Practical Grace

Over the past year or so I believe I have come across a good axiom in regards to practically living out grace in one's life, and that is:

The moment of offense, anger, or aggression towards a person is the precise moment one ought to pursue grace, that is an undeserved act of love, toward that person.

It is amazing to me how grace is so counter intuitive to our fallen nature. It shines a clear light on our inherit depravity. That in truth, we do indeed need a Savior to be able to act in a holy way toward those around us who bear God's image.

Why can't a Christian vote Democrat?

I had this conversation recently with a friend, and he said I should blog it, so I am.

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So, I submit my question, why can't a Christian vote Democrat? Of course, the main issue that is put forth to Christians is abortion. Sadly, this tends to be put forth by leaders in our churches. Let me be clear, I am Christian, I am Pro-Life, I am independent-minded, and I believe I can still vote with a clear conscience for either party despite this position.

How so? Well, let us look at how this "debate" is framed. The Republican states absolutely "Pro-Life". The Democrat states absolutely in response, "Pro-Choice." If the silliness of this exchange doesn't strike you right away, let me use an analogy. Say we have two imaginary groups, the Pots and the Kettles. Say we have an issue that they disagree on, pans. The Pots say that pans are "Gray-colored". The Kettles say that the pans are "round-shaped." Do you see the problem? We are talking about different aspects of the pan. This is how I see the dialogue over abortion. One group is saying it's wrong to take a life, to which I agree. And the other group is saying that it's wrong for government to make such a personal moral decision for you, to which I also agree. So, in essence, the debate as framed since Roe v. Wade is the Republicans saying "apples" and the Democrats saying "oranges". This is silly and, ultimately, unproductive.

I also find this ironic because the Democrats seem to have taken the "conservative" approach to government on this point, anyway I digress, back to the point.

My reasoning is three fold:

Firstly, I completely disagree with bringing politics into the church. It seems Pharisaical to me whenever I see it done. Who I vote for doesn't make me Christian, grace through faith in Jesus as God and Savior is what makes me a Christian.

The reason I use the term Pharisaical is that they were religious legalist's. Essentially, the way to righteousness for them was through works. The mantra, "I can get to heaven if I live a good life." Unfortunately, our "good" is not perfect, and that is what God requires if someone is to come into His presence without consequence. As Paul states in Romans, "...we are not under the Law, but under grace." And, "...only though faith in Christ can we truly fulfill the Law." It is a razor's edge between legalism and godlessness that Christians' walk. Is abortion wrong? I believe it is. Is it on my hands if someone chooses to get an abortion and our government allows people to make their own moral choice? I would submit that it's not.

As an example, let us look at Prohibition. This is a case where the government has made a personal moral choice for all its citizens. The result was more problems, not less. If this is too dated, and you believe we are more advanced here a century later, I would submit to you the War on Drugs.

Secondly, we must, in my opinion, recognize that the abortion issue has been politicized. In other words, it's being used to simply divide people into parties, with NO intent on actually doing something about it one way or the other. It's not like Republican's haven't had substantial opportunities, what with controlling congress and the presidency for six years. Has any solution been brought forward? Has a bill even been offered to abolish it? To my recollection, it has not. It's too much of a perceived political advantage to take away. It seems to me they can still count on the religious vote no matter what they do based solely on this issue.

What I would love to see is this issue be de-politicized, and both parties work to make having a baby be seen as a good thing and there be no need to even have abortion be an option. Currently, it seems to be that the problem is financial burden. Why can't the government reward people who have children? Children will one day grow up to pay taxes, so why don't we give money to people who have children and make it worth more then the financial cost of having an abortion? Say, $10,000 for every new child, paid in cash. Certainly a better investment then this current mortgage buyout crisis.

Of course there are other burdens that aren't financial, but why not get together to minimize those, be it education, counseling, etc. so that ultimately people will see that it's more beneficial on all accounts NOT to get an abortion, and abortion will be a non-issue.

Thirdly, it seems to me that the Democrat position is misrepresented. They are NOT pro-abortion, they are merely asking who has the right to make this moral decision, the government or the people. Am I pro-life because the Republicans say I ought to be, or did I CHOOSE to be pro-life based on MY Christian worldview. Is the government such a moral authority? I think we all can say government isn't perfect, and it's hands are most certainly not clean. Don't get me wrong, I love this country, but like anything that is not God, it isn't flawless. Pro-Choice in not the antithesis of Pro-life, in fact Pro-Life is a subset of Pro-Choice.

In closing, it seems to me that this issue is ultimately used as a distraction. I see Christian principles in both parties. One had the fortitude to abolish slavery, the other believes in the Golden Rule. Let's stop dividing on these issues and work to resolve them. United we stand, divided we fall.

I would also like to make it known that as a Christian I believe in being humble and teachable. I need the grace of Christ in all I do, and if I am misrepresenting Him, I throw myself at His feet and ask His pardon.

On Worship

I've been noticing a trend in my studies of God lately. All that I have been reading and listening seems to come back to how to worship God.

What I've come to understand is that worship is not merely standing in a church and singing a song. Singing in itself is not worship, rather, it's the inward expression of love and praise to God that is the worship. I guess that seems kind of obvious, but it struck me to the core because when I sing to God I try to restrain my display of emotion. I've never raised my hands to God as I've always felt that it was a self glorifying thing. Sort of like, "Hey, look at me, I'm feeling awesome". No, I'd rather people look to God. But, now I'm thinking that I should do it, because if I feel the desire to praise God, I should do it regardless of what others may think.

Afterall, I would do that at a football game, a baseball game, or a concert. As Mark Discoll has said, "Being at a football game is like being at a giant church service for football." It seems at the very core of human nature is to give worship and praise to that which we hold of highest value. The task for the christian is to ensure that God holds that position in our lives.

I've recently picked up the book, "Desiring God" by John Piper, and his mantra in the book is "be a Christian Hedonist." By that he means that a christian ought to seek his greatest pleasure and desire in God. His firm belief is that one brings glory to God by worshiping Him, and you worship God by finding your greatest pleasure in Him. At least that's what I gather in the first few chapters, I am still reading this book.

So, the question becomes, how do I apply this. How do I correctly love God? I recently read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards in his collection on "Charity and Its Fruits." The topic of the fist lecture was "All True Grace in the Heart, Summed up in Charity, or Love." In this lecture, he quotes the famous verse on love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have no charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."

The word charity, instead of love, in this passage really challenged my understanding of it. It seemed to me that this verse wasn't talking about my love, which is as I've always understood it. Rather, it was talking about God's charitable love to me. In essence, if I do not have God's love, I am nothing.

I thought about this for a while, and its implications and was quite confounded. How do I get God's love? Is it just faith in my Lord Jesus we are talking about here, or something more? Well, I came across a sermon today by John Piper that seems to have brought this home for me. In his sermon on "The New Birth Produces Love" where he covers 1 John 4:7-21 he emphasizes verse 10:

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

As he spelled out the portion on "not that we have loved God" and what it meant, he said that "He (the author of 1 John) is emphasizing that the nature and the origin of love does not lie in our response to God. That is not where love starts. That is not mainly what love is. Love is, and love starts with God. And if anything we feel or do can be called love, it will be because we are connected with God by the new birth."

In essence, as it seems to me through my studies to this point, in order to worship God, one must first have God's love, given through faith in the act of Jesus, and then bend that love towards God and towards our neighbors. As Jesus himself states when asked what the greatest commandment is in Matthew 22:36-40

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

In conclusion, it is evident that in order to properly worship God one must first believe in Jesus, and in so doing you are given God's love, which enables you to love Him back, and indeed truly love those around you.

-Ryan

Hello World

Well hello, friends and strangers. Welcome to the inaugural post of this blog... My blog, where I hope to journal my thoughts and ramblings is this journey through life.

Some would say this is a long time coming, seeing as I make my living working on web applications. I suppose it's time to stop and actually use a popular web application for a change, but being the Christian that I am, I don't really find myself to be so self important that I would expect people to care what I think or feel about a particular thing. So, I intend on using this blog as more of a journal for myself, as well as a place for friends and family to connect with me since we tend to be spread out over large distances these days.

As most who know me would say, I am a Christian. Hopefully that is evident to anyone looking at this blog. If not, I apologize, I still have a human nature after all. And of course, being a Christian, I must share with you the Good News. It is stated rather simply by Paul in 1 Corinthians:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have
fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

- 1 Corinthians15:3-8

I would encourage you, should you not know Jesus as God and Lord, to seek Him. I have sermon podcasts linked to this blog that I have found most helpful in my walk, and hopefully they can provide the same to you should you be interested in learning more about God, and indeed the very meaning of life.

Peace,
Ryan