Monthly Archives: November 2007
“Be killing sin, or it will be killing you”
Those words from John Owen are the brutal truth—if we make no effort to put to death sin in our lives, then we will be overcome by it. If only this defeat were a sudden, quick end! Rather, sin usually kills a person gradually, slowly bringing about compromise and hardening of the heart until it does not care for the truth of God. “Every rise of lust, might it have its course, would come to the height of villainy”—Owen was right about this, too.
I just got off the phone with an old friend who is slowly hardening his heart to the truth of God’s Word. As months and years wore on, he was caring less and less about God. These last few weeks, I’d been urging him to return to studying the Word, to pursuing God, but he responded only with self-pity, and tonight, with anger. I didn’t do a perfect job counseling him, but it was clear that no matter how wonderful and clever my words were, I could not change his heart—only the Spirit of God could do that. So now, all I can do is pray for the Holy Spirit to break his heart of stone.
What is most terrifying is that I know—I know—what he’s feeling. I feel the same undercurrent of complacency in my own heart; I feel the same lack of concern for the glory of God; I feel the same self-pity. And I know that if I let sin run its course and fail to kill it every day, I will be killed instead. Not quickly, but slowly and painlessly—like a man suffocating.
By the grace of God, may it never be.
ROFLOLOLOLOLOLOL
[Update: No, he's not.]
Happy Thanksgiving, Adam! Where did you find this fine frenzied fellow?
Is Christianity a religion or a relationship?
Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship.
The first time I heard that line was my freshman year in college. Along with several friends from my Bible study, I was attending a presentation by a survivor of 9/11. In the course of his talk, the man used this statement to aid his gospel message. For the first and last time, it seemed fresh and inventive.
Five years later, I’ve heard this line over and over again. It’s become something of a cliché. So is it true? Is it wrong to call Christianity a religion? How do we approach this issue with discernment?
Before we can analyze this statement, we first need to hold a little background discussion on language. My seminary instructors are fond of saying that the biblical languages communicate on the level of sentences, paragraphs, and discourses. The same is true for the English language as well. While individual words don’t mean whatever we want (“dog” never means “cat”), they do have a semantic range—a single word can have a range of meanings. For example, the word range that I just used has a huge variety of meanings, ranging from “the area of variation between upper and lower limits on a particular scale” to “the distance within which a person can see or hear” to “a line or series of mountains or hills” to “a large area of open land for grazing or hunting” and so forth. How do we know what it means in a sentence? The answer, of course, is context. I’m sure you had no doubt what I meant when I used it above. That’s because the paragraph with which I surrounded the word revealed which meaning I was using (namely, “the area or extent covered by or included in something”). So when we see the statement, “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship,” we need to have some context to know what the words mean. This is because religion and relationship can have a whole host of possible meanings and implications.
If by religion we mean a system of external rules, regulations, and traditions that distract us from following God with all of our hearts, then of course, Christianity is not a religion in that sense. As Pastor Whipple has pointed out in his last two sermons, we have to do more than “cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish” (Luke 11:39). We need to address the issues of the heart.
If by relationship we mean friendship and communion with God, then of course, Christianity requires relationship. Jesus called his disciples his “friends” (John 15:15).
However, the devil loves to take a phrase that is true in a limited context and then twist it and distort it so that it leads people astray. Our desire for a bumper sticker slogan to describe our faith is a dangerous lust. We may extend this line to applications where it’s not true.
Let’s just face it: Christianity is a religion, broadly defined. It is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods”; it is “a particular system of faith and worship.” The Bible refers to biblical religion as “pure and undefiled” in James 1:27.
In addition, it is not merely Christians who have a relationship (broadly defined) with God. Unbelievers do, too—they are His enemies. Romans 5:10 brings out this contrast: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” We used to be enemies before we were reconciled to God. Now, we are His friends. Both are relationships.
In addition, there are some dangers to this cliché. Summarizing Christianity as simply a relationship might lead us to neglect important perspectives on our faith. Christianity is also a worldview; if all we see is a relationship, then we may simply hold to our old, unhealthy patterns of thinking, sprinkle them with a few new beliefs, and add God as the cherry on top. Christianity is a lifestyle; it demands a changed life. Christianity is a community; we cannot be “Lone Ranger Christians.” Christianity requires us to take part in sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—that we would associate more with the word religion than the word relationship. Yet these are commanded by Christ. Most people my age don’t care much for these sacraments—they show, by their failure to keep them, that they don’t see these practices as important. The sacraments don’t fit into their limited perspective of the Christian faith. So I believe that the word relationship does not require enough of us; Christianity is an all-consuming quest to glorify the God of the Bible.
So what are your thoughts? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Am I not going far enough? Am I an idiot?
On second thought, don’t answer that last one.
Five interesting things about me…
Okay, it’s finally time to get around to the meme that seems to be all the rage among my friends’ blogs now. (It’s Janet’s fault, of course.) So here is my entry, two days later than originally promised (sorry).
- I love cold weather. For years, I debated this question: which is better—to walk into a cool house on a hot day or to walk into a warm house on a cold day? I finally decided this year that the latter is better. Why? Four reasons. First of all, I spent seven years in Canada, so I’ve developed an appreciation and nostalgia for cold weather. Second, I sweat a lot. Third, it’s pretty manly to “tough” the cold weather, whereas there’s nothing manly about being outside in the heat. Finally, when you walk into a warm room, it’s like putting on a soft, heavy winter coat or getting a warm hug (a manly hug, if I must say that to preserve any shred of manliness I have left). My main confrontations with cold weather take place during my morning run; I love a good cold weather run. The best ones are when, halfway through the run, you’re not sure whether you’ll make it out alive. Then you feel liquid dripping into your mouth, and you realize it’s your snot, and your nose has been running but you couldn’t feel it because your face is numb. Awesome.
- I’m awful at multitasking. I can’t study and listen to music I like at the same time. I can’t do anything else while talking on the phone…the person on the other end can always tell because I can’t focus on both tasks at once. The worst situations take place when I’m driving. It’s hard for me to drive and hold a thoughtful conversation at the same time. I also fail to notice most landmarks I drive by because I’m focused on the road, and that’s all I can keep my attention on. During driver’s ed, it was tough for me to learn all the little things that are now automatic (e.g. turn signals) because I was overwhelmed by all the different tasks I had to perform.
- I was valedictorian of my high school. I guess I kind of came out of nowhere since I was homeschooled through the eighth grade. (Most of the students in my high school had lived in Greenwood their whole lives and had grown up together.) Academics comes pretty naturally to me; I kind of feel bad for the salutatorian because she was a “grinder”—she studied hard to get where she was, while I would just waltz in and succeed. Even at college, I still got almost entirely A’s, though now I’ve forgotten most of what I learned. I would just roll on through, even though I didn’t know what was going on. Actually, that pretty much sums up most of my life. Anyway, for my valedictorian speech, I compared our high school to a stapler; the different parts of the stapler represented the different people involved in the school (teachers, administrators, parents, students, etc.). It was pretty weird, but most high school graduation speeches are mind-numbingly boring, so I guess it could have been worse. I remember that my English teacher had to encourage me to include thanks to God in it, which just goes to show how spiritually immature and ungrateful I was at the time.
- I like to write music. Most of my talent consists in writing lyrics; I have some musical abilities, but they’re nothing spectacular. I’ve actually posted a few songs I’ve written here on my blog. Ever since I picked up a little guitar, I’ve also worked on chords for my songs as well. They range from whimsical to joyful to thoughtful to depressing and disturbing. I’ve even performed one or two in church. If you ever want to hear a few, let me know…I’d be happy to play and sing them for you, though I admit I’d be really nervous….
- I used to be quite the (video) gamer. This was back in high school, when I didn’t have many friends. The original PlayStation—those were my glory years. I especially loved RPGs (role-playing games). The ones that still stick with me include Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy VIII, and Star Ocean: The Second Story. My favorite game ever is Chrono Trigger for the Super Nintendo. Actually, I liked these games and their music so much that I bought the soundtracks for them…and I still listen to them. In fact, I even write lyrics to some of the tunes, which works out great—video game music is designed to be catchy though repetitive, which is perfect for finding a good tune. I hardly play games at all any more, though…Halo 1 and 2 were my last gasps. I still enjoy games if I do sit down and play them, but I don’t care enough to actually play them much.
Okay! There you go! Now I have to tag three people, which is hard because all my friends already tagged each other. I’ll tag:
- Melissa Newton.
- My sister Rebecca.
- My brother Mike (long shot).
