But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10 KJV
The Irresistible Revolution
"While the voices of blockbuster movies and pop culture cry out for a life outside the matrix of numb efficiency, Christianity often has offered little to the world, other than the hope that things will be better in heaven."
"Sometimes we speak out to change the world, and other times we speak to try to keep the world from changing us."
"In our culture of "seeker sensitivity" and radical inclusivity, the great temptation is to compromise the cost of discipleship in order to draw a larger crowd. With the most sincere hearts, we do not want to see anyone walk away from Jesus because of the discomfort of his cross, so we clip the claws on the Lion a little, we clean up a bit the bloody Passion we are called to follow."
"We would like to include people like the rich ruler and Ananias and Sapphira, but we would end up with the sort of Christianity that arose after Constantine, in which everyone can be a Christian but no one knows what a Christian is anymore."
"For us, belief is only the beginning. What really matters is how we live, how what we believe gets fleshed out, so we also have a statement of orthopraxis (meaning, "right living, right practices"). And this is where most belief-oriented faith communities fall short. They tell us only what they believe, but they do not tell us how their beliefs affect their lifestyles."
"We live in an age in which people, when they hear the word Christian, are much more likely to think of people who hate gays than people who love outcasts, and that is a dangerous thing."
"The world has seen Christian extremists who will blow up abortion clinics and dance on doctors' graves. We have seen Christian extremists who hold signs that say, "God hates fags." The world has seen Christian extremists who declare war in the name of the Lamb. But where are the Christian extremists for love and grace?"
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Non traditional thoughts about life, the world, and God from a Christian's perspective.
"I am seized with fear that my own will will be given place, and I will thus ruin my usableness for God. It would be easy to follow my feelings...to interfere with the voice of the Lord when He says, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' "
Elisabeth Elliott
Thursday, November 09, 2006
An Environment of HonestyScot McKnight has written what is probably the best post on the whole scandal surrounding Ted Haggard. (HT: Rhett Smith)
A few nuggets:
It is easier sometimes for us to trumpet the grace of Jesus for the sinfully-marginalized and excluded, than it is for us in our day to apply the same grace to the fallen. In my assessment, this point is where we must dwell: in praying for the grace of God to heal this man, his family, and the church in which he served.
But, what I find here is what I want to call the evangelical environment. In evangelicalism, and the charismatic stream in which Ted Haggard swims, sin is bad and sin by leaders is real bad. This leads to a complex of features that creates a serious problem:1. Christians, and not just pastors, do not feel free to disclose sins to anyone;
2. Christians, including pastors, sin and sin all the time;
3. Christians, including pastors, in evangelicalism do not have a mechanism of confession;
4. Christians and pastors, because of the environment of condemnation of sin and the absence of a mechanism of confession, bottle up their sins, hide their sins, and create around themselves an apparent purity and a reality of unconfessed/unadmitted sin.
5. When Christians do confess, and it is often only after getting caught, they are eaten alive by fellow evangelicals — thus leading some to deeper levels of secrecy and deceit.What we saw with Haggard is not just about leaders; it is about all of us.
It is dishonest to the human condition to pretend that Christians don’t sin; but as long as we are afraid to confess to one another we will continue to create an unrealistic and hypocritical environment.
I have to agree with him. We have created the kind of environment that leads to this kind of behavior. We bottle our sins up because we're afraid to let anyone see how human we are. We live in this mindset that Christians are someone above the rest when it comes to temptation and sin. Let's join Scot McKnight in trying to create an environment of honesty.
Posted by Amanda at 11/09/2006 09:13:00 AM
2 Comments
ontheedgeofmyseat posted at 11/09/2006 12:08:00 PM
Amanda, this guy hit the nail on the head. Let me spill a secret: Once upon a time, I was struggling with a minor addiction to p0rnography. Praise God that it was a minor addiction, but it was still an addiction. I wasn't able to claim victory over it UNTIL I CONFESSED IT TO MY HUSBAND. I feared his reaction, but it was the exact reaction Jesus Himself would have had. He thanked me for being honest and then prayed for the Lord to give me strength to conquer this sin. I'm happy to say that within days I was free from the need!
How are Christians supposed to be victorious over sin if they're focusing more on hiding it than conquering it?
Dave Taylor posted at 11/09/2006 01:21:00 PM
Thanks for the link and quotes. I missed this one, and it does indeed have some very good points.