Thought for the day

George Barna did another survey; this time about the relative popularity of various well-known individuals. Here is a short excerpt from the survey results:

Barna also pointed out that born again adults seem capable of compartmentalizing their faith. "The perceptions that born again adults have of public figures is nearly identical to that of people who are not born again. That suggests that their faith in Christ has little influence upon their decision-making, which explains why surveys find few distinctives in their lifestyle and values. Not only are most born again adults surprisingly oblivious to national religious leaders, but they apparently have the same perceptual filter as people who have not turned to Jesus Christ. If nothing else, this suggests that most born again adults are a work in progress, and that there is a lot of growth yet to experience in the renewing of their minds."

<idle musing>
This is a disturbing trend. It seems that we too easily allow intellectual assent to the claims of Jesus and the gospel to be sufficient. We don’t allow the “radium of the Cross,” as an early 20th century author called it, to burn our self-life, self-love, and self-centeredness out. The cross has one purpose–to kill.

No one ever erected a cross in the ancient world for the sake of an ornament; it was designed for one purpose–to kill the person hanging on it. Scripture says we are crucified with Christ. Now, I haven’t been to a lot of funerals, but never once have I seen the dead body get up and talk about how great it was, after all, it’s dead! It looked very pretty in the casket, all made-up and dressed up, but that didn’t change the fact that it was dead. You could have said all kinds of wonderful, or terrible, things about it, but it wouldn’t have blushed, or moved, or writhed in discomfort. It’s dead! It doesn’t care who’s who in the top rankings.

All that is pretty obvious, even a first grader would probably know it. But, as Christians, do we remember it? Is Christ the life of our life (as Galatians 2:20 has it)?

Oh, the other thing about the cross is you can’t nail yourself there; God puts you there. Self-crucifixion doesn’t work. For that matter, when was the last time someone decided they didn’t want to hang on the cross (after they were put there), and then proceeded to pull out the spikes by themselves and climb down? Yet, that is what we sometimes do…pretty ludicrous picture, isn’t it?
</idle musing>

Parasitic Christians

There was an excellent post by Scot McKnight late last week about Parasitic Christians. Here is a brief snippet, but please read the whole thing. It is worth it.

Parasitic Christians are those who “show their brilliance” by criticizing others, by showing how someone doesn’t measure up, by revealing how someone made a slight misstep, by making it clear that someone might be veering off the course. These parasitic Christians, instead of being known for positive and fresh insight into God, into Jesus, into what the Bible says and the simple practices of compassion and grace and love and justice, spread a cancer of we-are-holier-than-thou throughout many pockets in the Church. They make people think that either one is the devil of hell or a saint in glory. They feed off of the slips of other Christians. They seem to find the Church to be the problem. Instead of putting forward good ideas, new ideas, creative conclusions, their approach is attack.

What I find in most of the parasitic Christians is a self-congratulations about their own faithfulness. Put differently, what they are doing in criticizing another is finding a way to feel good about themselves. We learned in grade school that most people who criticize do so not to help others reform their ways but to feel good about themselves. Parasitic Christians, so it appears to me, feel very good about themselves. They have, to use the words of Jesus, their reward.

<idle musing>:
Ouch! A bit too close to home in some respects. We need to be modeling a life transformed by the power of God. That doesn’t mean dissing others; rather it means showing them, both verbally and by our actions, that there is a better way—the Jesus Way, the way of love.

Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.—Romans 12:16-21 RSV

<idle musing>

Blogs I’ve seen of late

UPDATE: I fixed the link to the Ultimate Testament. Sorry about the bad link. James

Ok, there is way too much good stuff going on out there! A good problem, unless you want to digest it all... I’m going to mention a few good posts of late (actually quite late, last week), and hope you take the time to peruse them.

At The M blog there is a good post on the curse of knowledge. No, he is not saying knowledge is bad, just that it makes it hard for us to remember what it was like before we had the knowledge. Good food for thought.

He also has a post about the strength of a group of 2-3. He is quoting from a book by Neil Cole Organic Church. Good stuff.

Ted Gossard over at The Jesus Community has a wonderful post about real beauty—not the superficial kind, but real beauty. I praise God that I am married to a woman who reflects true beauty, as well as being beautiful.

On the House Church Blog there is a post about his experience at a recent conference in Asia. They put the people into small “house churches” so they could experience it. The results were encouraging, and hopefully life changing.

Leighton Tebay has a wonderful quote about the scrap heap of history.

The Better Bibles Blog has had two very powerful posts of late. First Suzanne tells us why she cares so much about women in the church. Then, Wayne shares how he found freedom in Christ after 40 years. I weep when I hear these stories.

Claude Mariottini has a post on the Ultimate Testament. Seems there’s a book out there called The Secret that is tickling people’s ears with promises of wealth and fame, the true gods of our culture.

There are some other ones, but I would like to interact with them a bit more, so stay tuned over the next few days…

Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses”

I finished Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses the other day. I’m not going to try and say a lot about it, since Chris Tilling is doing a good job in a multi-part series on his blog. I did notice that Kevin Edgecomb didn’t like it.

Personally, I enjoyed it, finding it a very viable theory, and a healthy corrective to the extreme skepticism of many scholars. The last chapter was, in my opinion, the best part of the book. Ostensibly the chapter is about Jesus and tradition, but really it is a full blown examination of historiography. If you deal with history in any way, whether Hebrew Bible, New Testament, ANE, or Classics, you should read this chapter. That’s all I’m going to say. Go ahead and read it, then tell me whether or not you agree [secret recipe for sales of the book :) Do you think it will work? I don't either!]

What are we coming to?

The other day, as I was driving back from a meeting, I saw a sign on a pet shop: Weight control food for your cat or dog.

What? We have overweight pets, too? Not content to stuff ourselves, are we now stuffing our animals, too? Please, tell me this is just a marketing gimmick...

Quote for the day

"What else is the goal of theological education than to bring us closer to the Lord our God so that we may be more faithful to the great commandment to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37)? Seminaries and divinity schools must lead theology students into an ever-growing communion with God, with each other, and with their fellow human beings. Theological education is meant to form our whole person toward an increasing conformity with the mind of Christ so that our way of praying and our way of believing will be one.

"But is this what takes place? Often it seems that we who study or teach theology find ourselves entangled in such a complex network of discussions, debates, and arguments about God and “God-issues” that a simple conversation with God or a simple presence to God has become practically impossible. Our heightened verbal ability, which enables us to make many distinctions, has sometimes become a poor substitute to a single-minded commitment to the Word who is life. If there is a crisis in theological education, it is first and foremost a crisis of the word. This is not to say that critical intellectual work and the subtle distinctions it requires have no place in theological training. But when our words are no longer a reflection of the divine Word in and through whom the world has been created and redeemed, they lose their grounding and become as seductive and misleading as the words used to sell Geritol."—Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, pp. 39-40.

On this day

On this day, in about 155 AD, Polycarp was accused of atheism and ordered to renounce Christ. His response has become famous:

“Eighty and six years have I served him and he has done me no wrong. Can I revile my King that saved me?”

They burned him at the stake. The Martrydom of Polycarp says that the smell of his burning was as the baking of bread. Personally, I doubt it, but there is no doubt he was a godly man who died in his master’s service. We would do well to be as uncompromising in our faith as he was.

Quote for the day

“I have stressed in the past how a believer needs to grow in several respects. Let me reiterate them once again. First, after one is saved he should seek for proper knowledge of the Bible. Second, he should desire to make progress in the spiritual life, such as victory, holiness, perfect love, and so forth. This is very very important. Third, we should be fervent in winning souls. Fourth, we should trust in God with such singleness of faith that we may see God working miracles.

“There are many defects in the church today. Many believers are interested in nothing more than the expounding of the Scriptures. Their knowledge is excellent, yet they neither care for nor seek after growth in spiritual life. Or some may go a step further and search for the higher life and the deeper things of God, but they neglect the other three aspects. Still others have zeal but have no knowledge. All such lopsided strivings are unhealthy. Is it not surprising that in the church today those who seek to either literally or spiritually expound the Bible, or to pursue after deeper and richer life, or to be zealous in soul winning are not lacking in number, but few there be who trust God with a living faith so as to obtain something from Him?”—Watchman Nee in The Latent Power of the Soul

Short little book

Yesterday afternoon a new book came in from Augsburg/Fortress Press in their Facets series. The book is only about 110 pages, but it is intriguing. I am going to have to read the whole thing. Here are the bibliographic details:

The Horrors We Bless
Rethinking the Just-War Legacy
Facets
by Daniel C. Maguire
Fortress Press, 2007
viii + 103 pages, English
Paper, 4.5 x 7
ISBN: 0800638972
List Price: $7.00
Your Price: $6.51
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~MAGHORROR

Anyway, I was looking through the book, and was struck by how insightful it was. He isn't a pacifist, although he acknowledges that the early church was overwhelmingly so. He isn't a just war theorist, saying it lacks sufficient Biblical backing. I'm not quite sure what he is proposing, since I was only able to look through about 15 pages or so. But, one thing he does say is, "War is stupid." (italics his).

He then proceeds to talk about rules of war, taking the medieval period as an example. There were certain rules of war: knights on horses, etc. Well, the English discovered the longbow and beat the crap out of the French. The French didn't learn, and tried the same tactic again–3 times. They finally learned, but it took Joan of Arc to teach them.

Fast forward several hundred years. The U.S. goes to Vietnam, fully equipped to fight a WWII type war. The VC use guerrilla war tactics and beat the crap out of the U.S. Fast forward 30 years. The U.S. goes to Iraq figuring to fight a WWII type war... OK, get the picture? Big tanks, lots of noise, obvious target. Enemy? The people who live there. Result? Genocide. You can't win without killing innocent people because you don't know who your enemy is. Conclusion: War is stupid, but also immoral.

I have got to read the rest of the book, its only 110 pages...

Sundays

Alan Knox over at The Assembling of the Church has some good thoughts on Sunday Church meetings. Here are a few snippets, but do take the time to read it all:

“It is very important for believers to meet together. That is clear from Scripture. However, is it possible for us to put so much emphasis on one gathering of the church (say, Sunday morning, for instance) that we forget God's purpose for the church?

“…If we examine the money/time/effort/resources spent on preparing the location for the event, acquiring those who perform during the event, rehearsing for the event, and setting the schedule for the event, we might find that the event is much more important to us than we first thought. Is this what Jesus taught us? Is this what Jesus said was important?”

<idle musing>
Sunday is only one day of the week; there are 6 others which matter just as much to God as Sunday does. We need to move beyond the false dichotomy of secular and sacred which we inherited from our Graeco-Roman culture and re-adopt a more biblical world view that sees all things as sacred, since they are created by God.

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said,
‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man.—Acts 17:24-29 RSV

<idle musing>

Church planting

The M blog has an interesting post about church planting. There are 7 points. Here are the first and last, but the rest are just as good

FIRST, I would begin in the harvest and start small. Don't start with a team of already-saved Christians. We think that having a bigger and better team will accelerate the work, but it doesn't. In fact, has the opposite effect...churches birthed out of transformed lives are healthier, reproductive, and growing faster. It is about this: a life changed, not about the model.

SEVENTH and last, I would settle my ownership issues. Stop being concerned about whether "your" church plant will succeed or not. It isn't yours in the first place. Your reputation is not the one on the line; Jesus' is. He will do a good job if we let him. If we have our own identity and reputation at stake in the work, we will tend to take command. Big mistake. Let Jesus get the glory and put his reputation on the line; He can take care of Himself without your help.

<idle musing>
Amen!
</idle musing>

The sights of winter

It was a beautiful weekend here. The temperatures were in the upper teens to mid-twenties F during the day—perfect for being outside. Here are a few scenes to enjoy. Maybe you'll see why I love winter so much :)

Geese, swans and ducks on the small unfrozen portion of Winona Lake. This morning this section was all frozen over.



Snowshoeing on Saturday. This is a view of the creek



Snowshoes drying at the back door. I was out for about 3 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday.


Plowing the snow on the sidewalks


Some kids had built a fort in the snowbank of a parking lot. This was their access tunnel, but the wind has drifted most of it shut.


Nap, anyone?

HT on the last one: Andy Kerr

Rachel

Rachel is now 20 days old. For the benefit of those of you who were praying, here is a picture of Renee holding Rachel. Isn't she a wonderful answer to prayer?



And here is Joel holding her. Doesn't he look like the proud father?

Quote for the day

" The church is not a franchise of grace to hungry spiritual consumers, but a vehicle for Christians committed with one another to proclaim Christ and build His Kingdom."—Leighton Tebay at The Heresy

Cold...

OK, this is at least a near first, if not a first. Today, when I got up and came to work, the temperature was about -8 F (-22 C). The wind chill was a bit colder. Now, even by Minnesota standards, that is getting cold.

Once I got to work, I thought I would check the temperature in Shakopee, where our son lives. Shakopee is a burb of Minneapolis. Here's what I saw:



Yes, Winona Lake is colder than Minneapolis, Minnesota. And what is even more interesting is that Grand Marais, on the north shore of Lake Superior, is 11 F! Makes me glad we moved! Now, where did I put my snowshoes...

Worship?

Out of Ur has a good post on a talk given at the National Pastors Convention. Here's a part of it:

Drawing mainly from the Old Testament prophets Daniel and Isaiah, Labberton built a case for thinking differently about worship. “Worship reorders reality to help us see what is true,” he said. It should reorder our priorities and help us see the world differently. But quite often worship is simply a baptized version of our culture. In our worship we simply mirror what is all around us—worship of self. This, he says, is “illegitimate worship.”

“Fear of God is what matters most,” says Labberton. “The failure of our people to live this way is a failure of our worship.” The solution is not making our worship louder, faster, or more spectacular as many are in the habit of doing. Rather, we need to reevaluate what our worship is forming within our people. “Does our worship impact our view of our neighbor?”

<idle musing>
Worship in not a song, not even a fast song. Worship is about a life lived in subservience to God; in obedience to our creator. It is not about music; it is not about choirs, or good voices; no, it is not even a good sermon. It is about God, and it is a part of life Monday through Saturday even more than it is about Sunday. God commands us to love our neighbor—in practical ways. And what he commands us to do, he enables us to do via the power available in the Holy Spirit. It is not another thing I have to do; it is about surrendering my self to the cross and allowing Him to do it through me. Me dead, Christ alive (Galatians 2:20).
</idle musing>

Quote for the day

Allegories are the natural mirrors of ideology. — Agnus Fletcher, Allegory

HT: John Cook

Wittenburg door image

Tyler at Codex has put up my favorite image from the Wittenburg door. Truly appealing! A must read.

Snow!

It is finally winter here. It has been snowing continually since about 2:30 this morning and is supposed to continue for another 10-12 hours! Because of the wind, just about everything is closing down. Here's a picture of one of the doors to the warehouse



They had predicted 12-16 inches, and we might actually get somewhere in the 8-10 inch range. That would be a first for my 4 winters here in Indiana.

I think I'm starting to come down with a severe case of snowshoe-itis. The only known cure is a morning off of work walking in the woods on snowshoes...

Quote for the day

“Understand now what lying is. Any species of designed deception. If the deception be not designed, it is not lying. But if you design to make an impression contrary to the naked truth, you lie. Put down all those cases you can recollect. Do not call them by any soft name. God calls them LIES, and charges you with LYING, and you had better charge yourself correctly. How innumerable are the falsehoods perpetrated every day in business, and in social intercourse, by words, and looks, and actions, designed to make an impression on others, for selfish reasons that is contrary to the truth!”—Finney in Lectures on Revival, lecture 3

<idle musing>
Pretty stringent definition, isn't it? Finney doesn't leave a whole lot of wiggle room when he starts naming sins. All of lecture 3 is about what is sin. He lists over 15 different categories, of which this is but one. Too bad the book isn't in print anymore; of course, that might be why. It is too convicting for our middle-class comfortable christianity.
</idle musing>