I've been thinking about the Jeremiah post coming up, and I think I need to backtrack a little to properly explain that one. There are two massive concepts I have to give you some incite in, to help explain my views. The first is faith, the second is God's will. So I have to backtrack, not one, but two post to get there.
So let us start on faith with a firm testing ground.
Money.
The theoretical Christian ideal for thought about money is as follows. All the world is God's. Money is included. I am God's servant, thus He makes His resources available to me. I love everyone just as well as I love myself. It makes no difference how much money I "have", because all money is available to me, and if it benefits anyone it is good.
Sum total, a buck in the hand is the same as a buck in the bush. God will provide.
Before you dismiss this as too bizarre, take look into Hudson Taylor's story. This bloke moved to China in the 1800's to preach the gospel, and just crossed his figures when it came to money. And it worked like a charm.
BUT it gets more complicated then that. Christian are commanded things like:
'"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you," Thessalonians 4:11'.
In our society that means, almost inexorably, a nine-to-five job. Add a family, that we must provide for and we're looking far more like everyone else. With our societies huge wealth it gets even more blurry. How do you provide the right amount of education and positive upbringing? Need to keep a roof over their heads. Need to get a good computer and a fast internet connection. The holiday is an important life experience. Good schooling, transport.
Hudson had it easy. It was a straight forward equation. Work for God. Wait for his pay. There was no one else.
So what's with that? Let me give you a little illustration to clear things up.
Imagine a person walking through a jungle when he comes to a cliff. On the other side of the drop the jungle carries on like before.
God tells him to get over the ditch. There's two options open to him. The first is to go into the jungle, cut down some trees and begin to construct a bridge. If he does this, he has faith. And he works in his faith to get to the objective God's given him.
The other option is to just try to walk across on thin air and pray God will hold him up. This action is just as faithful and twice as brave. Also twice as likely to fail.
You see it's here that we begin to understand why God wants Christians to work hard, etc. It's so we live a normal life. A natural life. Because the best way to convey Christ is to show him in real life. I'm far more impressed by an individual who gets up in the morning and suffers through whatever task they are doing to try to reach an end they believe in then by someone who has life fall into their lap because they believe something.
The only time God tends to use just walking across is when He needs to take a shortcut.
What you need to understand is that both those techniques in the end require the same amount of faith. Someone with a true grip on the concept of God knows that the same God who defies gravity is the one that compels the laws of physics to maintain the structural integrity of the bridge.
In fact if something goes wrong and you fall it's God's creation of gravity that sends you plummeting toward the ground, and His invention of momentum that smashes your fragile body over the hard rock. In a convoluted way it's God that kills you.
Faith isn't in the action. How big, or crazy or supernatural it is. It's in the doing at all. What's on the other side anyway? Why should I risk for that?
If we really understood what was going on, we would know that it's the same level of faith that leads one man to pray and wait for the money to show up in the mail as it does for another to work a hard day.
Unfortunately it's easy for a man to have faith in the economy or society or structural engineering rather then God. That's the reality you will see in the churches, mostly.
Keep your eyes open for those who follow God to whatever end He is leading them, through whatever trials that will take them. They are the people who will show you what Christianity is.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Christians and "Christians"
The other day, at college I had a really insightful conversation with some of my classmates. I've found the themes repeated lately so I think it's time for me to write about it.
It was during this conversation that one of the girls said something I thought was just inspired.(if you've been reading the comments on my post yes this is Brooke's famous quote) She was talking about a person she knew who claimed to be a Christian but showed no evidence of it in their life. A hypocrite. What I would refer to as a "Christian". She then summed up her feeling about this person in a rather eloquent way. "I was like, I'm more of a Christian then you, except for the not believing in God bit!"
It's a sad fact that every one of us will come into contact with a massive number of this type of person in our lifetimes. It's unavoidable. But I want to make this clear, with no apologies. These people show with their actions that by definition they not only fail to be in relationship with God, but become the worst of His enemies.
It's precisely because of the label they give themselves. Christian. To be honest I don't like calling myself a Christian. You see it has a fundamental flaw. It's a word without a definition. It literally started as a nickname. It doesn't mean anymore then the words, jock or nerd, do to us now. It has connotations, but if you ask people for a definition they'll fail to give one, and if they do it'll almost certainly be a different to the definition anyone else will give you. This is because it's not a word with a definition, it's meaning comes from it's vibe. It's the vibe of the thing.
So, you see, the word Christian means a lot of things to a lot of people. I don't want to be to tightly associated with the word, because it in turn is tightly associated with a lot of things I'm definitely not, and a lot of beliefs I definitely don't have.
So you see, when I person identifies themselves as Christian, it doesn't mean anything in particular. Just that they associate with people, organizations, rituals and/or beliefs that in turn are associated with the word Christian.
The major faction of "Christians" in the West. The hypocritical kind, stem from one major fault line. It's in understanding one half of the salvation story. I need to reiterate concepts like sin and "hell" in a latter post, but the key is understanding that God offers release from sin and thus, an immunity to "hell".
The "Christians" understand this, they see freedom. Complete freedom. They look at it this way. I am freed from the consequences of my actions, thus I can do whatever I want. I don't even need to understand them.
This is utter ... ... just fill in the blank with every single negative phrase and expletive you can think of and it's probably a good descriptive. God does offer freedom from what we are captive to now. But He also guarantees captivity to a new master. Himself.
And so the "Christians" stop at freedom. They never move forward. They never challenge their beliefs or their behavior any further. They question nothing. Why should they? They have a self-replenishing get-out-of-jail free card, and almost always they go to a church were they are comforted and encouraged not to go any further.
But in the end these people just remain stuck half way through a process. I process of death and rebirth. They have died to a captivity they knew, but they havn't come back to life. They havn't exected the new burden of them. They havn't subjected themselves to the physics of their new world.
Jesus never said life with him would be easy. There are parts of the Gospels were he tries to talk people OUT of following him. He tells them how hard it's going to be. He says they must give up everything. He calls himself a hard man, who gathers were he did not sow, and reaps were he did lay seed. He did not ganentee what we call freedom.
People need to read the contract carefully. Becoming a Christian means selling your soul. It means becoming someone else's possession. You work for Him now. You have nothing.
There is a truth few in the West seem to understand about Christianity. The one fate that is worse then not being a Christian. Is the one in store for those that call themselves a Christian but do not bend their backs and serve their God.
It was during this conversation that one of the girls said something I thought was just inspired.(if you've been reading the comments on my post yes this is Brooke's famous quote) She was talking about a person she knew who claimed to be a Christian but showed no evidence of it in their life. A hypocrite. What I would refer to as a "Christian". She then summed up her feeling about this person in a rather eloquent way. "I was like, I'm more of a Christian then you, except for the not believing in God bit!"
It's a sad fact that every one of us will come into contact with a massive number of this type of person in our lifetimes. It's unavoidable. But I want to make this clear, with no apologies. These people show with their actions that by definition they not only fail to be in relationship with God, but become the worst of His enemies.
It's precisely because of the label they give themselves. Christian. To be honest I don't like calling myself a Christian. You see it has a fundamental flaw. It's a word without a definition. It literally started as a nickname. It doesn't mean anymore then the words, jock or nerd, do to us now. It has connotations, but if you ask people for a definition they'll fail to give one, and if they do it'll almost certainly be a different to the definition anyone else will give you. This is because it's not a word with a definition, it's meaning comes from it's vibe. It's the vibe of the thing.
So, you see, the word Christian means a lot of things to a lot of people. I don't want to be to tightly associated with the word, because it in turn is tightly associated with a lot of things I'm definitely not, and a lot of beliefs I definitely don't have.
So you see, when I person identifies themselves as Christian, it doesn't mean anything in particular. Just that they associate with people, organizations, rituals and/or beliefs that in turn are associated with the word Christian.
The major faction of "Christians" in the West. The hypocritical kind, stem from one major fault line. It's in understanding one half of the salvation story. I need to reiterate concepts like sin and "hell" in a latter post, but the key is understanding that God offers release from sin and thus, an immunity to "hell".
The "Christians" understand this, they see freedom. Complete freedom. They look at it this way. I am freed from the consequences of my actions, thus I can do whatever I want. I don't even need to understand them.
This is utter ... ... just fill in the blank with every single negative phrase and expletive you can think of and it's probably a good descriptive. God does offer freedom from what we are captive to now. But He also guarantees captivity to a new master. Himself.
And so the "Christians" stop at freedom. They never move forward. They never challenge their beliefs or their behavior any further. They question nothing. Why should they? They have a self-replenishing get-out-of-jail free card, and almost always they go to a church were they are comforted and encouraged not to go any further.
But in the end these people just remain stuck half way through a process. I process of death and rebirth. They have died to a captivity they knew, but they havn't come back to life. They havn't exected the new burden of them. They havn't subjected themselves to the physics of their new world.
Jesus never said life with him would be easy. There are parts of the Gospels were he tries to talk people OUT of following him. He tells them how hard it's going to be. He says they must give up everything. He calls himself a hard man, who gathers were he did not sow, and reaps were he did lay seed. He did not ganentee what we call freedom.
People need to read the contract carefully. Becoming a Christian means selling your soul. It means becoming someone else's possession. You work for Him now. You have nothing.
There is a truth few in the West seem to understand about Christianity. The one fate that is worse then not being a Christian. Is the one in store for those that call themselves a Christian but do not bend their backs and serve their God.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Wedding Fallout
On the weekend I had the joy of being best man at a mates wedding in Melbourne. I thought I would post about this particular wedding because of the nature of this particular couple. You see these too people not only felt it was right to marry, but that God was calling them to get married.
This is the bit were everyone gets uncomfortable. These two raise a lot of issues we put in the "better not talk about it" basket. We have divine will, visions, the voice of God, chastity and modesty, pre-marital sex, covenants and God's involvement in marriage. And that's before we start really looking.
Needless to say, I'm not going to try to talk about this all now. All I want to do right now is tell you a bit of their story, just for thinking material.
Jason had always held the idea of God having picked out a girl for him very close. From a young age he began praying for the girl, whoever she happened to be. He trusted, that when the time was right, God would bring that girl into his life, and really until that time came, he didn't want any relationships.
At a certain age the girls in Sarah's family make a covenant, or promise with their father. In this promise the daughter commits to remaining pure. The promise is made over a gold key, which her father proceeds to wear around his neck, until the day comes when he is to hand the key to another man. (this touches heavily on the topic of pre-marital sex from the Christian perspective which is to much of an issue to explain here so I fully expect this to be a hard practice to understand)
One day, at an interschool camp, Jason and Sarah met. By the time Jason came home, he felt that this could be the girl. So, after talking to his parents, he began to pray. He prayed long and hard. Eventually he decided to ask Sarah's dad for permission to court her. That's right, court not date. Fine difference, but the essential point is that Jason's intention was to marry her.
Now Sarah's father told Jason he would also have to pray before agreeing to anything. After several weeks of prayer without answer he had a vision. The details of the vision he still hasn't revealed in full, but it was clear to him that the relationship was the will of God. So he allowed Jason to ask Sarah to begin courting. Sarah speedily agreed as she liked Jason as much as he liked her.
After two years of dates and quality time (always chaperoned), devotions and prayer over the phone every day, Jason asked Sarah to marry him. That led, inexorably, to the wedding last week end, were Sarah's father handed that key to Jason.
Jason and Sarah are a rare example of the extreme other way of doing romance. To be honest I've been a bit blown away by it.
But what baring does it have on us? Well, I think it's one thing to talk about ideals and principles, it's another all together to see them in action.
This is the bit were everyone gets uncomfortable. These two raise a lot of issues we put in the "better not talk about it" basket. We have divine will, visions, the voice of God, chastity and modesty, pre-marital sex, covenants and God's involvement in marriage. And that's before we start really looking.
Needless to say, I'm not going to try to talk about this all now. All I want to do right now is tell you a bit of their story, just for thinking material.
Jason had always held the idea of God having picked out a girl for him very close. From a young age he began praying for the girl, whoever she happened to be. He trusted, that when the time was right, God would bring that girl into his life, and really until that time came, he didn't want any relationships.
At a certain age the girls in Sarah's family make a covenant, or promise with their father. In this promise the daughter commits to remaining pure. The promise is made over a gold key, which her father proceeds to wear around his neck, until the day comes when he is to hand the key to another man. (this touches heavily on the topic of pre-marital sex from the Christian perspective which is to much of an issue to explain here so I fully expect this to be a hard practice to understand)
One day, at an interschool camp, Jason and Sarah met. By the time Jason came home, he felt that this could be the girl. So, after talking to his parents, he began to pray. He prayed long and hard. Eventually he decided to ask Sarah's dad for permission to court her. That's right, court not date. Fine difference, but the essential point is that Jason's intention was to marry her.
Now Sarah's father told Jason he would also have to pray before agreeing to anything. After several weeks of prayer without answer he had a vision. The details of the vision he still hasn't revealed in full, but it was clear to him that the relationship was the will of God. So he allowed Jason to ask Sarah to begin courting. Sarah speedily agreed as she liked Jason as much as he liked her.
After two years of dates and quality time (always chaperoned), devotions and prayer over the phone every day, Jason asked Sarah to marry him. That led, inexorably, to the wedding last week end, were Sarah's father handed that key to Jason.
Jason and Sarah are a rare example of the extreme other way of doing romance. To be honest I've been a bit blown away by it.
But what baring does it have on us? Well, I think it's one thing to talk about ideals and principles, it's another all together to see them in action.
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