Saturday, June 30, 2012

Priorities & Tools


One morning as I was walking I was thinking about priorities in my life. I thought of the standard ordering of such things: God; family; friends; ministry; career. Very cool ... God and people are ahead of ministry and career. Good priorities? Well ...
How about a different organizing principle? God, and God's purposes! God's purposes for us. God's purposes for our family. God's purposes for our friends. These are a better order of priority, from our greatest area of influence to the least.
What about ministry and career? Ministry isn't something a few people do in front of a congregation on Sunday mornings. It's God using you however, wherever, whenever. Your career is a place where you develop friend relationships and earn the means for living and ministering. Ministry and career are tools and arenas for accomplishing God's purposes, not items somewhere low on our list of priorities.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Responsibility for Generosity


Jesus' commands to charity are very real and serious, but are addressed to believers, and through His Apostles' letters, to church congregations as communities of believers. His commands bind believers and churches - as individuals and as communities. However generally beneficial being generous may be for humans generally (also as individuals), Jesus' commands are no justification for taking and giving away other people's money or freedoms. Inducing government to take non-believers' money and freedoms under the guise of obeying Jesus' commands to charity is theft and a cloaked shirking of personal responsibility.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

But It Hurts!

Better theologians and philosophers than I (not exactly a high standard for comparison!) have addressed the "Problem of Pain". I'm not about to try to offer great new insight into that question. Adam acted for all mankind in rejecting God. That is our inheritance from him. His sin changed humanity, and changed the world in which we live. "Man's inhumanity to man," is just that, humans being what they are and as bad as they decide to be. Similarly, "natural disasters" are the natural result of man's rejection of God's lordship of creation, not "acts of God".
God has "honored" man's rejection of God. He does not force Himself on us or micromanage the world, but God has not given up on working in creation. Man brought pain into this world - death, sickness, cruelty, disasters. God uses these various sorts of pain. Our pain breaks through our self-deluded, prideful, self-sufficiency. If we listen, well, pain drives us to seek and trust in the One Who actually is sufficient. Further, and better, our suffering, endured and learned from, makes us able to bring comfort and wisdom to others going through the same pains. Jesus redeemed us from eternal death with His death on the cross. In His working in our lives, He redeems our pains.