A question recently sent in at Living Stones asks, “When is it wrong to spend money on things you don’t need?”
Always.
Just kidding.
Seriously, I spend money on myself all the time and I don’t feel guilty one bit. Sometimes I take that too far though and the Holy Spirit whispers, “Hey, what are you doing?” Essentially what we see in Scripture is a call on the life of the believer to live a life characterized by consistent generosity. Enjoying life through the blessings that God provides is not wrong in and of itself, but when your enjoyment comes at the expense of helping other people when you have abundance but they have a need, then you are flat out in sin. Period.
Generosity is required of you by your God if you follow Jesus. If you are a squanderer, believe it or not but the Scripture says that God removes his blessing from your life (Malachi 3). To seek what God expects from you read passages like Matthew 25, and 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. These are great passages on generosity and how we should use our resources to further God’s Kingdom rather than hold things back out of fear or selfishness.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Nazarite Vow
A question recently asked at Living Stones reads, “Is there a practical reason for not eating grapes in the Nazarite Vow in the Old Testament?”
The Nazarite Vow is described by Moses in Numbers chapter 6. Essentially, the vow would be taken by an Israelite for the purpose of connecting to God during a certain period of time. During this time a person would deal with sin issues or apathy and build on their relationship with God.
During the vow, one of the things that a person would give up was wine and any other grape product. The purpose of the vow was to give up practical things that people experienced as a part of everyday life, things that were seen as normally being blessings from God. Grapes and wine were things enjoyed by Israelites daily and were considered blessings, so they were among the things given up.
The Nazarite Vow is described by Moses in Numbers chapter 6. Essentially, the vow would be taken by an Israelite for the purpose of connecting to God during a certain period of time. During this time a person would deal with sin issues or apathy and build on their relationship with God.
During the vow, one of the things that a person would give up was wine and any other grape product. The purpose of the vow was to give up practical things that people experienced as a part of everyday life, things that were seen as normally being blessings from God. Grapes and wine were things enjoyed by Israelites daily and were considered blessings, so they were among the things given up.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
So you want to be a leader?
A question we received at Living Stones reads, “What are your qualifications for a leader at Living Stones?”
That depends on the level of leadership you aspire to.
At Living Stones we have three basic levels of leaders, the highest form of leadership is the Shepherd Team, then we have a deacon team, and thirdly we have a team of small group leaders. Many small group leaders are deacons and Shepherd Team members.
We strictly follow the guidelines for leaders found in Scripture. To be a member of the Shepherd Team a person must fit the qualifications found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. To be a deacon or small group leader a person must fit the qualifications found in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.
Essentially we follow these guidelines, test a person to see how willing they are to serve, and check to see if they are an advocate for the church which includes attendance at communions and baptisms. If a person has strong character and serves faithfully in the ministry for an extended period of time, and if that person is willing to lead and take on the burden and responsibility, then they are brought into leadership in some form.
That depends on the level of leadership you aspire to.
At Living Stones we have three basic levels of leaders, the highest form of leadership is the Shepherd Team, then we have a deacon team, and thirdly we have a team of small group leaders. Many small group leaders are deacons and Shepherd Team members.
We strictly follow the guidelines for leaders found in Scripture. To be a member of the Shepherd Team a person must fit the qualifications found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. To be a deacon or small group leader a person must fit the qualifications found in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.
Essentially we follow these guidelines, test a person to see how willing they are to serve, and check to see if they are an advocate for the church which includes attendance at communions and baptisms. If a person has strong character and serves faithfully in the ministry for an extended period of time, and if that person is willing to lead and take on the burden and responsibility, then they are brought into leadership in some form.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Think more to love more
A question we received on a comment card at Living Stones a while back asked the following, “Do you believe it is the duty of Christians to understand the apologetics of the faith in addition to the Scriptures?”
First of all, you said duty.
And the answer is yes, absolutely, unequivocally, positively, without a doubt it is our responsibility. And not just for some, but for every Christian.
For those that are unaware of what apologetics is, allow me to define it; apologetics is essentially the art of defending the Christian faith. The question is obviously asking about apologetics in forms other than biblical ones, because some apologetics are found in the Scripture themselves. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”. This verse is telling us to be prepared to answer the questions of the skeptics. On Mars Hill in Acts 17, Paul quoted pagan poets to prove a point about Jesus.
The only way to truly be ready to answer any question is to study in a broad range of topics. I spend almost as much time studying philosophy and science as I do theology, because my theology will only be taken seriously by the non-believer if they can see that I understand the world outside of the Scriptures enough to point people to the truth. All truth is God’s truth, not just the truth found in Scripture. Scripture is certainly the only concrete, trustworthy, authoritative, and verifiable truth, but God’s truth is everywhere. You can’t go to the Bible to learn that 2+2=4, but God designed mathematical truth.
Sometimes using the truths of science and philosophy and showing their consistency with Scripture is the only way to get a skeptic to see you as a ‘thinking person’ as opposed to a ‘closed-minded fundamentalist’. Most skeptics’ questions won’t have to do with Scripture—they will ask questions about epistemology, science, or metaphysics. If we say, “I don’t know what those are but I know God loves you”, then we lose any effectiveness in evangelism and we disobey the command in Scripture to love God with our entire mind. We are called to be wise in how we approach non-believers (Colossians 4) and engage people in any way we can with the truth without falling into sin ourselves. Anyone who tells you that studying the intellectual disciplines outside of Scripture is sin hasn’t read the Scripture.
This is a call, and we all have a responsibility to it—but most of us just ignore it because we think it’s harder than it actually is.
First of all, you said duty.
And the answer is yes, absolutely, unequivocally, positively, without a doubt it is our responsibility. And not just for some, but for every Christian.
For those that are unaware of what apologetics is, allow me to define it; apologetics is essentially the art of defending the Christian faith. The question is obviously asking about apologetics in forms other than biblical ones, because some apologetics are found in the Scripture themselves. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”. This verse is telling us to be prepared to answer the questions of the skeptics. On Mars Hill in Acts 17, Paul quoted pagan poets to prove a point about Jesus.
The only way to truly be ready to answer any question is to study in a broad range of topics. I spend almost as much time studying philosophy and science as I do theology, because my theology will only be taken seriously by the non-believer if they can see that I understand the world outside of the Scriptures enough to point people to the truth. All truth is God’s truth, not just the truth found in Scripture. Scripture is certainly the only concrete, trustworthy, authoritative, and verifiable truth, but God’s truth is everywhere. You can’t go to the Bible to learn that 2+2=4, but God designed mathematical truth.
Sometimes using the truths of science and philosophy and showing their consistency with Scripture is the only way to get a skeptic to see you as a ‘thinking person’ as opposed to a ‘closed-minded fundamentalist’. Most skeptics’ questions won’t have to do with Scripture—they will ask questions about epistemology, science, or metaphysics. If we say, “I don’t know what those are but I know God loves you”, then we lose any effectiveness in evangelism and we disobey the command in Scripture to love God with our entire mind. We are called to be wise in how we approach non-believers (Colossians 4) and engage people in any way we can with the truth without falling into sin ourselves. Anyone who tells you that studying the intellectual disciplines outside of Scripture is sin hasn’t read the Scripture.
This is a call, and we all have a responsibility to it—but most of us just ignore it because we think it’s harder than it actually is.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Just a theory
Here is a FAQ here at Living Stones – “How do we maintain our faith with mounting scientific evidence of our origins from evolution?”
My answer is easy – show me the evidence.
I was recently accused of being a “narrow minded, ignorant, religious zealot” for stating that there really isn’t any truly compelling evidence that points to evolution. The person told me that I was blinded by a desire for God and that I was ignoring the truth that science was producing. I challenged that person on some things and less than an hour later I had this person completely dumbfounded and struck by the realization that he could not produce a single bit of truly concrete evidence that pointed towards evolution.
It just doesn’t exist.
The theory of evolution isn’t held by idiots. Intelligent people interpreted their observations and created a theory that might lead to something more substantial. More than a century later the evidence that all evolutionists agree needs to be produced has yet to be. The fossil record has produced interesting points of study, but has yet to produce anything that proves that any creature has ever evolved from one phyla of living thing to another. In fact, many former evolutionists have recently jumped ship so to speak, leaving their theory to be defended not by objective thinkers but by scientific fundamentalists.
For me, holding to the faith is easy because God has proven himself while evolutionists have not.
My answer is easy – show me the evidence.
I was recently accused of being a “narrow minded, ignorant, religious zealot” for stating that there really isn’t any truly compelling evidence that points to evolution. The person told me that I was blinded by a desire for God and that I was ignoring the truth that science was producing. I challenged that person on some things and less than an hour later I had this person completely dumbfounded and struck by the realization that he could not produce a single bit of truly concrete evidence that pointed towards evolution.
It just doesn’t exist.
The theory of evolution isn’t held by idiots. Intelligent people interpreted their observations and created a theory that might lead to something more substantial. More than a century later the evidence that all evolutionists agree needs to be produced has yet to be. The fossil record has produced interesting points of study, but has yet to produce anything that proves that any creature has ever evolved from one phyla of living thing to another. In fact, many former evolutionists have recently jumped ship so to speak, leaving their theory to be defended not by objective thinkers but by scientific fundamentalists.
For me, holding to the faith is easy because God has proven himself while evolutionists have not.
Monday, June 2, 2008
The meaning of meaning
Have you ever thought about ‘meaning’? What is meaning? How does a person properly communicate meaning and does meaning mean anything?
Lost yet?
Stay with me, because this is important. Consider the phrase “God is good”. What does that mean? The phrase—standing by itself—could mean many things; but much more needs to be known about the phrase before it has any real meaning. If a Hindu or Muslim used this phrase, it would mean something entirely different that if a Christian said it. A Hindu could be referring to any number of things as God, and a Muslim would be referring to Allah, while a Christian would obviously be referring to Yahweh who is the God of the Bible. Without any background, a Christian might hear this phrase on television or see it in a magazine and think, “Amen, of course he is good.” Then, when that Christian turns off the TV or closes the magazine he or she is reading, he/she may be shocked to realize that he/she is reading a new age magazine who’s god is—well—everything.
For any sentence, phrase, or proposition to carry meaning it needs these integral ingredients. First of all, the words in the proposition need to have a ‘sense’. What is meant by sense is that the words in the sentence can be understood in and of themselves. We need to understand the meanings of the words ‘God’ and ‘good’ to understand that God is good. Second, we need to understand the ‘referent’ of the proposition. In our phrase God is good, we need to know which God is being referred to and what is meant by the word good when it is used as a description of God. Third, we need an ‘assertion’. The assertion is basically the intent behind the phrase, and the assertion can only be understood if we know things about the person asserting the phrase. Who is the person? What are that person’s beliefs? Who is their god and what do they believe goodness to be? Why are they using that particular proposition at this particular time?
Thinking through anything you hear and read with these guidelines is more important than you may think. The reason statements in the media and verses in the Bible are so easily taken out of context and misunderstood is because people do not discipline themselves in their communication to discover true and genuine meaning. All statements have what philosophers call a ‘truth value’. A statement is either true or false, but unless people look into the sense, referent, and assertion of a phrase upon hearing or reading it, a person will be inclined to believe anything that sounds good or tickles the ear, which is something the Scripture strictly warns us about (1 Tim 4:3).
Many philosophers agree that it is not just understanding a proposition that is crucial for the individual, but relaying them is important as well. Imagine if I were to approach you and tell you that God is good. Even if you understand the sense of the word ‘God’ and you know what the word ‘good’ means, and even if you know that I claim to be a follower of Jesus and that he is the God that I am referring to, you have to look at my life and behavior to determine what I mean by the phrase, which would be seeking out the assertion of the proposition. If I drink too much, ignore my children, sleep around with multiple women, and only attend church once or twice a month, what are you going to think I mean when I say that God is good? You might think I mean that I like God and think he is good because he lets me get away with living like an idiot. Then you may think that this is what all Christians mean when they say that God is good, and if that’s the only picture you have of the goodness of the God of the Bible, you have an incorrect picture.
What’s the point of all of this? Meaning matters. If you are lazy in searching for the real meaning and truth value of things you read and hear, you will be led away from truth more often than you realize. If you do not live consistent with what you claim to believe, no one will properly grasp anything you are attempting to communicate. God deserves more from us than our laziness, don’t you agree?
Lost yet?
Stay with me, because this is important. Consider the phrase “God is good”. What does that mean? The phrase—standing by itself—could mean many things; but much more needs to be known about the phrase before it has any real meaning. If a Hindu or Muslim used this phrase, it would mean something entirely different that if a Christian said it. A Hindu could be referring to any number of things as God, and a Muslim would be referring to Allah, while a Christian would obviously be referring to Yahweh who is the God of the Bible. Without any background, a Christian might hear this phrase on television or see it in a magazine and think, “Amen, of course he is good.” Then, when that Christian turns off the TV or closes the magazine he or she is reading, he/she may be shocked to realize that he/she is reading a new age magazine who’s god is—well—everything.
For any sentence, phrase, or proposition to carry meaning it needs these integral ingredients. First of all, the words in the proposition need to have a ‘sense’. What is meant by sense is that the words in the sentence can be understood in and of themselves. We need to understand the meanings of the words ‘God’ and ‘good’ to understand that God is good. Second, we need to understand the ‘referent’ of the proposition. In our phrase God is good, we need to know which God is being referred to and what is meant by the word good when it is used as a description of God. Third, we need an ‘assertion’. The assertion is basically the intent behind the phrase, and the assertion can only be understood if we know things about the person asserting the phrase. Who is the person? What are that person’s beliefs? Who is their god and what do they believe goodness to be? Why are they using that particular proposition at this particular time?
Thinking through anything you hear and read with these guidelines is more important than you may think. The reason statements in the media and verses in the Bible are so easily taken out of context and misunderstood is because people do not discipline themselves in their communication to discover true and genuine meaning. All statements have what philosophers call a ‘truth value’. A statement is either true or false, but unless people look into the sense, referent, and assertion of a phrase upon hearing or reading it, a person will be inclined to believe anything that sounds good or tickles the ear, which is something the Scripture strictly warns us about (1 Tim 4:3).
Many philosophers agree that it is not just understanding a proposition that is crucial for the individual, but relaying them is important as well. Imagine if I were to approach you and tell you that God is good. Even if you understand the sense of the word ‘God’ and you know what the word ‘good’ means, and even if you know that I claim to be a follower of Jesus and that he is the God that I am referring to, you have to look at my life and behavior to determine what I mean by the phrase, which would be seeking out the assertion of the proposition. If I drink too much, ignore my children, sleep around with multiple women, and only attend church once or twice a month, what are you going to think I mean when I say that God is good? You might think I mean that I like God and think he is good because he lets me get away with living like an idiot. Then you may think that this is what all Christians mean when they say that God is good, and if that’s the only picture you have of the goodness of the God of the Bible, you have an incorrect picture.
What’s the point of all of this? Meaning matters. If you are lazy in searching for the real meaning and truth value of things you read and hear, you will be led away from truth more often than you realize. If you do not live consistent with what you claim to believe, no one will properly grasp anything you are attempting to communicate. God deserves more from us than our laziness, don’t you agree?
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Its been a while
Hello readers,
It has been nearly two months since my last post. Part of this was because I was re-evaluating my approach to writting, and I wanted to make sure that I was going to be able to write engaging things that would provoke thought and challenge people. I didnt want to write for the sake of writing.
The other part had to do with a crazy season for me where I felt like there were no spare minutes in a day - blogging was the thing that had to give.
Im back with a considerable amount of things to discuss, and I imagine I will be posting multiple times a week from this point forward, so please check back. I will be taking a break from June 7th - 14th because I am speaking at Grace Church's high school camp all week, but aside from this there will really be no more interuptions.
Please post responses to what you read, I would love to hear your thoughts.
It has been nearly two months since my last post. Part of this was because I was re-evaluating my approach to writting, and I wanted to make sure that I was going to be able to write engaging things that would provoke thought and challenge people. I didnt want to write for the sake of writing.
The other part had to do with a crazy season for me where I felt like there were no spare minutes in a day - blogging was the thing that had to give.
Im back with a considerable amount of things to discuss, and I imagine I will be posting multiple times a week from this point forward, so please check back. I will be taking a break from June 7th - 14th because I am speaking at Grace Church's high school camp all week, but aside from this there will really be no more interuptions.
Please post responses to what you read, I would love to hear your thoughts.
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