Jesus two millenium ago lived on the earth, and declared Himself to be the Son of God. He lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was buried, and on the third day was raised from the dead to substantiate that claim. His message was an invitation to relationship with His Father with His life and death an atonement so that relationship could exist. Within one century of His passing church fathers felt a need to codify their belief system with a document called the Apostle's creed. It was written in response to a number of spurious beliefs that began to arise and were thought to endanger Biblical Christianity. In the city of Nicaea in the year 325 church fathers met again feeling the need to further clarify their belief system due to a growing number of church centers with divergent beliefs developing. It was here the Nicene Creed was established declaring this was how we believed. In or around the 1500's the reformation was taking root and Martin Luther was nailing his 95 theses' to The Wintenburg door giving voice to how a protestant believed and beginning a time when Christians began to separate because of the beliefs they held to. In their minds a threat was growing and a response had to be made. With this, a mindset and a culture was developing where "how we believe defining us" (or as I like to call it "doctrinology") was finding its place in the spiritual landscape. In the 1600's through the 1700's Europe became the fertile ground for "The Enlightenment" and "The Age of Reason." From this mindset came the attack on orthodox Christianity and an antisupernatural bias stating that the church was intolerant and abusive. Fables to quiet the fears of men. Not the verifiable fact of science and reason.
Apologists of the church rose up to combat this form of thinking and to try and prove the validity of the scriptures and the legitimacy of Jesus as the Son of God. This gave way to a process where Christians began to define themselves by what they believe in order to distinguish themselves from the world and to a growing degree from the belief systems of one another. Thus "Doctrinology" began to take root. I believe in the importance of correct doctrine. To know what you believe about life and God and the way the world works is important. I don't deny that, but to then use those beliefs to identify ourselves and others leads us down a path I don't believe God intended for us to go down. We see this more and more the further we go down this road. Our statement of beliefs tells us who is in and who is out. We believe we are secure if we believe correctly.
What the Lord is leading me to these days is a return to relationship with Him. I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did. When I use my beliefs or yours to define our relationship, I cut off many and it causes me not to abide in His love. Defining men and women by their beliefs is evaluating by externals. Once the person is labeled, he is responded to by a predetermined set of responses and relationship is cut off. And with that there is no need to listen to the Lord. People who don't believe like me are evil and people who do are good. We do it all the time, but isn't it a bit simplistic and shallow. Love your neighbor as yourself can't happen when we submit to living in Doctrinology. It is a living abiding relationship with Jesus Christ that defines who I am. John 15:9 states "As the Father has Loved Me, so I love you, abide in My love." I am loved like the Father loves the Son and that is what defines me. I am a loved son. Learning to abide in His love defines me and not a list of things I do or don't believe. We have to find our way back to a living relationship with the Father that is then expressed in a loving relationship with one another. The world is waiting for a living example.....
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
What tree are you living from?
"The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Genesis 2:9b.
"1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."
With this man took his first steps from God and began the process of living on his own.
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
You would think becoming like God and knowing good from evil would be a good thing. To the natural mind it would seem like the only way to live. Are we not supposed to be good? Isn't that the very definition of our Christianity? I would say that is the prevailing belief, but I believe it is at the center of our struggle for a living, successful, and sustainable relationship with God. Why is it in our day so many have fallen away and given up hope in their relationship with God. I believe it is partly in the burden of trying to do good year after year and not feeling like it is working. It seems to be a tough sell getting people to come to church, and why not? Who wants to come and hear someone encouraging the downcast to try harder. I believe we have missed the message of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the life we were meant to live with Him and replaced it with a message from the knowledge of good and evil.
In our salvation is not only the initial cleansing of our sins, but the ongoing ability to walk above our sins and the limitations of our common humanity. In our day that message has been lost to some extent. I don't believe it is some grand conspiracy theory or anything like that. In America our credo is to try harder.We can do it! Pull yourself up by your boot straps, self made man, and all that John Wayne and Rambo stuff that is in our culture and our fiber. I believe it has bled over into our gospel as well. It wasn't until I had lost all I had worked for that I saw how much of me was wrapped up in what I did. Reality was I was building for me not for Him way too much. It wasn't all bad I know, but it hurt too much to make the same mistakes again. This is the reason I blog. Jesus died not only to save us from our sins, but also to live inside us and do in us what we can't do in ourselves. When we choose to live and learn on our own and use our gifts and abilities to keep us safe and protected we live by that tree that killed us in the first place. It said in the day that you eat you will die and die we did. Not a natural death but a spiritual one. A death where we were separated from our Creator. And when we live from that tree now, we live separated lives that don't fulfill and are not inspiring. I believe Jesus wants our lives to become inspiring again. What is it in you that makes you so different? You know who........
"1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."
With this man took his first steps from God and began the process of living on his own.
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
You would think becoming like God and knowing good from evil would be a good thing. To the natural mind it would seem like the only way to live. Are we not supposed to be good? Isn't that the very definition of our Christianity? I would say that is the prevailing belief, but I believe it is at the center of our struggle for a living, successful, and sustainable relationship with God. Why is it in our day so many have fallen away and given up hope in their relationship with God. I believe it is partly in the burden of trying to do good year after year and not feeling like it is working. It seems to be a tough sell getting people to come to church, and why not? Who wants to come and hear someone encouraging the downcast to try harder. I believe we have missed the message of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the life we were meant to live with Him and replaced it with a message from the knowledge of good and evil.
In our salvation is not only the initial cleansing of our sins, but the ongoing ability to walk above our sins and the limitations of our common humanity. In our day that message has been lost to some extent. I don't believe it is some grand conspiracy theory or anything like that. In America our credo is to try harder.We can do it! Pull yourself up by your boot straps, self made man, and all that John Wayne and Rambo stuff that is in our culture and our fiber. I believe it has bled over into our gospel as well. It wasn't until I had lost all I had worked for that I saw how much of me was wrapped up in what I did. Reality was I was building for me not for Him way too much. It wasn't all bad I know, but it hurt too much to make the same mistakes again. This is the reason I blog. Jesus died not only to save us from our sins, but also to live inside us and do in us what we can't do in ourselves. When we choose to live and learn on our own and use our gifts and abilities to keep us safe and protected we live by that tree that killed us in the first place. It said in the day that you eat you will die and die we did. Not a natural death but a spiritual one. A death where we were separated from our Creator. And when we live from that tree now, we live separated lives that don't fulfill and are not inspiring. I believe Jesus wants our lives to become inspiring again. What is it in you that makes you so different? You know who........
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