Soul... Warning Signs

I realize that there are lots of folks reading Christian fiction these days, which is certainly not a bad thing considering most of the alternatives (and since most any fiction or music that is fairly clean gets labeled, or at least embraced, as "Christian". I saw a display for an entirely secular tweeny-bopper movie in a Christian book-store a couple of weeks ago because it has been embraced as "wholesome".)

However, as with anything we put into our minds via our senses, what we spend our time with affects us to a much higher degree than most of us will admit, especially when that material implies that it presents an accurate view of God and/or Godliness. Therefore, I find the following warnings appropriate:

1) Make sure it's pure, edifying, and glorifies God. Paul's "advice" that "to the pure all things are pure" did NOT mean that we can expect to put any old trash into our minds (no matter what it's called!) and expect to somehow "purify" it. Read that verse (Titus 1:15) carefully in its context, and you'll find that it's surrounded by Paul's admonitions for righteous and holy living. He was actually saying that those who are pure show it by choosing to do things which are pure! (This is another of those verses that so often gets pulled out of context and twisted.) I'm sorry, but I'm afraid Christian "horror" books fall under condemnation if you believe me on this one, unless you can somehow honestly defend reading about men or women being terrified or threatened by other men or women (who are not carrying out Godly justice).

2) Because it really happens does not make it worth reading about. We are to be building ourselves up in Godliness, in order to be useful in instructing others. If you desire to know what true "reality" is like, then read God's Word, which includes His perspectives on the wrongful actions of His children (starting with Adam, through Abram, Moses, Job and his friends, David, etc.) and those who are not His (including Cain, those destroyed by the flood, Aaron's sons, Eli's sons, King Saul, etc.). This does not mean that we are never to read about the troubles of this world, non-believers, or our brothers and sisters in Christ (I heartily recommend Voice of the Martyrs) -- but always in building wisdom and concern, never as "entertainment".

3) Steer clear of anyone or anything, outside of God's Word, that attempts to speak FOR God. (This, of course, is not in the same category as conscientious writers of sound faith and doctrine, who meditate on and attempt to apply God's Word.) If a book has a character or characters representing God (or even worse, identified AS God), it breaks the second of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:4, since the command prohibits making any images of anything in heaven above, including God). Once that characterization (the author's idea of God) speaks a word or takes an action which is not a direct quote from scripture, or uses scripture out of context, then the author has crossed the line into blasphemy. The more I seek to know God on His terms, in the light of His Word, and fall in love with Him, the more vile I find those works of fiction which would be so fool-hardy as to attempt to put men's words into the mouth of God.

4) Know yourself and your motivations. Ironically, we can only begin to truly know ourselves as we draw closer and closer to the One True God, and see ourselves in the light of His Word and His Spirit. This means spending time in His Word, meditating (properly, in His presence and under His guidance) on His Word and applying them properly to our lives. I will not fail to admit that there are those Christians called out by God to be watchers and discerners for Believers (and perhaps non-believers), nor can I dismiss the value of fiction as a resource, especially for those who are young in age and/or in truth, and possibly even in reaching out in some ways to those who are lost (though I must note that it is not specifically listed in the Bible, as is preaching and reading God's Word). However, Christian growth (sanctification) is a process we begin and continue to experience by grace through faith, and as we grow we are to constantly check our forward progress and our ability to "chew" more and more of the "meat" of God's Word.

I pray that God would bless our churches with Christians who truly hunger and thirst after His Word, and so reflect His truth to the people He has given them to influence.

Body... Outdoors

Spring may finally be here! I'm looking forward to a weekend of warmer temperatures in the Midwest (though chances are good it will rain -- again), enjoying the lengthening days, and perhaps even some sun-shine.

One of the greatest "common" blessings that I know of in this life is the chance to be outdoors, enjoying God's creation. But how many of us stop to think about what is really out there, and how much good it can do us if we're fairly wise about it?

I've enjoyed riding my bicycle year-round the last couple of years. Before that, I was strictly a fair-weather outsider -- when the temperature fell below 40 degrees in the morning, or water began to fall from the sky (or even stand in the street), I headed for the gym instead. I've found I have to be careful what I proclaim (words are too easily eaten, and while calorie-free usually taste terrible), but I'm pretty much done with that, at least for now. I used to be miserable all winter, huddling in heavy coats or layers of clothes while my nose ran and I went through one round of illness after another (sinus infections, colds, flu, stomach viruses -- you name it). Now, I feel much better, I rarely get sick, and my tolerance for cold air (and dampness) is much higher (OK, my nose still runs more than it probably should, but I can live with that).

Admittedly, spending more time outdoors, riding and running no matter what the weather brought, was not my only change -- I've learned more about using vitamins and minerals and "toxic cleansing" to head off sicknesses early, I've learned more about which foods to eat (and which ones not to eat), and I do a little better about getting more sleep when I need it. But I'm convinced that hiding-out in the gym for the winter exposed me to more germs, and did very little to build up my immune-system.

The more I learn about what works well for my body, the more I'm convinced that God designed into us more adaptability than we realize (especially true for those who fail to realize that there even is one true God!). So go enjoy the double blessing of the outdoors -- enjoying creation while benefiting from it!

Heart and Soul... What Wondrous Love is This!

John ("the disciple whom Jesus loved", in his own words) twice writes "God is love" in the first of his three letters in the New Testament (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16). What a glorious and magnificent statement! And yet, it is now so often mis-used and almost universally mis-understood as to have become commonplace and seemingly impotent.

Please do not conclude that I think ANY of God's Word can truly and finally become impotent -- it is, after all, divinely inspired and therefore divinely protected. God's Word is not just a book "of historical significance" or words on a page -- it is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. And yet, for God's own purposes, according to His sovereign will, He allows Satan (the prince of this world) and those of this world to twist and bend and pervert even Scripture to suit themselves (Matt. 4:6, Luke 4:10, etc.). Complacency and lack of wise discernment with regards to God's Word are just as effective in keeping even true Christians from being useful to God as are outright sinfulness and pride -- for who can share a Gospel they don't know, or make disciples for a Master whose commands and statutes they don't take the time, or make the effort, to learn?

Contemporary Christians usually, if not always, take John's words to mean that God can be understood, at least in some ways, in the "light" of a human understanding of "love". Yet between the two statements, John points first not to any love that we have "inherently", but to love that has been revealed in us and given to us (as Christians), "not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation concerning our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10). ("Propitiation" -- what a great, strong word! I am grateful that limited use has made it mostly uncompromised!) John therefore does NOT in any way seek to define God by our limited understanding of "love" (nor does any other part of God's Word!), but, conversely, defines love in terms of God's active grace on the behalf of His elect (I would say His "children", but that term, too, is mis-used and mis-understood). It is only in the light of this grace that we can ever truly understand true love -- the sort of love that creates life (Genesis 1 and 2), judges it (Genesis 3 and 18:20-33), destroys it (Genesis 6 and 19), preserves it (Genesis 6 - 9, 45-50, Exodus 3 - 14), draws it to itself (Genesis 11 - 17, 28, Exodus 19), teaches it (Exodus 20-31), burns with righteous anger against it (Exodus 32:1-10), has mercy upon it (Exodus 32:11-14), and allows his servant to carry out His judgment upon it (Exodus 32:19-28). (All this in the first two chapters of God's Word, even before specific mention is given of the greatest act of love of all, in Christ's propitiation and atonement!)

How could we possibly convey such a tremendous and glorious love by telling people that "God loves you" (a statement which deserves the mockery that it evokes, when put forth to comman man without any background of Scripturally true love), or do it any justice with puny human contrivances such as "the Roman's Road" or the "ABCs of Salvation"?!?



What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb Who is the great “I Am”;
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on.

Words: At­trib­ut­ed to Al­ex­an­der Means.
Music: From The South­ern Har­mo­ny and Mu­sic­al Com­pan­ion, by Will­iam Walk­er (New York: Hast­ings House, 1835); ar­ranged by Will­iam J. Rey­nolds (1920-).
Thanks to www.cyberhymnal.org (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/h/a/whatwond.htm).

Soul and Heart... No Greater Love Than This

As I reflected upon Easter tonight, and prepared for the celebration of Christ's resurrection (and our Life because of it!) tomorrow, and tried to help prepare my children's hearts, I was once more struck by the majesty and truth and glory of His LOVE. At the same time, I am deeply saddened by our unintentional and yet very real trivialization of God's love, as we Christians try to "share" God's "love" with a "lost and dying world" (a phrase which is true in one sense and yet unBiblically hopeless in another). In trying to "share" God, we think our "job" as Christians is to tell the world (which is by definition unregenerate and unrepentant, for once someone is seized by God they are no longer of the world) that God "loves" them.

As a preparation for a future post, and for my own edification, I spent quite a bit of time tonight researching some contemporary Christian works of fiction, including "The Shack". I read a lot of good points on several web-sites, including http://hereiblog.com/2008/08/08/the-shack-review/ and http://www.challies.com/archives/book-reviews/the-shack-by-william-p-young.php , but as I read down through the back-and-forth discussion on the first site I couldn't help but notice that many of us Christians (yes, even those of us who identify ourselves as "Reformed") seem to see "truth" and "love" as being in some sort of tension, as though we have to constantly balance upon a tightrope in order to follow Paul's admonition in Ephesians 4:15 that we are to be "speaking the truth in love".

Of course, there is a Biblical basis for differentiating (or at least separately listing) "truth" and "love", as in the above verse and in 2 John 1:3, but as we recognize the majesty and inerrancy of God's Word we should come to terms with the fact that just because two ideas seem contradictory to our limited human minds (the best other example I can think of is God's sovereignty over everything versus man's responsibility for his own sin) does not mean that they are not both equally, Biblically true.

As usual, one of my friends and mentors has already said it first, and best (though for lack of photographic memory I must paraphrase here): there is only one truth, and love is contained within it. Not only is truth cold and hard without true love, but it actually ceases to be actual truth (one could substitute the word "orthodoxy" here, which embodies most, if not all, of true doctrine). And not only is love washed out and useless without truth, but it is NOT actually true love!

"No greater love has man than this, that He lay down His life for his friends." (John 15:13) Thank you, Lord! May we all do a better job of proclaiming the true significance of Your love!

Mind... Right before our eyes

I read with a lot of curiosity and some excitement, in my December 2008 issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine (http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/dec08/7024), that a group of researchers have "discovered" a fourth passive circuit element (the first three being the resistor, the inductor, and the capacitor). One of the things that struck me most about this article, besides the admittedly-somewhat-geeky excitement over the actual existence of an entirely new passive circuit element, was the fact that this device has actually always been there, working in small ways in even the simplest circuits. As the author explains in the article, the influence of "memristance" (the original theorizer's name for the relationship between charge moving through a circuit and the magnetic flux surrounding that circuit) obeys an inverse-square law so that it is a million times more important at the nanometer (10 to the -9 power) scale as it is at the micrometer (10 to the -6 power) scale. Therefore, even though it was there all the time, we haven't really begun to detect its influence until recently, as we've continued the push to build smaller and smaller electronic circuits. (Moore's Law, postulated in the 1950's, stated that number of transistors on a chip would double every two years, though even back then it was foreseeable that physical limits must someday be reached.)


It's really sad and laughable at the same time, how arrogant we humans are, right in the face of all of this evidence of our minute level of understanding of the universe. In fact, as one of my mentors is fond of pointing out, the more we learn the more we (should) realize how much there is that we DON'T know.


Even without all of the human short-comings of propensity for error and limitations of memory, it strikes me as incredible that we trust in our selves at all. In fact, one of our main strengths lies in our ability to ask others around us to help catch our mistakes. (I think this is part of what Proverbs 12:15 means when it says that "the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to advice is wise".)

The world has an on-going, persistent lie that there is no such thing as relative truth, and yet at the same time (illogically!) shouts that we can be confident in our own abilities, that we can somehow achieve a state of security if we just try hard enough on our own.

How much truth do we miss every day because we were too busy or too arrogant to look for it, even though it's right before our eyes?

Heart... Grace and Blessings

He who finds a wife finds what is good (Proverbs 18:22) -- why does God so abundantly bless some of us, who are less than nothing on our own, and yet withhold his grace from others?

Who am I, that I would be so abundantly blessed with a wife who loves God and loves her neighbors? Why have I been so blessed with a partner and help-meet, who God sometimes allows me to bless and who God so often uses to bless me in truth, in wisdom, in spiritual growth, and in accountability? Why have we been so blessed with friends and family who love us and step up to take care of us when stressful times come, and with children who are bright and joyful?

Those of us who are in Christ should not think of ourselves as the depraved, wretched, rebellious enemies of God we were born into -- to do so is to question the value of the cross of Christ, and His sacrifice upon it, and God's redemptive power worked through it. Yet I cannot help but reflect (especially as I see the destroyer at work all around me, and my heart breaks for the blindness and arrogance of those who destroy themselves and those around them) -- why me?

I have no delusions that my whole life can change in an instant, just as Job's did, or that I could not fall into temptation next year, or tomorrow, and hurt people I love -- but why has God blessed me with the fear of it (not just respect, but fear -- the kind that makes me scared to death of pulling away from God, even for an instant)?

Soul... Who is More?

Who is more powerful -- a god who is "standing outside the door", "patiently waiting" for someone to "let him come in", or God, Who breaks down the door, revives a man (or woman) who is dead in sin, and cleanses them from all unrighteousness with the blood of Christ? (Romans 7, 2 Corinthians 5)

Who is more loving -- a god who "loves" those who continually scorn his children and his commands and nurse their own emotions with zeal, who is "waiting" for someone to be "ready to turn to him", and who "longs" for people to ask him for help, or God, Who will judge the wicked, Who works all things for the good of those He has called for His glory, and Who disciplines His children according to His perfect wisdom? (Romans 8, Hebrews 12)

Who is more worthy of worship-- a god who "asks" for "respect" but "wants" everyone to "boldly" claim their "right" to eternity, or God, Who ordains that His children will know him well enough to (literally) fear Him? (Psalm 96)

Who is more worthy to be exalted -- a god who "accepts" us "just as we are", or God, Who cuts out hearts of stone and replaces them with hearts of flesh, that we might be justified before He Who is Holy, and Who calls His children to be holy? (Ezekiel 11 and 36, Psalm 99, Psalm 101)

Who is more full of grace -- a god who waits for someone who has no desire to do anything that is truly good to "make a decision" to "turn to him", or God, who has the power and grace to reach down and change the heart and life and mind of anyone, no matter how "hopeless" the world (or religious decision-sellers) might think they are -- even a wretch like me? (Acts 11 (especially verses 17-23), Romans 3 and 4)