Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Revelation of God
My next five or so posts are going to be on how God reveals himself to us on earth. Whether it is the full-fledged Gospel or just the fact that He exists, God has revealed himself in many different ways. I'm going to take each post to go through the five ways that God reveals himself to us: the written revelation (Scriptures), the living revelation (Christians), the natural revelation (nature), the moral revelation (moral law), and the divine revelation (dreams/visions/personal encounter). This will be fun!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Holiness in the Midst of Being Human
The "Proverbs 31" woman has either been praised or deminished by people because of the high, unreachable calling that it begs for. We see people at church who are always nice like they have no emotions and we just try and mess with them until they get mad and become "human" again. And then they are these guys who think they should be "real" and honest with others so they are very "human". Whether you like your plastic smile or you like your raw life, we have made the connection that holiness equates to being an emotionless machine. It means being a fake, or sometimes a prick.
These two extremes - the plastic smile and the raw life - both are trying to be "human" or what they should be. It is clear in the Scritpures that God created us to be holy and even fallen man is made to be holy, not happy or a life with no troubles, but holy. Holiness is a very human thing. The plastic smile makes me think of Screwtape Letters and how we can be fooled into apathy. It is not most natural to do the right things but be empty inside or have know true motive or desire inside. Equally it is completely unhuman to have passion for someone who you continuely disobey because you think he wants honesty before obedience. Humans are made to be holy and holiness is when attitude meets action in accordance to God's nature.
When we read the sermon on the mount we find a very passionate, yet unreachable lifestyle. We don't look at that sermon and see Jesus just telling us to love people, or just see it as Jesus saying to do the right things. It is both. Sometimes we look at what Jesus says all the time instead of looking at how he is saying it. We like to read the message but not look at the messenger. Jesus was holy and compassionate. Holiness is not being a emotionless machine that always does the right thing with the right smile. And holiness is not being all about people and being honest and caring with them regardless of how you act. It is doing having the right heart, which leads to the right things, and these "right things" are what the actions and passions that are in accordance to God's nature. Jesus hung out with harlot's but he never was one, and always encouraged them to be greater than how they lived. He accepted a tax collector and dined with him so that he could rescue him. To be human is to be holy; to be sinful is to be mess up - let's not switch those.
Now one thing needs to be made clear. A christian is already holy by nature once he accepts Christ and his salvation. But we must now continue to live up to this nature (Romans 6-8). A non-christian is not holy by nature because he has a sinful nature. Once saved, the person becomes holy by nature but we know very well that it is a daily battle for us to live up to the holiness we know have obtained. The Holy Spirit helps us, our conscience becomes ever the more sensitive, but we must will the final step. Ironically, the way to will ourselves is to submit to God. Holiness is living up to the nature we have obtained through God's grace, and equally important, it is being what we were created to be.
I'll go into more detail later.
These two extremes - the plastic smile and the raw life - both are trying to be "human" or what they should be. It is clear in the Scritpures that God created us to be holy and even fallen man is made to be holy, not happy or a life with no troubles, but holy. Holiness is a very human thing. The plastic smile makes me think of Screwtape Letters and how we can be fooled into apathy. It is not most natural to do the right things but be empty inside or have know true motive or desire inside. Equally it is completely unhuman to have passion for someone who you continuely disobey because you think he wants honesty before obedience. Humans are made to be holy and holiness is when attitude meets action in accordance to God's nature.
When we read the sermon on the mount we find a very passionate, yet unreachable lifestyle. We don't look at that sermon and see Jesus just telling us to love people, or just see it as Jesus saying to do the right things. It is both. Sometimes we look at what Jesus says all the time instead of looking at how he is saying it. We like to read the message but not look at the messenger. Jesus was holy and compassionate. Holiness is not being a emotionless machine that always does the right thing with the right smile. And holiness is not being all about people and being honest and caring with them regardless of how you act. It is doing having the right heart, which leads to the right things, and these "right things" are what the actions and passions that are in accordance to God's nature. Jesus hung out with harlot's but he never was one, and always encouraged them to be greater than how they lived. He accepted a tax collector and dined with him so that he could rescue him. To be human is to be holy; to be sinful is to be mess up - let's not switch those.
Now one thing needs to be made clear. A christian is already holy by nature once he accepts Christ and his salvation. But we must now continue to live up to this nature (Romans 6-8). A non-christian is not holy by nature because he has a sinful nature. Once saved, the person becomes holy by nature but we know very well that it is a daily battle for us to live up to the holiness we know have obtained. The Holy Spirit helps us, our conscience becomes ever the more sensitive, but we must will the final step. Ironically, the way to will ourselves is to submit to God. Holiness is living up to the nature we have obtained through God's grace, and equally important, it is being what we were created to be.
I'll go into more detail later.