Ok, so a lot has been going on since I last blogged ...or posted... or got my blizog on (choose which everyone you like best). I am sure most of you are aware Rachel and I welcomed our baby boy Justus Eugene into the world on March 6. He was 8 ponds 15 ounces and 20 inches long, he was however 5 weeks early and we spent a week in the NICU. But now he has been home for almost two weeks and the sleep is few and far between, I call him Benjamin Button because he looks and acts like a little old man. All night he grumps and groans, not crying just making this grumble sound. So that is a personal little tidbit and an explanation for the few weeks I took off.
Now, back to the blizog or whatever, I had a conversation with some folks this week and it was based on the old "Sunday Best" argument. Let me go ahead and stop here and say if you are an occasional reader of this blog you are aware that I have had moments were I gazed upon the outward appearance and tried to make a statement about someone in a church setting. I am not proud of this but I being a product of the church all my life have certain thought processes I am trying to overcome myself.
So we began discussing this church dress code unwritten law thing that seems in place in most churches today. Their answers were not anything I hadn't heard before, they said "We should give our best to God" and "It is a sign of respect". We discussed on and if I am being honest they made some valid points along the way. In theory I don't know that it is really wrong, like most things men touch it can be made wrong but the act of looking nice at church is not sinful, neither is going in your pajamas (that is unless it would cause others to lust, which is why I don't wear pajamas to church).
Ok now my take... Dressing nice to attend church while not wrong is not right either, it is simply what you have got on. I am pretty sure the bible is explicitly clear about God's take on the outward appearance of man... HE DON'T CARE, He is concerned with your heart (I Peter 3:3). Dressing up as a show of respect is not a spiritual act of worship but a cultural idea. We put on our best to go on dates and to dinner, to go to a business meeting, To meet important people and of course to go to church. What is the common thread amongst all these scenarios (besides church hopefully). Well we dress up to go out so that when we get home we can get a little smoochy smoochy (at least the guys do), we dress up for our business meeting to impress our peers and potential clients to further our careers and we dress up to meet famous people because we want to look impressive to people who impress us. It is all about impressing someone, so the question is who are we trying to impress at church? In most cases I truly believe it is not to impress others but in a weird way impress God. The problem like we stated earlier is our fashion sense and freshly pressed suits doesn't even catch his eye.
I have personally lived on both sides of this argument and while I realize the flaw in the "Best Dressed" mentality I still find myself having to overcome this mindset at times. I do believe that many make their attire a spiritual statement on both ends of the spectrum. Sometimes we put on our best to show people how well we have it together and give off this vibe of "Check me out". On the other end sometimes people dress so down to basically say "hey check me out, I get it". Both of these scenarios are attempts to bring the attention to ourselves which is a disservice to God. Overall I say we be who we are and wear what we wear, this Sunday let's spend less time on our attire and focus more on being on fire (yeah that was cheesy!). So tell me what you think, why I am I wrong?...or maybe even right.... but probably wrong.
Question of the Week
In your church...Altar or no Altar? Which do you prefer?
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A Wedding Feast and Humble Pie!
I will start this blog out by admitting that many of these thoughts are not my own, they come from wiser people who have a better grasp on the ways of God than I. For instance this blog is fueled by equal parts my life and by a recent sermon podcast I heard by Mark Driscoll on The Parable of the Wedding Feast (if you are into podcast you should check out what Driscoll is doing now, he is going through the book of Luke... it has been awesome thus far. Check out Mark Driscoll or Mars Hill Church Seattle to get it.) So basically if you know the parable of the wedding feast you know it is overall a story of pride and placement. I myself have felt as though I have been living this parable for the past two months.
Not that I think I was proud in my position as youth pastor... I don't think I really was (you may feel different, and the fact I say i am not proud in that position actually signifies a little pride in not being proud) but I suffered with more of an overall pride of life. But I can now look back at many things that has occurred in this new year and see how God is starchily opposing my pride. Whether it was my inauspicious departure, my quick replacement, my foiled plans of a church world tour or of course the great blog fiasco of 2011, I am coming face to face with big pride issues in my life. There are much more intimate moments and personal issues where God is allowing me to let go of my pride but since the great blog fiasco I might just keep'em to myself.
For those of you who do not know about the blog fiasco, a few weeks ago I posted a blog and in discussed the church we are frequenting now. I shared a certain thought that entered my head about the way some things were done and the way someone looked. I in that same moment as the thought popped in my head realized the hypocrisy of judging by appearance and repented for it. Anyway some friends of ours at Crossview read it and then passed it along to many of the staff members at the church. I find out and became very embarrassed by my honesty, they of course were just pumped we like the church but from my view I judged the pastor which could create an awkward and even negative first impression."Hi, My name is Justin, I am a judgemental jerk who doesn't like your shoes and has a very narrow opinion of God, nice to meet you". Anyway this Sunday I went to speak to the Executive pastor and we began to talk and then he realized who I was and said "Hey, You're The Blog Guy!". Humility party of 1!
Anyway all my personal examples aside Mark Driscoll made a point that in that very moment driving home from work shook me to my core. He basically said that humility by focusing on humility is still pride. In other words "I know I am proud so I am going to try to be very humble". This is still based on me, he says true humility is only a bi-product of being close to Jesus. A definition of humility is gladly accepting your deserved position and not your wanted position. When we are close to Christ it is easy to know our position, he is God and my only place worthy to be is at his feet giving thanks.
At the root of all sin is pride, yet we as a society place so much importance of pride and self esteem. My prayer for my life is to see and replicate the humility of Christ, who being God lowered himself not only into flesh but into poverty to save those who despised him... That my friends is humility!
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Through the years I have heard many men of God say this phrase: "Look if you are right and there is no God than you would have gained nothing. But if I am right and there is a God than you stand to lose everything."
I always squirm when I hear it... it just doesn't sit right with me... What do you think, is there anything wrong with this statement?
Not that I think I was proud in my position as youth pastor... I don't think I really was (you may feel different, and the fact I say i am not proud in that position actually signifies a little pride in not being proud) but I suffered with more of an overall pride of life. But I can now look back at many things that has occurred in this new year and see how God is starchily opposing my pride. Whether it was my inauspicious departure, my quick replacement, my foiled plans of a church world tour or of course the great blog fiasco of 2011, I am coming face to face with big pride issues in my life. There are much more intimate moments and personal issues where God is allowing me to let go of my pride but since the great blog fiasco I might just keep'em to myself.
For those of you who do not know about the blog fiasco, a few weeks ago I posted a blog and in discussed the church we are frequenting now. I shared a certain thought that entered my head about the way some things were done and the way someone looked. I in that same moment as the thought popped in my head realized the hypocrisy of judging by appearance and repented for it. Anyway some friends of ours at Crossview read it and then passed it along to many of the staff members at the church. I find out and became very embarrassed by my honesty, they of course were just pumped we like the church but from my view I judged the pastor which could create an awkward and even negative first impression."Hi, My name is Justin, I am a judgemental jerk who doesn't like your shoes and has a very narrow opinion of God, nice to meet you". Anyway this Sunday I went to speak to the Executive pastor and we began to talk and then he realized who I was and said "Hey, You're The Blog Guy!". Humility party of 1!
Anyway all my personal examples aside Mark Driscoll made a point that in that very moment driving home from work shook me to my core. He basically said that humility by focusing on humility is still pride. In other words "I know I am proud so I am going to try to be very humble". This is still based on me, he says true humility is only a bi-product of being close to Jesus. A definition of humility is gladly accepting your deserved position and not your wanted position. When we are close to Christ it is easy to know our position, he is God and my only place worthy to be is at his feet giving thanks.
At the root of all sin is pride, yet we as a society place so much importance of pride and self esteem. My prayer for my life is to see and replicate the humility of Christ, who being God lowered himself not only into flesh but into poverty to save those who despised him... That my friends is humility!
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Through the years I have heard many men of God say this phrase: "Look if you are right and there is no God than you would have gained nothing. But if I am right and there is a God than you stand to lose everything."
I always squirm when I hear it... it just doesn't sit right with me... What do you think, is there anything wrong with this statement?
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