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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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| Art Thou Not Puffethed Up? |
No, this is not a post about how corny and fake it sounds to talk to God in King James English when you normally talk to the rest of us in standard, modern English. Nor is it a post complaining about the horrible abuse done to the archaic pronouns in said attempts.
No, this post is about whether it is pious or stupid to do something that seems spiritual but isn't really.
I trust the Lord to keep my family as safe as His perfect will allows, by that I mean accidents and calamity are sometimes allowed because they bring with them lessons that cannot be learned otherwise, and anyone who is serious about being God's servant, is willing to accept whatever tools are needed for the ministry God prepares each of us for. He does and has prepared good works beforehand, that we should walk in them - and some of that preparation comes in forms the world would regard as tragedy - whether pain, suffering, personal loss, calamity or what have you - the man of God trusts God in and through it all. Which isn't to say the man of God is always happy, never riled, and everything works out dandy - just as he would like it to - it doesn't; but it is to say that the man of God, at the end of the day, trusts that all things do work together for God to those who love God and are called, not according to their own purpose, but according to His.
So, I do trust the Lord to keep my family safe - as safe as His perfect will allows. I don't want them to be kept safe according to my understanding, but according to God's understanding, and that could (and often does) look very different than I would have it be. My nine year old daughter, for instance, has a skin condition that often covers her hands in open running sores. When she is crying and asking me to intercede on her behalf, that God would take it away, my heart is sorely tested, for I not only have to believe God's will is perfect, I must comfort my daughter with that truth. I must explain that God isn't our servant, that we are in fact His servants, and that God has promised to give us the tools for that service - some of which are pleasant, and some of which are not. What strengthens us is that we trust that God is truly there, that these things are truly His will, and that we be willing to pray as our Lord prayed, "Please take this cup away, nevertheless, your will (and not ours) be done." There is nothing wrong with asking, and even asking more than once, presuming we are not simply asking to satisfy our own desires. Contentment comes from knowing Immanuel (God is with us).
That is what trust looks like. It isn't me demanding that God heal my little girl right now, then clenching my teeth under the strain of a person effort to convince myself that God is going to do it. Brainwashed people can be utterly convinced of a thing, but that conviction is hardly trust - it is vacuous. Trust isn't the ability to convince yourself of something you have no right to be convinced of. Trust is knowing a thing is true because God has said so.
Thus there is nothing pious about me telling my children to go play in traffic because I trust that God will look after them, nor do I pretend something is wrong with some one's faith if they don't jump on the false piety band-wagon. Listen: there is nothing pious about doing something dumb because you trust God to clean up the mess afterwards.
If I find in myself an unquenchable desire to go to some country and share the gospel with people who have never heard it before; and seeking counsel from those those members in my congregation whose walk and conduct and wisdom have shown these people to be godly, and if they agree that I am gifted for such a thing, and my spouse is as desirous as I am, and I find that the trappings of this world do not bind me as they do others so that selling my house, and leaving my job are all trivial matters to me, for I trust in the word of God that such things will be provided if I look to the Kingdom of God first - and in the strength of that conviction I quit my job, sell my house, and go to some far away land with my family - that is called "stepping out in faith".
Buying a house that is more than I can afford and trusting God to make up the difference by getting me more money - that isn't stepping out in faith, it's ridiculous.
Sending my "Christian" kids to a Muslim school because I trust God to protect their faith is not stepping out in faith - it's called tempting/testing God, and it's as far from piety as smart is from stupid.
That's not to say that we can never take a risk, or do something daring, or simply trust God for certain things that are outside the standard pale. But it is to say that dumb decisions that are buttressed foolishly by the misguided notion that one is stepping out in faith ought to be avoided by sober Christians.
There is a kind of mysticism that masquerades as faith, and we ought to be on guard against it. There are few things as blinding as ignorance pretending to be piety, for just as knowledge puffeth up, so wilful ignorance puffeth up also, and it comes in all kinds of flavors.
Let us therefore examine ourselves at every opportunity (as opposed to examining others), to be sure that when we step out in faith we are not simply calling on God to do our bidding and pretending there is something holy about it. If we do see what looks to be error in someone else - let us be gentle in dealing with it - ask questions, and listen to the answers. You can't open the eyes of someone born blind, but God can in and through you if you are patient, not quarrelsome, and apt to teach.Labels: bunk, falsehoods, mysticism, pride |
posted by Daniel @
9:22 AM
9 comment(s)
 
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| Pride and Humility, briefly... |
This morning in my devotional time with my two eldest we were talking about the difference between pride and humility. My seven year old was having some trouble so I gave this example: I said, if there were only enough food in the house at supper time for one good sized meal, I could come home and eat it all, but the only way I could do that would be if I cared more about myself than everyone else in the house. Pride, I said, shows itself first by this principle: you think your needs are more important than everyone else's needs. I said if I were a humble man, I would not consider my own needs, but would regard the needs of others as more important.
I then explained how we can really miss the boat spiritually speaking if we have only that much information. We may well know that a humble man thinks of others before himself, so that when a situation presents itself we choose to take the "humble" path and go without, but simply doing that is by no means humble, and in fact, it can be just as much a matter of pride as taking all the food. What makes the act humble is the motive behind the act.
The humble man says, I know that God will provide for me even if I have nothing and the rest are fed. My hope is not in myself but in God to provide, and I see this as an opportunity to bring God glory in that He has provided a situation where I can trust him, whether he feeds me or not is not the goal of the trust - but rather to trust that my times are entirely in the Lord's hands and that whether he feeds me or lets me starve, his plan for me is perfect, and I trust in that plan.
A proud man might well give up his portion because that is the right thing to do, and he feels that doing the right thing will give him the biggest benefit, be it personal respect or be it divine benevolence, whatever the case, the proud man is always looking to do what is best for self, which is the difference between himself and the humble man who is not concerned with his own self because he trusts that the way in which God is going to looks after his needs is sufficient, and even preferable to looking after his own needs by himself and for himself.
I struggled with it a little because I wanted to make sure the children understood that humility and pride are not measured by the external action, but rather by whether or not one is trusting in God or in self.Labels: humility, pride |
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posted by Daniel @
9:00 AM
4 comment(s)
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