One of my very good Twitter brothers posted a note on his Facebook profile that was too good to pass up.
(Thanks for allowing the re-post, Matt. People need to read this.)
Religious people will huddle in their churches, spend at christian stores, only go to church-sanctioned social events, only hang out with Christian people. This comes from fear.
The law inspires fear-
fear of God, and fear of man.
fear of God's wrath on our inevitable failings, slip-ups and misdeeds,
and fear of man- fear of man's influence on us, fear of relationships or encounters that will end up in sin, carried off by the moment or the circumstance, cultural values that may sweep us into sin, accidental sin that we are ignorant of. Fear that salvation can be lost and must be regained hundreds of times each day.
Grace inspires love.
Love of God and Love of man.
Love for God because he will not destroy us even though we deserve it, that he does not count our sin against us for which he already took the punishment, love for His power to never lose us, or let us go, no matter our failings, slip-ups, and misdeeds.
Love for man, because we know God loves them and we are commanded to share his love with them. Not all will be saved, for not all are called, but since we have no fear of the law to consider, we are free to engage culture for his sake and ordered to befriend the lost, the hurting, the estranged, the ultimate of sinners, the people we used to love being.
For the lover of the law, life is a series of slippery stones above a great waterfall, jumping one from another, conscious of the fall the whole way, hoping our balance will be sure each time.
In grace, life is a stream to be forded, the water sometimes deep and cold and swift, other times, shallow, warm and quiet. But there is no danger, because we are carried.
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
2008-07-17
0
comments
Law vs. Grace
Labels: emerging church west virginia, grace, Jesus, love, mxbx, sin, the law, twitter, west virginia, west virginia christian, west virginia christianity
2008-05-13
0
comments
Brian McLaren Speaks...Again
Labels: brian mclaren, denominational differences, emerging chuch, emerging church west virginia, evangelism, faith, internet evangelism, Jesus, sin, west virginia christian, west virginia christianity
Here's the thing: I don't want to come off as being reactionary when it comes to Emergent types in general and Brian McLaren specifically. I really don't. I also don't want to be what Emergents roll their eyes at--an evangelical, Reformed Christian who only points out bad theology or worldview instead of engaging in dialogue.
But if I am what I hate, then I have something in common with the Apostle Paul, and that puts me in good company. Am I rationalizing? Sure.
That said, here's some thoughts on McLaren's interview with the Associated Press. His quotes are first, in italics.
Q: How is what you recommend different than the humanitarian work churches do already?
A: It's not working within the paradigm that a lot of Christians work — which is all that God is ultimately interested in is extracting souls for heaven. And we might do some good works here on earth, but we don't really expect any of it to work, because the world is sort of, the toilet has been flushed and it's going down.
Ummm...OK. So far, so good. No complaints here. This is one of the central points of why I walked away from my faith in my late teens/early 20s (real original, huh?) and why society has de-valued Christian thought in recent decades.
Q: What do you mean by systemic change?
A: You can make incremental changes within a subsystem but in order to actually change a whole system you have to get a lot of the parts changing all at once. ... You can pour money into building a school, but then if there's a war, the war wipes out all the benefit you got from the school and the school shuts down. You can improve agriculture, but if HIV runs through, then there's so much upheaval, then you can't maintain the advances in agriculture.
And now we're 2-for-2. Of course, I would argue that the "whole system" of Christian theology hardly needs changing. Again, and this is the central point of my beef with Emergent types, if we start talking about systemic change, then we get down a path that questions Christ's divinity the inerrancy of Scripture, etc.
Q: But there's an impression churches are already so active on these issues. Why does anyone need to urge churches to do this?
A: One of the really important concepts is the difference between mercy and justice. There's that famous passage from Micah 6, "Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God." One way to describe it is unjust systems throw people into misery and mercy brings us to relieve some of their misery, but until we confront the unjust systems by doing justice we're never going to make a change. ... I think what churches in America, especially evangelical churches, are just waking up to is the way they have to deal with systemic injustice, not just charitable giving to people in misery.
Bravo, Mr. McLaren. Bravo.
I think the naivete of some of those critics is that they're starting with a pure pristine understanding of the Gospel. It seems to me we're all in danger of screwing up.
OK, now we're starting to have trouble. A pristine understanding of the Gospel? How about "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life...no one comes to the Father but through Me." How are we in danger of screwing up if we start with that as cornerstone No. 1? Is that not a pristine understanding of the Gospel? Look, I know "no one comes to the Father but through Me" is divisive. But Jesus said it. Sorry. End of story.
Ten years ago, the question was, why are Gen-Xers dropping out of church? .. So we've been grappling with these very deep theological questions over the last five or seven years.
Fantastic. That's the question I've been seeking an answer to as well. I know my own story, and I would suspect it is similar to others'.
Q: What are the weaknesses of the movement?
A: Nobody had a master strategy for this. That creates weaknesses as well as strengths. It means you don't have anybody calling the shots and it means that things happen in a somewhat haphazard way. And I think there's a huge range of responses. ... Among evangelicals you have people who are not doing any theological rethinking at all. The theology that they inherited, they're staying with 100 percent. They're trying to do sort of methodological innovation (in styles of worship). And my personal feeling is that's great. Those'll be steps in a good direction... I'm not a purist about anything. I think it's all good. We're all trying to stumble along and take some steps in the right direction. Others of us are asking theological questions and that's always messy.
I am a purist...about Jesus, what He said, what He did. I'm not apologizing for it. It seems like too many people are. Again, the big question: What if Jesus meant everything He said? And, again, what does "theological rethinking" mean, anyway? Does it mean we are rethinking core aspects of the faith, the Truth of Christ? The inerrancy of the Word of God? Because these are areas where there can be no compromise. Again, that's divisive. But Jesus was divisive to a lot of people. That's one of the reasons they wanted to kill Him. (But they failed...they didn't kill Jesus. Jesus laid down His life.)
...if liberal means that government can solve all of our problems and that secularism is better than faith, and that it doesn't matter what you do in your personal life and that morality is up for grabs, then I'm not a liberal.
Nor am I.
I welcome all comments. Feel free to comment on-page, or e-mail feedback to CandidChristian@gmail.com.
But if I am what I hate, then I have something in common with the Apostle Paul, and that puts me in good company. Am I rationalizing? Sure.
That said, here's some thoughts on McLaren's interview with the Associated Press. His quotes are first, in italics.
Q: How is what you recommend different than the humanitarian work churches do already?
A: It's not working within the paradigm that a lot of Christians work — which is all that God is ultimately interested in is extracting souls for heaven. And we might do some good works here on earth, but we don't really expect any of it to work, because the world is sort of, the toilet has been flushed and it's going down.
Ummm...OK. So far, so good. No complaints here. This is one of the central points of why I walked away from my faith in my late teens/early 20s (real original, huh?) and why society has de-valued Christian thought in recent decades.
Q: What do you mean by systemic change?
A: You can make incremental changes within a subsystem but in order to actually change a whole system you have to get a lot of the parts changing all at once. ... You can pour money into building a school, but then if there's a war, the war wipes out all the benefit you got from the school and the school shuts down. You can improve agriculture, but if HIV runs through, then there's so much upheaval, then you can't maintain the advances in agriculture.
And now we're 2-for-2. Of course, I would argue that the "whole system" of Christian theology hardly needs changing. Again, and this is the central point of my beef with Emergent types, if we start talking about systemic change, then we get down a path that questions Christ's divinity the inerrancy of Scripture, etc.
Q: But there's an impression churches are already so active on these issues. Why does anyone need to urge churches to do this?
A: One of the really important concepts is the difference between mercy and justice. There's that famous passage from Micah 6, "Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God." One way to describe it is unjust systems throw people into misery and mercy brings us to relieve some of their misery, but until we confront the unjust systems by doing justice we're never going to make a change. ... I think what churches in America, especially evangelical churches, are just waking up to is the way they have to deal with systemic injustice, not just charitable giving to people in misery.
Bravo, Mr. McLaren. Bravo.
I think the naivete of some of those critics is that they're starting with a pure pristine understanding of the Gospel. It seems to me we're all in danger of screwing up.
OK, now we're starting to have trouble. A pristine understanding of the Gospel? How about "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life...no one comes to the Father but through Me." How are we in danger of screwing up if we start with that as cornerstone No. 1? Is that not a pristine understanding of the Gospel? Look, I know "no one comes to the Father but through Me" is divisive. But Jesus said it. Sorry. End of story.
Ten years ago, the question was, why are Gen-Xers dropping out of church? .. So we've been grappling with these very deep theological questions over the last five or seven years.
Fantastic. That's the question I've been seeking an answer to as well. I know my own story, and I would suspect it is similar to others'.
Q: What are the weaknesses of the movement?
A: Nobody had a master strategy for this. That creates weaknesses as well as strengths. It means you don't have anybody calling the shots and it means that things happen in a somewhat haphazard way. And I think there's a huge range of responses. ... Among evangelicals you have people who are not doing any theological rethinking at all. The theology that they inherited, they're staying with 100 percent. They're trying to do sort of methodological innovation (in styles of worship). And my personal feeling is that's great. Those'll be steps in a good direction... I'm not a purist about anything. I think it's all good. We're all trying to stumble along and take some steps in the right direction. Others of us are asking theological questions and that's always messy.
I am a purist...about Jesus, what He said, what He did. I'm not apologizing for it. It seems like too many people are. Again, the big question: What if Jesus meant everything He said? And, again, what does "theological rethinking" mean, anyway? Does it mean we are rethinking core aspects of the faith, the Truth of Christ? The inerrancy of the Word of God? Because these are areas where there can be no compromise. Again, that's divisive. But Jesus was divisive to a lot of people. That's one of the reasons they wanted to kill Him. (But they failed...they didn't kill Jesus. Jesus laid down His life.)
...if liberal means that government can solve all of our problems and that secularism is better than faith, and that it doesn't matter what you do in your personal life and that morality is up for grabs, then I'm not a liberal.
Nor am I.
I welcome all comments. Feel free to comment on-page, or e-mail feedback to CandidChristian@gmail.com.
2008-04-07
0
comments
Happy Birthday
Labels: blogging, Jesus, sin
I officially joined the blogosphere two years ago today. Actually, this is my second blog; the first was an experiment in which I had hoped to build an online community for a Sunday School class I taught. But that eventually petered out.
Still, I enjoyed writing the blog and figured I would use a new blog as another sort of experiment, this one in 21st century evangelism. Over time, I've realized that the World Wide Web i s just another mission field. It's no different than spending time in a Third World jungle, or going door-to-door in my neighborhood. Indeed, the potential for Internet evangelism is much, much larger: there are millions upon millions of people crusing the information superhighway, and if just a minute fraction of those people stumble across the site and learn about Jesus, it makes it all worth it, yes? Especially considering I enjoy it anyway? I think so.
Now, over time things have sort of evolved. At times it's been a confessional, other times its been a Web portal to deliver other evangelical information and, at still other times, I've used it as a political platform (after initially saying I'd never do so). But at the heart of what I'm attempting to do is simple: I just want to tell people about Jesus. He changed my life. I know He can change yours.
So, just for a stroll down memory lane, I'm re-posting my first blog entry--which might be cringe-inducing prose for all I remember. But, again, I've not done this for any gain of my own, but that others might come to know a little bit more about Jesus.
****
“ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ”- Galatians 2:20
They say confession is good for the soul ... yeah, no kidding, right?I thought I'd create this blog to share my daily experiences with the risen Christ -- good and bad. Like most Christians, my walk is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, mountaintops and valleys. Know the feeling?
I don't really know where all of this will go. I just want to write about the God who saved and redeemed me. So, I'll start with my testimony. On Sept. 12, 1982, I was just a boy -- six years old, loving G.I. Joe, Transformers and the woods in my backyard. Life was complete, inasmuch as it can be for a child two months shy of seven. Yet, sitting in the pew that Sunday night, something stirred within me. I somehow knew that there was something missing in my life. I didn't know what to call it then, but I know now: I had the same God-shaped void inherent in all our lives. I needed Him. More specifically, I needed to accept the gift of salvation Jesus offered by His death on the cross of Calvary. As best as I can remember, my mother sat beside me, and I saddled up to her and said I wanted to go to the church altar and receive Christ in my life. The choir was singing, my grandfather -- our church's pastor -- sitting in the front pew directly in front of me. He led me to the altar, and I remembered the A-B-Cs of salvation, as the Apostle Paul outlined in his epistle to the Romans, chapter 10, verses 9 and 10." ... That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."Ask, Believe, Confess. I did all three, and my life has never been the same.
There have, to be sure, been problems in my Christian walk. I rebelled against Him in college and spent 10 years living a life of rampant sin. I was into drinking, drugs. From about the age of 18 until 28, I knew little about the God who saved me because my sin precluded Him from having a direct, day-to-day impact on my life. I use this analogy: what would you do if your best friend in the whole world, abruptly and with little warning, quit calling you? You'd probably call them anyway, right? You'd say something like, "Hey, how have you been ... miss seeing you. When can we hang?" But, eventually, if those calls weren't returned, those visits never reciprocated, you'd quit, yes? Oh, you'd still love your best friend. You'd still miss them. You might even tell others to say "hello," but that contact would be distant, incorporeal. That was my relationship to God. After years of rampant sin, he just quit calling.
On August 31, 2003, I broke my back. I won't go into details here -- maybe I will later. But God used that moment to wake me up, to show me that I was nothing without Him, that my life was only a fraction of what it could be if only I'd allow Christ free reign with my thoughts ... and actions. A few weeks later while recuperating, I got down on my knees, bent over as much as I could with my 20-pound back brace and asked Him to forgive me of all that I'd done. Here's the amazing thing. Remember that friend analogy? As humans, we naturally hold grudges. I've gone in and out of friendships with people for many reasons, and I'm sad to say some of the breaks happened through things I'd done. That was the case of my friendship with Jesus. He never holds a grudge, nor does He care that it took a serious, life-threatening injury to get me to wake up to the reality of what my life had become. He doesn't care what my life was like while I was running away from Him and toward my own selfish desires ... the only thing He cares about was what I could have been accomplishing for Him in the time that I was following my own path.
So, I guess that's what part of this is. It's my way of trying to get those years back ... I've got a lot of catching up to do, a lot of lives to impact for Jesus. I was too busy with myself back then.
I want to be busy with Jesus now.
I welcome all comments. E-mail feedback to CandidChristian@gmail.com. Help me promote this blog by using the icons below, which links this blog to social bookmarking sites and helps online users discover this and other online content.
All works on CandidChristian.com are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike license. Inquiries seeking exceptions to this particular license are welcomed; e-mail CandidChristian@gmail.com for more information.
Still, I enjoyed writing the blog and figured I would use a new blog as another sort of experiment, this one in 21st century evangelism. Over time, I've realized that the World Wide Web i s just another mission field. It's no different than spending time in a Third World jungle, or going door-to-door in my neighborhood. Indeed, the potential for Internet evangelism is much, much larger: there are millions upon millions of people crusing the information superhighway, and if just a minute fraction of those people stumble across the site and learn about Jesus, it makes it all worth it, yes? Especially considering I enjoy it anyway? I think so.
Now, over time things have sort of evolved. At times it's been a confessional, other times its been a Web portal to deliver other evangelical information and, at still other times, I've used it as a political platform (after initially saying I'd never do so). But at the heart of what I'm attempting to do is simple: I just want to tell people about Jesus. He changed my life. I know He can change yours.
So, just for a stroll down memory lane, I'm re-posting my first blog entry--which might be cringe-inducing prose for all I remember. But, again, I've not done this for any gain of my own, but that others might come to know a little bit more about Jesus.
****
“ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ”- Galatians 2:20
They say confession is good for the soul ... yeah, no kidding, right?I thought I'd create this blog to share my daily experiences with the risen Christ -- good and bad. Like most Christians, my walk is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, mountaintops and valleys. Know the feeling?
I don't really know where all of this will go. I just want to write about the God who saved and redeemed me. So, I'll start with my testimony. On Sept. 12, 1982, I was just a boy -- six years old, loving G.I. Joe, Transformers and the woods in my backyard. Life was complete, inasmuch as it can be for a child two months shy of seven. Yet, sitting in the pew that Sunday night, something stirred within me. I somehow knew that there was something missing in my life. I didn't know what to call it then, but I know now: I had the same God-shaped void inherent in all our lives. I needed Him. More specifically, I needed to accept the gift of salvation Jesus offered by His death on the cross of Calvary. As best as I can remember, my mother sat beside me, and I saddled up to her and said I wanted to go to the church altar and receive Christ in my life. The choir was singing, my grandfather -- our church's pastor -- sitting in the front pew directly in front of me. He led me to the altar, and I remembered the A-B-Cs of salvation, as the Apostle Paul outlined in his epistle to the Romans, chapter 10, verses 9 and 10." ... That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."Ask, Believe, Confess. I did all three, and my life has never been the same.
There have, to be sure, been problems in my Christian walk. I rebelled against Him in college and spent 10 years living a life of rampant sin. I was into drinking, drugs. From about the age of 18 until 28, I knew little about the God who saved me because my sin precluded Him from having a direct, day-to-day impact on my life. I use this analogy: what would you do if your best friend in the whole world, abruptly and with little warning, quit calling you? You'd probably call them anyway, right? You'd say something like, "Hey, how have you been ... miss seeing you. When can we hang?" But, eventually, if those calls weren't returned, those visits never reciprocated, you'd quit, yes? Oh, you'd still love your best friend. You'd still miss them. You might even tell others to say "hello," but that contact would be distant, incorporeal. That was my relationship to God. After years of rampant sin, he just quit calling.
On August 31, 2003, I broke my back. I won't go into details here -- maybe I will later. But God used that moment to wake me up, to show me that I was nothing without Him, that my life was only a fraction of what it could be if only I'd allow Christ free reign with my thoughts ... and actions. A few weeks later while recuperating, I got down on my knees, bent over as much as I could with my 20-pound back brace and asked Him to forgive me of all that I'd done. Here's the amazing thing. Remember that friend analogy? As humans, we naturally hold grudges. I've gone in and out of friendships with people for many reasons, and I'm sad to say some of the breaks happened through things I'd done. That was the case of my friendship with Jesus. He never holds a grudge, nor does He care that it took a serious, life-threatening injury to get me to wake up to the reality of what my life had become. He doesn't care what my life was like while I was running away from Him and toward my own selfish desires ... the only thing He cares about was what I could have been accomplishing for Him in the time that I was following my own path.
So, I guess that's what part of this is. It's my way of trying to get those years back ... I've got a lot of catching up to do, a lot of lives to impact for Jesus. I was too busy with myself back then.
I want to be busy with Jesus now.
I welcome all comments. E-mail feedback to CandidChristian@gmail.com. Help me promote this blog by using the icons below, which links this blog to social bookmarking sites and helps online users discover this and other online content.
All works on CandidChristian.com are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike license. Inquiries seeking exceptions to this particular license are welcomed; e-mail CandidChristian@gmail.com for more information.
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