more animals
It was bound to happen, of course. lolcat and post together just like peanut butter and axle grease. The result is also not as well thought out as I want it to be. Case in point, I confused Hebrews and Romans the first time I wrote it.
Caveat emptor
This picture reminds me of a few things learned over the past year. I went in search of the voice of God only to discover the divine purpose of silence. I wanted an answer to a burning question in my heart, namely, was I following the voice of God or my own voice?
Many people, like my wife, believe that the answer is both. I would always say that James 1:13-18 leads me to believe that the answer cannot be both. Namely, there was no way I could do a bad thing for a good purpose. God doesn’t do evil. He can transform it, but he does not originate it and will never originate it or entice one of his children to originate it. In short, the bad things I did could have only come from my voice, the good things may or may not have come from my voice.
That’s when I discovered that I was asking the wrong question.
In the end, the source of the voice is not that important. Doing the right thing does not always come from a divine mandate for every detail in my life. In fact, there will be very little like a direct mandate from a voice in the sky for anything in my life. God is not going to act like some cosmic UAC (Going to the bookstore may cause you to emotionally spend $200 on books you’ll never read. Accept or Deny?) He is not going to provide some authorization voucher for major decisions in my life (This card entitles the bearer to quit his job and start his own company in a bad economy.)
Romans 12:1-2 talks about being a living sacrifice. Live for God. Pretty simple to say and not so simple to do. I think I’ve been stuck at this verse for awhile – Sure I can be a sacrifice, but am I doing the right thing? Is *this* sacrifice one that is pleasing to God or not?
Verse 2 sheds some insight, testing reveals the will of God. That means that some amount of failure is part and parcel of determining what God wants. No one is perfect except God alone. As such, there is no perfect test and there is no perfect answer.
Stated another way, I have faith (Heb 11). Because I have faith, I live for God (Heb 12:1, Rom 12:1) In living for God, I need to be transformed by Him and not my surroundings. It is also important to test and approve the will of God, so that I know what is useful for the change God wants to bring about. (Rom 12:2)
I believe that the word that is translated as test and approve is akin to determining if gold is real or not. As such, I’ve been spending a lot of time focusing on the apparatus used for testing instead of actually using it. One of the simplest tests for determining gold, and one familiar to the ancient world, is biting it. (Brings new meaning to Ps 34:8) Gold is soft, pyrite is not. It’s not 100% accurate, but very little in life allows for the time required for complete chemical analysis. That is why Rom 12:3 begins a discourse about grace after the exhortation to test and approve to discern the will of God.
It’s not so much that God gives credit for intent as much as it is important to know that making mistakes is part of the process. The onus of finding the will of God is on me. As a part of the process of determining His will, I need to learn to say “I believed x and y because of z, but now I see that I was obviously mistaken” more than “because of x and y, z is always true despite evidence to the contrary.” More specific to me, this idea looks like this:
Because of what I saw in the Bible and in the lives of people around me, I became a whole-hearted ICoC member in doctrine and practice. In retrospect, I was mistaken about a few things. I see that I when I use a more traditional hermeneutic, certain doctrines and practices were not only extrabiblical (which isn’t always bad) but harmful to me and others (which is bad).
So I used what little I knew to test my fundamental question, does God want me to stay here knowing that my conscience is bothering me to go somewhere else? Let’s look at some important facts. One, my wife is beginning to feel spiritual nourishment in our congregation. Two, many have embraced our children so much so that a song performed in sign language was added to the Christmas program. Three, both sets of our parents are impacted in positive ways by the congregation. Four, the Children’s Ministry curriculum is doctrinally sound, age appropriate, and love oriented. Five, the minister is involved in the community. Six, we embrace those inside and outside the RM and treat them as equals without a test of membership or a circle of understanding (think F. Lagard Smith).
There are other facts to consider as well. True, we are not growing. True, we are realigned with HOPE Worldwide and the Unity Proposal (whatever they are calling it now). True, we have other ICoC ministers show up periodically that preach bad, biblically inaccurate sermons. (For the record, Obadiah was not the bad guy or weak guy in 1 Kings 18.) It is also true that ICoC folks arrive and preach good sermons. True, the 20/80 rule is in full effect.
Based on my limited understanding, I’m in the right place, if for no other reasons than the tremendous love we receive and the ability to share with my wife’s parents about spiritual matters. I have hope that other concerns will be worked out in time.
*************
In other news, I have missed writing. There are some stresses on our family right now that prevent me from doing a lot of writing. I cannot do anything regularly until at least late March or April. When our situation is resolved, I’ll let folks know.