God, What on Earth are You Doing?

Stuck in the Present

Pooping Elephants

The Battle for Hell

Ecclesiastes, Songs of Songs (Holman Old Testament Commentary, Vol. 14)

The Last Men's Book You'll Ever Need

Good Christians, Good Husbands?

WHERE SHOULD THE BAR BE SET?

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As a teacher and in my own life as a Christian, I regularly wonder how high the bar of spiritual expectations ought to be set.  Given the constant battles with sin, the world, and Satan, how much should we expect to mature as Christians?  There are many schools of thought within Christianity.  Some focus on the great gains which should be made like the “higher life” approaches of Keswick, etc.  Others like a godly man I respect say all growth seems like a spiritual cul-de-sac.

I do not have an easy answer to this important and challenging issue.  Much ink has been spilled in books and will continue to be spilled until Jesus comes back. 

What do you think?

ENCOUNTERING JESUS, ENCOUNTERING SCRIPTURE

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Years ago, I read and then interviewed Christopher Hall on his fine book, Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers.  Among other things, I was struck by something we take for granted in teaching “Bible study methods.”  It was something the early Fathers underscored over and over again, namely, that one’s walk with the Lord directly affects how well one will read Scripture.  Seminary classes I took assumed everyone was walking closely with Jesus (a very big assumption indeed) and that our main lack was in the skills of reading more carefully, making the proper connections, and then making sure our application(s) came directly from our interpretation.

David Crump makes a similar point in his important new book, but from a different angle.  Crump reminds us, by ably interacting with the many riches of Søren Kierkegaard, that one must first commit to the Person of Jesus to gain the real riches of Scripture.  Lest you think this sounds rather subjective and perhaps a bit anti-intellectual, you would be wrong.  Crump does a good job addressing that particular objection and so much more.

There are not many books that pack a lot to think about in less than 135 pages, but this is certainly one which does.

My recommendation to Eerdmanns: Consider making chapter 6 a stand alone book!  It would make a terrific resource for those wanting a lot of wisdom in short compass.

 

 

 

HOMER SIMPSON’S INNER ATHEIST (PART 3)

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This is my third and final post on Dan’s terrific book.  There is much I could say about The Skeptical Believer and the previous two posts will give you a good feel for my enthusiasm about it.  If you go to the categories on the right side of the home page and click “doubt” you will easily locate those previous two posts.

I appreciate Dan’s candor with his own struggles to believe, yet he remains hopeful and resolute in clinging to Christ.  He speaks with compassion to the doubter, but he is also willing to give a nice kick in the intellectual seat of the pants if it is called for.

If you struggle with doubt, or know someone who does, make sure to add this to your early Christmas list!

ANTHONY WEINER AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SIN

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This was originally posted on May 30, 2013, but there sadly is a need to get some things clear in our collective conscious!

Since Anthony Weiner is back (again!) in the news, I thought it good to reflect some on his undoing.

Let’s get things clear from the get go.  I find Weiner’s behavior inexcusable and to employ a word I have not yet heard: sinful.

It is a good thing Weiner resigned from the Congress.  The spectacle that preceded it was unfortunate.  It only seemed to underscore the very problem that got Weiner into trouble to begin with, namely his narcissistic tendency toward self-promotion.  As some preachers I’ve heard proclaim, “Sometimes we have got to repent of our repentance.”

It is interesting to hear the commentary by the media and members of Congress, but not so much for what has been said.  Rather, it is what was left unsaid that has been striking.

For example, why are so many up in arms over what Weiner did?  If there is no God, as Dostoyevsky famously declared, then all things are permissible.  I imagine there are several in the media and in Congress who find the “fear of the Lord” a quaint maxim of a bygone era.  Nevertheless they are quick to pronounce absolute judgment on Weiner.  No one seems troubled by this inconsistency.

For those of us who do believe in the “fear of the Lord” it is crucial to do some honest soul-searching.  Sure, our sins may not be public.  They may also occur in more socially respectable areas of life: food instead of sex, gossip instead of hubris, and lying instead of lying.  Wait a second.  We are more like Weiner than we care to admit!

As a Christian, I believe God can redeem anyone.  The death and resurrection of Jesus takes the hideousness of sin and the hope-filled reality of a changed life seriously.  The Bible is loaded with unsavory characters who found redemption.  King David was a murderer and adulterer.  And yes, King David also lied.   He outdid Weiner on many fronts.

One’s understanding of redemption in the Christian sense starts by recognizing our real problem: sin.  Failure to appreciate our own sin results in simply casting stones at fellow human beings.  Instead of seeing redemption as a real possibility we gladly cast the pariah to the margins of society.  With the offending party gone from our midst we are freed from having to ponder our own compulsions, dysfunctions, hubris, self-satisfaction, arrogance, and what can be the umbrella term for all: sin. 

When a society loses the language to depict the realities of sin, it has lost more than it can possibly know.  When sin is gone from the scene, so is redemption.  And when redemption is gone, where does that leave us?

LEARNING FROM AN ATHEIST

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392-God-is-dead-Nietzsche-Just-kidding-he-never-existed-truth

As I mentioned this past Friday in a post called “Atheism is Good for Christians,” there are things to learn from those who don’t believe in God.  And those things can be insightful and helpful in our relationship with God.  

I read a terrific piece on great books being published this year which led off with some very important words by Nietzsche.  Before you read it, think of how many times you criticized some author without having read them.  Also, consider how many times slow, meditative thinking seemed impractical, a veritable waste of time.  Last, note in the second paragraph of the Nietzsche quote how we Americans are so frantic that the almost equally frantic pace of Eurpopeans looks slow by comparison.  And by all means, get off the train!

In Human, All Too Human, Friedrich Nietzsche lamented, “Because there is no time for thinking, and no rest in thinking, we no longer weigh divergent views; we are content to hate them. With the tremendous acceleration of life, we grow accustomed to using our mind and eye for seeing and judging incompletely or incorrectly, and all men are like travelers who get to a land and its people from the train.” 

“The farther West one goes, the greater modern agitation becomes; so that to Americans the inhabitants of Europe appear on the whole to be peace-loving, contented beings, while in fact they too fly about pell-mell, like bees and wasps. This agitation is becoming so great that the higher culture can no longer allow its fruits to ripen; it is as if the seasons were following too quickly on one another. From lack of rest, our civilization is ending in a new barbarism. Never have the active, which is to say the restless, people been prized more. Therefore, one of the necessary correctives that must be applied to the character of humanity is a massive strengthening of the contemplative element. And every individual who is calm and steady in his heart and head, already has the right to believe that he possesses not only a good temperament, but also a generally useful virtue, and that in preserving this virtue, he is even fulfilling a higher duty.”

For those who are interested, Christopher Benson’s thoughtful reflections on important, new books, can be found at:

http://mereorthodoxy.com/a-reading-guide-for-2013/#more-125489