Thought for the Weekend

God said this to Pharaoh; would he say it to you?

But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

Exodus 9:16

 

Breath of Life

It struck me the other day how amazing the story of creation is. I don’t like the debates. I don’t know if they’re as important as they seem to be. But I love the phrase: …then the LORD God…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7)

The distinguishing feature of man against the rest of all creation is the breath of God; the breath of life. Without it, man is not a living creature; merely a creature.

No one can live without the breath of God.

Now there are 2 alternatives that I can see:
1. That only Christians have the life of God through His breath which is His Spirit.
2. That all humans have the life of God and cannot live unless God permits them.

If the first is true, then the understanding of being born again is important to get to the real reason for becoming a Christian. We can only live if God breaths His Spirit into us. This would also mean that when Adam sinned and was kicked out of the garden the breath of life was removed from him. This in turn would mean, as animals don’t have this breath, when anyone or thing without the breath of life dies that is it. There is no eternal dimension to their being.

Now, we know that God alone has immortality and gives to whom He chooses. However, those well read will not agree to the idea of only Christians experiencing eternity. Only the other day I posted a comment on the new Rob Bell publication which twists the idea of the various eternal conclusions to life into one simple end, like taking all the strands of rope, leaving nothing but the weak and feeble string of which it is constructed.

If we follow the other trajectory — that all humans have the breath of God and cannot live their life, physical or other, without God’s permission — this makes both the stories following creation more followable, and gives dignity to human life.

What do you think?

 

You can’t rush the sunrise

The morning I arrived at the Easter Sunrise service with wetter feet than I would have expected, the sun had barely made it’s move above the horizon. It was interesting spending time with the church so filled with rejoicing, the minister says completely dead pan: ‘This is a day of celebration.’ Like a newsreader being told about the latest stock results.

Slight sarcasm there.

One of the women at the church was an incredibly enthusiastic musician, who, although quite amateur in her skill, had a passion to sing or play for Jesus. It was pretty embarrassing. Not to put too fine a point on it, the performance we had that Easter morning was unneeded.

Proverbs 4 maintains that righeousness rises like the light of dawn, getting brighter and brighter until full day. All of the events of that morning provoked a great moment to push for this righteousness to actually grip me. I want it to take hold of me. I’ve been reading plenty of books this past few months and if there’s one thing that’s been hammered home, it’s that nothing comes easy. You just take the hard work. But the best place to focus this hard work is in the pursuit of God.

All other things can take a side road while I press into a proper pursuit of God. He can do miracles, but you can’t rush the sunrise.

 

Winning?

Ok. Don Miller is good. He makes me think. Like a lateral thinking puzzle.

He recently made me think about the psychological concept of loss aversion. People put more energy into keeping something they might lose, than try to gain something for the same cost.

Not to jump the gun too early, but what he says is pretty provoking. If you’re told you’re losing ground you fight to get it back. If you know you’re on the up and winning you get complacent. What language is used in church?!

More often than not I get to feel like a rare breed doing the radical thing when there are more believers in the world than I can picture. We get given pictures of glory days when Christendom was high, everyone professed Christ over breakfast, and no-one really thought too much about the ‘wrong things’.

All that is a myth.

I’ve come to realise cultural transformation is only possible if we are firm in our foundations of Christ. We know what’s best because of Jesus. No matter how many wind-farms or solar panels are used to create a climate change escape plan, this has no ultimate relevance for anyone. No matter how many children we rescue from sex-slavery, if they don’t see Jesus for who He is and believe in Him, their lives are still forfeit.

The church is taking ground, and the cultures they find themselves in must be properly engaged with to bring them to Jesus. Then, and only then, will true transformation occur. Health reform, civil partnerships, abortion, war; all these have surface results that will never be properly achieved unless Jesus is brought into them.

How about that for a Monday morning?

 

Freedom Part 3

There is no good way to say this: Everyone is in slavery.

What I have come across in my various interactions at work etc. is the hunger for wisdom to act most successfully. I offer my 2 pence, but in the back of my mind is the knowledge that, unless someone knows Jesus personally, no one’s actions are of any relevance.

Imagine me saying that: if you don’t know Jesus, everything you do is irrelevant.

It’s true.

True freedom is only discovered as you depart from the former ways of life. If your life is about your own flourishing; if your life is about you; if your life is about WINNING; you are enslaved to the path of least resistance. The easiest way to live is for yourself. You can abandon whoever you need to in order to be less encumbered by the world. As much as I speak from a western viewpoint, this is the truth for the world: You are a slave. Your freedom is a myth.

True freedom is found as you die. Imagine a married couple remembering their vows: ‘…till death do us part.’ In basic terms everyone is married to the world. There is no way out. This isn’t a contract that can be ended, or a partnership to be divorced. On the one hand this was never God’s design, and on the other there is only one way out: death.

There are two ways to die: natural causes or supernatural. The supernatural is preferable as this saves investigation by the police. Jesus has given us union into His death so we don’t have to. He has also, if we join Him in His death by faith, given us the power of resurrection life. Giving us freedom from a slavery to the world’s direction, and joining us to a new humanity: Dead to sin, and alive to God.

True freedom is the ability to act constructively. And the only way is to live for the creator.

There is a final post I considered adding on to this, but I don’t feel the need. True freedom is slavery to positive actions.

There is no such thing as freedom.

 

Freedom part 2

Why do I think freedom is a myth?!

More to the point, I refuse to believe in any idea of free will. At least for regular people who don’t have a relationship with Jesus. As soon as we come into relationship with the living God shown to us in Jesus my position changes slightly. My basic position, however, is straightforward: No one chooses God. And everyone naturally chooses greatest gain, or minimal loss, for themselves. Whatever freespirited individual comes and sells me a big issue my thoughts on the matter are really that plain.

If we cannot save ourselves, because we are dead, God is the only one who can save us; make us alive. Without God’s initiation, we are lost and alone.

This is highly important. Ephesians lays it out relatively simply:
• You were dead
• Following the course of this world
• Following the prince of the power of the air
• We all once lived in disobedience
• Following the passions of our flesh
• Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind
• By nature provoking the wrath of God

Nowhere does it say that we were trying to break away from our evil practices and trying to please God.

The next bit:
• BUT GOD (important that)
• Rich in mercy
• Having a great love for us
• Made us alive together with Christ

So:
• By grace you have been saved
• This is not you own work
• This is a gift of God
• Not a result of works so that no one can boast
• We are His workmanship
• Created in Christ Jesus for good works
• God prepared the good works beforehand that we should walk in them

So it’s not us. We didn’t instigate it or persuade God to change us.

So what is Free will? Next time.

 

Freedom

The idea of freedom is overrated. It’s hardly as true as people make out.

OK. I’m not saying you have no choice. In the garden of Eden, the book of Genesis tells, God gave them a whole load of trees. One tree he didn’t want them to eat from because it would give them knowledge they wouldn’t be able to process in a wise manner. We’ve all heard the story.

It was out there, so speculation says, so that God’s first children would have freedom. They could choose not to eat from something. The free reign that would have ensued should the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not have been there would have caused a mess on all fronts. They needed limits. Boundaries.

Freedom only works if there are boundaries.

If there are no boundaries the person is no longer free because whatever he does has no context. He cannot choose the best thing because there is no standard. The child who has free reign of the whole house is being shown that plastic Lego and kitchen knives are both as fun as each other. That’s not something true or something you want a child to think.

Freedom is a myth in it’s currently accepted definition. I personally don’t believe freedom exists; but more on that next time.

 

The God I Don’t Believe In

When we begin to think that “the God I know would never allow this,” we have taken our first step toward discovering that God is not who we think he is.

Equally unthinkable to monstrous disasters is the opinion of Muslims to the Christian claim that Jesus is God in the flesh. Their God is removed from human interaction and would never step down into creation; except to give a prophet an update for their scriptures. But that’s it.

I don’t believe in the Muslim God.

I don’t believe in a God who wouldn’t allow suffering.

If Jesus shows us God (which he does) then a God who doesn’t allow suffering is a myth; an invention. Most atheist arguments are built on a perception of God that they pull apart with imperical evidence. But I don’t believe in gods they don’t believe in either.

The question of the existence of God is a search for truth in areas we don’t know where to start looking. Some go with spiritual experience (for the case for God – the transcendance over scientific order); others go with reasonable judgment (for the case against God – this world is fine and that’s it). Neither is a good place to start.

Only by reckoning with Jesus and his cross and resurrection do you begin to understand God for who He really is. That is where the case for God, existent or non-existent, must begin.

 

Change is good. Change is loss.

No matter how you paint it, you can’t advise someone to give something up. You can’t convince them. This is simple displacement theory. And it’s fact. As we grow and develop we have emptiness that gives us a lack of purpose that slowly fills as we make decisions. In order for the forward motions to be made, things need to be changed around, rearranged. I have a 22 month old God daughter who has almost no capacity for anything. She’s slowly speaking and making her way through life, but her capacities leave her dependany on her parents and others.

Buy fully-fledged adults have a nasty habit of noticing bad spots on their life, and inform their small audience watching them grow older that they are determined to change. In order for them to do that they have to fill the gap they create with something else. Otherwise it will be filled with one of two things: the original disliked trait or practice; or something else to be severed at a later time.

It’s why by the time human beings reach maturity and are in some way incomplete. They have become so focused on filling their ever growing pallette they lose focus on what they want it filled with. It’s quite a tragic site. A building finishing off and still unsure. Insecurities and issues surface that have come from an area of life that is filled with pain.

The only way to change is to fill that area with something else. And change is good. But change means loss. Loss of an identity that used to exist, no matter how despised it may be. That’s why change is painful.

Ultimately, Jesus is what must be the replacement. He rests in Christians hearts working through their inner-being like a strategic mole, picking areas to develop He knows is best. If you want to change you must let Jesus do the work. Not as easy as it sounds.

 

Types

Why on earth is Adam a type of Christ?

Before you get clever, I’m not talking about Adam who works with you or Adam who has those great biscuits you had that time when you really needed a cup of tea and they just appeared from the kitchen like a porter from The Ritz bringing out pastries you know should be there but never thought to ask.

No. I’m talking about Adam, the first. Adam I. Adam the one mentioned in Genesis and so on. I’m sure some of my readers will disregard anything in this post because “Adam didn’t really exist”. If I were going to tackle origins here I would have started with a different sentence. And there are enough writings about the subject that I don’t feel the need to add to the library. A drop in the ocean, one might say.

But I have gotten a little distracted.

Adam as a type: The most important type to understand if you are to grapple with the depth of the Christian message.

Romans 5 is one of my favourite chapters in the whole Bible. There are few that cause so much of a stir in my spirit. I will probably get too involved, so to keep this short:

Think about how the one action of Adam, and the One action of Jesus, differ. Sin versus righteousness in an all out war is down to these two men; these two representatives of humanity.