Inspiring Quote for Book Lovers

We wish our book to live when we shall be sleeping the years away. Yes, and live it will. This is the frightful thought. LIVE IT WILL. A mistake from the pulpit may soon be forgotten - should we make a mistake in an article furnished a paper or periodical, it may be lost or worn out, and soon pass away; but a book will live on, when he who wrote it lives only in the work left behind him.

- T. W. Brents, preface to The Gospel Plan of Salvation, Richmond, TN, February 10, 1874

In or Out?

Did your mom ever say (or yell) "in or out!" when you were a kid, standing there holding the door open? Mine sure did. Did Jesus say the same thing to us?

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. - Revelation 3:15-17, English Standard Version

Does it do us any good to be anything less than totally committed to Christ? Is he OK with us leading a mostly moral life, going to church occasionally (or regularly but with a bad attitude), reading the Bible once in a while, and praying only when we are in trouble? Are we all right if we just avoid doing anything really bad like selling drugs or murdering or robbing banks?

The words that I read in the Bible don't seem to indicate that. The message I get (all through the Bible, not just in Revelation) is that it is all or nothing - if I don't make following Christ the primary purpose of my life, I may as well ignore him.

I realize that different people are at different places in their relationship with God. We can each be at a different stage as long as we're striving as hard as we can to progress. But if we're not doing that - if we're not doing the best we can to be better at prayer, study and fellowship - then we're letting him down. Picture yourself standing before Jesus and answering the question of whether you really lived for him. If you see yourself having a hard time with that question, now is the time to get moving!

Getting Started

Last week I wrote about writing, and how forcing yourself to get started results in actually getting writing done. Ryan took what I started and extended it to everything. Good stuff, that.

Writers Write

"Remember, a writer writes . . . always." - Billy Crystal as Larry Donner in Throw Mamma From the Train


For a long time I've wanted to be a writer. I've dreamed of it ever since I became a dedicated reader in my early teens. At first I wanted to write science fiction books, then any book, then much later a book on religion. Then came the Internet and blogs. That made it easy. Well, kind of.

If you google anything about how to become a writer, one of the most common pieces of advice you'll see is basically the above quite - over and over that's the theme. Of course you also have to do other things if you want someone other than your mom to read it (and if you don't, that's fine too - many people write in a journal or diary and never show it to a soul - that can be quite fulfilling). But if you do want to be widely read, you have to get out there. None of that is hard, given time and patience and hard work. What's hard is the actual writing.

As I was working on the early stages of this blog, I ran across this gem about author Anthony Trollope, which I've found to be absolutely true:

He woke in darkness and wrote from 5:30 A.M. to 8:30 A.M., with his watch in front of him. He required of himself two hundred and fifty words every quarter of an hour. If he finished one novel before eight-thirty, he took out a fresh piece of paper and started the next. The writing session was followed, for a long stretch of time, by a day job with the postal service. Plus, he said, he always hunted at least twice a week. Under this regimen, he produced forty-nine novels in thirty-five years. Having prospered so well, he urged his method on all writers: 'Let their work be to them as is his common work to the common laborer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary. He need tie no wet towels round his brow, nor sit for thirty hours at his desk without moving,—as men have sat, or said that they have sat.'

While affirming the importance of that kind of discipline a friend pointed out that "perhaps the 'just write, baby!' school was assisted somewhat in his case with a large dollop of creative genius." While that's true, I think that anyone with any writing talent can strengthen it by, well...just writing!

Do Christians Have a Higher Standard?

Should we, as Christians sharing our faith to a lost world, hold ourselves to a higher standard of behavior than those to whom we're witnessing? I say yes.

When Christians don't practice what they preach, especially when they don't practice the one thing most unchurched people think Christianity is about (love!), they give people an excuse to not explore the Christian faith.

Our job is to pull people in, not drive them away. When we annoy people by not being nice, if we come across as mean, bitter people, we can cause people to dismiss everything else we say. How many times have you heard someone use the excuse "If those people are Christians I don't want to have anything to do with it!" to not take the first steps toward following God?

Like it or not, people judge what they see. If they see us claim to follow Jesus, but don't appear to love our neighbor, they'll see the hypocrisy straight away. Especially if they see those people as being holier-than-thou in other areas.

I don't want to stand before Jesus and hear him tell me about the people who turned away from him because of my example. I think that places a higher standard on those of us who are trying to spread God's word.

Argue *to* the truth of your position, not *from* it

My friend Ryan is currently reading C.S. Lewis' collected letters, which is interesting in how it shows Lewis' gradual progress from a die-hard atheist to a believing Christian. Ryan occasionally sends me excerpts from his reading and this one was particularly interesting:

From Letters, Volume 2, p. 150, to his friend and former pupil, a Catholic and now a monk, Dom Bede Griffiths, 26 Dec 1934:

If you are going to argue with me on the point at issue between our churches, it is obvious that you must argue *to* the truth of your position, not *from* it. The opposite procedure only wastes your time and leaves me to reply, moved solely by embarrassment, 'you are a saint, but you are no philosopher!'.

That whole idea - arguing TO your position's correctness, not FROM it - seems to me to be the biggest problem people have in discussing religious disagreements. I've recently spent a lot of time reading/listening to debates on the subject of "salvation at the point of faith or baptism" and I have to say that in every one of them every person seems to me to be arguing FROM their position's correctness.

It is a hard thing to fix, or even recognize - look for it in your own arguments the next time you are discussing theology with someone.

Four "rules" for understanding the Bible

During a recent Bible study my friend Allen Dvorak mentioned three “rules” that he uses to help him understand the Bible. I had not heard them before and they made a lot of sense to me so I thought I'd share them.

1. Observe context. Interpret verses/passages in light of their immediate and general context.

2. Harmonize. Based on the compatibility of every “part” of truth, our understanding of one verse/passage should harmonize with what is taught in other verses/passages which are equally related to the same subject.

3. Interpret the difficult in light of the easier. If you find one verse that appears to mean X, and twenty others that all clearly mean "not X", then the one verse probably doesn't mean X.

I would personally add a fourth, which I believe is by far the hardest:

4. Have an open mind. Ask yourself whether this is really true, or just something that you want to be true. I've been guilty of this but now understand that what I want is irrelevant, all that matters is what God wants. I don't think there is any easy way to counter this; just be aware of it.

Failure

We're all so afraid of failure, but it doesn't have to be bad long term.

If God wanted to say something to you...

If God wanted to tell you something, how would he do it? How would he communicate with you?

Would he put a burning feeling in your heart? Would you "just know"? Would he speak to you with an audible voice? Would you just feel very strongly that you should do something? Would he tell you via the Bible?

For the sake of this post, let's assume it is the Bible.

I heard an interesting question in a debate recently. One person was arguing that the Bible forbade a particular thing and the other person that it was permitted. The interesting question from the first person was this: "If God wanted to declare this as wrong, how else would he state it?" His point was if you don't think that's clear, what words would convince you?

I thought that was a terrific question, with lots of interesting applications. Try it yourself - the next time you are reading the Bible pick a subject and ask yourself "if God wanted to permit or forbid or require this, what words would he use?"

Is the Bible God's word or does it "contain" God's word?

I was listening to a formal debate on whether churches should have women preachers and I found an interesting argument supporting that position:

The Bible isn't God's word, but it contains God's word. Paul wrote what he thought, but he wasn't writing for God. Same with Moses, etc. - they were not writing God's words, but what they wanted to write.

Now I have to say right out that I think that's crazy. Not because I don't think it is true (I don't, but someone isn't wrong just because they don't agree with me) but because if one believes that, then upon what (other than your own preferences) do you base your belief system on? I do admire this lady for one thing: she has the courage to actually state this - I think many people believe it but won't actually say it in public.

I'm not saying that someone is stupid if they believe this. I sure hope that's not the case because I've made this exact argument before. I'm just saying that if you really think about it, you can't hold this position because it doesn't make sense. If it is true the Bible doesn't hold any meaning for us - it is no better than any self-help book that tries to show us how to live better. If you can pick and choose which parts to believe, you can support pretty much anything.

I'm stating flat out that the Bible is either true, or it isn't. It is either God's perfect, consistent, complete word, or it isn't. There is no middle ground. There is no gray area here - it is black and white.

If you side with me here then you and I may disagree on what Paul meant when he said this or that but if the words in the Bible say that what Paul was writing was inspired, we can't just ignore them. Here are a few sample verses that show that the Bible states that Paul is writing inspired doctrine, not his own words: 1 Corinthians 2:13, 1 Corinthians 7:10, Ephesians 3:3-5, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 1 Corinthians 14:37, 2 Peter 3:15-16.

Again, either the Bible is true or it isn't. It says that Paul was inspired and that is either true or it isn't. If it isn't, then we should ignore it all (or perhaps browse it for some common sense "good ideas"). If it is then we should obey it...completely. But it can't be partially true and we can't pretend that it is.

Well, of course we can - and we do, all the time. What I mean is that we can't do that and be consistent or intellectually honest. What we want to do (what I've absolutely done, to my shame) is pick the things we like, focus on those, and ignore the rest. As C.S. Lewis says, that's what allows two people to both claim to be Christians while arguing for completely opposite things. I think one of the most serious (and common) mistakes is this: we create a Jesus who agrees with us, then we worship that Jesus.

I've done that for years, but have recently decided to stop. Either the Bible is God's word or it isn't. I've decided that it is, and that means that I've got to live by what it says. Even if I sometimes don't like it. Because here's the thing - it doesn't matter what I want, or what I like, all that matters is what God wants. His job is to define that, my job is to do it. I may not understand all that the Bible says, but I understand enough to know that I've not been following it. And I can't look Jesus in the eye and justify my past behavior - and let's be honest, if we can't do that, we're in deep trouble.