I'm Going to Argue Semantics

What is your definition of a strong Christian?  We use the phrase “strong Christian” quite a bit, but what do we mean by it?  That’s a question that’s been on mind some, and it is something that I want to nail down.  I’ve often said that I want to be a stronger Christian, but what do I mean by that?  What does it look like?  To be honest, I’ve not been real sure.  I am definitely closer now, and where I am is a little unorthodox.

Here’s the way the logic tends to go: if you spend fifteen minutes a day reading your Bible and fifteen minutes a day praying, you’re a pretty good Christian.  If you spend an hour in either or both, you’re a super-Christian.  You get above that and you’re being robbed if you don’t have a cathedral named after you.  I admit, I’m being a bit sarcastic.  That’s intentional. 

Some nights when I get bored but don’t feel like going to bed, there’s a few channels on YouTube I like to visit.  One of those is blimeycow.  If you don’t know what channel that is, it’s basically a vlog with quick cuts and short skits about cultural and religious issues done in a tongue-in-cheek way.  One of their videos is about “making time” for God.  The video highlights the Pharisaical attitude that this shows.  I recommend it to everyone reading this.

I’m going to suggest something that might be slightly outside of the box.  I don’t think God gave us the Bible so that our service to Him could be in a cycle of cognitive exercises.  Who is a strong Christian, do you ask?  The one that knows when to stop reading and start doing.  I’m not saying that I don’t think that study and prayer are important, they most definitely are.  However, the strong Christian is the one who says “I am going to work for God.”  Not just “I am going to read for God.”  See the difference?

In Joshua 7, we find Joshua in an interesting circumstance.  Achan has stolen from the forbidden spoil in Jericho, but Joshua doesn’t know about it yet.  They go up to attack Ai and get their butts kicked.  In response, Joshua is praying and pleading to God.  God tells him, if I may paraphrase, “Shut up and get up.  There’s sin in the camp, go deal with it.”  Sometimes we need to be told “shut up and get up.”

So what is a strong Christian you ask?  A strong Christian is one who applies everything he reads in scripture and prays about in every single facet of his life.  He looks for ways he can be Christ-like in every possible scenario, even if that means being radical, weird, or socially awkward.  He looks for opportunities to worship God, and opportunities to encourage others to do the same.  He does not only read, but he does.

Penitence

There’s been a lot on my mind lately (as there always is), and I confess what I bring to the table tonight is nothing new.  It is, however, something worth revisiting.

The psalms are an incredible place to spend some time.  In times past, I have often taken the psalms for granted.  I appreciated the prophets for their blunt honesty in dealing with sin, the gospels for the portrayal of Jesus, and the epistles for practical daily living, but I often did not appreciate the psalms for being what they are.  I now appreciate them more.  I’ve been involved with an on-campus study in the psalms and it has been a very humbling study.  In this study, I’ve come to grips with one of the hardest of topics: repentance.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a perfect man.  I’ve messed up quite a bit.  Inevitably, I find myself coming back to God time and time again for repentance.  That’s true of humanity in general, but what I have paid special attention to lately is the way that we pray our prayers of repentance and the way we ask for forgiveness.  In Psalm 38, David says in verses 4-9 “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.” 

How do I pray?  I definitely don’t pray like David.  As a matter of fact, most of the time I try to get it over with as soon as possible so that I can feel okay again.  It’s more along the lines of  “God, I sinned, please forgive me” than “My wound stink and fester because of my foolishness.”  That leads me to what I believe the cause of this is.  In the Bible study as the three of us were talking, I realized that I am not the only one that says prayers that simple.  We all do.  Why?  I believe I know the answer, if for no one else for myself, and I doubt that I am the only one who does so for this reason.  My problem is that I am more concerned about being feeling okay again than I am about what it is that I have done to God. 

I remember one time when as a kid I had misbehaved during church.  My mother told me that I would get a spanking when we got home, but when we got home she forgot.  I reminded her.  Pretty dumb kid, right?  But do you know why I did it?  I didn’t like the anxious anticipation.  I wanted to get it over with.  That had absolutely nothing to do with being sorry for what I did (which I don’t remember), I just wanted the knot in my stomach to go away.

Sometimes we act like that with God.  We aren’t really sorry for what we’ve done, we just want to feel okay again.  May I challenge you the next time you go before God in prayer, read Psalm 38 first and think about why you’re really praying.  Don’t aim for stress relief.  Aim for penitence.

The Sleeper Sin of Insubordination

Some of you probably read my title and thought “what in the world is he talking about?”  Let me explain.  I’ve been thinking some recently about the idea of “sleeper sins.” There are some sins that we clearly label and condemn and stay away from.  There are others that slyly slip in.  They slide under our radar as things that can be seen as virtuous, wholesome, or expedient.  C.S. Lewis spoke of the sin of gluttony this way in The Screwtape Letters, speaking from an elderly demon’s point of view: “One of the great achievements of the last hundred years has been to deaden the human conscience on that subject, so that by now you will hardly find a sermon preached or a conscience troubled about it in the whole length and breadth of Europe.”

Since Sandy Hook, gun control has been the favorite subject of everyone with an opinion.  The subject has become especially prevalent among Christians, many of whom I have found are pro-gun.  Whether you are for or against gun control is not the target of this post.  What I want to point out is the way that some Christians are reacting to proposed gun control laws.  The state of New York recently passed a law that made guns with a capacity of more than seven rounds illegal.  It hasn’t actually taken affect yet (it will on April 15^th), but it has caused quite an uproar among pro-gun Americans both inside and outside of New York.  President Obama supposedly wants to enact similar gun regulations nationwide. 

If I’m ever running out of material to write on, sometimes I just browse Facebook until I find something that gets me going.  Sometimes that doesn’t take any longer than ten minutes.  I have seen a lot of posts in the past few months that basically say something like this: “Obama wants to take our guns away.  I hope he’s ready for a revolution.”  Or something like this: “If you want me guns, you’ll have to rip them from my cold dead hands.”  You get the idea.

There’s a problem here.  A pretty big one, too.  Romans 13 says that we are to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for they are established by God.  Is the man who takes part in a revolution in subjection to the governing authorities?  I think you know the answer to that. 

Here’s what a lot of you are going to be saying at this point: “But Logan, the Constitution gives us the right to fight back!”  Listen and listen carefully: I don’t give a hill of beans what the Constitution gives us a right to do.  Like any patriotic American, I believe in the Constitution and I believe that it should be followed.  However (and I do believe we need to be told this, sadly), the Constitution of the United States of America is not an inspired document.  We do not have the right to do something as Christians because the Constitution gives us the right.  We answer to a higher power. 

Secondly, I’ve heard the argument “Because of the Constitution, the government doesn’t have any authority over us!”  Let me frank.  That’s bull.  It’s a smokescreen that we’ve used because we don’t have a way to justify our attitudes.  Search the Constitution for something that says “The government will have no authority over the citizens.”  You won’t find it.  There’s checks and balances to be sure, but if lawmakers and law enforcement really have no power over us, then why haven’t conservatives kicked out Obama?  Because citizens don’t have the authority to do that.  Not without due process. 

Let’s stop pretending.  God tells us to be submissive, so we should be submissive.  End of story.  Otherwise, we will find ourselves fighting God.

Beloved Bystanders

I’m afraid that every day it is getting harder to do the right thing.

Last week, a Florida high school student pulled a loaded gun on another student.  He intended to shoot him for arguing with a friend of his.  Thankfully, another student saw what was happening and grabbed the gun and with help from two other students who jumped in, was able to get the gun out of his hand.  These three students may very well have saved a life.  What was their reward?  Suspension.

There is something very wrong with our society.  Our freedom of speech has been slowly leaving for a while now.  That has been my biggest concern.  Now, however, we punish students not just for speaking up, but for acting when someone’s life is in danger.  This is beyond despicable.

According to the school representatives, they can suspend students when they are involved in some kind of violence.  I suppose the preference, then, would be stand by and watch. 

In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genovese was murdered in New York City.  A lot of people are killed in New York City every year, but the thing that made this particular murder significant was that she cried for help, and her neighbors heard her, but no one did anything.  This story is occasionally brought up in psychology textbooks.  I still remember the first time I heard this story.  I was horrified that something like this could ever happen. 

I’m not sure if this event is indicative of our entire culture, but I do know that even in an individualistic society, conformity is valued more than being a hero.  That’s generally the way things have always been, but this is different.  Normally when someone’s life is in danger, people applaud the hero.  Why did the school suspend these three kids?  Honestly, I have no idea what’s going through their minds, but I am going to use it as a springboard for a tangent that relates.

There’s a guy’s Bible study at my apartment every Monday night.  Recently we’ve been studying 1 Peter, which talks a lot about how the Christian responds to suffering.  I’ve been thinking about that some lately, especially in connection with 2 Timothy 4:12, which says “Indeed, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  God does not call us to passivity.  God calls us to stand up for the truth.  As we do, though, we may face situations like these, in which we are punished for doing what is right.  In these circumstances, I’m reminded of Peter and John’s response at the end of Acts 5, where after being beaten for preaching Jesus, they leave rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for Christ. 

I’m not saying that we’re going to be flogged for believing in the resurrection of Jesus starting tomorrow.  What I am saying, though, is that we do experience persecution for doing the right thing, even if it isn’t in exactly the same terms.  We need to be prepared to pay what it costs to do right.  

A Heart Like David's

At the moment, I am looking at a sad situation.  It looks as though I may have to miss services tomorrow morning for the first time in several years.  Actually, I can’t quite recall the last time this happened.  It is due to the fact that I am sick, which is a pretty rare occurrence.  I get sick about once a school year, so I guess my body figured out that Spring Break is almost here, so it was time to get the quota in. 

My sickness isn’t the point though.  The thought of having to miss services saddens me.  Earlier this semester I wasn’t able to make it to Wednesday night Bible study because of an exam.  Then I had a similar feeling: disappointment.  I’m reminded of David who said in Psalms 122:1 “I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of Yahweh!" 

My life has become increasingly busy lately and there are many schedule-like things that I’ve had to be mindful of.  I have classes.  Now that I’m working for the student newspaper I have deadlines for articles, events to attend, and interviews to do.  I am now writing for this blog every day, so I’m mindful of that.  I also have to study for my classes and make the time to call my parents every once in a while, which I am really bad at by the way.  Amid all of these things that I’m juggling, there’s always “church” on Sundays and on Wednesday nights.  It is really easy for worship to become just another one of those routine things that I do every week, and so I’ve been thinking about how I can keep it from becoming commonplace.  God deserves better than commonplace.

That led me to another thought.  Why is it that in my thinking process, worship to God is restricted only to formal church assemblies?  Is that right?  Is that Biblical?  Now before you label me as a heretic and come knocking on my door with torches and pitchforks, let me clarify that I am not saying that anything and everything in life is worship whether it be fishing, reading, working, or playing.  I am saying, however, that we should worship God outside of the assembly. 

The scripture that is often used when talking about singing to God is Ephesians 5:18-20: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Now here’s the thing: Ephesians is not about assemblies.  Ephesians is about your life as a Christian.  The book talks about our salvation, the marriage relationship, being pure of sin, putting on the armor of God, so on and so forth.  So why have we taken a scripture about our lives as Christians and restricted it to the assembly?

By the time you’re reading this, it will be Sunday.  I may not be worshipping with the saints, but make no mistake about it, I will be worshipping.

The Man Behind the Curtain

Last night, I went to an open lecture on the Purdue University campus that was entitled “Debunking Darwinism.”  It was given by Dr. Gunnar Dieckmann, a Christian chemist who has studied Darwinism and its effects in both historical and scientific contexts.  I went for two reasons.  I work for the student newspaper and I was assigned to cover the event, and I had seen the flyer and was interested in attending anyway.  Interestingly enough, the information that I found most fascinating was not scientific, it was historical.

I should probably mention here that I do not believe in evolution.  If you’ve read very much of my writing, you probably knew that already.  Even so, I had always been under the impression that Darwin’s ideas were very successful even from the start.  I also was under the impression that he was an atheist, since there are very few evolutionists who are not atheists.  Here’s where it gets interesting: neither one of those two facts are true. 

In his book the Non-Darwinian Revolution, Peter Bowler says that Charles Darwin’s ideas were not readily accepted but were even combated by his fellow scientists, and it wasn’t until the 1920s and 1930s, about 80 years afterwards, that his ideas gained the immense popularity that grew to what it is today.  Charles Darwin himself admits that there is controversy over his ideas in On the Origin of Species itself: “For I am aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite those at which I have arrived.” 

Here’s the unfortunate truth: we eat what we’re fed, often with no questions asked.  I myself until recently believed that most Americans accept evolution as a fact.  You would think that were the case, given that it is taught in all of the public schools and state universities, and is treated as an accepted fact by most news media outlets.  However, that also is not true.  The Huffington Post in an article last summer gave the results of an interesting survey.  Participants were asked this question: Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings?
1) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process,
2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process,
3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.

The results are surprising.  Only 15% answered in favor of atheistic evolution.  32% answered in favor of supernatural (God-guided) evolution, and an incredible 46% gave the answer that God created human beings in their present state. 

My friends, we have been lied to.  We have been led to believe that evolution is a scientific fact and, as Richard Dawkins put it, “Anyone who doesn't believe in evolution is stupid, insane or hasn't read Jerry Coyne.”  So would Richard Dawkins be willing to say that nearly half of all Americans are stupid? 

Here’s what happening, folks: the evolutionists are the ones in control.  They are the ones in control of the scientific journals as well as much of the media, so they control the illusion that evolution is an undisputed scientific fact and that Charles Darwin was a hero who was embraced by his contemporaries.  That isn’t the truth.  Don’t eat what you’re fed without asking questions, because the poison will eventually kill you.  

Are Political Labels Christian?

Sometimes I am hesitant to make direct correlations between Christianity and politics.  Certainly there is a Christian perspective in moral issues such as homosexuality and abortion, but unfortunately some Christians have equated Christianity with certain political perspectives.  For example, to be a Christian you must not only be pro-life but also pro-gun and pro-capital punishment.  I am not at all saying that I am against those things; as a matter of fact I am staunchly in favor of capital punishment.  However, I want to take a look at the attitude being statements like these.

First of all, to be fair, I do care a lot about politics.  I’m not a fan of identifying myself with a party, but if I was asked to give a black-and-white answer, I’d say that I am an old-school Republican.  However, I don’t like being identified as a Republican, because, to be honest, I don’t agree with everything Republicans do or stand for.  Most Republicans that identify themselves as pro-life give exceptions for rape and incest.  I do not believe that exception should exist.  Mitt Romney wanted to restrict internet pornography by making new computers filtered.  Although most Republicans were opposed to that because it possibly meant more government control, I was in support of it.  You get the idea.

I confess, I grew up in a family of Republicans and in a church that was mostly Republican.  So do you know what I thought about Democrats when I was a kid?  You probably have a pretty good idea.  If my mind was a dictionary, the entry would have sounded something like this: “Democrat.  An ignorant and idiotic moron who believes in pouring money we don’t have into the hands of the unemployed who waste it on booze and drugs.”  Gradually, I heard the tag “liberal” associated with Democrats, so I grew to associate the same definition with the word “liberal,” and thus, to me, the most unintelligent person on God’s green Earth had to be a wide-eyed liberal Democrat. 

Then a wrench got thrown in my philosophy.  When I was growing up we had a close family friend that lived pretty close to us that watched me quite a bit.  At some point during my childhood, I found out that she was a Democrat.  My entire world of prejudice and bias came crashing down.  She was an intelligent, kind, God-fearing woman who spoke common sense.  We just disagreed on some political issues.  That helped me to begin to see a very helpful truth.

In one of my communication classes, we’ve been talking about something called Heuristic cues.  When we are considering an issue but don’t want to exert the mental energy to think seriously about the topic and the arguments for whatever reason, we use cognitive short-cuts.  Some of those are things like credibility of the speaker, attractiveness of the speaker, so on and so forth.  One of those heuristic cues is political labels.  If someone says something challenging that we don’t like, we think, “Well they must be a wide-eyed liberal!” or “Well they are just a society-loathing conservative!”  Now comes the point of this entire post: are associations like that Christ-like, regardless of which side we are coming from?

Titus 3:2 “speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” 

It’s pretty hard to show perfect courtesy toward all people when we’re screaming at them for being idiotic liberals or narrow-minded conservatives.  This is the part where people are apt to misunderstand me.  Allow me to clarify.  I am not at all saying that it doesn’t matter where you stand on political issues.  Many political issues can have moral and spiritual implications.  However, what I am saying is that we cannot be judging people’s integrity based on their political alignment.  As a matter of fact, if I had my way, we would do away with the terms Republican, Democrat, conservative, and liberal altogether.  Let’s be Christ-like in our interactions with each other and learn to have cool and collected open discussions with each other.  Otherwise, we may be found to become what we hate most: the angry close-minded bigot.