Thursday, October 29, 2009

Puzzled?


Ok, consider how you would go about creating a puzzle. Would you first cut one-thousand little pieces of cardboard into odd random shapes and then individually paint each piece, assuming that upon completion each piece would fit together and form one single coherent picture? Of course not, you would begin by painting a picture on one single large sheet of cardboard. You would draw lines all over your painting, forming the puzzle pieces, and then cut along those lines so that each individual piece will fit back into place with the others when the puzzle is reconstructed. In the same way a belief system must in and of itself have all of its ideas and truths cohere with one another. Each individual puzzle piece or belief must fit perfectly into place with its larger painting or its foundational system of beliefs. Contradictions or inconsistencies within a belief system would deny it of any credibility and from there we would watch it crumble.


What’s my point in all this?


That some people are redefining passages of the Bible to fit their friend’s (or sometimes complete stranger’s) very flawed belief systems. They’re deconstructing the Christian puzzle, cutting off those important connecting appendages that hold the whole picture together and throwing pieces away! All this because they aren’t comfortable with the image people will see once they’ve put our puzzle together.


We all know, nothing ticks people off more than starting a puzzle and finding they’re are missing pieces, in fact I would never try to do that puzzle again. The same is true of people who are introduced to a religion and all they find are contradictions, inconsistencies, and holes because someone isn’t giving them all the pieces.


If your finished puzzle shows you anything other than a complete picture of Christ being your one and only hope for redemption, salvation and eternal life, try a different puzzle.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Making Havoc of our Ambitions


We live to cast anchors into the relentless river of life hoping to attain a name for ourselves. In that effort we destroy ourselves, each other and our planet. God’s dominion mandate is not a domination mandate, yet that is how we treat it. Authoritarianism mingles with environmental degradation like a married couple. Like those in Babel, we attempt salvation through economic gains. From feudalism to Marxism human wickedness and greed will always prevail as long as we are sinners. We try to ignore our condition; we are like the man who stands in front of a mirror trying to ignore his own reflection. Ravi Zacharias commented on mans ignorance,
“He is attempting to build civilizations when he doesn’t know what it means to be civilized, he is trying to be the philosopher when he does not know who the master philosophizer is, he’s portraying his artistic perceptions when he does not know the master artist, he moralizes on life but he does not know the moral law giver, and this same man tries to build his utopias and bring about his dreams and his optimism only to find time and time again they come crashing in disaster as once again he his making havoc of all of his ambitions.”
Ravi is talking about you and I; we all do this, we try to bring God’s kingdom on earth without God and his truth. I don’t think it can be done. I think God’s kingdom will only come when He brings it. What do you think?

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Grace: Part 2 Choose wisely!


Immersed in wickedness my heart explodes with joy at the revelation of a grace that cleans me of this disease. Bono, lead singer of U2, wrote a song entitled Grace, “What once was hurt, what once was friction, what once left a mark no longer stings because grace makes beauty out of ugly things.” That grace, is the grace of Jesus Christ who frees us from sin, makes us beautiful, and calls us as new creations. His grace has one condition, that we receive it. Christ takes the oppression, the pain, the wounds, and the punishment we deserve onto him so that we can have life free from the bondage of sin. Bruce Milne put it simply, “The extension of our story beyond our fallenness is wholly due to the miracle of God’s grace.” Without Jesus we would be forever lost in our incompetence. “He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” (Titus 3:5) How sweet those words ring in our ears. There is a way to be free of sin. Sadly many will never find that way. Most people, like Judas, would trade God for a few gold coins. Never could a more foolish choice be made. If only humanity would realize, that receiving God’s grace and turning back to him is the only way a world wishing for world peace will ever gain it.
The choice to receive it or leave it is a life and death decision. Have you chosen?

Friday, October 16, 2009

Grace: Part 1


Ever entertain the idea of what you would wish for if you were given one wish from God? I love dreaming of the endless possibilities. Would you, like Solomon, choose wisdom, or have you always wanted the Scrooge Mcduck vault with a diving board into a mound of gold coins? I’m a Simpsons fan and immediately Lisa’s answer comes to mind. She would wish for world peace. Think that through for a second. We would all live in a utopia free of any corruption. To do anything wrong at all would disrupt the peace. There would be no need for contracts, only promises; you would never purchase a bolt for a door would suffice. Police would not be needed, only law. There wouldn’t even be a need for movie tickets; a person would just pay the fare and walk into the movie. Envisioning a world like this, I began to realize just how fallen our current world truly is. Evil is the framework all societies are built around. Every law and every security measure is in place because it must be. This evil is in us all. There is something twisted, almost demonic, within the very heart of man. Thank God for a grace that restores.

What would you wish for?