Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Martyr’s?

I think recently I realized, on my own and with the help of others, that I might have a bit of a martyr complex. Now this has traditionally been understood as someone who seeks out events and circumstances hence provoking persecution, torture, misunderstanding, and the like. But I am beginning to wonder if those aforementioned things actually should/are the norm in the sense that they are (to a degree) the appropriate response to the Gospel at times. Maybe I don’t have to seek it out, maybe it should (If I am obediently serving the interests of Christ at all times) seek me out.

What then is the difference between “hard living” as is so quickly shirked as our right as prospering Americans and rightful suffering as Christians who happen to live in America? What is a proper definition of entitlement from a Christian perspective? As my friend Bob always talks about, Where are the people who live not as a function of their income but radically different due to the stringent demands of the Gospel?

Originally martyr simply meant witness, only later did that include witness by dying. We are all dying. Does the question then become to what or whom are we witnessing? If so shouldn’t every Christian be a martyr? What’s so complex about that?

Posted by Broun at 15:48:12 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Way it is

“But the important matter was this, that it entirely reversed the reason for optimism.  And the instant the reversal was made it felt like the abrupt ease when a bone is put back in the socket.  I had often called myself an optimist to avoid the too evident blasphemy of pessimism.  But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason that it had always been trying to prove that we fit in to the world.  I had tried to be happy by telling myself that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from God.  But now I really was happy for I had learnt that man is a monstrosity.  I had been right in feeling all things as odd, for I myself was at once worse and better than all things.  The optimist’s pleasure was prosaic, for it dwelt on the naturalness of everything; the Christian pleasure was poetic, for it dwelt on the unnaturalness of everything in the light of the supernatural.  The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed even in acquiescence.  But I had heard that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring.  The knowledge found out and illuminated forgotten chambers in the dark house of infancy.  I knew now why grass had always seemed to me as queer as the green beard of a giant and why I could feel homesick at home.”


Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Posted by snake eyes at 21:35:35 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

How much of how we live pushes people beyond folly and towards understanding?

God has providentially shoved me into the Proverbs, probably because He can foresee where my pride/folly will take me and wants to spare me but who knows. However I keep coming across this word that has such sharp, biting origins and consequences yet rarely seems to be spoken of and hence discouraged in our time/culture both within and abroad the church.

Folly.

What do we think about it besides vague notions of the short-lived Bozo the clown series that forever haunts my childhood?

Just a cursory glance in the proverbs alone has drawn some of these conclusions about the nature/effects of this potent disease called folly. Beautiful in light of Solomon’s grace in dishing out these nuggets.

    -It is incredibly difficult to root out in the midst of incredible strain, willpower, and pressure. (27:22)
    -It both can be used against fools for their reproof and shyed away from to those same fools inadvertently encouraging it.
     (26:4,5)  
    -It is more dangerous than losing your physical life even in a way that reminds us of Grizzly Man (17:12) I think Jesus said 
    the same thing about sin as well…  
    -By definition it is insatiable forever playing a bait and switch game in the deep recesses of our soul. It plays the devilishly           slick hand of standing opposed to the current wisdom/knowledge you have and forever keeping you from obtaining new
     wisdom. (15:14)
    -Is paraded, dare I say encouraged, loved, adored as aspects of what’s called personality? O so publicly whereas wisdom               feasts on the secret quiet recesses never depending on the public arena for it’s strength.
    -Straight up she is a loud, seductive woman who knows nothing (9:13)

If realistically, we believe even half of the potency of these statements what changes!? How many loose foolish words and people go unrebuked/reproofed every day in our lives and congregations (not to say ourselves)? How many people, who think in the name of wisdom they rebuke and reproof, but are only answering a fool in his folly? God help us to be silent, still, loving, and encouraging always straying away from this more-deadly-than-cancer-plague.

Interestingly enough in the NT the same idea/word is only used to describe the substance (1 Cor 1:21) of what we preach and the effect it will eventually have on the audience to whom we are preaching (1 Cor 2:14)

Posted by Broun at 17:36:02 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Friday, April 11, 2008

Ideas to motivate us toward Simplicity

Develop a habit of plain, honest speak.  Strike phrases like, “I am starving,” from our speaking vocabulary.

Write out a money biography.
Find creative ways to get in touch with God’s creation.
Learn to enjoy things without owning them.
Develop the habit of homemade entertainment rather than society motivated entertainment.
Teach those around you about simplicity by varied words and deeds.
Silence every motion proceeding from the love of money.
(Ideas come from Richard Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity)
Posted by snake eyes at 08:06:49 | Permalink | Comments (2)