The hole in our gospel
I’ve just finished “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns. This was one of those books I had no idea of what I was getting into. Last month it was the free download of the month on ChristianAudio.com, and I grabbed a copy of it.
I had no idea who Richard Stearns was, although the name seemed familiar. I had no idea whether he was a sound author or whether he would be one of those writers I’d stop listening to after a short time. After all, those who wrote endorsements for the book were not on my “must read” list. I was in for a surprise. (more…)
David Brainerd’s attachment to the world
Some time ago, I was struck by the content of the following poem that David Brainerd wrote in his journal regarding his lack of attachment that he felt to this world. In the modern age, it is often difficult to lose the attachment to the world and the things of it, so I long to be able to echo these words with a full heart. (more…)
Educating your children
The choices we make about how we educate our children is one of the most important decisions we will make for our children. Any parent who cares about how their children are raised and whether they are raised in the fear of the Lord or not will be deeply concerned that their children are being educated to the best of their abilities.
When we first sent our children to school, we sent them to the state primary school just down the road from where we lived. Of the schools in the area it was recognized as one of the best, so we thought we were doing the best for our children.
One of the guiding principles of the primary school our children attended was the concept that they concerned themselves with the whole child. This sounds pretty good. They don’t just teach them the alphabet, they also do sports, social studies, art, science and other facets of modern education.
While this sounds good, our understanding as parents of our responsibilities given by the Lord require us to bring up our children in the instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:3, Deut 31:12-13). Indeed, it is the parents responsibility both to teach and to train our children for adulthood. This does not mean a mandate for home schooling, and indeed home schooling is not an option for everyone – even though for many it may be the best option.
This responsibility requires that parents own the teaching process, that we are responsible before God for the training and education of our children and whether we teach the children ourselves or outsource the job, we will be held accountable before the Lord for the education (or lack of) that our children receive.
We now have our children in a Christian School and have been shocked and surprised at the responses and opinions many Christians – including close friends – have toward Christian schools.
Today we often hear of children who are not longer in Christian schools as well as those who want to give their children a Christian education but cant and many (most) who sharply disagree with the very notion of Christian education.
Over the next few posts I hope to examine some of the reasons we put our children in a Christian School and also deal with some of the objections we commonly hear.
If you have some objections to Christian schooling, let me hear them and I’ll give my response to the objection – and/or grant the points validity.
Lincolns Birthday – On liberty
The article below appeared in K-House eNews newsletter a couple of days ago. I thought it was a very good summary of both the ideals of democracy as well as the expectations that that same democracy demands of its people. You can read the original article here. Today the 12th is ticking over in North America, so it seems fitting to post it today.
On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room cabin in Kentucky. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, we remember the lanky self-taught lawyer who hated slavery, who pressed forward until he finally attained the highest office in the country – just in time for the bloodiest war in US history. But, even more, we remember the greatness of that man who loved true liberty, who dreamed in his day "of a place and time where America will once again be seen as the last, best hope on earth."
There are many things that can be said about Abraham Lincoln. He lost his mother when he was nine, and two of his four sons died before he did. He stood at the helm of America while it was torn in two, and he not only protected the Union, but managed to emancipate the slaves in the process. Yet, it was not just his humble beginnings or his ability to overcome personal tragedy that made Lincoln remarkable. Nor did the abolition of slavery or the survival of the United States alone make him a great man. Abraham Lincoln was a great man because of what he believed in and what he stood for. He was not only about the business of preserving a collection of states under one federal government. He was a man determined to protect America to be the haven for true liberty that that Founders intended it to be.
In his 1861 address at Independence Hall, which he described as, "a wholly unprepared speech" Lincoln said the following:
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that Independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together.
"It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence."
Lincoln loved liberty. He loved true liberty in its good old-fashioned sense. Today the concept of liberty has been kidnapped, and the word has become a euphemism for humans to do whatever they like without legal repercussions. Liberty does not mean a blank check for immorality. True liberty is lifting "the weight" of tyranny, freeing men to govern themselves and take responsibility for themselves as men and not as slaves. The freedom of the black man was representative of the very freedom that all Americans embraced in the Declaration of Independence. No longer would they be called "boy" – told what to do and how to do it. They would henceforth be men, fully responsible for their own lives. That’s true liberty.
It is the same with spiritual liberty. By the blood of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we are no longer slaves to sin. In fact, we are no longer under the letter of the Law. Yet, our freedom is one in which we serve God in holiness out of love, pushing closer to the heart of God than the Law could ever lead us. It is never a freedom that condones license to sin, but one in which we walk with God as sons and daughters.
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." -2 Corinthians 3:17
"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." -Galatians 5:13
But liberty is never free. It always comes with a price. In the case of our spiritual liberty, the only begotten Son of God was slaughtered on a Roman cross to win our freedom. In the case of America, our freedom was also bought with the blood of our forefathers. And it is now protected only with vigilance.
Our precious liberty is in danger of being taken away. Men (and women) who have abused their freedoms have brought financial destruction on the nation and the entire world. Men (and women) who have abused their social freedoms have torn apart the family, brought children into single family homes, and have spread disease, violence, substance abuse and crime. As we have replaced liberty with license, proving ourselves children instead of men, our government has stepped in to hold our hands; we’re in serious danger of losing the very freedoms we love.
We are in the midst of another great civil war. This time it’s a war of ideas and of values. It’s a war that threatens to destroy us just as certainly as the war Lincoln faced nearly 150 years ago. His words from the Gettysburg Address seem just as fitting now as they were then:
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live…The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
That says it.
Happy 200th Birthday Abraham Lincoln. We’re grateful to God for your tremendous service to America. May we not fail those who bled for us by treating their sacrifices as little in value. May we treat our freedoms with great regard, walking not as spoiled children but as righteous men. And may we fight so that this nation can have a new birth of freedom; one in which we truly behave as one nation under God.
On what media we should consume
After my book review earlier this week, I thought I’d follow up on some of my thoughts on media.
I noted there that I thought the book could have gone further in a number of points, and I mentioned the excuse that the person making the excuse saw through.
There are other excuses that were not covered – such as the notion of needing "time to blob". Saints in previous generations didn’t have TV or movies as a blob tool and used the time for more productive activities, so this notion in my opinion is a relatively hollow excuse that reveals a self-centeredness beneath the surface. A further rebuttal of the "blob" excuse is that if you are watching TV or movies to blob, you are hardly going to be engaging your brain enough to analyse and discern whether you even should watch the content before you.
Taking a look at content
In terms of examining content, there are some very clear guidelines in scripture that we can take into consideration when thinking about what we should or should not watch. The first one is "what does Christ think of this content?" To discover this, one thing we can do is to examine the Word of God looking for the things that God does and does not approve of. Passages such as the following should be high on our list of things to consider:
"You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord." (Lev 19:12)
If we love the Lord with all our hearts (or say we do), shouldn’t using His name as a curse word be something that is offensive to us? And if it is offensive, should we be entertaining ourselves with these movies or TV programs? This seems to be a major inconsistency.
"You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination." (Lev 18:22)
Media glorifying homosexuality is promoting something that is an abomination to the Lord – should we entertain ourselves with this?
"A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deut 22:5)
This would speak to media promoting cross dressing (e.g. Priscilla Queen of the Desert) – if God despises it, perhaps we should view it just as critically?
"For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deut 25:16)
There seems to be an increasing number of movies that fail to portray, never mind promote a biblical view of justice (think Oceans 11 for example).
"There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you." (Deut 18:10)
This would speak to movies and TV that glorifies magic, witchcraft and other cultic practices – which today is a wide number.
Legalism?
Now, I need to state here that I’m not trying to be legalistic. As Christians we are called to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Deut 10:12, Mark 12:30). The problem is that in the west we have to contend with the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions (1 John 2:15-17), and watching media that glorifies these very desires, while promoting that which our Lord hates seems to make a mockery of what we say we believe, not to mention that it seems far from Paul’s encouragement to:
"…put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." (Rom 13:14)
How does this work?
For what it is worth, It might be helpful to explain how we work things in our household.
Firstly we don’t have programmed TV in the home. We have a small TV downstairs, but it is not connected to an aerial, satellite dish or other receiver. IMHO TV is simply not worth the advertisements and the effort to figure out what is worth watching and what is not, so we choose not to have programmed TV in the home at all.
When it comes to movies, we do have a few in the home. These are movies that have no blasphemy in them, and which do not glorify things that God deems an abomination. This does not mean we have no movies with magic in the house – what it means is that if a movie conveys magic as a good thing or even something neutral that can be used for good, it is not a movie we will have in the house.
We are quite critical of what we have, and sometimes catch something we hadn’t heard (or seen) before – in this case the movie in question goes in the bin (unless of course it was hired – which we rarely do)
Needless to say, there are not many movies in the house (which is fine with me) and the movies we do have in the house are generally children’s movies or documentaries.
Obedience in spite of how we feel
It is also noteworthy, that we may not feel convicted about what we watch and regard it as sin, in fact we are generally hardened to them. However, underneath the hardness, the Spirit of God is there and He gives us a desire to honour the Lord which we need to allow to inform our "feelings". More on this another time.
Each of us is responsible before the Lord for the media we watch and the media we let our children watch. I hope these thoughts can help you in your considerations of what media you consume and ultimately serve you in your walk with Christ.
Book Review – Worldliness
I’ve just finished reading a number of books and thought I might post a few reviews over the coming weeks.
The first is called "Worldliness" and is written by a collection of Sovereign Grace authors and edited by C J Mahaney. It has a Foreword by John Piper and its endorsements are a who’s who of contemporary evangelicalism.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I particularly liked the chapters "God, my heart and my stuff" and "God, my heart and my clothes". These are both very thorough chapters on their topic and will serve all readers well.
Clothes – well covered
As a father of three girls "God, my heart and my clothes" gave me a lot to consider – particularly as my girls are getting to the age that they will begin caring about clothes more in the coming years. This chapter is written both to women and men and occasionally asks "do you" questions – to women, although I can’t help but wonder what proportion of the books readers will be women as compared to men. Having said that, I hope that every God fearing woman would read this book, as I fear few seem to understand the temptation that men wanting to walk holy lives undergo on a daily basis due to the way many women clothe themselves. This chapter is a very honest and well aimed discussion on modesty much needed in the church today.
Does it go far enough?
The biggest disappointment for me in this book was really a very minor point that I would make with regards to the chapters "God my heart and my music" and "God, my heart and media". At the end of the day I personally would have put a little more emphasis on where entertainment fits into the daily priorities of a person seeking to honour God. The chapter on media did at least ask questions about how much time is spent watching movies and TV, but both chapters focused dominantly on the content we listen to rather than asking the believer how the Lord would like them to fill their time.
In addition some points that should have been made more of were in my opinion left hanging. For example when Craig Cabaniss recounts the following his conclusion seems to miss the point he is making:
Recently, a lady in our church communicated to me her resistance to the idea of curbing media consumption; she believed that viewing current TV programs and movies enabled her to better relate to the lost. But she came to question her own reasoning: "Am I lowering my standards to stay up to date with our culture while not really reaching anyone by doing so?" I respect her for her humility and honesty. She asks a discerning question (Worldliness, P45-46)
Craigs conclusion of this paragraph is summarised in the first sentence that follows it:
In reality, it isn’t necessary to be a media glutton to share the gospel effectively. (ibid, P46)
Craig is absolutely right. However, I would have gone a little further and pointed out that we can use all sorts of excuses (such as viewing current TV programs and movies" enables us to better reach the lost), however, most Christians spend an inordinately large proportion of time consuming media compared to the miniscule time we spend doing the work of the Lord.
There is much more to be said on what media we should watch and what should guide our content decisions. At the end of the day, I’m convinced that we are far too lax in what we watch considering what we say we believe, but I’ll save this for another post later this week.
Thumbs up
Having said this, I’d like to reiterate that this is a small thing given what the book delivers overall. In reality taking a good look at the content we take in is a very good starting point, not to mention the transformation that will take place in the hearts of those who prayerfully consider the chapters on "stuff" and "clothes".
I recommend this book to you whole heartedly. Purchase it from the Sovereign Grace site to support their work or click here to purchase on Amazon.
Some notes on worship
Much of the life we live, we live on our terms without questioning what God wants. However, worship begins with what God wants. God is not simply hoping that someone, somewhere will somehow worship him. We are reminded of this in Leviticus 10:1-3 where Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorised fire to the Lord and were judged by the Lord for it.
In the first chapter of his book “He is not silent” Al Mohler said:
“True worship begins with a vision of the God of the Bible – a vision of the one true and living God”
In conjunction with this, he offers four points on worship:
- How authentic worship begins: a true vision of the living God
- Where authentic worship leads: confession of sin
- Where authentic worship leads: proclamation of the gospel
- What authentic worship requires: a response
This is a view of worship that encompasses all of life. Too often churches simply focus on the last part without considering the first three parts. The vision of the living God is the responsibility of the preachers, teachers and leaders in a church. This should lead to confession of sin – and repentance should be invited where appropriate by the preacher.
Not only the preacher should proclaim the gospel, the entire congregation should be proclaiming the gospel – it is a natural response to God.
The emotional responses sought by many churches are good and proper, but this response should not be limited to Sunday morning, but should be experienced often in the life of a Christian. Similarly, when these responses are sought without faithful preaching of the word of God and confession of sin, are they really worship or are they simply emotional highs? In reality it could be both, but in my estimation, often this is just an emotional high.
Following the formula above ensures a balance is kept between the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the word and the preaching of the word and the response of a heart. This cycle is life changing. Mark Driscoll commented during a sermon I heard recently:
Too many people try to stop sinning – the goal is not to stop sinning, the goal is to start worshipping
Authentic worship is the solution to legalism and other forms of religion that doesn’t save or help us change. And it all starts with a right view of God as revealed in His word that changes lives.
Loathing honey – part 2
Interestingly, the nations of the west in this position are founded in Christianity, and for this God seems to have blessed them richly. However, this blessing has become a god to most and today the blessing has become a curse as man is enticed by the lure of all manner of shiny objects that attract attention – attention that should be given to repentance and worship of the Christ who is worthy of it.
Israel often thought of themselves as the people of God and figured that because of this they would not come under condemnation. History demonstrates clearly that this is not the case, yet the church of Christ looks at itself the same way and things that because we are under grace we will never be judged.
Yet, judgment begins in the house of the Lord! Look at the indictments on the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 for a brief example that indeed Christ will judge his church. Recall the death of Ananias and Sapphira to remember that the church should be a people of fear (Acts 5:1-11). Or bear in mind the condemnation and astute circumstantial reading of the apostle Paul on the believers in Corinth who were taking the Lords supper without regard to sin and Christ and suffering sickness and death as a result of it (1 Cor 11:29-30).
The problem as we saw last time is that we are filled with pleasures and good things that preoccupy us so that we have not time or room for Christ in our lives. We have been taken up with the world so much that there are minimal affections for the one who truly deserves and desires those affections.
Here are some practical things we can prayerfully consider doing to help change our hearts:
- Exchange TV, movies and music for reading the Bible or godly books or listening to sermons or an audio bible
- Memorize scripture – a verse a week is 52 verses a year
- Get more sleep
- Be regularly in the word of God – every morning (after getting a good nights sleep)
- Figure out what distracts from this and remove it from your life or work hard to minimise the distraction (Heb 12:1-2). Dont try and do it in one shot – little by little – or in bigger steps – as suits you
- Get serious about sin – and confess it before God and ask Him to change your heart toward it – even if you don’t want to
- When you sit down to do an activity ask yourself “Is this going to help my walk with Christ or someone elses walk with Christ?”
- When engaging with unbelievers look for and take opportunities to tell them the good news
- Simplify your life. Own what you will use regularly to the glory of God and deny yourself anything else – if you already have the “anything else” refer to point 5
I’m sure you can think of others.
The key to this working is your answer to the following question: Are you serious about denying yourself and following Christ? I pray you are.
Loathing honey – part 1
I’ve just come back from a week in Samoa. It was great to get away, and I feel much more on top of things and ready to get into the last six weeks of 2008.
Before heading to Samoa, I committed to my wife that I’d take no technology with me – no laptop, my cellphone stays off (apart from occaisional calls home to say hi to our children) and no email. Initially, I was very cagey about doing it, but having spent a few days there like this and seeing how the Samoan people live, I’ve come away having learned something – we are full and distracted.
When I cam e back I came across this proverb:
“One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet” (Prov 27:7)
In the west we live in a world rich with sumptuous pleasures possibly unlike anything the world has ever seen before. We have things to read, watch, listen to, and do in abundance. Our lives are full. Even without a TV and without going to many movies my life is filled with all sorts of trivial things. We just don’t need it all.
Is it therefore any wonder that most people in the western church are completely ineffective for Christ?
We often look at the letter to the church in Laodicea and while we acknowledge that it is an indictment on the western church, we normally fail to see that we ourselves are part of the problem. It is striking that the church in Laodicea were both lukewarm and rich. Isn’t that a description of us? We are rich – even the poorest – and generally western Christians are luke warm as well.
Christ said that these would be spat out (Rev 3:16). In Matthew 13:18-23 we read of the four types of soil – one is choked by the “cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” and “proves unfruitful” (Matt 13:22). In John 15:1-11 we read that those who do not bear fruit are cast off and burned.
“One who is full loathes honey”
There is an assumption in this verse about honey. The assumption is that the honey is good. In scripture honey is always seen as a good thing – desirable and sweet. It is used to describe the commandments and word of God (Ps 19:9-10, Ps 119:103). It is also used as a description of wisdom to the soul (Prov 24:13-14).
We have great wealth. And that great wealth is killing the church and causing it to be largely unaffected. Each of us are called to be at war with the desires of the flesh, to put them to death (Col 3:5-8). We are to find no joy in the things of the world (1 John 2:15 – “do not love the world” – the word love here means “To esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something” (Zodhiates, Word Study Dictionary, G25)) and to have no affection toward them (1 John 2:15 – “If anyone loves the world” – love here means have “affectionate regard, goodwill, benevolence”)
Yet not only do we take affection in them, we fail to have the same affection toward God! I’m speaking to myself here as much as to anyone else. We all need to challenge ourselves with regards to what we have and what we have affection for. If there is anything we have more affection for than God, we have traded what is rightfully his for something that is not half as worthy.
We have become so full with the affection of all the things around us, that we have failed to see that there is nothing sweeter than honey, so we discard the best for the rest.
In the next post I’ll look at some practical steps that we can take to start dealing with this rampant unchecked affection.
More thinking on the role of apologetics
Since the discussion several months ago, I've continued to think through the role that apologetics has to play in the modern church.
Firstly, if you carefully consider passages like 1 Cor 12 and Eph 4 you should come to the conclusion that gifts are given to the church for the benefit of the wider church rather than for the benefit of the individual. What we see in this is that God is in the process of equipping the church (or corporately, the saints) with the capabilities it needs to achieve the purposes of God at that time in that place – be it a neighbourhood, a town or city, a country or the world.
With this in mind, the church today has been equipped (possibly more than ever before) with thinking believers who can thoughtfully respond to the intellectuals and rationalists of the modern world. Why is this the case?
Certainly part of this is to do with helping believers understand that while the best of the worlds thinkers can come up with reasons to reject Christianity, these thinking Christians can come up with counter points that rebuff these reasons and uphold Christianity, and even attack the underlying world view that sits behind it and demonstrate its weaknesses.
In addition, I believe the role of apologists will increasingly be to defend the right of western Christians to be Christian. There are people who would like to see Christianity wiped off the face of the earth, and the unity that the Internet provides (which it affords to all) gives these people the ability to work together to attempt to achieve this (and we are seeing this in the hostile attitudes found in some forums and even Christian blogs).
Most of those who are in this camp base their activity on the naturalistic world-view which intellectual reasoning plays a large part in. In these cases the reasoning of thoughtful believers provides Christianity en-masse both the arguments against this naturalistic reasoning and demonstrates the coherence of the Christian world view, which validates its place in the western society.
And yes, God can use apologetics as a tool to bring people to faith and repentance, but as previously noted, faith is something that is given by God (Eph 2:8, Rom 12:3), by the preaching of the word of God (Rom 10:17) which is a heart based change done by the Spirit of God (Rom 2:29).
Dominic from Thinking Matters has recently written up how he sees apologetics fitting in. If you are interested in apologetics and where it fits, I recommend that you read his post – it is the best summary of where apologetics fits that I've read from an apologist.
Christ at work in Hamas
God is at work in world affairs. For example, did you know that the son of one of the founders of Hamas (the terrorist organization that took over Gaza) has become a Christian? In fact, he became a Christian over four years ago and continued to server his father for several years and was influential in some key decisions.
Regarding his conversion to Christianity we read:
“It began about eight years ago. I was in Jerusalem and I received an invitation to come and hear about Christianity. Out of curiosity I went. I was very enthusiastic about what I heard. I began to read the Bible every day and I continued with religion lessons. I did it in secret, of course. I used to travel to the Ramallah hills, to places like the Al Tira neighborhood, and to sit there quietly with the amazing landscape and read the Bible. A verse like “Love thine enemy” had a great influence on me. At this stage I was still a Muslim and I thought that I would remain one. But every day I saw the terrible things done in the name of religion by those who considered themselves ‘great believers.’ I studied Islam more thoroughly and found no answers there. I reexamined the Koran and the principals of the faith and found how it is mistaken and misleading. The Muslims borrowed rituals and traditions from all the surrounding religions.”
There is an interview with Masab (now called Joseph), son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef here – its long but a worthwhile read and explains what he did after he became a Christian and a little of the influence he’s had in Hamas since it happened.
Conspiracy theories
I was anonymously pointed to the Zeitgeist movie and told "watch this…". Shame it is anonymous as I can’t correspond with whoever it was… anyway, here are my thoughts.
I spent the first 40 minutes of the 2 hours (wow – that is a lot of my time) listening to yet another attempt to debunk Christianity claiming that it is all based on astronomy (or astrology?), and citing a bunch of things that suggest that Christ never walked the earth and that he was compiled from a collection of more ancient beliefs (incidentally, none of these more ancient beliefs cited, which I looked into, were even noted in passing by wikipedia).
This part of the film was generally poorly researched (this or this is better), being instead the result of selected reading that slanted heavily in one particular direction (based on the information sources listed at the end of the film). Interestingly the first part of the film concludes that Christianity (the one religion singled out by the film) is necessarily false and that Christ never walked the earth – which somehow means that every other religion is also false.
Once past that the film went on to talk about conspiracies behind September 11, war, the federal reserve act and the bankers that they suggested managed to put all these things together to line their own pockets.
However, the 9/11 conspiracy suggests that somehow the conspirators managed to (among other things):
- coordinate some people to plan and hijack planes, fly them into buildings and kill themselves in the process
- put together demolition teams for the two towers and building 7, completely rig the buildings, including special cutting of key structures, pack explosives, etc
- get the CIA and FBI to work together to cover up the fabricated terror attack
- somehow be happy that over 3000 Americans would die
- purposely negate NORAD’s response capability
- work the media to present one story without thorough investigation
- and do all this without people knowing what they were up to or it being leaked
The point of the film seems to be that people are trying to control your life, but you should take it back and buck the system. The initial part about religion being wrong seems out of place in the film.
I can’t help but wonder if the general observations are true (e.g. I think governments are continually striving for more control as a generalized rule), it is all possibly leading to a logical end point, but perhaps, rather than an elaborate network of people controlling it through clandestine activities, meetings, plans and ultimately war, financial meltdowns and government policy that perhaps there is a group of spiritual entities behind it… I believe the Bible may also suggest such things as time ticks on…
Perhaps Christ is the ultimate answer to these problems and throwing Him out is actually counter productive in the end. Maybe, just maybe, the anti-establishment sentiment actually undermines itself completely in the end…
Oh – and don’t waste time watching the film – you’ll never get the time back.
Do not lack joy in obedience
In John 14:15-23 we read three times the sentiment recorded in verse 15 (verses 21 and 23 also hold the same instruction albeit worded slightly differently in v21):
If you love me you will keep my commandments (John 14:15)
The love spoken of by Christ is not the cold hearted sacrificial love of knowing the right thing to do and doing it regardless of whether I want to or "feel" like it. That is called duty which can lead to cold hearted religion. Rather the love spoken of here is a love that has an inherent joy in its object. In my sermon on Sunday I used an illustration of giving flowers. If I give my wife flowers and tell her I did it because I felt it was the right thing to do, she will be left feeling cold and indifferent to my gift. However, if I tell her that my gift was to demonstrate that I love her and enjoy being with her, this gift has much deeper meaning to her.
The point of all this is that obedience without joy is worthless to God. Tonight I was challenged about this by someone in our home group who felt that we could do the right thing because we wanted to do the right thing even though we don't feel like doing it. Can we?
I don't deny for a moment that we do this – of course we do it – all the time and in many situations, religious and otherwise, however the question is does this glorify God?
Essentially the not "feeling" like doing it bit is sin – it is us elevating ourselves above the place of God and yet doing what we intellectually know is right. Our hearts are not seeking the betterment of the Lord, but we grudgingly do what we know to be right. But God wants our hearts, not our actions.
I think this is why we are constantly instructed to put to death the old man. In fact we are commanded to do a swap – to take off the old self and put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Compare for instance Colossians 3:5-11 (put off the old self…) with Colossians 3:12-17.
Put on… compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other… (Col 3:12-13)
God is not glorified by us living in the old self but serving God with our actions. He wants our hearts. Rather than obeying without this humility, meekness and love for the Lord we should focus on the problem at hand – our rebellious heart – and in acknowledging this sin we bring glory to God. John said:
If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1 John 1:6)
If our hearts are raised up in rebellion but we respond because intellectually we want to do the right thing we sin. Our action is saying we have fellowship with Him while our heart is seething in rebellion. We have no fellowship with him when we perform our "act of righteousness".
When we see this deception in our heart, this should bring an overwhelming sense of failure and a contrite repentance which brings an absolute dependence on God to justify us. Why? Because this is too often how we live our lives – in a continuous sham of acts that hide a rebellious and self centred heart. When we realise the depth of this deception and respond rightly, our heart will mirror the heart of the publican who
would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying , "God, be merciful to me, a sinner"
This heart exalts and glorifies God because it acknowledges His righteousness and holiness and vindicates His righteous judgement on man (c.f. Rom 3:4). It also exemplifies the beatitudes of Matthew 5.
This demonstrates the deceptiveness of sin. We can look like we are doing the right thing, we can live a righteous life on the outside, but inside we are sinners deserving of the wrath of God because we do not give Him the honour he deserves and put it instead on ourselves while playing lip service to Him.
If we don't feel like obeying God – that is the first sin to deal with – leaving it to fester is hypocrisy. This is not loving the Lord and it doesn't honour Him.
Perhaps the prevalence of this thinking helps explain why our churches are filled with dead people.
New Attitude Conference
One of the things I’ve come to love about the Internet as a Christian is the conferences that are on. Increasingly the messages from these conferences are being made available free of charge. Recent examples include:
- Together for the Gospel
- Resurgence: Text and Context
- Desiring God Regional conference
This weekend is the New Attitude conference which also looks pretty good and is aimed at young people.
The only caveat I have about conferences is that the seem to be focused mostly on pastors, and often deal just with pastoral issues. They also seem to recycle much the same speakers which I guess is a sign of the times, with the "rock star" speaker mentality being prevalent in both attendees and organisers (what other way is there to qualify unknown speakers?)
Anyway, this New Attitude conference is focused on the word of God and I like how the introduce the conference:
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.”
Jeremiah 15:16 (ESV)Is that your response to the Bible you read?
Islamic converts in Malaysia to be issued a card upon conversion
This is interesting.
In Malaysia, converts to Islam will be issued a card upon conversion. This is the validate the conversion of the person in the case that something happens to them.
The reason for this is that once you are a Muslim your ways become Islamic and must be handled in the appropriate way by the appropriate people.
By issuing a card, recent converts who die or similar (where Islamic law says something should be managed a particular way) don't put their families through the confusion of having to deal with the local Mosque when they don't realise the person is a convert.
With the relentless march of Islam into the western world – this is the precise sort of mark that – if applied to the hand and forehead – could be the mark we find in Revelation 13:16-18.
