In 2008 on his podcast "Penn Says", Penn Jillette, of the comedian act Penn & Teller (or of Dancing with the Stars, if you're me) and an outspoken atheist, thanked a Christian proselytizer for giving him a Bible.
I used to be unsure what I thought about proselytizing because I thought it gave Christianity a bad rap -- so many people proselytizing and nowhere near enough serving others by meeting practical needs. I realized that the intention of meeting physical needs was to eventually open doors to share the Gospel of Christ, but sometimes the immediacy of its necessity escaped me. This video is a fantastic reminder of that immediacy. Convicting, for sure.
First things first: This past Tuesday I found out my placement with TeachOverseas.org, and I'm going to be teaching high school in Prague!! The school is called Gymnázium OhradnĂ, so now you can look it up in case you're extra curious. I'm really, super duper pumped!
My friend Amanda wonderfully informed me that Rob Bell's new NOOMA video, entitled "Corner", is now out. It's created in conjunction with Compassion International (so now you know why I'm EXTRA excited about this NOOMA). Go here to see the Compassion site, and then click on the link to watch for free.
Bart Ehrman, atheist and professed intellectual, was taken to lunch on The Colbert Report last week. For one of the best (and funniest) guest-author interviews I've seen on the show, visit the show's website. For a synopsis, check out this blog. Thanks go to Justin Holcomb for sharing this story with me via his Facebook status update!
So this past Saturday night I watched Bill Maher's new documentary Religulous. I'd actually wanted to watch it for quite some time and was thrilled when two friends said they'd just bought it.
The movie, quite frankly, didn't shock me at all. In fact, I agreed with many of Maher's main points. Maher's primary thesis is that religion does more harm than good in the world, and each tradition's fight to gain followers becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of the end times as it battles other religions, thereby sustaining hatred and war in the world.
Essentially, Maher's thesis rests in suspicion of organized religion. What good does religion do? Maher wonders. Why would I put my faith in something so hypocritical? He asks. From the main world religions in particular, Maher hears something along the lines of, "You, come lead a wonderful life with us in our truth, and then we'll make everyone who disagrees miserable in order to prove ours is, in fact, the good life!"
Many "religious" people are much less the picture of piety and instead reek of contradiction, malice, and self-importance. They haven't mastered the essence of their professed faiths and instead parade around their "correct" positions on the hot button topics of their choosing as God's finite opinions on those topics. Reinstate America as a Christian nation! Have an abortion if you want to go to Hell! God hates the gays! I pick on Christianity, but this ignorance occurs within each religion's "religious". And, of course, these examples represent the extremes. Still, all of us who associate with a religion are guilty of this sort of contradiction on some level. It is what makes Bill Maher suspicious of religion; it is precisely the subject of which we need to be aware as we seek to learn and grow in our faiths and lessen that discrepancy between what we believe and how we act.
What I am continually learning more and more in regards to Christianity, however, is how, if I am to truly abide with God through the person of Jesus Christ, there will be many fewer reasons for anyone to be suspicious of Christianity. That is due to the distinctness of Christianity from any other religion found in it revolving entirely around a relationship in which God offers to every person on Earth His unconditional love. Though I desire to live as God intended humans to live, I am not bound to a particular code of behavior, a bunch of rules, or the Jewish Law. No, I live through Christ's law only, a law of love. This is precisely where so many Christians get tripped up: they think up a law of God (for instance, one written by a gun-toting, gay-hating, anti-science, colonialist Jesus) and thereby limit God, simultaneously tainting the name of Jesus and hurting the cause of Christianity. Each Christian does it in small ways -- I know I am just as guilty of hypocrisy as anyone else -- though it is normally the big ways that make onlookers truly suspicious of Christianity.
It must be acknowledged that, even if we overcame all hypocrisy among Christians, there would still exist unbelievers whose hearts were not persuaded by the love of Christ. Bill Maher, it seems, is also one such person. Though his film mostly focused on practices and ideas overly emphasized by various religious practitioners (thereby seeming silly to onlookers) and the fault of religions to be more divisive than inclusive, Bill Maher is, at heart, skeptical of the idea of God in general. He is afraid of what happens when religions butt heads, but he is first convinced that God is a foolish idea. If God doesn't exist, then why do I need to restore my life to Him through repentence, cleansing, atonement? If I don't see Sin in the world or sins in my actions, than why would I live as if such an idea existed? Bill Maher is suspicious that religion is the real creator of evil in the world because Bill Maher the skeptic doesn't feel in his own heart a longing for a better life with the Creator.
To the Bill Mahers of the world, Christians -- even the most studied, relational, incarnational Christians -- are "like the stench from a rotting corpse." For
to God we [Christian believers] are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are a scent of death leading to death, and to others, a scent of life leading to life. / This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No -- but at least we don't take God's Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ's presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. we get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can. (2 Corinthians 2:15-17, HCSB/Message)
For the Bill Mahers of the world, I pray that the Lord will soften their hearts, that they may soon perceive the "God-sized hole" in their hearts, the idea at which they've scoffed up until now. I pray they may replace shunning religion with seeking relationship. I pray that their lives will be enriched because, in believing in evil and Sin, they also will experience in God's presence a greater goodness than any good they thought they knew before.
Hello everyone! I would love to share some personal prayer requests for April and the upcoming months with all those willing to pray for me:
-Today is the final day of the TeachOverseas.org's Czech Republic teachers' "team formation". This means that I should know in the next day or so where I will be serving the Lord for the next several years. Please pray for the home office team as they discuss teachers' needs and "best fit" placements, that they will listen to the Lord's guidance as they place teachers. Please pray for me, that I will have peace in my heart for whatever placement I am given and that I will also trust that the Lord knows how to use me in whatever location I find myself.
-Please pray that in the next 2 1/2 months I make smart financial decisions that enable me to save some money in preparation for a summer without any income.
-Pray that throughout April I will seek out opportunities to get to know my high schoolers at Patrick Henry, Holston, and Abingdon better and to share Christ with them.
-Pray that I become more disciplined at journaling and keeping track of my Bible studies and spiritual growth.
-Please pray that I get better sleep at night (7 hours is ideal), make healthy food choices, and become more disciplined in working out (continuing spinning classes, integrating strength training once again, and starting training for a new marathon). Building upon my last blog post, it is really important to me to get to a healthy weight before departing for the Czech Republic so that there's less chance of any health issues derailing my ministry there. The above habits would help me get there (please pray that I lose 30 pounds before I leave in August), and they'd also help a healthy, more disciplined lifestyle become second nature to me.
-Please pray that I will be able to raise the remaining $3500 in support needed for the upcoming year of service. Please pray that my personal goal of raising this amount in full before July 1st will be met.
Several weeks ago I ran across a blog posting to Relevant Magazine. The title begged me read, as does the question whenever I come across it: Tired of Dieting?
While I like my exercise, I also really like my food, so much that my weight has gone up and down the past six years more than an actual yo-yo. And quite honestly, I'm sick of it. I'm ready to slim down to a healthy weight, thereby eliminating weight as a risk factor for potential disease, and to have the discipline to carry on the lifestyle that can maintain that healthy weight. What words of wisdom could this college kid's pen have for me to help me achieve these goals?
The words of wisdom came in the relief I found in the Biblical truth Cameron cited -- that the Lord created man to live in and love the Earth, but also to work it. "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15, NIV).
How many "quick fix" dieting programs can you name? Calorie restriction, Atkins, South Beach Diet, overexercising, purging, Hydroxycut, grapefruit diet, green tea diet, Alli -- the list goes on! As a ubiquitous consumer industry, I've been convinced time and time again that I can slim down 15 pounds in 4 weeks for that wedding, that I should lose 3 pounds a week for 4 months, that the quick solution will be the lasting one. It should come as no surprise that not once did one of my schemes to lose weight fast -- to take the easy road -- work. Instead, every time I was disappointed in myself, thinking myself a failure because I couldn't stick to my plan.
The truth that quick fix diets do not work should be so obvious, and yet in the thick of it, that truth is purposefully avoided. Why should we want to work hard? We want to get the greatest output with the least input.
Here's where I found my relief, though: God intends for us to work at our lives, to apply significant effort, and more than that, he knows this ethic will give us the most fulfillment and the most joy. Genesis 2:15 of course proceeds 3:17, when work became toil for man. Work was intended all along and, with the proper attitude, can continue to be a willing, rewarding service to God that acknowledges his reign over the Earth.
So for me, I can drop all my quick fix notions because I know when those plans fall short, I will only break my own heart with my disappointment. Instead, I can work faithfully at pursuing a healthy lifestyle, pushing through the obstacles and the temptations, knowing that hard work with reliance on the Lord is the only route to victory.
It seems so simple!
Yet how often do I, like so many others, apply the quick fix mentality to every other area of my life?
I expect to get the job in the location that for me is the most comfortable, i.e. won't force me to push boundaries.
I assume my students will search me out at the high schools when I haven't yet made an appearance in classes that week.
I think I should automatically feel connected to God without spending time with Him each day.
The list goes on.
American society often acts as if it's allergic to effort. It's too privileged to work. Or it relies on the American Dream, believing that all things are possible in the Land of the Free and that anyone can climb that ladder of success, whatever the means. What American Society ignores is that there rarely are any lasting shortcuts to success, and that climbing the ladder, so to speak, is not the end goal at all. Joy comes from working because work itself is the end goal, just as God has always intended.
Thank goodness for that. Knowing it, spinning class looks so much more enticing.
Last Thursday night, ABC's Nightline featured a face-off on the topic of whether Satan exists or if the whole concept of Satan is fabricated.
While there appeared to be some confusion between the four debaters about what exactly was being debated -- the devil and his appearance, more mythical demon creatures, or a larger idea of evil and its source in the physically-undefined character of Satan (this last idea as well as Satan's ability to manifest in the form of demons being Christian ideas) -- and while complex, unrelated questions associated with today's hot topics (Feminism: Is God male or female?) were brought up by the opposition, it seemed to me, as defense mechanisms when the debate got heated, to my eyes it was Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert who successfully won the debate in favor of Satan's existence.
While their arguments are obviously affirmed by my faith, their arguments also seemed to answer the secular question that asks why evil and violence and hunger and everything bad in the world continues to permeate the farthest corners of the earth. Deepak Chopra insisted throughout the debate that everyone has a bad side/evil side within themselves, but he failed to provide a greater answer regarding the origin of that inner evil. Bishop Carlton Pearson, while obviously concerned about the power of words and experience to influence our perceptions of reality and truth, did not appear to have a full grasp on his own beliefs and also could not separate Satan from ignorant, racially-incorrect physical descriptions of the devil or of God, nor could he provide a better answer than the protagonist side for the origin of the world's problems.
But thank goodness Satan IS the answer to our question of the origin of evil! When we know the source of our problems, we also can be sure we know the solution to the problems. Thank goodness we can rejoice in the answer found in our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ!
Go to the ABC News Nightline site for the video of "Does Satan Exist?" (The full video may only be available for a limited time.)
"The Colbert Nation is at it again. This time the comedian has asked viewers of his show to write in his name on an online vote to name the new room of the international space station. Unfortunately, the official rules of the NASA ballot say that the space agency is not bound to comply with voting results. If they welsh on this one, we should boycott space ..."
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/main/slices/culture/16253-the-colbert-universe --- Go here for the full article on Yahoo.
And go here to vote in the Space Station "New Room" contest.
-------------------- Yesterday, Seth "tower" Hurd (a radio host of Shine.fm in Chicago, one of the largest Christian radio stations in the country) posted an article to RELEVANT magazine called "The Christian Music Conspiracy". I highly recommend you check it out, as it asks us to branch out in music taste and do our part to help end the somewhat bad rap that contemporary Christian music often receives.
While I really liked the article overall, I also enjoyed reading much of the follow-up commentary by readers. I have to agree with some of the commentators that it's often easier for me to connect spiritually to the themes and the artistic direction of so-called "secular" music than to the campiness and old-school-ness of some overplayed mid-1990s Christian music that proliferates the radios and contemporary Christian church services alike. So, while I enjoy actually participating in large worship gatherings that revolve around new Christian rock-Gospel of the Hillsong and Casting Crowns variety, if I am simply listening to or watching a band, I will just as often see God in the music when it's a secular group than when it's a Christian group.
One such example is the punk-rock band Linkin Park. The band has found its niche in the secular realm, though much of its style and themes may have been influenced by the band's members' Judeo-Christian backgrounds. (SeeChristianity Todayfor a greater analysis.)
But just listening to the lyrics and absorbing the band's art direction makes it easy to understand how powerful a song, regardless the genre or industry, can be on one's heart.
Watch Linkin Park's "What I've Done" Video here for more proof.
--------------------- My verse of the day from Sojourners:
Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong! Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, "Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us."
- Micah 3:9-11
*We cannot insist that the Lord is with us and acting on behalf when we are not committed to His justice, His mercy, His grace, His equity, and His peace. Not our definition of it, not our sham of a version of any of it, but His.
--------------------- So I've been reading the education-related sections in Dick Morris's Outrage book, and let me tell you, he's got me outraged..at him!
In the chapter titled "How Teachers Unions Block Education Reform", Morris correctly infers that teachers unions block reform and keep change from coming to ineffective and outdated practices, and he also, in my opinion, correctly identifies charter schools as the route to successful schooling practices. He also nicely observes that probably the biggest benefit of No Child Left Behind is that it finally gives the blue-collar and lower middle-class parents of failing school districts the opportunity to have a say-so in their children's educations, without being forced to suffer the life-long consequences of ineffective teachers and inadequate learning.
However, I started throwing air-punches at Morris when he mentioned these ideas for parents to advocate on their students' behalves after scoffing at and failing to address the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)'s very real concern that the standardized testing mandated by NCLB "fails to take account of differences among schools" and "doesn't do enough to recognize the special problems of urban schools." Does Morris seriously think that the parent of an urban child stuck in a failing school -- a parent already disassociated from her child's education because she herself 1)is a junior-high drop-out, 2) works two jobs to try to make ends meet, and 3) has several other children to worry about at home -- is going to really understand her options for finding her child a better school, have the time and resources to go about getting that child into another school, be able to provide safe transportation to a more distant school site, and, if necessary, fight for a new charter school or reformed local school board?? Does he really think that will happen? Clearly Morris doesn't know an urban school from a suburban one, or stay-at-home mom from a struggling single parent.
Morris also made me want to throw up when, on page 191, he tries to convince us readers that the common teacher complaint of having to "teach to the [NCLB standardized] tests" is no complaint at all and is actually a good thing.
"The idea that "teaching to the test" is wrong is especially absurd when the exam measures basic reading and math abilities. We're not talking about flights of logic or philosophy classes. If teachers teach to reading and math tests for elementary and junior high students, so much the better!"
Ummm, barf. Clearly Morris has not talked to college admissions officers about how, since the advents of NCLB reform in the early 2000s, admissions essay quality has plummeted and creativity has significantly disappeared from applicants' writing pieces. Then, you might ask, don't the students at least show a mastery of basic writing skills? Here, too, the basic reading instruction of elementary and junior high -- tailored to the tests, of course -- is incomplete and lacking, just as I've found that in the two high schools in which I work -- schools that, mind you, receive high "passing" marks by NCLB standards -- many of the students don't understand basic functions of middle school grammar and often have difficulty expressing their thoughts on paper, even in the most basic, typical, overused, and restrictively uncreative 5-paragraph essay.
Dick Morris, I know you have lots of high-end experience in political consulting and analysis, but please, before you go ranting and raving about how you think public schools should and do work, go do your homework.
One of the many, many blessings of pursuing ministry with TeachOverseas is that God continues to teach me more about Himself through the ministry -- and that's pretty darn great, considering I haven't even begun training with the organization! Yesterday, God showed me once again to rely fully on Him and to trust Him with real abandon.
Recently, in Young Life Leadership discussions and in my own reading, I had been learning more and more about how to pray and about what to pray and about what it means to petition God for things. John 15:7 (NIV) tells us, in words directly from Jesus's lips, to pray expectantly, that we may know we will receive that of which we ask God: "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." I've been reading daily in the devotional Voices of the Faithful, and in Beth Moore's introduction to March -- a month devoted to the theme of prayer -- she adopts this attitude.
"Many of us are making God's will harder to find than it is. If we have an active relationship with God and expose our hearts and minds fairly regularly to God's Word, our prayers are very often going to fall within the bounds of God's will... In other words, the words of God work dramatically to conform our desires to the will of God. That's what the Psalmist meant when he told us that if we'd delight ourselves in God, we'd receive the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4). The more God overtakes our passions and fills our minds with His words, the more readily we can pray and have what we desire."
I think Beth Moore has understood this lesson correctly: that our heart's desires and petitions to God will be in line with God's own desires and plans for our lives if we are in faithful communion with Him.
Eugene Peterson interpreted Jesus's words in John 15 this way in The Message:
"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're adjoined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is -- when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples."
This week, I wondered, am I maturing? Where is the proof in the pudding? Where is the proof of my beliefs? Is the harvest abundant? I can talk of my faith all I want, but have I given God the opportunity to show me how my faith lives? I returned to this conversation of expectancy in prayer, and I thought, shouldn't I have this attitude ALL the time?
So yesterday, as I was driving home from work, knowing I was going to go directly to my mailbox to check if I'd received any other responses from potential supporters of the TeachOverseas ministry, I prayed specifically that I would hear from a particular couple. They are the parents of an old friend, and I knew their support -- in prayer, in spirit, and possibly in finances -- was something that would really encourage me and help arm me in the Spirit for the battle ahead. I prayed, Lord, please show me that [this couple is] on board with this ministry. Please give me their support, and show it to me today. You are all-powerful, and I know this is not beyond you.
I ran some errands and then drove back to my apartment, pulled into the drive, got my mailbox key, and checked the box immediately to find two TeachOverseas responses, including one from this couple from whom I'd just prayed for a response! In their envelope was an incredibly encouraging letter, a promise of daily prayer support, and a check in addition!
Wow, God is good. He holds steadfastly to His promises that He will be there for us in our needs, however big or small. He desires us to cling to Him, not only because He cherishes relationship and knows how much better it makes life for us, but also so we can be sure that, if we're "at home" with Him, then we can be sure to "ask whatever [we] want and it will be done for [us]" (John 15:7, Message & CSB).
Yesterday, when my prayer was answered, I know God was showing me both His power and His intimacy in my life. I don't know how exactly it happened. Perhaps because my heart was at home with God's desires, he granted my request by having the couple's letter ready for me. Or, perhaps the Holy Spirit was already at work within me, and It caused me to think of this particular couple when I prayed, knowing their letter was waiting for me at home. Either way, it was an extraordinary act of God, and a wonderful gesture of affirmation.
So what then is my response to God, here? God, please, continue to show me Your Glory in marvelous, magnificent ways -- throughout this process with TeachOverseas and my whole life through. Now that I've seen it, I certainly don't ever want this intimacy and its promise to ever, ever escape me.
Back on February 8th, my Young Life team met to study what a ministry of reconciliation is and what it is to grow one. Specifically, we studied the following passage by the Apostle Paul.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone in a purely human way. Even if we have known Christ in a purely human way, yet now we no longer know Him like that. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. 18 Now everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ; certain that God is appealing through us, we plead on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled to God." 21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Essentially, in verse 21 we see exactly how Christ atoned for our sins on our behalf by offering himself as a sin offering in our place. As a result, Christ allows us, through his perfect sacrifice, to once again have a piece of that righteousness of God.
Righteousness of God!
That is the coolest part to me -- because we are no longer bound to sin, because we have a real example in Christ of how to lead a godly, fulfilling life in which chains to an ugly existence unplanned by God for us can no longer hold us back from true life, we in fact have the opportunity and immense honor of being the righteousness of God. And if righteousness -- a word that encompasses holiness, rightness, morality, purity, and the absence of guilt -- is gracefully bestowed on us, then we are truly growing in God's image. Which is what was intended by God in the first place, right? To be creations in His image.
So by accepting Christ's great atoning sacrifice, therein we recognize God's original plan for all creation and express our desire to be a part of it. It is the first step of reconciliation.
That the word "reconciliation" is used in this passage is crucial. Reconciliation, by definition, necessitates a full reparation of injury and restoration of friendly relations. When two friends are reconciled together, there is the requisite apology and the forgiveness that follows, but there is also a full restoration to what the friendship was like before the wrongdoing. Otherwise, the forgiveness is shallow and reconciliation hasn't really happened. Likewise, even after we have accepted God's forgiveness and have acknowledged Him, if there is no effort to pursue His true design for our lives -- one in which we are also reconciled to the people around us and to the earth itself -- then there is no full reconciliation to God.
And God loves us too much to not want us to run after Him, to not crave His very being, to not want even a glimpse of the magnificence of His plans for our lives. He says, Please, do not let your lives be limited by living in a "purely human way" or by the flesh, or material possessions, or any sense of unworthiness. He says, You are worthy of carrying this banner, and your lives will be enriched by it.
So, too, if we wave the banner boldly, do we have the opportunity to become more and more Christ-like and, in so doing, serve as Christ's ambassadors. It is not a light task, but it is the only fulfilling one. If we allow God to inspire our lives, then others too may see and know the joy of living a rich and purposeful life.
And for the ministry of Young Life, specifically, this is the whole point.
2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: although He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich.
We may give up much to follow this path, but we do it anyway: because Christ before us sacrificed everything for us, and because even in renouncing old ways, we find a richness that is neverending and completely priceless.
