Have you ever wondered why Adam and Even fell by eating? Why did God set that up as the parameter. Why didn't God tell Adam not to kill Eve, or not to lie? Why such a random thing as eating? Clearly Satan had already sinned at this point, and Adam and Eve had the capacity to sin it would seem. And yet, they hadn't sinned yet. I wonder, before the curse, the state of man's heart. After the curse, we are all now depraved, incapable, apart from Christ, anything but sin. But in the garden, pre-curse, Adam and Eve had no sin in their lives; yet they were capable of it.
This idea I must admit is quite confusing and perplexing to me. Could, say, Adam have killed Eve? I seem to think not, sense at that time, God saw no need to warn Adam of such a sin.
God also made everything good. What does that mean in relationship to Adam's capacity to sin? In his good state, he must have had the capacity to choose evil. He wasn't condemned until after eating from that which God forbid. And equally so, God would not have warned Adam unless there was a danger that Adam might have picked the apple. If Adam weren't capable of sinning, it seems irrelevant that God would warn him. It would be like God warning us not to sprout wings and fly. It's an irrelevant warning since we lack the capacity to do so.
So what does this mean about man's ability to choose something for God, or not. What does this mean about the goodness of God's creation. I mean, God said, it was very good! Those are God's standards, not ours. So that must mean that it was VERY, EXTREMELY good! And yet that goodness seems to have allowed man with the ability to sin. It allowed Satin with the ability to sin as well.
This also brings into question the intent of the original creation, and the intent of the new heavens and the new earth. I don't believe that anyone will ever sin in the age to come, but will we lack the capacity to sin? Why won't there be sin? Well, one thing that is obvious is that we will have glorified bodies and appetites like Christ. We won't be wired for sin at that point. Which seems to me then, that our glorified state will be much better than the original state of Adam before sin. Maybe that's obvious to you, but I'm just trying to work logically through these issues.
Once agian, I don't mean to say that God's original creation was somehow flawed, but at the same time, it does seem like the new heavens and new earth are going to be much different than the original creation. There are other things that point to this difference as well. The fact that Jesus will be our sun, so we will have no need for an actual, physical sun.
The difference to me, seems to come down to a pre-cross creation, and a post-cross creation. In the center-piece of all reality is the cross, then the original creation from the beginning, was not intended to be the fullness of God's glory. It doesn't mean that it wasn't very very good, it just wasn't everything that God had in store. The original creation I believe leaves soooo much room for the cross, and was created for the very purpose of the cross; mainly to display the glory of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Thus, sin had to be part of the equation of the original creation. Without sin, there's no cross. And this gets into a huge, incredibly mind-boggling debate about God's ability to ordain that something be without actually being responsible in any way for that action coming to pass. I don't intend to get into that now, but to merely say as I've been taught, that the Bible sees both as true, and has no problem with that seeming contradiction. As a man of the book, I'm prepared to have no problem with it either (that statement or sentiment did not come easy to me. It's taken me maybe 5 years to say that, and I'd be lying if I said I will never have to come back and go over the argument one more time in my head).
Now I've gone off on a tangent, and I've left little room for my purpose of writing this post. Mainly being, "Why the apple?" And I think the apple is the representative sin of all of mankind because it reveals to us the nature of all sin. Any good church-going person who's heard enough doctrine would agree that the route of the first sin, that of Satin, is pride. And it is this same pride that Satin uses to tempt Adam and Eve. Pride doesn't want to submit to a higher authority, but wants to take charge. Pride leads in one main direction, as it relates to God. It leads to distrust. It leads to doubt. Only a prideful person would doubt their maker. No one humble would have the ego to do such a thing.
When I look my own sins of doubt and disbelief, it's hard at that time to say it's pride. I wouldn't say, at first, that pride leads me to doubt God's plan for my future. If anything, it seems like the opposite. How can pride lead to a lack of confidence? Usually the most arrogant people are the most proud. So how can I say that pride is the route of doubt in God? I say that because the moment you say that God can't do something, you put the responsibility on your own shoulders. The moment you doubt God with your life, the only place you can place your life's burdens are on yourself. That's exactly what happened with Adam and Eve. They thought, maybe God doesn't know what's best for me? Maybe I should eat that apple and see what all this good and evil is all about, they acted out of pride in their own judgement over God's supreme wisdom. And isn't that the nature of every sin.
The best example of this sin is shown in our appetites. And thus, food is the symbol in the Bible. Our appetite tells us to eat that last piece of pizza even though we know it's glutony. Even though we know the Bible says something different, we think our judgement is somehow better. And this could be any appetite. Whether it's an appetite for food, fame, sex, money, respect, the list goes on, we all make decisions out of pride that says we know better than God what's best for us.
I've been reflecting a lot on the wisdom and loving nature of God as I've been reading through Deuteronomy. The law, in case you haven't noticed, in the Old Testament is pretty strict, blunt, and often harsh. I think anyone if we're honest would say at a first glance, God seems a little extreme in his decrees. And we would all probably go about listing off in our heads the ways we would do things differently. But the more I read the law, the more I see it's all out of love that God commands the things he does.
First, there's a ton, especially in Leviticus and Numbers, about cleanliness. I think a lot of this is just really practical. Touching dead people is not a very healthy thing to do. And God wants his people to be healthy. In Deuteronomy, God keeps relaying to Moses to say, "Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever." God here is saying, "this is good for you." I don't give my laws to hinder your lives, but to make them better. Any parent or caring teacher understands this concept very well. And God knows that we won't get it on our own, so he has to lay down very very strict boundaries because we're so stupid at times. Lastly, I saw in Deuteronomy, over and over again, the warrants for death. They're all over the place. After every warrant for death, Moses ends with, "So you shall purge the evil from your midst." God knew how deadly and infectious sin is, and he knew that any source of sin must be cut off immediately. God's tactic against sin was all out war, and we should have this ame attitude in our own lives towards our own sin. We shouldn't let it meander. We must kill it, we must "purge" our bodies. If sin is like cancer, it will effect our whole lives and eventually destroy us. No good doctor is going to let a little bit of cancer just stay in the body. The surgeon's job is to get ALL of the cancer out of the body. And the most devistating news you can hear after a surgery is, "we didn't get it all out." It's the same with God's attitude toward sin in Deuteronomy. If you understand this principle, I think the Old Testament law makes much more sense, and is perhaps easier to deal with. Obviously, we must always remember the theocracy they were under at the time, and the Old verse New Covenant differences. But even so, God is immutable, and we must take God for who he is in the Old and New Testament, and love and worship that same God!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Fighting for Reality
A couple years ago, I shared a devotional with my fellow staff members at Carson Simpsons Farm, the summer day camp I worked at for four summers. The devotional was based around the plot of the matrix, and I tied that into a biblical view of life. And the more I live my life, and see how God works in the world, the more parallels I see with that film and real life. Now obviously anyone who has seen the movie and done even a bit of research will want to tell me that the creators of the Matrix borrowed from many different religious and philosophical schools, and the film is in no way a truthful, correct Christian movie. And I understand those objections. But even so, it's almost, dare I say, providential that God allowed this film to be made. I don't think it's coincidence that so many Christians see the biblical nature of the film, and I wouldn't be surprised if I heard of hundreds of testimonies as to how the Matrix was a tool God used to draw them to Himself.
Now why am I bringing up the Matrix so randomly. It's been a while since I last watched the film. But my life, and particularly my reflections and meditations on God have led me to conclusions that seem strikingly similar to the themes presented in the Matrix.
The big theme I see over and over again in the film, and in life, is the struggle to control, and dominate the mind. Our thoughts. There is very little we do, in a moral sense that is, that doesn't pass through our minds at some point. Our mind is the source of all our actions, the ones that will be judged that is. It is the gateway or channel by which the gospel of Jesus Christ is recieved. Without the mind, we can not process what we hear? And if we can not process the gospel truth through our minds, then we can not possibly say that we have any capability of accepting that truth.
Romans 10:14 "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"
There are three questions raised in that verse where the mind is an essential and implicit factor in salvation. We can't believe or make any sense out of our hearing without a mind to interpret and respond to the message. I wonder how often Christians think about the vital role that the mind plays in a Christian's life. Usually I only hear about the heart, our deisres. Now people may want to debate the relationship between our heart and mind, but scriptures seems to find some difference between them.
Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'..." Why would he make an effort to make a distinction between the heart and mind if they were the same thing? Why make sure to mention both? I wonder if it's because so often we neglect the spiritual health and vitality of our minds, thinking that they don't play as serious of a role as our hearts perhaps.
Now to say that the mind and the heart are two seperate functions of our being does not mean that they act independently of each other. On the contrary, the very interwoven nature of the two is why it is so utterly crucial that we take time to nurture, and care for each. When one suffers, so the other does as well. It's similar to the body and soul relationship. We do not deny that our physical health has a direct correlation with our emotional status. When I'm healthy, I'm generally pretty happy. But when I'm sick, I'm generally prone to depression and distrust in my circumstances.
Thus it goes with the mind and heart as well. As I've mentioned before, our heart is so crucial to our faith. A faith or trust in God that has no affection for Christ is dead. A mere head-knowledge of our savior and Lord will bring no one into the kingdom. The heart must be fought for. But how is that fight waged? How do we bring our hearts into conformity with the gospel? How do we come to love the things that God loves, and hate the things that he hates. How do we see him each day as more beautiful, and more satifying that all of the temptations that scream in our ears from morning till night. I believe that this war is largely waged on the battlefield of our minds.
Our minds, if you like imagry, are perhaps like filters to our hearts. The mind only lets the heart engage with what it will allow it to recieve. The heart reacts to the things our minds are engaged with. If we engage our minds with only trivial ideas and matters, the heart has very little to work with there. And yet, the heart must love. The heart must ache for desires. The heart must attach itself to...something. And thus, if you only feed your heart with garbage, the heart will learn to love that garbage. The heart will see that garbage as food to nurish itself, unaware that that filth is slowly destorying it. Speaking at least personally, the heart to me seems pretty stupid, while the mind tends to be the more intelligent partner in this relationship. There's a lot of things I know in my mind, that I just can't seem to get my heart to go on board with. At the same time, there are a lot of things are know are pretty stupid, and yet my heart tells me that these stupid things are of the utmost importance, and all-satisfying.
So, if we recognize the weakness of the heart, we must take some huge steps to helping it out. Now, please let me clarify something here. When I say that the heart is stupid, I don't deny the fact that when Christ enters the heart, the heart immediately gets incredibly wise beyond all nature, and affirms the truth that Jesus is all satisfying. But with that said, the heart is still so easily swayed by sin. So I just wanted to clarify by saying that I believe that every human heart, at it's core, understands that only Jesus can satisfy it's deepest longings and desires.
Now back to the fight. Basically the point of this blog is to awaken us to the fact that for the sake of our hearts and minds, we must fight to see REALITY each and every day. Now what do I mean by reality? I would like to break up reality into two subcategories. The first one would be "normal reality," or "seemingly tangible reality." The second category I would like to present would be "ultimate reality." The clearest example I can see for this is in the gospel of John. Over and over again, Christ makes this distinction between the seemingly tangible reality, and ultimate reality.
The first example is with Jesus and the woman at the well. He says to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you(H) living water." 11The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12(I) Are you greater than our father Jacob?
Then later he tries to explain to her one more time, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of eternal life." Then the woman responds to him by saying, "Sir,(N) give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
So twice Jesus explains to her about the living water, and both times she misses it. Jesus also talks to Nicodemus about being born again, and Nicodemus questions about the logistics of how someone can "physically" be born again. He asks Jesus if someone can enter into their mother's womb a second time. And then again in John 6, Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, but all the people want is physical bread for tomorrow. Then once he starts talking about having to eat his body and drink his blood they say that that's just way too difficult for them and most of them walk away.
John gives us three very concrete, clear examples of how people so often miss ultimate reality, and only go as deep as the surface realities. Now as learned, well-read, enlightened 21st century Christians, many probably would mock Nicodemus, the woman and the disciples saying how foolish they were not to see the obvious truth behind Jesus' message. And yet, I believe we are probably more guilty of this error than any three of them were. And I believe we are guilty of it each and every day. Let me explain how.
Let's just clarify two things here really quickly. When I say "ultimate reality," I'm referring to Jesus. When I say "normal reality", I'm referring to everything else. Our health, relationships, work, hobbies, clothes, appetites, everything. Now I will not go on to say that "normal reality" is bad or should be avoided. Not at all. But never-the-less, it isn't ultimate, and something that's ultimate should by the very definition of ultimate, be of greatest importance.
But there's a problem we face. While Jesus is the much more infinitely valuable reality in our lives, he is much much smaller and seemingly unattainable than the normal realities of life. No matter who you are, I think if people were honest, it's much easier and quicker to respond to and act on our desire for the hamburger, than it is to go read our Bible and spend time with the ultimate reality, Jesus! It's much easier to devote large portions of our day to seeking our trivial information like gossip among friends, catching up on the football games, or watching the Simpsons (that last one would be me), than it is to meditate and study the scriptures.
And it's because Jesus is smaller in our lives than he should be. And to some extent, understandably. We can't see Jesus. We can't touch Jesus. We can't audibly hear his voice. And yet we can see people, movies, friends, advertisements, posters, billboards, and so on. The fact is that normal reality is so easy to grasp and attain, and understand, but ultimate reality is so difficult to get a hold of and understand.
And if normal reality is much easier to understand and experience, it will also be that much more easily satisfying. It will seem that much more immediately gratifying. But if ultimate reality is more hidden, where we see it through a glass darkly, it becomes that much more difficult to delight in and take pleasure in.
But here is the paradox. Jesus, ultimate reality is INFINITELY more to be desired and satisfying than all other reality. He is a fountain of pleasure that satisfies the soul in deeper ways than anything else could ever do. He is more gratifying, and more delightful than every single normal pleasure combined. In fact, normal reality was created for the very purpose of pointing us to the ultimate reality. And the pleasures of normal reality were created for the sole purpose of pointing us to the ultimate pleasures that are only found in Jesus!
So we have this paradox at work. The biggest reality in the world often seems like the smallest. And the reality that often seems the least desirable, is the one that is most fulfilling. Let's go back to John for a moment.
Those people were totally set on normal reality. All they wanted was food and water. They could care less about eternal truths. The screams of normal reality were so loud, that the ultimate truth of Jesus was inaudible to them. Their minds' filters were blocking out all eternal truth, so their hearts weren't getting any of Jesus.
In the same way, we too are so often held back in our desires, because our minds are focused on the wrong things. I believe the Christian life is all about a struggle each and every day to see reality as it really is. To see Jesus! We have to fight to see Jesus everywhere we go and in every moment of our lives. We need to fight to see Jesus in our homes, at work, at restaurants, at movies, and dare I say it even at church. Because there are million small realities that we don't have to fight at all to see every day that can come to the forefront of our minds, and completely block us from seeing Jesus in clear view.
And if our minds can't see Jesus, how will our hearts ever grow in affection for him? My encouragement to you today would be to fight for desiring Jesus, and to fight for your heart, with your mind. What is your mind's energy being spent on? Could it be used more wisely? Could you be feeding your heart with better things?
Now let me just preface one more time by saying clearly that I have left out the crucial factor in all of this, and that is the fact that our mind CAN NOT percieve ultimate reality without the Holy Spirit allowing us to see Jesus for the ultimate reality that he is. We, left ourselves, are blinded by sin to ultimate truth, and we literally can not see it apart from the saving work of the Spirit. But I say this more to Christians who have already had their eyes opened, but now fight each day to keep them open.
(Note: If you've seen the Matrix, hopefully this post made some more sense in light of the ideas the Matrix talked about.)
Now why am I bringing up the Matrix so randomly. It's been a while since I last watched the film. But my life, and particularly my reflections and meditations on God have led me to conclusions that seem strikingly similar to the themes presented in the Matrix.
The big theme I see over and over again in the film, and in life, is the struggle to control, and dominate the mind. Our thoughts. There is very little we do, in a moral sense that is, that doesn't pass through our minds at some point. Our mind is the source of all our actions, the ones that will be judged that is. It is the gateway or channel by which the gospel of Jesus Christ is recieved. Without the mind, we can not process what we hear? And if we can not process the gospel truth through our minds, then we can not possibly say that we have any capability of accepting that truth.
Romans 10:14 "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"
There are three questions raised in that verse where the mind is an essential and implicit factor in salvation. We can't believe or make any sense out of our hearing without a mind to interpret and respond to the message. I wonder how often Christians think about the vital role that the mind plays in a Christian's life. Usually I only hear about the heart, our deisres. Now people may want to debate the relationship between our heart and mind, but scriptures seems to find some difference between them.
Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'..." Why would he make an effort to make a distinction between the heart and mind if they were the same thing? Why make sure to mention both? I wonder if it's because so often we neglect the spiritual health and vitality of our minds, thinking that they don't play as serious of a role as our hearts perhaps.
Now to say that the mind and the heart are two seperate functions of our being does not mean that they act independently of each other. On the contrary, the very interwoven nature of the two is why it is so utterly crucial that we take time to nurture, and care for each. When one suffers, so the other does as well. It's similar to the body and soul relationship. We do not deny that our physical health has a direct correlation with our emotional status. When I'm healthy, I'm generally pretty happy. But when I'm sick, I'm generally prone to depression and distrust in my circumstances.
Thus it goes with the mind and heart as well. As I've mentioned before, our heart is so crucial to our faith. A faith or trust in God that has no affection for Christ is dead. A mere head-knowledge of our savior and Lord will bring no one into the kingdom. The heart must be fought for. But how is that fight waged? How do we bring our hearts into conformity with the gospel? How do we come to love the things that God loves, and hate the things that he hates. How do we see him each day as more beautiful, and more satifying that all of the temptations that scream in our ears from morning till night. I believe that this war is largely waged on the battlefield of our minds.
Our minds, if you like imagry, are perhaps like filters to our hearts. The mind only lets the heart engage with what it will allow it to recieve. The heart reacts to the things our minds are engaged with. If we engage our minds with only trivial ideas and matters, the heart has very little to work with there. And yet, the heart must love. The heart must ache for desires. The heart must attach itself to...something. And thus, if you only feed your heart with garbage, the heart will learn to love that garbage. The heart will see that garbage as food to nurish itself, unaware that that filth is slowly destorying it. Speaking at least personally, the heart to me seems pretty stupid, while the mind tends to be the more intelligent partner in this relationship. There's a lot of things I know in my mind, that I just can't seem to get my heart to go on board with. At the same time, there are a lot of things are know are pretty stupid, and yet my heart tells me that these stupid things are of the utmost importance, and all-satisfying.
So, if we recognize the weakness of the heart, we must take some huge steps to helping it out. Now, please let me clarify something here. When I say that the heart is stupid, I don't deny the fact that when Christ enters the heart, the heart immediately gets incredibly wise beyond all nature, and affirms the truth that Jesus is all satisfying. But with that said, the heart is still so easily swayed by sin. So I just wanted to clarify by saying that I believe that every human heart, at it's core, understands that only Jesus can satisfy it's deepest longings and desires.
Now back to the fight. Basically the point of this blog is to awaken us to the fact that for the sake of our hearts and minds, we must fight to see REALITY each and every day. Now what do I mean by reality? I would like to break up reality into two subcategories. The first one would be "normal reality," or "seemingly tangible reality." The second category I would like to present would be "ultimate reality." The clearest example I can see for this is in the gospel of John. Over and over again, Christ makes this distinction between the seemingly tangible reality, and ultimate reality.
The first example is with Jesus and the woman at the well. He says to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you(H) living water." 11The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12(I) Are you greater than our father Jacob?
Then later he tries to explain to her one more time, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of eternal life." Then the woman responds to him by saying, "Sir,(N) give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
So twice Jesus explains to her about the living water, and both times she misses it. Jesus also talks to Nicodemus about being born again, and Nicodemus questions about the logistics of how someone can "physically" be born again. He asks Jesus if someone can enter into their mother's womb a second time. And then again in John 6, Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, but all the people want is physical bread for tomorrow. Then once he starts talking about having to eat his body and drink his blood they say that that's just way too difficult for them and most of them walk away.
John gives us three very concrete, clear examples of how people so often miss ultimate reality, and only go as deep as the surface realities. Now as learned, well-read, enlightened 21st century Christians, many probably would mock Nicodemus, the woman and the disciples saying how foolish they were not to see the obvious truth behind Jesus' message. And yet, I believe we are probably more guilty of this error than any three of them were. And I believe we are guilty of it each and every day. Let me explain how.
Let's just clarify two things here really quickly. When I say "ultimate reality," I'm referring to Jesus. When I say "normal reality", I'm referring to everything else. Our health, relationships, work, hobbies, clothes, appetites, everything. Now I will not go on to say that "normal reality" is bad or should be avoided. Not at all. But never-the-less, it isn't ultimate, and something that's ultimate should by the very definition of ultimate, be of greatest importance.
But there's a problem we face. While Jesus is the much more infinitely valuable reality in our lives, he is much much smaller and seemingly unattainable than the normal realities of life. No matter who you are, I think if people were honest, it's much easier and quicker to respond to and act on our desire for the hamburger, than it is to go read our Bible and spend time with the ultimate reality, Jesus! It's much easier to devote large portions of our day to seeking our trivial information like gossip among friends, catching up on the football games, or watching the Simpsons (that last one would be me), than it is to meditate and study the scriptures.
And it's because Jesus is smaller in our lives than he should be. And to some extent, understandably. We can't see Jesus. We can't touch Jesus. We can't audibly hear his voice. And yet we can see people, movies, friends, advertisements, posters, billboards, and so on. The fact is that normal reality is so easy to grasp and attain, and understand, but ultimate reality is so difficult to get a hold of and understand.
And if normal reality is much easier to understand and experience, it will also be that much more easily satisfying. It will seem that much more immediately gratifying. But if ultimate reality is more hidden, where we see it through a glass darkly, it becomes that much more difficult to delight in and take pleasure in.
But here is the paradox. Jesus, ultimate reality is INFINITELY more to be desired and satisfying than all other reality. He is a fountain of pleasure that satisfies the soul in deeper ways than anything else could ever do. He is more gratifying, and more delightful than every single normal pleasure combined. In fact, normal reality was created for the very purpose of pointing us to the ultimate reality. And the pleasures of normal reality were created for the sole purpose of pointing us to the ultimate pleasures that are only found in Jesus!
So we have this paradox at work. The biggest reality in the world often seems like the smallest. And the reality that often seems the least desirable, is the one that is most fulfilling. Let's go back to John for a moment.
Those people were totally set on normal reality. All they wanted was food and water. They could care less about eternal truths. The screams of normal reality were so loud, that the ultimate truth of Jesus was inaudible to them. Their minds' filters were blocking out all eternal truth, so their hearts weren't getting any of Jesus.
In the same way, we too are so often held back in our desires, because our minds are focused on the wrong things. I believe the Christian life is all about a struggle each and every day to see reality as it really is. To see Jesus! We have to fight to see Jesus everywhere we go and in every moment of our lives. We need to fight to see Jesus in our homes, at work, at restaurants, at movies, and dare I say it even at church. Because there are million small realities that we don't have to fight at all to see every day that can come to the forefront of our minds, and completely block us from seeing Jesus in clear view.
And if our minds can't see Jesus, how will our hearts ever grow in affection for him? My encouragement to you today would be to fight for desiring Jesus, and to fight for your heart, with your mind. What is your mind's energy being spent on? Could it be used more wisely? Could you be feeding your heart with better things?
Now let me just preface one more time by saying clearly that I have left out the crucial factor in all of this, and that is the fact that our mind CAN NOT percieve ultimate reality without the Holy Spirit allowing us to see Jesus for the ultimate reality that he is. We, left ourselves, are blinded by sin to ultimate truth, and we literally can not see it apart from the saving work of the Spirit. But I say this more to Christians who have already had their eyes opened, but now fight each day to keep them open.
(Note: If you've seen the Matrix, hopefully this post made some more sense in light of the ideas the Matrix talked about.)
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Redeeming Battle Rap
Earlier I posted a couple blogs about some Christian rappers that I was listening to, and over the past year or so, I've continued to listen and get more encouraged by their ministries. Many of these guys live in Philly, and many of them go to, and preach at Epiphany Fellowship, which is one of the churches that I podcast every week.
Recently I came across a video that just blew my mind away. For many of those who are reading this, you might need some background explanation. First, in the title, I used the term battle rap. Basically, battle rapping is when two rappers go against each other in a freestyle contest (meaning they are making up their lyrics on the spot, no preparation). Now I have to admit, that I've seen many battle raps on TV, and actually one in person in Philly once, and they are pretty impressive. These guys can just come up with really incredible, intelligent lyrics on the spot. They've got some incredible gifts and talents. Unfortunately, the problem with battle rapping is that it's almost always used to insult the other rapper in often a very degrading way. So most of the battle rapping I've seen has not been glorifying to God. But, as any good cultural analyst would point out, you can't say that just because medium isn't used correctly, that we should just throw it out.
And those are the same feelings of these Christian rappers in Philly. They saw the ligitimacy of battle rap, and redeemed it for Christ. What you will see in this video is "Christian battle rapping." Basically what they do is keep the format exactly the same, even the insult part of it. It's two rappers competing against each other, seeing who can say the better line to shut down the other person. It's almost like a lyrical debate in a sense. But the premise is that one rapper is "Christian" (like in Pilgrim's Progress), and the other rapper is "Sin." So the rapper playing "Sin" talks the way sin would talk, and basically trying to bring the Christian down (similar to CS Lewis' Screwtape), and the other rapper playing "Christian" heaps on all of the victory of Christ against sin.
You have to watch this video, it's amazing, and so awesome to see these guys redeeming culture where they're at. I love and respect these guys so much, they are totally on mission! This clip is only part one of 4 parts, so if you want to check out more, you can go to youtube to check out the other parts.
The guy wearing the Phillies jersey is named Shai Linne. I've actually posted a video about him before, but I can't stop giving him props, he's just the man!
He's so reformed and unashamed of it, and he preaches difficult, high level catachism in his lyrics. If kids were listening to these guys more, they'd have a better understanding of biblical theology than most people in the church these days I think. Check out the lyrics to one of Shai Linne's songs, they're on this video. He uses some big words here that I still get mixed up on sometimes. You have to go to the youtube site to watch it because my blog cuts off part of the screen, so you can't read all of the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RUciHVpCbw
Recently I came across a video that just blew my mind away. For many of those who are reading this, you might need some background explanation. First, in the title, I used the term battle rap. Basically, battle rapping is when two rappers go against each other in a freestyle contest (meaning they are making up their lyrics on the spot, no preparation). Now I have to admit, that I've seen many battle raps on TV, and actually one in person in Philly once, and they are pretty impressive. These guys can just come up with really incredible, intelligent lyrics on the spot. They've got some incredible gifts and talents. Unfortunately, the problem with battle rapping is that it's almost always used to insult the other rapper in often a very degrading way. So most of the battle rapping I've seen has not been glorifying to God. But, as any good cultural analyst would point out, you can't say that just because medium isn't used correctly, that we should just throw it out.
And those are the same feelings of these Christian rappers in Philly. They saw the ligitimacy of battle rap, and redeemed it for Christ. What you will see in this video is "Christian battle rapping." Basically what they do is keep the format exactly the same, even the insult part of it. It's two rappers competing against each other, seeing who can say the better line to shut down the other person. It's almost like a lyrical debate in a sense. But the premise is that one rapper is "Christian" (like in Pilgrim's Progress), and the other rapper is "Sin." So the rapper playing "Sin" talks the way sin would talk, and basically trying to bring the Christian down (similar to CS Lewis' Screwtape), and the other rapper playing "Christian" heaps on all of the victory of Christ against sin.
You have to watch this video, it's amazing, and so awesome to see these guys redeeming culture where they're at. I love and respect these guys so much, they are totally on mission! This clip is only part one of 4 parts, so if you want to check out more, you can go to youtube to check out the other parts.
The guy wearing the Phillies jersey is named Shai Linne. I've actually posted a video about him before, but I can't stop giving him props, he's just the man!
He's so reformed and unashamed of it, and he preaches difficult, high level catachism in his lyrics. If kids were listening to these guys more, they'd have a better understanding of biblical theology than most people in the church these days I think. Check out the lyrics to one of Shai Linne's songs, they're on this video. He uses some big words here that I still get mixed up on sometimes. You have to go to the youtube site to watch it because my blog cuts off part of the screen, so you can't read all of the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RUciHVpCbw
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Trusting the Lord (QT sharing)
So in my daily devotions I've been reading through Numbers, and I find as I read the Old Testament, there's often such an untapped reservoir into the character of God. You learn to fear the Lord, and also want to praise him so much more by reading the Old Testament. But I'm sure everyone is already aware of this, so I won't waste my time preaching to choir on the importance of immersing ourselves in the Old Testament.
But one thing that really stuck out to me was in Numbers 13-14. In short, it's the passage where the spies are sent into Canaan to see what the promised land is like. They come back to the Israelites and all of them except Joshua and Caleb gave a despairing report of what they saw. They reported how the people in that land were much stronger than them, and that there was no way for them to overcome them. Then the people began to grumble and say how it would have been better for them to stay in Egypt. God's response to this lack of faith and trust in the Lord is quite strong. God basically says to Moses that he wants to strike the Israelites with pestilence and disinherit them for their lack of trust, and he'll allow Moses to start over with making a new nation. But Moses intercedes for the people, and God doesn't disinherit them, but he does end up killing all of the spies except Joshua and Caleb. He also extends their wandering for another 40 years.
And as I read this passage, I thought to myself, "this is all due to a lack of trust in God." The extra 4o years and all of the death is due to a sinful anxiety on the part of the Israelites. Now let's put ourselves in the position of the Israelites before we write them off as fools who should have trusted God. The people in Canaan were much stronger than the Israelites, so by mere human strength, they couldn't win. How often do we judge a situation without once consulting God? How often do we make choices while forgetting that the God of the universe is on our side, working all things for our good?
I found myself reading these passages with a humbled spirit and honestly an ashamed one as well. More and more, God reveals to me my unbelieving, untrusting, forgetful heart. More often God shows me how much I'm relying on my own strength, and putting no trust in him.
Now people always talk about trusting God. But I find usually we talk about it in an either light manner, or as merely something that would be beneficial for us to do. And the Bible obviously sees it as beneficial for us as well. Passages like Matthew 6:25-34 and Philippians 4:6-7 are some of the most comforting passages in the Bible, and I'm sure these are passages that many of us have memorized (or at least a paraphrased memorization).
But if you look at Numbers 13 and 14, and Mark 4, we get a different side of the trust coin. In Mark 4, when we look at the parable of the sower, we see that when the seed falls on one of the bad soils, the truth is choked out by the "cares" or "worries" of this world, and that makes the soil unfruitful. Do we really recognize the warning being presented in this passage? That worrying and anxiety leads to unfruitfulness. Then if we turn to John 15:2, Christ is clear that the Father cuts off any branch that doesn't bear any fruit. Do we see the concrete contrast between a Christian and one who is swept up in anxiety and worrying?
And looking again at Numbers, I see the seriousness that worrying is as a sin. We generally I don't tend to think of not trusting in God as a sin, but obviously God sees it as a very serious sin, a sin that's worthy of death. Usually like I said earlier, trusting in God seems like an added bonus, but not a necessity. But on the contrary, trusting in God is what faith is all about. Without a deep-rooted trust in Christ, you can not call yourself a Christian.
Now that might be obvious to most people. Obviously we have to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, but how often do we trust in him for the daily cares of our lives? How often do we trust God with such a serious matter such as our eternal destiny, but think that he can't handle the next couple weeks of our lives because of some important decision we have to make.
This hits me hard as I think about my battle to make a decision about next year. I really want to go to seminary, but then I think about all of the bad things that "could" happen, and all the things I'll be giving up by leaving Korea. Now this is not to say that I shouldn't make a wise, informed, well-thought out decision, but am I making this decision in the blanket trust of God. Am I bringing my petitions before God like in Psalm 25 and 32, that he will counsel me in the steps I need to take? I can't honestly say that I've done this well. One of my biggest sins is in this very area. I don't trust people, or God easily. But this doesn't make me any less responsible to do it, and passages like Numbers let me see this issue in a new light; and show me how offensive this sin is to God.
May we all seek to trust God more for everything, because I honestly think if you say that you trust him with the big things (like salvation), but you can't practically trust him for tomorrow's food, there's an imbalance there that needs to be examined carefully. That's what I'm seeking to examine in my own life now.
But one thing that really stuck out to me was in Numbers 13-14. In short, it's the passage where the spies are sent into Canaan to see what the promised land is like. They come back to the Israelites and all of them except Joshua and Caleb gave a despairing report of what they saw. They reported how the people in that land were much stronger than them, and that there was no way for them to overcome them. Then the people began to grumble and say how it would have been better for them to stay in Egypt. God's response to this lack of faith and trust in the Lord is quite strong. God basically says to Moses that he wants to strike the Israelites with pestilence and disinherit them for their lack of trust, and he'll allow Moses to start over with making a new nation. But Moses intercedes for the people, and God doesn't disinherit them, but he does end up killing all of the spies except Joshua and Caleb. He also extends their wandering for another 40 years.
And as I read this passage, I thought to myself, "this is all due to a lack of trust in God." The extra 4o years and all of the death is due to a sinful anxiety on the part of the Israelites. Now let's put ourselves in the position of the Israelites before we write them off as fools who should have trusted God. The people in Canaan were much stronger than the Israelites, so by mere human strength, they couldn't win. How often do we judge a situation without once consulting God? How often do we make choices while forgetting that the God of the universe is on our side, working all things for our good?
I found myself reading these passages with a humbled spirit and honestly an ashamed one as well. More and more, God reveals to me my unbelieving, untrusting, forgetful heart. More often God shows me how much I'm relying on my own strength, and putting no trust in him.
Now people always talk about trusting God. But I find usually we talk about it in an either light manner, or as merely something that would be beneficial for us to do. And the Bible obviously sees it as beneficial for us as well. Passages like Matthew 6:25-34 and Philippians 4:6-7 are some of the most comforting passages in the Bible, and I'm sure these are passages that many of us have memorized (or at least a paraphrased memorization).
But if you look at Numbers 13 and 14, and Mark 4, we get a different side of the trust coin. In Mark 4, when we look at the parable of the sower, we see that when the seed falls on one of the bad soils, the truth is choked out by the "cares" or "worries" of this world, and that makes the soil unfruitful. Do we really recognize the warning being presented in this passage? That worrying and anxiety leads to unfruitfulness. Then if we turn to John 15:2, Christ is clear that the Father cuts off any branch that doesn't bear any fruit. Do we see the concrete contrast between a Christian and one who is swept up in anxiety and worrying?
And looking again at Numbers, I see the seriousness that worrying is as a sin. We generally I don't tend to think of not trusting in God as a sin, but obviously God sees it as a very serious sin, a sin that's worthy of death. Usually like I said earlier, trusting in God seems like an added bonus, but not a necessity. But on the contrary, trusting in God is what faith is all about. Without a deep-rooted trust in Christ, you can not call yourself a Christian.
Now that might be obvious to most people. Obviously we have to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, but how often do we trust in him for the daily cares of our lives? How often do we trust God with such a serious matter such as our eternal destiny, but think that he can't handle the next couple weeks of our lives because of some important decision we have to make.
This hits me hard as I think about my battle to make a decision about next year. I really want to go to seminary, but then I think about all of the bad things that "could" happen, and all the things I'll be giving up by leaving Korea. Now this is not to say that I shouldn't make a wise, informed, well-thought out decision, but am I making this decision in the blanket trust of God. Am I bringing my petitions before God like in Psalm 25 and 32, that he will counsel me in the steps I need to take? I can't honestly say that I've done this well. One of my biggest sins is in this very area. I don't trust people, or God easily. But this doesn't make me any less responsible to do it, and passages like Numbers let me see this issue in a new light; and show me how offensive this sin is to God.
May we all seek to trust God more for everything, because I honestly think if you say that you trust him with the big things (like salvation), but you can't practically trust him for tomorrow's food, there's an imbalance there that needs to be examined carefully. That's what I'm seeking to examine in my own life now.
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