Skepticism? Supernaturalism? Ambivalence?

I've been thinking lately about skepticicm vs spiritualism. On the one hand, we have multitudes that are looking for experiential spiritual manifestations, and on the other hand, we have people who believe nothing, because nothing can be proved.

An example: James Randi - he's most certainly not a believer, but I admire his work because it challenges us to be balanced as stewards of the Truth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsCnX-TKIY

But we're left in an interesting predicament, because it seems that on one hand, because of the extreme of spiritualism, real experiences of God's work are lost and buried under the inane and banal, in exchange for sensational things like psychic readings and faith healing and talking to the dead. On the other hand, skepticism breeds a closed mind to anything that requires faith, as a reaction to the extremes of spiritual gullibility.

How do we respond? How can we display ourselves as credible? (by "we" I speak of regenerate individuals, people who have placed their trust in the divine person and justifying cross work of Jesus Christ) Well, it is true that the Gospel of Christ speaks for itself - we do not need to defend the Lion of the Word and The Spirit. But consequently, we need to renew our minds with the Word, so that our faith is evidenced as a rational faith.

On the one hand, we are unapologetic supernaturalists - the work of God and the power of God is abundantly clear. Jesus told Nicodemus that the miracle of new birth is like "the wind" - you cannot see the wind, but it exists, because you see the effects of the wind (John 3:8 - "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."). In that sense, we are unapologetic supernaturalists. God has wrought an undeniable change in us when He saved us. The effects of our Justifying faith are evident, and in that sense Sanctifying faith is not at all pie in the sky, because it is based on assured evidential, experiential truths (Heb 11:1 - Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.) That mantra, "by faith", meaning "just believe with no rational reason" is misleading, and can be detrimental to a true biblical faith. But the point is that at root, these are assurances based on the miraculous. A denial of the miraculous (intended or inadvertent) closes the door on the Son of God.

On the other hand, we are skeptic supernaturalists. John later tells us to "test the spirits". (1 John 4:1 - "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.") John is not speaking of an esoteric "spiritual" realm, where all kinds of weirdness is said to happen. In that passage, John recognizes that the spiritual realm is at work, but not in the way we expect. Rather, false spirits support false realities. John continues, "every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. (v3)" In essence, we can say that any claim or practice that undermines the person of Jesus Christ (in the full sense, of His Godhood, His Lordship and His exclusivity for justification) is from the evil one. And it is true that much "supernaturalism" of the day is ultimately a facade (intended or inadvertent) for an assault on the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Whether the false reality is over-sensationalized supernaturalism or a total denial of any supernatural existence, both then are backed by false spirits.

Let's not be gullible, but measure what we see with the ruler, the guidepost of God's Word. On the other hand, lets not be so skeptical that we become practical agnostics, because God's work escaped our attention. The enemy must love our overreactions, one extreme to the other, because in that yo-yo swing, we're missing the Son. Let's be skeptic supernaturalists, who walk with care but, like the man born blind, when we see the work of God, can respond with absolute unashamed certainty about it - "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." (John 9:25)

What a deathly blindness it was! What beauty is this sight of the glory of God in the face of Christ!

Worship is Holistic

"For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God."

William Temple, late Archbishop of Canterbury

Paul Washer on Finding a Mate

I ran across a random clip today, from a Paul Washer message, not even sure what the message was from. But a friend and I had a conversation and this quote (mostly word-for-word, I was transcribing from audio) from the message got my attention, so I share:

God does not search around to find a mate that's totally compatible with you. Most probably he's going to find you a mate that's incompatible with you.

He's going to give you a mate in all the areas that you need them to be strong so that "you are not tempted more than you can bear" but he's also going to give you a mate who fails in some of the areas that you most do not want them to fail so that you become like Jesus... what does that mean? So that you learn to love someone unconditionally that does not meet the conditions.

Interesting thoughts... and based on an understanding of the fatherly discipline of the Lord and the incisive work of the Holy Spirit, I believe it is biblically consistent, even if humanly we fight the idea (because especially in this case, we're looking for a "soul-mate", not a walking spiritual Bowflex (a workout machine)). No one willingly walks into a situation that promises intense humbling. However, just like the old saying goes, "it's good for you". That sounds stoic, but it's meant to challenge you, measure it up to scripture and then do as you see fit.