Dr. Jack Bauer
February 7th 2006, 12:00 AM
This is the first thread I've been involved in moderating, but I've been at TWeb since it started just over three years ago now. A lot has changed in my Christian walk over the last ten years. That's not surprisig, since those years have been my twenties, and in that time I've gotten married to a wonderful woman and we've brought four children into the world. That affects things. I thought I'd say a few words to introduce your friendly neighbourhood wannabe dictato- I mean moderator.
I want to talk to you a little bit about where I think ethics fits into this whole Christianity thing. I'll do that by telling you where I think the other important bits go.
Ten years ago, I think (my memory could be a little off on the timing) I had this idea that the most important thing in my Christian life was understanding. By that I mean understanding things. I might not have thought at the time that this is what I thought, but by contrast to where I am now, it was probably true. Knowin gmore *about* God, having more knowlede and understanding of Scripture, being able to stich together a systematic theology of everything, and being able to argue, to philosophise and think critically. Now if you know me, you'll know that those things are still important to me. It's what I do, everyone has their thing, and this is mine. It better be, I've invested a lot of time, money and effort into that stuff!
But compared to what really matters, that's rubbish. Utter garbage. There are three things at the top of my list, and the top three are *really* close together. maybe they shouldn't be, maybe the top one should be waaay above the others, but I'm human. Number one is closeness with God. All the time I spent tearing up arguments and cramming in new info couldn't do anything to achieve this. It's actually something that I'm pretty sensitive about, in part because there are some really mean spirited Christians out there who boost their own spiritual feeling by tearing down others, especially those with degrees and a lot of "head knowledge." I mean, people who spend so mcuh time witht heir head in the books are puffed up with facts and figures, but they're just not spiritual, right? Yes, I admit it, it's something an intellectual struggles with sometimes, how often I have prayed "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" Or "Lord, increase my faith!"I wish people didn't rub it in. I wish I had more closeness with God, I wish I weren't so cynical, I wish an attitude of true worship came more naturally, I wish I were more open to the Spirit, at least I *know* I fall short. But closeness with God is where it's at, knowing Him, being known by Him and known that I am His. The comfort here is that knowledge doesn't bring you closer to God, nor does being a good evangelist or a great worshipper or being good at praying. Forgiveness brings you close to God. Mercy and grace bring you close to God.
Secondly, and it's a close one so I split second place in half - is being part of God's people (this includes my family, which is why it comes second. My family will get a separate mention). This means the church, locally and globally, and it includes you people, my brothers and sisters out there. I wouldn't last very long at all without the church. The church is both a family reaching out to God together, and also a way in which God reaches out to each one of us in it. It is the focal point of fellowship in Christ, of worship, and of many other things. And globally, knowing that we are all connected to each other, regardless of where we are, by the fellowship that we have by virtue of our unity in Christ, is the second most important thing in my universe. Alongside that is the family that God has given me firstly in my wife and secondly in our children. WHat an honour and a humbling task to train four children up to fear the LORD. And what a woman God has given me to help with the task. We are both equally dependent on the Lord and His people to help us through this one. I have to confess, I have to be very careful about this that number one stays number one. The most difficult prayer I have had to pray in a very long time is "Lord, make me love you more than I love my wife." I'm getting caught up this, so I'll move on to number three.
Thirdly, and this has more to do with this thread, is obeying God. Doing what God wants me to do. Notice that I didn't say KNOWING what God wants me to do, although that's important too, I said DOING it. Ethics, or rather being ethical, doing ethics in real life. Jesus doesn't talk so much about "being my student" or "learning about me," He talks about "being my DISCIPLE" and "FOLLOWING me." He doesn't say "If you love me, study everything there is to know about Me." He said "If you love me OBEY MY COMMANDMENTS," and "You are my friends if you do as I command." By saying that this is right up there in the top three things in my life, I'm not saying I'm good at it, any more than I'm saying that closeness with God is what I do best. I wish! But if I had to give up every other concern - EVERY other concern in my life except three, these are the three I would keep, because I think these are the ones that are more worthy of pursuit than anything else. Closeness with our God, fellowship with His people - especially the little group of His people that he has given me in my family - and following Him, being His follower by BEING someon who follows Him. Take away any one of those, and you're talking about something that's not Christianity, even if it's a close cousin.
Oh, and there's also all this other neat stuff like theology, exegesis, philosophy and apologetics. That's pretty good too, God gave us that to do in our spare time.
I want to talk to you a little bit about where I think ethics fits into this whole Christianity thing. I'll do that by telling you where I think the other important bits go.
Ten years ago, I think (my memory could be a little off on the timing) I had this idea that the most important thing in my Christian life was understanding. By that I mean understanding things. I might not have thought at the time that this is what I thought, but by contrast to where I am now, it was probably true. Knowin gmore *about* God, having more knowlede and understanding of Scripture, being able to stich together a systematic theology of everything, and being able to argue, to philosophise and think critically. Now if you know me, you'll know that those things are still important to me. It's what I do, everyone has their thing, and this is mine. It better be, I've invested a lot of time, money and effort into that stuff!
But compared to what really matters, that's rubbish. Utter garbage. There are three things at the top of my list, and the top three are *really* close together. maybe they shouldn't be, maybe the top one should be waaay above the others, but I'm human. Number one is closeness with God. All the time I spent tearing up arguments and cramming in new info couldn't do anything to achieve this. It's actually something that I'm pretty sensitive about, in part because there are some really mean spirited Christians out there who boost their own spiritual feeling by tearing down others, especially those with degrees and a lot of "head knowledge." I mean, people who spend so mcuh time witht heir head in the books are puffed up with facts and figures, but they're just not spiritual, right? Yes, I admit it, it's something an intellectual struggles with sometimes, how often I have prayed "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" Or "Lord, increase my faith!"I wish people didn't rub it in. I wish I had more closeness with God, I wish I weren't so cynical, I wish an attitude of true worship came more naturally, I wish I were more open to the Spirit, at least I *know* I fall short. But closeness with God is where it's at, knowing Him, being known by Him and known that I am His. The comfort here is that knowledge doesn't bring you closer to God, nor does being a good evangelist or a great worshipper or being good at praying. Forgiveness brings you close to God. Mercy and grace bring you close to God.
Secondly, and it's a close one so I split second place in half - is being part of God's people (this includes my family, which is why it comes second. My family will get a separate mention). This means the church, locally and globally, and it includes you people, my brothers and sisters out there. I wouldn't last very long at all without the church. The church is both a family reaching out to God together, and also a way in which God reaches out to each one of us in it. It is the focal point of fellowship in Christ, of worship, and of many other things. And globally, knowing that we are all connected to each other, regardless of where we are, by the fellowship that we have by virtue of our unity in Christ, is the second most important thing in my universe. Alongside that is the family that God has given me firstly in my wife and secondly in our children. WHat an honour and a humbling task to train four children up to fear the LORD. And what a woman God has given me to help with the task. We are both equally dependent on the Lord and His people to help us through this one. I have to confess, I have to be very careful about this that number one stays number one. The most difficult prayer I have had to pray in a very long time is "Lord, make me love you more than I love my wife." I'm getting caught up this, so I'll move on to number three.
Thirdly, and this has more to do with this thread, is obeying God. Doing what God wants me to do. Notice that I didn't say KNOWING what God wants me to do, although that's important too, I said DOING it. Ethics, or rather being ethical, doing ethics in real life. Jesus doesn't talk so much about "being my student" or "learning about me," He talks about "being my DISCIPLE" and "FOLLOWING me." He doesn't say "If you love me, study everything there is to know about Me." He said "If you love me OBEY MY COMMANDMENTS," and "You are my friends if you do as I command." By saying that this is right up there in the top three things in my life, I'm not saying I'm good at it, any more than I'm saying that closeness with God is what I do best. I wish! But if I had to give up every other concern - EVERY other concern in my life except three, these are the three I would keep, because I think these are the ones that are more worthy of pursuit than anything else. Closeness with our God, fellowship with His people - especially the little group of His people that he has given me in my family - and following Him, being His follower by BEING someon who follows Him. Take away any one of those, and you're talking about something that's not Christianity, even if it's a close cousin.
Oh, and there's also all this other neat stuff like theology, exegesis, philosophy and apologetics. That's pretty good too, God gave us that to do in our spare time.