Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for 2014

Archives for 2014

Boldly Broadcasting

Posted on Written by 2 Comments

This is repost of a news letter article written by Bob Myers, the lead pastor at the church I attend. I thought it worth sharing with you so I asked permission to use it as a guest post. If you are interested in becoming a guest author, please see the guest post guidelines and use the Attempts At Honesty contact form.

BroadcastingAre you boldly broadcasting?  By that, are you using the unique God-given opportunities in front of you?

I believe that everywhere Jesus went He found a way to make an impact on a man, woman, or child.  Although the gospel writers make it clear that He preached and taught multitudes, it’s amazing how much of the gospels focuses on one on one encounters with Jesus that you and I can easily identify with and replicate.

Here’s some tests for whether we’re boldly broadcasting.

Inventory your interactions.  How many people have been in your home in the past two months? How many of them have been part of your same church, or have been Christians compared to how many non-Christians? If you go out to restaurants, how many of those who sat at your table are not yet believers? Jesus went out to eat with non-believers a lot, so much so that He was criticized for dissing Israel.  Are you like Him in this? Take a little bit of your tithe and treat a non-Christian to a lunch out.  In the conversation, work on understanding the person and listening first. Take the challenge question I gave you last week in the sermon on compassion. Find out what it’s like to be them.  Ask them, “So, what’s it like to be you?”. Ask them with a curious mind and an open heart.  You’ll be a better image bearer of Jesus.  And as Dale Carnegie said, A person who asks questions and listens to the answers is regarded by most people  as an incredibly interesting conversationalist.

Social Media:  If you do Facebook and Twitter, and I think many of you should do it, ought to do it, and can do it being salt and light, you should have a bias towards people who don’t share your faith.  What I mean is, interact with them positively, affirmatively, and in a winsome and inviting way. Each Saturday on Facebook I try to share a preview of what our worship service is going to be. If you’re on Facebook, yes, you should “like” this, but you should also share  this, which re-broadcasts it to your network of friends.   If you’re on twitter, you should interact with non-Christian tweeters in a winsome way. This doesn’t mean we tweet Bible verses constantly. That’s talking at people.  But twitter allows you to dialogue, to show curiosity and compassion for other people. And I would encourage you to tweet on the broad subject matters that interest you.  I have some Facebook friends who are atheists and from other religions. I make sure I especially communicate interest and graciousness to them. I “unsubscribed” from a tweeter who only posted on a subject that had no interest for me. But I love how twitter can open up subjects and worlds that I otherwise knew nothing about, but can begin to understand and appreciate it.

Evaluate your intake and output.   If you have been a Christian less than five years, you may want to attend more than one Bible study to “catch up” on all that you might have missed before.  But if you’ve been a Christian for more than five years, generally, you should not be regularly coming to more than one Bible study unless you’re bringing someone, babysitting for someone, or leading the study itself.   If you’ve been in multiple Bible studies for more than five years, stop attending more than one Bible study, drop it and attend a neighborhood book club discussion of some secular book, or join a community interest club of some kind.   You’ll find it revolutionary to your faith and life.  Your prayer life will probably grow.  And most of all, you’ll be more like Jesus in how you live and interact.

Strength Through Him

Posted on Written by 4 Comments

This is a guest post by Lauren Todd. If you are interested in becoming a guest author, please see the guest post guidelines and use the Attempts At Honesty contact form. You can see Lauren’s biographical detail at the bottom of this post.

“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13

StrengthOut of all the Bible verses I’ve encountered, this one particular verse by St. Paul struck me the most, and has remained within me until now. This verse has guided me since I saw it once at a bumper sticker on a car when I endured traffic back from a road trip. It caught my eye, and during that traffic jam, I copied it on my mobile phone and saved it. At first, the verse sounded nice to me, and eventually, I learned that there’s more to it than just sounding nice. Because of this verse, I survived a lot of events and circumstances in my life.

The most recent catastrophe I encountered was losing my first job while I was beginning to take up graduate studies. Getting laid off along with a dozen or so employees was something unexpected. Why was I laid off? I understood that my former company needed to cut down on their budget. But what I couldn’t understand was why did it had to be me, when there are other employees who work lousier than I am. Most of all, I worried so bad about how to pay for my graduate school expenses, now that I’m not employed. I had this brooding feeling that I had to stop my graduate studies as well while I have to look for a new and stable work.

I did my part by applying to different companies. I juggled two jobs at a time, and most of these were contractual. By the time my contract ended in one job, I would start to look for another one, even if I already had another job. On weekends, I would attend graduate school, then spend my weekdays working at two or sometimes, three, different jobs.

It was physically and emotionally stressful, and it went on for a year. One day, I broke down and cried out that I couldn’t take it anymore. My roommate comforted me while I cried hard, and she assured me that she’ll be there for me and things will get better soon. She’s always admired me for my strength, and she allowed me to cry. But I had to promise her and myself that I won’t break down anymore after this one good cry.

When it was all done, I stayed alone in my room for a while. As I was playing with my mobile phone, I went to the Notes section and saw the verse again. “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”

I prayed for the first time since I lost my job.

“Wherever You want me to go, Lord, please take me there, if I am meant to thrive in that place.”

This was my prayer in helping me find a job wherein I would become a permanent employee.

It did took me a while before I landed a job that’s pretty stable. It happened when I visited my college and talked to my former professor. Out of the blue, he told me that there was a vacancy waiting to be filled. That was the answer to my prayer, and I took the job offer. I’ve been at that job for a year and a half now. And I get to keep studying grad school. A year from now, and I’m about to finish.

I’m thankful that this trial made me stronger and led me to better opportunities. It may not be perfect, but you get good things that you deserved.

The Lord has been my strength, indeed, through all this time. Help yourself always, and He will give you a Hand to get through it all.

Louis Berkhof on the origin of religion

Posted on Written by 2 Comments

Summary of Christian DoctrineParticular attention was devoted during the last fifty years to the problem of the origin of religion. Repeated attempts were made to give a natural explanation of it, but without success. Some spoke of it as an invention of cunning and deceptive priests, who regarded it as an easy source of revenue; but this explanation is entirely discredited now. Others held that it began with the worship of lifeless objects (fetishes), or with the worship of spirits, possibly the spirits of forefathers. But this is no explanation, since the question remains, How did people ever hit up on the idea of worshipping lifeless or living objects? Still others were of the opinion that religion originated in nature – worship, that is, the worship of the marvels and powers of nature, or in the widespread practice of magic. But these theories do not explain any more than the others how non-religious man ever became religious. They all start out with a man who is already religious.

The Bible gives the only reliable account of the origin of religion. It informs us of the existence of God, the only object worthy of religious worship. Moreover, it comes to us with the assurance that God, whom man could never discover with his natural powers, revealed himself in nature and, more especially, in His divine Word, demands the worship and service of man, and also determines the worship and service that is well-pleasing to Him. And, finally, it teaches us that God created man in His own image, and thus endowed him with a capacity to understand, and to respond to, this revelation, and engendered in him a natural urge to seek communion with God and to glorify Him.

-Louis Berkhof – A Summary of Christian Doctrine

Maybe true but hardly helpful

Posted on Written by 12 Comments

HelpfulI tend to hang with people who subscribe to reformed theology, which emphasizes the sovereignty of God over his creation. This should not be too surprising given that I attend a PCA church. But one of the struggles that I have with such people is that sometimes truth is given in a way that is hardly helpful.

A friend of ours was in a Bible study with some other ladies where she expressed concern for her brother who is not a believer in Jesus. One of the ladies (I can only assume in an effort to be helpful) informed our friend that perhaps her brother is not one of the elect and will never believe in Jesus.

This is like saying to me, “tomorrow you could be diagnosed with cancer.” While this is a true statement, it is certainly possible that I might receive such a diagnosis, it would not be a helpful one. What good would result from such a declaration?

In the same way, it is certainly possible that her brother will never respond to the claims of the Gospel, but this statement was not helpful and quite frankly was an affront to what we see in Jesus.

Jesus declared that he represented the Father and that to see Jesus was the same as seeing God (John 14:9). So the way that Jesus interacts with believers and unbelievers gives an indication of how they are viewed by God the Father.

At the Last Supper, Jesus announced that one of the disciples would betray Jesus (Matt. 26:21). The disciples did not automatically know who Jesus expected to do the betrayal. Notice the next verse:

“And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”” (Matthew 26:22, ESV)

We all know that it was Judas was the betrayer, but when Jesus made the announcement, the disciples did not automatically think of Judas. Each disciple suspected himself and questioned Jesus, “is it I?”

From this I concluded that Jesus did not treat Judas any differently than he did the rest of the disciples. Jesus offered Judas the same evidence and opportunity to exercise faith that the other disciples had. Yet, Jesus knew when he chose Judas as a disciple that Judas would be the betrayer.

What is my point in this? The understanding that God knows who will respond to him and who will not does not give us permission to write anyone off as being beyond the power of the Gospel. There are too many examples throughout history of people thought beyond redemption who Jesus touched and changed.

A Biblical example of this is the story of the Gerasene Demoniac in Mark chapter 5. If any man seemed beyond the power of the Gospel, it would have been that man, yet we know that Jesus cast out the demons and that man became a missionary to the residents of the Decapolis.

While it is true that not all will respond to the Gospel, and while it is also true that God knows who will and who will not respond, we do not have such knowledge and need to interact with everyone as if they will respond. In other words, we must follow the example of Jesus and relate to everyone as if they will come to faith while knowing that not all will.

We cannot know the outcome for any person and to act as if we do is an affront to the Jesus that we claim to worship. We are called to make disciples and we cannot know ahead of time who will and who will not become one.

So while telling our friend that her brother may not be one who will respond might indeed be true, it was certainly not helpful.

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama