Locked out and staying there

In his book, The Call, Oz Guinness gives us three pitfalls that we can fall into when we think about separation.

1.  Privatization.
 When we have a division between our public and private lives we will lack the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus.
He says, The problem with Western Christians is not that they aren't where they should be but that they aren't what they should be where they are.
2.  Politicization.
 This is a reaction to privatization.  It is wrong to think that we can bring faith into all of life through politics.  When we think in terms of correcting society by political means then the Christian does not understand the tension that comes with living as a Christian in a fallen world.
3.  Pillarization.
This is when the Christian community builds its own network of institutions and organizations.  How then can we be salt and light?

 Paul says, "Come out from them and be separate says the Lord Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 2 Corinthians 6:17.  So what does that mean?  We resist privatization of our faith by insisting on the totality of faith.  We resist politicization by demanding a tension with every human allegiance and association.  We also resist pillarization because we are constantly engaged in society to transform lives.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

Yesterday in class we were studying 2 Corinthians 6 and when we came to verse 17 we somehow got unto the topic of tattoos.  Someone in the class mentioned that in his discussion with one of his children the topic came up and he said that he had thought about how we should not set our standards by the world and there had to be ways that the Christian does appear and acts different from non-Christians.
Tattoos in Bible times and in pagan cultures often are related to pagan worship and in these cases one should not have a tattoo but what about something innocent such as a butterfly or even a Scripture reference?  Since we live under grace and not under law are we free to mark our bodies in any way we want?
After class one on the class members who as a very strict conservative upbringing said that he recently attended a wedding at a church of his upbringing and and a man came in with a tattoo on his arm.  One of the older women made the comment that if they allowed people with tattoos like that then she would not attend that church.  So I ask the question, where is the place for the girl with the dragon tattoo?

The Unexpected Hanging

As a Mathematics teacher I always was interested in paradoxes.  One of my favourites is the paradox of the unexpected hanging.  Here is the paradox.

The unexpected hanging paradox

A judge tells a condemned prisoner that he will be hanged at noon on one weekday in the following week, but that the execution will be a surprise to the prisoner. He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day. Having reflected on his sentence, the prisoner draws the conclusion that he will escape from the hanging. His reasoning is in several parts. He begins by concluding that the “surprise hanging” can’t be on a Friday, as if he hasn’t been hanged by Thursday, there is only one day left – and so it won’t be a surprise if he’s hanged on a Friday. Since the judge’s sentence stipulated that the hanging would be a surprise to him, he concludes it cannot occur on Friday. He then reasons that the surprise hanging cannot be on Thursday either, because Friday has already been eliminated and if he hasn’t been hanged by Wednesday night, the hanging must occur on Thursday, making a Thursday hanging not a surprise either. By similar reasoning he concludes that the hanging can also not occur on Wednesday, Tuesday or Monday. Joyfully he retires to his cell confident that the hanging will not occur at all. The next week, the executioner knocks on the prisoner’s door at noon on Wednesday — which, despite all the above, will still be an utter surprise to him. Everything the judge said has come true.

In 2 Corinthians 6:8 - 10 Paul lists the paradoxes of his ministry.  "Through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;  known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;  sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything".

One of the paradoxes that Paul states in this letter is the paradox of fear and love.  He says in 2 Corinthians 5 that he is motivated by the fear of God but he also says that the love of Christ is his motivator.

A. W. Tozer calls this "That Incredible Christian."

She's a good girl

When I was growing up if you said that someone was a good girl you generally meant that she was morally pure.  However, that has changed today.  When you say today that she is a good girl you generally refer to the fact that she eats right, exercises and generally takes good care of her body.  In the past the emphasis was upon character and purity while today it is different.
I used the example of a good girl but in general that refers to all humanity.  Our concept of goodness has changed but does that really mean we are good?  Just thinking.

A new creation

In the forward to Dave Lomas's book, The Truest Thing About You Francis Chan writes a letter to Dave.  In the letter he says the following:

Once this internal change takes place, it's as if we can't stop ourselves from acting.  That's how the Christian life is supposed to work.  Something wells up inside us and then overflows.  We have to love God.  We have to serve God.  We have to love people ... not because we're suppose to, but because we can't help it!  We don't try to love the poor - we can't help but love the poor!  We want to.  It's flowing out of every fiber of our being.  We hate lust and pride and try to rid ourselves of them, not because we're suppose to be good, but because those things aren't who we are.  When we're filled with God, His commands aren't burdensome - we actually love them!  He makes us slaves of righteousness, and we love it!

Peace with God

I have often heard it said that someone made their peace with God.  Is this a true statement?  Does anyone make his peace with God?  As we study Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church we see that we do not make peace with God but that He makes peace with us.  We do not reconcile with God but we accept His reconciliation.  That reconciliation was made possible through the cross.  At the cross Christ became sin, not a sinner, but rather the sacrifice and payment for sin and by accepting the reconciliation made possible we become the righteousness of God.  It happens at the cross.  So let us stop telling people to make their peace with God and tell them that the peace has been made and we just need to accept that gift.

So you see this woman

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16, "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view."  However, I think that we do that very often.  A few months ago I wrote about questions.  I am going to include part of that entry here as it fits with what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians.

In Luke 7 we have the story about Jesus, a pharisee and a woman.  At one point Jesus turns to Simon the pharisee and asks him, "Do you see this woman?"
Simon might have responded, "Of course I see her.  She came into my house uninvited and invaded my party."
Jesus may have responded, "No Simon, do you really see this woman?"
Again Simon may have responded, "Yes I see her.  She is a woman of loose morals, the kind of woman I wouldn't have anything to do with."
Once again the question, "Simon do you see this woman?"
This woman was one for which Christ came to save.  She is not an intruder, she is not a statistic but a person.
The same question comes to us.  Do you see this man?  Do you see this woman?  Do you see this child?  We may say that we see a drunk, a drug user, a prostitute, a thief, a street person but do we really see that the person is someone who God loves.
Open our eyes Lord that we may see

Plus Ultra

Kent Hughes in his commentary of 2 Corinthians 5 introduces the chapter with these words:

When Spain had extended her conquests to the ends of the then-known world and controlled both sides of the Mediterranean at the Straits of Gibraltar (the fabled Pillars of Hercules), her coins proudly pictured the Pillars framing a scroll inscribed with the Latin words Ne Plus Ultra—“No More Beyond.” The Pillars gated the end of the earth. But “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and discovered the New World. The proud nation then admitted her ignorance and struck the negative Ne from her coinage, leaving the words Plus Ultra—“More Beyond.” The change from the myopic “No More Beyond” to the expansive “More Beyond” effected a revolution in world culture, global economy, and geopolitics. The change also serves as a handy example of what is needed in the spiritual geography of modern men and women, because so many live in the stifling delusion that there is no more beyond. Most, including many Christians, live as if “this is it”—as in the Looney Tunes finis, “That’s all, folks!” At the same time, Plus Ultra perfectly describes the Apostle Paul and the ultimate focus of the whole of Scripture and the intensive focus of this section of 2 Corinthians. 

Absent but present.

The great golf course in the sky.  I once heard an ardent golfer say those words in describing heaven.  Can you imagine such a low view of heaven?  Imagine that the greatest joy a person could have would be to play golf, or something else as trivial.  I can hear Paul choking on such a thought.  Paul did not have a trivial view of heaven.  To him it was absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Heaven was not an extension of some human pleasure but rather the goal of the Christian, present with the Lord.  Christians have to get a renewed and proper view of heaven.

Songs of Heaven

I started to think about songs of heaven and wondered if there were any current ones.  Here is a partial list:

There will be a day by Jeremy Camp

I can only imagine by Mercy Me

Revelation song by Kari Jobe



Save a place for me by Matthew West

Where I belong by Building 429



Streets of God by Need to Breathe

However if there is one I would love to have sung at my funeral it would be an old hymn When we all get to Heaven.