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One of the most asked questions I get is, “Where can I go to study the Bible and my faith more in-depth?”  This is asked by new believers and veteran Christians alike.  I think the best starting point for further study is to get a good study Bible, while there are many on the market I love the Zondervan NIV Study Bible.  A regular Bible reading program, supplemented by the good study notes in this Bible will increase anyone’s knowledge of scripture and its setting.  If you’ve done that and are looking for more, or want to know more about church history, theology, and other related subjects there is another resource available.  Through Gordon-Conwell’s Ockenga Institute, a free home study course can be taken online or through correspondence (a charge for materials apply to the non-online option). Continue reading

I’m from a church tradition, that has no church tradition. We are as non-traditional as they come.  Our slogans include: “No creed but the Bible,” “We’re not the only Christians but we’re Christians only (not a denomination),” and “We want to be a church like the first church.” I’m afraid that if Christianity had a flavor, we would be vanilla. Most of the time I like vanilla. I know it’s pure, I know what it is, but I sometimes wonder if a little flavor wouldn’t hurt.

Because Ash Wednesday is nowhere to be found in scripture, many in my non-tradition remain skeptical about it (along with the entire practice of Lent).  I must admit that I approach this season with a bit of hesitancy.  I have a few questions about it. Why do we need ashes on our forehead?  Why do we need to give things up?  Isn’t the cross of Christ I carry in my soul enough?  Isn’t a life of repentance sufficient?

These questions sound good, but I wonder if they’re the real questions I’m asking.  Maybe what I’m really asking is, “Would a day displaying a cross on my forehead match my life?  Am I really as repentant as I think I am?” Is it that I don’t want a cross or I don’t want the world to see it?  Is it that I don’t want an artificial season or is it that I don’t want a season of sacrifice?

In this age of overindulgence would one season dedicated to simplicity and sacrifice be a bad thing?  Some from my non-tradition would argue that all seasons should be seasons of simplicity.  I know that is truly not scriptural, after all consider the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (NRSV) which state:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Furthermore consider the words of Christ in Matthew 9:14-15 (NRSV):

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Have we forgotten what season this is?  This is the season fasting.  The problem for most of us is that we fail to observe this season at all!  We run so fast to get nowhere, we work so hard to get so little, we go until we can’t go any longer.  The seasons of the church might be made by man, but these seasons were made for man.  They remind us that regardless of injections or liposuctions we are still mortal and that we must tend to our mortality.  If we fail to tend to it now the season of mortality will become an eternity.  The seasons of repentance are what lead us to immortality.  So, whether you observe Ash Wednesday or not, let us mark seasons of simplicity and repentance for the bridegroom is gone and it is the season.

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the
earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our
mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is
only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

(from the Book of Common Prayer)

Update 2/17/10: Click here for more Ash Wednesday posts from the CCBlogs Network.

This video is powerful, but a bit shocking.  It didn’t make the cut for Sunday’s message but was close.  In light of our discussion on the prosperity gospel yesterday I thought I would share this online with you…

Why should we make no idols?  God is guarding us from terrible distortions that our images of god cause.  (Click here for the Atlantic Monthly article I referenced about Christianity causing the financial crisis.)  Think of some listed by a professor at Princeton Seminary, Daniel Migliore:

Belief in “God” has destroyed human freedom, even in our own American history we can look back at ways the church justified slavery as a God given institution.

Belief in “God” has sanctioned the exploitation of the weak.  Look at the Crusades and the way that Christians exploited those who were not like them.

Belief in “God” has been used to justify spousal abuse, child abuse, and have kept women in subservient roles throughout history.

This God that has justified these things is not the God of the Bible – or should not be portrayed as the God of the Bible.  This God that has justified these things is a God created in our own image and one that was constructed by man.  And the problem is that…

Our images of God look too much like us! (Exodus 20:4)

1. Pat Robertson’s god, as seen this week (click here for news story/video), looks too much like Pat Robertson who is concerned with revenge and punitive measures.  Maybe your god looks more like you, maybe it’s even more pleasant, the predominant idol of god in America is quite benign at least on the surface and is worshipped by the health, wealth and prosperity gospel preachers.
2. We are exporting this prosperity gospel all over the world.  Even in the poorest reaches of Africa people are teaching that if they give to the their church then they’ll have buckets of money.  We have exported a god of consumerism that looks so much like us here in America. (Click here for Christianity Today’s coverage of the exportation of prosperity gospel.)

Our idols make terrible masters. (Exodus 20:5)

• The problem with making false gods or god in our image is that we end up serving that god instead of the true god.
• Definition of idolatry by Augustine: Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshiped. I think that we can saw we are in danger of worshipping the gifts over the giver.
• Today in many faith healing and prosperity gospel churches they worship their own faith.  What a terrible idol to worship!  The idol that invites you to give and to give and to pray and to pray.  If anything goes wrong it’s your fault because you didn’t have enough faith!  The god of your own faith wasn’t strong enough.
• The idol of that god is my faith – because my faith can do anything!  The idol for some of you is your righteousness – my works can do anything!  The problem is that our faith and works can’t do anything!  That’s why we need God – not just more effort.

Our attempts to control God fail, because he blesses and curses. (Exodus 20:5-6)

• This command does not forbid religious art but creating an idol that would control god.  In other words you can not control God by making his picture and using it.  You can not control god through excess faith.  God is moved by our faith – he is not bound to it!
• John 4 illustrates how religion gets in the way of worship.  The Samaritans thought that God was on their side because they worshipped on this mountain, the Jewish people thought that God was on their side because they worshipped on that mountain.
• I know in some of our darker moments we want to control God, we want to bargain with God, but God doesn’t bargain.  You can’t trade your life for your spouse, you can’t do enough good works to save your children.  You can’t.
• God is trying to save us from the heartache that comes by false hope of false gods.  Whether it be graven image, or a midnight bargain, or our faith as our god.

We must keep worship simple – we must come to God on his terms.

• John 4 illustrates how religion gets in the way of worship.  This woman wanted to talk about mountains and man made rituals – Jesus wanted to talk about life and faith.  He says that we are set free when we worship in…
• Spirit
  • Worshipping God happens in the Spirit and is not confined to a place or time, neither this mountain nor Jerusalem.
  • Worship is laying down everything before God and in return God lifts us up to his vantage point and shows us things from his perspective.
  • When we worship in Spirit we see a connection and clarity.  Acts 13:2
• Truth
  • Romans 1:20-25 makes it clear that we can inappropriately give our worship to something else.
  • What makes true worship is a true object of worship.
  • We must be clear that we worship God, why we worship him.  We must consecrate ourselves for this task and focus on his worth.
• When we come to God with our agenda, when we come to God with our terms, we find a God who looks a lot like us!  When we come to God and say reveal yourself to me, we find God as he is.
• Sometimes the God that we are angry with is not the God that is, rather we are angry at the god we have.  We must discard the idols, gods, in our lives and take up the true God as he is, not as we would have him.