Are you an Ipodiot?

You know… one of those people that have their headphones in ALL THE TIME and completely ignore the world around you most of the time? Me too… kinda.

Two things:

1. I worry about people that shut out their own thoughts and personal reflections; those times of silence when you are driving to work or just before you doze off to sleep or when you’re just out walking somewhere with nothing but your own thoughts. I think a lot of adolescents today are at risk of “Distractaphilia”: a desire for constant preoccupation and distraction from self-reflection. A big contributor is technology: iPods, cell phones, PSPs… always giving our attention to the latest media. We are in the information age after all; access to media and information has NEVER been easier in all of history! Recreational drugs used to be a preferred diversion from “real life”, but now could technology/media be our drug? One of Blaise Pascal’s best observations was centuries ahead of his time:

“if our condition were truly happy we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it...the sole cause of our unhappiness is that we do not know how to sit quietly in our room."

(remember this dude lived in the 1600’s! no iPods! No VH1!)

2. However, I’m not saying technology is bad, far from it; I use my mp3 player almost daily! But my question is, what are you putting into your head? Let’s make use of legitimate means for education or encouragement rather than just entertainment or brain-veg. I know, brain-veg is needed sometimes… but may I suggest a few resources where you can fill your iPod (or equivalent, I happen to have a very nice, and much cheaper, Samsung) with some pretty cool lectures, informational talks, even (gasp!) sermons!

Apologetics Audio

Mark Driscoll Sermons

General Knowledge Lectures MP3s: History, Literature, Art, Languages, Science, Philosophy… learn something new!

So avoid “distractaphilia” if possible. Can you handle being alone with your own thoughts? And if you’re an iPodiot, at least fill it up with some good stuff!

Does wearing a tie to church make you more holy?

Would it shock your socks off if I said "Yes"?

Before we get to that quetion, I'd like to lay down some ground work upon which I'll build up to my final answer.

The Bible clearly teaches that God is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at all times; He sees everything that goes on and nothing is hidden from Him (Ps. 139:7-8). So we live our lives “in the fear of the Lord”, this doesn’t mean being frighten of Him, but rather living with the knowledge of His constant watch over us.But also the Bible teaches about God’s special presence; that God especially makes His presence known at certain times and occasions. Like when He spoke from the burning bush to Moses, or the pillar of fire and cloud leading the Israelites through the desert, or filling the temple with His glory at Solomon’s dedication. But even more clearly in the New Testament God promises His special presence to be with the gathering of the local church “for where two or three are gathered in My name, there I AM in the midst of you” Mat. 18:20 (also see 1Cor 5:4, Rev. 1:12-20, Rev. 2:1).

So then we ask ourselves: how did men of the Bible act in God’s special presence? What examples do we have? Moses and the burning bush, bowing low and trembling, even taking off his shoes (Acts 7:32). Joshua falls on his face, (2Chron 7:3) the Israelites fell on their faces and worshipped when they saw the glory of God filling the temple (2Chron. 7:3) as does Ezekiel in Ezek. 44:4. When Isaiah is in God’s special presence he cried out “Woe is me, I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5). Even in the new testament church, when someone new came into the church while the word of God was coming in power, the apostle Paul says he would fall down on his face in reverence and awe of God’s presence (1 Cor. 14:25). So we have a clear view of God’s special presence met with a certain reverence, awe and respect because it’s a special occasion.

Now let’s get back to clothing. I think we would all agree that there is an unwritten general principle that governs the way we dress. If we consider the clothing we have in our closets all falls into a spectrum from “nice” to “not-so-nice”; who ever you are, whatever your socio-economic status, you have some clothes that are nicer than others and you wear the nice clothes on different occasions than your less-nice clothes. This is just how it is. It’s not a principle derived from special revelation (the Bible), but rather from general revelation; its just common sense (the old writers, including the apostle Paul, (1Cor 11:14) would call the “light of nature”). Certain occasions like weddings, job interviews, or funerals would require you to go to the top of that spectrum, the “nice” clothes, for something to wear. Not because we are trying to impress someone necessarily, but out of respect for the occasion (our friends’s wedding, our future employer, our deceased loved one…). Other clothes near the middle or bottom of this spectrum are reserved for casual, every day or recreational occasions.

Now, knowing what we know about God and the visitation of His special presence during worship in the local church, does this occasion fall into the bottom, middle or top of all occasions? I would hope it would be near the top. So it’s not so much that you have to wear this or that; a tie, a suit, a sweater, I don’t think anyone has to go out and buy special clothes for church. All I’m saying is, whatever is in your wardrobe, doesn’t God and His worship deserve something near the top of your wardrobe? Isn’t that just common sense? So if jeans are the best you got; then fine, it’s not the type of clothing, per se, but the heart attitude about the clothing you are wearing with respect to the occasion. So let’s not pretend that “dressing up” is going to scare people away from church. I think it is equally disingenuous. When anyone has a concept of visiting church, it is not because it’s a social club, but because it is the house of God, and if an outsider or non-religious person comes into our midst as sees NO difference in our appearance, THAT is equally dangerous and likely of “scaring” them away because they might think: “Wow, these people say they are coming to worship God, and they just show up so casually. They must not think very highly of their God!”

Now, I'll be plain, I don't think wearing a tie makes me more holy. But neither do I think that my clothes have no relevance at all to my heart attitude towards God's worship, for the reasons i've just given. But really, with the clothing arguments out of the way, if outsiders are really going to be impacted by anything for good, it will not be our appearance, but rather the impact of hearing the truths of God’s word “laying bear the secrets of their own heart” as 1Cor. 14:25 makes clear. So even more than what they SEE, we need to make sure what they HEAR has the stuff that will have this very effect.

Insurance Companies: Pragmatic Virtue Police?

Stick with me here, I’m going to spring an idea I’ve been thinking about, but in which I am no kind of expert, actually I’ve still got my training wheels on I think.

Having recently done some initiating and switching of life/health/car insurance policies, etc. I couldn’t help but notice the lengthy inquiry into my personal life, my habits and lifestyle history in the insurance policy questionnaires that must be filled out before Company X will insure you. Then the waiting to see which “risk pool” you get tossed into (I think I am swimming in the “Preferred Plus, Non-smoker” pool, whatever that means). My understanding of insurance is the insurance companies need to get a history of your lifestyle so they can calculate how much “risk” or liability you will be to them. Meaning if you smoke a pack a day, have 10+ drinks a week, drive a motorcycle, have speeding tickets, have pre-existing medical condition (i.e. diabetes, etc.), received treatment for STDs, or had multiple pregnancies out of wedlock; I’m guessing they would put you in a “high-risk” pool and therefore your premiums (what you pay per month/year) will be higher for the same amount of coverage as someone who doesn’t smoke, drives a car (no tickets), has clean bill of health and no sexually promiscuous lifestyle.

So my comment is… who do they think they are?!?! How dare they judge me and discriminate against me because of my lifestyle?! Those are my own personal lifestyle decisions thank you very much! You can’t tell me what to do or force your rigid rules on me!!

(tongue extracted from cheek)

The truth is, they can and do. It is their business to assess liability, and some lifestyles are just more risky than others. Does that make it morally wrong to do those things? I don’t know, I haven’t made a one for one. I’m just trying to juxtaposition modern “moral relativism” with pragmatic insurance companies.

Two qualifying remarks:

1. Those of you foaming at the mouth because I glossed over pre-existing medical conditions in the list above, wipe the spittle off your chin… I acknowledge that many, many UNchosen providences account for conditions (diabetes, history of breast cancer, poor family situations/role models, no insurance at all!!! etc.) that are difficult to overcome. There is definitely a mix of willful and circumstantial factors and a lot of interdependencies on the dynamics of those factors. I just want to highlight the willful lifestyle choices.

2. Men are inherently evil, and men who work for and run insurance companies are no exception. Everyone is out to make a buck, often at others expense; and I’m sure insurance companies are at the tippy-top of that list. That said, the idea of getting insurance at all I think is still a legitimate one.

Take home points/questions:

1. Does getting insurance indicate a lack of faith in God, or rather being wise in protecting your family?

2. Is there a link between things that are morally wrong and things that make you “uninsurable”? Is pragmatism our highest standard? No, God’s moral law is, but is there a connection…? I think so.

3. The process has made me immensely thankful for my health, my strong family, my church, the hedges that God has graciously guarded me with all my life of which I don’t deserve.

4. There are many who can’t afford insurance, who also have bad habits, lifestyles we “churched people” might cringe at, who rely on the charity of others. What can we do and give at the local level in our churches/individually? What are our convictions about how the government should address the uninsured? I don’t have answers at this point.

Your thoughts?

How did we get the Bible?

If you’ve ever been asked or asked yourself about where the Bible comes from and still have this really fuzzy idea of “well somebody knows for sure” or “my pastors told me we should just trust it” or “come on, no one doubts the Bible” then I’d suggest this refresher on how the Bible has come into existence.

So how do we get from Moses or Paul writing something on some parchment to what we believe about the tabernacle or baptism?

1. Autographs – this is what we call the original writings, the ink put to paper by David or Peter. They most likely don’t exist anymore.

2. Canonization – who decided and what criteria were used to determine which books were included in the canon of scripture? This is an important point but would require a history lesson on the early church and the many councils and synods that were held to affirm the writings that were already widely accepted. All this to say that we know who did it and what criteria they used and ultimately that God was sovereign in this whole process.

3. Manuscripts – copies of the original writings, over 5,000 of the NT alone, this is orders of magnitude more evidence than we have for any other old writings (writings of Plato, Homer’s Iliad, Caesar’s Galic Wars…).

4. Textual Criticism – the process of studying and comparing all the manuscripts to determine which one’s are reliable and how they fit together.

5. Critical Text – the consensus (Greek) text compiled from all the manuscripts we have.

6. Translation – from original language (Greek or Hebrew) to your language (English), this is just one translation step.

7. Version – during translation different versions will translate word for word (NASB, KJV, ESV) thought for thought (NIV, NLT), or simply paraphrase (Living Bible, The Message) in order to convey the meaning in the Greek; usually a tradeoff between accuracy and “readability”.

8. Interpretation – Historical-Grammatical method (hermeneutics). Process of finding the intended meaning of the text from writer to his audience. This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre as well as theological (canonical) considerations.

9. Doctrine – Creeds, Catechisms and Confessions are public declarations of what a church or community of believers believes. These would include common examples such as the Apostle’s and Nicene Creed; the Heidelberg Catechism; and the Belgic, Westminster, and 1689 Confessions of Faith.

My take on the Bible vs. Confessions
This is an illustration I used when I was teaching a kid’s Sunday school class several years ago on doctrine. See what you think.
Imagine the Scriptures as a big bowl of chef’s salad. There is a lot of stuff in salad; lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, hard boiled egg, olives, bacon bits, croutons, dressing… and it tastes really good all mixed together, one bite may be composed of mostly lettuce, cheese and dressing. Other bites might have just cucumbers and a chunk of tomato, but the different combinations in each bite are savory and satisfying.A confession isn’t like that. A confession takes that salad and picks out all the lettuce and lays it in a stack. Then it takes out all the tomato and puts it into another pile and so on, pulling out classes of ingredients and grouping them together. Eventually you’re left with a bunch of stuff in the bottom of the bowl that you don’t quite know which pile it goes in, so you just leave it in the bowl and don’t try to sort it out.
In my salad, lettuce could represent God, it’s the most common and abundant ingredient, just about every bite will have some lettuce in it. But some bites might not have it (book of Esther anyone?). Anyway, I think you can see my analogy; a confession is just an attempt to pick out the most important topics of the Bible (God, man, sin, Jesus, saving faith…) and carefully study and define them according to the systematic usage in the whole Bible. While confessions are not inspired by God, they are serious attempts by committed Christians to organize and understand God’s revelation truthfully. The main purpose is to prevent any weird cultic or heretical departures from the truths of Scripture and provide a sense of unity for the local church.

So I’d invite you to consider what are the most important things contained in the Bible, then look at a confession and recognize that many Christians long before us have valued these same things. We are not meant to be Christians in a historical and cultural vacuum.