|Catfish|
I put a lot of my eggs in this basket: total depravity. There are a lot of intelligent writings and convincing arguments for total depravity, but I believe it based on something else - my own inability. As I mature as a Christian (stop laughing - I know I'm just a guppy), I continually see the gap between me and God spread wider and wider. He's holy. I'm depraved. He's really holy. I'm really depraved. He's really really...etc. I think you see where I'm going. As God reveals himself to me, I become continually more aware of my inability to be like him without intervention by him.
Sunday, the sermon was about authentic worship. A quote, "Worship is about me blessing God, not about God blessing me." What? What can I do to bless God? What does he lack that I can show up Sunday morning and give him? If I'm totally depraved of anything good apart from God, the only thing good I have to give him is what he's given me already. Worship isn't about me...I think this was well put on Sunday. It's not about my preferences, my taste, my desires, my anything. But how is it about God if there's nothing I can do for him? WHAT DOES HE WANT FROM ME?
|Gospel|
For God so loved the world, he gave his only son. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God doesn't want me to show up and sing the loudest, give the most, kneel at the front the longest, pray the hardest, raise my hands, or close my eyes in order to bless him. Instead, I think God wants us to come to worship as a community to communally admit our depravity, and to allow Him through the community of believers to heal and bless us through the forgiveness of the Messiah and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is an ongoing process in my mind. Maybe you process on this too, and have comments. Maybe you've never thought about it, and have comments. Maybe you should comment!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Speak the Truth
|Catfish|
People do bad things. More Catfish: Religious leaders don't say what needs to be said. I've heard a lot of talk about the one we lost (the shooter). In other words, we (Christians) didn't reach out to him with the love of Christ, so somehow we're partly responsible for the evil things that others do.
I struggle to understand how that works. When I open a door for a stranger, am I showing Christ's love? Is an atheist who opens the door for a stranger showing Christ's love? Is it that simple? I don't think it is. I'm hoping this topic will encourage the oracle to post more on holiness. I think you're on to something, but I'd like to hear you flush it out a bit more.
|Gospel|
Religious leaders don't always say what needs to be said. With the country watching, we had the opportunity to explain to the world the reason for this tragedy, and the hope that comes in it. We didn't. We may have lost one in the shooter, but how many millions did we lose by not speaking the truth.
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
~1 Peter 3:15-16
People do bad things. More Catfish: Religious leaders don't say what needs to be said. I've heard a lot of talk about the one we lost (the shooter). In other words, we (Christians) didn't reach out to him with the love of Christ, so somehow we're partly responsible for the evil things that others do.
I struggle to understand how that works. When I open a door for a stranger, am I showing Christ's love? Is an atheist who opens the door for a stranger showing Christ's love? Is it that simple? I don't think it is. I'm hoping this topic will encourage the oracle to post more on holiness. I think you're on to something, but I'd like to hear you flush it out a bit more.
|Gospel|
Religious leaders don't always say what needs to be said. With the country watching, we had the opportunity to explain to the world the reason for this tragedy, and the hope that comes in it. We didn't. We may have lost one in the shooter, but how many millions did we lose by not speaking the truth.
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
~1 Peter 3:15-16
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Throwing up
|Catfish|
I spent the better part of last night "bowing to the porcelain God" as my friend Max would surely say. I hate being sick...I hate puking...I hate the other parts of being sick...but most of all, I hate losing control unwillingly. I like to put my feet up and watch a little TV at night, but I hate being strapped down to the couch by a stupid sickness. I like to be lazy when I want to be lazy, not because every time I try to get up, I nearly pass out. I like to be in control.
Control freaks like me know exactly what I'm talking about. And there are more of us than you are ready to admit. If you've ever cursed your bladder because you hadn't planned on a bathroom break, you might be a control freak. If you can't decide on a restaurant, but as soon as someone else suggests a good one, you come up with your own selection and then insist on it, you might be a control freak. If you resist change in your organization because you aren't on the leading edge of the change, you might be a control freak. If you are frustrated because you can't edit this Foxworthy reference out of my blog...you might be a control freak.
I'm not a good person when someone else tries to control me. Most of the time when I get upset, I remain in control as a means of feeding my ego (remember, I like to be in control). But when the thing that upsets me is someone controlling me, it's hard to find pride in allowing that to happen.
|Gospel|
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
~excerpts from Romans 7 & 8
Control is not mine. Paul makes it clear that I'm either being controlled by my sinful nature, or I'm being controlled by the Spirit. It's not mine to have. Jesus and I struggle to get this one figured out, because I want to be good, but I want to be the one who makes me good. I want to be responsible for my successes. I want to be praised for being good. But Jesus wants me to give all that up...to defer success and praise to him. I know that's how I ought to live, but my ego gets in the way. And the one thing I know he won't do is take control. He waits for me to give it to him. He knows how much I would hate him for taking it from me without asking...he knows me well enough to sit back and let me "control" what's going on until I realize I can't control my life without the Spirit anyway. I eventually make it back to a place of humility...it just depends how much I want to suffer first.
I spent the better part of last night "bowing to the porcelain God" as my friend Max would surely say. I hate being sick...I hate puking...I hate the other parts of being sick...but most of all, I hate losing control unwillingly. I like to put my feet up and watch a little TV at night, but I hate being strapped down to the couch by a stupid sickness. I like to be lazy when I want to be lazy, not because every time I try to get up, I nearly pass out. I like to be in control.
Control freaks like me know exactly what I'm talking about. And there are more of us than you are ready to admit. If you've ever cursed your bladder because you hadn't planned on a bathroom break, you might be a control freak. If you can't decide on a restaurant, but as soon as someone else suggests a good one, you come up with your own selection and then insist on it, you might be a control freak. If you resist change in your organization because you aren't on the leading edge of the change, you might be a control freak. If you are frustrated because you can't edit this Foxworthy reference out of my blog...you might be a control freak.
I'm not a good person when someone else tries to control me. Most of the time when I get upset, I remain in control as a means of feeding my ego (remember, I like to be in control). But when the thing that upsets me is someone controlling me, it's hard to find pride in allowing that to happen.
|Gospel|
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
~excerpts from Romans 7 & 8
Control is not mine. Paul makes it clear that I'm either being controlled by my sinful nature, or I'm being controlled by the Spirit. It's not mine to have. Jesus and I struggle to get this one figured out, because I want to be good, but I want to be the one who makes me good. I want to be responsible for my successes. I want to be praised for being good. But Jesus wants me to give all that up...to defer success and praise to him. I know that's how I ought to live, but my ego gets in the way. And the one thing I know he won't do is take control. He waits for me to give it to him. He knows how much I would hate him for taking it from me without asking...he knows me well enough to sit back and let me "control" what's going on until I realize I can't control my life without the Spirit anyway. I eventually make it back to a place of humility...it just depends how much I want to suffer first.
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