A little over two years ago, my wife and I sat across from my son, Josiah.  “I’ve decided to pray for you as someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus,” I explained. “After several years, we just don’t see any fruit.”

I was, of course, referring to the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, etc.) that the Bible indicates we’ll see in our lives when His Spirit is truly indwelling and transforming us. His Spirit recognizes His Spirit in others. In spite of Josiah having made a profession of faith several years earlier (and believe me, it wasn’t because he wasn’t tested on making that life-altering decision - I resisted and was careful during the entire process), years later we just didn’t see a life that was being transformed.

“Are you relieved or do you want to challenge that?” I asked.

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Irresistible grace.

Calvinism:

In Calvinism, this doctrine means that if God is chasing you, you are powerless to resist Him. (A blunted definition, I know).

Again, in the effort to emphasize the Sovereignty of God, a question arises:  If the grace of God is extended to someone, does that person have the capacity to resist it? If the person does, doesn’t that somehow diminish the Sovereignty of God?

This is about as useful as the old question of: “If God is all-powerful, can He make a rock He can’t lift?”

In other words, it’s of no use at all! “Is God powerful enough that if He extends His grace to certain men they are unable to resist it?” Of course He is.

In my last post I offered the biblical prophet Daniel as an example to graduates of how to stay strong in their faith during college. Even though Daniel was in a foreign culture, not unlike where college freshmen will soon find themselves, he stood strong because Daniel determined in his heart beforehand not to defile himself (Daniel 1:8). Daniel had his heart set on doing right before the pressure came and that made all the difference.

In this post I want to offer three practical ways you can purpose beforehand to do the right thing so you can thrive in college rather than crash. Following are three specific issues you will soon face as you move into university life.

First, have you determined in your heart how you will respond to peer pressure to drink alcohol? Most of you have already faced this to some degree, but the stakes change when no parents are there to check on you at night or wake you up in the morning.

It seems to me that atheists are becoming exceedingly shrill. Perhaps the swing towards a materialistic, deity-free culture has empowered them to come out of the shadows and boldly proclaim their belief in nothing and no one besides their own wisdom.

To be honest, atheists have never bothered me too much. I reserve my ammo for the “functional atheists”, those who give lip service to God but act in their everyday lives as if He is not the prime factor.

But apparently I, and those of my ilk, really bother them. We constantly annoy them by bringing up the “G” word and they fire back with odd fervor for a group who are so insistent on this entity being imaginary. They seem to lurk in the comment section of the Internet, mocking, insulting and foisting their half-baked intellectualism and Darwinian intellectual superiority upon those of us hayseeds who are so naïve as to even contemplate a Creator. They cause a ruckus in their attempt to sanitize any cultural, social, educational or political realm of the hint of this deity.

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Let's begin our look at the Calvinism vs. Armenian debate (through the lens of pragmatism and mission) with a link and a few things of note.

The link is the interview of Rick Warren by John Piper: click here.I do NOT start here as an example of Calvinism v. Armenianism. Please DO NOT misconstrue this context. I'm not starting here to state Piper is Calvinist and Warren is Armenian. That's simply not true. Both are Calvinist to differing degrees. I merely want to point out the following:

1. Rick Warren views his ministry and his church plant through the lens of mission. He saw (and sees) himself as a missionary first. This is critical. It is also why I admire Rick and his ministry. Whatever else you think of the methodology, the bottom line is that both Rick Warren individually and Saddleback as a church has an actual heart for lost people. They put their feet where their faith is. Rick is a pragmatist because of that. The question isn't "what is supposed to work", but "what is actually working"? The root cause of good mission stems because a follower doesn't just want to talk missionally, but wants to actually follow Jesus into the unknown. Jesus stepped into a timeframe when there was a lot of theological talk and tomes written on the Old Testament. What made Jesus radical was that He actually reached people.

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Do butterflies prove the existence of God? It is an odd question to be sure. Watch this short video on youtube that addresses this. Are butterflies simply too intricate to be created without an intelligent designer?

The news coverage since the capture of Osama Bin Laden has been fascinating. And yet a number of questions remain: Did Pakistan know his whereabouts? Has the death of Osama hurt Al Qaeda or emboldened them? And yet still an important question remains that few have asked—Was Bin Laden a homicidal maniac? After all, could any normal person call for the death of over 3,000 people? He must have been insane, right?

The day after the news of his death, Bill O’Reilly twice referred to Bin Laden as a “homicidal maniac” during the opening comments of his show on Fox News. The first definition of maniac is, “an insane person, especially one who suffers from mania.” Whether or not O’Reilly meant for maniac to be understood in this way, others have said Bin Laden is “mentally imbalanced,” “insane,” and “wired wrong."

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First, a welcome to all of those now tuning into my blog via “Conversant Life”.  You are now a part of a regular community of change agents who are living all over the world. 

My readers and I share a strong connection: we are passionate about navigating this life intentionally, passionately, and with kingdom-focus. Here’s what you need to know:

1.  We believe that God wants to use us to change the world.

2.  That’s not an esoteric statement, but one with profound implications: we start with where God has placed us and begin to echo His kingdom proclamation (found in Mark 1 at the beginning of His ministry).

3.  The baseline is leaving everything to follow Jesus. That’s what distinguishes the fishermen from the rich young ruler; the follower from the pretender; the well-intentioned from the intentional.

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You don’t hear about dream interpreters much anymore. We generally feel that everything has a scientific explanation. So when we have a dream, we assume it’s our mind trying to make sense out of some nonsense in our day. Likewise, since most people who speak in “tongues” are considered a little loony, you don’t hear about people interpreting tongues. Understandable, yet that probably wasn’t God’s intention.

The Apostle Paul talked about the gift of interpretation when mentioning other spiritual offices and gifts.

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:27–31 ESV).

I’m concerned about the lack of interpretation in our churches. We seem to take most things on face value. And our version of face value is skewed in the direction of rationalism. I believe in reason, but I don’t believe everything can be reasoned away. It’s reason that convicts me and convinces me that the spiritual is essential.

Most of us place the spiritual in a box, only looking for it in spiritual services. Yet it’s all around us. Just like everything has some form of electrical charge (electrons), so the whole world has some sort of spiritual charge. And because the world is this way, interpretation is needed. We have to perceive how God is working—what He is doing.

Interpreters are few and far between today because those who recognize God’s constant interaction with us are few and far between.

Spiritual depravity travels. It works in us, on us, and slowly dwindles down our desire to follow Christ. It is not as if we have immunity to the forces around us.

I’m not sure when the gift of interpretation will become prevalent again. I would like to be hopeful, but I cannot be hopeful until I see us awake to the Spirit again. It’s not that the Spirit has stopped working; it’s that we have stopped acknowledging it.

The spiritual gift of interpretation isn’t prevalent anymore because the other gifts aren’t prevalent anymore. Or better put, they’re generally not acknowledged or identified anymore (at least not properly). Given, there are many who are interpreting the Bible well. There are many great biblical commentators. I’m grateful for these people, but their work alone is not enough. It’s one step among many that must take place. We need people on the ground, in our churches, in our communities, interpreting regularly.

So let’s listen this week. Let’s be intent on hearing Christ. Maybe we can turn this negative into a positive. What can you do to enable interpretation in your community?

 

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One Door Opens & Another One Closes – Maybe

 

I have often heard that God directs our paths by opening and closing doors.  I am not so sure.

 

Late last night I was at the post office with my little man Brendan and this photo happened before my eyes.  There was nobody else there and I was rummaging through my mail.  When I turned to look at him he was standing in front of the large wall of box doors – opening and closing them just to see what was inside.  He liked the bigger ones the best, but the problem was that he couldn’t remember which he had opened and closed – so he just kept running around in madness and glee.

 

After a few minutes he turned, looked at me, and said, “Look at all these doors!  Why are there so many doors?  What do you think is inside?  Woo – this is a lot of work.”  He then returned to his “work” of exploration.

 

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