Kindness AND Severity

I went to a local church this past week, I won't say which, and I heard probably one of the worst sermons I have ever heard. It was not because of the verse that was preached or the style in which the sermon was delivered but rather the extreme effort on the part of the pastor to soften the blow, so to speak, of Christ's words.

The Sermon text was from John 15.1-11. (For those who are unfamiliar with this passage it is about the vine and the branches.) Now, if you were to read the passage, the obvious main point is that we, as believers, are to abide, or live, or remain, in Christ. Meaning, from the text, we are to not pull away from him or are to continually remain by his side. (If this is unclear please let me know.) Yet the pastor did not explicitly speak to this point as the main point of his. He instead spent most of his time defining what the second and sixth verse meant. These verses speak of branches that do not bear fruit. Whether I agree theologically with the pastor as to what these verses mean, and I have my doubts that I would, is not why I did not like the sermon. These two verses, while important to the the overall understanding of the text are not the MAIN point. These two verses talk about those branches which do not bear fruit are taken away and burned. My question is why did he feel it necessary to say that this doesn't mean what it says? Christ was known to say some pretty hard things, i.e. unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you cannot enter the kingdom, or go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor, or if you do not hate your mother and your brother and your wife you are not fit for the kingdom of God. Many of us instead of trying to find out what these sayings really mean we try and explain them away by ripping them from their context and using alternate translations to make them nice. This is not properly handling the word of God.

My point is this, can we, and I mean anyone who would read the scriptures, try to look at what it says first and then try to figure out what it means? We can do this by a broad study of translations and other helps such as commentaries, or bible dictionaries, or for those of us so inclined Greek and Hebrew. And can we do this before we go around claiming to know what a text means. Because while some passages are easy to understand, others are difficult to understand on purpose. In Romans 11 Paul speaks of God being both kind and severe. Let me give an example from a well known children's book of what is meant by the "kindness and severity of God". There is a part in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where the beavers are telling the children about Aslan the great Lion, and Lucy asks Mr. Beaver if Aslan is safe being a lion and all. Mr. Beaver says, "Safe? No he is not safe, he's a Lion!! But He is good." I am asking that we not try and declaw God and soften the sayings of Christ to make ourselves comfortable but that we rest in His goodness, knowing that if he is severe, and he will be at some point, that he is good and if we are abiding in Him that severity is for our ultimate good and His Glory. O that we would seek not to make our own god but that we would seek out the one true and living God!

I pray you would blessed in your search for Him.

Reflections on Marriage: Part 2

Christians in many ways have been relegated to the margins. We are seen as intolerant and negative. And in part perception is reality in this case. We are seen as against gay marriage, against premarital sex, against this false religion and against that religion and we are perceived as only negative in our argumentation and public discourse that it is a wonder anyone is converted. (Not really because it is God who moves them to repentance.) Shouldn't we rather be the ones who lift up the positive example and present the right way to live, not by our words only but by our actions? Shouldn't we, those who were once dead but have been made alive by God through Christ (Eph. 2) be the advocates of true marriage, and right relationships in all areas of life and not just the enemy of the wrong types of marriages or relationships? I believe the answer is yes and this way of living is to reach beyond the current issues surrounding marriage into every aspect of our lives, or it should anyway. And I also recognize that just saying we should live better to win people to Christ is in some sense meaningless. The question then becomes how? Well I think Christ has given us clear picture of how to deal with the outside world and yet still uphold the truth. I watch a show called House and in it there is a oncologist who constantly is dealing with patients who are dying, and in one episode the other doctors make a comment that he is the only doctor who can tell someone they are dying in such a way that they thank him afterwards. I think Christ had that ability and I think we should too.

In the Gospel of John there is a story of a woman at a well. Most of you know the story but I urge to go a read it again. There are also the stories of the woman caught in adultery and Zacheus the thieving tax collector. Notice the tone in which Christ addresses them. Notice that they are convicted just by being so near to Christ and by speaking with him that he never speaks directly about their sin while at the same time making it evident that they were indeed sinners who were in need of repentance. Christ walked and spoke with such grace and compassion that people couldn't help but be convicted. Even those who rejected what Christ said, i.e. the rich young ruler, felt convicted about the way in which they lived their lives. But what you will never see is Christ berating someone for their sins, and if you are thinking of the Pharisees and Christ turning over the tables in the temple, those who were condemned were self righteous people, people who put themselves forward as an example of perfection and shamed those who were not like them (something by the way Christ never did in dealing with the outside world). The woman at the well and Zacheus did not portray themselves as good or just but rather humbled themselves before Christ. We should not only try and follow Christ's example, but I believe it would do us good to follow their example as well and walk in humilty before all people.

So maybe instead of trying to change the culture or "legislate morality" we try to change the way we speak to and treat people, or they way we speak to and about our own wives and husbands, and we, by the grace of God and with the help of those around us, uphold that which is true and right and good and beautiful and let that be the tool of conviction. Love covers a multitude of sin and we are called to love God first and then our neighbor as ourselves. And Christ loved without justifying wrong behaviour. And in his words, "Go and do likewise."

Reflections on Marriage: Part 1

Having been recently married myself I am now basically an expert on marriage. Well maybe that's not true but I still have some thoughts about protecting the value of marriage in this country and as a Christian.

With the recent election much has been made over the issue of Same-Sex Marriage. Is it right? Do we as a culture still value traditional marriage? Does keeping marriage as one man and one woman deny rights to people? And the answers to these questions are as varried as the people who hold them. And the outlash against those of us who feel strongly about marriage and its value is outrageous, and I agree we should stand in support of those who fight for truth. But I have a different approach. The sanctity of marriage does not see its greatest threat in the issue of gay marriage but rather in far more destructive adversaries. Divorce and infidelity

In a day and age when it is assumed that your first marriage will fail, pre-numptual agreements, and when it is not uncommon to have had two or three spouses before you are in a long term marriage, or for one or both parties to have had an extramarital affair, two people of the same sex wanting to get married is the least of our worries. The undermining of marriage started long before the culture started to fight for gay marriage. I think kids growing up thinking there is nothing wrong in making and breaking a covenant with a person as easily as we make decisions about what to wear is a far greater danger to our way of life than growing up with the question of marrying a boy or a girl. On top of this, those of us who are Christians are notorious for picking on certain pet sins yet completely unwilling to look in the mirror and notice our own short commings. Just this past sunday a prominant church in Dallas was presented with a sermon on why it is not okay to be gay. Now unless I missed something and the congregation of this church has an underground homosexual population what is the purpose of preaching that message? In fact a far better sin to preach against is greed and glutony. But we always like to look out when dealing with sin.

Now as a way of thinking about a solution to this problem of divorce and a lock of sanctity in marriage in our culture and in our churches I want to take a look at the way in which Christ dealt with people his culture. I believe there are lessons to be learned and demands made on our lives that we MUST follow. But that is to come.

Meaning

In a world where it is increasingly difficult to find forms of media (T.V. shows, films, books, etc.) that have any depth or transcendent meaning, know that everything has a meaning. Some things have a good and/or virtuous meaning and others have no other meaning to display other than life is meaningless.

Largely the meaning behind a certain book or film is hidden and as such it goes unnoticed. We still ascribe to whatever meaning a film or book might portray but we are unwilling or unable to engage these forms of media beyond merely witnessing them. What I mean is we simply read a book to participate in a "mindless" activity, or we just want to "turn our brains off" and watch T.V. But my challenge to those all of us, especially those who wish to find depth and meaning is not to "turn off your brains" while doing "mindless" activities. If you are nothing else in your daily life be thoughtful. Thinking about everything we hear and see is one of the most important things we can fill our day with. The bible speaks about praying without ceasing, yet in order to be prayerful all the time you must be engaged in what is happening around you, which requires a sound analysis of life (e.i. thought). And if you are a believer you will begin to see the fingerprints of God all around you and you might even discover that films and books and such, that aren't overt in their theology are fraught with symbols and imagery that point to Christ.

If you are an unbeliever, one who is not a Christian, I believe that if and when you begin to engage the world around you thoughtfully you begin to see that life is not a random accident but there is order to the way things work and there are principles of living that make life more full and bring greater meaning to life. However if you refuse to think about your world then life will simply be a series of random accidents and then you die. But I believe we all know that there is a purpose to life here on earth, yet without thinking deeply throughout one's day that purpose will remain elusive.

The God who created us in his image created us to think as rational beings. Do not let anyone take away your right to think freely. If we are constantly "turning off our brains" we are handing over our right to think freely. And every time we do we lose a little bit more of our ability to think well. Thinking is a skill and as with any other skill it must be practiced and honed and there is a progression to becoming a "good" thinker. The beginning of that progression and my only concern here is that we actually begin to think constantly. Now what the conclusion of our thinking is is not necessarily the measure of a bad or good thinker, but it is the process of thinking, and the level of skill at which you operate that will make you a bad or good thinker. What I mean is if you truly think something through with honesty and well reasoned arguments your conclusion will be difficult to dispute. However if you barely think through something or use poor reasoning or base it merely off of what you have heard, then even if you come to the right conclusion it does not mean you are a good thinker, you have simply learned to repeat someone else's opinions.

So when it comes to politics, think. And when it comes to philosophy, think. And when comes to watching The Office or American Idol, be thinking.

Welcome To Sparks Fly

My name is Clayton and blogging is very new to me. I tend to early on jump on the latest trend like blogging and then find I keep up with it very inconsistently. But as this semester I will be reading much and thinking much I thought that a blog would be a great way of accomplishing two dilemmas I have faced every semester since attending the Criswell College: 1) blogging affords me the opportunity to share with a wide range of people what I have been thinking about and learning while enabling me to have a normal social life, and 2) it will help me to think more clearly about what I am learning due to you being able to respond to my posts and me having a place to pour out my thoughts and clear up some room in my head.

I very much look forward to those of you who will frequent my blog responding to and interacting with me. Please be honest and let me know if you have any opinions about anything on the blog.

Now to point out some of the features of Sparks Fly. I will be weekly posting a new poll question, some of which will be fun and some of which will be purposefully engaging. I also will have listed books that I will be reading so you can see where I getting my inspiration from and also for those of you who will be interested,so you can join me in my reading. Keep an eye out for any new features.
At the bottom of the page you will find a link to the Goats Go 2 Hell Podcast. This is a podcast that my friend Mr. Chris and I started a while back. As of now it as fallen into disrepair but it will, Lord willing, be "resurrected" soon. But listed now are the 4 episodes we have done, however listen at your own risk.

As for now I hope this finds you well and again I look forward to what the future holds for my blogging career.

Clayton