Category: God and Church

Morality Is Not The Baseline

Jared Wilson once again skewers the idea that the aim of Christianity is to produce good people, or better people. The bottom line is lots of folks do good stuff and are ‘good’ by any worldly standard and do so with no help at all from any church or from Christ. Jared writes:

… the still persisting message of the American evangelical church, that of “Be a better you thanks to God” or what-have-you, is a powerless, un-compelling message. Aside from the fact that “Behave!” is not the message of the gospel or the concerted call of Scripture, it is not something that will appeal to millions of Americans who think they’re doing pretty well already, thank you very much. They love animals, provide for their families, give to charities, cry when “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” ends, and aspire to justification by recycling. And see the dangers of p*rn and the moral bankruptcy of many modern films. Why add the baggage of church when they’re managing moral just fine?

As long as ‘Church folk’, or at least the politically vocal ones, connect Christianity to good behavior, the church will continue to loose the attention of the population. Christianity is all about how we cannot become good people until we fall at the feet of the only true good man to ever live.
If anything, Christianity is about demonstrating the truth than people are incapable of any meaningful goodness at all so that they may see that they must turn to Christ’s goodness if they wish to be rescued.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:21-25

“Bad People Know Very Little About Badness”

Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to talk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ , because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means – the only complete realist.

-C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity Book 3 – “Christian Behaviour, Ch. 11 – Faith“

HT – Bill @ Thinklings

To the Woman on the Turntable

I just got back from the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit this past Saturday. It was a pretty slow show this year, a lot like last year. No Nissan. No Infiniti. No Porsche.
My biggest disappointment wasn’t the caliber of the show over all, it was the turntable personnel or “Booth Professionals”. There have always been attractive folks standing on the turntable with the show cars or new production cars. In the past, however, they were all dressed professionally and had something intelligent to say about the car next to them. This year, in the Chinese electric micro car maker CT&C’s booth and in the Chrysler area, the booth professionals were ultra skinny women wearing not nearly enough fabric and said absolutely nothing. Worse, they were relentless about staying with the cars and posing, making getting a shot of the actual vehicle with out them nearly impossible. Now, I like the female form as much as the next guy, but I take seriously what Jesus said about lust and adultery. Besides, I’m there to see the cars, not them.
Jalopnik today has a post from one of these ladies, well, at least someone who works in that capacity. She’s, for obvious reasons, not letting us know who she is or even if she’s actually working NAIAS this year, only that she’s a ‘Booth Professional’.
In her post, she takes guys to task, rightfully so, for treating her like another object to be added to the options list. She says:

The comments on this and other websites that publish ‘Girls of the Auto Show’ posts can be downright disgusting. Do you have a daughter? A sister? Wife? Mother? What would you do if a total stranger walked up to her and asked how much she charges for the evening?
… I don’t object to being a sex symbol. I object to objectification. When you ask me, even in jest, “Do you come with the car?”, do you know what you are implying? Let me fill you in: that I am nothing more than an accessory to be bought, like 20-inch rims or a stereo upgrade. It’s not cute, it’s degrading.

She’s absolutely right, too many guys go there, and for every one who says it out loud, I bet there are at least 10 that are thinking something like it in their mind. It’s disgusting, plain and simple and keeping it to yourself doesn’t make it a whole lot better. Guys, man up and treat her with respect. She is someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, maybe even someone’s wife. If you can’t muster the cojones to do so, move on and go look at another booth.
She goes on to say that the way she dresses isn’t her idea, the marketing department dictates every last stitch. Now here’s where I’ve gotta challenge her. Look, no one put a gun to your head and made you take the job. They may have chosen the dress (and frankly, shame on them for that), you put it on. To think that all the guys will look at you in skin tight spandex and think happy thoughts about flowers and bunnies shows you to be very naive about the male psyche. Not to absolve them of the responsibility of treating you right, but to dress like that in a male dominated venue is a bit like opening a fifth of Jack Daniels at dinner with a recovering alcoholic and expecting him to stay sober. Sure, it’s his responsibility to stay clean, but you ain’t helping.
In case my comments above aren’t clear enough, nothing I’ve said here should be construed as meaning that guys have an excuse to lust. To be clear, I don’t care what she’s wearing (or not wearing), guys, you are responsible for keeping your thoughts pure. She’s still a child of God and as such should command your utmost respect. But, ladies, to paint on a dress and then complain when a man says or thinks something inappropriate, well, what did you expect? When you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned.

Chill the Heck Out

A short but excellent post from Jared Wilson, which I’m gonna quote in it’s entirety because, as I mentioned, it’s short and it’s awesome.

Yes, people watch too much TV and play too many video games and spend too much time on the Internet and what-have-you. But the proper response to our media over-saturation is not a rigorous attention to the explicitly “spiritual” in every margin of life. Be a Christian, not an ascetic. Don’t be lazy, but realize that Jesus Christ did not die and rise for you so that you would stress out about whether you’re being spiritual enough. So take a nap. Watch some television. The gospel frees you to chill the heck out.

Yup. I worry too much that I’m not doing the ‘right’ thing or the ‘Godly’ thing at any given moment. I need to just chill the heck out and enjoy life.

James 5 – Wealth and Sincerety

James 5:1-6 – This passage ought to cut to the heart of Americans who, largely, live in a level of wealth. We may not feel it, but we are wealthy compared to much of the world. Look around at what our main complaints are. High gas prices when most in the world will never have a car. Cel phone coverage, internet speeds, road conditions, traffic and other problems that much of the world only dream of having. most of our laments are about luxuries. Few in this country worry about food or shelter. So what James says in James 5:1-3 ought to be read with sobriety:

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

We are the wealthy, what are we doing with it? Are we primarily taking care of our selves, looking for more comfort and more ease, or are we using it to help others? Frankly, it’s very easy to justify ourselves in this matter, as it is to condemn others with even more than we have. I believe that modest living has different meaning in different cultures. Those in 3rd world countries can live on far less than we can here, but that’s does not excuse us from living simply and being generous.
The bottom line is, as far as I’m concerned, God is going to hold American (and other first world0 Christians accountable for what we’ve done with our wealth. Are you prepared for that? Am I? Scary to think about.
James 5:12 – James calls us to be genuine, let our yes be yes and our no be no. I’m amazed at how much scheming and hedging goes on in the world.
We watch Survivor at our house. We enjoy the competition of it, and the gamesmanship. The game, however, brings out one’s character. Many a player has commented that ‘in the game’, the rules are different. The claim to do things there – lie, betray allegiances – that they would never do outside ‘the game’. They say they have to, to be competitive.
Folks tend to live that way every day it seems. The rules are different, depending on the situation or the game being played. There’s the work game, the school game, the family game and even the church game. Each one requires a different version of themselves. It has to get exhausting, putting on each of these roles and keeping track of the rules in each. Which one contains the real self?
James calls us to play no games. Be true to who we are, let our genuineness shine and let everyone see us for who we really are. Let not the promise of money or fame or power trick into abandoning our rules, his rules, for their sake. We follow one man, and his way applies to us wherever we are.
James 5:16 – This goes hand in hand with verse 12. We need to be open with our lives, sins and all. Let other Christians in that we can be healed. People like to pretend that they don’t have sin, or they give it lip service with a chuckle. James calls us to open wide our hearts, and to bare all to our brothers and sisters, that we may be known and be helped. It’s hard, it takes a tremendous amount of trust. When we are that open, we are quite vulnerable to being hurt. The benefits are enormous, however.

(Still Thinking About But Not) Living Intentionally

Well over a year ago, I wrote this post about living intentionally. In other words, deciding my path, doing what I know I should or what I believe to be best based on what God has shown me in the Bible rather than just going with the flow of life, wherever it may take me. Back in May of 2008 i wrote:

I sit down at my laptop every night and most days (like now) at lunch, but mostly I browse around the web looking at stuff. Some good stuff, like Codepoke’s blog or Jared’s blog (two you ought to read), but sometimes it’s just time killers. The online equivalent of reruns of M*A*S*H, something you do to have something to do.

Painfully, this is exactly where I find myself today. More and more distracted by the fluff of life, sitting on my bum watching re-runs of M*A*S*H, figuratively. Almost a year and a half later, and nothing has changed.
Ouch.
Today, however, I a this post from the Desiring God blog that opened my eyes. It was titled When You Don’t Want to Do What You Ought To and was an eye opener. In it, John Piper lists 5 ways of dealing with exactly what I’ve been feeling.
Choices 1-2 are basically ignoring the problem or fooling yourself into thinking that what you want and what you ought are one in the same. Options 3-4 are where many religious people live, gutting it out, doing what you ought even though you don’t feel like it and maybe feeling guilty about not wanting to.
I’ve realized that I’ve been living in Option 1 (denial) while trying or hoping to get to option 3 (just doing it).
Option 5, however, is where I need to be:

You can seek, by grace, to have God give the “want to” so that when the time comes to do the “ought to,” you will “want to.”

In other words, cry out to God to change my heart and make my desires line up with the good I ought to do.
My prayer life hasn’t been what it should be, shoot it’s been practically non existent. But my mental focus hasn’t been on reconnecting with God so that he might refresh me and renew in me the desires of His heart. Instead, I’ve been spending my mental energy trying to figure out how I can make room in my schedule, remove Twitter followers, readjust the feeds I subscribe to, change my viewing habits, rearrange my schedule or whatever so that I’ll be able to get myself to do the good things I ought. Instead, I should be on my knees, asking to be made ready to act. Not just in ability but, more importantly, in heart and desire.
it’s a fools errand, trying to change myself. I’m far too broken, far to limited in my intellect and far too weak to do so. All along, he stands at the ready to give me what my heart desires. All I have to do is ask.

I Need More Than a Clean Slate

A common idea among Christians is that Jesus came and wiped our slate clean, washed us of our iniquities, cleaned us with his blood. It was recently pointed out to me that that’s not really accurate, or at least it’s incomplete, through a communion message by Mark Suyat (I hope I spelled that right, Mark), our new campus minister.
He used 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You see, God didn’t simply wipe sin from our slate clean of the sin we had carved into it, leaving it blank, clean and feature less. Not only has the old passed away, the new has come and we have become the righteousness of God. So, after wiping our sin off of our slate, making it clean as it was when we were born, he then wrote in the deeds of Jesus, filling it up with his righteousness and goodness, so that when he looks down, he doesn’t see our broken, sinful selves, or even a sparkling clean soul with no sin, but no righteousness either. Instead, when he looks upon us, he sees in us the goodness of his own Son, with His righteousness infused into our very soul through our contact with his blood.
How amazing is that! I mean, a clean slate is more than we deserve and plenty to rejoice about, but it wasn’t good enough for God. He strove not to simply give us a new start, because, frankly, even with a million chances to start fresh, we’ll fail to finish well. Knowing our weakness, he erased our past and filled in our future with the good deeds of Jesus, providing us with a fresh start and the perfect ending as well.

Love Is Patient – Are You?

Philip at Thinklings posted a brilliant expose on those three words from 1 Corinthins 13 – “Love is patient.” It convicted my heart, seriously. While I have it in me to be patient, it is not my first instinct.
He relates this story:

Once on a railway train an elderly man accidentally broke a minor rule and was subjected to a long, loud tirade from a young train employee. Later a fellow passenger said to the old gentleman, “You should have given that guy a piece of your mind. I sure would have.” But the old man just smiled. “Oh,” he said, “if a man like that can stand himself for all of his life, I surely can stand him for five minutes.”

The old man’s reaction warmed my heart. Then, the Spirit prompted me to see that I identify more with the young guy in the story than the old. I’d be the one demanding justice, and berating the minor offense.
Ouch.
Philip points out that it’s easy to be patient with our loved ones, but we loose it easily with strangers. This past weekend we were at OSU Stadium for a marching band competition. We had good seats near the 50 yard line and an empty row in front of us. A family comes in and sits in front of us, the Dad in front of me. He was a big guy, probably 6′ 4″ or taller and broad shouldered and he completely blocked my view. I expressed my frustration, not-so-under-my-breath, and suggested to my wife that we move. Then they immediately got up to move. Yikes. It turned out that they had found their friends elsewhere, but I was nonetheless seriously convicted and my wife was embarrassed. I tried my best to apologize as they walked away, but I still felt awful.
God says that Love is Patient. I’m not. Frankly, I’ve written about this part of me before, four and a half years ago, and I still have so much to learn from Jesus. Lord, transform my heart that I may show you to the world.
How about you? Would you say that your love is patient?

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