Having Two Legs

Archives For Wisdom

Still Twitching

May 31, 2013 — 1 Comment

Christians will always be for a “third way.” Individual Christians may be members of particular political parties, organizations, cultures, denominations, associations, whatever, but they do so always tentatively, with relative loyalty to the party. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are colonists of another Empire. We are here to establish that Kingdom and its norms, the culture of heaven. But the pattern for accomplishing this is incarnation, death, and resurrection. The pattern of our politics is the gospel.

This means that we, like Jesus, must identify with this world. We already do with our hands and feet and eyes and hair. We’re already embedded here in skin and bones and blood. But we do this by working with the stuff of this world. We incarnate the grace of God by moving piles of rocks around, by organizing words, by wearing clothes, by smearing paint, by studying the clouds, by bringing every thought captive to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And since we love our neighbors we care about the organization of society. We care about culture. No political system is identical to the Kingdom of God. The Church is the colony of the Kingdom of God, the mission of the Kingdom of God, the beachhead of the Kingdom. And so we live and preach and worship and serve and give and create prophetically, calling the nations to repent and turn to King Jesus. But we do it in our bodies, with hands and feet and noses. We do it with colors and smells and shapes and food and drink. We work with other people: people — I might add — who are different from us, thinking thoughts in their heads, with their own sets of hands and feet. And some of them wear buttons and fly flags and put bumper stickers on their cars.

I’ve been writing about the necessity of Bible believing Christians to embrace being misunderstood as right-wing extremists. Though I have sought to be clear, let me say it again: I don’t trust any political party, and I endorse none of them. Let them burn. Politicians are hookers, and the American masses keep them in business. I wrote this last November following the presidential election and still stand by every word. I’m not saying we actually should be right-wing extremists. I’m just saying that faithfulness to Jesus will get you nailed as one. Get ready. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Art, Creation, Culture, Economics, History, Justice & Mercy, Movies, Politics, Wisdom

The Cruciform Heart of the Arts

May 30, 2013 — 5 Comments

Part of the challenge of addressing the topic of Christians and the Arts is that Art and Beauty are some of the biggest idols in our day. Consider the fashion industry, movies, video games, theater, and popular music. Even sports have enormous aesthetic angles with their paraphernalia and nicknacks. You can tell the gods a culture worships by the cathedrals it builds. We build stadiums and shopping malls. What are the stadiums for? For fashion galas, concerts, games, various sorts of artistic events most of them thoroughly sexualized and commoditized to serve our modern Aphrodites and Mammons. What are the shopping malls for? For outfitting our idolatries, for imitating and serving the gods.

And at the same time, there’s nothing whatever wrong or evil with making beautiful clothing, stunning movies, inspiring plays, or fun music. Nor is there anything sinful about building indoor, climate controlled markets to buy and sell in. Three cheers for stadiums and shopping malls. And so you see part of the challenge.

Add to this the fact that if kids grow up on the standard cultural catechism, they grow up venerating the pantheon of cultural icons: Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, and marinating in the general cinematic milieu. And then comes along a guy in the youth group who tells you he wants to be rock star when he grows up. His favorite band is Imagine Dragons, and he can play a few old Aerosmith riffs on the guitar his grandmother bought him. His favorite movie is Transformers 3. Or the college girl who wants to be a theater major. She’s done Shakespeare a few times in high school, and Michelle Pfeiffer is a real inspiration. Or maybe it’s the guy who’s studied the work of the Coen brothers, Tim Burton, Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, and he can talk story telling and camera angles and green screens. He’s following some no-name indie guys too. They’ve got something coming up at Cannes next May. He smokes cigarettes so you know he’s really sincere. You might even say authentic. Continue Reading…

In Art, Bible, Church, Creation, Culture, Evangelism, Grace, Movies, Music, Poetry, Wisdom

Welcome to Extremist-ville

May 29, 2013 — 10 Comments

A reasonable follow up question to my recent post on Rush Limbaugh and Jesus is: why the obvious lean towards being willing to be mistaken for right-wing nut jobs? Why not speak more even-handedly about being associated with left-wing nut jobs too?

Well in principle, that is of course true. We should be willing to stand with Jesus whatever the threat. If I stand up and say biblical principles require that nations have very lax immigration laws, and that we should grant amnesty to all illegal immigrants with no criminal records, I suppose there might be a few conservatives who give me a squinty look. If I suggest that our military has been grossly entangled in economic charades and treated other nations so unjustly and shed so much innocent blood that Christians ought to stay away and get out, I might get a few nationalistic shrieks and boos. What if I endorsed various plans to gradually reduce government spending, taxing, welfare, etc. while continuing benefits for the most at-risk demographics? I’m just an annoying luke warm moderate at the end of the day and not a real threat to anybody. I will receive no hate mail, no bomb threats. Yawn.

Another way to make this point is the fact that, Rahm Emanuel notwithstanding, there are no liberal retards. There are no left-wing nut jobs. There are only right-wing extremists. Now I know that there actually *are* some on the left, but they don’t get tarred and feathered in the media. They don’t get strung up and chased out of town with laughter nipping at their heels. Al Gore shouldn’t be given the time of day. Al Sharpton shouldn’t be anything but a loon. But instead they get time on CNN with people asking them serious questions. On the other hand, Sarah Palin is a complete goon. Ron Paul is a crazy old fart. If Kirk Cameron mentions that homosexuality is a sin, he gets trounced. If an ESPN correspondent is cornered on the air with the same question and politely shares his belief, he gets the red-faced, mouth agape, finger pointing chatter of the media monkeys. Anybody that has a real independent, vaguely biblically informed worldview is a complete nutcase buffoon. But now a guy with the last name Weiner comes along, whom heaven has laughed at previously for having an obsession with the member for which he was named, and now he’s running for mayor of New York City. Heh. Continue Reading…

In Culture, Economics, Education, ethics, Justice & Mercy, Pastoral Theology, Politics, Wisdom

Stay There

May 21, 2013 — 3 Comments

The most important thing for a husband to remember is the most important thing for everyone to remember, and that’s the gospel of Jesus. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the most important thing to remember.

This is for many reasons, but take just one. Men were made to be strong and to lead their wives. But men are sinners and foolish, and they marry sinful and foolish women and that’s just for starters. But the gospel is good news for sinful men and women, even the kind who get married to each other. And so you have to remember the gospel.

Paul says as much to the Ephesians: Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. This means that husbands are called to die for their wives in order to be strong for them and lead them. The problem is that dying sounds like losing. Far too many men plunge into a conflict and after suffering for a bit, after they feel that they have felt the sensation of dying enough, jump off the cross and start barking orders and demand to know why no one is listening.

But when Jesus was mocked as weak, Jesus refused to jump off the cross. The problem many men have is that they jump off the cross thinking that the sensation of dying is the same thing as having died. And unfortunately this is the worst of both worlds. Now your wife’s miffed and you feel like you’ve been through death but haven’t actually fixed anything. And so many men, even Christian men, secretly conclude that it just doesn’t work for them. But that’s like shooting yourself in the foot, and concluding that guns just don’t scare bad guys away. Yeah, good luck with that.

Jesus didn’t jump off the cross. He stayed there and suffered and bled until it was finished, until He died. If you have conflict over how to train your children, where to go to church, what your sex life should be like, how to spend your money, how to spend your time, you need to remember the gospel. Not like some kind of mantra. Not like some kind of good luck charm. You need to remember how the gospel works. Jesus died for sin. He took the shame. He took the false accusations. He took the lies. He took your mess. And He died for it. Now that’s your job, husband. Not that you take away your wife’s sin, not that you’re some kind of perfect savior. No, but it’s your job to imitate Christ to and for your wife. So it’s your job to patiently, graciously listen to her, talk gently to her, pray with her, study the Scriptures with her, get counsel with her, and then make the best decision you can muster for her, remaining calm, cheerful, gentle, affectionate, good humored, full of tenderness and kindness. No matter what. And stay there. Stay there. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Ephesians, Family, Grace, Manalive, Marriage Bed, Pastoral Theology, Theology - Christology, Theology - Soteriology, Wisdom

Jesus, Rush, and the Nature of True Humility

May 20, 2013 — 2 Comments

God made this world, and so long as you’re alive, you can’t escape the way He made it. You might have qualms with gravity, but I’m afraid you’re going to go on living with it.

And since at the center of the world is Jesus Christ, there is no life outside of Him. All things exist and cohere in Him. Therefore, all counterfeit forms of life have to borrow from Jesus. Jesus said that in order to find your life you have to lose it. The greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all. In other words, because the cross has become the center of all human history, everybody is forced to reckon with it. Everybody, even people with qualms, have to live with this fact. And this means there are really only two options. Some bow before it, in true humility, confessing their sins, receiving forgiveness and cleansing, and then they rise bearing that same cross as God works His life into and out of their lives, joyfully following their Savior. Everybody else, failing to actually bow before Christ, must pretend to have humbled themselves. They must pretend to bear a cross. They muster up some kind of limp. They wear it like a cheap toupee. Ever since Jesus came into the world, the old pagan mythos of arrogant strength has been fading away, and now all true power and strength is found in the cross, or else some kind of faux version made with aspartame and a bad aftertaste.

In other words, everybody likes the idea of humility. Ever since Jesus, humility is heroic. Everybody likes the idea of being humble, but nobody really wants to be humbled. In other words, the popular form of humility is a sort of aw-shucks-taint-nothing sort of demeanor. In the broader Christian world it consists of apologizing for everything as often as possible. It’s telling and a little more than ironic that people often describe being humbled at the very point at which they are receiving some kind of recognition, honors, praise. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Bible - 1 Peter, Culture, Politics, TRC, Wisdom

Getting Grace

May 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

Sin is insanity. Sin doesn’t make sense. And for that reason sin always looks for an excuse, justification. And for the same reason, any excuse will do, any justification will work because there really isn’t a good one.

All sin makes matters worse. But we momentarily pretend that sin is the solution, our salvation, our deliverance. Things are not going my way, so I will get angry. Things are taking too long, so I will demand them. I am sexually frustrated so I will serve my lusts. I do not feel respected or honored enough, so I will criticize the success of others. I am depressed and lonely so I will drink until the pain is numb. I have no direction so I will sit here and watch movies and play video games and check facebook every five minutes. I was late to work, so I will lie to my boss. It’s all insane. It never makes sense.

But this isn’t the same thing as saying that sin is completely random. From the perspective of grace, walking in the Light, sin can look horribly schizophrenic and at times completely out of nowhere. But grace also teaches us wisdom, and that wisdom can see the way seeds are planted, sprout, and grow up into big problems. While sin is a certain breed of insanity, it has it’s own predictable logic and trajectory. And that logic includes the need for justification.

Because God is good and righteous and holy, and we are made in His image. We have an inherent need and deep desire for goodness, righteousness, and holiness. In other words, we like being right. We like when things come together, are harmonious, make sense. Only those who are truly mentally handicapped can be at ease with being wrong or inconsistent. And even then, we probably don’t realize or understand how it’s still not that simple. Continue Reading…

In Grace, Pastoral Theology, Wisdom

Made to Hunt Treasure

May 4, 2013 — 1 Comment

The Bible teaches that God made man for this world. God created this world for man. He invented this place for people. God made all things and called them good. Then He created man and woman, and He called it all very good. But God didn’t create the world finished. He didn’t create the world like a piece of art meant only to hang in a gallery somewhere. He created the world as a work in progress. He created the world good and very good, and He rested from His work on the seventh day, the first Sabbath. But in the work of creation, God established a pattern, a picture, an example and told Adam to follow it. Which is to say that God created the world good but not finished. He completed His work and rested, but God made Adam for work also. God made Adam for real work. God made Adam to be fruitful, to create, to invent, to discover, to rule creation with wisdom. And God created the woman to work with him, alongside him, to help him.

When God planted the Garden of Eden and placed Adam and Eve in it, He explained to them that the river flowing out through the middle of the garden actually split into four different river heads. God said, down the first river Pishon, you will find the land of Havilah which is full of gold. It’s good gold and there is bdellium and onyx stones there as well. Adam didn’t even know what gold was. He didn’t know where Havilah was. He didn’t know what bdellium and onyx stones were either. But God gave him these descriptions and pointed into the distance and said, You’re gonna want to go that way. What God did was give Adam the very first treasure map.

But God wasn’t done. He pointed to the other rivers: Gihon goes down to Ethiopia. Hiddekel goes toward Assyria. And the fourth river is called Euphrates, and I’m not even telling you where that one goes. This is glorious. God created the universe and the first man and the first woman, and He set them down in this lovely garden and immediately points out the world to them. But He doesn’t tell them everything. He just points and gives clues. But the point is clear. This world is loaded with glory. It’s loaded with goodness, and it was made for us. And God wants us to find it.

Solomon says that it’s the glory of God to conceal a matter, and it’s the glory of kings to search it out (Pr. 25:2). That’s what this world is for. That’s what people are for. They are for hard work. They are for late nights and early mornings. They are for digging in the dirt: inventing and discovering and uncovering and planting and building and birthing. They are for trial and error. They are for learning. They are for uncovering the glory of God in this world. Continue Reading…

In Bible, Bible - Genesis, Bible - Proverbs, Creation, Family, Manalive, Marriage Bed, Wedding Exhortation, Wisdom

The Porn War

April 30, 2013 — 11 Comments

I’ve blogged about lust and porn before, but I thought I’d put a few more thoughts down here.

You should think about the porn war like any other war as having both defensive and offensive aspects. Defensive warfare is not a winning tactic, but it is a necessary tactic. And usually, when the Spirit has sacked a man, and he comes to his senses, repents, and wants to get out the prison cell of lust and pornography, the defensive angle has to be emphasized first. You need to get real accountability (pastor, parent, wife, godly roommate), change jobs, stop traveling so much, throw away your computer, put Covenant Eyes on your smart phone, cut off your hand or eye causing you to sin (Mt. 5:28-30). Jesus prescribes amputation, so don’t expect this to be very fun. This should be done right away while the Spirit is still burning within you. After about two weeks, the chances of you wanting to do anything drastic fall dramatically. But you should basically imagine your lust as a wild beast. You need to think about killing the damn thing, and that means you need to be your own worst enemy. Imagine the worst about your self. What are you likely to do in your weakest moment? Then cut that off. Pluck it out. Move out. Quit your job. Throw away your phone. Sounds crazy, but if it doesn’t look crazy, I don’t think you can say you’re actually obeying Jesus.

But the real problem is in your heart, in your mind, in the way you think about women, the way you think about sex and love. So after you slammed all the doors shut, padlocked them, run barbed wire around the tops of the fences, and dumped a bunch of broken glass around every entrance and exit, you need to do some hard thinking and praying about your heart and mind. Here’s a list to get you started:

1. God made women in His own image. Women are people. They are human beings. They are beloved daughters of God. He made them. He loves them. He values them. Do you think of women as God’s daughters? Do you recognize that they all belong to Him? They are His? And they are daughters, mothers, sisters, and friends of other people. They are real people. And this does not cease to be true when they are photographed or filmed. When you see a woman on the cover of a magazine do you remember that God made her? That she has an eternal soul, a story, a family, loves, hopes, dreams? Continue Reading…

In Bible - Matthew, Culture, Justice & Mercy, Manalive, Marriage Bed, Wisdom

Nobody Wants to be That Guy

April 29, 2013 — 2 Comments

Nobody wants to be that guy preaching the gospel on the street corner. Nobody wants to be the guy knocking on his neighbors’ doors inviting them to church or sharing Christ with them. Nobody wants to be the girl who tells her roommate it’s a sin for her boyfriend to have his hands down her pants. And no, it doesn’t matter that you’re planning to get married. Nobody wants to be that family that walks out of the theater because they refuse to hang out in the company of losers on screen. Nobody wants to be that student who raises his hand and points out that if there is no god then gang rape is a perfectly reasonable option to consider for sexual fulfillment.

Nobody wants to point out that your favorite television show is full of vile language and more tits than even any self respecting farmer ought to see in a life time. Nobody wants to be the lady who gently suggests that the reason you got that piercing was to offend the older women at church and maybe score with the cute boy in the choir. Nobody really wants to repeat what Paul says about husbands and wives, cheerfully without apology, in a clear voice into the microphone. Don’t worry: I won’t repeat it here in case there are some tender consciences reading. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Romans, Culture, ethics, Evangelism, Grace, Manalive, Wisdom

A Party in Here

March 22, 2013 — Leave a comment

Is God good?

That’s not just a question about intentions or absence of evil. I mean is God good? And if it’s God we’re talking about, He doesn’t get His attributes from the thrift store. He didn’t pick His goodness up at a garage sale. His attributes are not two sizes too small or something He has to grow into. God’s attributes are God-like, divine, perfect, ultimate. In other words the goodness of God is not a hat He puts on occasionally. God’s goodness is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, unsurpassed. To say that God is good is necessarily to claim that God is the Highest Good, the Greatest Good.

So, is God good? Is He explosively good? Overflowingly good? Everlastingly good? Uncontrollably good?

The answer to this question is the difference between light and darkness, the difference between joy and despair, the difference between true repentance and forgiveness on the one hand, and wallowing around in guilt and regrets and fear on the other.

Romans 1 says that the difference between light and darkness is the difference between thankfulness and ingratitude. Because God’s attributes — His glory, His goodness, His love, His mercy are all clearly seen in the world. You can’t miss them. The world is fully loaded with His goodness. But some people insist on not seeing, insist on not worshiping the God who makes it Christmas every day. These people refuse to give Him thanks, and Romans says that when they do this, their hearts are darkened. But it doesn’t stop there. When their hearts are dark, they begin to profess themselves to be very wise. They write books, publish articles, and have quite a lot to say about things, but they are actually fools. And you can tell because they start worshipping inanimate objects and animals and pretty much anything in creation other than the Awesome God who made it all. And God gives them over to their folly, and pretty soon men in suits are explaining in calm voices how sex with animals is probably a natural urge. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Romans, Creation, Grace, Misc, Wisdom, Worship