Christian Tolerance

There has been a lot going on in my life which has distracted me from posting or writing much of anything. But, I have not been short of information or learning more about our Creator. God has been keeping one thought on my mind for the last few weeks consistently which is what I will be writing below.

Many Christians are worried about offending others. They don't want to 'force' anyone into something and they also don't like coming across too closed minded or intolerant. I only speak from experience. I am someone who has trouble making decisions, not because I can't make up my mind, but because I don't want my decision to put anyone in a box or to limit them to something they don't like. For example, I have lived with multiple roommates for the last six years (which goes directly against my intense introverted nature). With any roommate situation I don't listen to music out loud if any roommate is home (or at least it is VERY rare). I do this so that if they don't like music I am listening to, it isn't a problem because they can't hear it. There is no logic to this mental processing. Any roommate that I have lived with would be completely understanding of any of the musical selections I like to listen to. But this desire to please or accept or even tolerate everything others do as to not offend anyone is deeply ingrained into many Christian's daily lives.

I say all of this because I was challenged while listening to a sermon from Pastor Mark Driscoll. I drive a lot for work and fell in love with podcasts. Since I am just about caught up with my other podcasts I expanded my listening selections to sermons from Driscoll and a few other sources. In one Driscoll sermon series (The Seven) that focuses on the letters in the book Revelation that were written to seven different churches. Specifically the sermon titled "Progressive in Thyatira: More Tolerant Than God" (which you can find @ http://marshill.com/media/the-seven) talks about tolerance and how we as Christians should not be tolerant to sin!

Well, probably now you are saying: "Well, of course we shouldn't be tolerant of sin". If you listen to this sermon Driscoll talks about how someone confronting a person about being "intolerant" is actually being intolerant of them being intolerant. People convince you that if you are not tolerant of everyone (people that agree and all those that disagree with you) you are extremely close minded. G.K. Chesterton said "Tolerance is the virtue of someone without convictions". Driscoll describes that the church in Thyation is too tolerant. As Christian's we CANNOT be tolerant of sin!! When I thought of this, I of course came up with an analogy.

If someone goes and murders someone. They are caught and are put on trial. In their trial, they confess to the murder and explain all the details about it. While still on trial this person also says that they don't think or believe that killing someone is against the law (why they did it). They say that if they thought it was illegal, they would of never killed. BUT, it doesn't matter what that person 'believes' is true or fact or the law. What matters is THE LAW. That person will be charged with murder no matter if they themselves think it was right or wrong. The Judge would not be looked upon as closed minded if they declare that person guilty because they believe something different then the court.

We, as Christians, should look at the laws that God gave us in the Bible as TRUTH and LAW. It doesn't matter what other people 'think' or 'feel' or 'believe'. If it is different than the Bible, it is wrong and we should not tolerate it. If God says it is sin, He doesn't tolerate it! We cannot, and should not be more tolerant than God Himself.

This was VERY challenging to me because I try to be tolerant! Ahh! If you would like something more detailed, I would HIGHLY recommend listening to Driscoll's sermon!!

A Runner's Prayer

I literally just found this on Pinterest (which I am completely addicted to by the way). Once I finish all of the paintings/art projects I have backlogged from other people this will be the first piece of art I paint for myself! (I absolutely want the words, not sure how the rest will look) but I just had to share this!

Let God be your motivation! You want to be in the best shape you can be to be able to face anything He has in store for you. Whether it's an intense ministry calling or raising a God dependent family.

The Daily To-Do List

Today in my small group Bible study (and when I say small group I mean currently it's 2-3 people, but that does not mean there is any lack of depth to our conversations) we started a short study to confront some very common arguments against Christianity.

We talked about a lot but one major thing that stuck in my head was that our Christian daily checklist....aka read the Bible, pray and going to church (which most of the time isn't daily but still makes the to-do list). This list isn't what gets you saved from your sins, it is what you do because you are so completely in LOVE with Christ because of who He is and what He has done for you that you do those things. I have mentioned this before but I struggle doing these things. I want to but I literally forget. Then, when I remember when the last time I read my Bible (outside of the church) I feel guilty and a whole lot of other depressing emotions. Well, what I thought about today was that all of us have a primary love language. (based off of the book The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman<-- Great book if you haven't read it already)

My top love language is quality time, which I am sure I learned and developed because my parents went out of their way (like 20 hours out of their way some times) to spend such a short amount of time physically with me. Another one that was close to the top was gifts. I LOVE giving meaningful gifts and it means SO much to me when someone spends time thinking and pondering what to give me. (for example, I was talking to a friend at church a while ago and when he said he was playing his ukulele the other night I mentioned how much I always wanted one. He happened to be my secret Santa at Christmas and actually gave me a ukulele!). Since God created all of us with these unique love languages He must speak in all of them. I actually think that all five of the love languages are God's top languages. With that thought, each thing on our Christian to-do list hits one or more of those love languages so that we are speaking each one back to Him. When we are serving others, that is acts of service. When we sing or praise God, that is words of affirmation. When we go to church and fellowship with other Christians this is quality time. I'm sure you get the idea. Well, make sure that you are speaking to God in His love languages (which is all of them).

Entropy is Evidence of God

I teach a College Bio course at a local community college. One of the early definitions that I have to deal with is Entropy. This is a hard concept to introduce because it can be heavy on the abstract end of things and light on the tangible things.

One way that I have heard it described stuck and so I use it in class: If you were walking down the street (on the sidewalk of course) and you came across 30 pennies laying on the ground, you would thing it would be very peculiar if they were all laying heads up. You would expect to see some heads up, and some heads down (tails). This is the tendency for the universe to go towards a more chaotic state (because it is at a lower energy state).

But, I think that this fact alone is strong evidence of a God who has created everything because our world is literally not a massive mixture of elements. The fact that our world is made up of things that are intensively mathematical and structured (which goes completely in the face of Entropy) that there has to be something orchestrating this whole thing. I'll let you chew on that for a while.

I Should Like God As Much As I Like Food

I have officially decided that I have a skewed version of what a healthy relationship looks like. Deep down in my head I know that a strong, continuous communication line (communication being composted of dialogue, not a string of monologues) with the other person in the relationship is essential for a healthy, thriving, growing relationship. But, when I look and analyze any of my (what I would call) strongest relationships I don't do that. It doesn't help that when I do remember to finally call my Mum after about two weeks (or more) of silence we are able to pick right back up where we left off (as if not skipping a beat). If our relationship was in trouble after I forgot to call for so long maybe, just maybe I would learn.

Well, this is where it gets more complicated. With this messed up idea that I can just have scattered meaningful interactions instead of a more consistent interaction trickles down into my relationship with God. I feel like I can just 'forget' to communicate with Him for a long long time and then start right up again like nothing ever changed. (which is the case but it isn't a healthy relationship). Our relationship with God should be a healthy one! We should be striving to develop it every moment of our lives. I blame my issue of having probably the most scattered brain in the existence of the Homo Sapien race for my forgetfulness and lack of working on this relationship every day.

There is one thing that I can remember all the time, that that is to eat. I've never forgotten to do that.

This was my first Jordan Pond House Popover! And I got to share that experience with my 7th grade teacher and my Mum!! (Thanks Mum for taking the picture!)

I should be working on developing my relationship with God to be more like my relationship with food. There is constant communication. I go to it when I need to deal with things, or when I'm board, or tired, or hungry, or sleepy, or angry, or sad. I share it with other people. I talk about it all the time. The one difference is that I should also be having dialogue with God while with food....I definitely don't talk to it and it doesn't talk back. Anyway, this is something that I should be thinking about.

Facial Recognition

One of the reasons why I wanted to get into the Forensic Science Field was because it provided a perfect mixture of my art interest and my science interest. "Well that is kind of strange" you might say thinking about the essence of forensic science and how a lot of times it is dealing with very unpleasant circumstances. But, this is perfect for me. When I was little if there wasn't anything good on T.V. (which tends to be frequent) I would head right to the history channel. (again, strange) But, here is where I would sometimes catch a show that had forensic anthropologists demonstrating how they could use their knowledge of facial bone structure and build a clay representation of tissue over an unidentified skull to form a face. Ah! Awesome!!! This process can be used to help identify a skull found in the woods when there are no dental records found. It can also be used to find living family members and other such purposes. So far I am sure you have not picked up on where I'm headed with this, just wait.

So, when anthropologists only have the bare bones of an individual for identification they need to figure out some way to identify them. By looking at someone's bones you have the potential of identifying their type of diet, their lifestyle (active or not), or even any physical traumatic events in their lives. There is of course more that can be figured out but since I am not versed in forensic anthropology and don't have time to write a text book about it here that should sifice.

Continuing on, if you have ever watched the T.V. show 'Bones' you should have followed me pretty well so far. The idea of that show is that the scientists get a small portion of someones skeletal remains and need to figure out a) how they died and b) who they were (maybe not in that order and maybe never both a and b). But what happens in the show is that they figure out a lot more than just their identity or how their life was ended. They tend to figure out if this person was nice or not, and what kind of people they spent most of their time with. All in all to bring this entry to a conclusion the forensic anthropologists job is to seek the victims face.

We are given that same task as Christians. We are given the task of seeking God's face! This can be done in many ways too. The all-time best seller "The Bible" has countless ways to seek God's character and face. You can also see His attributes all around you, in nature and also in humans. (We can love because He loves).

What I struggle with is that I have such a passion for learning new things and understanding how things work and why they work and their mechanics but when it comes to understanding all of who God is I fail. I would much rather take a nap than spend time figuring out more of who God is. It is not that I don't want to, it's just  I forget to. But, something this important should not be so easy to just 'forget about'. Why can't it be in the front of my mind all the time?? Deep down do I not want to figure out more about who God is?? Do I not want to seek His face? Or am I really THAT lazy to be indifferent about it?? In the letter to the Laodiceans they were lukewarm and indifferent  God tells us that if you are lukewarm He would rather spit you out. I don't know about you but I don't really want to be spit out by God Himself. Not the best thing. So, I need to make seeking God's face more of a priority in my life! Like now!

We Are Like A Sine Function

In an earlier post I talked about one of Josh Wilson's songs. Today, same artist, different song. His song "Linear" was a bonus track on the CD I bought of his. Below I provided a video of this song. Enjoy!

He talks about MATH and GOD!!!!!! He says that God's love is linear! (that is the major concept that he talks about in the song if you didn't listen to it). That means it stays the same! It never changes! Hummmm...that sounds about right. So....if God's love is linear...we must be like a sine function (I provided an example of it below, just in-case it has been eons since geometry class):

If we are (Sin x) than God's love would be (x=0). In the picture above you can see how the sine curve fluxuates from 1 above zero and 1 below zero, while zero never moves. We are human and I know I struggle focusing on anything. I also have a hard time being consistent. The sine function represents how we are close to God and then something happens and we distance ourselves from God. Read that again. WE distance OURSELVES from God. It is not God who is distancing us from Him. It is not God distancing Himself from Us. It is US doing the retreat. God is always there for us, wherever we decide is a better place than safe in His arms. Knowing our tendency to drift from God can help us try to defeat that pattern. They say that those unaware of history are destined to repeat it. Now we know the history, let's prevent it! Your love relationship with God doesn't have to be defined by a sine curve!!!! Straighten that thing out! 

See how these three sine curves have different amplitudes? The blue line goes from +3 all the way down to -3. The green line +1 to -1 and then the red line +0.5 to -0.5. We can decrease our amplitudes so that we stay close to God's linear love.