To See and Believe

You say I haven't faith to see,

the light of God alive in me.

You say I lack a truer heart

and belief that sets a soul apart.

You say if I would only pray,

throw all I think I know away,

and use my heart and not my head,

I'd find myself now Spirit lead!

I'd speak the language angels use,

the Holy Ghost would be my muse!

I could raise the dead and heal the sick,

God's power cutting to the quick.

You say that every sinner's heart

would be redeemed, a brand new start.

If only they could see God's power

they'd all repent this very hour.

and yet,

The Bible tells it differently.

There's evidence for all to see!

In this world created, though torn with strife

and in the power of a new-made life.

I've seen the power of God above,

I've seen His unimaginable love.

It's not in gifts of tounges or health.

It's in the Word and in myself

The power of God is plainly shown

in Christ and how His death alone,

has paid for every sinner's soul,

a sacrifice to make men whole.

If men won't listen to His Word,

if they reject what they have heard,

no cosmic show will bring them down,

to submit themselves to Jesus' crown.

I need no other evidence,

the gospel will suffice.

For my soul was bonded once to hell,

and Jesus paid the price.

by. Jonathan E. Schaefer

10/17/2014

I Believe in Miracles

     I think its safe to say that most everyone's favorite passages in the Bible are the ones concerned with miracles, and why not? We love to hear the old stories of Israel's crossing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan river, of the dead brought to life, the sick healed, of talking donkeys, floating ax heads and a stopped sun. We love to be reminded that God is powerful and has absolute control over the universe. Can this interest go too far though? What does the Bible tell us about the miraculous and how can we apply it today?

     Firstly, and I know I'm not making any friends with some when I say this, miracles are pretty much gone in our modern age. I am well aware that there is a large and active community of people who spend a lot of energy seeking after miracles and believe that they are a part of any legitimate ministry and in the life of the body of Christ. The problem with that idea is that it ignores the fact that miracles were never normative. There was never a period when when every Tom, Dick, and Harry were throwing around sings and wonders. Miracles were always purposeful and specific, never random or whimsical. Look to the Old Testament, miracles were strictly confined to those few men who were designated as prophets sent from God and the miracles they performed were secondary acts meant to attest to the validity of their teaching; serving as a beacon to guide people to the prophet's words (really God's words). Miracles such as the parting of the Red Sea were partly pragmatic and meant to prove God's power to His people (and Egypt for that matter) and to facilitate God's plan of freeing Israel from their bondage as well as -again- serving as evidence that Moses was God's man in that day.

“Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!" Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth."

(1 Kings 17:22-24)(emphasis mine)

     Cut to the New Testament. Many years have passed and God is moving His redemptive plan on to the next phase and so this means that miracles now serve the purpose of...attesting to the validity of prophets and teachers. Nothing changed! Jesus' own miracles were there to prove His God-hood, and the apostles were able to perform the miracles they performed to once again prove their status as the chosen teachers of God. If every believer at the time were going around raising the dead or healing the sick don't you think that somewhere in the all the New Testament books we would read about...any of them? Over the course of the book of Acts we see the recounting of miracles dwindle and disappear well before the end of the book. The only miraculous events we see happening to your everyday early church member is speaking in tongues, but those are Red Sea miracles, pragmatic ones that served to prove that those people were indeed saved by God and a part of His church. Especially in the case of the gentile believers as without a sign the Jewish brethren may not have accepted them given their long separation and dislike. We read that signs are not meant for those who believe, but to show proof to those who don't, and that the best gifts are teaching and understanding and prophecy (which is just the taking of God's words to His people, the words we have now of course are found in the Bible).

“Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.”

(1 Corinthians 14:22)

     Modern day “miracles” seem only to work to show how spiritual the person performing them is, to prove they have reached that next plain of spirituality. In fact they have more to do with ancient Gnosticism (where it was believed secret truths would be revealed to the spiritual elite) than Biblical Christianity. The miraculous is never held up as something to be continually desired or searched for, in fact the Bible often praises those who do not require a sign and condemns those who do!

“Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.”

(Matthew 16:1-4)

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.”

(Hebrews 11:1-2)

“Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

(John 20:29)

     Let me finish this admittedly brief discussion of miracles by saying that I do believe in them and I even believe that if God wills they can exist in this day. The problem is not that God has changed or that He no longer acts at all, it's that the ones who claim these miracles have so much about them that does not mesh with scripture. Silly 'miracles', wrong use of them, inaccurate prophecy, bad theology, horrible doctrine, and more. Not everyone in this movement is an extreme case, let me be clear that I don't meant to say that. I only mean to refocus our attention on the Bible and remind everyone that the given Word -alone- is our source of truth. Every thought, idea , and experience has to be brought to that measure and cast aside if it does not pass the test. We don't need to be excited and impressed to be faithful, we know ourselves and we ought to know God. We know who we would be without God. The power of that changed life is more than enough.

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. 

The Christian Geek

     I'm a Christian first and foremost, that's who I am beyond any other distinction, but that one title is not the only moniker that applies to me. I am also a son, a brother, a husband, a writer, an artist, and a 'geek'. I mean that of course in the modern cultural definition. Webster's dictionary defines a geek as “a person who is very interested in and knows a lot about a particular field or activity”. That's delightfully vague isn't it?

Oddly enough I've been asked this question countless times: “How can you be a geek and a Christian?” So many people think there is some kind of disparity there or some insurmountable wall that should bar me from entrance into either one camp or the other, but in reality the two parts of myself co-exist quite well. You see the first part of the answer is what I started this post with, I am a Christian first. That means I am a Christian geek not a geek who is a Christian. My faith informs my geekiness and defines the parameters of those interests. When it comes to my love of fantasy in either movies, video games or books; my faith has led me to create a set of criteria that I use to decide which things I will enjoy.

<>If the world of the story contains magic it must meet the

 following:

-the world must not set itself up as existing in this current, existing, reality.

-The magic contained in said story cannot be of the 'real world' kind, ex: sacrifices and intricate spells that contact demons and what-not.

<>Regardless of the world/story the actions of the main characters,

those presented as the 'good guys' must be in fact good. I will not partake of a world where the good guys aren't at least mostly 'good' at heart.

-The setting and storyline must also be 'worth' whatever result we are headed toward. I have started reading books in the past that have asked you to go through far too much filth for far too little reward at the end.

The point is that I cannot enjoy in a fantasy what would be wrong in reality; and as I've said, the same rules apply to video games, books, movies, TV shows, etc. Notice that my rules tend to lean heavily on what the heroes are doing and little on the villains. I personally give the villains some lee-way because, well, they're villains! Their actions aren't being lauded, their being denounced.

     People often accuse the world of fantasy literature and gaming to be “practice in the occult” or even of just being sneaky means for occult people and groups to seduce us into their world. In response to that I love the following quote from “The Christian Gamers Guild” FAQ page, speaking of the critics of RPG's and tabletop games specifically. This particular quote isn't talking about playing 'evil' characters, something I think we should avoid, but it makes an excellent general point about “magic” in games.

“... a critical point that is missed, or worse, intentionally ignored even by those who have browsed through them (the game manuals) is that there is a constant distinction between the players and their characters. If C. S. Lewis creates in one of his books a senior devil named Screwtape writing advice to a junior tempter named Wormwood, no one for a moment believes that Lewis is confusing himself with the actions of that demon. Nor do we accuse him of summoning demons because some of his characters in Perelandra and That Hideous Strength do so. Likewise, no one feels that the church members who play Pontius Pilate, Judas Iscariot, and Caiaphas in the church passion play are at any risk of condemnation for doing so. There is distance between the player and the character. When it says that the character must swallow a bit of bitumen and a live spider to do the spider climb spell, there isn't any bitumen or spiders anywhere near the player. He doesn't actually do anything--he just says that his character is going to swallow the spider and the bitumen (or more usually, he just says that the character is going to cast the Spider Climb spell, and if there's any question about whether he has the materials they look them up to see what he needs to do it--in the same way that if a novice chess player were to announce that he is going to take his opponent's pawn by en passant we might need to pull out the rules to determine how that works and whether it can be done in this circumstance). Even in LARP (Live Action Role Play) there is always this distance, with the bulk of the action still in the imagination. Critics have confused the player with the character.”

-For more on this topic and a great treatment of Christians as gamers/geeks head over to-

http://christian-gamers-guild.org/faq.html

     Essentially being a geek is no more than any other hobby. No different than your father's bowling night, your mother's scrap-booking nights, your brother's obsession with football or anything else that we do in our free time to relax. The traditional spheres of 'geekness' are the things which draw me and so many others to not only enjoy but to create. It drives me to write, to draw, to imagine whole other worlds and the many adventures that happen there.

     One last thought. As a Christian, I believe in a number of amazing things: that there is an all powerful being who cannot be seen but controls all of reality, that there are spirits that inhabit a whole other world essentially parallel to our own, or that in certain instances the whole of natural reality has been circumvented. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that being a geek makes me more able to believe in these things. A man who has never ridden the back of a dragon or watched the hero cast down his enemy with a bolt of lightning may just find it more difficult to believe that God brought down a torrent of flame to consume a water-logged alter when Elija prayed, or that the Red sea once split down the middle, or that a Man once walked on water.

I Believe in Miracles

     I guess it is time to talk about miracles and creation. With the news of another popular Christian artist renouncing their belief in a literal creation (along with the flood by the way) it seems more and more people are turning away from the Word. This is an argument that has been gone over and dissected and discussed a million different ways so lets just focus on one aspect. Miracles.

     More specifically lets talk about whether they can be honestly believed in by the discerning mind. Very often we hear that people reject the miracles of the Bible because their too far fetched, to spectacular, that they just don't jibe with what we understand of the modern world. I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense, these actions by God are simply beyond our understanding, completely outside anything we understand about nature and the laws of reality.

…......

…...

….

..

THAT IS THE POINT!

     God is GOD! His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. Doesn't it make total sense that His actions would be far beyond us? The idea that miracles cannot be because they defy physical law is a major flaw in logic and thought. The detractors say that miracles go against every physical law we know of and are completely impossible. That being said, miracles are only impossible if God does not exist and act within His creation! The Bible begins with “In the Beginning God,” and that sets the tone and setting for the rest of scripture. The Bible assumes from the beginning that God exists. These arguments against miracles are denying the Bible's first premise!

     To some that may seem like a cop-out. It may seem that we're just excusing it by saying “God did it.” The problem there is that it is not a excuse if it is the actual reason. God has the power to create all of existence, He certainly has the power to manipulate that creation. It's like saying that I can only manipulate my Lego bricks in the way my Lego bricks perceive and understand themselves. Let me rephrase that: if I build a car out of Lego than within the world my imagination has made that Lego construct is a car and obeys the rules of “car-dom.” That car stays on the ground and from it's own perspective all it can do is drive around and maybe beep it's horn and flash it's lights. I however, don't live in that reality. I'm above it, in point of fact, I made it! If I want to, I can make that car jump or fly, I can take it apart and put it back together, I can even make it talk! (For instance like a donkey under a certain prophet.) I don't have to obey any of the rules that govern that tiny little existence. If we had the same perspective of the Lego car when I did these things we would be amazed and confused and would be unable to explain any of it. Our perspective is limited to the world we inhabit.

     God is in no way bound by our perception of reality. He made the laws, so He can break them, or more accurately suspend them temporarily (though He can break them if He chooses). Those laws that people say drive them from belief in the miraculous were created by and are upheld only by the will of God. Without His sustaining influence nothing exists! So don't get bogged down by this idea that we need to understand everything. We don't understand God, We won't understand God, and we never will understand God. At least not fully, and not for a very, very, very long time.