Category Archives: Debunking Myself

I See Things Upside Down

Posted by on January 22, 2011 9 comments

Well, I tried to write a creative, borderline-humorous intro to this, but I just couldn’t seem to make it work.  So instead I’ll just jump straight in, and speak directly from the heart.  Well, and the mind too, but that goes without saying.

Something I’ve been learning lately (and if we’ve had a serious conversation in the past few weeks, I almost guarantee that you’ve heard this entire little spiel that’s about to follow), is that sanctification works totally upside down from how we (evangelicals, and probably other kinds of Christians too, but I don’t really know anything about that) view it.  Here’s what I mean.

The general/default view of what a perfect Christian looks like is someone who is so far above sin–so holy–that they aren’t even tempted by it, and so “God-minded” that they never cease to be in perfect, unhidered communion with him.  And I suppose there’s some truth to this, and my realization about how sanctification works is not necessarily going to contradict that.  But the problem with such a view of the ideal Christian is that it seems to lure us into thinking that somehow we’ll be able to chart our progress of increasing holiness on a scale, and the more holy we become the higher up on the “just like Jesus” scale we’ll be.

However, I have found, and the Scriptures clue us in to this, that it’s quite the opposite.  The fact of the matter is, the more holy we become–the more we hate sin, and the more we defeat it–the more we see our wickedness.  And the closer we get to being like Christ, the clearer we see just how impossibly far away from him we are.  In a lot of ways, it’s like climbing a ten foot wall, only to discover at eight feet that it’s really a hundred foot wall.  And then at a ninety feet, you see that it’s a thousand feet.  And so on and so forth, for as long as we live.  It’s kinda discouraging sometimes, when you think about it.  But it makes me wonder: perhaps the purpose of sanctification is not just to make us more holy, but to bring more glory to God, because as we become more holy and then see how much more holy Christ is, the loftier our view of God becomes.  And I believe Piper is onto something when he says that the primary way we glorify God is by “enjoying Him”–by exulting in how much greater He is than us.

Just like so many other things about the Christian walk, this truth is at once offensive and liberating.  It’s offensive because, really, who thinks it’s good news that arguably the greatest Christian ever called himself the “chief of sinners”?  And who finds it encouraging that the closer you get to your goal, the further away the goal gets?  And who finds joy in thinking about how miserably sinful our old natures are?  (Obviously, the answer here is “nobody”.)  But flip the lens, and see how liberating it is to embrace the truth that no matter how close we get we are never close enough.  It means that we don’t have the burden of being “almost there” and not being able to finish.  It means that every time we fall short and fail, and feel like we are in our greatest weakness, we are actually at our greatest strength.  It means that the Gospel is THAT much more beautiful, and God’s love for us is THAT much sweeter.

Indeed, His grace is sufficient for me.  May it never cease to be.

Throw Out Your Christian Values

Posted by on September 24, 2010 4 comments

I needed to read this, so I though I’d share it, just in case anyone else needs to, also.

“I now realize that no value system, Christian or otherwise, can express the essence of Christianity. A life built on Christian values is a caricature of New Testament Christianity. It is not God’s purpose that our lives be built on a system of values. It is His desire that they be built of the person of His Son. Value systems may influence behavior, but God is not interested in systems of living. He is interested in relationships. An intimate relationship with Him will produce a Godly lifestyle. A focus on behavior will not create intimacy with God or a Godly lifestyle.

[...]

I highly recommend that you give up your Christian values. You may find this statement startling, but I want to shake you into serious thought. I’m not advocating moral anarchy. Nor am I suggesting that how you live is unimportant. What I am saying is that focusing on a value system is not God’s intended way for you to live. God never proposed for your lifestyle to be built around the principle of right and wrong.”

- Steve McVey, Grace Walk

Seeker-Sensitivity, Not Just Necessary for Quidditch.

Posted by on September 16, 2010 12 comments

Okay, you’ll really have to forgive me for that terrible pun, but sometimes I just can’t help myself.

Where do you stand on the subject of churches being “seeker-sensitive’? Obviously there is a place where the Church could go too far, but what’s the opposite end of that spectrum? Does God want us to hide the message of the gospel behind oozy layers of smoke, lights, and ambiguous CCM music, or does he want us to yell the gospel at anyone who comes within yelling distance of us?

I feel like lately, I, as well as many friends of mine, have been unfairly bashing the seeker-sensitive movement, saying that it obscures the gospel and the message of the Church (and, as an aside, I feel it necessary to point out the irony that I am currently working on another post about how American Christianity and American Patriotism are far too closely bound up in one another.) Anyway, I think it necessary to point out that the whole movement wouldn’t have started if there weren’t need for it. Have some pushed it too far into the gospel-obscuring range? I think so, but, have others brought it too far back in the other direction? Maybe.

What do you think?

Called Out: A Discussion About Profanity (Or, in the Greater Picture, About God Looking at the Heart)

Posted by on May 18, 2010 4 comments

I am probably the weirdest person you will ever meet in terms of making up words to put in the place of cussing. I will frequently range from saying something as close to the American culture’s ‘bad’ words as “freaking,” to words that are just basically me pulling letters out of thin air and putting them together after the phrase “what the…” I’ve been known to say frick, flip, frack, gravy, goodness, gracious, nonsense, fark, and many other borderline prafane words to make myself feel better about my exclamatory tendency. Now, (and of course this doesn’t make me any better than anyone I know who openly cusses, it probably actually proves I’m in denial or something) I haven’t really ever been one to outright cuss, I’ve always just used filler words. But the other day at lunch at Willie’s with some of my friends from the Art Institute I got called out.

We were waiting in line to order when something warranted the exclamation from someone else, “What the french toast!?” which reminded me of the sign in Mrs. Prine’s old room at Cy-Creek that said “What the function?” (Math joke! But anyway.)  and so I said it out loud. Now, though this isolated event was not just me making an almost profanity exclamation for no reason (I was outwardly referencing the sign), I do a lot around my Art Institute friends, and this time, one of my two closest friends at Ai, Ashlee, called me out on it. We’ve talked about how I don’t cuss before, and she said, this time, “You know, you don’t really cuss, but you do in your own way.”

She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything, but that comment froze me for a fraction of a second. I was really caught off guard by it. Really. I had to try really hard to not stop and have a mini theological debate in my head right there and stop everything else I was doing. So that’s where this blog comes in:

Where do you stand on the subject of profanity?

Obviously, some of us have had similar conversations a few times before because of everyone’s favorite edgy person, Derek oh-what-a-tangled-Webb-we-weave, and his album that you love-and-feel-uneasy-about-at-the-same-time, Stockholm Syndrome. (Sorry, I think I just broke the legal hyphenated adjective limit.)

But anyway, I’m looking at a slightly different dichotomy I think. I’m looking to examine the difference between flat-out cussing and (let’s call the other one) ‘substitute’ cussing in the context of Christians being saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8) and God looking at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

I think we can agree that flat-out cussing is generally frowned upon in Biblical teaching, if not because of the whole “Taming the Tongue” part of James 3, then because of the charge Paul gives us to not do anything that might make a brother fall (Romans 14:21). Aka, cuss in front of someone because we think it’s okay. Even if you think you are ‘solid enough in your faith’ to yell expletives, there may be someone around you who is struggling and will be really disappointed that someone they looked up to doesn’t care enough to keep their tongue tamed.

Then there’s also Matthew 5:21-24 :

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

I put this whole thing in here because I think it’s the most important part of this subject for me and you to consider. Jesus is effectively saying here that it isn’t a matter of the word itself, it’s a matter of the heart behind the words. (Though I might add that I’m saying this after noting Romans 14:21 earlier, so I’m not advocating that we try to transcend the sin of cussing and be able to do it with a clean heart which I’m pretty sure isn’t even possible.)

I suppose the main point of this post is not specifically that we should not cuss, but that we should be concerned with having pure hearts before God, because God looks at the heart. He does not care, I think, if we accidentally (or purposefully) cuss, or if we sin in any way (though if you’re not at least concerned with not sinning, there is probably something wrong), but I think that God sees us as really are, not as our specific sins. God wants us to yearn for him. If we are truly wanting God as we should, then we do not need to worry.

“Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts,
let us not lift our souls to another.
O God let us be the generation that seeks,
seeks your face, O God of Jacob”

What do you think: about cussing? about little vs. big sins? about God looking at the heart? about anything else?