Either / Or vs. Both / And

Life goes in cycles. One of those cycles in my life deals with theological issues. I remember when I was 16-18 I entered a period of great debate about issues like Spiritual Gifts, Free-will vs. Predestination, End Times, etc. Every so often I will find myself touching on those topics again, and this seems to be one of those times. I have recently had many conversations with people about the issue of Salvation. Specifically the terms “Free Will” and “Sovereignty” have resurfaced.

One of the detriments of living in the Modern Era is that we have developed an outlook on the world that is either/or. Either it is raining or it is not. Either it is night or it is day. Either things fall when you drop them or they don’t. We like repeatable results, and we like to find singular reasons to explain those results.

This works to a great extent when dealing with the Natural world. But, when we move to the spiritual world I don’t know if it works quite as well. It seems to me that most of the argument over Free Will and Sovereignty occurs because people believe it has to be Either one Or the other. I don’t see why that is true. The Bible seems to clearly defend both schools of thought, so the more logical conclusion would be that it is Both one And the other. The fact that my brain has trouble with that concept should not keep me from holding to it. I have trouble with the concept of the Trinity, but I do not doubt it because of my inability to understand.

I think it would help many Christian “thinkers” (I put this in quotes only because some people seem more interested in defending their own opinions than entering into a serious time of thinking about God's Word and letting it form their opinions) would be well served to use the following process as they debate difficult issues:

1. God speaks first and foremost through the Bible, so I should use it as the source of my opinions. Many people make the mistake of using the Bible as a defense of their opinions, which is quite backwards.
2. God never gets it wrong. If I believe I have found a contradiction in the Scripture then I am wrong, not God. That means I begin to see “contradictions” as a source of my own lack of understanding rather than a failing on God’s part.
3. God is smarter than I am, and some things will be beyond me until I reach eternity. Quite possibly some things will be beyond me even then, but I will probably not care anymore. This became easier to understand when I had children of my own. My son is bright, and I love him to death. But, no matter how good of a teacher I am and how long I try I will not be able to get him to understand physics, calculus, or even rudimentary chemistry. His brain just cannot digest and sort the information yet. I believe the same is true of my brain and some Spiritual concepts. I just will not be able to grasp everything until I am changed.

So, do I believe in a world of Free Will where people have to make an actual choice to follow, serve, and submit to God? Yes. There is too much Scripture supporting that position for me to deny it. But, do I believe that all who come to God are first drawn by God? that He has chosen us before the foundation of the earth and elected us to be His children for now and all eternity? Of course I do, Jesus and the rest of the NT writers speak of it too many times to try to discount.

Do I believe there is a problem holding both of these views at the same time? No. The Bible clearly holds both views at the same time and God seems ok with that. I will choose to be ok with it as well.

The Cost

I read a phrase that struck me today on Steven Furtick's blog. The phrase that jumped out was, "The cost of missing out can be greater than the cost of messing up." On a side note I think it is funny that a quote he read led to him blogging about a topic which led to a quote I read and my blogging. I am not sure that is a good cycle, but it is interesting in its own way.

The obvious implication here is that decisions must be made in the proper time. There is an inherent danger in waiting, or better said stalling, when God presents an opportunity. Too many times the fear of failure prevents the attempt. The real problem here is that our fear indicates our selfishness. We care more about how God will see us than we do about how the world will see Him. Perhaps we also care more about how the world will see us than how God will see us. In the end most hesitation comes back to ME. I don't want to fall flat on my face. I don't want to have to explain why I messed up. I don't want to make a decision that will hurt... me.

There is another implication here as well. Missing out has more than just a time component. It also has a vision component. I remember in college most of the direction I received when it came to my spirituality was based on guarding my morality. It was all good advice, but it was incomplete. I was not warned to watch out for how quickly those four years would be over, how short my time for impact would be on that campus, and how each class may hold a divine appointment in which God wanted to use me to pour out His love into a fellow student. I was focused on not messing up... morally. That focus can sometimes cause us to miss out on the chance to minister to the world around us.

What Happens Next?

This was not my planned post for today, but after doing a little reading (and adding another book to my "will read" list), I figured I might as well post it. You can also blame IE 7 for not allowing me to post this on Craig Groeschel's blog. Since I took the time to type it, it must be good right? :) His basic question was, "What is coming next in the church?" I have actually written a few pages on this topic, but here is the brief version.

Our biggest struggle seems to be staying the same, rather than changing. Perhaps it is just the generation I grew up in (I am 32), but I have seen the church chase so many different cultural trends that it has forgotten its core message... Jesus gives us the life we need and want, and nothing else in this world will.

Talking strategy is all well and good, but I don't think today's church has spent enough time solidifying its vision yet. Vision always precedes strategy. And, vision is almost worthless without accountability. Strangely I almost long for a day when churches are less autonomous and more accountable to one another. I have no idea how that will look since we will be holding people accountable to vision and not strategy. By its very definition this means that church leaders will have to encourage people toward success who choose a completely different strategy than they endorse.

What happens next is that churches begin putting Vision before Strategy. I don't believe the church's biggest issue is "keeping up with cultural shifts". I grew up in the generation that tried to out-MTV the world. The only problem was that we did not realize what MTV was offering. We thought it was fancy videos and catchy multi-media. In truth it was offering kids in a disconnected world a way to have shared experiences in a new social setting. MTV worked because it provided community, not just music videos.

Obviously the church of tomorrow will use different strategies than we do today, but I hope they are founded upon a solid, Biblical vision and not just societal evolution.

ONE YEAR!?!?

It is sometimes hard to believe that our baby girl is already 1 year old. This last Saturday marked her 365th day on the planet, and so we celebrated in the traditional way with food and presents. You have to love a day that celebrates you simply because you managed to survive another rotation of the earth! Actually... it may not be a bad idea to celebrate people simply because they are more often. We get so caught up in celebrating success and achievement that sometimes we can forget that God celebrates us all the time, simply for who we are, not for what we have done.

But, back to my beautiful daughter. For those who have seen pictures, it is sort of crazy how much our two kids look alike. They are about 2.5 years apart in age, but when you look at Jared's 1st birthday and Laura's... well let's just say that we are glad we labeled his pictures because in 10 years or so I doubt we would be able to tell them apart. Jared already thinks that all the baby pictures in the house are Laura. He is constantly pointing to a picture of himself at 1 and saying, "Sister!"

We have discovered that neither of our children like cake. I have a full 4 minutes of video which shows my daughter looking at her cake and wondering why anyone would eat such a messy food. At least that is what I picture her thinking because she does not want to stick her fingers in that thing! Jared was asking for cake all afternoon... but after one bite he decided that he was not much into cake either. Maybe we will switch to birthday suckers or ice cream next year.

The Favorite Present award goes to the new shoes. No, they don't go on Laura's feet, but she sure does love sticking them in her mouth! She used to chew on Jared's shoes, but now she has some shoes of her very own to eat!

God never sleeps

These last few days have been pretty crazy and emotionally draining around the Johnson household. And, in ways that only children can truly master, our kids seem to know just when their mom and dad need a little "quiet" time to actually try to have "adult" conversation. I am pretty sure that is when God speaks to their little hearts and says, "Now is when I need you to test your parents' patience... I am trying to build into them." So, in what I am sure is complete obedience they will begin screaming, fighting, falling into things and hurting themselves, or some mixture of it all.

During these times it is very hard for me to see anything but the here and now. Some days it is as if God opens up the future, or allows me to soar above the daily grind and see my life from His perspective. Other days it seems I can hardly make sense of my minute-by-minute tasks. I take comfort knowing that God never sleeps, God never changes, God never loses sight of the big picture, and God never loses His direction. I can rest at night knowing that He will never rest until He has done in me all that He has planned.

Successful... or Satisfied?

I do a little "consulting" on the side. Sure most of it happens in my own mind as I wonder what I would say if people actually asked me to give them some advice. But, however I get there, I find myself talking with people about their life, their business, their church... whatever. One of the questions that people seem to be asking in the back of their mind is, "Am I successful"? I suppose it is the culture we live in that promotes this feeling that we must be successful to have value.

I think they are asking the wrong question. "Success" is a hard thing to measure, especially if you did not actually set any objectives for yourself when you started your endeavor. The better question is "Are you satisfied?"

Most of the time when we talk about success we are trying to figure out how other people think we are doing. When we talk about satisfaction we begin to think about how we think we are doing. Success has to do with meeting expectations of our culture, satisfaction has to do with meeting expectations of... well that is the next issue isn't it? When we start to think, "What would satisfy me?" then we have started down the proper road. That is when we start to think about things like vision, and purpose, and life-goals. When I sit back and say, "I am satisfied with my life", what I am really saying is, "I am fulfilling the vision and purpose that my life was created for."

I think God wants us to be fulfilled and satisfied in our daily lives. He wants us to forget about success as it is defined by others and focus on vision as it is defined by Him. And, before you start to worry that living a satisfied life = living a lazy life... I have a feeling that God's vision for your life will keep you plenty busy for years to come. Being fulfilled and satisfied does not mean you have to be lazy and bored :).

Lessons from the 'Y"

It has been a few weeks since we made the 8 minute trip to visit our local YMCA. I cannot say that it is because of the great distance. They have a great childcare program too, so I cannot blame that. Our kids are not in school, so it is not really that the summer has been all that different. But, for whatever reason we have not been to the gym in... let's just call it a few weeks.

That all changed this morning. During my workout I stopped to talk to one of the trainers, and we started talking about the whole situation. I mentioned that one of the things that helped me come back was seeing the money leave our bank account every month for the membership. He said, "Yea, when you see that bank account it really makes you think, 'Maybe I ought to visit that place I am giving my money.'" Immediately a verse came to my mind where Jesus says, "Where your treasure is there your heart will be also."

God speaks truth. Not just "spiritual truth" that only applies in my spiritual life; just truth. The fact is that because I have committed to pay the YMCA money every month I have a place in my heart for the YMCA. My treasure went first, the passion and commitment came after. The world has no problem asking for financial commitments up front, and we have no problem giving them. It is the way we get cable TV, the way we get the Internet, the way we get our homes. We put our money into things, and sure enough our heart moves to those things.

I started wondering what might happen if people made the commitment to give to God... like an auto-draft out of my account every two weeks. Whether I go to church or not that money comes out. Actually, I know what would happen. Jesus told us what would happen. If we commit our treasure to Him, then we are one step closer to committing our hearts to him also.

Majestic Whispers and Humble Hearts

Every so often it happens. A passage you have read or song lyrics you have sung a hundred times speak to you in a new way. This morning we sang "Wonderful Maker" and I was struck by the phrase, "How majestic your whispers, how humble your love." When I took time to let those word pictures play out in my mind I was amazed at the power in those statements. I imagined watching God breathe the universe into being with a simple whisper of his breath. That same all-powerful God then chose to humble himself to death, even death on a cross in order to demonstrate His love for His creation.

That began our service, and it continued as we read through Ephesians 2:1-10, which also describes that awesome process of how God took us out of our own sin, despair, and death, and brought us to be seated next to His own Son in Heaven. And, He even declares in verse 10 that this was the place we were intended to have the entire time. Even though we despised our God-given nature and chose to take on the nature of this fallen world, He loved us enough to re-make us into our Original form so that we could enjoy life with Him as He had planned from the very beginning.

What a Wonderful God indeed!

Sun Stand Still

I just want to encourage anyone who sees this to join in prayer for Wade Joye and his wife Ferris. I know that children teach me something about the heart of God for hurting people, and when I see hurting children it is probably the closest to understanding God's longing for his people that I come.

Obviously Wade and Ferris are not the only people hurting, and perhaps their trial is not even the most severe you know of right now. In whichever case you find yourself remember that our God is the God who makes the sun stand still, who parts the sea, and who is able to take an entire world of sin onto himself in order to heal his people.

A Great Privilege

Perhaps it is just the way I was raised, or maybe it is something in my genes, but I have always counted it a great privilege to be born in the United States of America. We are so affluent and freedom is so ingrained into our experience that I believe we often take it for granted. I have not travelled too far out of the US, but it does not take much to realize that our reality is just not the reality of the rest of the world. I do not feel guilty to live in this country, but I do feel blessed.

I always take time to remember exactly what it cost (and still costs each day) to receive the freedom I hold dear; and I hope you will do the same this July 4th. I also hope that we as a country, and specifically we Christians in the USA, will prove faithful with all that we have been given.

God Bless America by making Himself known here once more, and God use America to bless this world once again.

God's Work on My Heart

I was listening to a message last night from Ed Young about "waking up". He mentioned that we never really know that we were asleep until we wake up. That is a pretty simple observation, and it is quite true. I have said several times these last few months that I felt like God was waking me up from some type of sleep last Fall. I did not really know I was asleep... until He woke me up. It truly is an odd experience to move from day to day and have such a big change of view. The things that seem normal when I am asleep seem completely absurd when I am awake. The things that occupy my time and thoughts when I am asleep seem more trivial and self-centered when I am awake. When I am asleep I rarely think of things like "calling" and "mission". When I am awake my calling drives me and it seems like I hardly have enough time in the day to accomplish my mission.

This is the work God is doing in my heart... to awaken me to the great LIFE He has planned for me. I realize that I am some small piece in His grand design, and yet when I strive to play my part to the fullest I am completely fulfilled.