permission v. shame

Among the many wrong minded things espoused by JB, he recently posted on permission to have sex. He described what he thought was a picture of a healthy environment for growing up in regard to sex. He boasted that in that family environment there was no shame. There was only the sense of value. I noticed that did not mention boundaries nor a basis for the value that was instilled. This could have been an omission but then he asks the following question (with the almost mandatory postmodern verbiage) ... "So what resonates with you? Did you grow up with permission or shame?"

This causes me to once again reflect on the false dichotomy imposed by our postmodern friends. The implication from JB is that where there are boundaries there is shame and that this is often sourced through the Church (i.e., doctrine). He even states, "My church took the traditional perspective of no sex before marriage and shamed people who did." But in that he doesn't note that the first part would be Biblical while the second would not. The more I read of JB the more I find someone who is wounded and rather than returning to the true love of Christ who enables freedom in obedience embraces a world without God's rule under a false notion of what love truly is.

JB tells one commenter who rightly reads his post that his is false conclusion and states that he will not respond to the questions raised. But another commenter who JB doesn't bother to correct reads he properly ... "My parents were pretty open about sex, and I was raised without church, so no real source for shame. It can't be the only reason I'm ambi-sexual, but it feels pretty natural to me to choose my partners based on things other than gender." Notice the Church and boundaries are seen as the source of shame ... and note the pride in the resulting multiple sexual relations with both genders.

Folks, we need to fight this error. We can hold to both Truth and Love. In fact, I would proffer that without true Truth there can be no true Love. Shame is never the result of this. If done by the Spirit, the result is either rebellion or freedom. Often those in rebellion confuse that with shame but ...

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rap v. rock

Percussion Instrument for Rap




Percussion Instrument for Rock



Thanks Guitar.Today ...

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no stairway

Almost a year later and I still think Doug Pagitt has out thought himself ...

Todd: Doug, I’m a good Buddist. Do I get to go to Heaven or Hell?
Doug: No, it’s not called systematic theology. It’s called you restating it.
Todd: Doug, I am a good Buddhist. Where do I go when I die?
[silent pause]
Doug: You, you know this is not an interesting conversation for me. Is this what we’re gonna do? You’re gonna… Your gonna put together false little dichotomies and then ask me to answer one sentence and then interrupt my answers?
Todd: I don’t know what’s hard about the question. I am a good Buddhist, where do I go when I die?
Doug: Well you probably go to the funeral home, but depending on where you’re being born if that’s what you’re talking about.
Todd: No, pastor. I’m a good Buddhist. Where do I go when I die?
Doug: [laugh] Ok. This is not.. This is just not an interesting or helpful conversation for me to be part of. So if that’s what we’re doing uh, in this conversation, then uhm… It’s.. it. Because what – what you’re asking in this - in this kind of question has to do with a place. Are you suggesting to me that Heaven is actually a place? When you say where do I go, you’re suggesting to me that the reign of God, that the place of God is an.. is an individual PLACE that you go? Is that what you’re suggesting?
Todd: Yes, sir.
Doug: Where, where is that place?
Todd: It’s called heaven.
Doug: Where is it?
Todd: We don’t know where it is exactly right now.
Doug: Then why would you ask a question, “where do I go?”

I didn't really intend to re-raise this but I was driven to find something to go along with this classic clip ...

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church

in and out

“All of our personal problems and church problems come because we don’t come continually back to the gospel to work it in and live it out.”

- Timothy Keller, “Being the Church in Our Culture”

HT:FE

our works

Michael Wittmer wisely writes;

The Reformers saw Augustine's emphasis on our depravity and raised it. They taught that meritorious works are not only impossible without grace, but they are impossible period. Our sinful wills corrupt everything we do, so even our best efforts require the forgiveness of Christ. Lutherans declared that "even thought they are still impure and imperfect," yet "the good works of believers are pleasing and acceptable to God ... for the sake of the Lord Christ through faith, because the person is acceptable to God."

John Calvin called this our "double acceptance ... before God," by which God accepts both our person and our works through the blood of his Son. Just as God forgives our sinful person by covering us with the righteousness of Christ, so he forgives our sinful works in the same way.

True to the thinking of postmodern innovators, faith without works is dead (James 2). Saying we have right doctrine is empty if not played out in right practice. But contrary to postmodern innovators, good works not done as servants of Christ are as filthy rags (Isa 64.6).

Paul desired nothing more than to be known as a servant of Christ - a steward of a great mystery (1 Cor 4.1-2). He wanted nothing to do with human judgements based on either works or doctrine (1 Cor 4). His life was to be a fool for Christ (1 Cor 4.10). The Kingdom of God is not just talk - it is power. Here the postmodern innovators have it right. But it is a power based on Truth. There is no work done outside of Christ (e.g., recognizing Ramadan) that is of any worth.

As John Piper asks:

Do we do our good deeds in joyful dependence on God with a view to making known his supreme worth? Do we fulfill the overarching command to serve people "by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 4.11)? ... Without Christ-exalting faith, our deeds will signify nothing but rebellion.

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things that make me scratch my head

Under "things that make me scratch my head" ... today on Facebook ...

Brian D. McLaren Hey, friends - another quick update. I'm going to be observing the fast of Ramadan with some Muslim friends, beginning in about a week.

Susan Tittmar ... A fabulous idea. May you meet Christ more fully in your experience of their own spirituality.

Kristi Shirley Kernal ... Thank you, Brian for your courage to obey God and care more about what HE thinks than what people think. Can't wait to read about it.

I almost don't even want to hear the rationale ... but I couldn't resist ... I went to Brian's blog ... urgh ...

First he imagines that sharing Ramadan is like Jesus overcoming religious prejudice and learning from (and being inspired by) a Syrophonecian woman (Matthew 15:21 ff, Mark 7:24 ff). Uh, yeah, He overcame prejudice to demonstrate the Gospel ... not that He would learn and be inspired. McLaren seeks to "learn from our Muslim sisters and brothers."

McLaren then lists common commitments:

We, as Christians, humbly seek to join Muslims in this observance of Ramadan as a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness. Each of us will have at least one Muslim friend who will serve as our partner in the fast. These friends welcome us in the same spirit of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness.

Pardon my confusion but I do not understand that we share the same spirit.

We will seek to avoid being disrespectful or unfaithful to our own faith tradition in our desire to be respectful to the faith tradition of our friends. For example, since the Bible teaches us the importance of fasting and being generous to the poor, we can participate as Christians in fidelity to the Bible as our Muslim friends do so in fidelity to the Quran.

No, we have opposing objectives in mind. We seek to humbly serve Christ. They do not. Again, postmodern innovators focus on works and thereby confuse the crux of our salvation and the need of the world.


Update: the facebook brain trust continues (to prove my point) .... the following comments are from McLaren's supporters [emphasis is mine]:

Bob Melone ... Thanks ... for reminding us that a life of faith is not about 'obeying' God, it's about experiencing the presence of God, with those seeking after the things of God [ah but this is with Muslims?]!

Tracy Pace ... other religions have as much to offer as my own in terms of spirituality and service. Jesus never meant for any of us to worship him as the one and only - that came much later ...

Robert G Bob Pearson ... GOD = Allah, same same, no difference, same source in Abraham. A spiritual practice that brings you both closer to God and closer to other people cannot be questioned as a heresy.

Annie Haden Mehlhoff ... McClaren's participation in Ramadan is very similar to what Jesus did with his neighbors ... Jesus is a mediator between humanity and God, but that doesn't mean he is the only one. ... I just suggest that perhaps you listen to those other faiths. I think you'll find Jesus in them as much as Christianity.

Update 2 ... Tracy Pace couldn't help but to continue to reinforce my issue with postmodern innovators ... she speaks on ... "Men clearly had a huge political hand in the formation of the christian religions, and of the documents which came to be our Bible, which I don't see any evidence in the scriptures for Jesus having planned."

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he loves me

Yet He loves me. Jesus Christ gave Himself to demonstrate His love for me. He loves me. He gave Himself for me (Gal 2.20; Eph 5.2, 23).

jordan

Because a little Buckethead just isn't enough ...

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prototype #1

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love

Do we love God enough to love someone like that?

the starfish

As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two approached each other, and he could make out a local native who kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean. As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back into the water. Puzzled, the man approached the native and asked what he was doing.

"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die up here from lack of oxygen."

"But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach," the man replied. "You can't possibly get to all of them. There are just too many. And this same thing is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The local native smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea he replied, "Made a difference to that one!"

god's love

Christ's sacrifice on the cross is not a response to our worth, it is the overflow of his infinite worth.

John Piper writes, "... divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his infinite beauty." According to the riches of God's grace we have redemption and forgiveness (Eph 1.7). His eternal life was given to us even while we were still sinners (Rom 5.7-8; John 3.16).

suffering

Interestingly, Jesus, who never committed sin or spoke deceit (1 Pet 2.22), learned obedience and was made perfect through suffering (Heb 5.8; 2.10).

church revenue

The Vatican discovers new sources of revenue ... from the Sacred Sandwich ...

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submitting to god

What God purposed for Jesus on the Cross (2 Tim 1.9; Isa 53.10), Jesus willingly submitted to (Eph 3.2).

justification

To correctly assess the benefit of justification, people must lift up their minds to the judgment seat of God and put themselves in his presence...But when they put themselves before the face of God and examine themselves in the mirror of his holy law, all their conceit collapses, all self-confidence melts, and there is room left only for the prayer: "Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you" (Job 4:17-29; 9:2; 15:14-16; Ps. 143:2; cf. 130:3), and their only comfort is that "there is forgiveness before you, so that you may be revered" (Ps. 130:4).

(Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 4, p. 204-5)

violence

"There are people in this world who go about demanding to be killed. You must have noticed them. They quarrel in gambling games. They jump out of their automobiles in a rage. They humiliate and bully people whose capabilities they do not know. These are people who wander through the world shouting, kill me. And there's always someone ready to oblige to them." ~ Vito Corleone

absorbed wrath

"If God were not just, there would be no demand for His Son to suffer and die. Yet, if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for His Son to suffer and die. But, God is both just and loving. Therefore, God's love is willing to meet the demands of His justice." ~ John Piper based on Gal 3.13; Rom 3.28; 1 John 4.10

While I appreciate penal substitution deniers for helping me see that not all I thought supported the idea was correct, they have failed (in my mind) to deal with explicit Scripture dealing with this. And more so, the beauty of how this fits with the whole of who I understand God to be.

hate

"Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment. " ~ Michael Corleone

Pluralism

Pluralism by Greg:

The modern pluralist claim that "all religions are basically the same" might be rephrased thus:

“When you remove all of the differences, they all say the same thing.”

It's not the similarities that matter, it's the differences. Classical pluralism implores us to show respect to those with whom we have disagreements without ignoring those differences.

He's right, under the guise of a false sense of "inclusion" today's postmodern innovators would have us believe that differences are not important or at least not as important as "getting along". The latter may be true depending on the particular difference but of course that would never be recognized if we ignore differences or do not define our core.