Tag Archives: God

The Journey chronicled…

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I am going to chronicle the journey I began last year in January when I began to investigate basically disproving a book given to me by a friend.  Yeah, now that I say that out loud it sounds wrong, but at the time I thought I was rescuing a brother from errant doctrine.  What I discovered was I really didn’t believe the way I thought I did, no I wasn’t poorly informed about what I believed, just horribly informed on what others would have lumped me in with.  Mostly I see now I didn’t place a great deal of emphasis where I now believe it should have been placed.  And oh well I should just admit it, I flip flopped completely on several issues that I now understand better.  Oddly, in my attempts to defend what I thought the book thought my beliefs were, I found I did not really come down in the camp as a true Armenian. I also discovered a new rich history of information about the God I love, and despite my efforts to deny it, I was left believing that which I was initially attempting to disprove.

The desire to place God as the center and object of my devotions seems plainly silly that I was not already doing that.  But my new discoveries I attribute to God blessing me with the grace to see a better way.  Now I sound emergent, but ironically it is a connection with our church history and prior teachings that I has led me to a new love that I feel compels me to look at the world through God’s perspective, rather than my own.

I believe embracing a “Soli Deo gloria” or “glory to God alone” viewpoint as well as many other differences has made a tremendous improvement on my life, I pray others will ultimately think so as well as I try and live for God, and not for John.  Hopefully I will begin listing some of the observations and scriptural references that affected the change here on Worthy Journey starting this weekend, March 19th, 2011.  I pray it may be informative for others out there who desire to consider the differences between the Armenian and Calvinistic views as viewed by one from what he thought was the Armenian position.  My old position truly wasn’t, albeit it was closer than to Calvinism; which is where a lot of confusion and heated discussion erupted from.  Your welcome and desired to add your thoughts and comments within the process.

SPOILER: I don’t think most people are in jeopardy of being heretical except when they are taken to extremes, if you really are a full Armenian as described by the Remonstrants please consider reviewing them to see if you really are.  I was not. Though I do feel one is more prone to lead to a distorted view of our relationship to God and his will than the other.  But, I know several that seem to have a remarkably reformed thought process for disliking the label Calvinist so.

Helping others by focusing less on myself.

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Recently there has been some discussion around me of where our focus lies on helping others. There is a new program out that is called “one laptop one child” and for a limited amount of time you can buy a laptop for $400 and one will be given away to a child in an impoverished country for your efforts. Now this is certainly a commendable thing to do, children who are given a tool to help them embrace learning or are given an opportunity to learn at all will indeed have a better chance to succeed. Ultimately this success would allow them to prosper and possibly continue to help others from their home area lifting the whole region from the bottom up, rather than the top down.

I would certainly not argue that there is any flaw in that assumption, helping people help themselves through education should work and be less prone to influence from potentially corrupt officials who might choose to not distribute raw funds. But what I don’t understand is why we choose to not pay attention to the millions of children here in our own neighborhoods that could benefit from some form of assistance in this regard as well.

This notion of programs that exist to assist others in a far off location brings me back to my opening comment. A friend of mine is a youth minister (Jason over at talkinthewalk.com)and has discussed on his site the issues of youth missions and the perceived need to have their missions in some remote location. The further the better it would seem if you talk tot he right people, and I have often thought it was easier to minister to those in far off regions where I am certainly the outsider or foreigner. I felt it would be easier to be like Jesus if I already didn’t fit in, that the difference between how I treated others and he way they were would be more obvious.

The embarrassing truth is I should have that same advantage here. Even though everyone (surely not so) seems to have what they need (materially at best) and I have plenty myself there are tremendous opportunities here locally. You don’t even have drive downtown, there are people living around me on all sides. I know I am speaking about getting to know the folks that live right next door to us, and they may even already be church attending individuals, but they may not. Within our own church itself why are we not thinking of spending our efforts to improve the lot of those we purport to love and care about. Most likely because we do not.

We are a nation of weekend warriors for christ. It is like we have formed a national guard unit that we hope will only be deployed once or twice a year in the battle to save the planet. We are in the front lines and don’t even realize it. The only reason I can see in myself as to why I don’t do more is selfishness. It sounds so harsh, and I don’t want to believe it, but it must be true. I care about me more than I care about you. That certainly isn’t Christ like, now if there were only one soda left on the counter I would let you have it. If you needed a ride to the airport at 11pm or even midnight I am your man, but that’s because I know you probably. We are going to have decide if we really want to be full-time Christians or just weekend warriors. And if I want to be a full-time Christian then I am going to have to start thinking about those that are around me that I don’t know and those I do know more than myself.

I am reminded of a song that says “more of you and less of me”, if we can just get that straightened out in our lives we won’t need to go out of town to make a difference. We will be making a difference year round everywhere we are, with or without a programed effort from our church to accomplish it. A small plug for a ministry at my church that I hope could be a part of this solution, small groups.

In a small group you can get to know people in a more personal and intimate way, but no program will substitute for the fact the answer lies in our own decision to become like Christ and place ourselves behind others. It is not an easy answer, but it is the one he gave me. First to Love him and his father will all my heart, no mention of me there. And then to Love others like I love myself. If that were true the local churches would be bursting with programs that went beyond the superficial. The momentum would be again like that of the early church bowling over governments, changing lives, and bringing the lost to the father.

Pray for our own selflessness.

Thought provoking view on the 2 God's in Genesis

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First let me say if you have no idea what I am talking about then first go read the first 2 chapters of Genesis paying particular attention to the way God is described in the two chapters. Allan on his blog poses a unique question that I am glad to see has sparked some discussion amongst those that know me.

I have seen a couple of different responses to this inquiry and one of them disturbed me a bit. I have snipped a section below to give you a taste if you don’t have time to go read the full story, I’ll pick up below the quote…

“The God of Genesis 1 doesn’t have to touch, or even see, anything. He’s distant from it. All of creation seems to take care of itself once he’s finished. He gives orders and commands. God blesses and provides for his creation and gives it what it needs. But it’s all very matter of fact and general.

Contrast that with the God of Genesis 2. That account shows us a God who forms man and breathes into his nostrils. He performs surgery on Adam and then sculpts Eve with his hands. In fact, he forms every animal and bird from the dust of the ground, not just man. He “plants” the garden. He “brought” man to the garden. He “brought” the animals to Adam. And he provided Eve out of concern for the man.” – The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys » Blog Archive » The Two Gods of Creation

They both started out similarly, first a somewhat confused and then interested look followed with an inquiry into “whatever do you mean the 2 gods described in Genesis?” Then the difference really hit home. A fellow at my work thought that it was odd at first, and as we read through the accounts we were impressed by the simplicity of the two accounts and relief that they were indeed the same God. This was followed by a discussion I enjoyed about the Simplicity and depth that has been conveyed to us through the word of God. No fear, no doubts, just wonder at the plan God laid out so quickly in 2 short chapters to describe the unique divine nature of our God. (This is where I think Allan has hit the nail squarely on the head in his description)

The second however is one where the listener was put off and defensive almost immediately to the idea, and I almost thought they might be a bit offended I had approached the subject in the manner I did. Almost like it was being flip and demeaning to God. It is this strict “The bible says what it says, don’t try to read to much into it” attitude that I wonder about. Is it wrong to pursue a greater understanding of the nuances God has preserved for us in his word? I don’t think so, although I can understand a fear that one needs to be careful to make sure your efforts are holding true to the contextual intention of the message as it was conveyed.

At first I thought it was an age thing, but that isn’t it because after beginning to think about this I have seen it from both sides of the age fence. I am no longer considered a spring chicken, though I am no where near pasturing age, I am pretty much a tweener right now I think. So if it isn’t age what is it? My wife was once asked if she thought you had to be able to read Hebrew and Greek to get into Heaven, she was taken aback, but the persons point was he didn’t think all that “interpreting” was necessary, just take the Word at it’s word.

That isn’t a bad thought if your truly aware of how the word was understood when it was originally given. I think this deeper understanding of God’s will is part of the maturing process, the feeding on meat rather than milk. I am not accusing anyone of being worldly or immature but I am seeking a better definition of meat for my life. Growing spiritually in knowledge and actions I think is beginning that walk in Christianity, if your not walking/growing your sitting still waiting.

If you began the journey good for you, I don’t try to place limits on what God’s grace and mercy cover after you become a believer. But, I can’t help thinking it is better to learn and grow than sit and wither. I know many of us fear the growth, what if I get to big for the pot I am planted in? Maybe you move to a bigger pot, or maybe you are taken completely out of the pot and are transplanted to a larger field.

In the end I liked Allan’s view on God’s 2 different sides being described in Genesis, I think it’s good to stretch outside our own boundries. In my case it was somewhat like “why did you focus on that, I have looked that over and moved on, but wait, that is interesting…” When someone challenges you with a new idea, don’t take it as truth immediately, take it in and compare it with the scripture. Does the statement ring true to the nature and descriptions given throughout the Bible along the subject. If the concept holds up then it is probably a sound view worth further study.

After that study you can decide for yourself what you think of the proposed idea. When your done with your research you’ve most likely jumped from being just a passive reader to an active reader growing deeper in your understanding of God’s will.