Good morning! I am sitting in the lobby of a Ramada Inn at my fiance's sorority banquet. I have decided to take the down time I have and do a little reading and writing. I have enjoyed my time here so far and am looking forward to a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.
I leave in 16 days for India. I cannot even believe it. In my last post, I asked that you begin to pray for the preparation process. I am going to add a few things to that list. We still have some people who have not raised all their money. Please pray that the Lord provides. Also, I found out that a few days of the trip we will be traveling to some of the paramount Hindu places of worship. These are such dark places, and we will need serious prayer as we try to bring light to these Hindu strongholds. I cannot give too many specifics about the trip, but if you want more, then email me. I will try and send you an update with more specific prayer requests.
In my last post, I talked about reading John Stott's book The Contemporary Christian. It has been a great book, and the topic of the last chapter I read brings me to writing today. In the first chapter, Stott talks about the Human Paradox. This paradox, as Stott testifies, is one between man's "dignity and depravity." I completely am on board with the depravity of man. At our core is a desire for evil and sin. We were sinful at birth, and only by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, has the penalty of our sin been lifted from us. However, even after we become followers of Christ, we still possess a nature that leans toward sin. That is why Paul battles that he doesn't do the good that he wants to but the bad he doesn't want to. We see throughout Scripture the desire for one to do good, but continually, drawn by a nature that is evil to do wrong. Thus, I am all on board with Total Depravity. However, my question of this paradox comes with the identification of the dignity of man.
Basically, the question I ponder is can man do good apart from God. To which I say, no way! However, we must look at this from two perspectives. The first with believers and the second with non-believers. John 15:5 addresses this issue with believers: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." As believers, who abide in Him and He in us, we know that the only way "good" comes from our life is from guidance of the Father "who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Php. 2:13). We as sin-natured creatures must rely fully on God to do good through us; thus, it is easy for me to understand this with believers and their "good" acts, but what about non-believers. How do you deal with those lost people who have achieved what society has deemed "great" things for the cause of justice, social reform, etc? What do we do about the lost people in the world who we know are not abiding in Christ nor Christ in them, yet perform "good" acts? Does a non-believer have the ability to perform good acts independent of the Father? If so, then what is the standard for good, and who sets it?
It has been established that man is sinful from birth; therefore, I believe that at the core of man is the desire to do evil. As believers, we understand acts of dignity or good acts as those that glorify the Father. Those acts that point to nothing of ourselves, others, or society but only Himself. This is not the case for a non-believer. Please don't read me wrong. I do believe that all acts of man (good or bad) ultimately glorify the Lord, whether in punishment of eternal hell or exaltation of Himself. That is clear from Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I AM GOD; I WILL BE exalted among the nations, I WILL BE exalted in the earth." But, I do not believe that actions that non-believers perform that are labeled as good are considered good in God's eyes. When a lost person performs actions that are good what is the focus? Is it others, maybe selfishness, pride, betterment of society? I believe that these actions are good actions, that they do benefit society, and that I am eternally grateful for some of the work that was done; however, if the person performing the act is not pointing to the Father and their motive is not exaltation of Him, then it is not a good act because apart from Christ they do nothing.
Thus, my conclusion is that either God does not consider these acts good, or that in His Sovereignty, He controls the hearts, minds, actions of all people and utilizes the lost to achieve His plans: glorification of Himself and resultantly good and dignified acts. Therefore, all the good things of this world, whether done by lost or saved people are a byproduct of the Father. (This does not mean that a lost person can perform good deeds and be saved. I am not a universalist or pluralist. If you only knew me, then you would know this could not be further from the truth). Therefore, the paradox presented by Stott must be understood in light of all this: man possesses a sinful nature but at the same time desires for what is just, loving, and peaceful. He is depraved but desires dignity.
I am not sure if all of this makes sense. It sure is hard to understand it in my mind. I am in no way claiming to have this all figured out; therefore, any and all help and suggestions on this topic would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. Have a great day!
Waging war against the soul,
Tim <><
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
India, John Stott, and more!
I have finally busted into the world of blogging. I have set this up to be able to post updates while I am on my trip in India, but also to share some of my thoughts about life! I don't know how valuable they are, but for anyone who wants to read this...I hope you enjoy.
Three weeks from now I will be on a plane heading to Delhi, India. It blows my mind and makes me nervous, anxious, and excited to see what the Lord is going to do in my life and the life of others while I am there. I ask that you would begin to pray for the planning process. I found out that I will be playing guitar some and am a little nervous. I haven't played guitar and a while, but I know the Lord will use it for His glory and His honor. You could also pray that I develop some good callouses. I ask not that you pray for safety and protection but that you pray that we be dangerous and a threat to the plans of the Devil. There will be days that we will be prayer walking through some of the strongholds of the Hindu belief. I pray that as light enters darkness, the darkness is scared and shudders. We come in the authority and power of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. At His name, every knee will bow and tongue confess. Wow! To truly understand that power is difficult.
India is heavy on my heart, but other things are heavy as well. As most of you know, I will be marrying the most amazing girl in the world (I might be biased) on December 8. I am so blessed to have such a beautiful and wonderful girl. The Lord is teaching me more and more about love, myself, and how stupid I was for thinking I know it all. He has grown me and shown me more of Himself through Molly. One of the big decisions in our life together will be the option to travel overseas and study abroad. I am looking into studying at Oxford, and I am extremely nervous. I had the opportunity to talk to a friend the other day about the opportunity, and he gave me some great suggestions. These suggestions and the thought it provoked is what leads me to write this article tonight.
I have been thinking about what I desire to study at Oxford. I am not sure how it all fleshes out, but I want to study Culture Theology. John Stott says is best in his phrase double listening (comes from his book The Contemporary Christian). He explains this as the task of listening "carefully both to the ancient Word and to the modern world, in order to relate the one to the other with a combination of fidelity and sensitivity." My heart is to teach students. The charge I believe is not only to get a student to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in Him, but also to go back into culture and transform it. Not remove themselves from culture, but plug oneself right back into it. Changing it and transforming it. The balance is guarding oneself from falling into sin that culture tempts them with and immersing oneself into it enough to impact it. Culture is a creation of the Lord, whether you want to admit it or not. "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16). We cannot look at culture, adopt the attitude that it is evil, and remove ourselves from it. Why don't we do a better job of training and teaching students to take their faith with them as they rise to the top of their fields? I am not claiming that we need a theocracy, by no means am I claiming this, but we do need to charge people with what Stott has coined a second conversion: that conversion being one back into culture to transform it.
Something else that highly interests me is how an individual goes into a foreign country, assesses the culture, and then learns how to reach the people in a way that is contextual and applicable to that culture. What does one need to know about the culture? How do you go about addressing major social concerns? Do you even do this? What points of Christianity are paramount? Do you present Christ first and allow all else to fall in place? What do you do about a Muslim who comes to faith and has 6 wives? The Bible says God hates divorce and claims the command of one wife. But is this a greater "sin" than a man trapped in pornography married to a woman or a man caught in addiction? Some of these questions are those that cross-cultural missionaries must address. I believe Paul addresses the issue of what a culture needs to know about Christ when in Acts 17 he is in Athens. He assesses their culture and then makes a statement to the men of Athens in vs 24-31. I will have more on this later.
My desire is to teach students how to impact their culture. When culture is so greatly affected by those people who are between the ages of 12-25, why are we not training them to impact it? Not those who are older. It would be like me trying to change decisions that George Bush makes in the White House when I am not even close to the political spectrum. Lets begin to open students' eyes to the culture around them and incite them to transform it. But where do we begin? I think I smell a theses topic...eh?
As I sit here and write, so many thoughts come to my head. I don't believe I have said much. Don't worry, those that are reading this...I promise I will get better with the whole blogging thing! I believe I will close this post for tonight and start again when more ideas come. Until then, grace and peace be yours!
Three weeks from now I will be on a plane heading to Delhi, India. It blows my mind and makes me nervous, anxious, and excited to see what the Lord is going to do in my life and the life of others while I am there. I ask that you would begin to pray for the planning process. I found out that I will be playing guitar some and am a little nervous. I haven't played guitar and a while, but I know the Lord will use it for His glory and His honor. You could also pray that I develop some good callouses. I ask not that you pray for safety and protection but that you pray that we be dangerous and a threat to the plans of the Devil. There will be days that we will be prayer walking through some of the strongholds of the Hindu belief. I pray that as light enters darkness, the darkness is scared and shudders. We come in the authority and power of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. At His name, every knee will bow and tongue confess. Wow! To truly understand that power is difficult.
India is heavy on my heart, but other things are heavy as well. As most of you know, I will be marrying the most amazing girl in the world (I might be biased) on December 8. I am so blessed to have such a beautiful and wonderful girl. The Lord is teaching me more and more about love, myself, and how stupid I was for thinking I know it all. He has grown me and shown me more of Himself through Molly. One of the big decisions in our life together will be the option to travel overseas and study abroad. I am looking into studying at Oxford, and I am extremely nervous. I had the opportunity to talk to a friend the other day about the opportunity, and he gave me some great suggestions. These suggestions and the thought it provoked is what leads me to write this article tonight.
I have been thinking about what I desire to study at Oxford. I am not sure how it all fleshes out, but I want to study Culture Theology. John Stott says is best in his phrase double listening (comes from his book The Contemporary Christian). He explains this as the task of listening "carefully both to the ancient Word and to the modern world, in order to relate the one to the other with a combination of fidelity and sensitivity." My heart is to teach students. The charge I believe is not only to get a student to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in Him, but also to go back into culture and transform it. Not remove themselves from culture, but plug oneself right back into it. Changing it and transforming it. The balance is guarding oneself from falling into sin that culture tempts them with and immersing oneself into it enough to impact it. Culture is a creation of the Lord, whether you want to admit it or not. "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16). We cannot look at culture, adopt the attitude that it is evil, and remove ourselves from it. Why don't we do a better job of training and teaching students to take their faith with them as they rise to the top of their fields? I am not claiming that we need a theocracy, by no means am I claiming this, but we do need to charge people with what Stott has coined a second conversion: that conversion being one back into culture to transform it.
Something else that highly interests me is how an individual goes into a foreign country, assesses the culture, and then learns how to reach the people in a way that is contextual and applicable to that culture. What does one need to know about the culture? How do you go about addressing major social concerns? Do you even do this? What points of Christianity are paramount? Do you present Christ first and allow all else to fall in place? What do you do about a Muslim who comes to faith and has 6 wives? The Bible says God hates divorce and claims the command of one wife. But is this a greater "sin" than a man trapped in pornography married to a woman or a man caught in addiction? Some of these questions are those that cross-cultural missionaries must address. I believe Paul addresses the issue of what a culture needs to know about Christ when in Acts 17 he is in Athens. He assesses their culture and then makes a statement to the men of Athens in vs 24-31. I will have more on this later.
My desire is to teach students how to impact their culture. When culture is so greatly affected by those people who are between the ages of 12-25, why are we not training them to impact it? Not those who are older. It would be like me trying to change decisions that George Bush makes in the White House when I am not even close to the political spectrum. Lets begin to open students' eyes to the culture around them and incite them to transform it. But where do we begin? I think I smell a theses topic...eh?
As I sit here and write, so many thoughts come to my head. I don't believe I have said much. Don't worry, those that are reading this...I promise I will get better with the whole blogging thing! I believe I will close this post for tonight and start again when more ideas come. Until then, grace and peace be yours!
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