Luke 11.27-28: As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
I like this set of passages (meaning Friday's will be the next one). Monday was about replacing what you lost, about have a change in character. Today is about doing with intent.
A woman calls to Jesus that the woman that just took care of him should be blessed. Sure, I can get behind the idea that Mary was blessed. But because of her following God. I don't think we're blessed because we're in situations that God placed us in, I think we're blessed because of how we handle these situations. Do we remain faithful or not? That's the question that needs answered, and I think that's what Jesus is talking about. Mary birthed Jesus and had an obligation to take care of him. I have an obligation to eat, does that mean I'm blessed because I fulfill my obligation? I don't think so. Granted the two aren't exactly equatable, but for the thought they work.
What I do want to propose though is that in all situations we have multiple choices in front of us. For the past couple of weeks after CSF we got to a local sports bar for food and fellowship. I'm 25, one of our guys is 21, and another is 20. Every week I'm faced with a choice, "Should I order a drink?" It's a bar, I'm 25, I don't think it's a sin to enjoy an adult beverage as long as I'm responsible, and I know my tolerance and limitations. So as I sit in this situation I have a couple choices, to order a drink or not order a drink, that is the question. If I decide to order a drink, I may be showing the people that I'm with that it's not a sin to drink, despite what some Christians say. Or I may seem irresponsible to the people with me, who do think it's not okay for a Christian to drink, which they can have that opinion for themselves, as long as they don't force it on others (see Colossians 2.16-19). My ordering a drink may prompt questions which lead to either good or bad conversation. Or I could not order a drink and handle the situation by seemingly avoiding it entirely. Or I could discuss it with the people that I'm with. Multiple choices in one situation.
Now which of those choices would lead me to be "Blessed?" What does God's word say? Well it says don't engage in drunkenness (1 Tim. 3.2-3). Okay I know my limits, so I can drink. It also says not to cause a brother to stumble (1 Cor. 8.9). But Paul's reference really only applies to food, so I can order this drink? But then in 1 Corinthians 11.23, "all things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. So would me ordering this drink be helpful or not? The word of God is pulling me back and forth in this decision between Mt. Dew and a beer. I want to be blessed by God but I can't come to a conclusion on this what am I ever to do?! Simplest answer is to just not order a beer. But we're not going for the simple answer we're going to the critical thinking about the entire matter.
And here comes the idea which is from Monday: What does your change in Character say? Have you struggled with drinking in the past? Avoid the temptation. Those around you, do you know what they struggle with? Avoid becoming a stumbling block. Or what are their views of drinking? Be above reproach. These are the words of God, that we are to do all we can to help those around us, counting them more important than ourselves. We are to be above reproach, giving those around us no reason to think we we are not effective ministers of the Gospel (and that's all of us).
And the simple truth that all of this comes down to is this: In everything you do, do it intentionally. Every story I tell, every action I do, I do it for a purpose in mind. And I always try to make that purpose for the Glory of God, though I don't always succeed. So, once you have your change in Character, begin to act like that character. Or as I like to say, "Act like you're saved."
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Monday, February 15, 2016
Replacing what you Lost
Luke 11.24-26: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings even other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first."
I'm a firm believer that we all struggle with some type of sin. Usually I just say "something" instead of "some type of sin" but I want to be a bit more clear right now. People that aren't clear give me heartburn and I don't like them for about 3 days. But anyways.
We all struggle with some type of sin. I've had people try to say that not everyone does, but I can promise you they do. Even Paul struggled with pride. Jesus struggled with different sins as well (and to struggle with it DOES NOT MEAN TO GIVE INTO). I've written about this topic before though. But I just want to establish that to bring it to the above passage. I think we can take this idea of sins that we struggle with and use the term "demons." We all have demons.
What we see in these few verses is that when we get rid of a demon that we have, it will come back and attempt to take up residence again, and this time it's going to bring its friends, and we'll be worse off then we were before. And that's not good to say the least. After we get rid of a demon, we attempt to put things in order, but we never think of replacing it. And that's what I think the point of this passage is.
Whatever your demon may be, there is the possibility of it leaving, through prayer, fasting, devotion to God, calling on the name of Jesus. But once it's gone, we tend to think, "Okay, I'm good now. Let's get things in order so I can go about my life." And we do just that. Then in a moment of weakness, a moment of temptation we weren't ready for, we're approached by our demon, the sin we struggle with, and we fall back into worse than we were before. It makes me think of a heroin addict that relapses after being clean for so long. They lost their tolerance, but don't realize it, and try to go back to the dose they were using before and OD. These two are incredibly similar in my mind.
Let's say you struggle with drinking. You get sober, you're doing well, you got your life back in order, then you just have a really rough day, your first one in months. Work sucked, your boss was riding you all day, you just had a horrible day. Screw it, you owe it to yourself to have a beer right? But then one turns into two, which turns into three, which turns into a 12 pack. The next day you're hungover, and have to go back to the job that was just horrible yesterday, and continued to be so today, so on your way home you grab another 12 pack with the intention of finishing it off. And you do so, and the cycle repeats itself until your worse off than you were before you got sober.
Why does this happen?
Because despite getting things in order, you never replaced the demon with something better. There was a vacuum in your life, and what got sucked in was what you got rid of, and it came back worse than before.
So what am I suggesting?
Find something to fill the void, to replace the demon. Maybe it won't be one thing that can replace the demon, maybe it has to be a few things, but it needs to be replaced. What to replace it with though? That's up to you. Obviously there are some obvious "Christian" answers that can be given, and I think they should be, such as crack open your Bible that only gets taken out on Sunday's for church. Spend some time just talking to God, letting him know your problems and stresses and life.
At the risk of sounding like a bad minister, I do want to say those may not entirely help with the void though. Sure they take time, and replace the demon, but sometimes we need other tasks to replace the demon as well, and this is where it's on you. Go for a run, build something, chop down a tree, write a book, read a book, do something fun or relaxing. Over time, you can work to turn what you're doing into worship towards God as well, then bringing together the devotional side of the filled void with the recreational. With this we have a venn diagram looking thing, where one side is "Devotional" the other "Recreation" and in the middle is a mix of the two. The more you do all three, the bigger the middle gets until there's only a little bit on either side. This gives you time for personal devotion with nothing to take away from that, time for your recreation where you can mindlessly do whatever, and in all the other times, you have both.
What all of this comes to then is a call to a change in character. I think this is the overall message that Jesus is giving here. Something nefarious is gone, something that wrecked your life, something that your entire character was based on. It needs to be replaced, and new character needs to be made, or created, or begat, depending how you want to view it. This is why the need for the Devotional aspect is so great, because if we don't build this new character with God, then something else will be in it. It's the idea that anything can be turned into an addiction, anything can pull you away from God, even working for God, such as church work or ministry, can pull you away from your personal relationship with God. So when the demon is replaced, God needs to be added into the mix in order to create a change in Character.
These are just thoughts that I have though that may not be articulated all that well, but I do think this is what needs to be said in relation to the above passage. Yes, we all have demons, and we need to get rid of them, but we also need to replace them with something.
I'm a firm believer that we all struggle with some type of sin. Usually I just say "something" instead of "some type of sin" but I want to be a bit more clear right now. People that aren't clear give me heartburn and I don't like them for about 3 days. But anyways.
We all struggle with some type of sin. I've had people try to say that not everyone does, but I can promise you they do. Even Paul struggled with pride. Jesus struggled with different sins as well (and to struggle with it DOES NOT MEAN TO GIVE INTO). I've written about this topic before though. But I just want to establish that to bring it to the above passage. I think we can take this idea of sins that we struggle with and use the term "demons." We all have demons.
What we see in these few verses is that when we get rid of a demon that we have, it will come back and attempt to take up residence again, and this time it's going to bring its friends, and we'll be worse off then we were before. And that's not good to say the least. After we get rid of a demon, we attempt to put things in order, but we never think of replacing it. And that's what I think the point of this passage is.
Whatever your demon may be, there is the possibility of it leaving, through prayer, fasting, devotion to God, calling on the name of Jesus. But once it's gone, we tend to think, "Okay, I'm good now. Let's get things in order so I can go about my life." And we do just that. Then in a moment of weakness, a moment of temptation we weren't ready for, we're approached by our demon, the sin we struggle with, and we fall back into worse than we were before. It makes me think of a heroin addict that relapses after being clean for so long. They lost their tolerance, but don't realize it, and try to go back to the dose they were using before and OD. These two are incredibly similar in my mind.
Let's say you struggle with drinking. You get sober, you're doing well, you got your life back in order, then you just have a really rough day, your first one in months. Work sucked, your boss was riding you all day, you just had a horrible day. Screw it, you owe it to yourself to have a beer right? But then one turns into two, which turns into three, which turns into a 12 pack. The next day you're hungover, and have to go back to the job that was just horrible yesterday, and continued to be so today, so on your way home you grab another 12 pack with the intention of finishing it off. And you do so, and the cycle repeats itself until your worse off than you were before you got sober.
Why does this happen?
Because despite getting things in order, you never replaced the demon with something better. There was a vacuum in your life, and what got sucked in was what you got rid of, and it came back worse than before.
So what am I suggesting?
Find something to fill the void, to replace the demon. Maybe it won't be one thing that can replace the demon, maybe it has to be a few things, but it needs to be replaced. What to replace it with though? That's up to you. Obviously there are some obvious "Christian" answers that can be given, and I think they should be, such as crack open your Bible that only gets taken out on Sunday's for church. Spend some time just talking to God, letting him know your problems and stresses and life.
At the risk of sounding like a bad minister, I do want to say those may not entirely help with the void though. Sure they take time, and replace the demon, but sometimes we need other tasks to replace the demon as well, and this is where it's on you. Go for a run, build something, chop down a tree, write a book, read a book, do something fun or relaxing. Over time, you can work to turn what you're doing into worship towards God as well, then bringing together the devotional side of the filled void with the recreational. With this we have a venn diagram looking thing, where one side is "Devotional" the other "Recreation" and in the middle is a mix of the two. The more you do all three, the bigger the middle gets until there's only a little bit on either side. This gives you time for personal devotion with nothing to take away from that, time for your recreation where you can mindlessly do whatever, and in all the other times, you have both.
What all of this comes to then is a call to a change in character. I think this is the overall message that Jesus is giving here. Something nefarious is gone, something that wrecked your life, something that your entire character was based on. It needs to be replaced, and new character needs to be made, or created, or begat, depending how you want to view it. This is why the need for the Devotional aspect is so great, because if we don't build this new character with God, then something else will be in it. It's the idea that anything can be turned into an addiction, anything can pull you away from God, even working for God, such as church work or ministry, can pull you away from your personal relationship with God. So when the demon is replaced, God needs to be added into the mix in order to create a change in Character.
These are just thoughts that I have though that may not be articulated all that well, but I do think this is what needs to be said in relation to the above passage. Yes, we all have demons, and we need to get rid of them, but we also need to replace them with something.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Christianity is hard
A while back I referenced 1 Corinthians 1.17. Well I'm referencing it again. But with a different focus.
The message of Christianity is easy. The point of Christianity is easy. The message simply being that God came to earth in human form to provide a way for salvation. The point of being a Christian is, now that we're saved, to spread this message and live as if we're saved, that is, live a life worthy of being called a "Child of God."
But Christianity itself is hard. The deeper parts of it don't make any sense. It seems to be full of contradictions, misinformation, and theories that our minds can't grasp.
Lately I've been reading Mere Christianity for class, and C.S. Lewis writes that one of the reasons he believes Christianity to be true is because it's so difficult. The universe itself is difficult, and while other religions may have answers for everything, they still have holes, and come out to be simple. Christianity on the other hand does have answers to everything (though a lot of the time we don't know those answers, but someone else might even if we've never met them), there are no holes, even when it seems like different ideas contradict themselves.
For example, the idea of faith and works. Paul has an emphasis on faith, while James seems to have more of an emphasis on works. Really looking into what each are saying, they really do come out to contradict each other. But Christianity takes these two opposing views, and makes them work together. This can be called a chiasm or chiasmus. And how Christianity makes these two ideas work together is it says that because of our faith, we do works, which make our faith something real, tangible, see-able.
And Christianity is full of these. How many times have you read the Bible and went, "Well this is saying A, but if we look here we see it say B. How can this be true then?" This is where context comes in. A could just be how B happened in that particular situation. Or if you take the two and put them together in the context of all of scripture, you could pull out F, which is the mixture of A and B and possibly more ideas.
What I'm not saying is that you can twist scripture to make it fit what you want it to. What I am saying is that sometimes you need to look at the whole picture to understand how two seemingly opposing ideas or teachings actually work together. Is this hard to do? Yes. But Christianity is not easy. The message and point are, but Christianity itself is not. It calls us to think, critically, rationally, carefully about all aspects of life. What we read, what we see, what we experience. But it will always, eventually, make sense. Even if you can't understand it this side of heaven.
The message of Christianity is easy. The point of Christianity is easy. The message simply being that God came to earth in human form to provide a way for salvation. The point of being a Christian is, now that we're saved, to spread this message and live as if we're saved, that is, live a life worthy of being called a "Child of God."
But Christianity itself is hard. The deeper parts of it don't make any sense. It seems to be full of contradictions, misinformation, and theories that our minds can't grasp.
Lately I've been reading Mere Christianity for class, and C.S. Lewis writes that one of the reasons he believes Christianity to be true is because it's so difficult. The universe itself is difficult, and while other religions may have answers for everything, they still have holes, and come out to be simple. Christianity on the other hand does have answers to everything (though a lot of the time we don't know those answers, but someone else might even if we've never met them), there are no holes, even when it seems like different ideas contradict themselves.
For example, the idea of faith and works. Paul has an emphasis on faith, while James seems to have more of an emphasis on works. Really looking into what each are saying, they really do come out to contradict each other. But Christianity takes these two opposing views, and makes them work together. This can be called a chiasm or chiasmus. And how Christianity makes these two ideas work together is it says that because of our faith, we do works, which make our faith something real, tangible, see-able.
And Christianity is full of these. How many times have you read the Bible and went, "Well this is saying A, but if we look here we see it say B. How can this be true then?" This is where context comes in. A could just be how B happened in that particular situation. Or if you take the two and put them together in the context of all of scripture, you could pull out F, which is the mixture of A and B and possibly more ideas.
What I'm not saying is that you can twist scripture to make it fit what you want it to. What I am saying is that sometimes you need to look at the whole picture to understand how two seemingly opposing ideas or teachings actually work together. Is this hard to do? Yes. But Christianity is not easy. The message and point are, but Christianity itself is not. It calls us to think, critically, rationally, carefully about all aspects of life. What we read, what we see, what we experience. But it will always, eventually, make sense. Even if you can't understand it this side of heaven.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)