, is why I now believe in it.”

Similarly, W.E.H. Lecky, historian and atheist (never a convert to Christianity) said this about Jesus's character, as presented by Christianity:

“[It] has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue but the strongest incentive to its practice; and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers, and all the exhortations of moralists.”

History of European morals: from Augustus to Charlemagne, Volume 2

Also consider this interesting observation of Christian apologist, Ravi Zacharias:

"So profound was the transformation of British society that Bertrand Russell, one of the most prominent and influential atheists of the last century, could later write, 'It is doubtful that the method of Mahatma Gandhi would have succeeded except that he was appealing to the conscience of a Christianized people.'"

Ravi Zacharias said he was amused to see this quote by Russell, an atheist, in the home of Ghandi, a pantheist.

Our church will be covering the issue of truth starting on January 1st:

http://www.icontact-archive.com/qBrsGr8VFWe6RhfqOBRshfOK0ckkYIsA?w=2

Room Full of Guys: Eating Wings, Watching Sports, and Talking About Jesus

The men of Grandview Christian Assembly and Oasis Christian Community gathered together on a Friday night and had a good time. Not surprisingly, food was consumed and we talked about sports. But something special happened-we talked about Jesus.

I think the conversation that went on that night is one that all men should have at some point, as well as one that men should constantly keep in their minds. The conversation required us to consider what it means to be a man of God. I'd like to offer a few points that stuck with me, along with a relevant bible verse:

1. Being a man of God means being responsible for something outside of yourself.
2. Being a man of God does not mean that you cannot be compassionate.
3. Being a man of God means being passionate about things that are meaningful rather than things that are meaningless.
4. Men of God have Jesus as their standard (not Al Bundy, Peter Griffin, and Homer Simpson).

"...the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." - Mark 10:45