Grace

Just going to warn you at the start here that this one gets a little technical for a second but I promise it's worth it. At least I think so.

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I'm afraid of a lot of things. Wether it's confined spaces or dark alleyways. Or weirder ones like, swallowing a pill and having it go sideways and lodging itself in your throat and then you either die or have this obstruction in your windpipe for the rest of ever. You know something logical and not crazy sounding at all. But fear is a rational emotion that every single human being has to deal with in their lives. Even those people that puff up their chest and say, "I ain't scared of nothin'." First of all you seem to be afraid of proper grammar. Secondly we all know you have a tiny inner squeal every time you see a spider scurry across your garage floor. No one is gonna think less of you. Long fear rant aside that's not really what I'm getting at. (I know, that's poor writing composition, but who cares, I'm a rebel.) What I'm getting to is one of the things I'm afraid of the most, and that's God's grace. You might be thinking to yourself, "How can he be afraid of something that absolves you of your troubles? That seems like the opposite of fear." Well, that's why I'm writing this, to explain a different type of fear, an intense sensation of uncomfortableness.

Over the past few weeks The Lord has been making the subject of his grace a focal point of my everyday thoughts. And helping me to really understand something that I thought I had a grasp on. For those of you who may not know God's grace is pretty much the central ideology of Christianity. In the fact that, when entering a relationship with Jesus, he first gifts you with his Grace and forgives you of every past transgression. And that's what's frightening to me, why am I permitted this? I'm fearful of this because my worldly mind doesn't comprehend the idea that I am granted this with really no work on my side. It says in the bible, to receive this gift, to receive this relationship, all you have to do is come to Jesus with a sincere heart and ask to join him. It's that simple, why am I allowed that? I don't deserve that at all. Everything you gain in this life is earned in someway or another except this gift that trumps them all. In Old Testament times the wages of sin was death and separation from him for eternity. Because you had sinned and gone against God you were not worthy of his presence. However, The Lord sent himself to Earth in the form of His Son and died upon the cross to absolve each and everyone of us that comes into a relationship with him of our sins. His death now serves as our death to sin. One of my favorite books in the Bible, Romans, explains the impact perfectly. (This is kind of a long excerpt so good luck.) :

"20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?"
(Romans 5: 20 - Romans 6: 3 NASB)

So, we can see that the impact of this grace is an overall changing of mindset and heart path. You think and see things differently. If you make this decision with a pure heart, your mindset and relations with the things you fumbled with in this world will change. You have died to sin so your heart will no longer justify you living in the same sin. That's the heart of conviction to me. 

What I've been realizing recently over the past few weeks is that conviction and grace, though implicated into your life immediately, may not revolutionize the way you fully react in the world until you are fully humbled before The Lord. I've witnessed first hand very close friends of mine going through some of the roughest patches of their life recently. And others battling with issues that haven't surfaced in quite sometime. They've been brought to complete complete breakdowns emotionally and spiritually. It's given me pause and I've begun to reflect back on my darkest periods. And seeing no matter how much I would argue or shout at God he was there to extend his never-ending grace to me. And that brings me back to the fear within God's grace. In it's purest form it is a fear of the unknown. I have no earthly understanding of how, no matter how many times I go against God, he is there to accept me with open arms and pull me out of the pit I've put myself in. 

It breaks my heart that my friends are going through the things they are, but I know from experience that no matter how difficult it might seem it is for the best. I'm a large proponent that Satan will attack those who are going to impact the world for Christ. He sees the potential in you just as God does however he wants to stifle you way before you can influence anyone. A very close friend and mentor of mine said it best, that in the end grace is not something to be earned it's just something that is. Simply it just exists. The Lord's love for us is immeasurable and his grace just is.

"14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
(Hebrews 4: 14-16 NASB)

Thank you and God bless.

Short-Sightedness

Just as a preface to this blog I want to make it clear that I am in no way claiming to be some kind of expert on this topic or really on theology in general. All I can really vouch for is that this is just the way that I see things, as is the case with all of my blogs. 

Anyways, now that that is out of the way, I had a small/moderate/huge (subjective really) revelation yesterday. And it was on the controversial topic of women in the church and their role in leadership. Now, I also want to preface that I am the furthest thing from the expert on women. I feel as though most men are students in the back of that class just trying their hardest to pass the course. But, I've heard this topic come up in a bunch of different venues as of late. People from all sides of the table weighing in whether or not women should be allowed to be leaders in a church setting. This is a fastly multi-sided table. You have many differing view points. Whether its a Christian who is firmly against a woman leading their church or a Christian in that same church whole heartedly behind a female at the pulpit. I've heard the argument from people outside of any distinct religion asking the question of why women would be apart of a religion that "obviously" doesn't respect their influence and strength.

I'm going to keep this somewhat surface level, otherwise it would lead to a long drawn out blog of me stumbling through explaining the many different passages that seem to deny the legitimacy of a woman having any kind of headship in the church. That exercise would ultimately lead to a "blind leading the blind" scenario.

So, the way I see it the core of the apparent "contradiction" that the written word of the Bible and many modern day churches have comes down to very different cultural settings. And trust me I know this point has been brought up many, many times and eloquently done so. All I'm trying to do is give, maybe, another avenue of understanding exactly what is at work here.

The ideology that The Lord does not value the role of women as highly as men is extremely bogus. And any man that claims that a woman is lesser than you is lying straight to his own face. As a man I feel I can speak on behalf of our whole knuckle-dragging gender in saying that without women we would be utterly lost in life. They are the leaders in a whole host of areas. But that is another completely different topic that someone else can get into. What I'm getting at is women are important and have way more influence on the world than what we tend to give credit. And Jesus/God knows this and knew this plain as day. Jesus encountered many women on his time on earth. Whether it was the woman that poured perfume on his head or the prostitute at the well, Jesus had many miraculous encounters with them that turned them around in life and made them lights in our dark world. 

I love the point Jim Henderson at Relevant Magazine brings up in his March 8, 2012 article entitled "Women: The Church's Most Wasted Resource":

"It’s a fact that Jesus did not choose a woman to be one of the Twelve, but it’s just as true that He did not choose a man to be the first person to witness and announce His resurrection. It’s also a fact that no women were included in the inner circle of three who were present with Him at Gethsemane and the Transfiguration, but it’s just as true that no women followers bear the shame of having denied Jesus publicly."

Now why would Jesus go through all this trouble to involve women on such a large and important scale in his work here on Earth but not have them lead in a church setting. Now, we encounter where the dilemma of cultural differences comes into play. In the era of the world in which Jesus blessed us with his presence women were very much seen as lesser than men in all walks of life. They were the caretakers of the home, seemingly servants under the "all-powerful" man. It's for this reason, I believe, that Jesus didn't call the women to stand at the pulpit and teach. He knew that if they had they wouldn't have been shown the slightest light of day by any passerby or patron of that meeting. That's just how the world was. It wasn't that the women weren't capable of leading it was that the men would not have let them. So He worked with women in a different mission. I almost see them in a modern spy thriller being sleeper agents under cover having a more subtle and unseen influence that keeps everything on track in a much larger scope. 

Fast forward to our modern day culture we see this role of women in the church hitting a conflict. This is because this seemingly barbaric view of women is just now becoming less and less common. Up until a few decades ago it was really no argument that the woman's place was back at home being the homemaker. All of this is not to say that it is wrong to be a homemaker, as C.S. Lewis said, 

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ” However, with a surge in civil rights for women their role has increasingly become more and more equal to men. Women are CEO's and presidents and owners at multi-billion dollar corporations. They are congresswomen, governors, mayors. Long gone are the days of them not having a public sense of influence. As it should be, women are becoming equal to men in all walks of life. This is why I think there is no problem with a women leading in a church in this day and age. I understand why it wasn't possible before, but now is a time when women have an equal voice in the world and I see no problem in them teaching me or anyone else about the bible. 

In one of the most controversial passages on this subject comes a great conclusion to my point:

"Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God."

1 Corinthians 11: 11-12

We're all human in the end. Let's just help each other and get past our own short-sidghtedness.

Thank you and God bless.

Mind Heart and Spirit

There are some things that aren't really written. Just uncontainable thoughts and feelings that force themselves into something other than their dark hiding place inside someone's head or heart. This might seem like an over poetic view of what people see as gonzo journalism or beat writing, or what have you, but I see it as much more than that. It's an opening of something more than your inhibitions can even attempt to touch. It is what you're feeling and thinking all at the same time hitting the page at full trot and working side by side. Albeit a lot of the times it can end up being complete and utter nonsensical gibberish, but even beyond that it's more for the writer's experience anyway. It's their form of art and they are expressing their whole self as openly as they can muster. And the same as any other art there are going to be a good number of people that don't really "get it" or they "you know I see why people like it but it's just not for me."

I kind of feel like that's what's happening to me right now. I haven't written on this blog, or really anywhere for that matter, in almost a year. Until tonight when I got inspired by listening to a song and it made me really feel like it was time to open that door again. So I thought I'd fling it wide open. Not for anybody's sake. But to just feel this again. Feel what it's like to dictate in a more comprehensive way as to what goes on in my mind.

So I hope to start this up once more and give it more of a consistant pulse than with which it was operating before. Some of you read my first few blogs but I'd assume that the majority of you who will read this now are completely new. And to both of you, I hope you'll stick with me.

"Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consultation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose." (Philippians 2: 2 NASB)

Thank you and God bless.