[Nothing new under the sun here.]
Heard in church today: What would Jesus do? Apparently, this concept is at pretty old, not just cooked up in the 1990s by the neo-religious-right.
The idea is: promise that, for a year, you won't do anything at all without asking yourself: What would Jesus do?
Now, I wonder....
Jesus would give his all. His earthly possessions, his blood, his life. Every bit of it.
"Sell everything you have and give the money to the poor."
So, what's the point of asking ourselves what Jesus would do? We should sell our possessions and give the money to the poor? Move into the smallest, cheapest house and car, buy clothes at the PTA thrift shop, never take vacations (except for mission work), not spend money on unnecessary luxuries like digital cameras or cable TV or NetFlix? Stop smoking and drinking two beers a day?
Or... are we simply expected to writhe in guilt every minute of every day at our failure to have the courage and faith to take that road of poverty?
God wants the best for us. He doesn't want us sad and miserable every day. Of course, we should be aware of our sins (and that includes our lack of total commitment), but we should also be aware of his love for us in spite of our imperfections.
Man, what a tough question. I get a little pissed off at people that cast these sorts of judgemental aphorisms around. "What would Jesus do?" Implying a (yet another) holier-than-thou attitude. Leave me alone!
And, of course, there I am, sitting in church, being judgemental myself, because everybody is giving these self-centered reasons for giving money to the church (e.g., "because it makes me feel so good!" It's not about you, it's about God. You missed the point. Grump, grump, grump).
And... he does expect us to live the life of total charity. If every person on the planet were to do so, that would be... the kingdom of God.
Sigh.
So. A nothing blog entry. We should act. We should feel guilty. But not too guilty, because we are still loved. But we should still act.
And, by the way, blogging is not acting. Unfortunately.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Did God Divorce His Wife?
A dramatic headline, I know.
God = Elohim.
God is El, I think. Bethel, house of God. Israel, God strives. Daniel, God is my judge.
El was the supreme god in the land that became Israel, the father of Baal and the husband of Ashera, against whom the Old Testament prophets constantly railed. Why such strong reactions against both Ashera and Baal? We hate the ones closest to us. Case in point: the ones the New Testament Jews despised the most were the Samaritans, I believe. (Samaritans [and there are still some today] believe the only scripture is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, so they're like "almost-Jews".)
If we take the "parental figure" view of God, Israel (and us, as spiritual/figurative descendants of Israel) was God's children.
My 8-yr-old son was lolling around on the carpet at home a few days ago. I asked him to pack his knapsack for school the next day. He did, reluctantly. Then I asked him to zip his knapsack up, so the stuff wouldn't fall out. He looked directly at me, said "No." and then looked over at his mom. She is encouraging this sort of behavior on his part. She gives him emotional support at moments like this, or at least, doesn't discourage him. (It's complicated, but she's conveyed to him that she likes it when he shows her favor over me, and shows evidence of alienation from me. She actively worked to punish him in the past for showing me favor, now she doesn't have to; all she has to do is not discourage it, so it's essentially passive encouragement.)
The emotional pain I felt was piercing.
My young son, the innocent child, is showing me he doesn't respect me. I see him growing away from me, day by day, under the subtle encouragement of his mom. (I couldn't discipline him because then she would have "rescued" him from me, or she and I would have had a big fight and Conrad would later feel it was his fault, and I am absolutely not going to do anything to make him think our divorce is his fault in any way.)
And it occurred to me: this must be how God felt when Israel (his children) displayed (display) a preference for Ashera (i.e., Astartes) and Baal (or other modern-day distractions, like possessions and status).
Ouch. I can definitely feel his pain.
God = Elohim.
God is El, I think. Bethel, house of God. Israel, God strives. Daniel, God is my judge.
El was the supreme god in the land that became Israel, the father of Baal and the husband of Ashera, against whom the Old Testament prophets constantly railed. Why such strong reactions against both Ashera and Baal? We hate the ones closest to us. Case in point: the ones the New Testament Jews despised the most were the Samaritans, I believe. (Samaritans [and there are still some today] believe the only scripture is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, so they're like "almost-Jews".)
If we take the "parental figure" view of God, Israel (and us, as spiritual/figurative descendants of Israel) was God's children.
My 8-yr-old son was lolling around on the carpet at home a few days ago. I asked him to pack his knapsack for school the next day. He did, reluctantly. Then I asked him to zip his knapsack up, so the stuff wouldn't fall out. He looked directly at me, said "No." and then looked over at his mom. She is encouraging this sort of behavior on his part. She gives him emotional support at moments like this, or at least, doesn't discourage him. (It's complicated, but she's conveyed to him that she likes it when he shows her favor over me, and shows evidence of alienation from me. She actively worked to punish him in the past for showing me favor, now she doesn't have to; all she has to do is not discourage it, so it's essentially passive encouragement.)
The emotional pain I felt was piercing.
My young son, the innocent child, is showing me he doesn't respect me. I see him growing away from me, day by day, under the subtle encouragement of his mom. (I couldn't discipline him because then she would have "rescued" him from me, or she and I would have had a big fight and Conrad would later feel it was his fault, and I am absolutely not going to do anything to make him think our divorce is his fault in any way.)
And it occurred to me: this must be how God felt when Israel (his children) displayed (display) a preference for Ashera (i.e., Astartes) and Baal (or other modern-day distractions, like possessions and status).
Ouch. I can definitely feel his pain.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Does God Always Answer Prayers?
So, this question came up in Alpha: Does God always answer prayers?
It was posed as a true/false statement during a talk, and we were invited to discuss it in our small groups for a couple of minutes before continuing.
My answer was "No", and the reason I gave that answer was because sometimes I pray and get absolutely no response, no feedback whatsoever. And I believe the answer to the question is "No".
But... a lot of other people said the answer is, essentially, "Yes, of course he does!". Which I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at.
However, to say that "lack of response" is "response" (or "lack of answer" is "answer") is stretching the meaning of the word "answer" w-a-a-y-y too thin, and it's another example of the kind of non-thinking I feel sometimes happens among people calling themselves Christians.
Ok, now, don't get me wrong. These folks I was with last night are all good people, every one of them. I got genuine solace from them last night, when I needed it, and I do feel that God was working for me through them.
But, I just wish I could find a bunch who would be willing to consider the non-platitude, non-pat answer, because I think such a greater appreciation of God and his workings could be gained from that consideration.
God doesn't respond to every prayer. He hears every prayer, and he considers every prayer, but sometimes he makes the situation neither better nor worse. Sometimes, God's response (I should put that in quotes: "response") to a prayer is a deafening silence.
Maybe the thing that frustrated me the most, and maybe it shouldn't frustrate me so, was the sense that I'd been ambushed after I gave my answer. "Gotcha!" No, you didn't get me.
It was posed as a true/false statement during a talk, and we were invited to discuss it in our small groups for a couple of minutes before continuing.
My answer was "No", and the reason I gave that answer was because sometimes I pray and get absolutely no response, no feedback whatsoever. And I believe the answer to the question is "No".
But... a lot of other people said the answer is, essentially, "Yes, of course he does!". Which I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at.
However, to say that "lack of response" is "response" (or "lack of answer" is "answer") is stretching the meaning of the word "answer" w-a-a-y-y too thin, and it's another example of the kind of non-thinking I feel sometimes happens among people calling themselves Christians.
Ok, now, don't get me wrong. These folks I was with last night are all good people, every one of them. I got genuine solace from them last night, when I needed it, and I do feel that God was working for me through them.
But, I just wish I could find a bunch who would be willing to consider the non-platitude, non-pat answer, because I think such a greater appreciation of God and his workings could be gained from that consideration.
God doesn't respond to every prayer. He hears every prayer, and he considers every prayer, but sometimes he makes the situation neither better nor worse. Sometimes, God's response (I should put that in quotes: "response") to a prayer is a deafening silence.
Maybe the thing that frustrated me the most, and maybe it shouldn't frustrate me so, was the sense that I'd been ambushed after I gave my answer. "Gotcha!" No, you didn't get me.
* * * * *
Ok, that's enough whining for tonight.
Vanity Plate Bible Citations
So, one occasionally sees vanity plates with Bible verses on 'em.
If I had such plates, I might put one of the following on 'em:
If I had such plates, I might put one of the following on 'em:
MICAH 6:8So there.
1 COR 10:23
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Psalm 19:14 / links on false prophecy
Here, let me pray into my blog (I'm pretty sure God's reading it):
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
- - - - - - -
So, the question came up in Alpha: how can we detect false prophets? I had this big, long answer, but it's essentially just quoting from the Bible, so let me just put the links out for future reference:
I would have loved for the answer to be "if they tell you to hijack planes and fly them into skyscrapers, they're false prophets," but it ain't quite that simple. Those passages essentially say: if the prophet's predictions don't come true, or if the prophet's lifestyle isn't consistent with the lifestyle God calls for, then you know it's a false prophet. Another thing that's said is that if the prophet encourages us to worship "another god", we know it's a false prophet.
However... what is "another god"? Baal? Molech? Sure, that's clear enough. But, what about an angry "God" that tells us to kill immoral people who are functioning in support of a capitalistic society? Is that truly a message from God, or is the false god of anger and hatred what's really being worshipped here? (Or is this a case of the prophet telling his own dreams instead of God's message?) At what point does righteous anger become unrighteous anger?
I would have loved for the answer to be "if they tell you to hijack planes and fly them into skyscrapers, they're false prophets," but it ain't quite that simple. Those passages essentially say: if the prophet's predictions don't come true, or if the prophet's lifestyle isn't consistent with the lifestyle God calls for, then you know it's a false prophet. Another thing that's said is that if the prophet encourages us to worship "another god", we know it's a false prophet.
However... what is "another god"? Baal? Molech? Sure, that's clear enough. But, what about an angry "God" that tells us to kill immoral people who are functioning in support of a capitalistic society? Is that truly a message from God, or is the false god of anger and hatred what's really being worshipped here? (Or is this a case of the prophet telling his own dreams instead of God's message?) At what point does righteous anger become unrighteous anger?
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