Re:CREATE is a developing creative think tank within the Church i attend, here is one possible logo for it!
Archives For July 2009
I have gotten way behind in these posts! Eeeeek! In truth i had read the chapters but got a little lazy with the blog posts over the ‘holiday’s.’ I read chapters 3 & 4 a couple of weeks ago and jumped back in to refresh my mind just now. The whole train of thought i had has changed though. In Chapter 3, titled ‘Directionally Challenged,’ the opening line asks ‘Why are so many Christians desperate to find out God’s plan for their lives?’
Kevin DeYoung offers a few suggestions. We want to please God, Some of us are timid, We want perfect fulfillment, We have too many choices and We are cowards. All of these apply to different people i guess but as i pondered this and that opening question this morning i can only answer it for myself. My reasons for joining the maze that is a search for God’s will in the past were wrapped in wanting to please God. Wanting to please God, not just for his pleasure, but so that he would give me a break! It is preached from pulpits, taught in books and sang in Christian music that good things will happen to you and your life will be AWESOME if you please God. If you want to please God because you genuinely want to please God then that is fine but if you have a twisted agenda, then something is up with that! As DeYoung rightly points out, “Faith in Jesus does not guarantee that everything will go our way.”
Listen to what Grandpa DeYoung says, a ‘lifelong Christian, now in his eighties.’ “God’s will was never a question presented to me, or i ever thought about. I always felt that my salvation …..depended on my accepting by faith, the things that we believe. After that, i don’t think i ever had a problem thinking ‘is this the right thing for me?’”
Which leads DeYoung to conclude that we have too many choices! Last night Cherith and i were talking about people we know who seem to have very little or no direction in their lives. They are professing Christians but jobs, relationships and stability just seem to elude them. Too many choices have lead to a complete uncertainty about what they actually want. In the vast amount of choices, they have gotten lost. Of course, there is nothing wrong with having choices about where we eat, how we dress or whether we are a Mac or a P.C. but when the inability to decide upon the big issues in life consumes us as a result, it is disgusting to blame God for not showing us His will. This is what some of us do!
Chapter 4
It made me shiver a little when i read the opening lines of chapter 4, to think that DeYoung is confident enough in our lack of understanding of God’s will to say ‘The conventional approach to the will of God…..” and then describe something like a Magic 8-ball. Is this really how we all think? That was the over-riding thought as i read this chapter. Is our grasp of this really that bad? I started to think again about conversations i had heard, been a part of and about sermons i had heard, books i had read. It dawned on me just how widespread this horoscope voodoo attitude to God is!
I got pretty angry as i read this chapter. To think that in the past i have and millions of other people have believed the lie that God is sneaking around knowing what he wants us to do but not telling us. Playing hide and seek with us as we try to please him. The ‘need’ to know our future section got me angrier because i admit this has often been a big issue for me. I seem to have seasons of this, when i need to know what is around the corner, forgetting that ‘We walk by faith, not by sight.’
‘God told me’ is a common phrase around Christians these days, it gets us off the hook doesn’t it? It puts ALL the responsbility on God, if the decision is a terrible one, no matter the consequences, well “God told me.” I can honestly say i have never used this phrase and when i hear it, forgive me folks, but i usually think “no, HE didn’t” Why, i hear you ask? Well, i have seen it abused so so badly that i know no other response. This is the stuff that shipwrecks people, manipulates the lives of new Christians and destroys confidence in what God really is saying & directing us toward.
God has told me that this post is too long & i should quit while i am ahead, Chapter 5 soon!
Gary’s thoughts s far
John’s thoughts so far
Buy the Book here
In Belfast, shots are fired at the police, a water canon is deployed, petrol bombs and other missiles are thrown and three vans are hijacked. An unconfirmed number of police officers are injured and Sinn Fein blames the ‘real IRA’ for the trouble.
In Londonderry 11 petrol bombs are thrown, missiles are thrown and one police officer is injured.
In Armagh a device explodes, petrol bombs are thrown, two cars are stolen and burnt out and four people are arrested.
In Rasharkin stones and petrol bombs are thrown, three police officers are hurt and one person is arrested.
The most tragic thing about yesterday is this news; “A 30-year-old female member of a flute band has died after being hit by a Range Rover at an Orange parade. The vehicle, which was part of the parade, crashed into Cahard Flute Band as it left the demonstration field at Killyleagh, County Down, on Monday.” from the BBC
Much of this will not shock many people here, we come to expect this, or at least i do. With all the tourist board attempts to make the ’12th’ a cultural festival for all, the T.V. coverage and the peace of the other 50 weeks of the year, we still expect this nonsense. When the drums and flutes come out and the flags are raised it magnifies the divide, a divide that many will not admit still exists. Perhaps it is being fueled by small groups of idiots across our land, i am not sure what to say about that. This is Northern Ireland, this is what we do……….
We need a new way…..
‘Marching season’ begins in Ireland around Easter and today is its ‘high point.’ Its the 12th! ‘What are you doing at the 12th?’ people will ask. Its a HUGE deal for thousands of people here!! Well, its actually the 13th today but marching has been set back to today because having all the razzamatazz on a sunday would be wrong, apparently! Roads will be closed, bonfires will still be smoldering from last nights traditional 11th night gatherings and shops will be closed almost everywhere. It is a public holiday after all. And its all set against the backdrop of paint attacks on Churches, petrol bomb attacks on ‘Orange’ halls and arson attacks on both protestant & catholic families!
We have something here that resembles peace, sure the murders and bombings have stopped for the most part but i can’t help but feel a deep frustration at this time of the year. This week fuels something that is still deep within many people throughout our land. I am a cynic and do not believe i will see it removed during my lifetime. It is deep within our Churches, a place that should be free from hatred & bigotry. It is deep within our schools and our communities. It is passed down through generations!
We need a new way…
