Category Archives: revelation

When Means Become Ends

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Christians should always be pursuing social justice, but never for the sake of social justice.  Social justice is one of many different stepping stones towards seeing the Good News come alive, but without following the other stepping stones[1] all to the end of our Father’s glory—without the Holy Spirit as our motivation, our purpose, our passion, our guide, and our sustenance—all of our efforts for social justice are in vain.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:3 that “if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”  If we are running the race, then we are running the race to win—to the finish line, not to anything that we pass by on the way.  Social justice will be passed through on the way to the finish line but it is never the finish line itself.

We can do extreme things, but we can never become extremists.  We should never tie our hands with an excess of words[2].  And we should never become sold out to an ideal or a movement instead of the Great I AM.  We should never seek to do extreme things, we can only seek the way of Jesus and leave it up to the world to determine whether or not what we do is radical or extreme.  As Shane Claiborne says, “The only reason God’s cultural refugees seem so peculiar is because of how far the world has moved from God’s dream for it.”  It doesn’t appear that Jesus sought to be extreme or radical, He simply lived out the will of His Father in heaven, and it was seen as radical by the world.  We are not rebels, we are simply alien residents.

Our purpose is not to fight against the world but to bless the world.  Much of what we do might clash with the world’s ways, but this is never our sole intent.  The Gospel is good news to all people, and anything that is not good news is not the Gospel.  This is not to say that it will all be easy…but it certainly will all be freeing and hopeful.

Let us live lives set apart from the ways of the world, and let those set apart ways never drive the world into further darkness but rather draw it up toward the everlasting light of Jesus Christ.

  1. Sharing the Gospel, prayer, personal and intimate relationships with Jesus, fellowship, sharing of possessions, breaking bread together, etc.
  2. As Thomas Merton says, “If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything, we will never become anything, and in the end, because we have said everything before we had anything to say, we shall be left speechless at the moment of our greatest decision.”  And as one of my friends has said, “We must do with our hands what our mouths are itching to say.”

Splinters

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Distractions—things which are usually felt to be pleasurable yet take our mind off of seeing heaven—quickly become habits, in which the distractions become much more desirable but much less pleasurable.  Habits are the beginnings of idols.  We must protect ourselves from distraction then, for Satan is most successful when taking things from us rather than when giving us more.  We must seek poverty (which is more than simply the “things” we may or may not possess) so that he has nothing which he is able to take from us, and we must be on guard of the small things, for it is the small things that find their way into the deepest areas of our hearts and then do the most damage as they grow without our knowledge.  We must be careful to defend against what C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters says is the most dangerous way of temptation:

“Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Control is something out of my control

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To say that God is in control is to preach a reassuring truth.  Responding to that by doing nothing is completely contradictory to that truth.  Usually when it is said that God is in control, what is meant is that He will take care of things.  The first problem with this idea is that it subjects His control to the way we think things ought to be taken care of.  The other problem is not with the phrase itself, but how it is most commonly used—the tendency is to say that God is in control so that we won’t have to take care of things ourselves.

The question that has to be asked is, what is God in control of, and how is His control manifested?  While the technical or theological answer is that He is in control of everything, the point I am trying to get at is that He is in conrtol of us, and He uses us to do His work.  If it is true that the Holy Spirit resides within us, then it is nonsense to do nothing in response to saying that God is in control, for by doing so we are actually limiting what God has control of in ourselves, and misinterpreting inaction for faith.  But as Fireflight says, “faith is moving without knowing,” and as 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “we walk by faith and not by sight.”  We cannot have faith while sitting still.  If God is truly in control we must realize that He is within us, and that it is us He has control over, and that we must live the life He has for us by faith, rather than watch it pass us by without.

Call to Arms

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The church is not a building, it is a family.
The church is not a stage, it is a hospital.
The church is not a weekly commitment, it is a way of life.
The church is not a clique, it is an army.
The church is not a game, it is sustenance.
The church is not for conscience, it is for God.
The church is not for the pretty, but for the broken.
The church is not to look good, but to be saved.

We are the church.  Brothers and sisters, helping each other back into health, laying our lives down for one another, fighting a spiritual war side by side, depending on one another, praising our source of life the ever-merciful God our Lord, boasting in our weaknesses and inadequacies that He has made strong and complete, and sharing in the eternal gift of true life, given freely and abundantly, and constantly renewed by the Spirit of Life that is within us.  Let us be something that demons fear and angels praise, something that Satan hates and God loves, something that demands the evil one’s attacks and requires the supernatural, miraculous protection of our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.

How things work

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Everybody wants to look good.  Everybody wants to feel good.  And everybody knows that living a healthy lifestyle is what accomplishes both things (and if you didn’t, now you do).  Exercise, healthy eating habits, and so on and so forth, there’s a lot of things that go into living a healthy lifestyle, but it’s not too complex of an idea.  There are countless books and instructional videos and internet sites and television shows that are dedicated to saying the same thing.  And it’s extremely possible, common in fact, for people who live healthy lifestyles to be ignorant of the biological processes that make them look and feel good.  People do not need to know the science behind how fat is burned and turned into energy, and they do not care about the details of cellular division and growth in building muscle.  (Generally,) People are only concerned with whether these things are happening or not, and not how they are happening.

Theology and apologetics are such largely discussed and debated topics, and I wonder if they’re really so vital to being a Christian?  Surely they are necessary to an extent—but as Derek Webb says, “Systematic theology is only beneficial to us insofar as God is systematic, and He is not…if our theology does not at some point turn into ethics, then it is of no value to us.”

It’s nice to know what I believe and why I believe it.  But it seems to me that it was the Pharisees who were constantly concerned with the details of the Law, and attempting to debate with Jesus over fine points and interpretations and such.  And I am beginning to believe that I try to “contextualize” and “interpret” scripture and make it “relevant to the times” simply because I am afraid of what it would mean if I took it seriously.  I am starting to think that maybe I try to dig beneath the surface of the gospels just because I want to stick my head in the sand.  Perhaps we spend all this time interpreting and explaining and debating and discussing and researching and teaching because we are scared.

Call me crazy, but I think God probably inspired the Bible to say exactly what it says.

And a large majority of people who claim to be Christians today are so concerned with how things happen, instead of whether they are happening or not.  We obsess over the “biological processes” of the Christian faith.  We’re all well-read and quite opinionated about all sorts of details and fine points to Christianity, like whether people should be baptized in a pool or from a bowl, whether it’s okay or not to play drums in a church, if it’s okay to drink alcohol, what the line is for lust, predestination, the elect, the second coming, and that’s great if you’re into that stuff.  But where is the life that Jesus has called us to?  We know all about exercise, but we’re not getting any.

It is time to stop concerning ourselves with the minute workings of Christian faith and start living it.  The lost do not care about the spiritual technicalities of how salvation is achieved, and they do not need to know whether or not God knows the future.  They want to see the effect Jesus Christ has had on our lives.  They want to see results.  And for that to happen, we need to stop burying ourselves under “interpreting” and “contextualizing” and making scripture “relevant to the times,” and actually stand on the surface of what God has given us.

The matter is quite simple.  The Bible is very easy to understand.  But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers.  We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.  Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly.  My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined.  How would I ever get on in the world?  Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship.  Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close.  Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you?  Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God.

Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard.

So grace.

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God wants to offer hope, not condemnation.

It is good for our depravity to be evident to us.  It is not good for our depravity to distract us from the fact that we do not have to go through any hardship just to get somewhere or understand something, because we already have it all.

Being broken is not about your reformation, it is about God’s glory.

And to lie face-down in the dirt just to become more aware of your inadequacy while Jesus’ hand is being held out to help you back up only brings attention to you.  And we have been called to much greater things than hopelessness.

Being transparent doesn’t mean all your faults are revealed.  It means all your faults disappear, and only God remains.

  • “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30
  • “But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy.  Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.  Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.” -Psalms 5:11-12
  • God, make me transparent.

I like it, but I don’t…?

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We moved from our small, two bed, 1.5 bath, restricted kitchen, and decent living room apartment into a bigger, three bed, two bath, enormous kitchen, and roomy living room house these last few days.  It’s been a bit of work, of which has probably been unbalanced—I’m lazier than I like to admit, and am unfortunately good at coming up with semi-legitimate things to do instead of cleaning and packing—but we’re about 98% done.  Just random small bits and pieces of things left to throw in a box and move to the house, and then the cleaning of the empty apartment.  And I’m not at all excited about that.

It was extremely exciting to move the couches and beds and tables, and to figure out where we wanted all the stuff to go, and to hang up posters and paintings and so on.  When it’s big, noticeable stuff, it’s enjoyable, even if it requires heavy lifting.  But when you get to the little trinkets and stuff you don’t really want but don’t really want to throw away, it’s not at all fun, because it seems like a waste of time and it’s completely under the radar.  And don’t even get me started on cleaning the place that we’re about to leave forever.

And my spiritual life is like this too.  I love it when God makes big changes in my life.  I love getting completely messed up and transformed, even if it’s tough for me to do, because it’s noticeable, it’s something completely new, and it’s exciting.  But when God asks me to do the small stuff—cleaning up little, under-the-radar convictions, picking up after myself, making sure that I leave a good impression when I leave some place or something behind—I get frustrated and I don’t want to do it.  It’s not fun anymore.  And I have no idea what convinced me that my spiritual life is about me having fun, and not about me laying my life down—even the tiny annoying parts—and submitting to the will of Jesus, lover of my soul.

(And so it turns out that the little things are a big thing too.)

Moving isn’t always an enjoyable process, whether it’s from apartment to house, or from old sinful self to new regenerate self.  But if we ignore the small stuff, the move is never completed.  We never can settle into the new, because there’s still small parts of us in the old.  And while I don’t like cleaning up and taking care of the seemingly insignificant things, I do— because beneath my surface frustration, my heart loves completion.

  • What little things are keeping you from completing the big changes in your life?
  • Are you seeking partial transformation in order to fulfill your own desires, or are you seeking complete transformation to God’s will for you—even if it’s hard?

There is for Here, This is for That

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The youth group is going on a mission trip up to New York this week, and it reminds me of the couple mission trips I went on in middle school and high school.  I loved mission trips, because I got to get away from everything at home, go with my church to someplace that didn’t know who I was, and be “extra Christian” for a week.  And it felt good, because I knew in some dark corner of my heart that being “extra Christian” was a really good thing.  I was doing what I should.

But every time we’d come back, I didn’t need to be “extra Christian” anymore…I was home, everyone knew me, they already knew I was a Christian and so I didn’t need to let them know further by doing the sort of things we did on the mission trip.  Which really just means I was afraid, I was lazy, and I was hypocritical.  Because I wasn’t “extra Christian” on the mission trips; I was, in fact, only “a little bit Christian” at home.  “Extra Christian” really was “fully Christian.”  I wasn’t doing what I should when I was at home; when I was comfortable, when I was scared, when I was selfish.

Last night at Bible study we were praying for the youth’s mission trip and I came to the realization that the main purpose of short-term mission trips is not to do God’s work somewhere else.  The primary purpose of short-term missions is to teach us how to do God’s work here.  And of course God uses mission trips to reach people, and he works through them to do his work wherever it is that the mission goes to; but learning how to Love in an unfamiliar setting is a stepping stone towards learning how to Love in a familiar setting.  Because it’s a lot harder to be fully Christian in the place you live, where the people know you and you have to face all the long-term effects and you don’t have anywhere to go back to in a week if things start getting rough.  But doing things for others usually ends up doing even more for you—because when you work for others, God works in you.  He shows you why it feels right and why it is what you should do, and he changes your heart so that you want to do it—whether you’re in an unfamiliar setting or not.

  • How can I be a better missionary where I’m at?
  • What calling does God have on my life that I’m avoiding because I’m scared, lazy, comfortable, or selfish?
  • What can I ask God to change in my heart so that I can Love better?

Uncomfortable Prayer

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I have been praying lately for God to make me so in love with him that it’s uncomfortable…

It is amazing how strongly God answers prayers that coincide with his will.

There are emotional highs, one-night experiences, and similar scenarios that you may think of when you hear this. But it’s not the same. Because emotional highs and one-night experiences are not permanent. Being so in love with Jesus that you can’t speak and can’t sit still but don’t know what else to do and feel like a kettle boiling water without a spout to release the steam…that is permanent. That is real.

  • What if you prayed for God to remove your understanding of “impossible” and replace it with love for him?
  • What if you asked God to do what you don’t think he could? (Which often has more to do with ourselves and less to do with signs and tests…)
  • What if you prayed for God to make you uncomfortably in love with him?

Because when we pray for what Jesus wants—and we do this because there comes a time when we realize that our deepest and strongest desires are exactly the same as his—instead of what we think we want; when we pray for him to increase and for us to decrease (Jn 3:30); when we pray for his will to be done (Mt 6:10); when we pray for things that bring glory to the Father (Jn 14:13); when we pray for things God wants he answers. It doesn’t matter how big or how small, how fathomable or how impossible, how realistic or how outrageous. God wants us to ask him to do what he wants to do. And he then wants to use us to do it.

Don’t be the brother of the prodigal son, who spent so much time doing things he thought his father would like that he didn’t even know what was going on in his father’s house (Lk 15:25-26). Pray for God’s heart to be revealed to the church, pray for our desires to diminish and his to be magnified (Ps 9:20), pray for these things so that his praises and glory and majesty is lifted up (Ps 9:13-14), and pray for everyone that knows Jesus to be uncomfortably in love.

Because you can always be more in love with God. Just another benefit of him being infinite and all.

Conform is only two letters away from Comfort

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I spent the last weekend in Arizona for a family reunion of sorts, many stories I hear that start like this are negative—family reunions are not always looked upon with anticipation or joy—and while there are of course things in anyone’s family that do not sit well or agree with them, I had an enjoyable time. There are a couple cousins in particular (who are brothers (as in the two cousins are brothers, they’re not my brothers)) that are creepy, not in the sense that they are sketchy people but in the sense that they live almost parallel lives to mine. I only see them once every year or two, a person can change a lot in that amount of time, but regardless of how I change, they make the same change. Every time I do see them, we’ve listened to the same bands, saw the same movies, watched the same internet videos, wore the same clothes, played the same video games, and so on…while this is generally limited to surface things it still freaks me out.

I was recently talking to a friend who was sharing a few of the things going on in his life, and was surprised to discover that I am going through many of the same kind of things, but was relatively unaware that I was going through said things until he began to talk about them. During this conversation I was also reminded of a different friend who had been going through said things a few months previous, and was struck with reality for a moment by realizing how much more common said things are than I thought them to be.

Another one of my best friends and I quite often (usually more than once a day) will say exactly what is on the other’s mind, sometimes just before the other gets ready to say it, regardless of subject matter—unlike my two cousins (who are brothers), this extends from random, inconsequential passing thoughts to heavy realizations. This is perhaps the epitome of creepiness in this series of similarities.

And I share these scenarios because a lot of times I feel like I’m the only one who knows what it’s like to struggle with what I struggle with, to experience what I experience, to think the things I think, to love the things I love. A lot of times we feel alone. And I don’t mean physically alone. You can be in a room with a hundred other people and feel alone. You can be with your closest friends, and still feel alone, because you don’t have to be apart to be alone. The reason I share these scenarios is that we are not alone. I am beginning to discover that the root of loneliness is fear. Feeling like you’re the “only one” is a direct result of nothing more than invulnerability. Many of my friends know this was a struggle for me in the last year, being vulnerable. Sharing experiences and thoughts. And as ironic as this is, no one is alone in feeling alone. Everyone has secrets—if not from everybody, at least from somebody. But as I shared, I’m coming to the realization that there are more people going through the same things as me than I think. There are more people experiencing what I experience and loving the things I love and struggling with the things I’m struggling with than Satan tells me. But we only discover this in sharing. If we never tell someone how we feel, they’ll never have anything to reply “me too!” to. We’ll never be together if we allow ourselves to be convinced that we’re apart.

This is particularly true as Christians, because we are “one body (1Co 12:12, Col 3:15).” We are to “live in harmony in the Lord (Php 4:2).” We are to “bear with each other (Col 3:13).” We are to “encourage one another and build each other up (1Th 5:11).” And we are all “partakers of grace (Php 1:7).” We do not fulfill fellowship when we keep things to ourselves (not to mention doing so makes us miserable). There is comfort in sharing our lives with each other, because there are a lot more similarities than we might think. And we don’t have anything to fear, because not even in death will we ever be alone.

“And surely I am with you always…” -Matthew 28:20

“For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.” -Romans 6:9

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” -Galatians 2:20