As debates of predestination and free will have lingered and in some instances raged throughout my apartment, car and other places that I may be found, one concept that always comes up is evangelism. More to the point, what role evangelism can play in Calvinism or in a world that is predestined. The usually argument that arises goes along these lines, "If we are predestined and God has already chosen who is going to heaven and who is going to hell, what is the purpose of evangelism?" This thought has honestly had me a bit befuddled, what is the purpose if God will save his elect no matter what? What about Paul? Paul never heard the Gospel, but Jesus came down from the sky, spoke to him and saved him. That is predestination right there, isn't it? No evangelism, simply Jesus knocking you on your butt and saving you. Yes, that is predestination, but this isn't what we are called to, which we see Jesus when gives the Great Commission. I am going to make an interpretation of the Bible that may not be the most educated in order to try and reconcile Calvinism with evangelism.
When people are presented with ideas of Calvinism and the Armenian thought, it can easy to drift in polar opposites. If you look at the Armenian thought and continue to decipher it logically, it can be very easy to wind up down the road at open theism which is considered by many including yours truly to be heretical. On the other side, you can wind up as a hyper-Calvinist where grace abounds, we do not need to worry about how much we sin and we do not need to worry about evangelism because God will do the job for us. This I also disagree with this logic, and think that it goes against what we are called as Christians to do. We are called to flee from sin and in Great Commission, we are called to evangelize. But how do we reconcile these things that seem to make so much sense by themselves, how, or more importantly why should we do both of them? A wise man told me, "We cannot see the invisible church as God sees it, so we do not know who is saved, which leaves us with the responsibility to preach the Gospel as the Bible says." It isn't about us preaching the Gospel and by the work that we are doing necesarily saving people, but it is our duty to present and in a sense bring people to shake the hand of Jesus. I once heard in a movie from a character who was a priest that put it this way, "My job is people, God's job is souls." It isn't for us to save people, it is for God, but it is our job to love people and present them the Gospel.
In reading John I have this feeling in my heart that this is what Jesus is showing us. Mark Driscoll has said, "I work like an Armenian, but I sleep like a Calvinist," to me this means that we do the work of God as though it is our duty to save people, but when we go to sleep at night we know that we cannot save a single soul, that is what is left to God. Whether you side with the Calvinist or Armenian point of view, you probably are a Christian and our purpose as Christians is to live Christ like lives. Continually in chapter 5 of John Jesus opens sentences with, "Truly, Truly, I say to you," in my mind this is Jesus pleading with the people that he is telling the truth. Did everyone believe in Jesus the moment he started his minsitry? No. Jesus had to work painfully and tirelessly in order to bring people to salvation. He was working that people might know the truth of who he was that they might know eternal life. He was evangelizing, and if we are meant to live Christ like lives, how can we ignore this or the Great Commission?
Does this mean that we can save people if we preach them the Gospel and it is their choice to make? By no means! John also writes this in the same chapter 5:21 "For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will." Saying that ultimately, it is up to God the Father and God the Son to save whom they want to save. It is not of our doing, it is not of our choice, our choice was to sin and we made it, but it is of God.
Thus we must evangelize, but we also must not be frustrated if those we preach to do not get saved, because "Salvation belongs to the Lord!" (Jonah 2:9)
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Hypocrisy
I would be sorry to all of you who have been following this blog for not posting anything in such a long time, but I am afraid no one is following this blog... Today's topic, hypocrisy. A certain man by the name of Mark Driscoll, some of you may have heard of him, will be involved in a debate that will be aired on ABC's Nightline about the question of Satan and whether or not he exists. But the point of this blog is not to discuss the debate or Mark Driscoll, but rather the responses that I viewed on the Seattle Time's website on an article simply stating that this event was going to occur at Mars Hill Church. I found myself wanting to laugh and scream more than applaud the nearly 80 responses that I read. Most of laughs and screaming would have been aimed at those who tried to show some knowledge of the Christian faith in order to sling arrows at it. However, most, if not all of them missed the target... By a mile. All this said to bring forth my point. In a city that is so centered on diversity and tolerance, why do we still not include everyone? I feel that if you are in Seattle and are a member of Bible believing church such as Mars Hill, you do not count as a person that deserves the love and tolerance granted to everyone else that lives in this city. I was speaking to a friend of mine a few weeks back about why he was an agnostic and wouldn't consider himself a Christian. His response, "all Christian's are hypocrits, and I can't stand that." The first thing that came into my mind was, you are right, as Christians we strive to live lives apart from sin and follow the call of Jesus and the Bible upon our lives. And yes, we are hypocrits, because it is impossible to live a sinless live, and we all fall short of the glory of God. But what makes this man sitting next to me free from hypocrisy? Simple, if you make your own rules, it is impossible to break them. Think of a world where everything was relative, and we believed and followed only that which we want and believe? Scary, huh? The sad thing is, the postmodern world that we live in teaches us that this is okay, and in Seattle that is the direction that we are headed in. This is the sad thing about the world that we live in, everything is relative. If it is okay for me, it is okay for me and that is all that matters. That is not what the God of the Bible teaches us, and if this is the god that you believe in, you might want to rethink the life you are living. The Bible is not a collection of writings that was put together nearly 2000 years ago that is now outdated, it is still relevent and is perfect. No adjustments need to be made but the adjustments in our lives. Is this intolerant? A little. But as I remember Jesus got mad at people on occasion, but did he still love everyone? Yes. I love this city and all the people that live in it, but I believe that the people of Seattle really need to think about the lives they are living and think about where they are headed. We are not the rulers of our own lives. We did not create ourselves and we do not save ourselves. If you think that there is no God, and there is no after life, fine. But if you believe in the after life and a heaven or hell, you should think about where you get that idea. You should think about what it looks like and how to get there. And when you have come to your conclusions about those questions, you should follow the God of the Bible, who saves us through his infinite love. Thank you Jesus for salvation, and new life, I pray that you would change the hears of the people in this city.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Time to Shine
While I have written an introduction to my blog, I would like you all to also have, as I will call it, a mission statement. My purpose here as I have stated is to question what it looks like to live a life like Christ (wow, that was way too much alliteration). Something that has been spinning in my head for the past little while of what we should be doing as Christians and how we should be taking our convictions out into the world has come from a book I just finished reading. The Irresistible Revolution, written by Shane Claiborne really got me to thinking about what it means to live a life like Christ, what it should look like to be a 21st Century Christian so to speak. I am going to steal from that book what I believe is a reflection of how we should live. On page 258 of his book, Claiborne writes (and I am sorry if it is a bit long):
In the early days of our community, Michelle, a founding partner of the Simple Way, and I headed out to get a loaf of bread. We walked underneath the El tracks just a block from our house, a strip notorious for its prostitution and drug trafficking, where the air is thick with tears and struggle. We walked past an alley, and tucked inside was a woman, tattered, cold, and on crutches. She approached me, asking if I wanted her services. Our hearts sank, but we scurried on to get our bread. Then we headed quickly home, nodding at the woman as we passed. When we got home and opened the bread, we noticed the bag had a large gash in the side and the bread had gone bad. We would have to go back, and we both knew what that meant. We would have to walk by that woman again. We walked by the alley and saw her in there crying, shivering. We got our bread, and as we saw her yet again, we could not just pass by. We stopped and told her we cared for her, that she was precious, worth more than a few bucks for tricks on the avenue. We explained that we had a home that was a safe place to get warm and have a snack. So she stumbled onto her crutches and came home with us.
As soon as we entered the house, she started weeping hysterically. Michelle held her as she wept. When she had gained her composure, she said, "You all are Christians, aren't you?" Michelle and I looked at each other, startled. We had said nothing about God or Jesus, and our house doesn't have a cross in the window, a neon "Jesus Saves" sign, or even a little Christian fish on the wall. She said, "I know that you are Christians because you shine. I used to be in love with Jesus like that, and when I was, I shined like diamonds in the sky, like the stars. But it's a cold dark world, and I lost my shine a little while back. I lost my shine on those streets." At that point, we were all weeping. She asked us to pray with her that she might shine again. We did; we prayed that this dark world would not take away our shine.
Days, weeks went by, and we did not see her. One day, there was a knock at the door, and I opened it. On the steps there was a lovely lady with a contagious ear-to-ear smile. We stared at each other. We see a lot of people, so I was going to try to fake recognizing her, but she called my bluff and beat me to it. "Of course you don't recognize me, because I'm shining again. I'm shining." Then I knew. She went on to explain how deeply she had fallen in love with God again. She said she wanted to give us something to thank us for our hospitality but sadly she confessed, "While I was on the streets, I lost everything I owned. Except this." She pulled out a box and apologetically confessed that she smoked a lot and always collected the Marlboro Mile points from the cigarette packs. "So this is all that I have, but I want you to have it." And she handed me a box busting at the seams with hundreds of Marlboro Miles. It's one of the most precious gifts I've ever been given, like receiving the widow's last pennies. And they make good Bible markers. Now whenever I am speaking somewhere and open up the Word, I see a Marlboro Mile (and the elders raise their eyebrows), and I am reminded of all the broken lives that have lost their shine a little while back.
There is so much to be taken from this passage of literature. While our minds may first jump to the obvious parallels to Jesus in the New Testament, that is only part of the reason that I bring this passage up. This woman, this child of God, said something profound about Shane and Michelle. She says, "I know that you are Christians because you shine." That is what we are supposed to do as Christians! We are supposed to shine! In our culture it is so easy to fit into the crowd, and we see people everywhere doing good deeds and bad deeds. We see believers and non-believers alike doing both good and bad. It has become so difficult now-a-days to look straight in front of you and be able to tell if someone is a Christian or not. Many times, the only way people know if we are followers of Christ is when we speak about our faith. We need to shine! We should be able to walk down the streets and people will know because of how we act that we are believers in Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we do see the parallel to Jesus in the New Testament in this two page section of The Irresistible Revolution. What we as Christians need to realize is that Jesus Christ is still with us today. We are supposed to walk and live like He did. What Shane and Michelle did should not be an uncommon act, but it should naturally to us because of our faith and love in and for Jesus. That is what it means to be a Christian! It means to act like Christ. It doesn't mean to live simply and good, trying our best to live without sin. It is much more than that. It is pulling ourselves away from the norm as Jesus did, and live as He did.
In a world where it can be nearly impossible to know who holds what faith convictions, we need to set ourselves apart as God's people. We need to shine like Jesus, we need to fall in love with God again as the woman in the streets did. It is time that we as Christians took a step back and re-evaluated what it looks like to be a Christian, so people can re-evaluate us, and see without a doubt what a Christian really looks like.
In the early days of our community, Michelle, a founding partner of the Simple Way, and I headed out to get a loaf of bread. We walked underneath the El tracks just a block from our house, a strip notorious for its prostitution and drug trafficking, where the air is thick with tears and struggle. We walked past an alley, and tucked inside was a woman, tattered, cold, and on crutches. She approached me, asking if I wanted her services. Our hearts sank, but we scurried on to get our bread. Then we headed quickly home, nodding at the woman as we passed. When we got home and opened the bread, we noticed the bag had a large gash in the side and the bread had gone bad. We would have to go back, and we both knew what that meant. We would have to walk by that woman again. We walked by the alley and saw her in there crying, shivering. We got our bread, and as we saw her yet again, we could not just pass by. We stopped and told her we cared for her, that she was precious, worth more than a few bucks for tricks on the avenue. We explained that we had a home that was a safe place to get warm and have a snack. So she stumbled onto her crutches and came home with us.
As soon as we entered the house, she started weeping hysterically. Michelle held her as she wept. When she had gained her composure, she said, "You all are Christians, aren't you?" Michelle and I looked at each other, startled. We had said nothing about God or Jesus, and our house doesn't have a cross in the window, a neon "Jesus Saves" sign, or even a little Christian fish on the wall. She said, "I know that you are Christians because you shine. I used to be in love with Jesus like that, and when I was, I shined like diamonds in the sky, like the stars. But it's a cold dark world, and I lost my shine a little while back. I lost my shine on those streets." At that point, we were all weeping. She asked us to pray with her that she might shine again. We did; we prayed that this dark world would not take away our shine.
Days, weeks went by, and we did not see her. One day, there was a knock at the door, and I opened it. On the steps there was a lovely lady with a contagious ear-to-ear smile. We stared at each other. We see a lot of people, so I was going to try to fake recognizing her, but she called my bluff and beat me to it. "Of course you don't recognize me, because I'm shining again. I'm shining." Then I knew. She went on to explain how deeply she had fallen in love with God again. She said she wanted to give us something to thank us for our hospitality but sadly she confessed, "While I was on the streets, I lost everything I owned. Except this." She pulled out a box and apologetically confessed that she smoked a lot and always collected the Marlboro Mile points from the cigarette packs. "So this is all that I have, but I want you to have it." And she handed me a box busting at the seams with hundreds of Marlboro Miles. It's one of the most precious gifts I've ever been given, like receiving the widow's last pennies. And they make good Bible markers. Now whenever I am speaking somewhere and open up the Word, I see a Marlboro Mile (and the elders raise their eyebrows), and I am reminded of all the broken lives that have lost their shine a little while back.
There is so much to be taken from this passage of literature. While our minds may first jump to the obvious parallels to Jesus in the New Testament, that is only part of the reason that I bring this passage up. This woman, this child of God, said something profound about Shane and Michelle. She says, "I know that you are Christians because you shine." That is what we are supposed to do as Christians! We are supposed to shine! In our culture it is so easy to fit into the crowd, and we see people everywhere doing good deeds and bad deeds. We see believers and non-believers alike doing both good and bad. It has become so difficult now-a-days to look straight in front of you and be able to tell if someone is a Christian or not. Many times, the only way people know if we are followers of Christ is when we speak about our faith. We need to shine! We should be able to walk down the streets and people will know because of how we act that we are believers in Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we do see the parallel to Jesus in the New Testament in this two page section of The Irresistible Revolution. What we as Christians need to realize is that Jesus Christ is still with us today. We are supposed to walk and live like He did. What Shane and Michelle did should not be an uncommon act, but it should naturally to us because of our faith and love in and for Jesus. That is what it means to be a Christian! It means to act like Christ. It doesn't mean to live simply and good, trying our best to live without sin. It is much more than that. It is pulling ourselves away from the norm as Jesus did, and live as He did.
In a world where it can be nearly impossible to know who holds what faith convictions, we need to set ourselves apart as God's people. We need to shine like Jesus, we need to fall in love with God again as the woman in the streets did. It is time that we as Christians took a step back and re-evaluated what it looks like to be a Christian, so people can re-evaluate us, and see without a doubt what a Christian really looks like.
Intoduction
As friends and family have started to open up their lives through the invention of the blog, I just couldn't fight it any longer. I think that the internet has become a necessary evil in our time and age, and while I would rather voice all of these opinions in person to all who know me, I simply cannot. This is not so much a jumble of my thoughts, as it is a forum. I really would rather hear not just comments, but questions. I want to engage people to grow a deeper understanding of life. I have so many questions and thoughts about life and about the life of Jesus Christ and what that should look like for us as a body of believers. I know that some people may see this blog and find some of this material offensive and ignorant and will critique every little gramatical (I purposefully misspelled that) error. I really hope that is not what the discussion is. I am simply a 19 year old kid who is in search of what it means and looks like to be a follower of Christ. I want more than anything for people to think and respond to this blog. I want to hear people's opinions. We have been given the beautiful gift of free will by our Creator, so let us use it! It is our duty and gift as a group of followers to question in order to find a deeper sense of God's truth, so lets question. These are thoughts from a child of God. This means that you too are included as we are all children of God, so please join in the dialogue.
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