It’s a cultural trend for people to say that they are “spiritual but not religious.” You gotta hand it to this group—this slogan sounds really nifty (if not creative). Who wants to be religious? Spiritual sounds much better. And quite frankly, the word religion is laced with the connotations of empty ritual, pointless façade, and self-righteous indignation at people who don’t live up to an arbitrary standard. Nobody wants that.

But why has the “spirituality” discussed in the article become so popular? Why are we rejecting organized religion, doctrine, and traditional understandings of God?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the West takes so readily to this mindset. Postmodern “spirituality” is characterized by customization and convenience.

The customization takes place in one’s understanding of God. Does the God of the Bible offend you in certain ways? Do you prefer the teachings of the Dalai Lama to those of the Apostle Paul? Well, why not do a little mix and match, developing your own idea of God? In a sense, even American Christians obsess over customization, demanding churches that cater to their preferred mode of music and entertainment styles. This is the product of an individualistic, consumer-oriented culture. So why not take it to the next level and customize God Himself? “Spirituality” is perfect for our culture because it is self-pleasing and self-centered.

The convenience takes place in one’s understanding of the gospel. Nobody wants to believe something difficult. Why adapt your life to an externally-invented system of beliefs and practices when you can simply adapt them to the life you are already living? Why go to church and have to deal with all those inconvenient, difficult people? Why not just surround yourself with beliefs, practices, and friends which never challenge you or convict you? “Spirituality” is perfect for our culture because it demands no change and expects no sacrifice.

Ultimately, it all comes down to our understanding of God. Is he really so pliable that we can poke and prod him, carefully molding him like so much Play-Do? Is he really so small that we can tell him what he can and can’t demand of us? Is he really so stupid that we must educate him about right and wrong?

Maybe others are content with such a “god”—if such a pitiable being can even be called a god. As for me, I loathe him, and I am weary of thinking he is anything but a poor counterfeit of my Lord.

The only God I can love is the one true God, the triune God of the Bible, holy in all His ways, a God to be feared and a God of love. He alone is good; He alone is worthy of worship. He says to us, “Be still and know that I am God“ (Psalm 46:10).

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Four out of 10 Americans say they don’t need a marriage certificate to prove love or commitment, according to a new online survey.

Overall, 44 percent of the 7,113 Americans aged 20 to 69 who took part in the poll by Zogby International and AOL Personals said they didn’t need marriage to validate their relationships.

“Across all age groups, you just don’t need a marriage certificate to mean love,” AOL Personals Director Keith Brengle told Reuters.

“People are coming online to find that special someone but that special someone doesn’t necessarily translate into a marriage, and more so with the folks in their 60s.”

Half the respondents between the ages 20 and 29 said marriage wasn’t necessary.

A majority of respondents also said they would prefer to live together first before marriage and most said marriage should truly be until “death do us part,” especially those in their 30s (73 percent).

All in all, it’s an interesting survey. Most importantly, it reflects a false understanding of love and marriage that is present not only in the American culture but also in the American church. So here’s where I’m going to get very opinionated.

Is marriage merely a “stamp of approval” for a couple who already love each other? Or is it the foundation of the couple’s love for one another? The former is cultural; the latter is biblical.

The Bible’s teaching on the subject indicates that a husband should love his wife for the simple reason that she is his wife. We see this clearly in Ephesians 5:22-33, among other passages. Love is not to be founded on chemistry or compatibility or shared interests or physical beauty or money or sex. Ultimately, it is to be founded on marriage. While a husband may love his wife for all these things, he must be able to say to her, “Above all, I love you because you are my wife, and that love will never die as long as you are my wife.” This is the attitude of Christ toward the church.

If we look at love and marriage with an upside-down worldview, we will simply be following the failures of the culture around us. If we look at these issues through a biblical lens, it will change our attitudes. In particular:

• Dating. We view dating as a means to building a romantic relationship with another person. This relationship is then given the stamp of approval with a marriage license. Logically, then, marriage is often seen as subsequent and unnecessary to the relationship. This perspective is backwards; marriage should be seen as the basis for the relationship. The goal of dating or courtship or whatever should not be to build a relationship; its goal should be to determine whether the couple are fit to be husband and wife. (Hopefully, a close friendship is being built in the process!) If the highest goal of dating is to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, that’s a pretty childish attitude—one that will likely bring about sin, hurt, and confusion.
• Divorce. If a husband and wife are to love one another simply because they are husband and wife, then this eliminates most grounds for divorce found in our culture. A man’s wife may not be “the woman I married,” but she is his wife. He is to love her regardless. I know a friend who did this; he refused to stop loving his wife even though she was mistreating him. His unconditional love brought them through a rocky period in their marriage in which almost anyone else would have given up.

Our worldview has a tremendous impact on the way we live. This is an area where the church has gone along with foolish thinking, unaware of the dangers. How we need the truth of God’s Word to change our attitudes and transform our minds!

2 Timothy 4:1-4
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Immediately following his affirmation that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable” for every aspect of a believer’s life (3:16-17), Paul explains why he is bringing this up. He looks into the future and sees a time when people have lost interest in the gospel and in the Word of God. “They will not endure sound teaching,” he says (v. 2) — whether they are bored by it, don’t find it relevant, or flat out dislike it. Their passions are not for the gospel that Paul treasures; rather, they would rather spend time hearing and discussing vain myths unsubstantiated by the Word.

Sadly, the harsh reality Timothy faced still remains today. The most popular teachers are not the ones who teach truth from the Bible; rather, they tell people what they want to hear — that God wants you to be rich; that the Christian life is about getting a better job and living a life of ease and comfort; that we can safely ignore Jesus’ call to reject the world, taking up our cross daily and following him. They are also the ones who value the latest philosophy and popular thinking over the Word of God.

Paul’s solution was not to repackage the Word into a convenient, consumerist form. It was not to update the gospel message to fit the culture. Rather, it was to persevere in doing more of the same: preaching the truth of God’s Word, regardless of whether it was “in season or out of season”; and patiently reproving, rebuking, and exhorting those who had gone astray (v. 2). Timothy was to be armed with the Word and to wield it expertly.

This is such an important ministry that Paul powerfully insists on it, saying, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom” (v. 1). Recently, I believe I have failed to properly prepare for opportunities to teach from the Word. This is such a serious ministry that I need to spend much more time studying, meditating, and above all, praying that the power of God would transform the lives of those who hear. May they see the true Christ in my teaching.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit against Target Corp (TGT.N) brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer’s website is inaccessible to the blind, according to court documents.

Next up:  A class action lawsuit brought against the Louvre for making its paintings inaccessible to the blind, followed by a suit against God for making sunlight inaccessible to the blind.

Anyway, the point of the lawsuit is that Target.com requires the use of a mouse—not keyboard-friendly, and it lacks alt-text for its images, so voice-over programs can’t read them.

Any blind people reading this?  What are your thoughts?

Colossians 2:6-10, 15
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority…. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

We are not to try to adapt the gospel to human philosophical systems (à la liberal and Emergent theology); rather, we are to recognize that Christ defeated the spiritual rulers and authorities who are responsible for these systems.  We should never be afraid that others will think we are foolish; instead, we are to remember that God has declared the wisdom of this world to be foolish (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Unfortunately, well-intentioned Christians sometimes fall into the trap of trying to conform God to societal values.  They see something in the Bible that offends them, and so they build a philosophical system to make God’s actions more palatable.  A couple examples I’ve run across:

1. Claiming that God’s wrath comes from his love, i.e. God is wrathful only because he is loving.  I’ve heard this traced back to the love between members of the Trinity, but quite frankly, this is just a way to make God’s wrath seem less offensive.  Biblically, God’s wrath is traced to his holiness—he cannot stand the sight of sin and has promised to punish evildoers.
2. Claiming that the reason evil exists in the world is that God values man’s free will.  That is, it’s so important to God that people will choose him freely and unrobotically that he’s willing to allow people to do evil things.  Of course, this is nothing more than speculation—there is nothing in the Bible that says God allowed sin to enter the world because he wanted people to love him out of their own free will.  In fact, it’s clear from the Bible that it is by God’s sovereign decree or plan that evil takes place.

In the past, I’ve definitely valued many theodicies attempting to defend God that are based on human speculation and philosophy, not on the Bible.  In fact, I probably still do.  May we heed the words of Solomon, who warned us to “beware of anything beyond” the words of the wise, “given by one Shepherd” (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12).

Zephaniah 1:7-9
7 Be silent before the Lord GOD!
For the day of the LORD is near;
the LORD has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
8 And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice—
“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
9 On that day I will punish
everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master’s house
with violence and fraud.”

Two statements stood out to me the most. The first was that God condemns the governors of Judah for wearing foreign clothes (v. 8). I don’t think this was prohibited in the law per se; rather, it sounds like it the wearing of foreign clothes is an outward sign of an inward focus on looking like the surrounding nations. Whenever our primary concern is to look like the unbelieving culture around us, we have (metaphorically) made foreign attire a priority rather than following the Lord.

The second statement was that God would punish “everyone who leaps over the threshold” (v. 9). A couple of sources I looked at drew my attention to 1 Samuel 5:5, where stepping over the threshold is mentioned as a custom of the Philistines in honor of their god, Dagon. So the people of Judah have adopted a foreign religious practice, mixing the Lord’s commandments with those of idols. This is syncretism at its finest.

Obviously, we should seek God’s approval, not man’s (Galatians 1:10). This is very hard for me since the fear of man is very powerful in my life; I want other people to love and respect me. Often, I forget that it’s more important to show love to others in my speech than to come up with a clever thing to say. On an individual and corporate level, we have to remember that often what is pleasing to God will end up being inconvenient, difficult, and countercultural. It affects what we say, how we say it, how we dress, how we spend our money, how we spend our time, how we treat those who rub us the wrong way, even the way in which we think. The gospel calls for total transformation, and the fear of man is not compatible with it.