Jesus Voted For Obama

If there are two things that bother me it’s racists and Arminians….  Ok just kidding there are a lot of Arminians that I love.  So what bothers me…hmmm we will call it racists and people whose functional savior is government.  Last night I had my first post election conversation with someone who is a believer (though it seems to me he might be worshiping something other than Christ) and a Christian in ministry no less. As it turned out he was near death with despair over our new president.  Our conversation reveled that he was both ignorant of issues of race and issues of scripture.  On the issue of race I will not even repeat the foolishness because he is young and I will hope he grows,  but needless to say it was foolish and reflected the reality that many young Christians have been so sheltered in the white, American ghetto of Christianity that they have no experience or understanding of how race affects what happens in our country.  Has no one taught them the concept that reconcilliation amongst men is a sign of the power of the gospel?

Not only that but he was ignorant it seems of the fact the God is in control.  We all say this,  but I find that so few of us live it.  I think the reason we do not live it is because  we not actually worship the God of the Bible but rather the god of Americanism.   I keep hearing people (people with bad eschatology, but people none the less) say that this is a sign of the end times, and acting as if Jesus has been thwarted. That is just a bunch of bunk!  Americans think like this because we long ago abandoned Jesus as our hope and his glory as our goal for the safety of a president who would legislate our comfort.  I want all you who are worried to hear this:  Barack Obama won because Jesus wanted him to.  God is soverign.  Votes are cute but really they only serve to convince silly men that they are in charge.  Barack Obama winning did not upend the plans of God.  His plans are his plans.  Now does this mean that Barack will be a great president?  No. He may be,  but he might just be awful,  he might destroy this country and all your worst fears might come true.  So then you ask why would Jesus allow Obama to be president?  Simple.  Jesus is not interested in  building a “government for the people, by the people…”,  he is building a Kingdom.  A Kingdom for him, and by him. His glory is the point.  And frankly God’s glory and bad government have a interesting way of dwelling together,  and if you doubt this ask the 1,000,000 people who come to Christ every month in China and India.  Democracy is ok government,  but if you place your trust in it you will see that it is bad math and bad theology.  Bad math because is seems to believe that the will of the masses has more power than the one who created it all.  Bad theology because it seems to believe that someone and something other that Jesus is in control.   And if Jesus is in control and he himself is our peace, who are we to live in fear if he should choose to build this nation up or if he should bring it low?  He will accomplish his purposes and if we trust him he has told us that his purposes are good.  Even if the goverment does not go our way history and the universe always go Jesus’ way.   In the first centruy the Christians were a minority who refused to give their honor to the empire..and many of them died,  and yet from the blood of the Martyrs came a witness that converted the world. I just can’t imagine first century Christians wringing their hands over the “election” of Nero in a great worry that he would destroy their nation.  In fact as I recall they refused to say “Ceasar is Lord”…when the heck will we?

Great Post Here

Doug Wilson Says:

One of my pet theological peeves is a distortion of the value of “emphasis.” Heresy is a matter of right or wrong, affirmation or denial. Someone can be imbalanced by being . . . imbalanced, but damnable error involves more than being half a bubble off.

and

If you are limber in your joints, you can play the emphasis game, and run circles around everybody. If a theologian “emphasizes” the Old Testament too much, it might lead one to suspect Judaizing. That would be bad. Or, if you like him, you might applaud his recovery of certain Hebraic echos in the letters of Paul. If his work happens to be in the New Testament, the suspicion might be that he is active in promoting Hellenism. After all, is he not a Greek scholar? Hmmm? But if he is a good guy, then the word Hellenism disappears.

On that note I am reconsidering refering to a certain church as Mars Heretical and just calling it Mars Halfbubical.  That is all.

D

When Lions Go To Church

This photo of a lion in church reminds me of what Dorothy Sayers once wrote of Jesus: “We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him “meek and mild,” and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies…”

And don’t we do that? But what would happen if Jesus walked into our churches today? I have a feeling it would be like this picture…we would all run for fear of the “firebrand” as Sayers called him. We have become comfortable with a Jesus who is gentle and meek, but have forgotten the strength, power and Glory it took to walk to the cross and bear our sin. The power to love is only reinforced by his power to create and his power to judge and his power over death. He loves us, not just with the love of roving pacifist commoner, but with the love a Ruling, Reigning King… The incarnation is beautiful, but the power of incarnation will one day be played out in coronation.

Sola Deo Gloria…Come Quickly Great Lion.

The Church in America…

Here is an excerpt for a Lark News Article that i think illustrates well (and humorously) what I was trying to say about the church in the post below…

DENVER — Connection Metro Church, which used its foyer coffee bars to attract visitors to its eight satellite churches in the Denver area, has decided to abandon ministry altogether to focus on coffee.
“People liked the coffee a lot better than the ministry, according to congregational surveys, so we’re practicing what we preached and focusing on our strengths,” says former teaching pastor and now chief marketing officer, Peter Brown.
Many in the congregation seem downright relieved.
“The sermons were okay, but the vanilla frappes were dynamite,” says one woman who regularly attended the church for two years so she could enjoy the special brews. “I even brought my Jewish neighbors and they loved them.”

Read the whole hilariously thing here.  No it’s not true…but given our current ministry culture it could be.

The Tangible Kingdom

I am reading the Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.  Like Hirsch’s “The Forgotten Ways” it is one of those books that totally blows you paradigm.  I am loving it.  I have this dream for American where the church abandons rote Americanism and truly begins to pursue Jesus again.  This book gives a glimpse of what it would look like for that to happen.  Beyond that if you want to know how unique this book is consider the fact that on the back it is endorsed by both Driscoll and McLaren.

A New Collective Blog…

Not much there yet..but there will be: Garage Reformation

Driscoll Answers the Question of the Emerging Church…

Sort of..the question was “What can we learn from the Emergent Church?” I guess his answer was nothing, (or who cares, to be more accurate). At any rate I really enjoyed the message. It is good. You can listen here: Driscoll

Ah Relevance…We hardly knew thee…

Moving this post up:

So I was just reading about this church down Nashville way and I read their whole pitch and it just stressed me out…here are some of the quotes:

you WON’T see people in polyester singing badly

some of the best Christian “rock” music

Make no mistake, it was an EVENT…

Now I read that and I would just laugh if I did not believe that these people truly wanted to reach people for Jesus, but shoot, when will the church learn that just because you are not wearing polyester it does not mean that you are not outdated? Just because you are not back in the ’70’s does not mean that your church is not firmly entrenched in 1992. Why are we bragging about the fact that we have stepped within two decades of pop-culture? Honestly the next time I hear a church describe itself as contemporary I will puke: 1. If you have to describe yourself as contemporary you are not and 2: the word has no meaning or value, it assumes a singular cultural and societal situation that does not exist. We never stop to ask: contemporary to whom? In most cases we the church are only contemporary by comparison to ourselves, and thus are not really contemporary in the sense in which we use it, but updated (yet still desperately behind). The church is essentially a poor caricature of cultures past while at the same time neglecting any real power she has. I would beg the church to discover the term missional, I know it does not go on the billboard as well, but it lives much better and will have a greater impact

Beyond that let’s be honest, some of the excesses of the 1990’s were indeed excesses, I don’t really want church to be an “event” I want it to be and encounter, an encounter with Jesus. I wish churches would just minister in their context and tell everyone it is all about Jesus instead of bragging that every week before the services you have a clown.

(PS for all you churches stuck in the 50’s this post in no way validates your issues)

P.S.S.  My friend Aaron observed that I am just being closed minded and this is probably why our church is not a mega-church, here are his comments:

Dave, you know why we aren't "growing" (as big as that church) ODDS ARE...

...it's because we DON'T have jugglers pre-service

...it's because we DON'T have hula hoop competitions (didn't you read the book about that)

...it's because we DON'T have our pastor paraded in on a motorcycle (side note, that would have been sweet if it was Palm Sunday...and the people were waving and laying down palms for him to enter into)

A Comment from the Out of Ur Blog

Mike Says:

As a member of the Bahai Faith I like to frequent a certain emerging church in Grandville MI. I appreciate how they teach a “first century Jesus” and not the one invented by Constantine (then followed up by the likes of Augustine, Luther, etc).
(please forgive me if this sounds prideful)..It seems that traditional Christians are finally discovering what we followers of Baha’u'llah have been taught for centuries. What the great teacher Jesus had to say was firstly for his generation, however some of what he taught is still applicable for us today. He was a great man. Thank you for keeping an open mind.

Posted by: Mike at May 28, 2006

No commentary here..Jus sayin’…

Oh Bishop :(

This from the Bishop of the Anglican Church in America…I’ll call her Kathy:

“Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?” “We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.”

Oh Kathy, Kathy, Kathy I love the God in a Box/that limits God argument…because frankly it is one of the stupidest arguments that I have ever heard. You are right it would be wrong to put God in our own box, this is what the Second Commandment is about. But to understand God in a way different than he has himself reveled to is not to remove God from any box, but rather to create a new box and a new god and again violate the second commandment. To say that Jesus is the only way to God is not to put God in a box, it is to understand God in the box that he has given us, through Christ and Scripture, the only real limit being in our ability to understand and accept it. One might argue against revelation, or against the Bible but one can not simultaneously claim to believe the Bible and to be a Christian and remove him from the Box of his own self disclosure in Scripture, to do so is to be an idolater and worshiper of false gods, not to mention calling Jesus a liar. And there is really no limit removed or boxing unconstrained if the people you seek to mollifiy are seperated from Jesus because the god you presented to them is not the God who exists. Which would you rather have, a fairy tale god who fit your sensibilites, because in fact you “unboxed” and created him, or a God who presented you with a box and a grid in which to understand him, worship him and follow him? I want a God who while, yes he does judge sin and does claim to be the only way, is still loving, still the hope of the world and above all is real because a fake god no matter how I concieve him cannot save me from me.