What does a biblical Christian look like?

So many people are afraid to say that the bible is open to interpretations, I believe it is. It also seems clear to me that there is only one ‘right’ interpretation, but equally clear, that no one has that one interpretation in its entirety. I might be right about one point, but just as wrong about another point.


To me, I believe the bible makes it clear that it’s not about being perfect, it’s about learning, and growing from each other, changing and maturing to be more like Christ would ask us to be (The law and the prophets are summed up in two things, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and Soul, and Love your neighbor as yourself). Lewis, in his book “Mere Christianity” makes the statement that if there are those that have chosen a different ‘denomination’ then you, and you believe they are wrong, then you are to pray for them, and love them, for even our enemy we are told to pray and love all the more!



With all that being said though, I think it’s important to have a set of rules for interpreting it, a correct Hermeneutics as it’s called. If we don’t agree on the rules for interpreting English, how then can we agree on what an English passage says – the same with the bible, unless there is a scholarly agreement on how to interpret the bible, then how can we know for sure, what the passage says, either in the context of when it was written, or in the context of today’s day and age.



And I disagree with some who say that the rules for biblical interpretation are “How it sounds to me”. I think the Spirit’s working is definitely part of it – but God never worked in one individual. Even Christ found himself a party of believers to surround himself with and preach the word. Christ says “Where two or more gather in my name, there I will be”. When Paul talks about the gifts of the Spirit he makes it plain that the gifts were spread out to many believers, so that together, they may work together to display and proclaim the word of God and encourage each other for more noble things.



I think the solo scriptura view is false [That is much different than the Reformed view of Sola Scriptura] (that is, solo scriptura is the view that the bible is the only authority (me the bible and God), solA scriptura is the view that the bible holds the final authority, but that God has revealed himself in many different fashions throughout all of history) – God gave us history, he gave us great thinkers, he gave us revelation about himself spread throughout history, more than just in the bible (Romans said what may be known about God is plain, because God has made it plain).




C.S. Lewis calls it, in his book “Mere Christianity” – “Good Dreams”, that God throughout history has spread himself and the knowledge of himself throughout the entire world, so that those who seek him will find him, although he is not far from them. In Athens on Mars Hill, Paul says, that they are serving the idea of God, but they do not even know the real God, that the Greeks call him Zeus (His reference to the poets citing “In him we move and breath and have our being” is a reference to a poem written to Zeus), but he says that he will declare to them the real God that they are speaking of.



God clearly wants us to rely on his Spirit not just in the here and now (which is another false pretence that many Christians think that our generation is better, smarter and more informed than previous generations) – but he wants us to rely on his workings throughout history. To read, and learn, and understand the decisions and disagreements throughout history, and use them to help build and understand what it is that God wants us to learn.



One thing that Lewis said is that belief is Jesus’ death and resurrection is the pivotal thing of Christianity. That understanding Christianity (more specifically Jesus’ death), is like understanding Vitamins and minerals when we eat. We ate before we understood vitamins and minerals, we eat even now with our understanding of Vitamins and minerals, and if someday we find that our whole view of vitamins and minerals was wrong – we will continue to eat. We can still be nourished by the vitamins and minerals in our food, without understanding exactly how it nourishes us. We can be saved as Christians, without understanding the in-depth technical details of what actually happened when Christ died and was resurrected.



I think this vitamin view can be applied to so many other things in Christianity. True, we don’t intentionally disregard God’s word, if we don’t like it, or want to do something different, but there is no reason that we should fear that if we get something wrong, because we couldn’t understand it that he is going to condemn us to an eternity in hell.



I’m finishing up a book right now, a book by C.S. Lewis called “Mere Christianity” – I would HIGHLY recommend getting a copy and reading it. Lewis was not a theologian, and he speaks in such plain terms about what “mere Christianity” is, apart from all the things that people have tried to make it into. It’s AMAZING!

Would even one linger?

If I withered like a flower, would you miss me when I’m gone,

If you woke to find me missing, how would that impact your dawn?

If I dried up like a stream bed, would I ever leave a mark,

If I melted like a snow drop, if my candle lost its spark?

As a shooting star will disappear, I’ve often wondered how,

The way they would have treated me, if they knew then, what’s now

The moment that I fly away, I wonder if they’d care.

Or when they lower me below, would one memory linger there?

© 2007 Jediah Logiodice

The days of past – Nostalgic

We went to the Augusta Museum on Friday. All I can say is wow! Every time I go there, I am just overwhelmed with nostalgic.


Now, let me start by saying that in reality, I am very glad that we have moved so far into the age we are in (I mean, I love technology), but I can’t help but being sad.


I am reminded of the ‘days gone by’, right before me; days that I hardly remember, days my children will never see. An age where both men and women had special skills, working with their hands, bringing forth magnificent works of art, bringing into the economy things that were needed for everyday life, and a few things that even brought pleasure.


I looked over little shops in the corner of a wall setup to mimic where people would heat and bend iron making so many wonderful things – wow, i bet it was hard, back breaking labor – but when you were done, you could admire what you had done, see it, feel it.


I saw wood working shops, where people built desks, cabinets, I saw sewing shops, I saw shoe maker shops.


My head was filled with information on these businesses as they started in Maine, as some grew to the point of having thousands of workers, and then as they replaced these workers with machinery (or in some cases, low-paid Mexican workers from another country).


Even the woolen mill was sad. I had a job in a woolen mill about 15 or so years ago – I remember the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feeling of accomplishment working with your hands. They’re all gone. Distant past – in a museum. My children will never experience the excitement; my children will never experience the aura.


What happened to the days of “White Christmas”, the feeling of home and family?


And while I’m thinking about it, what happened to childhood.


It makes me sad, and I’m getting old, I guess.

Is it well?

This is a true story – I have copied it from http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps064.shtml.


May the Lord always give me the comfort to say “It is well with my Soul”, no matter the circumstance…



In the 1870s Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer and a close friend of evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Spafford had invested heavily in real estate, but the Chicago fire of 1871 wiped out his holdings. His son had died shortly before the disaster.


Spafford and his family desperately needed a rest so in 1873 he planned a trip to Europe with his wife and four daughters. While in Great Britain he also hoped to help Moody and Sankey with their evangelistic tour. Last minute business caused Spafford to delay his departure, but he sent his wife and four daughters on the S. S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22 the ship was struck by the English ship Lochearn, and it sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband the brief message, “Saved alone.”


When Horatio Spafford made the ocean crossing to meet his grieving wife, he sailed near the place where his four daughters had sunk to the ocean depths. There, in the midst of his sorrow, he wrote these unforgettable words that have brought solace to so many in grief:




When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.


Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Hypocrites

To anyone out there, that will care about someone only as long as they agree with every minute detail of their theology (no matter how poorly their theology is built and supported) – all I have to say is “goodbye and good riddens”.



Mat 23:13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.[c]


Mat 23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.


Mat 23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’


Mat 23:17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?


Mat 23:18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’


Mat 23:19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?


Mat 23:20 Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.


Mat 23:21 And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.


Mat 23:22 And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.


Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.


Mat 23:24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.


Mat 23:25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.


Mat 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.


Mat 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.


Mat 23:28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.


Mat 23:29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.


Mat 23:30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’


Mat 23:31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.


Mat 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!


Mat 23:33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?


Hypocrites

Should church goers use musical instruments?

Someone asked me recently if I would be comfortable worshiping with a group of Christians that use Musical Instruments in their worship; when, as far as they could tell, the scriptures were silent on whether instruments are an acceptable form of Worship in the New Testament Church (even though they used them in the Old Testament, and they are using them in the Intermediate Heaven, even as I type).


Let’s just say – although I don’t think I would agree with that position of Musical Instruments being wrong [On my scale of certainty it’s about a 1 – that is; I wouldn’t teach it openly that it’s ok; but I won’t say that it’s wrong either] – so back to the discussion – let’s just say that using Musical Instruments during the Church Service is wrong, because we should be ‘singing with our hearts’ (although, I think you can still sing with your heart, even with an instrument, or even without literally singing, because the idea of the ‘heart’ transcends the tongue).


If you look over, and the person two pews down from you is not singing, rather listening, and you feel that they aren’t doing what you think God wants them to do – do they cause you to sin? What if the person playing the musical instrument isn’t singing, and they are displeasing God, does that cause you to sin?


How about in the case of someone sitting three pews down from you that was drunk on Saturday night; or recently slept with someone they aren’t married to, and they are back in services on Sunday morning singing right along with you, does the fact that you are singing with them, cause you to sin (we’re not talking about whether or not you should approach them in love, and talk to them about changing, just whether their actions cause you to sin)?


It’s not that I would normally take this argument; because I think if there were people in a worship service with pictures of Satan on their shirt, I wouldn’t feel comfortable whether I was wearing the shirt or not – but I guess what I’m saying is (And my wife said that she has always felt that way) – is that our worship to God, while done collectively, is also an individual thing; we can’t know the hearts and minds of anyone else in the building, nor can we, or should we judge the actions and motives of things that are not clearly violating scripture, as Romans says that we will all stand before God and give an account to God, and we can stand, because the power is in the Lord to make us stand.


Anyway, just a thought…

Scary…. but he survived….

If you didn’t see it on the news thursday night, my older brother came close to death in a motorcycle accident on I95 on his way home from work…


He was half way passing a Tractor Trailer at about 70 miles per hour, when it veered into his lane; forcing him off the road; hitting the rumble strip, loosing control of his bike, being thrown into the air and landing face down; bike going one way – him going another.


My father who was in front of him on his bike saw the whole thing in his rear view mirror and thought he had been killed.


“oh my God, oh my God” was his words of desperation, which is ironic, as it was the first thing I said hearing that he had been in a serious accident on I95 (I knew he never wears a helmet).


It’s scarey how life can be be pulled away so fast, so unexpectedly, it’s scarey to think this morning when I woke up, that I could have been waking up to a new day without someone who has been part of my life for the last 30 years.


It’s scarey to think that his wife and children may not have had a father if just one little atom was placed differently in that whole accident.


It’s scarey to think that someone might have had to tell his children or wife that he had died there on I95 a little after 4 in the afternoon, unexpected and instantly.


It’s scarey because any day it could happen to me or my father; as we both ride bikes too, and someone would be telling our families in our abscense.


It’s scarey – because he is my brother – and of course I love him.


It’s all scarey, but praise to the Lord that he has survived!


He has multiple fractures in his back and neck, and a broken wrist. He has shattered one ankle and had to have it replaced with hardware as well as his other ankle (which he is still waiting for surgeury on).


His life will never be the same again, but he is alive, and for that I am thankful.


Amen.