over-sized desire for things that are good November 9, 2010
Posted by highofseventyfive in documenting life, theology.Tags: competency, grace, kingdom, kingdom values, sin, values
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Sin is an over-sized desire for things that are good, not a small desire for bad things.
Something Cathy said at our staff meeting a few weeks ago was this: “Just because you hold it as a value, doesn’t mean its good. We need to develop kingdom values, and if the two are aligned, throw it out.”
I was thinking about my value of competency. I find it so important (for me and in other people) to be responsible, right, be a good leader, be prepared, willing to adapt, learn quickly. To be competent would mean saying you are going to do something, and then doing it. Or it means doing things efficiently or quickly. Don’t be so slow. Don’t ask so many questions. Be independent. It means if you were given a task you could do it. I LOVE when people trust me to do something.
I’m not exaclty sure why value this as much as I do. But I do. I’m not sure if I embody this value but i think I try to. Consequently, because I value competency so much, the opposite is nearly nauseating. An unorganized, unlcear, slow, irresponsible, flaky person is so repulsive. I fume inside sometimes. I get frustrated and I have no patience.
Just because competency is a value doesn’t mean its a kingdom value.
I’ve been led to a terrible despise of being behind the eight ball, switching things at the last minute, filling in and changing plans. While looking for consistency, follow-through, yes be your yes; the less I’ve found it, and the more fed up I get. I try so hard not mess up. and there are people I let down, yes. But I try very hard to live up to my own standards. I am very hard on myself. It’s difficult for me to take a compliment. And because I am so critical hard on myself, I am hard on and critical of others. When someone lets me down, I have a hard time with it. My high regard for competency leaves me with a low reserve of grace. Grace is yet a concept I grasp outside of Jesus’ gift to us. In fact, I don’t even expect it from other people toward me when I mess up. I expect punishment, or condemnation, or consequence. When I am given grace when I mess up I am moved to tears.
Why hasn’t God given me more resource in the grace department yet?
I am so hard on myself, repulsed when I am let down or held up by others, and so I’m not able to have grace. To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I let God compliment me.
I am judgmental, critical, unloving, unconcerned. Jesus, will you forgive me? I want to repent of my sinful way. How Lord, can you sanctify this value? I don’t believe I am supposed to discard valuing competency, just somehow adjust my view of it in light of the kingdom.
So, when people let you down, you just, let them? I have yet to figure this out. Don’t I have the right to be upset? Recently someone let me down, and really, it wasn’t even that big of a deal. It really, really wasn’t. But I took out the balled-up frustration of it always happening, on her. Part of me wants to say all the reasons and things I can think of as to why its unacceptable. But that stems from wanting to hurt her. I feel like I should say all those things, so she feels bad, so she “gets it”. So there is punishment and condemnation and consequence for her actions.
That is not grace.
That is revenge, and it is evil. I can’t make the feeling go away though. And this is the feeling I come back to time and time again. The little incident is still REALLY little, but it opened my eyes to a much larger issue. If I make someone feel really bad about their stupidness, I’ll feel better. Except, I’ll feel worse.
Because,
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” .” – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
You will use the nobody’s, the outcasts. I see whats wrong with shooting after excellence, but I’m not totally sure I understand why it can’t be okay to want consistency and responsibility.
Does it remove room for error, or room for the Spirit to move? Does trying to be good at something remove a chance for You to prove yourself, God?
Values:
to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance. to regard or esteem highly
the ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard. These values may be positive, as cleanliness, freedom, or education, or negative, as cruelty, crime, or blasphemy.
any object or quality desirable as a means or as an end in itself.
Values are things that feel important to me, define my fundamental character, supply meaning to my life and work; influence my decisions, compels me to take stand, and provides an atmosphere in which I am most productive. Knowing my core values brings clarity to choices and resolutions to conflict.
God wants to influence the values that I hold.
22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22
…
Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.- 2 Corinthians 3:4-6
…
since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4 For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.- 2 Corinthians 13:3-4
Seriously I have no idea to reconcile these. God uses the weak, those not of noble birth, those who are not influential, those are who are lowly and despised. I don’t SEE this around me. I’m not sure I see this with spiritual eyes either. How is God glorified in people that the world looks down on and ignores? Like, practically speaking. It doesn’t make any sense! Maybe this is the part of being “counter-cultural” that is going to come harder.
Any insight welcome, I am seeking Jesus alot on this.
what does it mean to die to the law? March 7, 2010
Posted by highofseventyfive in theology.Tags: death, hebrews, law, life, romans, sin
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Ok so sometimes Paul’s theology in Romans just blows me away. If you hover on a verse or two, and really ponder what it means, you start out confused, then move in to some sort of understanding of the point he’s trying to make. Then you read the next few verses and he outright explains what you just thought of in your head. Then you realize your thoughts aren’t new thoughts. They’ve been in the book all along. And you feel like you have nothing to contribute to the text anymore because the answer and the perspective just plopped itself there. I like this. Romans is such FULL complete thoughts.
Here goes some thoughts on the Law–looking at Romans 7, Hebrews 10, and a few others.
Today we talked about Romans 7. We tossed around this idea that we died to the Law, but we also talked about the law being dead. We know that Jesus says, “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.” (Matt 5:17) I think we meant to say that we are not under the law, or the law is “dead” to us. “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (vs 6) So then, what does it mean to die to the law?
“So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. ” (vs 4)
Okay, so we don’t belong to the law anymore. According to Leviticus 18:5, [Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD] the law is/was intended to be life-giving. Paul states this, “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” (vs 10)
Why does the law intend to bring life, but not live up? “Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.” (vs 13)
This I can dig. Without the law, we wouldn’t really understand how we totally don’t measure up to God’s standards. So I guess I can see how the law brings death because it makes the sin we sin utterly sinful.
The law is “only” the law (as in, not good enough to bring life in itself). Hebrew 10:1, says, “The Law of Moses is like a shadow of the good things to come. This shadow isn’t the good things themselves, because it cannot free people from sin by the sacrifices that are offered year after year.” (CEV)
wow okay and now look at Hebrews 7:18 “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”
“You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:4-6
Galatians 3 is next up friends.
Its 1am and I have to be at work at 7a. haha. whoops. I will continue this study with Galatians 3
Seriously, Galatians 3 deserves a serious diving-into.
The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose September 22, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in profound thoughts, theology.Tags: Bible, God, missions, MUFHS, philosophy, purpose, sin
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The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever–do not abandon the works of your hands. Psalm 138:8
September 20//
So, every, single, time i open up My Utmost for His Highest, it blows me away. it is either so terribly convicting, challenging, and compelling– or the very thing I need. (haha, i know those should actually be the SAME, but lemme explain) so some days i open it, and the thing i learn is new and challenging, and i think about it the entire day, which is really how a good devotional should be. its powerful and lets the Word carry on in my day. and then other days, I feel as if God is meeting me just where I’m at. Bringing the thing i need to hear in that moment. Today was one of those “ahah!” moments.
Today’s devo was about missions, and purpose. (ha!) I will type it here:
The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking, and all of our other allegiances–we are turned solely into servants of God’s own purpose. The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree. And when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for hte human race, namely, that He created us for Himself. This realization of our election by God is the most joyful on earth, and we must learn to rely on this tremendous creative purpose of God. The first thing God will do is force is the interests of the whole world through the channel of our hearts. The love of God, and even His very nature, is introduced into us. And we see the nature of Almighty God purely focused in John 3:16– “for God so loved the world…”
We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt. A missionary is created for the purpose of being God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified. once we realize that it is through the salvation of Jesus Christ that we are made perfectly fit for the purpose of God, we will understand why Jesus Christ is so strict and relentless in His demands. He demands absolute righteousness from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.
Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life.
Okay. So, WOW. is this not all the things I’ve been pondering the past week or so? YAH.
And, to add something to this, I just was talking to a student in the library at tcnj. (yes i’m at tcnj right now) and He said how the world’s lies have hidden or warped our process of discovering and following out our purpose. YES. you are right mr. atheist jewish frat guy! “The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree.”
the following are VERY loosely quoted scripture. with no context. so i dont claim they really have anything to do with this, it just sounds good for now.
The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.– Proverbs 20:5 It takes alot of “soul-searching” and a communication with God to “discover” your purpose. Aside from our delegated purpose as humans as a whole- to glorify and enjoy God.
Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.- Acts 5:38
They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.- Revelation 17:13
BUT, God does want to be known, and wants his purpose to be known to us. And through that, our purpose too. It sure is muddled by the things of the world, but he wants us to know it.
Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.-Hebrews 6:17
Summary: We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt.
rejecting Jesus August 13, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in theology.Tags: being good, gospel, irreligion, moral law, rejection, religion, sin
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“he knew that the best way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.” If you are avoiding sin and living morally so that God will have to bless and save you, then ironically, you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, model and helper but you are avoiding him as Savior. You are trusting in your own goodness rather than in Jesus for your standing with God. You are trying to save yourself by following Jesus.
That, ironically, is a rejection of the gospel of Jesus. It is a Christianized form of religion. It is possible to avoid Jesus as Savior as much by keeping all the Biblical rules as by breaking them. Both religion (in which you build your identity on your moral achievements) and irreligion (in which you build your identity on some other secular pursuit or relationship) are, ultimately, spiritually identical courses to take. Both are “sin”. Self-salvation through good works may produce a great deal of moral behavior in your life, but inside you are filled with self-righteousness, cruelty, and bigotry, and you are miserable. You are always comparing yourself to other people, and you are never sure you are being good enough. You cannot, there, deal with your hideousness and self-absorption through the moral law, by trying to be a good person through an act of the will. You need a complete transformation of the very motives of your heart.
The Reason for God- Timothy Keller, page 177
Who/What created morals? April 3, 2009
Posted by highofseventyfive in theology.Tags: evolution, God, law, morals, romans, selfishness, sin, waodani tribe
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i want to work something out on “paper” right now before i forget:
athiests and evolutionary scholars say that we are not born with morals that we get from God (because He doesn’t exist) They say that the origin of morals comes from evolution, our need to develop rules or whatever in order to further benefit our species and keep us from going extinct.
take the Waodani tribe in south america. they were extremely violent. everyone had someone in their family who was speared to death. they were killing themselves off, because they were so angry. they were quite literally down to a few remaining men, they would have killed themselves off.
is this evolution? does “we develop morals out of the best interest for the group?” explain this situation? or does this:
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.–r omans 1:28-32
i think it is fair to say that if we relied on evolution to keep us from killing each other, our selfishness has most certainly gotten in the way. in order to think of the safety and well being of others, you have to be able to put aside your own feelings and repress your own fulfillment. if i wanted to kill someone, i could. i would be sacrificing someone else’s life in order to fulfill mine. how does evolution reconcile morals and self-centeredness?
i don’t think it can. and what i think happened with the waodani tribe is this: their minds were clouded from listening to their moral compasses because of selfishness and lust. i think people who don’t know God can be very moral and have morals. because they are made in the image of God and have those natural longings for justice and love and nice things. when we have no reason to follow them though, is when we just do whatever we want. why should convince a guy not to kill someone? a worldly law? or a Godly law? obviously a worldy law hasn’t stopped people. its not reason enough to not kill.
we all have morals built into us, because we are made in the image of God. but when our sin and our selfishness cloud our desire to follow that ingrained set of morals, we kill and steal and do all sorts of awful things. GOD instilled those morals, practically for hte same reason evolutionists think we developed them: to survive.
think about it– God loves us. so he’s going to put some natural cravings for justice inside us so we don’t kill each other. duh. he wants the BEST for us. i think truly left up to our own devices we would be extinct because we also have sin nature. and unless we turn to God for fulfillment, we would follow our sin nature all the way, just like romans 1 says, and kill each other off.
thats my thought. i think it makes sense.
waodani tribe
