Who I Am

A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. ~ C.S. Lewis

I've been seeing this quote (which I've posted on here before) popping up everywhere.  I didn't think it was coincidence, as it really speaks to me in a unique way.

There is the obvious meaning of the quote, which refers to atheists.  But there's something else there, too. As Christians, we often live as practical atheists.  While we believe that God exists, we live like he doesn't. This practical atheism really is at the root of all sins.  If we really had a conception of God literally watching us every moment of every day, we would behave much, much differently.  Practical atheism is a very dangerous concept, because acting it out means that we miss so much of God's presence in our lives.

I struggle with this.  There are times I want God there, and times I don't.  The truth is we can't have one or the other.  God is always there, and all we do is injure our own souls when we live like He isn't.

Simply put, that is what this new set of lyrics is about.


Who I Am
 
I've closed my eyes
Tried to believe the light was not there
I've cried at night
Hoping and praying you could hear

It's such a paradox
I'm at odds with myself
Wanting you to be
But not wanting you to see
Who I am

It's always bright
Even when I write darkness on the walls
I cannot fight
Cause your whispers echo through these halls

Time is a killer
And my doubt is the knife
Doubts that you'll see me
Doubts that you need me
Doubts that you'll fix who I am

But in this moment I see
I live inconsistently
Because you always know
Who I am
And you can redefine
Who I am

Easy?

Hey All.  Here are the lyrics to my newest musical project.  It's one of the few remaining songs that I need to finish up before I can begin the quest of recording my first full-length album.

The song is simple on the surface, yet deals with some very complex problems we all face as members of humanity, churches, etc.  Jesus' statement in Matthew 7:3 has really hit home with me lately, and this is my response.  I hope you all enjoy it, but most of all learn from it.

EASY DOES IT

It's so easy

To see the dust in your eye

To see where you go wrong

To catch a glimpse of how you fail

It's so easy

It's so easy

To toss off the weight of blame

To attribute it to another name

To forget that I'm just the same

It's so easy

Maybe if I took a breather

I could look at myself

But it's not easy

It's so simple

To make claims of righteousness

To excuse myself of my foolishness

While conveniently seeing yours

It's so simple

If I could just look in the mirror

And take a look at myself

Oh, but it's not simple

I'm no different

The only difference is I can defend myself in my head

And I believe it

And it makes sense

I force the mirror to my own face

I'm terrified

And then the whisper

"I never said it would be easy"

Ignored Questions

It seems there's this whole majority of Christianity that just believes - with no clue whatsoever as to why they believe.  One could call it the cliched "blind belief".  It's unfortunate, because these are usually the people that end up facing the most difficult questions from nonbelievers.

I've set out lately to find explanations to the questions that people get hung up on concerning the Bible.  I'll admit that I've struggled with many of them before, and continue to struggle with a few.  If every Christian is honest with themself, they'll admit that there are many things about the Bible that they simply can't explain.  The fact of the matter is this: that's not the place we're supposed to be at.  I'll attempt to explain some of the questions I've had lately and the answers that I've discovered (and haven't discovered).

First off, we can establish one very important principle.  God is a God of logic and reason.  Contrary to what many people believe, the God of the Bible is not a divinity who simply expects his people to believe something that makes no sense.  Rather, since we know that everything was created by God (John 1) it follows that logic and rationality were made by Him as well.  As such, we can expect God to make sense.

The problem comes in when we read passages in the Bible that don't seem to make sense in the least.  If we are genuine moral thinkers, we will naturally have some difficulties when we run into verses like Deuteronomy 21:21, where God says that if a child is disobedient towards his parents "... all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear."  Contrasting this with Psalm 145:8-9 "The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made", one wonders how the two passages could possibly be justified.  There are countless other passages like the one above in the so-called "Mosaic Law" of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  One continually wonders when reading them (I know I have), how could a just God say and command such things?  A logical person's faith can begin to unravel.

It is this juxtaposition of the seemingly cruel God of the Old Testament and the loving father God of the New that nonbelievers get stuck on.  And frankly, the vast majority of Christians have no clue how the two are justified, much less an answer to give to those who are struggling with this issue.  Many believers are aware of these difficulties concerning the Old Testament God, but are seemingly content to simply shove them out of the way - never addressing them.  For instance, how many times have you heard a Christian teacher speak about this issue?

Is this the kind of faith that a loving, just, and logical God would want us to have?  Would a God of reason really want His creation to only have a shell of blind belief and not the meat of earnest conviction?  I believe that we are truly doing disservice to ourselves and the people we are supposed to be reaching by ignoring these kinds of issues.  It's about time that the people of God really examine what they believe to the "t", rather than being content with the mushy gushy God of good feelings.

Anyhow, when one reads the Bible as a whole it seems that God is either extremely schizophrenic or is simply cruel and unjust.  Let's be honest with ourselves here.  This is obviously something no one would ever admit in church - that they've had such "sacrilegious" thoughts.  But for true faith to exist, we have to face the facts and address these issue.

So, let's identify the problem, laying it out in a classical Aristotelian way:

> The Old Testament God seems cruel, demanding, and unjust.
> The New Testament God seems loving, caring, and forgiving.
    > God is (at the very least) inconsistent
Simply put, this is a valid argument.  The conclusion naturally follows from the combination of the two premises. 

The question we're faced with, then, is this:

Why does God seem inconsistent?  Why does He seem cruel in the OT and kind in the NT?  How can a "just God" seem unjust at the same time?

How could a just God command the following?
Genesis 38:10
Exodus 21:7
Leviticus 20:9-10
Leviticus 21:16-23
Numbers 21:27-35
Numbers 31:17-18
Deut. 13:6-11
Deut. 14:21 
Deut. 20:11-14
Deut. 21:18-21
Deut. 23:2
Amongst many others?



These are the questions I will attempt to answer in the coming weeks.  Keep your eyes open for new posts!  Meantime, I would be extremely interested in reading your take on this problem, as I'm still struggling with it myself.  Read the verses listed above and honestly evaluate them.  Don't just skim over them as so many Christians do.

God Bless!

When Mom Came Home

"You'd better have your chores done when I get home."
~ Mom

When my sisters and I were old enough, my mother would let us stay home by ourselves while she ran errands.  This only happened once in a while, so we learned to appreciate it when it did.  We were allowed to do pretty much anything we wanted outside of leaving the premises or making a disaster.  We had some great times when this happened.  This "treat" was all on one condition, however - we were required complete our assigned chores before my mother came back.  Needless to say, she wasn't very pleased if she came home and the work hadn't been done.  When this was the case, all three of us kids got punished.

All of these times sprung up into my mind as illustrations of a parable of Christ in Matthew.  I've been thinking quite a bit about parables lately, as you've probably noticed my last post.  The stories of Christs present the profound truths of God in simple form, and in that regards they are the best stories around.

In Matthew 24:45-51, Christ presents us with an allegorical story that describes how our attitude should be towards His unexpected coming.  The whole of the chapter concerns the suddenness of His glorious appearance, and how we should be prepared at every moment for His arrival here on earth.  The parable reads:


“A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (New Living Translation)


It's apparent from Christ's words that His expectations are for us to be hard at work spreading His gospel when He returns.  Just as my mother expect my and my sisters' duties to be completed when she got home from running errands, so does Christ have these same expectations of us.  If a human mother finds it unsatisfactory to return to their home and find their children having done nothing that they were supposed to, how much more will Christ find our useless "entertainment" unsatisfactory in the light of eternity?  We can be sure that if any of us are here at the time of His appearing that we will be wishing we had done more for Christ and His cause.


We can all become entangled in the "entertainment" of our society so easily.  Just as the servant in Christ's parable became caught up in the drunkenness, partying, and violence of the world, so can we fail to complete our Master's assignment to us to spread His message.  I recall from my childhood that there were many things that my sisters and  I let distract us from completing our assigned jobs, none of which were more important than keeping the house in good order.

Let's be clear.  Christ does not expect us to live lives that are no fun, lives  that are dull and filled with pious reverence.  He does not require us to live for 37 years atop a pillar, our sole activity being praying to God, as the famed Simon the Stylite did to show his devotion.  He's not unreasonable in His expectations of us.  He simply asks us to be mindful of His coming; to live in the light of His appearing.  He asks us to bring others to the saving knowledge of hope simply through getting to know them and spending time with them.  He allows us to be in the world in some ways - thought not of it.  We are, of course, to be separate from the world in that we refrain from its corrupt activities, but we are permitted to have a little fun here and there.  God does not want miserable, robot-like followers.  All He desires of us is to live life, realizing how important our mission is.

As our examples display, we should be very wary that we are not found being lax in our duties when Christ returns.  The faithful, hard-working servant will receive the blessing and thanks of the Creator of the Universe.   Let's be mindful that Christ could return today.  Even though that has become a sort of "Christian Cliche", it remains true.  We all want the reward we will receive if we are faithful to Christ's callings, but we don't want the blood, sweat, and tears that come along with that.  As Christians, we are called to eagerly await the return of our Lord, and we should all be striving to be showing effort for Him when He comes.  We'll wish we had done more.

The Incarnation of Stories

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

(Matthew 13:10)

Everyone loves a good metaphor.  They enable us to fully grasp concepts in ways that are plain and yet comprehensive.  They are used in speech everyday by all of us, whether we are of aware of them or not.

One of the greatest theological thinkers of the previous century, C.S. Lewis, was prolifent in metaphors.  One can hardly read a paragraph of his writings without encountering a word picture of some sort.  He realized that for human beings to understand heavenly things, they needed to have an earthly picture to equate them with.  It is through metaphors that most of Lewis’s profound ideas were presented.

It’s not simply in his philosophical works, however, that Lewis used metaphors.  His best known works, The Chronicles of Narnia, are well known for being allegories of his belief in the God of the Bible.  Allegories are simply metaphors on a grand scale – they are entire stories which give us a unique picture of a known truth.  They present to us the things we read in the scriptures daily in a new and fresh way.

When the disciples asked Jesus why he was sharing parables with the crowds that gathered to hear him speak, it wasn’t that they didn’t understand the concept of allegory.  It was common practice in those days to use word pictures - their rabbis employed them in every teaching - so they weren’t foreign to the disciples or to the groups of people Jesus was addressing.  The reason the disciples were confused was simply that they already plainly understood all of the principles Christ was trying to get across. The Lord responds to their question of why He was telling stories by saying that “…it is given unto you [the disciples] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the crowds] it is not given.” In other words, the moment the disciples were called by Christ, they were given understanding of the “Kingdom of Heaven”, they were granted with knowledge of the principles and statutes of God that Christ came to share.  To them, the stories Christ was telling were simply rote repetitions of things they were already well aware of.  Jesus was quick to explain to them, however, how useful his allegories were in getting across his intentions to those who did not know the mysteries of the Kingdom.  He declares that they have the power to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf to His truths.

Needless to say, Jesus’ parables were incredible.  His stories were the truths of God made manifest in ordinary, colloquial human speech.  Just as Christ made himself in our image so he could relate to us personally, He used simple storytelling in simple everyday speech to relate God’s truths to us in an understandable way.  The miracle of the Incarnation is echoed in the infusion of God’s high principles into our low, debased languages.  Think about it: Christ could have come to Earth in His full splendor, but He didn’t.  He came as a weak infant in a dirty cave.  On the same token, He could have spoken His messages in the tongues of angels (which are really the only way to do God’s words justice), but He didn’t.  He presented them in the unliterary, slang-filled speech of the common man.  There was nothing majestic about either His coming or His preaching.  The Incarnation of Christ went well beyond the virgin birth into the very words He spoke.

We all enjoy stories.  Most of us spend hours viewing them on our TV’s.  Some read books as well.  We engage in these activities because stories somehow help us to connect with something outside ourselves.  The “morals” of the tales we read teach us something we may not have known, and the characters we view help us to experience things we have never experienced.  Sadly, many of the stories we tune into now days simply don’t have any meaning – there are no morals involved.  They are simply “entertainment” to pass the time. Christ’s stories were incredibly beyond this lackluster futility– they all had meaning and purpose.  Our Lord was the ultimate story-teller.  He was engaging, clear, and exciting in His tales.  Not one story that he wove was meaningless.  Through His use of parables, we all can understand the incredible depth of Heaven.

J.R.R Tolkien, the famed writer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was fond of saying that each of us longs to tell or experience stories simply because God loves to tell them, and we are made in His image.  Through the parables of Christ, we see this to be true.  He told spectacular stories, the likes of which will never be penned by man.  In a world where stories are rated based on how many copies they sell, the brilliance of Christ’s is staggering.  While Tolkien’s trilogy is the second best-selling book of all time (and rightly so), the Bible remains at the top of the list.  Tolkien acknowledged in many instances that God’s story of our redemption was the most profound story of all.  Christ’s parables of heavenly truths rank a close second.  The numbers - but more importantly the changed lives - prove that both these statements continue to ring true.