Hyper-Individualism

To address "individualism" is quite difficult! So much can be said and will not get said that will leave this relatively vague, but - as Brian suggested in a response to my previous posts - it will be helpful to consider the place of the "me and Jesus" mentality that has swept Christians away from a "we" to "me" mentality. So...what do I mean and why do I care to bring it up.

The cynicism that prevades the average Church member's attitude toward a "ruling" elder's authority when making decisions for the Church without the approval of those in the pew; the attitude of "i've studied this issue and think the leadership needs to repent and change or I'm going elsewhere;" the "how dare they suggest that I have sin" or "how dare that pastor/small group leader assume I have fault in my conflicts," etc... are all revealing attitudes, thoughts, and actions of those who are typically swept up in the secular notion of individualism.

The most common defenses for this kind of attitude are: "I have the Spirit in me and he leads me...not the Church or the Pastors." Or, "I love Jesus, not the Church." Or, "I learn from God's word, not men." Or, "I/he/they are accountable to God, not men."

All of these concerns and statments have a sprinkle of truth adorned with a cloak of sick and dark sin. Whether it be pride, self love, or some other soul sickness that drives these thoughts, they are, in general, the weak pleas of those who are seeking to either usurp or deflect the God-given communal ministry He has intended for our good through the ministry of the Church.

There are many reasons why this happens, but there are two reasons why I think this has captured many a unsuspecting Christian. First, the polity that exists in many Churches that exalts the individual opinions of the congregants over that of the leadership has played a huge part in allowing people to think that their individual relationship and experience of God's leading in their life has virtually only and/or everything to do with their own experience of what they think God is doing and/0r saying. Second, the influence of the Culture in its hyper-individualism - I have my truth you have yours - has crept its way ever so subtly here and this is where it is leading. Third, the lack of care when using and applying the scripture.

It is with the third that I will close this post. Virtually every command and Christian experience, every letter and book in the Bible, is adorned with the thrid person or first person plural. While God does indeed work in us in a personal and unique way, he is REVEALED preeminently in the plural - meaning in community, not in isolation and definitely not "it's me and Jesus." Paul would slap our silly faces for such a silly and selfish view of the Christian life.

Our sin is so decieving that we cannot, ever, view our own sin without the aid of others helping us...that is if we want to deal with it honestly and not applaud our sense of our own righteousness. This is why we need community and Godly leaders and Godly observation over our souls by other men.

For those who struggle with this here is a very simple, yet helpful, suggestion for you. Read Romans - Jude and notice the context of God's commands and the experiences of others in the Church. You will notice that the hard core emphasis is on the community and not on the personal.

Now, for those who want to quote the Psalms to me and make sure to make your point that a "personal relationship with God" is vital, I will not only agree but also add that a "community relationship with God" is as vital and as important and should be as stressed and fought for as hard as the former. Neglect one for the other and you have a kind of sickness that will not only warp your thinking but prevent you from so many of God's intended blessings. We need to meet God alone and we need him as he "manifests" himself (1 Cor. 11:7) through our brethren. Be careful lest we, in an attempt to secure our own sense of power and preference, neglect God's emphasized form of manifestation in the New Testament - through community.

p.s. much of my experience with this subject has come from my years of pastoral experience in the baptist tradition. This is not to suggest that all baptists are hyper-individualistic thinkers, but it is to say that my experience would tell me that it is at least a common problem.

Heath Ledger, The Joker, and Me

When I was a newly converted Christian I was influenced by someone I greatly admired that I needed to develop a consistent devotional time where I dedicated a portion of my day to reading Scripture and prayer. I remember my goal being to become more and more like Christ. I was extremely excited about how God would go about conforming me to the image of His Son through these times alone with Him. It did not take long for me to realize through these times that the gap between Christ and I was infinitely wide and there was absolutely nothing I could do to bridge that gap. It helped me remember just how vital it is to keep the gospel central in all of my devotional life and life in general. Knowing that Christ has bridged this gap for me through his perfect life and death is the only thing that could have saved me from despair. It saves me from despair every day. It seems like the more I grow in Christ the more I realize I need to grow. This is a beautiful thing because it forces me where I need to be. Always sorrowful for my sin, always repenting, and always rejoicing in what Christ has done for me. But what if I did not have Christ? How far would my despair go until I was overtaken knowing how deeply sinful I truly was?
I thought about this quite a bit months ago and a lot last night after seeing The Dark Knight starring Heath Ledger. Most everyone knows the tragic circumstances that followed the completion of shooting this film. It is speculated that Heath Ledger had trouble sleeping during production because he was so engrossed with the character he was playing that it kept him from rest. If you have seen the movie you know that the character he plays, the Joker, is a truly depraved individual who has no more motivation in life than to prove that everyone put to the test would sacrifice any morality they have and become a monster if it proved beneficial even for a moment. He then says the only difference between the average person and him is that he is ahead of the curve being that he has not only embraced this truth, but puts aside the façade of morality and lives without morals. Most would tell you that Heath put himself too far into the Joker and this was the cause of his sleep loss and any other mental anxieties he may have developed. I think they have it wrong, and backwards to be more specific. What do I mean by this?
Let me start by saying that this is not an attack on Heath what so ever. I think that anyone, including myself, would have had the same propensity to what Health experienced. I don’t think Heath put himself too far into the Joker. I think Heath realized how much of the Joker was actually already inside of Him. I think he found out how easy it was to become the Joker because he was already so much like this depraved character that is was more natural than he would want to admit. He may have come face to face with his depravity and simply could not handle it. He experienced what I experienced. He, like me, got a glimpse of just how far from Christ he really was even if Christ never entered his mind. Again, this is not attacking Health himself. This is true about everyone. We all are totally depraved in our natural state, and without Christ we would remain this way.
Making this connection encouraged me to dwell on several truths. One is just how undeserving I am of Christ saving me. Deep down I AM the joker, and without Christ radically changing my heart to love Him I would have fallen deeper into the depths of my sinfulness day by day. Thank you Jesus for being my sacrifice, redeemer, justifier, and mediator among other things. It also made me grateful for those who preached the gospel to me. Their obedience to God and love for me made the realization of my depravity result in my rejoicing in my redeemer instead of falling into eternal despair. It seems that Heath did not have the hope in Christ as the proper cure for despair and turned to several medications and who knows what other false hopes. That naturally leads me to a conviction of the lack of gospel preaching in my life, and a desire to do so. Who knows how many people we know who have started to get a glimpse of their own depravity and are beginning to try to mask this realization with false hopes of man-made religion and dangerous distractions? As Christians we know that any attempt to solve the problem of depravity without Christ simply sinks us farther into it. Like struggling through quick sand we sink faster with false effort. We must preach Christ as the only means of salvation and do it with hope knowing that Christ saves sinners.
How am I still failing to apply the gospel to my depravity? How am I using man made religion and distractions as an attempt to mask my sinfulness? I would encourage anyone reading this to ask themselves the same questions. Do it prayerfully knowing that even what we deem to be obviously Christ centered can simply be an attempt at working for God’s approval. This is what happened with my devotional times and I am constantly in prayer that I would not allow this undeserved grace to become an attempt to have my own righteousness. It seems that as soon as I stop praying for this it does not take long for these times to become a futile attempt to earn what Christ has already earned for me. Also, anything that keeps us from having communion with God and meditating on His word can become an unhealthy distraction from applying the gospel to our lives which includes properly applying it to our depravity. I am not going to expound on how we conclude when something has become a distraction. I will just advise to be on watch knowing it could be ANYTHING in our lives. Family, friends, Church, drugs, alcohol, TV, or even a hobby can become unhealthy distractions. Again I would encourage much prayer and the advice of those you trust to help you find where you are trying to earn God’s approval and where you are distracting yourself from being conformed to the image of Christ.

Are You Plugged-In? John 15:1-6

One of my fellow elders, Kevin, has been teaching through Jesus' upper room discourse (John 14-16) over the last few months for our Wednesday night service (and it has been superb by the way). He has been in John 15 now for over a month. As he was teaching through the first few verses of John 15 the Lord impressed upon my mind a helpful way of looking at John 15.

First of all, if you have read John 15 you know that it is an image-laden passage. Jesus was communicating to his disciples their ultra-need of remaining/abiding in him. In essence, Jesus was teaching his disciples that he is the very source of their life. He communicated this rich truth by using imagery from the agricultural world. After all, he likens himself to a "vine," the disciples to "branches" and the Father to a "vine dresser." Jesus' principle point is that the disciples are quite a lot like branches in that they need the life-giving sap from the vine (Jesus) to help them produce fruit (produce love).

Because we in America do not have a massive amount of experience working in vineyards, we can often times be confused about what Jesus is talking about. In so doing we can miss his most principle point.

As I was sitting there listening to Kevin teach I began to think of a better, more accessible illustration than a vine and branches (Not that Jesus blew it by giving a horrid illustration, but rather because we do not live in the same context as the disciples). After the study I drove home, sat down with my Bible opened to John 15 and began to rework it with different imagery--imagery that connects with the everyday lives of Americans.

Anyway, here is my reworking of John 15:1-6 with up-to-date, Americanized imagery (by the way, this is adapted from the NIV):

"1 I am the true generator and the Father is the electrician. 2 He unplugs and throws away every extension cord which does not channel electricity, while every extension cord that does channel electricity he cuts, splices the wires, and then tapes back up so that it might channel electricity more efficiently in order that it might light more light bulbs (bear fruit). 3 You are already clean because of the word I preached to you. 4. Remain plugged into me and my energy or life will remain in you. No extension cord can generate electricity on its own, it must remain plugged in to the generator. Neither can you bear fruit (light light bulbs) unless you remain plugged in to me. 5 I am the generator you are the extension cords. If a man remains in me and I remain in him, he will light many light bulbs; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain plugged in to me, he like an extension cord which is thrown away and looses its electricity-channeling capabilities; such extension cords are picked up and thrown away and taken to the dump and melted in the incinerator."

How useful is an unplugged extension cord when it comes to channeling energy? Extension cords cannot generate electricity on their own. They are dependent upon a generator for the electricity. In fact, just like us, extension cords exist simply for the sake of channeling--channeling life which flows from another source. In the same way, how useful is a believer in bearing fruit to the glory of God if he is not plugged into Christ. The point is that Christ is the source of our life. We are useless if we are not plugged into him--"apart from him we can do nothing."

For those of you who are serious students of Scripture, you may not like the changing of the imagery because it cannot account for the serious historical significance of Jesus calling himself the "true vine" or his people "the branches." In other words, no... this changed imagery is not perfect. After all, one cannot truly understand John 15 without at least a cursory understanding of Isaiah 5. I suggest you to stick with Jesus' imagery and only provide this for you in order to deepen your understanding of his principle point. The imagery is helpful in establishing the main point of Jesus discourse: namely, that the disciples cannot do anything which brings glory to God (John 15:8) if they are not getting their life from Christ, remaining plugged into him. This change of imagery also helps communicate the worthlessness (at least when it comes to bearing fruit to the glory of God) of those who are not actively seeking life in him--everyone knows how useless an extension cord is when it comes to lighting light bulbs if it is not plugged in to a power source.

Now go and read John 15 in your own Bible and see if the changed imagery sheds some light on Jesus' words. Also, notice that the fruit that Jesus wants his disciples to bear is love (see John 15:11-17). In other words, you cannot fulfill the Greatest Commandment if you are not plugged into Christ. Christ is the life-giving sap which flows through you--he is the life-giving energy which flows through you, enabling you to love others as he has loved you.

Grudem on Womanhood

Here is an awesome sermon/lecture on Biblical Womanhood (wives be subject to your husbands) by Wayne Grudem. While he is faithful to deal with the subject candidly, he does it with appropriate tenderness to the sensitivity of women on the subject.

Here's a link to the video:
http://www.scottsdalebible.com/sermons/the-actions-of-gods-people/gods-wisdom-for-wives.cfm

Post Surgery Update

Thanks for praying for Luke. His surgery on Friday morning went well. There were no complications with the surgery. Luke is still quite uncomfortable, however the doctors say that he should be feeling better in just a few days.

Thanks for praying. Continue to pray for a complete and quick recovery.

Prayer Request

Be praying for Luke. He has to have surgery on his stomach tomorrow. The surgery is not complicated. In fact, it will be an outpatient surgery. However, it is a surgery. Pray that the Lord would give the doctors skill and wisdom as they seek to operate on him. Also be praying for a quick, painless recovery for Luke. The exact time of the Surgery is 10:00 am eastern time.

Piper on Job