A Work In Progress

As I stated in my first post of this blog, the reason I am serving as an intern for Coram Deo this summer is because of a mission trip in which I came with a group to Omaha and spent a week here with the church. One of my favorite things that happened during that week was something Coram Deo calls "Film and Theology Night." Will Walker, the associate pastor, is a movie freak. He loves watching them, talking about them, thinking about them. It's great. However, I would say that the way in which he approaches this outlet of culture is very different from most people. When God created us, he created everything about us - including our passions, interests, and desires. Will has really taken this to heart. Since one of his passions is watching movies, he wants to do that in a way that glorifies God. And since we are all a part of God's story, beginning with Adam and extending to today, no matter the story being told we can't help but incorporate glimpses of the Gospel into our thinking regardless of whether or not we are Christians. So the idea of the Film and Theology Night is to watch a movie that is popular within our culture and talk about it in terms of the Gospel. What moved us in the movie? And why? What type of questions did it raise about meaning, growth, life, etc? What elements of the movie exemplify Creation, Fall, and Redemption? Was there a Christ figure? And how did he/she play out or distort the Gospel?

Last night, we watched Juno and then talked about all of the Gospel implications within the movie. And it got really deep. Will put in a lot of thought and time in preparation for the discussion and I thought it was awesome. As sad as it may be, movies are becoming in some sense the new pulpit of America. And they speak loudly. But too often, as Christians, we get caught up in our own legalism and shun the idea of viewing a "bad" movie. Our justification might be that there is too much violence (Old Testament?), there is magic, there is too much language, or maybe because it is rated "R," unless of course it's a movie about the Passion of Christ. The truth of the matter is that the Bible does not call us to see the bad things in life and run away from them, but to engage them by testing everything and embracing what is good. I'm not saying that everyone should begin watching the worst movies possible in order to engage people about them. Because this is not simply about movies. It is about every part of culture including music, books, politics, etc. This is the world in which we live and though we are aliens here, we are called to do God's will. And part of that is this:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is you spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will."
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

It is not about a particular set of rules because that is not the Gospel. Rather, we should saturate our minds so fully with Christ, his sacrifice, and his promise so that we might approach our culture in a way that is meaningful in order that Christ might become visible in every part of our lives. And we cannot do this by passively interacting with culture, or in this case, passively watching a movie. But we must be actively observing the Gospel in every arena in order to share it with others. Isn't that a cool idea??

During my time reading through Scripture this summer and venturing through the Old Testament for the first serious time in my life, I am realizing how mysterious the Bible really is. It is easy to look at it on a surface level of contrasting the Old Testament to the New Testament and believe that they say two different things. But in reality, they are both either pointing to or telling the story of the same thing - Jesus Christ. The challenge is working through these "paradoxes" in order to embrace the Truth of the Gospel. I think this is the beauty of it as well. This summer, I challenged myself on working through these issues, some of them I have already posted about. Especially about finding God's grace in the midst of his wrath. Because it does exist and it is lazy to simply say that the Old Testament is all wrath whereas the New Testament is all love. But we find those extremes incredibly appealing to embrace because they are easy to settle on and do not require much work or thought in pursuing the truth of the matter. Another issue that has been on my mind lately is that of the works of man in light of God's sovereignty over all things. Because the Bible tells us two things about this issue:

1 - There is no amount work I can do to gain, earn, or deserve salvation. (Isaiah 64:6)
2 - Faith without works is dead (James 2:17-26)

Am I the only one confused by this? I heard Chandler preach a sermon about this recently and he broke it down this way. Everything was created by God. Mankind, the earth, the heavens, everything. Therefore, everything in our world belongs to God. Our money, our house, our cars, our television sets, everything. And he has blessed us with "things" so that we might make visible our worship of Christ and his sacrifice through them. God gave us wine so that we might drink it in a way that glorifies him and does not make us alcoholics. God gave us money so that we might spend it, donate it, give it in a way that glorifies him and does not cause us to become greedy and materialistic. God gave us sex so that we might engage in it in a way that glorifies him and does not trample on his creation or belittle it through lust. As John Piper would say, God gives us things so that we might use them "in such a way that it is plain to the world they are not our treasure. Christ is."

What this means to me is that the "works" James is speaking of are not defined by the materialistic item involved. Rather, they are defined by the ways in which we use those things. And I think this even applies to religious action. If we commit to reading the Bible daily for the sake of memorizing more verses or because we know that we should do it, then that is the wrong approach. However, if we commit to reading it daily in order that we might come to know Jesus more intimately and grow in our relationship with him, we will do just that. The same goes for prayer. If we commit to regular prayer for the sake of the action itself, it means nothing. But if we commit with the holiness of God as our motivation, it means everything. I was talking to Kendal about this recently and he gave me some good insight into how all of this works. We do not grow in our commitment to something like reading the Bible daily. Rather, we grow out of this action by preparing ourselves in such a way that God might open our eyes to Truth and renew us spiritually. John Ortberg gives a great analogy for all of this which Kendal also told me about recently:

You may be wondering, "What about God's role in spiritual growth?" To speak of spiritual growth only as the product of training could make it sound like something that can be engineered.

Think of the difference between piloting a motorboat and a sailboat. I can run a motorboat all by myself. All I have to do is start the engine. I am in control. But a sailboat is a different story. I can hoist the sails. I can steer with the rudder. But I am utterly dependent on the wind. My job is simply to do those things that will enable me to catch the wind when it comes.

Spiritual transformation is like piloting a sailboat. I can open myself to it through certain practices, but I cannot engineer the wind. When it comes, it is a kind of gift. Seeing this saves me from pride and from the wrong kind of effort. Wise sailors know their main task is to be able to read the wind, to learn to raise and lower particular sails to catch the wind most effectively. They know when to stay on the existing course and when to set a new one.

So it is with the spiritual disciplines. Our job is to creatively and wisely engage in those activities that will give God a chance to work in our life. This can look different in different seasons of our lives. We can put up the sails and adjust them as needed. But what happens is up to God.

I think this is a beautiful picture by which we can learn how to find spiritual renewal. When we say that we will read the Bible more or pray more in order to become better Christians, we are defining ourselves as the source of spiritual growth rather than God. Religiosity does nothing to cleanse the condition of the heart. Because our righteous acts are like filthy rags before the Lord. John 3:8 says,

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

This means that the Holy Spirit within the believers of God has a will of its own. We do not know its origin or its destination. But what we can do is commit to the Gospel and its calling in order to be prepared for God to move your heart where he pleases. We move most steadily with the wind when we have worked, built, and prepared our sailboat in such a way that it is ready for the wind to carry it.

I will leave you with this passage which has been on my mind a lot lately:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"
Matthew 7:21-23

People do good things in this world, but good things do not justify you before the Lord. Works do not justify you before the Lord because everything we use to commit to action already belongs to God and does not allow any room for us to build righteousness that is not already his. Our works produce pride and self-righteousness. Not salvation. We are hopeless to do anything on our own. It is by God's grace alone that we have beating hearts with which to function here and now. As this passage makes clear, there is more to faith than simply conversion. After we enter into our relationship with Christ, he has a purpose for us. And that purpose is to use the material riches God gives us in order to make a spiritual profit in our lives and in the lives of others, not a worldly one.