Getting Lost in the Christian-ness of everything...

The more I interact with people both in Denver and in Texas, the more I wonder about what damage is being done by the Christian-ness of our culture. In my view, there's way too much Christianity and not enough Christ in our culture.

It has become way too fashionable to be a Christian. I know I'm decades behind. This isn't something new. But I see it more and more each day. We confess Christ with our lips, but our hearts are far from him. I'm certainly not immune to this either. But it's so disheartening to live in my own little sphere of influence and see so many people who call themselves Christians and don't even make the effort to go to church on Sundays. It's not about church, it's about Jesus, and I would rather you have a deep walk with the Lord without church than a fake reality with church. But it says a lot when your actions all week don't line up with Scripture and you don't even bother to attempt the most basic act of obedience to the Lord, which is to worship together with other people who call themselves Christians on a weekly basis. I'm not sure why we expect God to take us at our word when our actions are completely contradictory to His Word. Nobody likes to be called a hypocrite, including me, but that is what we have become. Fakers. Liars. Deceivers. I have more respect for the people who honestly say "I don't believe in that." At least they're being honest.

I don't pretend to have secret knowledge or a list of people who are truly Christians and those who aren't. I'm just as imperfect as the rest of us. But I have seen the goodness of God in how He has revealed Himself to me in the last few weeks through a variety of different channels, and it has made me realize how foolish I am by professing one thing and living out another entirely.

Nothing will EVER compare to the holy, perfect God I serve. Not alcohol, not clubs, not girls, not sex, not drugs (not rock 'n roll either). Not legalism, not doing good works, not service, not good grades, not a great job, not kids, not friendship, not kindness, not leadership, not money, not power. Some of these things are great, others not so great, but none of them holds a candle to a perfect God who created perfect fellowship through Jesus Christ and imperfect but uplifting fellowship with other people professing the name of Christ.

The most fascinating aspect of this is how enamored with New Age philosophy that people seem to be these days. I guess I just don't get it, but it has always made sense to me that there is RIGHT and there is WRONG. Plain and simple. There is not this pluralistic "right for me" garbage. This "right for me" heresy is contradictory on many levels, starting with the logical fallacy of making an absolute statement claiming that there are no absolutes (as you are implicitly doing if you say "whatever is right for me is right for me, and whatever is right for you is right for you"). Not to mention that in this "everything that i believe is true for me" stuff will inherently result in at least millions of contradictions among billions of people. If I say "God is this tree, not this rock" and you say "God is this rock, not this tree" the only rationalization for saying that they are both right is "everyone finds their own way." But this is an escape from logic, not an answer to it. It's the easy way out.

Too often today, this New Age stuff and other bizarre things get mixed into our Christian theology, and we call it good! Imagine if you had a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs. Now imagine if someone took that recipe and made dinner, except that they replaced the meatballs with chicken and the spaghetti noodles with rice. Imagine now that they continued to call this spaghetti and meatballs even though it is clearly chicken and rice. This is the sort of thing that we do with the Bible today, and yet we continue to call it the Bible!

In the spring of 2009, a company in New Mexico is going to publish "The Princess Diana Bible." The only problem is... they replaced "Adam and Eve" with "Aida and Eve," making the first marriage in Genesis a lesbian one. I frankly don't care if someone wants to publish a story about "Aida and Eve". But don't go changing ancient literature and trying to pass it off as the real thing. What an embarrassment. The company's Max Mitchell summed up the cluelessness of these people well: "There are 116 versions of the Bible, why is any of them better than ours?" Well, Max, because the authentic Bibles are the ones based on ancient manuscripts faithfully translated by scholars using their ACTUAL meanings in ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, not some fanciful dream you had last night. Imagine if I wrote a history of World War 2, telling it exactly as it happened, except that I claimed that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor or that Germany defeated the U.S. Think anybody would stand for that? I think not.

Is it too much to ask for people to be honest about their faith and not hide behind popular Christianity? Obviously it is since I've hidden behind popular religion for most of my own life. We're all unwilling to say what we honestly believe. Let it be no more. Yuck.

Oh how long it has been

Wow, things have changed since I last blogged. I read over the last few blogs I posted, and it is hard to remember back to those events! And they were only 7 months ago!

How have things changed? I am not only not on the unofficial assignment at work that I mentioned in my last blog, I also have completed a 6 month project in the interim. Watermark Denver no longer meets in the Pastor's house. We now meet in a city auditorium that is much roomier than anything we worshipped in before. That's our second building since the Pastor's house. I'm now in my 2nd different community group at church since I last posted. I have probably met about half of my church friends since I last blogged. And one couple is married, with one not too far off from being engaged. I watched 2 of my closest high school friends get married, and I made a new friend through the process. I've also since reacquainted myself with an old high school friend I wasn't as close to before.

God has done some amazing things since I last posted. He has brought me a good friend from work who I can actually talk spiritual things with. He has given me a tremendous amount of favor with all of the people on my last project. I made a lot of great friends there in 6 months. I've been blessed with good reviews at work, though I expect even more of myself. God has revived my passions for His Truth and for conservative values through the most recent Presidential election. He has given me the passion for writing throughout my life, but only now is my passion for politics matching my passion for writing in order to potentially produce a book. In fact, I wrote a little over a page last night as a start for my book. I was quite pleased with it, but writing about politics is hard. The issues are so weighty, and the logic so deep, that you can't really get through much before the mental exhaustion sets in. I'm going to need God's strength just to get through a first draft.

I've also become inspired to work out consistently the last week or so. I'm horrible at getting into a workout routine, so this is big news. I'm concerned that I'm getting further out of shape, so that's part of the motivation. But there is a lot more to it. God has also helped me deal with issues of lust the last few weeks by bringing some awesome guys alongside me to battle with issues of purity and the heart issues underneath. I have gotten involved in my church, which has turned out to be a blessing in some unexpected ways. I now operate the lights and the presentation materials on the screen at many of our church services. I love getting to work with Nate on this because we don't get to hang out as much as I would like otherwise. I also have served from time to time in the kids ministry. It has been really cool to find out how God is using me in this regard even as He is clearly impacting me through these kids. God showed up in a big way a month or so ago when I was stressed at having to entertain new kids I had never met. But by the end, God had us playing as if we had known each other for years not minutes. I had 4 of the kids on me tackling me to the ground as I vainly tried to escape. That was a great scene for the parents to see as they came to pick up their kids, and it was one of the best experiences I have had in Denver. It all came together as those priceless kids told their parents, "I hope we come to this church forever!" All it takes is a little faithfulness, and God will turn it into work for His Kingdom. That was my lesson learned from that day.

I have never felt so grown up and prepared by God to face whatever exciting challenges await me. I finally feel like I can make it in the real world, doing real world things like paying bills, buying stuff for myself, dating, starting a family, etc. None of this will work without God along the way making it happen, but I'm really happy where I am right now too.

Work is really slow. Hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks. I can't even comprehend how awesome things have been since Nov 1, but the period of time from Thanksgiving to New Years looks like it is turning out even better than early November! And that's in all facets of life. I have gotten a much-needed break from work. I'm refreshed and ready for the next challenge. I have skiing with one of my close friends in 9 days. I am home for Christmas in 2 weeks. I will probably be there for 12 days. I miss all of my close college friends, who I haven't seen in many months. Hopefully I will see them all over Christmas. And there's also one particular girl I can't wait to see when I get there.

The two snow showers over the past 10 days have been amazing, especially since I haven't had to be out in either of them! Though I did venture out in one, which was fun except for a 20 minute drive taking well over an hour.

Give me a shout if you have the time... I'm always looking to catch up with old friends!