:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, and I’ve asked Christine Sine, an author and blogger at God Space, one of the best Advent and Lent resources around, to share a guest post about the Advent Season.  She most recently edited a collection of brief devotions for Advent and beyond called Waiting for the Light:

The Christian calendar begins at the end of November, with the season of Advent and our preparation for the coming of the Christ child at Christmas. This season means different things to different people.

For some the season of Advent is just a time to enter into the hype of consumer binging and overindulgence. For those of us who follow Christ, this season is meant to have a different focus. This is the season when we all should await the coming of Christ in quiet expectation.  We don’t just await his coming to us as a baby, we enter into the anticipation of the coming of a Savior who not only brings personal salvation for those who choose to follow him but who will also redeem all creation with love and righteousness. 

This is also the season when we anticipate the coming of a God who brings justice for the poor and freedom for the oppressed and judgment for the oppressors.  For still others it is the remembrance of a child whose birth two thousand years ago radically refocused our world.

Christians of all traditions are discovering the value of taking time in the days that lead up to Christmas to break away from the consumer frenzy of our culture and prepare their hearts and minds for the coming of Christ.  Waiting for the Light is a book that responds to this desire. It is more than a devotional; it is a complete guide to the Advent and Christmas seasons providing liturgies, weekly activities and daily reflections to equip and nourish us throughout the season. Reflections are contributed by bloggers across the globe who love God and love to share their faith with others.

And if you want to spend more time in quiet reflection during this season you may also like to follow along at http://godspace.wordpress.com where we will continue to add new thoughts on the theme Jesus is Coming – What Do We Expect?

Nine years ago we were newlyweds. I remember when our photo album arrived from the photographer with 4×6 prints and negatives. Yes kids, people actually used to hold pictures in their hands, and you could only make another print if you brought the negative to a developer—I’m sorry if all of this is making your head spin.

I looked through the pictures and began to think about having some prints made, buying frames, and putting up some pictures around the house. Perhaps a nice picture of Julie for my desk and a portrait in our bedroom.

However, I had seminary classes, my wife was attending graduate school, and it seemed like we never found the time for it. We’d wait for later—a time when we’d have more time.

Nine years later, I’ve made no progress on this. Worse than that, there are so many things that I’ve put off by telling myself, “I’ll get to this when I have more time.”

It’s like I’ve created this fairy land in my future where I’m be rested, relaxed, and completely at leisure to do as I please. The truth is that we can always fill up our time with something. You can never have “enough” time.

One area where God is working on my heart lately is the stewardship of my time and how badly I can waste it. One night I drove over to our community market, which is an amazing natural foods/organic grocery coop. It’s in the middle of our residential neighborhood, so I parked on the street and could see the lights from televisions flashing in every single living room on our block.

The sight saddened me, but then God, champion for hypocrisy exposure, reminded me that I was chomping at the bit to go home and watch a bit of hockey. There was no use arguing that hockey is morally superior and more redemptive than Dancing with the Stars, even if I know that’s true. The matter was one of time and priorities.

I can always put off important things by saying that I’ll have more time in the future for them. This is a lie that turns me into the victim of the circumstances, when in reality I’m a victim of my own mismanagement—which is another way of saying that it’s my fault alone.

When Jesus came to earth, Simon and Anna proclaimed that God’s salvation had come that day. Herod sought to kill the newborn child because the threat to his rule was immediate. When God acts, there is no room for delay. We can’t let our circumstances become obstacles.

Jesus told his disciples that the time has come now. Today is the day to repent. Today is the day to follow him. When a man tried to put off following Jesus in order to take care of his family obligations, Jesus wouldn’t let him off the hook.

God’s timeframe is always now, not later. As much as I’d like to delay dealing with my sins and bad habits, God wants to heal them now. As much as I’d like to fill my day up with “important” tasks, God wants me to pray now. Whenever God prompts us to act or sit, to think or rest, he’s seeking what’s best for us.

I keep thinking that I’ll get to these things, but if I expect God to heal me in the future, he’s actually saying that he wants to do it now. He doesn’t want me to wait for a day when I’ll be less busy, less stressed out, and less fragmented because that day will never come. While I wait for life to become less stressful, I miss out on the source of healing that I need the most—the one thing that I’ve been waiting for.

Today’s post is a synchroblog with Christine Sine. Check out her post: Jesus is Coming—What Do We Expect?

And hey, did you know Advent is coming? I contributed to this great collection of meditations that is now available: Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional. Also check out Christine’s advent video.

There are many pressing questions in the world.

Why are we here?

How do dolphins communicate?

How does someone write a bestselling book?

How does someone without a college freshman’s grasp of grammar and sentence structure write a bestselling book?

Where can I find awesome glasses like Rob Bell’s?

However, there are other questions that aren’t all that important but are fun to know just for the heck of it, such as questions about my parody of Love Wins and Twilight, Love Bites with its heralded April 1st release. I mean, why would a writer on a tight budget waste his time writing a silly novella as an April Fool’s joke?

I’m sure you’re wondering what the real dangers of Twilight are and whether Love Bites has a secret message. And the answer to both questions is yes and not knowing the answers I share could kill you.

I’ll be answering those questions and more in an interview with writer and blogger Chase Livingston.

Stop by Chase’s site today to read the interview. If you enjoy it, be sure to find him on Twitter as: @Chase_Liv.

If you want to read the unoriginal, ground-breaking Love Bites E-Book that that didn’t ignite controversy, you can download the full novella (all 15,600 words of it) for free here.

If you can, please consider chipping in $2.99 for an E-Book download from Amazon.com. It’s a huge help to me, and enables me to continue offering fun projects like this at no cost to the general public.

Here’s a link to the original post.

I used to look at the Easter story as simply the moment when Jesus delivers us from sin by dying on the cross and rising to life. Jesus did all of the work for me, and I just needed to accept his free gift by faith.

That captures part of the story, and while salvation is a gift that is accomplished by the work that only God can do, actually claiming it by faith is a process that involves hard work on our part. It’s just not the kind of “hard work” we expect.

Easter reminds me that I don’t need to earn God’s favor or save myself. His Spirit can save me and make me holy. However, tearing myself away from distractions and opening myself to God’s saving and sanctifying power is where the hard work comes in.

Whether it’s rising early for prayer, setting aside lunch time to read scripture, sitting still to meditate in the evening, or fasting from a meal in order to wait on the Lord, the hard work and disciplines lead to discipleship.

I like how the words discipline and disciple look so similar in English.

Our day to day decisions have everything to do with how we experience God’s saving work and power.

During the days leading up to the cross, Jesus worked hard at prayer, challenging his disciples up to the last moment in the garden to sacrifice physical rest for the sake of spiritual exercise—praying that God would protect them from temptation.

He didn’t tell his disciples, “Take a nap fellahs. I’m going to be crucified tomorrow anyway. I’ve got this sin thing taken care of. You don’t need to worry about sin and temptation since you’re going to be saved by faith!”

We can never add to our salvation, but we can neglect it and fail to receive the power that comes through the cross, leading to our deliverance from sin, and through the Resurrection, raising us to new lives in Christ. During Easter I remember that Jesus saved me, but in delivering me from sin, he has called me to the hard work and daily sacrifices that discipleship requires.

For more thoughts on Easter, read Bonnie Gray’s post: Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.

Last Saturday I posted a response that challenges a video by a leading Christian author who said that discipleship hinges on whether or not universalism is false—as in, if universalism is true, then we have no reason to leave all for the sake of Jesus. I wanted to take the discussion there one step further into the way we discuss salvation and how it impacts discipleship.

As I said last week, most Christians agree that the Gospel is more than a ticket for us into heaven, but what is it supposed to accomplish then?

I used to think that the Gospel was only supposed to deliver us from sin. Jesus took my place, and that’s all there is. However, I still struggled with sin and living as a faithful disciple of Jesus.

When I discovered the atonement theory known as Christus Victor, I found a historically rooted narrative for salvation that tied substitutionary salvation into the entire story of scripture and gave a full picture of the Gospel.

A Gospel that only delivers us from sin without encompassing the rest of the salvation story naturally becomes our ticket to heaven. Sin is defeated, we get to go to heaven, and then we’re left to wonder what to do with the rest of the Bible and the persistence of sin.

Understanding the death of Jesus as substitutionary for us certainly captures a central event in our salvation, and I’m sure if we only know that much, God can work with us. However, that is only part of the larger narrative of God’s salvation. If God only wants to substitute himself for us, then universalism certainly is a problem that threatens a specific method of being saved by understanding something about the work of Christ.

However, in the larger narrative of salvation, universalism becomes irrelevant. While I believe universalism is still wrong because it turns God into a deity who forces himself on us whether we want him or not, we don’t need to worry about whether or not its true because we are entering the advancing Kingdom in the present and are being transformed into God’s holy people.

We follow God because he has delivered us from sin and death and is healing  and using us.

In other words, God is placing his law in our hearts through his Spirit because he has defeated sin. The process by which he defeated sin was substitutionary in that Jesus took our place, but he has now defeated sin and has given us his Spirit so that we can live in his freedom and share that Good News of the Kingdom with others.

By saying that Jesus took our place, we’re only sharing half of the good news. While we need that victory, we need the resurrection and the consequent filling of the Spirit. We weren’t saved just to be saved. We were saved to be holy and to do God’s work here on earth.

I see the victory of Christ as the controlling narrative of scripture where God delivers us from our sins and the power of evil that we often submit to in this life—we are responsible for our sins and need his substitionary deliverance. The means is substitutionary, but the narrative is larger and more powerful than Jesus taking our place. We have been delivered for his holy calling.

When we find that larger narrative, we can see that Gospel does more than defeat sin, it opens us to God’s healing power in our lives and empowers us to follow Jesus as his ambassadors who are compelled by the love of God to share his Kingdom’s Good News.

I’m going to made a statement based on tons of anecdotal evidence—both my own and what I hear from others. I’m pretty sure it’s true.

Large numbers of church-going conservative to moderate evangelicals (especially the conservatives) would flip their lids if they really knew what the professors in many leading seminaries and Christian colleges/universities believe.

Some schools are more diverse than others, permitting a wider range of views, and for my purposes here, I’m focusing on those with greater theological diversity. And believe me, when I’ve mentioned what I learned in seminary, I’ve had to help a few friends put their lids back on…

Perhaps you aren’t easily rattled, which is great, but we need to look at what our leading Bible scholars are saying and then how their teachings reach us in the pew. It may help us relax a bit when new Christian theology “scandals” hit if we learn where some of our theological trends come from and how we learn about them.

An example? Let’s start with a tame one.

A leading Old Testament scholar at my seminary, who worked on little-known projects such as the NIV and NLT translations of the Bible, taught the following in his class:

• The days in Genesis were most likely long, indeterminate periods of time. Least likely? 24 hour days.
• God’s image is fully reflected in the creation of man AND woman—together.

The implications drawn from these two points are striking. They would rattle the interpretations and practices of many Christians who put a lot of faith in the world being created in 24-hour days and who teach that women are somehow below men—especially when it comes to teaching men.

The Diversity of Evangelical Scholars

It gets a little stickier in many seminaries and universities. How does salvation work? Well there are a couple prominent schools of thought that range from paying a debt to God to buying us back from Satan—both have biblical support among other views.

How was the Bible written and edited? Wait, did I just say the Bible was edited? And don’t get me started on who wrote which book when. I mean, Isaiah can’t be scripture if it had two different authors, writing in two different settings, can it???

Hell? Well, it’s not easy for some scholars to say something for certain about hell since Jesus spoke so much about Gehenna, a literal place in his day that we translate as hell. Are there consequences for rejecting God? Absolutely. However, the exact details of the punishment are not a matter of consensus among evangelical scholars. 

I could go on with debates about the impact of culture on our theology, the problems of American nationalism in the church, or different views on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. There is a lot of diversity among our leading scholars, but we don’t always glimpse that from the pew.

How Christian Authors Use Theology

Which brings me to my other point. You see, we have a lot of theologians who pioneer ideas or challenge the status quo of our theology, but not all of them are able to communicate effectively to wide audiences like a Max Lucado or dare I mention a certain pastor in Michigan… And then Brian McLaren is another good example of a Christian author who reads a lot of theology books by conservative scholars, but he also mixes in liberal scholars.

So we have quite a few theologians in our seminaries and universities who are immersed in the Bible, theology books, and church history who have limited access to the folks in the pews—the folks who would have a heart attack if they knew what their scholars are teaching. There are exceptions (say NT Wright for one), but by and large, our scholars are rarely the ones who carry new ideas to the church.

That falls to writers.

There are a number of Christian writers who take the existing theology that’s already out there and make it accessible for the average Christian. That’s what Brian McLaren did in  A New Kind of Christian. McLaren took the theology that had impacted his own life powerfully and wove a simple narrative with two friends having a spiritual conversation. He didn’t think a lot of that stuff up on his own for the most part, though he certainly included his own spin or innovations at times.

So when we’re concerned that a popular writer is introducing new ideas that will somehow corrupt Christianity, there’s a good chance those ideas are being pulled from some scholars who have already been teaching them to college students and pastors. Their ideas are already being considered among many learned Christians, but have not made a splash in the popular Christian market.

The good news is that the Gospel is still being preached and the many students and pastors who interact with these supposedly “dangerous” ideas are fully committed to following Jesus.

In many cases we have Christian scholars who are deeply committed to the scriptures and to Jesus who find that some of our “traditional” views aren’t quite on the mark. This presents an interesting quandary. There’s the traditional line by which “faithful Christians” have been defined for a particular belief. However, being a faithful Christian demands a commitment to the teachings of scripture.

What happens when a commitment to the teachings of scripture lead a scholar to believe something a little different from the traditionally “faithful Christian interpretation”? It’s not an enviable position.

However, there are many Christian scholars who have tweaked their conceptions of salvation, hell, theology and culture, and the nature of the Bible’s composition after carefully studying the scriptures. We often don’t know about their views widely until a talented Christian writer/communication takes the work of these scholars and presents them in a book for popular audiences who wouldn’t persevere through a 300-word theology book with tiny font and footnotes that sprout like weeds.

I write all of this because we often hear that this or that author is spreading a teaching that will somehow destroy the church. While we should certainly be careful about what we teach, often enough today’s raging theological controversy was yesterday’s tame class discussion at a Bible-believing, Jesus following university or seminary where everyone left class, checked their text messages, and then promptly ate lunch.

A friend once shared the story of praying for his brother to follow Jesus. He’d been praying for years, inviting his brother to his Baptist church from time to time. It weighed deeply on his heart.

One day he prayed a little differently: “Lord, just save my brother, I don’t care which denomination he goes to. Just save him.”

A few months later his brother starting attending a Presbyterian church and became a follower of Jesus.

This is a story that has made an impression on me, reminding me that while we may be praying for God to help someone or save someone, we often attach some strings to our prayers. When my friend finally realized that he only wanted his brother to be saved as a Baptist, he let go of that desire.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence in that case, but I’d like to suggest something here that this story always stirs up in my own heart. When we’re praying for God to move in another person’s life, perhaps God wants to start moving in our own lives first, to change something, and to push us deeper into discipleship, holiness, and service.

Perhaps the change that God works in our own lives will answer what we’ve been praying for. Maybe God wants to change us in order to reach someone else.

Continuing my series of meditations on the book of Romans…

Paul has established that there is salvation in Christ mediated through the Holy Spirit in chapter 8. Nothing can separate God’s people from his love. However, there may be a wrinkle in his argument here. That is what he aims to set straight.

If Israel could be described as God’s chosen people, how is it that they were separated from God? Shouldn’t the new Jew/Gentile church expect God’s plan to unravel just as it did for the Jews? Romans 9 marks the beginning of Paul’s discussion of the ramifications of Christ’s salvation for the Jewish people, while also explaining the joining of Jews and Gentiles into one people.

Throughout scripture God always reached out to the rest of creation through a chosen tribe or remnant. Abraham had several children, but only one descendant received the promise. In addition, Isaac had twins, but only Jacob received the promise. In other words, being a descendant of Abraham has never meant instant access to God. The children of God are determined according to God’s gracious action.

Though all of Israel may not have responded in faith, God has a plan to fulfill that has not gone off track. God is still working with a remnant as he has in the past. However, just as Abraham was set apart to be a blessing to all nations, there is a calling among God’s chosen people to do the same. We don’t know why God chooses some and not others, but we can rest in two simple truths from elsewhere in scripture.

For starters, God desires that all people should be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). It’s had to know how to make sense of Romans 9 and the doctrine of election when running into Paul’s letter to Timothy. However, there is a sense in Romans 9 that somehow God’s election sets things into motion that will spread the knowledge of himself and enable him to be merciful. Even Pharaoh was raised up in order to display God’s power throughout the world.

Secondly, when preaching to the Athenians in Acts 17:26-27, Paul says, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 2God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Therefore, God clearly takes a very active role in his creation and orders our world so that we will reach out to him. Even in God’s election and control of circumstances, God also expects humanity to respond to his salvation and allows even the Jewish people to go astray.

Such notions are hard to compute. Our human effort cannot win God’s favor that is freely given to those he chooses. However, God desires all to be saved and reaches out to all, hoping we will respond. Regardless of the exact mechanics, the correct response is obedience to God’s calling, accepting whatever task he sets before us, whether noble or not.

The point of Romans 9 is to put Christians in their place as the vessels of God. On the one hand, there is tremendous freedom in the notion that no one can earn a place in God’s favor. In fact, for those who continue in faith, there is nothing that can separate them from God’s love. Even those who have given themselves over to sin may receive God’s merciful patience and kindness that will hopefully lead them to repentance one day.

It’s easy to get hung up on a detail or lost in the minutiae of salvation and the way God offers righteousness. It is good to meditate on these things. However, it is not good to miss out on God’s salvation when fretting over the particulars. Don’t miss out on the depth and width of God’s mercy and grace, God’s desire to extend salvation to all people, and even the hope that the Jewish people will one day widely accept Jesus as their saving Messiah.

While the Roman Christians trust in Christ as their rock, Paul turns to the application of everything he’s already shared to the Jewish people of his day. He writes that while he is the apostle to the Gentiles and believes Christ has fulfilled the requirements of the law, he shares God’s commitment to the salvation of the Jewish nation.

This continues my series of meditations on the book of Romans. Today we have chapter three…

Paul has been building an argument for the equality of Jews and Gentiles under sin, but by the end of chapter three he extends this equality into the realm of salvation. For starters though, the Jews and Gentiles are mired sin and separated from God.

In spite of sin that alienates people from God, God is faithful to offer salvation as a gift through Christ. Nevertheless, God’s patient and redemptive acts do not give anyone an excuse to continue sinning. God will fulfill his promise and bring salvation to Jew and Gentile alike, but there is a stern warning that judgment will come to those who persist in sin. Therefore, Paul tells his readers to use the law to become conscious of sin, but to have faith in God for their salvation.

Therefore, whether or not someone has the law, the verdict is the same, but so is the way out. God’s salvation is not dependent on the law or whether or not someone has any kind of religious or ethnic credentials. I’m particularly taken with the thought that God is not only just, but also the one who justifies. God is essentially clearing the path for whoever wants to believe in him rather than setting up standards to be met.

The hard part of the argument for Paul’s listeners must have been  upholding the law by faith and not by observing it. It would seem that the only way to God and the path to obedience is by recognizing one’s complete and utter dependence on God for salvation. However, living by faith does not mean anyone can ignore the law. In fact, faith is the only path to truly obeying it.

That strikes me as an easy lesson to twist. God will judge those who ignore his patience and salvation by continuing to sin, but the way to be made right with God depends on believing in the saving work of Christ and living by faith. One would expect Paul to hammer on obeying the law, but he doesn’t. I can see how some would twist Paul’s arguments into a kind of antinomian Christianity where more sins only draw on more unlimited mercy.

Paul is no doubt challenging this sin-challenged church to be obedient and faithful to God. However, the only lasting way to be made right with God and to remain faithful is through faith in the life-changing work of Christ.

It is this work of Christ that fills up the following chapters in Romans where Paul explains how saving faith need not result in indulgent sinfulness.

As a follower of Jesus I believe the just shall live by faith. I have confessed with my mouth and believe in my heart that Jesus is Lord.

Faith matters.

And that leads us to what we have faith in. If NT Wright’s assessment of the Gospel (see What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?) message is correct, then the Gospel hinges on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. James reminds us that no one can proclaim Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit of God. Wrapped up in this idea of believing in the Lordship of Christ is the Gospel story of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and eventual return.

So we believe we are just because we live by faith.

We have faith in the Lordship of Jesus.

And then we face the challenge of putting our money where our mouth is. In short, I’m referring to the letter by James that proclaims faith is ineffective and useless, incapable of saving us if we don’t back it up by living out what we believe.

This leads us to the question, “What are the implications of the Lordship of Jesus to our everyday lives?” Surely we want our faith to be effective, alive, and genuine, and so this Lordship issue is quite pressing for us. If I truly believe that Jesus is Lord over everything—that every area of my life must be surrendered to him and the new life of his Kingdom—then I am called to a new way of living, of assigning worth, of working toward justice beyond my own needs, and of connecting with the life in God’s Spirit.

I’m processing this, and to be frank it’s a tad uncomfortable. How I spend my time, money, and influence are some departments in my life where Jesus wants to bring his Kingdom. The question that remains, “Will I partner with him?”