DownshoreDrift

The Righteousness of Christ

I write a lot about social justice issues, missions, and reforming culture. But, it is only possible for the Christian to engage in any of that because we have first and foremost been set free from our sin, death, Satan, and Hell by the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice and victory on the Cross and through His resurrection. Because "it is finished" we no longer need to make striving for our own righteousness before God our all consuming focus. We are free to serve God and others!  We can entrust ourselves to God and truly believe that we are righteous with the imputed righteousness of Christ! What a great salvation!

I first ran across Dr. Rod Rosenbladt a few years ago when a friend of mine passed me a little booklet called Christ Alone. It was gold. I happened to see a link to a Dr. Rosenbladt mp3 on The Gospel for those Broken By the Church. I have not listened to this yet, but a couple of excerpts are printed that I found helpful:

If the Ten Commandments were not impossible enough, the preaching of Christian behavior, of Christian ethics, of Christian living, can drive a Christian into despairing unbelief. Not happy unbelief. Tragic, despairing, sad unbelief. (It is not unlike the [unhappy] Christian equivalent of "Jack Mormons" - those who finally admit to themselves and others that they can't live up to the demands of this non-Christian cult's laws, and excuse themselves from the whole sheebang.) A diet of this stuff from pulpit, from curriculum, from a Christian reading list, can do a work on a Christian that is (at least over the long haul) "faith destroying."

He goes on:

Learning Service Under a Better Master

The Christian is a person who recognizes that our real problem is not in achieving freedom but in learning service under a better master. The Christian realizes that every relationship that excludes God becomes oppressive. Recognizing and realizing that, we urgently want to live under the mastery of God.

                                          Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction 

A God-Sized Vision For Our Communities and Our World

Jesus taught us to pray to God that His Kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:9). Would He teach us to pray that if He did not have some intention of it being carried out?

God's Kingdom

What is God's Kingdom? I have been talking about this a lot lately because the Kingdom is the template through which Jesus wants us to understand His purposes for this world. He brought the Kingdom of God into our midst. The Kingdom is nothing less than the reign and rule of God. So, Jesus wants us to pray that His reign and rule would be established on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer here means that we are asking God for His supernatural intervention in the affairs of men. But, since God uses us to do His will, we can also assume that He wants us to be agents of His Kingdom so that we may cooperate with Him in the establishment of His reign and rule. His Kingdom is here and it is forcefully advancing. It is for us to lay hold of it forcefully (Matt. 11:12).

God's Will

What is God's will? It seems that there have been a thousand books written about how we can know God's will for our lives. Does God want me to marry this person? Does He want me to take this job? Does He want me to move to this city? These are valid questions and surely God guides us throughout out our lives, but I find it interesting that we continually pray to know God's personal will for our lives (which is valid), while forgetting to pray for God's will for our communities and our world. Are we only able to think of ourselves? What does God think about the broken homes in your community? What does He think about fatherlessness and poverty? Does Isaiah 1:17 have anything to say to us about our stance regarding fatherlessness?  Jeremiah 29:7 says something amazing to the Israelites in exile in Babylon: "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."  But, weren't the people of God in exile in pagan Babylon? How could they pray for the prosperity of Babylon?  Because God told them to. They were to represent His reign and rule even in the midst of exile. Should we do any less?

On Earth As It Is In Heaven

If we want to know what God's will is, we need look no further than His character. As we get to know God better, we should be reflecting His character in our lives. If we are not displaying compassion for those in need, then we are not reflecting God's character. If we are not living holy lives, then His character is not shining through. God wants to supernaturally transform our lives, our families, our environment, and our communities so that every place that we go we are bringing His Kingdom - His reign and rule. When we see sin, depravity, and brokenness in our cities, how can we run away? How can we harbor dreams of escaping people in need and believe that we are dreaming God's dreams? Does God not love people? Did He not die for the broken, harrassed, and helpless? Is there racial division in heaven? Is there crime and poverty? Are there broken homes, abused people, and people struggling with all types of bondages? Until we begin to understand that we are Christ's ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20), then much of the beauty of the Christian life will be withheld from us because we did not have the faith or awareness to step into God's plan for this world.  God actually wants us to pray that Heaven will break into earth through our influence, be it through our personal witness, our work, our creativity, our families, or our general impact on society.

Thy Kingdom Come

I don't want to rest until my life is aligned to bring God's Kingdom everywhere I go. Christians should be MORE involved in our communities, not less. We should move into neighborhoods that are struggling and reclaim them. We should rebuild our schools, our neighborhoods, and our workplaces. We should be about the task of rebuilding lives. Isn't this what Isaiah 61:4 says, "They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations." And, Isaiah 58:12 says, "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." That should not be a revolutionary thought, but the norm. Instead, we tend to run away when problems arise or we turn our attention inward to our own families or our churches, thinking that if we can fix ourselves, then everything else will take care of itself. God wants us to turn our hearts toward Him and toward others, I believe.

It Is Too Small a Thing . . .

Isaiah 49:6 says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Paul and Barnabas repeat this in Acts 13:47 in proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles.  We must move past just a personal vision for happiness in our own lives, or just a vision for our families or even for our church. Our vision must extend as far as God's does - to our communities, our nation, and our world. If we would open our eyes and allow Him to pour His life through us, we would be amazed at how our capacity for life, creativity, and restoration will grow. God will use us to be the light of the world, as Jesus calls us in Matthew 5:14.

What does the world look like without light? Dark, indeed. Perhaps we will stop running and complaining when we begin to see that God wants to use His Church to address the problems in this world. May we plant our feet in our communities and develop a God-sized vision for our world. How can we practically do this, you ask?

I'll get into specifics on this in the next post. But, it is likely that you already know the answer to that question.  It has probably been staring you in the face for some time and you have either not seen it because you did not have eyes to see it, or you saw it and chose to look away and do nothing. Hint: Think about the very thing that you have been complaining about the most and then ask what God might have you do about it. There is a reason that it has been bothering you.  More later.

Apparently, the Only People Reading My Blog Right Now Are . . .

. . . people interested in Heath Ledger and the role of the Joker.  Not really, but it seems that way. That post I wrote in January is in Google's top ten when you type in just about anything that reads like, "Did playing the Joker role lead to Heath Ledger's Death?", or "How did the Joker role affect Heath Ledger?"  I have an invisible statcounter on my blog that gives me search engine type information and it is telling me that there are a lot of people who are wondering if Heath Legder got in touch with some type of evil that ended up leading him to his death. You cannot watch the role that he played as the Joker without thinking that it must have affected him. He spent hours and hours meditating on the evil of the Joker until it consumed him and destroyed him. It is not far from accurate to say, "You are what you think."

The Bible tells us to think on things above, not on things of this earth (Colossians 3:2). How much time do we spend worrying about things? How often do we wonder what is going to happen to us? How much do we think about material things, evil things, deadly things? Are we envious? Do we covet? Are we lustful? Are we unforgiving, or do we hold grudges? Are we full of pride? Hate? Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) turns everything upside-down and tells us that it is not enough to just be outwardly righteous - we must be inwardly righteous as well. What we thought about internally was just as important, if not more so, than what we did externally, because out of the heart flows all types of evil things. Romans 12:1-2 tells us that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us to put off the old self that is corrupting us, to be made new in the attitude of our minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We need to think on things above.

The only way that we can really change is through Jesus. We have to admit to Him that we cannot change on our own and we have to ask Him to change us. The other day, I saw a brief moment of a show on MTV called "From G's to Gents." It takes a bunch of 20 something guys who are hoodlums and it is trying to show them how to be gentlemen. If they make the transition from thug to gentelmen, they win $100,000. I thought that it was pretty interesting because they were dealing with guys that had no hope for change and they were trying to help them change and become better people. What caught my attention was the guy who was on the phone with someone from back home crying saying, "I can't change." He was hopeless. Even when $100,000 was on the line, he could not give up the thug-life. It had become who he was because he had spent a lifetime devoted to it. Interesting.

We are all in that boat, though. Whatever we think about is what we become. Because we are born sinful, we are prone to think about sinful things. The only way that true transformation can really happen is if we are born from above and are given a new heart and mind by God. Jesus has to save us. We must look to Him in faith and ask Him to change our lives. When we do this, He cleanses us and gives us a new start. Then, we continue to think about Him and His ways and our minds are changed. Instead of dwelling on the sin and selfishness that destroys us, we dwell on Christ, our source of righteousness. We start thinking about how we can bless people instead of use people. We think about others instead of ourselves. By the power of God that aids us in this, our lives change.

Heath Ledger spent his time dwelling on the dark side. He played an amazing role in an amazing movie, but he took it too far. He could not control it and it consumed him. But, lest we throw stones, how many of us are consumed by money, by greed, by selfishness, pride, anger, lust, anxiety, our appearance, our popularity, our security, or our place in life? How many of us get consumed by religion thinking that we can in some way merit the merit of Christ? We are consumed by a million different things and all of them lead to death apart from Jesus. He is our Source of Life. The sooner that we realize that, the sooner that we find the reason that we were created.

The Dark Knight Review

I went to see The Dark Knight on Friday night and was not disappointed at all. Actually, this movie has to make my list as one of the best I've seen, and I do not throw around those types of compliments lightly. For a summer blockbuster, this movie is exceptional in every way (USA Today has a review that I wholeheartedly agree with). Here are a few thoughts and then I give an overall perspective:

• Heath Ledger stole the show as The Joker. He will go down as an acting legend. If he does not win an Academy Award for Best Actor, then they should discontinue the award (they probably should anyway, actually).  As I stated in my previous post, on January 24 I asked a question about Heath Ledger: "Did playing the Joker role lead to his death?" Some speculated that the role of the Joker affected Heath deeply and led to depression and insomnia. After watching his performance, I would not be surprised if he opened himself up to a darkness that ended up consuming him.
• All of the acting was superb. The directing, cinematography - everything was amazing. It was a very well made movie.
• I had no idea what was going to happen next. The movie was full of surprises and plot twists. While intense, it was not exhausting. It gave you room to breathe, but every scene was important.
• Overall, The Dark Knight was much better than Batman Begins (a movie that I loved). I would hardly even call it a sequel as it stands on its own quite nicely. 

Overall Analysis

This movie was an intense morality play of good versus evil. Heath Ledger, playing The Joker, emulated Satan better than any movie character that I have ever seen. Yes, he was creepy and strange. The make up and his voice gave you the chills. But, what I mean by emulating Satan is that he acted the way that the Devil acts. He was deceptive and evil only for the sake of being evil. There was no motive. He was evil just because he was, well, evil. The rest of the criminals and residents of Gotham were shown in a more human light. Their evil was always because of self interest, greed, or self preservation. Not The Joker. Like Satan, he delighted in evil for the sake of evil. His desire was to throw the whole system of society out of whack so that anarchy would rule for no other reason than to enjoy the anarchy and to show people that they were not in control like they thought they were. He hurt people just because he could. The only way for this type of evil to be truly combatted was through self sacrifice, and you find that occuring from unlikely sources as well as Batman.

As I drove home, I naturally thought about the ultimate cosmic battle of good versus evil. The human sin that we see around us, while wrong, is still human - it normally works according to self interest and self preservation. There is a much darker, more sinister source that lies behind it all and seeks to manipulate, deceive, and destroy, however. Yes, Satan entices us according to our own sinful desires and he exploits the corruption that lies within us. But, the most rank evil is not flesh and blood - it exists in the powers and principalities; the demonic forces around us that seek to destroy just for the sake of destruction. If there is any reason at all, it is to mar God's creation and attempt to diminish His glory. Jesus conquered the sin that lies within us as well as the evil of Satan through laying down His life in self-sacrifice, which is the only way that evil can ever be truly conquered. Faith in Him provides freedom from our own inner corruption as well as freedom from the evil of Satan. The Dark Knight tells portions of that story in a very surprising way and because of that, it points to something bigger than itself.

This movie is not for children, but at the same time, it was relatively clean by Hollywood's standards. The subject matter was gruesome but real. It dealt with issues of good and evil, morality, sacrifice, perception, courage, and what lies in the hearts of men. If you like movies that deal with these types of issues, then you will enjoy The Dark Knight. But, it is not for the faint of heart.

Marty Duren wrote an excellent review HERE.   

Who Plans to See "The Dark Knight" This Weekend?

I do, if not this weekend, then soon. I am not a huge fan of comic book or super hero movies, but a couple of years ago Erika and I rented Batman Begins.  I thought it would be a tired, boring restart of a tired, boring franchise that had run out of steam years ago. It was one of those nights that we were just looking for a movie and I popped it in expecting little. I was blown away. Christian Bale was amazing. The story was profound and fairly realistic (as realistic as Batman could be - not as cartoonish like the earlier movies). I loved the movie, and when I heard that a sequel with Heath Ledger as the Joker was coming out, I wanted to see it.

Then, in January, Heath Ledger dies. I asked the question, "Did the Joker Role Lead to Heath Ledger's Death?"  Some say that the darkness of the role affected him and led him into a depression. Reportedly, Jack Nicholson (who played the Joker back in the 80's) warned Ledger not to play the role. Apparently, people are very interested in that possibility because that post has become one of the most popular pieces that I have ever written. Daily, people from all over the world go to Google in search of the effect that the role of the Joker had on Ledger and they end up at my post. It has been interesting to observe.

From what I understand, the movie is a classic exploration of the battle of good versus evil, with Batman taking on the sacrificial role to protect Gotham City. There are lots of moral implications to stories like this and I think that is why people are drawn to them. At any rate, this is one of the most anticipated movies in the past several years. Do you plan on seeing it? If you have seen it, what did you think of it? Try not to spoil the plot. I normally only see a few movies a year in the theatre and I think this will be one of them.  Lifeway has a review HERE but, I didn't read the whole thing because it had spoilers to reveal part of the plot in it and I really would rather be surprised.

I'm Back

We had a great time on vacation. Lots of sitting, playing, resting, and reflecting. God is good and has blessed me so much. It was good to spend time with the family and just be together.

My birthday was on Sunday. I turned 34. I'm in my mid thirties and it seems weird and it is causing me to think about a lot of things. I used to see guys who were in their 30's as being old. Now, they seem a lot younger. I guess that will keep happening as I get older. Funny how your perspective changes. I'm not as young as I used to be - Profound, I know.

My church called me on Sunday morning and sang "Happy Birthday" to me over the phone. That put a big smile on my face! Thank you guys!

On another note, Steve McCoy and Joe Thorn are blogging together at Subtext: The Gospel in the Suburban Context. They have some interesting insight. I've been looking for thoughts on this issue for some time and have found few. Thanks, guys!

The Glorious Beauty of a Fresh Perspective

I am taking a break for a week or so (also known as vacation).  I plan to sit and basically do nothing. Oh, I'll sit on the beach, float in the Gulf of Mexico, play with my kids, and try not to sunburn. I'll lounge around the pool, throw some meat on the grill, play putt-putt, and sleep - a lot. But, all of that will basically be put under the category of "doing nothing."  I call it that because it sounds so relaxing and non-stressful.

I love vacation. I love the beach because of the wind and the ocean. You stare at it and you can never see the end. It stretches beyond the horizon and its waves wash over you from far off. Are they from Cuba? The Domincan? Did this water come from Africa? As I feel the wind blowing over me, I remember days long gone with my family on these same beaches. The world was full of promise then and everything seemed new and possible.

The promise is being fulfilled as I watch my children play and hold my wife. I can see a bit more clearly now and I know that God is at work all around me. He is more limitless than the ocean and His blessings come from every direction, just like the waves and the wind. With Him, there is no lack - no promise unfulfilled. I come to this place to hear a bit more clearly what He has in store for us in the coming months. I come to have my soul renewed and to lay down all that I have held so tightly. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

I have begun to step into a new perspective, even before this week. Through prayer and surrender, I have seen God at work in new ways. I look forward to what is to come and I am embracing what He is doing in my life right now. God is good - all the time.

I just wanted to give Him praise. 

Russell Moore on Spiritual Warfare, the Family, and the Rule of Appetites

Either the prophetic cry regarding our lifestyle choices and pursuit of the American Dream is getting louder, or I am just paying closer attention. As our economy tanks and our culture declines, I think that more and more Christians will begin to consider how we are living. Russell Moore from Southern Seminary takes aim at Southern Baptists' acquiesance to a culture run amok in materialism and hedonism. He hits this topic much harder than I have over the past few weeks as he talks to Southern Baptists about some timely issues. He says, "both left and right in the American mainstream are captive to the ideology that the appetites are to be indulged; the heart wants what it wants, by whatever system will do it most efficiently."  Moore is at his best in this article when he exposes the spiritual warfare that is taking place in our midst and how we have been deceived as we fall in line with the materialistic pursuit of our culture. He aptly points out that our enemy is not flesh and blood.

Moore's only weakness is that he is writing from a middle-class perspective as he critiques families where both parents are working. This is the reality for many families and there is really nothing that can be done about it. Instead of making families who HAVE to do this to survive feel bad, we should help them and support them as they provide for their families. His focus, however, is rightly placed on those families who could easily make it on one income, but choose to put children in day care to pursue a lifestyle of affluence. That action does require some analysis and alternatives need to be considered.

Overall, however, his take on this subject is timely - especially his comments on spiritual warfare. 

If We Want to Follow Jesus . . .

Americans are clustering more and more into cultural, social, economic, religious, and political enclaves according to Bill Bishop in his new book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. Basically, our affluence has led us to the place that most Americans want to live, work, and play with people just like them. The Homogenous Unit Principle that I spoke of a few posts ago, seems to be alive and well in an increasingly multicultural America. But, instead of becoming a melting pot, we look more like a salad bowl of Balkanized special interests. Of course, we have seen this for years with white-flight and the rise of the suburb, but it is now apparently happening across other areas of life and it has profound social, political, and religious implicatoins.