And....I'm Back

It has been awhile since I last posted....ok, months.  The long hiatus is certainly not from a lack of things to write about.  Quite the opposite.  Too much, in fact, to summarize or highlight.  So I'll just jump back in, midstream.

I am pursing an MBA because I want to learn skills that will help me start a successful business.  There are a number of reasons I want to start a business, but I think they can be summed up by saying that, for me, starting a business is a great way to show Jesus to Durham, the Triangle, and beyond.  I'll delve into specifics in later posts, but let's start with that statement.

Why start a business?  I'm able to shape the vision and direction of the company.  It puts me in contact with all kinds of people, from all walks of life, all over the city.  The desire to start a business has grown and not diminished as I have prayed and consulted with family and friends.

What is a Christian business?  This was my next question.  However, I now think that a better question is How would Christ run a business?  This question allows us to meditate on the nature of Christ, and then apply it to a business, instead of trying to fit Him into a model.  It is this question that I am in the process of working out.

What do we know about the nature of Christ?  Read the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10).  It is a good starting point.  Next post I'll try to post some thoughts ala "How would Christ run a business?" and hopefully there will be some comments.  This is my extraverted way of processing.  The more the merrier :)

Soli Deo Gloria

When Circumstances Become our God

God has been working hard on me these past weeks, trying to get through to me that I have let my circumstances become my god.  I understand this in my head, but if I am honest when things get bad I freak out.  Every time I think I have got this lesson learned, something else happens and I take my trust off God and put it solely on my own abilities to right the ship.  And that never goes well.  Why is trust in God, who has ever again and again proved Himself faithful, so hard to master?

Speaking of dire circumstances and God, I thought this article from the NY Times was interesting, more for the comments that follow it than the actual article.  And the fact that it appears in the NY Times.

Soli Deo Gloria

Drowning Out The Silence

So its been a while since I posted.  Life has been...well busy would be an understatement.  But the other day, in the midst of the whirlwind, I had a rather poignient moment while driving home.  Nothing good was on the radio.  I mean total suckage.  So I turned the radio off (RBF reference anyone?) and just rode in silence.  And then I realized I could not remember the last time I had sat in silence.  And then I realized that I had totally neglected reading the Bible.  And then God spoke.  Be still, and know that I am God.  

The Hebrew word here for "be still" is raphah.  The definition from the Interlinear Bible on studylight.org is "to sink, relax, sink down, let drop, be disheartened."  Not sure about that last one, but the others connote a sense of letting it all go, even a giving up.  I can just see a warrior coming in off the battlefield, dropping his armor in a heap, and collapsing onto his bed.  He's been fighting all day, he's exhausted, and he's finally been relieved of command by his superior.  The day was long, hard, frustrating and at the end of it he feels like he didn't even make any progress.  And honestly at this point, he doesn't care.  Its the other officer's problem now.  This imagery actually fits in with what we see in Psalm 46.  God is promising us that, no matter how rough it gets out there, He is Elohiym.  He has won and He will be our refuge and strength.  While we are called to continue to fight (Ephesians 6:12), we must routinely stop and realize who God is, what He has given us, and that He is in control.  The key, that I miss over and over and over again, is that we must first stop.

At the Acts29 boot camp last week, both Mark Driscoll and Wayne Grudem drove home the idea that spending quiet time alone with God is crucial to their health.  They both commented about feeling out of sorts when they don't get that time alone, quiet with God.  Those times are also when they get a lot of their preaching and teaching material.  Man if those guys have to have it, I know I do.  

In our world, silence does not come by default.  We must quite literally turn off and tune out the world swirling around us.  This time must be intentionally put in our schedules and guarded at the expense of everything else in life, to the benefit of everything else in life.  But is it not worth it to commune with our Heavenly Father?  God will not compete for our attention.  Why?  Because nothing can compete with Him.  He wants us to want Him.  I'm beginning to get that idea as my young son starts his life.  Nothing in the world brings me more shear joy than when he smiles at me when he sees me.  Just because I'm his dad and he knows me. 

We are lost without God, tossed around like a dingy in a hurricane.  When life seems like it is too much to handle, stop.  Rearrange your life, cancel a meeting, do whatever you have to do to STOP!

Be still.

Listen.

Hear.

Know.

Soli Deo Gloria

Pride

Being a parent has taught me two things.  First, I have gained a fuller picture of how God sees us.  If I can sacrifice for my son, and if I love him just because he is my son, how much must God love me (Matthew 7:11, Matthew 6:25-27).  Second, God doesn't need me for bumpkis.  Seriously.  Nothing I do has any worth to God of its own accord.  The only reason anything I do is worth do didily squat is because God so delights in me because I am His son (Romans 9:14-16).  Remember the speech God gives Job, along about chapter 40?  Taking credit for anything good in my life suddenly seems really, really stupid...

Soli Deo Gloria

A Shift In Thinking

The following are taken from 'Creating a World Without Poverty' by Muhammad Yunus:

"If the poor are to get the chance to lift themselves out of poverty, it's up to us to remove the institutional barriers we've created around them.  We must remove the absurd rules and laws we have made that treat the poor as nonentities.  And we must come up with new ways to recognize a person by his or her own worth, not by artificial measuring sticks imposed by a biased system."  (p.49)

"It is so tempting to blame the poor for the problems they face.  But when we look at the institutions we have created and how they fail to serve the poor, we see that those institutions and the backward thinking they represent must bear much of the blame."  (p.51)

"I think things are going wrong not because of "market failures."  The problem is much deeper than that.  Mainstream free-market theory suffers from a "conceptualization failure," a failure to capture the essence of what it is to be human." (p.18)

I think the fundamental problem I have with endorsing a system based on profit maximization is that it favors the powerful at the expense of the weak.  Let me be the first to acknowledge the benefits to society that the creativity of capitalism has wrought.  However, in a true free market, there is no room for the losers.  And if you believe there are not losers you do not have a true understanding of the free market.  I admit to not having an elegant solution to the question of the perfect system.  However, I do know the warning from Matthew 6:19-24 well.  Let us be careful who we serve...

Soli Deo Gloria

BBC on US health care

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7833290.stm

I think this is a pretty good summary of our (the United States) population.  How does this story strike you?  Do you think our attitude fits with the Gospel?  Is health care a right?  Is a private or public health care system better?  Should the rich fund health care for the poor?  What is the Church's role in this issue?  How does God call you to respond?  How does the command "Love your neighbor as yourself" apply to the current situation in US health care?  What can be done in your community?

Soli Deo Gloria

Calvinism and The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

The Calvin TULIP:

Total Depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

The Five Solas of the Reformation:

Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone

Solus Christus - Christ Alone

Sola Gratia - Grace Alone

Sola Fide - Faith Alone

Soli Deo Gloria - The Glory of God Alone

There is plenty of literature out there explaining Calvinism, the points of the TULIP, reformed theology and the five solas.  If you have questions, start reading and educating yourself.  Monergism.com is a great place to start.  There's a link on the right.  If you have specific questions that you would like me to address or suggest an article or author, post it in the comments section.  If you'd like to hear a less formal talk as a starter on reformed theology, check out this Q&A session with Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer.

http://www.acts29network.org/sermon/reformed-theology/

Stetzer makes a great point here about theology and missionality.  Do you know what monergism means?  What about soteriology?  If not, go find out.  Why is this stuff important?  Why care about theology?  Hebrews 5:11-14.  Philippians 2:1-13.  Mark 12:28-34.  We are not called to laziness, and that includes our understanding of Scripture and God.  

Soli Deo Gloria

The Heart of the Matter

I'm currently reading God and Politics, edited by Gary Scott Smith, to begin an understanding of the major views of how Christians should engage politics and hopefully come to a conclusion myself.  One thing that has always bugged me about these types of disagreements, and here I mean all arguments about particulars of the faith, is that they don't start in the right place.  

Where should they start?  I think one of the answers is found in James 2:8-13.  This exposition of Jesus' teaching concerning the law (Matt 22:37-40, Matt 5:43-48) is not reductionist.  The command to 'Love your neighbor as yourself' is not a simplified summary of the law deduced after the fact, but the very foundation the law comes from.  The law can be summarized in this statement, because that statement is the law.  That's why if you break part of the law, you've broken the whole law.

So, our discussions need to start with 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  Do our actions and thoughts and positions stem from these commandments?  If not, we are out of line with what God wants for us.  I'm not saying this will make our discussions easy, but to start anywhere else is at best, incomplete, and at worst, false Christianity.

Soli Deo Gloria

Debt

I read Dave Ramsey's "Straight Talk About Debt" article in the Jan/Feb 09 issue of Relevant over the weekend.  Understand that I am not a Dave Ramsey cheerleader.  However, his message about eliminating debt is good stuff.  The line that really stung me in this article is in the section titled "Our Culture."  Ramsey is talking about imitating people you want to be like.  So if you want to be rich, imitate rich people.  He notes, "I have met with thousands of millionaires in my years as a financial counselor, and I've never met one who said he made it all with Discover Card bonus points."  Ouch.  I've been suckered.  I totally bought into the idea that I'd fund my dream vacation house with bonus cash I accrue with my plastic.  And what happened?  I overbought, carried a balance, and now the card company is making money off me.  Stop for a second and think about how much money you currently pay in interest on your debt.  Think about what good could be done in your community with that dough.  Ramsey quotes a figure of $962 billion in US consumer revolving debt as of May 08.  Let's assume an average APR of 5% on that debt, which we all know is low.  That's $48.1 billion.  How much did Pastor Tyler say it would take to bring clean water to the continent of Africa?  $11 billion?  I'm just saying...

What's the real issue here?  Its pride.  We buy stuff with credit because we "need" it now.  We worked hard, we deserve it.  But aren't we called to be good stewards of what God has given us?  Look, I'm not saying credit cards are evil and I'm not saying get out of debt to make yourself rich.  I am saying that we all need to take a really close look at how we spend our money.  If we spend more money than we have, and then extra money on top of that in service on that debt,  is that really honoring God with our finances?  Maybe it means driving a used car.  Or buying less house.  Maybe renting instead of buying (more on the "buying a house is always a better financial move than renting" fallacy another day).  Perhaps you keep your phone an extra year.  Maybe you get a second job.  Staying out of debt will require discipline and sacrifice.  It will not be easy.  But we are not called to easy (Luke 9:22-26).  For my part, until further notice, no more credit card purchases.

Soli Deo Gloria