The Church and Its New Adultery: AKA Faith and Politics.

The race is on. Obama vs. Clinton vs. Edwards vs. Others and Romney vs. Huckabee vs. McCain vs. Giuliani vs. Others. The race for the next President of the United States of America. You’d have to be a penguin living in farthest reaches of Antarctica not to know this is going on. Even then, look out for the Democrats; one of them might come down to kiss you because you’re supposed to be melting and all. Some of us are reveling in this; seeing our 200 plus year old democratic process in action. Some of us are just waiting for them to write dictatorship into the constitution so we don’t have to go through this song and dance every four years. Candidates are spending record amounts of money on campaigns promising fiscal responsibility; flying around in private jets promoting tougher standards on greenhouse gas emissions. It’s difficult to find a side that isn’t all promises and little to no action. Then there’s the fact that I’m a white, middle-classed, Christian male and I’ve already been told with whom I’m suppose to side.

That’s right. Faith and politics is the topic I’ve chosen to tackle this post; the most quintessential taboo subject in the history of all communication. Feathers could be ruffled, toes could be stepped on, feelings could turn uncomfortable; you’ve been warned.

So, what role does my faith and your faith play in our politics? Is it a prominent player; leading the team in points, rebounds, and assists? Or does it sit on the bench; waiting to be called on to fetch water and towels and such? If I’m a Christian, should I only vote for Christians? If I’m a Christian should I not vote for members of another faith when there’s a Christian on the ballot?

Well, for those who do claim a faith, you know it really is inseparable from the rest of your life. The decisions you make stem from what you believe and what you believe stems from the decisions you make. (Yeah, it’s weird.) So to say, “Hey! Put your faith aside!” when it comes to the area of politics is essentially impossible. Then, if you’re a star player, your faith becomes a star player. If you’re a benchwarmer, then your faith becomes a benchwarmer. Plain and simple; you are not detached from your beliefs, nor are your beliefs detached from you.

Now that the detachment of faith from ourselves is established as impossible (be it in very few and probably unconvincing words), the question can really be asked. That is, what role should faith play in politics? I recently read a few things regarding this question. (Hence, why it’s a topic I’m currently writing about. I suppose if I were reading about ducks, I would write about ducks. Maybe I should read more about ducks? Ducks seem to be a far less offensive topic.) One specifically being an opinion article found in U.S.A. Today. The article was entitled “A Plea to Evangelicals – From an Evangelical.” The author, according to U.S.A. Today, a “Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, president of Evangelicals for Human Rights, and author of The Future of Faith in American Politics,” set out to argue that Evangelical conservatives seem to be bringing to the public a form of Christianity that the public may or may not be asking for. I agreed with his argument. Let me highlight a few of his points.

Conservative evangelicalism has become synonymous with Christianity and vice versa. If someone what’s to know where Christians stand on issues, rather than ask the Christians they know, they can look to a conservative evangelical for all the info. According to the author of the article, this is a dangerous position for Christianity to be in.

"Our reputation is at stake, our voice in the culture, and the health of our
religious communities. If the most vocal evangelicals get this wrong, it damages
all evangelicals — all religious believers, really. I am not just talking
about a bit of embarrassment in polite company. If there are people who reject
God or the church, Christianity or religiously inspired moral values because of
what conservative evangelical political activists do, this is disastrous from a
Christian point of view. There are many such people. Here we are at the very
heart of our religious mission, and it is getting fouled up by our
politics."

How has this come about you may ask? He answers. It seems, for the past 20 plus years, Christianity has married itself to the Republican Party. It’s true. Now, I’m no theological expert, but I remember reading somewhere that the Church is Christ’s bride. How can the bride of Christ be married to anything other that Christ itself without committing adultery? It can’t.

"Once any group of Christians gives itself away so completely to a political
party, it ceases to be the church. The church becomes a branch office of the
group's political party of choice — The First Republican Church in
America. This is the root problem, and it leads to all the other specific
mistakes that follow: using the church (or parachurch organizations) and its
considerable resources for direct or veiled candidate endorsements, political
strategizing, dissemination of essentially partisan "voter guides," and
get-out-the-vote efforts. A whole lot more than tax status is threatened when
churches go over so completely to the business of secular politics."

So instead of doing Christ’s work, God’s work, we are doing the work of man.

“Specifically for Christians, we (should) know that the mission of the church is
to be Christ's faithful people, and to do its core work of preaching, teaching
and serving our neighbors. If it is true (as we boldly believe) that the church
is the central location for the work God is doing to redeem the world, then our
focus should be on the church's work, not the state's. As one aspect of our
God-inspired love for our neighbor, we can ask the state and its leaders to do
justice, protect life and advance the common good. We can do this in many quite
constructive ways, from scholarly work to declarations of principles to activism
on specific issues.
But we dare not identify the work of any state, any
political party or any politician with the work of God or the task of the
church. Every time we do so we end up embarrassing ourselves, enraging the
neighbors we are called to love, deepening the culture wars and damaging our own
mission.”

Now, this is not to say that if you are a Christian, or even broader, if you are affiliated with any religious organization, that you cannot claim yourself to a specific political party. This is also not to say that one’s involvement in politics, if the person is religious, should be on a very limited basis. Absolutely not. The danger lies in the Church affiliating itself with anything other than Christ. Thus, as members of this Church (if you proclaim Christ, you are a member), we should first and foremost be affiliating ourselves with Christ.

Where you stand politically may not be the same as your brother or sister in Christ standing right next to you worshiping on a Sunday morning. That’s okay. God created us all uniquely (Interesting isn’t it? How we can all be unique and yet all be of the image of God who is one. Yeah, it’s weird.) and it should just flow naturally from that that we’d think uniquely as well. Unity in the body is not called to be over political issues, but over Christ.

Now, that wasn’t so bad was it? If it was, let me know. The way I like to work and write is by suggestion. So, if there’s something you’d like to hear my thoughts on or you’d like me to experience and write about, let me know that too. I rarely say no to a challenge, so all suggestions are welcome.

2008: A Goal Odyssey

Goals for 2008

As presented by Clayton Zylstra.

1. Continue looking for opportunities to exercise.

2. Consciously become less wasteful. That means eating the heels of a loaf of bread. That means recycling whenever possible. That means not making unnecessary trips in my car. That means not buying things unless I need them; unfortunately the definition of need will probably fluctuate throughout the year.

3. Become a better overall influence to everyone I come in contact with; physical contact or cyber contact. This goes along with being less wasteful; you know, not wasting opportunities and such. This means having others’ joys, concerns, well-beings before my own, always. This means when I can help someone, I help them. This means when someone doesn’t want my help, I don’t force my help on them. This means if someone doesn’t want to see me anymore, I don’t see them. This means if someone wants to see me more, I see them. This means if someone wants to talk about things I don’t want to hear about, I listen.

4. Climb Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams before I leave with Operation Mobilization.

5. Spend an entire month where I buy 0 food. I’d like to see how well I eat without spending money. Hopefully I don’t die.

6. Not die. (I can’t make any guarantees.)

7. Sport a beard of length less than a half an inch and of length 3 inches all in the same month.

8. I won’t have a girlfriend for at least 2 years; I’d like to be satisfied with that fact.

9. Find a deodorant that actually works on me. Not that I smell, but I sweat.

10. Thank a little person.

I shall see how well I met these in 12 months.

How the Clay fared in 2007 (Or a list of goals followed by slightly unhumorous, witty remarks.)

Last year about this time I made a post on the myspace that made known my goals for the upcoming year. I suppose you’re curious how those went, no? Well, if you are read on; I’ll fill you in! Here’s the original post:

I have a few goals for this year that I'd like to make public.
1. Cliché:
exercise. (Anyone want to play soccer?)
2. Write a joke that's actually
funny. (I can write the non-funny variety very well now.)
3. Put said
joke into an act or a sitcom or a movie or a combination of all three.
4. Buy
a suit or two.
5. Climb a mountain I haven't climbed before. (That
shouldn't be too hard.)
6. Gain weight and then lose it only to gain it back
again.
7. Shave either less than 6 times or more than 12.
8. Come up with
2 more goals so that I have 10 for the year.
9. Put off said goal to pursue
other passions such as watching television shows I've already seen 3
times.
10. Pet a lion. (This one might be a little difficult.)

So, here’s how I did.

1. Cliché: exercise. (Anyone want to play soccer?)
Well, I played soccer this year more than I did the previous year. Mostly in the summer though. We played every Tuesday with the youth group the entire summer. I was surprised, not only were we able to play soccer and people not complain, but that we were able to play it every week and no one complained. At the end of the summer you could actually see improvement in kids in how they played.

I also played soccer for the company I work for’s team. The first couple of weeks was great because I got to play in the field, but about 3 weeks in we didn’t have a goalie; so, guess who played. Me. The first week sucked; I let by, I think, 7 goals. But by the second half of that game I was getting the hang of it again. Then, it got a little more enjoyable. I was able to make some pretty spectacular saves if you ask me and I even stopped 2 penalty kicks.

I’ve also recently taken up running every now and again. It’s only a mile or so every other day, but it’s something to help keep in shape. Also, I played a lot of NBA Street Vol. 3 on the PS2. That should count for something besides just being a nerd.

2. Write a joke that’s actually funny. (I can write the non-funny variety very well now.)
So, this one was banking on the idea that I would give open mic night at the Comedy Underground another go sometime this year. I never did. Thus, I never really wrote any jokes. Well, that may not be entirely true.

I came up with a popsicle stick joke one day before youth group on a Tuesday night and proceeded, during a point of transition from game to worship, to tell said joke in a sort of a shy, introverted caricature. It went off okay; I think it was the caricature more than the joke, but a laugh’s a laugh.

3. Put said joke into an act or a sitcom or a movie or a combination of all three.
Obviously, since I didn’t really write anything, I didn’t put in into anything. So, stamp a failure on this one.

4. Buy a suit or two.
The idea here was to possibly own a suit for the first time in my life. I’ve graduated from college, I work in an office, it’s time I learn how to tie a tie. I never did. I just continued to spend my money on cheap thrift store polos and button down shirts and I never forked anything out for a tie. But honestly, I have my diploma and I still have my job, so what do I need a tie for anyway?

5. Climb a mountain I haven't climbed before. (That shouldn't be too hard.)
The goal here was to climb Mt. Adams with out actually explicitly saying I’d like to climb Mt. Adams. Sort of put out there that I’d like to climb a mountain that I haven’t climbed before and hope it was Adams, but if it wasn’t, I could climb another one and still say I met my goal. I proceeded to climb 0 mountains this year. I did, however, hike in places I’ve never hiked before.

I hiked the Redwood coast in California which was fun. It was there I hiked in the dark by headlamp for the first time. I bought a headlamp the week before I left. Good thing. It was also the first time I’ve hiked next to an ocean. That hike was full of firsts. I wanted to try and hike bare foot there for a while, but that didn’t happen.

I also backpacked on the eastern side of the Cascades for the first time this past summer. It was the first time I had to deal with mosquitoes in a serious manner on a backpacking trip. It was the first time I hiked with people I had never really met until we started the hike. (Seriously, I had met one person in the party 3 times before, two others once before, another the day of the hike, and another was my pediatrician when I was a kid. So, I had met him, but I didn’t really know him.)

So, lots of first in hiking, but no new mountains.

6. Gain weight and then lose it only to gain it back again.
I’ve actually gained close to 30-40 pounds this year. This is someone who gained about 30 pounds all through high school, but some how managed to grow 5 inches. I’m pretty sure that 30-40 pounds has fluctuated over the year. So, it’s safe to say I gained weight, then lost it, and then gained it back again. Way to go me!

7. Shave either less than 6 times or more than 12.
This one was a popular one. People asked me continually through out the year how I was progressing on this goal. Well, I have the results. I started the 2007 with a full beard and I am ending 2007 with a full beard. I shaved the beard off completely only once. I trimmed the beard a mere 4 times. So, if you include trimming in the category of shaving, I shaved a total of 5 times. If you look closely, you notice that 5 is less than 6 and therefore, I completed this goal with vengeance. On a side note, I only cut my hair 3 times this year as well. Just FYI.

8. Come up with 2 more goals so that I have 10 for the year.
If you read carefully, you’ll see that I completed this goal in the original post. How clever am I?

9. Put off said goal to pursue other passions such as watching television shows I've already seen 3 times.
I can say that I am the proud owner of all 9 seasons of Seinfeld and I am also proud owner of 7 seasons of The Simpsons. Needless to say, I’ve seen a lot of episodes of television shows I’ve already seen. When it comes to wasting time, I know how to do it in style. Did I also mention I spent a fair amount of time playing NBA Street Vol. 3 for the PS2? Also, a successful waste of time.

10. Pet a lion. (This one might be a little difficult.)
I don’t think I need to mention what happened in San Francisco on Christmas Day, do I? It’s a good thing I didn’t fulfill this goal. It could have proven deadly. On the plus side though, I did get Planet Earth for Christmas and there are lots of pretty lions on that program. I can at least watch them in fantastic sub-HD quality.

That’s how I fared in the year 2007. Here’s hoping your year was a success and that 2008 finds you well as well. Next post will be my goals for 2008 which shall prove more difficult and potentially more fantastic. Stay tuned.

Prophecy Day 19 and the Gripping Conclusion: The Gripping Conclusion.

On Friday, December 14th, 2007, my adventures in Bible prophecy came to a close. I was hoping, because of this, to impart upon you precious readers some sort of eternal wisdom that would create in you a desire to follow all your dreams and what not. Something along the lines of “a penny saved is a penny earned,” or “early to bed and early to rise makes a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy, and wise,” or “eat your vegetables, they’re good for you.” But alas, I have no juicy tidbits of tantalizing knowledge for you to nosh. No amazing climactic conclusion took place; no spectacular, life altering revelation. All I offer is a humble confession that I am a sinner who needs Jesus.

Friday, December 14th, 2007: The Spectacular, Fantastic Second Coming of Jesus.
The speaker gave these words on this night: “If you remember one thing, remember this: Jesus wants to be our savior and Jesus wants to be our Lord.” I think this is true. Why else would He have come to earth, served, and died? However, I think it’s deeper than just savior and Lord. That is, those are just terms we throw on to a situation we don’t completely understand. Sure the terms fit, but I don’t think it’s complete. It’s like a puzzle piece fitting into a hole that’s a little too big for it. Sure the piece works there, but it doesn’t quite cover it.

See, God had a purpose when He set out to create man in His own image. A purpose of creating something that He could love and that in turn could love Him back. Think of the movie Pinocchio. Ghepetto made a puppet. Now, bear in mind it wasn’t Gheppeto’s intention that the puppet be a real boy, but he did desire some companionship that he could love and in turn love him back; notice that Figaro, the cat, didn’t fulfill this role. Cats. Am I right? Well, Pinocchio came to life and Ghepetto was thrilled. He sent Pinocchio to school where he met the neighborhood toughs and ended up getting into some trouble. Ghepetto finds out and goes out looking for his precious Pinocchio; his one companion whom he loves and wants back. Ghepetto finds Pinocchio and Pinocchio recants of his previous behavior. This recantation transforms Pinocchio into what Ghepetto really wanted; a real boy, a real companion; really.

Parallel that with our story as humans. God creates us with an intention, we defile that intention, God pursues us to get us back, we recant of our previous defilement, and we are transformed into God’s original intention. A difference between us and Pinocchio is that we continue to screw up; we continue to run off to Pleasure Island and make jackasses out of ourselves. And, in turn, God continues to pursue after us and we continue to repent and we are continually made into God’s original intention.

So, here’s the thing, I don’t really get this whole second coming thing. I know Jesus promised to come back (John 14:1-3) and I tend to believe everything else He said, but this one strikes me as odd. I guess I see people being born every day, thus more people to rebel against God, to break that original intention. So, it seems that whenever Jesus decides to pay earth a visit again, someone is going to get screwed. Someone is likely going to be on the verge of repentance when the final trumpets sounds, right? Or is God’s timing so perfect, that there’s a precise moment in the future where all that will repent have repented? I suppose that’s the definition of perfect timing. He did start time after all, and he expressed an interest in stopping it once or twice, so I guess He’s got a handle on it. I guess that’s why we say God has perfect timing, He invented the stuff.

I cannot say I have a firmer grasp on Christ’s return after attending this session either. All that was talked about was how glorious a day it will be. I agree; how great will it be to see your savior come to take you with Him? How spectacular a scene to see Jesus bursting in like Robin Hood rescuing Maid Marian from the evil clutches of Prince John? I imagine him giving out a swashbuckling “Ha-Ha!” when he enters earth’s atmosphere for a second time. However, I cannot help but think how utterly crappy that day will be for everyone else. Will I feel sorry for those whom Jesus could not take back with Him? Will He feel sorry for all of those whom He could not take with Him? Will there be any last, “Oh my God, I’ve been completely on the wrong track; Jesus take me with you,” repentings that will be validated at the last minute?

Wednesday, December 19, 2007: A Conclusion.
So what have I learned? The Church does not have the answers to our questions. The Bible does not have the answers to our questions. (I’m thinking of just leaving this as a puzzle and letting you figure out why I would say that. But I’ll just give you the answer.) God has the answers to our questions. The Church does not have solutions to our problems. The Bible does not have solutions to our problems. God has the solutions to our problems. I think one of the reasons I have a problem with loving the Church is that I expect it to be God. When I expect it to be God and it fails to meet expectations; I get angry, I stop loving.

I think when we say the Church is the body Christ and when we say the Bible is the word of God that we have to mean that they are representations of those things. And we have to accept that calling them representations takes away no power from them that they previously possessed. I repeat, no power is taken away by calling the Church and the Bible representations of the body of Christ and God’s word respectively. The Church is not perfect; it’s comprised of human beings. But the body of Christ is perfect. Can the Church be the body of Christ? No. Can the Church represent the body of Christ? Absolutely, that’s what it is called to do.

8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.
-Acts 1:8 (NIV)

It would be like someone asking me to take them to see President Abe Lincoln. Never mind how I know Honest Abe or if I know Honest Abe, but the something thinks I can complete this task for them. But instead of revealing my secrets and exposing my connections, I bring this someone to Mt. Rushmore.
“Look, there’s President Abraham Lincoln,” I’d say.
And they’d reply, “But that’s just his head.”
The portrait of Abe Lincoln on Mt. Rushmore is merely meant to be a representation of the former president. It’s just like the Church. It’s merely meant to be a representation of the body of Christ.

So, in order to love the Church, I’m going to have to change my expectation. What, then, should my expectation be? I’m glad I asked. I expect to find sinners. Sinners who understand they are sinners. Sinners who understand that it is only by the grace of God that Jesus came and saved their sorry asses. Sinners who realize the problems they face are the same problems the people of the world face and the only reason the problems they face aren’t problems anymore is Jesus. This is what I expect of the Church. Since the Church consists of people and people are sinners, this is not a false expectation. This is how I love the Church: realize I am a sinner who needs Jesus.

Prophecy Days 16-18: All Good Things Must Come to an End . . . Next Time.

Here it is; the last night of “Discovering Bible Prophecy” 2007. Tonight, the band will take its encore, the crowd will call for more, and I’ll quietly slip out the back hoping to go unnoticed. It feels like the last day of school. On one hand you’re glad it’s all over and done with, but on the other hand, you’re going to miss having something to do; a routine. Nevertheless, I’ll be both sad and relieved tonight as I see for the last time those pastel pictures of Jesus with different kinds of animals seeking His love. I never really go to know the zookeeper side of Jesus; I bet he gave extra rations to all in His care when He could. Made sure the Penguins had a slide in their exhibit. Made sure the Lions had a good view of the Zebras just to tickle their hunting bone once in a while. Jesus would have made a good zookeeper I’m sure. But enough about zoos and Zebras, let’s get to prophecy shall we?

Friday December 7, 2007: The U.S.: The Last Great Nation in Bible Prophecy.
This night’s session was not entirely about the good ol’ U.S. of A. No, there was some good ol’ Bible teachin’ too; about the Holy Spirit. If you remember way back at the beginning of this thing, I described the sessions being broken up into three parts: one being Bible teachin’, another song singin’, and the other being prophecy preachin’. So the U.S. came up in the prophecy preachin’ portion of this night’s session.

The speaker talked on who the Holy Spirit is and what role it plays in our lives; pretty entry level stuff. He mentioned the Holy Spirit is there to help us do what’s right; to follow God’s commandments. This led me to a question. If it were actually possible to see thoughts in one’s head and someone peered into mine, one would see a pretty consistent concentration of math problems, Seinfeld quotes, and questions about God. I guess also, since I am male and I’m suppose to think about sex every nine seconds, some thoughts on sex would be mixed in there as well, but we’ll stick with the main three. The question I was led to was concerning what the Holy Spirit can and cannot lead one to. For example, the church that is holding this seminar believes firmly that obeying God’s commandments means celebrated the Bible Sabbath; Saturday. However, there are churches just as Spirit filled that do not believe that. Can both be from the same Spirit? Is one group worshiping God incorrectly, or are both groups following the leading of the Holy Spirit?

I wish I had a definitive answer for you. I wish I had a definitive answer for myself. I feel if I try to formulate an answer, whatever I come up with will just be wishful thinking. I want the answer to be that both groups are of the same Spirit. God just has different dealing with different people, which is true. But, if you expand this idea too far you run into the issue of every idea contributed to God or the Holy Spirit being acceptable. Someone could say snake handling in church is a necessary part of worship since it says in Mark that it is a sign of the Holy Spirit. One could literally start justifying every religious or non-religious practice with contributing it to a conviction of the Holy Spirit. That’s dangerous since there are religious and non-religious practices that are contrary to God’s character.

Well, perhaps it’s on a case by case basis? If the practice does not contradict the character of God, then it’s possible it could be a prompting of the Holy Spirit. But, there are differing opinions on what constitutes attributes of the character of God. One could then say that the characteristics in the Bible about God are the exhaustive list. However, there are differing interpretations on what constitutes a characteristic of God in the Bible. (Does God only love sinners? Does God only hate sinners? Does God both love and hate sinners? Does God hate the sin, but love the sinner? Does God eat ham?) So, all this to say, I wish I could come up with a definitive answer for you, but I cannot. Maybe you can come up with a definitive answer for you and me?

This concludes the Bible teachin’ portion of our program. Now time for some special music brought to you by the Woodstock Music Festival. That’s right, Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. This ought to get you in the mood for talking about the great ol’ U.S. of A. If you have it, play it now. If you’d like to listen to a more contemporary or traditional version, you may do that as well.

Everyone patrioticized? Good.

Now, don’t take my overly sarcastic and somewhat disrespectful tone the wrong way. I love the country in which I grew up and currently reside. I just happen to love other countries as well. I think this country has some very good things going for it; it also has some not so good things going for it as well. No country is perfect because countries are run by men (and women) and no man (nor woman) is perfect. Now, with that said, and please keep it in mind because I don’t want to be blacklisted for being a communist or something, let’s look at what was said about the U.S. being the last great nation in Bible prophecy.

The idea that the U.S. is the last great nation in Bible prophecy spurs from a passage in Revelation. I don’t remember which one because I didn’t write it down. Frankly, I found that point irrelevant. Whatever passage it was, in my mind, it was taken out of context or read into a bit too far. I would go as far to say that every line was read between and every word was dissected to fit the conclusion. The reason I propose this argument is that the SDA church was founded in the U.S. So, naturally, the founders would have a fondness to the country in which they reside as I have a fondness for the country in which I reside. In then seems natural that they would try and include themselves in their interpretations. Now, certainly this is complete speculation and this claim can never be proven without written confession from the SDA founders that this was the case. From a statistical standpoint, this is only one improvable theory among many, mainly infinitely many, and thus highly unlikely, if not impossible, to be true. However, hearing the passage being read and listening to the explanations of the interpretations, I was not convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt. (Some might say I’m a stubborn individual who couldn’t be convinced it was raining even if I was standing outside soaking wet. I would agree, but nevertheless.)

During the presentation I was reminded again of humanity’s, Christian’s ability to distort and pervert the truth of God’s truth to support our own ideas and pseudo truths. All I could do was sit and pray for forgiveness. It was like watching a film of every instance I’d ever wronged someone. How could you not be affected? It would be like a murder, who knows they’ve murdered, watching a film about a bunch of murders. They can help but feel sympathetic I would think. That is, if they felt resentful for what they did in the past. Here I was, feeling resentful for my distorting the truth, and I was sitting, watching people all around my do the exact same thing. It hurt. I couldn’t help but sympathize. I couldn’t help but plead to God for their forgiveness. I couldn’t help but plead to the Bridegroom to forgive His Bride of prostituting itself to the powers of the world rather than being faithful to His power.

Sunday December 9, 2007: How to Increase Your Happiness in Marriage (and Relationships).
If you think the answer is don’t eat pig and go to church on Saturday, then you’re wrong. Surprised? So was I. Guess what the answer is. Go on, guess. Love. That’s right, love. Love one another. Forgive one another. Be kind to one another. Respect one another. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. This is the key to happiness in marriage and relationships. How cool is that? No twisting of texts, no manipulations of manuscripts, just plain reading the Bible.

11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No
one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love
is made complete in us.
-1 John 4:11-12

If we love one another, God makes His love in us complete. We then have the complete love of God in our bellies, how can our relationships fail?

This topic also gave rise to the opportunity for the church to show its lighthearted side. The staples of all stand-up comedy are relationships and the differences between men and women. If you don’t have “men don’t put down the toilet seat” joke somewhere in your act, you aren’t going anywhere. It’s was good to see these people could have some fun.

Monday December 10, 2007: The Unpardonable Sin.
Fun time’s over now. It’s time to get serious. Time to talk about where God’s forgiveness cannot cover. Time to talk about the unpardonable sin.

Unfortunately, the idea of an unpardonable sin was used somewhat as a scare tactic. Like on the news when they say, “Disease is ravaging the area. Find out if it’s near you at 11.”
“A killer rapist is on the loose in the greater city area. Find out if he’s outside your house at 6:30.”
“People will die. Find out if it’s you tomorrow morning at 6am.”
But once arriving at the session, everyone was reassured that by attending that night’s session they were assuring themselves not to be committing the unpardonable sin. Good news I guess.

The sin the speaker was referring to was that of a continual rejection of the promptings of the Holy Spirit to fall in line with God’s will. That is, continually saying “no” to God. Essentially, if you keep rejecting God’s redemption, He cannot extend His redemption to you. Makes sense.

Something that also makes sense is that this would be the point in the seminar that the decision cards would be handed out. If anyone was feeling a prompting from the Holy Spirit, after hearing what happens if you ignore it, one would want to respond right away.

This gesture I really appreciated. Usually the decision card comes out on a daily or nightly basis. The preacher tries to get everyone’s emotions up. Soft, Nordstrom lounge style piano music is playing to stir up all the touchy-feely, warm fuzzies from the depths of the audience’s souls. Christ is proclaimed to be the savior of YOUR sin and you burst into tears. Cry out to God that you have failed Him (how could you fail someone who evokes such pretty piano music?) and immediately accept Christ as Lord. God be praised! (I apologize for the slightly over exaggerated rendition of a salvation service, but it’s for a point.) Contrast that with this seminar. Not once was I directly asked if I wanted Jesus as my savior. This particular night of the decision card I wasn’t directly asked, nor was anyone else. Rather, we were asked to reflect on all that we learned from the previous sessions about what it means to obey God and follow His commandments. Then, we were to consider a decision. Rather than appeal to our emotions, they appealed to our rationale. I appreciated it.

A Conclusion . . . of Sorts . . . Again.
Tonight’s session (Friday’s) is the last session for the seminar. However, on the back of my decision card I felt obligated to express to the church my appreciation for allowing me to explore this realm of God’s Kingdom. I wrote this letter:

Dear Church,

It’s been an honor to lean God’s truths with you these
past few weeks. It’s encouraging to see a body of believers so wholly
committed to following God’s calling for them. May God count your
obedience as righteousness as He did for Abraham. God has revealed to me
many new aspects of His Bride because of this seminar. Keep following
God’s call no matter how difficult the road.

Love in Christ,
Clayton Zylstra

I feel I have leaned something, if not a lot of things from attending this seminar. Certainly one thing that stands out is that like the Church, I share the same brokenness that keeps me separated for God’s will; to be with Him. What ever awful thing the Church has done in the name of Jesus, I’ve also done to some extent. I share in its brokenness and for that reason I should have a love for it. We’re struggling through the redemptive process together.

There’s more I’ve taken away from this and I’ll reflect on that in the next post. So stay tuned.