Thursday, June 21, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
God is kind
Well, this is a story on how God's goodness may not seem good at the time. Or it might. Or it might seem bad to others, and good to you.
I took a job in the cafe doing stock, payroll and invoices, etc. I worked the job for about two and a half months.
I had already been doing international ministry, working 15-20 hrs a week, sleeping an average of 4 hours a night on weekdays and about 6-7 a night on weekends, keeping up with people and their lives, 18 credit hours of classes and school work, and being a part of College Heights college age as well as Go teams, and meeting with older, wiser men in the Church.
Too much basically.
I had just went through about a three week period of a mental hell. That is really the best way that I could describe it, never a moment of silence in my mind, always the accuser was right there, and I was feeling the weight of brokenness and sin. I was feeling the weight of my schedule too, it was just emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually backbreaking.
And I was doing a fantastic job at hiding all this from brothers and sisters in Christ, I might add.
One day, my room mate was gone and I had a huge project due (Principles of Interp.), and I felt so incredibly broken that I could not bring myself to seek out a brother, I went to my room, locked my door, and cried for an hour, hoping no one on my floor hear that I was human (at the same time that someone would come).
The very next day I went hiking with my D-group and never said a word of it. That night of brokenness, I decided that I would look to the Lord, that I would read the psalms, and pray to my God for help, because I had reached the point where brokenness manifest itself into tears (that is when I know its bad, because I can't cry for anything). I found solace enough for that night, and I was reminded that God is our healer.
So a week after I had realized that I needed to start putting some effort forth to climb out of the pit that I had dug for myself, I was having a very difficult day, and I just wanted freedom from everything that I had committed too, and brokenness. I prayed to God on Tuesday, at our weekly meeting to pray for internationals, I prayed for myself, I prayed specifically, that God would be kind to me that day, and he was. God is kind. It was a Tuesday, so on Tuesdays I have class, eat, pray for internationals with friends and then go to work for several hours. The week before had stock every single day, and I was tired, and sick of moving boxes and figuring costs. Mainly moving boxes (the truth is, when you are spiritually, emotionally and mentally weary, you become physically weary as well). So Tuesday and Friday are big stock days, lots of stuff comes in and you have to sort it out, mark it, move it, rearrange, move stuff again, at this point in my life, it might as well have been sprinting up Mt. Everest. I went into work, not happy, but ready to suck it up and do the job (did I mention I didn't sleep much the night before?). I started payroll because it was the last day of the pay period, and then I was ambushed. It was a trap, my manager and another lady (who I will not mention) came in, and started the talk. Saying, "Tyler, It's not working".
I paused...
Deciding how to react....
(beginning to smile) I said, "yeah, I know"
I came clean about how I was planning on just finishing out the semester and finding someone to take my place at the beginning of the next semester, I just didn't want to make the end of the semester any harder on them, and how I was bad at the job, and hated the job, it was too detail oriented, and they wanted things done a certain way, and I couldn't wrap my mind around their reasoning for specifics. Then, we came to an agreement. We were both happy with the decision, they had somebody lined up to take over and I went and took a nap. What a glorious day that was!
God was kind to me, he took from me what he didn't want me to have, the one thing that was too much, the one thing keeping me from healing, from peace, and from joy. God is kind, he needed to teach me this, because my life was speaking lies about who God is. He had to intervene, and be kind to me. He is merciful, because I brought the pain on myself. Within 30 minutes of my prayer for God to be kind to me, he answered it.... crazy.
Well, losing your job, not having any more money coming in, and not knowing how your going to get to Louisville for training to Go to Italy. Sounds like a pain, but it has been such a huge blessing. Joy and peace characterize my life right now, it hasn't even been a full week! And here I am praising God for everything that has come out of it!
He is surely Good to us.
Sometimes, to others, his goodness might not look so good, but its all about the relationship. And him messing things up that you have created so that he can communicate who he is to you, is the most loving thing he can do. Sometimes good things come in seemingly awful packages.
Things I learned:
1. God is kind
2. God's character is more important than anything else
3. Take a break! Margin! build time in your life for rest, every day and once a week. (I suggest reading a book called "Margin")
4. Recognize your commitments, we don't see them till we write them as a list. When we take on too much, we weaken ourselves to deal with the spiritual and emotional struggles that WILL inevitably come. Don't render yourself incapable of spiritual warfare.
5. Build community, you need brothers and sisters, and they are a huge blessing.
6. When in troubled times, seek brothers or sisters out, and share. Let them fulfill the law of Christ, which is to love you.
7. When in troubled times, read the word and pray. Even if you haven't in a long time. God wants to heal, comfort and reveal himself to you.
8. Take a freakin' nap!
God is surely good to us.
I had already been doing international ministry, working 15-20 hrs a week, sleeping an average of 4 hours a night on weekdays and about 6-7 a night on weekends, keeping up with people and their lives, 18 credit hours of classes and school work, and being a part of College Heights college age as well as Go teams, and meeting with older, wiser men in the Church.
Too much basically.
I had just went through about a three week period of a mental hell. That is really the best way that I could describe it, never a moment of silence in my mind, always the accuser was right there, and I was feeling the weight of brokenness and sin. I was feeling the weight of my schedule too, it was just emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually backbreaking.
And I was doing a fantastic job at hiding all this from brothers and sisters in Christ, I might add.
One day, my room mate was gone and I had a huge project due (Principles of Interp.), and I felt so incredibly broken that I could not bring myself to seek out a brother, I went to my room, locked my door, and cried for an hour, hoping no one on my floor hear that I was human (at the same time that someone would come).
The very next day I went hiking with my D-group and never said a word of it. That night of brokenness, I decided that I would look to the Lord, that I would read the psalms, and pray to my God for help, because I had reached the point where brokenness manifest itself into tears (that is when I know its bad, because I can't cry for anything). I found solace enough for that night, and I was reminded that God is our healer.
So a week after I had realized that I needed to start putting some effort forth to climb out of the pit that I had dug for myself, I was having a very difficult day, and I just wanted freedom from everything that I had committed too, and brokenness. I prayed to God on Tuesday, at our weekly meeting to pray for internationals, I prayed for myself, I prayed specifically, that God would be kind to me that day, and he was. God is kind. It was a Tuesday, so on Tuesdays I have class, eat, pray for internationals with friends and then go to work for several hours. The week before had stock every single day, and I was tired, and sick of moving boxes and figuring costs. Mainly moving boxes (the truth is, when you are spiritually, emotionally and mentally weary, you become physically weary as well). So Tuesday and Friday are big stock days, lots of stuff comes in and you have to sort it out, mark it, move it, rearrange, move stuff again, at this point in my life, it might as well have been sprinting up Mt. Everest. I went into work, not happy, but ready to suck it up and do the job (did I mention I didn't sleep much the night before?). I started payroll because it was the last day of the pay period, and then I was ambushed. It was a trap, my manager and another lady (who I will not mention) came in, and started the talk. Saying, "Tyler, It's not working".
I paused...
Deciding how to react....
(beginning to smile) I said, "yeah, I know"
I came clean about how I was planning on just finishing out the semester and finding someone to take my place at the beginning of the next semester, I just didn't want to make the end of the semester any harder on them, and how I was bad at the job, and hated the job, it was too detail oriented, and they wanted things done a certain way, and I couldn't wrap my mind around their reasoning for specifics. Then, we came to an agreement. We were both happy with the decision, they had somebody lined up to take over and I went and took a nap. What a glorious day that was!
God was kind to me, he took from me what he didn't want me to have, the one thing that was too much, the one thing keeping me from healing, from peace, and from joy. God is kind, he needed to teach me this, because my life was speaking lies about who God is. He had to intervene, and be kind to me. He is merciful, because I brought the pain on myself. Within 30 minutes of my prayer for God to be kind to me, he answered it.... crazy.
Well, losing your job, not having any more money coming in, and not knowing how your going to get to Louisville for training to Go to Italy. Sounds like a pain, but it has been such a huge blessing. Joy and peace characterize my life right now, it hasn't even been a full week! And here I am praising God for everything that has come out of it!
He is surely Good to us.
Sometimes, to others, his goodness might not look so good, but its all about the relationship. And him messing things up that you have created so that he can communicate who he is to you, is the most loving thing he can do. Sometimes good things come in seemingly awful packages.
Things I learned:
1. God is kind
2. God's character is more important than anything else
3. Take a break! Margin! build time in your life for rest, every day and once a week. (I suggest reading a book called "Margin")
4. Recognize your commitments, we don't see them till we write them as a list. When we take on too much, we weaken ourselves to deal with the spiritual and emotional struggles that WILL inevitably come. Don't render yourself incapable of spiritual warfare.
5. Build community, you need brothers and sisters, and they are a huge blessing.
6. When in troubled times, seek brothers or sisters out, and share. Let them fulfill the law of Christ, which is to love you.
7. When in troubled times, read the word and pray. Even if you haven't in a long time. God wants to heal, comfort and reveal himself to you.
8. Take a freakin' nap!
God is surely good to us.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Team Expansion Internship: Italy!
January 4th, 2012
Dear Friends and Family,
I have an internship this summer in Italy for 10 weeks. I cannot believe that I am already going to the mission field. It seems as though I was leaving to go to Ozark Christian College just a few months ago, and I have already been there for almost two years.
I was looking for an internship to fulfill the requirements for my degree at OCC, when God dropped an opportunity in my hands at the National Missionary Convention! Team Expansion [Teamexpansion.org] exists to transform communities among the unreached people of the world by planting Biblical churches. They have been around for more than 30 years, and they have about 300 workers serving in more than 40 countries. Team Expansions mission is to start 80 Church planting movements by 2015, and I get to be a part of that!
Italy is a Post-Christian nation, having been evangelized in the past by the early church, but seeing little or none of that glory today. The people there are either nominal Christians, unreligious, with other religions, or tied up in empty practice and traditions. There are the faithful, but few and far between. The nation has lost its faith and is in need of revival, and with recent economic turmoil the need is greater than ever.
The field is going to be very difficult, and I would not even consider going to this mission field without your prayers. Our prayers tap into God’s will and power and overcomes our will and weakness. For this and many reasons I am asking that you would partner with me in this ministry opportunity through prayer. I will have more prayer needs posted on newsletters in the upcoming months. I would also ask that you would be praying for my preparation and for our missionaries out on the field already.
I also have a financial goal for this internship. I am required to raise $6,650 to cover trip expenses and my school stipend. I would like to raise more than that in order to cover the costs of preparation, communication, and training expenses. Anything I raise beyond this will go toward helping other Team Expansion interns who might be in need.
All financial contributions made to Team Expansion on my behalf are tax deductible and are used to fund the internship program. Please write checks to “Team Expansion” and do not include my name on the check.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
God's mercies
Praise God for his great mercies. Added to saving Grace he tenderly restores and rebukes me, working on my heart, reinvigorating my love for his word, giving me strength and peace in all things. The sermon in Chapel didn't hit me at the time but it spoke a word deep into my heart. That sermon, the love of a brother, the fellowship and acceptance of others, the light of the word, and the voice of God have showed me something that I have been missing. I'm not looking forward to the next couple of months because I think it is going to be emotionally and spiritually difficult. But I'm glad to have the opportunity, and I know it is best, God is going to reveal a lot in me that I've not seen. I look forward to be on the other side of it, and to look more like Jesus on the other side of it.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Thoughts of the Day 12/2/11
Thoughts of the Day 12/2/11
The Day:
Well I had planned to wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 am to study for my greek test. Next thing I knew it was 8 something and I was late for class. Got to class did the best I could but not sure, probably a C. Seemed like everything went wrong today, but got through it all. Although it seemed like everything went wrong, God seems to be paving the way, probably using difficulties to build my perseverance. Few things that stuck out to me today.
Inclusion in community
There are circles of community all around, but Ozark is a good time and place to analyze it. Some major observations:
1. Community changes, continually, especially at Ozark, every incoming group of students changes the dynamics of the overall community, with personality types, preferences, style, focus, everything changes the community.
2. Inclusion is important or else it isn’t God’s community. God’s rules for community is inclusion and holiness. The gospel is inclusion, the whole idea is reconciling people to God and they join his family, his holy people.
3. Holiness is to be a part of the nature of God’s community. He is holy and is bringing people to him, but because he is holy he can not compromise his holiness. Solution? Make people holy via the Holy Spirit. Sanctification. Holiness in the community is for God, it is the same idea of a husband making himself something good, making himself a blessing for his wife and vice versa. We don’t compromise who we marry and it is a reflection that neither will God. God needs a holy bride, a holy church. On an individual scale holiness’s first priority should not be guiltlessness. In other words, if our first motive to pursue holiness is for feeling good about ourselves then it really isn’t holiness. It may be a fruit that comes from it, that we feel more at ease with ourselves and our lack of sin, but we still sin. Holiness is rather a part of the nature that every individual is supposed to be. God is restoring human holiness. Our holiness is our gift to God, and God’s holiness is a gift to us. However God gave us our holiness, but our holiness is a choice, that is why we have choice. Obedience and holiness seem to be choices. Obedience seems to be in relation to our father-children relationship with him. And Holiness is in relation to our husband-wife relation to him.
The issues come when the community changes, the new people coming in cause upheaval in the dynamics. This takes patience and love to endure the changes, but not just endure but accept, embrace and dive headlong into the new relationships and possibilities, even if they aren’t what we expected.
Now the real problem is when the people entering into the immediate community have false views of what community should be, or simply aren’t living out what they believe about it. The problem is when those who were already in the community are alienated by the new comers. This can happen both ways, either the existing community alienates the new comers or the new comers alienate those who already were. The factor between the two is usually numbers, how many new comers are there and how many are in the pre-existing community. It is extremely important to both be accepting of the other and even embracing.
Now about reasons why people would not be accepting or inclusive:
I Can’t claim that I can see all sides but I can see some. Some reasons are selfishness very simply, this is probably a more over-arching theme. Fear of loss of the current community, and fear of change, fear of losing a relationship to others. However fear is cast out by God, or should be, and if fear rules then it is not love, it becomes manipulation.
There seems to be a dynamic of exclusion by floors or friend circles. There is probably a multi layer reason for this, ranging from fear, selfishness, self service, and possibly pride. If the pride of the community is a personal pride that does not compare this community to that community to derive it’s worth then it is good. But if it’s worth is drawn by the dominate thought of being better than another community than exclusion comes. I can’t personally say how community should look but through scripture we can identify qualities and character of the community and whether or not they line up with scripture.
Opinion here: I think that what it might look like in a more ideal Ozark community, is that there would be a personal pride that comes without comparing (Galatians 6:1-5). That there would be a floor pride that comes without comparison, a dorm pride, and a school pride, and a pride of the people of God.
Pride
The word pride comes with a bad connotation because of our culture over the past several hundred years. But the word a lot of times used means “vainglory”, which is glory in vain, over self, it is empty, because is sees itself as full in regard to others, but it forgets to compare itself with God. True pride that has not been twisted is simply glory. Hebrews says that we are “many sons beingo brought to glory”. True glory is measuring up with out comparison to others.
Quick analogy for pride:
If I compare dirt clods to each other and find the roundest most solid dirt clod, in comparison to the rest, it is still a dirt clod, ugly and inglourious. But when comparing a dirt clod to Gold or marble or anything else beautiful it is not glourious at all. Lets say someone could make all these dirt clods into gold or marble, perfect but not the same, formed into different shapes, they no longer can be compared the stand alone, but they are all of the same material. The same but individual all together.
Pride is the product of seeing oneself as one truly is. Skewed pride is viewing oneself by the wrong criteria and getting a skewed view of oneself. Vainglory is skewed pride. True glory is true pride.
There is also individual exclusion, or group exclusion. Individual is where an individual excludes or alienates themselves based on personal perception and choice. This can range from low self-esteem, negative judgments about others and the community as a whole, and just simply self-absorption.
Pursuing
Absolutely the most frustrating thing EVER. I hate pursuing a girl, it is confusing frustrating and terribly ambiguous. Why can’t we just be acquainted with a girl, spend a little bit of time with them and then proceed to ask them “I find you interesting and am attracted to you, can we spend some time together to see whether or not we should proceed in dating?” then go out on a few dates to get to know each other and if there seems to be not major issues become boyfriend and girlfriend.
Dating today is far too sporadic, and spontaneous. Romance movies do us an injustice and make relationships seem like they come out of chaos and that two people find each other and this miracle happenstance is what makes it meaningful. But this view of a relationship is hollow, self absorbed and not true. I’ll compare and contrast the views
Spontaneous Vs. Intentional:
• Self absorbed vs. outwardly focused- It views it’s importance and existence more important than the world around it and will treat itself as something to be preserved at the cost of everything else. God will preserve it if it is to be and if we cooperate with him in dying to ourselves and serving others. It also has an us-and-them perspective. It is us against the world, there is some truth to this, but it is how can we serve people and give the gospel to the world not defend themselves from the world, the only defending should be of impurities that try to rot the relationship. But people are not what should be kept out. Now people don’t have the right to speak into the relationship unless asked but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I was talking about relationships isolating themselves from the world around them
• Hollow vs. meaningful- it is void of meaning. It is existential in that it tries to give value to itself rather than taking on the value that God desires for it. There is some freedom in deriving meaning but it can not affect identity or else it derides us from God’s plan for identity. A relationship should reflect God’s pursuit of us. Romance movies paint that a relationship is a miracle out of happenstance, but it shouldn’t be. The miracle rather should be the mystery of how a man and wife become one flesh and that two broken individuals can join together and love each other regardless of their sin and iniquity. Relationships are purposeful pursuits, the man reflects God and the woman reflects the church. God pursued the individuals in the Church, it wasn’t random happenstance. So men should pursue women purposefully with a plan but with passion. The passion gives them the endurance and perseverance to pursue regardless of how the plan is going. The plan should be loose, and able to change, and it will change.
• True meaning- true meaning and significance in a relationship is that either party was chosen. There was a commitment to pursue and a commitment afterward in being a boyfriend and girlfriend, then there is a commitment in engagement and the final lifelong commitment of marriage.
I don’t understand the pursuit part. It is full of risk, if it’s not worth fighting and suffering for then it can’t be worth much can it? You have to keep a realistic perspective because optimistic will lead you astray and cause you to place hope in something that you don’t yet have.
Growing up in adversity
Jesus says a lot in the beatitudes about people living under adversity. Poverty, injustice, the hungry. Several things and then he says that they are blessed, this has to change our view of what a blessing is. The blessing comes with a promise, that they will be, do or gain something. The meek inherit the earth because they have power but restrain it, and they can rule the earth because they were good stewards of everything that they had authority over in life. I think that we gain a perception that will drive us in a good direction in life, adversity gives us proper perspective. In adversity we gain a proper perspective, we see brokenness and we can understand what should be. When being raised in a perfect home without adversity we see things as perfectly fine and we accept the way things run because we are comfortable, so we don’t strive for certain things and we don’t control ourselves in certain aspects because we never saw that there was any other way of living. But I think following Jesus will bring suffering in these different areas, giving us a meekness and hunger for righteousness. The children who grow up in adversity will hunger deeper, suffering causes great joy to fill it’s place.
Theology from lion king
“he lives in you”
Jesus lives in us and we forget that he is transforming us. Simba is a pathetic representation of his strong, powerful kingly father, and he must be conformed into the image of his father, his king, into a king.
“you have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me”
We forget that we are sons and daughters of God, and so we forget that there is even a god in the first place, we forget that we have a father.
Simba is like Jonah, he runs from his calling to rise up as king.
He then goes into the wilderness to try to live without worry. He runs into nala which is like God rebuking him, and calling him back. Jonah was in the belly of the well, and Simba has a time that is a “dark night of the soul” similar to the belly of the fish. It’s metaphor is that it is dark, starry, quiet but full of discontent and conflict and he has his God encounter and then it all turns around.
Pride rock is representation of pride. Pride was good under authority of the good rule, mufasa. But when satan, scar, gets ahold of it, it becomes perverted and desolate.
Scar is also a good example of a depraved human, he refuses to leave his pride, pride rock, because of his pride. He refuses to believe that his pride has turned to vainglory.
Simba takes responsibility, scar is the accuser. Simba’s negliegience got his father killed. Our sin got jesus crucified. But Scar accuses and says that it was his fault, and plants seeds of guilt. The truth is that the father loved the son came to rescue him, the childs negligence was deserving of death, he got himself in a position of death, of being trampled. But the father had mercy and decided that it was worth dying for and risked himself. The resurrection comes through the son, samba. So the resurrection here is not direct but it is there.
Scar dies by his own implementation, his minions turn on him. His attacks get him thrown off a cliff and send him to his impending doom. Satan gets his.
“Truth is in the eye of the beholder” –scar, (satan)
He gives us strength and peace
Glory be to God the father
Forever and ever
Amen
The Day:
Well I had planned to wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 am to study for my greek test. Next thing I knew it was 8 something and I was late for class. Got to class did the best I could but not sure, probably a C. Seemed like everything went wrong today, but got through it all. Although it seemed like everything went wrong, God seems to be paving the way, probably using difficulties to build my perseverance. Few things that stuck out to me today.
Inclusion in community
There are circles of community all around, but Ozark is a good time and place to analyze it. Some major observations:
1. Community changes, continually, especially at Ozark, every incoming group of students changes the dynamics of the overall community, with personality types, preferences, style, focus, everything changes the community.
2. Inclusion is important or else it isn’t God’s community. God’s rules for community is inclusion and holiness. The gospel is inclusion, the whole idea is reconciling people to God and they join his family, his holy people.
3. Holiness is to be a part of the nature of God’s community. He is holy and is bringing people to him, but because he is holy he can not compromise his holiness. Solution? Make people holy via the Holy Spirit. Sanctification. Holiness in the community is for God, it is the same idea of a husband making himself something good, making himself a blessing for his wife and vice versa. We don’t compromise who we marry and it is a reflection that neither will God. God needs a holy bride, a holy church. On an individual scale holiness’s first priority should not be guiltlessness. In other words, if our first motive to pursue holiness is for feeling good about ourselves then it really isn’t holiness. It may be a fruit that comes from it, that we feel more at ease with ourselves and our lack of sin, but we still sin. Holiness is rather a part of the nature that every individual is supposed to be. God is restoring human holiness. Our holiness is our gift to God, and God’s holiness is a gift to us. However God gave us our holiness, but our holiness is a choice, that is why we have choice. Obedience and holiness seem to be choices. Obedience seems to be in relation to our father-children relationship with him. And Holiness is in relation to our husband-wife relation to him.
The issues come when the community changes, the new people coming in cause upheaval in the dynamics. This takes patience and love to endure the changes, but not just endure but accept, embrace and dive headlong into the new relationships and possibilities, even if they aren’t what we expected.
Now the real problem is when the people entering into the immediate community have false views of what community should be, or simply aren’t living out what they believe about it. The problem is when those who were already in the community are alienated by the new comers. This can happen both ways, either the existing community alienates the new comers or the new comers alienate those who already were. The factor between the two is usually numbers, how many new comers are there and how many are in the pre-existing community. It is extremely important to both be accepting of the other and even embracing.
Now about reasons why people would not be accepting or inclusive:
I Can’t claim that I can see all sides but I can see some. Some reasons are selfishness very simply, this is probably a more over-arching theme. Fear of loss of the current community, and fear of change, fear of losing a relationship to others. However fear is cast out by God, or should be, and if fear rules then it is not love, it becomes manipulation.
There seems to be a dynamic of exclusion by floors or friend circles. There is probably a multi layer reason for this, ranging from fear, selfishness, self service, and possibly pride. If the pride of the community is a personal pride that does not compare this community to that community to derive it’s worth then it is good. But if it’s worth is drawn by the dominate thought of being better than another community than exclusion comes. I can’t personally say how community should look but through scripture we can identify qualities and character of the community and whether or not they line up with scripture.
Opinion here: I think that what it might look like in a more ideal Ozark community, is that there would be a personal pride that comes without comparing (Galatians 6:1-5). That there would be a floor pride that comes without comparison, a dorm pride, and a school pride, and a pride of the people of God.
Pride
The word pride comes with a bad connotation because of our culture over the past several hundred years. But the word a lot of times used means “vainglory”, which is glory in vain, over self, it is empty, because is sees itself as full in regard to others, but it forgets to compare itself with God. True pride that has not been twisted is simply glory. Hebrews says that we are “many sons beingo brought to glory”. True glory is measuring up with out comparison to others.
Quick analogy for pride:
If I compare dirt clods to each other and find the roundest most solid dirt clod, in comparison to the rest, it is still a dirt clod, ugly and inglourious. But when comparing a dirt clod to Gold or marble or anything else beautiful it is not glourious at all. Lets say someone could make all these dirt clods into gold or marble, perfect but not the same, formed into different shapes, they no longer can be compared the stand alone, but they are all of the same material. The same but individual all together.
Pride is the product of seeing oneself as one truly is. Skewed pride is viewing oneself by the wrong criteria and getting a skewed view of oneself. Vainglory is skewed pride. True glory is true pride.
There is also individual exclusion, or group exclusion. Individual is where an individual excludes or alienates themselves based on personal perception and choice. This can range from low self-esteem, negative judgments about others and the community as a whole, and just simply self-absorption.
Pursuing
Absolutely the most frustrating thing EVER. I hate pursuing a girl, it is confusing frustrating and terribly ambiguous. Why can’t we just be acquainted with a girl, spend a little bit of time with them and then proceed to ask them “I find you interesting and am attracted to you, can we spend some time together to see whether or not we should proceed in dating?” then go out on a few dates to get to know each other and if there seems to be not major issues become boyfriend and girlfriend.
Dating today is far too sporadic, and spontaneous. Romance movies do us an injustice and make relationships seem like they come out of chaos and that two people find each other and this miracle happenstance is what makes it meaningful. But this view of a relationship is hollow, self absorbed and not true. I’ll compare and contrast the views
Spontaneous Vs. Intentional:
• Self absorbed vs. outwardly focused- It views it’s importance and existence more important than the world around it and will treat itself as something to be preserved at the cost of everything else. God will preserve it if it is to be and if we cooperate with him in dying to ourselves and serving others. It also has an us-and-them perspective. It is us against the world, there is some truth to this, but it is how can we serve people and give the gospel to the world not defend themselves from the world, the only defending should be of impurities that try to rot the relationship. But people are not what should be kept out. Now people don’t have the right to speak into the relationship unless asked but that wasn’t what I was talking about. I was talking about relationships isolating themselves from the world around them
• Hollow vs. meaningful- it is void of meaning. It is existential in that it tries to give value to itself rather than taking on the value that God desires for it. There is some freedom in deriving meaning but it can not affect identity or else it derides us from God’s plan for identity. A relationship should reflect God’s pursuit of us. Romance movies paint that a relationship is a miracle out of happenstance, but it shouldn’t be. The miracle rather should be the mystery of how a man and wife become one flesh and that two broken individuals can join together and love each other regardless of their sin and iniquity. Relationships are purposeful pursuits, the man reflects God and the woman reflects the church. God pursued the individuals in the Church, it wasn’t random happenstance. So men should pursue women purposefully with a plan but with passion. The passion gives them the endurance and perseverance to pursue regardless of how the plan is going. The plan should be loose, and able to change, and it will change.
• True meaning- true meaning and significance in a relationship is that either party was chosen. There was a commitment to pursue and a commitment afterward in being a boyfriend and girlfriend, then there is a commitment in engagement and the final lifelong commitment of marriage.
I don’t understand the pursuit part. It is full of risk, if it’s not worth fighting and suffering for then it can’t be worth much can it? You have to keep a realistic perspective because optimistic will lead you astray and cause you to place hope in something that you don’t yet have.
Growing up in adversity
Jesus says a lot in the beatitudes about people living under adversity. Poverty, injustice, the hungry. Several things and then he says that they are blessed, this has to change our view of what a blessing is. The blessing comes with a promise, that they will be, do or gain something. The meek inherit the earth because they have power but restrain it, and they can rule the earth because they were good stewards of everything that they had authority over in life. I think that we gain a perception that will drive us in a good direction in life, adversity gives us proper perspective. In adversity we gain a proper perspective, we see brokenness and we can understand what should be. When being raised in a perfect home without adversity we see things as perfectly fine and we accept the way things run because we are comfortable, so we don’t strive for certain things and we don’t control ourselves in certain aspects because we never saw that there was any other way of living. But I think following Jesus will bring suffering in these different areas, giving us a meekness and hunger for righteousness. The children who grow up in adversity will hunger deeper, suffering causes great joy to fill it’s place.
Theology from lion king
“he lives in you”
Jesus lives in us and we forget that he is transforming us. Simba is a pathetic representation of his strong, powerful kingly father, and he must be conformed into the image of his father, his king, into a king.
“you have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me”
We forget that we are sons and daughters of God, and so we forget that there is even a god in the first place, we forget that we have a father.
Simba is like Jonah, he runs from his calling to rise up as king.
He then goes into the wilderness to try to live without worry. He runs into nala which is like God rebuking him, and calling him back. Jonah was in the belly of the well, and Simba has a time that is a “dark night of the soul” similar to the belly of the fish. It’s metaphor is that it is dark, starry, quiet but full of discontent and conflict and he has his God encounter and then it all turns around.
Pride rock is representation of pride. Pride was good under authority of the good rule, mufasa. But when satan, scar, gets ahold of it, it becomes perverted and desolate.
Scar is also a good example of a depraved human, he refuses to leave his pride, pride rock, because of his pride. He refuses to believe that his pride has turned to vainglory.
Simba takes responsibility, scar is the accuser. Simba’s negliegience got his father killed. Our sin got jesus crucified. But Scar accuses and says that it was his fault, and plants seeds of guilt. The truth is that the father loved the son came to rescue him, the childs negligence was deserving of death, he got himself in a position of death, of being trampled. But the father had mercy and decided that it was worth dying for and risked himself. The resurrection comes through the son, samba. So the resurrection here is not direct but it is there.
Scar dies by his own implementation, his minions turn on him. His attacks get him thrown off a cliff and send him to his impending doom. Satan gets his.
“Truth is in the eye of the beholder” –scar, (satan)
He gives us strength and peace
Glory be to God the father
Forever and ever
Amen
Wisdom Gained on Dating/Relationships
• Don’t focus on getting the Girl, Focus on God’s will, Give up on what is not God’s will, and pursue when he tells you to.
• Don’t get emotionally attached before there is anything there, keep God your source of joy
• Refrain from daydreaming possibilities,
• Read into it, consider signals, then step back and look at it objectively. But don't read into it too much. Balance
• Don’t be blinded by your heart
• Don’t pray too much about the person, can create and unhealthy attachment
• Guard your heart
• Take risks
• Before taking risks, think of the worst case scenario that would actually happen, no fantasy just logical probability.
• Listen to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit
• Pray for them, pray in love, that is, pray for them to align with God’s will regardless of what that means for you. But not too much praying, can cause you to dwell on the situation too much.
• When Pursuing, give them space
• Take a hint, step back if you think that is what they want
•Types of people to look out for
o Anger (matthew 5:21-26)
o Addiction (matthew 5:27-30)
o Littered Trail (matthew 5:31-32) (dating guy after guy)
o Verbal Cunning (manipulative) (Matthew 5:33-37)
o Scorekeeping (matthew 5:38-42)
o Warring (Matthew 5:43-48) (looking for a fight)
o Pride (self absorbed) (Matthew 6:1-18)
o Greed (Matthew 6:19-24)
o Fretting (worry) (matthew 6:25-34)
o Judging (Condemning) ( Matthew 7:1-5)
o Being Undiscerning (foolish) (matthew 7:6)
o Hypocrisy (Matthew 7:15-23)
• Reap what you sow. If you sow laziness you won’t get a hardworking individual. Be marginal, attract marginal. Be marginal fool someone to being attracted to you. Both are bad
•Luck out pg18. If you luck out and get someone out of your league
o Boredom:They could have just been bored and wanted a boyfriend
o Annoyance: You will get tired of being pushed to something better all the time, and they will get tired of pushing you
o Regret: you’ll feel left out because they are advancing in work and relationships. They will regret being with you
o Lonelieness: You will be outside of the seriousness parts of their life; they will be embarrassed by you. Being outside of the loop will leave you feeling lonely.
•Illusions (pg 20)
o #1 I know a lot of stuff because I’m doing will in school.
Work hard at helping your education shape you
Am I trying to better myself with my education
o # 2 I’m developing myself by spending a lot of time with the best people
Bad company might corrupt good character but good company doesn’t necessarily enhance bad character
o #3 I attend a lot of church activities, so I’m bound to be with reat people
Going to church does not make you good
o #4 I’m going to model myself after a great Christian so I can be great too
You can’t copy your way to excellence
o #5 If I find the right friend he will make me a better person
You don’t need a friend to bail you out. You need to decide to be different, let God empower you and start making changes
•Steps to becoming a person worth marrying pg 25
o #1 become passionate about God
God is at the center
o #2 Know the truth
Know the truth, lay aside illusion, discern truth from lie, and mature in Christ
o #3 live in freedom
Free from sin(you may still sin but not a slave not in bondage to it) free to say no to temptation, though at times you may still choose to say yes.
Free from legalism
o #4 Become passionate about others
People are the joy, serving them is serving Christ. Let God’s love for people rub off on you and become your genuine love for people.
Consider others better than yourself
1 thessalonians 2:19-20
o #5 Become passionate about your responsibilities
With diligence and joy
o #6 Find a greater cause
A mission
What am I here to change? What Am I here to build? What do I want to leave behind when I graduate? When I leave my first job (ministry)? When I die?
o #7 Learn the power of redemption
Forgive and give second chances
•Are they ready? Pg 32 Illusions will fade as he gets older
o #1 A person’s focus on themself is only natural and this will fade as they get older
o #2 People who are responsible in school will be responsible in work, marriage and parenting
o #3 Clean cut and sharp on the outside means decent on the inside
o #4 If they’re spending a lot of time with me it means they think I’m special
o #5 We’ve never had a fight so we must be in harmony
•Finding the right one
o Biblical Principles
o Your experience
o The wisdom of others
• Clues to finding a person worth marrying
o Purity
o Peace loving
o Considerate
o Submissive
o Full of Mercy and good fruit
o Impartial (no favoritism)
o Sincere (without hypocrisy)
•Creating a Succesful Christian Marriage
o Pg. 101 “When you date, the search isn’t just for someone you can live with. Instead, the real search should be for someone you can’t live without.”
o Twelve Rules for Building Self Confidence
1. Focus on your potential instead of your limitations
2. Determine to know the truth about yourself
3. Distinguish between who you are and what you do
4. Find something you like to do and do well, then do it over and over
5. Replace self-criticism with regular positive self-talk
6. Replace fear of failure with clear pictures of yourself functioning successfully and happily
7. Dare to be a little eccentric
8. Make the best possible peace with you parents
9. Determine to integrate the body and spirit
10. Determine to live above neurotic guilt
11. Cultivate people who help you grow
12. Refuse to allow rejection to keep you from taking the initiative with people
• Don’t focus on getting the Girl, Focus on God’s will, Give up on what is not God’s will, and pursue when he tells you to.
• Don’t get emotionally attached before there is anything there, keep God your source of joy
• Refrain from daydreaming possibilities,
• Read into it, consider signals, then step back and look at it objectively. But don't read into it too much. Balance
• Don’t be blinded by your heart
• Don’t pray too much about the person, can create and unhealthy attachment
• Guard your heart
• Take risks
• Before taking risks, think of the worst case scenario that would actually happen, no fantasy just logical probability.
• Listen to the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit
• Pray for them, pray in love, that is, pray for them to align with God’s will regardless of what that means for you. But not too much praying, can cause you to dwell on the situation too much.
• When Pursuing, give them space
• Take a hint, step back if you think that is what they want
•Types of people to look out for
o Anger (matthew 5:21-26)
o Addiction (matthew 5:27-30)
o Littered Trail (matthew 5:31-32) (dating guy after guy)
o Verbal Cunning (manipulative) (Matthew 5:33-37)
o Scorekeeping (matthew 5:38-42)
o Warring (Matthew 5:43-48) (looking for a fight)
o Pride (self absorbed) (Matthew 6:1-18)
o Greed (Matthew 6:19-24)
o Fretting (worry) (matthew 6:25-34)
o Judging (Condemning) ( Matthew 7:1-5)
o Being Undiscerning (foolish) (matthew 7:6)
o Hypocrisy (Matthew 7:15-23)
• Reap what you sow. If you sow laziness you won’t get a hardworking individual. Be marginal, attract marginal. Be marginal fool someone to being attracted to you. Both are bad
•Luck out pg18. If you luck out and get someone out of your league
o Boredom:They could have just been bored and wanted a boyfriend
o Annoyance: You will get tired of being pushed to something better all the time, and they will get tired of pushing you
o Regret: you’ll feel left out because they are advancing in work and relationships. They will regret being with you
o Lonelieness: You will be outside of the seriousness parts of their life; they will be embarrassed by you. Being outside of the loop will leave you feeling lonely.
•Illusions (pg 20)
o #1 I know a lot of stuff because I’m doing will in school.
Work hard at helping your education shape you
Am I trying to better myself with my education
o # 2 I’m developing myself by spending a lot of time with the best people
Bad company might corrupt good character but good company doesn’t necessarily enhance bad character
o #3 I attend a lot of church activities, so I’m bound to be with reat people
Going to church does not make you good
o #4 I’m going to model myself after a great Christian so I can be great too
You can’t copy your way to excellence
o #5 If I find the right friend he will make me a better person
You don’t need a friend to bail you out. You need to decide to be different, let God empower you and start making changes
•Steps to becoming a person worth marrying pg 25
o #1 become passionate about God
God is at the center
o #2 Know the truth
Know the truth, lay aside illusion, discern truth from lie, and mature in Christ
o #3 live in freedom
Free from sin(you may still sin but not a slave not in bondage to it) free to say no to temptation, though at times you may still choose to say yes.
Free from legalism
o #4 Become passionate about others
People are the joy, serving them is serving Christ. Let God’s love for people rub off on you and become your genuine love for people.
Consider others better than yourself
1 thessalonians 2:19-20
o #5 Become passionate about your responsibilities
With diligence and joy
o #6 Find a greater cause
A mission
What am I here to change? What Am I here to build? What do I want to leave behind when I graduate? When I leave my first job (ministry)? When I die?
o #7 Learn the power of redemption
Forgive and give second chances
•Are they ready? Pg 32 Illusions will fade as he gets older
o #1 A person’s focus on themself is only natural and this will fade as they get older
o #2 People who are responsible in school will be responsible in work, marriage and parenting
o #3 Clean cut and sharp on the outside means decent on the inside
o #4 If they’re spending a lot of time with me it means they think I’m special
o #5 We’ve never had a fight so we must be in harmony
•Finding the right one
o Biblical Principles
o Your experience
o The wisdom of others
• Clues to finding a person worth marrying
o Purity
o Peace loving
o Considerate
o Submissive
o Full of Mercy and good fruit
o Impartial (no favoritism)
o Sincere (without hypocrisy)
•Creating a Succesful Christian Marriage
o Pg. 101 “When you date, the search isn’t just for someone you can live with. Instead, the real search should be for someone you can’t live without.”
o Twelve Rules for Building Self Confidence
1. Focus on your potential instead of your limitations
2. Determine to know the truth about yourself
3. Distinguish between who you are and what you do
4. Find something you like to do and do well, then do it over and over
5. Replace self-criticism with regular positive self-talk
6. Replace fear of failure with clear pictures of yourself functioning successfully and happily
7. Dare to be a little eccentric
8. Make the best possible peace with you parents
9. Determine to integrate the body and spirit
10. Determine to live above neurotic guilt
11. Cultivate people who help you grow
12. Refuse to allow rejection to keep you from taking the initiative with people
Thoughts of The Day 11/24/11 Thanksgiving
Thoughts of The Day
11/24/11
Thanksgiving
Observations:
Information overload. Staying at the Lang’s up in Grinell, Iowa. The worst thing about being here is the fact that their family is so freakin’ legit and I know that eventually, Jesse is going to leave Ozark and go to Iowa state. I love that guy, he is one devoted and loyal man of God. Had thanksgiving dinner and then a Long, long, discussion with a friend? Of the langs/younkins, not really sure who. A lot of it is semantics, learned something from him though, that is, that highly objective thinkers can easily think that they are not scarred or wounded by something just because they don’t have emotion tied to their thoughts and provocations. I am a highly objective thinker, and this was revealing. All theological issues are heart issues, and we tend to think that heart equals emotion. Well thinkers just don’t experience emotions the same way if at all, or at least with much more rarity, logical thoughts and streams are what we function with most of the time. It is the difference of thinkers and feelers in the Myers Briggs personality test. Theological issues that thinkers come in contact with are heart issues, just in a different matter. Time for an example:
If I, as a thinker, have an issue with believing that Christianity, or rather Christ, is the only way to heaven, that my salvation (soteriology) is the only right salvation that will actually save. Let’s say my issue with salvation leads me to look at the validity of other religions, that others are actually going to heaven, it is very apparent that something afflicted my theological comfort. I would immediately point to hell, hell was the problem. The truth of hell sucks, and I would use much more crass words because of the great sorrow of the truth of hell. No one wants to condemn people, and that’s exactly what Christians have to pronounce, sadly, and we have missed out on this because of the generations before us which burnt and scorched the world with talk of hell. The heart issue is hell, it just seems to harsh, and we don’t want to abandon our meaning or our God so we look to try and deconstruct hell, into little pieces, pack it away in a closet, we accept the validity of other scriptures (qu’ran, book of Mormon, ba’hai scriptures, etc.), and we unpack the other religions that we had packed away accepting and tolerating them. After a while we don’t realize that you can’t pack the fire of hell away in a closet, because it will burn down the house and you with it. The problem we thinkers can have with our heart issues are much like mind issues really, with hell we have trouble reconciling, and logically believing that an eternal punishment called hell could come from God if he is good. Our heart issues are largely separated from emotion, this doesn’t mean that these are heart issues. The heart is the center of belief, the center of what we accept to be true as well as well as where emotions and pain and love are held and where they flow from.
For all the thinkers we need to be objective to the fact that we can think that we are being objective when we really are not being objective. All it is, is that we have learned how to think without feeling our heart, but the issues still surfaces, regardless of our feeling it or not
Hell:
Regarding God and hell, we cannot get rid of hell. First of all because it is true and it is real, secondarily even if we did, we would make God less good. We would think a lack of punishment would make God more good. Well it would make him more likable but not more good. God is good and holy and requires justice, for himself but primarily for us. Love considers others more than themselves, God is love and considers us more, thinks about us more, if God is consumed with concern for us, which is apparent in scripture, he is doing everything he can to save us, then his justice concerns us. The biggest issue with justice is that we are all guilty, we are all sinners and all deserve the price which is death; eternal death; hell. So how can God be seeking justice for humans if humans are the ones guilty, regardless of outside influence that Satan brings. He is guilty alone but we have cohorts with him regardless of our understanding that that is what our sin does. Hell then is a deserving justice for all men, but if all men are thrown into hell then there is no vindication for anyone, for all are perpetrators and all are victims. But through faith in Christ, grace is administered, which is the wiping away of sins continuously, all sins of the past of an individual’s life, and the sins that are committed or omitted afterward during the process of sanctification. Because God is infinitely good and holy, sin is infinitely offensive. So we have these people able the escape the well-deserved judgment, now we have a people that are becoming holy, but will not reach holiness in these bodies, because of the fall, and the fallen world around them, it is impossible to be 100% holy. But now we have a people being redeemed and forgiven, so now the people going to hell are going to hell to pay the price. And their perpetration are things like bringing others to hell, sinning against others, and sinning against God, so God is taking up the cause of the guilty as well as the innocent, who are innocent by the grace of God.
Now the problem of hell is that we want the bad people to go there and not the people that we consider good moral people. The issue there is that the ‘bad people’ are really only guilty of a civil badness, a badness decided by the majority of society, people like Hitler, Stalin etc. But we fail to acknowledge that we are fallen people, and we have fallen worlds, fallen societies, and fallen minds. We fail to realize that our own badness makes smaller badness seem like not so bad after all. Our minds are distorted, we as unholy creatures, unholy products of the fall, cannot see the full perpetration of ‘small sins’ to a holy God, or the devastation that ‘small sins’ bring to the lives of others and how they contribute to the badness of society. We need a god sized lens, like oh, say the bible, God’s word, his revelation of our sin, to us. We get self-defensive when people start saying things like this because it means that we would be thrown in lot with Hitler, rapists and all the real bad lot, when we think we are only kind of bad. The truth is God is God and we are not, judging the fairness of hell based on civil morality, suggests that we are building and governing our own kingdom/democracy/(place type of government or lack-there-of here), when the reality is that God owns everything and he will build his kingdom, regardless of whether we are on board, or even if we are in the way of it.
From the Christian perspective we however can’t imagine why someone would want to oppose the kingdom of God, it’s just too darned good, who wants to oppose that and not be a part of it? Well, the answer is self-idolaters. Fallen minds are rebellious and don’t like the idea of being subject to anyone.
As Christians we can’t argue it away, Jesus said it, scriptures say it and confirm it, there is too much fire talk. Really don’t want to get into specifics about hell, fairness of eternal punishment, just haven’t thought about it enough or studied it enough.
Skepticism:
Another lesson learned today, skepticism needs boundaries. Within the Christian Context, in the body of believers, I’m talking honest to goodness, fruit tested, faith in Christ, works out of faith, bible literate, devoted, loving Christians, in this context, skepticism needs to take a back seat. We limit our learning with skepticism, especially during a sermon, a talk, things of the like. If we take our skepticism to the community, then there cannot be a one in mindedness, there cannot be trust, there can’t be redeemed human relationships if you think everyone is out to rub false doctrine off on you. The truth is that people will harm your theology, not by much but they probably will, but we aren’t saved by theology, we are saved by faith. Our theology is easily repaired in comparison to relationships with people. We may realize that we changed something we believed for a dumb reason. Now this is not to be lackadaisical about our theological doctrine, it is just to say that outside of the context of community with believers it is useless. If we are one man island Christians then we are disobeying God, and useless. The Church is our home and what has been decided to be used by God. Skepticism cannot become king because then we elevate truth above people, and we separate truth from the context of humans, truth is supposed to live in the human heart, and our sharpening each other through discussion and love and challenging is what makes the truth in our heart secure and helps to manifest it into action. It helps root the truth in our hearts through love, and it helps for the faith in the truth to sprout and grow out of that into our actions and produce fruit.
The other problem with crowned-as-king skepticism is that we deny God, through the avenues that he chooses to reveal, teach manifest, whatever it is that he chooses to do. Skepticism, in the context of community, limits God in people and his work in them, it denies the power of the holy spirit to administer truth to us through them, it also downplays the holy spirit in us, and his ability to help us discern and protect the truth in our hearts, he is the reason we can see truth, not our own perception of truth, we can’t do anything right on our own except go to hell in a stylish fashion. When we disbelieve Christians via extreme skepticism, we deny the Holy Spirit’s power to allow others to see the truth, and we deny the ability of that very spirit in ourselves to allow us to see the truth and we exalt our own individual ability to see the truth. It becomes self-idolatry without our even recognizing it.
Christianity and Religious systems:
People get Christianity and religion all wrong. We misunderstand it’s purpose, especially Christianity. Other religions are all soteriological(study of salvation) methods, methods to save ourselves as humans from whatever the badness is (that all humans all somehow recognize). Salvation through works or goodness gained, whatever it is, it is based on human mechanism to achieve salvation.
Christ and Christianity are separate, sort of. Christ is not contained inside of Christianity, he is independent of it, but he chooses to be a part of it, obviously. In short, Christ and his salvation and works can exist outside of Christianity, but Christianity cannot exist outside of Christ, or without Christ involved with it. If it does exist outside of Christ or Christ is not a part of it, then it is not Christianity, it is rather something different.
Time for a metaphysical analogy to explain:
Or a policeman, a policeman is meant to be under the laws of the land, and with the purpose to protect and make things right. If the policeman breaks the laws or disregard them completely he is not acting as a policeman, and if he uses his gun, to kill the innocent, then he is not protecting, he raises up the wicked by taking bribes and allowing drug cartels to go on existing, and oppresses the poor with his authority, then he is no longer a policeman. He is in a sense because he still looks like one, but In symbolism of this travesty and distortion of purpose he is stripped of his badge, uniform, authority, gun, everything, and thrown into prison for his crime. He is made to be what he truly is, and that is a criminal and not a policeman.
The policeman is the Church when it goes astray, like, oh say the crusades of every other major deviation. The Policeman (The Church), to continue being a policeman (The Church), must exist inside the context of the law (requirements of being the Church and being a Christian), and inside the policeman must be the right motive (to do and make right for Christ, and for people).
So Christianity can be evil, if it goes outside of the context of the very things that make it what it is, which by definition, makes it no longer what it is supposed to be, it becomes something else. If I melt down a car into a block of steel then it is no longer a car.
But Christianity within its proper context is good. Christians are saved by faith not works. Our works are a manifestation of our faith. So what is this Christian system? This Christianity? It is a system, that’s all really. So why not just choose Christ and him be enough? Well he is enough, but systems and organization help us be better Christians, helps us love each other, love the world, and especially love Christ better. In a system we are under authority, we are in community, we are under preaching and teaching, we are in a context of corporate worship. In a personal sense Christianity would be our spiritual disciplines, things we do during certain situations, if we are considering heavy options we fast and pray, we discuss. If we are damaging the community, we are rebuked and go into solitude. If we are habitually sinning, we confess, we find accountability. It helps us live out our faith to a greater degree than we could on our own.
So the next issue is that when we try to just follow Christ we end up with a new Christianity anyway, new systems come into place. And as American Christians we realize that the last thing that we need to do is divide even more. Rather we should delve into the community, delve into the system and fix it, make it better, we need to be the right kind of people so that the right kind of ideas and things will rub off onto the community and off onto the system, refining it. When we start a new system we just create a new system that is good at things that the old system was bad at and is bad at the things that the old system was good at. We come not closer to the truth or improvement of our faith. We just jump to a more comfortable system. One that meets the needs of our longings that we wish the old system of Christianity would fill, and we ignore the old important ones because we feel they are unimportant, and we ignore them because we are spoiled that we always had them, and we feel like we have had enough of the old ones to last a lifetime, our lifetime at least, and because of this we raise up a new generation that is sick of the system we create.
We need people devoted to the system created by believers, not devoted above Christ, the Church or anything else, but at least to the point that we are willing to stick to it to see it become better. Are we just looking to gain something from the religious system of Christianity and have our desires and needs met or are we willing to stick with it and pour into it to make it better for the community as a whole.
The problem happens when people trust in the system too much, beyond faith, and faith becomes nullified, and we trust in the system and not Christ.
Trust in the system, go to hell. Trust in God, be saved by God by grace in faith
11/24/11
Thanksgiving
Observations:
Information overload. Staying at the Lang’s up in Grinell, Iowa. The worst thing about being here is the fact that their family is so freakin’ legit and I know that eventually, Jesse is going to leave Ozark and go to Iowa state. I love that guy, he is one devoted and loyal man of God. Had thanksgiving dinner and then a Long, long, discussion with a friend? Of the langs/younkins, not really sure who. A lot of it is semantics, learned something from him though, that is, that highly objective thinkers can easily think that they are not scarred or wounded by something just because they don’t have emotion tied to their thoughts and provocations. I am a highly objective thinker, and this was revealing. All theological issues are heart issues, and we tend to think that heart equals emotion. Well thinkers just don’t experience emotions the same way if at all, or at least with much more rarity, logical thoughts and streams are what we function with most of the time. It is the difference of thinkers and feelers in the Myers Briggs personality test. Theological issues that thinkers come in contact with are heart issues, just in a different matter. Time for an example:
If I, as a thinker, have an issue with believing that Christianity, or rather Christ, is the only way to heaven, that my salvation (soteriology) is the only right salvation that will actually save. Let’s say my issue with salvation leads me to look at the validity of other religions, that others are actually going to heaven, it is very apparent that something afflicted my theological comfort. I would immediately point to hell, hell was the problem. The truth of hell sucks, and I would use much more crass words because of the great sorrow of the truth of hell. No one wants to condemn people, and that’s exactly what Christians have to pronounce, sadly, and we have missed out on this because of the generations before us which burnt and scorched the world with talk of hell. The heart issue is hell, it just seems to harsh, and we don’t want to abandon our meaning or our God so we look to try and deconstruct hell, into little pieces, pack it away in a closet, we accept the validity of other scriptures (qu’ran, book of Mormon, ba’hai scriptures, etc.), and we unpack the other religions that we had packed away accepting and tolerating them. After a while we don’t realize that you can’t pack the fire of hell away in a closet, because it will burn down the house and you with it. The problem we thinkers can have with our heart issues are much like mind issues really, with hell we have trouble reconciling, and logically believing that an eternal punishment called hell could come from God if he is good. Our heart issues are largely separated from emotion, this doesn’t mean that these are heart issues. The heart is the center of belief, the center of what we accept to be true as well as well as where emotions and pain and love are held and where they flow from.
For all the thinkers we need to be objective to the fact that we can think that we are being objective when we really are not being objective. All it is, is that we have learned how to think without feeling our heart, but the issues still surfaces, regardless of our feeling it or not
Hell:
Regarding God and hell, we cannot get rid of hell. First of all because it is true and it is real, secondarily even if we did, we would make God less good. We would think a lack of punishment would make God more good. Well it would make him more likable but not more good. God is good and holy and requires justice, for himself but primarily for us. Love considers others more than themselves, God is love and considers us more, thinks about us more, if God is consumed with concern for us, which is apparent in scripture, he is doing everything he can to save us, then his justice concerns us. The biggest issue with justice is that we are all guilty, we are all sinners and all deserve the price which is death; eternal death; hell. So how can God be seeking justice for humans if humans are the ones guilty, regardless of outside influence that Satan brings. He is guilty alone but we have cohorts with him regardless of our understanding that that is what our sin does. Hell then is a deserving justice for all men, but if all men are thrown into hell then there is no vindication for anyone, for all are perpetrators and all are victims. But through faith in Christ, grace is administered, which is the wiping away of sins continuously, all sins of the past of an individual’s life, and the sins that are committed or omitted afterward during the process of sanctification. Because God is infinitely good and holy, sin is infinitely offensive. So we have these people able the escape the well-deserved judgment, now we have a people that are becoming holy, but will not reach holiness in these bodies, because of the fall, and the fallen world around them, it is impossible to be 100% holy. But now we have a people being redeemed and forgiven, so now the people going to hell are going to hell to pay the price. And their perpetration are things like bringing others to hell, sinning against others, and sinning against God, so God is taking up the cause of the guilty as well as the innocent, who are innocent by the grace of God.
Now the problem of hell is that we want the bad people to go there and not the people that we consider good moral people. The issue there is that the ‘bad people’ are really only guilty of a civil badness, a badness decided by the majority of society, people like Hitler, Stalin etc. But we fail to acknowledge that we are fallen people, and we have fallen worlds, fallen societies, and fallen minds. We fail to realize that our own badness makes smaller badness seem like not so bad after all. Our minds are distorted, we as unholy creatures, unholy products of the fall, cannot see the full perpetration of ‘small sins’ to a holy God, or the devastation that ‘small sins’ bring to the lives of others and how they contribute to the badness of society. We need a god sized lens, like oh, say the bible, God’s word, his revelation of our sin, to us. We get self-defensive when people start saying things like this because it means that we would be thrown in lot with Hitler, rapists and all the real bad lot, when we think we are only kind of bad. The truth is God is God and we are not, judging the fairness of hell based on civil morality, suggests that we are building and governing our own kingdom/democracy/(place type of government or lack-there-of here), when the reality is that God owns everything and he will build his kingdom, regardless of whether we are on board, or even if we are in the way of it.
From the Christian perspective we however can’t imagine why someone would want to oppose the kingdom of God, it’s just too darned good, who wants to oppose that and not be a part of it? Well, the answer is self-idolaters. Fallen minds are rebellious and don’t like the idea of being subject to anyone.
As Christians we can’t argue it away, Jesus said it, scriptures say it and confirm it, there is too much fire talk. Really don’t want to get into specifics about hell, fairness of eternal punishment, just haven’t thought about it enough or studied it enough.
Skepticism:
Another lesson learned today, skepticism needs boundaries. Within the Christian Context, in the body of believers, I’m talking honest to goodness, fruit tested, faith in Christ, works out of faith, bible literate, devoted, loving Christians, in this context, skepticism needs to take a back seat. We limit our learning with skepticism, especially during a sermon, a talk, things of the like. If we take our skepticism to the community, then there cannot be a one in mindedness, there cannot be trust, there can’t be redeemed human relationships if you think everyone is out to rub false doctrine off on you. The truth is that people will harm your theology, not by much but they probably will, but we aren’t saved by theology, we are saved by faith. Our theology is easily repaired in comparison to relationships with people. We may realize that we changed something we believed for a dumb reason. Now this is not to be lackadaisical about our theological doctrine, it is just to say that outside of the context of community with believers it is useless. If we are one man island Christians then we are disobeying God, and useless. The Church is our home and what has been decided to be used by God. Skepticism cannot become king because then we elevate truth above people, and we separate truth from the context of humans, truth is supposed to live in the human heart, and our sharpening each other through discussion and love and challenging is what makes the truth in our heart secure and helps to manifest it into action. It helps root the truth in our hearts through love, and it helps for the faith in the truth to sprout and grow out of that into our actions and produce fruit.
The other problem with crowned-as-king skepticism is that we deny God, through the avenues that he chooses to reveal, teach manifest, whatever it is that he chooses to do. Skepticism, in the context of community, limits God in people and his work in them, it denies the power of the holy spirit to administer truth to us through them, it also downplays the holy spirit in us, and his ability to help us discern and protect the truth in our hearts, he is the reason we can see truth, not our own perception of truth, we can’t do anything right on our own except go to hell in a stylish fashion. When we disbelieve Christians via extreme skepticism, we deny the Holy Spirit’s power to allow others to see the truth, and we deny the ability of that very spirit in ourselves to allow us to see the truth and we exalt our own individual ability to see the truth. It becomes self-idolatry without our even recognizing it.
Christianity and Religious systems:
People get Christianity and religion all wrong. We misunderstand it’s purpose, especially Christianity. Other religions are all soteriological(study of salvation) methods, methods to save ourselves as humans from whatever the badness is (that all humans all somehow recognize). Salvation through works or goodness gained, whatever it is, it is based on human mechanism to achieve salvation.
Christ and Christianity are separate, sort of. Christ is not contained inside of Christianity, he is independent of it, but he chooses to be a part of it, obviously. In short, Christ and his salvation and works can exist outside of Christianity, but Christianity cannot exist outside of Christ, or without Christ involved with it. If it does exist outside of Christ or Christ is not a part of it, then it is not Christianity, it is rather something different.
Time for a metaphysical analogy to explain:
Or a policeman, a policeman is meant to be under the laws of the land, and with the purpose to protect and make things right. If the policeman breaks the laws or disregard them completely he is not acting as a policeman, and if he uses his gun, to kill the innocent, then he is not protecting, he raises up the wicked by taking bribes and allowing drug cartels to go on existing, and oppresses the poor with his authority, then he is no longer a policeman. He is in a sense because he still looks like one, but In symbolism of this travesty and distortion of purpose he is stripped of his badge, uniform, authority, gun, everything, and thrown into prison for his crime. He is made to be what he truly is, and that is a criminal and not a policeman.
The policeman is the Church when it goes astray, like, oh say the crusades of every other major deviation. The Policeman (The Church), to continue being a policeman (The Church), must exist inside the context of the law (requirements of being the Church and being a Christian), and inside the policeman must be the right motive (to do and make right for Christ, and for people).
So Christianity can be evil, if it goes outside of the context of the very things that make it what it is, which by definition, makes it no longer what it is supposed to be, it becomes something else. If I melt down a car into a block of steel then it is no longer a car.
But Christianity within its proper context is good. Christians are saved by faith not works. Our works are a manifestation of our faith. So what is this Christian system? This Christianity? It is a system, that’s all really. So why not just choose Christ and him be enough? Well he is enough, but systems and organization help us be better Christians, helps us love each other, love the world, and especially love Christ better. In a system we are under authority, we are in community, we are under preaching and teaching, we are in a context of corporate worship. In a personal sense Christianity would be our spiritual disciplines, things we do during certain situations, if we are considering heavy options we fast and pray, we discuss. If we are damaging the community, we are rebuked and go into solitude. If we are habitually sinning, we confess, we find accountability. It helps us live out our faith to a greater degree than we could on our own.
So the next issue is that when we try to just follow Christ we end up with a new Christianity anyway, new systems come into place. And as American Christians we realize that the last thing that we need to do is divide even more. Rather we should delve into the community, delve into the system and fix it, make it better, we need to be the right kind of people so that the right kind of ideas and things will rub off onto the community and off onto the system, refining it. When we start a new system we just create a new system that is good at things that the old system was bad at and is bad at the things that the old system was good at. We come not closer to the truth or improvement of our faith. We just jump to a more comfortable system. One that meets the needs of our longings that we wish the old system of Christianity would fill, and we ignore the old important ones because we feel they are unimportant, and we ignore them because we are spoiled that we always had them, and we feel like we have had enough of the old ones to last a lifetime, our lifetime at least, and because of this we raise up a new generation that is sick of the system we create.
We need people devoted to the system created by believers, not devoted above Christ, the Church or anything else, but at least to the point that we are willing to stick to it to see it become better. Are we just looking to gain something from the religious system of Christianity and have our desires and needs met or are we willing to stick with it and pour into it to make it better for the community as a whole.
The problem happens when people trust in the system too much, beyond faith, and faith becomes nullified, and we trust in the system and not Christ.
Trust in the system, go to hell. Trust in God, be saved by God by grace in faith
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