Thoughts on Racism from Peter

Do you remember the story of Cornelius in Acts 10-11, where Peter gets this strange vision about animals coming down on a sheet? That's in 10:10-17. I remember the typical interpretation being "Hey, now we can eat whatever we want!" referring to the cancellation (for lack of a better term) of Old Testament dietary laws. That's convenient for us, but it struck me that this is not at all how Peter interprets it! He interprets it as having to do with the Gentiles and God's acceptance of them as legitimate receptors of His grace. "God has revealed to me that I should not call any person common or unclean" (10:28). Additionally in chapter 11 when Peter is recalling the events to the men of the "circumcision party" he mentions that it is immediately after having this dream that the three men sent to him appear at his door, and that he goes with them "making no distinction" (11:12).

The good news? God is not racist or elitist. I can certainly thank God for that because "white" is not the race of the chosen people of God. Anyone who comes to Him in humble repentance and genuine faith can be saved, not just a special class of people or certain ethnicity. This might seem obvious to you, but I would encourage you to take a look at your church. How many different races are represented there? Are there only one or two major groups? Is this because of the area or because you might be subconsciously (or consciously!) favoring people more like you? Check the heart of you and your church. Do you just give lip service to the inclusiveness of different peoples or does your church demonstrate it by actions (1 John 3:18)? More importantly, do you demonstrate it by your actions? I know I don't as much as I would like to. It's hard to think of ways to destroy racism in our hearts, because often we think we're immune to it, especially in today's progressive age when such an issue is supposed to be long over and dealt with! I'm not saying that a church has to have no more than 20% of one race in order to be in a state of godly diversity! I just want everyone to make sure that the racial uniformity is absolutely nothing more than coincidence and not a result of different people being welcomed less than similar people!

On the flip side, you can be certain a church which encourages the promotion of a certain race is not honoring to God (in that area, anyways). This was both true back when racist slavery was rampant in America and it is true today. Black people were not welcome in white churches, but unfortunately some of that same attitude has back lashed into the black community. Take for example a church that is "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian." Now, why is skin color (or culture, if you feel that's what they're referring to) even coming up when it comes to being a Christian? What would you think if I made a church that was "Unashamedly White and Unapologetically Christian"? Would that be viewed as at all inclusive of black people? How could I become a member of a church that is "Unapologetically Black," which I am certainly not! The pastor has made a statement against critics that "The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history," but this seems a bit disingenuous as he is admitting from the start that it is "African-centered" rather than… God-centered, maybe? Even Bible-centered would leave me with nothing to mourn! Whatever the motto does or does not assume, it certainly has the effect of seeing African culture and history as objectively more important than other cultures, and it definitely encourages separatism, as I have already said. I could not join a church whose motto is "Unashamedly Black," because I am not black!

May it never be so in my own heart or in yours! The Lord died for the whole world (John 3:16), not just yours.

Resolutions 4 and 5

If you're a regular here you'll notice two things that have happened recently on my blog: 1) That nothing has been happening recently on my blog with respect to new posts showing up regularly, and 2) That I added a 4th resolution to me list of Edwards-inspired statements of resolution. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll notice that to the right of this blog is a section on the sidebar called resolutions that I desire public accountability for. Anyways, I was inspired last year at Resolved 2007, a conference inspired by Jonathan Edwards' 70 resolutions, that I should make some of my own. I wasn't ready (nor did I think it wise) to take on 70 all at one time, but I took CJ Mahaney's advice and went for 3 things that I could focus on. You'll notice a 4th one there as well, written 1/1/08 (Convenient right?). It reads:

4) Resolved, to always daily encourage another Christian brother or sister for the purpose of building them up and firmly establishing them in their faith that they might be presented to God fully mature in Christ. (1/1/08)

I was convicted of the absolute necessity of doing this when I watched a sermon by my good friend and Pastor Bobby Blakey. Encouragement is so essential to the Christian faith for everyone, whether a veteran in the faith or just a new baby Christian. The verse that I think about that characterizes what our attitude should be on this subject is Hebrews 10:24-5:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Consider implies an active attempt at planning how and when to do what follows.

"Stir up" has been translated elsewhere as "spur on." We know that spurs don't feel good in horses, but it gets them to giddy up! We should be actively encouraging other Christians, even if that requires us to induce a little pain. A friendly rebuke. A confrontation. Something to communicate the seriousness of continuing in "love and good works."

The next phrase gives us a practical way to do this, that is, that we should continually be meeting together. I have often used this to refer to church gatherings and why we ought to go to church regularly, but Bobby explained that this "meeting" is a bit different than a public gathering. It refers more to personal meetings where the chairs (pews?) are facing each other, rather than facing the front. I have had the wonderful privilege these past few weeks to gather together with likeminded Christians for the express purpose of mimicking the early church as described in Acts 2:42-7. We even named our group Kata Hemera, which is the transliteration of the Greek words translated "daily." We met together almost every day, except for those holidays that were devoted specifically to our families. It was a time of encouragement unlike anything else I've ever experienced. At the moment, I have the privilege of visiting (and therefore meeting!) with Bobby, Christa, little Tyler, Ty, Brad, and the rest of the Compass crowd here in Orange County. Knowing (experiencing) the benefit of such constant encouragement coupled with the clarity of Bobby's sermon convinced me to continue a similar kind of active encouragement as I go to school this coming quarter, hence the resolution.

However, you might ask, why is this blog called "Resolutions 4 and 5"? Well, resolution number five came about as a result of 2 separate but related convictions. One was that I do not pray enough, which was made obvious during a meeting with Kata Hemera where we listened to a sermon by John Piper on what it means to "be devoted to prayer" (Romans 12:12). The second conviction was when I remember being in bed tempted to take the Lord's name in vain, to say it in an irreverent or cavalier manner. This is what I decided to resolve:

5) Resolved, to be devoted to prayer. Resolved, if at any time I should be tempted to take the Lord's name in vain, that I should remember the necessity, benefit, and privilege of using His name in prayer and immediately commit myself to such a task, lifting up His name in praise and not in scorn.

After listening to the sermon I came away thoroughly convicted that John Piper loved and was devoted to prayer, and that I did not and was not respectively. That needs to change. Now! I hope that you will make this year a year devoted to encouragement and to prayer. Everyone desperately needs both.

Nothing New

"Fire and brimstone" preaching wasn't popular in the Old Testament days either.

"'Do not preach' - thus they preach -
'one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.'" (Micah 2:6)

Let's just say the prophets weren't shy about warning other nations of God's impending judgment. It doesn't always have to be horrible news, of course. There is much about God's grace for those who repent, but there is also very much about God's wrath. More than I'm comfortable with, to be honest. It simply isn't a taboo subject for them, though I'm increasingly more convinced that God doesn't tell them to preach as such simply because "it was more effective back then" or something. People don't like to hear about their sin, but this is where the gospel starts, does it not? Law before grace.

I hate talking about my own sin. I hate when others know about my sin. I just hate it. It's not comfortable; it's embarrassing; it's humiliating. But it needs to happen. Sometimes we can feel good about getting the respectable sins out. Like "I thought better of myself than I should have in this situation" or "I desired that thing covetously." What about the deepest parts of your soul that you don't want anyone to know about? What about the kind of sins that you're afraid of people knowing about because even if they're your best friend, you're sure they'll abandon you for it? Those hurt. The conviction there is not fun.

And then comes the Christmas news, the good tidings of great joy. In that darkness and sin and sickness Jesus Christ enters on the scene, and he takes personal responsibility for everything. The good news is that when there was nothing worth being excited about, when there was every reason to be afraid and be weighed down with guilt, it is then that Jesus Christ steps between you and God's wrath. It is then that he comes with hope of justification and freedom and salvation.

Angry with Love

First off, I want to apologize for recently dropping off the face of the blogging earth. I know I had been doing this daily and then suddenly stopped, but I should be back in business for a while, given that I'm now officially on Christmas break from school. The reason I stopped was due to finals until Friday; since then I've been having so much great fellowship with Christians who are back home that I simply haven't set aside time for blogging! It's a great situation actually. There's clearly a bond that we have, and it's founded on Biblical truth. We've been spreading God's gospel together at Westfield mall and constantly sharing meals and encouragement with each other. I love it.

Today's reading comes from Jonah! Slap me if I've already blogged about this, but not too hard because I think it deserves to be said again if I have. If you haven't read Jonah, you should do so. It's short enough to read all of it in like 5 minutes. Since most who read this blog will probably already know the gist of the story of Jonah, I'm just going to skip that part. After Jonah finally turns from his sin of directly running from God's will to obeying it by preaching a message of repentance to Nineveh, Nineveh actually heeds Jonah's words and repents, all the way up to the king! Because of this, God relents of the disaster that He meant to give them.

And Jonah gets angry! Listen to this crazy complaint from Jonah 4: "¹But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. ²He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. ³Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." Whoa! Isn't this crazy? God is so amazingly merciful that he gets on a prophet's nerves! And that is good news for me. Really good news.

Noise in God's Ears

Some verses in the Bible just scare me plain and simple. I have the privilege of leading worship before Almighty God in High Point, as well as in RUF, the Stanford college fellowship I'm involved with. So when I come across warnings specifically dealing with public assembly and such, like this one from Amos 5, it hits me right between the eyes:

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
²³Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
²⁴But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

The point is that if we come to God in praise and live the rest of the week scorning his name in what we do the rest of the week, God is not pleased. In fact, he hates such assembling, and the sound of our voices is annoying to Him. It would be better if we didn't sing and instead came before Him with fear, trembling, and repentance, pleading for forgiveness. It would be better if we would go show our devotion to Him, rather than hypocritically singing it. So here is my encouragement for you: "let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18).