Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Just do what?

Sorry for the delay, I'm a busy guy.

Today I want to look at actions.

Previously I wrote about how actions come from thought and that also emotions come from thought, and emotions tend to lead to uncontrolled actions, reflexive actions, or reactions. Last time we focused on thinking critically. Now we look at how that works with actions.

So I ask you: Where does the idea of what is a proper action from from?

In Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis we see Lewis make a compelling case for some higher being (he doesn't go as far as to say that it's the Christian God this early) having to exist. How he makes his case is with the idea of "Natural Law." What the Natural Law is, according to Lewis, is the law that all humans inherently have in them, the law of right and wrong. He writes that all humans (except for the severely mentally ill) have this law in them. Some may deny it, but try to cheat them and watch how they call "unfair" in the moment of offense. For example, watch drivers. Cut them off, go too slow, go too fast, change lanes, do anything really, and you'll get honked at, flipped off, shot at, run off the road, all because you're wrong. When I was working for Enterprise there was a guy who was weaving in and out of traffic, cutting people off, slamming on his breaks, tailgating, all for no reason. The others I was driving with were trying to avoid this guy like the plague because a wreck was bound to happen. Finally we get to our exit and get over, using blinkers, not going too fast, not cutting anyone off, and this guy jumps right in front of me, cutting me off and almost hitting me and the guy I was following. Obviously I honk the horn at him. This dude follows me to the dealership, gets my licence number (which is pointless because it's fleet tags) and goes into the dealership to report me to a sales rep for doing what he was doing. All because I honked at him which was wrong of me to do apparently. This man had no regard for what he was doing, but he had an idea of what was right and wrong (though skewed). This is not something that comes from evolution, it can't. Evolution says survival of the fittest, the strongest makes it the weakest doesn't. And yet we all agree that it's wrong for us to kill others for no reason. I think people would have a problem if I killed someone because they took the last gallon of milk at CVS. They would consider that wrong. Yet for me to survive, I needed that milk. Doesn't work like that does it? So if these laws of right and wrong don't come from  evolution, where do they come from? They have to come from someone giving them to us. So the idea of proper action comes from a higher being. Personally I believe it's my God.

So now I ask what are proper actions?
Obviously scripture is full of them, looking at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, Galatians 5 where Paul tells us what's of the flesh and what's of the Spirit, James 1.27 where he tells us what God considers pure and undefiled religion. I'm not one to sit and give all the answers, so I want you to compile a list for yourself what's right and what's wrong for you to do. Use scripture, and see what that has to say. Then look at your own life and tell me what your own values tell you, what your identity tells you. Think critically about this stuff. I know a guy who's a deacon at his church who has sex with his girlfriend. Is that right for him to do? I think the majority of scripture and true followers of Christ will say "no." For him, he probably justifies it in some way such as "Well we're married in our heart" or "We're planning on getting married" or my personal favorite of distorting scripture, "Whenever Paul talks about sexually immorality it's about homosexuality, not sex before marriage." So you need to think hard about why something is right or wrong. If you want to distort scripture, that's on you, and you will be held accountable for it. Just don't deem yourself a Christian because I don't want the name of Jesus rendered meaningless.

Now why should we act properly?
Look at Ephesians 4.1, Philippians 3.16, 1 John 2.10, and 2 Corinthians 5.10 and you tell me.
We're called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling, a calling to be called a Child of God.
We're to hold true to what we have attained, which is salvation. Act like you're saved, you have died to sin.
We're to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and cause no stumbling, meaning we are to hold ourselves to a higher standard out of love for those around us.
And finally, we will all be judged. Our actions will be laid bare before Christ and we will be receive what we deserve. If you trust in Christ and allow him to work through you, showing your faith by your works, you will receive life. If you just give lip service, say that you have faith but refuse to act like it and like you have been saved then you haven't been saved, or you rejected your salvation and you will be judged accordingly.

If you claim to be a follower of Christ then you should commit to want to be like Christ, and be an ambassador for him here on earth (see 2 Corinthians 5). This leads to a desire for proper action in your life.

Think about any type of situations that you find yourself in and ask what is the right thing to do in that situation?
Start thinking about what you're going to do before you get somewhere. It's always good to have a plan.

That's what I got for today, I hope it helps and I hope you all start to think more about what you'll do and that you actually begin acting in a manner worthy of the calling you have received.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Jedi Mind Tricks

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge Star Wars fan. Every time I think about the new trilogy coming out I start shaking, like now. And one thing I remember from my childhood while watching the OT was, "These are not the droids you're looking for." "These aren't the droids we're looking for." The good ol' Jedi mind trick.

Wells today's topic is more about controlling your mind, and thinking critically, so when we do have Jedi's trying to make us do things we don't want to, we won't be weak minded.

Recently I read through C.S. Lewis's Abolition of Man. In this he spends a good deal of time referring to what he calls "The Green Book" which is a book that was used (I'm guessing in the 40's) for English (in Britain since that's where Lewis is from). His comments on the book are that the authors are conditioning the readers, secondary school students (equivalent of High school if you didn't know), to think differently than they have in the past. Now Lewis makes huge, incredibly deep claims on this topic which honestly I had a hard time understanding, but from what I understood he was stating this. When we look at a sunrise one might say that it (the sunrise) is sublime. I love it when I wake up and my girlfriend sends me a picture of the sunrise from on top of the hill on campus. Looking out towards the east, through the trees, phenomenal. I remember one morning I had an 8am and got up, went to class, and saw one of the most perfect sunrises I've ever seen. The sky had streaks of fiery orange, deep reds, and a deep purple, all fading into a pale yellow sky. Can't even put it into words. But those I would call sublime. Yet the authors of the Green Book wrote that the sunrise would not be sublime. It merely provokes sublime feelings in me, but it in and of itself cannot be sublime. Lewis takes this further, telling of what this thought process could lead to which is that nothing has any sort of value. It may lead to particular emotional responses from us, but those objects or events themselves cannot be worthy or merit the title of whatever (be it sublime, glorious, inferior, abominable, etc.).

The reason I bring this up is this: We have all sorts of different types of media, people, companies, and a whole host of other things trying to tell us how to think, act, what to buy, sell, want, desire, and over all how to live our lives. In particular we go to schools daily, yearly, and they tell us what to value, what to do and how to think. Sometimes, they do an alright job. Other times they drop the ball like it's a gigantic bowling ball. Through all of us we need to think critically about what we are being told.

Do I really need any type of Apple product? Absolutely not. Why? Well today's culture says that we need _____ and that _____ will make you like those you strive to be like, be it the star athlete at your school, your best friends, or your favorite movie star. But in reality, you become nothing like them other than you just dropped buko bucks on an over priced phone. Today's culture pulls you every which way demanding your attention and money, eventually leading to them wanting you to take on the identity that they give you. But going back to two posts ago, we need to work out our own identity.

Here's some scripture that supports that we (those who identify as Christians) should think critically.

John 7.24- Don’t judge by appearances, but with right judgment (compare this idea to Matt. 7.1), What is right judgment? How does on judge rightly? All relates to your values. Do you value what God values?
Matt. 7.1ff- There's a difference between judging and condemning. If you see your brother sin inform him of his sin. Look at and compare to Gal. 6.1-2. Need to think critically about someone’s actions and motives.
Prov. 1.2-7- 2-6 is to be strived (striven?) after, 7 marks of wise and foolish

And yes, I expect you to look all those up. It's only 3, deal with it. But first off read John 7.24 and Matthew 7.1 and tell me if there's a difference or even contradiction between the two. Then think, critically think, about them. Look at what I think, I think I'm right. Then again I took classes on both John and the Sermon on the Mount, so I might have some knowledge in the area.

So what kind of things should we think over?

A while ago I was meeting with a professor to work on some personal stuff. His undergrad was in psychology and he taught me that all thing, actions and emotional responses, stem from thoughts. Sometimes their incredibly quick, other times they take a while, a thought leading to a thought type deal. For example: I come up to you, whoever you are, and punch you in the face as hard as I can. First there will be pain, which is nerves sending signals to your brains saying, "You just got punched." These signals then trigger the thought that processes that you just got punched. Which leads to the thought, "What should I do about this?" Which will immediately be answered with, "Get mad bro." Which leads to the emotional response of anger. Which then leads to anger effecting (or affecting? never can tell the difference) your next few decisions, and your actions are based on that emotional response, your thoughts, and your decisions.

Now if you are in the habit of thinking critically, those nerve signals will be sent to your brain which leads to a quick thought leading to anger, and that thought can be interrupted by another thought such as, "Did I deserve that?" or "Now that was just uncalled for" or even, "No that one I deserved" or any number of different thoughts other than, "Get mad bro." You will be able to analyze the situation with a clearer mind and make a more rationalized decision. And at that point you begin to gain control over yourself, working on creating a new identity, one that thinks before they act, doesn't fly off the handle, and one who can think through a situation, even in a fast paced environment, and come away with a better decision than one that was based off of an unchecked emotional response.

Some good ways to prepare yourself for this are:

  • Be learned- Having knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom go a long way in making correct decisions
  • Know your values- Knowing these will form your worldview and effect how you analyze, evaluate, and think
  • Take your time with Decisions- Having knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom go a long way in making correct decisions
My hope is that this will help you in thinking a bit more about different situations and how you make decisions. Sorry for the psycho font as well, this blogger is hard to format. Silly Google.


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Time for a Square Dance

So yesterday I wrote about our identity and used that to introduce the topic of decision making. Well today I'm not going to talk about decision making, but something just as important that deals with it.

Accountability.

I got a friend of mine, and one day I was sitting next to him and saw his calender. And I noticed on his calender that at least twice a week, at the same time, he has a time to talk to his friend to keep each other accountable. Growing up in the church, going to a Christian university I heard a lot about accountability, and I think that it's needed. And I also think it ties directly with what we're focusing on with decision making. Why? Well it's this.

With the idea of identity we talked about who we are and who Jesus is. If we say that we're Christian's and we identify as that, then I think we should act like it. Throughout my Bible I have different verses highlighted and underlined with the note, "Act like you're saved." One of these attributes of acting like you're saved is being honest. You can't lie to God, why lie to yourself or anyone else? So if you identify as a Christian you need to work on truthfulness.

And this leads to accountability. You find someone that you can trust, someone that knows you well and that you know well. You meet once, twice, or even every day throughout the week, and you keep each other accountable. The only way for this to work though is that you get out of it what you put in. Accountability is used to create progress in your life. A ways back I did a post on struggling with things, and this is why we need accountability. Your partner has to be someone you trust, and you know they will not break your trust (inside of certain parameters). You go to them and say, "These are the things I struggle with, that have kept me, and still keep me, from a closer relationship with God." They then tell you the same. You then meet however many times you have decided to and when you do you tell each other how your week went, how you handled your temptations, struggles, and whatever else.

Through this your partner will begin to (hopefully) see patterns in your life, triggers that lead to you stumbling. They are able to point this out to you, and so you can keep those thoughts in mind and avoid the situations that lead you to stumble and fall. Now honesty here plays a big role because without honesty and trust this will not work. At all. Throughout the week keep in contact with your partner, checking up on them, seeing how they're doing, letting them know you're praying for them giving them tips on how to deal with different things. It's amazing how someone that you partner with can know exactly what you're going through because they dealt with the same thing.

There's a lot more that I could talk about with accountability, pulling out scripture and stories, but I think this is a good stopping point. I encourage you to find a friend, a peer, and partner up with them to keep each other accountable. If you do that, and are serious about it, I'm betting that your relationship with God will grow to new heights you never imagined.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Moving on... Who are you?

So I'm done with Romans for a while. It's been taking a lot out of me to get it done, and while I've read it, it's been getting longer and longer since I have and school is beginning to pick up. So we're going to take a hiatus for a bit from Romans.

Trying to figure out what to talk about today was a bit of a challenge, but I think I got a good topic. I'm wanting to do a men's Bible study focused on decision making, because I think a lot of our decisions make who we are, just as much as they are based on who we are. I say that this is for a men's Bible study, but I think it is equally useful for women, but I can't teach women they way I can men because, well, I'm a man, and I don't want to be that jerk that goes, "Oh I know what you're going through" when I can't possibly know. Anyways. Moving on.

This kind of stuff works a lot better with discussion, but I'll do my best.

The first question I have for you is this: Why is it important to talk about our identity when talking about decisions? As seen above, I say that our identity is directly related to our decisions. Each are based off of each other. I base my decisions off of my values, my world view, how I weigh different options and how I view things. If someone slams into the back of my truck while I'm sitting at a red light I have a couple options. I value my own life and safety, so I should blow up on that person for hitting me. Yet as a Christian I also value that other person's life and should make sure their okay, then blow up. My world view is that everyone makes mistakes and that forgiveness should be given, so I should forgive the person. These choices are based off of my identity, and when I make them they either solidify or crack my identity even more.

So my next question is this: Who are you? How do you identify yourself? A student? A parent? A sinner? A saint? A son/daughter? Do you identify yourself by your social status? Your family name? The meaning behind your name? Your characteristics? Your relationship status?
What about who we are? All of us reading this blog, or those who meet at your church? Are you a big family? A temple? A church? Just random people?
Be honest with yourself. Who are you?

My third question is: Why does it matter what our identity is? Sometimes finding out what our Identity is can be scary, and we don't want to know who we really are. There's a series of books that I really like call the Inheritance Cycle. It's borderline high fantasy, whatever I'm a nerd I accept it get off my back man. Anyway, a big theme in these books is the characters true name. There are multiple languages in this universe, but one that is used with magic and can pull out the true nature of anything. With this language one may find their true name which tells the very, unbiased Identity of that particular person. Imagine if you took the meaning of your name, for example my name being Michael means "Like God." And the meaning of my name is based on who I am, not just a name that's been given to me. I mean it would be a lot of pressure to live up to my name's meaning, and it would be terrifying to know that the meaning of my name is based off of who I am. Like God? What does that mean? I can strike people down? That's be terrifying to have that kind of power. So while we don't have names based off of our Identity, we still have an Identity that we must find. And it leads to this.

Knowing what our identity is is based off of who we are, what we do, even what we have. As humans, we only own one thing, and that's our sin. Before we are saved we are only one thing, and that is a sinner. And in the grand scheme of things this makes our very identity (I feel like I'm using this word too much) and is all we have. That is until we are saved. When we are saved we are counted as children of God. We are given salvation and are heirs with Christ for God's glory. This creates a new Identity in us, but only because of Jesus, who we are in and who is in us, which leads to the next question.

Who is Jesus? Last semester I went around asking college student who they said Jesus was. Most gave me the "Well the Church says he's this" a Jewish student that I asked said, "Well I think he's just  a man" and I had an entire table go, "He's, you know, whatever." But the Church comes together and says, "Jesus is the son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, and our Savior and Lord." That's cool and all, but what the heck does all that mean? That's your homework, figure out what all of that means for you. And how does Jesus' Identity help us find our own? Well as I said, we are counted brothers with him as children of God. We are identified as being in him and having him in us. So what does that mean for you?

I can go on and on about our own Identity, but I can only say so much. I hope this gets you thinking about who you are, and I hope you're honest with yourself. God already knows who you are, and you can't lie to him. So why lie to yourself?

As for me. My name is Mike Andrews. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I've made mistakes, and still make them, but God loves me despite my faults. I am a child of his, and he has looked down upon me and said, "This is my son whom I love." By his grace I am who I am, and his grace has not been without effect on me. I am dependent on Jesus and his works and I trust in them. He is the King of my life, and I will follow him wherever he leads me. This and more is who I am. Who are you?