I've got a spare hour on a Tuesday morning to take out of my hectic schedule and share something with you.
When we think of grace, we tend to imagine it as mainly applying to those of us who know Christ... but I think that's far from the truth.
Grace is a concept which encompasses many aspects of God's character. One aspect of grace is the undeserved forgiveness and love which Christians experience but there's a more general idea of it which I think magnifies its greatness ten-fold!
Even those who don't yet believe live under God's grace and God's grace governs every element of existence. Let me explain by starting with two biblical truths.
God is all-powerful. All things are at his command. Psalm 65 tells us that he stills the roaring of the waves and raises up mountains. Isaiah 45 says: 'I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.' Everything is under God's control, even bad stuff. He can make anything happen, he can do ANYTHING. Some people still struggle to understand this and still limit him.
Everything belongs to God. Psalm 24 says 'The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.' So everything which everyone has belongs to God because he made it. This is very important. Everything belongs to God. This verse forms the heart of stewardship (which I'll hopefully get round to doing an entry on soon!) but is also really important to understanding the wider concept of grace.
So those two truths combine to tell us that everything in the world and the world itself belong to God and that he can do anything he wishes with his creation.
When an unbeliever wakes up in the morning, they awake by the grace of God.
We were all rebels living in God's world - some of us still are. If you had slugs in your vegetable patch - crawling all over your lovely plants, covering them with slime and eating big holes in the leaves - would you hesitate before taking every single slug you could find and destroying them? Welcome to God's daily experience of earth - covered in little slugs taking advantage of his lovely vegetables, ruining them at the same time as stuffing their little faces with them. Sin injures God's creation at the same time as feeding off it. As Christians, we should become like bees, pollinating and spreading God's goodness, multiplying our blessings, not feeding off him parasitically. Think about that...
Why should God not just flick each and every little slug into oblivion? Why shouldn't he immediately seize each and every sinner and cast them into eternal damnation? But he gives life! He gives resources for life like oxygen and food and water! It's like putting special slug food out in the midst of your vegetable patch! It's madness... it's grace. God's judgement hangs over every individual, only his patient grace prevents it from falling.
The reason you didn't die in your sleep is grace. When you eat your bowl of cereal and you don't choke to death on it, that's grace! When you step out of your front door and you're not knocked down and killed by a car, that's grace! That is the way the world works; because the world is fallen, people die, people are killed... and its grace which means you're not one of them, that you're kept from that. We all live under God's grace, even unbelievers enjoy God's provision and his protection.
Even more than that though, when we think of God's incredible power and action in our lives, we can see that grace isn't just about survival but about WHO we are! The way we are raised, the way our lives pan out, massively effect who we become when we are older. Serial killers, dictators, mass murderers... there's nothing specially or innately evil about them. OK, brace yourself because grace is about to go even further than just you waking up in the morning. This deserves a line to itself.
It is only by God's grace that you don't go out every day and kill people.
I believe that we are all born equally sinful and it is purely situational and circumstantial as to how evil we become. God gracefully keeps some of us from experiencing the fullest depths which sin could take our lives to. There is nothing to say that when God formed Adolf Hitler in the womb, the life he breathed into him couldn't have been yours. I almost hold back before saying something like that... but it's what I believe. It is only by grace that we are kept from the greatest sins in our lives and from massive evil.
God has been at work in all the circumstances of your life to make you the person you are today.
This will be too far for some people. I ask that you take some time to think on it.
This aspect of grace is amazing and mind-blowing because it reveals God's phenomenal love and patience with humanity. He loves those little slugs so much that he'd rather try and turn them into bees than grind them down into the dirt with his heel. We all deserve that but grace says otherwise and that is just one reason why God is spectacular.
Thursday 13 August 2009
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Poetry and symbolism
I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks, hence a lack of posts on here but, praise God, I had some very involving discussions and revelations from conversations and events in the past two weeks which will provide some fuel for several upcoming posts.
The first is about symbolism and metaphor in the bible. It comes from a conversation about one of the biggest issues connected with the topic; how to interpret the account of creation at the beginning of Genesis.
Yes, the beginning of Genesis is poetic. There is no doubt, whereas most of the rest of Genesis appears to be historical, the opening few chapters are rich with poetic devices. The repetition of phrases, the grand descriptive language, the fact that Adam addresses Eve in Hebrew rhyme when he first speaks; all these things point to this segment being poetic. The two most important doctrines or teachings to be taken from the opening chapters are creation (that God created all things good) and the fall (that man, created good, rebelled against God and separated himself from Him).
Now, in poetic terms, the fall is not really a problem. The fall is a spiritual event, easily represented in poetic terms. Although it does result in physical consequences, it's origin and actual happening occur spiritually, in fact, invisibly. Poetry lends itself perfectly to, in fact some might say is defined by, describing the intangible and invisible events that surround us by tying it to objects and situations we can see and understand.
My point is this: whether Adam and Eve literally ate fruit or indulged in some other sinful act which the fruit-eating represents is not the issue - they still sinned. It is rebellion against God whether symbolic or literal. Whether Satan was genuinely disguised as a snake or whether the snake is used to represent Satan as a subtle and dangerous being doesn't matter, Adam and Eve were still tempted by him. Revelation 20:2 shows that the snake is to be regarded as Satan, literal or not. It's true that Genesis does not say this in itself but if we believe the bible is a cohesive document, then Revelation must be correct in its analysis.
In terms of the fall, poetry functions well, in fact actually simplifies and aids our understanding of the complex spiritual event. When it comes to creation, the problems with interpretation begin.
Let's begin by stating this: poetry is a still true but the truth becomes symbolised. If I were to say: 'My girlfriend is a rose' it would be poetic but I would be stating something which I believe to be true; that she is beautiful. In calling her a rose, I have made a link between the generally accepted idea of the beauty of a rose and my girlfriend. I have also made the reader think about the romantic connotations of the flower. Even though the statement is not literally true (my girlfriend is not a thorn-covered flower) it is still true, just in a poetic sense.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because sometimes people take Genesis' quality of being poetry as implying 'It can mean anything'. No! Not at all!
The poetry of the segment doesn't give us license to essentially negate its meaning or twist it. The poetry of Genesis DOES set limits on how far it can be stretched. For instance, some people believe in theistic evolution; the idea that God somehow guided evolution and that this is what Genesis 1 is representing 'poetically' when it talks about God creating animals - but the poetry doesn't match up.
The poetry shows rapid and spontaneous creation, it shows man being created from the dust of the earth. Even when we begin to think of poetic things this might represent, it's still an unfathomable leap to say that Genesis 'supports' the idea of theistic evolution because, even poetically, it doesn't. The quality of truth in God's word is not lessened by the use of poetic language and devices. Psalm 119:160 sums it up really nicely: 'The entirety of [God's] word is truth.'
I think the real issues with interpreting Genesis only really come when non-Christians use it to attack the entirety of Christian faith or biblical reliability but it can also begin to be troublesome when Christians get their priorities wrong.
Don't underestimate the use of science as an idol for many, many people even some Christians. Our primary duty is not to make Genesis fit with scientific discovery - that would as good as saying that the account of creation that God deemed worthy for us to have, Genesis, is insubstantial or lacking when it's not AT ALL. It is totally sufficient to telling us all we NEED to know about how the world began, the involvement God had and the reason for our creation.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the first step of evangelising to someone with a 'creation hang-up' isn't to try and make Genesis fit with what they believe. The first step is to get them to stop idolising science! They must be convinced that it's right to give God and the bible authority over science instead of giving science authority over God and the bible!
Genesis is not a scientific textbook but it tells us the truly essential things we need to understand for our lives and the gospel to make sense.
That is this: God created all things, including humankind, and he created them good. Humankind, cooperating with Satan and failing to trust God, disobeyed God and, as a result, evil entered the world and humankind was cursed with separation from God. Creation, which God made good, became bad because of humans. This is the root cause of all the problems in the world today... and enter Jesus and the gospel of his death and resurrection to reconcile humankind and the rest of creation to their creator!
How God created the world is not the issue AT ALL, it's the why which is really important. This 'why?' should be the starting point for how we live our lives as Christians and also the introduction for those who don't yet know God.
Do you want my stance on creation? I believe that because God deemed Genesis as totally sufficient for informing us of our purpose, we should live our lives and evangelise, to all intents and purposes, as if Genesis is entirely literal... whether we believe it is or not.
The first is about symbolism and metaphor in the bible. It comes from a conversation about one of the biggest issues connected with the topic; how to interpret the account of creation at the beginning of Genesis.
Yes, the beginning of Genesis is poetic. There is no doubt, whereas most of the rest of Genesis appears to be historical, the opening few chapters are rich with poetic devices. The repetition of phrases, the grand descriptive language, the fact that Adam addresses Eve in Hebrew rhyme when he first speaks; all these things point to this segment being poetic. The two most important doctrines or teachings to be taken from the opening chapters are creation (that God created all things good) and the fall (that man, created good, rebelled against God and separated himself from Him).
Now, in poetic terms, the fall is not really a problem. The fall is a spiritual event, easily represented in poetic terms. Although it does result in physical consequences, it's origin and actual happening occur spiritually, in fact, invisibly. Poetry lends itself perfectly to, in fact some might say is defined by, describing the intangible and invisible events that surround us by tying it to objects and situations we can see and understand.
My point is this: whether Adam and Eve literally ate fruit or indulged in some other sinful act which the fruit-eating represents is not the issue - they still sinned. It is rebellion against God whether symbolic or literal. Whether Satan was genuinely disguised as a snake or whether the snake is used to represent Satan as a subtle and dangerous being doesn't matter, Adam and Eve were still tempted by him. Revelation 20:2 shows that the snake is to be regarded as Satan, literal or not. It's true that Genesis does not say this in itself but if we believe the bible is a cohesive document, then Revelation must be correct in its analysis.
In terms of the fall, poetry functions well, in fact actually simplifies and aids our understanding of the complex spiritual event. When it comes to creation, the problems with interpretation begin.
Let's begin by stating this: poetry is a still true but the truth becomes symbolised. If I were to say: 'My girlfriend is a rose' it would be poetic but I would be stating something which I believe to be true; that she is beautiful. In calling her a rose, I have made a link between the generally accepted idea of the beauty of a rose and my girlfriend. I have also made the reader think about the romantic connotations of the flower. Even though the statement is not literally true (my girlfriend is not a thorn-covered flower) it is still true, just in a poetic sense.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because sometimes people take Genesis' quality of being poetry as implying 'It can mean anything'. No! Not at all!
The poetry of the segment doesn't give us license to essentially negate its meaning or twist it. The poetry of Genesis DOES set limits on how far it can be stretched. For instance, some people believe in theistic evolution; the idea that God somehow guided evolution and that this is what Genesis 1 is representing 'poetically' when it talks about God creating animals - but the poetry doesn't match up.
The poetry shows rapid and spontaneous creation, it shows man being created from the dust of the earth. Even when we begin to think of poetic things this might represent, it's still an unfathomable leap to say that Genesis 'supports' the idea of theistic evolution because, even poetically, it doesn't. The quality of truth in God's word is not lessened by the use of poetic language and devices. Psalm 119:160 sums it up really nicely: 'The entirety of [God's] word is truth.'
I think the real issues with interpreting Genesis only really come when non-Christians use it to attack the entirety of Christian faith or biblical reliability but it can also begin to be troublesome when Christians get their priorities wrong.
Don't underestimate the use of science as an idol for many, many people even some Christians. Our primary duty is not to make Genesis fit with scientific discovery - that would as good as saying that the account of creation that God deemed worthy for us to have, Genesis, is insubstantial or lacking when it's not AT ALL. It is totally sufficient to telling us all we NEED to know about how the world began, the involvement God had and the reason for our creation.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the first step of evangelising to someone with a 'creation hang-up' isn't to try and make Genesis fit with what they believe. The first step is to get them to stop idolising science! They must be convinced that it's right to give God and the bible authority over science instead of giving science authority over God and the bible!
Genesis is not a scientific textbook but it tells us the truly essential things we need to understand for our lives and the gospel to make sense.
That is this: God created all things, including humankind, and he created them good. Humankind, cooperating with Satan and failing to trust God, disobeyed God and, as a result, evil entered the world and humankind was cursed with separation from God. Creation, which God made good, became bad because of humans. This is the root cause of all the problems in the world today... and enter Jesus and the gospel of his death and resurrection to reconcile humankind and the rest of creation to their creator!
How God created the world is not the issue AT ALL, it's the why which is really important. This 'why?' should be the starting point for how we live our lives as Christians and also the introduction for those who don't yet know God.
Do you want my stance on creation? I believe that because God deemed Genesis as totally sufficient for informing us of our purpose, we should live our lives and evangelise, to all intents and purposes, as if Genesis is entirely literal... whether we believe it is or not.
Honesty: Being a 'Yes Yes, No No person'
I want to talk about a real personal revelation I've had over the past few weeks.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:37: 'Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.'
Lies hold such a power over us. I especially find that I struggle with telling the truth or, at least, the whole truth. One of the key qualities Jesus attributed to himself was truth; he said 'I am the way, the truth and the life' in John 14:6. If we're trying to imitate and image Jesus to the world, how do we approach simply telling the truth?
This is something God convicts me of again and again. I find the biggest reason for my lies or my withholding of the truth is avoiding awkward situations or conflicts.
If I'm annoyed with someone or upset by something they've done, I tend to just bottle it up. If they ask me, I might tell them, sometimes I don't even do that.
This is easier said than done, but by far the most godly and beneficial way is, as soon as someone upsets you, to tell them in love and grace what they have done and why it upset you or annoyed you. It's so simple. It might be awkward, pride might be hurt on both sides, but the problem will be resolved, issues will be brought to light and it's so much better for everyone involved than the alternative. The alternative is brewing and it happens in the dark of our individuality and pride.
Someone says something which upsets someone else. That person gets down about it, the other person notices their change in attitude and, before you know it, there's miscommunication and ill-feeling, harboured negativity, doubt, mistrust, bitterness, anger. The devil works in the dark of our rugged individualism but God calls us to open, honest, loving community. We can sometimes only believe this open-ness applies only between ourselves and God but it doesn't, it's interpersonal too!
Truth isn't just responsive, it's active, all the time. I wish I could see more and more people just truthfully, lovingly approach their problems head-on. It's one of the deepest desires in my heart for my walk with God to be an honest 'Yes Yes, No No person'. We have to break this power that the enemy has to make us islands. Clear communication, frank and gracious discussion and a valuation of truth and growth over comfort and conflict-avoidance is SO important in all our relationships. We are to be honestly interconnected with God and with each other.
The more we deny truth and suppress it, the more we open ourselves up to the enemy and in reality when we deny truth, we deny Christ. 'I am the truth' he said; part of the quality of God is truth. When we attack it or suppress it in any form, we really attack and suppress God's character and it's reflection in ourselves. I implore you and challenge myself to open up our lives, our thoughts and feelings not just to God but to each other. I'll say my mantra for this just one more time: 'The devil grows his harvest in the darkness of our individualism and pride.'
Pray with me:
'Father God, help me to live a life of honesty, humility and godly communication. Let my 'Yes' be 'Yes' and my 'No' be 'No'. I want to live with integrity and truth because you are integrity and truth. Break down the boundaries between me and yourself and between me and other believers so that we might live in the light of truth. Help me to value communal truth over individual comfort because I know this is the path to peace. Lord, I love you and I love your truth. To your name be all glory, honour and blessing. In Jesus' name which is truth itself, Amen.'
Jesus said in Matthew 5:37: 'Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.'
Lies hold such a power over us. I especially find that I struggle with telling the truth or, at least, the whole truth. One of the key qualities Jesus attributed to himself was truth; he said 'I am the way, the truth and the life' in John 14:6. If we're trying to imitate and image Jesus to the world, how do we approach simply telling the truth?
This is something God convicts me of again and again. I find the biggest reason for my lies or my withholding of the truth is avoiding awkward situations or conflicts.
If I'm annoyed with someone or upset by something they've done, I tend to just bottle it up. If they ask me, I might tell them, sometimes I don't even do that.
This is easier said than done, but by far the most godly and beneficial way is, as soon as someone upsets you, to tell them in love and grace what they have done and why it upset you or annoyed you. It's so simple. It might be awkward, pride might be hurt on both sides, but the problem will be resolved, issues will be brought to light and it's so much better for everyone involved than the alternative. The alternative is brewing and it happens in the dark of our individuality and pride.
Someone says something which upsets someone else. That person gets down about it, the other person notices their change in attitude and, before you know it, there's miscommunication and ill-feeling, harboured negativity, doubt, mistrust, bitterness, anger. The devil works in the dark of our rugged individualism but God calls us to open, honest, loving community. We can sometimes only believe this open-ness applies only between ourselves and God but it doesn't, it's interpersonal too!
Truth isn't just responsive, it's active, all the time. I wish I could see more and more people just truthfully, lovingly approach their problems head-on. It's one of the deepest desires in my heart for my walk with God to be an honest 'Yes Yes, No No person'. We have to break this power that the enemy has to make us islands. Clear communication, frank and gracious discussion and a valuation of truth and growth over comfort and conflict-avoidance is SO important in all our relationships. We are to be honestly interconnected with God and with each other.
The more we deny truth and suppress it, the more we open ourselves up to the enemy and in reality when we deny truth, we deny Christ. 'I am the truth' he said; part of the quality of God is truth. When we attack it or suppress it in any form, we really attack and suppress God's character and it's reflection in ourselves. I implore you and challenge myself to open up our lives, our thoughts and feelings not just to God but to each other. I'll say my mantra for this just one more time: 'The devil grows his harvest in the darkness of our individualism and pride.'
Pray with me:
'Father God, help me to live a life of honesty, humility and godly communication. Let my 'Yes' be 'Yes' and my 'No' be 'No'. I want to live with integrity and truth because you are integrity and truth. Break down the boundaries between me and yourself and between me and other believers so that we might live in the light of truth. Help me to value communal truth over individual comfort because I know this is the path to peace. Lord, I love you and I love your truth. To your name be all glory, honour and blessing. In Jesus' name which is truth itself, Amen.'
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