Thoughts on Putting Out Small Fires

I just returned from a trip to see some family and friends and I got to spend time with a very thoughtful friend who suggested I write down this bit of one of our conversations.

We were discussing the problems that occur when Christians spend too much time struggling with small issues, fighting the battles and ignoring the war. Behaviors such as running around telling everyone what they should and should not do, or insisting that every Christian or non-Christian have the same standards and preferences as we do, distracts us from concentrating on the most important tasks we've been left here to complete. Probably one of the best tools the devil has is to get us to play favorites with pet causes and issues, rending the body of believers and making us completely ineffective or worse, making us saboteurs of God's purposes!

Christians, particularly, based on my observations, the "Indy-Fundy" types (a new favorite term, thanks to the originator whoever you might be), want to run around telling people how long or short their hair should be, how loud or soft their music should be, how old or new their translation should be, how serious or frivolous their services should be! The idea that the Holy Spirit Who moves in lives to bring us to salvation isn't capable of moving in our lives to conform us to Christ's image is blasphemy! Why should we concern ourselves with work that is only doable by the omnipotence and omniscience of a Holy and Righteous God? What arrogance we display when we blatantly ignore His commands and take it upon ourselves to "correct" our fellow believers, or even more foolish, non-believers!

I guess the whole thing boils down to this:
1. When speaking about Christians: In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty! Thank you St. Augustine.
2. What good is it trying to run around squishing the flies when the rotten banana is still in the basket? In other words, why do we spend so much time chasing after issues, when the root of the cause is still there? If someone is unconverted, or someone is nursing sin in their life it does no good attacking the symptoms if the state of the heart needs help!

Hope and Change

Probably one of the most over-used and misused words in public conversation right now is "hope." I know I'm not the only one who has pointed this out, and I'm certainly not the first person to take issue with the fact such a wonderful word has been drained of its meaning. The original meaning of the word is to place trust or rely on, to look forward with reasonable confidence. In other words, hope must have an object. The notion that hope is just this feeling you have when you wish something, like Jimminy Cricket is an error!

Hope must have an object otherwise it is simply wishful thinking. As Christians we know what the object of our hope is! We have a reasonable expectation based on the Word of God that He will fulfill His promises! Hebrews 11 begins with the phrase, "Now faith is substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The following verses outline in what's known as the "Hall of Faith" centuries of saints who have seen the work of their God and hoped in His promises. "These died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them." That's hope! Our righteous and Holy God has proven Himself faithful and worthy of hope!

Now where does the change come in? This hope in the promises of God should cause a change in our actions. Why do we worry? Why do we give up? Why do we succumb to temptation? We have the promises of God freeing us from worry (Matthew 6:25-34), doubt (Galatians 6:9), and sin (1 Corinthians 10:13)!

A Distillation of Modern Thought

I've been spending a lot of time reading apologetic authors, which really is the inspiration for starting this blog. It's amazing the connections you see between all these authors. I know many of our modern apologists build on the apologists of the past, but it doesn't make their arguments any less valid. In "Orthodoxy" last night I came across a passage where Chesterton was speaking of his conversion from atheism to theism. He mentions that it wasn't the Christian authors that ultimately changed his view on the existence of God, it was reading the works of atheists that changed his mind. "It was Huxley and Herbert Spencer and Bradlaugh who brought me back to orthodox theology. They sowed in my mind my first wild doubts of doubt." I think if one really studies the works and life of the key atheist and agnostic philosophers and writers you can see the contradiction and untenable position they are in!

I was listening to a lecture by Ravi Zacharias that he gave at Harvard, I believe, the other day on the radio. He was speaking on the subject of atheism and our modern secular society. He quoted this British journalist Steve Turner. The context of this discussion was that atheistic philosophies carried out to their logical conclusions and distilled to their smallest are too terrifying! They bring up the subject of evil, which of course brings up the subject of good and their origins. That, however, is a big discussion for another time!

Creed by Steve Turner
We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes
UFO's and bent spoons
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad

We believe that all religions are basically the same
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good

We believe in total disarmament
We believe there are direct links between warfare and
bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors .
And the Russians would be sure to follow

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought

If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear
State of Emergency
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School
It is but the sound of man
worshipping his maker

Steve Turner, (English journalist), "Creed," his satirical poem on the modern mind.  Taken from Ravi Zacharias’ book Can Man live Without God?  Pages 42-44

A passage from "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton

Over the past few weeks one of the books I've been reading is the classic "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton. I've never read any of Chesterton's work before, he is a fascinating writer. I'll admit I get a little confused by his style of writing, and I don't think its ever taken me so long to get through a book before. He was a strong influence on one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis.

"Paganism declared that virtue was in a balance; Christianity declared it was in a conflict: the collision of two passions apparently opposite. Of course they were not really inconsistent; but they were such that it was hard to hold simultaneously. Let us follow for a moment the clue of the martyr and the suicide; and take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages. Courage is almost a contradiction in derms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. "He that will lose his life, the same shall save it," is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher, I fancy, has ever expressed this romantic riddle with adequate lucidity, and I certainly have not done so. But Christianity has done more: it has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying. And it has held up ever since above the European lances the banner of the mystery of chivalry: the Christian courage, which is a disdain of death; not the Chinese courage, which is a disdain of life."

I think this quote struck me because I am also reading the biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and I believe that this quote describes his courage during such a difficult time in world history. I also think it's relevant today, we may not all be facing life and death struggles, but we do face tests of our courage everyday.

Starting Out

This is my first blog so please bear with any formatting or appearance changes that might occur early on.

Starting out I want to say, this blog will have nothing to do with my personal life, what I ate for dinner, where I go on vacation, etc. I just want to share the things I'm reading, watching, learning that are pertinent to the daily Christian life. One of my favorite passages of scripture is Hebrews 11, and in Hebrews 11 is one of my favorite pictures of the Christian life. As believers in Jesus Christ we are strangers and pilgrims (sojourners) on this earth. This involves a couple of important things. If you are visiting anywhere for any length of time there are certain things you have to do. You have to be able to communicate with the locals. You have to be able to stay connected with your real home and maintain relationships with people from your home country. What are those things that will help us while we're sojourning in this strange country looking forward to that better, heavenly country?