Into Australia

In the Will and Garden of God

The Bible is an incredible book.  First, it isn't really just one book.  It is written by different authors over several centuries and languages.  And yet it tells one story.  It tells a story that begins with a perfect Garden and ends with a perfect city.  It's climax is the fulcrum on which all of history turns--the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

So what happens in the Garden of Eden is important.  It clues us in on God's perfect will. 

And so the questions we ask are these:

• What was the original job given to the man before the fall?
• What was the original job given to the woman before the fall?
• How are the man and woman the same?  How are they different?
• How did they communicate with God?
• What did they eat?
• What did they wear?
• What was the blessing that God spoke to them?

Now, if God, through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, intends to renew his creation, then I think it is important to spend some time thinking about what creation would have been like without sin.  Not that we should become n*de vegans (I really don't want to turn up on someone's search for a n*de vegan.)  But Christ's arrival on this planet changed things.  He now allows our bodies to be temples--places where heaven and earth intersect (before Christ--well, several generations before Christ, the Temple was the place where heaven and earth intersected).  He also allows us to work with the Holy Spirit's guidance at the renewal of his creation.  And if we want to do this then we need to know the creation story along with it's implications for our present situation.

In the beginning

The following is part of a series, if you will, of the working out of my own faith.  I certainly don't have all the answers, and am quite willing to admit that in this "working out" of my faith I'll make mistakes.  But I'm given confidence by God the father, son and spirit, that he will guide me through his Spirit, his word and the words of others.

In the beginning. 

It is hard for me to grasp what it was like before "In the beginning"  Since there wasn't a beginning before the beginning we have to grasp that time and place didn't exist. 

There was just the triune God. 

There wasn't a void.  There wasn't a space where God was not.  There isn't a time where God did not exist.  God was boundless, limitless, timeless. 

And the triune God was love.  We are not created out of a need for God to have something to love, we are created out of an overabundance of love created within the trinity. 

We are created apart from God.  I am an image of God.  I am not created within God.  So when we say God is limitless, maybe we mean he has the ability to be limitless, but he has chosen not to be.  He has pulled back a part of himself and formed creation, so in a sense God is limited.

Why would he limit himself?

God's in control?

Several days ago I was intrigued then concerned then brought to tears as I read Boomama's post and the comments that followed.  Since almost everyone who reads my sight reads hers, I won't restate the post, but it really made me question God's sovereignty.  I have to admit, when I know moms with young mothers who have cancer, when children die, when the news is filled with reports of genocide and suicide bombers, wars and rumors of wars . . . well what gives?  Exactly how is our loving, all-knowing God in control.  Much of what I am thinking and writing right now is shaped by N.T. Wright's Simply Christian.  N.T Wright is a top-notch 1st century historian as well as a Bishop in the Anglican church.  You've probably seen him before, they drag him out around Easter to defend our belief in a bodily resurrection.  His opinion was also sought during the Da Vinci Code uproar. 

Some of his writing is way over my head more academic, but Simply Christian  (see sidebar) is not written for professors and theologian.  It is written for me. 

When we throw around words like God's will and God's sovereignty we need to understand that we are really speaking a sort of shorthand.  These are theological concepts on which many a theologian has penned a book or an article or a series of internet posts only to be challenged by an equally gifted and sincere follower of Christ.  With that said, I'd like to maybe try my hand at working out some of the issues that this post raised for me.  At the heart of the issue are these very personal questions, "Can I trust God?" "Is he good?"  "Is he in control?"  While I know I'm supposed to say yes to all of those, I know my actions don't always align with an affirmative in all categories.  I worry way too much.  I work far too hard for my own kingdom here on this earth when I should be about my father's business.  And sometimes I tell lies because I fear men more than God. 

If I believe that everything that happens on this earth is God's will and God is good then if I am hit by a car tomorrow God wanted that to happen and it is good.  To me this is dangerously close to Pantheism.  Because pantheism believes everything is God so what logically follows is that everything has to be good.  AIDS is good.  Slavery is good.  Death is good.  Now, on their face, these are ludicrous statements, but I've heard people make appalling statements about God's will and plans and purposes during dark moments that would make one very much question the existence of a good God.  So to avoid attributing evil to God some lean in the other direction and adopt a sort of deism.  God loves us but we are so tainted by sin he really keeps his distance except for the time when he sent his son to die on the cross.  He's also promised to come back at the end, but he isn't really with us in any real manner at the moment.  He sort of holds the world with the cosmic thumb and forefinger of one hand while holding his nose with the other.

Our actions reveal what we truly believe, and I can tell by most of the comments--by the graciousness and Christ-likeness that was applied, by the honesty conveyed, that most commenters believe (like I want to believe) in an all powerful God that is good.  But sometimes I think we often speak in a spiritual shorthand where we know the meaning and expect other to as well.  I'm not sure that is always the case, but I can say with some certainly that to the outsider some of these comments might be disturbing.

"My mom just died."

"Don't worry, God is on his thrown."

"Does that mean he meant for my mom to die?"

"God allowed (we are always careful to not to say caused) your mom to die to accomplish his purposes on Earth.  He is sovereign."

I don't think the answer lies in another rehash of God's sovereignty and our free will, because I think to our sensibilities we will always find such a theological discussion lacking.  What I could use; however, is a big picture.  In my walk with Christ I get awfully discouraged when I lose sight of the big picture.  When Job asks why (and if anyone has a right to ask, it is Job) God answers by showing the big picture of who he is and what he has done.  So for me, in this moment of my own questioning (and in the next several posts), I will look at the big picture.  Who is God?  What has he done?

But one final note:  Romans 8:28 says "that ^[a]God causes ^(A)all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are ^(B)called according to His purpose."  Some take this to mean that if we are Christians then all things that happen to us are good and so come from God.  I do not think this is true.  Paul writes of an epic spiritual struggle and Revelations pulls the curtain back on the cosmic realm to reveal the same.  I believe that struggle erupts on this earth in needless death, disease, hatred, and all manner of evil.  The promise of Romans 8:28 is that God foils all plans of the evil one when it concerns those who are called according to his purpose.  So our past hurts, or current struggles, even our sins can be turned into good and used in God's overarching plan of redemption and re-creation.

And then there's this

Then Lori had to Rattle me this.  Ha!  Ha!  Get it?  Rattle?  Okay, so it isn't that funny.

Deep thoughts by Boomama

I was sipping my just pressed and poured cup'o coffee and clicking on the various links I like to read.  I want to know how Addison is doing.  I want to know if Toni is continuing her Song of Solomon love story.  Then I got stuck here.  Thinking about this.

Noah lesson

Here is a great way to realistically portray the story of Noah and the flood to five year olds.

Found a Soap Box!

I think I either packed the last one in the sea shipment, or perhaps I sold it.  But after receiving this e-mail I went to the community recycling bin and found one of those wine boxes with a spigot at the bottom of it.  They really are quite sturdy once you put a couple of yellow pages from 2002 in them.  Otherwise the closest thing I could find to a soap box was a soap wrapper from a Marriott facial soap bar that Eric had collected on one of his many travels. 

Anyway, here is the e-mail that prompted the search for the makeshift soapbox.  I received an e-mail newsletter concerning homeschooling today.  It carried in bold print this warning:

America’s public schools, because they are government-owned and government-operated, have banned Jesus Christ from the classroom. Simply put, the Truth cannot be taught inside state schools. And since there is no neutrality with the Lord (either you are for Him, or you are against Him), one can easily conclude the American public education system to be anti-Christian, and thereby at odds with the Creator of the universe.

If government-owned and operated schools began school with a prayer and a recitation of the Ten Commandments would this mean that Jesus was in school in a greater measure than if these activities did not occur?  The Bible does not give us such assurance.  All of Jeremiah speaks of a people that were circumcised on the outside but were not circumcised in their hearts.  They had maintained the outward trappings of their religion without retaining any spiritual devotion to God.  When Jesus rid the temple of money changers he was ridding the Temple of people who were setting standards (you must sacrifice to God) and setting the prices (we will sell you the lamb).  Today this particular newsletter sets a standard (you must homeschool your children) and will gladly, for a price, sell me the resources.  Meanwhile, they offer little comfort for those that can not meet this standard. 

I'm certainly not against homeschooling.  It is an option that is on our kitchen table along with public and private schools.  But in the end homeschooling is just another educational system, and while this decision is certainly important, to advocate homeschooling for all Christians is to fall into the trap that a certain system is our savior.  T.S. Eliot described such endeavors as a means of finding a system so perfect we will not have to be good.  Quite frankly, I don't think we can carry out Christ's command to love our enemies if we so carefully construct our lives that we do not encounter them.  The truth is no system of learning, or governance can prevail against Christ within us, but it is up to us to determine the spirits leading in that endeavor.  Some of us can best do that through homeschooling.  Some of us can become actively involved in the public schools.  Some of us should send our children to private schools.  And we should, as iron sharpens iron, use our gifts and our resources to help others in their calling.

Every year someone in the Southern Baptist Convention offers up the "pull the kids out of public schools" tirade.  Such religious posturing isn't unique to our times.  Apparently Paul addressed a situation that had arisen in Galatia where a group of people were telling everyone else, all the men anyway, they should be circumcised.  Why would they do this?  So they could look different than the culture surrounding them?  Perhaps it was a way to make sure all in there group really meant it when they were baptized.  Men in the group were pointing to their own circumcision as a means of showing their own righteousness.  And Paul was livid.  He even went as far as to say he wished that one group of agitators "would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!"  This is not a verse that appears very often in Bible Memory curriculum, but Paul saw there actions as relying upon a rule for their salvation instead of Christ's work at the cross.  He goes on to write in chapter 5 that a sinful nature isn't difficult to identify;

19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I believe many of us look at this passage and in a spirit of fear try to find a way of keeping our children away from such evil--especially sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft, drunkenness, and orgies.  When we read about such incidences occurring in schools, homeschooling seems like the most bullet proof form of protection for our kids.  But I think this is exactly the reasoning Paul was preaching against.  These people were putting their faith in circumcision when it should have been placed in Christ.  And Paul found it galling.  He didn't seem to be bothered that people were being circumcised, but that they viewed it as a means of righteousness as evidenced by their advocation that others follow suit. 

I am particularly concerned when they suggest that public schools are even capable of banning Christ.  Such a claim seems to suggest that Christ exists within the 10 Commandments in the library, or perhaps on "Jesus" T-shirts, or perhaps a Bible on the teachers desk.  It is a lie.  Those who follow Christ are responsible for Christ's presence in the world.  Unless the public schools are killing Christ followers then I'm not sure how the public schools could ban Jesus from Geometry.  As a High School English teacher, I had students that regularly engaged in acts filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  And public schools don't have laws against such things.  These students are living proof that Jesus is alive even in our schools, granted it isn't an easy place to be Christ, but I had students that were and they and their parents deserve praise and support from fellow Christians, not a guilt trip.

But above all else the newsletter promotes dissension among Christians over something that should clearly not be a divisive issue:  what type of learning environment works best for my child and my family.  Or more importantly, where does God want me?  The letter from the homeschooling magazine, (which I've decided not to name) only produces factions, envy, dissension--these are also on the sinful nature list.  But Paul's admonishment was not just about keeping the peace.  He was not interested in simply settling a dispute.  He really wanted this church in Galatia to work it out.  He had a vision for what the church could do together and he believed that their being a light to the world required them to be a unified front, which is why he brings us back to what should be central in all our endeavors with one another:

24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.