Made a couple of minor chagnes to the site recently. Revised how the main page displays to hopefully make it a little shorter. The last 3 posts display in full while the next 7 older posts only display the excerpt.
I also added a ‘subscribe’ link in case you’re dying to know when new stuff is posted here. Yeah, right.
Month: April 2004
Crash Helmet Christianity
Why do I feel as though I just stepped into a bunch of quicksand?
Another post that got me thinking about the idea of fundamentals was this one by didymus I ‘met’ didymus at Infellowship. He also came from the ICoC, but no longer worships with an ICoC church. I don’t know much about him, nor have we ever met, but because of our shared background, I feel a certain implicit bond with him.
Anyway, he refers to this article at Christianity Today. In it, the author points out the aspects of Jesus we don’t enjoy talking about. The Jesus who said only a few will enter through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14), who overturned tables at the temple (Mark 11:12-19), said we must repent or perish (Luke 13:1-5) and called us to take up our own crosses (Luke 9:23-27). The article says, writing about the current talk of Jesus stirred up by the movie ‘The Passion.’:
If, in this national conversation, we do nothing more than blithely discuss Jesus and his adaptable cultural presence—well, we will have missed the real Jesus. We need to talk with biblical honesty about the One who would not only love and forgive us but also demolish all our cultural images of him.
The real Jesus was not afraid to offend, He spoke the truth. He was loving, but not sentimental. We keep silent, not wanting to ruffle feathers, too afraid to be considered judgmental. Certainly, we should not blindly trample folks with careless words and thoughts, but what good are we if we stand for nothing? Jesus was not the wet noodle that so much of Christianity is today.
Standing Firm on the Tirvial
Why is it that we “Christians” have to argue over the trivial? By trivial, I mean things that don’t amount to a hill of beans one way or the other. Shrode at the Thinklings brought this to the forefront of my mind when he posted about the Jehovah’s Witnesses assertion that Jesus did not die on a cross but on a stake. Now I don’t consider the JW’s a ‘Christian’ group (although other Christians might), but it illustrates the point. Why take a stand on that? It may be an interesting study, but it is ultimately of no consequence. Like arguing about what color His underpants were.
My church, part of the International Churches of Christ, has its roots in the Restoration Movement churches, which are famous for their splits over the trivial. Within the Churches of Christ (which my own ICoC split from around 1979) there are groups divided over one cup or many for communion, whether instrumental music is allowed in service or not, whether a church building should have a kitchen, and more. Not to minimize the passion of the convictions my brothers and sisters have on these issues, but none of them are of any importance. I mean, if Jesus came back today to judge us, do we really think He will care about our stance on the cross vs. stake or if we had a piano at church? In other words, if we come down on the ‘wrong’ side of any of these issues, it will not have an influence on whether we are saved or not. I’m convinced that there really isn’t a wrong side, unless doing one or the other violates your own conscience (Romans 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8). We can discuss and debate them but to divide over them to the point of separation is just plain foolish, and even sin (Galatians 5:19-20).
Frankly, there are more important lines in the sand to draw, and from those it seems most Christians step back citing ‘to each his own’. This seems backwards to me. We ought to fight for unity on the essentials and let the rest fall where it may. Didn’t Jesus pray for us to be unified (John 17)? Didn’t Paul urge the disciples in Corinth to be united (1 Corinthians 1)? The standards of discipleship, how we contact the blood of Christ and are forgiven, how we become saved – these are all fundamental aspects of Christianity. These are among the fundamental things that being on the wrong side of could cost us dearly in the last days.
The trick is coming together on what’s truly important. How can we agree on a list of essentials if we insist on arguing about the trivial? Well, if I had the answer to that one, I’d be one really insightful guy, which I am not. Perhaps I’m naïve, but I don’t believe that God is one to mince words, obfuscate and confuse. He doesn’t go out of the way to make it obvious, but He’s not out to make it hard to see either. So while there is no clear list in scripture of that we should hold our ground on or even a step by step salvation plan, I believe that fundamental truth is there if we are willing to see it. So are we willing? It seems to me that in order to be able to stand firmly on truth, and to be confident that we have found it, we must be willing to abandon it – everything we believe. As soon as an opinion becomes so sacred that it is unquestionable, we’ve abandoned the desire for truth in favor of comfort or stability. Frankly I think that there is a core we can look to the Bible and agree on, if we are willing to open our minds, set aside our own opinions, at least for the moment, and listen to someone else’s. If we’re not willing to be wrong, how can we be sure we’re right?
In the coming days I’ll try to put into words what I see as the fundamental things that we must stand on. I’ll cite scriptures for my thoughts. Before I do that, however, I think I’ll have to step back even further and think about how can I judge whether a certain principal is worthy of taking a stand or not. What makes it ‘fundamental’ instead of just ‘important’?
In the mean time, I’d like to encourage you to think about what is fundamental to you and why. Please, don’t list them here, write about them in your own blog (kindly trackback here or to my later posts, please). These may be controversial and we certainly won’t all agree on them. This certainly won’t be the first time this has been talked about, not even the first time it’s been blogged. What, then, do I hope to accomplish? Well, ideally we’ll come closer together or at least have more respect for the other’s opinions. The few folks I’ve gotten to know here in the blogosphere (I really think that’s a dorky word, BTW) are of a different stripe of Christianity than I. If we met be change on the street and opened the Bible, I wonder how much we’d agree on. What I don’t want to see is a continuation of the divisions that have plagued Christians or centuries. Frankly, if this starts going there I’ll just delete the posts and pretend it never happened. We can talk about more mundane things like what would Jesus drive.
I’m still here ….
It’s been quiet ’round these parts lately. I have had many thoughts of late that I want to share, but I’m trying to get a handle on how to present them. I guess I’m trying to figure out what my thoughts actually are. Stay tuned.
04/06 – Numbers 16-18
Numbers 16-18
Num. 16:20-22 – This is real Love and leadership. They stood between God and the object of His wrath on behalf of the innocent, and God honored it.
Num. 16:27-35 – The thought of this makes me sick, the children and ‘little ones’ swallowed up because of their father’s sins. Part of me wants to demand of God, “Why? They did nothing, yet they suffered.” But isn’t it true that our actions as parents have profound impacts on our children? What if these men, standing there in their pride watching Moses speak, had fallen face down in humility and begged God’s forgiveness? We can only speculate, but I believe that God would have answered. There is no record that I can recall of God smiting a man begging for forgiveness. Yes, the children were innocent, but the parents were not. They acted in opposition to God and the kids paid for it. How many kids suffer from the same disobedience today, through abuse and neglect? We can all shake our heads at abuse, but, truth be told, the neglect is a little closer to home than we’d like to imagine. I send the kids upstairs or outside to play because I don’t want to deal with them today, I try to ignore the obvious sounds of fighting or discontent in the other room, I let obvious acts of defiance or disobedience slide because I’m tired, and more. Minor compared with what some kids deal with, but a form of neglect nonetheless. I cannot take this responsibility lightly. They are Gods’ children, helpless and innocent, and I cannot fall asleep at the switch. (Coincidently, Virusdoc wrote on this subject just the other day. Check it out.)
Num. 16:41-45 – Boy, these people aren’t real bright or they have short memories. Isn’t this what pride will do to you, blind you to that which is painfully obvious to those outside of your pride. And again, Moses and Aaron stand up for the people. I think at some point, perhaps even before this, I would have just stood back and let God at ’em. After all, if they’re that determined to get roasted, why should I stand in the way? Moses has a better heart than I.
Num. 17:12-13 – Look at the contrast between Moses and Aaron and the people. They are calm and in control, the people are in a panic. Why? I think it may be because Moses and Aaron got their strength and confidence from God, not themselves. The people relied upon their own wisdom and ability and it led them to some stupid stuff. Challenging Moses and Aaron’s authority twice. And Now that they see the limits of their wisdom, they are frightened. They haven’t gotten yet that to be secure and confident means surrendering all control to The One higher than your self.
Num. 18 – Throughout this chapter, God says that he is making Aaron and the Levites responsible for the temple and the sacrifices so that the Israelites will not die. The clear picture to me are that it is an awesome responsibility and honor to go before the Lord and to deal with Him. To protect the general population, God sets aside specific men who are trained to know the honor and responsibility they bear. But in our day, that position of honor i gone and we deal directly with God under the new covenant. How Holy should we treat that relationship? How special should it be? If in the OT day, there were priests and Levites to protect the ignorant from dying from their disrespect to God, how much respect should we come to Him with?
A new name …
Bill at the Thinklins wrote recently about nicknames in the Bible and whether Jesus was the kind of guy who gave a nickname to all his friends. What struck me was his relating how Jesus might greet us:
Jesus is the great redeemer and the great re-namer. When He saves us and begins the process of sanctification He redeems our fallen character and begins to bring out the jewels and the gold of our new self with His refining and purifying fire. I wonder if perhaps when we meet Him in glory He will whisper our new name to us:
“You were once Liar. Your new name is Truthful.”
“You are no longer Needy. Your new name is Fulfilled.”
“I call you Beloved.”
“You’re new name is Beautiful.”
“You’re old name was Wounded. I pronounce you Healed.”
It sent chills up my spine as I read it. When people are transformed into something new it’s so amazing. This is the business that Jesus is in every day. I was once a lustful, angry, selfish and foul mouthed man, none of which descibe me today (hopefully!). But even more so, if this is Jesus’ business, what in my character now do I lack the faith to change? Why shouldn’t I be able to overcome and why don’t I think of it in such sharp focus as presented here by Bill anymore? Good reminder of just who it is I serve.
Living in a 10 dimensional World
While I was in Wisconsin I rediscovered my interest in science. If you’re like me, however, you may love science but I never took a science class in college (despite earning a Bachelors of Science) so much of it gets over my head pretty quickly. There was this Popular Science magazine laying around at my friend’s parent’s house and I read this article about some way out there radical theories about the nature of the universe and how many dimensions we live in. Very well written article that manages to make mind blowing concepts pretty understandable and even humorous. I am not going to attempt to explain it, you’ll have to go read it yourself, but here’s snippet:
If the following seems ridiculous, far-fetched or just outright outlandish to you, rest assured: It is. It will probably hurt your brain, as it has hurt mine, and as it most definitely hurts the brains of those who come up with this stuff for a living. The following asks you to accept ideas that are counter to the fundamental basis of our experience, the framework through which we comprehend everything from setting down a coffee cup to the arc of a home run as it sails into the upper deck. The basic point of what follows — and by the way, what follows is not fanciful provocation but has been worked into contemporary consciousness by the brainiest physicists alive today — is that everything that you have ever experienced has in some small but significant way been an illusion. Why? Because everything you have ever experienced you have understood as happening in three dimensions of space — up-down, left-right and front-back. Yet this is not how things happen. Things happen in more than three dimensions of space; to see them in only three is to succumb to a trick that the universe is constantly playing on us.
04/01 – Numbers 12-14
Numbers 12-14
Num. 12:3 – If only this could be said about me! Sometimes I wonder if this blog isn’t a kind of power trip to feed my pride. I want to be noticed, to be right and to be praised. Sometimes to the point that I feel disappointed, better even angry if I feel that people don’t feel that way. It’s scary when I recognize it, even scarier when I think about how many time I probably don’t. Oh God, give me eyes to see myself clearly and not be deceived.
Num. 12:5-8 – Interesting. The implication here is that God is a little vague with us, deliberately. It says Moses was different than the ‘prophets’, it says God spoke top him clearly, he saw ‘the form of the Lord’. On one hand I long for that kind of special relationship with God, but it also puts some of my occasional questioning and confusion in perspective. Now in the new covenant everything is new, we do get to commune directly with God. But this relationship was special in their time, under their covenant (what we now call ‘old’ was still ‘new’ when this happened), imagine having something special in ours.
Num. 13:21-24 – Two men to carry one grape cluster! Notice also, the land of Hebron. Remember Abraham and Lot from this entry on Gen. 14 when I discovered that Abraham was called a ‘Hebrew’ because he lived in Hebron. Now they’ve returned.
Num. 14:1-3 – One bad apple (or in this case 10) does spoil the whole bunch. A reminder to watch my own faith as it can have a profound effect on those around me. Am I a bringer of hope like Joshua and Caleb or despair like the others?
Num. 14:4-10 – The difference in these men was their perspective. They saw the same challenges but through the perspective of a loving and powerful God who would not let them down. They could not loose because God was with them, not their enemies. The others only saw themselves and the giants. No wonder they were afraid.
Num. 14:10-25 – God is ready to destroy them for their lack of faith. He says they’ve treated Him with contempt, it’s personal, more than just not believing. But Moses pleads with God to change His mind. Not for their sake, but for His reputation. What will become of your name? And God relents, ‘Because you have asked me to.’ The ‘prayer’ of one man spares the lives of thousands. But notice that God says they are forgiven but they still are punished. Forgiveness does not equal lack of discipline.
Num. 14:29 – Those under 20 were spared this punishment. A precedent here that the young are not held to account like the old. The old should know better, the you have much to learn. I also see this as a bit of evidence of the idea of being born innocent and remaining innocent for much of childhood. I look at even my 9 year old an know that she does not understand the concept of right and wrong, good and evil. She understands that there are good things and bad things, but the idea themselves are not known. Therefore she is not responsible for her sins. There will come a time, sooner that I want, where she and her sisters will understand and she, like all of us before her, will walk away from the purity and innocence of youth. Like Adam and Eve she will understand the difference and will choose evil, and walk away from God. God will be waiting for her to return with open arms of unconditional love and forgiveness, but she will have to choose to accept it and commit to His ways and not hers. Here we see a line drawn at the age of 20. For us it’s not so clear cut.
Num. 14:31-33 – Look how God says their children will suffer for their sin. But ultimately they will be blessed.
Num. 14:34-35 – God has had enough.
Num. 14:36-38 – Reminds me of Jesus’ warning about leading His ‘little ones’ into sin in Mat. 18:6, Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2.
Num. 14:39-45 – They were determined to do their own thing. God says go, they want to stay. He says stay they decide to go!
Recent Comments