Deeper Waters

There is a belief we speak of in modern talk. It is the belief that when the disciples went out after the resurrection, that twelve ordinary men turned the world upside-down. It has never been the same since. I started saying it at the coffeeshop I was at Tuesday night in speaking to the owner. Well, I did say it and when I finished, I corrected it immediately.

I saw immediately the reverse was true. They did not turn the world upside-down. They turned the world right-side up! The world was already upside down in chaos and confusion since the fall. We were already all like sheep that had gone astray and each of us was seeking our own way.

The world had been created good, but it was sin that had messed things up. If the world was a musical masterpiece, sin was a bad note that entered into the harmony. It brought things out of sync with each other. It is because of sin, that we have things that do not belong in this world. (Not necessarily our sin. The sin of Satan as well.)

How can we speak of the world as in proper alignment at that time? How can we speak of it as in improper alignment after Christ came! The victory is ours, though there are of course battles to fight. It is not that the war is lost. It is that some have not heard that it is over or they do not believe it is won. (Or even, the depth of man’s depravity, that some do not believe it even exists.)

No. The resurrection was the great note in our masterpiece symphony! It is from the point of the resurrection that all creation enters a crescendo until we reach the grand finale. It is at that point that all creation will worship him who sits on the throne and the lamb and will praise him.

Paradise has been lost, but it will be restored. Christ does not take us from it. He takes us to it. That which has been wronged will be made right. Christ does not destroy that which is good. He brings it to its total greatness. We would do well to keep in mind that that is what he intends to do with us as well!

I simply wish to make a simple point. Did the disciples change the world with the message of Christ? They surely did! Let us not say it was turned upside-down though. Let us say that it was we who were upside-down, and the gospel is what has turned us right-side up.

There are some times when I come to my blog and I have a simple shoot from the hip approach. It means that I’m not going into a long and thought out argument. These are just things that I am pondering at the time. Now I could have pondered them for a long time, like tonight’s, but I have no “This is all I want to say” tonight. I just want it to flow. My topic will be prayer.

I told a friend of mine tonight that I would really like to improve my prayer life. Why do I say this? I’d like to say that I am a man of prayer, but I know in many ways I am not. I do not leave prayer usually in a happy, happy, joy, joy mood. A lot of this is because I and probably many others don’t have much knowledge on how to do it.

I also think a lot of it comes from pop Christianity. I don’t care for the system on hearing the voice of God and listening for it. I don’t see that taught as normative Christian practice. It is a more modern idea that has been put in our doctrine. I find that those who teach it the most inevitably show that they don’t believe in it either.

So where does my problem lie? My problem is that we find it so difficult. It seems that when I wake up and have to do my duties and fix my breakfast and do some reading and go work 9 hours and come home and relax, that finding prayer in there doesn’t seem to happen until I get to bed.

Once it starts, how long does it go? Is it more spiritual for instance to pray for an hour? We really have no criteria. The command to pray without ceasing would seem to indicate that prayer is more of a lifestyle than an activity. We say the same with worship after all. Worship is not something done at one time in the day but an event throughout the day.

I think about this with people who have what they call quiet time. If you have it and it helps you get closer to God and know him better, great. I just don’t see this in Scripture. I am more interested in a life of devotion than I am interested in doing what is called “devotions.”

Yes. The Bible says early in the morning will I seek you. I don’t think that means though that it’s more Christian to wake up early in the morning. It’s more likely that simply since the ancients did not have indoor lighting like we do today (And sometimes I wish we could get back to those days) that they woke up in the morning and so they began seeking God in the morning.

I do think I would love to get back to such times though because life did seem simpler back then. It seems that the more labor saving devices we have today, the less time we have. We have more books printed than ever before, but we seem to have less time to read them.

When you get to prayer, what do you say? I simply try to say what’s on the heart. That’s it. There are many times I’m honestly not caring too much about requests friends give me. That saddens me, but it’s true. I pray for them anyway. I want to be the kind of person that I pray about. I find it important to know who I am and who I want to be.

Do I see myself as a great lover of God? No. Not really. That is saddening. Do I see myself as a prayer warrior as they are called? Not at all. I recognize room for improvement. My friends would say I’m being too hard on myself. They’re probably right. I suppose I should ask them to pray for me.

What are my thoughts then? I have a ways to go. Why am I saying this? Because I don’t think I’m alone. Chances are, you could be the same way. If so, let me know. Let’s try to help each other out and really develop a doctrine of prayer.

I was listening to Eddie Tabash and William Lane Craig debate secular humanism vs. Christianity on MP3 last Sunday. I have to say that I was quite disappointed by Tabash in this one. He suffers from what I call the “Veruca Salt” complex, where he will believe in God when God does what he wants and could only constantly complain about “Well what if my grandmother is in Hell?!”

Now, I don’t delight in people being in Hell, but the whole time I was hearing that, I was thinking that this is the exact opposite of Man or Rabbit. That’s the title of an essay by C.S. Lewis where some people asked if you needed Christianity. Couldn’t you be good without it? Lewis says that is a foolish question to ask. We should ask if it is true. Also, Christ does not call us to be good. He transforms us instead.

Tabash is asking the opposite in reverse. If Christianity is true, it does not matter whether you like it or not. If your grandmother is in Hell, saying “I don’t like it” will not change it. The way to avoid Hell is not to make people ignorant. Jesus came so that we might believe. The way of salvation is belief and not disbelief.

Why is this objection irrelevant? It simply boils down to “I don’t like it, therefore it can’t be true.” Unfortunately, I believe a lot of things that I like that aren’t true. I believe that I have a limited amount of money in the bank. I’d like to say I have millions, but that wouldn’t be true.

In fact, we do choose truth over happiness in that regards. Many of us would be happy believing we’re financially secure. We choose to believe we’re not though. Why? Because it’s true that we’re not. We would rather be true and unhappy than we would be happy and false.

Now if Tabash wants to argue that this is immoral, that’s a whole other line, but that is inconsistent to believe while espousing moral relativism as he does.  From what I could gather though, it boiled down to that Tabash just doesn’t like Christianity. So what? I don’t like a lot of things about it at times. I still follow it though. Why? Because it’s true.

Remember friends. One question must always be asked. “Is it true?” It matters not how much I like or dislike a belief. What matters is if it is true.

Last night, I was feeling kind of down about myself. I have a lot of struggles that I am quite certain many people don’t have. I remember thinking about my blog from last night and praying at night as I wasn’t feeling too well either, “Lord. Sometimes, I’d just like to get to live a normal life.” My mind started considering what I had said then. A normal life? Whoever said I was to live a normal life?

The thought has been on my mind much today. Did Jesus come and die and rise again just so I could go to work, make money, come home, enjoy myself, and then eventually die? Did Jesus come just so I could get married and have kids and have a family and leave more for the next generation? Did he come just so I could go to church every Sunday? Did he come so I could have a game night with my friends?

There’s nothing wrong with any of these things. They’re all great things to do. However, Jesus came so that we might have life in the full. He came not that we would avoid life but that we would experience it. Jesus did not come so we could go about life the way it went about before he came.

I was reading later and came across this Nelson Mandela quote which has also been attributed to Marianne Williamson:

it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

I remember talking to my roommate last night about Seminary and my hopes that we would rock Seminary. Well why not? What should we say? I hope we’ll go and be two ordinary students and be forgotten when we leave and just wind up as faces in the crowd.

No. We need to go and do the best we can! Doing the best we can will hopefully inspire others to do the same. It is amazing that if we thought a child wanted to study to win the National Spelling Bee, that we’d think that was tremendous. If he wanted to be a winner in the Olympics, we’d tell him to give it all he had! If he wants to be an outstanding Christian though, we tell him to be sure he’s humble.

I’ve nothing against humility, but humility doesn’t mean that you sit around and be unnoticed. If you can make a difference in the world, then by all means do so. Guess what! You can! You can because you are an image bearer of God and you were put here to reflect him. If you reflect him, you will make a difference.

So what is the goal? Be the best you can in what you do. C.S. Lewis said our problem is that we are far too easily pleased. We settle for an ordinary life when Christ wants to give us an extraordinary life. Let us not let fear keep us from the blessings of God.

I was sitting in church tonight and my pastor was leading us in prayer. He prayed in the prayer something along the lines of “Let us not be distracted from life by the things of life.” I don’t know if he was really pondering what he had said just then, but I sure spent a lot of time thinking about it.

My first thought was that the idea was absurd. How could the things of life keep us from life? Then I realized that it was I that was absurd. That is, in fact, what always happens. We get so caught up on so many things on the road of life that we forget where it is that we are going.

Imagine what it would mean if you were driving down a road and you just spent all the time looking at scenery and billboards and you spent so much time that you forgot where you were going. Even if you take a scenic route while driving, you at least have an idea where you are and where you’re going. You don’t drive to see billboards normally, but you can be distracted by them. You drive to get somewhere, but those things on the side can divert your attention.

It is the same with all things. If we take a good thing and forget its purpose, we can easily end up with an addiction. Food is good, but it’s purpose is to provide nourishment. If we make it the end though, we will develop an addiction. The same goes for gambling, drinking, sex, or anything else.

In fact, take sex as an example. (By which I mean sexual intercourse of course.) Every young man dreams of it, but pity the man who marries just for it! In such a case, he is not wanting the beloved. He is merely wanting a function that she can provide. In marriage though, the truly good lover is not the one who merely wants sex, it is the one who wants the beloved and sex is the means. For one, the woman is the means to sex. For the true lover, sex is the means to the woman.

In fact, this is what makes it unique. If I was a married man, I could go to any woman on the street and get sex. Of course, it would be wrong, but I could do so. There is only one thing I couldn’t get from every woman on the street though. That would be the woman I love, the wife I’d have. Thus, when a married man looks forward to a “romantic evening” with his wife, he is not looking forward to just a physical thrill. He is looking forward to getting the beloved.

A similar type of analogy can help us with understanding the problem of evil. Consider the case of a man who has just got married and wants to be with his new wife. He is driving to their place wherever it may be in his excitement and unfortunately, hits a small object in the road and gets a flat tire. Our young man is a Romeo though. He will not simply tell the girl to get in the back seat because he can’t wait. He will repair it. Thus, he gets out and fixes the flat tire and then they drive to their destination for their first time together.

How is a person to look back on the situation? I think the true romantic would laugh. That is what the Problem of Evil is though in many ways. We are invited to be on the road to Paradise, yet there is suffering on the way. When we reach Paradise though, will we be complaining? No. In fact, any great inconvenience and suffering at the time will seem minimal when compared to the glory there.

Who are the people complaining about the problem of evil? They’re the ones that look back on the honeymoon and think of the flat tire. The ones we are to be are the ones that look back and remember the honeymoon. When we remember the tire, while it was suffering at the time, we’ll tell it as a funny story.

I must point out a danger for one in my position. I am always in a rush to accumulate more and more knowledge. However, I have to keep in mind, and maybe this is common for apologists, that the purpose of the knowledge is to bring glory to God. I do not acquire it for the sake of acquiring it. I have to watch and be careful that I don’t fall into pride either. I take great comfort that Paul said that he was given a messenger so he would avoid pride on account of his great revelations in 2 Cor. 12.

Friends. We are on the road of life. Let’s remember why we’re here. We’re here for God’s glory and joy. Not ours. Now if we follow the path, we will get glory and joy, but that is a by-product of the path. It is not the reason we are on the path. Look to that goal and be not distracted by the things of this world. Enjoy them, but make sure they have their proper place under him.

What if I told you that there was a proposition that was neither true or false? You could look at it any way but you could not ask the question really “Is it true?” or “Is it false?” Why? Because all the terms are meaningless. Colorless green florks swinzle routinely. Does anyone have any idea whether that is true or false or is it just meaningless? (And of course, contradictory. Take out green and it’s still nonsense.)

I was listening to an audio debate yesterday between Craig and Atkins. Atkins, being the atheist, is a moral relativist. William Lane Craig I believe soundly defeated the views of Atkins, but at one point, they were speaking on moral relativism. It is amazing that relativists still want to avoid some conclusions of their system.

Relativists want to deny that their system means that there is no moral distinction between Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler. When it’s told that if people embrace this worldview, they will act in such a way, they want to deny it. Now I’d say a lot of moral relativists in America are still good people. That’s the problem though. They have no reason to be good or any concept of it.

That’s what I was screaming out listening to the debate. I wanted Atkins to tell me what good meant. We can argue that a system produces good. What is good? Is there any way that you can look at moral relativism and say that it produces good people if you believe in it? Not at all. Why? Look at the proposition.

Moral Relativism produces good people.

The problem is that the first part makes the second part nonsense. If moral relativism is true, there can be no such thing as a good person. There can be no such thing as a bad person. There is only a person. How can you say any action is good or bad or any person if all such concepts are relative?

Greg Koukl talks about having a caller on his program once who was a moral relativist and he wanted this person to really show what moral relativism leads to. The caller went beyond the “call of duty.” When asked a moral question like “Is it wrong to torture babies for fun?” the caller said “The question doesn’t even make sense.”

That caller is absolutely right. If moral relativism holds the day, then the propositions that concern terms like good, evil, better, ought, etc. in a moral context are meaningless. However, that leads to a question. If these are so meaningless, why is it that our language abounds with them and even Atkins at one point in the debate said that something was evil?

Why? Because we all do know the truth. Some actions are right and some are wrong. Good is not a vacuous term. It has meaning. The moral relativist should say “Murder is morally wrong,” is a meaningless statement as it is neither true or false. The absolutist can say “Amen.”

Friends. Moral relativism is a philosophy we can’t let hold the day. We all know some actions are good and ought to be done and some are wrong and ought not to be done. Let’s stand up for those.

Let me tell you about Erica Corder. Erica Corder is a young woman who was pointed out to me by an agnostic. While it was intended to shame, I hope my article will be used for glory. Why? Because I never heard of this girl until today, but now that I know about her, I think she’s a hero for us all.

What did she do? She was Valedictorian of her class and after her speech, she chose to speak briefly on Jesus Christ. School officials made her apologize in a group email for these remarks before they would give her her diploma. Now, she’s fighting back. She and her family are suing for the right to free speech and the only money they want is to pay attorney fees.

The principal, Mark Brewer, in the story told her that her comments were immature. I’ll tell you all this. There is someone immature here and it is not the girl. What is immature is whining because you think you were permanently scarred because someone mentioned Jesus Christ in a graduation speech.

Now someone might say, “Well what if it was a Muslim?” If a Muslim wanted to at the end give thanks to Allah and tell people to read the Qu’ran, let them. I have no problem with that. I am not afraid of other ideas being out in the marketplace. Why? As long as they’re open to discussion, I am convinced that Christianity can beat them all.

I say we need to honor this girl. A Christian who is silent is not going to change their society around them. This girl is taking a stand and to quote pop culture, “You go girl!” I wish more Christians would take stands like this. Part of what’s held us back is that we haven’t spoken when we’ve been trampled on.

Erica is speaking. For that, I honor her! If anyone wants to see it, here is the story itself.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5686493,00.html

Congratulations Erica Corder! You have your own post here because frankly, you deserve it for reminding us all that we should stand for our faith! May many more follow after you!

I’m not much of a music person. That shocks a lot of people, but I’m not. In church services, I tend to prefer the old hymns to much of Contemporary Christian Music. However, if I had my choice, I’d simply prefer to get straight into preaching and teaching. In fact, I think if we were being accurate, we should save the music for last and have the preaching first.

That is for another day though. My concern is with music in the secular world. In many ways, I like a lot of secular music more than other types. I like music that gets me inspired and excites me to be all that I can be. I like music that pulls up great memories and that makes me want to adventure.

When I was eight years old, I had to go to have eye surgery for I was cross-eyed. I remember only one song played on the radio that whole trip at around 4:30 in the morning to the hospital. It was “Theme From Mahogany.” I think about being eight and having that trip every time I hear that song. I still think it’s powerful when I consider the lyrics. Do I know where I’m going to?

I’m also a gamer as many of you know. Play me some good music from Final Fantasy and I am ready for action. Video game music has long been a big seller for me. I have also shown an intense love for Smallville. “Save Me”, the theme song to the show, is my phone’s ring tone in fact. That music will inspire.

Yet I am concerned about the music of today. I see music as something sacred. I think the Greeks were right in having muses. In fact, this is a thoroughly Christian idea. The Bible says that when God created, the angels sang for joy. In the creation stories of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, music was the instrument by which God created.

Yet I thin in our society today, the muses are being disgraced. It has been said that all revolutions in history began with a musical revelation and Andrew Fletcher is quoted as saying “Let me write the songs of a nation. I don’t care who writes its laws.” Music has powerful effects on society.

This isn’t a modern idea. This is one Plato had. In the second chapter of his Republic, he goes on and on about the kind of music that will be listened to in the city. (In comparison, only one paragraph in the whole work focuses on economics.) Plato knew the effect music would have on the young.

I see kids singing songs and I don’t think they really know the lyrics and if they do, they don’t understand them. These songs are often unintelligible. A “singer” is going so fast that what he or she says cannot be understood. Instead, it seems to be taken in and mindlessly repeated. Music can get past the gateposts of reason very easily after all.

This is most evident to me in Gangsta Rap, as it is called. I’ll be blunt. I can’t stand rap. The huge majority I hear of it is junk. Some of you won’t like that, but I have no intentions of lying. The gangster type though is the worst of the worst. We all know the types. The types that speak of violence towards women, constant sexual imagery, and profanity.

I believe the muses are disgraced. Not all that is called music has the right to be called music and we seem to have an attitude that anything goes. I think music, while I’m not a big fan, is much more important than that. In fact, that could be a reason I’m not a big fan. I haven’t heard much that qualifies.

It’s something sacred. So sacred that we must guard it vehemently and not let impostors into its camp. It is a powerful force and it will either be used righteously or it will be used to destroy us and unfortunately, it looks like the latter now. If the music of the youth today is any indication, the future is grim.

I think we need a musical revolution today. We need good and pure music that reflects the muses. I’m not saying it all has to be explicitly religious music. It doesn’t. It needs to be music though that spurs us onto qualities of godliness. If this is going to change though, it must begin with us.

I had this thought pondering in my mind the other day. The Phoenix is a favorite Christian symbol of mine. It was used by Clement, one of the first church fathers. If you know your mythology, the Phoenix is said to die and then from the fiery explosion of its death, a new Phoenix would arise. In other words, the Phoenix always rose from its own ashes.

Let me ask you this question. What if you were a Phoenix? Alright. Just think about it. See how you would reply to this question.

Would you be afraid of death?

I think the answer is no. You wouldn’t be. Why? Because you know you’ll just come right back from it! What is there to be afraid of?

So what does that have to do with Christianity?

Well, let’s ask some questions.

If you knew that the one you serve is all-powerful and knows the beginning from the end, would you fear anything past, present, or future?

If you knew that your sins were truly forgiven, would you live in misery of the past?

If you knew that God was true in all he said, would you ever sin?

If you knew that you are loved by the perfect one, would you think more properly of yourself?

If you knew that Jesus rose from the dead and promised the same for you, would you fear death?

If you knew that you are an image-bearer of God, would you live like one?

These are all questions we can ask. For that reason, I’m going to keep my blog short tonight. If you were a Phoenix, you wouldn’t fear death. You and I are all these other things. Should we not seek to live accordingly?

My friend Rodney called me tonight. I’d like my blog readers to pray for him. He did get married in June and his wife’s grandfather was becoming a part of his life quickly. He didn’t really know his grandparents. His grandfather didn’t go in for dialysis. It’s only a matter of time at that point.

Romans 12:14 says to mourn with those who mourn. I thought about that as I got his voicemail and called him. What do you say in those situations? Of course, this will be much harder on his wife, so what is he to do? This is the second death that his wife’s family has had to deal with this year.

Rodney is quite humorous and was joking some on the phone even, but I told him to be cautious with such. We seem to get to the point with people where we think that if they’re sad sometimes, we need to cheer them up. Sometimes, that does help. Others, it only makes the problem worse.

Emotions are natural things. They need to be worked through. It’s natural when you lose someone close to you to have grief. It’s not abnormal. The abnormality would be if you didn’t have grief. That kind of depression and sorrow is not a disease. It is simply a process that must run its course.

Some of us want to find the right words to say. The right words to say could be no words. Silence is golden at times. One thing I was sure to tell him was to just be there. That’s all you can do sometimes. You can’t wipe away the tears forever. Just let them flow and be there for the person you care about.

Death is a part of this world. There will come a world for Christians where there is no death, and then we will eternally rejoice. For now though, we do mourn. When people are mourning, you should not throw them a pep party. Instead, you should mourn as well. You should let them know you’re walking through that valley with them.

Into every life, a little rain must fall. You can expect a barrage of emotions at this point. There will be grief and anger at times. Perchance there will be times when Rodney’s new wife doesn’t want to be with him and merely wants to be left alone. I would say at that point honor that choice. Sometimes, we do need times when it’s just us and God.

And God. What about God? My view is to be honest in your prayers. If you are angry with God, tell him. If you want to know what’s going on, tell him. If you want to just cry before the throne, then feel free to cry. God is a big God. He can take all of your emotions and I think he’d rather get the real you than an actor.

I know these aren’t magic words either. There are many facets of grief. I’m not a certified counselor. I’m just giving out my own two cents for what it’s worth for my thoughts on the subject of sorrow over the years. Rodney. I’m praying for you. Readers. Please pray for Rodney as well and if you think about him some, take time to mourn also.