Callouses

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. -Ephesians 4:19

Callous. The word means being hardened and thickened, feeling no emotion, feeling or showing no sympathy for others. In the Greek the word can also mean apathetic. And this is one of the biggest problem I see amongst society as a whole and amongst believers. We live engrossed in a culture that has given itself up to sensuality. We live in a time where people are greedy, lusting after impurity in all its forms. And we ask ourselves why. What is the cause for this corruption of our thoughts and deeds? The answer is plainly written, "they have become callous." And so we have.
Our hearts have become hardened, we feel nothing, becoming numbed to it, we have no sympathy, we are apathetic. It is pathetic.
Look around, sex dominates. It is marketing gold! The sad part is that anyone who knows marketing knows that the reason it is everywhere is because it works. Sensuality has worked its way into ever facet of our society and the sad truth is not that we let it, but that we beg for it. We demand it with what we devote our time and money to. And all it does, aside from allowing lust to creep into our lives even easier than it can anyways, is create an image of beauty that no one can live up to. So we have a generation of women who cannot stand to look in the mirror. We have a generation of kids who kill themselves because they can't afford the right pair of jeans, and somewhere a marketer gets a raise for that. This world is driven by greed, lust, and all sorts of immorality.
Earlier this year we did an outreach type thing about the child sex trafficking that plagues this world and it still angers me to the point that murder seems justifiable. The thing that angers me the most is not simply that there is a supply of that, all of it, in the world, but that the demand is so damn high. Why don't we care? We as humans, we as believers, why doesn't this piss us off more? Are we that calloused?
"He has told you, O man, what you must do. And what does the Lord demand from you, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God?" -Micah 6:8
Do Justice. At the very least we ought to care. When that apathy comes it, when we don't care that people hate themselves because they don't look like a photo shopped model, that should anger us. Instead we stare at that false image of beauty and declare that is what we want. We hold materials in front of us, letting that become who we are. And no one seems too bothered by it. It has become accepted. That is not right. I know I am not immune from this either, please don't get me wrong, I am as guilty as most and more so than many. But at least there are things that upset me to the point that I know I am not callous.
We need to feel. We need to believe in something bigger than culture. Because culture is the realm of the enemy who will use our apathy to spread sensuality and greed for immorality throughout the world, throughout our lives. I guess my plea in this would be that we all find something we are passionate and fight for it. If we want to take back the truth of beauty, then lets do it. No more fake plastic unrealistic touched-up beauty queens, but true beauty. That is worth fighting for. How about a world that isn't dominated by advertising and marketing, where multi-billion dollar corporations no longer have a say in what you think is cool or necessary. Or how about simply a world where people can act decent towards one another, love one another and help each other out with no ulterior motives? Wouldn't that be nice?
It isn't that hard. There is that cute little saying they have "be the change you want to see in the world." Just go out and do it. A cool idea I heard of, for example, is that when you are in the magazine aisle in a store and you see a picture on the front of a magazine that promotes a false beauty or is aimed at making you feel less attractive, or is just plain overly sexual, turn the magazine around so the back cover shows. Don't walk by unnoticing or ignoring anymore. Don't grow apathetic. Don't become calloused to the state of the world around us.
Be passionate for spreading the kingdom, in whatever shape that takes. But no matter what you do, I beg, just do something.

Growing Weak

A week ago I was at a Bible study going over Ephesians 4. We got to the part where it talks about the gifts given to men, and we conversed about our strengths and weaknesses. Oddly, many people, myself included, seemed to feel more comfortable admitting to weaknesses than talking of strengths. Now, I feel this is natural in that people do not want to be seen as braggarts or boastful. Indeed it is an easy thing to forget that the things we count as strengths are only strong because of God. When this happens we do become boastful, that we, in our own strength, have accomplished, at which time it seems, from my experience, God has a funny habit of humbling and reminding us it is Him who gives us power and strength. So when I see my strengths I ought not shy from them. We ought to announce that God has given us a gift, we should use it as often as is fitting, and always give God the credit for it, thus glorifying Him all the more. Whatever we are good at we are so for a reason, and the end is always to bring Him glory, so we should not shy from admitting we have been given strengths, but we should revel in it and praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow.
Weaknesses, however, are what I want to focus on for a bit. For as much as we should revel in the glory of God as He shines out through our strengths with which He has gifted us, even more so ought we to figure out and admit our shortcomings and weaknesses. Why? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." This he says in response to God's saying "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So what, then, is the purpose of boasting or indeed even being grateful for our weaknesses? I would say that it is obvious that God is much more glorified in our weaknesses than He is in our given strengths.
I was thinking of this as I was reflecting recently on my time in Turkey. One of the things I learned there is that I do not possess the gift of evangelism. It is not my strength. However I am also aware that not possessing this gift in no way means I am not supposed to do the work of an evangelist. So then, what does this mean? As I was thinking it dawned on me that while I do not have this particular gift, and have admitted it several times, God still used me in that capacity. In fact, as I have come to find as I examine and admit my weaknesses, God does this a lot. He uses us in the areas we are weak, and in doing so, we see that He is the source of all power and all strength and glorify and praise Him all the more. If I do something well that I am strong at there is a chance that the fact I am good at it will make me forget God. That is, that I will become used to being good at something and so not recognize the miracle of God's strength acting through me. But if I know I am weak in an area, and God still chooses to use me in that capacity, then I can see Him doing it, and in acknowledging that He is the source and only reason for any success I am amazed and will praise Him and bring Him glory. God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. His glory and grace are magnified and put on display.
So I think it is a great thing to examine yourself and find the spots where you are both strong and weak. In the strengths acknowledge God's gift and use them to glorify them. In weakness, admit them! Let people know what you are bad at, where you are weak, because God is still going to use us, and if He uses our weaknesses people will see that. They will wonder how you can do something you have said you were no good at. The answer will be evident and it will be God. And He will be glorified.

Justice, God Style

So I suppose this will serve as an introduction to this blog. It is simply a place where I will post my thoughts on God or certain verses I have gone over recently (relative to the post, not today). I will still keep my other blog(s) for more personal posts, though I suppose some inference to my life may be taken from the verses I am thinking on or on the way I look at them. But perhaps not. Time will tell. So here is the first one. More will follow.

So, John Piper continues to rock my world. Seriously. I am thankful there are people who get things that I don't and have the gift to explain it to me. This time he focused on the verse where God says "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." The question, raised during his nine part seminar on TULIP (The points of Calvinism), was how this is just. How God could choose, before the boys were born and therefore before they had any merits or deeds to separate them, one to love and one to hate. Piper owned the topic.
God says "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Piper brings this up as a similar statement to "I am who I am." Who God is is based solely on Himself, it is not based on anything else. "I am who I am." This statement requires nothing outside of God to complete it. Similarly, the other statement shows God's mercy is based on nothing but His mercy. God does not have mercy or compassion as we do, which is based off of actions. God's compassion and mercy are based solely on Himself. God is infinitely and absolutely free. This freedom, this absolute freedom from any bonds, is a major part of what makes God God and His glory.
So then, how does this play into justice. Well it comes down to how justice is defined according to God, and what God's justice means. Piper says the following:
"God's justice, or righteousness, is His unwavering commitment to uphold and display the worth of His glory. His freedom from all external restraints is an essential aspect of His glory. Therefore, to act in freedom is essential to His glory and thus to His righteousness. Therefore, in exercising that freedom for the upholding of that glory in choosing Jacob over Esau, He is acting in complete justice, He was doing what Justice demands of Him, that is, what the infinite worth of His glory requires. If He had not acted in freedom here, He would have been unjust, that is He would not have justly acted in accordance with the worth of His glory."
This is only a bit of his whole talk, and if you would like to get the whole thing go to Piper's site and get part 6 of his TULIP series. But this statement, this definition of justice is amazing. The idea of election is problematic for many. Unconditional election especially, since it means that God chooses us, like Jacob, before we are born and have done anything, and indeed apart from anything we ever will do. This idea that Piper puts forth shines a new light on that. From God's statement "I am who I am" we know that He is completely free from any restraints. He is the God that is there. Whether we choose to acknowledge Him or not is insignificant to who He is. He has that total freedom and it glorifies Him magnificently. So then, He must maintain that glory. Justice demands it! The purpose of all we do and all God does is to bring Him glory.
AHHHH! I love this so much. It amazes me. Acknowledging it makes it easier for me to appreciate the glory of God. The other day I was driving home and my car kind of swerves if I take my hands of the wheel, and I did and I thought about how I could have died. Then I thought something along the lines of "whatever, God either is going to kill me or not, it's been planned since before time." Then I stopped (not the car, just in my head) because I had another thought. I wondered if my view of God had made me less in awe of Him in light of the my views on predestination and all that. That isn't the problem, I have determined. See, if God keeps me alive I can see it in different ways. I can see it as a miracle that it happened, as it happens or right after. However, if I take the view that all of it was predestined to happen, that it was part of His plan to allow me to live, then I can appreciate Him and His glory still. Not necessarily in the mystery of the moment, but in the appreciation for His amazing grace that He lavishes upon us in every moment, and perhaps even more so in the fact that He prepared this grace before time. He loved us so much before we had done anything and indeed even apart from anything we ever would do. And that made me think of how amazing God is, that in all things we should stop and praise Him for that forethought, not only in our salvation or in the plan He has had for all time of Christ, but for even the little things. Dually praise Him, first for His provision every day in every thing, and again for the fact this is His plan that He has maintained all along. That blows my mind.
And in keeping up His glory, indeed in maintaining that glory and showing its worth He must maintain that central act of complete freedom that is an essential aspect. It blows my mind, that every day we can still know Him more and more. That this infinite God would make Himself known to us through His word. That I can continue to know Him and learn more and keep having my mind blown, that is the best feeling. That is the feeling I hope never to lose in my walk. To be challenged, to be forced to think, to be amazed, I love it.