Merely A Thought

I picked up a copy of Mere Christianity last week while making a pit stop at the local Barnes & Noble here in town. I’ve never read the book before, and I decided that it was about time that I do. Thanks to a friend, I had a gift certificate to the store for graduation. Toward the end of the first chapter of the first book (there are four books in total in what comprises Mere Christianity) Lewis says, “For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.”

What he’s saying there is that most of the time when we are in a bad mood and are acting disrespectfully to others, we’ll blame the fact that we’re tired, hungry, or stressed out. Yet, how quickly we want to credit ourselves when we are in a good mood and are treating others with respect. The more I think about that, the more I begin to realize how deeply jacked up I am! I do that! I am so quick to pass the buck and blame others or circumstances for my bad attitudes, and how quick I am to think that I’m such a good person when I have a good attitude.

Our lives are full of hypocrisy! We see our own lives through rose colored lenses, when in reality we are just as messed up as the people we so articulately judge.

Several Books To Consider

I am taking a class right now called “Current Issues in Evangelism: Evangelism and the kingdom of God.” It’s being taught  by Dr. Alan Streett. If you don’t know who he is, he is a professor of evangelism at Criswell College and he is the author of the book The Effective Invitation. In that class, we have been assigned to write a paper on different topics relating to the kingdom. One of the options is to write a paper on how the emergent/emerging church movement deals with the kingdom of God. Well, in truth, the option only says to write a paper on how the emergent church deals with it.  I believe there are distinctions in the emergent movement in many ways, but I think it is easy to break the movement into two basic groups so I will draw out that difference in the paper a little bit of how the two groups view the kingdom. That is kind of the background and setting of why I am reading or have read the books that I am about to suggest.

The books that I have chosen to read for this study are as follows: The Radical Reformission, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Blue Like Jazz, Velvit Elvis, A Generous Orthodoxy, and the article “Kingdom of God” found in Sojourners magazine. I want to suggest that you begin to read these books/article.

I have read most of these so far, and I want to let you know that I do not agree with all of what these books contain. However, just because you don’t agree with everything, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be challenged and provoked to think about fresh issues.

If you are in ministry you should be reading on a regular basis. If the only thing you are reading is the bible, then you are only getting your perspective. That is needed and I’m not minimalizing that. However, if you are only getting your perspective then you are limiting the amount of knowledge you have and your ability to do effective ministry. I admit that there are smarter people than me, and if I can get their perspective then I am better off for it. I encourage you to be a reader and a thinker and contribute to the conversation. I like how Rob Bell puts it, “God has spoken, and the rest is commentary. Right?” Become a reader, and listen to the commentary of others.

HE OWNS…

I started Desiring God with a highlighter in hand on Sunday while riding to New Orleans. Six days later, I’m on chapter 5 and lots of stuff highlighted. Yes, I know that I’m probably the last student at Criswell to read it, and I’m totally ok with that!

In the chapter on Conversion he says (I don’t have the book in hand so I don’t want to try to quote exactly) that faith is not the cause of conversion, rather it’s the evidence of conversion. I believe that, but I’ve never heard it said like that. I love it when someone clarifies a belief that I hold. A question that I have been asking myself lately kinda goes with that, only in the idea that what we call “our faith” really isn’t “our” faith at all! The question that I have been asking myself is, “When did we as Christians begin thinking that we own oursleves?” To clarify what I mean by that I’ll rephrase. Why do some Christians have disdain for God’s sovereignty? Because God formed us out of material that He already owns, at what point do we begin owning ourselves? Paul deals with that same idea in Romans 9. Paul argues that idea for the reason that God can justly condemn some and then he says that we really don’t have a right to question what the Potter chooses to do with His own creation.

I’d like to take the idea and expound on it a little bit. A few months ago, I began debating a buddy of mine about the idea of compatabilism vs. determinism. I’d simply like to suggest something, and then leave it alone for a while and come back to it later at some point and see what I think then. I’d also like to know others thoughts on it. Because God owns eveything, and by that I mean even the material from which He formed us, then why is it so hard to think that He owns even our will. I’m suggesting that the idea of determinism is true based on the fact that God owns our very wills. The owner can do what He wills with what He owns. I’m gonna leave that there, let it simmer a little and see if anyone has any thoughts on that.