Discarding Bibles

I know a lot of people who find it impossible to throw out a Bible.   Given the situation, I’m probably one of them.   There’s something just inherently wrong about tossing a Bible in the recycling box.   I guess it’s because we know how powerful a thing scripture is, and how, in other parts of the world, they would give anything to have access to what is written on those pages.

I’m not tossing out a Bible today, but I feel the need to change the scripture verse that appears on my regular blog.   But I recognize the power of the words, and find I can’t just hit the “delete” button.   I always feel that some individual may land at that blog for some completely random reason and be gripped by the power of the words printed in the sidebar.

So here it is, as it has appeared there for the last six months or so:

…By giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. ~Colossians 1:22-23 (Msg.)

Only One Life

Only one life, ’twill soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ will last

I’m having a birthday today.   Mixed feelings.   I just keep feeling I’m light on accomplishments.   I want to do more, but of course, Christ wants me to be more.   Furthermore, I think I’m trying to overcompensate for the lack of being by trying to increase the doing.   But perhaps this a chicken-and-egg thing; in fact, maybe opportunities to do more aren’t presenting themselves because again, Christ is concerned with who He is using.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest and there is No One there to Hear it…

I got some rather flukey traffic this week on my regular blog, Thinking Out Loud, which drove the stats to a record high.

Then there is this one, which I do mostly for myself.   It has readers, but nothing close to the other.   I enjoy blogging at the other, but I enjoy searching my own heart to come up with things to post to this one.

The contrasting stats reminds me of something that happened last summer, which my wife blogged as part of a longer piece:

…Boston was one of our most recent expeditions. Really interesting city (American history machine aside). Cool architecture, good subway, Chinatown, really easy to get lost, terrible maps, good food. Perfect. Some historic churches. Mostly for “freedom” reasons, of one kind or another.

We chanced upon one that really struck me. Not as old as some of the others, probably. No “Paul Revere slept through the sermon here” plaques. But a lovely red brick building, tucked away in one of the more serpentine neighborhoods. We climbed a few steps to a back door and found it unlocked, so we went in. Found ourselves in a foyer of sorts, creaky floored and unlit. There was another door in front of us, so we pulled that one open. Creak. Stepped to the threshold. Creak. Peeked through the door. Creak.

It was beautiful inside. Warm and hushed and soaring. Stained glass windows, old dark pews, draperies and candles. It smelled of polished wood and wax and flame and time and prayer. But we didn’t go in any further. We closed the door and left. Creaking all the way…

…You see, the reason why we left without really going in is that when we opened that inner door, we heard something.

Someone speaking. One voice.

One voice echoing through the room, over the pews, off the windows. The pews that were completely empty, the windows that were telling their stories to no one.

One voice, chanting in what might have been Latin. Reciting a text that no one would hear. Except the speaker and God himself. Because they were the only ones in the room.

As we left, we looked at the sign on the fence outside. “5:00 pm. Mass”. It was 5 pm. So the Mass was being said. Whether anyone was there to hear it or not. It had to be said.

Why? I have no clue. But it had to be said. If only to the antique pews and the priceless glass and the glowing candles and absolutely not a living soul. Haunted and driven by tradition. Disregarded by life and humanity.

…Church with a sermon and no congregation.

You can read her article which, in context, has a whole other set of meanings, with the most inescapable being what you get from the second last paragraph: Tradition; irrelevance; religiosity.

This is different, however.   This is blogging in the original “web-log” sense of journal-keeping.   This remains available for future discovery; readers driven perhaps by items here I have yet to write.

(Have you ever noticed how close “stats” sounds to “status?”  So stats-seeking is really status-seeking.)

And all of this of course is being read by some people already.  I’d probably do this even if there weren’t any readers.  Having tasted both the highs and lows of statistics, I’m not sure that one is better than the other.   It’s somewhat similar to what I wrote about the contrasts between the large church we attended two weeks ago, and the much smaller one we attended last week.

Still, I don’t know how that Boston cleric could do it.   Something unseen drives him to go through the forms of the mass even though no other humans are present…

…Although, I wonder if later that day, he suddenly remembered hearing the door creaking and sensed that an individual; no, a couple came in, listened for a minute, and then left?

Gift Industry Theology

I just spent an hour scrolling through about 3,000 pages of giftware images:  plaques, picture frames, ceramic crosses, candle holders, ornaments, etc.

The company whose wares I was scanning has a fairly high percentage of items which contain Christian sentiment or scripture:   Lord’s Prayer, Serenity Prayer, Ps. 23, I Cor. 13, Jer 29:11; and various pieces that just say “hope,” or “believe,” or “joy.”

I remember years ago hearing a preacher talk about verses you’ll never see in a gift store, like this one:

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.  II Tim 3:12 (NASB)

It might not sell well, but it would provide balance.

I wonder, do some Christians follow, and live inside the bubble of a “gift shop” theology?

Taking It To The Next Level

Today we began the day listening to a download of an Andy Stanley sermon on giving.   I gotta say it was a bit of a yawner — Andy’s a master speaker but the topic is too often done — until the last ten minutes, when Andy really took things to the next level and presented his vision of what his church would look like and what his church could do if people really embraced the idea of putting God first with their finances.

Then later in the day, we listened to a sermon by Francis Chan, who until recently hasn’t been part of our sermon download routine.   I’ve been impressed with things I have been hearing about him, and the sermon did not disappoint.   This is a guy who is totally sold out to God and literally drips passion with every sermon sentence.   He talked about the sin of Achan and how each one of us is a threat to our spiritual community if we are holding on to sin and sinful patterns.

This day was about the difference between good sermons and great sermons; and great sermons are the ones which truly shake us to our roots, and challenge us to actually do the things that Christ calls us to do.

Charles Price on Moral Law

Moral law is determined by the character of God, which is the moral absolute of the universe and which God revealed in practical terms when He gave the Ten Commandments.    In today’s world, they may seem outdated, restrictive, unreasonable and even irrelevant but we need to recognize that they derive from the unchanging character of God.   Perhaps it is because they are humanly impossible to keep that they are perceived with such skepticism and negativity, but that is exactly the point.   They are impossible to fallen people, but not God whose nature they are. …It is the indwelling Spirit of God who, alone, can reproduce and express the moral character of God within us.

Charles Price writing in Our Journey
devotional for 6/29/10

Introspection

I break the main rule of blogging by posting here at the very end of the day in a time zone that is even more at “the end of the day” in a worldwide sense.

I’ve used this space to force myself to come to grips with what, if anything, I’ve felt that God has shown on a daily basis.

This was a holiday in Canada and for some people days off can be very lonely times.    I’ll bet there are people who are dying to get back to work tomorrow.  But I’ve always found times alone can be very introspective; a great opportunity to be more attuned to whatever it is that God might be wanting to show and teach us.

Here are some normally-familiar words from Psalm 139 as rendered in The Message version:

^23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.

Gathered In My Name

After attending a service last week just outside of Toronto at The Meeting House, nine campus locations that are part of Canada’s largest church movement; this Sunday we attended a small alternative service at The Third Space, two hours east in Peterborough in which, including all participants, we were part of a group of twenty.

Qualitatively, both weeks hold equal weight.   While there were differences, I am not sure there was a difference.   I see both as equal expressions of the reality of the Body of Christ, that “holy catholic church” spoken of in The Apostles Creed meeting in different places around the world.

^{Hebrews 10 : 24-25 (Message)}Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

^{Matthew 18 : 20 (Message)} “And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

The Gift of Analogy

You’ve heard the story of the monkey who puts his arm in the vase or urn in order to get the banana that’s inside.   His fist is clenched around the banana, but the clench prevents him from getting his hand out of the neck of the container.

It’s a lose-lose situation.

I shared that with someone this week as an analogy for something else, but today, while doing some yard work, it reminded me of the quotation from Jim Elliot:

He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

It doesn’t fit the analogy.   It implies something better.   A whole bunch of bananas is waiting if you’ll let go of the one.   More than you know what to do with.    Trading the temporary for the permanent.   It’s an offer that you’ll never hunger again.

Elliot’s well-known saying isn’t scripture.   But in the New Testament, Jesus promises a Samaritan woman a kind of “living water” so that she will never be thirsty again.

But first we have to let go of the grip we have on that which will only satisfy us momentarily.

Sorry for Sin

I’m quoting this from memory and changing at least one word, but in The Pursuit of Holiness, author Jerry Bridges says,

We never see sin correctly unless we see it as against God.

Sin isn’t like failing to stick to a diet, where we’ve let ourselves down, but rather we sin against God.

Repentance involves

1. Being truly sorry for our sin
2. Turning around; changing our behavior

Sometimes we are sorry for sin because we’re reaping consequences which we deeply regret.   While those consequences may be built-in results of what happens when we go against God — because His ways are higher; because His ways are best — that’s not the kind of sorry God is looking for.

It’s more like the song that says,

Regrets, I have a few…

Rather, His desire is that we’re sorry that we failed to see His plan as best.   We failed to live as though He was walking beside us.    We went off and did our own thing.  Now we’re sorry over the results, but we haven’t factored in being sorry for how it hurt Him when we took a detour off the path.

Perhaps somebody is reading this who needs to join in this prayer,

God, I’ve been sorry for _________ because of the consequences, but I haven’t yet said I’m sorry because I went against your ways; I sinned against you.   Forgive me.   Create inside me a clean heart, and renew inside me the attitudes and desires that are righteous.

He Just Wants Our Presence

I found this on a church website page titled “Worship” for The Bridge in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto.   It makes a point that I’ve believed in for quite some time now…

C.S. Lewis said that “it is in the process of worship that God reveals Himself to us”. The God of the universe, the Creator of all, longs to reveal Himself to those who would fall before Him losing themselves to find Him. God Himself invites us, through his Son, to revel in His presence…to fall at His feet…to climb up into His lap. That’s the beauty of worship. It doesn’t dictate how we come before Him…it just asks us to come. We can dance for joy…cry out in pain…celebrate his grace…or be silent and still. We simply come as we are bringing all the circumstances of life with us.

Capturing Every Thought

This is the third of a series of three posts on the subject of our thought life.   It’s time to take prisoners.   This is something I’ve been working hard to put into practice — even more diligently in the last 48 hours or so — but it takes a great deal of discipline.

First we’ll start with 2 Cor 10:5 in the King James version of the Bible:

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ

The NLT paints a different picture:

With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.

The KJV (and the NASB) envisions thoughts being rounded up and taken captive — possibly appropriate language to the time of writing — while the NLT (and the NIV) talks about teaching “them” to obey Christ.   Who or what is “them?”   It could be “people kept from knowing God,” but it seems to be “their rebellious ideas;” it’s their ideas that are being “taught,” this is reinforced by the NLT of verse four (the preceding verse) which talks about “the Devil’s strongholds.”

The Message Bible breaks out into similar, but different language:

We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

The danger here is losing ourselves in the word pictures and missing the bigger point:  It is incumbent on us to guard our thoughts, our hearts, our minds.   We have to do this by being gatekeepers of what we will allow to come in; and as gatekeepers we have to never be asleep at our post.

Think On These

Back in the day, long before “Footprints,” you could walk into a Christian bookstore and buy the “Whatsoever things are true…” plaque, also known as “Think on These Things.”   Perhaps you had one in your home growing up.

In a world where everything was in black-and-white and in King James English, your plaque of Phil. 4:8  probably read like this:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Here’s how The Message translates it, with verse nine added:

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

If you read yesterday’s post here, I commented that it’s easy for wild thoughts to enter our heads and park there.   Sometimes we’re capable of either remembering or creating stuff that shouldn’t be there.   I believe it’s possible for us to de-toxify our minds, but getting clear from concepts or narratives that are lodged there may take days  or weeks and requires discipline.

What fills your mind?

Partial Depravity

Nobody likes to think of themselves as “depraved” but one of the things Calvinism has brought us is the phrase “total depravity;” it’s actually the “T” in the “TULIP” acronym.

Catholics say that we are born with “original sin;” though to see to widespread nature of different types of sinful acts is to know there’s nothing original about it.

The “Four Spiritual Laws” begin with premise that “Man is sinful and separated from God…”

But what happens after conversion?

Much of the Apostle Paul’s writings discuss the dual nature; the fight put up by the desires of the flesh.   James talks about “double mindedness.”   In the epistles at least, we get a picture of the spiritual warfare raging all around us; the accompanying tension between where we are positionally in Christ, and where we find ourselves pragmatically in the world.

But on Sunday mornings, nobody wants to admit this.  That’s probably why in surveys of “crazy hymn and chorus lyrics” people always vote for:

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love.

I mean seriously, what terrible advertising for the Christian life.   Nobody wants to admit to that propensity to sin.   And as for depravity, Dictionary.com defines it as “moral corruption” and there are people I know who don’t know Christ that I would regard as “upstanding morally;” so I don’t think too many Christ-followers would even want to say they were depraved before they made Him lord of their lives.

This past week I was driving my car and my mind wandered into less than stellar territory.   (More about thoughts in tomorrow’s post.)   Please don’t try to guess or read too much into this, but after the thought had flashed through my brain — okay, it actually parked there for about five minutes — I thought about how people are, and how I am, always just a few mis-steps away from conceding to my human nature and its way of thinking.

But we are also possessed of a divine nature.   I want to end this the way the song quoted above ends; with a prayer for redemption;  this was my prayer for the beginning of this week, and it’s not such a crazy hymn lyric, either:

Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Great Opportunity; Great Adversity

This weekend, Canadian pastor Darryl Dash blogged about a verse I have used over and over again in correspondence over the past 35 years because it so often has described my situation:

In 1 Corinthians 16:8-9, Paul speaks of his desire to come to Corinth. He decides to stay put in Ephesus for the time being. His reason is fascinating:

But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective ministry has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

We get the first part. We’re used to staying put when there’s a door wide open for effective ministry. But take note of the second part. There were many who opposed Paul. According to Paul, that is a reason to stay. We normally take that as reason to leave. Paul sees the two going together. Opportunities and opposition often go together.

Craig Blomberg says, “In our transient age, we need Christians from all walks of life to go to a place and stay for a long time.”

It’s not like there is never a reason to leave, but let’s not let opposition take us by surprise. Expect it. And don’t miss the “wide door for effective work” that may be open as well.