I’d like to start a new feature here: my Rules for Life. I’ll post two or three a week starting today.

• Rule #1: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength.
• Rule #2: Love your neighbor as yourself.

These two don’t need a whole lot of explanation. The main thing I want to point out is the order and the separation. Many people in the church today forget that loving God is the greatest commandment, “and the second is like it.” That means we must love our neighbors without compromising our fidelity to God.

The problem with the first two rules is that they’re just nebulous ideas that sit in the back of my mind. They’re always with me, but they don’t provide a lot of specifics. But that’s part of the beauty of them as well. They’re always there, and they have no limits.

We often talk about ways to glorify God and worship Him outside of church services. TheResurgence.com recently posted audio in their “Continuous Worship” series with the topic “Is ‘worship’ the only word for worship?” It’s something that I’ve struggled with. We’ve put our worship of God into the church box, and have excluded it from the rest of our lives for so long, that when we realize we need to set it free, we don’t know how. (continue reading…)

I’m a waiter at a local restaurant. Generally I’m pretty good at it, mainly from experience (I’ve been waiting tables on and off for about 9 years). I work hard, and I’m good at my job.

Today I was not. Today was like the giant came down Jack’s beanstalk and pinned me down with his thumb…then watched me squirm for 2 or 3 hours. I gave some of the worst service I can remember in my long (and largely unremarkable) career as a waiter. I won’t get into the details, but we’ll say I got a stern talking-to from one of my managers for my sorry performance, and had one very unhappy customer.

When my tables started to empty, I was just glad to be alive and still employed. I was ready give up and just go through the motions for the rest of the day, when a strange thing started to happen…I got good tips. Not just regular old 15%, but 20, 25, even 30! I had no idea what was going on. I didn’t even get the right drinks and food to my tables. One lady had the wrong drink for 10 minutes before I realized and went back to switch it. But the tips were bueno.

The way I see it, God was telling me something. I thought I was good, and I thought I earned what I have. I’ve got some decent skill at this, and I have a good attitude and something resembling a personality, so I deserve this. But today God said simply, “No, you don’t.” (continue reading…)

That’s the motto at ACU, and if you ever go there you’ll see it a lot. It’s a fine sentiment, I think; perhaps a little broad - but it gets an A for ambition. But it always caused some problems for me theologically.

The way I see the world, evil has existed since the fall, and has never subsided. I see it in life and in Scripture. Many people see change - moral advancement. They believe progress has been made, and more will be made. They believe that we can change the world.

Even if you only looked at Israel from the Exodus through the Crucifixion, you see that evil was present in much the same form for the whole of their history. But if you continue to look at Paul’s letters, Roman and other Western history, and the world as a whole, it’s difficult to build a case for true advancement.

How can we believe that progress is being made on a global scale? There are times when the only words that can make sense of the world for me are these:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3: 12-18 ESV

The last line is the one that catches me up. No one talks about “God-fearing” anymore (at least not around me). Even Christians avoid this terminology. I’m not sure why, but we’ve chosen to speak of God’s love exclusively, and done our best to ignore his other qualities. Now, there are obviously groups that focus too much on God’s wrath (Fred Phelps, anyone?), but most of us have moved in the opposite direction.

Anyway, that is beside the point. When people have no fear of God, they do what they choose to do without worrying about Him, His will, or His consequences. This results in rampant selfishness and individualism. This doesn’t always mean violence.

When people think of “evil” in the world they often think of major violent events and oppression: Imperialism, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the slave trade, the decimation of the Indians. What we don’t tend to think about are the individual things. We don’t associate promiscuity with evil, it’s just a bad decision - but it’s making an idol out of sex. That’s evil. We don’t think of the endless pursuit of money to be evil, unless it leads to harming someone else - but that’s idolatry, too. We don’t consider the selfishness we encounter in our daily lives, even within ourselves, to be evil. But do you know what it is? Idolatry.

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Romans 1:28-32

Does any part of this list catch you as something you encounter regularly? What about envy, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slander, hating God, insolence, haughtiness, boasting, disobedience to parents, foolishness, or faithlessness? How many of those have you seen face-to-face in the last week? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all of them, and even been guilty of a few.

This is Paul’s 2000 year-old incomplete list of “unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, [and] malice.” If we’ve each seen all or most of these things in the last week or month or year, how can we think that progress is being made, or is even possible? (Keep reading, I promise I’m not this much of a downer)

I read two interesting posts about sin recently, one at Pomomusings and one at Rend the Heavens. Both are worth reading, the comments as well. One comment really stuck out to me. Robert Austell said:

How do we make a change at the community level? Change must begin with me. And so, even addressing the idolatry and sin of all Israel, Joshua will repent publicly and say “As for me and my house.” Jesus, addressing the sins of legalism and ethnic bigotry, will speak of one good Samaritan and call out individuals to change.

The two are as connected as evangelism and social justice… transformation and redemption of culture begins (as God’s work) in one life at a time, which involves personal repentance, redemption, and transformation. That means personally dealing with issues of holiness, righteousness, humility, and repentance. That means dealing with personal sin… that produces godly “leaven” for society.

I thought of this concept every time I heard someone say “Change the World” while I was at ACU and again today. Today at Garnett Wade preached about transforming and redeeming culture, which rolls right along with the portion I italicized above. I’m not sure if he was saying that we could use a morally neutral culture for good, thereby redeeming it, or that we could make culture good. I believe the former is true, but am not sure about the latter.

Much like the story of the boy who is frantically throwing starfish back in the water after the tide rolls out, we can’t change everyone or fix everything; but every person we reach, and is transformed by Christ, makes our work worthwhile. So go ahead, Change the World.

I used to be paralyzed by fear. Not in all ways, but in some.

As a college student I was so afraid that God might not be real that I refused to hear any arguments against him, in case they were really convincing. I was also afraid that my perspective on the Bible was totally wrong, so I avoided any positions that might be convincing.

Well, after reading both positions for and against God, and Biblical positions I agree with and that I disagree with, I realized that my fears were unfounded. Since then I’ve dived in and pursued every differing position I could (that seemed worth the time).

Why did I lose my fear, you ask? Because of quotes like this:

There are two ways in which scripture might be a source of morals or rules for living. One is by direct instruction, for example through the Ten Commandments, which are the subject of such bitter contention in the culture wars of America’s boondocks. The other is by example: God, or some other biblical character, might serve as - to use the contemporary jargon - a role model. Both scriptural routes, if followed through religiously (the adverb is used in its metaphoric sense but with an eye to its origin), encourage a system of morals which any civilized modern person, whether religious or not, would find - I can put it no more gently - obnoxious…

In any case, despite the good intentions of the sophisticated theologian, a frighteningly large number of people still do take their scriptures, including the story of Noah, literally. According to Gallup, they include approximately 50 per cent of the US electorate. Also, no doubt, many of those Asian holy men who blamed the 2004 tsunami not on a plate tectonic shift but on human sins, ranging from drinking and dancing in bars to breaking some footling sabbath rule. Steeped in the story of Noah, and ignorant of all except biblical learning, who can blame them?

He follows the second one with some lines about people who have blamed natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, on sin. That’s a good argument against religion, particularly Christianity: the fallibility of humans. We always claim that all Christians are perfect, therefore anything a Christian says or does that is wrong, such as blaming natural disasters on the sin of those who are affected, reflects the beliefs and positions of the whole of Christendom.

Uh, no. And, though he asserts it to be true, the system of morals found in the Bible is not something that “any civilized modern person…would find…obnoxious.” In response I assert that no intelligent or well educated, civilized, modern person would take seriously a book about religion written by a (pop) scientist with no theological training. Particularly if said book has a shiny silver cover.

Here’s another:

“You might say that because science can explain just about everything but not quite, it’s wrong to say therefore we don’t need God. It is also, I suppose, wrong to say we don’t need the Flying Spaghetti Monster, unicorns, Thor, Wotan, Jupiter, or fairies at the bottom of the garden. There’s an infinite number of things that some people at one time or another have believed in, and an infinite number of things that nobody has believed in. If there’s not the slightest reason to believe in any of those things, why bother? The onus is on somebody who says, I want to believe in God, Flying Spaghetti Monster, fairies, or whatever it is. It is not up to us to disprove it.”

Why is the burden of proof on the believer? The belief existed first, so, logially, the burden should be on the one questioning the established belief. We see this over and over within Christianity where the burden of proof is on the challenger of the traditional position. Those, like Luther, who have Scriptural evidence succeed; those who do not, like Marcion, fail.

Dawkins also asserts that by showing the possibility of God to be very very small, he creates an argument that is indefensible. But someone tell me this: what are the odds of random elements combining in a pool and spontaneously becoming life? Is it repeatable? Seems pretty unlikely.

These are all reasons I’m no longer afraid.

Fear drives us. What I think drives a lot of people like Dawkins is a fear that God may be real. They worry about what will happen to them or their friends if God is real and they don’t believe, so they go into denial about the possibility. The same could, of course be said of believers, but that doesn’t bother me. The real difference is found in a personal encounter with God. If you’ve never had one, you’re almost incapable of understanding why someone would choose belief over unbelief.

But since I’ve had encounters with God, and have a relationship with Christ, I understand the choices I’m making. The difference between the two is as stark as the difference between Saul overseeing the stoning of Stephen and Paul sweeping across Macedonia proclaiming Christ.

Peter Berkowitz has more to say.

Adam’s Blog reviews a book, The Minor Protection Act, about what could result from the new new atheists crusade.

Paul Reiser used that line on Mad About You whenever someone would restate what he’s been trying to say.

I was just listening to Scott Golike on the Resurgence Featured Audio podcast:

I think one of the best…counterbalances we have…ways of checking ourselves, is to check in with the 2000 or 3000 year discussion. I’m a firm believer that if nobody ever thought that in the 3500 year history of God’s people…I’m wrong.

This is what I’m saying.

Check out Golike and the New Perspective(s) on Paul.

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