Archive for the 'born again' Category

Can’t get there from here …

Published
by
Ken
on October 7, 2007
in born again, carl jung, god, holy spirit and quotes
. 0 Comments

… unless we’re already there and just don’t know it.

It seems to me that there is a disconnect in salvation. If we are totally depraved and can do nothing good without God then how can we receive the gift of God’s son? How can we, as sinners, bring ourselves to realize that we even need God let alone bring ourselves to find God? Through the urging of the Holy Spirit? I think not because the Holy Spirit needs to appeal to something in us which can know God and we in our sinful state cannot.

By way of (obviously imperfect, as all examples are) example, let’s say that I am trying to get Joe, who has been blind from birth, to understand the color red. He has been separated from color all his life (born color-depraved, so to speak) and so has nothing within himself with which he can begin to understand color. No matter how hard I press and explain and urge him to understand the color red, it isn’t going to happen. Any understanding of the color red at which Joe does arrive will, obviously and necessarily, be extremely different from the understanding that I have.

Isn’t that the predicament we are in? If we are 100% separated from God and always have been (and I’m talking about each person and not “man” and “woman” as created by God) then there is no way we are going to understand anything about God no matter how hard the Holy Spirit urges. Unless there us a bit of God in us — a seed or a kernel — then there is no way we can understand our need of God’s salvation and no way we can receive it. This reminds me of something C.G. Jung said:

For it is not that ‘God’ is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of a divine life in man.

We all have a “divine life” in us. We all have the image of God within. Sometimes that image is buried quite deeply and we have absolutely no recollection of it but it’s there. It has to be there in order for the Holy Spirit to work. So we are not given the image of God when we are “saved” but that (perhaps tiny) part of us that already is the image of God is brought to our attention.

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44 acting like 4

Published
by
Ken
on June 16, 2007
in born again, christian apologetics, faith, jesus and logic
. 2 Comments

Ok, so we have to be as little children to believe in Jesus but then we grow in the word and move from milk to meat and learn to defend our faith to anyone who asks. The problem is that many of the people “defending” their faith sound like 44 year olds defending a 4 year old belief in something like Santa Claus. At least the people do who maintain a very rigid, literal view of the Bible and Jesus and God. Just look at my posts on Josh McDowell and Ravi Zacharias. Pick up and really read The Case for Christ. Strobel accepts things without questioning and without the probing questions one would expect from a journalist — exactly as a child would. Which is fine and dandy for new converts to Christianity but when you start holding that unquestioning faith up as a logical defense, it falls apart under its own inconsistencies. Defending your faith means you have to go above and beyond blind faith.

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4 or 44 — which is it?

Published
by
Ken
on June 14, 2007
in born again, christian apologetics, faith and jesus
. 0 Comments

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.”

or

“… always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks …”

 

and why is Jesus for the 4 year olds and Paul is for the 44 year olds?

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What do you do with a rich young ruler?

Published
by
Ken
on June 12, 2007
in born again, christianity, faith, jesus, money and wealth
. 4 Comments

(No, this is not a post about drinking songs.)

Most of you, I’m sure, know the story of the rich young ruler who wanted eternal life and Jesus told him to sell all that he possessed. It was in his comments to his disciples after the young man left where he makes his camel and the eye of the needle remark. So, I’m sure most of you know the story but what do you do with it?

I was asking myself this very question while reading Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton (it’s actually a translation by Merton of things ancient hermits said). These hermits gave up everything to go out into the desert and try to find God. What really got me thinking about this was reading how these hermits considered themselves unworthy sinners after years and years and years of searching and fasting and praying. The spiritual practice I do is absolutely nothing in comparison so is there any hope for me? Any at all?

So, I started asking myself: is Jesus really asking me — nay, telling me — to sell everything I own? How rich is “rich” — how rich must I be before it gets in the way? I think a sense of what Jesus was saying is found in the disciples’ reaction to his camel comment. “They were even more astonished and said to Him, ‘Then who can be saved?’ ” They didn’t breath a sigh of relief at this comment and thank their lucky stars they weren’t rich. They wondered who — including themselves — could be saved. I think this because Peter then starts defending the disciples by pointing out the painfully obvious fact that they had left everything for Jesus. Of course Jesus knew this so why did it need to be said?

So, again, I’m asking myself: Do I need to leave everything in order to follow Jesus? Of course, no self-respecting pastor is going to urge his congregation to leave everything for Jesus. No way, no how. If they did, who would pay for refinishing the hardwood floors in the sanctuary and the upkeep on the beautiful stained glass and the organ tuning and his salary! Don’t forget his salary! No. The pastor is going to talk about “attachment” to things or “letting money rule your life” or “tithing” or “coveting” or some other lousy rationalization.

The way I see it, owning something is no different than being attached to it or having it rule over you. I cannot own a car and not be attached to it. If I were not attached, I would not lock it. I would have the absolute minimum possible amount of insurance that still kept me in compliance with state laws. I’d let any of my friends drive it. I’d let my friends’ kids eat ice cream in the back seat. I’d offer to help all my friends use my car to move.

I cannot own a house and not be attached to it. If I were not attached, I would not lock it. I would not have an alarm system. I would have the absolute minimum possible amount of insurance that allowed me to get a mortgage. Scratch that. I would have a house that I could buy outright so that my mortgage payment never troubled me or kept me from tithing and giving the rest of what I owned to the poor and needy. So, I would basically be living in a shack which I probably would not be that attached to.

And what about my family? Jesus talks about leaving family to follow him. Surely he meant that I “leave” my daughter once she is grown and out of the house, right? He can’t possibly be talking about leaving her now when she is 14 months old!! Can he?

I just don’t know. What I do know is that you can think what you want about Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler but as for me, I know I’m attached to my family and to my things. I’ve got financial commitments and I make financial decisions that do not leave a whole lot left over for giving. I make decisions about what I do and when I do it that do not leave a whole lot of time for spiritual practice. And I’m not sure, yet, what it all means and what I’m supposed to do or what I will end up doing about it. But I am sure that these questions will be on my mind.

And as I write this, I feel that this is very inadequate — both my expression of my thoughts and what I’m going to do about it. “These questions will be on my mind.” What the hell does that mean? It’s meaningless. Less than meaningless. But the seed is there. I just need to let it grow. And that, itself, is trite and stupid but I cannot express it otherwise.

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Just a thought … on being born (again)

Published
by
Ken
on March 26, 2007
in Who Dies?, born again, christianity, jesus, just a thought ... and stephen levine
. 0 Comments

From chapter 2, “Being Born,” of Who Dies? by Stephen Levine:

The body dies, the mind is constantly changing. But somehow, behind it all there is a presence, called by some “the deathless,” that is unchanging, that simply is as it is.

To become fully born is to touch this deathlessness. To experience, even for a moment, the spaciousness which goes beyond birth and death. To emerge into a world of paradox and mystery with no weapon but awareness and love.

When I read this, I was struck by its similarity to “born again“? Deathless. Beyond birth and death. A dying body but a living presence.

But Levine is not talking about Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus from John chapter 3. Earlier, he says:

Discover yourself. Because you are the truth. And no one can take you there except you. Buddha left a road map. Jesus left a road map. Krishna left a road map. Rand McNally left a road map. But you still have to travel the road yourself.

No. Levine is talking about the essence of things that is everyone. “Being” itself. Our bodies, our minds, our joys, our fears, all that we attach to are not “us” but are outside “us.” This essence is the church or the body of Christ or the kingdom of Heaven or … One body but many members. One body of which we all are a part.

God is not “out there.” God is “in here.” After all, Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and what’s closer to us that our Self, our Being?

Just a thought …

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