My Dim Bulb

I heard about this book and was excited to get it as I would consider myself of fan of many of the things that Alex’s brother, Erwin, has articulated in his books.  Then I read Amazon’s quote from the back cover:

Why did Jesus come into the world? Author Alex McManus re-thinks that seemingly simple question and provides an answer sure to get people talking.  According to McManus, contrary to popular opinion, Jesus Christ came neither to teach Christianity nor to establish the Christian religion. The goal of the life and teaching of Jesus is not to make the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, or Jew a Christian. Neither did Jesus come with the goal of showing us how to be Christians. What Jesus wants for all people: whether religious or secular, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, is that they turn away from destructive, non-life-giving systems and join him on the quest to find their humanity again.

This new book appeals to:
Young Christians who seek edgier reading and discussions
Evangelical Christians who see holes in the message of today’s church
Those outside traditional evangelicalism (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox)
Non-Christian seekers with questions about God
Those of other religions who won’t see McManus’s message as a threat to their faith

I have to read the book, but just bouncing off of what the cover says, which typically is a summary, um…REALLY?!? 

If Jesus’ whole point in coming was to "turn [people] away from destructive, non-life-giving systems and join him on the quest to find their humanity again," then we really have to totally remove him from his historical context.   You have to literally ignore the Old Testament backdrop of the sacrificial system and the biblical emphasis of propitiation and atonement.  You have to gloss over the way Jesus speaks of the Gospel.  Plus you have to trash the whole book of Hebrews which interprets Jesus in that light.  Even worse, this notion literally removes the cross and the resurrection as central to the Christian faith.  Talk about anachronistic…and frightening.

And what do you mean it appeals to "those of other religions who won’t see McManus’s message as a threat to their faith."  Let’s be honest.  Either Jesus was who He claimed to be and He IS a threat their faith because there faith is false or He is not because: 1.) the Scriptures have been falsified and the accounts we have are lies, in which case Jesus is just another Ghandi, Buddha, etc.  Or, 2.) Jesus lied. 

Either way this whole notion of Jesus as leader asking us to "join him on the quest to find [our] humanity again" sounds like the old notion that we can see Jesus as a great teacher or moral example in new language.  I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis when he said in Mere Christianity that:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Also, I find it ironic that so much emphasis is put on Jesus not being about "religion."  Defined simply, religion is man’s attempt to justify himself or earn and retain right standing before God by living a moral and just life.  I would agree wholeheartedly that Jesus is not about religion - He hated it. 

But it would seem the framework for understanding Jesus in this book IS religious.  He came so that we can "join Him on a quest to find [our] humanity again."  So it’s up to US to find our humanity and Jesus is our guide?  Sounds like it’s about us needing to try harder, be better, improve, evolve, shape up or however you want to word it…it’s about us FIXING OURSELVES.  That precisely IS religion.

The only non-religious understanding of Jesus is the historic one that sees Him as the centerpiece of the Gospel.  That Jesus came not show us a different way, i.e. do this to fix yourself.  But He came to FIX US by substituting Himself for us so that by faith in Him we are justified before God and our right standing with Him has nothing to do with us, our life, our moral choices, etc. and everything to do with WHO Jesus is.  But this is the view of Jesus he seems to want to dismiss.

I dearly hope I’m wrong about this and the book will convey something totally different and rightfully place the atoning work of the cross at it’s center.  I really hope that someone just seriously dropped the ball in putting together the cover summary.  The other possibility just stinks…

Found this page and thought is was well worth sharing.  It’s got a bunch of various stuff from Tim Keller.  By far he has some of the most compelling and insightful things to say about the Gospel and what it means to live by and in it.

Good stuff….check it out HERE.

If you ever need a laugh just drop in on THESE FOLKS! 

They are living proof that God is merciful and has a sense of humor.  How else can you explain there continued existence?  Well there is Satan and all, but everyone who says they love Jesus is telling the truth right?

I never realized that to truly understand and preach any text you had to "feel" it.  It may sound strange, but God has had me under this weight of sadness for the last week or so.  It was all to help me understand a section of Philippians (1:18b-30).  I had asked God to help me understand the text.  I had in mind a strictly intellectual one, but God had other plans. 

The main thrust of the text is on suffering, why we suffer, and in some sense, how to suffer well.  Putting the pieces together, mentally speaking, is no real problem.  You discuss how God is at work in the midst of suffering to bring about our sanctification in Christ.  This is why in v. 18 Paul says he will rejoice in this, that "this" being his imprisonment and current circumstance.  In the ESV it states "this will turnout for my deliverance."  But the word translated as deliver is the same word that is translated "salvation."  Paul obviously wouldn’t intend to imply that he is saved because he is in jail, but it makes absolute sense that he would refer to the sanctifying work of God that is a part of his salvation.  It’s easy to construct this pattern of thought.  But to feel it, I am learning, is entirely different.

Over the last week God brought to mind Romans 8:20 where it tells us that He has subjected the creation to futility.  At the time I was wondering why so much of life is wrought with hardship, loss, suffering, frustration, etc. and at first I didn’t see the connection.  But then it occurred to me…life has been ordered by God to prick, wound, disappoint, and leave us wanting.  He has subjected the creation to futility so that our experience of life, the lived experience, will be one that is ultimately unfulfilling.  Life, in itself, seems futile.  All that we do, strive for, trust and hope in and for that is part of this creation will leave us unfulfilled, empty, and without lasting satisfaction or joy.  All of life is trapped in this cycle of futility.  As it says in Ecclesiastes 1:2, "Vanity of vanities says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity." 

The hardest thing to wrap my head around was that God has ordered it so that life would be this way.  That’s when the weight of the text and the reality of suffering began to sink in on me.  I began thinking about my own life.  My wants, hopes, desires.  My ministry, my motivations, and all the things I want to accomplish.  I began to think on the lives of others - friends, family, loved ones, brothers in Christ, and those who don’t know Him.  I thought of all that we do and struggle and strive for in this life and was overwhelmed with this sadness at how utterly futile it all was. 

But then God led me to think about why He would want our pursuits in this life to amount to nothing and two things occurred to me.  First, He has it ordered in this way so that no one would receive glory but Him.  In the end, all our petty efforts and moving speeches and sermons about changing the world will amount to nothing.  The world moves on.  Movements fade and die out.  Churches and ministries come and go.  And great men and all their achievements are forgotten.  It is vain and absurd to talk about how we will change the world…even if we speak of doing it in Christ’s name.  Our call is not to change the world but to proclaim Christ.  It will be Jesus, upon His return, who will be the One, the only One, who changes the world.  He will not share His glory with anyone and nor should He.

Secondly, God brought to mind that He has ordered things this way and subjected the creation to futility so that all of our idolatrous pursuits would lead to frustration, want, and despair.  This way anything in creation that we would elevate to the place of God in our lives will never give us lasting satisfaction, joy, fulfillment, or meaning.  All things end.  All things fade.  All things decay.  All things are forgotten.  All is vanity and a striving after the wind.  All things but Christ.

It was then the "weight" of the truth Paul speaks of in Philippians hit me.  We have joy in suffering because God, in His mercy, is too kind to leave us to pursue our pathetic idols.  He subjected the creation to futility and our lives to be marked with frustration, pain, loss, and grief so that we might be reminded of our desperate need for Him.  Suffering is the tool that God, like a skilled surgeon, uses to remove the idols from our hearts.  Suffering is the fire that God uses to refine our souls and draw us closer to Him and to mold us and shape us to be more like Christ.  I heard a quote from Matt Chandler that was totally fitting and timely.  He said "we don’t follow Jesus because He makes our lives better.  We follow Jesus because He is better than life itself."  Suffering is the reminder that the Gospel is not about us getting a better life because we follow Jesus.  It reminds us that there is nothing in this life better than Jesus.

Hardship, trial, difficulty, suffering - all those things we avoid and hate having to deal with in life - are really the mercies of God.  Though difficult and painful, they are merciful in that they pull our hearts away from created things as the source of our hope and salvation and steer it towards God.  A Christian’s experience of life is no different than a non-Christians when it comes to suffering except in one way.  In the Christian these things are always used to draw us deeper into Christ and to sanctify our hearts by killing and removing our idols.  In a a non-Christian this is not always the case as the suffering can drive them further into despair as they cling to their idols - unless the Holy Spirit intervenes.  I think this is perhaps what Paul was getting at in Romans 1:18-32 where he speaks of God giving them up or over to their sins as His wrath. 

I realize now that only after feeling the weight of that text was I ready to preach on it.  I had to "feel" it - the sadness, the longing, the despair, the frustration.  Only then did the true and only hope that we have in Christ that Paul speaks of when he says in Phil 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," make any sense.  Only then could I get up and speak out of humility and concern.  Otherwise, I may have spoken out of arrogance and pride.  It’s too easy to deliver a sermon that is theologically correct, but absolutely and horrifically wrong because your heart is off. 

I hope never again to preach on a text before the weight of it has sufficiently crushed me…

I went to the New York Times list of best selling books and got a good laugh. This will probably offend some, but I find it telling that Ol’ Joel’s book is sandwiched between the two that it is.

Above it is a book on how to get rich (fitting), and below it is a wonderfully heretical book on Jesus (also fitting).

Maybe it’s just me, but if a book makes a top 10 list espousing a supposedly biblical theology, the leader of that list being “The Secret,” then perhaps something in that theology has been lost - like the Cross of Christ. Paul often mentioned how to most it was an offense, foolishness, and a stumbling block. But hey, it’s more fun to find the champion in me and talk about how god (which god is the real question) ultimately wants me to be rich, successful, and physically healthy…

I always thought God’s ultimate concern was His Glory and Name. Guess I read it wrong. Wait a minute…is that “The Secret?” Damn it! I’m always behind the times!

Saw something that reminded me of the truth of the Gospel yesterday.

A little girl in my neighborhood walked up to two other girls who were playing in the street wanting to play with them. Nothing was said. No words were exchanged. No pushing, shoving, punching, or kicking occurred. But something as horrible or worse played out in front of my eyes. The two girls absolutely refused to even notice the other girl standing there. They just ignored her.

After being shunned by the two girls she came over to my wife, our 4 year old son, and I. We invited her in for some pizza and later bought her an ice-cream. Normally this little girl is jovial and outgoing. But after that interaction with the girls across the street she was quiet, withdrawn, sad. It’s no wonder she was that way. What better way to tell someone that their very existence doesn’t even matter than just ignore them.

It broke my heart to watch this.

If there were any doubts to ever be had about the fallen condition of our human hearts just watch how cruel middle school age children can be to one another.

I can’t stop thinking about the statistic that up to 90% of young people who grow up in the church will walk away from “their” faith by the end of freshman year in college. The thing that bothers me most is how unsurprising this is to me as a youth pastor.

I’m not claiming to be anyone special - hell, I’ve got nothing to really point to and say, “this is why you should listen to me.” But if you’ve spent any amount of time in youth ministry you begin to realize how incredibly shallow the venture on a whole really is. I know that sounds harsh. I know many, including myself, can think of those students (the few) who really embrace Christ and passionately pursue Jesus to the end. But the elephant in the room is that youth is a horrible failure. It has done little to produce real and lasting disciples. Any doubts about this were put to rest by Barna’s findings that there is no real difference between the lives of supposed “born-again” believers and non-believers - especially in the young.

The sad reality is we’ve entertained hundreds upon thousands of young people straight to hell…

Think about it. A youth ministry of 500 would be seen as a “success.” There would be lot’s of activity, movement, energy. If you were the youth pastor of a ministry that large, you might even get invited to speak at some conference to tell other youth pastors practical ways to “grow” their ministry to that size. But at the end of the day, there were really only 500-90% = 50. For all the hoopla, 50.

I can’t think of how many students throughout the years I have met that would say, “I’m a Christian,” whose lives tell a different story. Young people who go to church every Sunday. Young people who are generally “good kids.” Young people who don’t really do anything too bad, but who have absolutely no passion for Christ. Young people who’s faith is summed up in some prayer they said at a conference a few years back when they got all emotional.

The real question is what to do? I can’t see justifying the amount of money that’s dumped into youth ministry by churches. Seems wasteful. I know many would argue that the majority of professions of faith come before the age of 18 so that justifies it. But that argument holds no water because 90% of those are bogus.

Something has to give. Something has to change. Our young people are dying…

I was thinking this morning how often I settle for knowledge rather than wisdom in life. To know something and to do something with that knowledge are two categorically different things. Sadly, if I’m honest, I know much that I have done little with.

The hard thing about wisdom is that it requires discipline. Not the self-help, fix-myself kind of set some goals, believe and achieve kind of discipline. But the kind of self-discipline that walks in a humble obedience to the truth. This is wisdom - taking the truth and adjusting one’s life to it.

Currently I feel like a knowledgeable fool…

So I got home and figured I would watch some television and relax. I ended up watching (I think) one of the Law and Order shows. In this episode a woman has been murdered by her son. As the story progresses it is revealed that the reason the boy killed his mother is because she was committing adultery with a Muslim and he felt that God had told him to save her from her sins - by stoning her to death.

Turns out this kid was part of some cult/Christian camp where the leader (bad Sam Gamgee - Frodo would be so disappointed) was indoctrinating the kids into thinking they were some kind of “Christian Army” that was going to have to fight the Muslim Jihadists. They show footage of this “Pastor” encouraging the kids to die for Jesus and war against the Muslims. Ultimately, this “Pastor” reveals that he agrees with what has occurred and admits his militaristic theology.

I guess I’m not surprised to see this on television. I didn’t grow up in the church, so I know the majority view -> Christians are narrow-minded, hateful, intolerant, bigots. I get that most think of the Inquisition and the Crusades when you mention church, Christianity, Christians, etc. I get all that. But I was still bothered by the show on two levels.

First, it frustrated me that throughout the whole episode not one argument against this guy was theological in nature. No opposing Christian theological viewpoint was articulated to combat the “Pastor’s” errant theology. Not one person rebutted his acceptance of “eye for an eye” with Jesus’ own words that His followers are to “love [their] enemies and pray for those that persecute [them], so that [they] may be sons of [their] Father who is in heaven.” No character in the show represented a contrary position. Rather, it seemed like their was this implicit agreement that this is what Christians think and this is who they are.

Second, it frustrated me because it made me think of how so many Muslims must have felt after each of the countless caricatures that have been paraded across the screen since 9-11. Maybe that was the intent of the writer? Maybe they were trying to point out how caricatures are dangerous. Who knows…

Either way, religious caricatures are at best a nuisance, or at their worse - absolutely deadly. What better way to generate an inherent distrust, suspicion, and dislike for a group of people than make them intolerant monsters?

One thing is certain. I have little power over what the larger culture will think of my faith. But do have a say in how I will view others and type-casting everyone into a caricature will do nothing to help me love them as Christ bids me to.

Hopefully one day I can see beyond my own prejudices.

So I read this article by David Powlison and it struck me to the core…

The article examines how the main issue we face as human beings is idolatry and that in counseling the proper angle to take is one of pushing past the behaviors to discern what core idols are driving those behaviors. His take on what biblical counseling is enough to make the article worth reading. But his insight into how inclined our hearts are towards making idols is amazing.

In one section he describes how we have even perverted the Gospel by making an idol out of a desire for unconditional love and acceptance. We appeal to people who have this desire to be loved and accepted by telling them that Jesus will meet that desire and that He loves them and accepts them unconditionally. By doing this we have elevated the desire for love and acceptance to a place of central importance and have diminished Christ to a mere fetch-boy who exists to meet that desire in us. No longer is Christ central - our desire is. The point is that the Gospel actually confronts that desire (and every other one) and tells us to repent of it and place our faith in Christ who is our true need!!! How radically different is that perspective than what is preached most Sundays!

He writes that,

The Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, “God accepts you just as Christ is. God has
‘contraconditional’ love for you.” Christ bears the curse you deserve. Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and
gives you His own perfect goodness. Christ reigns in power, making you the Father’s child and coming close
to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. God never accepts me “as I am.” He accepts
me “as I am in Jesus Christ.” The center of gravity is different. The true Gospel does not allow God’s love to
be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather, it radically decenters people—what the Bible calls “fear of the Lord” and “faith”—to look outside themselves.

After I read this article I laid up most the night terrified by the unsettling reality that Christ is not Lord in me as He should be. Since reading the article I have zeroed in on a host of things that compete for Him - a desire for success, a desire to be accepted that is coupled with a fear of rejection, a desire for comfort.

All of these things war in me with Christ for Lordship over my life. But now I can’t call them anything but what they are - little “gods” that I have made.  Little “gods” who take the place of Christ in my life. Little “gods” that steal me away from my true Lord. Little “gods” who rob me of life and joy.

How I am growing to hate them with a passion and hope for healing…