Read This Post or I'll Shoot My Cat

Just take a look at this big, fat ball of hair (the cat, not me). You wouldn't want his death on your conscience, would you? I'm completely serious. Have you ever seen Boondock Saints?

OK, so, now that I've got your attention, I'll go ahead and let you know that I have absolutely zero intention of hurting Deputy. He's my cat. Come on. I'm not gonna shoot my cat. If the post had been about me shooting my sister's dog, you would have had legitimate reason for concern, but I would never purposefully bring even the slightest harm to Deputy, so you can go ahead and stop writing your angry e-mails to the ASPCA and just pay attention.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The Life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the Eternal Life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

- I John 1:1-4

That's the prologue to the first of John's epistles. It's a beautifully expressed declaration of the tangible reality of both the person and the divinity of Jesus Christ, and opens up one of my favorite books of the Bible. But for the purposes of this post, I really just want to focus on verse 4: "We write this to make our joy complete."

Proselytizing, evangelizing, whatever you wanna call it - spreading the Gospel, telling others about Jesus, and bringing people into God's presence is an absolutely undeniable part of Christianity. If you're not sharing your Christianity, you're not actually doing your Christianity.

It doesn't have to be so overt as this blog, or so obliviously ineffective as standing on a street corner in a sandwich board and shouting at passers-by, but it's got to happen. That's made perfectly clear throughout the entire New Testament.

But why?

"...to make our joy complete."

I'm sorry to resort to such a low-down dirty trick as pretending to threaten my cat, but I'm just trying to do whatever I can to get you to notice this stuff. It's not so much because I crave an audience as much as it is that I just want to talk to you for a few minutes. I have something to say that I think you would benefit from hearing. I actually think it's important enough that I'm willing to play whatever cards I've got at my disposal just to get you to read at least ONE of these posts, hopefully more. And it's not like I've got any kind of ad revenue coming to me off of this. Facebook definitely ain't payin' me, even though it alone is at least a part-time job just based on the hours I put in each week...

But I do get something from it. I get something of a completion of my joy. I get the thrill of knowing that I've helped people focus on God, maybe even in a way that they never had before. That is awesome for me. And not because it's got anything to do with me, but because it's entirely about you, the one reading this. If you are reading this, I am thrilled. I'm even more thrilled if you're actually absorbing any of it. I'm elated if it challenges you to think about your relationship with Christ and the improvements you can make to it. I'm overjoyed beyond the limitations of the English language to express if, by some movement of the Holy Spirit through me and my keyboard, you - the actual YOU reading this right now, not the general "not me" version of "you" - take a step closer to God that you'd never taken before, whether you've been going to church your whole life or you've never once heard a word of the Bible.

And it doesn't give me all those warm fuzzies because I'm the one that wrote whatever words changed your life. It rocks my gypsy soul for the same reason that the shepherd rejoiced when he found his lost sheep, the woman rejoiced when she found her lost coin, the father rejoiced when his lost son came home, and the Father and all the hosts of angels rejoice when one repentant sinner accepts the Grace of God and steps into the Light.

It makes my joy complete.

If I can be the instrument God chooses to use to bring you, in any way, closer to Him, hey - that's awesome. You will not find me complaining about that. I try not to complain about God using me in general, but that specific use would be pretty solid.

But why? Why does it even matter to me?

Because I fully believe that everybody's life - and I mean everybody-everybody - could be improved by better knowing the Majesty, the Splendor, the Glory, the Holiness, the Power, the Presence, and the unfailing, unending, unmistakable Love of God.

Look, folks... God is... the best. The. Best. Imagine the best thing you've ever experienced. Now go infinitely better. That's a rough picture of the goodness of God. I cannot possibly explain to you in enough detail how good God is. 1) I don't have the words to convey it all, and 2) you don't have the patience to read my futile attempt, which would be so overly verbose that Google would shut me down for clogging up the internet.

I don't know what your relationship with God is like. I hope it's incredible. I hope that whatever you're getting is anything like what I'm getting, because folks, I ain't lying when I tell you that what is happening in my life is so very good that I cannot possibly keep it to myself.

It's Oreos and Led Zeppelin and good Batman comics and perfect air conditioning and the comfiest couch in the world and every other possibility of anything GOOD in this world all rolled up into one inexpressibly perfect thing, and I would feel like an absolute jerk if I kept it to myself.

If you eat at an awesome restaurant, you tell your friends, right?

If you see a mind-blowingly good movie, you tell your friends, right?

If you have goodness, you share it with the people you love, right?

That's what I want to do.

I want to tell you how awesome God is for me, because I know that when you let Him, He will be every bit as awesome for you. I mean that, no matter where you are in your walk with Him. If you're a staunch atheist, I want to talk to you about God. If you've never missed a church service in your life, I want to talk to you about God. If you just don't know where you fit in, I want to talk to you about God.

And I am totally willing to cheat in order to get that done.

Why else would I have been writing posts openly drawing comparisons between God and Batman or God and Eric Clapton?

It's not (exclusively) because of my inability to escape my own nerdiness, but it is because I am trying to do anything I can to get people to read this. I want to talk to you about God. That is my goal. If this means I lure you in with sensationalist headlines about killing my cat, so be it.

Jesus performed miracles for a reason - to get people to listen to Him. The Holy Spirit manifested miraculous gifts in the early church for the exact same reason - to get people's attention and show them the glory of God. Whatever gifts I do have from the Spirit, I have not as yet been able to heal a lame man with my shadow, so I will have to do what I can to bring people in, because I can think of absolutely nothing in existence that could ever be any more fulfilling than to encourage those around me (and, through the magic of the interwebs, those nowhere near me) into a closer relationship with God.

It makes my joy complete.

But here's the twist.

I jokingly threatened my cat just to get you to read this. It's an absurd example, but it worked, right? I mean, you are, after all, reading this...

How would you have responded if this week's entry had instead been titled "Live Your Life By My Rules or I'll Shoot You"?

I don't think there's any point in being bashful about my intentions. Yes, I want to encourage you to grow closer to God. That's my goal. Again, I don't care if you're already a very strong Christian or if you're a very strong atheist or if you're just very strongly confused. I want to talk to you about God. And my ideal outcome of any conversation that we should ever have about God is that we both walk away with refreshed spirits, renewed minds, and rejoicing hearts.

But the last thing I want to do is bully you into accepting what I believe.

I do believe, fully, that Christianity is the best possible way to live your life. I also believe, with every bit the same fullness, that the Christian life that I'm living is the best I can do with the knowledge and understanding that I currently have. In other words - yeah, I think I'm right. Of course I think I'm right. If I didn't think I was right, why would I continue to think things that I thought were wrong? That's dumb.

But there is a gigantic difference between my telling you that I feel that the truths behind my beliefs would be of great benefit in your own life if you applied them the same way I do and my telling you that you're evil and stupid for believing something other than what I believe and should immediately recognize the rightness of my beliefs and just stop your silly questioning because how could a fool like you ever know anything worth saying in the first place.

Put a bit more simply: there is a HUGE difference between sharing the Gospel through Love and forcing the Gospel down people's throats through arrogant moral superiority.

I'm perfectly willing to trick you into a conversation about God. I don't feel bad about that.

I'm also completely at peace with the idea of using whatever connections I might have with you or anyone else I ever encounter to find a way to get my foot in the door and then get to that conversation about God. It's worth working towards. In my work towards connecting people to God, I'm willing to be a downright snake in the grass, if I have to.

So that's what I've got this week. I've got nothing to hide - my mission, my purpose, my goal is to talk to you about God. I don't care where you stand with Him, I fully believe that both of us have everything to gain from striving for a more perfect understanding of the infinite goodness of God.

It is to that end, then, that I would like to close this post with an especially heartfelt encouragement and sincere exhortation: talk back. I have always wanted this bloggery business to be a conversation more than a sermon. I would LOVE to hear from you - no matter who you are, no matter what you believe. Ask questions. Debate points of doctrine. Drop a truthbomb on me with a scripture I might not have thought of that shows things in a different light. Whatever it is, please... do it. I want to be better at this, and a lot of the learning comes from feedback.

I do sincerely appreciate those of you who do comment and write me and everything else. It definitely means a lot, and please don't feel that I don't value your input - I do. I just want more. Is that so bad?

God bless you... And hopefully we'll talk soon.

Just a Few Questions

I eat too much Taco Bell.

I doubt that's a huge surprise to most of you. Anybody can take a look at me - even just a passing glance, really - and it's not gonna be that much of a stretch to get to "This dude eats too many things that are mostly comprised of meat and cheese."

But the thing about me eating too much Taco Bell is that I actually eat less of too much than I used to. I used to eat way too much. Now... yeah, it's still too much, but it's less than it was. My run for the border occurs a little less frequently than it used to, I don't order an entire side of the menu when I go, and I've pretty much abandoned trying to actually live up to the idea of "Fourthmeal," even with that being as pleasant of a challenge as it was.

Now, the goal here is obviously to get to a point where I don't eat "too much" Taco Bell, but in fact eat the right amount of Taco Bell. (I fully realize that there are some in our world who would suggest that the "right" amount of Taco Bell is no Taco Bell at all, but I don't care about those folks' opinions, because they're also the kind of people who insist that a half-cup of ice cream is a "serving," and we all know that's patently ridiculous...)

I'm not at the goal... And it's arguable that I'm not really even all that close to the goal just yet... But I'm definitely closer than I was... So is that progress?

More than that being progress... is that good?

I know that it is not good in and of itself that I still eat too much Taco Bell. That's bad. I know that.

But is it good that I eat less of too much? Or is it still just hopelessly awful all the way up until I'm only ordering a single "Fresco" burrito once every three months? (This will never happen.)

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My buddy Will and I went into Dickson the other night to see a movie. Once it was over, we got to doing what we do best - cruising around aimlessly, listening to music and shooting the breeze.

Will was driving, and our wanderings took us fairly deep into what was unfamiliar territory for him: the vast untamed wilds of Dickson County, including but not limited to the sprawling metropolises of Vanleer, Slayden, and Tennessee City.

So once we'd decided that it was time to turn back towards home, Will didn't really know where we were. And it's not like I'm super familiar with Vanleer or anything, but I at least knew how to get back to the house, and gave directions along the way. After a while, though, we came back into a part of Dickson where I thought Will would be able to recognize where we were. We came to a red light and Will asked me which way we should go.

"Dude, don't you know where we are yet?"

Will replied with a tone of humble resignation. "No, man... Not at all."

I pointed out the window. "The high school's right there."

"Oh! Oh, yeah, yeah... OK. I got it now. Awesome."

And then we drove home. End of story. Yaaaaaaaaaaay.

But what I wanna know is this: is it entirely necessary when giving directions to spell out every step that's going to be taken on the drive, or is it good enough to just point out familiar landmarks and let the driver take it from there?

Will didn't know where we were for a good bit of that drive. He had vague ideas of how to get back home - if you're in Dickson County and trying to head to Hickman County, at some point South has got to happen. I gave directions when they were necessary, but for the most part, I let Will do the driving on his own. After all, he was the one driving. I was controlling the iPod, and that's a job that takes some serious concentration.

So did that make me a bad navigator? Or can my success be judged by the fact that we actually got home?

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When the discussion comes around to which actor had the best portrayal of James Bond, the answer is Sean Connery.

This is not a matter of opinion, it is simply how it is.

Sure, you may prefer Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig... Or if you're some kind of weirdo, Roger Moore... (I don't think there's really anybody out there who would pick George Lazenby or Timothy Dalton, but if you happen to be reading this, congratulations, you're a statistical singularity.)

But it doesn't matter what you prefer: Sean Connery is the right answer.

James Bond creator Ian Fleming was not originally sold on Connery as Bond. Roger Moore had actually been considered during production of Dr. No, but was rejected as being too young. Moore later went on to become the oldest actor to portray Bond (58), even beating out David Niven (57) as Bond in the spoof version of Casino Royale. (Niven had in fact been Fleming's first choice to portray Bond in the "official" EON production series.)

After the release of Dr. No, however, Fleming changed his mind about Sean Connery. In fact, he changed his mind so much that he changed James Bond. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the first novel written after the Dr. No movie, Fleming provides details about Bond's lineage, stating that his father was Scottish, which was a change from the earlier novels which provided an Irish upbringing for Bond.

So, yeah. Sean Connery was so good at being James Bond that the creator of James Bond changed James Bond to be more like Sean Connery.

But what about when I do have those discussions with those seldom people who - for some reason - prefer another actor over Connery, what can I say? Yeah, they're entitled to their opinions... but their opinion is objectively not right.

So when are we allowed to say, "You're wrong"? When can we actually bust that out? It seems to me that "You're wrong" is just about the ultimate taboo phrase in today's world. People will insist that there's really no right or wrong, it's all just whatever you believe that works for you.

I dunno about that. You can believe that 2+2=5 all you want. I can't stop you there... but is it part of my responsibility to tell you the actual truth?

_______________________________________________

Consider a man whose entire adult life has been in pursuit of satiating the carnal desires of the flesh. When he meets a woman he likes, he uses all of his considerable charm to land her in his bed. Maybe it's only once, maybe it's several times, but either way, it's sex. That's how this guy operates: he has sex with women. It's his deal.

Now let's say that this man encounters Christ in a way that he never has before and finally begins to understand the point of Christianity. He decides to at least attend services regularly, and is becoming genuinely interested in the message behind each sermon.

As he continues to get churched up, he reconsiders his approach to women and decides that maybe - just maybe - his incessant fornication is not the best choice he could be making. Does he still pick up the occasional girl? Sure does. Is he moving towards monogamous relationships? Yeah, seems like it.

Is his view on sex all the way up to good yet? From a Christian standard, of course not.

But... is it better?

In one's pursuit of holiness, there should never be any mistaking "less bad" for "good," but all the same, "less bad" actually is less bad, and that's a lot to be considered, especially when thinking about those who are considering Christianity.

And with those same folks considering Christianity, do we really have to give them the instructions on how to get all the way home when they're still a long ways out?

From what I've seen, there's this kind of drive in evangelistic or missionary outreaches to get people to commit to Christ immediately, just in case God shows up in the next twenty minutes. As soon as the conversation turns to God, there's a loaded Bible pointed at your head and somebody's hunting down a swimming pool to use as a baptismal immediately if not sooner.

What happened to taking our time? What happened to actually counting the cost? Too many of today's Christians became Christians when they were too young to actually understand what they were getting themselves into. Too many of today's former Christians were the ones who became Christians at a time when their ideas of how people function in the world were still being shaped, and the shortcomings of the Christians around them turned them off to the faith that they had so recently proclaimed.

Is it entirely necessary to make every single attempt of spreading the Gospel a conversion experience? Is planting a seed not good enough anymore? Is there a reason we act like we have to clear the land and replant an entire tree now, all in one move?

And what about the other people sitting around the churches who are imposing impossible moral standards on these new converts? What about the people who are uncomfortable letting the guy in the less-nice clothes with the tattoos on his neck into church because he looks like a sinner? When can we say, "HEY! YOU'RE WRONG!" to those folks?

I know that it's pretty much the worst thing in the world to tell someone, "I'm being a better Christian than you," but sometimes I think I'd be willing to cross that line if I thought it would do any good.

We've come to a point where, like the Pharisees, we expect people to live up to our moral codes and meet our standards for righteousness - a moral code and righteousness defined in most cases by a lifetime of growing up in a church. What about a guy who grew up in the most evil, hate-filled, miserable pit of suffering on this Earth? Should we expect him to immediately conform to our standards of morality? Does God expect that?

Or should we be looking for improvement?

Don't get me wrong... Sin is sin is sin, all the way through. One sin is just as damning as one thousand sins. But in a pursuit of perfection, managing to go from one thousand sins to one sin is pretty commendable. Is it perfection? No. Is it better? Well... I think so.

We've come to a point where, like the Pharisees, we smack people right on the nose with the full out strength of the Gospel as soon as they show the slightest interest in knowing anything about God, and we hold a spiritual gun to their heads, telling them they've got to become Christians NOW because they might die AT ANY SECOND and if they died on the way to be baptized then they'd still go to hell because God is super scary and doesn't actually like any of us. Fear is an awesome motivator for a religion based on love, don't you think?

Shouldn't we maybe just be content to plant the seeds? I have atheist friends. It is kind of silly for me to try to convince them that they should give their lives up to Christ when they don't believe that God even exists in the first place. So maybe there's gotta be some groundwork done. Maybe there needs to be some foundation laid before we can get to Jesus. Maybe we're trying to shove a pre-packaged form of Christian outreach down people's throats so we can tick off "Spreading the Gospel" on our How-To list for going to Heaven.

And maybe that's wrong.

Maybe we've lost sight of the fact that our journey to God is a... uhh... you know... journey. Jesus refers to the straight and narrow path, not the straight and narrow landing platform. The entire point of this whole thing is that we all grow closer to God. If somebody goes from very, very, very far away from God to just far away from God, I think that's a step in the right direction, don't you?

Rules of Engagement #1 - Stick To It

If you ask me who my favorite band in the world is... Well, I think most of you can finish this sentence by now. It will do you no good - avail you absolutely nothing in the slightest - if, during our discussion, you insist that Screeching Weasel (this is a real band) is better than Led Zeppelin, especially if your evidence is the Screeching Weasel song "I Hate Led Zeppelin" (which is also real, not that any of you should go listen to it, because it's also real bad).

When discussing whether Rick Deckard is a replicant or not (spoiler: he is), it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever to ask whether Han or Greedo shot first. (Han, and I don't care what your fancy-pants special edition DVD says.)

I wish I could come up with examples for this that aren't completely nerdy, but hey, I'm a nerd. It's what I know.

But the point - nerdy or not - is entirely the same across all of everything: if you're talking about oranges, apples do not bear much relevance to the topic at hand.

Guess what?

Strangely enough, that is still true for discussions about God.

Storytime!

When I was up in Kansas a few weeks ago for my friend Sarah's wedding, she was THE only person I knew there. Like, in the entire state. I knew ONE person, and that was the bride. I didn't have a car, and I'd missed my opportunity to be out for the night, so I was definitely in... watching Sarah and her bridesmaids sew dresses and enjoying the BBC Pride and Prejudice. The one with Colin Firth.

Let me clarify this: Sarah and her bridesmaids were enjoying it. I was not. I do not like Mr. Darcy, I do not like Elizabeth Bennett, and I do not like being the only guy in a room full of women swooning for a guy who isn't me. That he is fictional only adds insult to the injury.

It so happened that one of Sarah's bridesmaids, Kimi, brought along her fiancé, Kevin, who was also one of the groomsmen. This guy SAVED MY LIFE. Finally, in the midst of this rampant chick-flickery, I get to hang out with a dude. And what a dude he was.

There was little time lost between our introduction and a deep conversation being struck between myself and Kevin. We talked about a great deal many of the things that two men talk about when the women are off being "the women," but our conversation eventually wound up circling around a discussion of morality, religion, and the social progression of humanity.

My goodness, it was a fascinating conversation.

We talked for what seemed like hours! We covered so many different ideas and understandings and points of view, and the entire time, we just built off of each other and leapt to new ideas and new ways of seeing exactly what the other was talking about... It was wonderful!

And the fun part of it was that Kevin is an atheist.

I've got atheist friends. Having a discussion on these topics with someone who does not believe the same things I believe is not a foreign idea. And it's not even that this conversation went so well that is particularly what matters, because I've had that happen before, too.

What really tickles me about it is actually what happened the day after the wedding. I was talking to Jimbo, Sarah's ridiculously cool husband, for what was really the first good chat the two of us had been able to share. I'd met him for about ten seconds on Thursday, the wedding was on Friday, and Saturday's the first time he's actually had a minute to breathe, let alone talk to some dude his wife went to college with.

As Jimbo and I were talking, I was surprised when the conversation Kevin and I had shared came up. Specifically, it came up when Jimbo said, with a strong note of astonishment in his voice, "So I heard you talked religion with Kevin the other night! I am impressed."

"Wait, what? Why impressed?"

"Dude. NOBODY talks religion with Kevin. It is just IMPOSSIBLE to do."

"What, are you serious? That guy was so chill! He wasn't a jerk about it, he didn't try to shove his beliefs down my throat, and he respected that we can talk about what we agree on and what we disagree on without having to demonize the other guy."

"Hey, he said the same thing about you, man."

"Really?"

"Well, kinda. When we were getting ready for the ceremony, I asked him, 'So, what about that Aaron guy?', and the first thing he said was, 'Man, that Aaron guy is one Christian I can talk to.'"

True story!

How about that? I managed to talk to a guy I'd never met, never even seen before in my life, for a solid three hours about a topic that we completely disagreed on. And all the while, both of us have a reputation in some circles for being difficult people to discuss that topic with! I know for sure that not all of my conversations with atheists have gone as well as that one did, and I know Kevin's had some difficult conversations with Christians, as well.

It's hard sometimes to talk to someone whose fundamental definition of reality is different from yours. But I think that if you have a certain attitude in mind, it just gets a lot easier.

I think Kevin and I were both really rockin' on that attitude that night. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm bragging about my insane skills at talking to atheists or anything... #1, it's not like that field is gonna be getting its own merit badge or anything anytime soon, and #2, "bragging" implies that I did this on purpose, like I had some kind of clue what was going on. No, no... That was not me. I did not have my hands on the wheel at that point. The Spirit was definitely working in me.

And who knows? Maybe it was working in Kevin, too. I have a feeling he'd doubt that, though...

(For the six of you who will get the joke, I'm gonna pull a Jonathan Storment here.)

I tell you that... to tell you this...

I think the reason Kevin and I were able to have such a great discussion (through the working of the Spirit or through whatever else might have happened) was that we both managed to actually stick to the discussion we were having.

When Kevin asked me a specific question about my beliefs, I was able to give him an answer that didn't include a sermon, and I didn't go outside of the question by trying to bring up other beliefs he didn't ask about. He asked me about oranges, I talked about oranges. And I wasn't a jerk. (Woo! Go me!)

When I asked Kevin a specific question about his view of the God he doesn't believe in but I do, he was able to give me an answer that wasn't disparaging of my belief, and he didn't bring out his (dis)beliefs with an aim towards heating up the conversation. I asked him about apples, he talked about apples. And he wasn't a jerk. (Woo! Go Kevin!)

Man... I really ought to try to be like that every single time I talk to people. That would probably be pretty cool.

I think that's the first rule about talking religion with somebody. Whatever the question was, your answer has to stick to it. Be specific, be honest, and don't bring up the things that don't matter for that question.

If you ask me who my favorite band is, I will talk your ear off about Led Zeppelin, not The Firm. Yes, there's a fairly decent connection between the two, but it's not at all the answer to the question you asked.

This may seem like a pretty obvious thing to say, but I really think we (I) could use somebody writing some of this stuff down, because we're kinda bad at this. And not just on the Christian to atheist front. We're bad at this with fellow Christians.

If someone asks you about your beliefs on the nature of God, an answer about the evils of adultery is not going to be a whole lot of help. We get lost in the distractions instead of sticking to the point.

And the worst part about that is that the point is really simple.

BE GOOD.

That's the point.

The point is not that we all agree 100% on the interpretation of every single passage of scripture. The point is not that we all go to the same building every Sunday morning. The point is not that we all clap-or-don't-clap during the singing.

The point is that you behave yourself. That's the point. God set up everything in the world to show us who He is, and once you know who He is, you behave yourself.

So stick to that.

Don't worry about what other people are wearing, or saying, or doing, or thinking, or believing if it doesn't take away from the glory of God.

If they're not Christians, you're not going to convince them that we're the team to join if you're frothing at the mouth because they don't believe the same things you believe. And if they are Christians, you're not going to score any points with anybody by insisting that we all read the same version of the Bible as you and burn the rest.

Again, this may sound basic, and even pedantic, but I think it's worth laying out, because it lays the foundations for a couple of other things I really want to talk about.

But uhh... I guess I'm done for now. Next week, we'll talk about the nature of sin. That's gonna be fun.

Knowing My Father

My Dad's favorite band is Led Zeppelin.

His favorite movie is the one with cowboys in it. Just about doesn't matter which one.

A day spent with a motorcycle is better than most days not spent with a motorcycle.

He likes his cheddar cheese exceptionally sharp.

It should come as no surprise to you, then, that I am also a quite public fan of Led Zeppelin, a whole lot of cowboy movies, Harley-Davidson shirts, and Black Diamond Special Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar (aged 18 months).

Especially the Led Zeppelin and the cheese.

Is it just because I was brought up around those things? I've got vivid memories of listening to Led Zeppelin II at something like 8 years old. I could barely comprehend what was happening to my ears most of the time, but I know I liked it. Cheese... Well... It's cheese, and cheese is awesome.

I think I've listened to enough Led Zeppelin (and eaten enough cheese) on my own to know that I really, really like Led Zeppelin independently of any childhood memories. (And yes, of course, the cheese.) But there's no denying that I was brought up in an environment that probably prepared me for that outlook. Not like I'm complaining.

Especially not since the same father who brought me up to know and love "Ramble On" also brought me up to know and love my Father.

I was definitely placed on the path that led me to where I am today by my dad. I have been given an example of what it looks like to be a man who is dedicated to following and understanding God.

I think those two parts - following and understanding - are important to have together. It is possible on some level to follow God without understanding Him, just as it is possible on some level to understand God without following Him. But the fullness of each is brought in by the other. If you are dedicated to following God, you will find that it is easier to do once you understand more about God, and every time you understand something else about God, you see new ways in which you can follow His paths.

So I want to understand my Father in the ways I understand my dad. I understand why my dad likes Led Zeppelin. They're good. I understand why my dad likes extra sharp cheddar. It is delicious.

I also understand why he showed me, at age 3, my cat Oatmeal, laying in the middle of a highway in Judsonia. It taught me to stay out of the road.

I have such a pathological fear about getting my eyes poked out that I can't wear contacts (also, they are itchy), but at least I've still got both of my eyes. After all, "THEY DON'T GROW BACK." Thanks, dad.

I understand where my dad's coming from, so I can understand what He taught me, and that means I can better live it out. Not only can I live it out, I can pass it on to my own children.

I want to understand where God's coming from. I want to understand how God works so I can better understand how He wants me to work.

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?

Is there room for moral relativism in the pursuit of an Absolute Truth?

Are all sins the same? Is one sin worse than another? Is there such a thing as an unforgivable sin?

Just what does a mustard seed worth of faith actually look like?

I'm incredibly lucky to have the father I have. Because of the family I was raised in, I have learned that I honor my father by honoring my Father. I hope to one day be able to pass on the things I've learned to my children, setting an example for them in my faith the same way that my dad set an example for me in his faith. Not that their faith would be mine, just as my dad doesn't want my faith to be his, but that they can see a man - just as I did and do - who is dedicated on living a life of righteousness and passing it on to his children.

Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old, he will not turn from it.

- Proverbs 22:6

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

- Ephesians 6:4

In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man.
Now I've reached that age and try to do all those things the best I can.

- Led Zeppelin, "Good Times, Bad Times," from Led Zeppelin (1969)

Happy Father's Day, Dad. I love you.

Learning from Balaam (and avoiding the easy jokes) part II

So last week I started talking about Balaam. From the story of Balaam, I pulled out three ideas that I believe to be true:

1. It is possible to know who God is and worship Him wrong.
2. It is possible to earnestly seek the Word of God and still disobey Him.
3. It is possible for God to speak through you, even when you don't know what to say.

Last week's post was about the first point. Sometimes, in our zeal to please God (which is a righteous thing) we cling so strongly to our own idea of who God is and what He wants that we don't allow Him to change our minds and hearts so that we can actually SEE Him and show Him to those around us. We may know God - but we don't quite understand Him, sometimes. When our desire to be right beats out our desire to be righteous, we start to mess things up.

And that has a lot to do with our attitude towards the means through which God reaches us.

How is it that there are so many people in this world who can quote the Bible, chapter and verse, for hours on end... and yet have no idea what it actually means?

Isaac Asimov was a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant man. My goodness, was that guy smart. He was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, was vice-president of Mensa, president of the American Humanist Association, and has published works in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System. If that isn't some nerd cred, I don't know what is.

Among his published works are some incredible pieces of science-fiction, as well as non-fiction, history, the three-volume set Understanding Physics, and his world-renowned guides to Shakespeare and the Bible. If you're a serious student of Shakespeare, you can't go without Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare. And if you're a serious student of the Bible... Well, yeah, Asimov's pretty tough to beat there, too.

The interesting thing is that Isaac Asimov was an atheist.

I would dare say that Isaac Asimov knew the Bible better than most people. Certainly better than me! You guys have no idea how much time I spend writing these entries just reading entire books of the Bible, trying to remember where that one verse was... about the thing... where God said something... to someone...

I wouldn't expect Asimov to have the same reaction to the Bible as I do. He didn't believe in it. He didn't believe in it before he wrote his Guide, and he didn't believe in it after he wrote his Guide, either.

But within Christianity... Yeah, OK, I'll admit I kinda expect people to have the at least a similar reaction to the Bible as my own. And that reaction is an understanding that my own understanding is entirely secondary to the wisdom and truth contained within the Word of God.

Let us consider, for a moment, sex. Sex is kind of a big deal. I understand it's pretty fantastic. There is, in fact, an entire book of the Bible that focuses pretty strongly on sex.

But God has made it clear through the Bible that sex is meant for - reserved for - marriage. One man, one woman, one relationship. That's the point.

But I've come in contact with this idea that sex outside of marriage is OK so long as you're not married - because then, well, obviously, you're not cheating on your spouse. How can you cheat on a spouse you don't have? Brilliant!

Except oh wait that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

You remember that verse that says "God cannot be mocked"? This counts as mocking God. God doesn't have loopholes. You're not gonna pull a fast one on ol' God.

God is not a man that He should lie,

nor a son of man, that He should change His mind.

Does He speak and then not act?

Does He promise and not fulfill?

- Numbers 23:19

That little tidbit comes from Balaam's second oracle- the blessing he poured out on Israel in his second attempt to curse them. Earlier - like, 11 verses earlier - God said through Balaam, "How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?" And yet Balaam insists on cursing those whom God has not cursed, whom God has specifically told Balaam not to curse.

And sometimes we insist on our own understanding, as well, even though God is right in front of us, screaming in our ears, telling us that we're missing the picture.

Let's go back to sex (since it's such an interesting topic): how did Jesus deal with people whose sins were of a sexual nature?

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

- John 8:1-11

So that's Jesus. And there are other examples worth considering - the Samaritan woman at the well, for starters, plus the "sinful" woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair.

But what about us?

How do we deal with people - especially women - when we find out they've made mistakes of a sexual nature?

Do we smile with tears in our eyes and embrace them with the love of Jesus Christ and His church, and tell them that God will forgive their sins, just as He forgave our own sins?

Or do we look down on them? Do we call them names? Do we heap scorn and rejection on them, ostracize them from the family of God, and then have the audacity to tell them that they earned the reputation they now carry?

May God have mercy on you and comfort you if you wind up pregnant outside of marriage in most of the churches I have known in my life, because the people that God has called to be the ones who show you mercy and comfort certainly aren't going to be the ones to do it.

And we don't just do that with sex. Yeah, we blow sexual sins WAY out of proportion (lying is just as much of a sin as anything sexual [Revelation 21:8, look it up], but you don't see radical protest groups at military funerals with signs that read "GOD HATES POLITICIANS," do you?), but they're not the only thing people completely lose their minds over.

Sin is bad. I get it.

But you know what beats sin, every time? Grace. Truth. Mercy. Love.

Yelling does not make sin go away. Changing the Constitution does not make sin go away. Bombing does not make sin go away.

Christ makes sin go away.

And I meet so many people - so, so, so many people! - who say that they "love the sinner, hate the sin..." And I can't say that they don't. But I think I can say that their distinction between sinner/sin might be a little blurry.

And I think that problem comes from a misunderstanding of the Bible on a fundamental level.

Before I go any further... No, I don't have a Bible degree. No, I can't read Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic. No, I can't really tell you a lot about the Elohist/Jahwist sources in the Old Testament or the "Q" source for the New Testament. I realize that all of those are important things, and if I am seeing further, it is only because I am standing on the shoulders of people who had better luck with Machen than I did.

But I don't for a second believe that the Bible is an incomprehensible text that only the highly-educated few can ever hope to even begin to understand, and I very much doubt that any of you reading this believe that, either.

And yet, far too often, we live our lives with this sort of fear of the Bible. There are things we don't understand and questions we don't have answers to that the Bible is painfully silent over. And so, in our attempts to seize righteousness, we do exactly what we've been told not to do - we make the Bible a list of rules. We make the Bible the ultimate truth of the universe. We make the Bible the focus.

Folks - I love the Bible. But I do not follow the Bible. I follow Christ. The Bible is not God. It is about God. It is not the ultimate expression of the Will of God. God's Will is the ultimate expression of itself. The Bible is not the only way God speaks to us in today's world - it's just the only one that all of us can read at the same time.

I want to make sure that this is clearly understood. I do believe, fully, that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (II Timothy 3:16-17)

But I also believe that there are still plenty of "ignorant and unstable people" who "distort... the Scriptures... to their own destruction." (II Peter 3:16)

It has become painfully obvious to me that a knowledge of the Bible is not enough. After all, Satan, tempting Christ in the wilderness, quoted Scripture. (I fully realize that it's just as possible for me to be Satan quoting Scripture here as anything, but bear with me, I promise I have a point that's actually backed by Scripture.)

Let us consider a few things.

Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head.

- I Corinthians 11:4

So, guys, you take off your hat when you pray, right? When I went to Uplift with the Heritage Place youth group last summer, I saw way, way, waaaaaaaaay too many youth ministers who didn't. Is that just a Southern thing? Or is that a God thing? I mean, it is pretty plainly stated in the Bible, isn't it? And then right after that...

And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is just as though her head were shaved. If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.

- I Corinthians 11:5-6

So, ladies... How many of you still cover your heads when you pray? How many of you are rockin' a short haircut? How do you feel about your relationship with God? Is it tied into the length of your hair, or is it something a bit more internal than that? And then there's...

I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

- I Timothy 2:9-10

So braided hair is sinful? Oh, man. My sister is going to hell. Especially from Kindergarten to 6th grade. Gold? Pearls? Expensive clothes? Apparently Paul's got it out for my Grandmother, too!

Or maybe... Maybe maybe maybe...

Just maybe...

Maybe we should consider that the Bible is not written to us.

It is written for us, but it is not written to us. It is written to people who lived, ate, drank, worked, slept, married, worshiped and died some 18-19 centuries before we were even born. It's a product of a culture that we don't live in - that we can't live in!

Whether we like it or not, the world has changed since the time of Christ. The message written to a church in Corinth in the latter half of the first century is not the message for the church in the United States at the dawn of the 21st century. Can we learn from their message? Absolutely! Does it contain truth? Undoubtedly! Is it the ultimate truth?

No!

God is the ultimate truth!

The Bible is God's letter to us, and it's all about Him. In its pages, God reveals to us portions of His nature so that we can know what we're pursuing. He shares with us select stories of His works in the world so we can look around us now and see His hands in every aspect of our lives. He tells us about His Son so we can encounter holiness. He tells us about His Spirit - the Spirit which now lives in all who accept Christ! The same Spirit that inspired the Scriptures! The same Spirit that healed the sick, raised the dead, and spread the Gospel throughout the Roman world!

He tells us about His Spirit because He gave it to us!

The Bible is what the Bible is. It's probably not going to change any time soon. That doesn't discount a word in it! It just means that we've got to start following the Voice that is dynamic, actively working, and speaks to us in our lives! Speaks to us in our settings! Speaks to us, as individuals, in our own hearts, minds, and souls!

The Holy Spirit is here! It is now! It is forever!

The Bible is a book. It can be destroyed.

The Holy Spirit is the eternal Spirit of God, placed inside every one of us when we take on Christ in baptism. Our souls become intertwined with the very Soul of God, leading us into further understanding of God's Word, yes, but also of God's Will.

The Bible contains God's Will in the grand sweeping arcs. And that's an absolutely indispensable guide for living the life we're called to live.

But when it comes down to the details? When it comes down to the hard decisions that just aren't covered in the Bible? When it comes down to seeing what God has in store for us, here, 2000 years removed from the final Amen of Revelation?

I think God is still talking to me. I've just got to be willing to listen.

And that's where next week's entry comes in (if I still have any readers by then).

God's Role in the Story of Jephthah

Hoo-boy. Jephthah. I guess I'm doing this. Let's see what happens. It's gonna be a long one, so I hope you've got some time set aside.

Once you start getting deeper into the Bible than the typical Sunday School curriculum (complete with feltboard and fill-in-the-blank workbooks), you start to come across some stories that really don't get brought up very often from the pulpit. Some parts of the Bible just aren't used in youth group devotionals. Some Bible verses won't ever get a t-shirt, not even the really cool ones from the KJV.

Sometimes there are parts of the Bible that are brought up as accusations against the Christian faith, or against God Himself. The objection seems to be that since God allowed horrible things to happen, even within the confines of the Israelites, God's chosen people, then He's obviously no God worth following. It's an extension of the entire "problem of evil" or "the problem of pain." If God is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-benevolent, how can evil or pain exist? Why isn't life just a flawless paradise already?

I'd like to take a moment here to say that I'm not really sure if I'm stating the case for objection correctly, because it's never really made sense to me. My own personal objections to God didn't have much to do with how He treated people 5,000 years ago on the opposite side of the planet. So I realize that if I'm way off base with the objection, my defense won't necessarily work.

In this post, I'm going to be talking about the story of Jephthah, found in Judges 10:6-12:7. I realize that this is not the only problem people have with the Bible. A lot of people have a hard time reconciling the Jealous "I AM" of the First Testament to the Father God of the New Testament, especially in light of the Mosaic law's tendency towards capital punishment for seemingly minor offenses, implied acceptance of slavery, and marginalization of women, as well as the brutal nature of the conquest of Canaan as recorded in Joshua and Judges.

Rest assured, I'll get to that. Just not in this post.

For now, though... Jephthah.

I'm not going to put the whole story of Jephthah here. If you'd like to read it all, go to Judges 10:6-12:7. I will post the most troublesome part, though - this is where the objection comes in for a lot of people.

And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."

"My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry."

"You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.

From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

- Judges 11:30-40

That's pretty awful.

From a purely humanistic point of view - not even bringing questions of religion into play - this is pretty appalling. A very young girl - remember that in ancient cultures, marriage usually came pretty close to puberty - is sacrificed as a burnt offering, dying a horrifying death as a result of the religious folly of her father.

It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely terrible.

And yet it is in the Bible. And it would seem, after a surface reading, that God condoned the action, accepting the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter. It is this specific point - that God allowed the sacrifice to happen - that seems to be the most prominent problem presented in this story.

So how do we reconcile this event to the story of a holy and loving God? How can we possibly accept this story as the will of God?

Well... I don't actually think we can. I don't think we should.

I think there's a really important clue as to how we're supposed to take this story - as well as the rest of the book of Judges - in chapter 2. In Judges 2, Joshua has died, and the Israelites have begun their long-standing and oft-repeated cycle of abandoning their covenant with God. When Israel turns away from God, God allows Israel to be overtaken by one of the remaining Canaanite nations. After a while, Israel gets its mind right and calls out to God once again, and God sends a judge to deliver Israel. But as soon as the judge dies, Israel falls away again, and the cycle is repeated. That's what leads to God's decision at the end of the chapter, and a really important lesson about the educational philosophy of God.

Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did."

- Judges 2:20-22, emphasis added

I believe that the story of Jephthah is an example of Israel failing that test.

I've mentioned before that sometimes loving parents have to deny their children something they want - or at least think they want - because the consequences, whether immediate or delayed, are detrimental to the overall health and happiness of that child more than the benefits of gratification would be a positive in that child's life. To reuse my original example: letting a child eat an entire bag of Oreos may result in temporary happiness - because, hey, Oreos are delicious - but it will also result in at least a stomachache for the night, and possibly, if the Oreo buffet continues and becomes a regular thing, cavities and Type II Diabetes.

But on the other hand, sometimes loving parents have to allow their children to make the poor choices that lead to negative consequences in hopes that the negative outcome will serve as its own deterrent punishment and will allow the children to learn from their own mistakes. And sometimes, even if their children aren't actually making the mistakes themselves, parents have to allow their children to see the consequences - gruesome as they may sometimes be - when someone else chooses poorly. (By the way - my own parents were pretty big fans of both of those ideas. Remind me to tell you the story of our cat, Oatmeal, and how I learned at three years old not to play in the road...)

That's what's going on here. God is allowing Jephthah to make a horrific mistake so Israel can learn from it. It's a hard lesson for Israel to learn, but it seems that it was a necessary one.

I want to point out a passage from Leviticus that sheds some interesting light on this event.

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.

"'No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.

"'Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.

"'Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she is your father's close relative.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.

"'Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.

"'Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

"'Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.

"'Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.

"'Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her.

"'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

"'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

"'Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

"'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.

"'Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.' "

- Leviticus 18, emphasis added

I used to be kinda confused by this chapter. I always thought there was just something strange about the way it flowed: "Here's a big list of all the people you can't have sex with. And while we're at it, don't sacrifice your kids. Also, here are more people you can't have sex with."

But the thing is, it really makes sense once you recognize the conditional aspects of the morality being prescribed here. God is telling Israel not only that there are certain things that they, as the chosen people of a Holy God, cannot do, but He is also laying down a conditional aspect, telling Israel that the nations who were in Canaan before their arrival had been completely depraved people, sleeping with animals, having sex with their parents or children or even grandchildren, and sacrificing their children to Molech.

So Canaan has already become a place where the sacrifice of children is acceptable. Israel, now living among these Canaanite nations, has been seduced by the false gods of the surrounding nations (quite probably because they were also seduced by the temple prostitutes of those false gods). As time goes by, as the connection to the Mosaic covenant weakens in the hearts and minds of the Israelites, they begin to absorb the theology of the Canaanites on a cultural level, which replaced the cultural understanding of God that had been established during the time under Moses and Joshua.

So let's see who's been paying attention... In Judges 10, Israel has turned away from God, and has been conquered by the Ammonites. Take a guess at who the chief god of the Ammonites was.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.

- I Kings 11:7, emphasis added

So here we see that Israel is surrounded by a culture (the Ammonites) that practices the worship of a false god (Molech) which requires the sacrifice of children (which is completely horrible, and specifically forbidden by God on pain of land-vomit). We also see that God is allowing Israel to find their own way, testing them, to see if they will "keep the way of the LORD" or not.

Jephthah's view of how God works had been distorted by the culture he lived in. Jephthah believed that God, like Molech, was bound to the invocation of a worshiper. When someone made a sacrifice to Molech - or Ba'al, or Ashteroth, or Chemosh, or any of the other gods - it was with a sort of "payment" idea in mind. "If I slaughter this calf for Ba'al, that means that Ba'al is obligated to bless me with fertile crops this coming season." God didn't - and doesn't - work like that. Sacrifices were made to God in thanks for everything He had already done - like delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, bringing in good crops, or, you know, creating the universe - as well as sacrifices made for atonement of sins and sacrifices made just in praise and worship of the one true holy God.

So what happened? Israel fell away from God, embraced the culture of idol worship they were surrounded by, which in turn distorted their view of God when they tried to return to Him. Jephthah, operating under that distorted view, sacrifices his daughter. God does not stop Him, but allows Jephthah's truly awful sin to take place.

Jephthah's sin is so heinous, so abominable, so detestable, that the writer of Judges cannot even bring himself to write down what actually happened to Jephthah's daughter. Notice that in verse 39 it simply says that "he did to her as he had vowed."

BUT! There is something VERY important to notice here! Notice the last phrase of verse 39, and then verse 40.

From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

What is this commemoration about? Is it a thankful celebration to the God who delivered Israel from her captors, taking only a young girl as His payment? Or is it a somber memorial of how far Israel had fallen away from God? Is it a ritual to help remind Israel of their own past sin? Is it a wake-up cry for the people of God to remember that not only have they been delivered from a life of slavery in Egypt, but that they have also been delivered out of a life of slavery to sin?

God called the Israelites to live as a holy and righteous people. Several times in Leviticus, God says, "I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy." Their ethical behavior, specifically prescribed by God, was to be in pursuit of the holiness of God. The sacrifice of an innocent young girl was enough of a shock to wake Israel up, shake her out of her theological confusion, and bring her back closer to God.

Did God allow the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter to happen? Well... He didn't stop it, so I guess that counts as "allowing" it, yeah... But God also allowed Eve to listen to the serpent, and Adam to listen to Eve - but they learned from it. God also allowed me to make all the many, many, many mistakes I've made in my life - but I've learned from them. So did God allow Israel - through Jephthah - to make a mistake? Yes. But they learned from that mistake.

Did God accept Jephthah's sacrifice? There's nothing in the story that suggests He did. In Judges 11:29, the "spirit of the LORD" has already come over Jephthah when he makes his foolish, rash vow. This vow, by the way, was already going to get Jephthah in trouble no matter what happened. By vowing to sacrifice "whatever," Jephthah is violating Levitical code, which specifically listed the requirements for what could and could not be sacrificed to God, as well as how the sacrifices were to be made. He's also violating the very spirit of sacrifice. God wants our sacrifice to be intentional, planned out, and deliberate... not just "Well, I'll give God whatever I've got laying around when I think of it."

We also see here the danger of allowing the mindset of the world to become intermingled with our faith. Are we as Christians today in danger of sacrificing our children as burnt offerings to God if we aren't listening to the pure truth of the Gospel? Well... Probably not.

But are we in danger of leading our children down paths that aren't where God intended for us to go? Very much so.

Joel Osteen has made a bajillion dollars telling people that a life of good Christian piety leads to worldly success. The Prayer of Jabez put forth the idea that if you just pray like a guy mentioned exactly one time ever in the entire Bible, you'll be able to have an enormous stock portfolio and 3 BMWs in the garage. And of course there is always just the idea that "God wants me to be happy!"

That's the world talking. That's not God.

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 1:27, emphasis added

Make sure you know what you believe. Make sure you believe what you say you believe. Make sure you live what you believe. Love God, love others, and do it in that order. Anything else just slows you down.

I would like to extend very heartfelt and sincere thanks to my dear friend Peggy Thomas for all of her help on this one. I could not have written this without her. (Well, at least not the coherent and sensible parts - I got stupid covered just fine on my own, thanks.)