Getting Back Up, Again

This week was one of the best there has been had in recent years. I didn’t embark on any new adventures. I didn’t complete anything that was nagging at me. All in all it was a rather normal week. The changes; listening to scripture on my morning commute and going back to the gym. I used to listen to a talk radio show on the commute but personnel changes following the election appears to have removed the most mentally stimulating hosts. After venturing around itunes looking for a replacement podcast to fill that time slot I was reminded of my priorities, the contrast between what my perception and practice. This is better to explain if I start from the physical approach.

I have been a gym rat for the better part of 20 years now. Minus a few extended periods of healing I have paid as the “experience tax”, my routine has been one of the more stable things in my adulthood. I have my goals, some of which were established in high school that continue to elude. The most eminent motivations though are the harsh memories of being bullied up until fruit from the gym showed on my frame in high school and the constant ailments that eventually lead to dad’s early passing. I know dad’s homegoing was far more than his physical state, but that… that is something I’ll hold closer to the chest. As far as the bullying, an anecdotal observation, bullies are less likely to pick targets who are more muscular than them. I recognize the concern of bullies today is long past relevant, but the confidence one gains and maintains by being a good steward of the body continues.

In 20 years of lifting weights there have been minor injuries all along the way. A strained pectoral here, or a pinched nerve there, I have been more than familiar with long undesired but necessary breaks. These have happened with enough consistency that one or two months of inactivity do not negatively impact performance. After three months, the first week back at the gym will be frustrating, demoralizing, and aggravating. At more than three months, well, it will take at least a month of light workouts to get back to the previous level. This is known as muscle memory, which is a wonderful thing. It could be such that instead of regaining strength within a few months of leaving off, I would have to work back from scratch. This knowledge is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing because I know how temporary this setback will be, the curse because it is still frustrating and humbling to endure every single time I return to the gym to build back up to where I was. There is a certain baseline to reach before I can tune my routine back towards accomplishing my goals.

Last week, I finally got better from a four-months “cold”. The doctor called it “bronchitis” and the antibiotics were incredible, but let us not dwell on the past and technical terms. The best part of the healing process was recognizing I was sick for at least two months more than I needed to be. It was my stubbornness that precluded me from seeking help. Oh the joys of recognizing the fallibility in my physicality as well as my spiritual practice.

At the same time, sadly with far less dedication to my lifting regimen, getting a daily dose of scripture has ebbed and flowed. When it flowed it was grand. I never really maintained awareness how or why I let life’s business get in the way. Certainly there were periods of pride that in order to ensure my practice was authentic manifestations of delight over duty, I would cast away such liturgical structures over my daily routine so as to appear the most authentic. The other prideful exclamation often justified my lack of scripture because maintaining a biblical worldview might be sufficient. You know, think about everything biblically, except the Bible.

I knew I didn’t have a good reason. Is that not the purpose of the Bible app after all? The phone goes everywhere, hence my bible is with me all the time. Even more, the audio bible is on the app too! It really hit me halfway through this week. To really show my faith, I started to listen to the Old Testament. You know, brush up on my biblical history that is a bit rusty. I should be able to distinguish between Elijah and Elisha... What God has shown me in this week, was in the historic descriptive Word, it is still living and active. My place in his kingdom is more clear. The concerns of what each day has before me are less daunting. God is good. This process is far less painful than working back up to a certain level of physical performance. As it should be, the entire basis of the Christian faith isn’t about what we do for God, but what he has already done for us. One of the most basic truths, that I had not paid attention to with the weight I should have. Like getting back into my gym routine, “why did I ever stop?” with the most dumbfounded tone echoes through my head. I am grateful for a loving God who knows me better than I could ever know myself.

Oh, I guess this kind of topped off this week, I got to see Supreme Court Associate Justice Alito this weekend. That was pretty cool too. God cares about the little things too.

P.S. I wrote this a few weeks ago, but not wanting to get on what could have turned into a short lived celebration of a couple weeks, the pattern has held. The gym regime continues, the Word still speaks through the genealogies, and life is great. This has not been a fad. Next time you see me, ask me about what scripture takeaway I had.

Re: Viral Video about Millennials in the Workplace

Re: Viral Video about Millennials in the Workplace

In case you happen to read this, thanks for your patience. This semester was a doozy and I had to step back from pretty much anything not work or school. In the same way one might hypothetically see how many drinks they can handle in order to know “how much is too much” this is how I would describe my course load. This was too much, I didn’t puke, but I know my limit now. Knowing is half the battle, right?

So there is this 15 minute clip floating around that has some interesting insights into the dreaded “Millennials.” I’m not familiar with Mr. Sinek, but he has some good insights and descriptions about this odd group of people. His web pages indicate he’s a pretty smart guy and the video only adds to his intellectual repertoire. In case you haven’t seen the video or you haven’t yet decided to watch it, the skinny is this: he diagnoses the problems employers/corporate America is having with the millennial generation. This is not a particularly new topic, from politicians, business leaders, and missiologists, apparently this generation is a difficult one to pin. In the opening he nails it, millennials want purpose in their work.

I am not one to really counter that, my current path in life is in the pursuit to have the most fulfilling career that suits my passions. In some way, the reason I am doing what I am doing is because I could do no other career path. This is in contrast to the vision that our grandparents generation has been stereotyped to have, in which the goal from a job is to have one, then to get by. This is particularly true of the working class vision of Americana. To offer a movie clip which I would describe this view is from the film Rudy, at the bus stop. His father tries to talk him out of his dream to go to Notre Dame. Yes, I know the true story about Mr. Ruettiger is not as pure, but that’s why movies are “based” on true story. Anyways, the past generations used to be satisfied with a good job that paid on time and afforded one to provide for the needs of their family. Today, my peers, who also are having fewer children and getting married later, want their job for more than a paycheck, they want a purpose from it.

Sinek points this out very well but his remedy I have to disagree. In order for his approach to occur the structure of corporate America must change entirely to meet the needs of this generation who “by no fault of their own” were apparent victims of poor parenting. The poor parenting strategy was summed up as: Parents who did not allow their children to fail, but ensured their success was not through their efforts but from their intervention, this has been termed Helicopter parenting. By this point, the term Millennial is much less than those born in 1984 to 1995. His implicit description are those of middle to upper class with a probable two parent household who are college graduates. Not to take away from his message, but I think we need to be careful when grouping people by generic factors like age, it is overly broad. Sinek thinks it is the responsibility of employers to meet the needs of this generation, this calls for a complete overhaul in the purpose of business at large.

I recognize there are some companies who were founded based on something other than money, there are very few large businesses which find this model sustainable. For a test, see how many annual meetings highlight the immaterial purposes of the company above the bottom line. How many investors are more concerned with the accomplishments of the company than the return? This is that brutal reality check that Millennials are being confronted and lack means to cope. I think it is a mistake to look to one’s career for its primary meaning. That is not to say one should not seek to be fulfilled in their career path, but there should be something else that defines who one is beyond their business card. The ancients would call this virtue. I’ll try to describe this in secular terms.

Virtue is formed by our community. Hopefully and primarily by one's family, but those without the blessing of a mostly stable two-parent household are not permanently disadvantaged. Community consists of those in close proximity and influence. If family does not teach virtue, then hopefully it would be through church, volunteer work, intramural, or some other extracurricular voluntary gathering. My bias thinks church is the best format because all the other gatherings are based on an activity over a shared belief, whereas people can similarly enjoy baseball but have very different views on morality, but if people attend a local church together, they are much more likely to have similar views on morality. Dennis Prager, an author and radio show how, frequently challenges that with the decline of religious belief, there is an inevitable decline in public virtue. He further argues that no other organization teaches values better than religious institutions. I will be more charitable and hope there are institutions with virtuous people who overflow on the people they impact with their virtue, regardless of the purpose of the institution. Virtue ultimately comes from one person and is passed to the next. It is no doubt the best transference of this virtue is by watching another more experienced person pass it down from one to another. The interpersonal aspect of virtue is essential lest the virtues be limited to abstract ideals not grounded in reality.

If nothing else I’ve picked up from the election cycle this year talking to people, I have recognized how much Millennials long for heaven. They long for their image of perfection, this is why they can make castigating claims against others’ nation, race, gender, career, ect. because the standard is not history, but their ideal. It gets worse when Millennials, or the next power group fails to see the mistakes of past idealists imprint from history. We must insist, that when “they” did it, they just didn’t do the right way, but when “we” do it, everyone will be happy and full. One cannot create a new society from scratch, they must acknowledge the previous generations not with their idea of righteous indignation, but with an understanding of reasonableness. I see these longings as the groaning of the effects from sin, the only problem is the idea of sin is not compatible with the vision of many Millennials. If we are to address a problem, the first step is recognizing it exists.

The High Places

I mentioned before about the Sunday night Bible study I’ve been involved with for several months. I want to say for the last 6 weeks or so we have been doing a survey of the Old Testament. To be honest I never knew there were so many quirky details and stories in the Old Testament. I hope I remember to return to the Old Testament more frequently in my studies. Combine the Old Testament studies with several of the sermons I have been listening to from Mars Hill Church, and I pondering the high places and how they are relevant to us.

With my limited resources I found the High Places were altar-like places scattered throughout the lands in the Old Testament. It was common among indigenous cultures to find hilltops and other high elevation locations and setup obelisks, altars, and other small structures to worship their gods. The gods to which the high places were dedicated varied; amongst the unnamed gods are Baal, Asheroth, Asherah, and Molech. To the best of my understanding Baal was the god of economic success. It was everything from blessings harvests and business, Baal worship was a means to bless earthly success and wealth. In Leviticus 20, Molech was known for child sacrifice, through other historical references altars to Molech were statues with arms perpendicular so as to place an object on the arms. For worship the arms were heated to color changing temperatures and children were placed on the arms to be burned to death.

The first mention I have found of the high places was in the settling of the Promised Land. Continuing through the Old Testament I counted high places mentioned in the connotation of foreign god worship site appears 68 times. It was most apparent to me going through 1 & 2 Kings in which many leaders of Judah and Israel were given several paragraphs summarizing their rule and frequently mentioned was “the high places were not taken away” or worse yet “made offerings at the high places”. Saul was found hanging out at the high places where Samuel found him. Solomon built high places for his foreign wives and eventually made sacrifices to them. Hezekiah, who has been called by many the most righteous King in Jewish history destroyed the high places, only to have his son Manasseh rebuild them.

Yes, this was one of the more research intensive blogs, but here is the relevance. What are our high places? The Jews set the example of false idols and gods, upon hearing I often questioned the application. In California I never came across an idol or temple devoted to Baal. Wandering the streets of London I observed countless memorials and statues to honor their history, yet I never saw an altar to Molech for people to offer their babies. For far too long I held the teachings of false gods to be rather outdated and irrelevant because I had never experienced or even heard of such behavior. What if the worship still continues, we just changed high places and how we offer our worship? Mark Driscoll keenly points out that abortion is modern child sacrifice for sex. People desiring to worship sex more than life sacrifice their babies to continue their worship. What of the worship of money and success? Take your pick, be it magazines like “The Best Life”, TV shows such as “Cribs”, or America’s infatuation with celebrities concerning any and everything they wear and say, because they are rich. Ensuring I point the finger to myself I have to consider where I spend my time and for what purpose. Earlier today, I was busy playing Hitman while listening to a Mars Hill sermon in which Mark pointed out that the average single man plays two hours and forty six minutes of video games, ugh.

I do not intend this to be a legalist calling in which we must monitor our time consumption of activities, cease watching TV, and take no interest in popular culture; far from it. I just wanted to share with you all (I will not say y’all) I have been made more aware of the idols present throughout our society and more importantly the greater application of the Old Testament. Remember, for effective evangelism we must meet them where they are. If I know nothing of the culture I am attempting to reach common sense tells me I will not be effective.

The Hardest Part About the Gospel pt II

I was reading over some of my past writings to ensure I have not covered this coming topic fully or not to repeat what I have said before. I am too young to already be repeating stories already. I was thinking about some of the students I encountered in Slovakia that I hope to see again next month in Italy (the military students) as well as the close proximity to people in the field. What kind of faith do people live?

What a person lives is too often so far from what they claim to believe. I have had so much more understanding of St. Francis' quote I have in my headline, "Share the gospel always, when necessary use words." Without getting on too much of a rabbit trail I find it important to point out that everyone lives out their faith. Whether that faith can be recognized with any specific organized religion or not doesn't matter. Faith as Hebrews 11:1 states it is what we cannot see but put our hope towards. Even the denial of faith is faith that there is none.

As I mentioned in the Slovakia Blog, that I am not interested in convincing people to say a prayer that means something at the moment but will not likely last beyond the week. I also must be careful not to underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit working in someone from a week in God's presence. As I mentioned in the first part the majority of Americans believe themselves to be Christians, but so few know what it means to be a Christian.

Haunting over me I have Matthew 7:15-23 scrolling across my thoughts like a teleprompter. If people can prophesy, cast out demons and perform other miracles but not know Christ what about the rest of us? I have been far from ever able to perform a miracle, so for Jesus to have such harsh words about focusing on the acts and not on him is quite the stern warning. On one side it is comforting because it shows how much Christ cares about the personal relationship he seeks with us, our salvation is not based by our works. On the other side, when it comes to my daily failings in the Christian life, my will departing from Christ's it is the same kind of fear that would be instilled in a Hellfire and Brimstone sermon.

I recall a talk by Darin McWatters at Hume, he was described the individuality of Christianity. He said it would be great if all we needed to do to be set for eternity was to inform someone about Christ, or know Jesus name. The hurdle that someone must believe is so much further it is often frustrating. It is very easy to inform someone of some random fact or an important detail. To introduce someone to God on a personal level is difficult because we are so unfamiliar as a society with anyone taking a genuine interest in another person for non-selfish reasons.

For cabin time in Slovakia I would have one question that we would all go around in a the circle to answer, not so much as an icebreaker but it added a touch of personal investment into each member. I constantly emphasized to give a real answer to whatever the answer would be. As I phrased it, “be real, not like you're writing an essay or up for a pageant.” We have such common speech that to describe an active faith by speech alone is very difficult. I think the only thing that truly separated what I had to say was me being on the brink of tears trying to describe my relationship with Christ. Hopefully the guys could see my genuine sincerity about the discussions. I often find myself trying to be too intellectual about my faith when sharing it through conversation.

As other blogs have easily noted, I take a great appreciation being knowledgeable about my faith and issues of faith through apologetics and empirical knowledge. I have spent more time lately focusing on the importance of the heart within that faith. I cannot let one side take over so as I become a heartless Christian or a faithful buffoon. Looking at John 14:20-21 I read it that God requires our heart first and our minds will be answered in time.

How then do we be authentic in our faith enough to share it when asked, in accordance with 1 Peter 3:14-17? Is the gentleness and respect all that we must do when giving our reasons for our hope? I think not, if I had a well written essay about why I believe and carried it with me everywhere I went just in case someone asked me I would not think that to be what God demands of us. The personal aspect of sharing our testimony with someone adds what words often cannot describe. I think it is called authenticity.

I can write about the awesome sights I have seen in my travels, or my passions I pursue with my time, or even the euphoria I get from a good workout, but none of those are remotely close to feel if I could tell you about those things in person. That happens with things we care about. I am constantly told when I get talking about something I care about I get loud and very excited. Isn't that how we should be about things we care about? That is where there is so much more value in what we say and do than in what we claim.

Epilogue: Due to some travel difficulties on another weekend, as a form of punishment I was tasked to go on a field exercise instead of go to Italy. Sometimes that is how the cookie crumbles..

Response to a "You can be a Gay Christian" article

You can be a Gay Christian article

This one is a response to the article above. As a preface it is important to establish that scripture does not offer any less condemnation to a sexually immoral life of a homosexual than a heterosexual. Too often churches will attack and rally against homosexuals without addressing the rampant divorce, infidelity, and lust that goes on within its own walls. Christians are not here to judge the world, in 1 Corinthians Paul mentions that we should “judge our own” for the sake of the gospel, it is not the churches’ reign to turn the homosexuals into heterosexuals it is the churches’ job to introduce people to Jesus, the Jesus in the Bible.

First Premise: I agree most people don't know the Word of God nor treat it as such, however I am not one of those people and I do know the Word fairly well and have the resources to understand it, in addition I have the Holy Spirit in me to guide my studies among other things.

As I recall Jesus talks about sex on numerous occasion, such as defining lust and addressing the situation with the woman caught committing adultery to name a couple. Jesus was very clear in defining lust that sexual sin occurs far before the physical realm. The Jewish prophets did not mention homosexuality, okay they are prophecies the books of the law did mention it, and I will get there on that point. That does not mean the epistles have not addressed this issue.

In response to the claim “homosexuality as it is known today” is never mentioned in scripture, I refer to Romans 1 when Paul describes how people exchanged the truth and continued to exchange they get to the point of "exchanging natural desires for unnatural ones... men being enflamed with lust for one another".

Second Premise: I agree that misinterpretations have lead to many deaths and bad things, the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition are among some of the worse things the church has lead. I do not believe we should go about killing homosexual or abortionists as some "Christian" organizations promote, I think that is far from sharing the love of Christ.

Third Premise: I agree being open to the truth of Scripture we must be actively seeking, new truth... I am not entirely sure about that new truth being the same truth found in Scriptures and the same God since the beginning of existence. I don't think we should condemn people with their sins; that is God’s duty. Sin affects every person, how we deal with it makes all the difference. What I see in this site and in other debates with similar resources are people arguing that they can live the lifestyle they want to and be Christians. That is like me saying I can look at all the porn I want to without it affecting my relationship with Christ, or me saying that I can get drunk every night and be a good Christian. If we think God is not interested in these intimate details of our life then we are not believing in the personal God described throughout the Scriptures. God knows the hairs on our head, how could something as important as this, which has such a huge role in our lives not be important to God?

Fourth Premise: Interesting claim, it starts out claiming that God is not interested in our sex lives, I disagree. The bible is a guide to human life on the earth that we do not belong on (See 1 Peter, We are a chosen people, royal priesthood ect..) I don't see how showing spots in the scriptures that are controversial helps the argument that this is going for, is it trying to divert our attention or what? Keep the focus on the issue at hand.

Fifth Premise: I believe the Word of God literally, I think when God said it is "good" that was a comment on how it should be done. Take note that during creation everything created was "good" but when Adam had Eve as his partner they were "Very good".

Interesting claim that the destruction of Sodom was not related to the homosexuals raiding Lot's home to have sex with the angels; other resources say they wanted to "know" the guests, which in Hebrew is true. The only part they failed to mention is that "know" was the same Hebrew word used when Adam "knew" Eve and she got pregnant. Anyways, I think that is wishful thinking to say that the group of men wanting to rape the Angels had nothing to do with God's judgment on the city. God did make a covenant with Abraham if 10 righteous people could be found the city would be spared, which 10 could not be found, so yes the city was not to be spared. I take the crowd of lustful men as one of the many traits of the evil city, not a separate incident the eve of its destruction.

The approach to Leviticus is funny, at least to me. Once again pointing out other ways we follow or don't follow the Books of the Law correctly and it tries to downplay its message by adding the condemnation of shellfish and playing with pigskin. I have never felt a need to argue for the validity of the laws in the Books of the Law seeing that was the old covenant, Jesus is the new covenant. I understood the Law as an implicit message that the Jews would need to see how impossible it was to do all of those things and rely on God to forgive them of their sins. In the same way we look back to the Messiah to save us, they should have looked forward to the Messiah to save them.

Wow, I am impressed it does address Romans 1:26-27, I disagree with the reason Paul wrote those 2 verses that the link suggests. The links says that those behaviors were behaviors used to honor the Greek gods and that is why they were condemned. I very much disagree, if you look at the greater context of that passage you see that it is talking about people exchanging the Truth of God for something different. Each paragraph people exchange the Truth of God and what they exchange it for gets more debauched each time. I can identify that with my own battles against sin. When I battle it is something that for the most part can be seen as harmless, but that little bit of sin gets me to want more; that is how sin works. We give in to a little bit and as we give in it goes further and further. Jeffery Dalmer provided a good example, he started with pornography and that drove him to pedophile to murder to cannibalism ect...

The bit about the further mentions of homosexuality being different, well I understand that it was common at the time for older men to have sexual relationship with young people, both boys and girls. This was a social thing for the empire, I like to take special note that as that practice became widely accepted in the Roman empire, the empire collapsed, I site that as the social breakdown being the primary problem of the empire breaking down. The final point in that premise was pretty much saying that the condemnation of homosexuality was not as it is in this culture. I still think Romans 1 best explains and describes why people are homosexual and what God thinks of it.

Premise Six: Homosexuality did not exist until the 19th century... that is if you believe that the descriptions at Sodom was not homosexuality. As well as the mentions of homosexuality in the Epistles as not actually being homosexuality.

Premise Seven: My studies of Scripture has lead me to believe that in order to follow God I must give up my desire to do things that I want to do. This is where I have the most disagreement with the homosexual lifestyle, it promotes the idea to do what people want. With this line of thinking it is hard to find real reasons against homosexuality in the secular atmosphere, but in the Christian lifestyle I cannot see a place for it. It is a behavior that people want hold onto and do, that selfish attitude is what waves my mental flags that this is not a good thing spiritually. Based on my studies of the Bible, love is expressed by us living our lives for God, not for ourselves and abandoning our selfish desires. Every sin in humanity is selfish in someone way or another, selfishness is the root of sin.

Premise Eight: I am not arguing people for their rights, I am arguing if homosexuality is consistent or inconsistent with the Christian life. Marriage is something created by God, don't touch it. As far as rights as a person, I think they already have that until someone infringes on their rights.