Dear school,
I know you love me and that you are good for me, but I am enjoying not having you.
Sincerely, Luke
Why am I enjoying it?
Here’s what I got done this week:
Yes. I love not having school.
Jon Crocker gave an excellent missionary presentation (which was, incidentally, their first deputation meeting) on Wednesday night at my home church. He concluded his presentation with a searching list of the qualities often found in men that God uses to bring revival. The list was included in an introduction by Horatius Bonar to John Gillies' book Historical Collections of Accounts of Revival.
Roughly written down on Wednesday night, it goes as follows:
Men that God uses to revive His people often are:
Do you exhibit those qualities?
You may have heard this saying by Dr. Bob III.
The most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to Hell today.
However, that adage of Dr. Bob is not quite right:
The most sobering reality in the world today is that people are dying and going to Hell today, and they never heard they didn’t have to go.
Because if we didn't, we would still be using circular stones as our wheels.
So, today, reinvent something that annoys you. It might change the world.
Yesterday, I posted an essay called Expect Amazing. As was pointed out to me in an email, it was a negative side of a very necessary positive attitude. So here is to encourage you to the positive.
Our God is amazing. That is why we need to be eternally thankful. We need to be thanksliving. We are commanded, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV)
So here’s what I’m thankful for:
Need I continue? Those are only 13 things, and I have by no means exhausted my list. We have lots for which to be thankful! So post lists of what you’re thankful for on Facebook and tweet it to your followers. Be careful, because God wants all your love and all the praise, make sure you attribute praise where praise is due.
Don’t just be thankful at Thanksgiving, but truly do it all the time.
Soli Deo Gloria.
This is an observation from devotions today.
“And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her.” (1 Kings 10:4-5 ESV)
The queen of Sheba had her breath taken away by the Lord’s blessings to Solomon. Have you ever had the blessings of the Lord take your breath away? So often the indescribable blessings are taken with hardly a praise.
If you’ve never had your breath taken away, take a step back and consider your blessings. Our blessings are so much more than Solomon’s, for the New Convent far exceeds the Old. Your breath will be taken away, if you only count your blessings.
Praise the Lord!
Remember God today. Remember His blessings. Remember to praise Him.
The Dangers of Excessive, External Thankfulness
God is marvelous. He is amazing. He embodies the synonyms of “awesome.” That means praise is an integral part of any relationship with Him — a lack of praise displays not only a dead relationship with God, but the epitome of human pride.
Unfortunately, as is often the case, one aspect of a relationship can and does get off-track. It happens when the relationship focuses solely on one facet, albeit a good facet. The relationship misses the big picture, or worse, morphs into entire misconception. It happens in marriages, best friendships, and in every conceivable human relationship. That includes a human’s relationship with their creator, maker, and ultimately (as is His plan) Father.
This “off-track-ness” of praise for God is often shown in the simplest of online communication — a status message. The quintessential status is an all-uppercase screaming of “WOW! GOD ANSWERED MY PRAYER!”[1] This exuding of thanks is often a mere pretext for the basest of human emotion and failure.
Many a “genuine” status testifies of faithlessness. God promised in John 14:14, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” And in Matthew 17:20, He promised, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Responses of total shock cannot fit those promises. God fathers His children. He loves them. He cares for them. God wants—He literally longs, as every father does—to answer His children’s prayers. He also demands the simplest of favors: He jealously desires His children’s trust. Sadly, His children respond in faithlessness.
Some posts portray faithlessness, and others reveal a more ignoble purpose.
A “spiritual” post on Facebook garners many “likes.” It is almost “un-Christian” to not “retweet” an answer to prayer. Such practices transform Christianity from a humble practice of godliness to an external practice of “God-talk.” Fully understanding this point requires a short detour explaining social status. Social status fulfills a human craving, viz., attention. It is generally obtained by sheer charisma; having money; or, in one word, work.
Because social status is normally linked to cultural values, Christians, who are commanded to be counter-cultural (1 Peter 1), are automatically disqualified or significantly hampered. It doesn’t matter how much “work” devoted, they will deny either the world or their faith.
However, the emergence of “bubbles”[2] in Christianity reset all normal (i.e., cultural) values and proceeded to redefine them by “more Biblical” standards. While there is nothing wrong with more Bible (or more application thereof), the by-product of highly-spiritualized environments presents a real problem.
Social status normally takes a lot of hard work, but now, in this bubble, “spirituality” is not only popular, but it is required and expected. This kind of Christianity requires much less backbone or work. “Spirituality” can be obtained by imitation in this environment (and be motivated by social status). Because it now is easily obtained, the outcome is dangerous and a recipe for life-disasters.
The results are striking: a narcissist motivation for so-called “spiritual” activity. Because a “spiritual” post gets bonus points, they can be posted with the wrong motivation. Consequently, the dough of narcissism has already been mixed and leavened, if you will. Egocentric social networks bake it to full maturity. It is not over yet, and the bread will not taste good.
The feedback loop of social approval — feeding the ever growing self-monster — started years ago. The shallow, un-tested, crowd-pleasing “Christian” generations are only now coming to fruition and, scarily, leadership.
It is all because of innate selfishness. In the wiles of the Devil, he tricked them into believing they were doing a good thing.
Faithlessness and selfishness are not the worst traits, even if combined. Both never should happen. Faithlessness and selfishness are Biblically disallowed. There are zero loopholes.
Yet they still happen, and the reason is simple: the Bible, though crystal-clear, is misinterpreted.
This misinterpretation occurs in two ways.
“Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24 ESV)
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19 ESV)
Perhaps a Christian should wonder (i.e., at God’s grace) not when his prayers are answered, but when they are not! A Christian should still glory when God doesn’t answer prayer with, “Yes.” He has still answered. He is still worthy of magnificent praise and adoration.
The posts miss an entire side of God’s incredible answers! Oft the answer “No.” turns out to more good than a prayer answered, “Yes.”
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”
The Pharisees are no exceptional case. Teens of today make very good Pharisees. All is focused on the external. Pharisees disgusts and appalls; it is as far from God’s plan as possible. It hurts to imagine that a gracious answer from God is spun to vain social appeal! It’s more than “un-Christian;” it’s straight from the father of lies. Satan has warped malleable children of the King to be once again instruments in his hand.
Jesus very accurately described it. Attempts at painting a better picture are futile. It stinks. It smells. It is detestable, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, and disgusting. Just as God is a thesaurus list of words for “awesome,” this practice is a thesaurus list of words for “abominable.&rdquo. Faithlessness seems infinitely better when compared with Christians reduced to base tools in the sin-monger’s hand.
Facebook statuses are important — just like every other relational interaction. What we do is important. That’s right, what you and I do is of inestimable value to someone. It’s time people start realizing it. Your Facebook status matters. It either lifts up God or self.
And it’s time people start realizing the awesome God of the universe wants to help them. It’s time for His amazing answers to be given proper thanks. It’s time for the thanks to be in Biblical moderation. It’s time that God-praise is the motive, not the pretense.
So go out and thank God. Praise God. Glorify God. Because our God is an awesome God. Just don’t do it without consulting God through scripture. Just don’t do it without abhorring self.
I’ve done it too. That’s why I hate it so much. I fell — I’ll probably do it again. It’s easy, but that leaves me no excuse. I could even have done it, ironically, in this post. I hope I didn’t.
They probably don’t realize what they have done. They probably didn’t mean to do it either. I’m not trying to criticize, I’m trying to inform and reprove.
Soli Deo Gloria.[3]
[1] This is obviously not the literal rendering, but it resembles a large majority of renderings.
[2] A bubble is simply a highly-protected and highly-spiritualized environment. It is not inherently wrong. However, it comes with its dangers.
[3] Latin for “To God alone be the glory.”
Google introduced a new feature recently. It’s called Something different.
What’s it for? Probably to drive more searches (and thereby more ad revenue $–) ). Anyhow it’s an interesting feature, even though I don’t like it. Personally, I think Google should do what they are good at — giving me relevant search results, not off-topic ones. Oh well, maybe it will be useful on of these days …
For those of you who’ve been to the Wilds and seen Willie do his “Something different” skit it holds an entirely different bit of humor. I laughed when I saw it.
“So what do you want to do now?” “Sumthin' different!”
“take for granted”: take to be the case or to be true; accept without verification or proof) “I assume his train was late” ~ wordnet.princeton.edu
I’ve heard all my life that because of the locality in which I’ve been placed (mainly) and many other reasons I am inequitably blessed. I don’t have to worry my next meal — or my next 100 meals. I don’t have to worry about a roof over my head, or a multitude of other things billions of people worry about every day. I have talents, and more importantly the ability to hone them.
And, just about every time, I’ve been reminded to not take them for granted.
That’s rubbish. And I’ll tell you why.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on] will be added to you. Matt 6:33 (ESV)
If my priorities are right, I won’t have to worry about an iota of earthly possessions. My Heavenly Father will totally provide.
That’s taking for granted if I ever saw it. Even more, I’m told to do it.
What about my church, pastor, and all the other non-essentials?
God has an answer for that too:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (ESV)
While I think that verse is so well-known it often loses its effect, it is very applicable to the topic. Consider: God knew that having Little Joe Africa born on the poorest continent was the best for him. God also knew having me born into the richest country was best for me. Now, the verse doesn’t directly involve unbelievers, but the principle that God does what is best always still applies.
Ergo, I can take it for granted; it was an omniscience God giving me the best [for me].
I didn’t write the above to be proud, or to call attention to myself; I wrote it to praise God. God is pleased when I “take it for granted.” It’s called faith.
I’m not calling faith ingratitude. I can’t. For I am exceedingly thankful; only God could have orchestrated my opportunities.
To sum up? I can take it all for granted if I am seeking God fully. And praise him for it.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci
