Holiness in a World Where Anything Goes

Holiness: non-conformity

Today I’ll be heading off to Easter Convention which is like a big family camp that happens every year and they get all these great speakers in from every where to come and speak. This year I’ve been asked to help lead the yr 11 and 12 group, so its gonna be an exciting few days for me. When I get back I’ll let you all know how it went down.

This year the theme is….’Committment in the age of disposable love’. Don Carson, who is pretty well known in Christian circles, written like a million books. Then there’s Dale Davis, who is a Professor of the OT somewhere in America, and finally Simon Flinders, from right here in Australia, who is the Chaplain to the Australian Cricket team. So I’m really excited and thought I’d let you know what’s coming up. If you could pray that hearts would be changed and that the leaders would have energy and enthusiasm to serve these next few days.

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. This who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying other.”
 Galatians 5:16-26

Young people grow up these days with little understanding of what is right or wrong. Let me justify myself with some statistics…

Australia was reported to have the sixth largest rate of teenage pregnancy among developed nations in 2003.  5% of Australian babies were reported to be born to teenage girls, while legally induced abortions were the second highest reason for girls between the ages of 12 and 20 to get admitted to hospitals.

Crime statistics present that roughly one-third of all victims of violent crime are teenagers, between the ages of 12 and 19. Need I say more?

I hope that you can agree that this has developed from the ‘relativism’ I talked about in the last post. It has led to little fundamental agreement over what is right and what is wrong. As Satre once said:

“God does not exist and we have to face all the consequences of this. It is extremely embarrassing that God does not exist for there disapears with him all possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven. We find no values or commands to turn to”

Can we decide between right and wrong?

People who don’t believe in a moral authority follow how they feel when they make a decision. This feels right or it feels wrong. You know, the cliche ‘go with your gut feeling’.
But to be honest, feelings aren’t that reliable and change from culture to culture and person to person. Look at Adolf Hitler, he felt it was right to kill off all the Jews.

This world screams, ‘We are released from the shackles of religion and Victorian morality, we are free to believe what we like and behave how we want.’ It sure sounds attractive, doesn’t it? But are its consequences as desirable?

“for it is written:” Be holy, because I am holy.””
1 Peter 1:16

‘There is no truth except my truth and no morality except my morality.’
To be holy means to be set apart, to be different in a way that reflects God’s moral perfection in ones life. This is one of the hardest things for a Christian cos as humans we’re naturally conformist. We prefer to ‘go with the flow’, ‘follow the crowd’.

1. We Must Recognise Our Sin.

The purpose of moral law is to make us aware of our sin. In a previous post called ‘No one is Righteous, not even one’ I expand on this a little more if you’re interested. Following and perfecting this law isn’t what saves you, you can’t perfect yourself. Salvation comes through Christ alone in faith alone.
The passage above suggests that the church that Paul was writing to were becoming complacent about this. They had thought, ‘well, if we’re saved, and Jesus has got all our sins covered, past, present and future, then we can just sin all we want, he’s got it all covered.’ Paul corrects this and says that it does matter how we live.

Rotten to the Core
No matter how morally sound we present oursleves everyone is sinful and corrupt within. The recognition of sin is the first step to living differently.

A Grusome List

“The acts of sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
v19-21

Look at this list, by nature we are competitively selfish – sexual immorality, fractured relationships, pride. However, God doesn’t ‘grade’ sin, there is none more severe than any other.  And becoming a Christian doesn’t mean you are magically immune to sin

2. We depend on God’s Spirit

‘Holiness is not a self-help programme’ – Vaughan Roberts
We can’t make ourselves holy all on our own, if you want to become more like Christ, he is your call of help.

The Fruit of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is what opens up a new lifestyle. ‘A vine does not produce fruit by an act of parliament. They are the fruits of the vine’s own life.’ It is the spirit that will make real changes within a person, not following the law like they are the keys to Salvation.

3. We Must Work Hard

So like I said before, being saved isn’t the cue to go on taking it for granted.
” So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the deasires of the sinful nature.”v16
Making the decision to live by the spirit isn’t easy, but its rewarding.
“For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.”v17
Living as a Christian is a battel between two natures, the spirit and our sinful nature. Every decision, action and thought is a moral choice as to which side you’re gonna go.
Keeping in step with the spirit means to consciously operate alongside it, the choice is all yours.

“Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
v24-25

We need to live lives that reflect our decision to follow Christ. The Spirit works as we work. You can’t just sit back and wait for God to do it all, He works alongside us, giving us the strength to fight but we must supply the will.

The choice is yours, we can’t change on our own, follow the sinful nature or the Spirit.

Certainty in a World in Which Everything is Relative

This post kind of is an extension onto “Is there anything out there?” that I posted a few weeks ago. I got a little excited about it and posted a little spoiler earlier. So here’s some more on the subject if you’re interested.

So to sum up what the previous post said, it was something along the lines of…Christianity is the only religion whose information comes from outside this world. Therefore, it is the truth about God because it came from God not man.

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6

‘The man from the outside”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God , and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
John 1:1-2

Jesus was with God from the beginning but then he entered our history. He wasn’t just a creation that was made to fix sin because Gods plan went in a direction he never expected. Jesus was there from the beginning.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14

This is still sort of a recap on the previous post. So basically, Christianity isn’t just a pile of guess-work. The Bible is how God reveals himself to man. ‘Now, at last, it is possible to know the truth about God. It is not discovered by the power of human reason or mystical experience, but through revelation.’ (Vaughan Roberts – Distinctives)

“No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
John 1:18

You might be thinking, hold on, Christianity isn’t the only religion that claims to be founded on revelations from God, how can you claim that Christianity’s revelations are the truth over other religions revelations?

Well, I can confidently say that Christianity is based on real history.

‘Your word is Truth’
Despite Jesus no longer being on Earth we still have access to the truth. The Old testament is seen as the truth. Jesus often quoted it and equated it to the words of God.
The Bible is a book written by humans, around 40 different authors all with different styles, personalities, occupations and historical contexts. Gods spirit spoke through them creating a written record.

How do you know it’s accurate?

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you will know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
 John 14:17

This is a verse from the gospel of John where Jesus is explaining that he is going to leave them. They have a little freak out and don’t really understand and they keep asking him, ‘Where are you going?’ and ‘How can I follow you there?’ Here Jesus is promising to give them the Spirit of truth (The Holy Spirit).

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.”
John 14:26.

So, Jesus left them with the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do? In the verse above, the Holy Spirit was at work in the people who wrote the Bible, ensuring that what they wrote was accurate. Basically he’s saying, it’ll help you remember what’s gone down so that you can write it right and pass it along to other people.
 
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
John 16:12-13

The Bible is revelation from God, the Spirit works in the authors of the Bible to make it true and accurate. But it then causes a conflict with a world of relativism. It becomes a claim of absolute truth in a world that doesn’t believe in absolute truth.

‘Our knowledge of truth does not depend on our imagination within the enclosed world of time and space, but rather on the revelation of the one who is from the outside – God himself.”
Vaughan Roberts – Distinctives

1. Know the Truth
So if the Bible is this revelation from God, accurate and true. The first step to take is to begin to learn it and know it.

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.”
1 Peter 2:2

Peter writes in one of his letters that the word of God is what sustains and grows Christians. Being a revelation from God it is the thing that nourishes a relationship with God.
However, the world has shifted to value emotion over thinking. People now expect and seek this ‘direct experiential encounter with God’ and often they find it difficult to see how our minds fit into that emotional encounter.
That isn’t what leads to spiritual health, it is the truth of God that brings spiritual health. Therefore, knowing the truth must have priority over experience.’Only those who have responded in faith to the gospel of Christ have a true knowledge of God.’ pg 80
Basically, regular reading of the Bible and valuable teaching from the Bible are essential for growing in Christ. So you can imagine how important it is. David in one of his many songs wrote…

“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long!”
Psalm 119:97

2. Live the Truth
Just knowing the truth isn’t enough. Often people call Christians hypocrites because they don’t live what they believe. It is not the Bible that is at fault, but the people here. Christians are all sinful and imperfect but that doesn’t mean we can’t do our best to live the truth.

“Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says.”
James 1:22

Be careful that you don’t let learning from the Bible become a mere intellectual excercise, the purpose of believing it is to do it. Pray, ask God to help you put these things into practise. It’s not something you can just magically achieve over night. It’s also not something that God expects us to be able to do easily, so ask him to help you out.
To be honest, starting this blog has really challenged me in this area. It’s so easy to put minimal energy into acting on what you learn, particularly when people only have a vague idea of what Christians believe. So starting this blog and telling other people about what I believe and brought me to work harder at living what I learn.

3. Contend for the Truth
On the same note, this blog is also an effort of mine to contend for the truth. To clear up the stereotypes and falsity that has been placed on Christianity. 

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”
Jude 3

Relativism reigns in this world. Christians are persecuted for their claim to have the only and absolute truth. Vaughan Roberts in his book ‘distinctives’ quoted from his local newspaper:

“The idea that any mere human…could have any conception of what God is thinking is surely laughable and arrogant in the extreme…There is no-one…who is so perfect in themselves that they have the right to go around criticizing the behavior of other people…A bit of compassion and tolerance is more appealing than a load of bile and bigotry.”

No one wants to receive that response and so often Christians shy away but that’s not something we can afford to do.
Be careful and critical of the teaching in your church, make sure that the truth is being preached and isn’t modified to accommodate for the worlds love of relativism. Gods word doesn’t need to be sugar-coated to attract attention, it needs to be revolutionary and strikingly different and its capable of being that on its own.

4. Proclaim the Truth
As I said in an earlier post, if you knew the cure for cancer you’d tell everyone, wouldn’t you? You’d be proud and eager to share it. Well, God has provided an escape from hell, a way out of the punishment that we all deserve. Is that not something to eagerly tell others as well?

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matt 28:19-20

Don’t just resist this movement of relativism, proclaim the absolute truth. We are called to be counter-cultural. The world is happy for us to believe what we want, it’s when we start sharing it that it becomes a problem. Often this is what limits our evangelistic goals to ‘people more like us’. We avoid those of other religions because we expect this reaction of being accused of stealing people away from their religions.
We have received the truth and it is our privilege to pass it on. Evangelism is underpinned by relationships. Jesus didn’t only preach it, he lived it.

Purity in a World Obsessed by Sex

Hello again and sorry that it has been so long since my last post! A few people have been asking questions about Sex and God and so here is the long awaited post that’s part of the Distinctives series I’ve been writing. Sorry that it’s a little unformatted, there’s little you can do in an app but here it is C:

Often the Christian views and ‘rules’ about sex are known as restrictive and intolerant. I hope that as I layout what the Bible says about this topic you’ll understand why it works like this and if you’re a Christian, to deal with the frustrations and temptations.

The Worlds View
1. ‘If it feels good, do it’- sex is viewed as a natural instinct, if you’re feeling in the mood then why suppress natural urges? It’s seen as fun and liberating but it can end in emotional disaster.
2. ‘Just a bodily function’ – One of the ministers at our church used these lyrics to sum up this point: ‘you and me ain’t nothing but mammals, so let’s do it like the do it on the discovery channel’. I’ve forgotten who it’s from but I’m sure you’ve heard it.
3. And finally, the worlds view is completel selfish. It’s all about satisfying your desires with no thought for the other person. While we’re quoting songs take a look at these Katy Perry lyrics from ‘I Kissed a Girl’: ‘I don’t even know your name, it doesn’t matter, you’re my experimental game, it’s just human nature.’

So let me some it up, the world defines sex as: selfish, a natural instict, and demeans it to merely a bodily function.

Gods View
1. For some strange reason this stereotype has been placed on Christianity as shy of sex or even that we think it’s sinful or something.
God made sex and he made us to be sexual beings. If you’ve ever read Song of Songs in the OT I hope you noticed that it’s a complete book dedicated to the celebration of sex and relationship!
2. Sex is a means of procreation.
Gods first command to humanity was not love each other or obey me or anything like that… It was have sex and fill the earth.
“Be fruitful and increase in number.’ Genesis 1:28
Here is something I didn’t mention before but seems appropriate now. If you read womens magazines it is so often that they talk about sex but when is the fact that it leads to children ever mentioned? The world has painted such a selfish view of sex that having children (the almost unavoidable result of sex) is virtually completely divorced from it.
3. Sex is for strengthening love and committment.
When God created Adam he was alone so He created Eve for relationship, love and committment.
” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be unitedto his wife, and they will become one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24
Clearly more than animalistic mating, it’s a bringing together of souls, spirit and emotions. Let me put it this way, sex works like a special kind of glue that holds relationships together. So you can see why sleeping with multiple people doesn’t work, you glue yourself to someone and then tear yourself off, glue yourself to someone else and then tear yourself off again etc etc. The glue stops working after awhile and sex stops working. This is why porn and masturbation don’t work.
4. Porn
Porn depersonalises sex, divorcing it fro
relationship. It’s essentially looking at someone elses body and lusting over it. You don’t even know them! There’s clearly no relationship there. Believe or not but this demoralizes and depresses sexual urges. Porn doesn’t educate you so that you can better please your partner, it just desensitises you to sex and takes the pleasure out of it.
5. Masturbation.
This is somewhat similar, you’re essentially having a relationship with yourself when you masturbate and that’s a little weird. Sex is between 2 people not 1.
6. God the ultimate Sexpert.
God made sex so he knows how to best use it i.e in heterosexual marriage.
Marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman. It’s lifelong, the Bible only permits divorce in certain situations it’s not something that is just thrown around like a ‘Get out of jail free’ card.
‘what God has joined together let no man separate. ‘
This is why there is such an emphasis on choosing the right person to marry, based on who they are rather than the superficial elements the world emphasises.
‘Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.’ Proverbs 31:30

Service in a World that Looks after Number One

The Selfish Society

This is the second installment in a series inspired by “Distinctives” by Vaughan Roberts. The headings are the titles of his chapters. So that’s where you can read more about what I write about in this series.

How do you put your life in perspective?
For me, one of the most significant and confounding events that always puts my thoughts and goals. desires and plans into perspective is a funeral.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a funeral, particularly of someone close to you. If you have, you’ll know what I mean when I say you can’t help but think: ‘That’ll be me someday.’ My mind always wonders how I will be remembered. Who will remember me? Whether my death would make a significant impact on society. Even if it does, I won’t even know about it.

How do you live in light of such an unavoidable destiny? Most people say, live life to the full regardless of consequence. I have to make the best I can for myself, make a name for myself, leave a legacy. But doesn’t death remind you that everything you do, gain, earn, all your money, your great car, your amazing career and your huge house get left behind? Is life in vain then?

The buzz words of today’s society are along the lines of self fulfillment, self-esteem, self-worth, be true to yourself, fulfill your potential, do what you want, be what you want…Why do I think this kind of philosophy is wrong, or dare I say, sinful?

 ³² They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. ³³ “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, ³⁴ who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

The Request of James and John

 ³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

   ³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

 ³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

   ³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

 ³⁹ “We can,” they answered.

   Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

 ⁴¹ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
 – Mark 10:32-45

This is an excerpt from one of Jesus’ biographies, written by his disciple Mark. Let me give you some context for the passage. Jesus and his disciples are heading to Jerusalem. If you read further in Mark it is there that Jesus dies. So I guess, I’m giving you a little insight into the future. But the disciples already know this! How? Jesus told them plain and clear:

 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, ³⁴ who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”

Jesus is marching towards his own murder, he is about to perform the most selfless, self sacrificial act in history.

In view of this, how can you dismiss the utter selfishness of John and James’ request? They are in full knowledge of what is about to happen. The nature of their request indicates that they know that Jesus is the son of man, that he is the Messiah that has been sent to save them from sin, surely they would know better.

But they’ve misunderstood the consequences. They have decided to take the opportunity before Jesus does his sacrifice thing to rub their little lamps and get their wishes granted.

 ³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

   ³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

 ³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

James and John are asking for a personal glory. They want to prestige, power and glory that Jesus will receive once he’s done all the dirty work. How completely and totally inappropriate in light of Jesus’ upcoming actions! They request a position of authority and fame from which they can look down on people with pride.

The thing with selfishness is, you can see its ugliness in other people, but we find it hard to see it in ourselves.We’re all contaminated with the same poison, we’re all selfish.

Here, on the way to his voluntary humiliation and sacrifice for the very people who reject and ignore and who eventually kill him for his revolutionary ideas, Jesus redefines greatness.

⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus shifts the goal of humanity:
If you want to share in my glory. Serve.
If you want a place in my kingdom. Serve
If you want to live wisely. Serve.
If you want to live right. Serve
If you want to follow me. Serve.

However, Jesus is not demanding a life of service that he hasn’t already given for you. It doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? Jesus has power, prestige and glory yet he came to serve. He washed his disciples feet instead of them washing his. He chose to ride on a donkey when he deserved a chariot, to wear a crown of thorns instead of jewels, to hang naked, beaten and humiliated on the cross instead of on his throne in heaven.

“Jesus, very nature God, did not grasp hold of his place on the throne. But took on the nature of a servant made himself nothing, born as a man.’

So what now? Well, for Christians this means we are saved from sin and saved for service. Jesus didn’t just die, he was raised from the dead. Christians have a living model of how to live. Each day everyone has the choice of how they want to live. Selfishly or in service.

You can choose to be self-centred or other person centred. You can choose to look great in your own eyes or in God’s eyes. No one’s making you do anything, it’s all up to you. But what will you base your decisions on? What will matter in the end? How long you’re remembered? How many people attend your funeral? Your list of assets and achievements?

“Only one life it will soon be passed,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

What Jesus came and did, redefined greatness.

Is there anything out there?

See that little dot in the middle of the stream of light, well that's Earth. This image always takes my breath away.

Imagine a group of people were born and raised in a room, to know of only what is in the room. I know this is an impossible phemonenon to create but just go with me on this so you can understand the point I’m making.
One day, inside this room a heated discussion breaks out.
Anna has just released the conclusion of her exploration. She had been measuring and analysing and recording data about the washing machine and the complexity of its five cycle wash. She had revealed to the others that, the washing machine, in all its complexity, must be an indication that there is something outside the room that created it. She doesn’t know what just yet, but there has to be something.
Ben jumps in accusing Anna of her blindness.
“Are you blind to reality? All your concepts and assumptions are so up in the air! My mother taught me since I was a child that out there giants and pixi’s are at war. The giants captured us in this room and the pixi’s are trying to free us. How can you be so ignorant of what has been passed down?”
At this point Brittany points out the flaw in Ben’s philosophies.
“Who told you there were fairies? Are you sure your mother isn’t insane and just made that all up. She’s twisted the truth that there are only giants, there is no such thing as ‘fairies’.
“And, on top of that, the giants don’t care about us, they live their own lives up there ignorant of ours in here. But soon enough they’ll know we’re here because there’s meant to be an earthquake sometime soon that breaks open this room and releases us into their world.”
Belinda laughed. “I’ve never heard such crap. If there was something out there we’d know, and we don’t know therefore it doesn’t exit. Sure you can guess but to be honest, that washing machine has a complex five cycles but that’s just that way it happened. There had never been and never will be anything outside this room.”
Belinda’s contempt for Anna, Ben and Brittany’s primitive faith ignited Matt’s desire for peace.
“I like to think there is something out there. But when I close my eyes I prefer to imagine kind green coloured people, just like us, not giants. Giants are far too intimdating and powerful. Friendly green people that’s what I like to believe. Let’s just all let each other believe what we want, construct your own view, I’ll still tolerant of you.”

Now, think about this, if I told you:
Anna is representative of the Agnostic view, that there is something out there but if confined to the assumptions she can make from her observations. Only what is true and solid is that based on strict scientific observation and everything else is speculation. There may be a God but there may not be
Ben, Brittany and Belinda represent believers. All of different faiths. Belinda is an athiest, she believes that there is no God. However, all three of these views are becoming less and less popular because they are objective views that don’t allow any room for other beliefs, either your right and believe what they think or your wrong. But they are so arragant and their views are based on assumptions and information passed down. How can they speak with such confidence about things they have never seen?
And finally, there is Matt, he’s the mystic of the story. Matt’s religion fits comfortably nto his life and is altered everytime he feels the need. This kind of belief is based upon feelings, personal experience and intuition. This probably sounds really attractive to you. Finally, a belief that works with me! The popular idea that everyone has their own ‘truth’, you can have your ‘truth’ and I’ll have mine. It doesn’t matter if their different because everyone is entitled to their own construction of the ‘truth’.
But look closely at Matt’s ideas and observations. He has noticed that most agnostics live like athiests and so he feels a need for a personal spirituality and invent his own.
Do any of these characters relate to you?
Have you heard of Relativism? Relativism is what most people live by regardless of whether they understand it or not. It is founded on the idea that there is no real ‘truth’, all we can do is guess about what’s out there. We’re trapped in this material world and it is all we know.
Just look at the lyrics of this Boyzone song:

“No matter what they tell you; no matter what they say; no mater what they teach you; what you believe is true.”

What do you construct ‘truth’ on? What is your ‘truth’?
So back to my story, these people, with all their conflicting and inventive beliefs are trapped in this room. How can they come to a decision or a conclusion about what’s out there if they can’t get out?
What if someone were to come into the room? Would that not give them the little piece of information to fill in that gaping hole in their knowledge? Would it give them ‘certain knowledge’ if someone from the outside came in and told them all about the outside of the room?
This is the great claim of Christianity. Christianity claims to be different from the other religions, to be unique amongst other claims. If you look closely at other religions and beliefs, they are all attempts by man to reach God.

‘They begin in the closed room of human existence and, as a result, they cannot be more than speculation. But Chrisianity begins not on earth, but in heaven; not with humanity, but with God.” – Distinctives, Vaughan Roberts.

In Christianity, God has taken the iniative to reveal himself to man. Jesus is ‘the man from the outside’ who can tell us with an authority we don’t have, about what we could never have discovered on our own.
Jesus is not bound by our world or by our time. He is the eternal Word of God.

Perspective in a World that Lives for the Moment

I’ve been reading ‘Distinctives’ by Vaughan Roberts and I’ve found his writing clearly explains the Christian life, so this is the beginning of a series of posts regarding this book. I just wanted to say up front that that is where most of these ideas come from and if you’re interested in finding out more than that’s where to look.

Romans 12:2
“Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

That verse gives an overall summary of this series as such.

Titus 2:11
“For the grace of God has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”

Titus says the first way to be different in this world is to say “No”. “No” can sometimes be the hardest word in the English language to say. The reason it’s so hard is because the voices around us and inside us are telling us that these temptations that we face are not that big a deal, God’s just a killjoy and it can’t hurt anybody.

But Titus clearly says that a Christian is to live ‘self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age’.

Proverbs 25:28
“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”

Without self-control a Christian is completely vulnerable to sin, and there is no way they can withstand the worlds temptations. Being about the control yourself leads you towards godliness. Every Christian is called to live like this, to say ‘no’ to worldly passions’ and ‘yes’ to godliness.

Why is it so hard? Our world lives in the moment, if it feels good, do it. Because we live for the ‘here and now’ its really hard to see reality, to see the big picture and we make a mess of the world and that’s what’s happening around us. The world has cultivated this reliance upon the now and feelings. ‘I feel like this, I don’t care about tomorrow or yesterday a nd if now’s the time then I’m going to do it.’ When you think into it, this thought is destructive. Alot of Christians live this way in their Christian lives and some as a result are not living changed, distinct lives in this world.

To give some Christian perspective on this world is seen in Titus in the appearance of Christ in inevitably, grace. V11 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men’. Grace has appeared in Jesus. Grace: God’s iches at Christs expense. Jesus came, the promised Messiah, the Christ, who had been promised for hundreds of years, finally came to bring salvation. He won through his death in our place to save us and set us free from the power of sin and from Gods wrath and anger, to bring us into his family.

The way to capture a money is simple. You make a hole in a coconut shell and put a pebble inside. The monkey is attracted by the pebble and puts its hand into the shee to grab hold of it. Once its hand is inside, it is trapped – its clenched fist is too large to get out. Escape is very easy in theory – the monkey just has to let go nad its hand will fit through the hole again. Easier said than done. Having got the pebble, the monkey is very reluctant to lose it, so it sits there helpless until its captor arrives. It is trapped by its own desire. Humans are similar. We cannot stop ourselves from clutching things that are wrong. The result is that we are unable to escape the consequences of what we have done, the judgement of God. This is where Jesus comes in, God sent him to redeem (to set free by the payment of a price) us and set us free. The price was his death, he died to take the punishment that we deserved so that we need no longer face it.

Christians also gain perspective from looking forward to Christs return.

Titus 2:13-14
“while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

We want to look backwards and forwards as Christians. Jesus will come back and take us who are believers in him to be with him in heaven. This is really important because often Christians are pulled into thinking ‘I’m sinful, Jesus died for me in the past and that seems so long ago and a little bit irrelevant’. If you know that Jesus will be the judge in the future and that you have to stand before him and give an accoun for every word, action and thought, it’s scary.

Heaven and Hell are real. Jesus will come back. Tose who trust in him will go to be with him in paradise, despite the fear of being judged they are saved through their faith in Christs sacrifice for them. Those who don’t trust Jesus will have to deal with separation from him: Hell.

Christians need to stop listening to themselves and start talking to themselves. If you just listen to yourself and the voices around you, its easy to lose perspective and forget what Christ has done for you.

To sum up this first episode of Disctinctives:
“The world says is it feels good now, go with it. Chrisitanity says, Jesus came in the past and will come again in the future, live in light of that.”