Monthly Archives: August 2009
Baptists vs. Presbyterians: the animated video debate
Using the magic of Xtranormal, here’s how I imagine my debate with Kyle a few weeks back would have looked like if we had done it in person. And if I were a cool black guy.
The Broken Rose
~ ~ ~
The Broken Rose
Who would love the blossomed rose—
Luster her alluring pow’r,
Fragrance of arousal crowned?
Lovers all ablaze surround—
Bloom and root and stem devour.
Who would want the broken rose?
Seared in sin, in ashes grown;
Tortured pale, her petals torn;
Leaves are lost and left the thorn
Naked on the stem, alone.
Jesus wants the broken rose
While her twisted shape is thrown,
Shriveled, to the wilting scorn:
“Leave, oh, leave her not forlorn,”
Wept and whispered for his own.
Jesus loves the broken rose,
Waters with a bleeding show’r;
Root has gripped the sanguine ground;
Drops of blood, their riches found,
Rise through stem and red the flow’r.
~ ~ ~
Photo by David Garzon
The case for early marriage?
At Adam‘s recommendation, I read an article in Christianity Today entitled “The Case for Early Marriage.” I’ll admit I was blown away because I had never seen anyone offer this justification for getting married early (by “early” the author means “early 20s”):
Our Creator clearly intended for male and female to be knit together in covenantal relationship. An increasing number of men and women, however, aren’t marrying. They want to. But it’s not happening. And yet in surveying this scene, many Christians continue to perceive a sexual crisis, not a marital one. We buy, read, and pass along books about battling our sexual urges, when in fact we are battling them far longer than we were meant to.…While our sexual ideals have remained biblical and thus rooted in marriage, our ideas about marriage have changed significantly.
I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts on this article (after reading it all the way through, please). Do you agree with the main premise? Why or why not—and how does it line up with scripture? Could the article have used more nuance?
Here are my initial thoughts:
- The main idea behind this article is spectacularly true. God clearly designed us to get married a lot younger than young people in our culture decide to do so. Sex drive is like a giant billboard from God screaming to young women and especially young men, “Grow up, stupid!” Rather than trying to block out our sex drives, perhaps we should pay closer attention to what they’re saying. God wants us to stop being adolescents and start growing up!
- Our culture is super bizarre. Historically, people got married young—even in their teens—because they had to grow up. There was no such thing as extended adolescence (or adolescence at all, for that matter). It’s extremely foolish to think that our cultural practices are somehow “normal,” and we should think carefully before conforming to them (Romans 12:2).
- We absolutely must pair abstinence teaching in youth groups with teaching on marriage. Biblical instruction on marriage must begin early (following the example of the book of Proverbs). How can we continue teaching young people to “put off” sexual sin without “putting on” proper marital relationships (à la Ephesians 4)? And how ridiculous is it that we think a few sessions of premarital counseling is anywhere near enough to prepare young people for marriage—especially in a culture bombarding them with false teaching on marriage and sexuality? We need to foster godly character and a biblical worldview in our young people so that they can get married early.
- We need to be concerned about the fact that young people are trained to worry about career long before worrying about family. And we wonder why so many marriages are sacrificed to people’s careers.
- This is a great quote: “Most young Americans no longer think of marriage as a formative institution, but rather as the institution they enter once they think they are fully formed.” And as any believer knows, that won’t happen in this life.
- I appreciate that the author takes time to handle objections to his view. From what I’ve seen, most people who discourage younger marriages do so on the basis of their own experience, projecting their former selves onto the people to whom they gladly dispense their advice. However, there are difficulties that arise from younger marriages that do need to be recognized.
- Younger marriages are in great danger if they are pursued in isolation from community. Without encouragement and instruction from the church, two relatively immature people who get married are in big trouble! With this encouragement and instruction, their marriage can be a terrific way to be conformed to the image of Christ. I’m grateful for the marriage mentoring ministry that has begun at Kossuth, and I’m looking forward to seeing it reinforce marriages throughout our church.
- I wish the author had been more precise when discussing the idea of marrying an immature person. There is a big difference between someone who is spiritually immature but growing and someone who is spiritually immature and unwilling to grow. The former can be a good candidate for marriage; the latter shouldn’t be let anywhere near the altar.
I’m sure I will think of more things to say later. What do you think?
Serve the Lord by staying healthy
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.—Ps 73:3–4
All right, I’ll be honest. This is one of those passages in the Bible that makes me snicker every time I read it. “Fat and sleek”? Wow. Of course, if you read a translation other than the ESV, it won’t be as humorous. Regardless, the word used here does mean fat (not strong, as some translations would have it).
In ancient Israel, being fat was considered to be a good thing. That’s why Solomon praises his wife for having “rounded thighs” (Song of Solomon 7:1). Men had the hots for women who were pale and overweight. In fact, in many parts of the world, that’s still true today. It makes sense if you think about it. The greater diet problem was not obesity but malnutrition. Pale skin indicated that a woman stayed indoors all day, living the high life, rather than working out in the fields.
In contemporary America, the opposite is true, for reasons that also make sense. Malnutrition is not the problem; obesity is. So of course a thin figure is highly praised. As far as skin tone is concerned, it’s now the rich who can afford to spend all day at the beach, while the working class stay pasty. (As far as men go, the standard hasn’t changed too much; most cultures seem to value strong, rugged men who spend time in the great outdoors.)
So in a sense, beauty is relative to culture. There are some things that are true across all cultures (the cyclops will always be ugly). However, the standards for beauty have changed because physical appearance communicates different things in different cultures.
We can respond to this truth in two different ways. One approach is to view physical appearance and health as irrelevant. If we go this way, we will view the body as unimportant while focusing exclusively on cultivating the soul. Now, God’s Word is clear that “while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way” (1 Timothy 4:8). However, it is a dangerous error to neglect our physical bodies. This error is due to a Platonic view that the body holds us back and that it will ultimately be discarded in favor of pure, unhindered soul. The Bible is withering in its condemnation of this false teaching (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15, Colossians 2:16–23). God made the body and the soul to be together, closely integrated with one another.
The other approach fastens onto the truth that physical appearance communicates something. This is obvious to anyone who has found himself underdressed for a pricey restaurant; it is obvious to any woman who has forgotten to put on eye shadow; it is obvious to any teenage boy with a zit on his face. We communicate with other people not only through words and actions but through appearance.
As Christians, “we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). We serve him by representing him to others, communicating on his behalf. Thus, our physical appearance is a golden opportunity to communicate the supremacy of Jesus Christ to a world that has rejected his claim to be its King. So how can maintaining good health communicate the supremacy of Christ? Here are three ways (each with a caveat):
1. Servanthood.
There are many reasons why a person may eat well and exercise in order to stay in shape. As believers, our motivation must be to glorify God by presenting our bodies “as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). We should stay healthy not to draw attention to ourselves but rather to serve God. By remaining in good health, we present ourselves as more capable instruments to be used by him. This is particularly true in later life, when the body begins to break down; by focusing on physical health when younger, we can prepare ourselves for service to the Lord even when we’ve grown old.
(If you’re married, this also a way in which you can serve your spouse—by remaining physically attractive to him or her!)
The caveat, of course, is that our health is not always under our control. Perhaps God has given you a “ministry of suffering,” in which you glorify God by trusting him through poor health. There is more than one way to communicate to the world that we are servants of the great King.
2. Holistic servanthood.
This is simply point #1 taken to its fullest extent. By submitting our bodies to God’s Word, we demonstrate that the Christian faith is holistic—there is no part of our lives to which it does not relate. We cannot divorce the way we treat our bodies from the way we love our Lord. By showing that we value physical health, we show that the Lord wants his people to devote all of their being to him (Deuteronomy 6:5). There is no part of us that we may hold back for ourselves. All of what we do contributes to godly character.
The caveat here is that we may end up identifying ourselves more with our physical health or appearance than with Jesus Christ, whom we serve. We must take care to remember that we are not serving ourselves but him. We must take care not to become unbalanced in the wrong direction (a prevalent error in our culture), focusing solely on the physical and external.
3. Beauty.
If you don’t think physical beauty is important to God, you’ve never read the Song of Solomon! In this love poem, both man and woman are praised for the appearance of their bodies. This poetry (and its frequent garden imagery) reminds us of Eden, before sin entered the world, when “the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:25). Furthermore, when we see physical beauty, it is a herald of the greater beauty to come at the resurrection, when our perishable and mortal bodies put on the imperishable and immortal, being raised in glory (1 Corinthians 15:53). How wonderful it would be if whenever we saw a physically beautiful person, it reminded us of the coming world in which the Curse is removed and we live in perfect harmony and intimacy with all creation and its King?
(And let’s face it: if you’re single and want to get married, physical health and beauty helps. A lot. Anyone who says it’s unimportant is naive and has an unbiblical perspective on the body.)
The caveat here is obvious. We can let mere external, physical beauty become an idol, treasuring it above the “imperishable beauty” of good character (1 Peter 3:3–4). We can obsess over it and devote all of our attention to it. We can let it be an end in and of itself. How we shortchange ourselves by doing so! Will the beauty of our bodies now ever compare with their beauty at the resurrection? Let’s not lose sight of the restoration that will be fully accomplished in Jesus Christ.
I hope what I’ve written helps to spur you on toward good health! I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not perfect at this. I could do a better job of eating healthy and exercising regularly. However, my goal is that I would learn to do these things for the Lord’s sake, not to draw attention to myself. I encourage you to go for it! If I can take the Hundred Push Ups challenge, trust me—there’s nothing stopping you. Physical health is probably not as hard or as time-consuming as you think.
