God of the OT vs God of the NT…

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”  –Richard Dawkins from “The God Delusion”

I don’t know what all of those words mean, but it sure doesn’t sound like a very flattering depiction of God. While we see two very different pictures of God in the Old and New Testaments, they aren’t multiple personalities or different gods. Dawkins misses the point on a couple things in this quote (in particular that the Bible is fictional), he does argue a view that many people have of God, Christian and non-Christian alike. At first glance one sees the how Israelites “..completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword-every man and woman, both young and old, and every ox, sheep and donkey.”  (Joshua 6:21). In fact much of the Old Testament involves nations conquering Israel or Israel conquering nations. Besides the constant warring we see things like:

Fun Facts…

In my quest to read the Bible cover to cover, I’ve come across some interesting observations and stories thus far. I’m near the end of Deuteronomy when Moses says his good-bye and hands the reigns over to Joshua. And here are most the interesting moments of the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Enjoy and feel free to comment with your own funny bible moments. Remember, God created humor. We’re not mocking God, just enjoying his work. I can’t wait to get to Heaven to laugh with God about certain events that occurred through the course of the human existence.

Redeemed…

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect -1 Peter 1:18-19

“Redeemed”. It’s a term used quite a bit around Easter time. I believe we have a general understating in American culture about what true redemption means. But our cultural use is just a bit off. A movie review might read, “The surprise ending redeemed an otherwise boring movie.” We’ll hear about a sports team “getting redemption“. But, this kind of redemption comes only through experiencing failure then success. It is entirely a self-help, self-determined concept. The movie redeems itself, the team redeems itself. The Red Sox lose for almost 100 years, before gaining redemption by winning the World Series. But what happens when they lose the next year? Are they still redeemed? In Shawshank Redemption, Andy is wrongfully imprisoned but uses his time there to redeem myself by both escaping from prison and harming those that put him there. Andy redeemed himself. So in this world there are areas in which we can act as the redeemer. However, God is not of this world and Jesus’ kingdom is not either…

Christianity and Homosexuality…

Easily the biggest debate currently among both the church and state culture is homosexuality. I want to start this conversation by stating simply that I believe whole heartily that practicing homosexuality is sin**. But, I also believe that it is not different than premarital sex, pornography and heterosexual lust among other things. Before offering my opinion on the issue allow me debunk a couple common myths:

God Will Hunting…

I just wish I knew what God’s will was for my life! Why can’t He just tell me like He did for so many people in Biblical times?! If you’ve spent any amount of time on earth, I’m sure that thought has crossed your mind. Everyone hits major crossroads in their lives. Where should I go to college? What should I major in? Do I want to marry this person? Should I take this new job? Marvel, Capcom, or DC comics? Edward or Jacob? You know………BIG IMPORTANT DECISIONS. Often these stress us out to no end trying to “find God’s will” for our lives. We took to weird “signs” all around us. “I was praying about my decision to propose, when a Jared’s Diamond commercial came on the TV. God must be telling me something.” Well there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that that anxiety over decision making will probably never go away. And just because a commercial came on at an opportune time doesn’t mean God’s “speaking” to you. Satan likes to use our feelings to manipulate us. (more about the dangers of feelings here). But the good news is that you don’t need to worry about God’s will for your life. Stay with me…

Moonlighting…

“I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:19-20

This past Tuesday our coaches/administrators FCA bible study discussed this passage. The main focus of the discussion focused on how we show others that “Christ lives in me”. How do we leave the mark of Jesus with everyone that we meet? This certainly is not an easy question to answer and I don’t think there is one single thing we can point to as an answer. There has only been one person to walk the earth that always displayed Christ, and that is because he was Christ. Jesus’ main purpose for giving up his heavenly kingdom to come to earth was to provide us a way to join him in heaven for eternity. However, a corollary to that is that Jesus also provided us the example of what living a life full of Christ looks like.

Dispelling Myths: Follow Your Heart…

So this is the first in an ongoing series I’d like to call, “Dispelling Myths”. These “myths” are sayings and beliefs that many well-intentioned people believe for their own lives and offer as advice/comfort for others. Some of them will have biblical roots that the American culture has twisted, others are just encouraging sounding pieces from culture that the church has adopted despite no biblical basis. This post will focus on the notion of “following your heart”.

The phrase “follow your heart” has many versions. The more masculine being “follow your gut” or “I just had a gut feeling”. It can also sound something like, “Well it just felt right”. Lady Antebellum even has a hit song based on this notion. If it wasn’t for the unbiblical lyrics it would be one of my favorites. You can view the whole song below, but here is a sample:

Jesus as a Role Model…

The video is a piece of word art based off a sermon by Francis Chan. In it Francis talks about how Jesus should be more than just a savior to Christians, but a role model as well. Too often we fall into the trap of treating Jesus’ death as a safety net under the trapeze. We can go “do our thing” in the world because Jesus already took the fall for us. The video highlights 1 John 2:6 “…whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”. However, all

Working Title…

This past Sunday my class had a great discussion about “work”; how God designed us for work, how we disrupted that design, and what it looks like to worship God in our work. This is a topic I’vestruggled with since becoming a Christian. Fortunately I’ve summed up my struggle in 2 parts:

1)      If this world is passing away and our treasure is in heaven, why work? Why not just spend every hour of every day reading the bible, and discussing the gospel with others?

2)      The only job in which I’ve ever wanted to work was athletics (at first coaching, now administration). How can I call myself a Christian while devoting so much energy to something that’s only purpose is to entertain people and receives a grossly disproportionate amount of resources that could be devoted to real issues, such as poverty, hunger, care for orphans, etc?