Blogotional

Greg Garrett @ Thoughtful Christian writes of the recent glut of superhero movies and spirituality:

As in the life of Jesus, Thor must learn what it means to walk in both the world of gods and the world of men. While Jesus most certainly did not solve problems with his fists—or a big honking hammer—Christian belief in the Incarnation suggests we have to pay attention to the ways in which Jesus was fully God—and fully human. It’s a paradox that a fictional character like Thor can help us investigate, and that might prompt further insight for us.

The long-running X-Men comic and the more recent films, also force us to grapple with one of the biggest spiritual questions: How do we relate to those who are different? How do we tame our own impulses of prejudice and hatred toward those we don’t understand?

Superhero comics have always explored real questions in the guise of brightly-costumed characters, and once again we have the chance to be entertained—and maybe even enlightened—by another year of the superhero.

PUH-LEEZE!

Number one, to simply enjoy something is a Christian impulse and I really hate that we feel like we have to graft something onto something enjoyable.

Secondly, in recent years comic characters have grown deeper and more textured, but they remains entirely too shallow to draw any serious and mature lessons from. Not to mention the fact that as they have grown more textured they have grown less purely good. Yes, the struggle with important questions, but they are too easily resolved, or often unresolved (The story must continue.) No longer can we consider our heroes exemplars - stand-ins perhaps - but they are too often wrong to be something to aspire towards, powers notwithstanding.

And finally, while I dearly love my comics, they simply cannot compare to the sublime beauty, the overwhelming peace that comes from Christ. A comparison can only serve to cheapen the holy.

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HEROES AND ARTISTS - NIGHTHAWK

Leinil Yu

Leonel Castellani

Paul Gulacy

Steve McNiven

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MMI quotes David Fitch calling for American missionaries, not church planters:

Today, in the changing environments of N American post Christendom, this approach to church planting is insane. For it not only assumes an already Christianized population to draw on , it puts enormous pressure on the church planter to secure already well-heeled Christians as bodies for the seats on Sunday morning. This in itself undercuts the engagement of the hurting, lost peoples God is bringing to Himself in Christ.

Instead of funding one entrepreneurial pastor, preacher and organizer to go in and organize a center for Christian goods and services, let us fund three or four leader/ or leader couples to go in as a team to an under-churched context (Most often these places are the not rich all white suburbs where evangelicals have done well planting churches).

This makes a lot of sense to me and not just becasue of the cost effectiveness arguments primarily advanced by Fitch. Rather, with the advent of growth orientation, "Seeker sensitive" services, etc. the church is rapidly transforming into more mission organization than church anyway. There is little question that our increasingly secular society needs missionaries.

Secondly, it is hard to find a community in American anymore that is short on churches. It may be short of church goers, but there are buildings and staffs aplenty. What is needed is a way to draw people into those churches. If churches are freed from the need to reach out and instead learn how to be better churches, then the new converts just might stick around.

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Mark Daniels preaches on Surrender:

The wisdom of God can’t be intellectually proven any more than can the existence of God. When Dick Onerecker arrived on that bridge, there was no rational, empirical reason he could offer—to others or even to himself—for going to Don Piper’s body to pray. Don Piper was dead. And yet, God impressed on Onerecker the need to do what didn’t make sense. The wisdom of doing that was vindicated when a dead man started singing, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The apostle Paul says that even “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.”

[...]

In verse 25 of our Gospel lesson, Jesus prays: “I thank You, Father…because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”

Jesus isn’t telling Christians to check their brains in at the Baptismal font.

We don’t need to dumb down. But we do need to wise up!

God told King Solomon 1000 years earlier: “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.”

[...]

But more than answers to our questions or our prayers, more than control, and more than our own ways, we need Jesus.

And when we take hold of Him, we have peace. In Jesus, even in the midst of life’s uncertainties, we can live in the certainty of His peace.

If you’ve been holding back any part of your life from Christ, turn to Him now. Tell Him, “Lord, Thy will be done. Truly, Thy will be done.”

If you’re like me, you’ll have to pray that prayer countless times every day.

But as we surrender all the pieces of our lives, the peace of Christ will come to us.

We’ll find rests for our souls.

To trust in Christ is the way of wisdom and, one day, God will vindicate all who trust in Him.

Surrender is not a word that comes easily to us. It feels like failure - and yet, here my friend Mark has laid it out for us. Surrender to Christ is victory. It is a victory of proportions and in ways that we cannot truly imagine. It is the only true victory.

And so, despite the fact that I do despise the word 'surrender,' I find that I must.

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Related Tags: Illuminated Scripture

I am not prone to listening to guys like Charles Stanley, but this post at Christian Post caught my eye.:

Which interests you more-who Jesus is or what He can do for you? I’m afraid that too many of us are more concerned about what He can give us than we are about getting to know who He is.

But this is nothing new-Jesus had this problem when He walked on earth. The crowds often sought Him out for what He could do for them. Even though their needs were quite often legitimate, Christ knew their motives.

There is a fine line between selfishly trying to use the Lord to get what we want and humbly coming to Him with our needs and struggles. Some of the issues we bring to Him are so pressing and urgent in our minds that our desire for Him to take action in the way we want becomes greater than our willingness to submit to His will. At times, what we call “faith” is really a demanding spirit.

To approach God with demands involves such a misunderstanding of just who and what God is. It is a terrifying testament to our egos. Even absent the stain of sin, we are not worthy of His presence.

Think about this for a minute. I build a table and put it in my house. It is not sinful, it has not renegade spirit, but serves only at my will. I can use it, I can ignore it, I can even throw it away. We are to God as that table is to me.

So how dare we approach Him with demands? How dare we think anything other than how grateful we are to be with Him one more day.

The greatest journey of faith is the journey away from self. What a shame it is so few take it.

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Atheist Ryan Benson argues @ Patheos:

Thanks to the readers who have taken the time to participate in my challenge. If you would like to teach me about your beliefs by attempting to convert me, send an email here (ryantheatheistnextdoor@gmail.com) or leave a comment below to join the conversation.

Faith has been a steady theme in the responses I've received from readers.

[...]

My problem is this: If faith is not based on evidence or reason, then what is it based on? Is faith just a vague, transcendent gut feeling that rationalizes indoctrinated creeds, or is faith more than that? Why is belief in something that has no proof virtuous? Isn't faith dangerous when it's devoid of evidence and reason?

Faith is not devoid of evidence or reason, but it is completely devoid of control. By definition God is supernatural - while we are natural. If we define all there is by what we can sense and experience, then by all means, be an atheist, because you are right, there can be little or no evidence of the supernatural in the natural. In order for there to be such evidence, the supernatural must take on the characteristics of the natural, thus disguising its nature.

But why eliminate the supernatural simply because it is beyond our sense? Because then we are controlled instead of the controlling. Because then things are not only things we do not know now, but things we will never know. Because the existence of the supernatural makes me subject, not king.

Which leads me to the point where we must acknowledge that absent a supernatural all morality is arbitrary, and that dear friends is all the evidence I need.

The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

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