Home for the Holidays

So I'm home for the holidays! Three precious weeks of freedom. I need to use them well, so I figured I'd spend a little while writing a blog - something I don't do enough. This one is not a really focused blog, just a few little musings about some things that have recently come to my attention.

1) On looking forward to better days

We all know those days we can't wait for. Especially this year around Christmas time that day is obvious. Everyone wants that day when they can rip open their presents to come super quickly. Some of us - yours truly - look forward to said days so passionately that we forget we have been graciously been given this day by God, and all the other days behind us, but not tomorrow. There are no guarantees for tomorrow.

Probably most of us are familiar with the verse in Matthew where Jesus says, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (Matt 6:34). This is speaking of a practical way to tackle everyday life - take it one day at a time! We can apply this principle also to days that are going really well for us. Don't waste your todays looking forward to your tomorrows.

2) On the meaning of what is said

I recently came to the realization that the Bible does not always mean what it says. Now, before you spam me and send me viruses or post evil comments, let me explain. A while ago I had a chat with some guys outside a Harvest Crusade Festival. Their hermeneutic is really interesting. The motto, as I found out later on their website, is "God says what He means and means what He says." I thought, that sounds good. We can finally get away from the allegorically interpretations of Genesis and the gospels and get down to the meat of what the Bible says. Little did I know that they were more than serious about their literalism. Of course, I reject much of their theology (although they do hit the nail on the head in some places), because the Bible simply "doesn't mean what it says" sometimes in the same way that we "don't mean what we say" when we muse that someone "has ants in their pants" or that we are "so hungry could eat a cow" or that our large football playing friends "are tanks."

Apparently to some people, the Bible isn't allowed to use metaphor. "That's what the text plainly says" they will tell you, reminiscent of something I myself have told people many times over. Perhaps you'll be accused of twisting the text to meet your own theology. Foolishness I say. The men in that group at Harvest Crusade actually thought wisdom was a person who stood on rooftops shouting at people (cf. Proverbs)! They then took those verses (which portray wisdom as a female) and combined them with the fact that Jesus is God and that Jesus is called "the wisdom of God." From this they concluded that God was a female. They also concluded that the Bible is Jesus, since both the Scriptures and Jesus are called the Word of God. It has been rightly noted that such wooden literalism could build a fleet of ships! (Mr. Holding's words from his site www.tektonics.org).

Keep in mind that God is called a consuming fire (Deut 4:24), a sun and a shield (Ps 84:11), a rock, a horn, and a fortress (2 Sam 22:3). Perhaps we are to conclude that God is a physical flame. Maybe he's just a huge ball of burning gas. No, no. He is a big metal plate used for blocking arrows with 2 straps in the back to put your arm in. Oh wait, He's actually an inanimate chunk of minerals... for... standing on? You can see how utterly ridiculous this sort of reasoning gets.

So don't twist scripture and turn something historical into something super mystical or secret if it is unwarranted. But come on, when you're reading a Psalm, don't assume that God actually has wings we go under (Ps 17:8). If something sounds weird, check out the context, including the literary context. Word pictures are extremely common everywhere. Paul used them often. Jesus used them often. We should take them as such.

So in that sense I reject the strict literalism of "The Bible says what it means and means what it says."

3) On an old friend's blog

I was going down my AIM buddy list and looking at all the updated profiles. I came across one of an old friend from elementary school. He updates his profile whenever he writes a new blog, and I like reading them to check up on how he's doing. In case you're wondering - not well. He's pretty angry at everything it seems like and has no lack of supply of curse words. This blog was no different, except this one caught my eye because it was named "Karma and Other Meaningless Beliefs." Most of it was angry and insulting (not personally, in general), but he did have some notable points.

Essentially it was a rant about people who basically make up their own beliefs and call themselves "spiritual" but not "religious." The idea here is: what makes you think that all of a sudden you come up with your version of spirituality that has it more correct that everyone else? Most people of course realize the arrogance (and unreliability) of their position and conclude that everyone can pave their own path to God. "I'm not the only right one. I'm just the only person on my path! Everyone else has theirs and they all work!" This, of course, is just plain illogical and a glossing over of the difficulties between opposing views.

My conclusion: We need to gently show people where they have not yet fully thought through their beliefs, help them think through them, and point them to the cross.

There was also a good quote, which I fully agree with him on: "No one can realistically be indifferent to the existence of god." He's right! The common cop outs such as "Hell will be a party!" or "I guess we'll find out when we get there" are not reasonable. It's not fun to be punished. Period. I think that's part of the definition or something. It's also not fun to find out that you are going to be punished for eternity simply because you were too wrapped up in your little sphere of comfortable living to give any substantial consideration to the possibility that God exists and that He will judge all evil. That isn't something you're going to want to find out when you die.

My conclusion: We need to gently show people why Christianity is worth considering, help them consider it, and implore them to accept God's sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins - the only way of salvation.

From the looks of the ending of his post, it's obvious that this is not what my friend had in mind. He is only interested in ridiculing anyone with spiritual beliefs. We don't want to ridicule people, we want to love them and lead them and show them God's forgiveness. That's what this whole season is supposed to be about - God's love for His lost sheep (John 3:17).



Merry Christmas, all!

Continuing an Old Tradition

I thought about writing a blog about everything I'm thankful for (and believe me, there is a lot), but I just thought I'd do something a little different. For all you old-timers, you might remember that I started this blog as a commentary on 1 Corinthians , but got "sidetracked" at chapter 11, verse 1. Quite honestly, there are some verses there that I didn't know what to do with, and I was getting better at finding other things to write about (not a bad thing). Anyway, I thought I'd pick up right where I left off and try to tackle ONE of these verses that deal with obscure areas of church behavior and theology.

Since I left off at verse 1, I think I'll pick up at verse two! That makes sense. Lately I've been quite active on the Facebook boards having nice conversations with my Catholic buddies, and verses like this one just have to come up. Now, if you know anything about Catholicism, you'll know that they rely heavily on their traditions to "interpret" Scripture. Of course, I'm convinced that plenty of the time, no interpretation is needed; it just needs to be read! So let's read it:

Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things
and the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

The Roman Catholic would gladly quote this verse to support their emphasis on tradition in the church. Of course, I don't think this verse can be used to justify such a position for several reasons:
1) Paul is talking about specific traditions he delivered to the Corinthians, not tradition in general.
2) Paul doesn't directly tell us what this tradition is. For all we know the tradition could be a reference to staying faithful to the Word of God!
3) Paul isn't advocating the interpretation of Scripture via tradition! In fact, Paul warned the Colossians to "not be taken captive through...the traditions of men" but rather to base our thinking on Christ (Col 2:8).
4) The tradition could be the very next thing he addresses: the hierarchy of authority in the church and proper conduct during prayer (vv. 3-16). In that case, we have it in Scripture anyways, and still are without need of "tradition"!

And ultimately, tradition is never allowed to violate Scripture, but this is exactly what Catholic tradition does. This is the real reason I do not accept the Catholic idea of tradition, because it's gotten to the point where it goes against the Word of God so much so that I cannot even consider the Roman Catholic Church a Christian church. The works salvation wrapped up in the sacraments of Catholicism is directly forbidden in Scripture (Gal 3:10) and those who preach it (a different gospel) are declared anathema (Gal 1:8-9).

We need to be committing ourselves only to Christ's sacrifice and not trusting in our own righteousness to save us. Silly things like eating bread and drinking wine, getting dunked in water, praying repetitiously, and giving money to the church (among others) do not affect our salvation! Perhaps they are effected by our salvation, but they have no effect themselves on our standing before the just Judge.

I hope this encourages you that you can rest assured in your salvation because Christ has paid the full penalty, and requires no merit from you. I also hope this encourages you to live an all the more full and holy life (Lev. 20:7), now that you Christians are free from the control that sin used to have over you. Now these are definitely some things we can all be very thankful for!!!

Well... it's time to get to some homework. Yes... they assigned us stuff over break... >_<

Giving an Answer

I once was talking to this dude named Blakey who told me that there's no excuse for going a month without blogging. Well, today is day 31, and I don't want the CBC to take away my blog, so I better get crackin'!

Lately the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to have many spiritual conversations that I didn't even actively seek for. The Lord sent them to me, much like he did with Christian. I have done my best to obey 1 Pet 3:15, and I can only pray that it has made an effect in conjunction, of course, with the Lord's grace in allowing me to live a life pleasing to Him.

What I want to do is something I've always wanted to do, which is study the Biblical examples of people who defended the faith, how they did it, and what we can learn from their example.

The first, I think, should be Paul, who was appointed by God to be a missionary to the Gentiles. Hey, that's me! Cool, whats the dude got to say?

I think that possibly one of the most common passages that pops up in Christian apologetics (along with 1 Pet 3:15; 2 Cor 10:5, and Col 2:8-9) is Romans 1:18-20 which says that

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."

I'd say that's about as clear cut, inconsiderate, straightforward, offensive, and intolerant as it gets folks. No one is without excuse. I often hear people say, "If God existed, he would make it more obvious." This is a wake up call to those people. It IS obvious. The reason you don't believe is because you love your sin more than the truth. God has graciously given you a chance to turn from your ways and run to Him for forgiveness.

Of course, this is to be expected, since we are by nature sinful, do not understand, and do not seek after God (Rom 3:11). So what is a Christian to do? Give up on those filthy sinners? They can't understand anyways, so why bother? No, I don't think Paul would be happy with that. He shows us what his attitude was toward the unbelieving when he visited Athens and reasons with them...

"his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there." (Acts 17:16-17)

So Paul was a straight up street preacher who talked to anyone who would listen! There are a few distinctive traits concerning Paul's style of preaching.

1) He uses logic

Some people erroneously mistake using logic with "leaning on your own understanding" (cf. Pr. 3:5). Sound logic, however, is the wisdom of God, which we should strive for (Pr. 4:5)! For example: every time you read "therefore" in the Bible, the writer/speaker is appealing to logic. "your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore" (Acts 8:21-22). Peter here is telling Simon the magician that his heart is not right with God, so the appropriate, reasonable response is to repent. It naturally follows logically. X therefore Y. Your heart is not right, therefore repent. In Paul's example he uses this kind of logic to denounce idol worship. "We are the offspring of God," therefore "we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising" (29). There's that X therefore Y setup again. See how easy this is?

2) He engages the culture (but doesn't participate in it)

Paul, as he has a chance to speak publicly to a crowd (an example of open air evangelism), lets us know what he has done in preparation for this moment. He says, "I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship" (Acts 17:23). He got acquainted with the culture. He found out what was meaningful to these people. He also found a sort of discussion starter with the "Unknown God" idol, and proclaimed to them who that God is. They thought they might be missing something. Paul noticed this, and filled in the gap. That there is a God they do not know (23), but he can be known (24-26), wants to be known(27), and is not far(27).

3) He appeals to their authoritative texts

In a later verse, Paul reveals to us that he even knows something about their pagan writings! No, Paul would never spend time reading pagan books to see what they say so he can effectively use that as a witnessing tool to win many to Christ... would he? You bet he would, and you should too, within reason of course. Please understand that Paul quotes only one line of one pagan poet(28), uses one line to appeal to their desire to be religious(22) and uses the rest of the passage to proclaim Him who they "worship without knowing"(23). I'm not calling everyone everywhere to have a 1:1:8 ratio, but there is a principle here:

4) He keeps his focus on the gospel

He feeds them God's spiritual truth first and foremost, appealing both to their current status as "religious" people, an authoritative text, and logic to make his case persuasively.

What is his case for? It is but this: that "all men everywhere repent, because [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained." Did Paul preach a repent or burn message? Well... yes and no. Paul preaches repentance and judgment ("...repent, because... He will judge..."), but he doesn't couch it in the typical hellfire and brimstone terminology with hateful words and a condescending attitude that we typically associate with people who preach those things. Let's not lie to people. If someone never believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, that person is not saved. That's the hard truth. This is naturally part of our message. But then again, let's not make the bad news our focus. The gospel is "good news" for a reason.

Paul takes a bit more friendly approach, yet without compromising the hard truths. He says that they are "in all things...very religious" (22) What's he doing here? He is using something important to them to lead into spiritual conversation. He is taking some part of their lives, their culture, and using it to connect to the gospel and preach the good news that men should repent because Christ has been crucified and risen.

Let's do the same.

Act with Knowledge

I fear there is a myth going around in Christian circles that Christians are not supposed to be intellectual. We aren’t supposed to question what we believe, because then God won’t like us, or something along those lines. We can’t be critical of the Bible, because for some things the answers are difficult. Well, besides the obvious verse 1 Pet 3:15, which says to “always be ready to give an account (a defense) for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and respect,” there are plenty of practical and biblical reasons for criticizing our own beliefs and relying on evidence and knowledge rather than simply having blind faith.

Before you do this, however, you have to ask yourself one thing: are you willing to go wherever the truth leads you, even if that means your beliefs (in this case, Christianity) is false?! Are you willing to do that? You must be willing. Besides, as Christians we are obligated to know the truth because “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

First off I would like to come straight out and say that if you hate knowledge you are a fool and the Bible agrees with me. “Fools hate knowledge” (Prov 1:22). Anyone who hates knowledge is not on a Biblical path, so don’t let anyone tell you not to do archaeology, or study the claims of the Bible, or explore contradictions in the Bible, or dig in to the original language, or consider perhaps an atheist’s argument against the existence of God. The truth has nothing to hide! It’s a wonder we Christians seem to run away from it so often. “With his mouth the godless man (atheist) would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered” (Prov 11:9).

In fact, I go so far as to say that those who dislike exercising their minds for God’s glory are not fearing Him: “They hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD” (Prov 1:29).

Secondly, I must clarify what I mean by the word “faith.” Some people think that it takes more faith to believe something you know little about. This definition of faith goes something like: a belief in spite of the evidence against said belief, or belief in spite of the lack of evidence for said belief. This is the wrong definition of faith. I might go so far as to say that this is the dead faith that James addresses in his epistle – a simple intellectual assent to an idea, no matter where the evidence points.

The faith I’m talking about is the kind of faith that James tries to encourage his readers to exhibit: the kind of faith that is reliance on or trust in something. For example, I have been putting faith in this chair for the last few hours to hold me up. I have no problem doing this, because I have had experience with it holding me up for such extended periods in the past. It’s not as if my faith in the chair diminishes with use. Just the opposite! My faith has been increased or, at the very least, confirmed. The same goes for God. The more we know about the reality of His existence and the more we have experienced His transforming power in our lives, the more we are certain of His actual, real presence in our lives, the more our faith increases! It’s not as if our faith in Him diminishes because we don’t need faith, we know. No, we have less trouble putting more faith in Him. It’s a beautiful thing. “…knowledge will be pleasant to your soul” (Prov 2:10).

Knowledge is actually an extremely valuable thing to the Lord. He commands us to guard it with our lips (Prov 5:2), to take it before choice gold (Prov 8:10), and if we are wise, to store lots of it (Prov 10:14). I wonder then why we have people saying things like “a god who can be proven to exist is not a god worth proving.” This is a common quote I’ve heard before, though I don’t know the original coiner. But think about it. If God can’t be proven to exist, then there is no foundation for the opening chapter of Romans which states that simply because the heavens exist, men are without excuse. Sounds like Paul thinks proving God is fairly easy to do! Yes, that means even the random aborigine tribe in the middle of a remote jungle in Africa is responsible for knowing some truth about Him, because His existence is that obvious… Of course, I by no means am saying that everyone will believe He exists. Men’s hearts are hard towards the things of God (Jer 17:9), and will often refuse to accept the obvious, logical implications of simply being alive in this amazing world that we’re in.

When we make decisions in life, they are calculated. We weigh pro’s and con’s, we examine the evidence and come to a conclusion based on a mess of inputs, yet with eternal things we are supposed to accept blindly what some book says? I think not. That is not a Christian value. That is a Mormon value. Instead, the Bible says “in everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly” (Prov 13:6).

I hope I have made a strong case for the importance of knowledge in the Christian life. I have some new dorm mates here at Stanford who are churchgoers who say that it’s impossible to know whether God exists or not. Forgive me, but what is the point of worshiping something you aren’t even sure exists? We don’t worship a false, dead, deaf God, but a living one. He actually exists. This isn’t just tradition. It isn’t a formality. It isn’t a matter of preference. The Christian life is about living in right relationship with God who is really here, not just an abstract concept in our heads.

Well, time to sign off. Perhaps next time I’ll post a few of the most commonly offered proofs/evidences for the existence of God. Until then, enjoy life with the Lord.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You…” (John 17:3).

An Encouraging Witnessing Experience

Today I was reading more of Mark Cahill’s book One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven. The great thing about this book is that it is almost hard to read even though there are so many awesome stories, because it compels you to get out there and witness to lost people right away! There is even a line in the book that says: “Go means ‘do not stay.’ It means put this book down, get up, and go bring the good news of Jesus to every person you can find in our lost and dying world” (170). Well that was convicting to say the least! So that’s what I ended up doing! Except in my typical fallen fashion I was pretty reluctant to talk to anyone.

I went to the Starbucks on Homestead and Hollenbeck, knowing that that is popular hang out spot for kids who go to Homestead High – perhaps I’d be able to talk to one of them! Well, as the Lord would have it, everyone there was Asian and speaking a different language. Not that I have anything against Asians, I just get really uncomfortable around people who are jabbering in a language I can’t understand. So I ordered a Strawberries and Crème, grabbed a newspaper, and started doing a crossword puzzle. After about 15 minutes I realized I was doing horribly and that probably even the answers I had down were mostly wrong, so I ditched that for some Sudoku. All the while I’m planning on ‘getting stuck’ somewhere and asking someone for ‘help’ in order to start a conversation with them. Everyone was so busy talking to other people or coming in and out so quickly that an opportunity never seemed to open up, though. I prayed that God would make me bold and allow me to have a conversation with someone in there; I was already feeling guilty for not starting one with anybody.

Lo and behold, a quarter of the way into my game a Mexican boy came into the shop and walked right toward me on the soft chair. He stood next to me, looked at me, and smiled. I noticed this and looked up at him.

“Hi,” I said.
“Hi!” he replied, sitting on the other soft chair adjacent to mine.
“How’s it going?” I asked.
“Good, good,” he said – a typical answer, even from people I know well. He then returned the question.
“I’m fine. What’s your name?” I asked, wanting to start a more personal conversation.
“Christian,” he said.

I couldn’t believe it! Some random kid came up to me and said hello evidently because I looked like one of his friends and he wanted to borrow some money. And his name was Christian! Talk about a conversation starter! I was too afraid to start a conversation with someone, so God sent someone to start a conversation with me! It was amazing. After a few minutes of small talk, I tried to transition to eternal things by mentioning the extremely recent and sudden death of Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. I wasn’t able to control the conversation well, however, and we got off topic. He ended up asking me, though, if he could ask a ‘personal question.’

I thought, “Are you kidding me?” I half suspected this kid would start witnessing to ME! Sadly, though, his question proved my suspicion wrong, and instead bolstered my other suspicion: he needed Christ in his life.

After the conversation came to a dead point, I said, “Now that you have asked me a personal question, may I ask you one.” He was most definitely open to talking to me at this point. I had already found out more about his life and his friend John’s life than anyone should know about another person within the first 10 minutes of meeting them. I asked him if he were to die today where he would go. The sparked the rest of our 40 minute conversation during which they accidentally missed two busses! I felt a little bad for holding them up, but I knew they needed to hear what I had to say.

During that time we talked about everything from the Ten Commandments, to how to get into heaven, to suicide, to holy water, to the reliability of Scripture, to dragons. It was a fairly good conversation, and I was glad I got to explain to them that they couldn’t be good enough for God, that they needed something else (Being a pretty good person is the most common reason people give for their justification of entering heaven). I had to explain that even committing one sin was enough to keep you out of heaven; in fact it’s like breaking all of the Law (James 2:10)! Christian was actually quite knowledgeable about the Bible, nodding whenever I quoted verses as if he recognized them and mentioning things he’d heard were said in it – even some pretty obscure things. I really enjoyed talking to him and was hopeful that he would understand and believe – he seemed close to the kingdom. He noticed my enthusiasm and asked me at one point during the conversation if I was an angel!

That would be the third time my proverbial jaw dropped during this conversation (but only in my mind). He also mentioned that there was something about me that just reflected some sort of angelic presence. “When I look at you,” he said, “I see ‘pure.’ But when I look at you,” turning to face his friend, “I see ‘death.’” Jaw-drop-session number four! You know when Jesus talked about being a light to the world, He wasn’t joking around (Matt 5:13-16). This became incredibly obvious the moment Christian said that. The kid could sense a huge difference between us simply because the stark contrast between his friend and me. His friend was into drinking and getting high; I was trying to show him I cared about the things of the Lord and his eternal soul. He noticed, and I am confident that he saw exactly what Jesus promised the world would see in us – light.

It felt like the conversation was over far too quickly, and I was tempted to beat myself up for not saying more, but I realized that God had set up their time to come into my life, and that meant he was also setting up a time for them to leave it. I thanked the Lord for the opportunity to talk to these Homestead High kids. It seemed as if the Lord had been working on Christian’s heart a little – I was able to give him the address and directions to FBLA, which he expressed an interest in attending almost as soon as we started talking! I pray that I will have the chance to see Christian again, if not both of them. If that doesn’t happen, though, I can rest in the fact that I planted a seed, and God will be faithful to provide the increase if He so desires.

I hope this story encourages you to get out there and be bold to share your faith with others, especially when God practically plops them right in your lap like He did for me today! It doesn’t take much, and the only time you’ll regret it is when you don’t do it! So get out there and evangelize the lost! They’re all waiting to hear from us.

One thing I would have done differently had I been able was to have tracts ready to hand out. Since they were asking for money, I could easily have had those money tracts and simply said something like this: “You need 25 cents? How about a million dollars and 25 cents!” and then hand them a ‘million dollar tract’ with the real quarter that they’re looking for. That is always fun. We had a few in Colorado and we’d slip them in as tips when the workers weren’t looking. Tracts are a great way to get the truth out to people when you don’t have a ton of time to start a 40-minute conversation with them like I did.
Some good tracts can be found at www.livingwaters.com. My personal favorites are the million dollar ones and the “IQ Test” ones – 100 tracts for 5 dollars. That literally means you’re giving out five-cent pieces of paper with the priceless gospel message on each of them. Everyone wants money and to prove that they’re smart, so it’s a good way to tie in biblical, eternal, salvation truth to the things that people seem to want most.