Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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A Thought from Saint Augustine

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St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo

In the Confessions, Saint Augustine describes a depraved soul as “falling away from security in you to destruction in itself.”

I like the way that Augustine puts this. When I make moral choices, I am choosing between God or self, light or darkness, building or destruction. There is no middle ground.

Yet there is hope. The first source of hope is found in Romans 8:1 – there is no condemnation for me if I am in Christ.

The second source of hope is that God can take my half-hearted attempts at obedience and use them for His purpose and His glory. Later on in Romans 8, Paul says, “all things work together for good.” In this context, I take the word good to mean good from God’s perspective, which too often is different than mine.

Genesis 50:20 – The Proper Understanding of Evil

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EvilGenesis 50:20 (ESV) As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Life in a fallen world requires a response to pain and suffering. Bad news is all around us. Whether it is directly or indirectly perceived, evil cannot be ignored.

The most difficult evil of all is when people who are supposed to love and care for us fail in this responsibility or are cruel or abusive.

In this verse, Joseph reminds us that God is in control even we are victims of those who actively perpetrate evil.

Knowledge that God is in control does not make the evil any more palatable but it does help us grasp that it is not permanent and we will be able to move beyond it. This knowledge provides a context and a means for getting through the difficulty.

I see that God has used the most difficult people and events in my life to teach me dependence upon himself. I have also begun to learn a little of patience when my situation is beyond my ability to control.

God is My Fortress

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Psalm 59:16b (ESV)

For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.

Matthew 10:28 (ESV)

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

In reading Psalm 59 this morning, I notice that David twice describes God as his fortress.  A fortress is a place of protection. In a physical sense I visualize impenetrable walls and a defensible location when I think of a fortress. When under attack, I want my body protected.

Fortress

Is David merely using symbolism in this description? Perhaps not.

The verse that came to me as I considered this was Matthew 10:28. There Jesus reminds me that God is the only one that has authority over my true self, my soul. Governments and thugs (sometimes two different groups, sometimes not) can kill my body but my soul is protected by God.

Perhaps David, the man after God’s own heart, had this in mind when describing God as his fortress. Saul, who was pursuing David at the time, could kill David’s body, but David’s soul was protected by his relationship with God.

The Fellowship of the Obtuse

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Luke 18:34 (ESV)

34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

You Just Don't Get ItTwo lines of thinking present themselves to me in reaction to this verse.

First, I am comforted that the men who God used to turn the world upside down had moments when they just did not get it. They, at times, were just as obtuse and blind as I often am. I feel as though I am in good company and take encouragement from it.

My second thought is concerning the veracity of the Gospel accounts. One of the lines of argument of atheists is that the New Testament was compiled by church leaders in later centuries to support the claims of the faith. In other words, the leaders made up stories to support their theological positions.

If I were making up stories about the men from whom I inherited my authority, I don’t think that I would include any statements that would denigrate those men.

Why would Luke include this statement in his Gospel? The only logical answer is because it was true and shows that the spread of the Gospel is not due to the incredible wisdom of the Apostles. They were regular men, just like you and I. They had the same periods of stupidity and struggled in their faith like we do.

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