
Observing the church in modern America and Christian Spirituality.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Squishy & the eternal "Crisis of Faith."

Friday, November 19, 2010
Work out your salvation...at God's gym.


Monday, November 15, 2010
Adoption and the Art of Salsa Making


Friday, November 12, 2010
"KRINO" yourself there, Pretty Boy.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The Genesis of the WHOLE Person


In the book of Exodus towards the end, we are given a glimpse of what it was like for God & Moses to hang out. Moses would go out to the Tent of Meeting most days, and the presence of YHWH would go in there with him. "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." (Ex. 33:11)
"...I want to take a look at three areas of education through the lens of the first two creation accounts in Genesis. I will touch on the areas of Civics, Ecology/Biology, and Art.
Civics: Where does the concept of basic human rights come from?
A Secular Humanist would argue that humans are basically good at heart, and therefore deserve human rights & protection. I would argue that from a biblical perspective, while human beings are neither good nor bad but sinful, we have great value in the eyes of God because we bare his image. Therefore human rights should be based on that concept.
- In Gen. 1:26 & 27 God creates humanity in his image.
- In Gen 9:4-6, even after the fall of humanity, the image of God is still to be found in all human beings, and therefore all human life is precious in God’s eyes. (To the point that according to Ex. 21:28, even animals who kill humans must be put to death.)
- This is further reinforced by Jesus in Matt. 5:21-30 & 38-48. It can be rightly said that where as the O.T. prohibition against murder was to protect human life, the statements of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount were designed to protect human dignity.
- Jesus states that we who get & stay angry towards another human, or dismiss them as either intellectually or morally inferior, are actually worthy of judgment and hell. (This encompasses all people, whether Believers or non-believers.)
- Finally, New Testament writers reinforce this idea, such as in James 3:9, where James points out that it is wrong to trash-talk another man because he bares the image of God.
I would argue that this is a radical departure from the Social Darwinist approach of secular society, where human value is based on what you can produce and/or your position in societies’ pecking order. Finally, and I’m very serious when I state that this biblical perspective should cause all Believers to regard the homeless man, in all his ruin, as being more beautiful & valued in the eyes of God than Lake Superior on a summer’s day.
Needless to say, everything I just wrote is very convicting to me. I constantly seem to find ways to trash other people. Our recent congressional election is a perfect example of the ways in which we can rip each other to shreds verbally. I got caught up in making fun of a rather famous Congresswoman from my State who I have a hard time respecting...or thinking that she should NOT be put in a rubber room with other crazy people.
My friend pointed out to me that she is a Christian. (She says so, anyway.) He also pointed out that the way I was talking about her was not very Christ-like. And he was correct. I should not speak that way of someone who bares God's image...even if they drive me nuts.
Ecology/Biology: How should Christians approach the environment?
Many in the environmental movement argue along an almost “Pantheistic” line of “Caring for Mother Earth.” (And it’s a sad fact that there are statistically more Atheists involved in serious environmentalism than people who identify themselves as Christians.) I have no idea how this area became so politicized, because I would argue that “Creation Care” is a divine mandate that should be taken seriously.
- A part of being made in the image of God is that humans were given responsibility & stewardship for God’s creation. Specifically, this can be seen in Gen. 1:28. The Hebrew words speak of acting as God’s representatives in his creation.
- God’s creation was never intended to be static and unchanging. Instead, his creation would continue to create more of itself.
- In Gen. 2:5 & 15, humanity is given responsibility to participate as God’s co-workers in his creation. In fact, the Hebrew words in verse 15 Avadh (“To dress.”) and Shamar (“To keep, guard & protect.”) reflect that precisely.
- Through out both Leviticus & Deuteronomy, God ordains various ways in which animals and plants…and the earth in general, are to be respected and protected. Humans were placed at the top of the created order, but that is because we bare responsibility towards creation because we bare God’s image.
To sum it up, I will shamelessly steal a quote from Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention in his biblical response to Earth Day from April 23rd, 2010. In his treatise he wrote; “The creation belongs to God. As stewards of His property, human beings are responsible to him for developing and protecting His creation. Furthermore, while God clearly grants preeminence to human beings in His creation and human life demands reverence as created in His image (Genesis 1:26), all life deserves respect. We have the right to use animals and plants for human good. We do not have the right to disregard living things or to treat them as inanimate objects. We have the right to domesticate and raise cattle and other livestock for human sustenance. We do not have the right to act in a callous, cruel or cavalier manner toward any living creature.”
Art & Human Creativity: I know that much of this will be a bit of a stretch theologically, but I truly believe that in a “General Revelation” sort of way, humanities’ desire for creative expression can be rooted in being an “Image Barer” of God. (I’m not sure if there actually is much in the way of purely secular arguments for where our desire to create comes from.)
- Going back to Genesis 1 & 2, humans are made in the image of God. We obviously do not look like God. (I would hope that God is considerably better looking than I am, at any rate.) But a part of being an image barer is that we have many of his attributes.
- What is one of the very first attributes that we can see in the God of the Bible? He is a generous creator. In fact, it appears that he enjoys creating so much that he keeps telling everyone how good the things he creates are.
- When he creates humans, he instructs them to go out and not only re-create themselves, but “to take care of/DO SOMETHING” with his creation. In fact, the very reason that he creates humanity in the second creation story is so that we would be gardeners & farmers.
- This leads me to believe that all those folks who can’t wait for Spring to show up so that they can putter around in their gardens, growing all sorts of odds & ends, sculpting various designs in flower beds & shrubs, are merely doing what God hard-wired us to do. We desire to create!
- If this is true, then it would explain why humans desire to be creative in all aspects of life. It isn’t enough for us to merely recreate ourselves by having babies, or by growing flowers. There is a deep impulse to express ourselves, and our individuality.
- This would lead me to understand why I can see the hand of God behind not just a tree, but also in a painting by Monet, a sculpture by da Vinci, or sometimes even a Beatles song...or Neil Young... actually, especially Neil Young!
While it is certainly true that much of what people create is not very God-honoring, the artistic expression that stems from God should not be dismissed out of hand. I am more and more convinced that when a person, even a non-believer, is being creative, that it is God who is knocking on the door of their hearts. And I am further convinced that those who reject Jesus will have their very creativity stand as a testament against them on judgment day.
Well anyway, that's a big chunk of what I wrote. I would really enjoy any comments that a reader could give.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Laura and the Million Watt Smile


Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Up-Side of Depression

