This Christmas break, when preparing for our Wednesday night high school Bible study, our youth minister, Steven, and I were attempting to come up with some questions for our youth group to chew on and discuss. Some of the questions we thought about were deeper than others, but lately there had been one question on my mind, "Why do you keep faith in God?" The question was so simple to many, but the answer was complex when thought about for an adequate amount of time. Not many of our youth had processed a question like that.
When we ended up asking the question to the students, I wanted to avoid one sentence answers in hopes that the youth group would really try to process the question. The answers were interesting. Some were cliche, others were the beginning stages of thinking the question out. But they asked me, and I realized the question is complicated yes, but it is even more complicated when you only have a few minutes to deliver your answer. It is more complex then that. Faith isn't a sentence or a statement, it is a story. For the kids in my youth group, this story had hopefully just begun. Mine was at least a little farther down the spiritual timeline, although not much. I wasn't highly satisfied with my answer at the time, and by the end of this blog, I probably still won't be satisfied. But hopefully by the end of it we have a common starting place, and maybe you will share a little bit of your reasons with me.
Throughout the Bible you can't really find any clear answer for where God came from. In fact, you can't really find anywhere where an author was defending the idea that God exists. Paul says "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) That may be the closest we can get to a proof. Paul says that nature just screams "Creator!" and it points us to that very creator. I don't know how much nature has played a part in my faith, but I know I have seen awe-inspiring and beautiful things in his creation. Still not where my faith is found. But I think we have this idea that the opposite of faith is doubt. A wise man once told me "The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty." When you are certain about what you have faith in, it becomes knowledge not faith.
We were talking about postmodern trends in my Congregational Ministry class. And we were addressing Modernity in this discussion as well. (Trust me this is going somewhere.) Throughout all of the discussion on Modernity, I could see that it was deeply rooted in this rational thinking, this idea that God can be captured (in the sense that he can be understood). And it is evident in today's preaching, in today's teaching, in today's bumper stickers, in today's thinking of God as a whole. The modern mind has put God in thesis statements, protest signs, and song lyrics, and I believe our faith and theology has slowly become just a hodge-podge of those different ideas. "God is always there for me" "God is my best friend", etc. and although these statements are true at some level, we replace them for authentic, original and well-developed thoughts about God.
The Bible, obviously, is a key tool in attempting to understand God, but our rational thinking has made the Bible our key to understanding everything about God. In some sense, we believe that we can truly know God in every facet just by reading the Bible, experiencing nature, or participating in some spiritual discipline. Even though these three activities are completely necessary in developing a relationship with the Father, the goal is never to obtain full understanding.
I am reminded of this grandness when I read God's response to Job. Job and his friends have spent the entire book questioning God, and talking as if they knew everything about God, and for 4 straight chapters (Job 38-41) God reminds Job of just how limited his understanding is. Go ahead and read it. Be humbled by it. And understand that it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of who God is. The Bible doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the great and mighty things God has done. How could it? How can something that I can count the letters, sentences, verses, paragraphs, chapters and books, something that has an "In the beginning" and an "Amen", something that is written by humans, ever begin to capture an infinite God.
Please, please, please do not misunderstand me here. THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED AND AUTHORITATIVE. Hopefully, since it is in all caps we can understand that. But we can never equate Bible knowledge with knowledge of who God truly is. Can't be done. But I do have a deeper appreciation that it gives me the best attempt at understanding it. Everything in there about God is true, but he is infinitely more.
That helps my faith so much more. I don't believe in God because "everything makes sense." It still doesn't make sense why babies die, why nations are devoured with disease, why I go through tough times, but I serve a God who is so big that it makes it ok for things not to make sense. A God who is infinite, all-powerful, all loving, all just.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Intro and a Random Thought
So, maybe you just stumbled upon this blog, or maybe you know me pretty well. Either way, this blog is just kind of gonna be an outlet. I am not really intending for debate or anything like that. If discussion occurs, I won't be displeased.
Here is a list of some things I will probably be posting about and reasons why.
1. Jesus stuff- Being a student at Johnson Bible College and the worship minister of a congregation in Martinsville, Va, much of my time is spent thinking about ways to better my relationship with Christ, refining my views on who God is, and seeking ways to better the body of believers as a whole. I don't plan on outlining my entire theology here, but hopefully along the way you can start to identify with some of my beliefs.
2. Music- I spend a lot of time writing music, and listening to music (Both from the secular realm and the worship realm.), so I hope to post some videos of songs I have been listening to, and talk about what they mean to me.
3. Anything I want. It is my blog after all.
So without further ado (as if you have been anxiously awaiting). My first blog.
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about sin. My own struggle with it may have a lot to do with it, but within my thinking I believe I have developed a strong resentment for that word "struggle." This probably is due to the fact that we were never meant to struggle with sin. Let's take a journey back, shall we.
In the beginning, God created everything. He created land, sea, stars, air, plants, animals, and humans. (Sunday school type lesson there.) But within this creation, God created it exactly as he wanted it. Man took care of the earth, there was no death, and most importantly God walked among man. In order for God to create the one thing he desired, true relationship, with man, there had to be an alternative route for the man. Who wants to have a relationship with someone who is forced into that relationship. Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the center of the garden. We know the rest of the story. They are tempted, eat from the tree, and for the first time decide against their relationship with God.The sin was disobedience to God, yes but I think an even bigger issue is what they gained from the tree of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.
Lately, I have been thinking of what exactly that all entails. From that point on we were no longer naive of our sin, instead we were ashamed of who God created us to be. And on an even more individual level, I think about what that means for me as God attempts to work me back to his original intent. God's purpose is not for me to overcome my sin, it is for me to become ignorant of what sin even is. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Christ did not even know what sin was. Yes, he was tempted, Yes, he was aware of what sin was. But in his mind and in his heart, he knew no sin. I have been wondering what that would look like. What if I was so consumed in the will of God, that I had no idea what sin looked like? What if every time sin reared its ugly head at me, my relationship with God took center stage to the point where people might be able to look at me and say "He knows no sin"?
I think far too often in our struggles we place too much focus on the sin itself, allowing it to bind us as if we weren't free in Christ. Rather than saying, "Oh God, I don't want to cuss, or lie, or steal, or fill-in-the-blank," we rest our struggle in the fact that we want to be more like Christ. Our fight with sin isn't a mere self-improvement exercise, but an exercise that draws us nearer to Christ.
We sang a song in chapel this morning called the Desert Song. I think the words are theologically sound. It talks about the struggles that we face, but rather than attempting to defeat them on our own, we look instead to Christ as our powerful and able Savior.
Here is a list of some things I will probably be posting about and reasons why.
1. Jesus stuff- Being a student at Johnson Bible College and the worship minister of a congregation in Martinsville, Va, much of my time is spent thinking about ways to better my relationship with Christ, refining my views on who God is, and seeking ways to better the body of believers as a whole. I don't plan on outlining my entire theology here, but hopefully along the way you can start to identify with some of my beliefs.
2. Music- I spend a lot of time writing music, and listening to music (Both from the secular realm and the worship realm.), so I hope to post some videos of songs I have been listening to, and talk about what they mean to me.
3. Anything I want. It is my blog after all.
So without further ado (as if you have been anxiously awaiting). My first blog.
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about sin. My own struggle with it may have a lot to do with it, but within my thinking I believe I have developed a strong resentment for that word "struggle." This probably is due to the fact that we were never meant to struggle with sin. Let's take a journey back, shall we.
In the beginning, God created everything. He created land, sea, stars, air, plants, animals, and humans. (Sunday school type lesson there.) But within this creation, God created it exactly as he wanted it. Man took care of the earth, there was no death, and most importantly God walked among man. In order for God to create the one thing he desired, true relationship, with man, there had to be an alternative route for the man. Who wants to have a relationship with someone who is forced into that relationship. Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the center of the garden. We know the rest of the story. They are tempted, eat from the tree, and for the first time decide against their relationship with God.The sin was disobedience to God, yes but I think an even bigger issue is what they gained from the tree of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.
Lately, I have been thinking of what exactly that all entails. From that point on we were no longer naive of our sin, instead we were ashamed of who God created us to be. And on an even more individual level, I think about what that means for me as God attempts to work me back to his original intent. God's purpose is not for me to overcome my sin, it is for me to become ignorant of what sin even is. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Christ did not even know what sin was. Yes, he was tempted, Yes, he was aware of what sin was. But in his mind and in his heart, he knew no sin. I have been wondering what that would look like. What if I was so consumed in the will of God, that I had no idea what sin looked like? What if every time sin reared its ugly head at me, my relationship with God took center stage to the point where people might be able to look at me and say "He knows no sin"?
I think far too often in our struggles we place too much focus on the sin itself, allowing it to bind us as if we weren't free in Christ. Rather than saying, "Oh God, I don't want to cuss, or lie, or steal, or fill-in-the-blank," we rest our struggle in the fact that we want to be more like Christ. Our fight with sin isn't a mere self-improvement exercise, but an exercise that draws us nearer to Christ.
We sang a song in chapel this morning called the Desert Song. I think the words are theologically sound. It talks about the struggles that we face, but rather than attempting to defeat them on our own, we look instead to Christ as our powerful and able Savior.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)