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I fixed my car radio on Saturday, and today I left work early for a dentist appointment. Therefore, I was able to tune into the Paul Edwards’ show. Today, Paul interviewed Meghan O’Gieblyn, the author of this fascinating article.
Sniffing Glue, A Childhood in Christian Pop
Meghan spoke of her childhood in an evangelical home and culture. She was even home schooled through the 10th grade. Eventually, when she became older, she found the church to be inauthentic, and she turned to secular culture for reality. Ultimately, she chucked it all for agnosticism.
During the interview, Meghan was very honest and articulate, but she really struggled to tell Paul what the authentic church would actually look like to her, personally.
In a few ways, her experience parallels my own. I remember one seeker friendly church in my college town with great music and free coffee. I went there several times, but I actually walked out when they played yet another 5 minute video clip about “the tools” to build a happy marriage. I never went back, but the church had certainly planted some seeds in my heart.
Ultimately, I discovered my version of the authentic church in the form of a pastor who selflessly dedicated himself to help my family in some dark and trying years. And again, I discovered my version of the authentic church in a group of older people with a dedicated pastor who kept a small church going, primarily because they love God and trust that the Bible is true.
(I feel like I should have written something about holiness, but I didn’t. I’m about Christlike while I am alive on this earth, as Abraham was the father of multitudes while he was alive on this Earth. I can’t really say that an authentic church looks authentically holy.)
In summary, to me, the authentic church looks a lot like love and perseverance. And I’m talking about love when it is difficult, not just when it is easy.
I recently heard a D. James Kennedy sermon that made a potent point which I have found particularly powerful. He asked “What did you bring to your salvation?” After a few minutes, he explained that we bring only one thing to our salvation.
As a new Christ follower, I was very enthusiastic about having my sins washed away. As the years go by, I am disappointed about the sin that remains. I have tried many things to deal with sin, but it is a bit like squeezing a balloon.
I’ve spent the past year trying to discern the difference between religion and righteousness. J. Vernon McGee points out that what we do isn’t as important to God as the reasons we do them. Why am I doing this, what is my motive? Is it to bring glory to God or to myself? These questions provide a pretty bright line to distinguish religion from righteousness.
Lately, it is becoming crystal clear to me that most of the New Testament is devoted to the issue of repenting from sin and pursuing righteousness. Pursuing righteousness is not a matter of religion. Nor, it is it a means to salvation. It is a matter of desire. It is something we must do because we love Jesus.
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges is worth a second read. It dissects the issue of Holiness and brings to bear the totality of scripture, in a very digestible manuscript.
My pastor has been spot on addressing my issues in the past two weeks of sermons, and I commend them to my readers. If you went a week without food, how would you crave it? How much do I crave righteousness?
In closing, the one thing you bring to salvation is this… your sin.
By extension, the one thing I bring to my righteousness is… my sin. This seems paradoxical at first, but in practice, understanding this fact makes a tremendous difference. How I love Jesus; I will never find a friend so true!
My new year’s goal is to generate a blog post in less than 20 minutes. 12:11… If I fail, then the blog is going to have to go.
My Christmas present to myself was Scott McKnight’s Finding Faith, Loosing Faith. I won’t comment on Scott’s writing style except to say that it read like a Master’s thesis, objective and informal, but ended like a blog post, personal and speculative  .
The book explores conversions within the Christian eco-system is divided into 4 parts.
1) Conversions of Evangelicals to Apostacy
2) Conversions of Jewish people to Evangelical
3) Conversions of Roman Catholics to Evangelical
4) Conversion of Evangelical to Roman Catholic.
McKnight looks for patterns, in a social science kind of way. The book refers to collections and anthologies of conversions stories, but seldom gives much details about a particular conversion. Instead, a pattern and a theory of conversion is fit to the fact patterns. One has to wonder if these theories are valid, however, because the conversion stories are subject to a selection bias. Even so, the hypothesis presented are interesting food for thought.
Conversion Theory, Generally, my paraphrase and filter…
a) A conversion begins with the person in a context
b) The person has a crisis that is unmet by his current belief system
c) The crisis triggers a quest by the person to resolve the crisis
d) The person has an encounter with a new belief system that seems to resolve the crisis
e) The person makes a new commitment to the new belief system
f) There are consequences for the person in his family and social group
1. Conversion from Orthodoxy to Apostacy (or Independence, as the McKnight presents it)
Several converts, inculding John Loftus and Christine Wicker and briefly considered. The key crisis identified by McKnight are:
a) Questions about the inerrancy and foundation of scripture
b) Questions about science vs. scripture
c) Unchristian and hypocritical Christians
d) The concept of Hell
e) Unwillingness to accept the Bible’s documentation of the Divine Nature
f) Seemingly unfulfilled promises
2. Jewish people converting to Christianity
Facinatingly, the crisis that most often leads Jewish people to Jesus is a crisis over the Jewish Messiah. They seldom if ever convert using the “Roman’s Road” or something similar, and for them the fundamental question becomes… What does the Hebrew Bible say about the Messiah, Was Jesus the Messiah? When they consider this seriously, it creates a crisis that often results in conversion.
3. Roman Catholic Conversion to Evangelicalism
The crisis most often faced by Roman Catholics include:
a) Questions about assurance of salvation.
b) Reading the Bible for the first time and contrasting it with Roman Catholic doctrine.
c) Questions about the divine authority of the Eucharist, confession, and priesthood.
d) A decision about the divine authority of the Bible vs. the Priesthood. Can they coexist? Scripture usually trumps the priesthood for a convert.
e) An anemic parish. The person desires a more personal worship experience than the ritual of the liturgy.
— I have just spent 22 minutes. Time to shut down the blog?
4. Evangelicals converting to Roman Catholicism
The following crisis may lead an envangelical to Roman Catholocism
a) A desire for transcendence, a desire to embrace all 2000 years of church history, not just the last 500
b) A desire for certainty and authority. Given the splintering of all the evangelical denominations, there is a great deal of disparity among various interpretations of scripture. Giving authority to the catholic clergy settles the theological questions.
c) Unity, the person believes that the church should be subjectively one body, and determines that the Roman Catholic church is the subjective unified church.
McKnight closes by referencing Rambo’s Understanding Religious Conversion. This is a nugget from the book… “The tell-tale sign of a conversion is the reshaping of one’s autobiography,” and a conclusion “patterns of conversions are shaped by human needs and it is the needs that shape the story of conversion.”
The book has impacted me by:
a) Inspiring me to write my own conversion story one day and identify the crisis, quest, and new autobiography.
b) Making me want to listen to John Micheal Tabolt, the author’s favorite musician, and a convert from evangelicalism to Roman Catholicism.
c) Making me want to explore church history in more detail.
d) Making me want to be less of a hypocrite.
e) Making me want to read McKnight’s The Blue Parkeet: Rethinking How you Read the Bible.
Err.. 12:44, I’m not going to proof read this post unless somebody pays me. Done!
Philippians 2
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
Revelation 15
1 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5 After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple—that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law—and it was opened. 6 Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
1 Chronicles 22
1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”
3 But Joab replied, “May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”
4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.
6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. 7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.
8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
9 The LORD said to Gad, David’s seer, 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the LORD—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
14 So the LORD sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? LORD my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”
18 Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the LORD.20 While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”
23 Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25 So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels of gold for the site. 26 David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
27 Then the LORD spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.
1 Then David said, “The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
This is the song I would have sung at my own funeral: Helpless, mp3, YouTube
I’ve spent the day singing Christmas songs at church.
Many of the songs I have sung today could be confusing to those who seek to understand God and the meaning of Christmas. The lyrics might lead one to believe that Jesus was about to be born, or that He was a little, manageable baby. But, Jesus has always existed. The world came to exist by Him and through Him. This was not His first entrance into the world that he created. And, Jesus was more than a little baby. Jesus was always fully God.
My favorite Christmas songs are “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!” and, I have Seen the Light!
What is the meaning of life? What is the chief end of man? To Glorify God!
Grace To You just broadcast a series called Back to the Basics in which John McArthur teaches how to grow as Christian by glorifying God. This is probably the best sermon series that I have ever heard.
Notes
What does it mean to Glorify God? To live to his honor, to live to his praise. To adorn the Doctrine of God. To so live that we bring honor to the Lord. Living a life that manifests godliness. Needed to grow spiritually. Self glory is the glory of Satan, no growth at all. 2 cor 3:18
What Brings Glory to God
1) Confessing Jesus as Lord. Phil. 2
2) Aim our lives at the Glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31
3) Confessing our sin. Joshua 7:19
4) By Trust, and Faith, for example, Abraham’s faith brought Glory to God. Romans 4:20
5) By our Fruitfulness John 15:8, Gal 5:22-23
6) Praise Him Psalm 50:23, Phil 1:11
How do we praise the Lord?
- Recite God’s Attributes, God’s nature – Holy, Almighty, Eternal, Covenant Keeping God
- Recite His Works, His attributes are on display in his works
- Saying Thanks for both
7) Loving Him enough to Obey Him, Obedience. John 21
8 ) By Prayer. John 14:13-14 It shows God’s power, you will praise of God.
9) By Proclaiming the Word. 2 thes 3:1, Gal 1:23-24
10) By bringing others to Him. 2 cor 4:15
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