After reading some of the discussions around ‘The Shack’ and ‘Divine Nobodies’ over in Joel’s blog, it appears to me that the issue brought up by many is the issue of Universalism.
Though I am not an expert on Universalism, I can kind of figure out it as a belief that everybody is saved (some how). It wouldn’t take a whole lot of time to figure out from Bible that the idea of universal salvation is simply not true.
I am not going to do a detailed bible study on this other than quoting couple of key verses.
Argument 1:
Does God love all? Absolutely!
Didn’t Christ die for all? Absolutely!
Isn’t it the death of Christ what provides forgiveness? Yes!
So, if Christ died for all and He loves all, didn’t He provide forgiveness for all? Yes!
So, aren’t we all saved? NO!
Why?
Because salvation is not getting our sins forgiven.
So, what is salvation?
For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! -Romans 5:10
We are saved through His life, not through His death. But the death (shedding of blood) was needed for providing forgiveness; which is a prerequisite for salvation. Unless we are cleansed of all the sins, He is not going to impart His life to us. Jesus died to take away our sins and rose from dead on the third day to give us salvation (life); and that happens when we put our faith in Him and in what He did for us. (John 1:12)
Argument 2:
Aren’t all people created in the image of God? No!
Why?
Because Bible says so.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
“you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature”
According to the Bible, we are born into this world spiritually dead. As a dead person, what we need is life. In the entire history of humankind, there is only one person who claimed that He can give us life, that is Jesus (John 10:10). When we receive His life (by putting faith) , we are re-created (born again) by God to be indwelled by Him, there by restoring our true humanity (which Adam originally had before his fall).
The books:
I have greatly enjoyed both the books in discussion (I am half way through Divine Nobodies as of now). Do I agree with everything in those books? Probably not. But I think it is okay because those books are not meant to be doctrinal books anyways. The only reason I didn't include some of my negative comments when I did a review on 'The Shack', that I didn't want to discourage anyone from picking that book. Both books have more positives than negatives. I would very well agree with Wayne about any book: "I never view a book as all good or all bad. It’s like eating chicken. Enjoy what you think is the meat and toss what you think are the bones."
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Take up this Challenge
Well, don’t get me wrong by reading the title. I am not going to give a challenge for you to take up; instead I like to write about the problem in ‘taking up the challenges’.
Once in a while I listen to a preacher (I don’t want to mention his name, just understand that this is a charismatic preacher of a mega church in Texas) when I come across him in a local channel on Sunday mornings. Though there is not an ounce of grace, I like to enjoy the fun in his preaching as he gives ‘spiritual capsules’ to his people. One day his challenge was ‘always put a smile on your face’. It sounded like a good idea and I thought since there is no money involved and if it can make the people around me happy, why don’t I try that? Next day I went to my office with this unusual smile on my face (imagine the smile of Mr. Bean!). Well, unfortunately I could keep that smile only till noon, and then I gave up. I failed! It wasn't just the artificial smile faded away but I also suffered some 'side effects' as well by feeling miserable that I failed. It made my face more uglier. I couldn’t be successful in a simple ‘challenge’ like putting a smile on my face! (BTW, I admire the people who naturally have a smile on their face but I just don't have it, so I tried).
Here is something I have learned from my own life: Every time I put a ‘conscious effort’ to do something or not to do something, I fail miserably! I have proved this over and over a thousand times but still I am tempted to do such things. Isn’t that interesting? If I can’t tame my ‘flesh’ to do such a simple thing, how am I going to tame it to be a ‘happy, problem-free, devotional Christian’?
I have heard someone saying this:
I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
Huh? Who is this ‘backslidden, sinful, miserable Christian’? Looks like he is in danger and in need of some Christian counseling or probably join an accountability group to straighten up his acts.
But regardless of all the advice of 'well trained demons.. sorry.. deacons', he went on saying this:
When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Shhhhhhhhhh........ It is one thing that you have problem, but at least don't say it in public! Don't you know that you are a 'Christian'?
Is he a hopeless case? I would have thought so, if he didn’t say this:
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
[P.S: If someone wants to take up this challenge to put a smile on you face always, please go ahead and try it. I give you all the 'authority' to use the comments section of this blog to record the individual results.]
Once in a while I listen to a preacher (I don’t want to mention his name, just understand that this is a charismatic preacher of a mega church in Texas) when I come across him in a local channel on Sunday mornings. Though there is not an ounce of grace, I like to enjoy the fun in his preaching as he gives ‘spiritual capsules’ to his people. One day his challenge was ‘always put a smile on your face’. It sounded like a good idea and I thought since there is no money involved and if it can make the people around me happy, why don’t I try that? Next day I went to my office with this unusual smile on my face (imagine the smile of Mr. Bean!). Well, unfortunately I could keep that smile only till noon, and then I gave up. I failed! It wasn't just the artificial smile faded away but I also suffered some 'side effects' as well by feeling miserable that I failed. It made my face more uglier. I couldn’t be successful in a simple ‘challenge’ like putting a smile on my face! (BTW, I admire the people who naturally have a smile on their face but I just don't have it, so I tried).
Here is something I have learned from my own life: Every time I put a ‘conscious effort’ to do something or not to do something, I fail miserably! I have proved this over and over a thousand times but still I am tempted to do such things. Isn’t that interesting? If I can’t tame my ‘flesh’ to do such a simple thing, how am I going to tame it to be a ‘happy, problem-free, devotional Christian’?
I have heard someone saying this:
I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.
Huh? Who is this ‘backslidden, sinful, miserable Christian’? Looks like he is in danger and in need of some Christian counseling or probably join an accountability group to straighten up his acts.
But regardless of all the advice of 'well trained demons.. sorry.. deacons', he went on saying this:
When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Shhhhhhhhhh........ It is one thing that you have problem, but at least don't say it in public! Don't you know that you are a 'Christian'?
Is he a hopeless case? I would have thought so, if he didn’t say this:
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
[P.S: If someone wants to take up this challenge to put a smile on you face always, please go ahead and try it. I give you all the 'authority' to use the comments section of this blog to record the individual results.]
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Rethinking 'Ministry'
In this day and age of so many ‘ministries’ in different sizes, shapes and styles such as small, big, mega, over-sized, contemporary, traditional etc, It would be fair enough to start a discussion of 'ministry' by looking at what Jesus Himself said about it while He was on the earth.
Disciples asked, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)
What?
No way! How can that be true? It is so simple to be true! We don't believe that. We believe that we have a "calling" to 'do', 'go', 'preach' and make disciples. We know about the 'great commission'. What if ‘just believing’ leads to passivity? Don't we know that the 'harvest is plenty but workers are few'? We believe that we have to ‘initiate’ things and start everything with 'prayer' and we ask god to 'help' us to do it. God, this is ‘your’ ministry, bless this!
Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing".
What?
No.... it can't be true. My seminary can't be that wrong! My professor can't be wrong that he taught me to develop my 'leadership skills". Among many of my skills rated, my "leadership skill" came to 10 out 10. I am capable of ‘controlling’ any big congregations. I am really worth doing something. I know Greek. I know Hebrews. I am a scholar. I was taught that we can 'achieve' many things by implementing a "five fold" ministry plan with a ‘5 year vision’ and a ‘mission statement’. I have marketing skills, if not I will hire highly educated marketing executives. I will emphasize the many programs what we have such as childcare, counseling, prayer club, indoor gym, free coffee etc. If I still can’t attract people I will advertise my ministry in ‘Christianity Today’. At any cost I will build, build and build. I will spend sleepless nights thinking how to raise money. I will work 12-16 hours a day and I don’t care if I can’t spend time with my family because I am in an important work called ‘God work’. I am trained to be a ‘Christian professional’. I have been instructed to use the verse from Malachi to put people under the pressure of guilt to bring money to the offering plates. I can do a lot of things ‘apart from Him’ and I am pretty sure that verse doesn’t mean that way in Greek.
Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you".
What?
That is a foreign idea. I thought kingdom of God is a ‘field’ where there are many big buildings, auditoriums and usually a big tall building with a cross on top of it. People working diligently to build it and God shows up their on Sunday mornings sometimes even on Wednesdays. The ‘success’ of such kingdom is determined by the headcount of people and the 'quality' of the congregates.
Jesus said, "I will build my church".
What?
No, we don't believe that. He will build His church? Then, what am I here for? I know He said that while He was on the earth; now that He is not here so I have to do the ‘building’. I need a handful of highly educated outstanding professional ministers who can help me doing this. I will start collecting their resumes, offering ‘industry standard’ salaries, medical benefits, yearly performance reviews and promotions.
But I will still ‘own’ the ministry so that my son can 'inherit' all the ‘assets’ in the future when he is old enough and ready.
My thoughts:
I think the word "believe" is so commonly used by so many people to mean so many things, that now we don't even believe in "believing". We have come to a point that we don't like the simplicity of Jesus's statement, 'the work of the ministry is believing in me'.
Why are we so boastful in the fact that we have the so called so many skills? Jesus said, "for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” Are we ready to put down our education, degrees etc and may be learn something about little children? Children believe in the word "believe". One of the way my daughter used to play with me when she was about 3 years old is that she would jump into my hands from the kitchen counter-top. She enjoyed it so much that she would just keep giggling all the time. Sometimes she would jump even before I get ready to hold her. She had a lot of fun. Though sometimes my hands hurt, I enjoyed it because of the trust she put in me. She trusted the strength of my hands. She didn't have so many "What if" questions such as, "what if I hit the floor?", "what if I slips out my Dad's hands?", "what if my Dad is not ready?". She lived the 'present moment'; she didn't complicate it and her motivation was trust. Can we learn the basic principle of trusting by looking at the little kids?
Many people get into Christian ministry when they are faced with a question posed by many preachers, "What if I will stand in front of God with empty hands"? What if I don't have any rewards?
I personally believe the greatest reward we could ever get is the righteousness of Christ which we already have. I wouldn't imagine someone standing in front of Jesus and brag about the things they did for Him. The life we live is His life. The love we have in our heart is His love. The fruits we bear is produced by Him. So what is there to boast about?
Is it time to put our religious masks down and live a real life in the essence of the New Covenant message (walking by faith)? Are we ready to join Apostle Paul, 'It is no longer I..."?
I don't feel like pledging money to the building fund or the church planting. My heart is somewhere else. I am no more moved by the big crowds, mega churches or even the wide spreading of Christianity. I am interested only in a genuine, real, brutally honest, authentic, practical life of faith people live.
What if the way the gospel to be proclaimed is not by planting churches or by starting ministries?
What if we are not in need of problem solving Christian professionals but people who trust God and simply walk by faith?
What if walking by faith is breaking the norm of all the existing concepts of Christian ministry?
What if the "step of faith" is not about planting a church? But it is simply leaping into the hands of Father where I am going to be safely held and if necessary used by Him? What if I don't have to be a professional in the church industry to do the 'works of God'? How about resting in the fact that , if God wants to accomplish anything through me, he would initiate it in due time and all I need to do is respond. What if the concept of ministry is nothing but living in an attitude that the members of my body is available to God for His purposes. How about taking all the presumptions away and jump into the 'risk' of all sufficiency of Christ?
Disciples asked, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29)
What?
No way! How can that be true? It is so simple to be true! We don't believe that. We believe that we have a "calling" to 'do', 'go', 'preach' and make disciples. We know about the 'great commission'. What if ‘just believing’ leads to passivity? Don't we know that the 'harvest is plenty but workers are few'? We believe that we have to ‘initiate’ things and start everything with 'prayer' and we ask god to 'help' us to do it. God, this is ‘your’ ministry, bless this!
Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing".
What?
No.... it can't be true. My seminary can't be that wrong! My professor can't be wrong that he taught me to develop my 'leadership skills". Among many of my skills rated, my "leadership skill" came to 10 out 10. I am capable of ‘controlling’ any big congregations. I am really worth doing something. I know Greek. I know Hebrews. I am a scholar. I was taught that we can 'achieve' many things by implementing a "five fold" ministry plan with a ‘5 year vision’ and a ‘mission statement’. I have marketing skills, if not I will hire highly educated marketing executives. I will emphasize the many programs what we have such as childcare, counseling, prayer club, indoor gym, free coffee etc. If I still can’t attract people I will advertise my ministry in ‘Christianity Today’. At any cost I will build, build and build. I will spend sleepless nights thinking how to raise money. I will work 12-16 hours a day and I don’t care if I can’t spend time with my family because I am in an important work called ‘God work’. I am trained to be a ‘Christian professional’. I have been instructed to use the verse from Malachi to put people under the pressure of guilt to bring money to the offering plates. I can do a lot of things ‘apart from Him’ and I am pretty sure that verse doesn’t mean that way in Greek.
Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you".
What?
That is a foreign idea. I thought kingdom of God is a ‘field’ where there are many big buildings, auditoriums and usually a big tall building with a cross on top of it. People working diligently to build it and God shows up their on Sunday mornings sometimes even on Wednesdays. The ‘success’ of such kingdom is determined by the headcount of people and the 'quality' of the congregates.
Jesus said, "I will build my church".
What?
No, we don't believe that. He will build His church? Then, what am I here for? I know He said that while He was on the earth; now that He is not here so I have to do the ‘building’. I need a handful of highly educated outstanding professional ministers who can help me doing this. I will start collecting their resumes, offering ‘industry standard’ salaries, medical benefits, yearly performance reviews and promotions.
But I will still ‘own’ the ministry so that my son can 'inherit' all the ‘assets’ in the future when he is old enough and ready.
My thoughts:
I think the word "believe" is so commonly used by so many people to mean so many things, that now we don't even believe in "believing". We have come to a point that we don't like the simplicity of Jesus's statement, 'the work of the ministry is believing in me'.
Why are we so boastful in the fact that we have the so called so many skills? Jesus said, "for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” Are we ready to put down our education, degrees etc and may be learn something about little children? Children believe in the word "believe". One of the way my daughter used to play with me when she was about 3 years old is that she would jump into my hands from the kitchen counter-top. She enjoyed it so much that she would just keep giggling all the time. Sometimes she would jump even before I get ready to hold her. She had a lot of fun. Though sometimes my hands hurt, I enjoyed it because of the trust she put in me. She trusted the strength of my hands. She didn't have so many "What if" questions such as, "what if I hit the floor?", "what if I slips out my Dad's hands?", "what if my Dad is not ready?". She lived the 'present moment'; she didn't complicate it and her motivation was trust. Can we learn the basic principle of trusting by looking at the little kids?
Many people get into Christian ministry when they are faced with a question posed by many preachers, "What if I will stand in front of God with empty hands"? What if I don't have any rewards?
I personally believe the greatest reward we could ever get is the righteousness of Christ which we already have. I wouldn't imagine someone standing in front of Jesus and brag about the things they did for Him. The life we live is His life. The love we have in our heart is His love. The fruits we bear is produced by Him. So what is there to boast about?
Is it time to put our religious masks down and live a real life in the essence of the New Covenant message (walking by faith)? Are we ready to join Apostle Paul, 'It is no longer I..."?
I don't feel like pledging money to the building fund or the church planting. My heart is somewhere else. I am no more moved by the big crowds, mega churches or even the wide spreading of Christianity. I am interested only in a genuine, real, brutally honest, authentic, practical life of faith people live.
What if the way the gospel to be proclaimed is not by planting churches or by starting ministries?
What if we are not in need of problem solving Christian professionals but people who trust God and simply walk by faith?
What if walking by faith is breaking the norm of all the existing concepts of Christian ministry?
What if the "step of faith" is not about planting a church? But it is simply leaping into the hands of Father where I am going to be safely held and if necessary used by Him? What if I don't have to be a professional in the church industry to do the 'works of God'? How about resting in the fact that , if God wants to accomplish anything through me, he would initiate it in due time and all I need to do is respond. What if the concept of ministry is nothing but living in an attitude that the members of my body is available to God for His purposes. How about taking all the presumptions away and jump into the 'risk' of all sufficiency of Christ?
Saturday, March 1, 2008
A personal note...
I would like to warn those who are looking for a boost for their faith or encouragement in their Christian walk. This more likely is not going to do it for you. Here are few things about me...
1. I have struggle with compulsive eating and over eating once in a while.
2. I am very emotional in nature. I like to watch emotionally touching movies just by myself so that my wife wouldn't see me wiping my tears.
3. I am very self conscious. I get too conscious when I eat with my co-workers, so I go to my car to eat my lunch.
4. I have stolen money from my Dad's drawer to buy goodies while I was in school.
5. I have sneaked out of my home in the name of attending youth bible study and prayer meeting during my teenage days just to enjoy some freedom outside.
6. I literally hate legalists and self righteous and often angry at them.
7. I like to see the church which I left splitting, losing its members and destroying.
8. I have a very bad perfectionist spirit that I want everything in order all the time at home.
9. I am very selfish that I push my kids to sleep sooner so that I can read books.
10. I let my wife go shopping by her own so that I can just stay back home and relax.
11. I have often lied to my boss with excuses when I couldn't meet certain deadlines.
12. I act holy and righteous in front of my unsaved friends and relatives.
13. I haven't read the entire Bible from beginning to end, even once.
14. I have a fear of seeing blood. Once I passed out when a nurse drew blood from my hand for regular physicals.
15. I have hospital phobia. Once I felt dizzy and nauseated seeing the many tubes connected to my grand mother when I visited her in ICU.
16. I have a fear of heights. I hate any rides such as roller coaster, ferry wheel etc
17. I get panicked when certain things happen in life. My wife has told me that I am very weak emotionally that I couldn't handle any crisis in life.
18. For the last 8 years I have been trying to lose 10 pounds of my weight and so far no success not matter how much I work out or diet.
19. I always twist any conversations my wife starts with me into criticizing religion and venting out my frustrations.
20. Some of the ugliest thoughts I ever had were during the time of Bible study.
21. I feel depressed on Sunday evenings.
I could still go on. Evidently, I am a selfish, arrogant, not-too-good-to-be-around, weak, over weight, some times depressed person. The reason I write this is because I have a desire in my heart to put down any religious mask I often wear. I know deep in my heart that Jesus loves me for who I am and I think that is the only positive, ever lasting, unchangeable thing in my life.
1. I have struggle with compulsive eating and over eating once in a while.
2. I am very emotional in nature. I like to watch emotionally touching movies just by myself so that my wife wouldn't see me wiping my tears.
3. I am very self conscious. I get too conscious when I eat with my co-workers, so I go to my car to eat my lunch.
4. I have stolen money from my Dad's drawer to buy goodies while I was in school.
5. I have sneaked out of my home in the name of attending youth bible study and prayer meeting during my teenage days just to enjoy some freedom outside.
6. I literally hate legalists and self righteous and often angry at them.
7. I like to see the church which I left splitting, losing its members and destroying.
8. I have a very bad perfectionist spirit that I want everything in order all the time at home.
9. I am very selfish that I push my kids to sleep sooner so that I can read books.
10. I let my wife go shopping by her own so that I can just stay back home and relax.
11. I have often lied to my boss with excuses when I couldn't meet certain deadlines.
12. I act holy and righteous in front of my unsaved friends and relatives.
13. I haven't read the entire Bible from beginning to end, even once.
14. I have a fear of seeing blood. Once I passed out when a nurse drew blood from my hand for regular physicals.
15. I have hospital phobia. Once I felt dizzy and nauseated seeing the many tubes connected to my grand mother when I visited her in ICU.
16. I have a fear of heights. I hate any rides such as roller coaster, ferry wheel etc
17. I get panicked when certain things happen in life. My wife has told me that I am very weak emotionally that I couldn't handle any crisis in life.
18. For the last 8 years I have been trying to lose 10 pounds of my weight and so far no success not matter how much I work out or diet.
19. I always twist any conversations my wife starts with me into criticizing religion and venting out my frustrations.
20. Some of the ugliest thoughts I ever had were during the time of Bible study.
21. I feel depressed on Sunday evenings.
I could still go on. Evidently, I am a selfish, arrogant, not-too-good-to-be-around, weak, over weight, some times depressed person. The reason I write this is because I have a desire in my heart to put down any religious mask I often wear. I know deep in my heart that Jesus loves me for who I am and I think that is the only positive, ever lasting, unchangeable thing in my life.
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