Spiritually Conscious HTTP

It's not much, but I got a kick out of this.

Many Rooms

So I think I'm better now. Still have some problems concentrating, but I don't think that's the virus's fault--no joke, ten workdays before I begin to out process. Huzzah!

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going." -John 14.1-4

This passage follows right after Jesus washes the disciples' feet, has the Last Supper, reveals he is going to be betrayed, gives his new commandment of loving one another, and tells Peter that he's going to disown him three times before the rooster crows. His teachings here and throughout the next couple of chapters has the disciples absolutely baffled. I'm pretty sure I'd be no different, not knowing what would happen next in the story.

I really want to touch on the "many rooms" part of this passage. It's extremely fitting (especially after revealing to Peter his future sin), but it's also pretty neat to consider against other passages of scripture, namely talking about a wide path of destruction and a narrow path of life, and not everyone saying "Lord, lord" is going to hang out with God when it's all over.

So what's this about? Certainly the disciples are in for the heartbreak of their life in the next few hours when everything turns upside down, especially Peter when he sees his sin unfolded just as Jesus said. If there will be any time for these guys to doubt, it's going to be very soon. Jesus is making it as clear as it can be in the time being that he's got a plan, and they are very much included.

I don't know how some people are, but I have this nagging tendency to believe Eliphaz, Biliad, and Zophar over Jesus when things go sour (those three awkward names belong to three of Job's 'dearest' friends--I look forward to posting about those superstars some other day, but not today). For some reason, it's way easier for me to cut myself up in worrying about my failures than understanding that God has a room prepared for me in Heaven.

Now, I'm from the "once saved, always" tradition. I sometimes hear that there's good reason to believe salvation comes and goes with our obedience, but I've not ever been able to wrap my mind around that one. So if you're from that persuasion...well, may God bless you and keep you, but bear with me through this one.

It's strange how motivation for Christ works sometimes. I can will myself over and over to do something, but if love for God isn't in it, then the only thing I succeed is making myself (and quite possibly others) more miserable (Think WSC #1 on this one). The way through the muck of this life sometimes gets pretty depressing, and it gets really easy to stare down into the rut we're in. Having Christ explain that a place was prepared for his disciples, even before some of their more grievous sins, and greatest depths of despair, it absolutely blows me away!

I don't think he was just talking to just those eleven dudes on that one, hence the "many rooms." If he prepared a place for them in light of that, does that carry over to us? I think it does!

If you have love for God in your heart, and you believe that Jesus really was a guy that happened to be God, and he died to pay the cost of your sin--past, present, and future--in order to reconcile you to God, believe in this passage also. There's a room prepared for you! For real, regardless of where you're at, rejoice! Dance, sing, high-five, chuckle, smile! He is our hope and our salvation! What better time to be happy than now? Praise be to God!

Being Sick Is No Fun

For real. It's kind of hard to concentrate too hard on something for too long, so I'm going on blog-strike until I feel better. Maybe that way I can stick it to the man. Or, sickness. Or the sick-man.

Making the Switch

I've started a resume class today. No, that's not grammatically (or syntactically) correct, but I don't know how to get that accent thing on the 'e' to type it right. Of course, I wasn't too worried when I started, but for some reason, whether it's part of the MASTER PLAN to keep poor souls in Army, or whether the teacher missed his younger days of wearing fatigues, but he made it sound like getting out of Army was a regrettable thing.

Which of course got me to worrying...which is always a bad place for me. Get me to worrying, and I'll turn from Strong Bad to Strong Sad in a New York Minute (think Tigger to Eyore if you miss the reference).

There's tons of things to worry about if you're leaving the folds of Army: Health insurance, dental insurance, job interviews, the economy, getting called back up anyway, the economy, steady income, and I shall not continue (but trust me the list does go on, economy and all).

All this is pretty weird, of course, because believe it or not, I can guarantee you that on day one of my employment, I was thinking "I'm not so sure this is the job for me." It's true, unfortunately. Very rarely did I think otherwise in the nearly four years that has gone by. I spent most of my time thinking about what it'd be like on the outside, hoping that the day would come.

I honestly thought Jesus would have come back before then. (He might, too. God can do anything in 38 days.) But now, with less than two score to go, I'm having doubts. Well, worries is more like it. I really don't think I could turn this ship around now--I've burned too many mental bridges on the way (what business a ship has with travelling over bridges...the world may never know).

Weird.

Matthew 6.25-34. Read it. (Here's a summary: DON'T WORRY.)

In some bout of logic VS God, it seems the safer way isn't always the better way. Keep taking the safe road, and sooner or later, you may find yourself too afraid to open any door you come across. Now, I'm not advocating we should play in traffic here, but we're going to miss something if "safety is our goal" for being Christians.

Reminds me of the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. Lucy, Daughter of Eve, is with the other three humans, who have all just met a Mr. Beaver, who is on the side of Aslan (the lion who plays the part of God). The kids haven't met Aslan yet, and are worried about the stories of this ginormous lion who seems to be on the right side of the battle. Of course, he's a lion, and the mere fact has the kids are a little worried.

Lucy asks: "Is he safe?"
Mr. Beaver: "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe! But he's good."

The crazy books we read in our youth. Crazy, but correct. God's anything but safe. But He is good.

So, the road may not be very safe ahead--that's for sure. Well, seems like now's a good time as any for me to put a foot out on the water. Or as Army always says, "It's GO time."

Trogdor!

Oh, man...it's still funny after all these years.



Check out the site here for more hilarity.

American Christian Flashpoint: Torture!

"Okay, what? THAT'S a flashpoint!?"

Maybe I have indeed lost my marbles, but follow me and maybe it will clear up. I read this article today in the USATODAY website. The title is "Poll shows support for torture among Southern evangelicals" Below is the first couple of paragraphs from the article:

By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service

WASHINGTON — A new poll finds that nearly six in 10 white Southern evangelicals believe torture is justified, but their views can shift when they consider the Christian principle of the golden rule.

The poll released Thursday, commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University, found that 57% of respondents said torture can be often or sometimes justified to gain important information from suspected terrorists. Thirty-eight percent said it was never or rarely justified. But when asked if they agree that "the U.S. government should not use methods against our enemies that we would not want used on American soldiers," the percentage who said torture was rarely or never justified rose to 52%.

"Presenting people with this argument and identifying with the golden rule really does engage a different part of people's psyche and a part of their heart, their soul, and really does shift their views on torture," said Robert Jones, president of Public Religion Research, which was commissioned to conduct the poll.

The findings of this poll, which did not define torture, compared to a Pew Research Center poll from February that found that 48% of the general public think torture can be justified.

The new poll found that 44% of white Southern evangelicals rely on life experiences and common sense to determine their views about torture. A lower percentage, 28%, said they relied on Christian teachings or beliefs.

In summary, the Christians polled had a higher degree of thinking torture could be justified than the general public of the nation. Upon hearing the pollster remind them of the golden rule, 14% of the 600 decided to change their mind. More subscribed this to "life experiences and common sense" than to "Christian teaching or beliefs."

I know this is controversial, as well as extremely discomforting. But we need to talk about this.

I'll tell you what I first thought about this article: I dismissed it. The poll was skewed. Those "Southern evangelicals" don't represent me. Torture could be justified, it makes sense. I pictured a radical Islamic terrorist with the abort code to a dozen nuclear warheads bearing down on America soil. We need that code.

Well, the poll might have been skewed, but my thoughts most certainly were. "Southern" and "evangelical" these people may be, but I bet they identified themselves as Christians. Most probably were. I tried to justify torture myself--I was one of them. Not all terrorists are radical Islamic, or even Islamic for that matter. Regardless of faith, we don't want to allow our American troops to be tortured, but we'd certainly do it to them. I've dehumanized them. I didn't consider them to be the type of enemies that I should pray for. I was certainly not wanting to repay evil with good in this circumstance. Not that it mattered, I wasn't doing the torturing. I rationalized that this was different, that this was necessary, that the ends justified the means.

People, make no mistake. Across the globe, torture is generally accepted as immoral regardless of circumstances. Not to mention illegal. The Geneva Convention implicitly prevents it. The United Nations Convention against Torture explicitly forbids it, even in times of war. There is evidence that shows explicitly forbidding torture produces far more reliable information than otherwise. It was claimed by a U.S. Army General. Read it here. Read another article about there being dubious evidence of torture saving lives. Look at the Wikipedia page for waterboarding for an example of the methods--remember, it was debated not too long ago that this wasn't torture. Don't take my word on all of that--It would pay dividens for you to research it yourself.

What about scriptural proof? I'll be honest, I haven't done a full blown study on it yet--which is kind of funny, because it almost supports the statistic above that we ground our belief for torture from life experiences instead of the Bible. Hmm.. Here's one guy's findings saying that beatings aren't forbidden, and neither is torture. Of course, on the other hand, here's an article from Christianity Today about 5 Reasons Torture Is Always Wrong, which in my opinion seems to be more researched than the previous.

As for my thoughts, I will say I find it intriguing how God has a way of rooting for those who are oppressed (the sinners, the Israelites, slaves, captives, orphans, widows...), and isn't too pleased with those in power who abuse it. Does this translate to captives in torture, and the torturer? Possibly. Also consider what you do and how you think when you're intensely angry and yelling at someone, and how things get out of hand. I'd imagine the torturer would have the same problem, and things would most certainly get out of hand (with the pressures of believing the captive has pertinent information, and that the captive is defying him). And here's a zinger--would you do the torture yourself? Would you be willing to be present? If you wouldn't, why is it okay to make someone else do the dirty work?

Needless to say, I also came across plenty of blogs and articles that blasted Christians for hypocritical ethics in this matter. It could be rationalized that they'd all sing a different tune if the conditions changed, but I'm not concerned about their issue with torture at the moment. Right now I'm concerned about ours.

The mere fact the issue causes many of us to squirm (self included) makes me think we're not being honest with ourselves. It's quite possible we may need to do some explaining. And I don't mean to non-Christians (although that's not a bad idea). I mean God.

Of course, you can disagree with me. As I said before, this is indeed an ethical dilemma. We're going to lose the argument either way to somebody, and yet feel strongly about our decisions. I'm not going to insist you side with me, but I do want you to consider it. What I really want is for your faith to play a role in your decision.

As for me, I will no longer justify torture. Please forgive me for putting my fears above my faith. Pray that my decisions are increasingly based on my faith, and that my faith is not based on my decisions. And that I personally read the Bible for God's answer on the matter.

Jesus Wept

I read the story of Lazarus today, and I was most definitely intrigued.

The brevity of John 11:35 caught me by surprise: "Jesus wept." (That's a pretty easy memory verse, by the way...)

Why did he weep? Because he loved Lazarus? Sure, I guess. But there seems to be more going on than that. Jesus knew he was sick, and also declared that the type of sickness didn't lead to death. And he also said that he was going to wake Lazarus up on his way to Bethany, where Lazarus lived and more recently, was laid to rest.

Jesus also loved Lazarus' sisters, Martha and Mary. He met both and openly received their anguish in so many words: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Which was true. He also saw the people who were gathered to comfort and offer condolences to the sisters. They were also quite grieved by the sound of it.

He knew Lazarus was to die, and he knew that he was to raise Lazarus from the dead. With that knowledge, why did he weep? Why not just say, "Cheer up, watch this!" and poof Lazarus alive, no tears needed?

Maybe it was a production, or maybe because it wasn't fun where Lazarus was, but neither of those assumptions seem to jive with the rest of what I know of Jesus. Throughout the gospels, Jesus shows incredible compassion to many, including those who betrayed him and wanted to kill him.

I'm beginning to think he wept because of the anguish and grief that had to occur for God's glory to be revealed. He was obviously emotionally attached to the Lazarus clan. But if he came zooming in and poofed Lazarus well before he died, those present wouldn't have seen what God could really do. They'd miss the point. So would we.

Remember, that was the plan all along--Lazarus had to die. And in the interim, where the grief was, he identified with those who felt the pain. Not for show, but for real. Sickness is rough, especially the terminal kind. And it happened to a good man, with a family that believed in the deity of Jesus and the promise of God. They still trusted Jesus even though they knew he had the power to heal, and deliberately chose not to. And he understood their pain. Jesus wept.

This changes what I normally think about God when I'm in times of strife. A lot of times, I think He says back to me, "Hey, cheer up, I have a plan!" And I have to deal with it. But understanding that God in human form grieved with those experiencing the pain says something different. That He understands living in this world hurts. That it grieves Him when we cry out in anguish and desperation. And understanding that sometimes, it has to be that way, and it pains Him deeply. Yet, unless that occurs, we would never begin to understand His glory. We would not know the extent of His love and desire for us. We would zoom through this life missing the whole point.