Tell Them A Story

I'm not a parenting expert.  In fact, I already feel like I don't have a clue what I'm doing as a parent.  I may have only been a parent for a couple years, but I already know that being a parent is tough work.  Joyous, wonderful, difficult work.

I am not writing as a parenting expert--that would be naive and presumptious.  I am no expert.  Many of my own theories have been proven wrong over the past couple years, and many more will be proven false in the years to come.  Far from an expert, I feel more like a shipwrecked man, trying to grab on to a lifeboat, calling his fellow shipwreckees to find the lifeboat too!

I write today about a secret weapon that I believe is ordained by God as a parenting tool.  It is a tool that is important for toddlers to teenagers to adult children.  It is a tool that a parent yields even after the tool of discipline has outgrown its usefulness.  It is a tool that can still be used long after a child has moved out, but is still useful to mold a young child.  This tool is one we see in the very fabric of Scripture itself.  Do you want the secret weapon?  Here it is?

Tell your kids a story!

Think about this.  In the earliest section of the Bible (Torah), we see a command that says this:

"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them upon your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."  Deut. 6:6-7

Now, this command isn't all that unique to our faith.  Most faith documents encourage parents to teach the law (the way of pleasing God) to their children.  What is unique, is the method which they used to impress this faith on their children.  Notice that Deutoronomy is framed as a story.  It isn't a legal document just listing all the rules, it is a story showing how the laws came to be, and how they played out in the lives of faithful men and women in the past.

Most of the Bible is written in story form.  That is not an accident.  That is a God-ordained (and even God-breathed) lesson in how to grow in the faith and how to pass on the faith.  Tell a story.

Our kids need more than the rules.  They need the story.  They need to know the story of God, and they need to know how God's story intersects and changes your story.  Can I encourage you to share a few stories?

Share stories straight from the Bible.  They need to hear the God-given stories.  Root their life and faith in the stories that have shaped faithful men and women for thousands of years.

Share stories of faithful people from your lifetime.  Share stories of those who inspire you.  Visit with missionaries, or invite them to stay with you when they visit the church, and invite them to tell some stories.  Stories of faithful people today help connect the Bible story with our modern life.

Share stories of failure and faith.  The Bible doesn't show God's people to be perfect.  Don't be afraid to talk about your failures.  Don't be afraid to use your life to help your children and teens learn.  If we are honest with our mistakes, and with the results of those mistakes, we help keep them from choosing the same mistakes.

Share fictional stories.  One of my mentors would tell stories that always ended with a talking dog sharing a moral.  Yeah, it happened.  And it helped.  Not every important story needs to be a true story.  Tell you kids stories that inspire you--whether true or not.

Stories shape our thoughts, and our thoughts shape our life.

Tell your kids a story!

Wanted: Friends

It is hard to find good friends.  I think it is hard because we start looking in all the wrong places.  When we look for friends, we often look for:

• People with common interests
• People with common backgrounds
• People with similar personalities
• People who are around (you know, we set the standard pretty high!)

Now, none of these are bad, but they miss out on the most important thing in finding good friends:  character.  If you want a friendship to last and be drama free, the first place you need to look is at a person's character.  Character supersedes commonalities because it lets us know the heart of a person.  If a person has the right character, we can find a common interest to do together.  However, no amount of similarities will change a person with poor character.

The book of Proverbs gives us a great place to start when looking for friends.  Let me share three verses from Proverbs with you that tell us what to look for in friends:

1. "A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends."  Proverbs 16:28

A good friend is someone who is trustworthy.  Gossip kills relationships.  Gossip often masks itself in concern for someone, but make no mistake:  talking about someone behind their back is ALWAYS gossip.  When looking for friends, pay attention to what they say about others.  If they are regularly talking to you about private situations of someone else, they probably are not good friend material.

2. "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."  Proverbs 17:17

A good friend displays love regardless of circumstances.  Good friends don't ridicule or mock each other.  They value each other.  Good friends don't treat you differently depending on who is around.  A friends love doesn't mean that they are always nice or always agree with you.  Love must sometime say and do difficult things (more on that in a minute). When looking for friends, ask yourself:  Does this person value me?

3. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."  Proverbs 27:6

A good friend provides honest critique when something is not right in your life.  A good friend is willing to tell you that you are making a dumb decision, doing something harmful, etc.  They can say something that wounds, but they do so for your improvement and correction.  A bad friend?  They just keep on telling you that you are perfect just the way you are (in other words they LIE to you).  You aren't perfect, neither am I, and any friend who isn't willing to call you out about your poor behavior isn't a friend worth having.


It's a pretty cool list!  So as you are looking for friends, look at people's character.  Trying to decide on a best friend?  Trust what the Bible says, look at their heart, and save yourself a lot of trouble later on!

Questing

The best movies are movies that are about discovery.  The ones that send the hero on a quest, typically of insurmountable odds.  The best books are the same.  Questing matters.  Questing reveals us to us, and reveals the reality of the world that we never saw before we left our little corner of it.

I was raised on good stories.  The Hobbit, and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter all set me out on adventures.  But more than that, I was raised on stories from my Mom and Dad, stories about cowboys, medieval knights, and daring adventures.

The world was a quest, and it was glorious.

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It was a paperback, but it was the best Bible that I ever owned.  Terrible translation, fell apart quickly, but immensely important to me.

It was the title that got me.  Truthquest.  A Bible that promises to take you on a quest for truth.  It was what I always wanted and needed.

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Somewhere along the way, the questing stopped.  Life was not an adventure, it was more of a fact.  I went from seeking to knowing, or at least assuming I did.  I became the hobbits of the shire, content to live in a little corner of the world and assume that what I know is what is.

And God got thrown in.  It was inevitable I suppose, treating God like a known commodity when you decide that you are educated.  When you decide that you know...So I had no need to seek Him out.  He was no longer an adventure.

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That Bible, it was the first one I read front to back.  Within it was the first time I discovered the God who filled David, enlightened Solomon, and encouraged Gideon.  Here was the first time I sought God, really and truly.

When I think of adventure I think of that Bible.

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I started reading my Bible straight through in November, feeling it was time to "get my spiritual life together." I am a minister after all, I should be reading that thing more.  I should be doing more praying and doing more studying and being a better Christian.

So I started reading.  It was obligated reading, checking it off my daily list of to-do's.

And then I started to discover adventure again.  As I worked from Genesis into Exodus, and especially into Numbers and Judges, I stopped forcing myself to read, and I started to explore, to seek, to yearn to see what God would do next.

And my life has seemed to become much more mysterious, the world being bigger, the adventure more tangible...life became life again.

What I Will Vote For Tomorrow?

Talking politics is difficult, especially as a minister.

The whole "seperation of church and state" thing has made ministers sharing their thoughts somewhat taboo (even if some still do it boldly).  But I love politics, and I care deeply for the people in this country which God has placed me.  I want the best for America.  I want to be able to share with others what I think that vision should look like.  I want to vote based on my beliefs; not based on supposed "Christian" candidates or party lines.  Rather, I want to vote my beliefs in that I look broadly at the identity of the God who created me and look to his characteristics and cares for my voting path.

So I would like to share what I will vote for tomorrow.  Please understand that I am not going to tell you who I am voting for, but what; the ideals I support.  These are, if you will, the foundation of my voting research.  These are the things that I look at that have led me to choose some Democrats, some Republicans, and even some Libertarian and Constitution party candidates to support.

Foundations are important.  Ideals are crucial.  Before we can even begin to rightly examine policy options, we need to understand our foundation.  How someone wants to run medicare, or foreign policy, is a secondary question.  The real question is this:  What do I believe should define America?  What principles does God expect from our people?

In my time of reading Scripture, these are the ideals I have decided to vote for this year.  Please feel free to share yours in the comments:

1. Justice

    The Bible talks a lot about justice.  Jesus criticizes the religious leaders of his day for caring more about tradition than justice.  Justice is clearly in the heart of God.  In looking at candidates, I look for those that support justice for the truly oppressed, the truly victimized.

2. Life

     God consistently shows the value of the human life.  All human life is sacred.  This means I look for candidates that value the life of the unborn, the aged, the foreigner and refugee.

3. Compassion.

      Jesus life is a great display of compassion.  I want to look for candidates whose policies will reflect a truly compassionate heart.

4. Wisdom

     Proverbs paints  wisdom as crucial in the life of any God-follower.  Wisdom means doing things that are practically effective and smart.  Policies that make systems better, make good use of our resources, etc.

5. Moral Transformation

     The Bible tells the story of God transforming the lives of His people  I want to choose candidates whose policies support Americans living righteously.  Specifically, I want to see candidates that will weaken the pornographic and sex based industries.

6. Peace

     Jesus tells us that the peacemakers are blessed.  I want to see candidates that truly want to run our country in a way that leads us to be at peace with others.

7. Humility

     Jesus demonstrates great humility.  I want candidates who understand their frailty and fallibility   I want candidates who realize their need for help from others.

Those are my ideals.  That is what I am using to decide my ballot this year.  What is making the decision for you this year?

God Forgive Us, God Heal Us

I live in Indiana.  I am invested in the Senate race that is unfolding, that derailed earlier this week with comments on abortion and rape.

I have read the articles blasting Mourdock's statement, I have heard the outcry from women who hate that these men want to make decisions about their health for them.  I have heard the political positioning and posturing from left and right in the wake of the media storm.

And I, I find myself wanting nothing more than to rend my clothes and weep aloud.

God, how did we get here?

When did the life of women and unborn children become the fodder for politicians to energize their respective bases?  When did life become nothing more than a pawn in the big game of politics that our country plays?

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I am pro-life.

I am.  In every sense of the word.

I believe that human life begins at conception, and that we have a responsibility to nurture that life regardless of how it got there.  I believe we are called to selflessness, thinking of those who are the least (and what is less than the unborn?) above ourselves.  I realize that as a man I can never understand the huge impact this decision will have on the women who for varies reasons find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy.  I also realize, though, that my decisions are not to be based on my full understanding of the outcome, but my decisions are to be made to reflect the character of God.

I am pro-life in that I believe that human life is sacred regardless of gender, race or ethnicity.  I believe it to be our responsiblity to defend the life of those who are abandoned due to gender in China, cut down like cattle do to their ethnicity in Africa and elsewhere, and to fight against racism everywhere it shows up; overseas or in inner-city gang rivalries.

I am pro-life in that I believe that even when someone disrespects life, I must choose to respect it.  And therefore I stand opposed to retaliation, death penalties, and wars of all kinds.  I believe we protect life and weep when life is extinguished--even if that life has done so much harm.

I am pro-life in that I believe that disabilities do not dehumanize the life of those individuals, and that it is our job to care for the life of the disabled, whether from birth, from accident, or from age.  I believe we must honor the life of our senior citizens and not view their life as lesser because it is older.

Yes, I am pro life...

...and I hate that life has become nothing more than an "issue" to be used in our country's political scheme.

I see the way we pander to constituents and I weep.

I see the way we have changed the term "abortion" to "women's health issues" and I cry.

I see the way that politicians talk flippantly about rape as if its just part of life and I shake with rage.

God, forgive us!

And heal us.

Let us be people who honor the widows and orphans and unborn and born premature and sickly.  Let us act to defend the slave, the beaten, the sex-trafficked, and the marginalized.  Let us love those who are wrong the way you did, choosing to lay down our lives for the sake of thieves and murderers and bums and outsiders and abusers and users and all of humanity.

God, let us be like you.  Let us be like Jesus.  Let us defend life by laying down our own.

Apologizing for God

I have been convicted recently, and I want to share my struggle.  I can admit that I do think it is a sin issue, although I don't think I would have ever considered it such even a month ago.  However, the reality is that this struggle has hurt my relationship with God, and hurt my testimony to those around me.

I have been feeling the urge to apologize for God.

Sitting in a room with eager learners seeking real answers about the real God of the universe, I have felt tempted to apologize for what we find.

It's not that I am refusing to teach the truth of Scripture--I am much too convinced of the truth and accuracy of Scripture to do that...

...but what I seem to have lost conviction about was the goodness of God.

At the root, its about shame.

Shame, embarrassed to share the hard truths of the Bible.  The truth that the Bible tells the story of a God that is beyond our expectations and understanding.  The truth that this God does things that I can't defend or argue as good.  It has made me squirm to talk about how God has reacted to sin in the past, what he has called sin for all time, and so many more things that I can't begin to describe it.

And at the root is my culture, my generation.  Though better trained to know the truth, I am equally able to drown in the culture around me.  I find it difficult to separate myself, my identity, from the culture that surrounds me. The culture of tolerance and timidness; sarcasm and sexuality; activism and apathy.  This is MY culture, and it has a tremendous impact on my life.

And it broke me.  It led me into the lie that I can decide whether God is good or not, that I am somehow qualified to criticize the character of God.  The God who has created ten thousand suns and beyond, who knit my brain together and allowed it to think and work--I am going to try to criticize this?  I am going to try to apologize for his actions?

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A student sat in my office confessing a struggle; a sin.  Looking at me, they sought God's word on this issue.  What does the book say?  What does it reveal?

And I hesitated.

And that is when I noticed the destruction inside me.  That is when I resolved to make a change.  That is when I prayed for forgiveness, apologizing to God for how I had avoided Him instead of apologizing for Him to those around me.

And I felt his goodness around me, surrounding me and wrapping me in his truth and justice and goodness and love.

For part of the great truth of the gospel is that he is never far away, even when we try to make Him so.

And as I continue on this journey of being in love with the actions of God, the teachings of God, and the character of God, I ask--will you pray for me?

Have you ever found yourself apologizing for God?  What caused your hesitancy? I hope to hear from you!

Failed Experiments in Reading the Bible

Like I said yesterday, a large force in my ongoing faith journey is to try to discover how to read the Bible.  I love the Bible, I have come to believe that it is divinely inspired, and I believe that it will provide for me a normative pattern for faith.  However, how do we come to find that normative pattern?  What are the options out there.  Allow me to share a few before sharing the basic outline of how I think reading Scripture should be done.

• Traditional Reading of Scripture

A Traditional way to read Scripture is to read with one question in the forefront:  What is God saying to me?  The underlying assumption is that each verse of each book of the entire Bible is meant to speak directly, and oftentimes primarily, to yourself.  You will find this to be the most readily used method of reading Scripture within Protestantism.  It is also a major reason why there is such a pluralism of ideas concerning the Bible--we allow it to speak without any concern for context.  This reading approach is lazy, ignores the historical nature of what was written, and ignores the biases inherent in personal reading of Scripture.

• Tradition-Saturated Reading of Scripture

Tradition-Saturated reading, however, provides a very different foundation.  This reading approach leans heavily on the internal history of the church to define what a text should mean by looking at how it has been interpreted throughout church history.  This sounds brilliant, until we dive a little deeper.  The problem is two-fold.  First, a careful reading of church history will notice a MAJOR shift 300 years after Christ when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman world.  Everything began to change, from church structure to military involvement.  Can we trust the tradition of the church to be consistent before and after this event?  Second, most of church history is filled with great church leaders arguing amongst themselves about theology.  Who will be authoritative?  Will you trust the writings of Augustine, Origin, John Chrysostom, or Jerome?  Will you listen to all the church councils, or only those that took place in the Western Church?  Do Western or Eastern fathers (who have VERY different outlooks on theology) get a place of more prominence?  This reading approach simply opens up the material available, while still standing on a foundation built with my own personal preferences.  Surely it will not do.

• Authoritative Reading of Scripture

Authoritative Reading of Scripture is simple to understand:  I am not meant to understand the Bible on my own, therefore I must rely on an authority figure to interpret for me.  Catholicism uses the Pope while Eastern Orthodox trust the gathering of Church Fathers, and today we even have a new form of this cropping up in Universities where professors have become the authority.  The problem with this, of course, is that you are simply trusting another's personal preferences instead of seeking out truth yourself.  What makes these men authorities?  Within Catholicism (and to a lesser extent Orthodoxy) this sets up a circular argument where the Pope is authoritative because it says so in Scripture, which he is only qualified to interpret (thus being the only one capable of telling you what the Bible says!).  Not a great way to promote honesty in study.

• Allegorical Reading of Scripture

This method is one that was used by most teachers in the Middle Ages, but has become increasingly popular within Evangelical circles.  We read the Bible, and allegorize the details so that we can find the "inner truth" of a passage.  David v Goliath not sounding too relevant?  What is the giant in your life?  Jesus calms a storm...what are the storms in your life that Jesus seeks to calm?  The problem with this should be obvious--it belittles the historical actions of Scripture in favor of deeper truth.  Does biblical truth exist outside of the actual events that revealed it?  Is truth purely an idea, or is it founded in actual events and actions?

• Historical-Reconstructive Reading of Scripture

This is a very scholarly method, and it is used by a great majority of the scholars today.  The goal, they believe, is to get behind the text to the actual events.  Mark was writing to a community of people, what was that community like?  Why does he weave the stories he does into the gospel he creates?  What makes his community different than that of Matthew or Luke?  Did Paul recreate Christian theology or was he a product of that theology?  These questions, while good to an extent, miss the point for any person of faith.  I have a lot more opinions on this, but would recommend that you read The Gospels For All Christians if you are interested in my stance by someone smarter than myself.

• Pure Historical Reading of Scripture

This reading is another version of the above theory, but with a different focus.  Can we get to the history of Jesus (or Moses, David, etc) by reading the text.  Can we understand who they were by using historical research outside of Scripture to help us interpret Scripture.  The problem with this is that it believes that history is the goal.  Understanding who people were is the ultimate hope of the text, not having a life-changing knowledge of God and His works.

None of these methods do justice to the Bible.  Tomorrow I will share the principles which, when combined, give us a great chance to read the Bible accurately and transformationally.

What reading style to you use?  What principles guide your reading of the Bible?

Shifting Paradigms Doomed to Popularity

A big part of my spiritual journey in the past 10 years has been focused on the Bible and how to read it.  What steadfast rules are there for reading Scripture?  What underlying assumptions do I have that play into how I read it?

I long ago became convinced that it was important for me to figure out how to read the Bible the right way, but I am just recently coming to the real conviction that until we can collectively read the Bible from the same starting point, we are never going to have healthy conversations about how it is authoritative for our lives.

Many of you from the churches I have grown up in and now even teach in will quickly respond by asserting that Scripture is indeed inerrant, or that all Scripture is truly inspired by God.  While I agree with the statements, they are neither rules for how to read, not do they give any indication of how we should read Scripture to seek this divine truth.

The truth is that all of us--or at least all of us who read Scripture regularly--have a strategy.  We have an underlying belief about how it is to be read; we think we know how it works.  And it is precisely here that I have found the greatest problems.  It is my conviction that most people who read Scripture do not put forth a consistent paradigm--they do not read it with a consistent strategy.  Furthermore, it is my belief that the underlying strategies employed by many within the Protestant (I will speak to my own) movement are inadequately equipped to bring to light the meaning of every text within the New Testament.

We are left with shifting paradigms; paradigms that employ tools to interpret passages based on what is comfortable to me and my existing worldview.  We build upon a foundation that starts with what I expect from God, then employ tools to the varying texts of Scripture that will fit my current opinions.

I know many who will disagree at this notion, so I want to give you a few examples of how we "shift" our paradigm to fit what we believe/expect from God

• We teach that the Bible is "easy to read" and made for "common people to understand."  We use this to teach the simple truth of salvation as we know it.  However, ask a faith-only believer to explain Acts 2:38 and they will quickly fumble about the possibility that the Greek means something other than "be baptized for the forgiveness of sins."
• We spiritualize stories in the Bible so that they have significance for me (this is the "What giant do you face?" mentality), but quickly refuse anything but a literal interpretation of certain passages like Genesis 1.  Though we may affirm that David and Goliath was an actual event, we never focus on its historicity like that of the creation--we are more concerned with the stories practical application.
• We argue that head covering are clearly a cultural issue in 1 Corinthians, pointing to cultural situations in Corinth to do so.  However, if someone were to suggest that male leadership was also cultural, and you will be told to just take the Bible at its word.

We do not read the Bible consistently.  I do not read the Bible consistently.  However, I think I am getting closer to doing so.  I am re-examing my old foundation and tearing parts up and replacing them.  Thus far, there are a few pieces in place, such as reading Scripture with a firm belief in a meta-narrative, belief that not every passage in Scripture is about me or intended for me (but that I can learn from each passage), and a belief that context is crucial (and much larger than just a few verses before and after).  However, I still have a long way to go.

My fear is that those shifting paradigms mentioned earlier are doomed to popularity.  My prayer is that we can become smarter readers of Scripture; that we can read it more consistently, more humbly.  It is my prayer that in so doing we can come to greater unity, greater love, and greater effectiveness as Christians.

Laziness: My Sin

I care...just not enough to act.


I belief...just not enough to create change in my actions.

These two sentences sum up what I have been struggling with the past month.  You may have noticed that I have not been on here much/at all.  The reasons are many and varying.  However, the root issue is pausing for self-examination.  I was quickly working to grow this blog into something special, but realized that with all the posts, I was not changing personally at all.

My wife gave birth to our first son 6 weeks ago, and I was confronted with major holes in my spiritual life that I didn't know existed.  Issues of patience, anger, know-it-all-ness, and many other issues.  I realized that for all the advice I give on spiritual issues, I am not putting much into practice in my life.

A week ago I told a youth that his biggest spiritual problem was laziness.  It hit me the next day:  I set that example for him.  I was lazy spiritually.  I love the learning, I love the excitement of spiritual moments, but I disappear when it comes time to set into the long haul of running the race of Christ with endurance.

So today I set back into this blog with a new goal.  I write not to share insight with you, but to seek sound biblical advice and practice for my life.  I will share things that are helping me in areas of my life, and I will ask for your advice as well.

I have new goals in my life, please allow me to share them.  They are all, in some way, spiritual in my mind.

1. Set to the daily task of praying both conversationally and intercession-ally.
2. Set aside a disciplined time of Scripture study, memorization, and reading.
3. Speaking kind and uplifting words without sarcasm.
4. Eliminate television and other media from my life that would not live up to my teaching standards.
5. Read more.
6. Seek ways to serve the community.

These are my goals.  I am not wanting to take baby steps.  I believe that God sent Christ to totally recreate me into what he always intended me to be, and so I am going to be sharing radical steps that I am taking in the next several days.  Laziness is no longer something I can tolerate of myself.

Will you pray for me?  Will you encourage me and give me advice as I seek it?   

The Bible Is...A Story

Have you ever wondered why there are four gospels instead of just one?  Have you pondered why the Old Testament tells the story of the Kings of Israel and Judah, just to go back and retell them?  Why was the law written down twice in the first five books of the Old Testament?

The answer is simple, but it may make you slightly uncomfortable.  It is simply because the Bible is a story.

Does Sexuality Exist?

It is a question that has been brewing in my mind for some time now.  It is a question that, I believe, goes to the heart of many issues facing the church.

Does sexuality exist?  Is sexuality a natural (read: biological, genetic) aspect of human experience?

This question is crucial because it also leads us to ask one other question:  Is sexuality a cultural construction?

You see, sexuality can be only one; it can only be genetic or cultural.  If sexuality is genetic than the nature of that sexuality will raise questions about how we are created, the depths of depravity, etc.  If sexuality is a cultural construction than it poses questions about how we identify ourselves, understand ourselves as humans, and how we have interpreted what it means to be human.

I do not have nearly enough knowledge to give a comprehensive answer to the question today, but today I would like to start a conversation about the nature of sexuality.  I hope you will join me in considering some of this information, and perhaps we can grow through it.

The Bible Is...Not A Science Book

Last week, we began to discuss what the Bible is, by discussing what the Bible is not.  This week, I would like to remind us of something that I believe we all know:  The Bible is not a science book.

Since Darwin began his inquiry into evolution, Christians have taken a stronger and stronger stance against scientific inquiry.  We have become convinced that scientists are out to get us, to destroy our faith, and to turn us into a secular society.  This is a sad turn in the church's history.

For most of the history of the church, we were the leading pioneers in the scientific fields.  We were the great doctors, scientists and discoverers.  We have let our great past become a corpse as we allow fear to keep us from looking fully at the world through science.

We cannot read the Bible expecting it to present us with the scientifically accurate presentation of the world because that was never the intention of the Bible.  God was not interested in providing the science behind what he did, but revealing the character with which he acted and continues to act in the world.

The first chapters of Genesis were not written to share a scientific account of creation, but were written to reveal the nature of the world God had created (and of himself--the Creator).  It was written to in response to views of a chaotic, angry creation God of the Babylonians and others ancient peoples.  It was written to show God's orderliness, goodness, and love for his creation.

The shocking part of this is that most of us don't even realize that most early Christians didn't focus on the seven days of creation as a literal amount.  People like Augustine were already calling it an allegory in the 5th century!

When we free the Biblical account from a modern need for scientific accuracy, it frees us to not only read Scripture how it was intended to be read, but also to see science as a blessed way to understand how creation was pieced together.  Science, while not absolute, is a great blessing that allows us to learn about the wonders of the world God miraculously created.


Why do you think Genesis was written?  What was the message God was trying to give?  Do you believe the Bible to be scientifically accurate?  Why or why not?  What other questions do we need to address to understand the issue more fully?

If you would like to do a little reading on Genesis and the best way to read it, I recommend this book by Tremper Longman.

Changing the Church's Sex Talk

A couple weeks ago I started to share my thoughts about the sex-obsessed nature of the American church.  I had planned on posting more thoughts over the following days, but my life changed dramatically when my first son was born!  Things have been busy and exciting, and I thank you for your patience, but now I want to return to this topic.

The Bible is...Not A Theological Handbook

Thanks to some great conversations at Rachel Held Evans and Storied Theology, I would like to begin a discussion about the Bible.  These two great minds have been discussing, among different circles and different approaches, what can we expect from the Bible.  I even posted a question a few weeks ago, simply asking to finish the sentence:  the Bible is________.

I received one response:  The Bible is the inerrant word of God.

While this may be a good answer, it is a very ambiguous one.  What does it mean that something is inerrant?  What is the word of God anyway?  How does that work?

It is important for us, especially us Protestants, to have a clear view of the Bible.  If we are to read, understand, and apply the Bible to our life and faith correctly, we must be reading it correctly.

Therefore, I would like to begin a discussion on what the Bible is, and is not.  Today I would like to begin by saying that the Bible is not a theological handbook.

A theological handbook, or a systematic theology, is a book that works through (systematically) topics of interest about God.  It works logically through the nature of God, to the attributes, to the actions, before moving on to discuss other topics such as sin, salvation, humanity, church, etc.  While the practice of systematizing our theology is not inherently bad, we must recognize that this is not what we are given with the Bible.

The Bible does not begin with a detailed description of God--in fact, the God of Genesis is rather mysterious.  He reveals himself partially, slowly, and sometimes secretly.  The name of God is not actually revealed to a human until we get to Moses in Exodus.  A systematic theology would not want to leave so much to the imagination!

Beyond this, the Bible does not systematically answer questions about God's nature or actions.  Why does God act the way he does?  The answer in Job is that He is God, so don't ask those questions.  Is God more loving than he is just, or more just than he is loving?  The Bible never gives us an answer.  The Bible leaves us with stories that reveal God's nature, allowing us to wrestle to get to know Him through the story.

Finally, the Bible leaves many questions unanswered about God.  For example, while clearly expressing the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the Bible never tries to explain the relationship between the two, or their relation to the Father.  The Trinitarian formula was not developed for 300 years after the writing of Scripture was complete.  The Bible is complete without giving us complete answers; no theological handbook can say the same.

What do you think?  Is there evidence that the Bible is a theological handbook?  Is systematic theology helpful?  Please share your thoughts!

The Scandalous, Moronic Death Of Messiah

In light of the cross, everything must be re-evaluated.

You see, the cross is not just the cross (for there were many crosses).

And the cross was not just the cross of a potential messiah (again, many)

No, the cross is the the cross because it is the cross of the Messiah.

And the thought of the Messiah dying is just not...right.

In fact, it is scandalous.

The Jewish Messiah was to come and conquer.  It was his role to rule, to repair and to rescue poor Israel from the hands of those who oppressed it.  Messiah was a savior who would destroy the swords of the Romans and collect the Jews dispersed among the nations.

And so when the Messiah died, it required a rethinking.  Perhaps the conquering that he came to do was more than political.  Perhaps those he came to rescue were in deeper bondage than realized.

Perhaps those who oppressed the true Jewish faith were not those who opposed the nation politically.

The Messiah's death is moronic.

Any good Greek would know a hero, and they would know power.  The thought of a King's coronation coming through his death wouldn't fit the mold.  Kingship meant authority, power, dominion.  It meant the right to dominate.

The thought of the Messiah--the King--serving humanity (and through his death!).  That doesn't make sense.

The cross of Christ calls the Greek to reconsider his notions of authority and power.  It calls the Greek to reconsider his understanding of sin, servanthood, and dominion.  It calls the Jew to rethink his view of election, ethnocentric salvation, and ethic superiority.

The cross of Christ calls us to reconsider everything.

And it calls me to reconsider.  My dependence on rational, scientific, systematic thinking.  My ethnocentric nature.  It calls me to reconsider the structures built around me, and within my very heart.

For God's Kingdom is coming, and now here, and it is unlike anything else.

It is scandalous for some.

It is moronic for many.

But for us who believe, Christ (and him crucified) is both powerful and wise.

And in this truth let my heart dwell.

I Was Nothing But An Outsider

It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished...

...but it was my adoration that placed him there.

It was two days before Passover, two days before the feast and festival of Unleavened Bread, Jesus was in Bethany--right outside of Jerusalem.  His death was certainly coming.  He knew it.  Those who wanted him dead knew it.  Jesus was a dead man walking.

Mark shares with us that the chief priests were set on arresting him, but not until after that Passover; he never made it that long.  The plan fell together quickly from this time two days before, actions were set in motion.  Judas would betray...

...but why?

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Lent is a season traditionally used to prepare the Christian for Holy Week (Good Friday and especially Easter).  It is typically a time of self-reflection, a time to remember who you were before you were in Christ.  It is time for repentance and self-denial.

All good things.

Whether you and your church participate in Lent or not, I would like to propose something to you.  Lent, like the rest of Christianity is more about discovering Jesus than examining yourself.

When you examine yourself...you know what you are going to find.

You know the sins, the shortcomings, and the inconsistencies in your life.

When you look at Jesus, however, you discover something much more important:

Identity.  Who I was without, and who I am with, the Son of God.

Lent reveals us as who we really were:  Outsiders.  We were no better or worse than the religious leaders, but we were not part of the "in crowd."  In fact, most of you reading this were Gentiles.  We were the sick, the sinful, the ceremonially unclean.

Our sin may have been removed on the cross, but it wasn't only our sin that put Christ on the cross.  It was our adoration.  It was his acceptance of outsiders like us that led to his betrayal and arrest.  It was his willingness to include us that led to the nails and death.

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In Bethany, Jesus went to eat at the house of Simon the Leper.

The Leper

Outsider.

While there a woman (outsider by gender) and poured an expensive jar of perfume upon Jesus head.  THis woman, the other gospels will tell us was a prostitute, an adulterer, a sinner.

An outsider.

They complained that the perfume was not sold for the benefit of the poor.  Jesus rebukes them, favoring her  desperate plea for love.  Jesus rebukes them telling them "you can help them (the poor) any time you want."  They rebuked her for something they did not do themselves.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus.

Judas went when he could stand it no longer.  Jesus love of the outsiders, his inclusion of those that should be excluded, was too much for him to bear.

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Jesus includes.  It was his inclusion of sinners and unclean and ungood that sent him to the cross.  Looking at Jesus, as we walk closer toward the cross and Easter once more, we realize that we are not the in, but the outsiders.

Jesus brought us in.

Who are we leaving out?

Time To Tell A Secret

Can I share something personal with you all?

I want to share a secret, and it isn't something that people like me tend to share very often.  Can you handle it?  Will you still love me?  Ok, you convinced me.  Here it goes:

Baptism and the Holy Spirit

"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

" For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

 "Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

 "...because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."

 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."

__________


As I read through the New Testament statements on baptism, particularly the historical events relating to baptism, something stands out to me:

Water baptism is always tied to Spirit baptism and Spirit baptism is always tied to water baptism.

Water baptism is the expected response of faith to the gospel message, and the Spirit is the expected response from God to faith.

What a beautiful truth!

What Do I Mean By Complementarian?

Hello, my name is Matt and i am a Complementarian.


WHEW!  It feels good to finally just come out and say it.  And I have to admit that it is true, at the deepest part of my being I believe that husband-wife relationships are best described as complementary.  I know many of you who read this may have very strong negative connotations about this word and concept, but please, let me explain myself.


Basically, there are five things that play into my view of marital relationships as complementary:


1. I believe that men and women are intrinsically different.

I think we can look at the natural world and the creation account in Genesis and see that we are created to be two halves of one humanity.  Women are not created to be men and men are not created to be women.  There are things that make men think, work, and act differently than women think, work, and act.  This does not place one as better than the other, just different.


2. I believe all human relationships require some level of complementarianism.

The concept of absolute equality in decision making, for example, is a myth.  It cannot happen.  Someone must naturally take the lead in any relationship.  It is imperative that as humans, we learn how to be both the leader and follower for different moments and roles that we will find ourselves filling in life.


3. I believe love leads to complementary relationships.

Only when I am in a relationship for myself and my well-being am I worried about having my fair share of power.  Marriage is not about me.  Marriage is about love.  Love leads me to look to the good of the other--to see how I can come alongside and complement the work God is already doing in them.  Love leads to complementary relationships.

Yes, I am a complementarian.  The truth is that I am also an egalitarian, but that discussion can wait until tomorrow.

What do you think?  Are you a complementarian?  What makes you embrace this view of marriage?  Does your marriage look this way in practice, or just theory?

Driscoll's Problem Is Calvin, Not Complementarianism

Mark Driscoll is a perfect storm of controversy.  Great popularity, widely available media, and unpopular opinions have led to him being lambasted by a great deal of internet bloggers.

Especially since Driscoll's most recent book, Real Marriage, hit the shelves Driscoll has faced a great deal of opposition.  Driscoll's view of complementarian marriage is the focal point of the fire.  Marriage, many would say, is meant to be a 100% equal relationship with no leader but Christ.  Pastor Mark's suggestion of male authority--very much in line with much of the traditi  on of Christianity--has been met with an unequaled amount of criticism.

I must pause to ask the simple question:  Why?  Why is Mark Driscoll's view of masculine hierarchy so distasteful to us?  I would suggest that it is not the idea of masculine leadership that angers us, but the type of masculine leadership.

Driscoll's view of marriage is one of absolute, totalitarian male leadership.

And it is not Mark's fault.

It is Calvin's.

John Calvin took the authority and omnipotence of God to mean that God must control every aspect of every detail of his creation.

According to Calvin:

1. Your will is bent and swayed by God to fit his every purpose.
2. You do not make a single daily decision without it being first decided by God.
3. That God, for no purpose that we as humans are privy to, chose to forgive some and reject others.
4. That God's grace, once sent to an individual, is absolutely irresistible.  You could not even begin to fight it.
5. That God, though outwardly despising sin, was actually the author of sin, and created it for his secretive purposes in the world.

Yes, this is the way that Calvin viewed God.  This is what Calvinism suggests.  It suggests that since God has power, he uses it absolutely.  It suggests that since God has authority, he wields is coldly and viciously.

Is it any wonder that a man reading the Bible through this lens would suggest an authoritarian male leadership in the home?  Can we really blame Mark Driscoll for teaching a natural product of his theology.

The truth, however, is that God did not come as a dictator, but a servant.  The image of the invisible God came and became nothing.  The leader who led from the basement instead of the penthouse.  He was the king who chose love over authority.

What might a marriage look like that embraces a better picture of the God of Scripture?  How does our view of God imprint itself on our view of leadership, marriage, parenting, etc?