Last night, I got hit with an extremely tough question...
A woman told me, with tears in her eyes, that in a couple weeks it will be one year since her dad died. In the discussion, she asked me what happened to him...where he is. She said that he did not believe in Jesus...
Before I could even answer, she said 'I know where he is because God is fair, right? The Bible says God is fair, right?' This is the difficult and painful flip side of the first quote that I posted last time. It's easy to have deep thoughts about sovereignty or whatever when someone isn't pleading with you for confirmation that a loved one is in heaven.
How do you answer this question...can you do it with both truth and love?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Deep thoughts by Michael S. Horton
I was reading an article today that covered some pretty deep stuff...because that's how I roll sometimes. So I'm plagiarizing a couple thoughts from Michael S. Horton because I thought they were awesome. Here goes:
"Regardless of compelling logic, the only test of truth is consistency with the Scripture. We can't begin with a philosophical idea of divine sovereignty or human freedom and then cherry-pick our favorite verses."
This one is an epic smack down to the arrogance that most of us show on a regular basis...
"It's amazing - a theology that says we only know God because He has revealed and given Himself to us by grace can be turned into a self-righteous assertion of our own discovery."
Ok...that'll do for the deep thoughts...I'm out.
"Regardless of compelling logic, the only test of truth is consistency with the Scripture. We can't begin with a philosophical idea of divine sovereignty or human freedom and then cherry-pick our favorite verses."
This one is an epic smack down to the arrogance that most of us show on a regular basis...
"It's amazing - a theology that says we only know God because He has revealed and given Himself to us by grace can be turned into a self-righteous assertion of our own discovery."
Ok...that'll do for the deep thoughts...I'm out.
Monday, February 20, 2012
I'm not dead yet!
So I realize that I dropped a really depressing post and then disappeared. Had all the best intentions to come back later and talk about all kinds of really amazing stuff (no, really! but I've forgotten it all now), but never did. So just to sum up...all is pretty ok now. And by ok I mean really great in a 'see yourself for who you really are' sense. We've had some prayers that were directly answered even if the answering was painful. I've been challenged through personal experiences and some really awesome sermons (Mark Driscoll) to be a better friend to Sara and leader for my family. I've also recognized a tendency to compartmentalize pretty much every part of my life...God is over here but nowhere else...work is just a way to make a living...and on and on. So yeah...lately I've been challenged and here's hoping that someday soon I can look back and see that this was a great time for me and the relationships that I value most.
On a completely different note, I recently posted this picture on facebook:
Now I probably should've foreseen the discussions that followed but I didn't expect the in-depth analysis that far exceeds my capability...I think they're great discussions, but I figured I'd put out my point of view here instead of continuing the comment thread. Of course, it might happen here now, but that's totally fine too. But anyway, I struggle with where exactly I stand in the political spectrum for exactly the point raised in Colbert's statement (among others). First, I think that a nation is the sum of the individuals that make it up...if the majority of Americans are humanists (probably accurate despite what we claim), then we're a humanist nation despite our Christian heritage.
To cater to some of my libertarian leanings, I think it's absolutely wrong to force people to do charity. And yes, I believe that government-run welfare programs are charities funded by taxes that are taken forcibly. Like a good friend of mine has said: just try not paying your taxes sometime. But I think it's total BS that those of us who call ourselves Christians find it so easy to ignore people who are truly in need. If the Church (I mean believers in Christ, not any one specific church or denomination) would step up and give away even the minimum (10% of our income under most doctrinal or Biblical interpretations), then poverty as we know it would be virtually extinct. So if there are still people in need (financially or otherwise), and I'm still intentionally sitting around ignoring them and not even doing the minimum that's 'expected' of me, then how can I as an individual call myself a Christian (in the 'like Christ' sense)? And if my problem is multiplied across our nation, then can we really call ourselves a Christian nation? So to round up my soapbox here...if the Church was doing it's job, there would be no need for government-run welfare programs and the Republicans and Libertarians could all quit complaining. I know I'm over-simplifying the solution, but is this really all that hard?
Ok...I gotta stop because this is way over the top preachy. I'm not better than anybody else...I'd much rather get a new iPod than buy groceries for people I barely know. But I think that we all need to be willing to recognize the idiocy of the way we act sometimes in light of what we say we believe.
Ultimately, we need to remember the ridiculous gift we've been given in Christ and respond appropriately. And saying that we just don't want to do what we know is right probably isn't the appropriate response.
On a completely different note, I recently posted this picture on facebook:
Now I probably should've foreseen the discussions that followed but I didn't expect the in-depth analysis that far exceeds my capability...I think they're great discussions, but I figured I'd put out my point of view here instead of continuing the comment thread. Of course, it might happen here now, but that's totally fine too. But anyway, I struggle with where exactly I stand in the political spectrum for exactly the point raised in Colbert's statement (among others). First, I think that a nation is the sum of the individuals that make it up...if the majority of Americans are humanists (probably accurate despite what we claim), then we're a humanist nation despite our Christian heritage.
To cater to some of my libertarian leanings, I think it's absolutely wrong to force people to do charity. And yes, I believe that government-run welfare programs are charities funded by taxes that are taken forcibly. Like a good friend of mine has said: just try not paying your taxes sometime. But I think it's total BS that those of us who call ourselves Christians find it so easy to ignore people who are truly in need. If the Church (I mean believers in Christ, not any one specific church or denomination) would step up and give away even the minimum (10% of our income under most doctrinal or Biblical interpretations), then poverty as we know it would be virtually extinct. So if there are still people in need (financially or otherwise), and I'm still intentionally sitting around ignoring them and not even doing the minimum that's 'expected' of me, then how can I as an individual call myself a Christian (in the 'like Christ' sense)? And if my problem is multiplied across our nation, then can we really call ourselves a Christian nation? So to round up my soapbox here...if the Church was doing it's job, there would be no need for government-run welfare programs and the Republicans and Libertarians could all quit complaining. I know I'm over-simplifying the solution, but is this really all that hard?
Ok...I gotta stop because this is way over the top preachy. I'm not better than anybody else...I'd much rather get a new iPod than buy groceries for people I barely know. But I think that we all need to be willing to recognize the idiocy of the way we act sometimes in light of what we say we believe.
Ultimately, we need to remember the ridiculous gift we've been given in Christ and respond appropriately. And saying that we just don't want to do what we know is right probably isn't the appropriate response.
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