I wrote this entry a couple of nights ago at my house. I haven't posted in a good while, so I figured it was time to write for a bit. I do have a lot I wish to write about sometime soon, but know not how to put a lot of it into words. This should suffice for now.
I just sat down to write something for my blog and got a phone call; a phone call telling me of the death of my friend’s mother. Here I was preparing to write about a lot of deep, perplexing, mostly abstract ideas I have been thinking about lately, and the reality of life comes knocking at my door once again. There is nothing wrong with deep theological study in itself if a person’s motivation for doing so is correct. In fact, true theological study leads a person to humility over how little we as humans are and know, and how majestic God is. This is honorable in God’s eyes; indeed, it is an aspect of being a Christian that, although it sometimes gets misused, is something God asks of us. He desires that we really know him.
There is, however, a reality where real life hits you between the eyes, often unexpectedly. Whether it is the death of a loved one, the end of one stage/season of life, or the reality that sometimes God, in His providence, has chosen to let some type of difficulty come to and remain in our lives that may or may not be with us until it is time for our departure from this earth. It is the “stuff” of life that everyone who has or ever will live deals with. Adam and Eve enjoyed a short period of bliss in the history of humanity, but they too soon felt the weight of living in a messed up world. Even Jesus, the God-Man, was not exempted from the struggle of living life “under the sun”. The Gospels and Hebrews remind us that, though Jesus was not morally tainted as we are, he still dealt with the same exact things that we, and all humans, deal with day in and day out.
Unfortunately, many Christians often equate the results of the Curse as being synonymous with being “human”. “I’m only human. I make mistakes”, they say, as though it is our humanity that is the problem. We are finite creatures who will never have comprehensive knowledge, but this is not the reason for our difficulties. People often talk about leaving our “prison”, which they mean the human body. They talk as though we will one day be floating body-less in the clouds, not aware that we will be resurrected as humans—glorified humans, but human nonetheless—on a new heaven AND a new earth.
I feel as though one of the things that really brought my faith to a new level was when I understood that I am human. Being human is what God created me to be, and so that is what I am. It is not a bad thing to be human. What is bad is the curse that is on humanity. One day I will have a new body, and all of the other effects of sin will be gone from us as well, but the essence of what makes people what they are will not be removed. I will always have limited knowledge and be dependent upon God. Nothing will change. I don’t know if we will poop, brush our teeth, have sex, or will need deodorant in the new heaven and new earth. Maybe we will, maybe we won’t; I don’t know. But God made us spiritual, physical, emotional, rational, sexual beings, and none of these aspects should be considered “unclean” or bad in and of themselves. Everything God created is good, but is only bad when we use what we have for some purpose other than for the glory of God.
Over the past few weeks I have been having these moments where I am standing, or driving, somewhere out in public and God will speak to me making me aware of the fact that the majority of the people I pass throughout my day do not know God and will likely end up in hell. Most of them are experiencing hell on earth right now too, both through their consciences accusing them and through the effects of attempting to live apart from Christ. I felt as though an alarm was wailing throughout the whole earth, but that the majority of the people couldn’t hear the siren. I wanted to scream, “The house is on fire! Get out! Get out!”, all to no avail to my deaf hearers who went about their daily routine, all the while pieces of the flaming roof falling all about them. Though these moments have been intense and are having a profound effect on me I must admit that the majority of the team I think of the arrogant driver beside me in traffic more as a butt-wipe than a person duped by the devil whose selfishness takes a toll on their life and the lives of the people around them. Sometimes it is easier to give a person the finger telling them to go to a place they may likely be on their way to anyways than it is to be broken over how much they, and ourselves too, need Jesus.
America is now somewhat of a different place than it once was, though true Christianity has never been of any real substance in American life. What is different about America now is that people no longer have a basic biblical worldview, even a cultural one. Christianity is not as familiar to people in today’s world as it once was. In earlier times people had the “furniture” of the faith, that is, they believed in things like sin, moral absolutes, that they should be moral people, that God exists, that there is life after death, etc.
The world is not like that anymore. Unfortunately, the majority of the paradigms that American Christians still rely on were formulated to communicate the Gospel to a culture that actually had the “furniture” of Christianity, or theism in general. What we may mean in communicating the Gospel in these ways is well-intentioned but in reality is not effective, and often not truthful, in reaching people today who don’t have the “furniture” anymore.
In a day when almost all people believed that they should live a moral life and participate in the accepted norms of their culture, it made sense to tell people they needed a “personal Savior”, it made sense to tell them that they sinned against God’s Law. The people had some type of cultural formulation of Christianity so it made sense to make it personal to the person it was being presented to.
“Sir, you believe that all people are supposed to live a moral life and that all people are sinners, but I am here to tell you that YOU are a sinner. All of mankind has sinned, but you have to face God yourself. Your parents or church can’t save you. You know Jesus is the Savior of the world, but Jesus needs to be YOUR savior. You must repent and believe if you are to be saved.”
In today’s world people do not necessarily believe that our goal is to be moral people who contribute to society. People often believe that our goal is to be happy, that we can and should be able to do whatever will make us happy, just as long as we can do it in a way where “no one gets hurt” or is “offended”. Moral absolutes are viewed as strange and non-existent by most people of the day, thus even the concept of sin on any level will not be understood, and if understood likely not even entertained. I do believe in God’s sovereign, effectual call in bringing a person to faith, but I also know that in order for the Gospel to be received it must be understood at some basic level before a person can exercise repentance and faith.
As an aside, telling a person they need to have a “personal relationship with Jesus” or to “ask Jesus into their heart” will largely be misunderstood in today’s world by those who do not have some type of substantial association with a Bible-believing Church because they are interpreting what you are saying entirely different from how a Christian may mean it. People will likely view a “personal relationship with Jesus” as some type of life accessory like the yoga class that helps them to “get in touch with the universe”, or their therapy class that taught them to help themselves by becoming “their own best friend” or the “parents they never had”. People may even get to the point where they tell you that “Jesus lives in their heart”, but upon further discovery you learn that Jesus is sharing his space in their heart with their dead Great-Grandmother, the original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and a cartoon character that was meaningful to them as a child. People who don’t know a lot about biblical Christianity will totally miss the fact that they are IN a relationship with God: they are His enemy and He is their enemy apart from Christ. (To be sure, God does desire all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth BUT his common love and grace for humanity is also accompanied by hatred for what people apart from Christ are and do. God both loves AND hates at the same time. It is perplexing, but the Bible teaches both, so we must accept both.).
We need a new language and understanding of the Gospel that is uncompromisingly faithful to Scripture, while at the same time intelligible and understandable to people who live in today’s world. Tim Keller is one, of many, who are attempting to do this are and are successful in doing so. Even as a Christian who grew up in the church and the Bible-belt, I often find Keller’s preaching able to touch my heart and mind in deeper ways than other pastors are able to. Even coming from the background I grew up in, and despite how much I am out of touch with popular culture, the way I think and experiencing reality still reflects our culture to such a degree that I am profoundly moved the most by preaching that addresses people with today’s mindset. If this is true for me, how much more true will be it for the majority of other Americans!
As an aside, the only evangelical version of Christianity that will flourish in today’s world is the Reformed faith. Anything other than the Reformed faith is not theologically or intellectually strong enough to survive the attacks of today’s world. Only a Reformed apologetic will reach the people of today’s world. To be sure, in the book of Numbers God spoke through an ass and has been speaking through them ever since, but the best and preferable method will likely be the Reformed faith. Nothing else will have a substantial, lasting impact as the Reformed faith will. You can bank on that one. Although I have no problem stating that evangelicals who are not Reformed are Christians who can and will have an impact of eternal significance, I can no longer state that non-Reformed positions are Christian positions to hold. Again, Evangelicals who hold these positions can be Christians, but the views they endorse are not Christian. (Another version essentially saying the same type of thing is stating that Roman Catholics can be true Christians but that Roman Catholicalism is not, in itself, true Christianity.). The reasons I say this are numerous and too lengthy to discuss here, but I would be happy to share some of them with you should you desire to ask about it. Two of the main reasons are related to epistemology and to justification, issues which cannot be compromised without entirely compromising the faith.
God is calling His people out of rampant individualism and mindlessly being entertained into becoming a true community of faith that understands the Gospel well enough to help the people in the diverse settings around us gain an accurate understanding of the best news ever.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Only a New Creation Creates a New World
“The Church is largely wasting her time in talking politics, and in imagining that, if you give people the Christian ethic and urge them to practice it, the problems of the world will be solved. It cannot be done: regeneration is essential. God produces this final harmony again by regeneration, a new creation, new men in a new world—‘new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness’. That is God’s method. It is only as we are all ‘in Christ” that we can be reconciled. We become members severally of his body. ‘Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular’ and so the eye does not say to the foot ‘I have no need of thee’, nor does the hand speak thus to any other part. All the parts are essential (1 Corinthians 12:14-27). That is the picture. All one—not in Christ as teacher, but vitally, spiritually, mystically, members of His body and united in Him by the Holy Spirit.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones, ‘We…Ye also’ Sermon on Ephesians 1:11-14.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Psalm 130
Psalm 130 (ESV)
"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities."
I have not posted in a good while so I thought I should post something lest I be accused of being among the blog-slackers out there. lol.
There has been much that has happened since the last post. It is a lot to think about and even harder to articulate. Life is good; life is hard, but it is good. I don't think I could explain all of what all has happened in the past couple of months. I am still sorting out the whole "I'm not a kid but not really a responsible adult so what am I?" thing, with my birthday yesterday making it all the more odd.
I had a good birthday yesterday and spent a lot of time with friends. It was really good. I love my church family. A lot. I felt, and still feel, very profoundly moved by two events that happened yesterday.
One of them was when I got Jonah a donut after church. We were outside and he was wanting a chocolate donut. I had not brought them out yet so we walked into the building to grab the boxes to bring them outside. I handed him a donut and he proceeded to run back outside. About 15 seconds later he ran back inside to hug my leg and tell me Happy Birthday.
The second one was when Kathie decided to sing me every verse of a birthday hymn that people sing in the Moravian Church. I think the hymn was written by a Moravian but I am not certain. I cannot explain what exactly about the whole thing shook my soul. Perhaps it is that the hymn is a prayer of blessing over the person it is sung for; it is also that she was very thoughtful for doing it. It was gutsy.
Saturday at Life Group we looked over the "ask, seek, knock" from Matthew 7. While I was studying over the passage during the week I had to make an honest confession to God that I had no idea what to ask for and for him to show what I need to ask for.
Well, the Lord definitely answered my prayer. And it has been overwhelming.
This past year has been one of finding out that all that I need is in Christ and is provided by him, and by him alone.
My Watchword for the year is Ephesians 1:3, which is very interesting because I have been learning that Christ has blessed me with every spiritual blessing and that when I cling to Christ I am in need of nothing.
I am still very far from understanding my need to cling to Christ alone to satisfy me and guide me. I think I am more aware of how much I don't trust in Christ and how much idolatry is left in my heart. It has indeed been a heart-breaking experience.
It is not a totally negative experience though. I am also seeing how great God's mercy and grace is in the midst of knowing that I am made of dust and to dust I shall return.
Last night and today have been a time where I have been mourning my sins and asking God to cleanse my heart and to help me to grasp the Gospel at a real gut-level in all areas of life.
"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning."
Oh Christ how we need You!
"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2 O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities."
I have not posted in a good while so I thought I should post something lest I be accused of being among the blog-slackers out there. lol.
There has been much that has happened since the last post. It is a lot to think about and even harder to articulate. Life is good; life is hard, but it is good. I don't think I could explain all of what all has happened in the past couple of months. I am still sorting out the whole "I'm not a kid but not really a responsible adult so what am I?" thing, with my birthday yesterday making it all the more odd.
I had a good birthday yesterday and spent a lot of time with friends. It was really good. I love my church family. A lot. I felt, and still feel, very profoundly moved by two events that happened yesterday.
One of them was when I got Jonah a donut after church. We were outside and he was wanting a chocolate donut. I had not brought them out yet so we walked into the building to grab the boxes to bring them outside. I handed him a donut and he proceeded to run back outside. About 15 seconds later he ran back inside to hug my leg and tell me Happy Birthday.
The second one was when Kathie decided to sing me every verse of a birthday hymn that people sing in the Moravian Church. I think the hymn was written by a Moravian but I am not certain. I cannot explain what exactly about the whole thing shook my soul. Perhaps it is that the hymn is a prayer of blessing over the person it is sung for; it is also that she was very thoughtful for doing it. It was gutsy.
Saturday at Life Group we looked over the "ask, seek, knock" from Matthew 7. While I was studying over the passage during the week I had to make an honest confession to God that I had no idea what to ask for and for him to show what I need to ask for.
Well, the Lord definitely answered my prayer. And it has been overwhelming.
This past year has been one of finding out that all that I need is in Christ and is provided by him, and by him alone.
My Watchword for the year is Ephesians 1:3, which is very interesting because I have been learning that Christ has blessed me with every spiritual blessing and that when I cling to Christ I am in need of nothing.
I am still very far from understanding my need to cling to Christ alone to satisfy me and guide me. I think I am more aware of how much I don't trust in Christ and how much idolatry is left in my heart. It has indeed been a heart-breaking experience.
It is not a totally negative experience though. I am also seeing how great God's mercy and grace is in the midst of knowing that I am made of dust and to dust I shall return.
Last night and today have been a time where I have been mourning my sins and asking God to cleanse my heart and to help me to grasp the Gospel at a real gut-level in all areas of life.
"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning."
Oh Christ how we need You!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
How He Loves Us
I have listened to this song a billion times today. This song has really touched my heart in some profound ways.
How He Loves Us
By Jesus Culture
He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.
Yeah, He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves.
So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way
That he loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves
How He Loves Us
By Jesus Culture
He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.
Yeah, He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves.
So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way
That he loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves
Friday, July 17, 2009
Life As It Appears to Me Now
There is much on my mind, so I will try to share what is on my heart as clearly as I can.
A couple of days ago I had a very soul-shaking conversation with one of the pastors I go to church with. It was one of those conversations where the lights just flashed on and you are left for a very long time waiting for your eyes to adjust; it's like coming out of a movie theater in the middle of a bright summer day after being in the dark for over 2 hours. This pastor is a rare breed. He has a large amount of discernment AND he is extremely tactful. Most pastors are either very tactful and as discerning as a blade of grass or they are very discerning but usually end up putting both feet in their mouth so you really don't hear what they said until weeks later. Fortunately this pastor is both insightful and tactful, as is most of the leadership at the church I go to, so this was a very productive conversation.
We talked a lot about what God's call on my life is and how to go about moving forward with that. I had to confess that I don't have a clue about a lot of things right now as far as life direction, which is at least a starting place of sorts. It felt very good to have my complaints and reservations about different things validated before being encouraged to think about what to do and how to go about doing it feeling the way that I do about certain things.
If this is somewhat vague, I apologize; it is something I want to share but can't fully talk about as I don't quite understand it all yet myself.
A big part of what has moved my soul from having this conversation is that this pastor really believes that God is real and can do incredible things. He is a guy who puts his money where his mouth is. Perfect? No. But he is someone who takes himself pretty lightly and Scripture very seriously, which is something I have a ton of respect for. If I had to be honest, most of the people I know who are professing evangelicals I would not say believe that Scripture alone is our only source of doctrine and practice. When people I meet do go to Scripture and they hold to certain things that a lot of subcultural Christianity doesn't hold to, I respect what they say and truly feel free to talk openly.
I kind of feel challenged to believe that God is very real and can, and will, do incredible things. There is a time to dissent from one's culture, but there is a time to shut up and actually be the change you wish to do. I am much more inclined to be lazy, point fingers, and complain than to actually do something so the tactful prodding I recieved was much needed.
The older that I am getting the more I realize that my parents, especially my Dad, is really not stupid afterall. Going through the teenage years I had this eerie feeling that my parents watched one too many episodes of "Leave it to Beaver" and "Law and Order" to have a balanced view of the world; the whole paradigm of life being very good but the world being a very scary place. My Dad is definitely a lot more Type A than I am, but I am seeing that he and I are much more alike than I would ever imagine. My mom and I are also a lot alike as well, so I would likely recommend that whoever dates me should look at my parents if they want to see what I will very likely be like when I am older. LOL. I am being serious though.
My parents have always been the blood-and-guts of Christianity in my life. They have lived with me, and everyone they cross paths with, in the blood-and-guts of the everyday life and the painful hard stuff that comes up in each others lives. I don't know that I have ever had too many deep conversations about faith with my Dad, but I do not think I have, or ever will, meet a man who is as much the hands and feet of Christ as he is.
Yesterday was an absolutely terrible day. I woke up feeling kind of frazzled, "on the wrong side of the bed", and the day slowly went downhill from there. Nothing seemed to be going as it needed to, which only made by already bad day much worse. I have a pretty burnt out feeling overall in life right now, so I am trying to fight against the sheer apathy that I could easily have right now. I did not plan to go to college when I graduated from high school, as I barely got out of high school. I agreed to try to go to college for a semester and if I hated it I would quit. I ended up continuing with college and graduating, but I honestly feel like it is huge smack in the face for me to actually have stepped out on a limb to try to do something and then end for my first seven months since graduating either not having a job at all or ending up working at a job that I don't need a degree to do and don't get any extra pay for having the degree.
On the whole, I have had a very rude awakening since graduating from college. I have definitely learned that I do not want to ever be in a business field of any kind for a career, lol. That's for sure.
In some ways I feel like I am acting like the older son in the (misnamed) parable of "The Prodigal Son". "I have been slaving for you all of these years and this is what I get!?" I am generally the type of person to not up and openly rebel against God; my sickness is that I try to put God in debt to me and feel like He owes me something. And when things don't go how I think they should, I get mad about it. It is hard to sort through how much of what I am thinking and feeling is justifiable and how much of it is me having a sinful attitude. Who knows.
A couple of days ago I had a very soul-shaking conversation with one of the pastors I go to church with. It was one of those conversations where the lights just flashed on and you are left for a very long time waiting for your eyes to adjust; it's like coming out of a movie theater in the middle of a bright summer day after being in the dark for over 2 hours. This pastor is a rare breed. He has a large amount of discernment AND he is extremely tactful. Most pastors are either very tactful and as discerning as a blade of grass or they are very discerning but usually end up putting both feet in their mouth so you really don't hear what they said until weeks later. Fortunately this pastor is both insightful and tactful, as is most of the leadership at the church I go to, so this was a very productive conversation.
We talked a lot about what God's call on my life is and how to go about moving forward with that. I had to confess that I don't have a clue about a lot of things right now as far as life direction, which is at least a starting place of sorts. It felt very good to have my complaints and reservations about different things validated before being encouraged to think about what to do and how to go about doing it feeling the way that I do about certain things.
If this is somewhat vague, I apologize; it is something I want to share but can't fully talk about as I don't quite understand it all yet myself.
A big part of what has moved my soul from having this conversation is that this pastor really believes that God is real and can do incredible things. He is a guy who puts his money where his mouth is. Perfect? No. But he is someone who takes himself pretty lightly and Scripture very seriously, which is something I have a ton of respect for. If I had to be honest, most of the people I know who are professing evangelicals I would not say believe that Scripture alone is our only source of doctrine and practice. When people I meet do go to Scripture and they hold to certain things that a lot of subcultural Christianity doesn't hold to, I respect what they say and truly feel free to talk openly.
I kind of feel challenged to believe that God is very real and can, and will, do incredible things. There is a time to dissent from one's culture, but there is a time to shut up and actually be the change you wish to do. I am much more inclined to be lazy, point fingers, and complain than to actually do something so the tactful prodding I recieved was much needed.
The older that I am getting the more I realize that my parents, especially my Dad, is really not stupid afterall. Going through the teenage years I had this eerie feeling that my parents watched one too many episodes of "Leave it to Beaver" and "Law and Order" to have a balanced view of the world; the whole paradigm of life being very good but the world being a very scary place. My Dad is definitely a lot more Type A than I am, but I am seeing that he and I are much more alike than I would ever imagine. My mom and I are also a lot alike as well, so I would likely recommend that whoever dates me should look at my parents if they want to see what I will very likely be like when I am older. LOL. I am being serious though.
My parents have always been the blood-and-guts of Christianity in my life. They have lived with me, and everyone they cross paths with, in the blood-and-guts of the everyday life and the painful hard stuff that comes up in each others lives. I don't know that I have ever had too many deep conversations about faith with my Dad, but I do not think I have, or ever will, meet a man who is as much the hands and feet of Christ as he is.
Yesterday was an absolutely terrible day. I woke up feeling kind of frazzled, "on the wrong side of the bed", and the day slowly went downhill from there. Nothing seemed to be going as it needed to, which only made by already bad day much worse. I have a pretty burnt out feeling overall in life right now, so I am trying to fight against the sheer apathy that I could easily have right now. I did not plan to go to college when I graduated from high school, as I barely got out of high school. I agreed to try to go to college for a semester and if I hated it I would quit. I ended up continuing with college and graduating, but I honestly feel like it is huge smack in the face for me to actually have stepped out on a limb to try to do something and then end for my first seven months since graduating either not having a job at all or ending up working at a job that I don't need a degree to do and don't get any extra pay for having the degree.
On the whole, I have had a very rude awakening since graduating from college. I have definitely learned that I do not want to ever be in a business field of any kind for a career, lol. That's for sure.
In some ways I feel like I am acting like the older son in the (misnamed) parable of "The Prodigal Son". "I have been slaving for you all of these years and this is what I get!?" I am generally the type of person to not up and openly rebel against God; my sickness is that I try to put God in debt to me and feel like He owes me something. And when things don't go how I think they should, I get mad about it. It is hard to sort through how much of what I am thinking and feeling is justifiable and how much of it is me having a sinful attitude. Who knows.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Hanging in the Balance Part 2
Getting an Article Published
A few months ago I was invited to write an article for a theology journal/international dialogue for the denomination I grew up in. I had mixed feelings about being asked to do this, but I prayed about and decided to do it. I had forgotten about doing the article and recently received an email from the new editor of the journal asking about some things related to editing.
The editor and I have exchanged several emails, trying to work out the details of how to state what I am trying to say in an unambiguous way. This has been a very long and tedious process, but has been/is a good process. Editors have a hard job because they need to help to make the article as readable and understandable as it can be but do it in a such a way that they are faithful to the author's ideas and wording. The editor of the journal I am writing for has managed to do both, which I have been very pleased with. Everything is still in the process of getting worked out before it goes to press, but so far so good.
I have no idea when the article will be released, although I would guess that it will be in the Fall edition.
I also got approved to have writing privileges on a local seminary's blog a few weeks ago. I had made a response in the comment section of a blog post, a rather long response, and have gotten to talk to a lot of people at the seminary because of this. I have not thought too hard about writing an article for the blog, but it may be something I do in the future.
On Becoming My Parents
The older I get the more I realize that I am becoming more and more like my parents. And I am okay with becoming like them, at least in most ways.
I have had a sort of rude awakening into the "real world" since graduation and have come to understand my Dad in new ways. I guess a lot of it is just maturing in general, but I do see and understand their concerns about a lot of life issues in much larger ways.
Both of my parents are by no means perfect or without character faults, as no one is either of these things, but I do see them in new ways.
Church and the State
I have been thinking a lot about the nature of the State lately. I don't feel as though I have much clarity on the matter as to any of the specifics, other than that there is a very distinct role of the State that differs greatly from the Church. In saying this, I must clarify this and state that the State is also God's servant, and God has not given the State the sword in vain. Maintaining this balance is tough, and it is easy to fall into many ideological traps that are thrown at us even though what we are told is the "biblical" way to be in relation to the State.
Enough for now...
A few months ago I was invited to write an article for a theology journal/international dialogue for the denomination I grew up in. I had mixed feelings about being asked to do this, but I prayed about and decided to do it. I had forgotten about doing the article and recently received an email from the new editor of the journal asking about some things related to editing.
The editor and I have exchanged several emails, trying to work out the details of how to state what I am trying to say in an unambiguous way. This has been a very long and tedious process, but has been/is a good process. Editors have a hard job because they need to help to make the article as readable and understandable as it can be but do it in a such a way that they are faithful to the author's ideas and wording. The editor of the journal I am writing for has managed to do both, which I have been very pleased with. Everything is still in the process of getting worked out before it goes to press, but so far so good.
I have no idea when the article will be released, although I would guess that it will be in the Fall edition.
I also got approved to have writing privileges on a local seminary's blog a few weeks ago. I had made a response in the comment section of a blog post, a rather long response, and have gotten to talk to a lot of people at the seminary because of this. I have not thought too hard about writing an article for the blog, but it may be something I do in the future.
On Becoming My Parents
The older I get the more I realize that I am becoming more and more like my parents. And I am okay with becoming like them, at least in most ways.
I have had a sort of rude awakening into the "real world" since graduation and have come to understand my Dad in new ways. I guess a lot of it is just maturing in general, but I do see and understand their concerns about a lot of life issues in much larger ways.
Both of my parents are by no means perfect or without character faults, as no one is either of these things, but I do see them in new ways.
Church and the State
I have been thinking a lot about the nature of the State lately. I don't feel as though I have much clarity on the matter as to any of the specifics, other than that there is a very distinct role of the State that differs greatly from the Church. In saying this, I must clarify this and state that the State is also God's servant, and God has not given the State the sword in vain. Maintaining this balance is tough, and it is easy to fall into many ideological traps that are thrown at us even though what we are told is the "biblical" way to be in relation to the State.
Enough for now...
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Hanging in the Balance Part 1
I have been meaning to write for a long time but have been prevented by various causes, some of which has been laziness, most of which has been that I haven't had the time.
A lot of what is written in this post are random thoughts that came together. I wrote far more than I intended to and did not get to any of the topics I really wanted to write about. My mind is heavy, and has been for the past two weeks.
There is more to come, but for now, enjoy some ramblings...
I have had to deal with another death recently, the death of a friend from church. It was a very unexpected death, a car accident. The man always seemed to be thankful for everything in life. He didn't pretend that life was always rainbows and butterfly's, but He did have a sense of real joy and appreciation for all of life. My heart feels grief in a very deep way. My Black Dog has been following rather closely these past two weeks because of this. A lot of other things I have been stressing about lately probably haven't helped this either, but overall my Black Dog seems to not be following me around as much as it used to. Grief and anger are definitely appropriate emotions to stressors in life, something I am finally getting used to understanding.
Since I recieved the Lord I have noticed that I have become much more broken and much more healed as a person the longer that I walk with Him. It's funny because although I am often convinced that I know what is what in life, I am getting to a place more and more where I know that I really don't have a clue about anything other than that I need God. It is kind of strange that, while coming to faith in Christ is something we must do by crying out to Him, we are so hard-bent to attribute our being saved to our own free will and ability. I do believe in Reformed Theology in regards to salvation, but even a biblical Arminian knows that apart from a miraculous gift of God opening our hearts to come to Him, even if it is just to the possibility of being able to come to Him, we have NO HOPE. I think when we attribute our salvation to anything except for God's grace, we rob Him of glory. When we say that we, as DEAD people, can lift ourselves out of our graves without any help and come to God, we just show that we know NOTHING of what it means to be saved. This does not mean that we are not saved when we do this, but it does show that we do not at all understand how hopeless we were (and are) and how amazing and gracious God's gift of salvation truly is.
Even the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed that a person cannot come to Christ without the assistance of grace. Isn't it, then, strange that the people who proclaim to be justified by faith alone apart from works will often deny this?
It has often been stated that while the Church had long ago decided that man does, in fact, need God to give Him grace to Him, that the Reformation was largely about the extent of man's need for grace.
How all of the reformers before Calvin were "Calvinists" before the man was born, is an interesting thing. The same thing goes for how there were "Arminians" in the Church before Jacobus Arminius ever stated His doctrine in 5 Points.
Oddly enough still, "those silly Calvinists who put all of their doctrine into a 5-Point System" only did so in response to a 5-Point System made by a person in the Church who had strayed from what the Church already traditionally taught without the make-up of "the 5 Points of Calvinism". Sadly, most people don't know this, nor do they care.
I have had a lot of stress over a friend of mine who has been suffering (for years) with mental health issues. He is a brilliant person in many ways; He has a true gem of a mind and intellect. However, he is often raved by the "madness" I have known in times past and does not realize how desperately he needs help. There isn't much good in trying to help someone who doesn't want to be helped or know that they need it. It breaks my heart to see them continuing to struggle, but there is little that I can do but pray and cry. This situation has broken my heart in many ways.
Even in getting help for mental health issues, it is hard to define what "help" is and how it is given. I definitely know that medication is necessary for some people, as is therapy, but, in my opinion, the whole field of psychology and psychiatry is largely all a matter of grey areas, with very little that we actually know. I had a psychology teacher in my Human Services degree program that taught us how to examine scientific evidence in a way that we could actually see and note what the evidence itself stated as opposed to what people have interpretted the evidence to mean. There lies a big difference between what we actually know and what we assume we know from science. Science is not a bad thing in itself, but when scientists answer the wrong question with the data they gather, nothing they do is of any real value.
I take a medication for mental health and neurological reasons that helps very much. The older type of this type of medication can cause people to have tardive dyskinesia if the medicine is used for a prolonged period of time. The newer type of medication is supposed to decrease the risk of having tardive dyskinesia, as is advertised, but the truth is that no one has lived long on these medications to actually find out, as the drugs haven't been out long enough to tell. The drug is supposed to do better at not having this to occur, but truthfully no one knows. It may not. The new drugs certainly have other benefits that the older versions lack, but I could very well end up dealing with the same side effects that people who took the older versions sometimes have.
My point is not whether or not I will have to deal with drastic side effects, or whether or not it bothers (I haven't really thought about, to be honest), but that getting help in the mental health world, regardless of from whom, is, for the most part, a walk in the dark. If you are just hopeless enough to stumble through the dark with a doctor for long enough, eventually you might get helped. I am very grateful for the help I have recieved, but I can't pretend that any part of this process is easy in any sense at all. What do you tell someone who is asking you what getting treated for mental health reasons is like? There is a vast difference of opinion of "brain treatment" from those who deal with "brain issues" as a real part of their everyday life and those who work in this field professionally. A person can't "clock out" from their brain or take a vacation if they need to: it's always there with you. I do not say this for the purpose of disparaging those who work in these fields who have never had any real-life experience in dealing with these issues themselves, but I am stating that a person who suffers from these issues has a very different picture of what "getting helped" means.
I graduated from college with a degree in the helping profession but I am still sorting out a lot of the things I learned. Quite frankly, I don't know what "helping" someone means, what it looks like, or what the overall goal is. I know I need the Gospel; I also know I need medication. Where does "helping" someone end and giving them more tools to run from God begin? How does a Christian interact as a genuine Bible-Believer with a field built largely upon secular humanism? I don't really have any answers in all of this in any sense. I will say that people who are not spiritually discerning and analytical people will find that most secular education is severely damaging, if not damning, to the souls of those who are truly seeking to know God. That is not to say that a person will lose their salvation in college, it may just mean that they will arrive in heaven having lived their life with some very confused beliefs thrown in with the Gospel.
Thank God for Grace and for His Providence. I know nothing, except the following:
"The terrors of Law and of God
with me can have nothing to do.
For My Savior's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view."
-Augustus Toplady
More to come...
A lot of what is written in this post are random thoughts that came together. I wrote far more than I intended to and did not get to any of the topics I really wanted to write about. My mind is heavy, and has been for the past two weeks.
There is more to come, but for now, enjoy some ramblings...
I have had to deal with another death recently, the death of a friend from church. It was a very unexpected death, a car accident. The man always seemed to be thankful for everything in life. He didn't pretend that life was always rainbows and butterfly's, but He did have a sense of real joy and appreciation for all of life. My heart feels grief in a very deep way. My Black Dog has been following rather closely these past two weeks because of this. A lot of other things I have been stressing about lately probably haven't helped this either, but overall my Black Dog seems to not be following me around as much as it used to. Grief and anger are definitely appropriate emotions to stressors in life, something I am finally getting used to understanding.
Since I recieved the Lord I have noticed that I have become much more broken and much more healed as a person the longer that I walk with Him. It's funny because although I am often convinced that I know what is what in life, I am getting to a place more and more where I know that I really don't have a clue about anything other than that I need God. It is kind of strange that, while coming to faith in Christ is something we must do by crying out to Him, we are so hard-bent to attribute our being saved to our own free will and ability. I do believe in Reformed Theology in regards to salvation, but even a biblical Arminian knows that apart from a miraculous gift of God opening our hearts to come to Him, even if it is just to the possibility of being able to come to Him, we have NO HOPE. I think when we attribute our salvation to anything except for God's grace, we rob Him of glory. When we say that we, as DEAD people, can lift ourselves out of our graves without any help and come to God, we just show that we know NOTHING of what it means to be saved. This does not mean that we are not saved when we do this, but it does show that we do not at all understand how hopeless we were (and are) and how amazing and gracious God's gift of salvation truly is.
Even the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed that a person cannot come to Christ without the assistance of grace. Isn't it, then, strange that the people who proclaim to be justified by faith alone apart from works will often deny this?
It has often been stated that while the Church had long ago decided that man does, in fact, need God to give Him grace to Him, that the Reformation was largely about the extent of man's need for grace.
How all of the reformers before Calvin were "Calvinists" before the man was born, is an interesting thing. The same thing goes for how there were "Arminians" in the Church before Jacobus Arminius ever stated His doctrine in 5 Points.
Oddly enough still, "those silly Calvinists who put all of their doctrine into a 5-Point System" only did so in response to a 5-Point System made by a person in the Church who had strayed from what the Church already traditionally taught without the make-up of "the 5 Points of Calvinism". Sadly, most people don't know this, nor do they care.
I have had a lot of stress over a friend of mine who has been suffering (for years) with mental health issues. He is a brilliant person in many ways; He has a true gem of a mind and intellect. However, he is often raved by the "madness" I have known in times past and does not realize how desperately he needs help. There isn't much good in trying to help someone who doesn't want to be helped or know that they need it. It breaks my heart to see them continuing to struggle, but there is little that I can do but pray and cry. This situation has broken my heart in many ways.
Even in getting help for mental health issues, it is hard to define what "help" is and how it is given. I definitely know that medication is necessary for some people, as is therapy, but, in my opinion, the whole field of psychology and psychiatry is largely all a matter of grey areas, with very little that we actually know. I had a psychology teacher in my Human Services degree program that taught us how to examine scientific evidence in a way that we could actually see and note what the evidence itself stated as opposed to what people have interpretted the evidence to mean. There lies a big difference between what we actually know and what we assume we know from science. Science is not a bad thing in itself, but when scientists answer the wrong question with the data they gather, nothing they do is of any real value.
I take a medication for mental health and neurological reasons that helps very much. The older type of this type of medication can cause people to have tardive dyskinesia if the medicine is used for a prolonged period of time. The newer type of medication is supposed to decrease the risk of having tardive dyskinesia, as is advertised, but the truth is that no one has lived long on these medications to actually find out, as the drugs haven't been out long enough to tell. The drug is supposed to do better at not having this to occur, but truthfully no one knows. It may not. The new drugs certainly have other benefits that the older versions lack, but I could very well end up dealing with the same side effects that people who took the older versions sometimes have.
My point is not whether or not I will have to deal with drastic side effects, or whether or not it bothers (I haven't really thought about, to be honest), but that getting help in the mental health world, regardless of from whom, is, for the most part, a walk in the dark. If you are just hopeless enough to stumble through the dark with a doctor for long enough, eventually you might get helped. I am very grateful for the help I have recieved, but I can't pretend that any part of this process is easy in any sense at all. What do you tell someone who is asking you what getting treated for mental health reasons is like? There is a vast difference of opinion of "brain treatment" from those who deal with "brain issues" as a real part of their everyday life and those who work in this field professionally. A person can't "clock out" from their brain or take a vacation if they need to: it's always there with you. I do not say this for the purpose of disparaging those who work in these fields who have never had any real-life experience in dealing with these issues themselves, but I am stating that a person who suffers from these issues has a very different picture of what "getting helped" means.
I graduated from college with a degree in the helping profession but I am still sorting out a lot of the things I learned. Quite frankly, I don't know what "helping" someone means, what it looks like, or what the overall goal is. I know I need the Gospel; I also know I need medication. Where does "helping" someone end and giving them more tools to run from God begin? How does a Christian interact as a genuine Bible-Believer with a field built largely upon secular humanism? I don't really have any answers in all of this in any sense. I will say that people who are not spiritually discerning and analytical people will find that most secular education is severely damaging, if not damning, to the souls of those who are truly seeking to know God. That is not to say that a person will lose their salvation in college, it may just mean that they will arrive in heaven having lived their life with some very confused beliefs thrown in with the Gospel.
Thank God for Grace and for His Providence. I know nothing, except the following:
"The terrors of Law and of God
with me can have nothing to do.
For My Savior's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view."
-Augustus Toplady
More to come...
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