Update with John Wesley

I took this week off of work to try and finish my house. Yes, this is the house we purchased back in February. No we haven't moved into it yet. Yes we bit off more than we could chew. Unfortunately this week isn't going as well as I had hoped. Productive week but I swear time goes faster while I am in that house. Not a lot to show for all of my house expect constant paint on my hands and a sore/tired body.

Anyways, since I have been working on the house 10-12 hours a day I haven't had much time to get ahead on my blogs. I also have barely had any time to think about something good to write about... actually I have multiple blog ideas at work but I don't remember them. Good thing I wrote down the ideas at work and not at home where I could write them. Fail.

So since I am tired and haven't had much time to write I thought I would cheat and give you an awesome quote I just read from John Wesley. It's ridiculously long but I think it's worth the read. Hope you enjoy it:
"If (thy heart is as my heart is with thine) then give me thy hand." I do not mean, "Be of my opinion." You need not: I do not expect or desire it. Neither do I mean, "I will be of your opinion." I cannot: It does not depend on my choice; I can no more think, than I can see or hear, as I will. Keep you your opinion, I mine; and that as steadily as ever. You need not even endeavor to come over to me, or bring me over to you. I do not desire you to dispute these points, or to hear or speak one word concerning them. Let all opinions alone of one side and the other: Only "give me thine hand."

I do not mean, "embrace my modes of worship;" or "I will embrace yours." This also is a thing which does not depend either on your choice or mine. We must both act as each is fully persuaded in his own mind. Hold you fast that which you believe is most acceptable government to be Scriptural and Apostolic. If you think the Presbyterians or Independents are better, think so still, and act accordingly. I believe infants ought to be baptized; and that this may be done either by dipping or sprinkling. If you are otherwise persuaded, be so still, and follow your own persuasion. It appears to me, that the forms of prayer are of excellent use, particularly in the great congregation. If you judge extemporary prayer to be of more use, act suitably to your own judgment. My sentiment is, that I ought not to forbid water, wherein persons may be baptized; and that I ought to eat bread and drink wine, as a memorial of my dying Master; however, if you are not convinced of this, act according to the light you have. I have no desire to dispute with you one moment upon any of the preceding heads. Let all of these smaller points stand aside. Let them never come into light. If thine heart is as my herat, if thou lovest God and all mandkind, I ask no more: "Give me thine hand".

Life Lacking Luster

This was the group that we went trick-or-treat-ing with. We make it a priority to go with my brother and his family every year.

Current song: Listener - "wooden heart"
-----

I just had a moment and maybe you have had it too.

You ever have that moment when the melancholy you thought you were avoiding catches up to you? In a moment you realize you are mortal and that the second law of thermodynamics is true?

I am a visual person. If we were to chat in person you would realize this because I use my hands a lot (I see the picture in my head and I am trying to describe it with my words and actions) and I rarely look people in the eyes. I imagine being able to see what I am trying to describe and it's always over your shoulder or up on the ceiling.. So when I try to describe this sense of "being caught" by my melancholy I see it as moment of slowing down.

The world can lack luster but if you go fast enough you won't notice. The world can be shades of black, gray, and white and if you just fly through it or close your eyes you won't notice. It will all seem a blur but that can be ok because it can get you through the blah-ness. But if you slow down if you are forced to stop for a second and breath you will notice that the luster is lacking. You go to smell the flowers and they are gray and you go to lay in the grass and it is gray.

That is the moment I just had. A moment where I realize that so much of my life is pointless and I am investing myself in wrong places. A moment where I needed to realize the important things in my life like my children, my wife, those in need... basically people instead of places and things.

Have you had these types of moments dear rare reader? What have you done to address this feeling? Did you change your life or speed back up so you didn't notice?

I have a feeling most of us have had this moment at some point in our lives. Our society asks us to go so fast and to invest in so many things that I have to imagine you know what I am talking about. But how healthy is this? If we look to Christ as an example it's hard to get around the constant reference of Him going off alone and praying.

In those moments where we slow down I think we need to remember that the world is probably lacking luster because we are lacking the presence of the Spirit. That which is beautiful and that which is pleasant, it comes from God. I hate cliches but there are normally truth in them and this is especially true when life seems to be lacking something. Because it's when we are thirsty that we remember how wonderful worship with God can be. It's when we are confused that we remember how His presence can feel.

So may we slow down together. May we remember that when life seems so gray and so dull that it may be because we need to reconnect with He who gives life.

Seeing People Complexly

I stumbled upon this artist/band the other day and I am enjoying him/them more and more. The band is called Listener and the guy you see is Dan Smith. Listener has gone through a couple members but Dan is always the one speaking through the songs. You should listen to a few (I recommend wooden heart).
Current song: the one above of course
---

One of the reasons I love my church so much is because they focus on getting people involved in the community. They especially want to see this happen through life groups (small groups/family groups/whatever you call them). Thankfully I have a group of families that are very prone to serve so when an opportunity came up for us to help out we all jumped on the occasion.

We went to the Boys and Girls club where they had a food pantry (I think that is what you would call it). People lined up outside, grabbed a brown bag, and they were able to take some food for free. My group was there to carry on conversation with them as they walked through and to make sure that they didn't take too much. We actively failed at making sure people didn't take too much but I think it was ok because in the end we still had food left over. The serving last a whole 30 minutes and probably 120-150 people came through.

The time was great because of a couple practical reasons:
1) It was during the time that we would normally have life group so everyone had the time free
2) It didn't require a lot of skill or talent
3) It was quick and didn't require a lot of time

*transition*

I have written about how much I love John Green and the vlogbrothers in general. This year they, especially John, seem to have focused on two similar primary ideas:
1) Trust resists simplicity
2) Seeing people complexly
These ideas ring true to me. They are basically the thought that we need to look deeper to really understand people or understand things. That there are too many layers to assume that we have something all figured out and we can wrap our arms around it. I find this to be true in my interest in theology as well as when I build relationships with people. Individuals are never as simple as "the goth kid" or "the homosexual". These titles may be accurate to an extent but you are selling yourself and them short if you say that IS their identities.

*tie it together*

And here is the moral of the story. We cannot see people complexly unless we are with the people and interacting with them. I can abstractly realize that there are families in need in Elyria. I can even give to my church so they can help the people in need. But what happens to me when I see them in front of me? When the mother with three children says "thank you honey" as I hand her some beans. When the 4 year old says "Oh, I like those! Can we have those!" and grabs a couple cans of chili. What happens to me when I see the old couple hold hands as they walk through the line together? Surely something has to happen!

I feel that Dan sees the woman in his poem complexly and shares her story with us. That is my desire with those in need in Elyria. I hope that instead of just knowing they are there, I hope to see them. To be able to share their story with others.

What about you dear rare reader? What stories can you tell of people in need? How are you hoping to change your schedule/life to tell more people's stories?

Response - Secular Influences

If you haven't seen UP yet then you should. Just be prepared to cry at the beginning of the movie. So sad.

Current song: "Please don't go out tonight" by Spitfire
-----

A few blogs ago I mentioned about why I wouldn't be a famous theologian and that someone pushed me to clarify a few of my reasons. One of those reasons was that I was too friendly with "secular" things. I felt I clarified myself pretty well in my email and felt I should clarify to you as well my dear rare reader. So here it is a little bit edited and cleaned up but pretty much the same response:

Obviously if I dislike Christian stuff and disliked secular stuff I would be left with nothing. So inevitably my dislike of Christian stuff has led me to liking a lot of secular stuff.

Dan Samms commented on my Salvation post about Paul’s “Mars Hill” sermon. In Acts 17 Paul is addressing people in Athens and he mentions an alter to an unknown god and he tells the audience that the god of that alter is GOD. What he did was take a cultural element and claim it or redeem it for God. The alter was certainly not made with YHWH in mind. The creators definitely had some hedonistic ideas and intentions for the object. But when Paul saw it he figured out a way that he could use it as a teaching tool. Also during his response in Athens he quotes a philosopher. So it seems that Paul was at least somewhat aware and familiar with the local cultures focus on philosophy. I think Paul’s example here is certainly one we should consider when talking about how much we should engage with the culture and world around us.

Before I get too much further into how I handle it I should note that I think this issue is incredibly subjective and personal to each believer. Like my sicknesses and immunity system metaphor in my last response, some believers can handle a lot more than others and not get sick. Some people are just not built to handle germs/secular things. Those that aware of it shouldn’t just spend their whole life being sick/sinful but should avoid as much as they can. So the advice and how I live my life will be completely different than you dear rare reader.

So how are we able to “be in the world but not of the world” as Christ calls us to be? I think it has to do with how we are interacting with the world around us. If we are lazy and passively let influences over take us (both inside and outside a Christian environment) we are going to lose ourselves (in a bad way) and be thrown around like a ship in the storm (James 2 I think?). Instead I think we need to be actively aware of all our influences around us. This includes the pastors we listen to and the shows we watch on TV. We need to be comparing what they are saying to the Bible. We need to be checking how they are impacting us and how they may be encouraging or discouraging us towards God. This means if the pastor isn’t matching up to the Bible or they are discouraging us away from God then we need to make sure that is an influence we want in our lives. Not that we reject their influence outright but that we check ourselves. The same is true of a TV show. Simply because it isn’t matching up with the Bible doesn’t mean it’s sinful.

This active listening or active learning that is required with TV shows is also required with Pastors. We need to make sure we aren’t just drinking the koolaid they are giving us by finding the truth in what they are saying. We need to have our eyes opened and trained to see God in their words, and I also think we can find God in TV shows.

If you ever lose your keys your eyes seem to only be able to see the keys. In your minds eye you see the keys and your eyes cant see anything else, even if they come across something else you lost a while ago. It’s this type of looking that I am suggesting we should do in the world around us. In the movie UP the little kid and old guy play a game of “red car blue car”. They sit on the edge of the street looking for a particular car color. We should be looking for the red cars everywhere and even though we are seeing the other cars we aren’t giving them much attention. We are looking for God everywhere and even though we see other than God we don’t pay much attention to them. (of course all metaphors break down at some point and I think I have exhausted this one)

So I think we should be watching TV shows, listening to music, and enjoying movies that are secular. While watching them we should appreciate them for the entertainment and enjoyment they provide but we should also be looking for lessons inside of them. If I was given this song or this movie to teach a lesson from what could I glean from it? Where is God inside the show or this song? There are a few secular songs that I have tied particular spiritual imagery with and when I hear these songs they normally cause me to be very reflective. It isn’t that the songs are necessarily Christian but I have been able to find or apply an image of God to those songs that encourages me.

I think this practice is similar to what so many people experience in nature. We see a sunrise, we experience the tides of the ocean, we observe the connectedness of nature and we marvel at the work of God’s hands. These things are not necessarily Christian but what we do is see God in them and we highlight God in them. I think we should do the same thing with shows.

Again, this does not mean that every song or movie has God in it. But all good things come from God right? So where there is laughter, love, beauty, etc I think we have a chance of seeing God there.

This is what I hope to relay to my children. That they can enjoy veggie tales and dora. That they can listen to my music and their music. I hope to teach them not to be scared and stay away from the world but to help them find ways to see and experience God in the world.

What about you dear rare reader? Are there any secular shows or bands that you really enjoy? Are there any high quality Christian influences out there that you would suggest to me?

Splitting and theological hairs

We try to go to the same place every year to get the pumpkins. They have a huge pile.
Current song: "Why so serious?" by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
-----
I realize this is a theological hair that may not need to be split but I still feel it's worth posting about. Simply put:

I don't believe God is timeless.

I may have written about this in the past (if so, let me know in the comments) but I think it's important to clarify that God is not timeless but He is everlasting instead. What is the difference you ask? A God that is timeless means that time has no impact on Him. He is constant throughout all of time and in fact He is not and cannot be in time. You might be very comfortable with all those statements but I am not.

If we believe Christ is "very God of very God" then how do we continue to maintain that He is fully human and yet still timeless? Do we really want to create a dualistic Christ that says "well His divine nature is timeless but his human nature isn't"? That some how now that Christ is at the right hand of God that He has given up His human nature and is once again "spiritually timeless". I think Christ's example shows us that God can, and does, experience time. This means God, at least in some sense, is not "outside of time" but is "in time" with us.

I also am not comfortable saying that God is constant throughout time or at least I am not comfortable saying that He never changes. Yes, I do believe His nature is constant throughout all of time but I think that is different than saying that He never changes. If God never changes then we have to give up the idea that God has emotions (doesn't sin anger Him and those accepting His salvation make Him happy?). (side note: Abraham Heschel did a great job of establishing God's emotions/pathos in The Prophets. You should check it out) We also have to give up the idea that prayer actually moves God (I have written about this HERE and HERE before) because if God moves at all He has changed in some way.

So if Christ shows us that God can be inside of time and if the Bible shows us that God does have emotions, and thus changes, then we cannot say that God is timeless and never changes. But what about before Christ became incarnate or before even the creation of the world before there was even "time"? Even then I think God is not timeless or changeless.

If we believe that God created ex nihilo then we believe that there was a point when there was no creation and there is a point when there is creation. Let's put it this way:
Point A: God does not desire to have a creation
Point B: God desires to have a creation
Point C: God creates
Even when there is only God there is still progression, which I would call change. That change happens in what we call "time" because there are separate points.

Now hear me, I do believe that God is everlasting (He has always been). And I do believe that His nature (at the core of which is love) never changes. I just think it's important to split these theological hairs because I feel it changes how we relate our faith to others and how we interact with God.

What about you dear rare reader? Do believe that God is timeless or everlasting? Do you think there is a difference? Are you encouraged or frightened by the idea that God changes?

Pro Life and Pro Death?

Apparently someone using cafepress is on the same page as I am.
Current song: "Writers bock" by Britt Daniel and Brian Reitzell
------
I will start this blog off by saying that I realize this is a hot button topic. I cannot promise that I won't offend you or upset you. Continue reading realizing I am not objective and I am addressing this topic because of particular influences and resources I have come across. I don't claim to have all the answers, just an opinion.

Some would probably title me as a "progressive evangelical". It's a new breed of individuals that find themselves to be socially liberal (loaded term) but theologically conservative (another loaded term). I get painted this way, and probably rightly so, because I disagree with fundamentalists (more loaded terms) on social issues and even if I agree with them I entertain opposing ideas a little too much. One issue this happens often on is that of the death penalty.

When it comes to abortion I believe that it is wrong in most cases (most cases meaning when it's not incest, rape, or life threatening to mother) and I believe that it is murder. Now when that life begins is another conversation but I willingly take on the title of "pro life". And most evangelicals would as well. Their basic argument is that life is too precious or too important to God and we shouldn't take it from such an innocent being. If life is so important to God then I think that has to be taken into account when we declare war and when we punish someone for their crimes.

Now I am not saying that I am a pacifist or that I believe there are no situations when taking someone's life isn't the right thing to do (read: "least evil thing"). But what I am saying is that I believe Christians should be the last people in line when it comes to taking a persons life and that doesn't always seem to be the case.

When it comes to the death penalty it comes down to one simple question for me:
"Why is the death penalty the best or only punishment possible for this crime?"
I get the idea that people need to have consequences for their actions. I get that some people are pure evil and may not ever be able to come back into society. I understand that we there is a sense of justice that we are trying to achieve here on earth. I get all that but I still don't understand why DP is the best or only option?

I also wonder what it says about the Christian belief in resurrection or transformation. When we say that someone is too far gone and can never be redeemed what are we really saying about the power of the Holy Spirit. Aren't we basically saying "Satan you win. You got that guy and we cannot get him back. Good move.... Now let's kill him!"

Let's go a different direction. Let's say that you really want this guy to pay for his crime and there is nothing worse than killing him. Really? I would think that killing him would be letting him out of the punishment. If you are on the side of "let's really punish him" then I would imagine you would want to take him out of America and destroy him physically and mentally.

In the end I think I have a few pretty simple points:
1) Christians should value all of God's creation and protect it. This includes both unborn children and murders.
2) Christians should be holding tightly to the idea that the Holy Spirit can redeem anyone. Because in the end aren't we all "the chief of sinners"?

What about you dear rare reader? Do you feel the death penalty is the best or only possible punishment? Do you feel I am missing something here (I'm sure I am)?

Response - Christian as an Adjective

Are you "RAD"!? (I feel lame just typing it out)
Current song: "Urda real thing" by Pneumatic
---
A few posts ago I wrote about how I was never going to be a famous theologian. It was tongue-in-cheek but, as if often the case, it was some what true as well. One of my dear rare readers pushed me a little to explain why I feel or view some of the things that I do. We engaged in some emailing and I thought I would post my explanations to her so that you know as well. Don't worry, I asked permission before posting an email correspondence.

Question: Why do you dislike "Christian things" and/or using Christian as an adjective?
This is really just a response to my background and upbringing. When I was growing up I was all about the “Christian version of X”. I had a Christian band for every secular band out there. I had T-shirts with Christian slogans or rip offs of secular products. But then I started thinking more about the downline of those products. Example, I want to support a Christian publishing house but the biggest ones (say Zondervan) is owned by a secular conglomerate. Or maybe I get a Christian t-shirt, but the t-shirt is made from an American Apparel T-shirt (a company known for using sexuality to sell merchandise). So I began to question the sense of “purity” I felt I had by buying so much Christian stuff (which is an issue in and of itself. I mean who feels they can purchase purity?)

Also, Christian merch is normally of lower quality. Whenever a band or product tries to be the “Christian version of X” they normally aren’t as good as X and so I question why I even need it. Do I really need a Christian version of DDR, breath mints, or bed sheets? If I need these products to prop up my faith or to protect me "from the world" then I think it's fair for you to question the strength of my faith.

Another thing is that too many people use Christian merch to create a Christian bubble that protects them from “the evil world around them”. Now don’t get me wrong, there are certainly things we should stay away from in our culture but simply because something is “secular” doesn’t mean it’s bad or evil.

You should also know that I grew up home schooled and my dad was a pastor. I saw TONS of sheltered kids who had parents that used Christian merch to keep the world from negatively impacting their children. What happened was that the parents tried to control everything that was in the child's life. But when the parent couldn't control everything anymore the child was exposed to "the world" and the child wasn't prepared for it and lost their faith. I think “things of the world” is kind of like sicknesses. If you keep your child from ever touching germs and you never get them immunized then the first time they get sick it’s going to be REALLY bad. So what you do is you protect them and slowly let them build up their immunity system. There are some things they should always stay away from because they will always get sick from it but by building up their system they aren’t going to get destroyed by the simplest thing. They can take a few germs and not be impacted by it. In the same way, Christians should be able to watch a secular movie or show and be ok. They should be able to be “in the world” and not be controlled by it. There are of course some things that all Christians should stay away from (say pornography) but simply because there are some wrong things doesn’t mean we need a Christian version of everything.

And lastly, sorry I just keep going, Christian merch too often has less to do with the Christian virtues they hope to instill with the merch and more about making another buck. Christian greed and/or Christian materialism are things that I avidly hate and too often Christian merch supports those things.

So what about you dear rare reader? What is some of the "best" Christian kitsch that you have found? Are you encouraged or discouraged by the amount of Christian products that try to replace secular versions?