The gift of faith

Clearly, I saw now that belief in God, no matter how grounded, requires at some point a leap of faith. Either you have the gift of faith or you don’t. It’s not a choice. It can’t be willed into existence. And there’s no faking it if you’re honest about the state of your soul.

From Religion beat became a test of faith 

YAK #2: Goal shifting

YAK, or Young Adults Konnect, is a ministry at my church headed by yours truly, that aims to incorporate all young adults within the church in the hope of ending isolation and friendlessness in this segment of the church. But not everyone was interested. Why was that?

I found, for the most part, that the people who were not getting on board did not need YAK. They were already connected; they were not isolated. They had enough friendship ties to meet their needs.

Should I be worried that those people were not supporting YAK? I don’t believe so. I’d be more worried if those that did need YAK, who were isolated, were being overlooked.

Thus it turns out that the original goal, which was to involve all young adults within the church, was superfluous to the YAK vision. The new goal is simply to reach all those who need to be reached. I need not waste my time and resources on those who don’t.

Is your ministry focus wasting resources on those who are already reached?

In it, not of it: that’s what He said

I thought this was quite clever:

While way up in heaven they lament these conditions

That come from changing a few prepositions.

“Not in it, or of it,” Christian One thought,

But who in the world will know that he’s not?

“In it, and of it,” thought Christian Two.

But who in the world will know what he knew?

“Not in it, but of it,” thought Christian Three.

But who in the world watches Christian TV?

 

And Jesus turns to Gabriel, shaking His head.

“‘In it, not of it,’ wasn’t that what I said?”

 

Read The Ins And Outs Of It by John Fischer in it’s entirety.

Reflections on YAK – a ministry for young adults

A couple of years ago I started a new program in my church for young adults for Young Adults Konnect. The goal was to provide a place for all young adults – defined as those in their twenties and early thirties – to get together socially and build friendships, thus strengthening their ties to the church and ultimately, their walk with Christ.

This was a necessary addition to the existing setup in the church. Before the advent of YAK, the young adults within the church typically met in cell groups and also went to Sunday services. Both of these are good and vital but there was no means whereby young adults could meet with other young adults within the church that were not in their cell group. (They could have anyway, of course, but it wasn’t happening.)

The result of all this was that young adults were isolated from other young adults outside their cell group; which was OK if that cell group was vibrant, but not so much if it was not. It was simply too easy for young adults to become isolated and friendless within the church.

So the goal was simple; to end that isolation, thus strengthening the ties between young adults within the church, strengthening their walk with Christ and strengthening the church as a whole.

How has this gone so far, and why? More on this, in the next post of this series …

A non-literal interpretation of Genesis 1

The main arguments I would give for a non-literal interpretation are as follows:

1. Stylized text

The content is structured into six days, with parallelism occurring between the days. The first three days are composed of the creation of empty spaces; on the last three those spaces are filled. Day 1 corresponds to day 4, day 2 to 5, and day 3 to 6.

From “Making Sense of Genesis 1” by Rikki Watts:

“Turning first to the form, even a cursory reading of Genesis 1 reveals a great deal of repetition: “and God said” (vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29), “let there be” (or some form thereof; vv. 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26), “and it was so” (vv. 3, 7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30), “and God made” (or similar action; vv. 4, 7, 12, 16, 21, 25, 27), “and God saw that ‘x’ was good” (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), some form of naming or blessing (vv. 5, 8, 10, 22, 28), “there was evening and there was morning” (vv. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and then a designation of the day as first, second, etc. (vv. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; 2.2), with most of these occurring seven times. ”

2. Mode of revelation

The simple fact that this is the only historical part of the Bible without any human witnesses. Either a) its content was revealed in a vision or similar or b) the content was a reshaping of other creation stories. Both options create problems for a literal interpretation.

3. Similar features to other ancient creation stories

4. Practical considerations
eg. day and night, light and darkness from day 1, when the sun and moon are not created until day 4. Where did the light come from?

Ultimately the best interpretations are either the literal one or an allegorical one. I agree with NewiQue that the days are clearly indicated as 24 hour days. Interpretations that try and squeeze eons of time into each of the days in order to allow for the theory of evolution stretch the text beyond all recognition.

I probably shouldn’t even have mentioned science in the previous post as it is a red herring as regards Genesis 1.

Creation Museum opens

Answers In Genesis have spent years building a creation museum in the United States, and it has finally opened. The museum is a spectacular visual representation of the young-earth creationism viewpoint; that is, that the early chapters of Genesis are to be interpreted literally and that the world is 6,000 years old.

While I can sympathise with AiG’s aims in this, what they are presenting seems at odds not only with science, but with a correct understanding of the Bible itself. Genesis 1, in particular, seems impossible to interpret literally. It is not a blow-by-blow account of creation, but a stylised account of it. It should no more be taken literally than the Book of Revelation.

Rather than engage in contortions trying to fit Genesis 1 into an evolutionary world view, or to explain how day and night can operate for three days without the sun (to take one example), it is best to instead focus on the main messages of Genesis 1; namely, that the creation of the world was God’s plan and not some naturally occurring unplanned event, and that humans have been created in God’s image and given the task of looking after the created world.

The importance of fellowship

(Below is the notes for my admittedly scrappy message on fellowship, the first message I ever delivered. Enjoy!)

Are you a “lone ranger” Christian? Are you connected to a local body of believers, or is it just you and Jesus? According to Scripture, fellowship with other believers is of crucial importance. Without it, not only can we not be of benefit to others, but we ourselves become starved of the benefits that come from being in community. Thus, we fail to fulfil God’s purposes in our lives.

Purposes of fellowship:

To display our discipleship to unbelievers

John 13:34-35 “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples if you love one another”

Clearly this cannot happen if we keep to ourselves!

To exercise spiritual gifts

Many of these cannot be exercised alone. 1 Cor 12:7-11 lists spiritual gifts such as wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, discernment and interpretation of tongues. All of these are for the collective benefit of a gathering of people.

I Cor 14:
:4 “He who prophesies edifies the church”
:6 “What good will I be to you without revelation, knowledge, prophecy or instruction”
:12 “Try to excel in gifts that build up the church”

A “lone ranger” Christian cannot help build up the Church or be built up with it.

For encouragement and support

Eccl 4
:10 “Pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up”
:12 “A cord of three strands is not easily broken”

Without the support of other believers, we are more vulnerable to the stresses of life and the attacks of the enemy. The local church thus provides a God-ordained protective covering.

This support should also extend to material things where necessary. Of the early church, Acts 4:34 says “There were no needy persons among them”.

To establish the body of Christ

1 Cor 12:
:14 “Now the body is made up not of one part, but of many”
:25 “There should be no division in the body, the parts should have equal concern for one another”
:21 “The eye cannot say to the hand ‘I don’t need you!’”

The different parts are meant to operate together. A lone ranger Christian is like a severed limb; unable to be of benefit; unable to function!

John 17 :22 Jesus prays “that they may be one as we are one”

God wants us to be as one; united in vision and purpose in Him.

1 John 4:12 “If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”

For God’s love to be complete in us, we must love one another!

How does God see the church?

Eph 5:25-33 “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”

If God loves the church, than we should love it too.
 

Why Christians need churches, and “Lone Rangers” are against Scripture

Long-time Baptist blogger Centuri0n has written a post about the importance of the local church.

Regardless of whether you agree with everything he says about the state of the church, there is absolutely no doubt that it is God who ordained the church and God who called believers to be joined together in it.

I preached an entire message on this once and I’ll post that message when I get a chance. For now, here is a pertinent Scripture on the subject, from the Gospel of John:

13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

13:35 Thus shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

How can you do that by yourself?

Our struggles are God’s training program

Recently I was pondering my own life. Specifically, I was going through it year by year, to see what lessons I could learn. Also to spot patterns, to see where God might be leading me.

I spotted a few patterns. Two patterns, actually. Two patterns that have been consistent in my life up until now. Both of these things are normally considered negatives. Those that have them tend to gripe about them. Yet, here is the thing. As I pondered these two attributes, I was struck by the realisation that what I was really looking at were two mechanisms that God was using to train me up according to His purpose. When I saw this, I was able to embrace them and thank God for them.

For in Jesus there is a remarkable correlation between the extent of the trials and tribulations that we must face, and the power inherent in our calling. Those who are called of God to a powerful ministry will, like the apostle Paul, be taken through a gruelling regimen of trials. For those who have a “lesser” ministry (as we would judge it), they will have an easier life.

When we fully understand this truth, we need no longer gripe about our struggles, but rather we can embrace them like a brother or sister, knowing that God turns our struggles around for the good.

(This was originally published at my other blog a while back. It is reproduced above with a few alterations. Waddaya gonna do about it?)

Christian teaching on relationships and resulting expectations

I’ve been through several courses and such designed to teach young people how to handle relationships.

These courses had several things in mind:
1. First of all, no sex outside marriage. This is very basic stuff in Christian circles.
2. No physical contact within relationships. Several Christian books on relationships have featured couples who did not kiss until their wedding day.
3. No relationships at all! A slight exaggeration, but certainly none for teenagers or even uni students
4. Only get into a relationship if you are sure that the other person is God’s will for you to marry. Note that you have to know this before getting into a relationship.
5. Courtship rather than dating, with as much parental involvement as possible.
6. Trust God to bring you someone; don’t look yourself.

Other relevant claims:
1. Never go below your standards in selecting a mate.
2. God will bring you someone you are attracted to.
3. If it is not for you to marry, this will be a calling from God and will be obvious.

But what are the underlying expectations behind this? It was never made explicit, but this , I think, was the implicit promise behind it all:
1. Live your life, study, work, etc
2. You shall have a comfortable middle class life, moving easily from study to a successful career
3. At some stage, probably no later than mid twenties, God will bring you your life partner. You won’t even have to do anything!
4. The S.O. will know it is God’s will for you to be together and so will you! Everything will just happen naturally.
5. The parents of both you and the S.O. will recognise it is God’s will.
6. There will be no hiccups, such as long-term unemployment or illness.
7. The S.O. will fit your picture of what a S.O. should be
8. There will be no false starts or break-ups. No unrequited love.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? A few flaws, though:
1. God uses hardship and difficulty to build character, including, but not limited to, unemployment, illness, unexpected singleness etc
2. God never promises to isolate believers from relationship break-ups, false starts, rejection or other issues.
3. The S.O. could refuse to join the party even if she knew it was God’s will. God does not force obedience.
4. It is very easy to mistake an emotional desire for another with God’s leading
5. With too high expectations, everyone is too good for everyone else and everyone remains single as a result.
6. With everyone not moving unless they know for sure it’s God’s will, noone ends up moving at all. You just don’t get that type of assurance early on.
7. In life, God normally requires us to take at least some initiative.
8. Even Spirit-filled parents can only usually guess at what type of partner is suitable for you
9. “Courtship” as opposed to “dating” confuses the issue and causes some to think that this magical new system will solve all their problems, whereas it creates new roadblocks and unfillable expectations
10. God never promised to supernaturally bring everyone’s marriage partners to them
11. Plenty of people do not marry due to lack of opportunity rather than a calling to celibacy. There are no guarantees of success.