Culture,
Theology
"We are apt to forget that a man is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation; he is committed to Jesus Christ's view of God, of the world, of sin and of the devil, and this will mean that he must recognize the responsibility of being transformed by the renewing of his mind." - Oswald Chambers
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Culture
Okay, I admit it. I am a conservative. I don't really like to get into politics on this blog, but when it comes to living out biblical principles in the political sphere, I am going to jump in. I think that conservatives have just taken another step in damaging the framework of our country. I might be a part of that. I'm not sure.
I am speaking about today's speech by President Obama to the youth of our nation. When news appeared that the president would be giving a live speech via the internet to our schools, the outlash was fierce and brutal. Concerns over indoctrination and socialism were rampant, with likely every school in our country receiving angry phone calls from parents. My wife, a public school teacher, was faced with this issue first hand and asked me for my advice on what to do. At the time, I was not sure. The transcript for the speech had not been released and she knew that if she showed it that day, she would likely receive alot of upset emails over it. So every teacher that wanted to show it then had to get parent forms signed, and another location had to be created for students that did not want to watch the speech. I know that the curriculum created to go with the speech was questionable, and that some celebrities created a video to go along with it, but those are optional and should be well read and viewed by school authorities.
Here is the problem. For my entire life I have noticed a steady decline in respect for the authorities that are in office in our country. There used to be a great respect for the President of the United States, especially among our children. These days, he has become nothing more than a political cartoon to most of us. I think we have moved away from the biblical perspective of government that we find in Romans 13: 1 - 7 (ESV) -
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
We, as Christians and as citizens, are to respect, honor, and be subject to our ruling authorities. Is it respectful when we maliciously attack everything that comes out of a president’s mouth? Are we honoring our authorities when we speak against even the good that he does? The answer is no. I have read the president’s speech, and it is a strong push for work ethic and personal responsibility for the students of our nation. This is something that desperately needs to be heard by our children. It is not political, or in any way training our children to be socialists. It is a good message. Do I agree with everything the president says or does? Absolutely not, but I believe that when the president does good, it should be applauded, not attacked. We create a political mess whenever we go on attack for everything a president does. From now on, will any conservative president be able to speak to our children without even worse backlash? No. We have ruined another opportunity for our government to connect with its people and have further destroyed the respect for the office of President of the United States. We should stop and learn a lesson from this, and realize that God has called us to a higher standard as citizens. We have the right to vote and to speak and should exercise those, but always in a way that is respectful and loving.
And show the speech to your children. It is a good lesson in a world that needs it.
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Culture,
Theology
Creation Care - Man’s Dominion, Fallen Care, and Restoration Care of God’s Creation
Genesis 1: 26 - 28
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Man has dominion over creation. Many people would like to think that this means that man can do with creation as he desires. They would like to believe that it can be exploited or destroyed, all at the whim of mankind. But this is not at all the intent behind this dominion given to man.
Everything has its proper place. Mankind tends to get this wrong on both sides of the aisle. Either they think or believe that creation is somehow equal to man and raise it up above man, or they believe that they have the right to do whatever they want with creation because they are ruling over it. Both of these assumptions are very wrong. The people that believe that plants and/or animals are on the same level as humanity have a misunderstanding of the created order. We see here in Genesis that man was in fact placed and created higher than plants or animals. Then those on the other side of the side miss the point as well. God placed everything in an order. Plants and animals are lower creation. Man is a higher creation. Then God reigns above all. Just because man has dominion does not mean that they can exploit nature. They are not the owners of it, just stewards.
What does dominion mean? We must be clear in understanding that this is not in any way a kind of exploitation of nature, it is a caring guarding of nature. We see an example of this kind of stewardship in Matthew 25: 14 - 30, when Jesus tells the parable of the talents, where a man gives his servants talents while he is gone on a journey. He leaves them as stewards of his talents, which he receives back later. They are his, and never his servants. They were only left in charge of them to very carefully care for them and give them back in great and better condition. This is how God has placed us as stewards of His creation. We are to care greatly for it as we guard it.
Man has abused creation since the fall. With the fall came a false understanding of ownership by humanity. Pride was a large part of the fall, as mankind desired the ability to have the knowledge of God, being able to discern good from evil (Genesis 3). With that prideful desire came another desire of man to be like God. Man also wanted to be like God in the view of ruling over creation, but with a false sense of ownership. Sin made man prideful, which made man abuse the creation that is rightfully owned by God and was simply left to him to rule as a steward.
Creation itself was corrupted in the fall. We find out in Romans 8 that creation itself is in bondage to the corruption that was experienced in the fall. The original creation was perfect and beautiful, but now is experiencing the effects of the fall itself and is waiting to one day be restored and freed from those effects of sin.
Creation will be restored. When man is restored, so will creation. Romans 8 teaches us that creation will be restored when man is restored. Creation will be made perfect again and freed from the bonds of sin that surround it. We must view creation as God does. Just as God looks at those of us that have been redeemed and sees us as holy and restored, we must have that kind of view of creation. We must treat it as holy and restored, and do our best to ensure that it is well taken care of. Creation should cause man to worship, but not to worship the creation. Creation should cause man to worship the Creator of that creation.
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Bible,
Theology
I
was working on our bible study for City Life (Our College and Young Adult Large Group) the other day and we were looking at the story of the Rich Young Ruler. Thinking about his story really made me think about how we tend to get things upside down in life. The way that this happens is that we put things in our life in the place that only God should hold. For this rich ruler, it was his wealth and possessions. Jesus tested his heart by looking at his works to find evidence of his faith. Unfortunately for him, he was not able to give up his great wealth and possessions to allow God to have the proper place in his heart. So he walked away sad, without the eternal life that he was looking for.
We can easily find ourselves in the same situation. Jesus makes a list in talking to his disciples of different things that can easily take his place in our hearts. It could be money, possessions, houses, and even relationships. Thinking about this, I think we find ourselves in this position more than we might like to admit. We constantly find ourselves in the position of having a person, an ipod, a video game system, or maybe even a meal become our God. You might even find yourself praying this prayer to God: "God, if you just give me this one thing, then I will follow You and give You my life." In reality, that is placing that one thing in a higher position than God. If God gives us the relationship we want, then we will follow Him. Well, guess what, that relationship has become your god. If we can just have those shoes or that guitar, then we will be happy and can commit ourselves to God. In that case, those things are being worshipped as god, instead of the one true God. The opposite should be true - "God, you know that I want this thing, but if it is not in Your will for me then I sacrifice it to you." It is not the desire that is wrong, but the position that it holds in our heart. We have been getting things upside down, but let's get them right side up. God should be first and supreme in our hearts. All else is secondary and sacrificial.
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"We are apt to forget that a man is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation; he is committed to Jesus Christ's view of God, of the world, of sin and of the devil, and this will mean that he must recognize the responsibility of being transformed by the renewing of his mind." - Oswald Chambers
Okay, I admit it. I am a conservative. I don't really like to get into politics on this blog, but when it comes to living out biblical principles in the political sphere, I am going to jump in. I think that conservatives have just taken another step in damaging the framework of our country. I might be a part of that. I'm not sure.
Creation Care - Man’s Dominion, Fallen Care, and Restoration Care of God’s Creation
