Reformation

So, I’ve been absent because I’ve been working on my new (old) house that I moved into a week ago. My parents are really fantastic, and are letting me paint it whatever I want. Besides being horribly scared of every sound at night (and thus taking hours to go to sleep), I’m loving living alone in a house full of my favorite shades of blue… I took all kinds of pictures but have no way to get them on here (my mom got a new computer and it’s not fully operational in that regard yet)

Enough of that...

I’ve been reading in between headaches from paint fumes… mostly thanks to the suggestions of Jeff

I just finished Irresistible Revolution. I may be writing more fully about it later when I have the book… I left it at my house.

I’ve also read (with part of one essay left to go) The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World.

That book knocked my head off. It answers some questions that my generation seems to be asking incessantly. Such as ‘why a good and all-powerful God would let bad things happen.’ Voddie Baucham answers that with an even more appropriate question. ‘Why would a good and all-powerful God not kill me in my sleep for what I did and thought yesterday? Why does a good and powerful God’s wrath tarry?’

Basically from these two books, two main points stick out in my head. I am God’s hands and feet. I am the problem in the world.

Brennan Manning says: “The leading cause of atheism in the world today is Christians that acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and then go out and deny Him with their lives. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

We are called to be radical- to be wrecked by our Christianity- to look different- to love people recklessly- to come to the end of ourselves and then live with trust in His providence. We witness and it feels like a sales’ pitch… No wonder, if our lives look so much like the world, what are we asking people to convert to?

One of my favorite parts of Irresistible Revolution was this story about how Christianity should look (this is from memory so some small details might be off):

Shane (writer of the book) went to Calcutta during college to work with Mother
Theresa. He lived in a leper colony while he was there. Every week the lepers
would gather to have their bandages rewrapped by other lepers who were
essentially the ‘doctors’ of the colony. Shane was sitting one day watching the
doctor wrap the others’ wounds. The doctor said he had to leave and asked Shane
if he would take over. He sat in the doctor’s chair thinking he didn’t know if
he could do it. He began rewrapping the next leper’s wounds while the leper
stared intensely at him. When Shane finished rewrapping, the leper said
“Namaste.” Which can be translated as: “I honor the one who lives in you.”

People know that we are all selfish. If we live in a way that gives everything we have for others, people will not be able to deny that there is something or more accurately- Someone- in us that is seriously transformative… and not just “I go to church on Sundays” but more… deeper, richer, scarier and ultimately more fulfilling.

note: These books seem like they wouldn’t be complementary (being that they are from opposite sides of the Reformed and Emergent movements) but they are in my mind. I may be Reformed but I strongly agree that social issues are vital to Christian lives, loving the poor, taking care of the environment, etc …are part of being a Christ follower. I believe that Christ’s divinity should not be exalted with the expense of His humanity. Both are important and we should live as such. However, I would say (to those with concern that the Emergent movement has some theology issues that need not be ignored) that I do not believe in open theism. I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, a literal hell and hold my theology with a “closed right fist.”