by Tim | Feb 22, 2010 | God, The Gospel |
Ever since I’ve learned the positions taken at my former church, I’ve wrestled between worry and hope. On the one hand, I worry for those who will receive what is taught to them, because it just sounds good. Further, I worry about this type of “Christianity” gaining a foothold not in just one local church, but across the country as well. My eyes have been opened to how pervasive this ideology is. (I’ve promised that I would get into the ideology, and I will!) Jesus talks about how as time goes on, even the elect’s love for Him will grow cold. I worry that this is happening. On the other hand, I’ve also had a sense of belief that truth wins out. While a lie can be compelling, there is something compelling about the truth as well. Yes, I know that people are drawn to what they would like to hear. The serpent did that quite easily with Adam and Eve. But the lie leaves you feeling empty. It doesn’t make good on its promises–except perhaps in the short-term. I have come to see the awesome power of the gospel. It’s not just theology for me. I really can see it. It blows me away. Every time I hear it, it is like spiritual food. I want to hear more. I think this is partly due to the fact of not hearing it for so many years, and so it feels so fresh to hear it. Hence, the title to this blog post. I didn’t make up that title. It comes from a song that is quickly becoming my...
by Tim | Feb 17, 2010 | God, My World, Worship |
I had a conversation with a friend this week about being expressive in worship. Like me, he has a problem with people who are expressive when worshiping, but throughout the week, they don’t live for Christ like they present themselves during worship on Sunday mornings. I struggle with this myself. I don’t want to be expressive on Sunday mornings, but then when I’m at my job Monday – Friday, or at the grocery store for that matter, I live as if I’m embarrassed to mention Jesus to co-workers, clients, or the checkout lady. How can I praise God so expressively at church, but refuse to share Christ with my next-door neighbor? How fake is that?! I’ve always felt like we can be so fake at church–we express ourselves one way there, while the rest of the week when we’re “real,” we’re too shy to proclaim Christ. But today it hit me–I’m not being fake at church. That’s really how I feel–that’s really who I am on the inside. I do want to proclaim how awesome Jesus is. It’s the rest of the week where I’m being fake. I’m hiding the real me from non-believers. How I desire to be real with everyone about how much Jesus means to me! I’m real at church–God, help me to be real at home, at work, and at...
by Tim | Feb 15, 2010 | God, The Gospel |
One of the comments to my last blog was: While God certainly has the right to dictate His own terms, I think that this argument causes many people to believe that if God exists that He acts way too arbitrarily to be loving. I personally do not believe that God is arbitrary or unloving, but that perspective can be a natural reaction to the argument that God can set whatever terms He wants. Do you have specific thoughts about those who think God arbitrary, capricious, or unloving? I have some responses to that position about God but they are difficult to state clearly and rely heavily on my personal conception of sin, salvation, heaven, and hell. Great question! I want to dive into it! Here are my thoughts for those who would wonder the same thing (I find myself wondering this as well): I think this is where faith in God is needed. Does God know what He is doing? Can He be trusted to do the right thing? Similar to the relationship between a parent and a child, a child does not always understand why the parent does what he/she does, but that’s because a child is simply a child. We are simply humans. Things may not look “fair” at first from our perspective, but maybe when we start to look at the world through God’s perspective, we realize He really is more than fair. So that this answer doesn’t seem like a “cop-out,” I’d like to see if we can try to gain more of God’s perspective on the matter of sin. According to the terms He...
by Tim | Feb 12, 2010 | God, The Gospel |
Is humanity lost? Have we walked away from God and gone our own way? Is the world really going to hell? Is that fair? Is there any way to return to God? Is God even willing to welcome us back if we tried? Does God require any terms for salvation? Would it even be fair of God to set up terms? Why not just save everyone if He really does love the world? What do you think? Well, not to be rude, but it doesn’t really matter what you think. It doesn’t even matter what I think. What matters is what God thinks. (No one likes to hear this.) And the only way we can know what God thinks is if God reveals that to us. And if He does, our own opinions/feelings/thoughts matter little if they contradict what God says about himself. John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist movement) wrote a commentary on the New Testament, including the book of Romans. In this commentary, Wesley states (emphasis mine): [The Gospel] is the powerful instrument of salvation…by means of faith… The world greatly needed such a dispensation–the Gentiles being in a most abandoned state, and the Jews (though condemning others) are themselves no better…so that all were under a necessity of seeking justification by this method. Why did John Wesley write this? Because it’s what the book of Romans lays out as the condition of the world. The question is, did Paul just write this out of his own thinking? Or is this divine revelation from God? If it’s just his own opinion, there’s no need to affirm...
by Tim | Feb 11, 2010 | God, Our Culture, The Church World, The Gospel, The Scriptures |
The biggest reason why I left Genesis, my former church, was that I believe that putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to God, but I was told that this was narrow-minded, judgmental, and arrogant to believe and teach this. Of course, I had been teaching this to the youth, and was dismayed to learn that the church felt this was unnecessary and not beneficial to do so. Through this experience, my eyes have been opened to realize that churches like this really do exist out there. Sure, I’ve always known that, but I never thought it was so prevalent that I would actually be part of one. In addition, I discovered that the arguments given to me for why I was wrong for my beliefs would be rather persuasive to anyone who doesn’t read their Bible, which is very scary to me. Because statistics show (and people’s understanding of the Bible show) that most people who go to church don’t read their Bibles regularly. In the weeks that have followed my resignation, I’ve been looking hard at Scripture–and what I’ve found has amazed me. Of course, I knew that Scripture preaches that Jesus is the only way, etc. so that didn’t surprise me. But what has surprised and encouraged me is how powerful, alive, and transforming the gospel is. It’s like I’m experiencing it anew all over again. A re-genesis of sorts. But I lose sleep almost every night thinking about the people who remain at Genesis. Some of them have come to the conclusion that this issue is unimportant, and amounts to nothing more...
by Tim | Feb 8, 2010 | God, My World |
I commented to a friend a few days ago that I wondered what would have happened if the Israelites hadn’t complained about no water to Moses (that’s when God told Moses to strike the rock so water would miraculously flow out for them). Would God still have provided water for them? Or would they have had to suffer w/out water for a lot longer? I’ve also thought about the disciples in the boat w/the wind and waves while Jesus was sound asleep. What would have happened if they didn’t freak out and wake up Jesus? Would God have calmed the winds and waves still? Or might the situation have turned out worse before it got any better? Is it possible one of the disciples may have lost their lives? I guess I’m wondering if it’s sometimes better to doubt God is paying attention and cry out to him in panic, rather than trying to drum up more faith and trying to continue to endure the situation. I think I’d be willing to hear a rebuke from Jesus about my lack of faith, if the waves and wind would die...
by Tim | Feb 4, 2010 | God, The Church World |
In the next few blogs, I will be discussing some of the issues that led to me leaving my previous church. Before I discuss these things, I want to make sure that my heart and spirit are not misunderstood. While I strongly disagree with the beliefs and values being taught there (and the lack of teaching as well), there is no bitterness or hostility that I hold toward anyone there. I think it’s important to remember that when we disagree on such things that we are able to do so without trying to hurt individuals personally, or try to attack them. This is hard to do when you have strong beliefs one way or the other. Yet, it is necessary. The Bible says that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood–so why should we make the other person our enemy? Even if the other person chooses to label us as enemies, he/she has no power over our own thinking. We can still love them and pray for them. Since I left my church over “theological issues,” it is obvious that I have strong feelings over these issues. Strong enough that I felt it was better to part ways with people that I love and miss. I understand how it would be easy for those I’ve left to take this action personally. I hope that one day, they will know that I never desired to leave such good friends, but that this decision was something I felt I needed to do, even at the risk of losing credibility in some people’s eyes. Before I left the church, I had a...
by Tim | Feb 2, 2010 | God, My World |
After hearing the story of how David cut off a piece of Saul’s clothes in the cave, instead of hurting or killing him when Saul was chasing David to try and hurt and kill him. I told Naomi that David was nice to Saul even when Saul wasn’t nice to him, and that’s what God wants us to do when people aren’t nice to us. Naomi: Why does God want us to be nice to people who aren’t nice to us? Daddy: Because God is nice to people who aren’t nice to Him, and He wants us to be like Him. Naomi: David wouldn’t know that if God wasn’t born yet. Daddy: Well, God was never born. He’s the only one who was never born. Naomi: He wasn’t? Daddy: No, He’s always been here. (Naomi is confused.) Isn’t that good? We wouldn’t want to be here if God wasn’t here yet. Naomi: But I thought Jesus was born? Daddy: Well, you’re right about that. Jesus is God’s Son, just like you’re my child. And He was born. But God the Father has always lived in heaven. Jesus is God the Son. Naomi: They’re both God?? Daddy: (oh, dear…how to explain this) Yes. God the Father and God the Son. Naomi: How can they both be God? Daddy: It like you’re a person and I’m a person. Both of us are. I’m your daddy and you’re my child. Both of us are persons. Jesus and God the Father are both God. Naomi: (pause) Why is he called “God the Father”? Daddy: Because He’s our Father or Daddy in heaven–just like...
by Tim | Jan 26, 2010 | God, The Church World, The Gospel, The Scriptures |
In this post, I am going to approach this from the argument of reason only (not doctrines of innerancy of Scripture, or beliefs in the inspiration of Scriptures, etc.). Not that I reject those doctrines, but I think it would be fun to look at it from this viewpoint. What does a Christian have at his/her disposal to trust and follow? 1. Scripture 2. Oral tradition from the Catholic Church, which they claim came from the Apostles 3. Opinions of Christians down the centuries 4. Opinions of present-day Christians (i.e. pastors, scholars, etc.) 5. One’s own opinions I would much rather trust and follow what the Apostles/Scripture writers taught in their writings than any of the others on this list when they seem to disagree with Scripture. Why? Simply, the Scripture-writers were there at the beginning of the faith and warned us against others who would come after them and would deviate from their teachings. If you doubt the writers, how much more should you doubt any who follow if their teaching seems to disagree? I believe this is one of the reasons why the Jews had so much difficulty accepting Jesus. His coming and preaching made many of the commands in the Law seem trivial. The Jews refused to deviate from their Scriptures, simply because some man who came thousands of years later showed up. The only way they could entertain the idea of adjusting their view of Scripture is if that person had more authority than Scripture itself. That person would have to be greater than the prophets who wrote Scripture. If Jesus was not truly the...
by Tim | Jan 24, 2010 | God, Worship |
I think most people would agree that music can help us worship God more fully oftentimes. After all, if it didn’t, we’d just say prayers at church instead of putting them to music. Sometimes music can distract us, but hopefully it’s actually helping us worship God more truly. This morning at church, the worship team led us in “Revelation Song,” one of my favorite current worship songs. I couldn’t help but notice the deaf section at the church as they were worshiping with us. As the music would pick up during each verse to lead us into the chorus, the whole congregation was “getting into it.” I noticed that the same was true for the deaf. I assumed that they were taking cues from the rest of us, as they can’t hear anything. I watched as they signed more demonstratively, and more forcibly. I couldn’t help but think they have no clue how awesome this sounds, and imagined if all of a sudden they could actually hear what they are imagining in their own minds. I think I would rather be blind than deaf. To not be able to hear the sound of worship would be painful for me. Then I thought–they may be worshiping more truly than we are. They probably assume that we are getting excited musically because of the words to the chorus, as they have don’t have a reference point for why we get excited by the music itself (since they wouldn’t understand how the sound of music moves us). They have no clue what a cymbal sounds like or a crescendo, etc. That’s when...
