Musings

objective thoughts with subjective value

[gagegovero]

She's my favorite

[gagegovero]

One thing, and only one thing is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and Freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ...

- Luther, Treatise on Christian Liberty

[humortrain]

[okamimi]

more painful than any bullet

[werocksocks-deactivated20130302]

Satan’s handgun.

[f1ower-girl]

have mercy 

[kikiichu]

WHAT KIND OF terrible person would create this

[nopecontest]

I want it.

[von-aegirs]

i literally screamed “OH NO.”

[condesenpai-blog]

my teacher had one of those… he’d shoot sleeping students

[charredasperity]

step it up

[itsfuckinbullshit]

[the-song-in-your-heart]

[gagegovero]

[amberkellum]

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"When words fail, music speaks"

Tonight, words failed to communicate. So this is my amateur attempt at communicating thoughts & feelings in a brief riff. 

[gagegovero]

For Preachers

Today I was confronted with a question I honestly wasn’t ready for. Another student in my preaching 3 class, one far older and wiser, posed the question: Does our “higher education” inevitably lead us to believe that those we speak to won’t “get it” unless we spell it out for them?

This is a completely legitimate question for those of us who have pursued Christian education, and after having wrestled with it for a while, I hope to answer it.

Ever since I began to preach, I have been convinced by those who have taught me and the things I have experienced that I need to make the meaning of the text as accessible as possible for the people I am speaking to. But why? Why do I lean this way, and not towards a more deductive approach? In other words, why do I take my people to the meaning of the text instead of just giving them the directions to it? Is it because I don’t trust the congregation to arrive at the same conclusion I have? As preachers, this is something I think we should all wrestle with. Why do we preach the way we preach? In regards to my method, I tend to take the people to the meaning rather than just give them directions; and I do this for several reasons.

First, I think that people (myself included) naturally suppress the truth. So, at least for me, unless the meaning of the text is explicitly stated, I am less inclined to arrive at the conclusion the preacher is at. How wretched am I that I need someone to tell me and convince me of the meaning rather than simply guiding my own intellectual assets to it! Is this what everyone needs? Maybe.

Second, I am about to hold a B.A. in theology. Now, if this degree has taught me anything, it has taught me these three things:

1) I currently know very, very little.

2) I know more today than I did when I started my Christian education - implying that I knew even less then.

3) I knew more when I became a believer than I did before I had faith.

Now, each one of these aspects imply different things.

Number 3 implies that there had, at some point, been a change in my understanding of who God is. This change came from being confronted with a specific need in my life, namely that I was dead and needed life through Christ.

Number 2 implies that in regards to the study of scripture, I have come a long way. That being said, the majority of the credit goes to the people who have pushed me over the years to think critically and take seriously what I was learning, namely, my professors, friends, family, and most of all my fiancé. But nearly all of my understanding of how to read, interpret and apply scripture has come from my studies at AU.

Before I got here, I had no idea as to what I was doing in regards to the Bible - and looking back now, it is more than evident. But is that the norm? It can’t be true across the board because if it was, how could a pastor without a degree effectively lead?

I do not believe that you need a degree to understand scripture. However, I’m not sure I’m ready to say that everyone in the congregation has the ability (and I use that term loosely) to arrive at the same conclusion as the preacher. I know that Mrs. Linda has been a believer for longer than my grandmother has been alive and can more than likely teach me enough to fill a whole semester, let alone understand the meaning of the text I am preaching. However, I also know that Mr. Lawrence is unlikely to arrive at the same conclusion for various reasons. This is by no means to say that people are uneducated. It does mean, however, that many things are actively working against truth in our congregations.

As preachers, shouldn’t we compensate for this by preaching in such a way that the meaning of the text is unmistakable? I know that the Gage of 4-5 years ago would never have arrived at the same conclusions as I do today. Some of that is due to a lack of experience, but some of it is also due to a lack of Christian education.

So, what is the value of a Christian education? One thing I do know is that there are a lot of pastors out there who are a lot wiser and much better students of the text than I am, and they do not have a theology degree. In many ways, they didn’t need one. They have acquired the things I have, and more, simply through personal study. Furthermore, there are many Christians out there who have a deep understanding of who God is in light of the death and resurrection of Christ, and they too do not hold a theological degree.

But I also know this - I am not one of those guys, and my guess is that most people aren’t. My Christian education has been of incredible value to me because I just don’t have the stuff those guys are made of. I’m not naturally a deep thinker who can ask the right questions of scripture that will lead me to an understanding of what is being communicated. I had to be taught how to do this, and I still don’t do it well. 

Even with my education, I still need preachers to give it to me in a very accessible way because I know that if they don’t, I will be at a greater risk of distorting the text - making it say what I want it to say rather than what it is actually saying. What’s more, I know of people with Ph.D.’s in biblical studies who will say the same thing - and if there is a risk for them, then I think it is safe to say that the risk will never be removed. And if there is a risk, then we as preachers should make every effort to alleviate the risk through our own personal study of the text, and our delivery of it - not because people are stupid, but because people are sinful, and because I am sinful, and because sin is a powerful enemy that brings distortion to everything.

Finally, number 3 says that currently, I know very little. The study of scripture is an inexhaustible endeavor, and I forget this at times. Today I found myself being defensive in my mind in response to the student’s question. This can only mean one thing: there is an element of pride in the way I view myself. At times, I know I can let my pretty insignificant college degree go to my head and assume that because I have it, others are not as equipped as I am. This is a hugely foolish assumption and is at its very core, sin. My studies are a privilege, not a title to stand on, but a foundation to serve others with. That being said, when I remove the pride, premise 2 that I spoke of earlier is still true.

So, why do we preach in such a way that we lead people to the meaning rather than just give them directions? We do it because we have been entrusted with the calling of caring for souls, and soul-care requires us to admit the brokenness of the state the world is in. It requires us to admit that people are not searching for the truth, they are actively suppressing it. Upon this admission of the disease, we owe it to our people to make the cure, which we claim to know, easy to get to. We take them to it if we must - showing them how we got there and teaching them the turns to avoid, even as we are still learning ourselves. We do it because people need to hear truth, not directions to the truth. Sure there will be people who do not need as much effort to reach those truths, but there will be many who will need it; and those are the people we have have in mind when communicating. When we claim to have the words of life, let us give them as clearly as possible.

[gagegovero]

In Christ, you have no excuse not to.

Relationships are drastically changed when you exchange competing with each other on who can give the greatest blow, for competing with each other on who can give grace the quickest. You want a relationship with “Christ at the center?” Then live out the cycle of failing each other and offering grace without hesitation. It’s not about finding the person with all the right attributes, it’s about forgiving the other person when they sin against you and resolving to continue doing so regardless of the circumstances.

[jspark3000]

Faith Is More Simple Than We Make It

  Many times I’ll talk with Christians who are burdened by the programmatic weight of their religious activity.  They’re shackled by the inadequacy of their spiritual progress.

I meet Christians who say, “I just don’t feel like I’m doing enough.  I only went to church twice this week, I evangelized to only four people this month, I only prayed on the way to work and on the way home, I missed the homeless ministry last Tuesday, I listened to a friend cry on the phone for an hour without saying Jesus once.” 

I always want to say, “Dang dude.  Just relax.”

[littlewolfstar]

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[gagegovero]

No Love for Real Love

Lately there have been a lot of articles floating around social media that give suggestions on the type of person that the Christian man or woman should be dating and marrying. I have read many of them, and for the most part they all seem to be saying the same thing. So, for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts on the subject.

Most of these articles are written with the good intentions of helping Christians develop a standard in which to implement while dating and deciding on marriage. It is certainly wise to have a standard, but you must keep in mind that your standard must be obtainable, and this is where I believe many of these articles go wrong.

They say things like, “Don’t date or marry this type of person or that type of person; and don’t marry someone with this issue or that issue.” Now, for the most part, decisions like these can be made just by using common sense. The man or woman who is violent or addicted to drugs would probably not be the best candidate for a lifelong partner. However, we must remember that people are depraved, and will eventually act on that depravity.

If you date someone long enough, and certainly if you marry that person, you will see them at their highest and lowest points. This means that the man or woman you are dating or are married to will at some point find themselves in one of those “categories” of people that these articles say you should never date or marry. It is inevitable, and to set a standard that doesn’t expect it means that you are intentionally planning on the other person being something they cannot be - perfect. Now, I use this term loosely because most people would certainly say “well I know he/she won’t be perfect.” But do you? Because if you have standards that demand a level of morality or godliness that is unobtainable or unsustainable because we are sinners who sin, then you are demanding perfection - or at the very least something close to it.

Here is the problem: I am the chief of sinners, and so are you.

The problem is not that we are sinners because we sin. The problem is that we sin because we are sinners. It is our very nature. We are not mistakers who make mistakes…no, the problem is much worse than that.

You are the chief of sinners, and so is the person you are dating/married to.

This means that we need love to be something more than a feeling if we are to love the way Christ loved the Church - which is our command in Ephesians 5. This means that people, especially young people, need a drastic change in their definition of love.

If my standard says, “You have to do these things or be this kind of person in order for me to love you,” then I am making my love contingent on my happiness -  a truly selfish motivation. Love by its very nature is synonymous with sacrifice, and love naturally gives. It is, in every sense of the word, unselfish. It is a conscious decision to give yourself completely and wholly to another person. It is a sacrifice of one's self, and it is a truly beautiful thing to behold when you see it. To make love anything less than this is to settle for a cheap imitation that does not point to the Cross. Rather, it only points to our need for the people in our lives to make us happy.

My fiancé has shown me more grace than I could ever ask from someone. She has loved me at my lowest - times when I have deliberately hurt her through my words or actions. When I fell into one of these “categories” of people that mainstream Christian dating advice says you should stay away from, she did not run. At times, I really couldn’t have blamed her if she had, but she didn’t. She chose to love me through those times. Does that mean that everything was great the next day? No. But it meant that she took the love of the Cross that has been undeservingly poured out on her, and she poured it out on me. So much so that it brought me to the feet of Christ - reminded of my sin; reminded of my need for Him.

This is love, and no one wants to have this kind of love…because it’s messy, because it hurts, and because it’s hard. Yet, this is exactly the kind of love we have been shown in the death and resurrection of Christ. But instead, we settle for cheap imitations and buy into the culture of “love and marriage are about me and my happiness.” No, they are not about you; and until you realize that, you will put unrealistic expectations on the person you are with and demand from them what they cannot ultimately give - satisfaction. It’s just another form of idolatry, except this time our idol is the person we are with, and our own happiness.

So be wise in your pursuit of a lifelong partner. Have a standard in place that protects you, but understand a few things. No one is ever going to complete you; no one can ever satisfy you the way Christ can; and there are no soulmates - just a bunch of broken, depraved sinners in need of the unmerited love and grace of the Savior……just like you.

[amberkellum]

3 + years ago, this handsome guy from my Old Testament class invited me to join him for a spontaneous trip to Waffle House (which, now that I think about it, that might have been my first WAHO experience). We drank coffee, and talked late into the night.

We talked about our backgrounds: family,...

[dboybaker]

the awakening

[amberkellum]

Weapon of choice for this week: straight shots of strong expresso.

[gagegovero]

My dating advice: go for the gold. Take the best one off the market, and quick. Always date out of your league. And when she is finally yours, love her with such a sense of self-abandonment that she never has to question its validity.

[gagegovero]

Pursued by a relentless God

Hosea 2 is one of my favorite chapters in all of the Old Testament because it speaks volumes of the righteousness, goodness, justice and mercy of our God. This post will by no means cover everything that can be said about this chapter. My goal is to encourage the reader. I hope it will be worth the read.

 Hosea 2 can be divided up into two halves, with each half displaying God's righteousness in a different way. It is here in these 23 verses that we find our rest that  is so desperately needed.

The first half consists of verses 1-13. Now, what is going on here is that Israel has committed spiritual adultery. They are, in essence, cheating on God with other Gods. They are putting their trust and their hope in pagan Gods, specifically Baal. What's more, God is still blessing them with a bountiful harvest in the midst of their rebellion, and they are giving credit for their prosperity to Baal. The image of marriage is alive and well here in that the husband is providing for and constantly loving the wife who is guilty of adultery. Enter the first half of the text.

Here, God is pronouncing judgment on Israel for their crimes. He has had enough of their rebellion and he will tolerate it no longer. How can he? The glory and majesty of the one true God is being traded for idols created by the very beings who are the objects of God's love.

His judgment is as follows:

Vs. 2: Israel is guilty of spiritual adultery and has broken the covenant with God.

Vs 3: Therefore, her crimes will be exposed for all to see. The land will become a desolate place, and the presence of the "wilderness" alludes to the desperate situation Israel found themselves in during the exodus.

Vs 4-5: Compassion from God will not be given at this time.

Vs:6: The image presented here lends to the desperation that will be experiences once this judgment takes place. Israel will be blocked.

Vs 7-8: Even during this time, Israel will still pursue the other gods, but will eventually realize that the covenant with Yahweh was much better.

Vs 9: Famine will strike the land.

Vs 10: No one will escape the judgment.

Vs 11: There will be no celebrations, because there will be nothing to celebrate.

Vs 12: Vines and fig trees do not grow back overnight, or even in one season. The famine will be great, and it will take a long time for the land to recover. Not only this, but there will be a significant decrease in the number of people who will survive the famine - so much so that they will not even be able to fight off the wild animals.

Vs 13: Why? Because they have forgotten the Lord.

Now, I laid all of that out verse by verse so that we can see the severity of the judgment. Here is the truth in this text, God takes sin seriously, and he is righteous to judge sin because he is a holy God. Can you feel the weight of the judgment?

Stay with me because the next verse is one of the most beautiful in all of the Old Testament.

Vs 14: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly (tenderly) to her."

What???

Did you catch that?? In the midst of rebellion, and adultery, the Lord says that he is going to pursue his people! And not only this, but he is going to ALLURE them. Judgment is still coming, as indicated by the presence of the wilderness in verse 14, but even in this judgment, God is making Himself beautiful to His people so that they will turn to Him, repent and seek His face.

Not only is he pursuing his people, but he says that he will even give them back everything he has taken from them. There will be no more famine, or war. Instead, the people will "lie down in safety."

Take a look at verses 19 and 20

"I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion, And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord."

This is our God! And how great is our God that even in our hypocrisy, He is longsuffering with us. This is our God - that he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin (Ex 34:6-7).

The cry of the people comes in Hosea 6:1-3, and you can read it for yourself.

This is our God - righteous to judge sin, righteous to forgive the sinner, loving us in the midst of our rebellion, giving us the greatest thing He can - Himself.

This means that now, even now, you are being pursued by a relentless God - a God who is drawing you to Himself because He knows that there is nothing greater that can be given. How long will I fight? How long will I pursue other things? How long will you?

We are made to love God and be loved by God. And God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, still in our rebellion, still choosing stuff over God, creation over the creator, still in our sins.....Christ died for us.

My hope is in His death - that it was my death too. So now I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20). The old me is gone....crucified with Christ; and all my cards and all my chips and all of my hope is in the death and resurrection of Christ - that it was enough.

[gagegovero]

Where is God in suffering?

Suffering is real. It is alive and well in both the individual, and humanity as a whole. Thankfully, it seems like God chooses to work through suffering more than any other means. Does this mean that we should dismiss suffering with just another cliche of “God will get you through this”? No, because maybe he won’t, at least not in this life.

The heart of the prosperity Gospel is the idea that if you come to Jesus, things will get better for you. Your present situation will be resolved somehow and you can go on to live a happy life serving Jesus without any hinderances. While those of us who know the Christ who suffered on our behalf would openly contend with this idea, perhaps when dealing with suffering, somehow we have adopted a strand of this thought.

The Gospel is not: come to Jesus and things will go well for you.

The Gospel is that Christ is enough, no matter what happens.

Does this mean that there will be no pain? No. Does this guarantee you good in this life? That depends on your definition of good. If the good you seek is merely that good things will happen to you, then your idea of the Christian life is based on your happiness. Happiness can be taken from you in a second. It is contingent on the fact that good things are happening to you. Therefore, if suffering comes (and it will), and you lose your happiness, you have lost the very thing you have based your idea of Christ upon. The prosperity Gospel only works in a world without suffering, and that world is not the world we live in.

So what DOES Paul mean in Romans 8:28 when he says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

2 things

1) The good that Paul is speaking of is a good that is exclusively applied to believers, those who “love God” and are “called according to His purpose.” So this “good” must be a good that only a believer can experience. This logically rules out any good that can be experienced here on earth - as both a believer and a non-believer can experience this kind of good.

At this point, advocates for the prosperity Gospel who use this verse are silenced. In the context of Romans, Paul is writing to a church that is experiencing extreme suffering. There was no good for them in the current situation, and they were already believers. They needed something more than “come to Jesus and everything will go well for you.” They were already under the mercy of Christ, and their world was falling apart.

They needed something more, and this brings me to the second point.

2) This good is not the good in this life, but the next; and any good that the believer experiences here on earth that is a result of Christ is meant to point to the final good. It is an indication of what is to come.

Paul could not guarantee the believers in Rome of any earthly good, but he could guarantee them the good that is to come. This good, the final good, is the hope of the Gospel. This is why Paul can say in Romans 8:18 that the sufferings of this life are incomparable to the good that is to come. That good is what God is working all things towards - the restoration of all things, the redemption of the body, the return of Christ.

Maybe we experience much suffering in this life. Maybe we labor and never experience much “good” in this life. The promise of the Gospel is that Christ is enough regardless of what happens. Suffering is a real, tangible and measurable test of how much we believe that. Does this mean that we just say that everything is ok and move on? No. We weep, we mourn, we groan and we wait - enduring the hardships of this life while knowing that they are incomparable to what is coming. It doesn’t take away the pain, but it does give us hope, and hope is a powerful thing.

God works in and through suffering - moving all things towards the final good.

In the meantime, in our suffering, in our waiting and angst, we hold on to the hope of the Cross - that Christ is enough for me today, and tomorrow, and eternity……no matter what happens.