NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

What Does It Mean To Be Godly

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It's godly to admit your not near as much like God as you desire to be.

Godly Is Defined By Neither
Tradition Nor Preference

It had been fifty years, give or take, since our Bible college days. Following college, our lives went in separate directions and only reconnected recently. The reunion had become somewhat strained.

At this meeting, we were sitting in a Starbucks sharing memories over coffee (and chocolate-coated coffee beans) and it was apparent that things were different. He was the same entertaining jovial guy and I was still me but the ground had definitely shifted.

We met in Bible college as young, gung-ho, charge-hell-with-a-water-pistol warriors intent on glorifying God which in real terms means rectifying all the wrongs in the world. We were fully committed to doing only right things and were focused on making sure everyone else did the same.

But after 50 years, the inevitable happened. We both shifted. The visions we’d entertained for a successful ministry hadn’t materialized exactly according to plan (they rarely ever do) and our life paths had taken turns we hadn’t anticipated; his for more practical endeavors: jobs, contracts, and paychecks. His devotion to church life had cooled but his conservative views had only hardened.

I had moved from a place of arrogant superiority. I no longer believed that my closest colleagues and I were absolutely right and everyone else was therefore wrong, and realized that maybe we are all a little wrong. I had also shed some of my early “thou shalt nots” so common to fundamentalist thinking, especially 50 years ago.

Jesus died for people who are wrong, not for people who are right and that includes everyone. No one holds the high ground absolutely.

Our thinking had diverged in several areas.

For my friend, Trump was the savior of US politics. I was the bad guy who didn’t vote for Trump and my disagreement was the talk of the brotherhood and a good reason to have less than enjoyable fellowship. Far less!

But there’s more. [Read more…] about What Does It Mean To Be Godly

In God We Trust – In Christians Maybe Not

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Christians are new creations, not final creations.

Christians And Diplomacy
Don’t Mix

Becoming a Christian does not make you right.

Saved, yes! Eternally secure, yes!

Opinionated? Unfortunately!

But will you always be right? Not necessarily. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

  • Christianity is free from error, Christians are not.
  • God is absolutely free from confusion, believers are always vulnerable.
  • The Bible is without error but it’s rather arrogant to think you understand it perfectly.
  • God is all-knowing. Christians must learn everything.

And to do that they must unravel the thread of truth from the tangle of “Christian” voices claiming to know it.

Christians do enjoy many benefits.

  • A Christian is saved, born again, and Spirit inhabited.
  • Christians are children of God, have a new perspective, and a relationship with God.
  • Christians can change for the better but there’s no guarantee. Some go backward.

What is neither promised nor even insinuated is that on the day of salvation you’ll be blessed with instant knowledge of the truth and a well-developed sense of discernment.

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Those are things you’ll have to work for. Salvation is instantaneous, learning the truth is a process.

The Starting Point

All Christians start off as babes. New Christians are nowhere yet. The fact that Christians are commanded to learn the truth means they don’t already have it.

Believing in God is not a synonym for knowing all truth or being completely reliable.

Reliability, of course, is a character issue and a topic for another post but it’s important to keep in mind that Christians are NEW creations, not FINAL creations and they will never be finished products in this life.

Perfection comes only in the next life and for good reason. It’s difficult enough being a saved sinner in an imperfect world. Perfect Christians would clash intolerably.

But back to my point. [Read more…] about In God We Trust – In Christians Maybe Not

The Butterfly Effect – Everyone, Everything’s Connected

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God makes neither junk nor finished products.

Ring around the rosy
A pocket full
of posies
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down

Ring Around The Rosy is one of the best known and time enduring nursery rhymes. Ever! It may be the first.

It is widely known throughout the English speaking world and versions are also found in German, Dutch and Italian. Even more noteworthy is the fact that it dates back to the Great London Plague – mid 1600’s – or possibly earlier.

We don’t know exactly when it was first written or popularized but that’s not the important question.

The important question is how did such a short and apparently meaningless nursery rhyme become so popular?

What influential person wrote it?

How was it popularized without a major publisher?

We don’t have answers to these questions but we do know what inspired it. This little ditty was motivated by a flea. Not a great person. Not a great publisher, but a flea.

One small flea made this happen. [Read more…] about The Butterfly Effect – Everyone, Everything’s Connected

7 Thoughts On Preaching May Surprise You

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Preaching is proclaiming, not prancing, prattling or puffing.

Primitive Methods Don’t Suit
Today’s Technologically
Rich Enviroment

Today, reading and writing are common. Letter writing happens daily and book publishing isn’t far behind.

Even the blind and deaf have the means and skills to write out their thoughts, and technology makes it possible for them to communicate those ideas easily.

For most of human history that wasn’t true.

Writing has been around for a long time but the earliest format, engraving on stone, was restrictive to say the least. Just ten commandments required two stone tablets. Tom Clancy’s latest book would require a mountain of rock.

Even when lighter materials like papyrus became popular, copies could only be reproduced by hand making it very difficult to circulate documents widely.

If you are of the opinion that following the old paths means eschewing technology, you’ll need a truck to carry your Bible to church each Sunday. You’ll struggle to flip to the book of Psalms too.

Not to worry, though. Since reading wasn’t as widespread in the Old and New Testaments as it is now, reproduction and circulation weren’t issues.

But, these facts do raise an obvious question. If written documents couldn’t be shared easily, and many couldn’t read or write anyway, how were community-relevant ideas communicated.

The answer to that question is quite primitive. The most popular form of communication throughout most of human history was the spoken word and the best way to spread important news quickly and widely was through public proclamations.

These proclamations were made by specially designated people in high-traffic locations like the city gates or the courthouse steps. The people appointed for the task were known as the Town or Public Criers and they were clad in special clothing to single them out. It was all very official.

Even as far back as the time of Esther (5th century BC) the King’s official proclamations were communicated to 127 provinces by couriers and criers. It took several months to get the message out but considering the geographical constraints and the lack of technology, that’s not bad.

Criers were the interface between governments and the communities they governed. When information needed sharing, criers would ring a loud bell and cry “hear ye, hear ye” – or something similar. Once they had everyone’s attention the crier would then state or read the announcement.

Those who heard the announcement would pass it along mouth to ear, mouth to ear, mouth to ear and so on, but it all started with a public proclamation.

Education, democracy and technology have made criers obsolete. Education makes reading, writing and thinking skills common. Democracy encourages the sharing of ideas publicly. Technology makes it possible for those ideas to spread quickly.

There’s really no comparison between the media of the New Testament and the media of today. Resonant penetrating criers of yesteryear are easily drowned out by today’s most mild mannered tweets.

This brings me to the topic of this post: Preaching. [Read more…] about 7 Thoughts On Preaching May Surprise You

The Church Is Definitely A Crutch – Own It!

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Crutches enable accountability.

Crutchless Living
Is Not Possible

There are several words associated with religion, some of which are complimentary and others not. A few can be taken both positively and negatively.

A good example is the word school. The church is a place of learning so we call it a Sunday School. That can be good or bad.

Some kids hate it but once they reach adult age the attitude changes. Instead of hating school, they wish they had taken more advantage of the opportunity when they had it. It’s a bad thing at one point and a good thing at another.

In other words, they learned to love what they used to hate.
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But there are other words that aren’t so easy to workaround. They are used as insults when referring to the church and believers take it personally. One such word is Crutch. [Read more…] about The Church Is Definitely A Crutch – Own It!