Today in Blogworld 01.18.13

Mike Leake

14 Things You Can Do to Fight Human Trafficking and Help Victims:

The Resurgence has compiled a helpful list of things you can do to not only end human trafficking but also help its victims.

Guilt is a Chauffeur

Great work here by Erik Raymond on the role of guilt in driving us to the cross. He notes that Christians typically bounce off of two extremes: 1) Undervaluing the work of Christ by clinging to our own merit  and 2) Undervaluing the work of Christ by wallowing in our guilt.

Away with Utilitarian Arguments Against Abortion

You’ve probably heard those arguments: “We should end abortion because we might be aborting the next Martin Luther King Jr.”. Jared Wilson shows why that argument isn’t helpful and actually has no place in the Christian worldview.

15 Frugal Billionaires

It’s interesting to read of billionaries that don’t live like it. It’s funny that they would consider Mark Zuckerberg’s $7 million house as frugal.

This would be really fun to do. And I have plenty of corny jokes to pull it off:

Those of Whom Blogging Annoys

Mike Leake

Some people do not like blogging. It has been mocked and derided by many. And even by a good number of those that are influential in the “real world”. I share some of their concerns, believing that there is a dark side to Christian blogging. But I also believe there can be tremendous value in blogging.

That is why I appreciated this analogy by Jim Pemberton*.

Christian blogging is like knocking on the walls of the Church to find the weak spots. It can be an annoying practice to different types of people.

Jim then goes on to list the five types of people that get annoyed with the “knocking on walls” of blogging.

  1. Those who are trying to get away with nominal faith and still be active in church.
  2. The ones who put that particular wall there and don’t want to believe that it wasn’t constructed very well.
  3. Those who love the Lord, but don’t think it matters if the proverbial walls are weak or not.
  4. Those doing the work of strengthening the Church in other areas who think someone wants them to drop what they are doing and go work on some other part of the Church for a while.
  5. Those who think the church will be just fine if people would only stop banging on the walls.

If I were to extend this analogy a little I would say that watch blogging is like checking on these walls with sledgehammers. They are like a crazy and unsatisfied man that keeps knocking walls out of his house just hoping that somehow it will finally be perfect.

Faithful bloggers keep their eyes open in the real world and the blog world. At times they simply go about the business of strengthening the church. At other times something catches their eye and they set about tapping on the walls trying to find the weak spot so they can concentrate their energies there.

Sledgehammer blogging is annoying. But let’s not pretend that there is all there is and that there isn’t great value in having humble servants knocking on the walls and doing their best to edify the kingdom.

That Angel Is an Idiot

Mike Leake

That title bothers you doesn’t it?

It bothers me too. But that is telling. We revere angels—as maybe we should. So I invite you to imagine a scenario with me for a moment.

You’re driving home from work. You haven’t had codeine or any other mind-altering substance. You’ve been sleeping well. You didn’t have Indian food for lunch, either. All of a sudden you get this weird urge to pull over to the side of the road. You ignore it for awhile but after it keeps gnawing at your guts you sheepishly veer off to the shoulder.

Your car has not been stopped for more than 15 seconds when a man that looks like Michael Landon gets in your car. He tells you that he has a very important message for you. He explains that he is an angel. And he even shows you his wings and his drivers license to confirm it.

His important message is that most Christians have gotten the gospel message of Jesus entirely wrong. He lets you know that the message that Christians proclaim is only partially true. Because of a vast conspiracy, that Satan himself was behind, an entire book of the New Testament has been left out.

The angel hands you a tattered scroll with some funky ancient writing on it. He opens it and reads the important portions to you. It turns out that Christians are correct about salvation in Jesus by grace through faith. That is what gets you into the kingdom. But you do not stay there simply by a continued faith in Jesus. The way that you stay in the kingdom is through a complex set of rituals that mark you off as the people of God. Everyone that does not engage in these rituals (similar to the putting blood on the doorpost in Exodus) will not inherit eternal life even if they have initial faith in Jesus.

How You Decide If This is Bunk

This seems really weird to you, but the guy is really convincing. So, how will you determine whether this is true or not? How will you go about getting at the truth? Some might answer, “Well, I need to figure out if this is really an angel or not. If it’s really an angel then I ought to really consider what he’s saying. But if it’s just some crazy guy dressed up like Michael Landon then I can dismiss this.”

That might be your answer. And you might also be totally wrong.

The Scriptures teach you that it doesn’t matter if this really is an angel. If it’s an angel then the angel is an idiot. This is what Paul says in Galatians 1:8,

“…but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” 

You don’t need to know whether or not this is an angel to know that what he is telling you is bunk. It doesn’t match up to the gospel and so the credentials of the messenger really do not amount to a hill of beans*. What matters is the content of the gospel. As soon as this Pa Ingalls look-a-like starts blathering on about a different gospel you know his words are nothing more than serpent talk—even if he is an angel.

Today’s “Angels”

It doesn’t take wings to teach a different gospel. There are many different gospels that are being promoted in our world, sadly even from “Christian” pulpits. For many of them they are followed simply because of their credentials. Their book deals, the number of people coming to their church, the massive amount of people they have “helped”, etc., serve as an angel license. Surely they aren’t preaching a “different gospel” if the Lord is giving them so much success.

It might be easy for us to point a finger at those goobers that embrace a different gospel simply because of the flashy teachers credentials, but let’s be really honest…we can be just as awestruck.

Dude…it’s John Piper**. You can trust what he’s saying. And you can. He’s not going to preach you a different gospel nor is he deserving of an anathema. So, in that sense Galatians 1 doesn’t apply at all. I still think that we can learn a lesson here, though. We ought to be careful not to be so enamored with some dude’s credentials (even if it’s a long list of gospel-centered talks) that we begin weighing what people say based upon their name instead of on the unchanging gospel message.

So, let’s weigh the veracity of a message based upon it’s faithfulness to the gospel of Christ instead of Preacher Joe and his stellar gospel credentials.

—

*I’m not really sure what the exchange rate for a hill of beans is these days, but my grandma seems to think that they aren’t much.

**You can substitute John Piper for any other solid Bible teacher.

Week Without Google: Day Three

Mike Leake

Today I was a bit shocked that I did not turn to Google more. I had to finish up a few finishing touches on sermon prep and I ended up writing a decent amount of articles. Maybe I am getting more accustomed to not reaching for Google.

Stuff I will probably go to bed without knowing that I would have Google Searched

  • What is CPS? Actually I figured this one out on my own. Child Protective Services. Did that without Mr. Google.
  • What are the names of the characters on Little House on the Prairie?
  • Did Tim Brown play his whole career with the Raiders or have an early stint with the Bears?
  • Do I capitalize “is” in a title?
  • Research Abeka curriculum for homeschooling.
  • I could have also used a little help preparing our guys Bible study for tonight on the Galatian heresy. Commentaries got me through though.

How this Google-fast as helped

  • Again I would have wasted some time on things that did not matter.
  • I also think figuring out CPS on my own proved that I would have quickly typed it in to Google and then slapped myself in the forehead and said, “duh” I knew that. It’s making me figure things out on my own.

How this Google-fast as hurt

  • I am realizing that often I use Google to keep me from looking like a moron (sometimes it works). There are still basic grammar things that I forget sometimes. And I also need help with a few pop-culture references or even grandma-culture references like Little House that I need assistance with.
  • I could have used some help researching the Galatian heresy.
  • I also would have liked to get pricing for Abeka curriculum in places other than a simple Amazon search.