Recently I've been hearing a lot about this movie coming out called "The Golden Compass". I don't have a tv or get the newspaper and don't really listen the radio so newswise I'm relatively far behind the curve. In light of that I've been hearing about this mostly through the conservative christians in the church I've been going to as well as facebook groups bearing the titles liks "Boycott the Golden Compass", "DON'T support the Golden Compass" or "Boycott the Golden Compass: An attack on Christianity" asking for my support.
I never really agreed with this sentiment towards the movie, but I think I finally pinned down the core of the issue for me. A lot of people that I've talked to or heard from who are upset about this act almost as if this movie is a surprise. As if it is a shock that someone would oppose Christ and his message. And it seems to me that as a follower of Christ, we should be the least surprised. Jesus promised this kind of stuff, Peter and Paul both went through it and promised it as well.
It's not the feeling of surprise that gets me, but it seems like a lot of believers are feeling threatened by this movie (and that's all it is a is a movie). I don't know if they've read the bible or not, but satan himself can't destroy God's kingdom, let alone an atheist children's author. And if you're not able to take a step back from your faith and wrestle with it, then I think you've got bigger problems than an anti-God movie.
One of the big beefs I've been hearing about this is how it's marketed and aimed at kids. Sure, this may not be something you want to sit your kid down in front of and leave it at that. But I think it's a great way start dialogue with your kid (especially if your kid already know Jesus) and start letting the kid grow their own faith. People put the Narnia stories up on their pedastol because they are "christian", but really the Narnia stories are in the same boat as this compass deal, they're all just stories. Narnia can't and should not replace the Gospel. We worship Jesus, not Aslan.
As christians, we have the advantage: we know we will be challenged, and we know who wins in the end. With those out of the way, perhaps retaliating isn't the answer. My two cents: don't worry about the movie, or it's message. It's nothing new. Use it as a discussion point with your neighbour. Use it help your own faith grow. Anti groups and boycotts put walls up between us and the people we are to minister to. That's what satan wants, walls, not movies, but walls between people and Jesus' love.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Picture Perfect
So I was talking with a table of junior high boys in sunday school this morning and after a certain point in conversation, the whole scene struck me as perfect. You know how you get those feelings at certain moments in your life where everything seems as it should be? A glimpse of heaven sort of, where it seems like God has completely saturated every aspect of that moment. They are you usually pretty fleeting, but often leave lasting impressions.
I'm confident that I socialize better with kids than I do with adults. Especially kids who aren't at the stage where they are too cool be a kid. Maybe it's because something inside of me misses that part of childhood... I don't know. For instance, last week I went to this movie that was showing a bar in town. I was this super retro, from the 60's, movie about Choinard (the guy who started Patagonia company) and some buddies climbing in Patagonia. I walked in and the place was packed. I generally don't go to bars, I don't do the whole bar talk thing very well. I have a hard time standing around BS-ing with people that you're yelling at to hear over the din and loud music. So walked in and I looked out back and there's a bunch of little kids having a snowball fight. I'd rather join them than try to play the bar scene. And I did. It was fun.
Like I said I was talking to table of junior high kids this morning about Jesus. And partly why it seemed all perfect was because they were being so... them. In response to a question or whatever subject was at hand, often they would blurt out something seemingly unrelated. They weren't doing it to be annoying or disruptive, but that's what was going through their heads. Even now, in my day to day conversation, someone will say something that inside my head triggers some story, or factoid that's totally unrelated to the converstaion and my mind goes off on this tangent until I realize that I missed the last half of whatever that person said cause I was busy chasing this rabbit in my head. Naturally I pretend that it never happened and that I am totally following what my counterpart is saying to avoid looking like a fool. How rad is it that these kids were verbally processing their thoughts with me, no matter how off topic it might be.
The overarching lesson of the day was "who is Jesus?" and somewhere along the line, one of these kids' mental spinoffs prompted him to ask the rest of the group if we had ever seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He proceeded to recount the scene in the grail room with all the grails encrusted in gold and jewels and the true grail being simple and wooden. At that point it hit me just how perfect our story is. Our relationship with God has been called "the greatest story ever told" and I never really think about it, but it is so amazingly perfect. Every aspect of life in this story fits together perfectly down to the tiniest detail.
The idea of God coming to earth to save his creation in itself is genius. But the raw power, wrath and love og God entering a baby born to a poverty stricken couple in backwoods podunk town. In a place where all the distractions, wealth, power, everything was absent and it was just God slipping in the back door to save humanity. The whole story is so unimagineable and at the same time so perfect it has to be real. You can't make that stuff up.
Those times when all is as it should be, I think are flickers of God's kingdom here on earth. A small snippit of how it will be when his kingdom comes for good. And the more I understand each year of God's ridiculous plot to save the world, the more each year I get stoked for Christmas, to celebrate the turning point in the story.
I'm confident that I socialize better with kids than I do with adults. Especially kids who aren't at the stage where they are too cool be a kid. Maybe it's because something inside of me misses that part of childhood... I don't know. For instance, last week I went to this movie that was showing a bar in town. I was this super retro, from the 60's, movie about Choinard (the guy who started Patagonia company) and some buddies climbing in Patagonia. I walked in and the place was packed. I generally don't go to bars, I don't do the whole bar talk thing very well. I have a hard time standing around BS-ing with people that you're yelling at to hear over the din and loud music. So walked in and I looked out back and there's a bunch of little kids having a snowball fight. I'd rather join them than try to play the bar scene. And I did. It was fun.
Like I said I was talking to table of junior high kids this morning about Jesus. And partly why it seemed all perfect was because they were being so... them. In response to a question or whatever subject was at hand, often they would blurt out something seemingly unrelated. They weren't doing it to be annoying or disruptive, but that's what was going through their heads. Even now, in my day to day conversation, someone will say something that inside my head triggers some story, or factoid that's totally unrelated to the converstaion and my mind goes off on this tangent until I realize that I missed the last half of whatever that person said cause I was busy chasing this rabbit in my head. Naturally I pretend that it never happened and that I am totally following what my counterpart is saying to avoid looking like a fool. How rad is it that these kids were verbally processing their thoughts with me, no matter how off topic it might be.
The overarching lesson of the day was "who is Jesus?" and somewhere along the line, one of these kids' mental spinoffs prompted him to ask the rest of the group if we had ever seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He proceeded to recount the scene in the grail room with all the grails encrusted in gold and jewels and the true grail being simple and wooden. At that point it hit me just how perfect our story is. Our relationship with God has been called "the greatest story ever told" and I never really think about it, but it is so amazingly perfect. Every aspect of life in this story fits together perfectly down to the tiniest detail.
The idea of God coming to earth to save his creation in itself is genius. But the raw power, wrath and love og God entering a baby born to a poverty stricken couple in backwoods podunk town. In a place where all the distractions, wealth, power, everything was absent and it was just God slipping in the back door to save humanity. The whole story is so unimagineable and at the same time so perfect it has to be real. You can't make that stuff up.
Those times when all is as it should be, I think are flickers of God's kingdom here on earth. A small snippit of how it will be when his kingdom comes for good. And the more I understand each year of God's ridiculous plot to save the world, the more each year I get stoked for Christmas, to celebrate the turning point in the story.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
izzle's
So I walked into this coffee shop the other day and the gal behind this counter was wearing a t-shirt that had a picture of Jesus' face on it and it said "fo' shizzle, Jesus is fo' rizzle" Along the same lines I've seen shirts and bumper stickers with things like "Jesus is my homeboy" or "Jesus saves after every level" (with a little nintendo controller. Jesus bobbleheads on dashboards anyone? I believe God has a sense of humor and these type of things have their place in showing Jesus to the world. Fo' shizzle, God is relationalizzle and personalizzle with each individual and you better believe that's an important message. And of course someone being as personal with me as God is, I would expect it to be someone I can laugh (as well as cry) with.
But at the same time, stuff like this only paints half of a picture. Yeah God will laugh with you and as a follower of Christ I know I need to be careful that I don't neglect the other half of who God is. God is holy folks. Which is really nice to know when I step back and think about it. I'm not so sure I want my eternal life in the care of a clown. God is full of power and wrath. There's a song that cuts me open each time I hear it (it's best at loud volumes) and the chorus says "The earth shakes, trembles and quakes and the mountains shook out of fear, He made darkness His covering, the bursting rain clouds of the sky, and from the brightness of His radiant face, hailstones and bolts of light, the Lord thunders, the Lord thunders."
We trust Him because He loves and stoops down to us, but we worship Him because He is powerful and holy. They go hand in hand in a perfect balance that we can only marvel at and give praise to God for being who He is.
But at the same time, stuff like this only paints half of a picture. Yeah God will laugh with you and as a follower of Christ I know I need to be careful that I don't neglect the other half of who God is. God is holy folks. Which is really nice to know when I step back and think about it. I'm not so sure I want my eternal life in the care of a clown. God is full of power and wrath. There's a song that cuts me open each time I hear it (it's best at loud volumes) and the chorus says "The earth shakes, trembles and quakes and the mountains shook out of fear, He made darkness His covering, the bursting rain clouds of the sky, and from the brightness of His radiant face, hailstones and bolts of light, the Lord thunders, the Lord thunders."
We trust Him because He loves and stoops down to us, but we worship Him because He is powerful and holy. They go hand in hand in a perfect balance that we can only marvel at and give praise to God for being who He is.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Beyond Gratefulness
Holy Stinking Cool Batman!! So I've always heard in church and books and even in the bible something to the effect of "forgive other people because Jesus forgave you" or "love other people because Jesus loved you first" and that's totally true and I agree but God showed me it's so much deeper than that!!! There's more to this than simply "Jesus did it for me so I should do it for others."
While that is all good, it's makes me feel better to know that the purpose for this stuff is so much deeper than gratefulness. You see, Christ was rejected and suffered immensely and his disciples shared in the fruits of his passion. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to share in his sufferings. That doesn't so appealing at face value.
Christ bore the sins of all and it is clear that the only atonement is through the blood of JESUS only. But since he bore the sins of the entire world, as disciples we are called to share in bearing those sins, in experiencing the rejection that Jesus experienced and it's pretty safe to assume that any man would break down under such pressure unless he had the unfailing support of the one who took the wrap for humanity (that would be Jesus).
Paul writes in Galations "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Bonhoeffer says "The passion of Christ strengthens [the disciple] to overcome the sins of others by forgiving them." True, we are to help deal with their outward situations and gifts or lack thereof, but also their literal sin. Mad rad!!!
Hells yeah by following Jesus we are forgiven; we are free to bear the sins of others by the power of Christ (not by our own power mind you). As a true disciple of Jesus, we are free to be real with people, to draw alongside of them and bear the weight of their burden with them (WHETHER THEY KNOW JESUS OR NOT). What an amazing weapon against the world's sorrow we've been given! We don't forgive or love merely because Jesus did so to us first. We do so because Jesus has freed us and empowered his with His power to help lift the weak out of the pit in his name. We are his warriors, by serving Jesus we are serving to the fight the evils that plague our world. And how amazing is it that we can come alongside those who don't know Him in their time of need and in His power and name we can bear their weight. And if we can do so with God's children who choose not to acknowledge God, how much more so can we pull alongside a fellow disciple who may have lost his way as we all tend to do.
What a sicka rad job to have!!! Jesus's command to his disciples was to love others... but not just by sending them flowers or buying them dinner. We have the power to love by descending to their depths alongside them, and we are able to do so because we have Christ's power... we are his ambassadors to the broken. SO SWEEEEEET!
While that is all good, it's makes me feel better to know that the purpose for this stuff is so much deeper than gratefulness. You see, Christ was rejected and suffered immensely and his disciples shared in the fruits of his passion. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to share in his sufferings. That doesn't so appealing at face value.
Christ bore the sins of all and it is clear that the only atonement is through the blood of JESUS only. But since he bore the sins of the entire world, as disciples we are called to share in bearing those sins, in experiencing the rejection that Jesus experienced and it's pretty safe to assume that any man would break down under such pressure unless he had the unfailing support of the one who took the wrap for humanity (that would be Jesus).
Paul writes in Galations "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Bonhoeffer says "The passion of Christ strengthens [the disciple] to overcome the sins of others by forgiving them." True, we are to help deal with their outward situations and gifts or lack thereof, but also their literal sin. Mad rad!!!
Hells yeah by following Jesus we are forgiven; we are free to bear the sins of others by the power of Christ (not by our own power mind you). As a true disciple of Jesus, we are free to be real with people, to draw alongside of them and bear the weight of their burden with them (WHETHER THEY KNOW JESUS OR NOT). What an amazing weapon against the world's sorrow we've been given! We don't forgive or love merely because Jesus did so to us first. We do so because Jesus has freed us and empowered his with His power to help lift the weak out of the pit in his name. We are his warriors, by serving Jesus we are serving to the fight the evils that plague our world. And how amazing is it that we can come alongside those who don't know Him in their time of need and in His power and name we can bear their weight. And if we can do so with God's children who choose not to acknowledge God, how much more so can we pull alongside a fellow disciple who may have lost his way as we all tend to do.
What a sicka rad job to have!!! Jesus's command to his disciples was to love others... but not just by sending them flowers or buying them dinner. We have the power to love by descending to their depths alongside them, and we are able to do so because we have Christ's power... we are his ambassadors to the broken. SO SWEEEEEET!
Friday, November 23, 2007
Faith's Concubine
So I always knew that Utah was a bubble. Living there I reminded myself of that all the time and tried to keep and outsiders perspective. But there's a huge difference between knowing that you live in a bubble and then moving out and experiencing that. Mt. Shasta is VERY different. I've run into so many different people with so many different beliefs... it's fruitcake out here but it's actually very refreshing. And something that I'm beginning to be more grateful for here is how many times my world view has been challenged. It's always tough when someone else exposes your ignorance, but that's how we grow isn't it? You learn not to take it too personally and welcome those attacks on your comfortable standpoint.
I've never really been much for politics. Not that I have anything against them, I realise that they pretty much run our lives, but my issue was that there's only 24 hrs in a day and I was more interested in other things so I didn't have time for politics... of course I've been challenged there again... and again... and again...
These last few months of my life have been interesting... For the first time since kindergarten, I have had NO school, at all. No homework, no projects, no tests... it is amazing! I can read what I want to read, study what I want to study, think about what I want to think about, play when I want to play and the best thing is that I can do all these things I want without the small nagging voice in the back of my head saying "you really should be doing homework right now."
Not only is there no school these last few months, but I've also been jobless... which means lots of free time. At first all my free time made me a little uncomfortable, I've never been in such a place before. But I learned that depending on how I used it, it was very much a blessing: giving me a much needed break and time to wrestle with my faith in deeper and more real ways than I had before.
It's kinda funny how you hear certain things all the time, but they don't mean much until they hit your gut, ya know? God has been smacking in the head these past few weeks hitting me with A LOT of hard truths about myself and my faith. So many it's hard to keep track. I think it all started when I finally married my faith with my politics.
I can't remember if I read it in a book or if someone had said to me something to effect of "our nation has moved from the freedom of religion to the freedom from relgion." Which seemed somewhat obscure at first, but makes a lot of sense. If my high school history serves me correctly, our country was big on freedom to practice whatever kind of faith we wanted. I don't believe it was intended to shield us from whatever faiths we felt threatened by. At any rate, not only is it impossible to completely divorce one's faith from their politics, but it's flatout wrong (at least in what Jesus calls us to).
I have been challenged and been learning about our government a lot over the past month and my findings, while not that surprising, are sad. I can basically say that it boils down to our country is run by the rich with the only agenda in mind is to make themselves richer. Greed rules our country, greed so strong it would perform at the expense of the people. There is so much that is amiss in our country, and I, like many others in my position, could rant and rave about our problems till the cows come home. But the overall downfall is it seems our government's purpose is to make a profit for those who control it rather than to serve the people of the country it rules. Of course any change would have to start with the people, but it seems the general mentality of our nation (myself included) is that "I need to get mine." And that's no wonder, look at the examples the leaders of our country set for us.
Jesus teaches his people to take care of each other. It seems simple enough, and it actually used to happen. The early church had exactly that. Of course their mentality was concern for others, not for their own wealth. If this country's gonna turn around it's gonna need a sicka huge paradigm shift. My desire is there, but I don't know if my heart is yet, that's something I pray for all the time. If we were to socialize health care, I would be ok with a couple hundred extra bucks in taxes if it meant helping someone else to live.
I don't know... it's so big, but I finally realized that my faith must drive my politics. Jesus doesn't want to be in every aspect of our lives except for the government, he wants it all. My faith has finally conquered my land of politics and has taken her as it's prize. This is the beginning I think. It breaks my heart to see the way this country operates, but I don't currently have an active answer. Jesus changed the world by reaching out to individuals while he was here, maybe that's where it needs to start.
I've never really been much for politics. Not that I have anything against them, I realise that they pretty much run our lives, but my issue was that there's only 24 hrs in a day and I was more interested in other things so I didn't have time for politics... of course I've been challenged there again... and again... and again...
These last few months of my life have been interesting... For the first time since kindergarten, I have had NO school, at all. No homework, no projects, no tests... it is amazing! I can read what I want to read, study what I want to study, think about what I want to think about, play when I want to play and the best thing is that I can do all these things I want without the small nagging voice in the back of my head saying "you really should be doing homework right now."
Not only is there no school these last few months, but I've also been jobless... which means lots of free time. At first all my free time made me a little uncomfortable, I've never been in such a place before. But I learned that depending on how I used it, it was very much a blessing: giving me a much needed break and time to wrestle with my faith in deeper and more real ways than I had before.
It's kinda funny how you hear certain things all the time, but they don't mean much until they hit your gut, ya know? God has been smacking in the head these past few weeks hitting me with A LOT of hard truths about myself and my faith. So many it's hard to keep track. I think it all started when I finally married my faith with my politics.
I can't remember if I read it in a book or if someone had said to me something to effect of "our nation has moved from the freedom of religion to the freedom from relgion." Which seemed somewhat obscure at first, but makes a lot of sense. If my high school history serves me correctly, our country was big on freedom to practice whatever kind of faith we wanted. I don't believe it was intended to shield us from whatever faiths we felt threatened by. At any rate, not only is it impossible to completely divorce one's faith from their politics, but it's flatout wrong (at least in what Jesus calls us to).
I have been challenged and been learning about our government a lot over the past month and my findings, while not that surprising, are sad. I can basically say that it boils down to our country is run by the rich with the only agenda in mind is to make themselves richer. Greed rules our country, greed so strong it would perform at the expense of the people. There is so much that is amiss in our country, and I, like many others in my position, could rant and rave about our problems till the cows come home. But the overall downfall is it seems our government's purpose is to make a profit for those who control it rather than to serve the people of the country it rules. Of course any change would have to start with the people, but it seems the general mentality of our nation (myself included) is that "I need to get mine." And that's no wonder, look at the examples the leaders of our country set for us.
Jesus teaches his people to take care of each other. It seems simple enough, and it actually used to happen. The early church had exactly that. Of course their mentality was concern for others, not for their own wealth. If this country's gonna turn around it's gonna need a sicka huge paradigm shift. My desire is there, but I don't know if my heart is yet, that's something I pray for all the time. If we were to socialize health care, I would be ok with a couple hundred extra bucks in taxes if it meant helping someone else to live.
I don't know... it's so big, but I finally realized that my faith must drive my politics. Jesus doesn't want to be in every aspect of our lives except for the government, he wants it all. My faith has finally conquered my land of politics and has taken her as it's prize. This is the beginning I think. It breaks my heart to see the way this country operates, but I don't currently have an active answer. Jesus changed the world by reaching out to individuals while he was here, maybe that's where it needs to start.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Fat Jokes About the Bible Aren't So Easy... At Least For Me
So I've had a lot of time to myself... to think... about a lot things... and I feel compelled to share. Not that this any new groundbreaking thinking, but God commands us to talk about his words "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up..." and when you're killing time on facebook. God said so. And it feels good to get stuff off your chest, ya know?
At any rate I was thinking about life, as all great thinkers and wannabes do, and what it means for us. Actually, I don't think I was really thinking about life, I'm not that advanced yet, but I was reading the good book (that's the Bible NOT the Authoritative Encyclopedia of Crystals and Geodes as the convention is here) and for some reason the Bible seems to relate to life a lot, some kind of theme written into it, and that got me thinking about life.
I like the way God puts it: He's talking to His people and lays it out life as a choice he's given them, "I'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse." The curse, although sounding harsh, is sufficiently described as not obeying God's laws and following other Gods who they don't know. The blessing, living life the way that God originally intended (I heard somebody once say "Man, if it weren't for Eve, we'd all be playing naked volleyball in Eden right now." But that's a different discussion).
From an outside perspective, it seems like a pretty simple choice yeah? Who wants to be cursed? Personally I know from TV that cursings generally involve turning into a reptile or amphibian or coming down with a bad case of pimples... and having endured said curses in my more formidable years of puberty doesn't make me so eager to sign up for that again. Yeah I'd chose God's life! Great! Sign me up! Oh yeah except the friggin rule book is soooo fat...here it comes.... that if you put it on a scale it would say "to be continued." (that was the best I could do on short notice)
Well, unfortunately God's pretty clear on what it takes to live right: to live a blessing is to follow the rules, and hot damn! there's a lot of em! Which is a pretty bum deal cause following a lot of rules is hard, and no fun. What kind of promised life is that? However it's hard to argue that it's not a good way to live. God put the law inside some flesh and bone and lived it out for us (in a very small part becuase we just didn't get it I think) and people saw just how blessed Jesus's life was. But Jesus was about so much more than showing us what a "right life" looked like right? Pshaw!! It sure stinkin was. It was a revolution folks, with HUGE implications.
And looking around today, it seems like a lot of people missed it. Either missed it or forgot about it. Cause now a "right life" isn't about the rule book. It's about being able to grab hold of God's amazingly awesomely spectaularly unbelievalbly unfair grace. yah? And people both inside and outside of the church either missed or forgot that part. Don't get me wrong, the rule book was definitely good for the folks back then, because God said so, but things flipped and now people skip the best part of the story.
And not only do we skip that part but it seems that several people (myself included at times) for some reason or another believe that God has appointed them to keep order here and discount people who don't follow the "code" so to speak. When you step back and think about it, judging people's eternities is hard dirty work and luckily God didn't leave that part for us. We get the lovey dovey job, the grace end of the stick, and we get to show the same to others! That's a pretty good job. At least it beats making sandwiches...
Churches and Christians (and again myself at time) have made it about the rule book. And it hurts because the rule book is all that a lot of non-believers know of Jesus. And they hear it preached on the corners and on the news by radical preachers and judgement rains on them. Yeah I can see how if that's the Jesus presented to me I wouldn't want anythig to do with it. So your average non-Christian would say "Why would I want to go to church, it's full of hypocrites." Hell Yeah it is. The church is chalk full of bad people, we're all hypocrites folks. BUT we can live rightly in spite of it because of God's grace which, unfortunately is a picture seldom offered to the non-Christian.
We can't follow all the rules, they are still good for us (it's not good for one to drink themselves into a stupor, or to sleep with enough people to get an STD named after you), but they aren't the starting point. And even in light of the rules, there only seems to be two that really ticked God off. I don't recall the bible mentioning God's wrath raining down when someone disobeyed "Don't plant your field with two kinds of seed" or "Don't wear garments woven from two different fabrics." We see God PO'd when people either were jerks to each other or participated in some form of turning their backs to Him.
SO? Love God, Love others.... I think I've heard that before somewhere...
I'm no less guilty than anyone I criticize and in need of grace just as much. But that's my thought process and in obedience I'm talking to others. If you made it all the way through this... thanks, that's commitment.
At any rate I was thinking about life, as all great thinkers and wannabes do, and what it means for us. Actually, I don't think I was really thinking about life, I'm not that advanced yet, but I was reading the good book (that's the Bible NOT the Authoritative Encyclopedia of Crystals and Geodes as the convention is here) and for some reason the Bible seems to relate to life a lot, some kind of theme written into it, and that got me thinking about life.
I like the way God puts it: He's talking to His people and lays it out life as a choice he's given them, "I'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse." The curse, although sounding harsh, is sufficiently described as not obeying God's laws and following other Gods who they don't know. The blessing, living life the way that God originally intended (I heard somebody once say "Man, if it weren't for Eve, we'd all be playing naked volleyball in Eden right now." But that's a different discussion).
From an outside perspective, it seems like a pretty simple choice yeah? Who wants to be cursed? Personally I know from TV that cursings generally involve turning into a reptile or amphibian or coming down with a bad case of pimples... and having endured said curses in my more formidable years of puberty doesn't make me so eager to sign up for that again. Yeah I'd chose God's life! Great! Sign me up! Oh yeah except the friggin rule book is soooo fat...here it comes.... that if you put it on a scale it would say "to be continued." (that was the best I could do on short notice)
Well, unfortunately God's pretty clear on what it takes to live right: to live a blessing is to follow the rules, and hot damn! there's a lot of em! Which is a pretty bum deal cause following a lot of rules is hard, and no fun. What kind of promised life is that? However it's hard to argue that it's not a good way to live. God put the law inside some flesh and bone and lived it out for us (in a very small part becuase we just didn't get it I think) and people saw just how blessed Jesus's life was. But Jesus was about so much more than showing us what a "right life" looked like right? Pshaw!! It sure stinkin was. It was a revolution folks, with HUGE implications.
And looking around today, it seems like a lot of people missed it. Either missed it or forgot about it. Cause now a "right life" isn't about the rule book. It's about being able to grab hold of God's amazingly awesomely spectaularly unbelievalbly unfair grace. yah? And people both inside and outside of the church either missed or forgot that part. Don't get me wrong, the rule book was definitely good for the folks back then, because God said so, but things flipped and now people skip the best part of the story.
And not only do we skip that part but it seems that several people (myself included at times) for some reason or another believe that God has appointed them to keep order here and discount people who don't follow the "code" so to speak. When you step back and think about it, judging people's eternities is hard dirty work and luckily God didn't leave that part for us. We get the lovey dovey job, the grace end of the stick, and we get to show the same to others! That's a pretty good job. At least it beats making sandwiches...
Churches and Christians (and again myself at time) have made it about the rule book. And it hurts because the rule book is all that a lot of non-believers know of Jesus. And they hear it preached on the corners and on the news by radical preachers and judgement rains on them. Yeah I can see how if that's the Jesus presented to me I wouldn't want anythig to do with it. So your average non-Christian would say "Why would I want to go to church, it's full of hypocrites." Hell Yeah it is. The church is chalk full of bad people, we're all hypocrites folks. BUT we can live rightly in spite of it because of God's grace which, unfortunately is a picture seldom offered to the non-Christian.
We can't follow all the rules, they are still good for us (it's not good for one to drink themselves into a stupor, or to sleep with enough people to get an STD named after you), but they aren't the starting point. And even in light of the rules, there only seems to be two that really ticked God off. I don't recall the bible mentioning God's wrath raining down when someone disobeyed "Don't plant your field with two kinds of seed" or "Don't wear garments woven from two different fabrics." We see God PO'd when people either were jerks to each other or participated in some form of turning their backs to Him.
SO? Love God, Love others.... I think I've heard that before somewhere...
I'm no less guilty than anyone I criticize and in need of grace just as much. But that's my thought process and in obedience I'm talking to others. If you made it all the way through this... thanks, that's commitment.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
