City Domain

Glorious Day

2010-08-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

When I read the Bible, I can't get away from this reminder. The writers just keep coming back to it over and over. In different ways they just repeat, "Don't forget the Last Day." It's like Jesus keeps saying, "Remember I'm coming back. And live in expectation." I was reminded again of that even as we celebrated his death this morning through the Eucharist with our church staff. Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 11:26 that we announce the Lord's death "until He comes again."

That's exactly what Peter gets at in verse 12 of I Peter 2. Jesus' second coming is the backdrop to Peter's ethical instruction in the previous verses. He's saying, "Live this way among unbelievers and your hope will be vindicated when Jesus returns and "judges the world."

Both of these are small references of what seems to be squeezing through the cracks of the epistles until like Paul, he can't stand it anymore and just has to spend a whole chapter (I Corinthians 15) to talk about the Resurrection the hope this gives us for our present work: "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever in vain (15:58)."

So, for Mondays I'd hope this is something of an encouragement to anyone who feels the "grind" of labor. There is a day coming when Jesus will demonstrate to the world that all work and labor and perseverance in this world as Christians was not for nothing. There will be fruits for every seed we bury and a resurrection for every death we die.

Kingdom Under Siege

2010-08-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

Watch the Debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG23YxKm3C0

"Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here." This was a statement made on August 3, 2010 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg regarding the heated debate over whether a 13 story Islamic Cultural Center called The Cordoba House should be built two blocks north of the Ground Zero site.

Regardless of your position on the issue, the Landmarks Committee of New York City has unanimously decided to allow the construction of the Cordoba House. One PBS news report shows a woman in Nashville who protested the establishment of a Mosque in her city, which was located next to a baptist church saying, "They're just taking Christ out of everything. And you know with the mosque coming here and right next door to a baptist church, I'm afraid it's just gonna get worse."

On the one side, there are pleas for compassion, sympathy, and wisdom as they request the location be further away instead of within such close proximity to Ground Zero. Advocates for restricting construction say that this is at least polarizing and at worst smacks of a type of sacrilege near a "holy" or "sacred" gravesite for the 9/11 victims. But as one prominent Muslim American spokesperson, Nihad Awad, put it like this: "Emotion does not veto constitutional right." Furthermore, he "refudiates" in the words of Palin, being equated with muslim terrorists and insists that his religion is in direct opposition to that of the Terrorists.

No doubt this is a beautifully complex debate and there are many strains of the dispute worth having. There are many issues raised not least of which question the nature of tolerance, "sacred" ground, and religious freedom. However, I'd like to provoke some thoughts that I hope would be of some encouragement and challenge for those who profess to live under the Lordship and Reign of Jesus Messiah.

My initial reaction to the debate about the construction of this Cultural Center/Prayer Center/Mosque was ill. I just felt a sinking in my stomach and a degree of grief. I didn't lose anyone in the 9/11 attack, in fact I was flying to another country when it happened.

The following months after 9/11 I had a weird sense of identity. At the time I was trying to take on the cultural expressions, customs, and language of the Argentine nation and live open-handed with any markers of my U.S. nationality for the sake of punctuating the fact that my ultimate identity was that of the Far Country. What I mean is, I wanted to stand out because I lived in view of Jesus' authority, power, love, and kingdom, not because my clothes were baggy, and my Passport was of U.S. origin.

It was in the midst of that internal struggle that I felt thrown back into my own country- the United States. People were giving me free Cokes and hot dogs in the plaza near our house in sympathy of my nationality and what my country was suffering. Ironically, the same plaza would be filled with protesters against one such "Yankee" because of the U.S. role in the IMF's refusing to grant Argentina loan extensions to their government and consequently devaluing their peso by at least 300% in 2001.

Nevertheless, for the time I felt caught in between a deep sense of shock, grief, and even national pride. To my surprise I felt united to my own countrymen thousands of miles away and our family found ourselves praying more often for the U.S. and the advance of the good news of a loving and sovereign God through the tragedy. We were trying to make sense of it all like everyone else. Only, we were trying to look to the cross and the resurrection to wrestle with our own confusion and dismay.

I share all of that to say, that I'm not anti-U.S., and I am profoundly thankful that I was born and raised here. But, when I was "born-again" my place of origin changed; my identity was rooted in someone deeper than the Founding Fathers, my future and my past were all rolled into Jesus. Just as the act of baptism symbolizes death, resurrection, and new life, we as followers of Christ must continually renew our allegiance to the King in whom we have died, risen, and been given new life (Col.3:3). The construction of this Islamic Cultural Center is one such occasion for Christians to renew their vows, reconsider the ground of their identity, and their reasons to hope.

Are we first and foremost North Americans? Are we U.S. citizens before we're citizens of heaven, from whom we await a Savior (not a president of our political persuasion)? Maybe the construction and location of the Cordoba House is wrong. Maybe it's insensitive. Maybe it's not. Quite possibly, there are muslims who are in fact sincere adherents to a religion that they are convinced does not advocate physical violence as a means of propagation. Or in the worst case scenario the Cordoba House is being funded by Al Qaeda and it's all part of a global effort to bring all peoples under the rule and reign of Allah via Sharia law.

Whichever the case may be, Christians have the resources to maintain a poise and composure in this conversation, something completely lacking more often than not. Why the vitriol? Why the fear and rage? Why is the U.S. nation defended with the same zeal as the Kingdom of Heaven? I suspect that we fall prey to our own emotions before passing them through a filter of scripture.

I submit that we remember there was once a few generations of Christians or "little Christs" as they were titled who lived under the empire of Rome who advanced the cause of Christ in the context of antagonism not religious freedom. In the first century they spread so much influence through sacrifice, service, compassion, love, and purity that they shocked their persecutors and political contemporaries. They seemed to be spreading like wild fire without revolutionary action! On the contrary, the charge of revolution and violence was only thrown at them to cover the insanity of some rulers (see Nero).

We would do well to remember that the situation of the 1st century Christians is not all that different from that of the underground church in China. Has communism stopped the advance Jesus Kingdom there? Could ancient Rome? Will the Cordoba House? The answer is "No." I suggest that the power that will confront opposition to Jesus in any form must come by the same means Jesus used- the cross. Frankly it's easier to forget that Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me (Luke 9:23)."

Our power is wielded through our willingness to take up a cross and die, knowing that our deaths have an inevitable and glorious resurrection. Hear me, I am all for the taking up of the rights of others- by all means, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Nevertheless, only when the taking up of our neighbors rights dovetails with the laying down of our own, will God's Kingdom "come on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt.6:10)."

The most often repeated command in scripture is "Do not fear." Therefore, when Jesus teaches us to pray "Your Kingdom come; your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven", we can be sure that if "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to (him)", we don't need to be angry or afraid when an Islamic Cultural Center goes up around the block- even if it's two blocks from Ground Zero.

SEX ON THE BRAIN

2010-04-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

Carol Giligan, a masters graduate from Cambridge wrote concerning the nature of women’s psychologically saying, “identity is defined in a context of relationships and is judged by a standard of responsibility and care.” One British Ph.D. geneticist and renowned neuropsychologist Anne Moir, bluntly puts it:

"Men are different from women. They are equal only in their common membership of the same species, humankind. To maintain that they are the same in aptitude, skill or behavior is to build a society based on a biological and scientific lie."

The sexes are different because their brains are different. The brain, the chief administrative and emotional organ of life, is differently constructed in men and in women; it processes information in a different way, which results in different perceptions, priorities, and behavior.

The way our brains are made affects how we think, learn, see, smell, communicate, love make love, fight, succeed, or fail. Understanding how our brains, and those of others, are made is a matter of no little importance.

Depending on your field of study, researchers tend to land on either a nature or nurture side of why men and women are the way they are. Nevertheless, the trend in psychology, neuroscience, genetics, and biology lend persuasive evidence to a natural conclusion. As Moir goes on to say:

"Conclusive scientific research presents an irrefutable truth: The difference between men and women is not merely physical. It is neurological, too. Male and female brains are wired differently, causing us to think, feel, react and respond in strikingly different ways."

She has coined the term brainsex, which she describes as “The distinctive gender-based circuitry that determines how – and explains why – men and women respond so differently to the same emotional and situational triggers.”

Major studies are now pinpointing at least 9 major areas of difference between male and female brains, with a range of overlap depending on how much testosterone or estrogen the human embryo received in the womb. Nevertheless, these major categories have emerged after copious research: 1. total brain size 2. number of cells 3. cellular connections 4. density of corpus collosum 5. hypothalamus 6. language ability 7. inferior parietal lobule (IPL) 8. orbitofrontal to amygdale ratio (OAR) and 9. limbic size.

First, concession must be made for human variation. Not all women have the same amount of estrogen or are equal in language-association, empathizing, or data transfer across brain hemispheres. Likewise, men may not embody as many typically male traits due to a lack of testosterone in the womb. However, the point is this: anatomical differentiations in gender have corollaries in the brain that uniquely mark each sex.

Where these demarcations in anatomy and neurology are weaker, they lend toward a more masculine female or a more feminine male. Hence, responding to the biblical calling for males and females is admittedly more difficult in such cases. Nevertheless, God calls men and women to embrace bearing his image in gender distinction not gender “bending”.

When we find these lines blurred physically, dependence on an Almighty Creator, an All-Sufficient Redeemer, and an Ever Present Sustainer in the Holy Spirit becomes accentuated (2 Cor.12:9). The testimony of scripture is that gender is fully realized through a mature understanding of God’s designs, callings, and omnipotent ability to redeem our humanity. This reality should be no sooner abandoned by us than by the 1^st century Corinthians who turned to Christ (I Cor. 6:9-11).

Finally, no human being on the face of the planet is excluded from the results of our first parents fall. All of us, men and women, are living under the affects of sin, corruption, moral decay, and physical death. Each of us is bent towards sin in a unique way. No one is without this struggle. We all share it. One singer-songwriter said it this way, “The broken heart is the tie that binds (Sandra McCracken, Tie that Binds).” We have all been partakers of sin and we are all partakers in its curse. That’s why our only hope is in Jesus who bore the curse for us, to presently and ultimately redeem us from it.

This is by no means an exhaustive analysis of current research concerning neuroscience and biology. And we are not experts. However, the information simply serves to attest to what the Bible has been saying in principle for millennia. Much of pop-culture and North America’s collective wisdom continue to draw a bold line between gender and sex. Thankfully, the Bible and reputably good science contradict this notion.

A Reflection on Sacrifice

2010-03-09T04:50:00.000-08:00

Blood stains the earth's floor

Like animals -yet noble souls reveal

Their flesh: the image of someone more- more.

Lost in crowds and confused

We sought frantic and afraid for you

You were curious and poised and learning more- more.

She bore him and gave him life

To be bereft and watch him die

Sent from heaven to swallow up hell and more- more.

for God's Sake

2010-03-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been reading a lot. I'm learning that all of the subjects still fall under the category of "things that exist for the glory of God." I'm not saying I understand everything I'm reading or even that the first catechism question solves all the tension I feel about difficult subjects. Nevertheless, I'm seeing freshly- that people, gender, art, church, music, sex, and taking out the trash all exist for God's sake. As the Apostle Paul says by the Spirit, "in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).

How incredible is it to discover again and again that Jesus puts the world together. He makes sense of mysteries. He sheds light on darkness. And he opens up new mysteries to explore- new enticements that enlarge our soul instead of shrinking it.

Recently, I read a passage in Refractions by Makoto Fujimura describing his perception of painting. Essentially, he cannot paint apart from Christ. He, Jesus, is the lens through which he sees his own creativity and its fruit. He says, "For me, Christ is painting itself; it is the one and only pictorial form." In running my eyes over that line again and again, it becomes plain that every action of righteousness and holiness can be placed in that sentence (Eph.4:24). Everything done as a new creature in Christ is itself a living expression of Christ on earth. Then, the parallel statement rings truer: "For me to live is Christ (Phil.1:21)." And as Piper interjects Paul, even "to die (more of Christ) is gain (v.21)." Indeed, "something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen."

Firstborn Over All Creation

2009-12-30T06:21:00.000-08:00

So I had some Jehovah's Witnesses visit me again this month. We had a great conversation and exchanged books. They gave me the latest watchtower revision of Jesus and I gave them a book by John Piper. It was a pretty unfair deal, but that's what makes it so good.

Just a little background first; i've been receiving the JW's for months now whenever they happen to stop on by. Usually it's a few women who are always very cordial, patient, and smiling. They always have a different on ramp into a discussion about Jesus, whom I'm happy to discuss.

This time it was, "Many people are wondering about who Jesus was this time of year. Who do you think he is?" So I launched into a short description of Jesus as the Divine, only-and-eternally begotten Son, who became and remains to be human. I gave a short explanation that the atonement or "propitiation" can't happen if Jesus is not divine, because only God could actually swallow hell for another soul.

Well, they weren't buying it, so they gave me a proof text for Jesus "created" status by quoting Colossians 1:15 which reads, "He is the image of the invisible God, firstborn over all creation." A strange pick indeed. The argument goes like this, firstborn means Jesus was born at a point in time and since He is the firstborn over all creation, he too was created. I know Athenasius has already been over this (see On the Incarnation), but let me just take a crack at it.

The word "firstborn" usually refers to the actual male who is the first to be brought into the world through his mother. These are obviously all created beings. Additionally, it may be said the Jesus' body was created and physically, though supernaturally, born. As Galatians 4:4 says, "When the fulness of time had come, God sent out His Son, born to a woman, born under the law." However, firstborn is also a title of status connoting preeminence. And if I might point out the obvious- whatever "firstborn" means in this context, it also means that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God (v.15)", that all things were created by Him and for Him (v.16), he's also the "firstborn from among the dead" (does that mean he was the first to die or even resurrect? No), and the fullness of God dwelled in Him (v.19).

Whatever you want to say about the truth of Jesus' "firstborn" nature, you can't say that He wasn't the unique, one-and-only just as divine as God the Father- Son. You can't say that he's like any created thing, because all things whether in heaven or on earth were created by Him and for Him. And you can't ever put him in a line up with any other human being or angel and say He's just a little bit higher and more special. Jesus is infinitely higher. He is the Son of the Most High God, who IS THE MOST HIGH GOD in the flesh. He is the Eternally Son. The context of Colossians 1 alone eliminates any category of created things to put Jesus in. He's outside of the "created" box. And so outside of it- he's actually THE CREATOR. Oddly enough this tends to jive with John 1 and the rest of scripture. And that's all I've got today. I love that Jesus is God and Man, my only hope in life and in death.

Power

2009-11-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

We can't get away from it. Power seems to always tug at the heels of everybody. Nietzsche gets all the credit for exposing this little dark secret. But I'm pretty reluctant to say we're indebted to him. After all, he wasn't the first to put his finger on this dark matter that pushes from inside us to go up- up the ladder from wherever we are. Even if it means dethroning the Most High God, this debasing hot air makes us rise beyond what our constitution can stand. Like Icarus, our wings melt and we fall to our destruction. It's humiliating. Strange then, that the Most High God decided to get humbled first. Jesus went down into the world, down into ignominy- down, down, down to the cross. "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."(I Cor.1:18) I love that kind of power. Unlike our power grabs that reach up to bring others down, His power grab reaches down to bring us up to Himself- into His goodness and joy. Isn't that surprising? "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen." (I Cor. 3:20)

Scandalous Grace (part 2): the Foreground

2009-11-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

New humanity has come. Forged in the flames of suffering and infinite abandonment, God Himself emerges on the other side of death. And he has brought us with him. Threading the impossible through the "eye of a needle" he has made peace between His righteous anger towards us and his overwhelming love for us.

The last post was mainly aimed at exposing a wound. The wound in fact- is our sin. Self inflicted and dehumanizing, our race has chosen to deface God's image on us like neon pink marker across a Monet landscape or like an out of key kazu sounding out during Beethoven's 9th. We are all complicit in the Fall "by nature and choice" as Driscoll says. And the result is more than embarrassing; it's fatal.

(Enter Jesus): In the coming of God to human flesh, something upside down happens. Instead of us trying to get to God through sacrifices, rituals, and disciplined behavior- God comes down to us. He is the divine "Fixer", who comes to be broken and crushed so that we can be made whole and radiant. As Eddie Vedder sings, "...when somethin's broke, I wanna put a bit of fixin' on it...when somethin's lost, I wanna fight to get it back again! (The Fixer)." Well, Jesus did come to bring war. But as you watch him dress for battle in the New Testament, instead of kicking out the Romans, you realize that He has come to die. That is the fight to get us back again. He gets us "back" from sin and death (slightly bigger enemies than the Roman empire). And his victory was definitive in the Resurrection.

Rome was dismantled, not through flashes of steel, but through a see of martyrs who followed their King, Captain, and Brother into the fray. And for the joy set before them they endured crosses, lions jaws, and flaming stakes. They didn't follow in this to earn his love, but to demonstrate the power of already having it.

Nietzsche says that the world was pretty much hunky dory, unless you had the overbearing jewish worldview of an God angry at you, who is broken hearted over the corruption of His creation. Have a look:

"A Jesus Christ was possible only in a Jewish landscape--I mean one over which the gloomy and sublime thunder cloud of the wrathful Yahweh was brooding continually. Only here was the rare and sudden piercing of the gruesome and perpetual general day-night by a single ray of the sun experienced as if it were a miracle of "love" and the ray of unmerited "grace." Only here could Jesus dream of his rainbow and his ladder to heaven on which God descended to man. Everywhere else good weather and sunshine were considered the rule and everyday occurrences (from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s.137, Walter Kaufmann trans)."

But is this really the case? "Everywhere else good weather and sunshine were considered the rule and everyday occurrences." Really? When Jesus steps on the stage of world, he didn't just enter a small Galilean province dominated by Rome. He stepped into a world with as much longing for "fixing" and as much "brokenness" as our own. The religions were searching for meaning in god, the gods, or some kind of transcendent experience. The philosophies were aching for a logic (logos see John 1) that unified "the whole show (Miracles by C.S. Lewis)" of human experience. And just like today, humankind was enslaved to its desires and stricken with war, disease, political power plays, racial division, and the abuse of anything and everything good we possess. I'd hardly consider any day on earth- at anytime to be enjoying "good weather and sunshine" as a "rule". Even the pristine beaches of east asia are battered with tsunamis and the seemingly uber-nation of the U.S. can be terrorized. In what utopia has the human landscape ever had peace, harmony, and "good weather" as a rule?

Next, history bears out that it wasn't just among the Jews that Jesus became "a rainbow (and) ladder to heaven which God descended." This message spread like wildfire among the polytheists of its time. The most predominate churches written about in the new testament were in large cities with anything but a biblical view of God or humanity. And yet here, they found the resolution to a story that their cultural narratives never seemed to be able to find(Lamin Sanneh).

There is light. There is a dawn coming. Jesus' resurrection is the peek of the Sun just on the horizon and at the sight of it, there is a "ray of grace" that changes us when we see it. He took on cosmic darkness to bring an eternal light- to give us Himself. And not only for Jews, but for Germans, Chinese, Moroccans, South Africans- you and me. Thanks for reading this semi-cohesive "chewing" in my mind. I hope somebody finds it refreshing.

Scandalous Grace (part 1): the Background

2009-10-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Fixer- Pearl Jam Video!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj-sFIHQWLY

One of the audacious assumptions of the Bible is that humanity is made reflecting the attributes and personhood of God. It is against this backdrop of moral credit, spiritual life, and relational depth that its corruption emerges so heinously. Christopher Hitchens is a prominent writer and debater of the New Atheism and among other things a prolific columnist for Vanity Fair. He basically says that if he is anything like the image of God, then God is uglier than he had originally thought. With an heir of humility he simultaneously degrades and promotes himself. It's really pretty brilliant. Why? Because he's saying he is too human and to represent Someone who is supposed to be so great. Therefore, he punts- so to speak, on the image bearing idea from the Bible so that he can also excuse the existence of any Biblical Divinity.

Close, but no cigar Hitchens. As Augustine once wrote, "A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently." Chris's got a silver tongue that makes you feel stupid for believing anything contrary to what he says, just because the way he says it sounds so smooth. Nevertheless, I agree with the bishop on this one: smooth speech doesn't equal true content (although pop-culture might lead you to that conclusion). Christopher, like all of us, is a walking illustration of someone who has the capacity for greatness, but has gone wrong in so many ways. His assessment is logical insofar as it goes. Unfortunately it doesn't take into affect the Great Corruption: the Fall. This scene in our human drama is most despised, but without it we will never make any sense of our Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide predicament. To date, no mythology, world religion, or evolutionary epic makes better pragmatic sense to me than the True-Tall-Tale from Genesis. For all its enchanted trees and talking snakes, I find it harder to believe anything else.

We are spoiled creatures. Man is greater than the animals. And because he is greater, he is also worse. He's humbled and made of the same material, but exalted and capable of transcendence, philosophy, relational intimacy, magnanimity, and infamy. He is so beautiful and so tragic; adept for genocidal atrocity and the exalting into divine status of the same human thing- ourselves. We are enamored and repulsed by each other at once. This is what Francis Schaeffer called the "manishness" of men. The fact is test-worthy and sufficiently evidenced; humankind is both wonderful and terrible.

You can hate it- and I do, but it's the air we breathe. You can never escape the ecstasy of human beauty, nor the grotesque disfigurement of our race. You see it in the mirror: eyes with infinite desire and the closed system of your body with all its finite limitations. So are we doomed to discontent? Are we hopelessly sick? Or will the prozac and playboy medications continue to plague our search, "to try and find a cure for the pain (Jon Foreman)"?

Nightline on the 2nd Commandment: Feat. M. Driscoll

2009-10-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

Watch it Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvfIU6gtGZs

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven(ESV)." - Matthew 5:20

So the two tablets are a hot topic again!? Or so it would seem according to NBC News Nightline with its most recent series on the Ten Commandments.

It seems that The 10 are both in vogue and at the same time very uncool. In terms of commandment keeping, the South still ranks pretty low by everyone's standards. For example, according to the FBI (http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ranks/rank21.html) South Carolina ranks #1 in violent crimes per capita according to the 2006 statistical data. Even if the numbers are skewed, we're still in pretty bad shape. So while Chick-Fil-A may be opening another business around the corner, the heart of the south still pumps out enough sin to beat its democrat votin' counterparts every day of the week- and 'twice on Sunday'. In a culture whose majority goes to church and votes republican, the fact is the 'Bible Belt' is loose around a belly gorged on the delicacies of other gods.

In the Carolinas you see it everywhere. Posted on some marquis, decorating the I85 mile, or stuck down in someone's lawn like an old testament election sign: the constant reminders of Israel's Old Testament contract with Yahweh. The first 4 being the most revolutionary and the first being the most vital. For, as Luther pointed out, you can't really break any of the other ones without first breaking it.

I moved to Greenville, South Carolina at the age of 10, went to a Christian middle school, and graduated from a public high school in town. After over a year abroad I came back to boost my grades at a local Christian college before finishing my education at Clemson University. I've got more eyewitness testimony of Carolina hypocrisy than I need for a lifetime. Once you've lived here that long, you don't need an FBI statistic to tell you what you already know. Religion is broken. As one local pastor says, "There ain't no future in it."

Other religions had written the latter ones for the most part, but no one ever prefaced their moral requirements with "I am YAHWEH who brought you out of the land of egypt, out of the house of bondage..." I'd say whatever follows should take on a significantly different character than any other moral list. Because if it's true, it means the Law-Giver is first Creator, second Redeemer, and as the O.T. draws out- Husband. In that context, these vows for Israel were anything but arbitrary. To those of you who hear this as counterintuitive coming from an evangelical pastor, you may need to take a second look at Christianity altogether. (To whom I'd recommend The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller). At the risk of reductionism, the message of the entire Bible was never meant to be an anvil over the head of humanity. It does claim to present a God who is both good and sovereign at the same time and who, for His own sake, chose to make a world that could brake. The result is a love that must also be broken, suffer, and die in human flesh. This is precisely what we find in the person and work of the God-Man Jesus, a rabbi-carpenter.

Imagine with me some of the major 'Mounts' of the Bible. You've got Mt. Sinai: Ten Commandments, thunder, smoke etc. Later, somewhere on the northern coast of the sea of Galilee, Jesus gives a sermon (Sermon on the Mount) interpreting the Mosaic Law. You've also got the Mount of Transfiguration, a cloud, a loud voice, brilliance and light. And finally, 'the Hill of the Scull', where Jesus is brutally executed above a street outside Jerusalem.

Across these hills one can view some major features of the Christian message. Israel received a law from a God that just freed them from slavery. They could never keep it perfectly. They were always law-breakers and simultaneously loved by God like a son. Jesus comes- he, the perfect Israelite, the perfect son, keeps the whole law perfectly, and yet dies the death of one who broke it at every point. On the other side of a rolled away stone, Jesus emerges as the once-for-all human who lives, dies, and is made alive- and better. His new contract(covenant) is a meal to remember that His body saves the human race from slavery to sin and baptism (burial and resurrection) to evoke the memory of His passage through death to steal the teeth from it on our behalf.

Apart from Jesus, those two tablets can only partially reveal that we don't meet God's standard. Most theists already recognize this. And most atheists will admit they can't even meet their own standards for 'goodness'. So, even if a person buys the law-breaker message, that's still only enough to wanna make them eat the end of a gun! Point being, the 10 commandments can only tell us we fall short. We can't ever hit the target by trying to keep them.

For my money, Jesus is the best topic of conversation. If you can use how hypocritical we ALL are as a springboard- so be it, but let's not pretend that more billboards or yard signs will ever transform the world better than a resurrected Jesus. Though, I'm not so sure they're transforming anybody, except to either make them more despairing with no hope of freedom, or uglier still- more self-righteous.

For more on knowing God, but not through religion or irreligion check this out! (http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/KnowGod.pdf)

We Bow Down

2009-09-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

"It's silly to worship a baby cow isn't it?" That's what the teacher in sunday school taught today. My wife and I started helping with some 2 year olds at church this morning. And I just can't help but think about it when I see this new book from Keller. I'm no different than Israel- freshly redeemed from slavery and hopelessly frantic for something as trivial as gold to mediate The Transcendent. We all want to see and touch something right in front of us- and give it Ultimate Meaning and Significance. I have no doubt that Keller's new book will be full of piercing insights for the believer and the skeptic. I'm looking forward to his treatment of our addiction to anything but God. We are all in desperate need of truth to lead us out of the labyrinth of our corrupted hearts and into the open field of the gospel.

Image of the Invisible

2008-12-19T14:18:00.000-08:00

Makoto Fujimura (Christmas Carol)
We want transcendence and eminence. All at once we desire to be suspended and swallowed in greatness, while being closely and intimately known. Nacho Libre said it well when he asked, "Don't you want a little taste of the glory?" And later he says to his pretty nun friend Incarnacion, "Let's get down to the real nitty gritty- who is this Inarnacion?" And 'who' is the right question. The sun has not took on skin; the earth has not grown veins from its teaming rivers. Our greatest material treasures have not taken in breath. Something greater has.

The fact of Jesus' life breaks in with a great interruption and sets itself in great contrast to other claims. Instead of spirits inhabiting statues of gold, or idols mediating communication; and instead of our broken human relationships (even our best ones) fulfilling the deepest needs of our souls; instead of seeing our identities shaped in cloth, or electronics, or vehicles- the Great Spirit (Yahweh) takes on flesh, blood, and bones. He breathes. He speaks. He loves. His heart beats to bring us into relationship with Him through His life, death, and bodily resurrection (John 1:1-18).

In Yeshua (Jesus) He claims to be the Only One through whom the cosmos was made, manifested, sustained, and will one day be renewed. In all this transcendent power He limits and humbles himself to the poverty and dependence of a baby. He walks as a man- dirty, frustrated, elated, glad, sorrowful, sleepy, hungry, and infinitely longing. He has stepped into our story to raise us up into his (Colossians 1:16-18).

As a community of One- (the Trinity) the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have loved and enjoyed each other before time began. When God started the clock and got his hands dirty in the material world He knew it would be at the cost of coming not just down, but quite literally into this 'killing floor'. In His making of the world, He knew He would be buried beneath it(Colossians 2:9).

At Christmas there is the foreshadowing of a burial. Though the scripture does not explicitly say, history and the geography of first century Palestine indicate that mangers were not usually free standing structures like barns or tents, but were instead caves. Usually livestock were housed in dugout-type structures in a hill or in a cavern in the rocks. Whether or not this is so, it is certain that God not only dirtied his fingertips when he miraculously formed our flesh, but when He wrapped himself in it at birth. While kings kept their thrones and Caesars measured their kingdoms, the true Son-King left His divine position, His throne, to be an infant (Luke 2).

Far from licking the silver spoon, he grew up indistinguishable in his humanity from latter born brothers and sisters. No halo crowned him. No glow emanated from his form. Still the more He grew the further down he went, until subjecting himself to torture and death- even his own divinely-designed spiritual hells (Psalm 22) The irony is immeasurable.

The distance He traveled from Godhood to manhood is proportional to the distance He has brought us close to Himself (Colossians 3:1-4). Through trust in His substituting life, death, and resurrection we are united to God. We are brought into relationship with Him (Ephesians 2:4-9). Through his eating of death for us, we taste the glory that we long for(Hebrews 2:9). All the car commercials, sexual appeals, and material obsession of US culture speak to this. Even the off-handed comments of a young girl I met yesterday, "I can't wait to get off work so I can just get drunk!" confirm that we were made for transcendence and pleasure. By Jesus' being swallowed up by our skin, our death, our grave, and our hell we are decked in His glory, clothed in His beauty, showered with approval, and wrapped in His eternal life.

Far from inciting arrogance this teaches our deepest heart that the core of understanding this reality is wonder, joy, and behavioral reflection of humbling ourselves to serve. How can we embrace the 'other'? From whom are we alienated that we need to be reconciled? Where can we follow God in humiliating sacrifice, love, and service to people who need it- even if they don't want it? The Christmas message is first receiving this word of what God has done for us in Jesus. And secondly, embracing the same mission exemplified in Jesus. It is more, but it is not less than giving up your 'God-given' rights, your self-wrought riches, your innate dignities in exchange for sharing in a more transcendent reality. Where can we dirty our hands and go into the darkness to come out resurrected with more people sharing in God's indestructible life? See that infant-Universe-Maker and join his everlasting and greater-joy-embracing Mission.

A Time for Change

2008-10-31T05:36:00.000-07:00

I was driving up the street today and as I topped the hill I saw this tree. It was a sunset of leaves. You know, the kind of tree that's just blanketed in orange. I know the presidential candidates are both competing for the power to try and fulfill their promises to bring change to the economy, the middle class, education, health care, foreign policy etc. etc etc. And not to make light of the rise and fall of our nation, but the tree was just more believable. I mean it had more sincerity and clarity. No, I'm not about to launch into a political add or an environmental plea. And the tree was not an Ent from Lord of the Rings. What I am saying is that things change- usually for the worse. But the good news of Jesus is that for every death with Him, there will be a resurrection too. And this is the best kind of change- restoration.

The 95 these that Martin Luther bludgeoned to the door in Wittenburg were many things. They were certainly a declaration. A declaration and a confession. Martin Luther was not simply protesting indulgences, a corrupt view of justification, or the papacy. "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance." Poenitentiam agite means "Repent ye" and Luther quoting Jesus here says that repentance is the whole life of a believer.

When a person turns to Jesus to follow Him it is a radical change of direction, a complete 180 degree turn. And a person does not simply turn to Jesus away from an alternate identity one time, but over and over again for an entire lifetime. It’s a direction with ongoing motion. Luther got this. He came to see that he had been building an identity and looking for a soul satisfaction in a lot of other things that were not Jesus. The passionate monk came to find Jesus to be enough in every way and started to see that there were a lot of things about the form of Christianity in his day that were obstacles instead of pathways to Jesus.

Maybe this is a gross simplification of the event. Nevertheless the 1517 invitation on that October day in Germany was a huge step in the right direction. It was a turning to Christ from mere religion. Read the 95 theses or Jonathan Edwards’ resolves, or Psalm 51 and you see that turning is in fact a way of life. There is still sin in my heart and life. And there is still blood enough to cover it. As the apostle John said, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son, cleanses(ongoing) us from all sin.” Both the walking and the cleansing have a definitive start with continuing action.

In Luther’s introduction he says he loves the truth and desires it to come to light. The point of all this meditation is this: Do I find in myself this same resolve? Do you?

I hope that today amid the goblins, super heroes, and princesses, candy, pumpkins, and pranks, you find a moment (maybe now) to stop- and move in the direction away from specific sins to confess them to Jesus and to another Christian. Bring it to light. Reassure your confidence in the once for all forgiving death of Jesus. Follow suit with Luther in declaring with hammer and nail on your heart, that Jesus Christ is your only goodness, all your truth, all your hope, and the exalted proof that for the deaths we die to sin, there is a better and more glorious resurrection with Him.

Living Sacrifices

2007-11-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

Recently GBC had a congregational "Special Time of Praise & Worship" last Wednesday night. The structure of the prayers, scripture readings, and songs centered around the three-fold mission of the church: To Promote the Worship of God, To edify the Saints; To Evangelize Non-Believers. This focused hour was especially helpful to soak in the truths that we know cognitively, but constantly need to refresh in our experience of them. As Tim Keller says to have "a sense on the heart." We need to "taste and see" as the psalmist says, "that Yahweh is good (Psalm 34:8)."

Singing music helps this process. For a description of how this occurs physically and spiritually, I recommend the chapter in The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis called "Transposition". Also, John Frame's Worship in Spirit and Truth has some helpful language and biblical texts to guide out thoughts on the use of music in chapter 10 appropriately titled, "Music in Worship".

Nevertheless, I'd like to just make a note about what Frame has called- worship in the "broad sense." That is to say, bringing to God the "sacrifices" that Paul notes as "spiritual" and are described as prayer, praise, conformity to the life of Jesus, obedience to his laws, and supernatural motivations in the heart that beats- for Him. Some of these scriptures include Rom. 12:1; Phil.2:17; 4:18; Heb. 13:15-16 and many more. It's the action part of worship as contrasted to the adoration part using the language of D.A. Carson from Worship: Adoration and Action, that I'd like to highlight.

The daily devotional times we have and congregational meetings are those meetings where in conversation, preaching, singing, and prayer we adore the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We receive nourishment from Him and respond to Him. However, these are not complete ends in themselves, but serve an ongoing function. They show us the beauty of Christ and propel us out into holy living. The adoration spreads into adoration through actions. The delight and vision of God does not cease with the "worship service" it continues through presenting our bodies, minds, spiritual gifts, and personalities to God in a thousand different actions and employments.

Romans 12 describes action after action expounding what this "spiritual service of worship" includes: mind renewal (v.2), humility (v.3), service (v.&), teaching (v.7), giving (v.8), abhorrence of evil (v.9), prayer (v.12), hospitality (v.13) respecting others, honoring others, blessing others, weeping with the sad, rejoicing with the happy, submission to authority and on and on. A life of worship to God includes the most mundane and what is thought of as the "most holy." So because of the infinite and multiple mercies of God to us in Jesus Christ (12:1), let's soak in that love and mercy daily. And let's see that the zeal stirred in us because of that love- moves us towards actions of service, self-sacrifice, and love for real people and real needs around us.

"Sex is not the problem, Lust is." -Joshua Harris

2007-09-19T04:27:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys,

It's important to identify the lies that lust tells and to respond immediately with powerful truth. I hope this format provided by Joshua Harris helps you in your fight for joy in God and faithfulness to your wife. These are great for printing out and making memorization cards.

LIE
Lust is no big deal.
Truth: “For lust is a shameful sin, a crime that should be punished. It is a devastating fire that destroys to hell. It would wipe out everything I own” (Job 31:11-12, NLT).

LIE
A little sinful fantasizing won’t hurt.
Truth: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6, ESV).
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8, ESV).
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14, ESV).

LIE
Taking radical action against sin isn’t necessary.
Truth: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go to hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).
“Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).

LIE
God won’t mind a little compromise…
Truth: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5-6).
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people” (Ephesians 5:3).

LIE
It’s my body. I can do what I want with it.
Truth: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

LIE
I can’t control my sex drive.
Truth: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-6).

LIE
Looking at a few pornographic pictures won’t affect me.
Truth: “Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?” (Proverbs 6:25-27).
“I will set before my eyes no vile thing” (Psalm 101:3).

LIE
I won’t experience any consequences for indulging in my lust.
Truth: “So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).
“The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son” (Hebrews 12:6).
“After desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15).

LIE
People get away with adultery.
Truth: “For the lips of an adulterous drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave” (Proverbs 5:3-5).
“Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel, lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man’s house. At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent” (Proverbs 5:8-11).

LIE
God is keeping something good from me.
Truth: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favour and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you” (Psalm 84: 10-12)

LIE
The pleasure lust promises is better and more real than God’s pleasure.
Truth: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Psalm 16:11).

LIE
Fulfilling my lust will satisfy me.
Truth: “I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:24-26).
“The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied” (Proverbs 19:23, ESV).

LIE
Too much purity will keep me from seeing and enjoying beauty.
Truth: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).
“For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face” (Psalm 11:7, ESV).
“Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:17, ESV).

Pastor Joshua Harris writes, “In times of temptation, reciting several of these verses can be a wonderful deterrent to sin. I’ve found it helpful to pray them back to God. I use them to talk myself out of the deception of lust. Sometimes I even shout them. As I’ve done so, I’ve found renewed strength and faith to fight (p.158 Sex is not the issue: lust is).”

"In the image of God He created them..."

2007-08-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

The mysterious yet personal God of the Bible communicated with humanity by creating us in His own image. He gave us a reflection of himself in our very own nature. He "stamped" or "encoded" on the first man and woman an immortal soul. In fact, he breathed life into the first man to create his soul. God gave the man Adam and the woman Eve brilliant minds and bodies with a complex range of emotions. He made them beings similar to himself that can relate to abstract, eternal, spiritual, and moral concepts. These invisible but discernable qualities, reflect the personal and exquisite nature of God.

This is a far cry from being complex machinery. We believe that humanity is essentially different in the universe from an amoeba, a hammer, a dolphin, etc. We believe that all people are reflectors of God. This is one of the main reasons for respect, compassion, love, and patience with all people, irregardless of sex, race, nationality, or worldview.

But we realize, that as men, we have been designed in such a way that we are most deeply satisfied when we reflect specific attributes of God. We look to Jesus for the power to do that and the example to teach us how. And we work together with women to see the beauties of the uncreated Creator reflecting His nature in us. We reflect Him together, as males and females, relating to eachother in self-sacrificing and appopriate ways.

When our first parents preferred their own design for joy and justice, they in essence dropped an atomic bomb on their perfectly just and infinitely pleasurable God that created them to enjoy and know Himself. Instead of this act overthrowing God, it destroyed us. The "radiation" has deformed us in the core of our being, generation after generation. Some illustrate it like this: the image of God in us has been like a shattered mirror, still reflecting light, but so fragmented and broken that the image reflected is distorted and largely indiscernible.

However, the purpose of God since the beginning, was to justly bring this curse on us in order to graciously restore us from it. What did this cost Him? God created the world and allowed it to be broken, so that he could enter it himself as a perfect man- Jesus. He would become part of the grime and shattered beauty of the world and he would be brutally killed through it. He would be shattered. He would be spat on. Though he was innocent, he would recieve the punishment in his body and soul for the enemy race that had rejected him. By his own confession he "drank the cup" of God's wrath so that we would not have to, if we believe Him and treasure Him.

We have all rejected him. In the sober words of Bob Dylan, "I was stone cold dead as I stepped out of the womb." There is no one who is not born deeply deformed- in fact, spiritually dead at the core of their being. The Bible says that Jesus became the"curse" for us. He was cursed and condemned in body and soul when He died. This was so that we could receive blessing, restoration, meaning, and vindication for our existence.

We believe that God approved the sacrifice of himself by raising God the Son -Jesus- from the grave and making him the proto-type of what one day everyone who believes in Him will experience themselves. That is to say, that Jesus' resurrected body is the first earthly example of how one day the entire universe, including the bodies and souls of everyone trusting in him, will be renewed. This is a "reverse of the curse".

This reversal has started in our lives. When we believed in this story as historical, gripping, and coherent- we found that we were enveloped into it. We didn't create it, but it has re-created us through the Spirit of God. We hope to see the perfect image of Jesus who was "the image of the invisible God" that "explained God" and "manifested him" newly reflected in us as we seek the transformation of our families, our culture, and the world through relationship with Him.