J.S. Park

Skipping The Hard Stuff Jesus Said

I pretty up Jesus to make him more convincing because I don’t think he’s enough on his own. 

I do this because I’m scared, I’m nervous what you’ll think about him — and I have this other idea of God that will go down smoother to answer all your doubts and concerns.

Doesn’t this make me a liar?  Or disingenuous?  Or a magician?  Or a bad movie trailer?

I end up saying, “Jesus is actually saying —” and then going into a detailed explanation of the Greek to gloss over the really hard things he said.

We don’t like to wince.  We cringe at the tough stuff that doesn’t mesh with our modern Western sensibilities. We are sure that Jesus meant something else.  So we dress him up, decorate his words, and exegete the edge off him.

In Matthew 13, when Jesus says what he’ll do to evil people — he’ll “throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” — I fail to see how this is gentle generous by-golly Jesus who gives free hugs and high fives.

In Luke 12, when Jesus says what the master will do to the wicked servant — “He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers” — I can’t turn this around by saying, “Jesus is really saying, ‘I will never stop loving you.’”

In John 6, Jesus preaches a sermon so hardcore that every single follower except the appointed twelve end up leaving him.  Jesus asks the remaining dozen: “Do you want to leave too?”  I don’t see this in any church growth books or discipleship workshops.

In Matthew 10, Jesus says plainly with zero disclaimers: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”  I don’t see a hidden meaning in this passage.  He said what he meant; he meant what he said.

Can we let Jesus speak for himself?

I know that Jesus was absolutely loving to the outcast, the poor, the children, the foreigners, the women, the demon-possessed, the disabled — but are we really skipping all these other parts?  He had some hard words for the Pharisees, the teachers, the rich young ruler, and that guy who wanted to bury his dad at a funeral.

I’m not sure if I can keep neutering Jesus like this and still be called a “follower of Christ.” 

What I’m following then is God in my own image.  I’m doing both a disservice to Him and to you.

There are certainly many things that Jesus said which I don’t understand, which I find unpleasant, which tickle my teeth and turn my guts upside-down. 

But if he really does love us: he’s going to say the hard truth.  Part of love is being truthful, or you’re not being loving.  At some point, Jesus pushed up against a human sensitivity and ran right through our polite, politically correct paradigms. 

Truth is never easy to hear.  That’s why it’s called truth.  And that’s why it sets us free. 

If I were the Son of God and I knew there was really a place called hell, then I’d be like one of those scientists in a disaster movie who warns everyone about the impending doom.  I wouldn’t hesitate to mention the terrible tragedy that is heading for us — and Jesus did the same. 

If I were a disciple recording the events of Jesus’ life, I wouldn’t spare time trying to make the truth-pill go down easy.  If Jesus died and rose again for us but never said a nice thing, he has still proven he loves us by going to a cross and inviting us to eternal life. 

If someone died for me while saying a few tough words: I’m not going to whine about the tough words.

I just don’t want to chop up the words of my Friend and King for the sake of making him look consumer-friendly.  I’m not saying we need to be offensive or shocking or colorful about this — but I just don’t want to water down my Savior into someone who can’t save.

He does love us.  So much that he didn’t hold back, not once.

Please let Jesus speak.  He is better at it than we are.

“I want God, not my idea of God.”

— C.S. Lewis

— J.S.

Question: So About Being “Stuck In Sin” and Breaking Free

Anonymous asked (edited for length and anonymity)

I often hear or read things about “habitual sins.” … I know that I will always be sinful, and even if it’s not porn, I’m going to sin in other ways. However, I guess I’m wondering if it’s different because this sin is a habitual and cyclical one?

Thank you so much for your honesty here. In case you’re interested, I have a podcast and blog series on porn addiction here.

The short answer is that “habitual sin” usually has three traits:

1) Premeditated: you plan it out or you purposefully lower your guard to triggers and situations.

2) Preoccupied: it’s always on your mind and you make no effort to re-prioritize your central thoughts.

3) Unrepentant: you refuse to stop because of some rationalization or you just don’t want to, despite the destruction it’s causing.

While I hesitate to label things so quickly, if you have the above: it’s possible you might be in a habitual sin.

Let’s also remember what “sin” is because this word is so often mocked and ridiculed and misinformed.  Defining it will also help us overcome it.

Sin is simply the entire human condition of brokenness that causes our hearts to be divided from our design and Designer.

You’ve probably heard that “sin is doing bad” or it’s “total depravity,” and while I understand what they mean, I don’t think it’s helpful to leave it there.

Sin did begin with an act of rebellion, but the consequence is that we’ve been dislocated from God ever since. We often cover the first part about “immoral behavior,” but not the second part about being made for Christ.  We not only disobeyed; we were disconnected.

Remember: We once were perfectly whole in reflecting and receiving the Glory of God, but since Adam and Eve, that’s all been painfully fractured.

That’s why Romans 3:23 doesn’t say, “We all disobey the glory of God” — but rather, “We fall short.” The rest of humanity’s story is the desperate effort to find the wholeness that only God can give us.  Or in another way: The noun of sin can lead to verbs of sin, but we are ALL woefully broken and in need of rescue.

This helps you both overcome the behavior and the source of the issue. Sin is not only what we do or who we are, but what we’re missing. It doesn’t just explain alcoholism or porn addiction or yelling in traffic, but also explains our need for approval, our competitive cutthroat culture, and our existential self-examination of significance.

So if you’re trying to quit porn, you can’t just “quit porn.”  We must both run from sin and run to Him — to His purposes, His opportunities, His people, and His presence.

Now if you’re “stuck in habitual sin patterns,” you are willfully using and abusing people and things to fill your spiritual void — sometimes maliciously, other times mutually, but always consciously.

But here’s the thing: If you are actively fighting this sin in your daily spiritual walk, one day at a time, with your pastor or mentors or church and in confessional fellowship with others — then you’re doing something about it. Even messaging me is a step in the right way.  You’re already moving towards Him.

You must please allow yourself some grace and time on this.  These addictive patterns of sin have been your comforts for a while: so breaking free requires your full weight upon the Holy Spirit and the process will be just as painful as an amputation.  Be drastic.  Find replacement behaviors while working on your heart with the Lord.  Don’t let anyone tell you it’s “legalism,” because as I’ve said before, effort is NOT legalism.

Each day, your resolve will grow stronger as you pursue Him.  You’ll continually leave behind the corpse of your old self as you put on the new self.  If you fall, keep going. 

If you doubt your own growth, then I have a simple question —

Can you tell if a moon is waxing or waning? You’d have to look at it over a period of days before you could see it growing or shrinking. Right now, you are the waxing moon. You are growing. You are making the choice in submission to Christ to overcome this sin and reflect His Glory. If I could, I’d give you a high five. I don’t want you to see this as an affirmation to relax, but rather an encouragement to push you forward. Keep fighting the good fight on this.

To close out, I will once again shamelessly quote myself:

The Christian life is your whole life. That sin which keeps defeating you has more roots than you think, and God is patient to work in you for the surgery. Our journey of faith is a growing process of fits and starts, aches and pains, highs and lows, bliss and blisters. Jesus is going to take you all the way home on this: just keep leaning in with the full weight of your weary, desperate soul. He will catch you, always.

— J.S.

Question: The Church Is Messed Up But I Still Love Her — A Mega-Post On The Church

Four anonymous questions (edited for length) —

- Why do people try to make being a Christian harder than it already is? … That is daunting in itself if you’re prone to doubt and self-loathing … On top of THAT we’re expected to be smiling faces, loud singers, waving our bibles and screaming the Word from the mountain tops…

- Hello … I do not attend church due to unhealthy amount of judgement and alienation .. I am constantly made to feel I’m an abomination because I do not want to be a housewife or a mother. I am a writer, an illustrator, introverted. I’ve also fallen into depression and this feeling of alienation, even damnation, has gotten worse.

- I’ve left church for about a year now because of a friendship … which developed many complications … I felt that somehow God would want me to go back to church but pride (or whatever it is) is stopping me… Something feels amiss but I can’t figure out why. I do miss fellowship. Any thoughts on this?

I’m really sorry each of you have been made to feel this way.

As St. Augustine supposedly said, “The church is a whore, but she is my mother.”  He probably didn’t say that, but I agree.

Please know: I feel exactly what you’re feeling on both sides of the pulpit. I’ve been in backroom meetings with church leaders and I know all the horrible language they use to talk about the congregation.  I’ve visited at least forty or fifty churches in my lifetime, which is probably not a lot, but enough to know how little they preach on grace or Jesus. I have enough dirt on at least three ministries to ensure they never receive support again (let’s just say I know how to press “record” when the drama starts).  I’ve been in places where you are ridiculed for not following “their rules” and it’s just an inch away from being a cult.

There are preachers who preach grace like crazy, but act like complete a-holes behind the scenes.  My mom (not a Christian) visited a church where the pastor offered to sleep with her.  I’m not kidding.  I’ve been recently hurt by church so badly that, as of this writing, I’m currently not involved in any church staff (I was a youth pastor for three years and on staff for five, and admittedly, I never thought I was a very good pastor). However bad you think it is, it’s even worse.

Yet …

Yet I still love her. I still love the church.  I am not mad about these things anymore — I am just grieved and heartbroken.

As difficult as she can be, the church is still God’s idea.  Jesus said “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).  I often get questions like, “Do I have to attend church since ___?  Why do so many Christians suck?  Can I just pray and read Scripture by myself?”

My answer is always the same.  God created us to be in community together (Hebrews 10:19-25).  There’s no avoiding it.  It will not be easy, but without it, we will never be the fully formed individual we were called to be, nor can we become the collective countercultural force for good in the universe.

There are certainly guidelines to consider before committing to a home-church or leaving one — but please, find a church and build your roots.  As crazy as she is, we’re called to be part of God’s body for His glory.

While I can’t hope to answer all your specific concerns, here are a few things to consider.  Please feel free to skip around.

1) Those hypocrites and critical Pharisees might just be baby-Christians on their first lap of faith.

No church is ever fully represented by mature Christians, and certainly no church can fully reflect God.  Some churchgoers are growing, some backsliding, and there are few who actually get it — and they’re not perfect either.  Even the pastor or church staff could be grossly immature in their spiritual walk.  But we shouldn’t be too hard on THE church because of a few bad fruits.  And seeing a five minute fraction of a person’s spiritual walk says nothing about what God is doing through them.

2) Given time + relationships, you will end up hating your church, which is when you can most learn to love.

When you find a church you embrace (more on that in points #3 and 4), the first few months will be the honeymoon period.  When that’s over, you’ll find faults and flaws all over the place.  It’s inevitable, and like a devoted wife or husband, this is when we must persevere.

I’m not talking about if the church uses you, abuses you, or goes sideways theologically.  You can walk out on those.  I’m talking about negotiating all our personal preferences.  Those are bound to be bruised, and though it’s not wrong to have them, they’re not reliable.

The best I can say is: Prepare for the season when you begin criticizing your church.  Get ready to start being judgmental about the praise team, the sermons, the mission, the people.  Sure, it’s good to be discerning, but Satan is constantly trying to divide us: so be on guard when you have an overly critical eye.  That’s when you will learn to love — not when things are fine, but when things go sour.  Love bears all things, and if you’re committed to your church, you’ve made a vow as solid as marriage.

3) Finding a church is like finding a spouse: one bad experience doesn’t mean they’re all bad, but there is one for you.

Not every church is for every individual, but there will be a church for you.  Which means: don’t be too offended if a church doesn’t seem to accept you.  It doesn’t make them all bad; it just means you haven’t found the one yet.  Around the corner, there’s a church who will absolutely love you just as you love them, flaws and all.

A really good handle on this is to see how they serve.  Some churches only exist to perpetuate their programs.  You’ll find others that really go out of their way to serve others, however imperfectly.

4) A church culture is bound to feel threatened if you’re culturally different — and you’ll feel threatened by their feeling threatened.

Please hang with me on this point.

Every single person is bound up in their cultural ethos — upbringing, background, tradition, beliefs — and the second you walk into a church, you are bringing your culture into theirs.  So collision is bound to happen.  Whether you are an “activist,” “creative mind,” “liberal,” “introvert,” or “hipster,” you will clash with some and be welcomed by others.  We all have a spiritual sensitivity that does not immediately embrace different walks of people (Romans 14).

The thing is, I used to believe that we could transcend this sort of stuff.  I thought every church should be for everyone.  But I don’t believe that anymore.  I believe certain churches exists for certain contexts within certain cultures in their era. Some churches will be diverse; others more homogenous; and God is using them both.

God celebrates unity AND diversity, and that can’t be made more clear than in His own Trinitarian nature.

This is why I’m no longer impressed when someone bashes the megachurch, because a small church can be just as greedy, moralistic, and hypocritical.  One of my dear friends is being trained as the next keyboardist for the praise team at Passion City Church (alongside Chris Tomlin), and I have to say: my friend is one of the sweetest, most wonderful Christians you’ll ever meet, and the megachurch has done fine by her.  No one can convince me otherwise.

Sure, many churches will appear cold, but usually it’s just their culture colliding with yours.  Unless they’re called Westboro or Nazi Crossing, all the clique-ness is part of our human nature to identify with a similar culture, and this does NOT always mean that a church lacks grace. 

It means that God has the imagination to interlock different shades of paint for unique paintings, and it takes time for certain hues (like yourself) to find each other.  Some churches do this better than others, but let’s not rag on that process or wait for perfection.  Paul touches on this in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4.

I’m all for being racially and spiritually diverse under one roof.  It has nothing to do with “ethnocentrism.”  I still believe that even after Jesus comes back to reign, we will be ethnically diverse.  But I believe we can find a church where your identity as a whole is not merely tolerated, but celebrated. 

5) The church is full of crazy, which is exactly why we need the church.

Please remember: as much as the church is a lot to put up with, so are you.  So am I.  So are we all. 

My first pastor endured me for years.  I was a rebellious, horny, arrogant atheist, but he loved me anyway.  And as disappointed as I have become with the modern church, I myself am SO much more disappointing to others — because we are imperfect people clinging to the mercy of a Perfect God.

One of the main reasons for church is that God puts a whole bunch of idolatrous people together to learn patience, grace, empathy, and love — and without that sort of rock-tumbler environment, we would never have a mirror to understand who we are.  We would never become polished jewels in Christ.  God aims for us to crash and collide until we can see each other as He sees us: broken, thirsting, and beloved.  That’s when God is glorified, through a people who love each other anyway.

At times it will feel like you’re being crushed instead of polished.  It will indeed feel like other “Christians” are making this too hard.  But what God really wants is that you begin with you.  If you really want a revival in your corner of the world, it won’t begin by pointing fingers or the blame-game or setting up “us” versus “them.”  It begins with you and Him.

— J.S.

Question: Loving Homosexuals And The “Other”

Anonymous asked:

How do you not support something a person believes in, but still love that person unconditionally? (Sorry, I’m trying to phrase that question the best way I can) For example, the controversial issue of homosexuality and same sex marriage. As Christians, we don’t support same sex marriage, but when we don’t, people start to assume/generalize that we hate gays, when in truth, most of us don’t. How do I explain that I still love people, even when I disagree with some of their beliefs?

Thank you for your question and for your care in writing it. I can tell you want to be loving while also being truthful, and often that feels like mixing oil and water or trying to divide by zero. You know what I mean.

My thoughts on homosexuality are a little complex and perhaps different than the majority of Christians, and you can read some of that here. But I’ll offer some questions to ask yourself so we can be gracious and true.

1) What else do you have to offer?

This is the number one problem in telling people to “stop it.” What else are we really offering in place of homosexuality and any other lifestyle we deem as sin? If we only stand on the anti-ground of what we’re against, we are never promoting the attractive alternative of what we’re for. This is where the church falls short, horribly.

When Apostle Paul wrote about marriage and sexuality, he assumed that those who were impassioned with Christ would have the best marriages in the whole dang world. Paul revolutionized the fair treatment of women and children in his day — they were property and commodity back then — and part of showing off Christ was showing off the way we do marriage.

I don’t mean to be another guy beating up the modern church, but we have to admit: we have fallen woefully short of showing off God’s vision for traditional marriage. It’s embarrassing. No wonder why people are settling for something else. And here we are pointing fingers when we barely look at ourselves first. That sort of revokes the right to say anything about marriage until we have something worthwhile to say.

I know it’s God’s command regardless, I know. But the main thing here is: let’s worry about us first and back up what we say. Let’s have some legit credibility and be able to show off an awesome vision of marriage and the rest of God’s commands. Not perfectly, but in all its fullness. If you’re not married, then show God’s goodness through your singleness and dating life. Without that, then sleeping-around and friends-with-benefits and anything else will seem better. I want to be able to say with a straight face, See, God’s idea of marriage is the most fulfilling, most wonderful, crazy difficult but rewarding relationship that God can give us.

2) Does an issue define the whole person?

A doctor is not only a doctor, nor a teacher some lady who grades homework in a cave, nor a homosexual only a dude who loves dudes. I know you’re not saying that, but I think we approach certain “sinners” with a tactless caution like they’re radioactive as if this is the ONLY thing about them.

That’s why both the liberal news anchor and the conservative fiery preacher have a wrong laser-focus on this issue: because when they talk about homosexuality, they suddenly presume that sexual identity is a person’s whole identity. Then the discussion goes off the rails and we talk in concepts instead of looking at the actual person.

Did you know that someone with homosexual feelings probably also struggles with bills, health problems, family drama, anger, greed, self-doubt, insecurity, addictions, and anxiety, like everyone else? And they need Jesus first before they can change any of that? Maybe we could treat someone holistically with all issues at the forefront, and maybe we could NOT identify people by a cultural category.

Categorizing people, whether consciously or not, sets up a false dichotomous premise of “us” and “them,” so we try to rescue the “other.” This puts us in a savior-mentality like it’s up to us to change people, and we also neglect our own issues. This happens in the church everyday. Let’s step back and gut-check our motives. It is downright idolatrous to “rescue” a soul and not love them.

3) Are we loving people as human beings or shaping them as projects?

Please let me be clear here: I believe what the Bible says about marriage. In fact, I believe in the biblical view of everything, and that means I disagree with a lot of people by default. But when I talk to people face-to-face, they are not my project to persuade into my own point of view. It is not my goal to theologize them until they fall in line. And therein is where we find grace working with truth: when I do not compromise to culture but love them anyway. This requires a maddening patience that doesn’t coerce nor condone, but shares life no matter what.

We are bad at this, and I’m rebuking myself too. We end up looking like telemarketers for the Gospel instead of the embodiment of Jesus. We say too much and hug too little. We have become theological bullies instead of givers of first aid.

The best thing I can tell you is to earn the right to be heard, however that looks, and then not only speak the truth in love, but show it working. No one ever guilted me into change, ever. It was only by fellow Christians who came alongside me, loved me, and gently showed me a different way.

At times I did need the straight truth, but by then they had already earned my love and respect first. Opinions that I held so dear and sacred to me changed over a lifetime; my transformed worldview was a consequential side-effect and not the primary focus. That’s how this works, and anything else is religion. Look someone in the eye, and love them. It sounds so ordinary and simple: but almost no one does it. You can.

— J.S.

Question: Four Thoughts About Finding God’s Will

alittlebitgoesalongway asked:

Hi, I have a question for you based on what I read from another post. It said, “If the voice is God’s all three will agree:
 1. The Word of the LORD in the Bible. 
2. The Word of the Spirit in our hearts. 
3. The circumstances of our lives, which have been arranged by God. 
All three must point one way; it is never enough for any two of them to be taken as showing God’s will.” Do you agree or disagree with that statement (scripture references)?

Anonymous asked:

Hey J.S.! How do you know if what you’re doing is part of God’s plan? How am I supposed to know I’m doing the right thing? I just applied for an internship for my favorite company and I’m anxious. Will I get it? Do I simply wait and trust God? Does He approve of it? If not, then how do I know I’m even in the right direction? I can’t tell/feel the difference between making my own decisions and making the ones based on God’s will. Help?

I would say it’s pretty good to have a checklist and it’s certainly not less than those things — but finding God’s Will can be pretty dang tough. 

The further I move along in my faith, the more I find that faith is a sticky, grey, messy, murky journey.  While God’s commands are obvious (that’s His moral will), His plan is tougher to discern (that’s His sovereign will). 

What if there needs to be a snap decision and we can’t survey the entire Bible on the spot?  How do we know it’s the Holy Spirit and not our own voice?  How do we interpret “signs” and circumstances?  What if we come between two impossible decisions?  What if both are equally good, or equally bad?

While we could ponder forever on these things, let’s consider some thoughts on His Will.  Please feel free to skip around.

1) God’s Will is not necessarily about predicting the future, but about the person you’re becoming.

You’ve probably read Psalm 37:4 before, which says

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Preachers often misinterpret this to say, “If I enjoy God, He’ll give me what I want!”  But actually it means IF you’re delighting yourself in God, He will implant in you His own desires.  Try reading it one more time.

When you are pursuing God, your heart will begin to default to Him.  To make it simpler: if you follow God’s moral will (His Law) you can be sure you’re following God’s sovereign will (His Plan).  If you are becoming the True Self that God has called you to be, then out of who you’re becoming will emerge the doing.

You build a momentum as you follow Jesus, however imperfectly.  So if you have an important decision coming up, try to see what is most consistent with your momentum in Him.

This is actually easier than you think.  Pick the internship that will be an opportunity to grow and fulfill His mission.  Pick the campus where God can best work through you.  If you have two equally good choices, pick the one you like!  If you have no good choices, wait.  Simply ask God, Why this place?  Why me, here?  Is this truly me?  God has an answer.

2) God’s Will is not always comfortable.

I hear Christians in a circle say, “I felt peace about that.”  But I’ve never understood what this means.  A peace where the stars aligned?  A peace in my storm?  A peace that feels warm and fuzzy inside?

I actually heard of a pastor who kicked out his wife and shacked up with his secretary, all while saying, “I felt peace about that.”  I mean dude, sometimes God’s Will is common sense.

First Peter 4:12 reads,

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

We should expect that following Jesus means we lose some friends and to be ridiculed and rejected.  I don’t mean to go after a “poverty gospel” — but if you love Jesus, it won’t be rainbows and puppies.

Following God’s Will isn’t always a romantic brochure. Serving the homeless and being a missionary in Africa are awesome, but not always pretty.  So the real peace is knowing you’re the real thing, that you’re giving your all to Christ, that you’re giving your life away despite what’s happening around you.

3) Look for good mentors who will guide you.

In addition to Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit, seek godly Christ-centered people who are already chasing after God and ask for their wisdom.  It doesn’t have to be, “Hey you, mentor me.”  Just ask questions.  Tons of wonderful, annoying, curious questions.

Good mentors will cast big visions for you, always saying, You can do this.  God will do big things in you.  And if you mess it up, they will be there to say, You’re better than this, so let’s get up and go again.

4) The Holy Spirit doesn’t always “speak,” but He confirms in hindsight.

A lot of us expect God reveals His plan in neon lights the second we pray. But God knows we are time-bound creatures who learn by experience, so God’s Will is often confirmed in hindsight.  

Usually the Spirit guides as we are already moving.  Galatians 5:25 says “let us keep in step with the Spirit” — and doesn’t say that God will make a yellow brick road.

So if you get started on a path and you discover you’re not wired for it, it’s okay to move onto something else.  It’s okay to try a few things until you find the right thing.  Sometimes finding God’s Will also means finding what is NOT God’s Will.  This doesn’t mean you can just experiment everywhere, which is why Scripture and mentors are important.

The Spirit is most likely NOT going to be an audible voice and won’t be writing on a wall by a glowing hand.  Usually you know it’s Him during or after the moment is over.

Notice in Acts 18 that the Ephesians ask Paul to stay, and he replies, “I will come back if it is God’s will.”  He sails to other places to preach, but eventually comes back to Ephesus and stays for three years.  The way I see it, Paul felt funny about leaving the Ephesians so he came back.  That funny feeling was most likely the Spirit’s prompting. 

This happened to Paul quite a lot — and it will to you, too.  Was Paul 100% sure?  Maybe.  But he was 100% sure he was called to share Jesus, and 100% sure in hindsight that the city of Ephesus had a great need. 

I’ve known friends who went to medical school and hated it, so they quit.  They had so much guilt about quitting.  A lot of the guilt was from parents and self-doubt, which I understand — but they had to learn it was okay to quit med school after they went to med school.  They are happier now doing what God has actually wired them to do.

I hope I haven’t exploded your head by now.  Simply remember that just as your parents or mentors or counselors have given you an inner-voice of wisdom, then as you saturate yourself in the Word and fully press into the Gospel, the Spirit will be your biggest voice.  And unlike anyone else, the Spirit is perfectly good, perfectly righteous, and perfectly rooting for you.

— J.S.

Question: How Do You Defend Your Faith?

Anonymous asked:

I am doubting my faith more than ever, from the legitimacy of ancient texts, to the authenticity of the roots of stories found in the Old Testament (as well of those even found in the Gospels) … So, I guess, my big question is, how would you address some of the biggest “logical fallacies” or “errors” found in Scriptures, from texts not aligning, to things being taken from other cultures, to a good deal of scholarly work done by some to prove that Jesus was never a real man?

Please allow me to be really upfront — but I’m about the most skeptical Christian you’ll meet out here. I struggle with doubt daily, and it’s about as annoying as the popcorn flake in your teeth or that little bit of chunky phlegm down your throat.

I feel you 100% on this one, so it’s you and me both.  If you came to me for reassurance, I wish I had more to give.

Hear me loud and clear: I doubt God exists at least twice a day, and that’s on a good day. Let’s breathe out, because I bet any other Christian will tell you the same thing.

Some days, as bad as it sounds, I just want to throw the Bible in the trash and be done with it. I get on some atheist blog and those familiar doubts come creeping back in. They just have a way of twisting my guts around.

The thing is: I’ve pretty much heard every single argument there is to hear on both sides, and there is nothing new under the sun. I’ve watched theological debates between all the best. I don’t think I’ve learned any new apologetics in the last three years, and having been an atheist, those guys are not really saying anything new either.

There was a day when I fought valiantly for one side against the other. I’ve probably hated on Christians just as much as atheists.

Now I’m just a little bored and jaded on the whole thing.

Both sides fanwank and retcon their arguments like crazy. Both sides are full of biases, agendas, misinformed views, and wrong ideas about each other. Both sides are eloquent, sharp, articulate, witty. Both sides can present compelling cases. Both sides even get along often. Watch the debate between Wilson and Hitchens, and you can see they’re nearly best friends.

It turns out, I like Christians and atheists just about evenly, and if you want to, you can intellectually keep them at checkmate forever. But at the end of the day, Jesus is real enough for me. He wins my heart. He fills me up. He saved my wretched soul. I became tired of explaining myself to people that needed some kind of justified, propped-up, pre-defended faith. I was exhausted of prepackaged arguments that make sense until some other argument arrives. I had tough questions, and still do, but everyday it feels more and more like the answer is becoming Jesus, and each day that’s becoming enough. I don’t care that it makes me an academic cop-out — I care that it makes me whole.

See: I know nearly all the evidence both for and against Christianity, but it’s not about the evidence anymore. Was it ever really? If you must know, atheists also have their doubts when they’re honest with themselves — but the Christian is the one who simply doubts their doubts.

Somewhere in that stupid raging mess of debates, I had to grow up and discover faith for myself. So will you.

Oh, I know some atheist like my former self will come along and say, “That’s dangerous to turn off your brain, you’re not being rational, you’re tossing reason out the window …!” But I don’t know. I feel pretty reasonable right now. I feel damn fine, actually. My lungs are filled with Christ and no one can really talk me out of it.

I suppose you wanted a much more straightforward answer with biblical proofs and historical accuracy (and I’ve written posts on that, too many I think) — but my friend, there are tons of resources out there you can look into for yourself. Those resources are also written by frail human hands wired by 3 lb. brains with their own darling schemes that will turn into dust like the rest of us.

Wrestle with this for as long as you must, but at some point, please know that doubts will never stop: and you’ll come to trust something amidst the doubts you have. I make the choice every morning to push aside the voices, forget both screaming sides, and follow Jesus. I pray you’d choose him, too.

I love God and I love people, and nothing will knock that out of me.

That’s your purpose, dear friend. In your struggle to believe, keep serving.

“My most recent faith struggle is not one of intellect. I don’t really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don’t believe in God and they can prove He doesn’t exist, and there are some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it’s about who is smarter, and honestly I don’t care.”

— Donald Miller

B90X - 90 Day Bible Challenge

I started the 90 Day Bible Challenge, also called B90X, about two weeks ago.  I’ve actually done it once before and it was awesome: you can definitely see the huge narrative scope of the Bible.

If you want to try the B90X, click here to download from Dropbox!

For daily updates about the reading, check out my new Facebook page (and please click “like”!)

— J

Throwaway Phrases: “He Was Passing Through”

A lot of the miracles that Jesus performed happened as “he was passing through” from one place to another.

Along the way, Jesus suddenly made “by-the-way” pit stops, and someone’s life would change forever.

To the disciples and the average bystander, these encounters looked random and haphazard. Some looked dangerous.

Jesus passed through Samaria, a town where there was fierce mutual animosity with the Jews because of a feud that was centuries old. He could’ve easily circumvented the area — but he had an appointment with this Samaritan woman at the well.

Jesus didn’t care about racism or class warfare or family feuds: his own bloodline was coursing with Rahab, a pagan prostitute, Ruth, a Moabite foreigner, Judah, a philanderer, and David, an adulterer and murderer.

Yet he crossed these worldly boundaries — even the infinite distance between Heaven and earth — and met us broken people in all our grit and dirt. He was never just passing through. He was always reaching across the great divide into the human heart.

It must’ve been an unpredictable adventure to see where Jesus would go next.

Imagine those disciples, putting on their sandals again, ready to backpack through rough terrain to see Jesus meet a broad cast of characters: lepers, the poor, the blind, the demon-possessed, adulterous women, the paralyzed, the rich government officials, the tax collectors, the religious corrupt, and all the outcasts of society.

Imagine Jesus, inviting you and me, and all the places we would go.

No: there are no accidents, and yes: he meets you exactly where you are, at the right time, never early and never late, with the full force of his grace initiated out of his unstoppable love.

He met ten lepers and healed them on the way to Jerusalem.

He met Zacchaeus the chief tax collector as he passed through Jericho.

He met a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years in the middle of a crowded street as he was on the way to a dying young girl.

After stopping a storm, Jesus got on a boat and went to the shore of the Gerasenes, destroyed a multi-headed demon named Legion out of a helpless man, and just as quickly left.

He met people who were not looking for him: but he found them and gave them what they didn’t even know they needed.

One moment we were doing what we wanted apart from God even though this was hurting us; we had no love or care for the things of God; we were blind to being blind; we were called “enemies of the cross” — but Jesus said I love you anyway and he came to us.

He knew everything about you and everything you did before and all you would do from here: but he still made the leap from a throne to a manger to a cross. He also passed from death to life and met a couple guys on the road to Emmaus: whose hearts burned within them, changed for eternity.

No one expected the empty tomb, either.

But those ladies who went to visit that grave: for them, they were just “passing through.”

The craziest things happen that way.

Jesus continues to make that appointment with you everyday. His grace, acceptance, validation, wisdom, and daily deliverance is all the empowerment we need: and it’s when we expect it least but need it most that he flexes his power.

Jesus invites you now into that story, where he is sovereign, where the road ahead looks risky and unappealing, where it looks like he has lost control and nothing makes sense: but it’s where he actually begins to roll up his sleeves to create an incredible collision of dirt and grace, to show this is all a God-thing, to give you a mission beyond yourself that is a different sort of life than you ever could’ve imagined — to show he is never far, but just around the bend.

He is always ready for you to join him on the way.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

— Matthew 4:19

Question: When Doctrine Is No Longer Relevant

Two anonymous questions:

- I am blessed by your blog and willingness to be real about your thoughts and feelings. Any insight on why the teen years of our Messiah aren’t discussed in the New Testament? Most common answer I hear is, “Apparently the Holy Spirit didn’t ordain it necessary to the big picture of his ministry and mission.” Thanks.

- Hello, one of these questions came up at a retreat in our small group, and none of us knew the answer. So wondering if you could help out a bit? Did Jesus have a sinful nature or was he tempted less severely then us? (Matthew 4:1-11). For instance, when Satan offered him the world, was it an easy or hard choice? Did he find it as appealing as we would or did he know that the Kingdom of God was much better so it really wasn’t that hard of a decision? Thanks!

I have to say first: I very much appreciate the tone of these questions and their genuine curiosity.  There are WAY too many people who play dumb about doctrine but are actually baiting me into a troll-debate with no interest in actual discussion. 

This, dear friends, is how you ask questions about theology.

I’m totally going to answer your questions, but I just want to counter-ask as graciously as possible:

Where are these questions leading us? 

If God Himself answered them, what would it do for you? 

Would a greater intellect make us greater Christians? 

Can we disagree on these matters and still serve together in peace?

Please hear me that I’m not accusing you of any wrong motives at all.  But I know how much head-knowledge can hurt us (knowledge puffs up, says Paul) — and it almost always leads to losing sight of the mission, namely loving people.  I was one of those intellectual seminary goons that ended up caring too much about textbooks instead of THE book (Jesus Juke!) and I became intolerable.

That’s how Christians end up emphasizing politics, doctrinal camps, church programs, denominations, and celebrity pastors more than Jesus.  It’s how Satan gets to dividing hearts and the body.

I am NOT saying we should neglect intellect: but I’m actually pushing it to the furthest extreme.  I’m saying we should be such fearless thinkers and so ridiculously nuanced that our doctrine sets us on fire.  Jesus tells us to be as cunning as snakes and as innocent as doves: and often we are too much of one or not enough of either.

I meet college students and young adults who are diligently exploring their faith that end up spiraling down this academic route on facts, and it completely destroys them.  Yes, of course we should know sound doctrine: but not at the expense of God’s love and the people He has made. 

These young fiery Christians end up becoming black belts in exegesis and get very demanding about “expositionally sound sermons” — which just so you know, is mocked by the Reformed poster boys Driscoll and Chandler.  They think it’s sad, too.

So let’s keep perspective about where our doctrine leads us.  If our theology does not compel us to love God or love people, it’s not a theology worth having. 

To answer Question #1 — The gospel writer Luke actually covers an incident of Jesus at about twelve years old, but Luke felt this was enough to cover Jesus’ childhood.  I love how it ends too: that Mary treasured all these things in her heart. 

That’s where this story is supposed to lead us: to a profound awe over Jesus’ short spectacular life.  You’ll see some bestsellers titled like “The Lost Years of Jesus,” but you know, they’re out to capitalize on people like us who will spend money on them — and Jesus did have a special anger for those who turned his Father’s house into a den of thieves. 

A lot of things are left to our imagination in the Bible, probably because God knew we would get hung up on tiny little details and interpret them in farfetched ways.  Like when Paul talks about his thorn in 2 Corinthians 12 — he doesn’t say exactly what the thorn is, which is awesome because we can fill in the details about our own thorn.

Now imagine if Paul had told us straight up what his thorn was.  “It’s kidney stones, okay guys.  Just kidney stones.”  Suddenly all the dudes with kidney stones think they’re more holy than the dudes with gall stones.

While it’s fascinating for some of us to study, I trust that God left out all those details for a reason.  I also believe God put in some weird details on purpose, like the Temple and the Book of Numbers and geneaologies: and even when there are things we don’t understand, there are certainly things we’re told straight up, like taking care of the poor and prisoners and enslaved.  There is nothing vague about Matthew 25, Isaiah 58, and James 1:27.

For Question #2 — I once got into a heated debated with other pastors about whether Jesus could sin or not.  This doctrine is called the impeccability of Jesus, and the question is whether Jesus was able to sin but chose not to, or if he simply was incapable of sinning.

What’s funny is that after a couple hours of shooting passionate words, no one changed their minds.  I remained inflexible that Jesus could not sin; some said he could; others said they didn’t know. 

In the end, I discovered good Christians who believe either one, and there are Bible verses to support either view.

I also discovered: it doesn’t really matter.  The point is that Jesus was tempted and he did NOT sin, and he succeeded where Adam failed. Jesus became sin when he knew no sin; and in some crazy mindblowing way, he felt the weight of sin more than we could ever understand — while at the same time, he conquered sin more infinitely than we will ever know until glory.

If Jesus was incapable of sinning, would that make him less human?  If Jesus could sin but chose not to, would that make him less God?  Or was Jesus so one-of-a-kind and beyond human categories that an actual answer would cause our heads to fall off?

Since I actually enjoy having a head on my shoulders, I’m going to put that one to the side and keep serving.  I’m not about to put my God in a box: and while we can have a good time discussing these things over coffee, I pray we’d keep the main thing the main thing.

Question: The Down-Low on The Old Testament Commands

thegentleway asked:

How does one make sense of some of the outlandishly strange laws given to Israelites in the Old Testaments? In other words, what does it mean when someone says that the Bible is authoritative? Does it mean that one must take everything to be literal truth and follow it word for word? If the former is the case then what about passages like: Exodus 21:7, Exodus 35:2, and laws in Leviticus that commands people to kill someone for what seems to be minor technicalities? Any answer will be a of help.

Thanks for the challenge, but first things first: please do NOT under any circumstance pick up rocks to stone someone to death.  Please don’t do that.

But jokes aside, this is actually one of the easier theological questions that always pops up when someone reads their Bible, and it’s totally sensible to ask. 

It revolves around two mini-questions:

1) What is up with these crazy Old Testament commands?

2) How do any of them apply to us Christians today?

Let’s tackle these both, and please allow me the grace to outline some of the finer theology.  Also feel free to skip around.

1) The Bible is an unfolding narrative about God’s redeemed people who are given a Law but fail to carry it out.

Real simple: God gave a specific set of commands to a specific set of people at a certain point in time for a singular purpose, and while there’s certainly a lot to learn from it, we are not those people in that time under those conditions.

The OT is a story of those people — and though we’re part of that story, we’re not under that Law.

Sometimes a dude tries to “aha-gotcha” by pointing out some of the sillier OT commands like the ban against seafood or wearing only one type of fiber in your clothes.  But these commands for the Israelites were meant as a one-time demonstration of God’s meticulous perfection. 

The laws are a little crazy and extreme, but I would expect a perfect God to have some crazy extreme laws.  It’s just tough enough to show what God demands and just weird enough to show that no one could make it up.

Some of the doctrinal stuff: The commands came in three forms — 1) ceremonial laws, 2) civil laws, and 3) moral laws. 

Ceremonial laws had to do with the Temple, the sacrifices, the washing, holidays, burnt offerings, and all the religious priestly duties.  The civil laws were like state laws about property, business, relationships, business, and legalities.  The moral laws were about character, particularly the Ten Commandments. 

Every single law had some sort of principle and purpose in mind.  God’s commands describe us as much as they describe God Himself.

The Israelites were terrible at keeping all of these and were never meant to: they only emphasized humanity’s dependence on the Perfect God.  God knew all this which is why He set up the Temple for the forgiveness of sins. The Temple is also a foreshadow of Jesus, who said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. — Matthew 5:17

Jesus came to finish this unfolding human narrative by absorbing the full extent of our failures so we could be right with God.  In other words, Jesus did what we could never do, and at the cross he said, “It is finished.” This also means we’re done with the ceremonial, civil, AND moral laws. 

You’ll notice Jesus kept upending the OT Law by saying, “You’ve heard it was like that, but it’s actually like this.”  He looked at the hand-washing and said it was more important to be soul-washed; he had the audacity to say, “I myself am the Sabbath.”  Jesus was moving us to something better.

More doctrine stuff: If you read Hebrews 4-10, it’s a huge treatise on how Jesus came to finish out the Law to give us a New Covenant of Grace.  Just a few verses here —

He [Jesus] sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. … By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. 

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. — Hebrews 7:27, 8:13, 9:15