Reasonable Expectations

We’re seeing a trend in American Christianity which, though not new, begins to become more the norm and less the anomaly.  You’ve heard it before, or something similar. 

“I believe there are many paths to God, and Jesus is one of them.”

Or maybe something like “The Bible is so old, we don’t know what’s true and what’s just stories.”

I have to tell you, statements like these rankle me, they boil my blood.  Not because they go against my own beliefs, though.  I am not so naive to expect everyone to agree with my beliefs.  What irks me most about statements like these is that they show a clear lack of thought.  The people making them have neither thought through their beliefs to see if they are rational, nor done any fact finding to back up their claims.  If you look into them, both of my examples have serious flaws in them!

It's not just the unchurched that are making statements like this, either.  I daresay that if you took a poll of the beliefs of those in your church, you would find phrases like these flowing from the mouths of some of your oldest, most respected members.  At best, those who disagreed with them could not tell you why they are untrue.

Now, I’m not going to take the time to answer those two heretical statements here.  And though many a finger could be pointed, that’s not my goal on Iron Sharpens Iron.  My goal is to get us to take a closer look at our own lives, our own walks, and improve them.  So I’m not going to give you the answers, and I’m not going to blame someone else.  I’m going to challenge YOU to find the answers.  Study your Bible, read some Christian authors (We’ll talk about some of those next time).  Discuss issues like these with your pastor, with the elders in your church.  And don’t let them (or yourself) off easy.  You and I need to know why we say what we say.  I will leave you to think about this with Peter’s instructions in his second letter to the church:

“[A]lways be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” 2 Peter 3:15

The KEY to Success, or Take NOTE!

So last week my wife and I were talking (great marriage building method, guys), and she says to me "Honey, when we're singing in church, can you please pick an octave and stick with it?"

To which I reply "Gladly, babe...If I knew what you were talking about!"

You see, I have very limited musical talent and even less musical knowledge or training. I would like to say it is simply because I've never applied myself, but the fact is, I'm just no good with those things. I couldn't tell you the difference between octave and tone, note and key. They're foreign concepts, the likes of which my brain refuses to latch hold.

That's OK, though. You see ,Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 all remind us that everyone has been blessed with differing gifts, not according to what makes me look good in public, but according to what God has called me to do. I personally have felt a calling to teach and evangelize, therefore God has given me gifts that enable me to do just that. By my inability to follow a few lines of sheet music, one can quickly realize that I am not gifted or called to exhort my brothers and sisters with music, and I'm ok with that.

This is important, because I think that we in the church get caught up in a few "flashy" gifts, and think that if you aren't in the pulpit, the mission field or the choir, you are not important. This is NOT God's purpose with the Gifts of the Spirit! Read the passages I referenced above and you will soon come to understand that all gifts are intended to help us spread the gospel and encourage the Church to persevere.

I want to encourage you to consider where God has called you to serve, first of all, and through that, you will likely find you have a skill or natural ability that will greatly assist that calling. If you are not sure, there are several "Gifts Inventories" which can guide you. They work similar to personality tests, and many vary depending on which denomination created them.

As a final point,we would all do well to remember Paul's words to the Corinthians, right after he talks about the spiritual gifts:

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13: 1-3, NIV, 2011)

Scripture courtesy of Bible Gateway

Gettin' the Word out

Consistently, the #1 selling book in print is the Holy Bible.  Obviously, people want to read the Scriptures. Obviously, the sales of this book have produced substantial income. So why is it that right now, the KJV is one of only a handful of translations available for free electronically?

 In the United States, a work becomes public domain 70 years after the author’s death, or 95 years after publication (it’s more complicated, but that covers the basics).  The obvious problem is the legality of public domain, and that only amplifies the seriousness of my question.

 In the current age, the premium on information is falling.  Even excluding the casual availability of books in public libraries, anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can glean hundreds of thousands of books, legally, at any time.  The popularity of electronic readers further enhances the user friendliness of these books. 

Are the publishers of other versions so attached to their “best selling” profit margins that they cannot release this, the most important words ever printed, into public domain?  What would happen if these versions were made legally available?  If the person seeking truh could log into sites like Project Gutenberg and download the NIV, CEV, or RSV Bible, maybe the American public would stop thinking us archaic and stubborn.

What Century Is This?

Among the Church, one of our strongest tools all too often turns into our largest pitfall.  I’m referring to tradition.  Traditions can be a wonderful, insightful way of passing symbolism and reverence from one generation to the next, but we Christians have perfected the art of beating a dead horse with respect to “the old ways”.  I think the best (worst?) example of this is our persistent use of the King James Version of Scripture.

Nothing says ::out-of-touch:: better than a few good lines in the King’s English.  Somehow, a good number of churches, in America at least, are still not only teaching from this 1611 publication of the Scriptures, they are teaching that it is the only “holy” version of them.  I have heard all manner of excuses for this; each one would be funnier than the last, if it were not so absolutely depressing.  Here’re a few of my favorites.

·         The KJV is the only one without footnotes for alternate meanings.  The actual original 1611 printing…has footnotes.  The translaters didn’t claim to have any special insight into the Greek and Hebrew meanings. The following link shows this clearly. www.bible.ca

·         The KJV has been refined 7 times, as Psalm 12:6 states it should be.  First, the analogy says the Word is like silver that has been refined 7 times.  It's an obvious metaphor.  Second, doing this with words means there were six other English versions before KJV, each translated from the last, arriving finally at KJV.  Sort of like a copy of a copy…and we know how clear those are.

·         The great Preachers all used KJV, i.e. Edwards, Bunyan, Wesley.  Yet other heroes of the faith never read or spoke a single word in English.  Martin Luther, John Calvin, Augustine, Polycarp, Paul.  Oh, and Jesus.

I know, I know, I have just tipped a sacred cow.  That is exactly my point!  Our tradition on this matter has clouded our judgment.  The translation is hard to read, archaic in word meaning, and the fact is, even if you grew up in a church that used KJV solely and consistently, you probably still don’t understand half of what it’s saying! 

We have simply conditioned ourselves to find reverence in the ancient cadences.  The “thou shalt’s” and “verily, I say unto you” put us in a mindset that what we are hearing is something special, something spiritual.  Obviously, this is not the case!  Jesus never uttered the words “Verily, I say unto you,”    He said ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν.  I doubt many looking at THAT feel very "spiritual"!

That I can think of, there is only one excuse for relying upon the King James Version of the Bible, and it just so happens that it is also part of the solution. 

We'll tackle that tomorrow!

A Fire In My Bones

If you've found this page, I don't have to tell you what my purpose is.  Let's clarify anyway, though, shall we?  Proverbs 27:17 states "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another".  In the past year, I have found a growing urgency to address some of the...I'll call them habits, that American Christians have fallen into.  I'm not here to bash anyone, or to play holy roller.  I know I have my failings and faults.  My hope, my prayer, is that my brothers and sisters in Christ will read my thoughts and embrace the challenges I have placed upon myself.  Sometimes I will sound like I'm ranting, and sometimes I will do a little "sacred-cow tipping" (I never like to kill sacred cows, people just get mad, so I'll just go sacred-cow tipping.)
Often you will find my words tough to take, I know, because my wife, my pastor, and my small group at church all find my words a bit tough too.  They know I mean well, though, and soon enough, you'll realize that too.
So come with me, on this challenge, this adventure we call Christiandom.  It's worth the effort!