You don't have permission

It's been a while since I really ranted about something, so here goes :

I'm sick and tired of people using the Bible to justify disobeying the Bible. For better or worse, I live in a part of the world where the Bible has moral authority. People invoke it a lot  to make a point, or to prove their arguments. The problem is that few read it. They just mine it for quotes they like.

If you'd read the whole thing, you'd know you don't have permission.

You want to leave your wife and kids? You don't have permission.

You want to sleep around? You don't have permission.

You want to abdicate your responsibilities and live like a teenager? It's not even acceptable for teenagers to act like that way. You don't have permission.

Let me be clear: you don't have permission.

You don't have permission.

You don't have permission.

Not from the Word of God.

How to talk to me

The simple answer is, "Like you always have."

The stroke had a great effect on me physically, not mentally, I'm still the same person inside, I'm still a nerd. I'm still impatient. I still love to laugh, usually at stupid things.

I can't respond like I used to. But I still like to listen.

Review: "At the Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Philips Lovecraft was an American writer who was most active in the 1930s. He is most famous today for his stories in the Cthulhu Mythos, written in a blend of science fiction and horror he called "weird fiction". In addition to his many short stories, he also wrote three novellas.

The first of these, alphabetically and chronocalogically, is "At the Mountains of Madness". It is, in a word, boring. Some would describe all Lovecraft's work that way; he wrote almost 100 years ago, and his style was old-fashioned even then. Personally, I like it, and have been a fan for nearly 20 years, but I'd never read the novellas , and this one honestly bored me.

I spent a great deal of time wondering about that. I finally figured it out. It was dull because Lovecraft was a very good writer. He perfectly caught the dry, academic tone of his narrator. Regardless, I can't recommend it to anyone. It's just too dull.

A hospital

As long as there's been a Church, people have argued whether it's, as I've heard it, a haven for saints or a hospital for sinners. I believe it's the latter, and I'll tell you why.

No one goes to a hospital because he's well; he goes because he's sick. In the same way, churches aren't full of good people, but sinful, broken ones. Jesus, after all, didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. Everyone has violated God's law, everyone is broken, and everyone needs healing.

If anyone tries to act high and mighty because they're "good church folks", ask them of what they've been forgiven. If they haven't been forgiven, then they're bound for Hell and need the Gospel. If they have been, they came to Christ like everyone else, limping.

Exodus 1

First, we made it through Genesis. Bask in that for a minute.

Okay, back to work. The first chapter of Exodus is essentially a recap of the previous 400 years. It tells in part how the Hebrews went from a position of privilege to one of slavery.

It's important to remember that the first audience for Exodus was the group of Hebrews who left Egypt. They needed to know where they came from, and Moses and God gave them what they needed.

So heavenly-minded you're no earthly good?

I despise that phrase. It's just not true. As C. S. Lewis said, it was precisely those people whose minds were fixed on the next world who did the most good in this one.

The  trouble is that I've heard it from two people I deeply respect. I doubt either meant it this way, buy the phrase itself shows a profound ignorance of both Heaven and Earth.

For a detailed look at what the Bible teaches about Heaven, I'd recommend Heaven by Randy Alcorn. As for Earth, I only have direct experience of a tiny bit of it, but I've read enough that I think I can speculate a little about the rest.

This world and this life are real, but they're temporary. All that we accomplish here will one day end. Even if you influence millions, one day those millions won't be here. Do you think David Brainerd cares that his biography is still inspiring missionaries almost 300 years later? Possibly, but probably not as much as you think.

Why then do we as Christians get so caught up in the pursuits of this world? I think we've bought into the lie that this world is all there is, that we have to make our mark here, and that anyone who doesn't share our obsessions, which are by and large identical to those of the non-Christians around us, as "so heavenly-minded they're no earthly good".

I know where the phrase came from. It was originally applied to those fundamentalists who so strongly believed that that the next life was what mattered that they thought anything done to prolong this one, even feeding the hungry, was at best a wasted effort.

But that's not what Jesus did. He told the story of the Good Samaritan. He taught the people, but he also fed them. He preached the Kingdom and healed the sick.

I hope I can be a fraction as heavenly-minded and earthly good as Jesus Christ.

In case you missed it the first time ...

... The title of this blog comes from the song "Built for Glory" by the Lost Dogs. Go ahead and look it up; you can thank me next time you see me.

Review: CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS by David Garrison

It's difficult to see why this isn't a textbook for LBTS. After all, it has nothing bad to say about Americam mega churches, and speaks approvingly of both Rick Warren and American structures overseas.

On closer reading, though, Garrison has so many good things to say about native missionaries, house churches, and indigenous Church Planting Movements that any compliments paid toAmerican churches seem backhanded. Maybe that's why it isn't a textbook.

The first half of the book provides an in-depth look at representative CPMs in Asia, Africa, and South America, before moving on to post-Christian Europe and  North America and telling about CPMs there. The second  half defines a CPM and tells readers how one might start in their own communities.

Throughout, the book is rooted in Scripture. Many of the modern movements are compared to the remarkable spread of the Church in the book of Acts.

a question for Pentecostals

Let me make it clear from the beginning that I'm not attacking anyone's experience. While I'm a Southern Baptist by choice and conviction, and have been ordained as a deacon and pastor in a Southern Baptist church, I'm not a cessationist; neither the Bible nor personal experience tells me that the "sign gifts" have stopped.

The question I have is this: why does your Bible have the same books as mine?

Hearing directly from God makes you a textbook prophet. If you look through your Bible, you'll notice that it was largely written by prophets. If God is speaking to you, you have a responsibility to the rest of us to let us know what he's saying. It seems odd that the Holy Spirit, the same one who inspired Scripture, has been speaking in thousands of congregations for over a hundred years without saying anything infallible and in need of being added to the Bible.

I'm not trying to fence in the Holy Spirit, but I am trying to respect the fences he put up.

Why I like the ESV

A while back I needed a pocket-size Bible in a translation that I hadn't read before. At the time, I was reading through the Bible about every six months, alternating between more literal and more colloquial versions. I'd seen good things about the ESV, but I have to confess that the main reasons I got it were the cover, which was blue and had a Celtic cross on it, and the price, which was $10 off.

I never read another translation. What the English Standard Version does so well is blend modern language with the style of the King James Bible I grew up with. Some people don't care for that sort  of old-fashioned style, but I do. The facts that it's been well-supported and is owned by a publisher that makes it free on every conceivable electronic platform doesn't hurt, either.

A few rules #004

I thought of a few more.

16. Stupid is always funny.

17. Do your have-tos before your want-tos.

18. A gun is always loaded.

19. There's no point worrying until there's a reason to worry,

20. Everything is a rumor until the Captain says it.

21. There's no point worrying about things you can't change.

22. You get to choose your actions, but not the consequences.

I don't think there are any more, except, "My wife's smarter than me," and she doesn't even believe it.

The danger of Christian masochism

I like things that, as I put it, "kick me in the head".i enjoy being told I need to do better. I'm a fan of Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, and Derek Webb. I like to be convicted.

But when that conviction isn't turned into action, it's just an excuse to be prideful. What good is knowing how lazy I am if it doesn't make me less lazy? What good is being told that I'm complacent if it just means that I can look down on anyone more complacent?

There's a danger in liking to get kicked in the head. One can start to like it for its own sake. That's not a good reason to like anything.

Poor understanding

Let's face it: some things in the Bible are hard to understand. Women should wear a head covering "because of the angels"? I've asked, and no one seems to understand that one.

Evangelicals love to pull verses out of context and apply them to ourselves as promises from God. If you think you're immune, ask yourself what John 3.17 says, or what Philippians 4.12 is about. The vast majority of people in churches don't know. If you're going to continue doing it -- and I certainly can't stop you --- then at least know that you have a lot of company in the cults.

Mormonism, for example, has built several important doctrines from a single verse in 1Corinthians that speaks of baptism for the dead. That practice is never mentioned again in Scripture, and is certainly nowhere commanded or recommended. Yet it is a vital part of Temple Mormonism, and is seen as acceptable by many professing Christians.

Knowing a verse is good. There's such a thing, though, as knowing just enough to be dangerous.

What convinced you?

If you're not a Christian, you probably pride yourself on your intelligence, strength, and refusal to believe anything that can't be proven. All I would ask is this: what convinced you?

I want to be right, so if you have information I don't, please share.

If you believe in some form of naturalistic evolution, what convinced you?

If you believe the earth is four billion years old, what convinced you?

If you believe that all matter and energy was compressed into an infinitely hot, small, and dense point, what convinced you?

There are a lot of questions I could ask, but I think the most important is this:

What convinced you?

Happy New Year!

Today was the first day of 2014, which is good, because to be honest 2013 kind of sucked.

The bad news is that you're probably the same person you were yesterday.

We like to make a big deal out of January 1. I'm not saying we shouldn't, just that we should realize how arbitrary it is.

Were you a believer in Christ yesterday? Then you're one today. Were you not? Then unless something happened overnight -- which I sincerely hope was the case -- then you're not now. I don't say this to praise or condemn anyone, just to state a bald fact, which no amount of calendar manipulation will change.

A few rules #003

Here are a few more of my rules.

11 Cussing is for people who can't think of anything better to say.

12. Manners are easy, and free.

13. Belief is not a weak form of knowing.

14. Do what you're told, except when it conflicts with rule 1.

15. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Not everything is worth doing.

I can't think of any others right now, but I'll add them as they come. Any other ideas for this blog?

An apology to Larry Hileman

A long time ago I was in the US Navy. One of my best friends on the ship was IC3 Hileman. One day he asked me what being a Christian was like. In a flat and entirely unconvincing tone I replied, "it's great."

Silly me. How would I know? I wasn't even one myself.

I was a devotee of what I now know was churchianity. Churchianity looks a lot like Christianity; it even feels the same from the inside. It's not, though. It was just acting moral ... when someone was looking.

Churchianity encouraged Bible reading, which was, after all, a Very Moral Thing. It discouraged believing anything I read, though, which would kick the legs right out from under it. It was fine with me going to church on Sunday, and acting like a jerk the rest of the week. Churchianity taught that idols were okay, as long as I didn't physically bow down to them.

I don't know where Hileman is now. I doubt he's reading this. On the off-chance he is, though, I want to say something to him:

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't know what I was talking about. I'm sorry for giving a flip answer to a serious question. I hope you can forgive me.

Mine

'I first noticed it about fifteen years ago, People started sticking "my" onto things. You started to get it your way everywhere you went. Everything was customizable.

Some of these changes were good. You should be able to get a McDonald's cheeseburger without onions if you want. The problem comes when we bring that mentality into religion.

Guess what?  God can't be made to fit your preferences. The cafeteria mentality just doesn't work. Every religion is mutually exclusive,and only biblical Christtianity makes sense, the only somewhat customizable religions are Hinduism and Baha'ii, and the only way they can be that flexible by denying what they claim to believe.

The Bible is what it is. I've said before there are parts I would take out if I could. But it's not my book. It's his.

If I could get down on my knees and beg, I would

Here's a fact: you were made by and for God. That's not my opinion; it's an actual fact. If you don't believe that God made you, then all I can do is try to convince you. If you don't believe that you exist for God, then again all I can do is try to convince you otherwise. 

We've all done wrong and need reconciliation with God. The only way to do that is by believing in Christ; not just giving intellectual assent to certain facts, but trusting that he is who he said and can do what he said he would.

But whether you're atheist, agnostic, or think Jesus is just something you add to an already-full plate, I ask the same thing of you:

Please, please, please, be sure you're right.

A few rules #002

Here are a few more of my rules:

6. You don't have to say everything you know.

7. A = A.

8 Don't wait to be told to do what needs .

9. Try to leave a place better than you found it.

10. God is not an idiot.

I have some more, if anyone wants to read them.