Too Lazy to Reason, Part I

Posted on 12/27/2010 by Paul Pavao

"It was the intention of the Holy Spirit to enlighten [only] those holy souls who had devoted themselves to the service of the truth." (Origen, De Principiis IV:1:14, c. A.D. 230)

I don’t know if you’ve thought about why most of us don’t keep the Sabbath, but keeping the Sabbath is, after all, one of the ten commandments.

Some Christians would say that Sunday is the Sabbath. Catholics and Mormons would agree on this, and a lot of Protestants would as well. It may not matter much which day of the week the Sabbath falls on, but if we’re supposed to keep the Sabbath, why would we keep it on the first day of the week rather than the 7th? God did give a reason that he chose the 7th day as a day of rest.

The reason things are this way is because you are keeping a very ancient tradition. For those who do not keep a Sabbath at all, I would say that tradition is apostolic … sort of.

Why We Don’t Keep the Sabbath

The following is not a discussion of why you shouldn’t keep the Sabbath. It’s a discussion of why you don’t. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with what follows; what follows is still why we Christians do what we do (or don’t do what we don’t do).

All we know for certain from the apostles is that Paul said that the Sabbath is a mere shadow of things to come (Col. 2:16) and that Christians don’t have to hold one day above another (Rom. 14:5-6).

But after the apostles? Then we know a lot. The early Christians believed that Jesus did not only "fulfill" the Law of Moses, he "filled" it as well. He brought it to its full state, so that now we not only avoid adultery, we avoid lusting (right?). We not only keep our oaths, we honor every word that comes out of our mouths. (Matt. 5:17ff and fuller explanation here)

Also, we don’t just sanctify the 7th day, we sanctify every day. Because our salvation is not physical, as it was with the ancient Israelites, our rest is not physical, either. We have entered a new Sabbath, the perpetual rest we have in Christ.

That’s what early Christians taught across the board in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and the practice of not bothering to rest on Saturday has come down to us, but the reason for that practice has not.

Because the reason was forgotten, along with a lot of other things that were forgotten, Christians began asking, rightly, "Why aren’t we keeping the 4th commandment?"

(Except medieval Roman Catholics, who had to ask, "Why aren’t we keeping the 3rd commandment?" The RCC didn’t like the command about not making graven images, so they took it out, which they could get away with because they wouldn’t let their captives read the Bible. But that’s a different tradition.)

The response to this question could not be "Let’s go back to resting on the 7th day" because the tradition against it was too well-established. Thus began the practice of resting on the 1st day, the "Christian Sabbath."

Early Christians honored the first day, too, but not as a Sabbath. It was a day of rejoicing. On Sunday they did not kneel or fast. They also held their weekly meeting on that day, though it was early in the morning so that everyone could get to their fields or business after the meeting. It was not a day of rest. Even for the Romans, the great day of Saturn was the chief day of the week, not the day of the Sun. Everyone worked on Sunday, and if there was a day of rest, it was the 7th day for the Jews, and the same day, the day of Saturn, for the Romans.

But because the 1st day was a day of joy in honor of the resurrection, it was the primary candidate for restoring the physical rest that properly belongs to the Old Covenant.

Should We Keep the Sabbath?

Ah, that’s the question. But it’s a question for tomorrow. It’s not the answer that I want to talk about, it’s the answering.

So "Reasoning, Part One" was devoted to actually thinking about why we don’t keep a 7th day Sabbath. Part Two will be devoted to whether we should just accept tradition as it’s handed to us, and Part Three will discuss the terrible temptations we face when we discuss such issues.

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Getting Ready for Xmas, 2011

Posted on 12/26/2010 by Paul Pavao

I know Christians usually don’t like the use of Xmas. They feel like Jesus is being x’d out of the holiday.

For the record, the use of Xmas was an attempt to abbreviate Christmas that I find interesting.

X represents the Greek letter chi; it’s the first letter in Christ. Jesus isn’t being x’d out of Christmas with Xmas, he’s being chi’d in!

You’ve probably seen that Greek letter chi on bumper stickers. It’s normally inside a fish symbol, and it looks like this:

ΙΧΘΥΣ

Iota, chi, theta, upsilon, sigma: It spells ichthus, which is the Greek word for fish. It stands for Iesous, Christos, Theou, Uios, Soter—Jesus, Christ, of God, Son, Savior.

When you see it, it’s not pronounced iks-oh-yay; it’s pronounced ik´-thoos, soft th, long oo.

And if you don’t mind the Χ in ΙΧΘΥΣ, then you don’t have to mind it in Χmas, either!

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Merry Christmas!

Posted on 12/25/2010 by Paul Pavao

I meant to just give you a link today. The link’s more important than the post that follows, so if your time is limited, read John Bob’s blog, not what I wrote below the link:

God entered our world

Some Thoughts on Christmas

This is the day when a pretty good portion of the world’s population celebrates the day that a poor Jewish kid was born in a small town in a conquered nation over 2,000 years ago.

It’s an unanswerable miracle that we even know that day happened; never mind whether we know the exact day of the year it happened on—or even that we don’t know the exact year.

Atheists love to point out that the worshipers of Mithras drank bread and wine in honor of their resurrected deity just like Christians do. They love to point out the lack of contemporary, non-Christian, historical testimony to Jesus’ existence. They love to point out geographical problems in the Gospels and seeming contradictions.

Yeah, exactly. There’s no earthly reason that the whole world should know who Jesus is and refer to him as Christ. That’s a Jewish term for a king or anointed prophet! Why would the whole world use that tiny, tribal nation’s vocabulary, especially when they weren’t even a nation for 97% of those 2000 years!!! Yahweh, the tribal war god of an insignificant people, has conquered the world—without war!

Marvel today. Also, share a cup of cheer. Make someone warm today, whether that’s bodily or emotionally. Give gifts and don’t worry about getting them. Don’t worry about whether those gifts are physical because Jesus didn’t give a physical gift except the gift of himself. Enjoy the lights and think of the light of world.

It’s a great day to give.

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Imperative-Indicative and Performance-Acceptance

Posted on 12/24/2010 by Paul Pavao

I read an article today discussing "imperative & indicative."

Imperative & indicative is the idea that all of God’s imperatives—his commands—go back to and are based on his indicatives—what he says about his love for us.

You can do this with all of Scripture. You can trace back all the imperatives back to, if it is not in the context of the chapter or the book, its in the bigger picture.

The example given is the first commandment in Ex. 20:2-3. God tells the Israelites that they must not have any gods before him; that’s the imperative. But first he tells them that he is God and he has rescued them; that’s the indicative. The imperative, that they must put God first, is based on the indicative, that God has rescued them.

He says, "You can do this with all of Scripture."

That’s a really sweet, nice idea, but no, you can’t.

At the very least, there are dozens of Scriptures you can’t do that with, and perhaps there are hundreds.

A Massive Conflict

Protestants are always coming up with falsehoods like this because they’re struggling so hard to defend their version of faith alone. It’s very easy to squash the overboard faith-alone theology that is rampant in modern Protestantism. It’s terribly unscriptural.

The problem is, there’s a point that Protestants—and, in the case of the article linked above, Darrin Patrick—are trying to make, and that point is valid.

We love him because he first loved us.

There’s no getting around that. People who are working their way to heaven by obedience to God are, in general, insufferable. They’re self-righteous, dishonest about their own weaknesses, and no one really wants to be around them. In that way, they’re nothing like Jesus himself. Sinners loved to have Jesus around, and it certainly wasn’t because he beat around the bush or hid his light under a bushel!

The people we want to be around are the people who know that they only love him because he first loved them. They know that there is none righteous, no, not even they themselves. They are full of mercy for us because they know the mercy they need themselves.

But that’s not the whole story!

Performance and Acceptance

God’s imperatives are not always based on indicatives except for the indicative that if we don’t obey, then we’re going to be punished.

The Bible doesn’t only say that we love him because he first loved us. Sometimes it says that if we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, we’re going to hell.

Jesus said that in Matt. 25:31-46. There the people who go to heaven are the nice people who helped others. Everyone else goes to hell even though they think they’re nice people. And the context doesn’t help. Jesus leads up to the judgment by telling the story of the 3 servants with the talents. There’s good and faithful servants who get a reward, and there’s a lazy servant who is thoroughly chewed out by his master for being wicked, and then he’s punished pretty severely.

Then there’s Rev. 3:4-5. There, Jesus comments that there’s people "even in Sardis" who haven’t defiled their garments.

That’s a pretty rough statement, don’t you think? "Even in Sardis"? It doesn’t sound like he’s pouring out love and acceptance on them, does it?

And he’s not! Those "few," "even in Sardis," will walk with him in white. The rest will have their name blotted out of the Book of Life unless they repent.

What’s a Soul To Do?

So what are we to do? Does God love us and lead us to love him, or does he threaten us so that we’ll love him?

Yes.

Read through the Gospels some time. Jesus doesn’t care about whether you believe in works-righteousness or faith-righteousness. He cares whether you’re doing what you’re told. If he has to love you sweetly to encourage you, then he does that. If he has to threaten firebolts from heaven, then he’s not averse to doing that, either.

You can find Jesus comforting a woman caught in adultery, assuring her he doesn’t condemn her.

Don’t be fooled; that’s not for her faith! He did that because that would help her live righteously! That woman didn’t have any faith. She just had a distant hope that she wouldn’t be stoned that day and face a God whose laws she’d despised.

She looked in the face of Jesus, who, like his Father, always wants people to repent and live, and she found a love that transformed her.

The Pharisees, however, didn’t always find that same love. He wanted their repentance, too, and he got it by threatening the judgment of hell on them and calling them open graves and the children of snakes.

Comfort the Fainthearted; Warn the Unruly; Help the Weak

One good way to test a teaching is by looking at its conclusion. What does the teaching tell you to do? And does God tell you the same thing in the Scriptures?

For example, I did that the other day with evangelism. We cajole, coerce, and convict people into evangelizing over and over. Do the letters to the churches do the same? No, they don’t, so I taught a teaching that matches what we’re told to do in the letters to the churches.

That seemed better.

So do the Scriptures tell you to do what I’m talking about today?

They sure do. First they tell us that we are to treat different people differently:

Now we exhort you, brothers: warn the unruly; comfort the fainthearted; help the weak; be patient to everyone. (1 Thess. 5:14)

Okay three different things to do with 3 different people.

  1. It’s okay to warn those arrogant, “I don’t have to obey because Jesus died for me” people. You’re doomed. Jesus is going to enjoy sending you to hell. (Well, I don’t know about the enjoyment part, but he is going to send them to hell.)
  2. It’s important to comfort the fainthearted, or you’re going to discourage and destroy them. Don’t. Jesus loves those people.
  3. Help the weak. Give them any help you can! Love them, visit them, give them your time, and chew them out if you need to.

In the end, though, don’t miss the "patient with everyone" part. It’s okay to chew out pharisees; it’s not okay to give up on them. Pray for them, love them, and be patient with them … while you’re calling them snakes and telling them they’re sons of hell.

Have the right goal! God’s goal! That all would come to repentance and be saved!

Okay, finally, here’s one other proof that this is the way Jesus thinks:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven

That’s what matters to Jesus, is that the Father’s will is done. Forgive the adulterer, condemn the Pharisee, be frustrated with the apostles and those in Sardis. Whatever it takes, help them do the Father’s will. It doesn’t matter what they’ve done; it matters what they will do.

Give them time, give them love, give them rebuke, give them forgiveness, promise them rewards (real ones, not made-up ones); do whatever you have to do, but help them live for Jesus, and pay the price of suffering and time to help it happen.

Anyway, that’s my take on it.

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On Dealing with Insecurities, Part 2

Posted on 12/23/2010 by Paul Pavao

Yesterday’s Part 1 to this post was called "Dealing with Mental Illness," not "Dealing with Insecurities."

Yesterday, I had a point to make about ignoring that sort of mental illness.

Today, though I want to talk about security and the family of God.

This post started out as an addendum to yesterday’s post, but it got long enough and off the subject enough that I thought it deserved its own post.

So here goes:

Dealing with Insecurities, Part 2

Yesterday, I called my post “light-hearted.” Far from being light-hearted, that post made me nauseous. I don’t talk about my feelings very well, and I don’t disparage myself very well unless I’m just joking around.

Too proud, I guess! 🙂

I wrote yesterday’s post just in case there were others as messed up as me, and afterward I wanted to go hide in a closet and peek out the door to see if anyone was going to come in and comfort me. (That’s not a very mature thing to do, so I didn’t do that.)

Okay, having said all that, now the manly side of me can shrug all this off, make sure everyone knows I only wrote that post to help others who might struggle with those kind of thoughts, and act real secure … at such times it’s important to laugh the discussion off with a deep, resonant, manly laugh.

The fact is, though, that I can laugh it off because my insecurities are driven out by wonderful love and fellowship from people who know everything I said yesterday is true, but who don’t think I’m stupid, insane, or childish—or if they do, then they must not care. I don’t have to worry about those feelings because they neither control me nor get hidden in a cage, silently affecting all my actions in the background.

We all need that kind of love, and that’s why the church is so important. For us to walk in the fullness of what God has given us to do, we have to grow up—even if we do that growing up when we’re 40, 50, or 60 years old—in the wonderful, loving environment of the family of God.

The Family of God and Insecurities

The family of God is not a Sunday morning meeting in suits.

Now would be a good time to talk about how to either start or be a part of the real family of God—not a meeting; not a club; but people who act like family to one another because their spiritual kin are more important to them than their physical kin.

But I write about that a lot.

Today I just want it to sink in that it’s so important.

Most men are like me, full of insecurities. Most men—and unfortunately, especially Christians—are not like me, in that they don’t have intimate friends loving and nurturing them spiritually so that their insecurities don’t overrun them.

One of the most amazing revelations of church life, and there’s been many, is that most men who come to the church are overrun by fear; fear affects every aspect of their personalities, and their bravest, most macho behavior is usually 100% fear-based.

I don’t think I have time to explain how true that is. I can give you an example, though.

We met one really macho, sharp-tongued, not-afraid-to-say-anything Christian guy a few years back. As we got to know him, it slowly became apparent that the reason he was so sharp-tongued is that he was scared to talk to people! Amazingly, what looked like “I’m not afraid to talk about anything” was really “I have to offend you quickly because I’m afraid to talk about almost anything.”

So many men are just that way. They growl their way past their insecurities, unable to love lest they look bad while loving.

The answer my friend, is not prayer. The answer is to be exhorted, comforted, and encouraged every day, while it’s called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of insecurity … oops, sin (Heb. 3:13).

That’s what the church needs to offer, not just good teaching or good singing, and especially not a beautiful building that we foolishly call the church.

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On Dealing with Mental Illness

Posted on 12/22/2010 by Paul Pavao

If you’re here because you googled mental illness, you came to the wrong place. There are mental illnesses that need professional, medical treatment, and there’s others that require deliverance by Christians that are close to God and able to drive out demons.

I’m not talking about those mental illnesses. I’m talking about the ones that come from being human, which most of us don’t realize are mental illnesses.

This is a little more light-hearted than most of my posts, but no less important in my eyes.

Swollen head Syndrome

God’s called me to a be a teacher. He’s given me a gift. Sometimes that means it’s really easy to teach and really easy to know what God’s saying. Sometimes that means that people walk away saying wonderful things about me, and other times they just walk away amazed, just a little bit more open to God in their lives.

I don’t want to talk about being a teacher. I want to talk about what it took for me to write the last paragraph.

Just saying that God called me to be a teacher sets off alarm bells inside. Numerous parts of me start speaking:

  • The part that catalogs what other people think so that I can make sure to follow all the rules for life says, "That’s not a very humble thing to say."
  • The part of me that is scared of what other people think—the part that wants me to follow polls like a politician—says, "Think of a way to tell them you’re a teacher http://rosecreekvillage.com/shammah/wp-admin/post.php?post=837&action=edit&message=1to get your point across, but find some words that make you look humble."
  • The part of me that wants to affect what other people think of me, says, "Be bold! You can’t be humble by acting humble, anyway. Cross lines fearlessly, like all those guys you admire, and then maybe others will admire you, too!"

All that happens inside me in a split second.

Shrunken Head Syndrome

Worse, I’d love to acknowledge that I’m astounded at the revelation God gives me sometimes. It comes down from heaven, fills me with joy, makes my insides quiver, and always gives me power to dispel anything that comes up against what I’m saying. When that revelation comes, I can see inside of people, and it’s no problem cutting right to the center of a matter, nor to speak fearlessly yet with care and compassion.

That’s a gift of God. It’s incredibly delightful, and I think it’s a good thing to talk about because every one of us has a gift from God like that, and every one of us can experience the thrill and the inexplicable confidence that comes from operating in that gift.

But it’s exceptionally difficult to talk about the gift of God in me.

The fact is, when it’s happening, it’s very easy to be really, truly proud in a sinful way.

But then, afterward, this other gift of mine rises up. It’s the ability to condemn, and especially to condemn myself.

"Got arrogant again today, didn’t you? There’s people who ask you now and then just who you think you are, and they saw you today, puffed up and full of pride. Today, they know they’re justified in paying no attention to you because they’re right. You’re too big for your breeches."

The voice goes on:

"And what do you have to be proud of, anyway? It’s not like you deny yourself the way Hudson Taylor did. Are you scraping aside every bit of extra money? How about selling your furniture for missions support like Carol Vezey did? Amy Carmichael had her eyes set on the Gospel all the time. She wasn’t unmoved, and she sure wasn’t spending any time thinking she just gave a wonderful message. She was too busy being spiritual."

Your Voices

Do you ever go through that kind of thinking?

I’m 49. I’ve been walking with God for 28 years. I’ve paid a lot of attention the advice that’s been given me over the last 28 years in hopes of overthrowing those voices and thinking properly.

And I’ve found an answer.

The answer is that there is no answer.

No, the answer is that no answer is needed.

My mind’s going to be like that forever. Maybe it’s a mental illness. I’ve lived long enough, though, to know that if it’s a mental illness, it’s a mental illness that afflicts a lot of people.

But you know what? It doesn’t matter. Those voices make a lot of noise, and it’s slightly uncomfortable, and sometimes I feel bad for a little while, but those voices don’t deceive me. I know what’s right, and if I ignore what I feel about a situation and do what I know to be true about a situation, those voices don’t get in the way of that.

By the way, I’m not talking about really hearing voices. I heard voices for a couple years as a teenager after doing some LSD, and it took the prayers of the saints for those voices to go away … and they didn’t go away without a fight, nor without my choosing to do what’s right.

A 2nd-century Christian once wrote, "The evil demons … subdue all who do not put up a strong opposing effort for their own salvation." (Justin, First Apology 14). Don’t think that it’s all about God’s call. There’s God’s call, but he only chooses those who take the kingdom of heaven with violent effort.

The answer God has given me is to ignore all those thoughts and feelings. Who cares if I’m insecure, shaken by circumstances, and my feelings are driven around by what others think about me? My job is to ignore all that and get about my business serving God. I’m too busy to spend time fixing inadequacies that are impossible to fix, anyway.

What would be worse is if I used them as excuses.

To this day the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. Maybe God will deliver you from your insecurities, but he’s never delivered me from mine, nor from the utterly ridiculous thoughts that accompany them.

I don’t argue with those thoughts, anymore. I just ignore them, and I get on about my business.

You need to do the same because I’m pretty sure God thinks you can rise up and serve him despite how you feel.

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The 3 Things Paul Wants Us To Know

Posted on 12/21/2010 by Paul Pavao

Many years ago a read a book suggesting that we learn how to pray for each other from the apostle Paul. Paul tells three churches—Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae—what he was praying for them about. He gives his prayers for the church in Ephesus twice, once in 1:17-23 and once in 3:14-21.

I only want to focus on the first of those prayers because it lends itself well to an outline, and its outline matches the other prayers in Philippians, and Colossians well.

Here’s his prayer:

"… that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, so that you may know …

  1. "what is the hope of his calling,
  2. "what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
  3. "and what is the exception greatness of his power to us who believe."

1. The hope of his calling

The issue here is first and foremost eternal life. In Titus 1:2, Paul writes:

… in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began.

In another place, Paul tells us we are saved by hope, and that hope concerns those things that we cannot yet see. The context of that hope is …

[We], who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8:23)

The apostle John adds, "This is the promise which he has promised: eternal life." (1 Jn. 2:25).

How many times does our Master promise us riches in heaven if we will forsake the riches of this earth? Paul, too, tells us that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The writer of Hebrews, when he asks us to set aside the weights, the things that hold us back, as well as the sins we’ve done, tells us to do so with our eyes on Jesus who endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. If even our Master kept his eyes on the reward at the end, how much more should we!

So Paul prays that we would first know the hope of eternal life.

2. The Riches of the Glory of His Inheritance in the Saints

Paul takes the time to distinguish between the hope of our calling and the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.

It’s important not to treat the two as the same thing.

Note that it is "his" inheritance in the saints, not "ours."

I’m sure that I’ll not be able to do this topic justice, but the adoption, the redemption of our bodies is not just something that we groan for. "The whole creation" groans and it travails like a woman in childbirth, awaiting the revelation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:20-23).

We’re going to save the universe, folks. When the sons of God are revealed, the entire creation will be released from its slavery to decay and brought into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

I’ll bet you’ve heard the verse that says that the sufferings of this time aren’t worthy to be compared to the glory which will be revealed in us. I bet you have never thought about the context of that verse, which is that all creation will enter into the glorious liberty of …

Of us!

All creation … our glorious liberty …

Pretty heady stuff, isn’t it?

Paul’s prayer was that we would know the hope of our calling, which is eternal life, but that, second, we would also know the incredible wealth associated with the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints. That incredible wealth is the deliverance of the creation from uselessness and decay.

The entire creation is groaning in earnest expectation of that day.

We think so small.

3. The Exceptional Greatness of His Power … Toward Us Who Believe!

The third thing Paul prays for us to know is not just the exceptional greatness of his power. We all think we know that. After all, he created the universe. He can do anything he wants. Yeah, God! He’s awesome.

No, Paul prays that we would know the exception greatness of his power to us who believe.

Paul was going for it. Nothing deterred him. He was convinced of the power of the Gospel, and even if you bottled him up in a prison, illegally beat him with whips, and stuck him in stocks, he was going to cry out praises to God.

When he did, the earth shook, the stocks fell off, and Paul preached the Gospel once more.

Well, that was for then, right?

May God grant you to know the exceptional greatness of his power to us who believe!

We’re wimpy. And we’re wimpy because we’re full of unbelief. It’s not our weakness as humans that makes us wimpy. It’s our unbelief. According to James, Elijah was just like us, subject to the same passions. But he prayed and no rain fell for 3 years.

I talked about it on this blog a few days ago. Moses, David, and even Samson were mightily used by God, and it wasn’t because they were overflowing with the power to overcome temptation beyond all the rest of us mere mortals. They just believed God more. As a matter of fact, Moses probably didn’t even believe God more. He was just in the right place at the right time.

Oh that we knew the exceptional greatness of his power!

4. The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of Him

Wait, I said 3 things, didn’t I!

This last one is not something he wanted us to know, it’s how he wanted us to get to know the other things!

The knowledge of those things does not come by my explaining them in a blog. It comes by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

The first thing Paul prays for is not that we know those 3 things I mentioned, but that we have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; otherwise, we’re just blind, carnal theologians, repeating words without power, except perhaps the power to kill, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

We’ve addressed other verses in Romans 8, let us never forget Romans 8:14: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."

Christianity is not a religion of knowledge; it’s a religion of power; it’s a religion of revelation; it’s a spiritual religion. If you aren’t led by the Spirit of God, then you aren’t a son of God, and if you’re not a son of God, then you’re not a Christian.

Christians aren’t good people; Christians are sons of the living God.

I’ve said enough. May God give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, so that you can really be a believer, and never underestimate that incredible, universe-changing word: Believer.

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What It Takes To Be a Missionary

Posted on 12/20/2010 by Paul Pavao

A few days ago I gave you a link to Dassi’s Mexico Blog, and I made a few comments about what it means to be a missionary.

As usual, it included a lot of words. Today, I saw a blog from Aubrey, who’s down there for a couple weeks. It includes the following paragraph that says what I was trying to say but, of course, much more succinctly:

I really love being here. It is easy to think that if you’re going to be a missionary you need to be really spiritual, quick witted, and some kind of a leader. Of course these things come in handy and you do need a solid relationship with God to sustain you in tough situations, but the needs of people are very basic. If you can love all the time, which isn’t always easy, that is pretty much all you need. That probably sounds dumb. It just kind of hit home for me though being able to watch Nichole and Jason take care of these people.

That does not sound dumb, Aubrey, it’s profound.

I don’t know how to link to her individual pages. That quote’s from December 15. Make sure to read her Dec. 12 post, too, especially the part about the steam.

Posted in missions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Did Jolly St. Nick Slap Arius at the Council of Nicea?

Posted on 12/19/2010 by Paul Pavao

Suddenly, all over the internet, I’m reading that St. Nicholas, the person from whom Santa Claus got his name, was at the Council of Nicea and that he was so fed up with the obstinance of the heretic Arius that he marched across the room and slapped him in the face.

Of course, this rings true because it is in line with what we know about Santa Claus. Remember him bopping that psychiatrist with his cane in Miracle on 34th Street? And he gave a movie director a black eye in that greatest of Christmas movies, Ernest Saves Christmas.

Despite this powerful endorsement, however, the St. Nicholas story is, sadly, not true.

Who Knows What Happened at Nicea?

The story caught me by surprise because I’d never heard it, and I’m writing a book on the Council of Nicea. I’ve read all the writings from people who were there. I’ve read the 5th century histories that describe the council. I’ve read the canons they produced.

None of them even mention not-so-jolly St. Nick.

Fortunately, there are professional historians with more time than me that can go hunt down the sources of myths like this. In this case, good ol’ Christianity Today, which used to publish Christian History magazine, has an article on the St. Nicholas story.

I’m afraid, though, that the story of Nicholas slapping Arius wasn’t made up until about 5 centuries after Nicea.

By the way, the rest of the story is that the bishops were appalled at St. Nick’s lack of decorum, so they removed him from being bishop of Myra. But then Joseph and Mary appeared next to him, and they realized they couldn’t do that.

What a great Christmas story!

But, unfortunately, just an old bishop’s tale.

Shameless Plug

I have a page on Nicea myths at Christian History for Everyman.

That page will link you to the Council of Nicea section, too, which I personally believe is the best combination of readability and indepth accuracy you’ll find about that first ecumenical council on the internet.

I’m a chapter away from having a first version of my book on the Council of Nicea, too, though it still has that horrible editing process that it takes to make a book feel professional.

You also missed the short overview of the Council of Nicea and its events if you’re not signed up for the Early Church History Newsletter.

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Teaching All the Wrong Things To Get All the Right Results

Posted on 12/18/2010 by Paul Pavao

I talked to Austin Park this morning. He’s 20 years old, and he’s going off from Rose Creek Village to join ITEC and be taught by Steve Saint and friends how to help spread the Gospel to the whole world. He was raised at Rose Creek Village, and we devoted ourselves to teaching him how to follow Christ.

We forgot, however, to teach him how to be a Christian.

So he called today to ask. "What church do I go to?" "Is it okay to go to church?" "Do I have to care about end times?" "Why are Christians so condemning toward Jehovah’s Witnesses."

Now that was an enjoyable conversation!

I want to talk, though, about only one of his questions: "Why did Steve Saint make an exception for me and know so quickly he should?"

Diligently Preserve the Unity of the Spirit

Austin didn’t exactly ask that question. It was more a topic we discussed. I thought, however, you’d appreciate it if I didn’t type out our whole phone conversation, but reduced it to a question and answer.

Austin told me that Steve Saint knew within half an hour that Austin was sent to meet a need of theirs. He also told Austin that Austin has the spiritual maturity of a much older man.

I haven’t met Steve Saint. He’s the son of Nate Saint, who was martyred in Ecuador with Jim Elliott, a story which was covered in the movie, End of the Spear. I’ve only heard him speak, and I’ve talked to others who are now meeting and talking to him. Steve Saint is a spiritual man.

Austin has spiritual maturity, and Steve Saint could see into Austin’s heart quickly … both are true for the same reason.

Austin has spiritual maturity, not because of what we’ve taught him, but because of what we haven’t taught him.

Austin told me that concerning many of the subjects he’s discussed with Christians he’s met, his answer has repeatedly been, "I don’t really care."

Christians today think that unity comes from doctrine. We have all these doctrines we care about. We honor the Scriptures, most of the time more than we honor God. God might lead us astray, most Christians think, but the Scriptures won’t. We’re safer if we have good, solid, black-and-white Scriptural guidance for what we believe and how we live than if we lean on invisible, possibly emotional Spiritual guidance.

That’s ridiculous, and if it doesn’t kill you spiritually, it will make you deathly ill.

It will certainly hide your heart and stunt your spiritual growth.

Spiritual men have learned what to care about and what not to care about. Spiritual men are capable of preserving the unity of the Spirit because they’re not covering up spiritual unity with all sorts of brilliant, insightful—and even Scriptural—theological ideas.

Steve Saint and Austin touched hearts quickly because we’ve never clogged up Austin’s spirit with good Christian ideas. We just left him to God.

Good Christian Ideas and Spiritual Power

Sometimes that’s embarrassing. He doesn’t know all the Bible stories that the Sunday school kids know. He doesn’t know all the right Scriptures. He may never have paid much attention to "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Instead, he learned verses like "warn the unruly and comfort the fainthearted," so he’d know how to talk to friends.

But it’s never embarrassing when the battles come. No one ever regrets having Austin alongside them on the spiritual front lines. You turn, and he’s still there. Provisions and supplies run low, and people are collapsing everywhere, and you turn, and Austin is saying, "I’m still here; we’ll win in the end."

When the battle’s not raging, you may find our kids sitting in the theater watching Harry Potter, or worse, the latest Matt Damon movie.

Sometimes it may be appropriate to be embarrassed about things like that; however, what’s never embarrassing is that every one of them knows that the ultimate sin is to talk about the movie afterward without including every one of their friends, or to ignore the lonely stranger sitting in the corner, or to be too busy to open a door for a lady or to help someone in need.

No one left out, no one lonely, always have time for people, and always serve them.

That ought to be a Scripture or something.

"They will know you are my disciples by your love for one another."

"If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, learn to be the servant of everyone."

Posted in Holiness | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments