“Things,” material, physical objects – stuff – are interesting. Looking at the world we live in, I can’t help but realize more and more how it is so perfectly set up to be a trial period – we come, we stay a while, we get a chance to do some stuff, and then we’re gone – for the most part, none of us leave anything behind, except what may be used or admired by others. Someone else will live in the house we build, someone else will hang our painting on their wall, someone else will drive our car.
If, then, all this stuff is here for us to use, what are we supposed to be doing with it? It isn’t dependent on us – it’s here whether we use it or not – we can’t increase it in any way, there’s no way we can get more of it, or say “mankind has increased the amount of matter in from 10 bazillion tons to 110 bazillion tons.” Things, then, are really inconsequential…but what then are we here for? It’s interesting how people use things as a means of relating to one another – we steal or share, we restrict privileges, we tax, we give welfare, we adorn ourselves with gold, silver, and precious stones, we hold hands, we have sex, we babysit kids…the list goes on and on. The common theme, however, is that things are the means by which we relate to other people; this is the trial, not what we “accomplish” with the things we have, but how we use those things in relationship to others. Do we hoard “our” stuff, or are we generous? Liberal or possessive? Caring, sharing, and honest, or malicious, stingy, greedy, and dishonest? Selfish? Or charitable?
This is why Jesus can say “by their fruits ye shall know them.” It is not about what we have, what we “achieve,” or how much we can collect, but rather that we use what we have to show that we do indeed love others as much as we love ourselves.
Now, because this life is a trial, we must give due allegiance to the Trier. This means more than merely acknowledging His existence – it means we must know Him and follow His instructions. If we have failed the test, He is the only one who could ever say “I forgive you, now you can start again.” We must, at all costs, honour, love, and obey Him, if we are to live this life so that we pass the test.
He has given us two great commandments: to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love thy neighbour as thyself.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tradition and Truth (or, "Observance of Days, Times, and Seasons, Become Common. Contrasted with Truth")
Today, I hear it more and more -- I hear it in Christian Club at school, I see it in the lives of my friends and acquaintances, I see it in the church -- a following after traditions and celebrations, an observing of this day or that day, seasons that Christians make a special effort to set apart.
In the 1940s, A. W. Tozer said “From this bondage reformers and puritans and mystics have laboured to free us. Today, the trend in conservative circles is back toward that bondage again. It is said that a horse, after it has been led out of a burning building, will sometimes, by a strange obstinacy, break loose from its rescuer and dash back into the building again to perish in the flame. By some such stubborn tendency toward error, fundamentalism in our day is moving back toward spiritual slavery. The observation of days and times is becoming more and more prominent among us. “Lent” and “holy week” and “good” Friday are words heard more and more frequently upon the lips of gospel Christians.” [One might easily add “christmas” and “advent” to this list.]
How much more enslaved to tradition are we today? Tozer saw what he saw sixty years ago – now, we have sixty more years of life behind us, and now those who grew up observing times and seasons are not mere children, but the pre-eminent people in the church. What do we have today? Are we not more entrenched in our observances than ever before?
I hate tradition. I hate tradition, because, even though it often is begun with a real purpose (as a means to accomplishing an end), it often ends up controlling our lives – the tradition itself becomes an end in itself – it usurps the value and the authority of the initial reason it even exists!
“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
– Amos 5:21-24
Traditions should only exist to serve a purpose greater than themselves. If they do not plainly serve that purpose, they cease to be useful. In fact, they become worse than useless – they shackle the mind and begin to enslave, yes, enslave our will, so that we no longer live or fight for a goal or purpose that is valuable in and of itself, but we begin to fight for the tradition. This is horror of the greatest magnitude. To zealously go into battle for something that has no intrinsic value is utterly ridiculous.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
– Colossians 2:8
The only thing that is of real intrinsic value for any intellectual life activity is truth. At the root of all conflict, of all science, of all things worth fighting for, you will find truth. It is the one thing worth dying for. “I’m right and you’re wrong” we say as individuals. We say it as nations too: “you can’t treat people that way – it’s not decent, it’s not human – it’s not right!”
If truth is worth dying for, if it is worth fighting for, it is certainly worth living for! That is why I am here – to tell you, if you haven’t realized it already; to drive it home to you, if you’ve been thinking about it; and to encourage you, if you know it already – if truth is not the ruling principle in your life, you will end your life with nothing of any real value to you.
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”
– Proverbs 4:7
Thus, our most important pursuit in life is to know and act on truth; to live our lives by it. Anything less is worse than useless. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" True freedom is found only in Truth.
"Be a lover of truth. Let neither majority nor authority be more important to you than truth."
– Dennis Carrol
The only real authority is derived from truth. Truth is not determined by popular vote, for it remains the same whether or not the whole world refuses to acknowledge it. Truth is not determined by authority, by the word of a leader, for many is the leader who has led through falsehood and deception.
"Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding."
– Proverbs 23:23
Truth of supreme importance, and because of its importance, our lives must be led by his guide. Truth does us no good if we know it and yet ignore it through our actions. We must know it and live by it. "The lip of truth shall be established forever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment." (Proverbs 12:19) If you settle for less than truth in your life, in your motives, in your actions, your life is wasted. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)
In the 1940s, A. W. Tozer said “From this bondage reformers and puritans and mystics have laboured to free us. Today, the trend in conservative circles is back toward that bondage again. It is said that a horse, after it has been led out of a burning building, will sometimes, by a strange obstinacy, break loose from its rescuer and dash back into the building again to perish in the flame. By some such stubborn tendency toward error, fundamentalism in our day is moving back toward spiritual slavery. The observation of days and times is becoming more and more prominent among us. “Lent” and “holy week” and “good” Friday are words heard more and more frequently upon the lips of gospel Christians.” [One might easily add “christmas” and “advent” to this list.]
How much more enslaved to tradition are we today? Tozer saw what he saw sixty years ago – now, we have sixty more years of life behind us, and now those who grew up observing times and seasons are not mere children, but the pre-eminent people in the church. What do we have today? Are we not more entrenched in our observances than ever before?
I hate tradition. I hate tradition, because, even though it often is begun with a real purpose (as a means to accomplishing an end), it often ends up controlling our lives – the tradition itself becomes an end in itself – it usurps the value and the authority of the initial reason it even exists!
“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
– Amos 5:21-24
Traditions should only exist to serve a purpose greater than themselves. If they do not plainly serve that purpose, they cease to be useful. In fact, they become worse than useless – they shackle the mind and begin to enslave, yes, enslave our will, so that we no longer live or fight for a goal or purpose that is valuable in and of itself, but we begin to fight for the tradition. This is horror of the greatest magnitude. To zealously go into battle for something that has no intrinsic value is utterly ridiculous.
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
– Colossians 2:8
The only thing that is of real intrinsic value for any intellectual life activity is truth. At the root of all conflict, of all science, of all things worth fighting for, you will find truth. It is the one thing worth dying for. “I’m right and you’re wrong” we say as individuals. We say it as nations too: “you can’t treat people that way – it’s not decent, it’s not human – it’s not right!”
If truth is worth dying for, if it is worth fighting for, it is certainly worth living for! That is why I am here – to tell you, if you haven’t realized it already; to drive it home to you, if you’ve been thinking about it; and to encourage you, if you know it already – if truth is not the ruling principle in your life, you will end your life with nothing of any real value to you.
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”
– Proverbs 4:7
Thus, our most important pursuit in life is to know and act on truth; to live our lives by it. Anything less is worse than useless. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" True freedom is found only in Truth.
"Be a lover of truth. Let neither majority nor authority be more important to you than truth."
– Dennis Carrol
The only real authority is derived from truth. Truth is not determined by popular vote, for it remains the same whether or not the whole world refuses to acknowledge it. Truth is not determined by authority, by the word of a leader, for many is the leader who has led through falsehood and deception.
"Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding."
– Proverbs 23:23
Truth of supreme importance, and because of its importance, our lives must be led by his guide. Truth does us no good if we know it and yet ignore it through our actions. We must know it and live by it. "The lip of truth shall be established forever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment." (Proverbs 12:19) If you settle for less than truth in your life, in your motives, in your actions, your life is wasted. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)
Friday, July 3, 2009
The Dismal Spirit of Today
A. W. Tozer says, regarding the spirit of Christians today:
"We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.
"The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.
"For this great sickness that is upon us no one person is responsible, and no Christian is wholly free from blame. We have all contributed directly or indirectly , to this sad state of affairs. We have been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied to desire anything better than the poor, average diet with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, we have accepted one another's notions, copied one another's lives, and made one another's experiences the model for our own. And for a generation the trend has been downward. Now we have reached a low place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.
"It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselve loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. But it can be done. Every now and then in the past Christians have had to do it. History has recorded several large-scale returns led by such men as St. Francis, Martin Luther and George Fox. Unfortunately, there seems to be no Luther or Fox on the horizon at present."
I may be no Luther or Fox, but I, as they did, will stand up and speak out for a return to purity, righteousness, and a separation from worldliness. I must stand on the Bible for my spiritual standards, caring not that the Word of the Spirit may be divisive or disruptive. Will you stand with me?
"We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.
"The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.
"For this great sickness that is upon us no one person is responsible, and no Christian is wholly free from blame. We have all contributed directly or indirectly , to this sad state of affairs. We have been too blind to see, or too timid to speak out, or too self-satisfied to desire anything better than the poor, average diet with which others appear satisfied. To put it differently, we have accepted one another's notions, copied one another's lives, and made one another's experiences the model for our own. And for a generation the trend has been downward. Now we have reached a low place of sand and burnt wire grass and, worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.
"It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselve loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. But it can be done. Every now and then in the past Christians have had to do it. History has recorded several large-scale returns led by such men as St. Francis, Martin Luther and George Fox. Unfortunately, there seems to be no Luther or Fox on the horizon at present."
I may be no Luther or Fox, but I, as they did, will stand up and speak out for a return to purity, righteousness, and a separation from worldliness. I must stand on the Bible for my spiritual standards, caring not that the Word of the Spirit may be divisive or disruptive. Will you stand with me?
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