Do something useful today. Watch this 20-minute Vice documentary that shows the abhorrent and appalling racism of the Charlottesville white nationalists. If you believe Christopher Cantwell, the outspoken white nationalist featured in the video, what happened in Charlottesville was the largest neo-Nazi protest in 20 years. Charmingly, it featured the sort of vehicle-pedestrian violence that the Islamic state favors, only a few days before the latest IS vehicle attack in Barcelona.
The enemy is people who hold human life worthless. They are chanting Nazi slogans, they are driving cars into pedestrians, they are campaigning for an ethno-state, and they don’t want to be peaceful about it.
Seriously, watch the video. There is a hate-filled contingent of white people in our country. And they vote. And sometimes they drive their cars into a peaceful crowd.
On August 15, 2007, I joined Facebook. On August 15, 2017, I will be leaving. It’s been a wonderful decade using the site. When I first joined, I only knew two people who used it, though it had already exploded in popularity. When I leave, 831 people will have one fewer “Friend” in Facebook parlance, although of course my friendships in the true sense have not changed. I have my reasons for leaving, as you’ll read below, but I still believe the site is valuable and one of our generation’s most intriguing innovations. But we need to think about how we use it.
I’ve often defended Facebook to my friends, and I realize now that when I was an acting as an evangelist for the site, it was because I wanted the people I was talking to to be part of my social network. The more people I care about there are on Facebook, the more likely I am to use the tool. But now that Facebook has essentially reached 100% penetration among my loved ones, I’m throwing in the towel. Why?
All of us who use Facebook have become inured to the numerous downsides. Being able to connect with our friends and people whose thinking we admire is certainly a great thing, and a lot of other things would have to be wrong with Facebook for it to tip the scales towards abandoning the site.
But that’s where I am. For me, there were two drivers behind my decision. I will talk about each in turn.
The fighting
This is something almost everyone mentions when you ask them about Facebook. But what specifically bothers me is the fighting between people I admire, over issues I care about, where I can see both sides of the story. For example, when Tim Keller (whom I admire) was recently called out by other people whom I admire for a slightly dodgy statement about the Trinity, I felt both the necessity to talk about the Trinity in accurate terms, and the danger of creating a sort of “Trinity police” that would review all statements regarding the Godhead to ensure that they did not include any heresy, or thoughtcrime.
Of course, this sort of infighting isn’t unique to Facebook, but for me, Facebook brings it to the front of my mind. (I want to emphasize the personal aspect here, because other people thrive in the intellectual debate between people across the world that Facebook makes possible). Facebook does not bring out the peacemaking side of my personality. My personality is divided between the impulse to find common ground between two sides, and the impulse to interject with a witty or sarcastic comment that moves the discussion forward not an inch. In that sense, Facebook has made me a bad peacemaker and a bad debater.
2. The addiction
I recently finished David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest. One of the central concerns of the book is a fatally seductive bootleg film, referred to most of the time simply as “The Entertainment,” although its title is in fact Infinite Jest. Anyone who watches even a few seconds of “The Entertainment” is consumed with the desire to keep watching it. If the viewer is given his way, he will watch “The Entertainment,” forgetting to eat, sleep, or use the toilet, until death by starvation. Even if the viewer is unable to continue watching “The Entertainment,” he will refuse food and become catatonic with desire and eventually die in much the same way.
In Infinite Jest, almost every character displays some form of addiction to everything from marijuana to alcohol to sex. Reading the book with even a cursory knowledge of Wallace’s own struggle with narcotics gives the heartrending depictions of addiction a creepily autobiographical aspect. “The Entertainment” is theapogee of addiction; it gives pleasure so intense that life itself becomes worthless in comparison.
Facebook is for most people, including, I hope, myself, a pleasant diversion, rather than a crippling and life-sucking addiction. But a pleasant diversion that extends across so many minutes for so many days and weeks– eventually, an entire decade–must become something else.
The longest time I previously went without Facebook was 5-6 days, in 2010 or so. Because, like many users, I check Facebook compulsively, a conservative estimate puts my total number of clicks to Facebook 36,000. A little more math allows me to see that I’ve probably spent somewhere between 12-20 days on Facebook in the last decade. That’s not a huge amount when you consider that I’ve spent 1,216 days sleeping in the same time period, but if every minute of every hour of our lives holds significance, then those are days for which I will one day be called to give account. (Edit: I tried to make a more realistic estimate for the time I spent on Facebook. Out of seven days, I calculated that I spent 60 minutes one day, 5 the next, 10 after that, 20 after that, 10 again, 20 again, and 20 a third time, for a total of 145 minutes per week. Over ten years, that comes out to 52.375 days, which is an insane amount of time.)
I am not leaving Facebook permanently. Or at least, I haven’t decided to do so yet. I will be completely deleting my account (so that if I do come back, I will have a clean slate). I will be taking a one-month sabbatical at least, which I will probably extend for months, perhaps even years, perhaps permanently.
I don’t anticipate that my life will change enormously as a result of this. I won’t become a better person overnight. I will probably use much of the time I save from not compulsively checking Facebook checking other sites or wasting time in other ways. But this is a part of my quest to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. Wish me luck, my friends!
The Pro-Life movement always wins when people pay attention to abortion. Only a few radicals really
“I survived Roe v. Wade. Roe. v. Wade will not survive me.” Photo credit: Elizabeth Alison Photograph
support abortion if they know–really know–what they’re supporting. So the last-ditch tactic of the pro-abortion movement is to convince people to turn their eyes away. It’s not that difficult, normally–we’d all much rather accept that Planned Parenthood provides just vague “care,” rather than tearing apart human fetuses, their real raison d’être.
But when America sees abortion for what it really is, they will no longer support it. It’s as simple as that. I believe it will happen, and it might be sooner than we think.
But if Planned Parenthood is really losing the battle, if abortion really becomes illegal, we in the Church will need to be ready. We need to know what the consequences of this will be, both bad and good. We need to be prepared to help women who are pregnant, scared, poor, alone.
So let’s make some plans. I’ve done a little research. Let’s talk about what will happen and what won’t happen when abortion becomes illegal, and what practical things we need to do to bring that day closer.
What Won’t Happen
First, let’s talk about what won’t happen. If you google “making abortion illegal,” you’ll see a lot of sketchy data and scare tactics from pro-abortion researchers. For example, you might read that it’s actually useless to make abortion illegal, because abortion rates are higher in countries where abortion is illegal than they are here.
That is true in some relatively poor countries (e.g. Brazil) where women have limited access to contraception. That means a pregnancy in those countries is both more likely and more perilous, and women are more easily led to seek abortions. That won’t happen here. A more apt comparison would be to the Republic of Ireland, a rich Western democracy like the United States, with the difference that abortion is illegal. Sadly, Irish women can still access abortion in neighboring countries like the UK and the Netherlands. In 2010, the abortion rate in those countries for women who gave an Irish address was 4.4 per 1,000 women aged 15-44. That’s a full 2/3 lower than the abortion rate in the United States, which in 2011 was 13.9 per 1,000 women aged 15-44.
When abortion becomes illegal in the US, a cottage industry of traveling to Canada, Mexico, or Cuba to obtain abortions will develop. Drug cartels in Mexico could use existing clandestine channels to smuggle abortifacients into the country and sell them on the black market. It’s important to realize that the abortion rate would decrease dramatically if it were made illegal, but it would not hit zero. Abortion has been a shameful part of human civilization since the beginning, and it will not go away entirely.
Another common threat is that if abortion is made illegal, women will die from so-called “back-alley abortions.” It’s true that in 1957, before legalization, 257 American women died from botched abortions, while only 10 women died in 2010. The threat is that maternal deaths will spike due to women seeking unsafe abortions, but the simple (if grotesque) fact is that in the last 50 years abortion methods and abortifacients have become so safe (for women) and effective, that maternal death is not significantly higher due to illegal abortions in 1st world countries. When Chile made abortion illegal, for example, a variety of factors actually caused a decrease in maternal mortality. Making abortion illegal is not a threat to women’s health.
So, to summarize, this is what won’t happen if abortion is made illegal:
1. Abortion rates won’t rise. 2. Abortion will not become nonexistent. 3. Maternal deaths will not spike.
What Must Happen
The wave of public revulsion against Planned Parenthood will not last forever, as we humans naturally turn away from things we don’t like to see. I thank God that these videos are being released, but watching them is painful and unpleasant–I’m honestly surprised so many people have. Soon, barring a miracle, the national conversation will turn away from abortion until the next time we’re able to again expose what goes on behind closed doors in a way that people can’t ignore.
In the absence of public attention, we need to fight hard to decrease the abortion rate and stigmatize untrustworthy abortion providers as we fight to make abortion illegal. In fact, we will never make abortion illegal until we lower the abortion rate. 3 in 10 American women will have had abortions by age 45. A sizable number of those women will regret their decision, but the ones who don’t form the core of the abortion caucus. Any justification for abortion is acceptable, no Pro-Life argument can have any validity–any possibility can be considered except that a woman was wrong to get an abortion and that her abortion took a human life.
Our goal must be to lower that 3 in 10 number. Not only will we save children, but we will decrease the amount of women (and men) whose self-assessment of themselves as good persons depends on justifiable abortion.
To lower the abortion rate, the Pro-Life movement must have these two goals (among others):
1. Lower the rate of unintended pregnancies. 2. Present viable options to women who have become pregnant unintentionally (e.g., Adoption).
This will directly benefit the Pro-Life project of lowering the abortion rate and convincing people that abortion is an unnecessary and radical choice.
So, how do we do this?
In Colorado, the pregnancy rate among teenagers fell by 40% between 2009 and 2013, and the teen abortion rate fell by 42% in the same period. The decline was most pronounced in the state’s poorest areas. How did this happen? Colorado provided free long-lasting and ultra-effective birth control to anyone who wanted it.
This is a practical solution that won’t sit too well with some Pro-Lifers. Whether Christians should use implanted birth control is a valid and necessary discussion, but I think the salient fact here is the hundreds of lives saved. There are a lot of things that I wouldn’t advocate normally, but I would if it were a question of preventing a murder. In this case, it is a question of preventing hundreds of thousands of murders.
The result of this and similar measures is fewer babies killed. Fewer women traumatized by abortion. Fewer people who think their sexual freedom depends on the availability of abortion (and thus fewer willing to fight hard for the pro-abortion cause). Pro-Lifers should work for this.
For women who are pregnant and don’t want to be, Pro-Lifers have an ace up our sleeves: crisis pregnancy centers. In 2013, there were 2,500 of these centers across the country, numbering some 700 more than abortion clinics. One of the largest networks, Care Net, reports that it has saved almost 390,000 lives in the past six years alone.
By targeting women at risk for abortion, crisis pregnancy centers like this one give the lie to the pro-abortion mantra that pro-lifers don’t care about women or children, just unborn fetuses. These centers help young women understand how they can handle motherhood, or if they can’t, they refer them to adoption and foster care agencies. These simple tactics have proven to be jaw-droppingly effective: 8 out of 10 women who consider an abortion choose life after visiting a crisis pregnancy center.
When abortion is illegal, crisis pregnancy centers will entirely replace abortion clinics as the places where women go when they need help due to an unplanned pregnancy. Thus, working to strengthen these institutions is one of the most important things we can do to bring about a future in which no children have to die for their parents’ sexual freedom.
It’s important to remember that women who get abortions are not, for the most part, destitute teenagers pressured by their boyfriends or scared of what their parents will think. Most of them are in their 20s and 30s, they’re college students and young members of the workforce. They can afford to raise a child, but they will have to sacrifice to do so. The abortion rate is high because women are not ready to do this, but crisis pregnancy centers help them. The work doesn’t stop when the baby is born–churches have a long way to go in our outreach and care for unwed mothers and their children–but let’s start with the fact that by investing in and volunteering for crisis pregnancy centers, Pro-Lifers can literally save lives.
So, to meet our two goals, here are two practical solutions:
1. Advocate for cheap, effective birth control methods to lower the rate of unintended pregnancy. 2. Fund and advocate for crisis pregnancy centers to provide women practicable alternatives to abortion.
Pro-Lifers don’t often think about what would happen if we actually succeed. It’s time to start, because we’re going to succeed. We need to start working, right now, for the post-abortion future.
Pastor Toby Sumpter of Trinity Reformed Church on the reasons for repentance: love and fear. Pastor Sumpter is a great and good man and his sermons have helped me break down the walls of sin in my life and conquer the strongholds of worldliness that keep me from serving God. Only through Christ, only through love can we come to true repentance. The goodness of God brings us to repentance. The goodness of God brings us to the goodness of God. Please, read the whole thing. If you are a true man or woman, put away fear and throw yourself upon the freely offered love. It will be the most painful and the most glorious thing you will ever do. Read the whole thing HERE.
But why do we repent? Why do we ask for forgiveness? Why do we apologize? Why do we want to go make it right?
There are ultimately only two possible answers to that question. In this world, there are really only two motivators, only two engines that drive every human soul. There is the way of fear and the way of love. The engine of fear drives people to try to obey, to try to do what’s right because they are afraid of the consequences, afraid of what people might think, afraid of pain, afraid of shame, afraid of embarrassment, afraid of being rejected, afraid of losing friends or loved ones, afraid of being alone, afraid of sickness, afraid of disease, and ultimately this is because people are afraid of death (Heb. 2:15). But this kind of fear is ultimately selfish and self-serving, and so it must collapse back onto itself. This kind of fear operates in order to protect self, in order to protect yourself from those fears. But selfishness is always self-defeating. Jesus says that those who try to save their lives will lose them. Those who try to protect themselves will be destroyed. This is because selfishness is actually a thick blindness, and this means that for all the thrashing about, you’re still on a hook that’s drawing you to your death. You’re a lousy protector, a lousy god, and you’re still going to die. And thus, fear begets more fear.
……
It’s the goodness of God that drives us to repentance. It’s the goodness of God that drives us back to the Father who awaits us with open arms. It’s the insistent, stubborn, relentless goodness of God that teaches us to defy our fears, to defy our circumstances, to defy the lies and lusts that seduce us and imprison us. It’s the goodness of God that wakes us up with stomach full of the pods fed to pigs; it’s the goodness of God that wakes us up and reminds us of the goodness in our Father’s house.
To become a vital and useful blog, Man Against World needs to define itself.
Simply, this blog is an exploration of Christian manliness in all things. In other words, when I post a video of racing cars, it’s because Christian men enjoy them; when I post about homosexuality, it’s because that is a massive issue that Christian men have to deal with.
But I have yet to establish what it means to be a Christian man. This blog exists because I and the other writers see many ways in which we ourselves and Christian men in general are confused about identity. The identity of a man who is living for Christ must be firmly cemented in his soul. To solidify “Christian man in the 21st century” as an identity, we need to define masculinity in a way that glorifies Christ and flows from His Word, and that is powerful and relevant to today’s saints.
This is going to take some time, and perhaps quite a few posts. I have some things lined up, and to begin with, this video of Pastor Doug Wilson, where he briefly defines manliness as the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility. I’ll be putting much more thought into this and by Christmas this blog will have a cogent, useful definition of Christian manhood upon which we can re-found this blog.
When you meet someone new, what is the first thing you notice about them? Could it be distressingly greasy hair or a fake smile (with tan)? Could it be a limp handshake or an over-zealous grappling hug? Or could it even be the Levi’s jeans, leather shoes, and vintage t-shirt that replace your eyes with little courtrooms?
Or maybe…
the condition of their heart strikes you suddenly and clearly.
The Actors
The Moscow–Idaho–community is a gift which comes wrapped in wrinkled paper. It possesses, like all places, a unique set of better and worse qualities. This especially regards its populace.
Stepping out of my apartment is like entering a world populated exclusively by sideshow attractions at a Myers-Briggs carnaval des hommes.
At any given time, there will be exactly three men playing guitar, two ladies in ankle skirts–whose theatrics oblige an un-querying audience, and at least one man covered in garbage bags riding the public bus in circles. But you can imagine any sort of person you’d like. They live here.
Yet perhaps the most obvious people group are those amorphous and omnipresent hipsters.Their shoes are invariably authentic, their pants invariably cuffed, their shirts most certainly ironic and cigarettes always lit.
It’s not hard to find them; they roam in threes. But to understand them–and not to live or die–is the question.
The Stage
It is easy, particularly, I believe, for reformed Christians to mock the nations. We are wont to hold society in contempt. We often push escape from or ridicule of sinful man and his evil ways. “Behold, their only thought is only evil continually,” says the high-waisted freshman. With little comments and grand assumptions, the world of culture and island of Christianity grow ever apart. A macho-Presbyterian seems sure that his ways–namely, Johnny Cash and white t-shirts–are supreme. So? Skip to the conclusion.
Make fun of the other guy. You’ll sound tougher.
But could it be possible that these derisable fellows are more than the sum total of their lifestyle? Could it be possible that beneath the clothes there is a man as needful of Christ’s redeeming salvation as ourselves?
The Drama
Why are hipsters hipster? What makes them tick? I argue that there is much more to their philandering than knee-deep vying.
For better or worse, I have spent some decent time on Tumblr, fashion and music blogs, and in coffee or resale shops. Prime hipster locales, if I do say so. Prime location to observe the coming and goings of their trends, discussions, and desires.
All these subjects flaunt an affected veneer. And still beneath it is a truly human element; something which is seeking, a sensitive eye retracted in armor coating and high walls. A brief discourse on their exploits should help shed light on this idea.
Hipster photography is granulated, vague, arbitrary, meaningless. The more obscure you can make a situation the better. If it evokes wanderlust or romanticism, all the greater. In fact, most these photos are not entirely unlike the paintings of the Impressionists. Each moment has value, they say. But their Darwin-educated souls tell them they are products of chance. Each moment contains a spiritual element which is worthy to be observed for its own glory. But their Freudian textbook coolly tells them that this is a production of their failed psyche. Hence the paradox.
Hipster fashion is like digging through a bucket of clothes (pun intended) to find the most authentic, oldest reliquary of ages past. New Balance, Red Wing, and Pabst Blue Ribbon used to have working class associations. Tweed jackets, folk music, and leather shoes point back and say “that was better, let’s do it again.” Nearly all brands related to or adored by these iconoblasts were at one time their grandparents’ brands. So much for innovation.
But why put up with all this trying? Why put up with dejected, romance novels and hopelessly obscure art? Is there any point to it at all; why so much meaning for such fleeting fashions?
If life for the hipster is really all fashion, whence the passion?
If life for the hipster is really all authenticity, why the persona?
If life for them is really nothing more, then… why?
The only reason could be these possess a deeper value than can be blankly seen. It is even possible that this cult did not spring from nothingness but is derived from the yearnings of incomplete hearts in a society devoid of God and full of resenting Christians. I hope you will suspend laughter at such a ludicrous assumption.
The Climax
Man without God distorts himself. Man without God is an ugly, pathetic mammal with dimly reflective skin and an appetite for destruction. But man without God is, more than that, tragic.
“It is not good that man should be alone,” God says of us. How much worse to be without Him than Eve? Our hearts apart from the One in whom they find completion can be nothing more than fleshly vacuums which take in filth and grime to coddle and call very good.
These layers of filth and grime take many forms. Sometimes the heart sucks up alcohol, or drugs and tries to patch its holes with these. Sometimes it will breathe in gang-life or homosexuality and use these to fill the void of their Father’s absence. Sometimes it takes something which we call vain to become their place of worship. Sometimes the heart lacks so drastically the love which only its Creator can provide that foolishness becomes truth, meaninglessness understanding, vanity becomes beauty, and love becomes jealousy.
The saddest part is that these hearts do not recognize their own lack. In their emptiness and depravity, they cannot.
And in go the trends.
The Resolution
What good, then, is it to deride or scorn them? Why mock the foolishness of men without minds or laugh in the faces of children without parents?
How much better to show them a solution. How much better to act like mature, Christian men whose masculinity is not shaken by certain colors and suspend our school-girl snickering? How much better to demonstrate our own love in that while they are still vain, we die to ourselves, suppress our judgment and offer hope and understanding which can only be found in Christ’s love?
Given our unmerited salvation, isn’t that the least we can do?
“Norway Charges Christian Extremist.” New York Times headline.
Is Breivik a Christian, albeit an “extremist” one? There’s an easy answer. Bill O’Reilly has made a lot of money telling cranky old people what they want to hear. But he hits the mark dead on in this editorial.
But why would the [New York] Times brand Breivik a Christian? He is not attached to any church, has no history of Christian activity, has openly criticized the Protestant philosophy and has admitted to committing acts counter to all Christian teaching.
….
Breivik did not kill in the name of Jesus. He was not a member of a Christian-based al-Qaida-like [sic] group. It seems he is simply a murderer, a man devoid of any spiritual conscience, a direct descendant of Cain.
Yet, somehow, Breivik is now a member of a peace-loving, compassionate group. He’s a Christian. Who knew?
I believe Americanized Muslims have made the same argument about Muslim extremists. However, it’s verifiable that violent Islamists are closer to the catechism of the Koran than violent Christians are to the Bible’s teaching. It’s sad that there are people in the world who will use the horrific attacks in Norway as evidence that Christianity and Islam are peas in a violent, ignorant pod. It is up to us, we who have been saved by the sacrificial love of Christ, to show the world that there is no place in Christ’s kingdom for the violence of men like Anders Behring Breivik.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Sons of God.
Soon I will be heading home again. I am done with one year of college. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m sitting on a folding chair in the wreckage of the cubicle I’ve lived in for more than nine months now. The dishwasher is humming, pregnant with the last load of dishes I’ll ever do in this house.
Most people know this already, but moving is hard. I’ve moved before, of course, but then my parents were in charge. Now, I am. Sort of. Sometimes they still pay for stuff, thank God.
I do not regret my decision to get college’d so far from home. I am receiving a unique and extremely valuable (and shockingly challenging) education that I wouldn’t trade for any things except an Aston Martin V8 Vantage in silver and a Ford Mustang GT in Grabber Blue. But the arduous process of moving twice a year, from cheeseland to potatodistrict and back again–it’s going to get old.
This summer is a watershed. If all goes well, I’ll be working an adult job and driving my own car. There will come a time, perhaps soon, when I will no longer be an adolescent, part of a family unit Against the World. I will be a Man Against the World.
And then, maybe, Man Against World will come to maturity. For those who haven’t been reading since the beginning, Man Against World is designed to one day become an all-encompassing magazine/webzine for young Christian men.
From theology to women to music, I want to cover it all, because Christian men are called to be distinct from the world in everything, not just their “spirituality” and their Sunday morning schedule.
Everyone loves the underdog, so they say. You know who are the underdogs in the American story right now? Men who are trying to do the right thing by God and their families. And despite the odds being against us, we’re not getting any grassroots support from the people who watch those underdog sports movies. Or anyone, really, outside of God’s covenant. Everyone is fighting against us because we should be fighting them, and loving them at the same time. Whoah, paradox. We must hate that they hate God and love the parts of them that can be made lovely if they accept the love we offer them from the Lover.
The number of socially, emotionally, and spiritually mature young Christian men in this age of man children is depressingly low. They need help. They need a standard. As the body of believers, we’re not a social club that meets to talk about feelings, we’re the viceregents of this sorry place, set in charge by the watchful King. Let’s act like it, and teach others take their place in the kingdom.
As a full-time college student, I don’t have the time or the cash that this blog deserves. But this summer, when time at least is not such a rare commodity, I pledge to work hard to take this blog to the next level–after I determine what that is.
This is going to be a summer of change, and of journeys. An odyssey. But, Lord willing, I’ll avoid amorous goddesses, blind prophets, and cyclopes. Maybe find Penelope a little sooner than Crafty Ulysses did.
If you think that Christian men need help, and that Man Against World might help them (us), then please do the most effective thing you can: pray for our success. More posts coming as the summer unfolds.
Medicine is sometimes really hard to take. When I had pseudo-pneumonia for more than three weeks, taking cough syrup every 6 hours was almost unbearable. The only things worse, in fact, were the coughing fits I had when I didn’t take the medicine.
Not every medicine is a tablet or a syrup you have to choke down. God is the great physician, and He is working constantly for the good of those He loves. He disciplines us, and tests us. He gives us medicine in the form of experience, hindsight, and answered prayers.
Well, I’m on a dose of that divine prescription right now. And it’s not feeling too great. But as with cough syrup, I know I’ll get a little bit better, or be a slightly better person, on the other side.
Occasionally, we do something with very little selfish intent. More commonly, selfishness is deeply involved. Who knows? Maybe it’s the only motivation. This little episode was one of the latter kind of stories.
I acted selfishly and I started something that I wasn’t prepared to follow up on. There was a vast gulf between us, and it wasn’t just distance. Still, selfishly, I let my feelings take control.
——
Six weeks later, it fizzled. And I was angry. And you got angry. And you were right to be. It was sweet of you to deny that it was my fault, but let me tell you, sister, it was. And I’m sorry. And in hindsight, it all seems clear to me. In hindsight, I can see what a complete selfish pimple I was. I know you shared my feelings, but that doesn’t make it right. Feelings aren’t what rules the universe (more on the true Ruler in a minute).
So I wish you the best. And I hope we won’t lose the friendship we’ve built over almost two years because of my selfishness. I will pray for you as I have been for a long time now.
——
So now I’m moping, and I’m thinking, and I’m praying. That’s my medicine. In a speech I heard on Friday, a pastor urged us to rid ourselves from bitterness. “The LORD disciplines those whom He loves.” He is the teacher, the Bible is the curriculum, and life is the test. There is no Curve. He is a doctor, we are the patients, sin is the disease, the tests and trials of this life are the medicine.
So thanks for the trial, the medicine. Thanks for making me see my past with eyes of truth. Please forgive me. Let me forget myself and put on Christ. Open my eyes so that my every action pleases your eyes, Lord. Amen.
P.S. Ver est in aere! (For my non-Latin-speaking friends: Spring is in the air!)
This is the first post by MAG’s cowriter. Look, listen, and take heed. -M
“Here am I. Send me.”
We have all heard these words which came from the mouth of the prophet Isaiah. He spoke thus in response to the call of the Lord, offering himself as the man to bring God’s word to the nations. It was a hard job, and he knew it would be dangerous. By faith he was able to set aside the fear of what dangers might befall him and trust himself to the hands of our Lord. Undoubtedly this was an act of courage and of faith; courage to face all of the many trials to come, and faith that the Lord would give him words to say, and protect him from danger. Can we claim the same courage and Faith? I don’t know about you, but I certainly wonder about myself.
These passages of the Bible that deal with great men of the faith make me feel so inadequate at times. I cannot be so bold as to claim anywhere near the faith that these men had. I feel like a child, no, an infant in light of these Godly men, and yet the Scriptures promise that we, God’s children, shall all be equally glorified in heaven. Have you ever had that strange feeling like you don’t deserve anything near what is promised you in the Bible? I know I do. I feel so miserably inadequate sometimes that I ask God why He even bothers trying to keep up with how often I find myself repenting. It is in these times that I realize that it took more than outward courage and faith to say those self-sacrificing words “Here am I. Send me.” It took inward courage and faith.
They seem the same, but to me the two hold separate meanings. Outward courage, as I would describe it, is courage to face physical and spiritual trial for the sake of God’s work. Outward faith, then, is faith that God will protect, defend, and provide for you. If you hadn’t noticed, that only covers one of two battles that must be fought. It also took inward courage and faith.
I would describe inward courage as the courage to approach a God who you know could squish you like a bug at the moment of His choosing. The courage to present yourself even as a mere servant to the God whom you have so deeply offended that you deserve nothing but hell for eternity. This is a brand of courage that surpasses all reason. Frankly, if you truly have an understanding of the relationship between God and sinful men, you understand that this kind of courage does not exist. There is not an unregenerate man on earth, nor has there ever been who understands his sin against God and what it deserves and still has the courage to approach Him. This is where inward faith comes in.
Knowing that our sins have earned us an eternity of torture and torment we must realize that courage alone will not save us. Left to our own devices we are completely and utterly doomed to hell. We have nothing worthy of salvation in and of ourselves. Inward faith is understanding this. Inward faith is knowing that God should send us to hell. What do we have faith in? We have faith in the work of the only One who could ever cancel our infinite debt. We have faith in the work of Christ. Inward faith, then, is knowing and believing that, through the work of Jesus Christ and His work alone, we are able to stand before God as though we have never sinned. Inward courage, then, can only come as a result of inward faith. This is something that I must daily some to terms with. When I look at my life, it is a wonder why God even bothers to think about me, let alone forgive me and allow me into His presence. Yet, despite all my self-doubt, it is true.
In order to be able to offer yourself to God as Isaiah did, then, you must understand two things. Rather, you must believe two things. First, you must believe that you have been justified through the work of Christ, and are therefore worthy to come into the presence of God by His work alone. Second, you must believe that God will strengthen, sustain, defend, and provide for you while you are in His service. Only after you have come to terms with these truths will you be able in body, mind, and spirit to offer yourself as a living sacrifice to the one who gave His perfect life for your unworthy life.
Note that I said you must believe these things. Believing, for me, is often the hardest part. For all the doubt that I have struggled with in my life, there has never been a time that I have doubted my own unworthiness. Even though I have been raised learning that Christ paid the penalty for all of my sins and that I can never do anything that God cannot forgive, it is still hard to accept that all of the vile, rotten, sinful, wicked things I have done against God and my fellow-man are washed “as white as snow.” After all, if I were God, I wouldn’t forgive me. Well for all of you readers out there who can relate to anything I have just said, I have some news for you:
YOU ARE NOT GOD.
In fact, the thought that you wouldn’t forgive yourself is proof of that. God is far more merciful than you or I can even imagine. Through the blood of Christ your sins (yes, even that sin that no one else knows about and you will never forgive yourself for) are all cast as far from God as the east is from the west. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a really long way. It is God’s way of telling you that you need to stop kicking yourself for sins of the past, and look into brightening your future walk with Him. Any sin that you have committed, or ever will commit is paid for, and you, my friend, are debt free.
If you have read and believe all of the above, then give me one good excuse why you should not be crying out as Isaiah did. What is stopping you? I understand completely if you are afraid that you will fail God. I have been there myself, but understand that this a sinful mentality! Not only are you ignoring the fact that you have already been justified before God, but you are belittling the power of the blood of Christ to sanctify if you continually call yourself “unworthy!” Brothers, sisters, children of the living God: there is a fine line between humility and cowardice when it comes to serving God’s kingdom. If you repeatedly neglect His call to service claiming unworthiness you call Christs blood a vain sacrifice, and you are a coward. Isaiah was just as human as you and I, but he had understanding. He understood what it meant to have both inward and outward courage and faith, and he understood what it meant to give his life as a living sacrifice. God never demands perfection. He requires men who humbly present themselves as weak vessels made strong only in the work of the God to whom they owe their very souls anyway. It is time we stopped wallowing in our regret and self-pity, and started rejoicing in the salvation that has already been won for us. One day we will be rid of this sinful nature we so passionately despise, and will rejoice in all that Christ did through us. What a privilege to be the hands and feet of our living savior; let us not squander what little time we have, but use it to glorify God, and to fully enjoy Him forever.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” –Rom. 3:23-24
“Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” –Psalms 32:1-2
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” –Gal. 2:20
Older adults love to talk about how the world is getting worse and worse. This generation is writing an awful new chapter in the long, tattered treatise on human depravity. They’re going to burn our homes and empty our IRAs. Doom. Gloom. To quote My Chemical Romance, “Teenagers scare/the living s*** out of me.”
Nope, sorry.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” says Ecclesiastes. The world isn’t getting any better, but it also isn’t getting any worse. Christ is worshipped as fervently as He was twenty, thirty, six hundred years ago. That doesn’t mean, however, that the world is an easy place to live in.
It blows my mind when I read about Paul and the other church fathers who welcomed persecution. They were so convicted of their unworthiness to be called children of God that they welcomed the penalty this world gives for Godolatry. Rejoice when you’re persecuted, Jesus says.
We don’t want to think of this world as an unfriendly place. Americans especially like to think of this entire country as a City on a Hill that Cannot Be Shaken by immorality, and no one here will ever commit violence on us because of our beliefs.
And it’s certainly possible to go through life without violent hands ever being laid on you because you believe in a Holy God.
But is a life like that worth living?
I’m not suggesting that a life without physical violence is empty. But maybe we should trigger that kind of animosity. It’s an uncomfortable thought. You’re a young Christian guy: you just want to keep your head down, go to church, obtain employment and a spouse and settle down. The thing about that kind of life is that it comes with a false sense of security. When the chips are down, you’re still one of “them.”
Christians stand up against a project in your town that would create many jobs–performing abortions. Christians stand up to a popular mayor who embezzled his way to the top. Christians stand up and say “no” to an unjust war. Christians stand up and defend a just, but unpopular war. Christians stand up, when they’re supposed to sit down and not attract attention–that’s their “freedom.”
I’m saying that it wouldn’t take too much to make this country hate Christians the way they hate Christians in Iran or Pakistan. We don’t have to deal with animosity. We think we can shut it out. Maybe your parents thought that if they sent you to the right schools and church camps and finally a nice, “safe” college, you wouldn’t ever be exposed to, say, seeing a drug deal go down, or a prostitute get roughed up by her pimp in a seedy section of town. Maybe they thought you’d never, ever, ever have to stand up like Cassie Bernall did in her “safe” public school in Columbine, Colorado.
Don’t think of this place as a safe zone from which to watch the world fall apart. This is a war zone. This is a war. Never forget it. The enemy is not the unbelieving people who fear you because they don’t understand you. It’s…well, it’s what Jesus fought for forty days in the wilderness, what made that apple look so good for Eve. We won’t win, not by ourselves. Thankfully, we don’t have to fight alone.
The world isn’t safe. Never be unprepared to tell a gunman what you believe, and why. And if you’re ready to tell the gunman, you’re ready to tell your buddy at work who thinks Jesus is a word to say when bad things happen. He might attack you, or worse, he might laugh at you. You might face, gasp, persecution! And then you can rejoice! You’re a man against the world.
Man Against World 