Fallen Beauty

      I love nature. My wife and I both love to explore hiking trails and wander through forests.  We took our honeymoon in New Hampshire mainly for the mountains and the woods. This world we live in abounds with beauty and nearly everywhere you look there is a lovely view. I see all of this and I see the handiwork of an artist. I see the art of God.

     No human work has ever compared to the wonder of the world around us. We see lines and shapes and colors that seem to just erupt and exist and yet they are far more pleasing than the most exacting work of human art. A painting or statue, though lovely just doesn't command the same awe as a wondrous view. How can we even compare our own creations to the mountains and fields and streams?

     This brings up an interesting point though. You see, the world we live in isn't perfect -not by far. It's a broken world, a corrupt world, a sinful world. When Adam sinned it wasn't just the human race that fell under the curse but sin entered the world through them and poisoned everything! Then on top of that the earth was cursed against us so that our lives would be full of toil and danger. This beauty, this amazing world is really a horrible place. Yet it -is- beautiful. The power and artistry of God is so great that even in a world tainted by horrid evil and cursed so as to be a place of struggle is still breathtaking! How great is our God that His handiwork still shines though it's been thrown in the mud!  How great is His grace that the world we live in doesn't look like what we deserve or the curse we are under!

     This world shines as a testament to His Glory. Every rough stone and swaying tree, every butterfly and bird, every low valley or high mountain, every atom of creation screams of it's Creator! We do everything in our power to push aside the evidence, to try and make the amazing mundane, but I will not allow this world that hates God to rob me of my wonder at His hands. I will remain in awe of His work and I will call it what it is -art- from the hands of a master.

     I look forward to eternity, for many reasons. I long to be with my God, to be with Him in perfect communion. I long to be free from the temptation of sin, to no longer fail Him or choose to rebel. And I long for the new earth, for the glory and beauty of a world not yoked by the burden of sin. How glorious will the mountains be? How breathtaking the plains? How blessed are we to not only live in such a beautiful world but to know that those of us who know Him will transition to one of infinitely greater splendor? May God be praised for His mercy and grace, and for the marvelous work of His hands.

"It is as hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking-glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different—deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can’t describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean."

C. S. Lewis. Last Battle (Kindle Locations 1813-1819). San Val, Incorporated. 

True Good and What Matters Most -Part 2-

(This is the part two of my discussion of the article found here: http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/08/18/what-saved-my-faith

You can read part one >here< 

From the Article:

“My faith was threatened as I began to question what else had been wrong about what I had been taught. As I edged closer to the perimeters of the church, all the time being drawn and inspired by the beauty and unconditional love (which I was told only existed within Christianity) I saw outside of her, the light from beyond cast even more shadows on the church. Darkness existed in the forms of misogyny, empire-building, anti-intellectualism, and systematic marginalization of GLBT persons; they were injustices coated with spiritual language — wolves in sheep’s clothing. I suffered through severe storms of righteous rage. I wept with the pain of marginalized peoples against the church’s exclusion”

     I'm bothered by the phrase “what I had been taught.” A Christian is taught things, of course, but we come to know more as we commune with God in His Word. I can't really know, but it just doesn't feel like the author has a relationship with God. The language of the article speaks as if Christianity was simply an organization or a movement (She even calls it a movement at one point). Everything we see, every feeling we have, every idea that is presented to us or pops into our minds needs to be taken to Scripture and analyzed. The author constantly refers to “the church,” but doesn't ever mention the Word or God. The church, its membership, and its activities are not what we reference for truth and they are not what we hold up as our standard. God has revealed in Scripture and through His Son what we are to be. It is through that light that we look upon the world.

     “The light from beyond cast even more shadows on the church.” Satan was an angel of light, and he works in distractions and misinformation. He deals in lies and untruths. That light may cast shadows but it's a pale sickly light when understood. You say you see misogyny? The Bible speaks against that. You see 'empire-building' and 'anti-intellectualism'? God tells us to love Him with all of our mind, soul, and strength and think of others more than ourselves. You see the church marginalize the 'GLBT' folks? Well what do you mean by that? Do you mean that we exclude them from church? Do you mean that we refuse to allow what is clearly a sinful life, one repeatedly denounced by God in His word into the body of Christ? Then yes, that is there and it will remain for everyone who holds the Bible to be true. We must love these people, they are no different and no more fallen than any others but sin is sin and we do no one any favors by playing nice and trying to 'reinterpret' the Bible.

From the Article:

“You see, I want all of the beauty. I want the irreverent, gritty honesty out there AND the deeply mystical sacred prayers in here. I want the pragmatic, scientific solutions for the world’s problems out there AND the earnest faith for the impossible in here. I want the big, huge tent that welcomes everyone out there AND the narrow road of life giving sacrifice in here. I want to glean the wisdom of the world AND own Jesus’ beautiful vision.”

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

(1 John 2:15)

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

(James 4:4)

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

(Proverbs 9:10)

Co 1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

     What honesty does the author think she'll find in a world of lies? Not that everyone is constantly telling lies but the prince of this world is the father of lies and humans speak his native language! Furthermore that 'big, huge tent that welcomes everyone' does not welcome true Christianity, it never has. Try it, go to that tent -so to speak- join in the hand holding and smiling, and then tell everyone that there is ONE way and one way ONLY that man can be saved from his sin. Tell them that the ONE true God CONDEMNS their sin and is right to PUNISH them. Tell them that despite that He sent His Son to die on their behalf and all we need to do to enjoy His grace is repent and OBEY. See how long they welcome you. This world hates us, some more than others, but all of it the same. We are not of this world and should not seek inclusion in it. We desire a oneness, we desire unity, but unity in Christ and oneness of Spirit. The kingdom of God is not one that exists on earth, at least not yet. The kingdom is not one we bring about, it is not one we help at all. God will do His work and we have the privilege of coming along for the ride. We do not seek a “better world” or a utopia, we seek Christ and Christ alone.

From the Article:

“The paradox in my spiritual journey is that beautiful people, ones who are overly kind, extravagantly generous, yet remain unassuming and humble — they threaten my faith and simultaneously save it. My faith, it teeters on again and off again, never secure, keeping me on my toes.

I will never stop being drawn outside of the faith circle, because selfish person that I am: I need to have all of the beauty. I can’t ever go back to the safe kind of faith, the one that is full of certainty and claims beauty only for itself. I want my faith to be fragile and vulnerable and dangerous, because without the risk of losing my faith, there would cease to be any need to save it.”

     The beauty she claimed to see outside, as if it only exists out there, is a facade. It's a remnant of the fact that as God's creation we can never be fully removed from the evidence of His work. I would ask why seeing people do good threatens her faith? Why does an atheist at a soup kitchen drive her to doubt? Is it because they're not a Christian? Is it because they're doing things she, for some reason, thought only Christians could do? The Bible tells us that all of our righteousnesses (apart from Him) are as filthy rags. It does not say we have no 'goodness', it only says that our 'goodness' is not ultimately good and by comparison is not very good at all. Frankly I'm concerned for her, with her faith so fragile as she says. We should not allow doubts to linger. When we doubt we need to use that doubt to drive us to deeper understanding. We need to strive for the death of doubts, not hold to them as some sort of indicator of higher truth. Our faith does not require saving. We do. I feel as if the author needs to be reminded that we hold to a faith that is sure in the storm, steady on the sea, and firm as a house built upon stone rather than sand. We cannot be led astray by the beauty of this world; a lost man can be confident but following him still gets you nowhere.

“For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.”

(2 Peter 2:20)

True Good and What Matters Most -Part 1-

     So I came across a blog post the other day, like we all do; someone I know posted it on Facebook. It sounded good, the title anyway, so I clicked away and started reading. Unfortunately the article made very few accurate points and quite a few doctrinal miss-steps. You can find the article here:

http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/08/18/what-saved-my-faith

     First the good. The author truthfully states that Christians ought to be aware of 'social issues', that we should be doing what we can to care for the poor and the needy. It's sadly true that in the modern age many evangelicals seem to be more interested in staying inside our castle walls and shouting than actually going out to the battlefield and lending a hand. We tend to vilify people and forget to love the sinner we see on the street. We've developed a “we are right and you are not” mentality that is far from helpful. That's true of course to an extent; there is only one way to God and we have been blessed by Him to be able to see it, but we forget that we didn't get here on our own. It is only the unmerited favor and grace of God that separates us from the unsaved. We as Christians need to be more loving and more caring towards those around us, we need to remember that the people pushing the world's agenda are lost, they need help and God will see about their eternal destiny.

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

(James 1:27)

     Unfortunately that little bit of truth was only the backdrop used to almost vilify our faith and to promote a skewed view of God, Scripture, and of Christianity. The very first mistake made is in the second sentence.

From the Article:

“Through seminary, I learned to grapple with justice being at the heart of the Christian Gospel — dignity, equality, and right to life for all...”

     While these are certainly a component of Christian life, they are not the heart of the Gospel. The Gospel is founded on the idea that we don't have to receive justice, we can be mercifully freed from the punishment we deserve! The 'justice' the author promotes throughout the article is a good thing, seeking to help others around us, but is not the point of Christianity! The point of the Gospel is to see people saved, ultimately it matters very little how easy or how hard your life is here on earth. God cares for our lives, He doesn't want us to suffer, but if that's what it takes to make us more like Him He will pour out destruction to the fullest extent necessary. Our Holiness is what matters, not whether we have a roof over our heads or shoes on our feet or if we can read or if we can write or if others beat us down.

From the Article:

“It disoriented me because for so long I believed it was only through Christ that one can walk in righteous paths; that without the Truth (which had been so narrowly summed up for me in John 3:16), everything was meaningless. I didn’t have an interpretive lens to categorize beauty that existed outside of the vessel I was told contained the only beauty to be found: the evangelical Christian church.”

     The problem here is this, that beauty that you see in the world, those nice people who do what they can to help others? It's all fallen and apart from God. You say that you were taught that apart from the truth of God everything is meaningless? That's because it is! We live in a fallen, broken, evil age and nothing that springs up from inside of it can be ultimately good. It's not all horrible, it's not all sins and sinners, we see people trying to do good but it's all a painting on a dirty canvas. We don't need to be saved to “do good”, but we need to be saved if the good we do is to truly be good because only when things are done for the glory of God are they done correctly! What good does it do to teach impoverished children to read if they never read God's Word? What good is it to fight that others might be free from slavery if you leave them a slave to sin? There is no point in purely earthly endeavors, our help is only helpful if it points them to God who alone can truly save.

“And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

(1 John 2:17)

(See part two tomorrow)

Beauty in the Public Eye

     I remember an ad I saw once. I was working for a certain retail chain and on one of their cosmetics counters stood a relatively small placard with three woman displayed on it. The women display were, shall we say, devoid of apparel and between the three of them their arms did a pretty good job of covering themselves. What really struck me, besides the fact that a popular retail chain had a picture of three essentially naked women openly displayed on their counter, was that the advert was for some kind make-up. Not for underclothing or outer clothing or even for cosmetic surgery but for cosmetics! It really bothered me. Even now I wonder, was that really necessary?

     Our culture is obsessed with sex. Not a new thing to say I know. Sex has taken over so much of what we think about and how we think about things that it's difficult to think of many of those things in any other way. Take beauty for example. Can you separate 'beautiful' from 'sexy'? Is there a difference? Well, as always, lets look at the Bible and look for some clues. We'll start with a familiar passage, the later part of what's often called the “Proverbs 31 woman” conveniently found, in Proverbs chapter 31.

Proverbs 31:25-30 “Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come.  She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.  She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness.  Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.”

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”

Now this passage says a lot of things and much obviously no one is expected to live up perfectly to the “superwoman” depicted here. That being said there is a lot we can take from this. The woman here is described as: strong, honorable, wise, kind, not idle, and watchful. We read about this wonderful woman in a passage describing the attributes of a desirable wife, so these are things to look for in a mate! Pay special attention also to the last verse, which I'm sure many of you know; “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.” Charm will lie to you, drawing you in with what may be false promises and beauty passes with time. Ultimately the true test of a woman -and of anyone- is their dedication and obedience to God.

     You might be thinking “That's all well and good but that doesn't really have much to say about physical appearance. Isn't all physical attraction basically just degrees of sexual attraction?” Well, yes and no. Beauty is a part of sexual attraction but I don't think that attraction even when physical is necessarily sexual. Everyday physical beauty has to be seen through the filter of what we know about a person. A lovely women with no other favorable qualities won't seem very attractive for long, while a more homely women with a kind and loving heart can seem all the more wonderful. In the same way someone very alluring can blind you to seeing what really matters.

Proverbs 11:22 “As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.”

Ultimately the Bible doesn't really spend much time telling men or women how to dress or how to look, but it spends a lot of time telling us that God desires us to live a holy righteous life.

1Timothy 2:9-10 “in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”

What this passage really means is that women -and men- are to cover themselves with good works, with righteousness. It's not against braided hair as we see it now anyway, nor against jewelry but against showing off with what we have, making a spectacle of ourselves, and distracting others from focusing on God and his desires for our lives.

     In my opinion one of the most misleading ideas in popular media and culture is the obsession (especially with how the media talks about women) with “feeling” sexy. In the popular mindset feeling attractive and feeling beautiful to a woman are linked seemingly permanently to feeling sexy. Is that supposed to be the way of things? Sex is a gift and a responsibility from God. It's a wonderful thing with wonderful meaning but it also has some specific rules and a specific context. There is a time and a place for sex in our lives and by extension for 'sexiness' as well. So what is the proper setting and context for 'sexiness'? The same place for sex itself, marriage. When a person says they want to feel 'sexy' their really saying they want to feel desirable which is another way of saying they want the people around themselves to desire them. They want to be the center of attention. Following this line of thought brings us back once again to the age old enemy of humanity, pride. When we seek to play our sexuality out in the public realm we're really looking for a way to place ourselves on a pillar, to feel good about ourselves because of ourselves and for the sake of ourselves. Ultimately there is only one person that we need to 'feel' sexy for, our spouse. Knowing that our spouse desires us is an important part a healthy relationship but it has no meaning outside of a relationship other than to fuel our pride!

     Ask someone who's been married a long time, though age has changed them both they remain attracted to each other. Age plays no favorites and all things being equal we all lose our looks as we get on in years, but to those who spend a lifetime together every wrinkle is smoothed out by a memory of the life they've shared and the relationship formed makes their partner all the sweeter to them. We don't need to flaunt our sexuality, we don't need to cheapen it by making it available to so many people. We need to remember that a beautiful person is a Godly person and that beauty doesn't have to be sexy.