Getting Inside My Head

To the right are the results of two tests that I took. They are to determine which theologian I most line up with. I was surprised by the results of this one. The second one shows the theological worldview I look at life from. The results for this did not surprise me.

Here are the links to these two sites if you too would like to take this test.

Theologian : http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=7092N

Theological worldview: http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=7095N

It looks like the percentages for my worldview got cut off when they posted in my blog.

They should read as follows 89% - 75% - 64% - 57% - 57% - 57% - 46% - 39% - 32%

Enjoy!

The View From Back To Front

I am taking a church history class for my masters. We are getting into some events that have shaped the church into what it is today; namely Luther and the Reformation. I sit and read with awe at the Popes response to Luther's claims (his 95 points). Luther was labeled a heretic by the church simply because he went against the established church tradition. when asked to recant his statements, salvation by faith alone being one of them, Luther replied simply by asking the pope and church authorities to show him his error biblically. If there was no biblical proof for his error then he was not going to recant.

I understand where the church was coming from though...and it is a warning to us all. The church had become an elite group with power over the masses. There influence and power was something they held on to tightly. It was also absolute. In this the church became corrupt selling indulgences; a practice Luther adamantly opposed. Luther challenged not only the power of the church but the relevance of the established hierarchy itself. Like the Pharisees before them, the bishops and the Pope resisted with all their might. They refused to return to the scriptures to refute Luther's claims and consequently split the church in two.

What a lesson for us today. It is important to know why we believe what we believe, why we do what we do. It is also important that these beliefs and practices are supported by Scripture. Above all else, the lesson I take away from this is that it is better to admit error and walk away having embraced the truth than to win an argument in stubborn denial of truth.

These are just a few lessons I have learned looking at the view from back to front.

Discover the Meaning of Worship

I wanted to share some thoughts I had regarding worship, our ministry context and the issues we need to be addressing as the church in western culture.

For what it is worth here are some thoughts:

Given the whole…I think our understanding of worship is wrong when we come together on a Sunday morning. I am so guilty of this myself but, I am finding that when I come on Sunday I am ready to receive from God a word or encouragement or something that will carry me through from one week to the next. I find myself saying things like "Wow the singing really blessed me this morning" or "I got a lot out of the sermon this week" or "I was really challenged/ encouraged by this or that". It is all about what I get out of our corporate time.

This is the complete opposite of what worshiping God is. Worship is what we give to God to celebrate Him. It is what we offer to Him for His glory and purpose; to declare His greatness and goodness. What I get out of it is inconsequential and entirely irrelevant. What matters is whether or not I have made an offering to the Lord that attributes His worth and that He finds pleasing and acceptable.

What would happen if, one Sunday morning, we told people that they had to come to church prepared to give something to God and the focus of that offering was the glory of God Himself. Not how much better off I am and how good my life is or what I get out of being in a relationship with God but rather a praise, declaration and celebration of who God is what He has done, how He is mighty and good, etc. What would happen if we said there was going to be no “planned” singing, sermon or church program at all but rather each person had to come Sunday morning to present to God an “offering” of some kind where He was the sole focus; i.e. a song, poem, praise/ testimony, prayer, tithe… you get the idea. As I read in God’s Word that He inhabits the praises of his people, I can not help but think this is more of what He has in mind rather than the “church” we do/ have each Sunday. I know this sounds radical but I think there is something to all this.

I am going to stop now before I run the risk of ranting.

I would absolutely love to get your reaction to this perspective and how it would change not only our worship but our relationship with the living God Himself as we discover the meaning of worship!!

The Evidence No Atheist Can Deny

It took me by surprise at first. In the Faith section of our local newspaper was an article on the new book “The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings For The Nonbeliever”. This book is being edited by Christopher Hitchens; arguably one of the worlds leading atheistic thinkers today. I say I was taken by surprise because the atheist’s position is one of non-belief. Many would reason that if you hold to a position of non-belief then you do not have faith; something that would logically be required in order to make the faith section. After further reflection, however, I found the article to be appropriately placed. Here is why.

The atheist position holds to the idea that since the scientific evidence cannot irrefutably point to the existence of God, why believe in Him. Faith is a difficult concept for the atheist. They see it as something believers hide behind when there are no answers to tough questions. Faith is seen as a road block to rationality. What they are missing however, is the view from the other direction. The scientific evidence also cannot irrefutably disprove the existence of God, something that the noted Oxford biology professor and atheist Richard Dawkins admits to. Therefore, any position on God’s existence one way or the other requires (dare I say demands) faith. So I agree that religious people believe what they do based on faith… but so does the atheist.

Atheist’s claim their position is based on logic, evidence, rationality and reason. To them any claim to faith (Christian faith in particular) is lacking in these qualities. Yet there are those who are exceptionally brilliant that use these qualities in full measure and still hold a position of faith; G.K. Chesterton, Dinesh D’Souza, Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox and C.S. Lewis to name a few. However, these men are great because of their rarity in the faith not their common place. Most of us are too busy to do what is required to love God mightily with our minds. We are saved ourselves and that is satisfactory for us.

Consequently, a lack of evidence continues to be the main thrust for the atheistic argument. If the evidence was there they would believe God is real. As I think about that, I have to admit there is little evidence to prove God’s existence. I say this with the words of Jesus in mind when he said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” If the faith community is honest with itself this is something we do not excel at given the whole. We look too much like the world to stand out as light shining in the darkness. The first century church grew solely because of how they loved each other. This was the evidence for the existence of God and the truth of the gospel back then, it is the only true evidence for the skeptic today. We so often demand the pastor practice what he preaches while at the same time ignore the fact that we ourselves are not living what we believe in the way we know we should.

Thus, we find Hitchens words to be true when he says, in spite of their claims “people are not as religious as many think.” As a Christian, I find the truth of this comment disheartening. The outsider looks in only to find so little of the life of the church being devoted to living for the glory of God. It may say so in the mission statement of each particular church, but it is not being lived out well enough to make a noticeable, measurable difference in our culture today.

Friends, this should not be so. Living our faith is the evidence for the truth of the gospel that the world needs. Doctrine and creed alone leave the skeptic bereft of divine satisfaction. They may deny the infallibility of the Scriptures, doubt its claims, point out our imperfections and call us irrational, illogical, unthinking and unreasonable, but the one piece of evidence they will never be able to deny is the contagious, abundant, overflowing, uncontainable, irresistible, eternally full, transformed life of a Christ follower.

So shine your light brightly. Live like God has made a difference in your life. Let us together, as the church community of Jesus Christ, give the skeptic the one piece of evidence they cannot deny - a transformed life!

If It Wasn't So Scary I Would Be Laughing.

No disrespect towards Islam intended but I must say someone in the Muslim community has got to get a clue as to what religious hatred is.

I do not know if you have heard, but a British school teacher who is (make that was) teaching at a school in Sudan was convicted of inciting religious hatred.

Here is the story from a news network I read on line:

"KHARTOUM, Sudan — British teacher Gillian Gibbons has been convicted of inciting religious hatred for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad and sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation from Sudan....

'It's a very fair verdict, she could have had six months and lashes and a fine, and she only got 15 days and deportation,' said Robert Boulos of the Unity High School, adding they would not appeal the decision.

Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday after complaints to the Education Ministry that she had insulted Prophet Muhammad, the most revered figure in Islam, by applying his name to a toy animal.

The maximum penalty for the charge, which has attracted world wide attention was 40 lashes, a fine and six months in prison."

The teacher allowed the students to come up with the name. The teacher's only crime was giving the children the freedom to choose a name for that teddy bear themselves. She was in no way expressing and religious hated for Islam.

And to say that the sentence she received was fair is absolutely absurd! There is no way she should have been in jail at all. Thankfully the Sudanese Prime Minister has officially pardoned her and is shipper her back to England ASAP. Still this whole thing is ridiculous.

If it wasn't so scary I would be laughing.

Made In His Image

In case you are not familiar with me and my family, I have a four year old Daughter with Autism. I was asked a few questions from a new friend about my struggle with this situation this week and I thought I would share them with you.

The question was asked what have I learned the most about God in this situation.

The following is my response:

More than anything else, I think God has challenged me on what it means to be made in His image. It began when my wife asked me to consider praying Scripture over our daughter for her healing. Typically I do not do this. I feel as though when people do something like this they are in desperate situations and, in an effort to "strong arm" God, are claiming a promise of God that was not made to them. They want the promise of someone else for themselves. This has the devastating potential of setting you up for a major disappointment and disillusionment. It was a risk I did not want to take.

However, after some prayer I felt a peace about doing this. So I began to do a word search on the topic of concern. Namely, that our daughter cannot talk. So I decided to look up scriptures for things like speech, lips, mouth, tongue, voice, etc.

The first one I came to was Exodus 4:10-12. Moses is speaking with God at the burning bush. God is asking Moses to go to Pharaoh. Moses in turn gives God a litany of things that disqualify him for the task (something that I relate to concerning my calling as well). One of things was his difficulty in speech. Moses tells God "I can't speak well. I can't do what you are asking."

You know I always remembered this story with God getting angry and fed-up with Moses and saying, "Well fine then, I'll send Aaron with you and he can speak for you!!!" You know what, He does not do that yet. Instead He says something to Moses I was not prepared to hear.

God says,"Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

When I read this the Spirit hit me in the chest like a tun of bricks. God was telling me that our daughters Autism was not the result of a genetic defect. It was not because something went wrong in the womb or in her delivery. On the contrary, it was God's intention that she be like this. God reminder me that He molded and fashioned her with his own hand; that she was just as fearfully and wonderfully made as any other child. To God, She was a Psalm 139 child. She was fashioned by the hand of God Himself. Created with divine design, meaning and purpose, with the same fear and wonder as anyone else.

God also showed me that He heard my prayer and I needed to go in peace and leave Him alone about Delaney's healing. He Himself was going to help her speak and teach her what to say.

Well that was when I realized that God had made her just the way that she was. If I was not accepting of that then I was telling God that He made a mistake with my daughter and I did not approve of or like His creation. How could I say that to God?

After that 'talk' between me and God I was challenged to rethink what it means to be Made in His Image.

Strong Enough To Be Honest

There has been some issue being raised about the private letters of Mother Teressa. In them she expresses doubt and disillusionment with God. She openly struggles with what God is doing and whether He is even there in the first place.

Of course this has brought out many in the atheist community to pooh-pooh on her faith with the "see we told you so" babble.

You know what though, I have to admit, if I had no faith, I would probably form similar opinions about the "Saint of Calcutta" concerning this matter. However, after closer examination I realize that even the giants of our faith, the patriarch's, especially David, wrestled with doubt and confusion concerning the where-a-bouts of God, what He was doing and how long was He going to allow injustice to continue. If you take an honest look at Mother Teressa's life hers is one of similar struggle. She went to the poorest place on the face of the Earth and let the light of love shine in the darkness. She did so in the name of Jesus; to bring the Kingdom to Earth to those who would otherwise never experience it. I would dare say that, were it not for Mother Teressa, those people would still be waiting!

I can only presume the source of such a crisis of faith, but if I were to venture a guess I would be willing to bet that Mother Teressa was looking at the whole of her ministry to the poor, diseased and rejected and was wondering what it all was for. What difference was she making? After all this time, Calcutta is still arguably one of the worst places on Earth. She buries the dead every day. People still go hungry. They are still sick and diseased. All she could do was love them through this hell and she was doubting her impact. She was angry with the conditions there and the hopelessness of the people who are its residents. When you reach the end of your life you want to know that what you have done has made a difference.

I would be willing to bet Mother Teressa was examining the scope of her life and work and began to wonder why God has not done more to change the people and conditions of Calcutta. It all seems quite natural to me. It also makes such a person 'human'. The life of mother Teressa was so transcendent from the world in which she lived that we looked at her as someone who was almost superhuman. In fact, she asked the same questions most of us have asked and felt the things we have felt about God's sovereignty... which makes her one of us (to the great relief of the atheist I might add).

This reminds me of John the Baptist. Jesus called him the greatest of all the prophets. He ushered in the readiness of the coming Messiah, preached with boldness and spoke out against the religious hypocrisy of his day. He was a giant of faith full of the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet we read that once he was imprisoned he begins to wrestle. He doubts. He questions. He sent his disciples out to ask Jesus if he was the Christ written about in Scripture or should he expect another. Jesus has to encourage John with the truth of the Scripture that showed he was indeed the Christ; that John's work had not been in vain; that the work John had prepared for his whole life was not for nothing, but rather, that it had fulfilled the purpose of God. Mother Teressa needed the same encouragement.

Like Mother Teressa, John's crisis was not the result of a lack of faith, but rather, the result of a faith strong enough to be honest.

Are They Christian?

In a previous post labeled "The One True Church", someone wrote a comment that I would like you to read. In it he asked a very good question. The context was discussing who is the one true church. His question was about heresy. "The bible says if we "confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead" we are saved. But is there a quantifiable limit on what sort of heresy we can stack on that foundation without undermining it?...What minimum amount of orthodoxy is required for salvation and membership in the True Church?"

I have found this question difficult to answer. Does your theology have to be 100% correct to be saved or can you have some "misunderstandings" or "wrong ideas" about certain things and still be saved? If so, where is the line drawn for such things?

I ask this because I just read an article in the paper with the same title as this blog asking whether Mormons are Christian. The issue seems to be surfacing again as a result of Mitt Romney's run for the presidency.

So I pose to you this same question my friend posed to me.

Are They Christian?

What is in a name?

There is a outgoing Roman Catholic bishop in Norway who is asking all people (Christians, Jews and Muslims) to call God Allah.

He states, "Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God Allah? ... What does God care what we call him? It is our problem."

His reasoning is that since Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same God we should all call Him Allah.

Well, excuse me for saying this, I mean no disrespect to the Bishop but... if God did not care what we called Him then he would not have given us His Name in the first place!!!!

We do not worship the same God in the least bit. Allah and Yahweh are two different "dieties" all together. Therefore, we can not link them together. One is the true God and the other the "god" of Muslims, but they are not the same. I welcome anyone to prove to me otherwise.

Perhaps in your search you will discover what is in a name.

Religion good for kids?

I just read an article on FoxNews website that a study has been done to show that children that come from a religious based home are better behaved and adjusted than children where religion is not practiced or where religion is a source of conflict in the family.

"A Mississippi State University sociologist and his colleagues asked the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 kids, most of them first-graders, to rate how much self control they believed the kids had, how often they exhibited poor or unhappy behavior and how well they respected and worked with their peers" the article stated.

It went on to say, "The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services — especially when both parents did so frequently — and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents. But when parents argued frequently about religion, the children were more likely to have problems. 'Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family,' [the sociologist] noted."

The reasons for this were believed to be three fold:
1. religious networks are a social support for parents
2. they provide good values and norms
3. they imbue (inspire or influence thoroughly) parenting with sacred meaning and significance

Well what do you know...kids growing up in a home of moral absoluteness, loving families that are supported by a loving community and where God is the head are actually doing better than those without it...who whould have thunk it?

Maybe we can start to wake up and see that God's headship, boundaries and support system are in place to help us live an abundant life. Moral Absolutes (boundaries) are to be passed on to our children as God has first given them to us. They provide a standard that is acceptable to Him and good for mankind. Kids need to know what those things are. Without them there is no higher reason for doing something or not doing something than selfish gain. Now keep in mind that obedience to this moral code does not equal a problem free life. However, given the whole, I would take the problems that come from living according to God's principles (and the support system that is found in doing that) rather than those that come from rebelling against them.

It seems arrogant to me to think that we are smarter than God or could produce life out of things that He says bring death.

What is the problem with the morals God wants us to live by any way? Is there really a better way than the one God has laid out for us?

Seriously, someone help me understand that line of thinking. Post a comment and let me know if you think God does not know what he is talking about and why. I've got to get inside your head.