CLAPTON IS GOD

Don't get me wrong: I love the mess out of some Eric Clapton, but I'm not quite up to deifying the man. The title of this post just refers to a graffito first seen on a wall at the Underground station in Islington, a borough of London, in late 1967:

As you can clearly see, God enlisted some help from man's best friend in making known His feelings towards the slogan, if not Clapton himself, although I seriously doubt God doesn't love Clapton. #1 - He's God, and God is Love. #2 - We're talking about the Eric Clapton here, and God is bound to have excellent musical taste. After all, He's the one who gave us the ability to create music as well as appreciate it.

Now, I'll readily admit that I don't know a lot about Clapton's own personal religious beliefs. This article paints a pretty positive picture, largely with Clapton's own words, and the Clapton-penned "Presence of the Lord" from Blind Faith definitely speaks volumes to the idea of God's role in Clapton's life, even though Clapton himself has stated that the song was inspired by the emotions of owning his first house. I certainly hope Clapton is in good standing with God, as I sincerely doubt I'll ever really get a chance to hang out with him in this world.

But to get to the whole reason I even brought any of this up in the first place...

I was driving around the other day, listening to Derek and the Dominos' Live at the Fillmore, which is a particularly excellent snapshot of Clapton's skills as not only a guitarist but also a very powerful lyricist. In particular, the song "Got to Get Better In a Little While" - the first track on that album - was the one baking my noodle at the moment when a thought struck me.

Don't you know what's wrong with me?

I'm seeing things I don't want to see.

Sniffing things that ain't no good for me.

I'm going down fast, won't you say a prayer for me?

It's got to get better in a little while...

That "sniffing things" line is a reference to Clapton's heroin habit. Yes, he did plenty of cocaine (the traditionally sniffed drug), too, but heroin was the drug that altered the course of his life, especially around the period of Derek and the Dominos. But notice that the line comes in the middle of a confession on Clapton's part that things aren't good, and that the only remedy available for him is the prayer of others.

The last verse in the song fits right nicely with that idea, as well:

Still one thing that you can do;

Fall down on your knees and pray.

I know the Lord's gonna answer you.

Don't do it tomorrow, do it today.

It's got to get better in a little while...

Again, Clapton makes the case very plainly evident that - at least in the belief system he presents in the lyrics of this song - the only thing that can actually improve one's life is a surrender to God, especially via the avenue of prayer. The middle verse of the song actually contains lines that even prescribes specific morality in order to help things get better in a little while: "Please don't hurt nobody, don't knock them down/Give them a helping hand to get off the ground."

So, to recap, the three verses of the song, in order, say the following: 1) I've ruined my own life and prayer is the only thing that can save me. 2) We should all help others. 3) If you want God to save you, sincerely ask Him to do so, and He will.

Nothing earth-shattering, but still, very true sentiments, right?

Now, here's the thought that struck me: what if God wants to talk to me through Eric Clapton?

Before y'all get to thinkin' I've completely lost my grip, don't worry, I'm not saying that I believe that Eric Clapton is/was an inspired prophet of God, speaking the holy and inspired Word of God anew and fresh, like Elijah with a customized black Fender Stratocaster. I'm just saying that maybe there's some truth to be found in some surprising places.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

- Philippians 4:8

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

- James 1:17

To get His points across about God to the people listening to Him, Jesus used salt, birds, flowers, planks, sawdust, trees, pigs, jewelry, fish, money, fish with money, old women, young women, rich men, poor men, dead people, living people, children, marriages, parties, wine, water, bread, hair, and anything else around Him to illustrate a point.

Paul pulls his illustrations from other places: the pagan philosophy around him. In front of the Areopagus in Athens in Acts 17, Paul quotes the Cretan philosopher Epimenides and the Cilician Stoic philosopher Aratus. Epimenides comes up again in Titus 1:12, and in I Corinthians 15:33, there's a line from the Greek poet Menander.

Even further out there, we have the letter of Jude, in which the author quotes the non-canonical Assumption of Moses (verse 9) and I Enoch (verses 14-15). As far as I know, it's not clear whether anyone in the era of the first century church thought that these books were "Scripture" in the same way as the Torah, or if they were more on par with "popular" theological writings, like C.S. Lewis is for us today. But in either case - we don't recognize it as canonical, and yet, there it is, right smack in the middle of a quite canonical book of the entirely canonical Bible.

So it seems evident to me that there is plenty of precedent for finding truths about God in the world around us. There are GOOD THINGS going on in this world, and - according to James and Paul - if it's good, it's from God, and therefore is worth thinking about, reflecting on, and appreciating.

The value is not only in the aesthetic appreciation of some non-divine creation, but also in the spiritual application. Even if Clapton didn't believe in God at all, he still wrote a song that contains some perfectly valid truth and understanding about how God works in relation to His world and the people in it.

This idea - looking for God (and finding Him) in the world outside of church and the Bible - ties into what I was talking about two weeks back in "Seeing What I Want to See." Again, if you're looking for God, you will find Him. But I am hoping to specifically encourage you to not just look for God through a deeper knowledge of the Bible and/or personal application of spiritual disciplines, although those are still going to be your primary sources of developing Christian maturity; what I'm specifically trying to say is that if you're focused on knowing God, trying to see His work in your life, searching for His presence in everything you do... Well... You're gonna see Him, and you just might be surprised by where He shows up from time to time.

And it's not just for your own personal benefit that you should be doing this. As Christians, we are called two do two things: Love God and Love others. Part of Loving God and others is to introduce others to God. Evangelism is a hugely important part of living the Christian life in the right way. Remember what I Peter 3:15 says:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

It's part of your responsibility as a Christian to have answers for what you believe so that you can better fulfill your obligations to the mission of the "royal priesthood" (I Peter 2:9) - bringing the Word of God into the hearts and minds of those around you, proclaiming His Kingdom on this earth.

While we were still in high school, my buddy Jeremy once noted the parallels between the story of Mr. Anderson - better known as "Neo" - in The Matrix and the story of Christ. Now, the two don't exactly line up word for word or anything, but there's enough similarity to solidly hold on to. It's not grasping at straws to make the connections. But what's important is that it is the connections that Jeremy made between The Matrix and the Bible that allowed us to have a conversation that I believe paved the way a bit further towards Jeremy's eventual decision to follow Christ and begin his current walk with God.

So I guess The Matrix can't be all bad, even if the sequels are unfathomably horrid.

Optimists are described as people who look around themselves and see the best in everything. Pessimists are described as people who look around themselves and see the worst in everything. I don't know what the word for it would be, but I want to be the kind of person who looks around myself and sees God working in everything.

(I would like to make a very important distinction here: I don't want to promote the idea of seeing God in everything in the sense of saying that God is in the trees or in the beauty of His Created Nature or in Eric Clapton - beyond the sense of God's Spirit living in those who accept Him into their lives - as I don't want to be promoting a sort of pantheism that sees God inside everything and therefore begins to worship everything as an extension of God. What I'm specifically advocating here is that we look for, and therefore find, the things within the Creation that specifically point to the Truth of the Creator, enabling us to more fully worship Him by further appreciating the work He has done.)

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

- Romans 8:5, emphasis added

It makes sense to me to think that one of the things that the Spirit desires would probably be an appreciation for the Truth, no matter where it is found. It follows then that seeking the Truth, even in surprising places, would be a pretty sound bet for a Spirit thing. In being led by God, if our faith is strong enough to trust that God will not allow us to be led astray so long as we are wholly focused on Him, I think it's a fairly sure thing that we're going to see God express Himself in some pretty unexpected ways.

Elijah expected God to be in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. I would say he was probably surprised to hear God in the gentle whisper. Moses probably didn't expect to hear God talk to him through a burning bush. Paul most likely didn't expect Jesus to knock him down blind on the road to Damascus. Peter almost certainly didn't expect Jesus to tell him that unclean animals (and Gentiles) were OK. I completely didn't expect God to talk to me through Eric Clapton, and yet here we are.

God is the ultimate source of all goodness and truth. Love is from God. Joy is from God. Peace is from God. Anything that helps you, me, them, or anybody else get closer to Love, Joy, Peace or God... is from God. Even if there's bad stuff in the way - and as a good Christian thoroughly grounded in a clear understanding of Christian character and Godly virtue, you'll be able to spot the bad stuff among the good, right? - there's still plenty of Truth to be found in all sorts of surprising places. To deny the validity of Truth just because it's not in the Bible would be to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world, immediately frustrating any attempts we could possibly make to communicate the entire Truth of God to those we are specifically called to bring into His presence.

Dear Lord, give me strength to carry on.

Dear Lord, give me strength to carry on.

My home may be out on the highway,

Lord, I've done so much wrong

But please, give me strength to carry on.

- Eric Clapton, "Give Me Strength"

And I, for one, say "Amen."

Jesus Loves Perpetual Groove

The picture below is from December 30th, 2010, at a Courtyard Marriott in Atlanta, Georgia. I met four of the seven not-me people in it the night it was taken. The other three I met back in May, at Amberland.

The whole reason - in fact the only reason - that I know any of these people is because we all like Perpetual Groove. PGroove played a two-night New Year's Eve run at the Variety Playhouse, in the Little Five Points area of Atlanta, and that was how I rang in 2011 - listening to my favorite touring band doing what they do best. (What they do best, by the way, is "be awesome.")

Originally, my sister was going to come with me to both shows, but things happened. No big. Then, I was planning on meeting two very good friends for the NYE show, but work came up. No big. At one point, when Mom realized that I was going to be driving down to Atlanta (6 hours) and going to two concerts by myself, she said, "Oh, that's sad!"

I quickly replied, "No... It's fine. Don't worry. I'll be alright."

And those people in that picture are just a part of the reason why.

Do I wish my sister had been there? Definitely. Do I wish my friends had been able to come up? You bet. But even in being "by myself," I was never alone.

I'm fairly new to Perpetual Groove. They've been around since 1999-ish, but the first time I ever heard them - heard of them, really - was September of 2008. In the year and some change since then, I've seen something that really just completely blows my mind. The crowd that follows PGroove is something completely unbelievable, and it's almost impossible to explain, but I'll give it a shot anyway...

Imagine a group of people who love you unconditionally.

They accept you, completely, for who you are.

There is no judgment.

There is no exclusion.

There is no jealousy.

There is no elitism.

There's just love. Love, love, love. My goodness, the love. There is some real love with these people. Sacrificial, open, warm, compassionate love.

And it's based on what? Liking the same band?

Wow.

Jon - the not-me big guy on the left of the picture there - refused to let me pay for my own tab at the bar we stopped in before the show on the 31st. I met Jon on the 30th. Rick - the tall guy behind me on the right - refused to let me chip in for the cab fare on our way back to the hotel. I met Rick back at Amberland, and I've seen him three times since, counting New Year's.

And yeah, it's just a few bucks... But what about all the free food and drinks that both guys have thrown at me already in the short time that I've known them? What about the completely free, no-strings-attached ride Rick gave me from Nashville to Chattanooga back in July? What about the sincere, heartfelt, open support and encouragement for the prospect of my job with the church in Oregon?

That last one, by the way, is not at all limited to Jon and Rick or anybody else in the picture, but extends out to everybody else I've encountered in the PGroove circuit. There's even a few folks who've started referring to me as "preacher man," which suits me just fine.

Now, I am not going to go so far as to say that every single person I've met in the PGroove family is a regular Sunday morning attendee at the local congregation of their choice. For a lot of them, I know that's actually not the case, like... on purpose. There are, believe it or not, people in the world of jam band followings who don't necessarily believe in the Biblical definition of God, much less Jesus as Christ.

And yeah, I'd love to talk to them about that. I'd love to show them what I see. I'd love to give them a kernel of the Truth that I've found to be so amazingly powerful in my life and see if they don't find it to be just as amazing for them. I firmly believe they would. I firmly believe that an active, sincere, deep relationship with God, through Christ, would change their lives for the better.

But at the same time... I believe that their lives are already pretty good, because whether they follow Christ or not, they've managed to figure out one gigantic thing that the rest of the world is a little behind on: Love everybody.

Something else that happened to me while I was in Atlanta... I got to talking to Debbie. I love Debbie, and Debbie loves me. We met in the first wee hours of 2011 and talked about Jesus.

Debbie is a sweet, wonderful, kind, compassionate, caring, amazing woman. But she ain't too cool with Jesus. Why? More importantly, how?

According to Debbie, Jesus is just another reason for people to divide themselves, and that's not OK.

And you know what? She's actually right. Well, about the divisions part. Not about Jesus Himself (sorry, Debbie - but you know I love you).

In Debbie's view of Christianity, she sees nothing but the infighting, the self-righteousness, the arrogant judgmental attitudes, the hatred of sin and sinner...

It's bad, you know.

So I'd like to start the year off with a challenge to all the Christians reading this: Let's do it right.

If a group of people who only know each other because they - again - like the same band can get together in a community of completely open, heartfelt, genuine, sincere, unconditional love... Why can't the children of God do the same thing?

Why can't we show the world what Love really means?

Aren't we the ones who are supposed to be instantly recognized by our Love for each other?

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

- John 13:34-35

(I think that's a yes.)

Folks, I am not saying that there aren't churches in the world today that get it right, because there certainly are. I am fortunate enough to attend a very loving congregation in Nashville - West End Church of Christ, feel free to come with us sometime - and the Madras congregation is so openly loving that it's easier to think that they are literally a blood family than "just a church family." There are folks out there who do it right.

But man, there are a lot of folks out there who do it wrong, too. There are a lot of folks out there whose actions do not at all point towards the reality of the singular, unifying, transcendent and immanent, all-encompassing Love of God for all of His creation.

And then there's Perpetual Groove.

There's some crazy people in the PGroove family. But they're loved anyway. And they're loving anyway. And they're lovable anyway.

I'm not gonna lie... I want to have a lot more conversations with a lot more of the PGroove crowd about Jesus. I want to talk to folks about Christianity. I'm a preacher. It's what I do. There's no point in hiding it. Yes, I want to help people come to see Christianity as a better way of life.

But at the same time... Man, I sure do want to help a whole lot of Christianity come to see "loving everyone you come in contact with" as a better way of life, too.

As Christians, should we be trying to make "the World" happy? By no means!

But if "the World" is calling us out - and Debbie is not at all the only person saying this - for not loving others, for being a force for division instead of unity, for quite frankly bringing shame to the name of Christ by warping His message of Loving God and Loving others... Then yeah, I think we've got a little bit of work to do.

If it's been with love, things that you've done

Then you did all you could do...

If it's been with love, things that you've done

It can save you...

- Perpetual Groove (who else?), "Andromeda"

Is "Not Bad" Good Enough?

When I was five years old, my family lived in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. During that year, we made plenty of trips out to the beach - more than I can remember. One thing I can say I remember about our beach trips, however, was the sandcastle bucket.

It wasn't anything fancy - just a cheap little plastic pail with a handle and a shovel, and on the bottom of the bucket were little indentions that were meant to mimic the battlements of a castle tower.

There were two primary uses for the bucket when we went to the beach. I seem to remember that Lyn, who would have been two at the time, preferred to simply use the shovel (or her hands) to fill the bucket with sand. The purpose seemed to be to just have a bucket of sand. I'm not really sure. But whatever the purpose, the bucket's function was limited to one thing - keeping the sand in one place, not letting it get outside of a certain pre-defined set of bucket-shaped boundaries.

The other use, however, was to mash the bucket down on a big pile of sand, so that when you picked the bucket up, there now sat one of the many towers that would be added onto the glorious sand equivalent of Windsor Castle, with a construction vulnerable only to the erosive powers of the pounding surf or the boredom-borne destructive whims of a five-year-old boy and his two-year-old sister.

Can the bucket be used to just keep sand in one place? Sure.

But it's actually meant to be used to mold the sand into a desired shape. That's really the whole purpose of its specific design.

And in fact, the same thing is true for Christianity.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

- Matthew 5:17-20

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

- Matthew 23:23-24

Matthew 23 is one of the most powerful chapters in all of the Gospels, because it is nothing but Jesus telling the most super-religious people of His day that they were completely missing the point. A life of holiness isn't just about avoiding sin - and this is what the Pharisees were so very about, adding their own layers to the Law in order to keep themselves miles away from the possibility of sin - but at its core, a life spent in pursuit of God's righteousness is actually about being good.

Just like the bucket could be used to simply keep the sand in one place, Christianity could be seen as a way to set up parameters that define our lives by what we are not allowed to do, where we are not allowed to go, and words we are not allowed to say. But - just like the bucket - that's not what it's actually designed to do.

"Not bad" isn't good enough. Living a life free from sin isn't good enough. We've got to go the extra step and be proactively good, pursuing righteousness above all else.

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

- Luke 6:27-38

As Christians, we know that it is wrong to murder, steal, rape, lie or cheat. But doesn't the world know that, too? No civilization in the history of ever has said that it's just OK to wantonly kill anyone without reason. Murder is bad on a universal scale. So just avoiding murder isn't enough to make us different from the world, is it?

What about loving our enemies? Is that what makes us different from the world?

By and large, the world is satisfied with a definition of morality that says "Just leave me alone and don't get in my way." That's not good enough for a Christian. We are called to something higher - Love.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

- Matthew 22:24-40

Notice that nowhere in either of those two greatest commandments did Jesus mention not sinning. Why is that? Is it because avoiding sin isn't important?

Oh, heavens no.

Maybe it's just because if we're focused on actually living a life filled with righteousness, holiness, Love for God and Love for others, we're not really going to have a lot of room in our lives for sin.

Will we still occasionally mess up? Sure.

But isn't that the whole reason our sins were forgiven in the first place?

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.

- James 2:8

What else do we need? A life focused on avoiding sin is a life fearfully focused on rules. A life focused on Loving God and our neighbors is a life joyfully focused on God and His wonderful creation.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

- James 1:19-27

Keeping ourselves free from the pollution of the world is awesome. It's a big deal. It's very important.

But it isn't the end of the story.

Love for others - especially those who cannot provide for themselves - is the work of God in this world.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

- James 2:14-26

It doesn't matter what you believe if you don't do anything about it. You can believe all you like that Jesus is the King of the Universe and that your sins are forgiven through His death and resurrection - but the demons of hell believe that, so who cares? The difference is entirely based on what you do with that belief.

You can believe that a traffic light is red all day long and it won't make any difference unless you actually stop.

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

- James 4:17

There are plenty of verses in the Bible that I like to think of when I'm dealing with particularly difficult people because I know that God will deal with them far, far, far better than I ever could. This, however, is not one of those verses. This one, quite simply, scares me. This might be one of the most damning verses in the entire Bible.

It's not enough to just be "not bad" - we actually have to make it far enough up the ladder to be wholly in "good" territory. And if we're not being good... THAT'S BAD!

Spending our lives only avoiding sin is sin itself. If we are not focused on attaining righteousness, we are falling short of the name of Christian.

Good for Goodness's Sake (a prologue)

So last week, I asked a question that I sincerely believe deserves an answer.

Everything God does is right, right? Maybe not pleasant, but it's RIGHT.

If that's correct, why is what God does right? Is it because everything God does is right because God did it, and therefore it is right, or is it because God did it and God only does things that are right?

And if what God does is right because He's God, what impact does that have on our morality? And if what God does is right because God only does right, what then? What does that say about who we are meant to be?

I feel a little silly about quoting myself, but it bears some reflection, I think, because if we are meant to pursue a lifestyle that reflects the very nature of God, then it really helps to understand the nature of God as much as we possibly can. This is very similar to a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks understanding the full history and total sociological impact of the industrialized coffee trade, but still, it helps us to understand where we're coming from as well as where we're going in order to make the journey as smooth as possible.

So let's lay this out.

Here's what I personally believe. If you disagree, hey, that's fine, but here's what I believe.

Everything God does is good - not in the sense that every thing that God does makes us all happy, but that each act God carries out moves the universe one step closer to a complete understanding and realization of His Will. So "good" might not be as good of a word as "right."

So... everything God does is right. Everything God does is correct.

But why?

Is everything that God does correct and good and right because God did it, and no matter what God does, the fact that God did it makes it right?

Or is it all good because good is the only thing God does?

Is goodness dependent upon the will of God for its definition, or is goodness itself a part of the nature of God?

I personally believe that we have been given a fairly clear picture in Scripture that God does what is right because what is right is what God does. God, in His very nature, cannot do or be wrong, because God Himself is the definition of all that is right and good. Everything that is - all of "is," as well as "was" and "to be" - exists because of God. God's creation was pronounced Good. Everything since then has been mankind getting in the way.

So in trying to reconcile ourselves to that original goodness - trying to be holy as God is holy (I Peter 1:16, quoting Leviticus 11:44 among others) - we have to be able to understand what that goodness looks like. Is it a static, unmoving, consistent "THIS IS WHAT IS GOOD"? Or is it fluid, tied only to whatever God felt like doing?

From what I understand, the two schools of thought I'm addressing here are called Platonism and Ockhamism. Again, I will readily confess that I may not be fully understanding what I'm talking about here, but from the reading I've done, I've come to understand that Ockhamism is the belief that whatever God does is right because God does it, while Platonism says that God does what is right because that's what God does, in accordance to His Nature.

And it is from that understanding that I can say that I fall firmly in the Platonism camp. What God does is right because God only does what is right. It is who He is. Everything that God does is right because He is the standard and definition of right. What is right does not change because God does not change.

I believe Job backs me up on this (chapters 38-42), as well as verses 5-10 of Isaiah 45:

I am the LORD, and there is no other;

apart from me there is no God.

I will strengthen you,

though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun

to the place of its setting

men may know there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

"You heavens above, rain down righteousness;

let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide,

let salvation spring up,

let righteousness grow with it;

I, the LORD, have created it.

"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,

to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.

Does the clay say to the potter,

'What are you making?'

Does your work say,

'He has no hands'?

Woe to him who says to his father,

'What have you begotten?'

or to his mother,

'What have you brought to birth?'

We are not in a position to question the rightness of God - He is, after all, God - but we can understand what that rightness is by knowing that God Himself is the standard of rightness, and He will not break from His own standard.

So where does that leave us?

Our mission in life is to Love God and Love our neighbor. In showing our neighbors God's Love, we are told to bring them all into His flock, into His church, into His presence.

I want to know how to better do that.

And I think that there are certain rules of engagement that have to be understood before we can really cover a lot of ground towards what really matters. If you're trying to bring someone to Christianity who doesn't accept the existence of God, quoting the Bible is not going to be a very effective way to engage them in the conversation. If someone doesn't believe in God, why would that person believe in what the Bible says about God?

If we are going to get anywhere, we've got to understand that it is possible to have a conversation about God - even about our own personal Father Yahweh God - outside of the Bible. It is possible to discuss Truth without Scripture, because Truth is not defined by Scripture. Rather Scripture, in its nature, is True, just as God, in His Nature, is right.

Consider this: if there were no laws on the book against theft, would you just steal whatever you wanted? You, personally, as a Christian... Would you just take things that didn't belong to you?

Of course not. You know it's wrong. It's not just wrong because God said it's wrong in the 10 commandments, it's wrong because it violates someone else's property, it takes away from their work, it hurts them... And that's not Love. As a Christian, you know that your singular mission in life is to Love others. Stealing isn't Love. Stealing is inherently wrong, whether there's a law down against it or not.

And that leads me to some places that I'm gonna need a few posts to discuss. I'm going to write about morality, about perception of morality, about Love, about lust, about good, about evil... It's gonna be a trek. I hope you'll come back for it and take part in this discussion with me, because it's an important one to have, I think.

I also hope I have a single clue as to what I'm really talking about.

Love, Reign O'er Me

So we're supposed to boldly Love everyone around us, right? God showed us His love by sending His Son to die, and continues to show His Love through the Spirit, through the countless wonders and blessings He shows us every single day, and - most important to us - through His people. I say it's the most important to us because we are the Body of Christ, the living manifestation of God's Will on this earth. So let's live up to it!

Love that YOU are showing the world, if you bear the name Christian, is the Love of Christ in the world today. When YOU are kind, gracious and patient with the kid at the cash register (no matter how many times you have to say "A number two with Coke, add cheese"), Jesus Christ is being kind, gracious and patient. When YOU go out of your way to help someone in need, the Son of Man is going out of His way to help someone. When YOU take the Love that the Author and Finisher of our faith has shown you and give it to the rest of the world, you have fulfilled not only your purpose, but also the very purpose of Christ Himself. In showing Love, you take on the likeness of Christ, and so show Him to the entire world.

And in that, most beloved reader, you will find a wholly powerful salvation, transformation, and redefinition of your soul, of your heart, of your mind... of everything that makes you who you are.

We are imperfect creatures, born into an imperfect world. In our walk towards God, sometimes we stumble. Sometimes we stumble hard. Sometimes we stumble hard over the same thing, several times. And when that happens enough, sometimes we get to a place where we don't think it's ever possible for us to get past that thing, over that thing, or around that thing without stumbling.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the failures of the past that we begin to think that those failures define us. We start to think that our sins are bigger than we are. We start to think that our sins are who we are.

We start to think that God will forgive a lot... but He won't forgive me. I've just sinned too much.

We start to think that God loves everyone... but surely He's had just about enough out of me. I commit the same sin over and over.

We start to think that even though God created the entirety of existence, stands completely outside of time itself, and is aware of the flight of every sparrow and the blooming of every flower... even though He's God... He can't change me. I'm just too broken for God to use.

I gotta admit... I used to think that way. I used to be trapped in my arrogant, cynical, negative, cruelly sarcastic and downright mean self, convinced that the jerk that I was was the jerk I would always be. I put on the happy face (occasionally) and suppressed my inner butt-head (on a good day) and struggled through acting the part of the nice Christian boy.

But then I found out what it was like to really Love someone. I found that really showing someone Love - even if it isn't returned the way I want it to be - makes me enjoy my life more. I realized - through no wisdom of my own, but rather through the education that came from painful experience - that when I finally made Love an active part of my life, everything worked better. Now, that doesn't mean everything worked out the way I wanted it to, and it doesn't mean that I was (or am) always consistent in showing that Love across the board to everyone I came in contact with. Yeah, I still mess up. Yeah, I still have instances of being a sheer, unmitigated... ummm... I'm having a really hard time coming up with an accurate description here that isn't profanity, but I think you get the idea.

But the thing is - it's not who I am anymore. It's not what defines me. It's not what I have to base my life around - I have been set free. Through the Grace and Love of Jesus Christ, who reconciled me to His Almighty Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, I have been transformed into a new man.

And I'm not the only one.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

- Galatians 2:20 (emphasis added)

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

- Colossians 2:6-12 (emphases added)

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

- II Corinthians 5:14-19 (emphasis added)

Martha said, "Master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you."

Jesus said, "Your brother will be raised up."

Martha replied, "I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time."

"You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?"

"Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world."

- John 11:21-27, The Message (emphasis added)

In my personal reading the other day, I tore through the first 12 chapters of John's Gospel from The Message. John 11 is mostly the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I already knew that story, and knew it well. Or, at least, I knew what happened. I've heard the story from the pulpit, I've read it in the Bible, I've seen it re-enacted on feltboards... Got the gist!

And maybe it was just the way my day had gone, or maybe it was the way my whole life had gone up to that point, but when I started reading chapter 11, I was getting pretty choked up. When I got to verses 25 and 26 (the ones in bold), I was literally wiping away tears and holding back sobs.

The true power of the message of John 11 isn't just that Jesus holds mastery over the physical life and death, it is that He has the power to give you Life right now.

People, I'm not telling you anything I've come to on my own, I'm not making any of this up, and I'm not bringing you any sort of exclusive vision of wisdom.

I'm just telling you the Truth.

The power of the Love of Jesus Christ is not confined merely to the forgiveness of your sins. The Love of Christ frees you from your sins!

They're GONE!

ALL OF THEM!

FOREVER!

He does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is His love for those who fear Him;

as far as the East is from the West,

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

- Psalm 103:10-12

You will again have compassion on us;

you will tread our sins underfoot

and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

- Micah 7:19

I, even I, Am He who blots out

your transgressions, for My own sake,

and remembers your sins no more.

- Isaiah 43:25

For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more.

- Hebrews 8:12, quoting Jeremiah 31:34

So if God isn't holding your sins against you... If God - the one whom you sinned against! - has moved past your sins... If God - the very definition of the righteousness we are aiming for - isn't letting your sin define you... Who in the world are you to argue with that?

I could have stayed focused on my definition of myself as a self-centered jerk. But instead, I let Jesus Christ teach me what life is like when I die to myself and live in Him.

And I'm telling you... if a thick-skulled clod like me can do it... so can you.

You can let go of your past.

You can ignore what the world says makes you who you are, and you can embrace what God says makes you who you are.

You can stop viewing yourself through the lens of your failures, your shortcomings, your sins, your struggles... and you can start seeing yourself in the light of GRACE! In the light of TRUTH! In the light of LOVE!

You can stop living your life as a sinner and start living your life as a saint - BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE!

Jesus doesn't just offer you the gift of eternal life later... He's offering you a HOLY life NOW! He can change you! He wants to change you! He wants to show you how to Love others like He Loves you! He wants to show you how to Love God like He Loves God! He wants to step into your heart and tear down your pride, tear down your fear, tear down your insistence that your sin is beyond His reach, that your life is outside of His care, that your future is not part of His plan.

I wish I could be with you (yes, YOU) right now. I wish I could be there with you as you read this. I wish I could be there, because I figure you're probably going to have one of three reactions.

Reaction #1 - You're going to smile and thank God that you've been redeemed, looking back on your past life before Christ transformed you, and you're going to want to shout it from the mountaintops that God is still working wonders in this world today. And I want to be there because I want to shout with you.

- or -

Reaction #2 - You're going to feel a rush of emotions - guilt, joy, pain, happiness, sadness, excitement - all coming together at once as you start to realize that what I'm telling you is true, that God really has forgiven you, that He is just waiting to show you a completely new life in Him, that even you can escape the gravity of your sins - no matter how terrible and dark you think they are! - to live a better life, and that realization is probably gonna make you cry. I know it made me cry, and I want to be there because I want to cry with you.

- or -

Reaction #3 - You're going to feel a twinge of hope, and you're going to think that maybe - juuuuuuuuuuust maybe - I'm talking to you, and that maybe God really will forgive all of your sins, and that you really can have a life that isn't defined by your past... but then Satan whispers in your ear, and tells you that your sins are too big, too many, too frequent, too deep-rooted into who you are, and you're tempted to give up. And I want to be there because I want to grab you by the shoulders and shake you until your nose bleeds, screaming the whole time, "HEY, DUMMY! JESUS DIED FOR YOU! GOD LOVES YOU!" (I fully realize this might not be the most effective method of evangelism, but seriously - you need to get this. It is important, and there will be a quiz at the end.)

I'm a big fan of #1. I'm an even bigger fan of #2. I do not much care for #3.

For those of you experiencing "Reaction #2" - trust me, it only gets better. God is going to show you something pretty amazing. Just keep your eyes open and firmly fixed on Him.

And for those of you who fall into "Reaction #1" category... I have a huge favor to ask of you. In the comment form below this post, if you would please, leave your story. Tell the world what God has done for you. Share what He has worked in you that others might know that He can still work in them.

I say this because it is true, and it is true only because God changed me: I love you.

Drive-By Evangelism and the Good of Guilt

So I drove out to Arkansas this past weekend to visit my sister and some friends. On Thursday night, I met up with a few of the guys out at the fishing pier in Searcy.

Now, if you're not familiar with Searcy, it's kinda hard for me to explain "the dock," as it is called (even though there is no dock). It's just a nice little pier that stretches out across this little pond between the highway and a car dealership. I don't know how it is for fishing. All I know it for is what I've always used it for - a place to get away from everybody else, talking about the things you don't want to talk about in the Waffle House, occasionally spooking the ducks.

So that's where we are. And that's what we're doing. We're just standing around, cutting up, not bothering anything or anyone, just catching up. It's the first time I've seen the guys in 2 months, and we're just enjoying each other's company, when this big truck with insanely loud pipes and an insanely louder driver rolls by. Without stopping, or really even slowing down, the driver leaned out of the window - seriously, from nearly his stomach up, both shoulders fully out of the window - and bellows to us, "JESUS IS COMING SOON, REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED!"

At first, we were just stunned into silence, but after a second or two, we all started laughing. There were just so many things about that scenario that struck us as absurd.

For starters... Yeah! We all know Jesus is coming. We already did the "repent and be baptized" bit. Got it covered. Thank you for your concern, sir, but you are literally preaching to the converted.

And then, beyond that... Does this guy actually think he's reaching people with this method? Does this actually work? Is his church just packed with folks who come in off of the street saying, "Well, some guy drove by and shouted at me, so I figured he was right"?

The next day, I spent some time with another friend, and while we were hanging out, I shoved my foot so far into my mouth that I still have teeth marks on my kneecap. Everything I said made sense just before it left my lips, but once it was actually floating out in the air... Oh, man... It was ugly. Just ugly.

When I came to my senses - several hours after I should have - I felt like a big ol' flaming bag of not a very good person. I realized that I had been judgmental, arrogant, rude, and a whole bunch of other negative adjectives that apply to me far more often than I wish they did. And it absolutely tore me up. I couldn't get it out of my mind until I really apologized, but even then, I still felt like a jerk.

(And really, writing this and remembering everything, I actually still feel like a jerk even now.)

I knew I had messed up. I knew there was a problem that needed forgiveness. I took what steps I could to make sure that things were made right...

But I'm still holding on to it...

And I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing just yet.

Let me get you into my headspace with this. It'll be kind of a convoluted metaphor, but I hope you follow.

Let's say I'm down at the range doing some target shooting. I'm holding the butt of the rifle against my forehead, I've got one of my eyes closed, and I'm pulling the trigger with the big toe on my left foot. BANG! Well, I broke my glasses, I'm bleeding from the bridge of my nose, my toe is stuck in the trigger loop, and I think I just killed a cow. Not really a surprise. There's a right way to shoot a gun if you want to hit the target, and this is definitely not the right way.

Now let's say I'm at the range again, but I've got the butt of the rifle nestled firmly against the muscle of my shoulder, I've got my cheek lined up on the stock, I've got my breathing slow and steady, I've got my sights lined up, I've got my finger squeezing the trigger... BANG! Bullseye. Nailed it. Go me. Again - not really a surprise. I did it right, so I got the right results.

So if I want to be a better shot - if I want to more consistently hit the target - I've got to learn how to shoot right. There's a right way to do it, and everything that isn't that, isn't right.

It seems to me that there is an inescapable, unavoidable relationship between guilt and the Christian life. A healthy amount of guilt is necessary in order to attain salvation, and once that threshold is broken and there is a dedication to Christ, there is still a purpose for guilt. The trick is just making sure it's that "healthy amount of guilt" and not a self-inflicted beat-down.

For someone who's not yet a Christian, guilt is absolutely necessary. How else can people know that they've got sins that need forgiven if they don't feel any guilt for their sins? How can someone repent without knowing what to repent for? The recognition of guilt - the awareness of falling short of God's standards for Man's life through sin - is key to being able to accept and understand the grace of God through the redemption of Jesus Christ.

And so, to that end, you can't just drive by a group of dudes hanging out and cutting up and shout out to them that Jesus is coming and that they should repent and be baptized. There's nothing convicting in that.

But what about someone who's already a Christian? (More to the point - what about me?) What good is guilt for someone who is forgiven? What does guilt accomplish when sin is no longer held against you?

I'm not entirely sure I have a good answer for that one yet.

I believe that it would be a mistake to hold onto guilt in such a way that it impedes my acceptance of God's grace. There is no sin that I have committed or could possibly commit that cannot be washed away by God's forgiveness. So there's no point in me hanging on to something for days, weeks, years past my recognition that it was a sin and asking that God (and any people I offended) forgive me.

But I still want to do better. I still feel like I'm occasionally holding the rifle up against my forehead and firing with my toe. That's where I think guilt is still good.

I realize this may seem like a really elementary point, but it's what I had on my mind. I don't want to hold on to guilt as a burden, keeping me from fully appreciating the gift of grace, but I do want to use the guilt when it hits me to push me towards being a better Christian.

I'd like to think I've got a fairly well-adjusted moral compass. I try to base my actions on my understanding of the Spirit, Will, and Word of God. I realize I'm not perfect, and I don't think I'm holding myself to too high of a standard. But at the same time... when I get good and stupid and really mess it up, I feel terrible! Just awful all over.

So I try to learn from it. I don't always know what to learn, exactly... But I try.

I want to be better. I have a goal in mind: pure love. I want to exist as a man who is singularly dedicated to love. Love for God, which manifests itself in love for people, is my one true aim, and I regret to inform you that I fall short of that goal with alarming frequency.

I want to make it clear that I'm not wallowing in guilt. I know I've been forgiven by God. I'm pretty sure I've been forgiven by my friend. But even beyond the forgiveness, it still breaks my heart that I messed up so bad (believe me - SO BAD) with someone I really care about.

But I'd like to get to the point where it breaks my heart when I mess up with someone I don't even know.

I'd like to use my guilt to learn from my mistakes and continue my push towards being the man God wants me to be.

Please pray for me as I do this.

So What's the Point of All This, Anyway?

When I posted a copy of the "Freethinking In Christ" post to Facebook, the comments got really in-depth really quick. I'll let you read it for yourself if you want, but just be warned - it gets WORDY.

But in the midst of all the chaos, my dear friend Peggy made a point that I really latched on to, and it's actually the whole point I want to make with this post. This is just an excerpt, but here's what she said:

...religion could be the earthly method that tries to train men into beings who can discern the truth of God's reality even in the middle of a world like ours...

So... uhh... Yeah.

Wow.

That is a particularly humbling statement for me, especially in light of the last few posts I've put up. I don't consider myself to be any great scholar or anything like that, but I definitely do put a lot of emphasis on theology and understanding scripture, understanding the Spirit, understanding God. And there's nothing wrong with a desire for understanding those things, so long as that understanding leads to a transformation of my life.

Too often I see people who get caught up in the minutiae of doctrinal issues, who take hard-line legalistic stances on things that Jesus obviously doesn't take the same stance on, who put so much focus on making sure they look like they're doing the right Christian thing.

Too often I meet people who are mired in tradition, who believe that their church is the church and there's no other way anyone could ever possibly please God, who believe that asking questions about the nature of our faith and our God is the most heinous, offensive, earth-shattering blasphemous act one can perform, when the Bible itself is chock full of great heroes of faith who question God, who aren't sure if God knows what He's doing, even in the midst of miracles being performed right in front of their very eyes - miracles that they themselves were taking part in!

Too often I have discussions with people who are too focused on the right thing in the wrong way. They're too focused on what the Bible says instead of what the Bible means. They're too focused on getting people to church instead of getting people to God. They're too focused on Christianity instead of focused on Christ.

By the way - all of those people? They're all named Aaron J. Rushton. I'm the guiltiest one in the world of all of everything I just listed. I get trapped in myself and my way of doing things. I question someone else's motives if they don't act exactly like me. I obsess over details of interpretation that really aren't even close to being "salvation issues," I get trapped up in thinking that I'm a terrible Christian for ever doubting or questioning God, and I spend a whole lot of time focused on making sure I'm checking off my list of "How to Be a Good Christian Today" instead of surrendering my will to the Father, accepting the presence of His Spirit, and simply living my life in singular dedication to loving God and loving others.

Which brings us back to what Peggy said:

...religion could be the earthly method that tries to train men into beings who can discern the truth of God's reality even in the middle of a world like ours...

What's the point of being a Christian? What's the motivation behind the message? Why bother in the first place?

Sometimes people emphasize the danger of an eternity in Hell as a motivator for taking up the Christian lifestyle. But that's like teaching a little kid not to start fights just because he's liable to get beat up.

Sometimes people turn to the message of Heaven, an eternal reward for a life of sacrifice and piety. But that's like teaching a little kid to be nice to his sister because he's going to get ice cream if he does.

There's not really anything wrong with either of those... But I don't think they're really good enough.

If the only reason a kid has for not starting a fight is so he can avoid pain, he isn't understanding that there's a better way of life: being a positive influence on the people you find surrounding you, showing patience, kindness, gentleness, understanding and love to everyone you come across.

If the only reason a kid is nice to his sister is so he can get the ice cream, he's not going to learn that good, long-lasting, honest relationships with other people are built on a genuine connection, a genuine desire to do the best possible and be the best possible for the other person's sake, sacrificing the desires of the self in the interest of others.

Don't get me wrong - Hell is real, and it is bad, and I don't want to go. Heaven is also real, and it is good, and I would very much rather be there than here.

But focusing solely on the reward or the punishment isn't going to inspire the change in the world that I believe God wants to see.

So what is the proper motivation? What will inspire that change in the world?

I believe that the ultimate goal of life, the ultimate goal of God's plan for humanity, the ultimate goal of the teachings and the sacrifice of Christ, is that we learn to be good.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

- Matthew 22:34-40

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

- I John 4:7:21

The whole point of Christianity - as I see it - is not to eventually experience Heaven, or to eventually be wrapped up in the presence of God, or to eventually do anything. The point is to do something NOW. It's got to matter right here. It's got to change who you are now in order to affect where you go later.

The whole point is to reshape the entire world, one person at a time, to bring all of humanity into a perfect union with God, and therefore also with itself.

All the theology in the world is completely useless if it doesn't actually change lives or bring people closer to God. In the passage from Matthew I just quoted, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Too many people focus so strongly one one aspect of those three that the other two are completely ignored. All heart with no soul or mind leads to an empty, superficial show of love for others without a genuine connection. All soul with no heart or mind gives us a vibrant worship experience that doesn't actually relate to anybody on a communal level. All mind but no heart or soul produces an environment where people become proud of their own righteousness, and especially proud of their own "understanding" of the Bible in a textual sense, able to quote passages at great length, but completely ignoring the message contained within. Straining out gnats but swallowing camels.

That last one - all mind, no heart or soul - is the trap I most often fall into. I want my "great theological understanding" to be enough of a devotion to God that I don't actually have to reach out to people or allow an emotional investment in worship, because hey, I'm a big tough guy and I'm not supposed to ever get all emotional. It is a constant battle for me to actually let down my defenses and be genuine with people. And, for the moment at least, it is a battle I lose far more often than I win.

(Please assume the " " around "great theological understanding" to be sarcastic finger-quotes, because I don't actually think for a moment, even on my most arrogant days, that I've really got ANYTHING figured out...)

I Peter opens up with an exhortation to the Christians reading it that our salvation has been in the works since the time of the prophets. God's plan for Christ on earth has been in motion since the beginning of time. But to what end?

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

- I Peter 1:13-16

In all of it - in all of the redemption from our sins, in all of our reconciliation to God, in all of our love for Him and for each other, it all serves to bring us to one purpose, and that purpose is a life of holiness - and holiness is defined as the pinnacle of moral behavior. God has set up Christianity as a way for us to understand Him, know Him, and love Him, so that - through that understanding, knowledge and love - we would understand how to behave.

So... uhhh...

Be good.

Seeing the Love of the New Testament In the Wrath of the Old Testament, Part I

In February of 1945, the United States began an extensive and intensive firebombing campaign on Japan. This firebombing lasted for six months, up to the issuance of the Postdam Declaration - the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender - on July 26, 1945.

The Postdam Declaration was issued by the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, stating that if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction."

The official Japanese reply - the only Japanese reply, really - was mokusatsu, a Japanese term meaning "silent contempt." There have been discussions since the conclusion of World War II about whether or not Japan's reply should have been taken as "silent contempt" since the termmokusatsu can also simply mean to ignore something. Perhaps there was still some deliberation going on within the Japanese government. Maybe they just needed time to decide what to do. Maybe it was all just a big misunderstanding.

Well, maybe... But probably not. The Potsdam Declaration was worded in such a way that it could not, in any way, be seen as vague, misleading, or anything other than a direct statement to Japan, saying, in no uncertain terms, "Look - if you don't surrender right now, we will kill you. We just got through beating the pants off of the Nazis, what makes you think you've got a chance?"

So for whatever reason, however it happened... Japan didn't surrender.

On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM local time, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, dropped the atomic device known as "Little Boy" over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. At least 70,000 people were killed instantly, with another 70,000 injured, and by the end of 1945, somewhere between 90,000 and 140,000 had died from burns, or radiation and radiation-related diseases.

On August 7 and 8, Japan still did not surrender.

On August 9, the Bockscar dropped "Fat Man" over Nagasaki.

Prior to August 9, Japan had insisted on four conditions for their surrender. After August 9, those conditions were gone.

Emperor Hirohoto officially announced Japan's unconditional surrender a little after noon on August 15, 1945 - August 14 in America.

Since then, there has been a huge black spot on the reputation of the United States of America. The U.S. is still the only country to have actually deployed nuclear armaments in warfare. And not just once, but twice. How could we be so vicious? How could we be so cruel? How could we unleash such horrors on to innocent civilians?

Well... It stopped the war, didn't it? We're allies with Japan now, aren't we? Japan is a thriving society now, isn't it?

I am not looking to discuss the United States' nuclear warfare policy, or Japan's failures in World War II, or anything else. But I couldn't really think of anything better to lay the foundation for what I really want to talk about.

Some people have a hard time marrying the image of the wrathful, jealous I AM of Abraham, Moses, and David with the loving, merciful Father of Jesus, John, and Paul.

Some people outside of Christ take the violent view of God in the Old Testament as basis for an objection against following Him. "If God is so loving, how can He order so much genocidal slaughter in the conquest of Canaan? How can you believe in a God who kills hundreds, even thousands, of His own 'chosen people' as consequences of the sins of others, but then claims to 'love the world'? How can the God who sent the flood that killed everyone on the planet but eight people be the same God of whom John says, 'God is love'?"

I will admit, readily, that those are all really hard questions, and they are questions that deserve to be treated with seriousness and depth, as opposed to the generic brush-off answer of "God moves in mysterious ways." (That answer, by the way, is not actually Biblical at all, but rather comes from a 1774 hymn by William Cowper.)

Before I go any further with this, I want to make it very clear that I am only telling you what I personally believe. I am posting it in hopes that it makes sense to you, if you are struggling with this seeming dichotomy, but I cannot even begin to claim that I am any definitive or even reliable source of wisdom or understanding on this topic. I'm not just grasping at straws or anything; I feel confident in what I'm saying. But I do want it to be understood that I am not incredibly well-read, I am not incredibly well-educated (nor am I a particularly good student), I am not any sort of expert... I'm just giving you the answers I found through my own learning when I asked the same questions.

So here we go.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This creation process is filled with moral education. (By the way - I definitely owe a tip of the hat to Dr. John D. Fortner of Harding University here for helping me come to a lot of this understanding about the moral lessons found in the Genesis creation . Thanks, Doc.) In God's plan for the world, from the beginning, there has been Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, Order and Chaos. The dichotomy has always existed, and it serves a purpose. God laid out Good and Evil as characteristics of the cosmos, and wove both into the very fabric of our world.

Then God creates Adam and Eve. The Garden was theirs, save for one tree: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent, most cunning in his temptation, actually speaks some truth in what led to the first sin. Adam and Eve were told that to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would lead to their deaths. The serpent told Eve that she would "be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4)

So Eve eats, shares with Adam, and the world is never the same.

What happened? Did God just really like that tree? Did He just want it all for Himself? Did He create Adam and Eve to just exist in the Garden, never knowing that they were naked, never knowing Good from Evil?

I don't think so.

I think that it is only when we know the difference between Good and Evil that we can actually choose which one we want. It is in knowing that difference that we can decide to be Good, to do Good, to seek Good. And seeking Good means seeking God.

So the Garden is an inescapable lesson. God has created mankind and given them exactly one rule not to break. Obviously mankind has, from the beginning, been created with free will. Adam and Eve had, even from the beginning, the right to choose to follow God or to not follow God. They chose to not follow God, and there were consequences for their actions. Consequences that showed up not only in their own lives, but in the lives of the rest of humanity.

The Creation and the Garden show the first two points I want to make: first, that Good and Evil are laid into the very fabric of the world, and second, that, even from the beginning, mankind has been created with moral free will - the ability to choose to submit to God or not - and there are consequences for not submitting.

In Israelite thought, the sea represented the untamed wild, the chaos of the world. All of the forces of chaos were found in the sea, including the Leviathan, a great horrible creature of the deep.

[The LORD said to Job:]

Can you pull in the Leviathan with a fishhook

or tie down his tongue with a rope?

Can you put a cord through his nose

or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he keep begging you for mercy?

Will he speak to you with gentle words?

Will he make an agreement with you

for you to take him as your slave for life?

Can you make a pet of him like a bird

or put him on a leash for your girls?

- Job 41:1-5

Here God expresses His ultimate power over all things by stressing His power over the Leviathan, and stressing that power in such a way that He not only defeats the Leviathan, He completely dominates it, humiliating it, treating it as a pet.

In that day,

the LORD will punish with His sword,

His fierce, great and powerful sword,

Leviathan the gliding serpent,

Leviathan the coiling serpent;

He will slay the monster of the sea.

- Isaiah 27:1

But here we see that God has not yet destroyed the Leviathan - that action is reserved for a future date. In the context of Isaiah, this verse comes from the prophecy concerning the repatriation of Israel. Metaphorically, Leviathan here means the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, all of the foreign powers that have oppressed Israel. Their destruction - Israel's deliverance - had not come yet because God has a purpose for allowing chaos and evil to exist in the world. In fact...

I am the LORD, and there is no other;

apart from me there is no God.

I will strengthen you,

though you have not acknowledged me,

so that from the rising of the sun

to the place of its setting

men may know there is none besides me.

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the LORD, do all these things.

- Isaiah 45:5-7

...not only does God have a reason for allowing chaos and evil to exist, He created them! Notice the parallel structure here - light to prosperity, darkness to disaster. Think back to the words of Jesus, who uses references to light dozens of times to refer to Himself, or God, or the acts of Christians in the world. Light is good, darkness is evil. That's a pretty common theme throughout the Bible.

So that puts a different spin on Creation, doesn't it? At the beginning of all things: "the earth was formless and empty" (no form or substance sounds like chaos to me), and "darkness was over the surface of the deep" (there is an absence of light - darkness, chaos - over the gigantic chaos)... But then! "...God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness." God created the darkness, God created the light, and saw the the light was good. This pronouncement not only shows God's approval of the light, but it makes a distinction between the "good"-ness of the light and the chaos of the deep and the darkness.

And since the light and the darkness, the order and the chaos, the prosperity and the disaster all coexist within the frame of the world before Man is even created, we can understand that morality itself transcends Man. God has woven morality into the very fiber of the universe. The earth may not be able to make moral choices, but the lessons of order and chaos are there for us to see.

But what happens when we ignore those lessons? Well... We die.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

- Genesis 3:15-17

Notice that the introductions of morality and mortality occur in the same instance. It is the beginning of moral understanding that leads directly to the idea of a limited time in this world. Here's how I see this coming down. Sin - any sin, all sin - is an attempt to usurp the Throne of God. Yes, that's a rather dramatic turn of phrase, but ride it out with me. God has given us the rules, as well as the moral understanding to discern between good and evil, as well as the blueprint of the universe, to show that good and evil are distinct forces. So when I violate one of the rules, go against my God-given understanding of good and evil, I am placing my own desires, my own passions, my own self, above the will of God. The creation is trying to defy the Creator. That's not the order of things. In fact, that is chaos. Chaos leads to death. So morality and mortality are inextricably linked.

Now I want to turn your attention to the story of Abram.

Let us assume, for the sake of Abram's story, that the content of the first 11 chapters of Genesis were completely unknown to Abram (or anyone else, for that matter). I don't really think that's much of a stretch.

Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.'"

- Joshua 24:1-2

To this [Stephen] replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'

- Acts 7:2-3

These two passages point out pretty plainly that Abram was called out of a polytheistic culture, presenting Himself as a new theological concept. Here was something bold: The One True God, not just a chief god among other, lesser gods. And it would appear that Abram was not only the first to be called, but also the only to be called.

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household gods.

- Genesis 31:19

Laban's grandfather was Nahor, who was Abram's brother, but in verse 29, Laban refers to the LORD as "the God of your father" when addressing Jacob. So it seems - to me at least - that God has made a special revelation of Himself to Abram, and not necessarily to anyone else.

So now we've got humanity up and running, civilization is taking root in the Fertile Crescent, and God reveals Himself to a man from Ur, in Babylon, and tells him to leave everything behind.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

- Genesis 12:1

God called Abram out of a specific culture, a specific world, a specific lifestyle, and took him to a completely new place. God met Abram where he was and took him where God wanted him to be. God had a purpose. God was calling Abram out of his world and into God's world. God was beginning the long educational journey of the world.

So over in Genesis 17, God sets up the covenant of circumcision with Abram - who is now called Abraham by God - and lays out the beginning of the nation of Israel. The covenant of circumcision immediately precedes God's prophecy of the birth of Isaac. God has called Abraham to be separate from the culture he was born into, and now God is calling Abraham's descendants to be separate from the world they will be born into. The circumcision is a sign of separation, a sign of being called apart, called into a life defined by a difference.

Now we're going to skip ahead a bit and get to Exodus 20. This is where we see the first of the Law. God gives Moses - and Israel - the Ten Commandments, and then the rest of the Law, throughout the rest of Exodus, then all of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Now God has not only chosen a people and called them to be separate, He has also given them a Law, a set of rules to live by, another way to distinguish themselves from the world that they are surrounded by.

Within the Mosaic Law, however, we see a few big things that will become important later on in this discussion, and I'd like to point those out now.

"'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.'"

- Leviticus 18:24-28

We see here that God's commandments for morality carry with them a conditional aspect. I touched on this very briefly in the Jephthah post, but I want to bring it up again here. God's moral law for the Israelites comes with a built-in punishment. If they violate the Law, if they defile themselves, then they lose the Promised Land. This implies a reward, as well - keeping the Law means keeping the Promised Land.

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

The LORD will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you.

The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.

- Deuteronomy 28:1-14

Here we have Moses imparting another aspect of the conditional nature of the Law. Moses tells Israel that keeping the Law will result in an economic prosperity for the whole nation, as well as for each family. The crops will be good, the livestock will be healthy, the children will be strong, and the enemy nations will scatter at the very sight of the armies of Israel. In the rest of Deuteronomy 28, Moses also lays out some corresponding curses, but I wanted to stress the "Be Good and Good Things Will Happen To You" idea here.

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy."

- Leviticus 19:1-2

Here we have a phrase that is repeated a few times through Leviticus as well as the rest of the Law. What it shows us is that while God is providing the Israelites with a pretty high calling, holding them to a pretty high standard, it really boils down to a cosmic "Because I said so, that's why."

So let's recap what we've got so far...

1. God created the universe with morality woven into its very fiber.
2. God created Man with the capacity for moral thought, understanding, and free will.
3. God inextricably linked Man's morality into Man's mortality.
4. God called Abraham and his descendants to be separate from the rest of the world by a physical marker.
5. God called Israel, through Moses, to be separate from the rest of the world by a legal marker.
6. God set up the Law as a standard of morality. The Law comes with rewards and punishments to serve as motivation for obedience, as well as two higher motivations: "because [God] said so" and "because it's holy."

"Because I said so" may not seem like a higher motivation, but it actually is, if you recognize that it is at least a step towards righteousness for the sake of righteousness. Righteousness for the sake of blessing (or even just the avoidance of curses) is very self-interested. "I'll be good, but only because I will get something out of it." A higher understanding of morality, then, says "I'll follow the Law, because it is the Law." But an even higher understanding than that says, "I will be holy, because it is right and good to be holy."

Here endeth Part I of "Seeing the Love of the New Testament In the Wrath of the Old Testament." Next week, I'll let you know why I opened this whole discussion with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I'll take a good look at God's use of the death penalty, and I'll lay out what I believe Jesus meant when He said "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17)

When you hear the tone, turn the tape over and push play.