As I see it…
Have we lost our minds? More specifically, have Christians lost their minds? I’ve been reading Mark Noll’s book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, and though I’m about 15 years late in reading it, I like what I see. He argues articulately for a position I’ve been advocating for the last ten years, at least. If I had realized what Mark had already written, I would have shut up more and just recommended his book! My concern has been that Christians have put their brains on hold and let the world do their thinking for them. We have allowed the “touchy/feely” side of humanity to impact the guidelines for a Christian voice in our culture far too long. We have stepped aside from the exercise of our brain and have allowed just “gut feeling” to take over in our arguments concerning our Christian witness. It starts at conversion and gets worse. People are encouraged to “come to Christ” and he’ll make all things well rather than preach the convicting work of the Holy Spirit against the raw discharge of our sin against a holy God. We even start many of our testimony times with “What would you like to share with us today?” rather than what has the Lord been teaching you in his Word or how has God convicted you about your Christian conduct? We have traded the exercising of our minds unto godliness for mindless exercises of endless hours of computer games and their ilk. Rather than sanctifying our thought life with the contemplation of the grandeur of God and his holiness as presented in the Word of God, we have schlepped off to our favorite easy chair and cuddled up with “Christian” romantic novels or worse. Both Paul and Peter admonish us about the use of our brains: “…present your bodies as living sacrifices…by the renewing of your mind…”; “…stirring up your minds by means of remembrance…” Basically, we have just become lazy when it comes to our thought life. We don’t think anymore; we allow others to do our thinking for us. We don’t seek the face of God on a personal basis, we accept the Sunday morning sermon as a reasonable substitute. If we were put in the position of giving the reasons for the hope that is within us how long would it take us to establish a biblical train of thought? Do we even bother to be “…renewed in the spirit of our mind…” as Paul encourages us (Ephesians 4)? I call upon my Christian brothers and sisters to firm up the muscles of your mind and lose the flab of emotional dribble that prevents intimate fellowship with a holy God.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Salt and pepper...
As I see it…
I’ve traded in a salt and pepper beard for salt and pepper grandkids. After all, the beard had long since made the slide to abundant saltiness a long time ago; it simply time to admit it. We have five grandchildren to date: three the old fashioned and conventional way, and two by way of adoption (well, almost…bureaucracy is still very much in the mix of things). Three kids are Anglo-American and a slightly bronzed-white flavor. Two are of Haitian decent, quite brown, born in the Dominican Republic and being raised by a transplanted Hoosier mom who now is very much a Lone Star State refugee. This vibrant amalgam got together this past weekend for a celebration of God’s faithfulness. We invited a few guests, added a few relatives, spiced it with some neighbors and mixed it all together with a congregational stock that produced a pretty decent celebratory stew! You see, the twins were separated almost immediately at birth, one left to fend for himself and the other carted off without the rest of the world knowing he existed. Through a series of Divine interventions, the twin left to defend for himself, was soiled, sickly and dehydrated when he was rescued and revived. He was later deposited with our daughter and asked if she would care for him. The other twin was introduced into the mixture a while later when their mom decided she would walk away from both of them. The separated duo was now a renewed pair and life continued to improve immensely for both of them: physically, socially and spiritually. Meanwhile, they had three cousins enjoying the goodness of God several hundred miles to the north of the twin’s Caribbean habitat. Through another series of Divine interventions, God brought the twins and their adopted mom from the Dominican to the States. This last weekend they ALL invaded our little place in the woods. And voila, we had controlled pandemonium. As a bit of disclaimer, neither of the grandparents minded the pandemonium one bit. The cousins played, laughed and wrestled with granddad until either he or they collapsed from exhaustion (I’ll leave it to the reader to pick which succumbed first). The whole noisy and excited occasion left me with a multitude of thoughts. One of them (just one, mind you!) was could this little cross-cultural yet unified family mêlée be a foretaste of the multitudes from every tribe, tongue and nation that will ultimately inhabit heaven. But until then, we will continue to celebrate God’s microcosm of faithfulness here on earth until the great event occurs in heaven!
I’ve traded in a salt and pepper beard for salt and pepper grandkids. After all, the beard had long since made the slide to abundant saltiness a long time ago; it simply time to admit it. We have five grandchildren to date: three the old fashioned and conventional way, and two by way of adoption (well, almost…bureaucracy is still very much in the mix of things). Three kids are Anglo-American and a slightly bronzed-white flavor. Two are of Haitian decent, quite brown, born in the Dominican Republic and being raised by a transplanted Hoosier mom who now is very much a Lone Star State refugee. This vibrant amalgam got together this past weekend for a celebration of God’s faithfulness. We invited a few guests, added a few relatives, spiced it with some neighbors and mixed it all together with a congregational stock that produced a pretty decent celebratory stew! You see, the twins were separated almost immediately at birth, one left to fend for himself and the other carted off without the rest of the world knowing he existed. Through a series of Divine interventions, the twin left to defend for himself, was soiled, sickly and dehydrated when he was rescued and revived. He was later deposited with our daughter and asked if she would care for him. The other twin was introduced into the mixture a while later when their mom decided she would walk away from both of them. The separated duo was now a renewed pair and life continued to improve immensely for both of them: physically, socially and spiritually. Meanwhile, they had three cousins enjoying the goodness of God several hundred miles to the north of the twin’s Caribbean habitat. Through another series of Divine interventions, God brought the twins and their adopted mom from the Dominican to the States. This last weekend they ALL invaded our little place in the woods. And voila, we had controlled pandemonium. As a bit of disclaimer, neither of the grandparents minded the pandemonium one bit. The cousins played, laughed and wrestled with granddad until either he or they collapsed from exhaustion (I’ll leave it to the reader to pick which succumbed first). The whole noisy and excited occasion left me with a multitude of thoughts. One of them (just one, mind you!) was could this little cross-cultural yet unified family mêlée be a foretaste of the multitudes from every tribe, tongue and nation that will ultimately inhabit heaven. But until then, we will continue to celebrate God’s microcosm of faithfulness here on earth until the great event occurs in heaven!
Turning the corner of life
As I see it…
When turning the corner as you make your way along life’s corridors, you are bound to bump into situations from time to time you simply did not expect. But then again, life it that way. Unless we are spending all our time hibernating, we are bound to bump into the unexpected sooner or later. The unexpected usually provides a basis for change. At the minimum that change is an acquisition of new knowledge. At the maximum, that change can set in motion a series of chain events that can alter the way we do life: a new person added to our acquaintance, a change in vocation, a move to another place, the purchase of something significant. Handling these changes is enviably the spice that goes into the stew of our existence. Granted, some of us would just as soon keep the stew bland and barely simmering. Others of us embrace the change and the accompanying spice and any other thing that might make the pot boil a little. Now change is going to happen. That’s a rather obvious statement. Proof of the obvious is just sit down and look at a series of pictures of yourself over a 10 to 20 year period. If you don’t see any change, I want the name of your plastic surgeon. I grew up in a family whose “ventures” meant that I attended 13 different schools in grades kindergarten through graduating from high school… in four states and three different time zones. So the concept and practice of change is neither new nor particularly dramatic to me. On the other hand, the older I get, the more I appreciate stationary! There’s just something about my favorite easy chair and sweats in the winter and shorts in the summer. That’s one wardrobe that’s easy to maintain and comfortable to wear. Still, I marvel at the Patriarchs in the OT. At and after the age of 90 they’re moving from one end of the Fertile Crescent to the other, up and down the Ridge Route of Samaria and Judea, side trips to the Jordan Valley and Egypt, all the while simply trusting an unseen God to get them there and back…without the help (or hindrance) of a GPS device. I think it’s also safe to say that they bumped into a few unexpected people and circumstances along the way. Still, they trusted their unseen but very personal God. I do believe that it does say something about their faith in their unseen God. But I also believe that it says more about the faithfulness of that unseen and very personal God. “And [they] went out, knowing not where [they] were going.” If it was good enough for the Patriarchs, then…
When turning the corner as you make your way along life’s corridors, you are bound to bump into situations from time to time you simply did not expect. But then again, life it that way. Unless we are spending all our time hibernating, we are bound to bump into the unexpected sooner or later. The unexpected usually provides a basis for change. At the minimum that change is an acquisition of new knowledge. At the maximum, that change can set in motion a series of chain events that can alter the way we do life: a new person added to our acquaintance, a change in vocation, a move to another place, the purchase of something significant. Handling these changes is enviably the spice that goes into the stew of our existence. Granted, some of us would just as soon keep the stew bland and barely simmering. Others of us embrace the change and the accompanying spice and any other thing that might make the pot boil a little. Now change is going to happen. That’s a rather obvious statement. Proof of the obvious is just sit down and look at a series of pictures of yourself over a 10 to 20 year period. If you don’t see any change, I want the name of your plastic surgeon. I grew up in a family whose “ventures” meant that I attended 13 different schools in grades kindergarten through graduating from high school… in four states and three different time zones. So the concept and practice of change is neither new nor particularly dramatic to me. On the other hand, the older I get, the more I appreciate stationary! There’s just something about my favorite easy chair and sweats in the winter and shorts in the summer. That’s one wardrobe that’s easy to maintain and comfortable to wear. Still, I marvel at the Patriarchs in the OT. At and after the age of 90 they’re moving from one end of the Fertile Crescent to the other, up and down the Ridge Route of Samaria and Judea, side trips to the Jordan Valley and Egypt, all the while simply trusting an unseen God to get them there and back…without the help (or hindrance) of a GPS device. I think it’s also safe to say that they bumped into a few unexpected people and circumstances along the way. Still, they trusted their unseen but very personal God. I do believe that it does say something about their faith in their unseen God. But I also believe that it says more about the faithfulness of that unseen and very personal God. “And [they] went out, knowing not where [they] were going.” If it was good enough for the Patriarchs, then…
Worshipper's heart
As I see it…
I was just wondering…when was the last time that Christians went to church for just, you know, the main attraction? When was the last time that believers entered a building designed for worshipping the Most High God that that objective actually took place? How long has it been since there entered into the heart of each person present at a Christian worship service the person of Christ in his complete majesty, awe inspiring presence, and be the delight of each worshipper’s heart? When was the last time you walked through the doors of your favorite church building and your first thoughts were not who you would see, what classroom you needed to visit, how quickly you could make it to the restroom or wondered whether the music was going to be to your satisfaction? How long has it been since you attended a worship service and your sheer delight was to meet with other believers in the presence of a Holy God? When you thought to yourself, “I wonder what the Lord has in store for me from his Word today?” Or, have you lost your personal respect for the majesty of God? Has church attendance become just a step above a pool party at the YMCA or the social aura that accompanies meeting someone for lunch following church? While speaking of the importance of the transcendence of God, Tozer wrote many years ago: If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth, how meaningless to him would be the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men. How strange to him and how empty would sound the flat, stale, and profitless words heard in the average pulpit from week to week. And were such a one to speak on earth would he not speak of God? Would he not charm and fascinate his hearers with rapturous descriptions of the Godhead? And after hearing him could we ever again consent to listen to anything less than theology, the doctrine of God? Would we not thereafter demand of those who would presume to teach us that they speak to us from the mount of divine vision or remain silent altogether? Pastor and parishioner alike, it’s time we examined the state of our hearts for public (and private) worship!
I was just wondering…when was the last time that Christians went to church for just, you know, the main attraction? When was the last time that believers entered a building designed for worshipping the Most High God that that objective actually took place? How long has it been since there entered into the heart of each person present at a Christian worship service the person of Christ in his complete majesty, awe inspiring presence, and be the delight of each worshipper’s heart? When was the last time you walked through the doors of your favorite church building and your first thoughts were not who you would see, what classroom you needed to visit, how quickly you could make it to the restroom or wondered whether the music was going to be to your satisfaction? How long has it been since you attended a worship service and your sheer delight was to meet with other believers in the presence of a Holy God? When you thought to yourself, “I wonder what the Lord has in store for me from his Word today?” Or, have you lost your personal respect for the majesty of God? Has church attendance become just a step above a pool party at the YMCA or the social aura that accompanies meeting someone for lunch following church? While speaking of the importance of the transcendence of God, Tozer wrote many years ago: If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth, how meaningless to him would be the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men. How strange to him and how empty would sound the flat, stale, and profitless words heard in the average pulpit from week to week. And were such a one to speak on earth would he not speak of God? Would he not charm and fascinate his hearers with rapturous descriptions of the Godhead? And after hearing him could we ever again consent to listen to anything less than theology, the doctrine of God? Would we not thereafter demand of those who would presume to teach us that they speak to us from the mount of divine vision or remain silent altogether? Pastor and parishioner alike, it’s time we examined the state of our hearts for public (and private) worship!
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