Another photo from the wonderful McKinley wedding. This photo is of Abigail and her sister Lydia who were posing together for a photo (for someone else's camera, but I grabbed the shot anyway). Did I mention that Abigail and Joe are now expecting? I can't wait to see them in action as parents. They're gonna be great!
Do you ever feel like you need to do something in church so those around you will see that you are worshiping properly? Do you ever feel intimidated to place money into the offering plate so the folks around you (or the deacon passing the plate) will see that you are tithing? Do you feel intimidated into raising your hands during the singing because others are doing it (or intimidated into not raising your hands because of what others might think)?
When we worship God in the corporate setting, we carry on a delicate balancing act. We are worshiping corporately and must be part of the corporate conversation/experience. But we are worshiping God and must worship Him in spirit and in truth—as laid out for us in scripture. So then, we should not do things that will distract those around us from their worship of God, and we should actively pursue doing things that encourage others to focus corporately on God and to throw themselves into worship.
But since worship is a heart attitude, we cannot fully know when others are focused on God and are worshiping appropriately. Nor is it something we should be concerned about if it is not distracting to the rest of the gathered congregation.
It’s important to remember that we are not to judge whether someone else’s devotion to God is true or not. God Himself will weed out the tares. We cannot excuse our bad attitudes because of injustices, hardships, and unfulfilled expectations. We are responsible for our responses.
This quote is from the oustanding blog, Run With Patience, from today's post, "Responsible Responses." The post deals with this concept as shown in scripture when David danced in praise of God and his wife despised him for it. It's a great post and worthy of your time and thought.
As Reverend Jeremiah Wright grabs more and more attention and hurts Barack Obama's campaign by making crazy statements we are treated to new rhetorical depths to which this man is willing to sink.
Yesterday Rev. Wright addressed the press club [story | transcript]. I listened to most of his talk while I worked. Various media outlets are reporting what they consider to be his most outrageous statements. But I have not heard a single report that addressed the worst statement I heard from Rev. Wright. Here's a quote:
Dr. Jones, in his book, God in the Ghetto, argues quite accurately that one’s theology, how I see God, determines one’s anthropology, how I see humans, and one’s anthropology then determines one’s sociology, how I order my society.
Now, the implications from the outside are obvious. If I see God as male, if I see God as white male, if I see God as superior, as God over us and not Immanuel, which means “God with us,” if I see God as mean, vengeful, authoritarian, sexist, or misogynist, then I see humans through that lens.
My theological lens shapes my anthropological lens. And as a result, white males are superior; all others are inferior.
Did you catch the phrase in the middle of this quote? "If I see God as superior, as God over us ... then I see humans through that lens.... And as a result, white males are superior; all others are inferior."
So Rev. Wright says that America is at fault for the attacks of 9/11. Rev. Wright says that the United States government created the AIDS virus to kill off black men. Rev. Wright says that we should not say "God bless America" but instead "God damn America."
None of these statements is nearly as bad as Rev. Wright's implication that God is not superior to us. He is right that our theology shapes our anthropology, and our anthropology shapes our sociology. And I think he has revealed in this statement why his anthropology and sociology are so amazingly skewed. His theology is terrible and obviously does not spring from scripture.
My question is: Why would Rev. Wright or Barack Obama or anyone else worship a God who is not superior to us?
When a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.
True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man.
The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis
This blog header is a photo I took just around the corner from my downtown Washington, DC, office. These flowers were hanging from the street lamps on the corner of 10th and G Streets. The building you can see just over the top of the flowers is our other downtown office on 12th Street.
If we be not in good earnest in religion, and our wills and inclinations be not strongly exercised, we are nothing. The things of religion are so great, that there can be no suitableness in the exercises of our hearts, to their nature and importance, unless they be lively and powerful. In nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclinations so requisite, as in religion; and in nothing is lukewarmness so odious.True religion is evermore a powerful thing; and the power of it appears, in the first place in the inward exercises of it in the heart, where is the principal and original seat of it. Hence true religion is called the power of godliness, in distinction from the external appearances of it, that are the form of it, 2 Tim. 3:5: Having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it.
The Spirit of God, in those that have sound and solid religion, is a spirit of powerful holy affection; and therefore, God is said to have given the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. 1:7. And such, when they receive the Spirit of God, in his sanctifying and saving influences, are said to be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; by reason of the power and fervor of those exercises the Spirit of God excites in their hearts, whereby their hearts, when grace is in exercise, may be said to burn within them; as is said of the disciples, Luke 24:32.
Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections
We like guarantees. We like to know that if we have made a bad decision, it won't hurt us too badly. We want to be sure that we won't fall victim to "buyer's remorse." So a guarantee can be a good thing.
But wanting a guarantee is evidence either that we're not really sure that we are making a good decision or that we don't have total faith in the promises made by the product or service we are purchasing or the commitment we are entering into. And since we are not sure, we look for a guarantee to mitigate our losses—to hedge our bets.
But God is not in the habit of giving us guarantees. If we truly know God's character, we will have complete and total trust in his ability to provide the things he has promised. The Jewish term Jehovah Jireh expresses this aspect of God's character—his ability to provide.
And yet we look for guarantees with God. I have discussed Christianity with some people who say that they will try all the different faiths in order to make sure that they're okay with God when they die. "One of these religions must be right, so if I have tried them all I'll be assured of going to heaven when I die."
That's not the way to handle it. In fact, that's a good way to ensure a trip to a different destination after death.
In conservative Evangelical circles we hedge our bets a bit differently. Rather than trying out Christianity and Judaism and Taoism and Buddhism, we try to earn God's favor by following a strict set of rules. We try to work hard in the church. We hold to strict standards of dress. We make sure our hair is cut just so. And then, in an effort to leverage the favor we are seeking from God, we force those standards on everyone else around us and indicate by our actions and our speech that if others do not hold to these standards they are not as righteous as we are.
When we do this, we reveal that we don't fully believe or trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. It is evident (even to the lost) that we are seeking a guarantee by working to curry God's favor. We don't truly believe that simply turning to God on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ will get us into heaven. No matter how loudly we proclaim it with our words, our actions are preaching a different gospel.
But Paul directly addressed this in Galatians 5. And he didn't like it. Paul said: "Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace."
Paul is saying here that if you try to "hedge your bets with God," that you have fallen from grace and must keep the whole law. In other words, if you follow man made rules in order to attain righteousness, you will not gain heaven when you die. We have five thousand years of history in the Bible laid out to show us that we are not capable of following the law of God. Man is not able to attain the standard of holiness and righteousness that God has set out. That is the whole reason that Christ had to die—we couldn't do it on our own.
So if we try to attain righteousness by using a particular Bible version, or by dressing in a certain way, or by doing acts of charity we will be required to fulfill the entire law or else we're hell bound.
But Titus 2:15 says that God is preparing a people for himself—a people "zealous for good works." How can we know whether we are doing our works in order to attain righteousness or we are doing them because we are zealous for good works"? The answer is in our attitude. If we do our good works because we are driven to them out of love for God and love for others, we are zealous for good works. But if we look at others and say, "that person is not worthy" because they are not living up to the standard we have set in dress, in action, or in anything else other than faith in Jesus Christ, then we are trying to attain righteousness by our good works. And that, according to the Apostle Paul, means we are not Christians.
Do we sometimes look at another person and say, "She's probably not a Christian because she wears halter tops"? Do we say, "Because he listens to secular rock music he is not a Christian"? Do we say, "she needs to stop watching the TV shows she watches in order to have a good testimony to her neighbors"? Do we say, "His desire for more and more money shows that he is not Godly"? If we say any of those things, we are responsible for the whole law and have "fallen from grace."
God does not view legalism lightly. It is a terribly dangerous thing. We must be ruthless in our efforts to root our own legalism out of us.
This header is a photo of our dear friends Joe and Abigail McKinley, taken during their wedding reception. They are a wonderful couple.
You may read more about their wedding.
ADDENDUM - April 24, 2008 We just got the news that Joe and Abigail are expecting a new addition to the family in about 8 months. YEA!!! Congratulations Joe and Abigail!
Another one of the amazing young people featured in the Alive Day documentary is Marine Corporal Michael Jernigan. Mike lost much of his skull, both eyes, parts of his right hand and sustained various other injuries as a result of a roadside bomb blast. Mike is an engaging conversationalist. He has a vibrant personality and exudes positive energy. I was so impressed by his attitude after all that he has been through. In fact, it was enjoyable just to watch him interact with those around him at the event. In spite of his blindness, he seemed to bring light into the room by his very presence.
Corporal Jernigan wears one glass eye. The scarring in the other eye socket was so profound that he is not able to wear a glass eye in that eye socket. On the night of the Alive Day event at Washington's Navy Memorial Museum, Corporal Jernigan wore a strangely beautiful eye embedded with a ring of diamonds. He explained the significance of these diamonds when he told us that upon his return to his wife, she left him as a result of his injuries. He chose to grind the 1-karat diamond ring into smaller stones and have them inset into his eye as a reminder of what he had lost due to the bomb blast.
That story could sound bitter—but in Mike's case it is not. He has a fantastic outlook and is using the reminders of his injuries to motivate himself to press on to the future.
In his own words:
One of the greatest challenges since I came home is learning how to live independently and recuperating in a life without vision.
Currently, I am a spokesperson for a guide dog school, Southeastern Guide Dogs, which has started the Paws for Patriots program. We are providing guide dogs for those visually impaired in Afghanistan and Iraq. I will be starting school in August. I have been traveling quite a bit, and I am constantly changing my daily routine. One of the greatest challenges since I came home is learning how to live independently and recuperating in a life without vision. As for the future, I would like to finish school and I am looking forward to working again.
When we were checking out of the hotel the day after the Alive Day - Home From Iraq event, we met Corporal Jernigan in the hotel lobby. I introduced my family. Mike showed my son his eye and told him about some cool other eyes he has including one with a skull and crossbones on it. David was duly impressed. And so was I.
I was greatly honored to be included in this event. We Americans can be very proud of our military men and women. They are outstanding representatives of our nation.
