A Brain In Overdrive

Have you ever had one of those moments in your bible study time where the Holy Spirit illuminates a certain Scripture to you that just rocks your socks off. I hope so, if not, you need to be reading your Bible more. It happened to me this evening. I was reading in 1 Corinthians 8. Here we see Paul building a case for the fact that just because we as Christians have the freedom and liberty to do certain things, doesn’t mean we should. Paul is using the example of food sacrificed to idols. Paul seems to be emphasizing the fact that we need to be especially careful when we have knowledge that our own actions, even if we have the freedom to do so, may cause someone else to stumble because of their weakness in that area. Then in 8:9-12, Paul says:

9Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? 11So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

Verse 12 is what really rocked my socks off. What Paul is saying, is that if you chose to partake in some action that you know will cause another brother (or sister) to stumble, even though you have the freedom to do so, you are sinning against Christ. That was like a holy crap moment for me. Let me give you an example. As many of you know my wife is a former alcoholic. And nowhere in the bible am I forbidden to having a casual drink. Yet if I were to bring alcohol into my home, having the knowledge of how that might tempt my wife to sin (drunkenness), even though I have the right, that would be a sin against Christ. Because my action can cause someone else to stumble into sin, and I have knowledge of that weakness. Makes me seriously reconsider the liberty I take with some of my actions.  Even though I may have freedom in Christ, that freedom is almost really for others, not for my personal gain.  Sounds pretty Christ-like to me.

Last night Teresa and I were watching that movie about Daniel Pearl, the journalist who was beheaded while reporting in Afghanistan.  In the previews, a movie with Michelle Pfeiffer came on and I mentioned to her that Michelle Pfeiffer was probably someone I had a “Hollywood Crush” on.  We’ve often discussed in the past who our “Hollywood Crushes” are (Another one of mine would be Alicia Keys).  I think one  of hers is George Cloney.  And I was thinking today that it is so cool that I am married to an awesome women who doesn’t get jealous when we talk about thinks like “Hollywood Crushes.”  A woman that knows she is the only one for me.  A woman that, no matter what, I can share my heart with, and know that she will stand by my side.  I woman that I am proud to call my wife.

Who is your Hollywood Crush? (Only if your spouse won’t get mad with you sharing)

Working from home my face to face interaction with non-Christians is very minimal. I hang out with mostly people from church and my associations with “people of the world” is not where it should be. Well tonight I sit in a hotel in Orlando, Florida after a week spent at a Technology conference for my company. I often find myself struggling to interact with people in situations like this because all I want to do is puke on them about Jesus. All I want to do is find someone, anyone, to have a theological debate with. I wanted to get up on stage last night as 1000 people were drinking their hearts content and teach the Word of God. As I walked from booth to booth talking to different companies about how their technology benefits my company, I so wanted to tell them how the blood of Jesus Christ could benefit them. Yet all week I never once felt like I was to share my faith (as odd as that may sound, hope it doesn’t sound like a cop-out). I think God was burning his love for the lost inside my heart this week to remind me how much we need to be careful not to get caught up in our church circles. How we need to be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo intentional on building relationships with people outside the church. How we need to do as Jesus did and go to the people, not expect them to come to us. Where is the Pepto? My heart hurts.

Last night while in the airport heading back from our visit to Minnesota, I picked up the latest issue of Business Week. On the cover was an article that caught my eye on how Blogs would change the way we do business. The current article was actually an update of an article that was done 3 years ago by the magazine. It talked through how the latest technologies like blogs, wikkis, social networks (MySpace, Facebook, etc.), podcats are changing the way businesses operate. Given that I am in the area of training, I came up with the idea of putting together a class for my company that explains all of these technologies and how they would benefit my organization. I pitched it to my manager and she was all over it. So starting tomorrow, I will be getting paid to blog, paid to create a wikki, paid to play with podcasts, and paid to create my myspace account. I now have a good excuse to create a MySpace account, of which I was avoiding like the plague.

In honor of my recent conversation / confusion with my cousin Tim, I thought I would share one of the most horrific moments of my childhood, which happens to involve my cousin Tim.  He claims he doesn’t remember this, but I often remind him of the terrible person he used to be.  Tim is about 6-7 years older than me.  When I was probably around 10, making him 16 or so, Tim was infatuated with farting (I think he still is).  One time when Tim came to visit us from Maryland, he thought it would be cool if he tried farting in my mouth.  So Tim tackled me to the ground, stood over me and while trying to keep my mouth open, tried farting in my mouth.  I can’t exactly remember if he succeed or not, but I think that moment scarred me for life.

Remember, Tim is now a youth pastor, so there is hope for us all.

I’ve recently been having a debate about salvation with my cousin Tim.  Tim is a youth pastor at a Catholic church in Maryland and pursuing his Masters at a Catholic Seminary.  The debate has obviously come down to the difference in beliefs between Catholicism and Protestantism, specifically in regards to salvation.  During this debate, I have been reminded of the many conversations I’ve had with people or observed where comments such as “Do we really need theology, after all, aren’t we just called to love people into heaven?”  And this is a very valid argument given Jesus’ quote in Mark 12:30-31 about loving God first and foremost, and then loving our neighbor as ourself.  But I think if our only goal is to “just love people,” we may be leading people astray as to the real means of their salvation.  Although people do need to be shown the love of Christ, eventually we need to help them understand who Christ was, not just what he did.  For if people are just loved by Christians, yet are never given a true understanding of who Jesus was, are we presenting them with the true gospel of salvation?  Because if the Jesus we present is anything less than a Jesus who is fully God, then His death on the cross was insufficient in providing atonement for the sins of humanity given the fact he wasn’t “the perfect sacrifice.”  At some point, we need to take people past just loving them, and help them understand who this Jesus was that we are putting our faith into.  And this is where theology comes into play.  Taking people past the “just loving them” phase, and into an understanding of the only Savior this world truly has to offer.

For those of you that don’t know Reese, he is our 4 year old, 100+ pound chocolate labrador  retriever.  He  was being raised as a hunting dog and had  some kind of accident that paralyzed the one side of his face.  As a result of the accident, he was unable to perform the soft grip necessary for a hunting dog, and the original owner’s were going to put him down (this is the story we were told).  My brother-in-law saved him from this tragic event, and we ended up taking Reese when he became too much for my brother-in-law’s family.  We have had him for over 3 years now and he has definitely become a part of the family.

Before Derek was born, Reese and I would get up every morning around 6:00AM and go for a walk and pray together.  We would go over to the off-leash dog park and Reese would run around while I would start my day off in prayer (if you’ve never done this, I would highly recommend it, even if you aren’t a morning person).  On the way to the park, there is a house that has 2 little chiwawa dogs that always come to the fence and bark like crazy at Reese.  By the time we pass by the house, the crazy dogs are attacking each other and trying to rip each other’s heads off.

Well today after we got back from my father-in-law’s funeral service, I strapped Derek in the ol’ baby bjorn and we took Reese to the park.  As usual the yapping chiwawas came running to the fence and were going crazy at Reese.  But today, Reese tugged on the leash, stopped in front of yappers, lifted his leg, and took a leak right in the direction of the dogs.  Not he could have been marking his territory on the grass patch on our side of the fence, but I think he had just gotten fed up with those yappers.  Both Derek and I gave Reese a pat on the head and realized why our Dog Rocks!  He is such a man’s dog.

A few years ago my incredibly beautiful wife had the opportunity to sing Amy Grant’s My Father’s Eyes for a Father’s Day service at our church.  To the average congregate her performance appeared to be a typical blessing of her God given voice to the congregation.  But for those of us that truly know my wife, we knew it was so much more.  For as my wife stood on stage singing to her Father in heaven, her heart was broken with the fact alcohol was tearing her birth father away from her.  As she worshiped her heavenly Father with all she had, her heart was crushed at the fact she could not have the relationship she desired with her earthly father.  Last night I watched my wife sit at her father’s hospital bedside as liver cancer was taking his final few hours on this earth.  She looked into her father’s eyes and said “daddy I love you.”  At that moment it didn’t matter what he did or didn’t do in the past.  At that point all that mattered was that she loved him.  She showed a love for her father that I could only hope and pray to be blessed with one day.

As I sit here writing this blog and crying (yes believe it or not, I cry) for my wife, I urge the few of you that my read it - please forgive.  Life is so short and our loved ones mean too much to us.  Please do not let anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness rob the relationships God has given us.

Every Monday night at the start of my Systematic Theology class we sing a song of worship and pray for some event going on in the world.  Tonight we prayed for the riots going on around the world due to the hike in food prices.  My professor reminded us that many of our Christian brothers and sisters, being the poorest of the poor, are the one’s being hit the hardest through this turmoil.  After our prayer, my professor reminded us of the quote - “Live simply, so others may simply live.”  It reminded my of my constant struggle with what is known as the “Prosperity Gospel,” of which I believe is the biggest detriment in the history of the Christian church (not like I’ve been around that long, but I’ve done some studying).  And you don’t normally hear the words “Prosperity Gospel” used anymore,  but you see the repercussions of it throughout the church in America.  Christians who buy the big houses with the new cars and the new clothes, yet have maxed out their budgets to the point where they can’t even given when the church is taking up an offering for the poor.  We justify our actions by claiming that “God wants us blessed,” yet fail to recognize just having a roof over our heads makes us more blessed than 90% of the Christians in the world.  And as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ wonder where their next meal is coming, we are so “me” focused because of the material society that drives us.  Just makes me wonder if we should live simply, so others may simply live.

I was recently reading one of my seminary text books titled “Theology in the context of World Christianity.” The book describes different aspects of Christian theology from perspective of different nations around the world. This particular topics was on Muslim followers of Jesus. The context was an interview with a Muslim who believes in Jesus, yet would never call himself a Christian. As he puts it “a Christian is someone who promotes immorality, pornography, and sexually oriented television programs like Sex in the City, Desperate Houswives, and so on.” The premise of the quote was that Muslim believers will follow Jesus, but not call themselves Christians because of their perception of Western Christianity. And it made me think of a frequent debate in my household. My beautiful wife is quite a fan of the show Smut (Sex) in the City. I often ask her to change it if I am in the room because I am not a fan of the show. Her argument is that the show is all about relationships and that it is quite good. But my problem with that is interwoven in this show about “relationships” is a primary theme about pre-marital sexual relations, which we don’t have to debate is most of the times a sin (I am being sarcastic, all of the time). And I wonder if many times we “tolerate” themes of sin just so we could entertain ourselves. And is it possible that our Western culture has done this so much that we have lost an aspect of holiness that is seen in the faith of other nations? And is it possible this is why all these other nations are seeing mass revivals and we are just being, well entertained in our churches?