Why have Christians abandoned the Old Testament?

Many Christians believe that the Old Testament has no application to the church today--except, of course, to use Biblical characters as moral role models (but shhh, don't tell the children that David had an adulterous affair or that Moses and David were both murderers or that Noah got trashed and ran around naked!). I believe that many Christians have made the Old Testament a second-class citizen because many fail to see the overarching story that God has been writing since the beginning of time--a story that is incomplete without the Old Testament.

But rest assured, God has not changed and His purposes have not changed. And so the Old Testament is still relevant to Christians and the church today. Sure, with the coming of Jesus God's story has progressed and some things of old are no longer practiced--at least in the same form--like animal sacrifice. But this does not mean that the sacrificial system and the covenants of old are meaningless to Christians! But what about those wars in the Old Testament? Why did God have the Israelites kill innocent children along with the adult inhabitants of those evil nations? This violence can't apply to the Christian today, can it? Doesn't this just show that God was mean and violent in the Old Testament and that the coming of Jesus showed that God found his better side and has now become a cosmic teddy bear? This is what you might conclude if you don't understand the storyline of the Bible. So let me explain how the wars and such reflect what God was trying to accomplish on this earth...and how they relate to the New Testament.

So when Adam and Eve rebelled against God by eating from the 'tree of the experience of good and bad' (my translation), bad came into the world in the form of curses. The story tells us that after this, mankind's evil increased and began polluting God's world. So God reveals his plan for removing evil and restoring good back to this world (Genesis 12). God was going to 1.) Grow a nation numerically that would reflect His GOOD design for life to the surrounding nations, 2.) Plant this nation in a protected land 3.) Make this nation famous and appealing to the surrounding nations as they lived out God's GOOD design for life, and 4.) Bless those surrounding nations that make God their king by connecting themselves to God's GOOD design for life.

So what is God supposed to do with those nations that refuse to abandon their evil and make God their king? Well, once the sin of these nations reaches a point of no return (i.e., the point of utter defiance), God has to wipe these people off the earth. Why? Because God's plan is to cleanse this earth of evil using His chosen nation. This type of treatment was not reserved for other nations alone. The book of Deuteronomy makes it clear that God took the same measures to keep His chosen nation free from evil corruption. How? Well, those who did not fear God and lived in defiant, high-handed sin were to be purged from among their people (Deut. 13:5; 17:12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 22, 24; 24:7)! Ouch! The principle we draw from this is that God was in the process of reestablishing His GOOD rule on this earth in the Old Testament--by overcoming evil with His GOOD in this world! And He is still in the process of doing this today (although in different way!). In fact, Jesus' slogan was, "Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand!" Jesus was about the business of reclaiming this world for God by inviting people to embrace God's rule in their lives!

So how does this principle apply to the church today? Well, 1 Peter 2:9-10 gives us a hint when it says, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Notice how Peter takes Old Testament concepts and applies them to the church today.

First, when Peter talks about us being CALLED out of DARKNESS and into His wonderful LIGHT, he is picking up on the creation theme of Genesis when God CALLED LIGHT out of the DARKNESS. And so in essence, God RECREATES people through the regenerating work and power of the Holy Spirit when they decide to follow Jesus (see 1 Peter 1:2). This is how people are called out of the darkness and into the light! And God wants us to display our new Spirit empowered identity to the surrounding world through our good deeds (1 Peter 2:11-12). So does this mean that God wants us to be good for the sake of being good? Not really. God wants us to be good, at this point, for the sake of drawing people to His kingship (see 2:12; see also Deut. 4:6-8)! This explains the next two points.

Second, we are a holy nation. The word 'holy' means 'set apart' or 'separate'. Our lives are to be lived DIFFERENTLY from the lives of the surrounding world. Our values, pursuits, character, motives, goals, and decisions should be God-centered (not American dream-centered). While the world pursues fame and fortune, we are to pursue God and His purpose for our existence. While the world pursues sinful pleasure, we are to pursue pleasing God. The church is to be a reflection of God to the surrounding world. And so just like God was insistent on keeping His nation free from evil (for His name's sake) by purging the evil people, we too, through church discipline, need to keep the church free from evil (and I'm not just talking about people involved in sexual sins here...how about people who give the church a bad name by displaying greed, un-love, divisiveness, pride etc.?). But does this mean that Christians must disengage from the world for the sake of being separate from the world. NOPE!!!! But how do I know this?

Well, third, we are to be a royal priesthood (i.e., the king's priests). The priests in the Old Testament helped to connect people back to God. People who sinned would bring their sacrifices to the priests and the priests would reestablish that person's relationship with God. In a similar way, the church is to be about the business of connecting people back to God. But how can we connect people back to God if we never rub shoulders with people who are far from God? We need to 'go' out into the world and engage people with Jesus' message. But not only this. Our church communities need to give validity to the fact that we represent God's kingdom. Who will believe Jesus' message if we contradict it in the life of our community?

And so, today God is still working out his plan to grow His kingdom (by overcoming evil with HIS GOOD in this world) and make His rule appealing to the world so that people want to be a part of it. Through our lives and our church community, we either make God's kingdom appealing or a turnoff to people. JUST LIKE JESUS...May we be priests to the world around us and as people see our holy lives may they be drawn back to God, the King of the Universe!

Why is God an Ego-maniac? Or is He?

Is God an ego-maniac? Certainly He has the right to be one. After all, anyone who creates a universe has some legitimate bragging rights! But is God actually a self-consumed, narcissist (because there is a difference between having the right to be full of yourself and actually acting like you're full of yourself)? God says time and time again that he does things "for His name's sake" (Isa 48:9; Eze 20; Eze 36:22). Does this not make God sound conceited? I guess the question boils down to, "Is someone who does things 'for His name's sake' self-focused?" What do you think? Here's what I think...

What we learn in Genesis 1 is that the best place to be is in the midst of God's presence (in the 'good' garden) where true peace, rest, and wholeness exist. And so it would make sense that this is where God wants you and me to be! God desires nothing but the best for us! This is why God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of 'the experience of good and bad'! He created and designed life to be good and to be experienced in His presence.

So let me ask you this...What would happen if God's name got a bad reputation? Would people want to pursue Him and live by His design for life? Or would people want to disregard and even run away from Him? I'm guessing God would lose some market share on earth if 'He got a bad name'. And if God's presence is, in fact, the best place to live, wouldn't this decrease of God's popularity constitute a travesty? I mean people would be running away from what is best for them to pursue what would essentially amount to a deficient life. That's sad to me! In light of this, do you think it is selfish of God to want to do things for His name's sake and to preserve his good reputation? I don't know about you but this doesn't seem to make God out to be much of an ego-maniac. If anything it demonstrates that God is love. But maybe I'm just missing something. What do you think?

The truth is that God is relentless in bringing humanity back to Himself because He knows that the best place to experience life is in His presence! And so God couldn't just turn a blind eye to the Godlessness that had entered His world. And so He initiated a rescue operation with a man named Abraham. The purpose of this rescue operation was to spread God's presence throughout the world and reestablish His good kingdom. So what was God's plan to accomplish this?

Genesis 12, 15, & 17 tell us that God was going to make Abraham into a great nation (i.e., a plethora of people), give Him a peaceful land in which to dwell (i.e., a protected property), make his name great (i.e., give him prominent popularity), and bless the entire world through him (i.e., give him a positive purpose).

So how has this plan worked itself out throughout history? Well, in Genesis we see God working out PHASE ONE of His plan. He makes Abraham and his descendants into a huge nation (despite the setbacks of barrenness, drought, and famine) so that by the time we reach the book of Exodus, the Pharaoh is concerned that the enormous size of his slave-force will encourage a revolt. In fact, once God frees Israel from slavery, He needs to give the Israelites a WRITTEN law because there's no way Moses can manage such a large amount of people on his own (Genesis 18). After Israel receives the law, God's presence then comes to dwell with the Jewish people in a place called the Tabernacle. Why would God do this? Well, like we said before, God knows that the best place for humans to live is in His presence (so when God moves onto the block, property values go UP). The arrival of God's presence brings PHASE ONE to completion.

The books of Numbers and Joshua describe the implementation of PHASE TWO of God's plan: Giving the Israelites a protected property in which to dwell. While God ultimately gives the Israelites the land He promised, they never experience complete peace and rest in this land because they didn't exactly follow ALL of God's instructions. But nevertheless by the end of Joshua, PHASE TWO is complete.

The books of Judges and Samuel as well as a large portion of Kings and Chronicles tell about the progress of PHASE THREE of God's plan: Making Abraham's name great. So after God gives Israel a land, we see in the book of Judges that the Israelites aren't all that capable of worshiping God if left to their own devices. Let's be honest, they're like most of us. They want to have their cake and eat it too. That is to say, they want God's blessings and also want permission to 'do what is right in their own eyes' (at the same time). Well, that's not how God rolls. So God solved the situation by giving the Israelites an earthly king to function really as a glorified babysitter.

After doing a little more housekeeping, God makes King David a promise: that he will make David's name great (2 Samuel 7). Now this promise is really nothing new because it links right back to God's original promise to Abraham. But why would God want to make David's name great? Isn't God most concerned about making HIS own name great? Well, let's be honest God is a genius...and so He knew that by making David's name great, His name would also be made great(er). How was this supposed to work? God wanted the nation that HE created to reflect HIM and as a result become so appealing to the surrounding world that people would be drawn back to HIM. And this is exactly how things worked out. When Solomon came on the scene, people were traveling from all over the world to gobble up nuggets of GOD'S wisdom from Solomon (1 Kings 4:29-34). This signaled that PHASE THREE of God's plan was complete.

Unfortunately, PHASE FOUR never really got off the ground in the Old Testament...why? Well, God's people put God's law into one of those self-storage units so they could ignore it and live however they wanted. As a result, God's name got a bad reputation. And so once again, God had to do a little disciplining and so he sent the Israelites to their room (I mean into exile). God had to do this because it's kind of hard to spread God's blessings when you're not living for God or experiencing His blessings yourself!

So do you see what's going on here? Since making His promise to Abraham, God has been working out His plan to bring his GOOD kingdom back to this earth. He wants to establish a contagious community that passionately reflects His presence and as a result becomes so appealing to the surrounding world that people are drawn back to God and His design for life! In fact, this is what Jesus was trying to do while he was on this earth! Jesus came to make God's name great so that people could have the opportunity to be blessed by living in God's presence!

So how does all this relate to the community (the church) that Jesus created and that still exists today? Stay tuned...

Keys to making your kids apethetic about faith

This post is by a pastor named Scott Linscott. It is a great, honest and somewhat convicting article on parenting. It was so good that I wanted to put it here just as he wrote it.

Your kid’s an All Star? Someday he’ll be average like the rest of us.
The church in America is puzzled. Young adults are leaving in droves. Magazines, books and blogs are wagging the finger of blame to point out who is responsible. Some say it is a failure of youth ministry, some point to church budgets and some nail the blame on outdated, unhip worship services. We parents are shocked that our kids just really aren’t all that into Jesus. When I look for someone to blame I head into the restroom and look into a mirror. Yep, there he is. I blame him. That parent looking back at me is where I have to start. If you’re a parent, I might tick you off in this post. But, hear me out. I think that we, as parents are guilty of some things that make it easy for our kids to put faith low on their priority list.

Keys to Making Your Kids Apathetic About Faith
1) Put academic pursuits above faith-building activities. Encourage your child to put everything else aside for academic gain. Afterall, when they are 24 and not interested in faith and following Christ, you’ll still be thrilled that they got an A in pre-calculus, right? Instead of teaching them balance, teach them that all else comes second to academics. Quick … who graduated in the top 5 of your high school class? Unless you were one of them, I bet you have no idea. I don’t.

2) Chase the gold ball first and foremost. Afterall, your child is a star. Drive 400 miles so your child can play hockey but refuse to take them to a home group bible study because it’s 20 minutes away.

2b) Buy into the “select,” “elite,” “premier” titles for leagues that play outside of the school season and take pride in your kid wearing the label. Hey now, he’s an All-Star! No one would pay $1000 for their kid to join, “Bunch-of-kids-paying-to-play Team.” But, “Elite?!?” Boy, howdy! That’s the big time!

2c) Believe the school coach who tells you that your kid won’t play if he doesn’t play in the offseason. The truth is, if your kid really is a star, he could go to Disney for the first week of the season and come back and start for his school team. The determined coach might make him sit a whole game to teach him a lesson. But, trust me, if Julie can shoot the rock for 20 points a game, she’s in the lineup. I remember a stellar soccer athlete who played with my son in high school. Chris missed the entire preseason because of winning a national baseball championship. With no workouts, no double sessions, his first day back with the soccer team, he started and scored two goals. Several hard-working “premier” players sat on the bench and watched him do it. (Chris never played soccer outside the school season but was a perpetual district all-star selection.) The hard reality is, if your kid is not a star, an average of 3 new stars a year will play varsity as freshmen. That means there’s always 12 kids who are the top prospects. Swallow hard and encourage your kid to improve but be careful what you sacrifice to make him a star at little Podunk High here in Maine.

2d) By the way, just because your kid got a letter inviting him to attend a baseball camp in West Virginia does not mean he is being recruited. You’ll know when recruiting happens. Coaches start calling as regularly as telemarketers, they send your kid handwritten notes and they often bypass you to talk to your kid. A letter with a printed label from an athletic department is not recruitment. When a coach shows up to watch your kid play and then talks to you and your kid, that’s recruiting.

3) Teach your kid that the dollar is almighty. I see it all the time. Faith activities fly out the window when students say, “I’d like to, but I have to work.” Parents think jobs teach responsibility when, in reality, most students are merely accumulating wealth to buy the things they want. Our kids learn that faith activities should be put aside for the “responsibility” of holding a job. They will never again get to spend 100% of their paychecks on the stuff they want.

3b) Make them pay outright for faith activities like youth retreats and faith community activities while you support their sports, music, drama and endeavors with checks for camps and “select” groups and expensive equipment. This sends a loud and clear message of what you really want to see them involved in and what you value most. Complain loudly about how expensive a three-day youth event is but then don’t bat an eye when you pay four times that for a three-day sports camp.

4) Refuse to acknowledge that the primary motivating force in kids’ lives is relationship. Connections with others is what drives kids to be involved. It’s the reason that peer pressure is such a big deal in adolescence. Sending kids to bible classes and lectures is almost entirely ineffective apart from relationship and friendships that help them process what they learn. As kids share faith experiences like retreats, mission trips and student ministry fun, they build common bonds with one another that work as a glue to Christian community. In fact, a strong argument can be made that faith is designed to be lived in community with other believers. By doing all you can to keep your kids from experiencing the bonds of love in a Christian community, you help insure that they can easily walk away without feeling like they are missing anything. Kids build friendships with the kids they spend time with.

5) Model apathy in your own life. If following Jesus is only about sitting in a church service once a week and going to meetings, young adults opt out. Teenagers and young adults are looking for things that are worth their time. Authentic, genuine, relevant relationships where people are growing in relationship with Jesus is appealing. Meaningless duty and ritual holds no attraction.

There are no guarantees that your children will follow Christ even if you have a vibrant, purposeful relationship with Him. But, on the other hand, if we, as parents do not do all we can to help our children develop meaningful relationships in Jesus, we miss a major opportunity to lead them and show them the path worth walking. I want my kids to see that their dad follows Jesus with everything. I want them to know that my greatest hope for them is that they follow Him too.

Mt. 6:33 says, "Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." (The Message)

The non-mystery of knowing God's will

I love how people are always so excited to know God's will for their lives. Who does God want me to marry? I can't wait to find out what college God wants me to go to and what my career will be (cha-ching...$$$). For many people, God's will is like a Christmas present; we don't know what's hidden in the box but we can't wait to find out what good things God is going to give us! And so our version of God's will is that it is primarily about US...and OUR comfort.

Now what is interesting here is that this is not how God's will is discussed in the Bible. God's hidden/masked/sovereign will (you know, the will that is so mysterious to us) is not talked about very much in the Bible. Nope. God's masked will is not the main entree in the Bible (which makes sense in light of its name). Rather, it is God's missional and moral wills that get the most press. Hmmm. Why would this be? Well, maybe because God is desiring something to happen in this world and he wants us to be about the business of joining HIM and HIS cause to bring HIS good kingdom back to HIS world.

But why are people so obsessed with God's masked will and not nearly as concerned about God's missional and moral wills? Well, might it be because God's masked will (or at least our version of it) is primarily about US while God's missional will is primarily about GOD? Might it be that we are more concerned about building OUR personal kingdoms than building GOD'S kingdom? I'll let you decide!

One of the many things I love about Jesus is that he was about the business of doing his Father's work (i.e. God's missional will). Jesus was concerned about God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. This is evident when Jesus said, "Not MY will but YOUR will be done." We find out very early on in the story of the Bible what God's missional will is all about. Let me explain.

So Adam and Eve ate from 'the tree of the experience of good and bad' (that's my NLT interpretation of the tree) and God brought curses on the earth. But why would a good God do a thing like that? If God loves us so much then why would he introduce bad stuff into our lives? Well, this is God's way of drawing people back to Himself. When stuff is going well (let's be honest) our first instinct isn't to think about God and give Him credit...we often forget God (just take Jessica Simpson as a case study on the issue). But when things are going poorly and are out of our control that's when we dial up God, is it not? This pattern is what we see in the Bible too.

Adam and Eve get kicked out of the garden and things just go from bad to worse. Cain tries to short-change God on his sacrifice by offering God only 'some of the fruit of the soil' whereas Abel offers God the "fat portions" from the "firstborn" of his flock. God accepts Abel's sacrifice but not Cain's sacrifice (because God doesn't like to be short-changed). So Cain does what any brother would do in this situation...he kills Abel. God disciplines Cain but things just keep getting worse. An axe-murderer named Lamech is born into the family and he takes up the weekend hobby of murdering people (Gen. 4:24). This episode provided a small sliver of the turmoil that existed on the earth. Murder was the trend on the earth back then just like Justin Bieber is the unfortunate trend in our world today. What was the result?...people began to call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). The evil in the world had caused people to place their focus and affections back on God. And so we see that God's mission is to draw people back to Himself!

But isn't it crazy that God is at work using even evil (through his divine permission) to draw people back to Himself? But it works! And Jesus picks up on this when he says in John 4:34, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me (a.k.a. God) and to finish HIS work." God has been into outreach mode since way back in Genesis and now he wants us to join Him in HIS work. And Jesus even says in the next verse, "The fields are ripe for harvest." Now this doesn't mean that a majority of people will embrace and respond positively to Jesus (we know from Jesus' life and teaching that this is not true!). What Jesus is telling us is that the season has arrived where God wants us to bring his message of love to an unloving world and bring in a harvest of God-fearing, kingdom-focused people. The church is called to complete Jesus' work because "now's the time for us to rise, to carry hope to hopeless lives and show this world that mercy is alive." Sure Jesus came to die on the cross BUT he also came to spark a movement of people who would bring in the harvest (John 4:34ff).

So what is God's will for your life? In whatever you do, be about the business of bringing in the harvest and advancing God's kingdom and cause in this world! While the saying, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" actually indicates that there are lots of people but few will accept Jesus' call, the fields, nonetheless, are ripe. We are in a time and season of harvest and this is the primary role of the church! So you have a choice...you can spend your life building YOUR personal kingdom and see how that works for you or you can join a movement sparked by Jesus to build GOD'S kingdom. The choice is yours!

God's Meta-Narrative: The Story That Explains ALL Stories

Whether we acknowledge it or not, our life's story is defined by God's story (the one He's been working out since the beginning of time). God is at work around us. We can deny this but we can never get away from it! And so if we want to understand our lives then we need to understand God's meta-narrative (that is, the BIG story that God is working out that explains everything). So what is God's meta-narrative? Well you don't have to go far in the Bible to find it...The Bible begins by framing it up. (Hint...Hint...I think God's subtly implying that it's important that we understand it!)

Genesis 1 makes it abundantly clear that everything God created in the beginning was GOOD (in fact he emphasizes this seven times over). The author also makes it clear that man's role in God's creation is to rule over the earth (the land, sea, and sky) by preserving and multiplying God's GOOD created order. Part of this task involved GUARDING the tree of the knowledge of good and bad and NOT EATING its fruit. But Adam and Eve rebelled against God and ate from the tree. This changed everything...and I mean everything!

But how are we to understand the tree of the knowledge of good and bad? Did the fruit from this tree, if ingested, give people the knowledge to discern moral right from moral wrong? Did Adam and Eve not know right from wrong before they ate the fruit? Some people think so. But I'm not sure that's the best explanation. Why? Well in the Hebrew language, 'knowledge' does not just refer to book smarts but it refers more specifically to street smarts, i.e. knowledge gained through experience. And so from the Hebrew perspective you don't really 'know' something unless you've experienced it. And so maybe the tree is better referred to as 'the tree of the experience of good and bad'.

So what specifically did Adam and Eve experience after they ate from the tree? Shame...Pain...Separation...Curses...more simply put, Adam and Eve experienced a bunch of BAD stuff. But these BAD things were not necessarily morally BAD (or evil). I mean are 'birthing pains' morally BAD? No. They're just plain BAD. Is 'painful toil' morally BAD? No. It's just BAD. In fact, in the Hebrew of Genesis 2:17 and 3:16-17 the author uses a play on words to remove any confusion about the nature of this tree. The author indicates that from the ETZ (tree) came ETZev (pain). And so by eating from the tree, BAD things were mixed into God's GOOD creation. Death, disease, violence, hatred, jealousy, slander, gossip, natural disasters, poverty, and spiritual warfare now became a part of humanity's everyday experiences. And not only this, but Adam and Eve were also expelled from the garden of Eden where God's presence resided. And so now humanity has lost its relational connection to God! Humanity now suffers from a spiritual death!

But all hope is not lost! We learn in Genesis 3:15 that one of the woman's offspring will strike a death blow to the serpent (Satan) but only after he is bruised and injured by the serpent. Who do you think the woman's offspring is referring to? JESUS, of course. It's no wonder that this passage is often spoken of as the proto-evangalion or the first gospel. The work of Jesus is to strike down the BAD in this world and restore and redeem creation back to God. Jesus accomplished phase one of this mission through his death, resurrection, and the sending of the Spirit. The final phase is yet to come. But in the meantime, what are Christ followers to do? JOIN Jesus' mission. After all, Jesus didn't give his followers the power source of the Holy Spirit so they would sit around and wait for Jesus to return while eating a potluck dinner!

But how do we engage in this mission? Simple, we look to Jesus' life and example and follow him. Jesus demonstrated through his life that he was about the business of reestablishing God's rule in this world (a.k.a. God's kingdom) by restoring the GOOD order back to God's creation. Jesus clued people into this, first of all, through his miracles: he healed the sick, he tamed out-of-control storms, he cast out demons, and he raised the dead. By doing these things Jesus showed that he was the true messiah who could reverse the curses of Genesis. And believe it or not, Jesus gave his disciples the same authority to do miracles so they were able to follow his example in this way.

But let's say you don't believe that miracles are for today (often referred to by theologians as a cessationalist). No problem. You can still engage in Jesus' mission of restoring good back to God's creation by living out Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. What does this look like? For beginners you can demonstrate love to the brutal and unloving world that you find yourself in. By loving your enemies you can stop the cycle of retaliation that is destroying our world. (And let me tell you, the ability to love your enemy is a miracle in my opinion.) Jesus wants his followers to be salt and light!

Finally (and most importantly in my opinion), you can reconnect people back to God by introducing them to Jesus so that their lives can be restored under God's rule and design for living. Jesus gave his followers the Great Commission because he wants to expand God's kingdom by renewing and restoring people's lives!

Bottom line, God doesn't just want us to KNOW a Biblical worldview, he wants us to LIVE a Biblical worldview. We'll only be able to do this if God's meta-narrative is driving our Biblical worldview. This is because the meta-narrative gives significance to everything. HISTORY...God is working out his plan to overcome BAD in this world...Join Him! ANTHROPOLOGY...People are in need of restoration and God wants to restore them...Join Him! MORALITY...People need to live by God's good design for life because God wants to overcome evil with good in this world...Join Him! SCIENCE...God created everything and, therefore, has the right to be king over the lives of his creation (that's you and me)...Join Him! You get the picture hopefully. A Biblical worldview (with God's meta-narrative clearly spelled out) should drive a person to find themselves and everything they do in God's story. Are you finding your identity in God's story? I hope so because whether you acknowledge it or not, your life story is being defined by God's story!

Why do you do what you do?

Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Why do you buy overpriced clothing at American Eagle when you can save money by shopping for clothes at Target? Why do you sacrifice relationships and enjoyment to get good grades so that you can get into a good college? Why do you befriend certain people and ridicule and avoid other people? I believe that all of these things stem from how you view the world--your worldview.

Your worldview tells you how you see and interpret the world around you and it influences how you interact with the world. It answers questions like why is the world the way it is? How is life designed to function? Why am I here on earth? What is the source of true happiness? What is really real? Your worldview is a driving force behind why you do what you do. So if your worldview tells you that money makes a person happy then you will give your life to pursuing money (that is, if you want to be happy). If you think you'll feel good about yourself if you're liked by other people then you will do whatever it takes to be accepted by people. Get the point?

Now I've been a part of several Christian worldview courses in my lifetime and let me tell you that I have always felt like something was missing in them. Why? Well, none of them actually changed how I lived nor did they motivate me to change how I live (which I thought was the whole point of taking the course in the first place). To be honest, most of them put me to sleep! What I have since concluded is that these courses taught me the proper foundations for a God-centered worldview but failed to include the heartbeat behind a worldview--the meta-narrative. A meta-narrative is an overarching story that gives meaning and significance to everything. It's the BIG story that explains all the LESSER stories in our lives. It's a grand story that we look to to provide answers to everything we encounter, experience, and wonder about in life. Why did God allow my mom to die? What should I do with my life? Is there any hope in this messed up world? Why can people be so mean? How should I express my sexuality? Why is there so much starvation in the world?

And so, the meta-narrative is what gives a worldview relevance and significance to our lives. For instance, a Biblical worldview teaches that God created a perfect universe, that man is sinful by nature, and that a spiritual reality exists around us. Well great...but why should I give a rip? Well, the meta-narrative answers that question. And so a worldview void of a meta-narrative will remain in the classroom and in the arena of ideas...whereas a worldview that includes a meta-narrative will enable people to bring it into the arena of their everyday lives!

I believe that many Christians have the proper foundation for a God-centered worldview but yet their worldview is still deficient. Sure they hold all the correct God-centered stances on science, history, anthropology, theology, sociology, morality, etc. but still do not have a complete worldview. Why? They've left the meta-narrative out. They've failed to see how their stances on science, history, anthropology, theology, sociology, and morality fit into and relate to God's meta-narrative as given in the Bible. This is also why so many people can go to church on Sunday, hear a great sermon, and do nothing in response. The sermon while reinforcing a Christian worldview was not linked to God's meta-narrative. As a result, many sermons remain in the arena of ideas and not in the arena of actual life. So what is the meta-narrative given in the Bible? Stay tuned!

The Christian Fad of Giving God Glory

Have you ever heard someone say, "My purpose in life is to give God glory?" I've heard it too and when people say this it makes them sound very godly, religious, and theologically correct. That is...until you ask them: What does that mean? How do you give God glory? How does God want his glory to be practically manifested in your life? Most people I've talked to either haven't a clue what this means or how to practically live this out. They have just learned (like Pavlov's dogs) that they get affirmation when they use the line...so why not throw it out there around religious people? And those who have described to me what giving God glory means tell me that you do this by giving Him credit for everything good that you accomplish in your life. But what this amounts to (based on my observation) is the token finger point toward the sky (in God's direction) after you play a killer guitar riff or you get any type of compliment.

But is this the extent of what it means to give God glory? Because how I see this worked out in many people's lives is that they live their lives however they want...pursuing worldly status, fame, and fortune...and then when they achieve success they point the 'good' finger toward God saying, "I just want to give God all the glory." And I'm thinking, "Ya right...I'm sure you consciously put God by your side every step of the way." And so I ask, "Has giving God glory become nothing more that a Christian fad that has lost its Biblical meaning?" I'll let you decide. But if it has, we need to figure out what it means because it seems to be pretty important. So what does it mean to give God glory?

A good place to start would be with Jesus. How did Jesus give God glory? Is he the one that began the Godward finger pointing fad? No doubt he gave God credit for everything. But it wasn't just giving God credit that brought God glory in Jesus' life. Nope. IT WAS WHAT JESUS DID AND HOW HE LIVED HIS LIFE THAT BROUGHT GOD GLORY. Listen to what Jesus says in John 17:4, "I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do." Jesus brought God glory by doing the task that God gave him to do. You can give God credit all you want but you can't give him glory if you're not living to accomplish the task that he has given you as His creation. So this begs the question, "What task has God given humans to accomplish on this earth?"

To find the answer, we need to go back to the beginning...to Genesis. Why were Adam and Eve created in the first place? Well, Genesis 1:27-28 says, "God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that wove on the ground.'" Adam and Eve were created in God's image to preserve, protect, and guard God's good created order.

This idea is further emphasized in Genesis 2:15, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." Now the verb that is translated "take care of it" is best understood as meaning "protect and guard it." Why? This task of 'taking care of' is the same task that the angels were given by God to do in Genesis 3:24 (that is, the same word is used) after Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. The angels 'took care' of the way to the tree of life by 'guarding' it. And so God created Adam and Eve to preserve the good in God's world.

Adam and Eve's purpose is also made clear when it says that they were created in God's image. This idea of being made in God's image alludes to an Ancient Near East practice where a king would place a statue of himself in a conquered region to represent and remind people of his authority in that region. And so humanity was given the purpose of representing God and preserving his rule on this earth. How do we do this? By promoting God's original created design for life. In Genesis God established a design for life and he wants us to function within that design and not rebel against it!

And so Adam and Eve's role on this earth was to maintain God's good created order and to represent God to the world around them! This continues to this day. In Matthew 5:13, Christ followers are called the salt of the earth. Salt is a preservative and Christians are called to preserve God's good in this world by overcoming evil with good. This (I would suggest) is how we give God glory! But something happened in the garden that expanded humanities role and purpose on this earth. We'll get to that in due time. But for now I ask you: Is your life showing God's glory? Are you living by God's good design for life? Or is God's glory just a religious fad to you?