The next few days!!

So I don't have time to post them tonight, but in the next couple of nights I am going to be posting a couple of blogs based on a couple of issues I have been asked about quite a bit recently, mostly at work.  Issue one, Heaven and Hell, Issue two?  Sex before marriage verses saving yourself.  Two deep issues that as I mentioned I have been asked a lot about lately, so I decided to think through my answers carefully and post them here.  A lot of times my blogs will be about things that have been in my life recently, and these two will be no exception, so bear with me as I attempt to tackle these two big issues in the next couple of nights!

Tuesday off?

So its tuesday and I had the day off from work, it is so weird to have a tuesday off, it seems to have thrown my entire week off kilter.  I can accept a monday or a friday off, but a tuesday?  May it never be!!  Oh, and don't ask me why I am complaining about a day off.

Missing home

It is true what they say, home is where the heart is.  I don't miss the area I am from(Bay Area) one bit, but every time I hear or think about the people I left there, I find myself becoming nostalgic about home, and wishing I could be back there and see everyone.  I am a bit jealous of my roommate Peter as he gets to spend the entire week back home with everyone!  I am really looking forward to christmas time when I will be able to go home and spend some time with my family and see my friends.  To everyone I have left behind, I love you all and can't wait to see you!

The curse of the feet

So tonights blog is a wee bit different, I am sitting at the apartment on a friday night due to the fact that my feet hurt enough that I really have no desire to go out.  After a long week and many overtime hours, I find myself wondering, why the heck do we have to have nerve endings in our feet?  Why can't our feet just be numb all the time so that we don't have to feel soreness when we have been using them for nearly 50 hours a work week?    Oh well, other then that, I am going to enjoy a nice quiet evening of putting the feet up and chillaxing for a change!  See?  Told you this blog was different from most of mine!

Cultural relevance verse Biblical truth, can they coexist?

So there are two camps in the world of christianity right now that stand on two very opposite shores.  One camp holds cultural relevance in a very high regard, they are in the world, very active but they seem to have lost a lot of the truth of the word.  The other group stands on the opposite end, its the church that stands for truth, and nothing else, that isn't in the world, isn't making an impact, isn't loving and fighting for the lost, they are more worried about checking off their boxes of what they do right.  Both of these camps have good aspects, but both also have damaging aspects.  Tonight I would like to take a closer look at them, and in a nutshell, see what, in my opinion, we can take and what we should leave from them.

First off, concerning the emergent church.  I have always strongly disliked the emergent church, but lately my view of them has softened quite a bit.  I have been doing a lot of reading on the emergent church and am currently reading one of their more respected "leaders" books and have a much better grasp on what they are pursuing and where their heart is.  While I certainly don't have it nailed down(not sure they really have nailed down what they are doing either)  I do have a much better grasp and much more respect for where they are now.  So that said, they are very culturally relevant and in their community, helping and really trying to show Gods love to their community.  They have a fire and a passion for those things, and that is something we as christians have to take away, and should be trying to apply to our own lives.  

The negative is that they say they are on a journey to get to know Christ, and that you cannot know for sure any truths about Him, we cannot truly know what the Bible means and one persons interpretation can be right for them while another persons is right for them.  They are correct when they say we are on a journey to get to know Christ to further our relationship with Him.  But what they forget is every relationship we have, is based on learning truth about that person, we cannot further our relationship with them(think of your girl friend or boy friend, you best friend, your parents) without knowing concrete truths about them.  Developing a relationship with them is all about learning more and more truths.  Not truths that are right for one person but maybe not right for another one, but consistent truths that hold to for everyone.  Jesus is no different, there are many things we can know for sure about Him, and we must fight to hold this truth.  The holding that we cannot know for sure what the Bible means, suggests that God is not capable or not caring enough to impart clear truth to us, which neither one of those choices seems very wise.  The truth?   The Bible has many areas that are gray areas, that are left open to interpretation, these areas while we should study, and be able to have an opinion on, cannot be know for sure.  But there are also many areas the Bible does not leave open to interpretation, God did not intend it to.  So we have to hold strong to the truth found in Gods word.

Then we have the "modern church", you all know it, the church that only cares about "the truth", the church that you don't see loving the community, but judging the community, the "frozen chosen" as some would call them.  They have the check list of do's and don'ts and if you do the don't, oh man, your in for a world of judging and finger wagging at you.  This is a church where you don't see any real life change or spiritual growth, just legalistic, hypocritical christians that give christianity a bad name.

The good of this church is the high esteem they hold the truth of Gods word in, they fight for it, they revere it, as it should be, they just don't do it very lovingly.

The negative, you don't see the real spiritual growth, just the list of do's and don'ts.  Life as a christian is not about do's and don'ts, its about a relationship with Jesus Christ, an intimate, real relationship, where we love Him and desire to do anything and everything He desires us to do.  This church tends to drive a lot of non christians, and christians away from the church as they don't see any love, just legalism and hypocritical christians.  

Both extremes have good parts, both have bad parts, what we have to do is sift the good from the bad.  Here is my try at it:

1.  The truth of Gods word is of utmost importance, and we must protect and defend it.

2.  We have to be culturally relevant so that we might reach all that we can.

3.  We should be filled with a fire, a desire to obey and follow Christ, a desire to get to know Him more, a desire to obey Him, not because its a list of do's and don'ts, but because we love Him with all our hearts and want to obey Him.

So how do we combine all three areas?  How are we to be in the culture, loving it and reaching it for Christ, holding Gods word and truth in utmost regard, and ultimate respect, fighting for the truth, and have the desire to follow God, to love him and the world he has created?  Its not easy, and no one has that fireproof plan, but these are the things we have to be fighting for.  How do we do it?  I am trying to learn this myself, I know that neither extreme is right, the answer is in the middle, how do we get there?  I am trying to learn this!  So in closing tonight, I am going to leave you with a quote that I like, that for most of you that know me, will be kind of surprised to see me quoting:

"Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be.  And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it".  -Rob Bell

The end of a nail

So, though I don't know why, I decided to share with you all that today at worked, I smashed my left pinky finger.  There is quite a bit of blood under the finger nail and it looks really gross and hurts quite a lot!!  I spent half of the day praying that God would give me the strength to make it through the work day despite the pain, pretty sure I am gonna lose the nail, and now I am sitting here typing on the finger.  Oh life is so annoying sometimes.  But if the worst thing I have to deal with is a little pain and a lost fingernail, then I guess I am not doing to bad after all!

Tim

My faults, my problems and my salvation

So tonight, I have a confession to make, I am arrogant, I can be a jerk, I can be selfish, unloving, uncaring, ignorant, a hypocrite and the list goes on and on.  Lately I have really been convicted of my arrogant and sometimes unloving attitude.  I am really tired of it and its something I truly desire to change. 

 It is at times like these when I take comfort and refuge when Paul tells us that "Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am the chief".  Here is a guy who wrote nearly half of the NT, but he calls himself chief of sinners.  A look into his past shows us that he persecuted and killed christians before God saved him, a look into his Christian life shows a Godly man, but also a man who struggles with his temper and another unknown "thorn in his side".  Yet God used this man for incredible things in His church.  

I take great comfort from this knowing that God can use me despite all my deficiencies, despite all my sins and shortcomings.  I know that for me to change my attitude and actions to a more Godly attitude and more God centered actions I have to be humble, willing to bow the knee to God and give myself over to Him.  He has saved me from my sins, He has given me the power to overcome my sinful nature with Him by my side.  So with Him by my side, I am going to work on my arrogance, on my unloving nature, and God willing, I will change, one day at a time.  This is my confession, this is my struggle.