Inklings

Road Trips

So there the eight of us were, standing in a parking lot in the middle of Yellow Stone National Park. We had a decision to make. Do we drive to Canada before returning to Colorado or return directly to Colorado? I was at a summer camp near Breckenridge that summer and our group had been given the weekend to do anything we wanted. We decided to check out Yellow Stone and while we were at it leave the country. As we stood there next to our cars we figured the time it would take to return to Colorado via Canada and knew that we needed twenty four hours of driving time. We also knew we had exactly twenty four hours left before our Sunday return deadline. I remember my leader asking the question, “Ok guys are we really going to do this. We’re going to have to drive twenty four hours straight to make it there and back in time.” There were a few seconds of hesitation from all of us but in the end our minds were made up. After three near death experiences with deer, one thousand miles of road, 50 gallons of gas, $100 worth of gas station junk food, one rejection from the Canadian border office, one US border officer that didn’t want to let us back into the US, and twenty four hours of driving we arrived in Colorado. It was sweet bliss. Well, except the two hundred miles of highway though northern Montana devoid of a single tree, building, bush or other landmark to hold your interest at three in the morning.

I have always assumed that intimacy involved sitting down over a beer and having a deep conversation of transparency for a couple of hours. I realized the other day that this assumption doesn’t match up with my life experiences. Almost all of the most revealing and intimate times I have had with friends and family have been on trips or crazy adventures. They were in the context of doing something or going somewhere. Also most of them were within the context of community and not a one-on-one setting. This view of intimacy is challenging and encouraging to me in my relationship with God. Challenging in that I usually look for intimacy with God at Starbucks drinking a cup of coffee while reading my bible with my iPod blaring Chris Tomlin blaring in my ears. Encouraging because most of my day is not at Starbucks and rather is spent with other people. I think Starbucks-esk times are essential. In addition to just living with his spouse a husband should take his wife out on dates regularly for alone time. I’m just excited to experience God intimately all the time instead of the one time a week I make it to the local coffee shop. We live in the light, abide in Christ and walk in the Spirit. Though Jesus’ disciples sat at his feet they more often did something with or for him. I should too.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Garfield is way better without Garfield. Check it: garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com

If All Good Things Are From Above

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17

Have you ever been on a great road trip through breathtaking country? How about read a poem that used words in a way you couldn’t imagine? Ever watch a movie that resonated with you deep down; left you thinking about it alone hours later? Something like that anyway? I sure have. It’s hard to beat driving though the Grand Tetons, reading the Romanics or watching Shawshank Redemption on TNT for the fiftieth time.

If all good things are from above, from God himself, based on what good we have experienced, what does that tell us about God? Try this: if God is the source of good, if he is pure untainted good, then imagine all the good we know and have experienced rolled into one being. He does not give us blessing that originates outside of himself; he is that goodness. Take a beautiful mountain for instance. I’m not saying that God is the mountain, but I am saying that a mountain is of God. Any trait of a mountain that is good for me to enjoy is of God. Basically, a mountain can only be beautiful and great if its creator knows beauty and greatness, if he is beauty and greatness.

So, if I really take a moment to think about some of my greatest experiences and joys in life and I know that the greatest aspects of them are true of God, where does that leave me?

God you are epic, are across all expanse, are every genre, you are the most beautiful moment, the pinnacle of my contentment, the most beautiful sight my eyes have ever touched, the most exciting adventure I have ever partaken, the most graceful words I have ever had the of pleasure of drinking, the most beautiful girl ever visible in my presence, the most true steadfast friend I have ever had, the most telling story I have ever plunged into, the movie that resonates most with the deepest part of me, the most breathtaking landscape I have ever laid eyes on, the anthem my soul screams overflowing as words from my mouth in song, the greatest act of justice, the highest joy I have ever felt, the greatest love I have ever known.

It leaves me in worship, pure loose-myself-in-another worship.

Tonight’s Heavy Weight Title Fight: Paul verse James

"My power is discombobulatingly devastating I could feel is muscle tissues collapse under my force. It's ludicrous these mortals even attempt to enter my realm." 

It was the third round. Tyson threw a left hook. Holyfield ducked under it. For the two round ups to this point Tyson had been getting pounded. Tyson was going to lose and he knew it. All three judges in the first two rounds had scored Holyfield as the winner. As the two boxer’s bodies came together Holyfield tried to throw a weak body punch. Then Tyson, like a rabid dog, a prodded snake, a wild animal corned with nowhere to go, an immature preschooler, struck and took a whooping chunk out of Evander Holyfield’s ear.

As I read through Scripture it seems like a pretty fair fight most of the time; few punches below the belt or after the bell. There is tension here and there though. Truths exist that seem contradictory at face value and first glance. Paul seems to fight pretty fair for thirteen straight books. Then in the twentieth round of the New Testament James bites his ear off. I read James and am filled with feelings of confusion and doubt, like a boy watching his parents fight, not knowing what side to take, scared. Truth becomes a mist, ungraspable, hard to see, coming and going with the wind. “You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” I thought “it was by grace you have been saved, though faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—no by works, so that no one can boast.” Foul I cry. The bell rings the fight has been stopped. 

In Ephesians 2 Paul makes it clear that we are “dead” but that God makes us “alive” in Christ. It is by grace though faith we are saved and not works because the glory must be Gods¹. Gods plan in his glorifications does not does not end with our salvation. Salvation is merely a way point along the way. Paul says elsewhere, “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” This makes it apparent that it is God’s work and not mine and that glorification is the final destination. Note that Paul, in Ephesians two right after stating the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, states that we were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Paul wants us to know that the power of salvation is God’s and the God’s goal is our good works for his glorification. Moses tells us that work existed before the fall. He says, “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” It is apparent that James is lent credibility here from Moses and Paul in that both reference work as a good thing: Moses while Adam is still in right relationship with God and Paul closely linked with definitions of salvation though faith.

In James 2 Jesus’ disciple is making it clear that faith by its very nature is accompanied by action. He asks, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him?” With the word “such”, James is calling into question our view of the kind of faith we should embrace. Definitions, though sometimes subtle, are very important James says. I personally am ok with Paul’s doctrine of salvation through faith but get squeamish when brought before James’ doctrine of faith without works being dead. This tells me that something in my definition of faith is off. In my world I have somehow prevented faith and deeds from being married. Abraham, the father of faith himself, makes is clear that the two are to be married. Paul says, “he did not waiver though unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.” His faith was married to his giving glory. The writer of Hebrews writes an entire chapter chronicling the marriage of faith and deeds. Over sixteen times he references faith and everytime an action follows. Read it. Abraham didn’t just trust God to bring Isaac back from the dead, he took him up the mountain, gathered the wood, laid him on the alter and raised the knife. The marriage is clear. So what is it in my definition that is skewed, missing, wrong; like a lame animal that limps wherever it goes? 

My disease that leaves me lame is I don’t like doing anything other than what I want to do. I am only willing to trust God for part of his preknowing, calling, justifying and glorifying. I am happy he knew me, called me and justified me, but I want sanctification and glorification to be on my terms. God I don’t trust your plan. I like your fire insurance but not your life plan. Don’t I know that Jesus is the most intelligent, kind, loving and good man I have ever known? I’m not sure I do. I think I am that man. James was right to rebuke me.

1 I appeal to John Piper’s idea that God must love his glory more than anyone.

Humility, etc.

Here is a collection of random thoughts on humility. They’re coming from a book by Andrew Murray called, you guessed it, Humility. I tried to make them into some great, cohesive post but I couldn’t get a unified point across. So, enjoy and tell me what you think about humility. 

A few of Murray’s words on the subject of humility:

"We must learn of Jesus, how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us where true humility begins and finds its strength--in the knowledge that it is God who works all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing of ourselves."

where,

"Humiliation is the only ladder to honor in God's Kingdom."

And,

“…humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is all.”

Murray speaks of Christ's humility in that He made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, becoming nothing, yielding even to the point of death. He did this to glorify His Father and to save us. Our response to this act is the very same. We react in humility, the very mark of Christ.

Humiliation, he says is the path to holiness. Now this does not mean what many would perceive it to mean. This kind of humiliation is not about beating one’s self up or feeling shameful. The meaning Murray is trying to convey comes from an older use of the word; the process of becoming more and more humble.

For this is his definition of humility: the place of entire dependence upon God.

Us being dependent on him, fellowshipping with him; this is our goal. Let us not too anything apart from Christ then, inviting him into every detail of our lives. Only then will we know our savior in true intimacy and joy.

"Whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt. 20:27-28)

Love and Vanity

My view on life has been radically altered and made more biblical and more in line with God’s will over the last few weeks. This tremendous shift has been primarily at the hands of two John Piper talks. So I preface this post with the fact that these ideas are not my own and since this is a new radical idea for me I need correction and help in adherence to orthodoxy from my brothers. So I second James’ last preface in welcoming correction. In this post, I’ll start with the problem I have lived under up until this point and then I’ll share the solution I have found. In my next post, I will share some of the implications of this solution I have found.

My issue (maybe yours too) is: I have never been able to reconcile the ideas of glorifying God and God being loving. We are commanded by Him through the bible to glorify Him. This is apparent when the God inspired psalms sing praises to God. Ephesians 1:4b-6 says He chose us to glorify him. Isaiah in 43:6b-7 quotes God as saying that He created us for his glory. In Luke 2:10b-14 we see the birth of Jesus, the focus of history; and the point is glory to God. In Philippians 1:9-11 (pay attention to the beginning and the end) Paul is asking God to glorify God. Paul told the Thessalonians that Christ was returning to be glorified. It is clear that my purpose is centered in glorifying God. It is also clear, in creating this purpose for me, that God is terribly God centered. My initial response to this God centeredness is to think it the vainest thing I have ever seen. Our God cannot be loving. This obviously is not true. So what is the problem?

Some would suggest that the problem is our definition of love. You can easily talk about it that way but I think we know what love is. Love is essentially doing whatever is best for a person even at great cost to oneself. I think we get this; even across other cultures. I think our problem is confusion about how to do what is best for people. The compass we use to love people is broken; it’s pointing in the wrong direction. We sometimes think a person can self sufficiently live their best life possible and so build them up telling them they are a good person and things will be ok. Also we think we or something else can allow them to live their best life possible; again encouraging them toward these things. Now these encouragements work if that person, us or other thing is truly the greatest thing in all existence and if that object can give them the best possible life. As we try to love people we all too frequently direct people at things that are not truly great, good and fulfilling. These things do not last and cannot provide us the best life possible. The very brief list of objects we direct ourselves and others towards includes wealth, education, relationships with people, right living and beauty. In actuality this list includes just about everything under the sun. We frequently point people and ourselves in every direction but the right one. We have great motive but poor method.

In contrast to these objects God is truly great, good and fulfilling. So God, being perfect and holy, glorifies himself, out of love, to our great benefit. At great cost to himself God gets our attention and points at himself through Christ’s death. This is apparent when Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane first asks that he would be glorified. The point of his entire life and journey to the cross was to get our attention and point us to the one thing that would truly satisfy us; namely the triune-God. God is not vain. Since He is infinitely good He is infinitely loving in glorifying himself.

My response to this first set of ideas is peace. I can finally relax and rest in the purpose I have always been told by the Church: glorifying God. I can do that because in glorifying God I get to pursue my greatest and only satisfaction in life. Praise God; how great it is that he reconciles these two ideas.

Boundaries

Apology: Ok, sorry for the delay. I have felt the pressure of putting something really good on here to start, since I find my security in approval from others and blah blah... But here are some thoughts I have been trying to work through lately. Probably some heresy, so for the sake of sanctification and growth towards Christlikeness I welcome the instruction from my brothers. I have been really guided by these verses lately in regards to this blog: "and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:15-16). I hope that this is a place of Scripture-backed wisdom training, with the goal of being shaped by the Gospel and growing to the heart of the Father.

Boundaries for Freedom
Boundaries for Slavery

Boundaries can be freeing. These are boundaries that are established by God, or set up by myself with the goal of knowing Christ more. They free me by keeping me from things that are not good for me. From ever-increasing sin or pleasure (Heb. 12:1), which then enslaves, becoming a non-negotiable, taking mastery of my attention, desire, will. They also remind me of my finitude. Reminding me that I don't have infinite amount of time, knowledge, ability, etc, and therefore freeing me from unreasonable expectations or belief in myself. I am then free to fully embrace what God has allotted for me, to seek understanding of what He wants for me. Free to trust that He is good, since He is in control, not me.

Boundaries can also be a part of enslavement. These are more the boundaries that I set on God and myself with impure motives. These boundaries I put on how much of my life I acknowlege God's sovereignty and submit to His loving will. I limit myself in terms of reaping to the Spirit, for the kingdom. I set up these boundaries because of insecurities, fears, pride. Behind these are idols that are enslaving me. Idols of comfort, control, approval from others, etc. These things become the driving factors of all that I do, enslaving me, keeping me from experiencing God's blessing of submitting to His divine and good will, and therefore missing the kingdom in my life. He clearly shows that I can't have two masters (Luke 16:13). So when those things are taking mastery over me, God is no longer the gracious provider, no longer Lord. He is now something in the way of what I really want or the means to another end that I really want more than Him. When what He really wants is to give me the kingdom (Luke 12:32).

We are called to freedom. "Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh," (Gal. 5:13) "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" (Gal. 6:8). This freedom does not include uninhibited self-sovereignty. Some things will enslave. "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?" (Gal. 4:8-9) These boundaries are for our freedom, freedom to be slaves of righteousness to know and be known by God (Romans 6).

So, my application for this lately is to see where I am still experiencing enslavement in my body to sin, and then seeking to crucify this so that I can live in freedom to live to God. I am calling this process setting up "boundaries." But it is for the end of sowing to the Spirit to "walk in the newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Now for the other types of boundaries that are from impure motives, which are really more limits that I put on God in my life, I am constantly praying that He reveals them so that He can free me from my own weaknesses and experience the blessing of His dominion in all areas of my life.

Good and Evil: part deux

Sorry. Opening day at camp happened, and now I'm back to finish my thoughts.

If we look at John, then we see a reason to view the darkness as evil.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood^[a] it.

Yes, this is a metaphor, but the parallels to Genesis have to be intentional.  At any rate, the point is that in tbis passage, the light, which in Genesis was good, has now been personified. The darkness has also been personified, and the action it takes is misunderstanding the light. So perhaps the darkness mentioned in Genesis was bad after all.

Supposing I am reading into John too much, then the first mention of evil in the Bible comes in Genesis 2:9

9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

From this verse we know at least 2 things (I'm sure others could tell me 100 things). First, that evil existed before mankind. Second, that evil has existed long enough for there to be knowledge about it, a history of evil.

What does this have to do with kids?

I cannot think of a time, when I did not think of the world in terms of good and evil. All that I know is that kids at an early age know the difference. Do we learn that each exists, or are we born with the knowledge? Ever since Adam didn't man up and tell Eve that eating the fruit was a bad idea, those two had the knowledge of good and evil, and their offspring, us, have been cursed. Are we born with this knowledge, or did we learn it?

Good ad Evil

    Adults who work with kids often say about their jobs "It keeps me young", " "kids say the most profound things", or, like me, "I just like eating graham crackers." While working at camp this summer, I have really tried to figure out how children think so as to more effectively communicate with them. One last thing to stretch this introduction out a little bit longer. This post is more about the little ones, ages 6-10, than the older kids. Sorry, middle schoolers.

    At camp, we do cabin Pow Wows everyday. These Pow Wows are equivalent to a small group bible study, but with much, much simpler concepts. Most of the kids at our camp have little to no exposure to the Church. As if it was not already tough enough to try and answer questions about the concept of a triune God. Try explaining theological concepts to a 7 year-old boy with severe ADHD who did not take his medicine and is hopped up on the Pixie Stix he smuggled into camp. The only way to get through to these amazing people, is through the most basic archetypes. These kids might not be able to tie their shoes, or remember when to go to the bathroom, but they certainly understand why we root for Luke Skywalker over Darth Vader. After thinking about why this is for a few days, a question struck me. At what point in my life did I begin to think of the world in terms of good and evil?

    The first description in the Bible of something being good comes in Genesis 1:3-4. "Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness." We  know a few things for sure, God's creation is good, and that he separated "the good" from the darkness, which is not described as anything. Therefore, we should not assume that the darkness, which "God called night," is necessarily bad, or evil.

Idleness

Idleness is a killer. It will numb you, distract you, and leave you feeling awful. It's everywhere and it's consuming me.

I've been on leave from school for about a month now and I cannot point to one thing that I have done. I've been telling myself that I would mow the lawn for the past four days. It hasn't been cut yet. What's happening? I have all the free time in the world. I have no real responsibilities. The sky's the limit. I could be doing anything right now and yet I can't even keep my yard clean. Instead, I choose to sit around doing God knows what. I'm becoming stagnant.

I need work.

"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" (Gen. 1:28)

That speaks to a need in my heart. A need to rule over and subdue something. My yard for starters would be great. I need to sweat and work at something before my summer days are gone. And with them some chances of doing what I was made to do. Telling myself that I will start tomorrow is a crippling lie. I think I'm done with it.

I'm going to go mow my lawn right now. And it's 90 degrees outside.