Do Not Grow Weary

Sunday night I looked through all the Technorati listings under "Religion," and found my own blog on page 37 (that may have changed in the days since, but I don't care to spend all that time checking it again).  I surfed through many, many pages of atheist blogs, Islamic blogs, homo-Christian blogs, Wicca-Judaic blogs, Passively-Christian blogs, Cussing-Christian blogs, and also many Well-Meaning-but-Mislead-Christian blogs that zealously argued unarguable points (my family calls them Did-Adam-and-Eve-Have-Bellybuttons-Arguments).  I also had the nightly news on, and was listening to reports on "Christians" doing illegal things and getting arrested for them (inviting the mockery of all).  It all made my faith sound like a loud-mouthed, self-righteous, hypocritical, scorn-worthy religion. By the time I went to bed, I was feeling weary at heart and indulging in self-pity.

You see, all of that news just feels like bad PR for Jesus, and it sometimes makes me start to believe that being obedient to God and publicly dedicating my life to serve God is useless--as if my testimony is drowned out by all the negative voices and those who would make a mockery out of doing good.  Have you ever felt that way?  Perhaps you feel that way today.

So I was whining about this to God as I lay down to rest, and I guess you could say that God met me under my broom tree and reminded me of a few scriptures I should not have forgotten.  They helped me, so I thought it might be good to share them with you, too.

1. We are not alone--God is with us. The Bible contains countless stories that support this, and we can draw strength from reading them again.  How about Joseph, who was wrongly accused and imprisoned for several years for obeying God and fleeing Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39: 7-23; 41: 1-14)?  Was Joseph's name ever cleared of this charge?  While it is true that Pharaoh released him from prison and made him the second-most powerful man in the kingdom, there is no record of Potiphar's wife ever taking back the false accusation she had made against him.  Joseph may never have received full justice in the eyes of man, but God rewarded him, again and again, for continuing to be obedient in the worst of circumstances.  Accusers beware, God's ways and God's people cannot be torn down so easily.
2. We are not alone--God preserves a remnant. It is easy to wallow in self-pity and believe that good will be swallowed up by all the evil in the world, especially when people who claim to follow God are making a mockery of His commandments, but we deceive ourselves if we think that we are the last godly people on earth.  Consider Elijah's example in 1 Kings 19: 1-18.  He'd watched God's prophets mowed down by Baal worshipers (many of whom also claimed to follow the God of Israel), and then received word that he was next--so he ran.   God met Him and reminded him that He had "preserved for [Him]self a remnant" of people who still obeyed Him.  We should learn from this story that we aren't the "last one," and that it isn't our responsibility to preserve godliness by our own power.  I am convinced that if the truth of God had been left to human hands to defend, it would have been wiped out long ago. 
3. Do not be deceived--the sinful aren't getting away with it.  Here's another thing.  Sometimes it seems like bad people always get away with hurting those who obey God.  We don't always get to see justice meted out to them in our lifetimes.  David felt this way when he wrote Psalm 73.  God showed him (and us) that no matter how prosperous evil seems to be, it is never secure.  Those who obey God will always be near Him and preserved by Him, but those who scorn God's ways but "lay claim to heaven" are toying with certain destruction at God's hand.  Punishment will come after death, even if it doesn't come in this life. 
4. Remember why we're here.  The whole purpose of human beings is to obey God (Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14).  If we are not doing that, we are not living up to our full potential.  Christians have another purpose, not unlike the first--to teach others to obey God (2 Timothy 4: 1-3). These two goals should be at the center of our consciousness, even if the world goes mad around us.
   
5. Keep the goal in mind.   Hebrews12: 1-3 reminds us that Jesus endured hardship, scorn, and death "for the joy set before him," that is, that one day we could be reunited with Him in heaven.  For this reason, we shouldn't get tired of obeying God.  If Jesus could endure worse because He valued our salvation so much, we should be ashamed of giving up easily, as if His sacrifice was not valuable.

Nowhere, in any of this, do I see that we should value our lives and our successes by comparing ourselves to what other people are doing.  This is just Satan's way of realigning truth and value based on a shifting, human model, rather than on the absolute, constant, and consistent example of Christ.  If we take our eyes off Christ's example and focus our attention on what others are doing, Satan can use this as a stepping off point to destroy our faith and lead us into rebellion.

This is my reminder to all of you, as God has reminded me, to take heart and stay with God--and don't let bad news from the world get you down.  Those of us who are saved are called to a higher purpose and led and protected by God in that purpose.  We can rest in this.

Weekly Trivia: Bad Argument Series # 4

I'm continuing my weekly trivia series on argument fallacies today with one that I think we've all heard before (especially parents), and probably used a few times, and not just as children.  Just as I've said at the start of the other posts, it is important for Christians to know how to recognize these types of arguments so that we can avoid falling for them, and so that we can keep ourselves from expecting others to fall for them.  If the truth we hold is real, we don't need to trick people into believing it.

So, the false argument of the day is...

Tu Quoque (You, Also)

Latin for "You, also," this argument seeks to discredit someone's line of reasoning by judging how well that person is living up to his or her own argument.  In other words, it illogically argues that even if an opponent can offer good reasons why something is bad or should not be done, if that person is personally guilty of the offense in question, his points are not valid.

Example: (Heard this in the pulpit once, no joke.) "This man called me in and asked me to pray for him. He was a drinking man, and he'd really messed up his life, and now he was in the hospital with liver failure.  His wife had left him because he'd beaten her so many times when he was drunk. He asked me what he should do, since he was dying, but I felt like I couldn't talk to him about the drinking.  I couldn't tell him he needed to give up the bottle and get right, because I used to have a big problem with that before I found Jesus."

The validity of an argument is not tainted by personal guilt--if anything, it is further proven by it.  If something is right, it is always right, even if it paints the debater in an unpopular light.  I have personally preached often about how sin is bad, even though I have committed many sins.  That in itself doesn't erase the truth or remove the timeliness of anything I have said.

This argument bases the standard of truth on a shifting human example, rather than God's absolute standards--and that can be easily identified as moral relativism, or situational morality, which I have spoken on many times before. (If you need definitions on those terms, click the tags below).

Be Transformed

One of the most popular draws to this site is this verse:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2 NIV)

This made it into a post several months ago about Groupthink and the church.  I've been watching this play out in my site analytics for several months now.  New people visit that post almost every day, and they're coming from all over the world.  Why is this verse so popular?  What cultural trend does this indicate?

Frankly, I don't know, since I've never been able to interview my visitors about it.  If you first came to this site to read that post, please leave me a comment weighing in on the topic.  I'd love to hear from you.

Anyway, I speculate that the root cultural trend is the nonconformity angle in that verse.  In fact, I'm concerned there may be some misinterpretations of that verse out there that could be damaging to Christianity.  I want to draw a line today between good and bad understandings of that verse, because it's crucial that Christians today understand what it means.

So, about nonconformity....I do preach a type of nonconformity on this blog, but it's about detecting and resisting human pressures (from within and without) to cave, to cower, and to give up this gift we've been given as Christians.  This isn't a form of "expressing yourself."  The focus isn't all on "me" and "developing my potential," but rather on doing what God wants, seeing that good is done, and resisting what is evil.  In other words, the focus is on God, not humankind or its wants and feelings.

I understand that society uses the word nonconformity to mean a rejection of peer pressure and an expression of individuality.  In other words, it's a type of rebellion against others in favor of doing what we want, or leaving one peer group for another one that has different values. Your Dictionary online is perhaps more specific. It defines nonconformity as, "failure or refusal to act in conformity with generally accepted beliefs and practices."

Lately, the Church (I mean the visible church; all people who call themselves Christians) has begun to pull out Romans 12:2 and use it to label itself as some kind of rebellion (nonconformity) movement, in essence saying, "take that, world!"  Is Christianity that, really?  Personally, I think that talk makes Christianity into some sort of clique or gang that is "getting back at the world" by being different in measurable ways.  Is that what Paul was getting at?

The Shape of the Cookie Cutter

Let's look at the first phrase of the verse again: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world."  That really does sound like rebellion, doesn't it?  Before, we were like everyone else, fitting into a cookie-cutter pattern, and we are not supposed to stay in this pattern "any longer."  What is the pattern, though?

The pattern that scripture and human behavior seems to bear out is one of rebellion.  Rebellion against God and His leadership over our lives, in favor of self-leadership.  Adam and Eve first decided in the garden that what they wanted (to be "as gods") was more important than what God wanted (for them to obey Him voluntarily).  So they ate the fruit despite the rules that forbid it.

Really, nonconformity as it has been defined is rebellion against one aspect of another human's leadership.  In essence, exchanging one human leader for another, ourselves.

But the Church's focus should not be on human leadership, or self.  The apostle Paul wrote, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3: 1-3 NIV).

So Christians are not supposed to be focusing on self, and that draws a hairsbreadth of a line between how some are reading the passage from Romans, and how it should be read.  By refusing to "conform any longer with the pattern of this world," does that mean, "take that, world"?

Look at the second part of that passage from Romans again: "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." So we are rejecting the rebellious pattern of the world that we have been a part of, and are being changed, in fact, renewed by something.  The sense of it is that we aren't just being cosmetically changed on the outside, but rather rebuilt from the ground up with all new materials.  Our thinking is being turned around into something completely new and substantially different, but we aren't the ones changing ourselves.


So we are rejecting or rebelling against something, but that something is our own fallen inclinations, which convince us that we know better than God what is good for us.  Our focus isn't supposed to be on pushing back at the world--it's supposed to be on not resisting God any more.  That's what "do not conform" really means in this context.

The last part of the verse reads, "Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."  The whole point of ceasing to resist God is to finally listen to Him and be equipped with the knowledge to obey God in the way that pleases Him.  This verse is hardly about the world, really.  It's all focused on God and His ways.  It isn't about "pushing back" at the world; it's about being able to navigate safely through it, ignoring all the things that distract us and threaten to pull us away from what God wants.

Not Pushing Back, Pushing Toward

I've been very concerned that this new "Church rebel" idea makes Christians look openly hostile toward their neighbors.  God didn't tell us to act this way, and by rejecting "the pattern of this world," we aren't being told to rebel against people or God-given institutions such as governments and laws.  This in-your-face scoffing attitude looks down at the world.  It is a worldly attitude that sets "self" above others.  It has no place in the church and needs to end now.

Our attitude toward the world outside our church doors ought to be one of compassion, born out of our new understanding of what controls human behavior and how God can fix this.  With our renewed minds, we ought to be able to see that God's will is that none should die without coming to know Him (2 Peter 3:9).  We should be focusing on what God wants us to do for the world, so that He can reach it through us, rather than what makes us different from the world or divides us from it.

Forget the rebel attitude--get the humble attitude!