The Thoughts of Ryan-C

A week ago a few friends we discussing the topic of habitual sin and discipline within the Body of Christ. At the time I was pretty blah on the topic and just wanted to have happy thoughts, but tonight God led to me the same passages that were being discussed that night and gave me some pretty powerful insight on the topic.

The scripture discussed that evening were 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 (with some others here and there). As Paul is writing to the Corinthians he sees a large flaw in their congregation. He sees how they have no form of discipline and how they fail to deal with sin within the body. Paul knows that the church has no authority to judge those outside the body because that is God’s duty, but he knows that the inside the body believers are to come together in love for one another to rebuke those who do not live according to their title of ‘Christian’. The way it works out in the church at Corinth is that since they didn’t have any plan for discipline, there was no discipline. When you have a lack of discipline you create a breeding ground for sin and this is exactly the opposite of what the church should be. Paul writes about rebuking those in sin and purging the evil from among you and this got me thinking.

If we don’t confront our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ concerning their sin which they flaunt, then we are only furthering their sin’s progression. Also according to the scriptures we are not supposed to act like everything is okay around and we aren’t supposed to have fellowship with them until they decided to clean up their act (5:9-13). I know a lot of people that read this will be shocked/angry/confused but it is what we are called to do, but we often fail to do it because it is hard to do and because we are afraid of the repercussions. Recently I have been in the position to confront friends on their sin and have done nothing about it. I sat back and let them do as they pleased, hopefully I can help those around me who need me and do what I should do in the future. I hope we all do.

So, yesterday my lovely girlfriend, Lauren, told me about a new sermon from Mark Driscoll that she was listening to. It is called ‘Pray Like Jesus’ and it is totally amazing. Out of all the spiritual aspects of my life I know that prayer has always been the hardest to stay consistent with and boy does Mark give you his standard encouraging punch in the face with this one. He went through a ton of verses covering the entire gamut of scripture on the topic. I really like how he presents the topic. Prayer doesn’t have to be some crazy ritual with formalities and what-not it just needs to be open communication. It is very similar to the relationship between a father and his child. We are to present Him with our whole lives and all we have to say, because as a father He wants to listen to us and hear from us. Also we are to pray because we love God and we love people and prayer is a logical conclusion and combination of the two.

So if you want me to pray for you just post it in a comment and consider it done (I could use the practice). Also if you want to pray for me that’d be great. You can pray for me and Lauren and you can pray for school and for strength in temptation. I love you guys.

If you want to listen to this sermon you can check out the Mars Hill Church podcast in iTunes.

So I just downloaded and installed the iPhone Wordpress application. Seems to be pretty sweet and fully integrated to do pretty much whatever I want it to do. Now I can post thoughts and pictures from anywhere. Hooray!

So on the way home last thursday, I listed to a sermon by C.J. Mahaney in which he gave some thoughts on grace and 1 Corinthians. So I decided to read some of 1 Corinthians today and take a look for myself. Basically what it comes down to is one interesting thing. In the opening of the book, Paul gives thanks for the grace given to them and the work that Christ is doing in them, but once you get into the book you see that the church in Corinth was totally jacked up and had a messload of problems. But what it comes down do is that God does not leave any work unfinished and that He who started a work in you will complete it. This was rather encouraging to me.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. -1 Corinthians 1:4-9

We often overlook these passages of scripture because we take them as a standard greeting and opening of an epistle, but on further inspection it has implications of hope that are so very comforting.

Chapter 10 is entitled The Problem of Sin. Keller begins the chapter by defining sin as Soren Kierkegard did. Sin is: in despair not wanting to be oneself before God….Faith is: that the self is being itself and wanting to be itself is grounded transparently in God In non-philisophical terms he is saying that sin is trying to get an identity apart from God. If you find your personal value in things apart from God this is sin. Most people think of sin as “breaking divine rules,” but the first of the Ten Commandments states to have no other gods before the true and living God. Throughout movies and even our own lives, we see people constantly defining who they are by their accomplishments and this simply leads to failure. Ultimately this will let you down. If you define yourself by how you are as a parent, then if something happens to you child then your identity is crushed, or if you define you life on a spouse and something happens to them or they let you down, then your identity is lost. Its a cycle of disappointment.
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I read Jonah last night for the first time in a while, and I forgot how amazing it was. The whole book is about grace and how God willfully gives it to all. Yes Jonah got eaten by a fish and yes this might be an allegory for Jesus (Matt. 12:39-40), but the heart of it is that Salvation is God’s and he offers it to all because of his great love. I love how it ends too. Jonah is mad at God because he spared Israel’s enemy the Ninevites (Assyrians), and so he goes outside the city and proclaims he wishes to die. God causes a plant to grow and some shade to cover Jonah’s head and the following day, he causes the plant to be withered, leaving Jonah open to the elements. Jonah is furious that the plant has died and has a conversation with God that ends the book like this:

But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Simply put, this shows God’s love for all people, and I think that’s something we all need to hear.

In this chapter, Keller argues that we as humans have moral obligations that lead to a knowledge in God. As previously stated in other chapters, saying that morality is ultimately relative is futile. It is common for people to say no one should impose their moral views on others, because everyone has the right to find truth inside him or herself, but Everyone will eventually admit that they believe people are doing wrong things in the world that they would like to put an end to (marginalizing women, child labor, sex trade, etc…) generally due to ‘human rights’ or something to that effect.

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I was gonna post another chapter review tonight, but I’m a little bit too tired to do so, So I should have the chapter up tomorrow.

In other news, I just made an amazing 80s playlist, almost got struck by lightning today (it struck a few hundred yards behind me and my umbrella gave me a slight shock), and I am really happy with life, Jesus, and Lauren (but when am I not?).

Here is the track-list for playlist.

In The Air Tonight- Phil Collins
Another One Bites the Dust- Queen and David Bowie
Total Eclipse of the Heart- Bonnie Tyler
Livin’ On A Prayer- Bon Jovi
Wake Me Up Before You Go-GO - Wham
Sweet Dreams are Made of These- Eurythmics
Straight Up- Paula Abdul
Take On Me- Aha
Fight For Your Right- Beastie Boys
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me- Culture Club
Pour Some Sugar on Me- Def Leopard
Tainted Love- Depeche Mode
Come On Eileen- Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Hungry Like the Wolf- Duran Duran
Rock Me Amadeus- Falco
Faith- George Michaels
Welcome to the Jungle- Guns N Roses
I Need You Tonight- INXS
Jessie’s Girl- Rick Springfield
Take My Breath Away- Berlin
Pride (In The Name of Love)- U2

I am now in the 2nd half of this book which is entitled The Reasons For Faith. The 8th chapter is entitled The Clues for God and in it, Keller outlines a few clues that could lead to the existence of God. This chapter does not focus on proving the existence of the God of the Bible, but rather lays the foundation for the conclusions that are to come in later chapters which will hopefully lead to ‘proof’ for God.
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Reiterated from Lauren and my Bible study….

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Romans 12:12