Archive for April, 2010
Not a Religion of Niceness
I recently read a great quote by C.S. Lewis:
“We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.”
(Thank you to Jared Wilson for his recent blog about these truths.)
The goal of Christianity isn’t to make well-behaved people. The goal of the gospel is to make dead people alive, not bad people good. (Take a read of my previous post on Moralism.) Sure, hopefully the alive people behave well, and honor God with their thoughts and actions, but that’s the byproduct not the goal. The goal isn’t a better report card; the goal is life. The goal is breath into vacant lungs and flesh on bare bones. The goal is the vision of Ezekiel:
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Blog Comments
Sorry if you’ve left a comment recently and it didn’t make it up. The spammers have been killing my blog, regenerating past comments under new names and links, so it’s been hard to determine who is legit. My tech person is working on it. Things should be better moving into the future.
Thanks for reading, and yes, keep leaving comments. Add to the conversation.
Tick, Tick, Tick (Part 2)
First, you should read the blog “Tick, Tick, Tick” from a couple months ago.
So…last night I was lying in bed. Kristy goes to sleep before me and makes me turn my lamp off and wear a headlamp to read. I was in the dark with light shining on the final pages of Son of Hamas when I realized the tick was gone. I stopped reading. I stopped breathing. It was gone. Why? My brain searched…ah…it’s warm outisde, the heat is off. The tick had something to do with the heating duct that runs inside the wall. We aren’t going to die! The tick wasn’t a bomb.
Most unknowns are settled in this matter. We worry and stress. We want the answer to the riddle, the life problem that is gnawing at us, but we can’t find it. We aren’t given all the answers to what will happen or why something occured. And I think even if we had those answers we wouldn’t be satisfied. We always want more. So the tick ticks. Then time passes, and as God uses time to heal wounds he also uses time to reveal secrets.
We have five months till fall arrives and the tick returns.
House That Built Me
Forgive me if you don’t like country music. I’ve been strangely addicted to this song. I think I like it because I think about the blue split level I grew up in on Shannon Way.
Fast forward to 1:15 to skip the intro (RSS readers make the jump to the site for the vid).
I grew up in a blue split level. My hand prints are in the driveway apron and my height measurements are in the doorway in the basement. › Continue reading
The White House, Haman, and Hitler: the danger of silencing the opposition
[an extended entry]
King Xerxes commanded all people to bow to Haman but Mordecai refused the position. Because people of God bow to no man. Ever. We don’t bow to Baraq Obama or Billy Graham. We don’t give any man worshipful honor or treat him as superhuman. We say to ourselves and our world, I know God, and you’re not Him, and I’m not doing that. Though the multitudes bow I will not bend a knee to you.
The beauty of our country is we don’t have to bow to any leader. We can stand on a street corner with a bullhorn passionately proclaiming our opinions against any leader, Republican or Democrat. And I think our country is better for the conversation.
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Joel Osteen On Sin
Here’s an interesting article with Joel Osteen over at Vanity Fair.
Here’s a teaser preview:
“Have you ever sinned?”
“Oh, sure,” he answered surprisingly. “I’m sure I have. I mean, I think we’ve all sinned, so I can’t say that I’ve never … ” He looked suddenly bashful. “I’ve never done anything you’d call ‘terrible.’ I haven’t done drugs. Victoria’s the only girl I’ve ever dated.” Victoria, his glamorous wife of 22 years, is also a pastor. “I’m probably squeaky clean—I don’t have to say it,” Mr. Osteen added.
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I don’t think Osteen thinks about sin like Paul talks about it in the book of Romans. Sin isn’t just behaviors and actions. It’s motives and thoughts – self-sufficiency, pride, lust, judgmentalism, greed. The brilliance of the forgiveness of God through Jesus isn’t that he forgives those horrible people who do drugs and sleep with their girlfriends. It’s that he rescues all of us from all sin – past, present, future, thought and deed. Jesus rescues awful people doing horrible things, and he also rescues “squeky clean” people thinking horrible things who are doing self-righteous things.
Come on, Osteen, surely you’ve done horrible things, at least in thought. I have.
Ugly Boxcars (More on Childlike Faith)
I read the below quote last week and it hit me as worthy to pass on:
“Trains and boxcars and the smell of coal and fire are not ugly to children. Ugliness is a concept that we happen on later and become self-conscious about. Counting boxcars is a prime activity for boys. Their elders fret and fume and jeer at the train that holds them up, but boys happily count and cry the names of the cars as they pass from far places.” – Ray Bradbuy, Zen and the Art of Writing
I think back to when I was a kid and envy myself, to not be concerned about what I look like or the amount of money in my checking account would feel like holiday. To be as thrilled sitting and counting boxcars as dining in the finest restaurant would be relief. How far I’ve come, how much I’ve seen and learned, yet I miss that simplicity. I miss seeing all things as fascinating.
Lie #22: By Author Jason Boyett
Continuing our one question interview author Jason Boyett weighs in on the q. His challenging thoughts on our question are below: “What lies do you hear floating around churches that worries you?”
“It’s the building campaign lie: Give your money to our building campaign, above and beyond your tithe, because your generosity will allow us to reach this city for God like never before!
No it won’t. That’s just church leaders trying to spiritualize their desire for new stuff. God doesn’t need the help of a new worship center to reach people. God is not sitting around wishing your church had a gym so he could really start to impact lives. In fact, God doesn’t need your church at all. He did fine without it for thousands of years.
Money given to a capital campaign or a building fund is not something God needs. It’s probably not part of God’s plan. Nope, it’s part of people’s plans. It’s a donation to an organization that wishes to operate in a more comfortable environment, or wants to have newer facilities, or wants to have something that will entice people to visit. It’s so we can worship better and have more room and enjoy ourselves more when we come to church.
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New Relevant Mag. Article: “Is God Brutal?”
Take the jump over to Relevant Magazine to read my new article: “Is God Brutal?”
Josie and Childlike Faith
My wife, Kristy, was away in the mountains this weekend with some of her friends. This left Josie and I alone – for two days. Here’s a picture of the precious one (RSS readers make the jump to the site):
This two-day adventure of lone responsibility was the longest of my dad tenure so far, but Josie is almost two now and not so fragile. We fared well. I watched her get in and out of her play car a million times. We played and made trips to the playground. We dug aimlessly in the dirt and rejoiced over small things like peebles and fruit snacks.
Josie has been teaching me things. The passages in scripture about being childlike in faith gain color as this little girl shares her contagious joy with me. Unfortunately I spend a tremendous amount of time worrying and thinking about provision and the future – where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing.
But Josie is free from these things, free to live in the moments and enjoy the gifts of today. She is freed from these concerns that so dominate me because she innately trusts me, her father. I sometimes forget I too have a Father.
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