Monday, May 28, 2012
NEW PLACE!
I've seetled into a new and hopefully more easily maintained internet home. Come see me at www.gotministry.net
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Good News is...you've failed?
Perhaps one of the most popular subjects in the self-help section at the bookstore is self esteem. Our culture is consumed with the idea that in order to fix our society we simply need to convince everyone of the fact of their innate goodness. Much of the Evangelical Church has been swept along with this wave of ego propping, happily encouraging stuggling seekers to lift themselves up by discovering their own inner beauty and grace. It's a message that sounds appealing, and truly expressing faith and confidence in people has it's proper time and place but that is not where God's liberating truth begins and while it may have you riding high on it's crest for a moment it will leave you in it's wake with nothing but a terrible mess.
So where does God choose to begin His revelation to us? Well, Genesis begins with God's act of creation and specifically states that everything including the first man Adam was good but that Adam chose to disobey God and thereby seperated himself from God. Ever since that day mankind has been inexorably bent towards sin (disobeying God). The New Testament book of Romans is God's self help book and you know what the first few chapters are about? Our complete and utter failure to live up to God's standard and our inability to fix the problem ourselves. He talks about our tendency to lie, envy, covet, disobey, fornicate and a host of other things that He cannot and will not overlook. He describes mankind not as basically good but as fundamentally and irreversibly sinful so that even those who look pretty good on the outside have, buried in their past and lodged deep in their heart, things that cause Him to say "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Wow, when does the helping start? Help can only come when you realize who you are. Not a basically good person who may have made a few mistakes, but a sinner deserving of judgment from a holy God. When that recognition dawns, you'll be ready for the next step...help.
So where does God choose to begin His revelation to us? Well, Genesis begins with God's act of creation and specifically states that everything including the first man Adam was good but that Adam chose to disobey God and thereby seperated himself from God. Ever since that day mankind has been inexorably bent towards sin (disobeying God). The New Testament book of Romans is God's self help book and you know what the first few chapters are about? Our complete and utter failure to live up to God's standard and our inability to fix the problem ourselves. He talks about our tendency to lie, envy, covet, disobey, fornicate and a host of other things that He cannot and will not overlook. He describes mankind not as basically good but as fundamentally and irreversibly sinful so that even those who look pretty good on the outside have, buried in their past and lodged deep in their heart, things that cause Him to say "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Wow, when does the helping start? Help can only come when you realize who you are. Not a basically good person who may have made a few mistakes, but a sinner deserving of judgment from a holy God. When that recognition dawns, you'll be ready for the next step...help.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
The search for truth is not a new search but it is one that goes all the way back to the beginning of time when Satan first questioned God's Word to Eve. Ever since Adam's sin, men have debated the nature and even the existence of truth. Philosophers have given this search a name: Epistemology- the study of knowledge and how human minds apprehend the truth. Every day, every one of us make decisions based on what we believe to be true. As we grow up, we form a worldview in which we answer the big life questions such as, "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", and "Where am I going?" Many times in life, our beliefs and conclusions will be challenged. When faced with these challenges many people find themselves confused unable to answer the questions that arise even in their own minds. In the classic movie, "Fiddler on the Roof" three men are having a discussion. The first man voices an opinion and the second man nods confidently "you are right". The third man protests with the opposite opinion to which the second man raising an eyebrow decides "you are right too". A bystander shouts out the obvious fact that they can't both be right. The second man after considering for a moment exclaims "you are right too!".
A fast growing trend in America is to avoid the difficulty of discerning altogether by proclaiming that absolute truth is unknowable or maybe even doesn't actually exist. That everyone can have their own personal version of the truth. They shy away from anything that might imply that another person or idea is wrong.
I for one am glad that in the Bible God speaks to us in articulate absolute langauge. People often try to complicate it but for the most part the Bible is powerfully simple and though it may not always be what we want to hear it's truth has a very clear ring to it.
So what does God begin His revelation of truth to us with? Well suprisingly enough it all starts with the complete failure of mankind...
A fast growing trend in America is to avoid the difficulty of discerning altogether by proclaiming that absolute truth is unknowable or maybe even doesn't actually exist. That everyone can have their own personal version of the truth. They shy away from anything that might imply that another person or idea is wrong.
I for one am glad that in the Bible God speaks to us in articulate absolute langauge. People often try to complicate it but for the most part the Bible is powerfully simple and though it may not always be what we want to hear it's truth has a very clear ring to it.
So what does God begin His revelation of truth to us with? Well suprisingly enough it all starts with the complete failure of mankind...
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
What is Truth?
Right or wrong, black or white, good or evil, truth or error... is it even possible to be sure? Does truth really have a ring to it? Is there any truth that is universally identifiable or is truth like water, conforming itself to however you want to package it? I for one believe in the existence of truth, not post-modern, cloudy, ambiguous, whatever-feels-good truth and not irrelevant, trivial, non-divisive truth but clear cut, timeless, absolute life truth. I believe in the kind of truth that gives you solid ground to stand on, that liberates those who live by it but imprisons those ignore or reject it, the kind of truth that determines what your life will be worth.
Unfortunately, it often seems impossible to see the sunny truth through the thick billowing clouds of political correctness and the steady rain of lies. Everyone from politicians to preachers compromise, lie, waffle or sometimes are simply mistaken. In reality no one, scientist, sage or slave could ever honestly claim to always be in line with the truth because that would require an infinite degree of knowledge that no man ever has had or ever will have. In fact to be absolutely sure about even the foundational issues of life (like it's purpose) requires a degree of knowledge that no man is capable of obtaining on his own. Thankfully God does have an infinite degree of knowledge and has revealed the truth to mankind through His written word the Bible. In our search for truth, absolute unchanging truth, that is where we must begin and end.
When I was a kid my brother and I discovered a stack of metal rods about three feet long in the basement. The last six inches were curved at a ninety degree angle. It was like Christmas. Those rods could be used as canes, rifles or best of all sword fighting! Well, Mom wasn't to happy when she found her curtain rods lying all over the house bent and mangled to the point of no return. We pled ignorance but somehow the story that we actually thought that sword fighting was what they were made for didn't have that ring of truth to it. What's my point? My point is a lot of people think they can treat life a lot like my brother and I treated those curtain rods. They figure whatever feels good or whatever they want to do must be what it's for. Not such a big deal when it's curtain rods...
On an individual level the foundation upon which you must build all truth is the fact that the primary reason God created you was so that you could have a relationship with Him. The question is how do you begin a relationship with God. Answer that and the clear bright truth will begin to dawn on your life.
Unfortunately, it often seems impossible to see the sunny truth through the thick billowing clouds of political correctness and the steady rain of lies. Everyone from politicians to preachers compromise, lie, waffle or sometimes are simply mistaken. In reality no one, scientist, sage or slave could ever honestly claim to always be in line with the truth because that would require an infinite degree of knowledge that no man ever has had or ever will have. In fact to be absolutely sure about even the foundational issues of life (like it's purpose) requires a degree of knowledge that no man is capable of obtaining on his own. Thankfully God does have an infinite degree of knowledge and has revealed the truth to mankind through His written word the Bible. In our search for truth, absolute unchanging truth, that is where we must begin and end.
When I was a kid my brother and I discovered a stack of metal rods about three feet long in the basement. The last six inches were curved at a ninety degree angle. It was like Christmas. Those rods could be used as canes, rifles or best of all sword fighting! Well, Mom wasn't to happy when she found her curtain rods lying all over the house bent and mangled to the point of no return. We pled ignorance but somehow the story that we actually thought that sword fighting was what they were made for didn't have that ring of truth to it. What's my point? My point is a lot of people think they can treat life a lot like my brother and I treated those curtain rods. They figure whatever feels good or whatever they want to do must be what it's for. Not such a big deal when it's curtain rods...
On an individual level the foundation upon which you must build all truth is the fact that the primary reason God created you was so that you could have a relationship with Him. The question is how do you begin a relationship with God. Answer that and the clear bright truth will begin to dawn on your life.
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