Life didn't used to make sense. When something was hard or when I screwed up, I didn't have any answers, so the way I dealt with stuff was to not even make the attempt. I used to stop myself thinking about anything confronting, challenging or confusing. I got very good at this, which obviously didn't solve or advance anything. So that was one problem.
The other problem was that it lead to deceit. It meant that if I was having trouble with something and needed help, I would never ask, and if I screwed up, I would never tell. What I would do is pretend it was all okay and hope that the problem would fix itself or go away. This was a dangerous road and not one I'd recommend.
So now I am deliberately, actively honest and - where appropriate - open about everything. This is how I make sure I don't slip back into my old way of dealing with stuff. I am enormously grateful that I am always sure of forgiveness and help from my Father and my brothers and sisters.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
My Driving Forces: Hypocrisy and Integrity
I detest hypocrisy because I've seen its destructiveness. It says it is one, good thing and it promises you much, then it dishes out evil. It presents itself to the world and gains friendship and respect, but it was always a self-serving lie. I never want to be like that. I am, however, sort of happy to have experienced it because it drives me to integrity.
I'm convinced that there's no point believing or subscribing to or championing anything if I don't do my damnedest to live it out - when no-one (except God!) is watching; in the hard times; in the unsatisfying, unfulfilling and seemingly life-denying times; in the small things; in my thoughts and motivations. If this stuff means anything, then it has to play out in everything.
I didn't used to hold to this, but that was because I believed in small things and my belief was uncertain. But now that I believe in big, overarching, undergirding things, it is important to me to practise what I preach. If I say there is a loving, just God then I must trust him and obey him or else it's all a sham.
I'm convinced that there's no point believing or subscribing to or championing anything if I don't do my damnedest to live it out - when no-one (except God!) is watching; in the hard times; in the unsatisfying, unfulfilling and seemingly life-denying times; in the small things; in my thoughts and motivations. If this stuff means anything, then it has to play out in everything.
I didn't used to hold to this, but that was because I believed in small things and my belief was uncertain. But now that I believe in big, overarching, undergirding things, it is important to me to practise what I preach. If I say there is a loving, just God then I must trust him and obey him or else it's all a sham.
Reading Respectfully
Good writers only come into their own in the hands of a good reader. But very often, writers remain insulated from their readers. They send their piece into the world, never knowing where it will end up or if it will be understood once it gets there. That has changed for those writers who've taken on blogs. The opportunity to post comments makes plain the ability of writers and readers, and problems are exposed that never used to come to light.
If you're reading a blog and you think the writer is good, remember that they have carefully chosen their words. So read slowly and before you make a comment, read their post again. Look for things like qualifying statements or places where they might've been blunt, but chose instead to use softer words.
If you're reading a blog and you think the writer is good, remember that they have carefully chosen their words. So read slowly and before you make a comment, read their post again. Look for things like qualifying statements or places where they might've been blunt, but chose instead to use softer words.
Let me give you an example. In my last post, 'Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches,' I had a couple of explicit qualifying statements - "I have more experience with evangelicalism than pentecostalism, so please forgive me if I get it wrong" and "This is not to say that either group rejects or fails to practice any of what I have written for the other one, just that it’s not their primary emphasis". My first paragraph also served as an implicit qualifying statement. My aim was to dispel any assumptions that I was out to attack.
I also chose my words carefully. For example, the second dot point I made for evangelicals was that they desired to "know God better", and for pentecostals that they desired to "experience a closer personal relationship with God". In a way, I was saying the same thing, but I wanted to emphasise that for the evangelicals, it's about knowledge, personal knowledge, like the way you get to know a friend or your wife over time. For the pentecostals, I wanted to emphasise that it's the felt experience of a closer relationship that matters. What this will look like is less specified than it is for the evangelicals.
So what can writers do to reduce misunderstanding? Get better! Aim to explain things clearly enough for all your readers to understand. But also accept that not everyone will understand. Cut your readers some slack - reading well is perhaps as difficult a skill as writing well.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches
People who attend evangelical and pentecostal churches don’t always have a lot to do with each other.[1] Sometimes it because there’s disagreement and animosity; sometimes there’s disagreement and love; and sometimes it’s got nothing to do with disagreement – the circles just don’t mix. This lack of contact can lead to generalisations and stereotypes, neither of which are helpful. So I’m going to outline what I see as the primary focuses of and driving forces behind each group. I have more experience with evangelicalism than pentecostalism, so please forgive me if I get it wrong.
I'll begin speaking broadly. It seems to me that evangelicals focus more on the past and on our undeserved salvation, and pentecostals focus more on the future and on our amazing blessings. This means that evangelicals talk more about sin and forgiveness, and pentecostals more about empowerment and purpose. The evangelicals come across as pessimists and the pentecostals as optimists! Interestingly - and disturbingly - neither group focuses very much on our heavenly future.
To get more specific, I think that evangelicals desire to:
- Be good (righteous/godly/loving/servant-hearted).
They believe they get there by depending on God for each new thing – by repenting, praying, learning from and being obedient to his Word. - Know God better (and better comprehend his love).
They get there by meditating on his Word, praying and being obedient. - See lost people saved.
They get there by depending on God, preaching, loving and serving.
And pentecostals desire to:
- Be fruitful (living out their calling, purpose and potential/being loving/being servant-hearted).
They get there by having sincere, confident faith that God has given them the power to do this. - Experience a closer personal relationship with God.
They get there by worshiping and praying. - See lost people saved.
They get there by depending on God, preaching, loving and serving.
This is not to say that either group rejects or fails to practice any of what I have written for the other one, just that it’s not their primary emphasis.
So, what do you think? Have I portrayed both groups accurately? What's missing?
[1] Here I am using 'evangelical' to mean churches that are not liberal, high or pentecostal (or Catholic or Orthodox).
Friday, April 10, 2009
An Analogy, Two Allegories and Another Analogy
Spiritual analogies make me nervous. This is because they are attempts to explain the infinite with finite human experience. Don Carson comments on the judge analogy often used to explain Christ’s atoning death:-
A couple of Christian allegories on YouTube at the moment I find a little troubling. One has a girl ostensibly a Christian who is seduced by the devil and the world, but who eventually seeks Christ and is saved by him. My problem with it is that all the time she is caught up in other things, Jesus is stage right, anxiously and ineffectually pacing around. This is not the Jesus I read of in the Bible who, in judgment, gives people over to their sin (Romans 1:18-25) and who in his perfect timing unhesitatingly redeems them (Ephesians 1:11).*
Another allegory bothers me for similar reasons. In this a father has to make a split-second decision whether to save his beloved son, or, by killing his son, save a trainload of people. It bothers me for three reasons. Firstly, we learn from the Bible that humanity is not merely a group of people distant from God. Rather, he have done him wrong and are in fact his enemies (Colossians 1:21; Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 5:7-10). Secondly, Jesus went willingly to his death (Matthew 26:28-29; John 18:11; Mark 10:45). And finally, as in the previous example, God appears to be caught out, here being forced to make a quick, panicky decision. This is not the God who from all eternity purposed to send his Son to his death to save mankind (Acts 2:22-23; Ephesians 1:4-6; Galatians 4:4-5; John 3:16-17 etc). And yet, in their very great defence, I must recognise that Jesus himself used analogy and allegory, and trust that audiences will not take every particular seriously.
There is another analogy that bothers me more. It’s used by Timothy Keller in his wonderful apologetic book, The Reason for God, to explain the need for the cross. In it, he makes divine forgiveness comparable to human forgiveness. He observes that as humans we find forgiveness very difficult. He states that it is in the painful work of forgiveness that we “bear the cost” or “absorb the debt” of our enemy’s sin in their place.[ii] So too with Jesus, he says. I think this analogy is unhelpful and dangerous. It reduces the exercise of God’s justice to a psychological process. This is not how the Bible speaks of God’s justice. It speaks of a just punishment being meted out on Jesus in our place (Isaiah 53:5-12; Romans 3:25-26). The punishment was not somehow bound up in the forgiveness. The punishment was first carried out to perfect completion – so that anyone who relies on Jesus might then be forgiven (Hebrews 9:14, 26; 10:10; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43). Any other conception renders God a little less just, and so a little less perfect, and so it all falls down.
[i] D.A. Carson speaking at ‘A Day With Dr Don’, session 1, http://theresurgence.com/a-day-with-dr-don-session-1-video accessed 11/4/09
[ii] T. Keller, The Reason for God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) 192.
A prisoner comes before a judge and the judge finds the prisoner guilty and sentences him to a fine of $50, 000, or three years in prison, whatever it is, and then the judge steps back from the bar, takes off his robes, goes down and writes the check for $50, 000, or alternatively goes to jail instead of the person who ought to go to jail, and this indicates substitution . . . . I’ve used that illustration to get across the notion of how Christ comes along and substitutes himself in my place . . . But you know, there’s something wrong with that illustration – it gets across the notion of substitution but there’s something wrong with it. What’s wrong with it is this – in the Western world our judges are merely administrators of a big system – so that if you commit a crime, you’re not thought to be sinning against the judge – you’re sinning against the state, or you’re sinning against the law, or you’re sinning against the people, or you’re sinning against the government – but you’re not sinning against the judge . . . . Thus the judge is not coming along as the offended party in our systems. He has always got to be the non-offended party and merely the person who is administering the bigger system . . . So in our system, in other words, if the mugger came along and mugged somebody else, then the judge pronounces sentence and then goes back down from the bench and takes the penalty himself, we would view that as profoundly unjust . . . . But with God, God is always the most offended party . . . . But that doesn’t mean he’s unjust! He’s always perfectly just – that’s his character. But he’s always the most offended party. Always. Always.[i]
A couple of Christian allegories on YouTube at the moment I find a little troubling. One has a girl ostensibly a Christian who is seduced by the devil and the world, but who eventually seeks Christ and is saved by him. My problem with it is that all the time she is caught up in other things, Jesus is stage right, anxiously and ineffectually pacing around. This is not the Jesus I read of in the Bible who, in judgment, gives people over to their sin (Romans 1:18-25) and who in his perfect timing unhesitatingly redeems them (Ephesians 1:11).*
Another allegory bothers me for similar reasons. In this a father has to make a split-second decision whether to save his beloved son, or, by killing his son, save a trainload of people. It bothers me for three reasons. Firstly, we learn from the Bible that humanity is not merely a group of people distant from God. Rather, he have done him wrong and are in fact his enemies (Colossians 1:21; Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 5:7-10). Secondly, Jesus went willingly to his death (Matthew 26:28-29; John 18:11; Mark 10:45). And finally, as in the previous example, God appears to be caught out, here being forced to make a quick, panicky decision. This is not the God who from all eternity purposed to send his Son to his death to save mankind (Acts 2:22-23; Ephesians 1:4-6; Galatians 4:4-5; John 3:16-17 etc). And yet, in their very great defence, I must recognise that Jesus himself used analogy and allegory, and trust that audiences will not take every particular seriously.
There is another analogy that bothers me more. It’s used by Timothy Keller in his wonderful apologetic book, The Reason for God, to explain the need for the cross. In it, he makes divine forgiveness comparable to human forgiveness. He observes that as humans we find forgiveness very difficult. He states that it is in the painful work of forgiveness that we “bear the cost” or “absorb the debt” of our enemy’s sin in their place.[ii] So too with Jesus, he says. I think this analogy is unhelpful and dangerous. It reduces the exercise of God’s justice to a psychological process. This is not how the Bible speaks of God’s justice. It speaks of a just punishment being meted out on Jesus in our place (Isaiah 53:5-12; Romans 3:25-26). The punishment was not somehow bound up in the forgiveness. The punishment was first carried out to perfect completion – so that anyone who relies on Jesus might then be forgiven (Hebrews 9:14, 26; 10:10; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43). Any other conception renders God a little less just, and so a little less perfect, and so it all falls down.
[i] D.A. Carson speaking at ‘A Day With Dr Don’, session 1, http://theresurgence.com/a-day-with-dr-don-session-1-video accessed 11/4/09
[ii] T. Keller, The Reason for God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) 192.
*On reflection though, our God is a personal God who is far from unfeeling. Perhaps this allegory is in fact a good representation of part of his character . . .
"When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.
"Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?
Swords will flash in their cities,
will destroy the bars of their gates
and put an end to their plans.
My people are determined to turn from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will by no means exalt them.
"How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man—
the Holy One among you.
I will not come in wrath.
They will follow the LORD;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.
They will come trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their homes,"
declares the LORD.
Hosea 11:1-11
The Tough Road That Leads to Thankfulness and Joy
We come to Jesus messy people out of a messy world, knowing what people are like. How then can we ever understand our holy God? For me, I found it difficult to trust that God was working for my best. I knew this must be true yet I couldn’t understand it. So, I just pressed on living in obedience to my heavenly Father.
As the days have gone by, I’ve been through some hard stuff and I have learned His mettle. He is always there. He always sustains me. He is always sufficient for me. He is always refining me. He never denies me. It took a while, but I trust Him now.
As the days have gone by, I’ve been through some hard stuff and I have learned His mettle. He is always there. He always sustains me. He is always sufficient for me. He is always refining me. He never denies me. It took a while, but I trust Him now.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Money and Stuff: Postscript
I have spoken previously about my struggles with money and about the things I was trying to learn (money isn't everything; be content with enough; be generous with your surplus; don't be greedy). Well I thought it was about time to report back. Praise God this is not a big problem for me anymore! He has taught me well and, no doubt, people have been praying for me (thank you).
The most helpful thing has been to remind myself to be content with enough. It's hard to argue against! I still have times when I desire gorgeous fashion or quality homewares, but I guess I can also see through that all now. I mean I know that having that stuff does not make you happy. If I have enough and I have eternal blessings, then I am in a better position than they. Not that I'm better than or superior to them - just that I am very fortunate. And it's not like you can't express yourself aesthetically or dress creatively when you don't have loads of money - you still can, just not as much, but that's okay 'cos aesthetic isn't everything either. I've even become pretty content with not being able to buy CDs - I mean music's not my passion in life anyway, and you know, I have quite a few CDs already, and there's always the radio. Keeping up with the latest music isn't my birthright. It's a Western privilege and it's okay that it's one I don't currently have access to.
As well as being content with what we presently have, I also said that we had no need to worry about the future because God has promised to give us enough. That has been my experience time and time again. In my case, he uses ordinary means - people's generosity, the government's stimulus package, things on sale.
And now it looks like he's given me a great job! For this year and last I've been trying off and on to find a better paying job, because I think I should support myself while I'm studying - just like everyone else does. No one's been very keen to employ someone in a (semi) professional position for only one day a week . . . until now! I think I might have found a wonderful job teaching English and writing to primary and high school students in a private tutoring company. The boss seems very kind and I like his philosophy and method. And it pays $30/hour instead of $18/hour at my (wonderful) kitchen job. I'll find out next week if he needs me, but it's looking good at the moment. I'm so enormously relieved and thankful.
The most helpful thing has been to remind myself to be content with enough. It's hard to argue against! I still have times when I desire gorgeous fashion or quality homewares, but I guess I can also see through that all now. I mean I know that having that stuff does not make you happy. If I have enough and I have eternal blessings, then I am in a better position than they. Not that I'm better than or superior to them - just that I am very fortunate. And it's not like you can't express yourself aesthetically or dress creatively when you don't have loads of money - you still can, just not as much, but that's okay 'cos aesthetic isn't everything either. I've even become pretty content with not being able to buy CDs - I mean music's not my passion in life anyway, and you know, I have quite a few CDs already, and there's always the radio. Keeping up with the latest music isn't my birthright. It's a Western privilege and it's okay that it's one I don't currently have access to.
As well as being content with what we presently have, I also said that we had no need to worry about the future because God has promised to give us enough. That has been my experience time and time again. In my case, he uses ordinary means - people's generosity, the government's stimulus package, things on sale.
And now it looks like he's given me a great job! For this year and last I've been trying off and on to find a better paying job, because I think I should support myself while I'm studying - just like everyone else does. No one's been very keen to employ someone in a (semi) professional position for only one day a week . . . until now! I think I might have found a wonderful job teaching English and writing to primary and high school students in a private tutoring company. The boss seems very kind and I like his philosophy and method. And it pays $30/hour instead of $18/hour at my (wonderful) kitchen job. I'll find out next week if he needs me, but it's looking good at the moment. I'm so enormously relieved and thankful.
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