The Test for Humility

I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards this morning with a title so long I can't remember it.  In the sermon he spoke about how the godly have an attitude which seeks to exalt God and humble himself.  The text he was preaching from was:

Not to us, Oh Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory.

Half-way through the sermon there was this brilliantly insightful piece where he mentions that men may often affect this attitude in prayer, yet it is only words that they are speaking and not the true attitude of their heart.  So how do you know if you are the truly godly man who desires to be humbled and to exalt God, or if you are the self-righteous man who is a hypocrite, even though he may not know it?

The answer lies in how he relates to good deeds.  A self-righteous man seeks to be known for the good works that he does.  He cannot help it, it is in his heart.  He has based his justification on his own righteousness and he needs others to know about it.  Even if he does it with fake humility, he still must let others know about how much he gives, or prays, or serves, or loves.  He cannot allow the glory to be God's completely, he must appropriate some of it for himself.

This is the test.  If your righteousness is not your own, but completely from Christ, then you know it and need not take God's glory.

Why Atheists Are Better People Than Christians

I just read an article about how atheists are more compassionate and generous than religious people.  I found it utterly unsurprising (if a bit misleading of the studies actual findings).

As you know, there are two ways to be alienated from God.  One is by being very, very bad. And the other is by being very, very good.  You can be so good or so religious that you just don't have any need in your life for a savior.  Basically, you're a pharisee.  Incredibly good or religious, but it creates a self-righteousness that is blinding and that makes you arrogant.

In the religious sphere this creates people you are so self-righteous they feel that they are above people who are in need.  "Those people" just need to start "living right" and their problems would be solved.

The interesting thing is that this self-righteousness operates not only with religious people (a constant problem in churches), but also in the secular sphere.  If your self-image is reliant completely on your being a good, or moral, or compassionate, or generous person, then you'll have to be good.  Your entire self-image depends on it.

It is only the gospel that says you can find your identity not in your morality or religious observance, but in the fact that Christ died for you despite your badness.  Then you'll be truly free to be generous or compassionate beyond what it will gain you (self-image or self-justification). You'll be able to be generous because God has been so generous to you.  You'll be compassionate because God has been so compassionate to you.  That is the power of the gospel

The Parts of the Bible That Are Outdated

The idea that scripture is outdated is wrong. Or more specifically the idea that there are parts of scripture that are applicable for today, but that other parts are outdated and need to be discarded or overlooked is arrogant.

Why arrogant?
Because if you take the parts of the Bible that you like and leave the rest it is because culturally you believe you are in a position to judge what is right and what is wrong.  Many traditional societies, African, Latin American, Asian, disagree with you about life in fundamental ways. Are you willing to say that your culture is inherently superior to those other cultures?  If your culture is superior to theirs, maybe there is a culture that is superior to yours.  How would you know?

Why arrogant?
Because this statement is based on the belief that your particular cultural moment in history can sit on judgement of other cultures and times.  Even the Bible.

Why arrogant?
Because this belief is based on the idea that everything I believe is 100% true and God doesn't need correct me on anything.  But let's say for a minute that there is an outside possibility that you could be wrong about something, how would God correct you?  I bet he would put a collection of writings together that accurately reflect the worldview that he wants to cultivate in people who follow him.

Are you guilty of this strange sin?

I'm not normally the guy that thinks up strange new ways to sin, but I was reading Lectures on Revivals of Religion by Charles G. Finney and he was talking about breaking up your fallow ground.  Or in other words softening your heart.  And he was asking believers to examine themselves and catalogue their sins so that they could repent of them one-by-one.  There were the normal sins you'd think of: cheating, lying, laziness, wastefulness, ingratitude, lack of prayer.  And all this was quite enough to convict me (thank you very much).  But there was one sin in the list that surprised me, convicted me, and, I felt, cut through to much of our culture at large.  And seeing as how it is normally ignored it struck me.

It is the sin of levity, or making light of a grave situation. Finney says:

How often have you trifled before God, as you would not have dared to trifle in the presence of an earthly sovereign? You have either been and Atheist, and forgotten that there was a God, or have had less respect for him, and his presence, than you would have for an earthly judge.

Some people are naturally serious about spiritual matters and have hearts deeply compassionate and serious for serious matters, not that they never laugh, but they just don't laugh at the most serious of subjects.  The rest of us often use humor to diffuse uncomfortable situations.  We don't link thinking about sin or hell so we joke about it.  We don't know what on earth to say when someone confesses something serious to us so we make a little joke to cut the tension.  We act in front of God as we would never dream of acting even in front of a traffic court judge.

Now the point is not that we all become serious people who never laugh or have fun.  John Calvin, of all people, used to play Skittles with the city children on the Sabbath.  The point is that in an age characterized by irony and irreverence, the gospel calls us to a level of reverence that we could never have achieved on our own.  Because the gospel teaches us that we are in a more desperate situation than we had ever imagined.  But because of the cross this leads to more joy, not less.

God with Us... at Easter?

Easter is right around the corner.  And that means two things.  Candy and inviting people to church.  Well, that and Jesus rising from the dead.

Heather and I have been going through Becoming a Contagious Christian, and as a result we've invited more people to church in the last couple weeks than we have in the last year.  But one of the things I've noticed is that we're not doing that much different, except now we are thinking about it and praying about it.  Why do I mention all this?  What does this have to do with the Gospel, you ask?

Part of the Gospel is Emmanuel, or God With Us.  And when Jesus left this earth it wasn't as though Emmanuel stopped.  Instead Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to work and to guide.  So when you go to invite someone to church or share your faith you can know that God has already gone before you.  Emmanuel isn't over, it is just beginning.

Most of the fear we feel in speaking about church or spiritual things is a fear that we're on our own.  But we're just cooperating with a work that God already started. It's not all on your shoulders! That is God With Us.