So... I really enjoy watching the show Glee. Even though it's morality is beyond sketch and in some ways seems to have an intense gay/lesbian rights agenda throughout the plot... I laugh at it. But, I do feel torn watching it. Sort of. Maybe I feel torn that I should feel worse and just stop watching it. But, for now, I'm committed.
But last night as I watched the Christmas Glee episode, I was confused and surprised when at the end of the show, one of the kids reads part of the Christmas story as the reason for their celebrating together. No, not the Christmas story with Santa visiting - the Christmas story where angels announce the birth of Christ to sheperds watching their flocks by night. Part of the actual story of Christmas, and the reason we all celebrate the King of Kings.
The thing about Glee is, that show has certainly mocked Christianity before. There was the grilled Cheesus show, that I missed but heard was somewhat blasphemous. There was Quinn, who on the outside was this goody Christian girl, president of the Chastity club, who actually is really mean, and is very hypocritical... she gets pregnant, way to support chastity!!! There hasn't been too much positive attention given to Jesus on the show. Possibly because the Bible does not support homosexuality, or because the Bible says we are all sinners that need a savior, not good people that bad things happen to... but, all that to say, you can imagine my surprise while watching the show!!! Why this section of the Christmas story from the Bible? What does this announcement mean? What are the directors of Glee wanting this announcement of the Savior to mean?
Maybe we want to pick and choose which parts of the Gospel apply or speak truth to us. Maybe the innocence and humility of the Christ being born in a manger, and the announcement being given to the lowly shepherds, rings true in our hearts. The Savior has been born! We can all celebrate!!!
I think then the breakdown comes over what we as humans need salvation from. That is where the Gospel offends, because it calls all of us sinners, condemned, unclean. Liars, murderers, adulterers, idolaters, evil, impure, wicked. Any negative word you can think of, the Gospel rightly says, We are perpetrators.
That truth is hard to embrace. But we must see the depths of our sin, and realize our total failing before a perfect King, to recognize our desperate need for a Savior.
Jesus Christ entered the world. He came in humility, but lived a perfect life. Then, at the right time, he died the most gruesome death, on our behalf. But then, 3 days later, there was a triuphant resurrection, and Christ's power over sin and death was claimed!
This is a message you probably will not see spelled out on Glee. But, I pray that the Bible story they did read may have picked the curiosity of some watchers, and hopefully they decided to not stop reading there.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Surrogates
Last year, I watched this very strange movie with some friends called "Surrogates". While Derek tried to fool me into thinking it was a documentary following surrogate moms and their children, the actual movie had nothing to do with parenthood.
Checking the Merriam Webster website, my personal favorite internet dictionary site, surrogate is to put in the place of another. It is to appoint as successor, deputy, or substitue for one's self.
The movie Surrogates is a futuristic sci-fi thriller, in which most of the worldwide population had decided to live their live's through computer programs that allowed them to operate surrogate bodys. While actual people lived in their apartments or houses, the fear of the outside world bringing hurt or pain or death, kept them inside, and the preference of living in the most perfect machine body in your price range enveloped mainstream society.
So, I'm not going to spoil the movie here, don't worry if you haven't seen it. Truthfully, I don't really remember the plot and end of the movie. I only remember what bothered me... the thought that we might be headed in that direction in society for real. That scares me.
First of all, I don't think surrogates would encourage real community. The point of the surrogate is that you could create the perfect you. Such as- if in real life you had really bad acne, your surrogate would have smooth, flawless skin. In real life you might weigh 400 pounds, your surrogate would be the most awesome size 0 completely chiseled and toned body. In real life you may be a girl, but your surrogate may be a man. Through the reigning techology you could literally create the perfect life substitute. There is something inherently fake about having a surrogate, like you are trying to hide the you that has imperfections and flaws and sins. It seems like a very isolating and empty lifestyle.
Second, the movie was very confused. The movie created a scenario that depected sin, murder, hate, envy, and all of those evils as simply because life was unfair, but that surrogates allow everyone to be beautiful and have incredible strengths and skills, so crime dropped dramatically with the development of surrogates. Let me just say, no matter how sophisticated a computer surrogate can be, sin will not disappear from it's creation. Sin is deeper than people doing bad things. People don't just sin, we are sinful. Our outward actions are not the only problem, greed and pride and jealously always run rampant in the human heart. We are completely dead inside, completely self centered... any good in our lives points to God's grace, not to our goodness.
But the movie certainly highlights some truth, that our human hearts point to and long for, although we don't know how to acheive what we want. Our bodies are not perfect, for all sorts of reason, but we long for perfection. My mom is handicapped, and walking is a struggle for her. But, she is determined to continue to live as independently as possible. But my mom has a hope and a promise that not all people share. My mom knows that this life and body are temporary, but that one day, she will be in the presence of Christ, and that when the great resurrection happens, she will be given a new, perfect body! We long for perfection, because we were created for perfection. Now, sin has so permeated everything that we are confused about what perfect even is. But, what a sweet truth that followers of Christ have... this is not all there is or ever will be!
I hope we do not go down the path that Surrogates the movie went down. I don't think it would be a black and white issue, but very gray, and very complicated. But, our society is continually evolving, sometimes quite rapidly, and becoming more dependent upon technology for everything. As Christians we do need to be ready for what the future holds, and ready to give answer for what we beleive and why. But techonology may prove to be just another way to point to the truth that the human heart is broken, but longs for perfection that can only be found in Christ.
Checking the Merriam Webster website, my personal favorite internet dictionary site, surrogate is to put in the place of another. It is to appoint as successor, deputy, or substitue for one's self.
The movie Surrogates is a futuristic sci-fi thriller, in which most of the worldwide population had decided to live their live's through computer programs that allowed them to operate surrogate bodys. While actual people lived in their apartments or houses, the fear of the outside world bringing hurt or pain or death, kept them inside, and the preference of living in the most perfect machine body in your price range enveloped mainstream society.
So, I'm not going to spoil the movie here, don't worry if you haven't seen it. Truthfully, I don't really remember the plot and end of the movie. I only remember what bothered me... the thought that we might be headed in that direction in society for real. That scares me.
First of all, I don't think surrogates would encourage real community. The point of the surrogate is that you could create the perfect you. Such as- if in real life you had really bad acne, your surrogate would have smooth, flawless skin. In real life you might weigh 400 pounds, your surrogate would be the most awesome size 0 completely chiseled and toned body. In real life you may be a girl, but your surrogate may be a man. Through the reigning techology you could literally create the perfect life substitute. There is something inherently fake about having a surrogate, like you are trying to hide the you that has imperfections and flaws and sins. It seems like a very isolating and empty lifestyle.
Second, the movie was very confused. The movie created a scenario that depected sin, murder, hate, envy, and all of those evils as simply because life was unfair, but that surrogates allow everyone to be beautiful and have incredible strengths and skills, so crime dropped dramatically with the development of surrogates. Let me just say, no matter how sophisticated a computer surrogate can be, sin will not disappear from it's creation. Sin is deeper than people doing bad things. People don't just sin, we are sinful. Our outward actions are not the only problem, greed and pride and jealously always run rampant in the human heart. We are completely dead inside, completely self centered... any good in our lives points to God's grace, not to our goodness.
But the movie certainly highlights some truth, that our human hearts point to and long for, although we don't know how to acheive what we want. Our bodies are not perfect, for all sorts of reason, but we long for perfection. My mom is handicapped, and walking is a struggle for her. But, she is determined to continue to live as independently as possible. But my mom has a hope and a promise that not all people share. My mom knows that this life and body are temporary, but that one day, she will be in the presence of Christ, and that when the great resurrection happens, she will be given a new, perfect body! We long for perfection, because we were created for perfection. Now, sin has so permeated everything that we are confused about what perfect even is. But, what a sweet truth that followers of Christ have... this is not all there is or ever will be!
I hope we do not go down the path that Surrogates the movie went down. I don't think it would be a black and white issue, but very gray, and very complicated. But, our society is continually evolving, sometimes quite rapidly, and becoming more dependent upon technology for everything. As Christians we do need to be ready for what the future holds, and ready to give answer for what we beleive and why. But techonology may prove to be just another way to point to the truth that the human heart is broken, but longs for perfection that can only be found in Christ.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Forgetfulness
So... I have a confession to make. I have a really hard time with losing things. Well, what I mean to say is, I have a habit of losing things recently, like my purse, my cell phone, my keys, my wallet, my sunglasses... pretty much anything you can think of, I've misplaced or forgotten multiple times in the past 7 months. I've locked my keys in my car 4 times, 3 of those times within 2 months... I am so thankful for AAA because I've gotten my usage out of them! I'm especially irked with myself tonight, as I left my cell phone in my mom's van that's in High Point being worked on... how could I have done that! If losing things is an art, I have mastered it.
There are some things I try really hard to remember but forget anyway. Like, my friend's birthdays... usually I remember what month they are in, but I forget the exact day... at least now I can cheat on Facebook and look up their birthdays online.
Sometimes I can remember the most random things about a person, like who enjoys the Dove chocolate promises, and who thinks they are ridiculous. Or, why a friend hates the song about the Christmas Shoes...
And then, some things I do remember about my friends, that probably most of their friends know about them, because it's just part of who they are. I know which of my friends enjoy the arts, which of my friends enjoy sports, which of my friends like pottery, which of my friends like reading, which of my friends enjoys playing ROOK...
The thing I seem most prone to forget though, and the thing I desperately need to remember and take to heart moment by moment, is the Gospel. That is, that though I am a wretched sinner that is unworthy of God's love, that He sent His Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life, and then die a sinner's death, taking the sin of the world and the full wrath of God onto his being on the cross, and then three days later, He rose from the grave. And now Jesus sits at the righthand of God, and because He became the curse for me, through faith in His Provision and sacrifice, I can have eternal life. But not only do I have eternal life, when God looks upon me, He sees Jesus' righteousness, and His holiness, and His perfection, and it's not because of me or anything I have done or ever could do! It has NOTHING to do with me! And that's what I tend to forget.
Now, it's not like I forget the Gospel conceptually, I have just shared the Gospel with you. I know the Gospel. I understand the Gospel. I desperately need the Gospel. It indeed is my only hope.
It's more... well, sometimes I just don't live with the confidence the Gospel should impart... sometimes I live in guilt and only see my sinful depraved state before a Holy God who's wrath on sin is just and right and good. Sometimes I forget my sinful state and act like I could earn my own salvation by being good enough. Sometimes I forget to value the Gospel for the priceless treasure that it is, and I instead worship other idols that might be good things, but they are not meant to fulfill me the way that worshiping Christ should fulfill me. And these lessons are sometimes cyclicar, I grasp the Gospel one day, one moment, and elevate another idol the next. How can I forget this!??!!!
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, my beleif in the Gospel, the hope of my Salvation, has nothing to do with me. And that is a really great thing. I could never be good enough to deserve God's love. I could never earn enough gold stars to get into heaven. I cannot even come close to living a perfect life. I need to remember this truth, because salvation comes by faith alone, not in our good works. I need to be aware of my depravity and sinful state, to understand the complete mess I am in, to recognize my need for a Savior.
But in my times of forgetfulness... in the times when my heart looks to idols instead of Christ for fulfillment, in the times my heart is proud and forgets how depraved and sinful I really am... in those times which I forget, God's salvation in my life, and my election, still stands. In fact, the crazy thing, or one of the craziest things about salvation to me is, that God saves us knowing that we will forget! Knowing that we will continue to struggle with erecting different idols in our life, knowing that we will seek our joy in lesser things, knowing that we will still screw up royally... He knows that we are prone to forget... but He will never let us completely forget. He will remind us through His Word, and through His Body, (the local Gospel-centered church), through taking communion, through His Creation... He won't let us forget, because He is true to His promise of Salvation, and He is the source of our Faith.
There are some things I try really hard to remember but forget anyway. Like, my friend's birthdays... usually I remember what month they are in, but I forget the exact day... at least now I can cheat on Facebook and look up their birthdays online.
Sometimes I can remember the most random things about a person, like who enjoys the Dove chocolate promises, and who thinks they are ridiculous. Or, why a friend hates the song about the Christmas Shoes...
And then, some things I do remember about my friends, that probably most of their friends know about them, because it's just part of who they are. I know which of my friends enjoy the arts, which of my friends enjoy sports, which of my friends like pottery, which of my friends like reading, which of my friends enjoys playing ROOK...
The thing I seem most prone to forget though, and the thing I desperately need to remember and take to heart moment by moment, is the Gospel. That is, that though I am a wretched sinner that is unworthy of God's love, that He sent His Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life, and then die a sinner's death, taking the sin of the world and the full wrath of God onto his being on the cross, and then three days later, He rose from the grave. And now Jesus sits at the righthand of God, and because He became the curse for me, through faith in His Provision and sacrifice, I can have eternal life. But not only do I have eternal life, when God looks upon me, He sees Jesus' righteousness, and His holiness, and His perfection, and it's not because of me or anything I have done or ever could do! It has NOTHING to do with me! And that's what I tend to forget.
Now, it's not like I forget the Gospel conceptually, I have just shared the Gospel with you. I know the Gospel. I understand the Gospel. I desperately need the Gospel. It indeed is my only hope.
It's more... well, sometimes I just don't live with the confidence the Gospel should impart... sometimes I live in guilt and only see my sinful depraved state before a Holy God who's wrath on sin is just and right and good. Sometimes I forget my sinful state and act like I could earn my own salvation by being good enough. Sometimes I forget to value the Gospel for the priceless treasure that it is, and I instead worship other idols that might be good things, but they are not meant to fulfill me the way that worshiping Christ should fulfill me. And these lessons are sometimes cyclicar, I grasp the Gospel one day, one moment, and elevate another idol the next. How can I forget this!??!!!
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, my beleif in the Gospel, the hope of my Salvation, has nothing to do with me. And that is a really great thing. I could never be good enough to deserve God's love. I could never earn enough gold stars to get into heaven. I cannot even come close to living a perfect life. I need to remember this truth, because salvation comes by faith alone, not in our good works. I need to be aware of my depravity and sinful state, to understand the complete mess I am in, to recognize my need for a Savior.
But in my times of forgetfulness... in the times when my heart looks to idols instead of Christ for fulfillment, in the times my heart is proud and forgets how depraved and sinful I really am... in those times which I forget, God's salvation in my life, and my election, still stands. In fact, the crazy thing, or one of the craziest things about salvation to me is, that God saves us knowing that we will forget! Knowing that we will continue to struggle with erecting different idols in our life, knowing that we will seek our joy in lesser things, knowing that we will still screw up royally... He knows that we are prone to forget... but He will never let us completely forget. He will remind us through His Word, and through His Body, (the local Gospel-centered church), through taking communion, through His Creation... He won't let us forget, because He is true to His promise of Salvation, and He is the source of our Faith.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
This summer has been the most dramatic summer of my life by far, and also the most free-ing. I've learned so much it's hard to think about one thing to focus in on for a blog entry. But, I might write about faith for a minute. There are things in life we can try to control and hold on to, which shows our faith is in ourselves and not really in God. The moment we let go though, our lives demonstrate this amazing opportunity to allow God to work uniquely. We'll all find ourselves in different situations for this to play out. For me, I was definitely stuck in some difficult circumstances carrying a burden I could not bear alone. But I also couldn't see a way out. I remember hearing a sermon though about God moving mountains in our lives, and seriously this summer has been God moving mountain after mountain for me. The thing is, there are still some very difficult circumstances going on with my family that are completely out of my control. I could worry about them, but what would be the point? Jesus told us very plainly not to worry. What good does it do? Now, at this juncture in my life I am finding it very easy to let go of everything, and that doesn't mean that in the future I'll always have perfect faith and will never worry about anything. However, right now I've just seen God in His Sovereignty too clearly take care of me, even though it meant that I lost my sanity for a period of time in the process. I keep laughing that my worst fear became true in a sense, I had this lurking fear that I would develop schizophrenia like my biological mother had. I was diagnosed with bi-polar with manic psychosis this summer. I was very manic and psychotic, and hyper religious. I've got a bookful of funny hospital stories, actually... okay maybe not a bookful, but the more I remember, the more I realize how out of it I had become. But I learned a lot about faith in the hospital, and trusting in God and in the body of Christ. I might not have trusted my family, the doctors, the nurses, the social workers or the medications, but thankfully the Lord graciously allowed me to trust in Him and my church family through the process. I will only be able to say a fitting thank you I'm sure on the other side of eternity to everyone who supported me through that period. But seeing how God took care of detail after detail over my life reinforces the faith I have in His Goodness and Providence over all. And, I think that's what learning to live with faith in Christ is about. Letting go of everything and allowing Him to work out His Divine Plan through you. Beleiving the promises He has given us in His Word.
I still don't understand everything or pretend to know it all. I can only rest my hope in the One who does know how His Plan for creation will be competely worked out in the end.
I still don't understand everything or pretend to know it all. I can only rest my hope in the One who does know how His Plan for creation will be competely worked out in the end.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Spontaneous Expansion
I'm going to try to organize some thoughts about the books I'm having to read for class, and generate ideas of my final paper... this will be from The Sponaneous Expansion of The Church by Rolland Allen, if anyone decides to read for themselves.
Chapter 1. The Nature of Sponaneous Expression
When a person experiences the life changing power of Christ, they will naturally desire to share that experience with those around them. That person will share with with their peers, and I really like how Allen writes this... "He speaks from his heart because he is too eager to be able to refrain from speaking. His subject has gripped him. He speaks of what he knows, and knows by experience."
This really makes me wonder about how evangelism in the U.S. that became all about huge numbers of people praying to receive Christ, saying a prayer... don't get me wrong, I know the Holy Spirit can totally speak to people at rallies and conferences, and change their lives for Christ... but should we wait to count converts until actually seeing their heart and life changed? It seems like more of us here would share our faith naturally, eagerly, which also makes me wonder, how many of us actually have experienced God's deliverance and power and healing in our hearts and lives? It's just, this makes sense to me, we will share what we experience, and grow deeper through our sharing of that experience... I don't know... but I am certain that there are many who profess Christ here in the U.S., who know about Christ but do not have a vibrant living relationship with him, and there are also many who get so entrapped in sin and blinded by Satan's lies that they never do experience the freedom, deliverance, and full abundant life that Christ promises! So... what is my own testimony, what am I eager to share with my co-workers and friends and family of how God is working in my life?
The power of this tesimony is that it is voluntary and spontaneous - that is, if you are not being paid to share the gospel. I have friends in the ministry, and I want to go into the ministry myself, but we all know this is true to a certain degree, both here and overseas. I mean, if people think it is my profession to share the gospel, well, they know it is not my faith alone compelling me to share. Once I begin full time seminary studies, will the power of my testimony be affected because those non-beleivers will think I am simply gaining a new degree for a new means of employment? And, at my work right now, I feel a certain attitude would arise among co-workers that those in the full time ministry are so divorced from the stresses of normal everyday life, and that if they were not ministers of a paid profession, maybe their own faiths would dissolve over time as the demands of their family and career took over. I'm thinking particularly about my boss, who seems amused at my own faith, and Bible study, and desire to share Christ with the world, and has made comments that imply one day, I'll grow up, get married, have a family, and the pressures of life will not allow me time for Bible study and outreach and church. I cannot say that this could never happen. I see how it has happened to her, and many others, and it makes me pray that I will cling to God's Word as my life through all stages of my life. My boss also though does not beleive in the inerrancy of scripture, which would in the end make the surest difference in anyone's faith - if you stop believing God's word to be truth that is relevant to your life, well, why would you make studying it and fellowship around it a priority? All this to say, though, that our attitude that you need to be a trained minister to be able to share the Gospel is really a hindrance to the growth of the church, and that your own testimony might truly be a more powerful witness to a co-worker and a friend than the best sermon the best preacher can preach.
We distrust this "spontaneous expansion" process, for a lot of different reasons. We cannot control it, for one, and that is true, if the Holy Spirit is moving from person to person, that is certainly not something in our control! However, if we try to restrict that movement we can quench the movement of the Spirit and kill the spread of the gospel for all our good intentions. But should our fear of spontaneous expansion to become disordered be what dictates our missiology? I'm thinking the only fear we should have is a fear of God, and if in the end God holds us accountable for our desires to keep things in our control, to the detriment of the Gospel being spread, we need to take that seriously indeed.
"We cannot possibly open the door to an unrestricted freedom for the expression of the natural instinct and spiritual grace without opening it also to the expression of self-will; and that we dare not do." Wow. Missions during the time of expanssion and colonialism sometimes was really muddled, and I hope that at this point in history those out there spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth have a more noble goal for God's glory and name to be spread to the ends of the earth, for the planet to shout in worship to Him for our salvation.
Allen points out that actions that hold self will restrained also will restrain the zeal of a new beleiver, and that zeal and fervor is what would naturally compel the Gospel forward, goodness why have we ever gotten in the way?
If we fear that there will be disorder and rebellion against the Gospel and the church if we do not keep it under our control... we really miss a greater danger of an even greater rebellion that Allen points out... that, our efforts to control which diminish the zeal of new converts, eventually will be recognized by those foreigners we've tried to reach, and when their intellectual capacity allows them to see that foreigners used a Gospel message to keep them under control - they will resent the message we present and rebel. Whoa.
I'll begin chapter two later, but I will say this... these critiques Allen puts forth on how we've done missions (and granted his book was written 45 years ago and today the world of missions has grown and taken heed of many of his warnings and debated the ideas he writes about in this book...) but it makes me think, if this is how God works through the rest of the world, how has the church grown in such a different way here in the West, and has our church growth been of a lasting addition to the body of Christ, or merely been inflated numbers for us to be able to count and judge our progress in ways we can count and organize and see... I will have to keep thinking about this, and this class makes me want to take church history as well... when did church start also becoming about church buildings, not just fellowship between beleivers, and how that transition from focusing on the spiritual to the material has affected our understanding of what church, and the body of Christ, should look like. Hmmmm...
Chapter 1. The Nature of Sponaneous Expression
When a person experiences the life changing power of Christ, they will naturally desire to share that experience with those around them. That person will share with with their peers, and I really like how Allen writes this... "He speaks from his heart because he is too eager to be able to refrain from speaking. His subject has gripped him. He speaks of what he knows, and knows by experience."
This really makes me wonder about how evangelism in the U.S. that became all about huge numbers of people praying to receive Christ, saying a prayer... don't get me wrong, I know the Holy Spirit can totally speak to people at rallies and conferences, and change their lives for Christ... but should we wait to count converts until actually seeing their heart and life changed? It seems like more of us here would share our faith naturally, eagerly, which also makes me wonder, how many of us actually have experienced God's deliverance and power and healing in our hearts and lives? It's just, this makes sense to me, we will share what we experience, and grow deeper through our sharing of that experience... I don't know... but I am certain that there are many who profess Christ here in the U.S., who know about Christ but do not have a vibrant living relationship with him, and there are also many who get so entrapped in sin and blinded by Satan's lies that they never do experience the freedom, deliverance, and full abundant life that Christ promises! So... what is my own testimony, what am I eager to share with my co-workers and friends and family of how God is working in my life?
The power of this tesimony is that it is voluntary and spontaneous - that is, if you are not being paid to share the gospel. I have friends in the ministry, and I want to go into the ministry myself, but we all know this is true to a certain degree, both here and overseas. I mean, if people think it is my profession to share the gospel, well, they know it is not my faith alone compelling me to share. Once I begin full time seminary studies, will the power of my testimony be affected because those non-beleivers will think I am simply gaining a new degree for a new means of employment? And, at my work right now, I feel a certain attitude would arise among co-workers that those in the full time ministry are so divorced from the stresses of normal everyday life, and that if they were not ministers of a paid profession, maybe their own faiths would dissolve over time as the demands of their family and career took over. I'm thinking particularly about my boss, who seems amused at my own faith, and Bible study, and desire to share Christ with the world, and has made comments that imply one day, I'll grow up, get married, have a family, and the pressures of life will not allow me time for Bible study and outreach and church. I cannot say that this could never happen. I see how it has happened to her, and many others, and it makes me pray that I will cling to God's Word as my life through all stages of my life. My boss also though does not beleive in the inerrancy of scripture, which would in the end make the surest difference in anyone's faith - if you stop believing God's word to be truth that is relevant to your life, well, why would you make studying it and fellowship around it a priority? All this to say, though, that our attitude that you need to be a trained minister to be able to share the Gospel is really a hindrance to the growth of the church, and that your own testimony might truly be a more powerful witness to a co-worker and a friend than the best sermon the best preacher can preach.
We distrust this "spontaneous expansion" process, for a lot of different reasons. We cannot control it, for one, and that is true, if the Holy Spirit is moving from person to person, that is certainly not something in our control! However, if we try to restrict that movement we can quench the movement of the Spirit and kill the spread of the gospel for all our good intentions. But should our fear of spontaneous expansion to become disordered be what dictates our missiology? I'm thinking the only fear we should have is a fear of God, and if in the end God holds us accountable for our desires to keep things in our control, to the detriment of the Gospel being spread, we need to take that seriously indeed.
"We cannot possibly open the door to an unrestricted freedom for the expression of the natural instinct and spiritual grace without opening it also to the expression of self-will; and that we dare not do." Wow. Missions during the time of expanssion and colonialism sometimes was really muddled, and I hope that at this point in history those out there spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth have a more noble goal for God's glory and name to be spread to the ends of the earth, for the planet to shout in worship to Him for our salvation.
Allen points out that actions that hold self will restrained also will restrain the zeal of a new beleiver, and that zeal and fervor is what would naturally compel the Gospel forward, goodness why have we ever gotten in the way?
If we fear that there will be disorder and rebellion against the Gospel and the church if we do not keep it under our control... we really miss a greater danger of an even greater rebellion that Allen points out... that, our efforts to control which diminish the zeal of new converts, eventually will be recognized by those foreigners we've tried to reach, and when their intellectual capacity allows them to see that foreigners used a Gospel message to keep them under control - they will resent the message we present and rebel. Whoa.
I'll begin chapter two later, but I will say this... these critiques Allen puts forth on how we've done missions (and granted his book was written 45 years ago and today the world of missions has grown and taken heed of many of his warnings and debated the ideas he writes about in this book...) but it makes me think, if this is how God works through the rest of the world, how has the church grown in such a different way here in the West, and has our church growth been of a lasting addition to the body of Christ, or merely been inflated numbers for us to be able to count and judge our progress in ways we can count and organize and see... I will have to keep thinking about this, and this class makes me want to take church history as well... when did church start also becoming about church buildings, not just fellowship between beleivers, and how that transition from focusing on the spiritual to the material has affected our understanding of what church, and the body of Christ, should look like. Hmmmm...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jesus is Perfect!!!
I'm going to diverge from the fear of God theme a moment and reflect on some truth about God. I had the pleasure of leading a short Bible study tonight with some sweet young kids at the MLK Rec Center, and I had 15ish minutes to talk about the truth that God is Perfect! Holy Cow, what a loaded truth, so simple and yet so amazing to reflect on, and so critical to understand. Let's think about this together...
So, perfect is very easily defined as lacking fault or defect. It's easier to think about perfection when we are describing something or someone, and so I started out asking these kids, when you hear that God is Perfect, what are some things you think of about God? I wanted to hear their thoughts, but this might have been one of the first times they had been asked to think about what that means. I heard God is Good, God is Faithful, God is True. And I added some of my own suggestions for them to ponder. God is trustworthy. God is righteous. God is just. Oh... one boy did say, God is Omniscient. :) So we started out with some descriptions of a perfect God.
Then I asked the kids to tell me about some of man's imperfections. At first the room was quiet... and I said, now I bet you all have heard of the "S" word before... and as I glanced out at the urban inner city kids, I quickly clarified that I was talking about "SIN." (Whew, be careful using letter abbreviations with inner city kids, they words they know might really surprise you, and probably don't need to be shared out loud in Bible study!) So, we talked about, what is sin? When you fail to live up to God's standard in life. When you fail to be perfect. That was a bit lofty, so I gave some examples. Has anyone in here ever told a lie? Ever cheated? Ever coveted? Those things are sins. And, I also hit on idolatry. I'd love to have had more time to let them sit and think about that, but I just said, any time we love something more than we love God, that becomes an Idol. I said, most of us here don't bow down and worship little statues, but we do love other things more than God, and that's idolatry. So, if you love your car and care about it more than Jesus, it can be an Idol. Or if you love money more than you love Jesus, that can become an idol. When I said money can be an idol, one boy said money's not bad, we need money to live! And I said, I know, you are right, money itself is not bad, it's only when we care more about money than Jesus that it becomes an idol.
At this point I had kids read some verses about God being perfect.
"This God, his way is Perfect - the word of the Lord proves true; he is a sheild for all those who take refuge in Him." 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 18:30
"The Rock, his work is Perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He." Deut. 32:4
And I said, Why do we need God to be perfect? Why is it important that we see that Jesus is perfect?
And we starting going deeper, and I tried to keep it simple, but well, who knows what they understood of what we said, what seeds will grow.
Because for our sins to be forgiven and wiped clean before a Perfect and Holy God, we need A PERFECT SACRIFICE.
Now, looking back I wish I had been better able to explain this, only 15 minutes sheesh! I said, back in Old Testament times, guess what the priests had to do before they could come to God? They had to offer sacrifices. (This was a new concept I think to these kids, at least some of them, because they asked, isn't killing wrong? Why would God want us to kill an animal?) I said, do you remember the story of Abraham and Isaac? (I really thought we did teach that story last semester, but you know, if we did, that might have been the only time those kids had heard it, and by now maybe they had forgotten it, they knew the names of them...) I said, so Abraham was this really really old guy, like 100! And he didn't have any kids, but God promised him he would have one even though he was WAY TOO OLD to have kids, and then his wife had his son Isaac. But the strange thing that happened was, God said, Abraham, I need you to sacrifice Isaac to me. So they go out and prepare to offer a sacrifice to God, and Isaac's like, dude, dad, what's up, where's the animal here? And a student read Genesis 22:8. "Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So, I told the kids, Abraham got everything ready and was just about to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, when God interrupts and says Abraham, there's a ram over in the bushes, sacrifice that ram instead. Then we read Leviticus 22:21 "and when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord... to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it." Then a student read John 1:29, where John the Baptist shouts "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" about Jesus.
Yes this is very weighty and meaty. I said, the story of Abraham and Isaac shows us, we are in need of a Perfect Sacrifice, God provided a ram in that moment, but humanity needed something more. And so He provided Jesus, who happens to be the ONLY PERFECT PERSON WHO EVER LIVED! And therefore the ONLY one who could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And we talked about how we all have friends, but our friends aren't perfect, if they died, their death would only meet the punishment for their own sin. And wow, this is taking them deeper still... Our Salvation is Based on God's Grace at the Cross, He offered Jesus as a Perfect Sacrifice to pay for our sins! Last week's Bible verse was actually Ephesians 2:8- "for it is by Grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." I said, this is soooooo great! We could never be perfect ourselves, we can never be good enough to earn our salvation, so God provided His Son to make our salvation possible! And that is not only amazing, it distinguishes Christianity from every other religion in the world! I told these kids, every other religion out there that exists tells you you have to EARN your way into heaven, by doing good deeds, by praying enough times, by trying to be a good person... but followers of Jesus, we can rejoice because our salvation is based on the cross of Christ alone, the free gift of grace! Whoohoo for the Gospel! Thank you Jesus! And I had a student read Revelation 5:9 - "And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open it's seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." I said, this is a picture of heaven, all the angels are rejoicing because only Jesus was worthy! (actually the child only read half of the verse outloud, but that's okay, we were already in way deeper than most of these kids have ever gone.)
So we read 1 John 4:12
"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
Hebrews 10:14
"For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."
Matthew 5:48
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
So we said, three responses we can have to this lesson: love God, love people, even our enemies!, and also, love the Bible, God's truth, His Word, that has this incredible power to transform our lives. I mean, a few kids told me they read the Bible at home in the week, but most of them admitted they don't, and... I want them to start reading and seeing this for themselves!
We worked on the memory verse which was the verse the lesson started with. And then I prayed for the lesson and God's truth to sink in to our hearts, and for God to bless our dinner.
The kids listened to what I had to say. I don't know how much connected for them. I kept saying, "Why does this matter?" Because I know how I am, if I don't understand why it's important that God be Perfect, or that Jesus lived a perfect life, then it's just a trite phrase without meaning. But that truth, when you start unfolding it, it reveals the Gospel and it's so amazing! Which... even if the lesson was "over their heads..." in one sense, I think it was good to challenge these kids with some depth in thinking about God. I mean, truth, God is deep, and the more you get to know Him, the deeper you go. The gospel is so simple yet amazing and profound and... it's good. God is Good.
Our culture is very superficial in understanding our world. Consumerism and materialism (with the aid and indoctrination of the box called television...) are choking depth away... and too often we're never challenged to go deep. So, if I could help a few children, plant some seeds that give them a thirst and desire to go deeper, to see the Truth of the gospel is deeper, and is more relevant than we often realize... and meaty and real and good to dive into... then the Holy Spirit used me in a very gracious way. But really, I'm glad that I was able to stop and reflect on the truth of God's perfection this week, and allow it to lead me to the foot of the cross. That's what it's about, remembering the Gospel. God's grace is great, indeed.
So, perfect is very easily defined as lacking fault or defect. It's easier to think about perfection when we are describing something or someone, and so I started out asking these kids, when you hear that God is Perfect, what are some things you think of about God? I wanted to hear their thoughts, but this might have been one of the first times they had been asked to think about what that means. I heard God is Good, God is Faithful, God is True. And I added some of my own suggestions for them to ponder. God is trustworthy. God is righteous. God is just. Oh... one boy did say, God is Omniscient. :) So we started out with some descriptions of a perfect God.
Then I asked the kids to tell me about some of man's imperfections. At first the room was quiet... and I said, now I bet you all have heard of the "S" word before... and as I glanced out at the urban inner city kids, I quickly clarified that I was talking about "SIN." (Whew, be careful using letter abbreviations with inner city kids, they words they know might really surprise you, and probably don't need to be shared out loud in Bible study!) So, we talked about, what is sin? When you fail to live up to God's standard in life. When you fail to be perfect. That was a bit lofty, so I gave some examples. Has anyone in here ever told a lie? Ever cheated? Ever coveted? Those things are sins. And, I also hit on idolatry. I'd love to have had more time to let them sit and think about that, but I just said, any time we love something more than we love God, that becomes an Idol. I said, most of us here don't bow down and worship little statues, but we do love other things more than God, and that's idolatry. So, if you love your car and care about it more than Jesus, it can be an Idol. Or if you love money more than you love Jesus, that can become an idol. When I said money can be an idol, one boy said money's not bad, we need money to live! And I said, I know, you are right, money itself is not bad, it's only when we care more about money than Jesus that it becomes an idol.
At this point I had kids read some verses about God being perfect.
"This God, his way is Perfect - the word of the Lord proves true; he is a sheild for all those who take refuge in Him." 2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 18:30
"The Rock, his work is Perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He." Deut. 32:4
And I said, Why do we need God to be perfect? Why is it important that we see that Jesus is perfect?
And we starting going deeper, and I tried to keep it simple, but well, who knows what they understood of what we said, what seeds will grow.
Because for our sins to be forgiven and wiped clean before a Perfect and Holy God, we need A PERFECT SACRIFICE.
Now, looking back I wish I had been better able to explain this, only 15 minutes sheesh! I said, back in Old Testament times, guess what the priests had to do before they could come to God? They had to offer sacrifices. (This was a new concept I think to these kids, at least some of them, because they asked, isn't killing wrong? Why would God want us to kill an animal?) I said, do you remember the story of Abraham and Isaac? (I really thought we did teach that story last semester, but you know, if we did, that might have been the only time those kids had heard it, and by now maybe they had forgotten it, they knew the names of them...) I said, so Abraham was this really really old guy, like 100! And he didn't have any kids, but God promised him he would have one even though he was WAY TOO OLD to have kids, and then his wife had his son Isaac. But the strange thing that happened was, God said, Abraham, I need you to sacrifice Isaac to me. So they go out and prepare to offer a sacrifice to God, and Isaac's like, dude, dad, what's up, where's the animal here? And a student read Genesis 22:8. "Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So, I told the kids, Abraham got everything ready and was just about to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, when God interrupts and says Abraham, there's a ram over in the bushes, sacrifice that ram instead. Then we read Leviticus 22:21 "and when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord... to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it." Then a student read John 1:29, where John the Baptist shouts "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" about Jesus.
Yes this is very weighty and meaty. I said, the story of Abraham and Isaac shows us, we are in need of a Perfect Sacrifice, God provided a ram in that moment, but humanity needed something more. And so He provided Jesus, who happens to be the ONLY PERFECT PERSON WHO EVER LIVED! And therefore the ONLY one who could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. And we talked about how we all have friends, but our friends aren't perfect, if they died, their death would only meet the punishment for their own sin. And wow, this is taking them deeper still... Our Salvation is Based on God's Grace at the Cross, He offered Jesus as a Perfect Sacrifice to pay for our sins! Last week's Bible verse was actually Ephesians 2:8- "for it is by Grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." I said, this is soooooo great! We could never be perfect ourselves, we can never be good enough to earn our salvation, so God provided His Son to make our salvation possible! And that is not only amazing, it distinguishes Christianity from every other religion in the world! I told these kids, every other religion out there that exists tells you you have to EARN your way into heaven, by doing good deeds, by praying enough times, by trying to be a good person... but followers of Jesus, we can rejoice because our salvation is based on the cross of Christ alone, the free gift of grace! Whoohoo for the Gospel! Thank you Jesus! And I had a student read Revelation 5:9 - "And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open it's seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." I said, this is a picture of heaven, all the angels are rejoicing because only Jesus was worthy! (actually the child only read half of the verse outloud, but that's okay, we were already in way deeper than most of these kids have ever gone.)
So we read 1 John 4:12
"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
Hebrews 10:14
"For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."
Matthew 5:48
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
So we said, three responses we can have to this lesson: love God, love people, even our enemies!, and also, love the Bible, God's truth, His Word, that has this incredible power to transform our lives. I mean, a few kids told me they read the Bible at home in the week, but most of them admitted they don't, and... I want them to start reading and seeing this for themselves!
We worked on the memory verse which was the verse the lesson started with. And then I prayed for the lesson and God's truth to sink in to our hearts, and for God to bless our dinner.
The kids listened to what I had to say. I don't know how much connected for them. I kept saying, "Why does this matter?" Because I know how I am, if I don't understand why it's important that God be Perfect, or that Jesus lived a perfect life, then it's just a trite phrase without meaning. But that truth, when you start unfolding it, it reveals the Gospel and it's so amazing! Which... even if the lesson was "over their heads..." in one sense, I think it was good to challenge these kids with some depth in thinking about God. I mean, truth, God is deep, and the more you get to know Him, the deeper you go. The gospel is so simple yet amazing and profound and... it's good. God is Good.
Our culture is very superficial in understanding our world. Consumerism and materialism (with the aid and indoctrination of the box called television...) are choking depth away... and too often we're never challenged to go deep. So, if I could help a few children, plant some seeds that give them a thirst and desire to go deeper, to see the Truth of the gospel is deeper, and is more relevant than we often realize... and meaty and real and good to dive into... then the Holy Spirit used me in a very gracious way. But really, I'm glad that I was able to stop and reflect on the truth of God's perfection this week, and allow it to lead me to the foot of the cross. That's what it's about, remembering the Gospel. God's grace is great, indeed.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Fear of God vs.Fear of Man Part 1
I'm reading through Matthew, the Psalms, Acts and Genesis at the same time with my yearly walk through the Bible plan, and each of these scriptures has been ripe with examples of those who have walked fearing the Lord, and those who have walked fearing man. It's a humorous contrast to read actually, and clearly shows which way of life is fruitful in Christ, and which way creates a mess. Let's take the beginning of Matthew, for example. Joseph chooses to believe and revere the revelation God brings him about Mary's pregnancy. I'm sure he had peers who snickered and mocked at his decision to go ahead and marry a girl that was "defiled," and who knows how many comments he heard over the years about the "bastard" child. People doubted the virgin birth of Jesus then, just like many question it now. But Joseph chose to believe the message from the angel he received, and obey the Lord's command. God's opinion mattered, not man's. He might have looked like a fool to the world, but he chose to value God's calling on his life, to marry Mary and... be the father of the savior of the world?! Whoa, that would be an intimidating task if any, father the one who will save his people from there sins? What would that look like? But Joseph walks in faith.
Then you have the wise men. They truly were wise, they were the only ones who recognized that the King of the Jews had been born, and traveled across continents to worship at His feet. (Besides some random shepherds that the angels proclaimed to...) But seriously, that star was out for all to see, and they were the only ones that recognized a divine sign. Why did everyone else miss it? What if they saw it, and then brushed off their sight as coincidence, because they feared friends would think it a little strange to wonder about a bright star. Big deal, it's a brighter, bigger star than normal... and it really was. I just wonder how many times God is trying to declare His beauty and Glory through signs all around us, and how often most of us miss it. And do we miss it, because we think others will think we are crazy to look for God, to expect God to speak to us through His Word and life around us? Because we fear what man thinks, not God? What a tragedy.
The wise men were also discerning, and knew God's voice in their dream, and obeyed God's command to not return to Herod with any information about Jesus but returned home another way entirely. In their initial encounter with Herod, we know he put on a good show, "Tell me where the king of the Jews is so I also can go worship." He was a good actor. And Herod was the king, you know, not returning to him, the wise men could have gotten into some trouble, I mean, we see the power he had to just give a command and have all the babies in Bethlehem killed. He was ruthless, and paranoid, and out for his own glory, not God's. The wise men feared the word of the Lord, and not the power of a man, even a powerful man, even a king.
Then I read through in Genesis about Noah. A righteous man, who also fears the Lord and lives in faith and obedience to His Word. God tells Noah to build a HUGE ark, that takes him and his sons years to work on, and you know that all the people around them thought that they were crazy. "That fool Noah, he's building that big wooden thing he's calling an ark, and talking something crazy about a flood destroying the earth. What a loon!" Now, Noah chose to ignore whatever mocking, teasing, and insulting he received over his building project. He didn't let men's opinions sway him in the least! And look who ends up being the fools - all those left on the flooding earth that drown in God's judgement. Thankfully, Noah chose to fear God, and live in obedience to Him, regardless of the crowd. And, he builds that same fear of God into his sons who help him build the ark.
Alright, there's a lot more to come, so stay tuned for part 2, we've got some exciting lessons to learn! (God repeats things in His Word a lot that He really wants us to get down, and these themes are rampant, so I'm going to dwell on them and let the lessons simmer in my soul a bit more...)
Then you have the wise men. They truly were wise, they were the only ones who recognized that the King of the Jews had been born, and traveled across continents to worship at His feet. (Besides some random shepherds that the angels proclaimed to...) But seriously, that star was out for all to see, and they were the only ones that recognized a divine sign. Why did everyone else miss it? What if they saw it, and then brushed off their sight as coincidence, because they feared friends would think it a little strange to wonder about a bright star. Big deal, it's a brighter, bigger star than normal... and it really was. I just wonder how many times God is trying to declare His beauty and Glory through signs all around us, and how often most of us miss it. And do we miss it, because we think others will think we are crazy to look for God, to expect God to speak to us through His Word and life around us? Because we fear what man thinks, not God? What a tragedy.
The wise men were also discerning, and knew God's voice in their dream, and obeyed God's command to not return to Herod with any information about Jesus but returned home another way entirely. In their initial encounter with Herod, we know he put on a good show, "Tell me where the king of the Jews is so I also can go worship." He was a good actor. And Herod was the king, you know, not returning to him, the wise men could have gotten into some trouble, I mean, we see the power he had to just give a command and have all the babies in Bethlehem killed. He was ruthless, and paranoid, and out for his own glory, not God's. The wise men feared the word of the Lord, and not the power of a man, even a powerful man, even a king.
Then I read through in Genesis about Noah. A righteous man, who also fears the Lord and lives in faith and obedience to His Word. God tells Noah to build a HUGE ark, that takes him and his sons years to work on, and you know that all the people around them thought that they were crazy. "That fool Noah, he's building that big wooden thing he's calling an ark, and talking something crazy about a flood destroying the earth. What a loon!" Now, Noah chose to ignore whatever mocking, teasing, and insulting he received over his building project. He didn't let men's opinions sway him in the least! And look who ends up being the fools - all those left on the flooding earth that drown in God's judgement. Thankfully, Noah chose to fear God, and live in obedience to Him, regardless of the crowd. And, he builds that same fear of God into his sons who help him build the ark.
Alright, there's a lot more to come, so stay tuned for part 2, we've got some exciting lessons to learn! (God repeats things in His Word a lot that He really wants us to get down, and these themes are rampant, so I'm going to dwell on them and let the lessons simmer in my soul a bit more...)
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