Rewind: Week Five

I am five weeks into my time in Omaha today. Only three weeks to go. This has been a pretty solid week overall though. Last night, a group of guys that I have been going through a Bible study with got together at a sweet Mongolian Bar-B-Que restaurant here in Omaha called Hu Hot. We had a great time together. It served as the closing of the Bible study as we finished the material the previous week. I have a picture of us at the end of the post. They are all neat men. Friday marked the one year anniversary for Brittany and I since we began dating last summer. I can't believe how quickly that time flew by, but we have made some really good memories together on which we can reflect. And I'm looking forward to many more in the future. One of them will be this upcoming weekend as I will be flying to Chicago to spend a few days with her. We will also be celebrating our anniversary there. I'll be sure to update on that after I get back.

Also on Friday, I started the book, Surprised By Joy, which is C.S. Lewis' autobiographical account of his conversion from atheism to Christianity. I finished it yesterday because I couldn't put it down. He has quite a story beginning with a rocky road down radically legalistic Christianity that emboldened him to embrace evolutionary humanism and then atheism. But when he arrived at Cambridge, a series of relationships, including one with J.R.R. Tolkein, began to chip away at his walls. What was most interesting to me is that the bulk of his journey to embracing Christ came through internal conversation. His atheistic mindset began to war with his background in medieval literature and the significance it had in his views of the Bible. As much as he wanted to disregard the Christian faith, or more specifically the Bible, as being fable and fiction, certain markers, such as geneolgies and descriptive markers of historical context, forced him to believe that it was more than mere fiction. This quote is amazing:

I was by now too experienced in liteary criticism to regard the Gospels as myths. They had not the mythical taste. and yet the very matter which they set down in their artless, historical fashion - those narrow, unattractive Jews, too blind to the mythical wealth of the Pagan world around them - was precisely the matter of the great myths. If ever a myth had become fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this. And nothing else in all literature was just like this. Myths were like it in one way. Histories were like it in another. But nothing was simply like it. And no person was like the Person depicted; as real, as recognizable, through all that depth of time, as Plato's Socrates or Boswell's Johnson (ten times more so than Eckermann's Goethe or Lockhart's Scott), yet also numinous, lit by a light from beyond the world, a god. But if a god - we are no longer polytheists - then not a god, but God. Here and here only in all time the myth must have become fact; the Word, flesh; God, Man. This is no "a religion," nor "a philosophy." It is the summing up and actuality of them all.
(Page 236, Brace & World Inc., New York)

Isn't that awesome? Leading up to this point, his hatred for the Bible and Christianity forced him to study and search for a reason which explained why he held this hatred and instead brought him to the Truth. In his mind, he toiled with his desire for control of his destiny and the shaping of his soul. He wanted to exist in a world that allowed him to act as his own god. Before his conversion, one of the thoughts that pierced his soul came during a debate in a pub with Tolkein in which he told Lewis that the Bible is "a true myth." On a morning after many such debates with his friend, he and his brother were traveling to a nearby zoo for a visit on a historic day for Lewis, about which he quotes:

When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did.
(Page 237, Brace & World Inc., New York)

In spite of his deep desire to exist in solitude spiritually, God never let him get away. The product: probably the greatest modern Christian philosopher our world has seen. I highly recommend the book. It is a phenomenal story. This morning, Nathan and Shelby's son, Zachary, was dedicated in church along with six other children from the congregation. I took a video of the dedication in the second service, which will be at the end of this post, but I was not able to record Zachary's dedication because Nathan and Shelby asked me to come to the front and stand with them as Bob prayed over all of the children and their parents before officially dedicating them to the Body of Christ. I was an exciting time for the Bliss family and I was very happy to have been a part of it. This was also the first Sunday in which Bob has preached since I arrived in Omaha. He started a four week series on the church today and preached on the significance of leadership in the church and how we are commanded to submit and obey biblical leadership. The text he used was Hebrews 13:17 which calls us to "obey your leaders and submit to their authority." On this point, Bob addressed how most of us struggle with this idea for two big reasons:
1 - Sin
2 - Our culture which believes in humanism, or man being the final authority. Therefore, he led with this thesis: Our issue is not with church leadership, but rather unqualified church leadership. The Bible does not call us to submit blindly. It commands that we obey qualified leadership whom Hebrews says, "must give an account." Our lives in general reveal this truth to us because anything we learn to do well is done by submitting to qualified authority. A child learns to play baseball by submitting to the teaching of a qualified coach. A musician learns his instrument by submitting to a qualified instructor. This must be the same approach we take with church leadership. Bob said that we become obedient and submissive people through three things:
1 - Acknowledging the holiness of God. Scripture is not a suggestion and therefore submission is a command.
2 - Acknowledging our unwillingness and inability in light of our sins. We are deeply selfish people.
3 - Filling our minds with Jesus and his sacrifice. In coming into our world, he submitted himself to corrupt and misled worldly authority in order to forgive us for our own rebellious nature.
We must be transformed through a relationship with Jesus and not through self-maintenance. In approaching leadership, we should always remember that the Bible is the highest authority by which we are to keep leaders accountable and that the Gospel is central to our lives. It should be applied to leaders continually. But even leaders do not have the final authority. Only Jesus has the final authority. It was a great sermon and is probably worth listening to on their podcast on iTunes.

Before I close, two exciting things about Tuesday:
1 - Project 86, one of my favorite bands, has a new album coming out Tuesday. It is called Picket Fence Cartel and it has the potential to be amazing. Check out the trailer below.
2 - I was given a ticket to see Sick Puppies live for the release show of their new album. It should be awesome and I am very excited. I am having live rock concert withdrawals at the moment. So this should be a good fix for me.

I will leave you with another C.S. Lewis quote. If you do not love him yet, just give me some time with you. I am great at brainwashing people on Lewis. Just ask Nathan Bliss...

When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, "Look!" The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. "We would be at Jerusalem."

Not, of course, that I don't often catch myself stopping to stare at roadside objects of even less importance.
(Page 238, Brace & World Inc., New York)

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.

Rewind: Week Four

Sorry. I am a day late on my weekly "rewind," but it has been a very busy week. As I am writing this, I can't help but think about the past few day full of fireworks, farmer's markets, a trip to the zoo, and spending time with my girlfriend. Brittany flew into town on Friday and we were given the opportunity to spend the weekend exploring Omaha together. I was very excited to have her here as she was finally able to meet all of the people with whom I am interacting on a daily basis. If you have been keeping up with my blog posts so far, you know that this has been a convicting summer for me during which I have learned so much and to finally share that with Brittany was very special for me.

On Friday, Brittany and I grabbed breakfast together, stopped by the Coram Deo office and hung out with Justin, Kendal, and Will for a little while. The weather wasn't so agreeable that day so we ended up spending most of the day watching movies at the Bliss' house. But it was good to have a low-key day to catch up and spend time with one another because it had been six weeks since we last saw one another. On Saturday, she and I drove down to the weekly farmer's market that is held in a large parking lot in downtown Omaha every weekend. We purchased quite a few goodies that played predominant roles in the fantastic dinner that Brittany pretty much made by herself while I stumbled around the kitchen acting like I knew what I was doing. We also went to the Omaha zoo Saturday afternoon which was a lot of fun. It is huge and we spent over five hours walking around the complex without seeing every exhibit. But we enjoyed ourselves. Saturday night, we were invited over to Justin's house to watch a fireworks show his neighbor does every year. I swear, this guy had to have spent somewhere around $5,000 if not more on everything that he blew up. And for a pyrotechnic like myself, it was a dream come true. I will have a video sample of the show at the end of this post.

Yesterday, I was able to bring Brittany to the Coram Deo service so that she could finally get to see what I am involving myself with this summer. I was given the responsibility of making the call to worship again this week and that went well. Justin was preaching on prayer from the text Matthew 6:5-15, the Lord's Prayer. He prefaced his message with the warnings found in the text leading up to the prayer itself. We are called by God not to be hypocrites, like the Pharisees, or like the pagans who pray with many words. His sermon pointed out the fact that the Lord's prayer is not a script that we should use in order to talk to God word for word, but rather it is a guideline by which we approach God in prayer recognizing who he is and reminding ourselves of his truth in the process. We begin by approaching God in prayer as if we are speaking to our Father. In light of the Old Testament, this is a new way of relating to him because he was never addressed this way until Christ came and died for us. Therefore, we know that when Jesus died on the cross, he created for us a new connection with God through which we have been allowed to enter into an extremely personal and loving relationship with him.

The second portion of our prayers should be concerned with God's kingdom manifesting itself in our lives and our world. Prayer should not be about our will and our desire, but rather prayer should be driven out of a motivation to get our will in alignment with God's will so that our efforts in life will not be wasted. And lastly, we ask God for his daily provision, forgiveness, and protection in our lives. Often times we forget how personal and intimate an interaction with God prayer can be due to the fact that the approval of other people either keeps us from praying or causes us to try and rehearse our words beforehand so that we don't sound stupid. But it's not about sounding smart or knowledgeable. It's about being honest. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a parable of two men who entered the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee gave God the glory for everything that he had been given in his life: obedience to the law, a positive reputation, and status above others - including the tax collector. Whereas the tax collector could not even lift his head to the heavens and instead beat his chest and cried out to God for a merciful response to his sinful nature. And in the end, Jesus tells us that only the tax collector went home justified. Justin did a great job with his sermon digging into a message that we overlook far too often.

After my call to worship in the second service, Brittany and I left and relaxed at the Bliss' house until it was time to leave for the airport. And I have to admit, I did not like that drive to the airport or going through the process of watching her leave for Chicago again. Six weeks is a long time to be apart. I had nearly forgotten what it felt like to receive a hug from her. Or to kiss her. Or to hold her hand. But when I saw her coming out of that gate on Friday, it hit me all over again. When she saw me and literally sprinted into my arms, I remembered. This was the best weekend I have had this summer by far. I am so thankful that Brittany was able to visit and I am so thankful for the ways God is using her in my life to motivate me in becoming a better man.

Oh, and on a side note, I feel a responsibility in being honest with all of you about something. I cannot say that I am necessarily excited about doing this, but I am very comfortable with my reasons for doing it. This past week, I was trying to think of a good act of service that I could do for Brittany over the summer since I really have no way of being in close proximity to her physically and I think God stepped in and gave me this suggestion. I begged him on end to let me do anything else, but decided it was probably the most significant act I could do right now...that being said, I have begun reading the Twilight series. And I am doing it for one reason. L-O-V-E. How are you going to criticize me for that???? ;-)

Peace

J. Tillman - Master's House

I have really been digging this song lately. And it is such a great representation of the Gospel. Love it.



You won't need a dime to board in the master's house
You won't need a dime to board in the master's house
'Cause he'll sell you a thousand for a hundred
And tell you the rest is on loan
Until you try to build a house of your own
You owe every crossbeam and stone
You won't need a dime

You won't need a tool to work in the master's field
You won't need a tool to work in the master's field
'Cause he'll tell you that work is beneath you
'Till your shirt is hanging off like a sheet
'Till suddenly the work of your hands
Is just keeping out of well-laid plans
You won't need a tool

You won't need a sin to pray in the master's church
You won't need a sin to pray in the master's church
Every reason he gives you to fall at his feet and be saved
For wars that his grandfathers waged
How easily the heart of man is tamed
You won't need a sin

You won't need a guide to find the master's door
You won't need a guide to find the master's door
'Cause everyone who's gone before you
Has been pounding it down to the floor
While we were plotting his end
He bought all our land and moved in
You won't need a guide

'Cause the master rules where the master divides