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Helping People Trust the Church Again
“Organized religion’s” trust levels are only a few percentage points higher than our politicians. This is a grave problem for the church. Of course... Readmore...
22-Apr-2010
Skeptical of Skepticism
Category : apologetics
The Bible says that it is the very word of God. You may say, “That’s fine. The Bible can claim whatever it wants about itself, but I’m not going to take the Bible at its word.”
And being skeptical like this can actually be a good thing. We shouldn’t take anything anyone tells us and then just swallow it whole. But to be fair we also need to be skeptical about skepticism.
If skepticism says we shouldn’t take anything at face value and just believe its claims, then we need to apply the same criteria to skepticism itself. If we are not skeptical of skepticism then we are not true skeptics.
Skepticism can be a great tool on the journey to truth, but it is a terrible destination.
So when it comes to the Bible, you can start off skeptical, but you can’t just dismiss it out of hand because you think its better to be skeptical.
21-Apr-2010
Walk in to any church and you will eventually bump into someone who loves Jesus, but is almost impossible to be around because they are so condescending. This is always a puzzle.
Their condescension does not usually flow from ignorance of the doctrines of Christianity. Condescension will usually use truth as its weapon of choice. If it’s not ignorance what is it? And how do we keep from falling into the same trap?
The reality is that these people are so condescending because of why they love Jesus. They love Jesus because He always wins his arguments and confounds the people who are trying to make him look stupid. When Jesus shuts the mouth of the Pharisees or Scribes the heart of these disciples swell. They fantasize about beating people in debates and being so sharp with their answers that people cannot help but be in awe.
They imagine themselves as Jesus, righteously defending truth against its enemies. But they don’t love Jesus, they love winning arguments. They love making people look stupid. And Jesus fits their mold perfectly.
They miss the fact that they were never to first identify with Jesus in his interactions with his opponents. They are to identify with Jesus’ opponents. They are the ones that have opposed Jesus. Instead of seeing the subject of Jesus’ confrontations as instructive, they see them as a principle to get better at debate.
Ironically, they have become the Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus so deftly refutes. And we are all capable of this same blindness when we love winning arguments more than listening to Jesus. Someday when we stand before Jesus my hope is that we would love Him for saving us from our self-rightousness, instead of self-righteously thinking we are just like Him.
20-Apr-2010
Sheep To Be Slaughtered
Category : bible
When people saw Paul they cringed, almost as if God was out to get him.
Where do I get this? From this phrase in Romans 8:36:
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
How do you regard sheep to be slaughtered?
If you were ever to go to a meat processing plant, you would see live animals being led to the slaughter house and you couldn’t help but cringe. And that is how Paul says he is regarded by others.
People saw his tribulations and they thought, “Surely this man must be stricken by God. Nobody would suffer like that if God really loved them.”
But that is Paul’s argument; although great tribulation has befallen him and his companions, it is not proof that they are separated from the love of God. On the contrary, their suffering serves them in their endeavor to spread the gospel. Their suffering is how God positions them to do the work that God called them to do.
And Paul is in good company. How did people regard Jesus? They cringed. “Surely he must be cursed by God.” “Nobody is highly regarded by God if he is hanged on a tree (cross).” But unlike Paul, Jesus really was stricken by God. The love of God really did abandon him on the cross.
But Jesus’ suffering positioned him to pour the love of God out on undeserving sinners. He lost the love of God so that we could gain it.
So if you ever think that people look at your life lived for Jesus and cringe, then you are in very good company.
19-Apr-2010
Burnout is Bitterness
Category : Leadership
If you have been in a church or any Christian ministry you will observe this phenomenon: the person who began volunteering with alot of joy leaves the church a few months later explaining they’re “burned out.” The leaders may explain to the burned out person that they can take a break, but usually it is too late — they are out the door.
We often associate burnout with exhaustion, but burnout is usually bitterness.
Their service has a honeymoon period where they believe they are serving the Lord and the church. But somewhere along the way, and this is subtle, they don’t feel like they are getting thanked properly for their service. Or they begin to see that they are putting alot of work in when others are just treating the church like consumers.
Then a little thought pops into their minds, “I thank you O God I am not like those other people who attend church just out of a consumer mentality.” And this leads to a new found sense of righteousness and superiority in their service, which only leads to anger and bitterness.
No one gets bitter because of their “sin”, they get bitter because of their “righteousness.” They think they deserve better. And as soon as this attitude takes hold, the work becomes exhausting. Because the work must now reward them and help them get recognized. What formerly was a desire to serve, now has become a demand for recognition and the end result is always disappointment.
And that is why the person doesn’t just resign from their job, they leave the church altogether. And, ironically, all their reasons for leaving have nothing to do with them, it is the church that’s the problem.
16-Apr-2010
Most of us will not sit through a church service or read an evangelical book in the next 10 years without hearing something about the need to grieve for what your parents did not give you.
This advice is always given with the best intentions because our view of God is often peppered with how our parents treated us. If we had aggressive, overbearing parents we tend to believe that God is aggressive and overbearing. If we had passive, removed parents we may see God as passive and removed. You get the picture.
Now I quite agree that our experience with our parents will influence our view of God, both positively and negatively. The question I am trying to answer is what to do about it. Is it really best to counsel people to focus on what their parents didn’t give them?
No – not because there isn’t something to grieve. As soon as you begin to evaluate your parents on what they didn’t give you there will always be evidence to make your case. It doesn’t matter how good your parents were, you can always find something your parents could have done better.
This is a black hole. It is not healthy to dwell on what others should have done for you. It may feel nice for awhile, but this whole view keeps you at the center, blaming another for something you need to take responsibility for.
What we need do is dwell on the good things our parents gave us, even if it is just life. If your parents didn’t raise you with any knowledge of God, don’t blame them, they didn’t have anything to give. But instead of gathering evidence for what they didn’t do, reflect on what they did give you. You may find joy, not just a therapeutic pick-me-up.
15-Apr-2010
“But what we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be.
A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt — the Divine Reason. …
The old humility was a spur that prevented a man from stopping; not a nail in his boot that prevented him from going on. For the old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which will make him stop working altogether.
At any street corner we may meet a man who utters the frantic and blasphemous statement that he may be wrong. Every day one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own.
Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced; but these are too humble to be convinced. The meek do inherit the earth; but the modern sceptics are too meek even to claim their inheritance.”
G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy
13-Apr-2010
One of the worst feelings is to be miserable and not know why. It could manifest itself in something like a bad mood or maybe even a despondant depression. But either way its like walking in a fog.
We do our best, then, to figure out what is wrong. Is it wounded pride? Anger? Guilt?
A few weeks back I was feeling pretty low and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Eventually I realized that I was just angry at my life circumstance. So I repented of my anger and impatience, but that didn’t help.
And the realization hit me: the anger is a fruit of something deeper going on in me. I was angry for a bigger reason than just being disappointed in my life circumstance.
It was unbelief. I was angry because I didn’t trust that God was doing me good even though my life circumstance was not the way I wanted it. Not only was I doubting that God was doing me good, but I doubted that God was good.
Then the fog lifted. I was treating the symptoms instead of killing the sickness.
Maybe you’re miserable today. What is it then that you truly believe about God’s goodness towards you?
12-Apr-2010
Truth by Geography?
Category : apologetics
There is a case against religion that goes like this: someone born in the U.S. is more likely to be a Christian, someone in India is more likely to be a Hindu, someone in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim. How can someone say that their religion is true when there are dozens of other major religions that people adhere to because of where they were born?
Now it is true that where you are born will determine how you see the world, and the family you are born into will greatly influence religious beliefs. However, you almost certainly wouldn’t be an atheist if you were born in Saudi Arabia. You wouldn’t believe in human rights if you were born in many places in China. Does that make human rights untrue? I hope not.
Truth is not disproved by diversity of beliefs. Ultimately, religion is not just moral rules and rituals but a series of beliefs about how to see the world. Just like atheism and just like issues of human rights. And in the same way, Christianity is not true because it is a global religion, but it’s not disproved either.
09-Apr-2010
Meet the Sluggard Part 2
Category : Uncategorized
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
than seven men who can answer sensibly. (Proverbs 26:16)
Lazy people are usually experts in everything. You would think it would be the exact opposite. They can’t finish what they start. They constantly make excuses. You would think that they would know they lack knowledge. But instead they think they are quite intelligent and look down on others, even people smarter than them.
Why is this? It’s hard to say, but here is one thought: it actually is their perceived intelligence that makes them lazy. They would rather preserve their identity as intelligent people than to put their knowledge to action and find that it may be deficient. It’s better to preserve intelligence than to test it out in the real world.
Whenever we self-identify as having a lot of intelligence we will feel like we have to prove it. And it’s better to not try and simply think ourselves intelligent than to risk and see ourselves for who we really are.