Another day...

And so it begins...

another day of challenges,

another day of disappointments,

another day to face and fight injustice,

another day to see and resist evil,

another day to push forward,

another day to give and love,

another day for adventure,

another day to be better...



...and another day to choose to hope.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He *said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.
(Rev 21:1-7)


There is a real and perfect kingdom, and it is coming - thank God. Sometimes I just need a reminded.

Let's choose to hope.


My prayer:
'Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 'Give us this day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'

You would assume that they know...

When a person tells me that they’re a mechanic, I automatically assume that they know how to do simple tasks like changing the oil, checking the tire pressure, etc. When someone tells me that they are a nuclear physicist, I assume that they certainly have a fundamental understanding of atomic structure, the composition and behavior of elements, Newton’s laws – you know……the nuts and bolts of their field.

When a person tells me that for they’ve been the leader/spokesperson for a majority of the evangelical world over the last decade or more, I assume that they understand the fundamentals of the Christian story, and the expectation of God concerning the pathway He provided by which people can know Him.

Man I wish that was true.

Ted Haggard made a joke out of me and every other Christian this week in his less than stellar interview with Oprah. He was given multiple opportunities to give simple authoritative answers to obviously slanted questions concerning his demise and supposed recovery, and all he could muster was a series of mystical gibberish nothings that paved an unopposed pathway for Oprah to attempt to invalidate our Gospel. Ted’s wife, Gale, did the best she could to attempt to stand for something closer to the right answer, but when her own husband couldn’t help her out, her lack of the ability to articulate her convictions forced her to concede.
Many others have done this. Joel Osteen is a perfect example. He is a spokesman for Christianity to millions of people, and he blew the whole thing wide open on Larry King Live a year or so ago. He too had an opportunity to present the Gospel in the face of opposition, and he too caved – diminishing the message to nothing more than one where the focal point is love and loving everyone, and that there are many ways to God.
The Gospel, the one that Paul talked about so much, is not simply that God loves everyone. While God’s love for man is an obvious theme in scripture and an integral part of what the Gospel actually is, there is so much more to it than that.

So then, what is the gospel?

The word gospel is translated from the Greek word, “euangelion”, meaning “good news”. A familiar term in the First Century world, the use of “euangelion” in its roman context was as a political proclamation that Caesar – god in human form, the savior of the world, protector, healer – had been born, or had come of age, or ascended. It signified that a new era had dawned for the whole world – though it had seemed that the gods had withdrawn their presence from the earth, the “soter” (Greek for savior) had come, and that he had been seated on the throne.

Paul knew very well the meaning of this term and the implications that it would have in the society of that day when he wrote it to the church in Rome. His decision to use it in the opening paragraph of the letter he wrote to them was intentional, and made a specific and pointed statement that a new era had indeed dawned for the world. The “soter” had come, He was seated on the throne, and He was not Caesar.

The gospel that Paul was proclaiming was a culmination of the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the exile and restoration of Israel, the expectation of God’s people, the promised kingdom He spoke of through the prophets, and of His accomplishment of it all in Messiah. He was plainly stating that Jesus was the King of Kings, and that the way that He had paved was the only way into God’s kingdom.

It was this gospel that Paul was speaking of when he said,

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… “ (Romans 1:16, excerpt)

It was and is THIS gospel that can and will change the world, and this is the gospel that should have been presented this week – not the mystical gospel of love and acceptance of everyone and every way to God.

The answer should have been something like this...

Jesus stated very clearly the way in which men could know and please God, and in the end, enter into His kingdom. That way did not involve homosexuality or any other practice of sin. He did not say that those who failed to practice the requirements of that way were not loved, or that God did not desire that they would know Him. He did, however, make it perfectly clear that those who continue in practice those things should not expect to enter His kingdom.

All of us fall of the path at times, and God provided step by step plan for us to get back up when we do. The goal, however, is that we DO stay on the right path through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

...the end.

The truth is that anyone of us who call ourselves Christians should be able to do what Ted and many of our other comrades have not – that is plainly and simply articulate the gospel of God.

We have to know this stuff guys – and not only that, but we have responsibility to make it know. We’re in this together – let’s get it done.

My prayer:
“God, help me to always speak the truth of Your gospel with wisdom and authority when I am given opportunity, and forgive me for past failures where I have not. Please guide my study and thought as I continue to learn. “

I'm getting a headache...

I’m absolutely frustrated with politics right now.

For those of you who missed the presidential debate on Tuesday, I envy you.

We are sitting in the middle of what could be one of the most defining periods in a generation, and those who would promote themselves as potential leaders of the free world can’t even muster the cohunes to address tough questions in an honest and logical way.

To be quite candid, even a bogus answer to the actual question presented would be a breath of fresh air.

Apparently now it’s okay when asked a question like, “What would you propose be done to address the current economic crisis?”, to answer “Go across party lines” or “Deregulation is bad” and not be called out or questioned for it. For anyone who has even part of their brain turned on, the response to that should be nothing less than, “umm…..try again.”

The whole thing is almost childish at this point, not to mention that fact the rules and format determined by the presidential debate commission leave no opportunity for a quality debate to occur even if someone tried.

AHHHHHHH!!!

(breathe in.............hold it..............hold it...................breathe out)

Okay...I feel better.

To use the words in one of my friend’s most recent posts,

“Vent Mode: OFF”.

I suppose now that I've said that I need to say this – this whole eleciton thing compiled with our nation's current condition has got me thinking, and I believe that it’s critical the we who hold the Judeo-Christian worldview think hard, and figure out as best we can what living that story out looks like in our present circumstances.”

The discussion of faith and politics is one that I feel has been at a minimum, inappropriately addressed by many of our Christian friends, including myself. In light of that and the reality that soon we’ll be deciding on who will be the face of our nation for four years to come, my next post will begin dealing with that very issue.

In order to figure this one out we’ll definitely need everybody’s feedback, so stay tuned!

Windex

I was recently asked a question in regard to my previous post, “Hello”, that asked how I reconcile my mind and logical processes with my faith – and if the two compliment or oppose one another. Rather than simply replying with a comment, I thought that this question would be better addressed through the medium of another posting.
So here we go…
Before I can speak directly to the question, I feel like “mind/logical process” and “faith” must be appropriately defined. It seems as though anytime these things get discussed that the conversation turns quickly into a duality argument where logical thinking is evil, and faith is good. Either that or it goes as far as to become a discussion of “spiritual things” and “physical things”. I think it both conclusions miss the point and it’s crucial that both be avoided.

Faith…

In my experience, the definitions of faith I had been given have made little sense and been just as wishy-washy as many of the characters that gave them. I’m sure I’ll get made fun of for this, but how it’s often been explained reminds me of the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. I can’t really remember much of the movie, but I do remember this. The father of the bride in the movie, had this idea that Windex was a miracle substance that would fix any physical ailment – a cut, or scratch, a sprained ankle, you name it. He literally carried a bottle of it everywhere he went just spraying the stuff on people like crazy. It sounds ridiculous – I know. The problem though, is that it seems like what Windex was to him, faith is for so many Christians!

It’s like:
“Oh no….I’ve got a terrible problem”.
“Don’t worry about it…just spray some faith on it.”
“I did and it’s not getting better.”
“Okay….well just spray more on there this time.”
“Still nothing…”
“Well there’s not a lot we can do about it….you just don’t have enough faith…this is issue between you and God.”

I am I the only one that gets that impression? I don’t think so. I’ve even heard it said that ‘faith is the currency of the Kingdom”. So where do I get a job that pays me in faith? What is the faith price for healing cancer so I can save up? Come on guys.

Let’s make some sense of this.

Faith is simply what you get when you mix worldview and action – just ask James. A simple definition to bring it down to an application in life is that faith is choosing to have my life story be subverted by the Christian story (which concludes with God’s Kingdom fully on the earth), and then living it out. That’s what Abraham did, that’s what Paul did, and that’s what Jesus did (think about that one for a while).

So where does logical process fall into this?

Logical thought allows me to do the best job I can at pointing my faith correctly. As I said just a second ago, faith is the mixture of worldview and action. I am constantly questioning/thinking through/analyzing the way I see the world, and in that I’m building my worldview. That is accomplished by learning and processing new information, and then including it in one way or another, into my worldview. Of course, the Christian story, who Jesus was, and what He said, are all inputs into that process. It is a road that I travel down repeatedly as I am constantly discovering new things and re-evaluating things I have claimed to have known before.

Through thinking hard about the information I’ve been given, I have decided that my worldview will be dominated by the Christian story. In order then for me to have faith in that story, I must add action to the equation and practically live out that worldview. In that respect, logical thought gives me the ability to figure out what exactly the application of my worldview looks like in real life.

So…..I guess I could have faith without using logical processes to build my worldview.......but I certainly wouldn’t want to.

Hello

I love it. I absolutely love it.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to begin this blog – a perfect first posting – a statement that will set the stage for the things I’d like to talk about here. I considered quoting a philosopher such as Thoreau, or a revolutionary theologian like Bonhoeffer or Wright, because their words have challenged so many (including myself) to change, or at least question, the way they have always looked at the world. Any number of excerpts from their works would have been relevant and thought provoking, but honestly, nothing stood out.

The other day I was reading through a couple of posts that one of my good friends had written earlier this summer, and I stumbled over this statement.

“You don’t have to turn your brain off to become a Christian.”

Thank you, Heather. You're a genius.

Coming from the background that I have (grew up in church, Bible School, the works...) that one sentence houses so many different emotions it's unbelievable.

It puts into words the context of the things my friends and I have been discussing for the past two years. As a group trying as hard as we can to live out the Christian metanarrative, we’ve been so frustrated by lack of thought that has taken place in modern western Christianity. So many Christians that I’ve come in contact with have no idea what exactly the Christian worldview is, let alone how to support it. Sometimes, ideas and activities will be based on loose scriptural references that have been stripped completely of their original context and meaning, but just as much things are done because of nothing more than tradition or a whim of the leadership.

With that said, I want you to understand I have no intention of bashing the church and constantly pointing out what I perceive to be its faults. Instead, my goal is to think hard about the Christian metanarrative, and then figure out how I can appropriately apply it as the over-arching story of my life.

I believe that there is need for real people to live out real Christianity.

That’s why I decided to title this blog “Building a Life”. I’m in a process of thinking about, and building my life around the Christian story. I will tell you up front that I don’t have answers to every question, but if you’re someone who is interested in thinking about tough questions and making sense out of the Christian story, then I’d like for you to walk with me for a while on this journey.

Let’s change the world…