Another step to understanding the real me, is understanding my depravity. Understanding the fact that I truly am nothing without the grace of God. Because when I can effectually grasp the concept of my depravity then the grace of God becomes so much more powerful in my life. This new piece of knowledge will also open the doors for learning.
Learning starts with me not feeling satisfied with where I am. It starts with frustration, and anger. However, to often does our society worry about my self-esteem, and my feeling good about my self, that when reality sets in it is almost unbearable. Hence the reason the education system is failing. Teachers and administrators are so worried about making the student feel good about him/her that they destroy the kid’s ability to learn. All of a sudden truth has been subjectified and is nothing more than something that feels good.
Truth is quite the opposite. It is freeing, but in a very painful way. People who ask for the plain truth are ignorantly arrogant. If the objectivity of truth and all that it encompasses was completely understood, our out look on life would be totally different. Our selfish desires and ambitions would come to a screeching halt, while our spiritual selfless lives would come alive.
Christ's life was not an easy one. Yet He knew the truth and was set free in the sense that His perspective of this life was much bigger. He didn't become bogged down in the dogmatic narrow views of His friends and family.
Most people don't consider being chained up in a prison as free, yet for Paul it was only a confirmation of his liberty in Christ. Mentally and spiritually.
It is so incredibly hard to hold on to the real me once I find it. Because as soon as I recognize and accept the truth of my depravity, the "god" inside me - that I have been so indoctrinated with by society - is trying to tell me "perk up your not so bad!". How deceived we are and how readily we accept it!! God have mercy on me!!
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 22, 2005
The Real Me
It seems that in every person there are two personalities. On the one hand you have the physical being (flesh), on the other you have the metaphysical being (the mind/soul). Contained in each person is two. The irony is these two different persons inside my head contradict themselves. One is telling me to live for the moment while the other is telling me to hold out for something better. One says not to worry about living the examined life while the other is saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. The latter is saying that there is an afterlife and what you do here does affect that life to some degree or another and the former is saying there is no life after death therefore live for yourself. One says "You are your own god," while the other says, "Humble yourself because you are insignificant and nothing you can do will ever change that".
How do we know which is the real me? Or is there a real me, and whatever that struggle is going on inside my head, is merely a figment of my imagination? The great thinkers struggled with this question and seemed to all come to the same conclusion. But why or rather how did they come to a congruent decision about the real self?
The metaphysical self seems to be the most improbable. Amongst our society, instant gratification is all that people care about. Therefore why take a chance and hold out for something I am not certain about? Why not indulge in the moment and live life for me? That'll make me the happiest won't it? The truth however, is quite the opposite. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon experiments with both of his persons.
He lives for Himself. Indulges in every sort of thing that would seem to make him happy. Yet in the end, he finds that all is vanity and chasing after the wind. Nothing he did to satisfy his immediate wants were enough to make him happy. Ecc. 2:16-17 "I communed with my heart, saying, 'Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.' And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind." It was impossible to satisfy his flesh, because everything he tried was unfulfilling, and merely chasing after the wind.
Solomon then states what is worth living for in Ecc. 12:13-14 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil." If this truly is what is worth living for, then the metaphysical part of me is the real me. To fear God and obey Him is not instantly gratifying....In fact it is a lot of work! However, anything that is worth having is worth working for.
This is what Socrates meant when he said, "the unexamined life is not worth living". Because by not examining ones life and merely doing what "feels good" is only to become more frustrated with something one does not understand! The reason one does not understand is because one has not examined. This is why so many adults have a mid-life crisis. They have lived forty or so years of not examining their life and all of a sudden they have to face reality. All of a sudden they begin to involuntarily examine their life, which turns out to be a whole lot of nothing. They find out that what they have been living for either does not exist or was extremely childish.
It is this very fact of living an unexamined life that makes teenage peers so incredibly frustrating. They are ignorant of their ignorance.
So how does one, who has finally faced the reality of their nothingness, begin to find their true self? From the Christian stand point I believe C.S. Lewis put it best. In order to allow our true selves to be the most prevalent in our lives is to let Christ rule. To remove our physical selves that Christ might "move in". It is when we allow the creator to shape us and mold us into who He originally created us to be. "It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own....there are no real personalities anywhere else," -C.S. Lewis "The Buisness of Heaven". This rings so true, because when one looks at all of the evil leaders of history, they all were fairly much the same in their personalities (Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Marx). However among the saints there was a glorious difference!!
How do we know which is the real me? Or is there a real me, and whatever that struggle is going on inside my head, is merely a figment of my imagination? The great thinkers struggled with this question and seemed to all come to the same conclusion. But why or rather how did they come to a congruent decision about the real self?
The metaphysical self seems to be the most improbable. Amongst our society, instant gratification is all that people care about. Therefore why take a chance and hold out for something I am not certain about? Why not indulge in the moment and live life for me? That'll make me the happiest won't it? The truth however, is quite the opposite. In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon experiments with both of his persons.
He lives for Himself. Indulges in every sort of thing that would seem to make him happy. Yet in the end, he finds that all is vanity and chasing after the wind. Nothing he did to satisfy his immediate wants were enough to make him happy. Ecc. 2:16-17 "I communed with my heart, saying, 'Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.' And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind." It was impossible to satisfy his flesh, because everything he tried was unfulfilling, and merely chasing after the wind.
Solomon then states what is worth living for in Ecc. 12:13-14 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil." If this truly is what is worth living for, then the metaphysical part of me is the real me. To fear God and obey Him is not instantly gratifying....In fact it is a lot of work! However, anything that is worth having is worth working for.
This is what Socrates meant when he said, "the unexamined life is not worth living". Because by not examining ones life and merely doing what "feels good" is only to become more frustrated with something one does not understand! The reason one does not understand is because one has not examined. This is why so many adults have a mid-life crisis. They have lived forty or so years of not examining their life and all of a sudden they have to face reality. All of a sudden they begin to involuntarily examine their life, which turns out to be a whole lot of nothing. They find out that what they have been living for either does not exist or was extremely childish.
It is this very fact of living an unexamined life that makes teenage peers so incredibly frustrating. They are ignorant of their ignorance.
So how does one, who has finally faced the reality of their nothingness, begin to find their true self? From the Christian stand point I believe C.S. Lewis put it best. In order to allow our true selves to be the most prevalent in our lives is to let Christ rule. To remove our physical selves that Christ might "move in". It is when we allow the creator to shape us and mold us into who He originally created us to be. "It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own....there are no real personalities anywhere else," -C.S. Lewis "The Buisness of Heaven". This rings so true, because when one looks at all of the evil leaders of history, they all were fairly much the same in their personalities (Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Marx). However among the saints there was a glorious difference!!
Monday, December 19, 2005
Redeeming the culture
This has been a long time coming, and I have now recently finished this blog that I started in October!!! So here it is completely finished!! (Just because I started it in October does not mean it is going to be some GREAT blog. Fact is, is that I haven't worked on it since October. While I was going through some of my previous blogs I came across this one and decided I would try and finish it to the best of my ability.)
A couple of weeks ago I went to a Biola apologetics lecture. Its actually a 7 week class that I signed up for. Each Thursday night there is a different speaker. This weeks lecturer was Mike Erre. He is the pastor for Rock Harbor church and he talked about redeeming the culture. I am going to do my best and write up a readers digest version of what he talked about. Mike Erre brought up a lot of good points. He brought up so many obvious yet intelligent topics that the church tends to look over. He started the night out by talking about what culture is. Culture is the sum of everything - a set of ideas that are true, right, or ideal. One of the reasons why culture is drifting further and further away from the church is due to the fact that the church is no longer answering the questions that the culture is asking. The church is still stuck on the questions which are no longer relevant. We as Christians need to learn how to contextualize the scripture, yet still holding on to the main gospel message. He then gave three useful postures: 1. Observe 2. Engage 3. Incarnate For the first posture he gave the example of Paul when he was in Athens. Paul observed how the Greeks lived and began to make note of what a religious people they were. Taking notice of all their idols and graven images to Zeus, and Hera and the many other Greek gods. Paul also read some of their famous poets and philosophers. People like Plato who were very influential in the Greek culture. He then explained how Paul engaged the Greeks. In Acts 17 when Paul stood up and began to preach he didn't start off by preaching stuff that they did not understand. He began by talking about things that would put him and his audience on common ground. As his sermon progressed he began quoting their own writings back at them! Thus showing them that Christ is Lord of all truth. Its is during this time that one must then talk about Jesus. Christ was God incarnate. He overcame the world as we also are to overcome the world. However, He didn't conquer the world by making war, rather by sacrificing Himself. So we also must sacrifice ourselves for God. Whether it be by giving up an addiction or as the early church did, martyrdom. This is where Jesus differed from the Pharisees. There were three different types of Pharisees: 1. the ones who insisted on separating themselves. However, by separating themselves they were no longer able to affect the world for God. Christ did not seek to separate himself from the world, but rather He dined with the sinners and offered mercy and forgiveness for their sins!2. The zealots who wished to over take culture, but they also were ineffective because they left no room for forgiveness. Christ also did not try to take over the world the way the zealots attempted to. 3. Then there were the Pharisees who embraced culture as apart of their religion. Christ also did not embrace culture. He sought to redeem the culture! There is a balance between these three different attitudes towards culture. To be overbearing on one and then forget the other two is ineffective.
It’s about maintaining a balance. However, not a balance of mediocrity, rather of equal extremes (I hope you don't mind me quoting you Mr. Fry!). Redeeming the culture isn't a politically correct revolution. The disciples and the early church were brutally killed for trying to redeem the culture. Christ Himself suffered the worst death that any of us could imagine! If they had the guts to kill God Himself, how much more will they do to us? “18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” LORD strengthen me Your servant!!
A couple of weeks ago I went to a Biola apologetics lecture. Its actually a 7 week class that I signed up for. Each Thursday night there is a different speaker. This weeks lecturer was Mike Erre. He is the pastor for Rock Harbor church and he talked about redeeming the culture. I am going to do my best and write up a readers digest version of what he talked about. Mike Erre brought up a lot of good points. He brought up so many obvious yet intelligent topics that the church tends to look over. He started the night out by talking about what culture is. Culture is the sum of everything - a set of ideas that are true, right, or ideal. One of the reasons why culture is drifting further and further away from the church is due to the fact that the church is no longer answering the questions that the culture is asking. The church is still stuck on the questions which are no longer relevant. We as Christians need to learn how to contextualize the scripture, yet still holding on to the main gospel message. He then gave three useful postures: 1. Observe 2. Engage 3. Incarnate For the first posture he gave the example of Paul when he was in Athens. Paul observed how the Greeks lived and began to make note of what a religious people they were. Taking notice of all their idols and graven images to Zeus, and Hera and the many other Greek gods. Paul also read some of their famous poets and philosophers. People like Plato who were very influential in the Greek culture. He then explained how Paul engaged the Greeks. In Acts 17 when Paul stood up and began to preach he didn't start off by preaching stuff that they did not understand. He began by talking about things that would put him and his audience on common ground. As his sermon progressed he began quoting their own writings back at them! Thus showing them that Christ is Lord of all truth. Its is during this time that one must then talk about Jesus. Christ was God incarnate. He overcame the world as we also are to overcome the world. However, He didn't conquer the world by making war, rather by sacrificing Himself. So we also must sacrifice ourselves for God. Whether it be by giving up an addiction or as the early church did, martyrdom. This is where Jesus differed from the Pharisees. There were three different types of Pharisees: 1. the ones who insisted on separating themselves. However, by separating themselves they were no longer able to affect the world for God. Christ did not seek to separate himself from the world, but rather He dined with the sinners and offered mercy and forgiveness for their sins!2. The zealots who wished to over take culture, but they also were ineffective because they left no room for forgiveness. Christ also did not try to take over the world the way the zealots attempted to. 3. Then there were the Pharisees who embraced culture as apart of their religion. Christ also did not embrace culture. He sought to redeem the culture! There is a balance between these three different attitudes towards culture. To be overbearing on one and then forget the other two is ineffective.
It’s about maintaining a balance. However, not a balance of mediocrity, rather of equal extremes (I hope you don't mind me quoting you Mr. Fry!). Redeeming the culture isn't a politically correct revolution. The disciples and the early church were brutally killed for trying to redeem the culture. Christ Himself suffered the worst death that any of us could imagine! If they had the guts to kill God Himself, how much more will they do to us? “18If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” LORD strengthen me Your servant!!
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Narnia
Absolutely refreshing!!
Going into the movie I was a little apprehensive due to the fact that Disney was helping with it. I thought maybe it had been built up to much, and disappointment would soon follow. However, after seeing it twice already, I have never been more pleased with such an incredible representation of a story. The characters were amazing! Peter’s transition from boyhood to manhood was inspiring. The display of courage he showed by leading the army of Narnia against the White Witch was a magnificent portrayal of his final step towards manhood. Susan who's smarts and logic almost handed over Narnia to the White Witch. Edmund who was all smiles at receiving his crown and the throne on which he was to sit, knew that this came at a price. And the ever adorable Lucy whose goodness to others never seemed to cease.
Once again Lewis portrays his ability to not only write about things complicated and over the heads of most people, but also his ability to write something as simple as a children’s story that is yet filled with concepts and allegories so genius that can only blow people (who understand) away! I am so thankful that Disney did not destroy or take away from the story the way I thought they might!
My advice: Go out and see it as soon as possible (assuming that you haven't already..)!! Remember while watching it though, that a movie is not a book therefore things will be left out and characters may be underdeveloped. With that in mind it makes the experience that much more enjoyable!
Going into the movie I was a little apprehensive due to the fact that Disney was helping with it. I thought maybe it had been built up to much, and disappointment would soon follow. However, after seeing it twice already, I have never been more pleased with such an incredible representation of a story. The characters were amazing! Peter’s transition from boyhood to manhood was inspiring. The display of courage he showed by leading the army of Narnia against the White Witch was a magnificent portrayal of his final step towards manhood. Susan who's smarts and logic almost handed over Narnia to the White Witch. Edmund who was all smiles at receiving his crown and the throne on which he was to sit, knew that this came at a price. And the ever adorable Lucy whose goodness to others never seemed to cease.
Once again Lewis portrays his ability to not only write about things complicated and over the heads of most people, but also his ability to write something as simple as a children’s story that is yet filled with concepts and allegories so genius that can only blow people (who understand) away! I am so thankful that Disney did not destroy or take away from the story the way I thought they might!
My advice: Go out and see it as soon as possible (assuming that you haven't already..)!! Remember while watching it though, that a movie is not a book therefore things will be left out and characters may be underdeveloped. With that in mind it makes the experience that much more enjoyable!
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Great CD
I haven't been able to think up anything worth blogging about as of late..... So I thought I'd take this time to tell you how great Sean Watkins new CD is!!
This is definitely different from his past two CD's however, one can still hear the old Sean in the backround. I've always liked the way Sean has incorperated the drum machine and the way he changes between time signature (btw camlost.. I think I've almost figured out the time signature for "I say nothing"). Very inspiring.....
He hasn't let out the cd yet but you can down load it from his site: http://seanwatkins.com
This is definitely different from his past two CD's however, one can still hear the old Sean in the backround. I've always liked the way Sean has incorperated the drum machine and the way he changes between time signature (btw camlost.. I think I've almost figured out the time signature for "I say nothing"). Very inspiring.....
He hasn't let out the cd yet but you can down load it from his site: http://seanwatkins.com
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