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.

A God Who Suffers is a God Who Loves

I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the Cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time, after awhile I have had to turn away.

And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wretched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me!

He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross of Christ... is God's only self-justification in such a world as ours.

John Stott, "God on the Gallows"

Don't sweat the small stuff, for the sake of the long run.

You can be mad as a mad dog at the way things went
You can swear and curse the fates;
But when it comes to the end,
You have to let go.
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Lessons on Fidelity From... the Ant?

You don't want to go too far with it, but Time Magazine posted a fascinating article on the mating "habits" of ants... copied below.

First Rule of the Ant Colony: No Hanky Panky

To the long list of reasons you should be glad you're not an ant, add this: You'd have to forget about having sex. You'd also have to forget about even trying. Sneak off for a little insectile assignation and the others members of the colony would know immediately — and attack you for it. Entomologists have long known this was the practice in the ant world, but what they didn't know is the forensic science that allows the community to uncover the crime. Now, thanks to a study in the current issue of Cell Biology, they do.

Ant colonies have good reason to be abstemious places. When you're trying to hold together so complex a society without — let's face it — a lot of brainpower, you want a population made up of the fittest individuals you can get. A queen that has the genetic mettle to crank out lots of good eggs that produce lots of good babies doesn't need any competition from other, lesser females setting up a nest nearby. Even the queen herself is not allowed to fool with the gene pool once it's been set. She mates only once in her life and stores all of the sperm she'll ever need for the thousands of eggs she'll produce. (See TIME's photos of the insect world)

The rules, of course, don't prevent the other ants in the colony — which spend their lives tending eggs, gathering food and digging tunnels — from feeling a little randy now and then (never mind the fact that they're all, genetically speaking, brothers and sisters). But not only are those who give into the procreative urge pounced on by the others, those who are even considering it are often restrained before they can try. The tip-off, as with so many other things in the animal world, appears to be smell.

Earlier studies had shown that a queen that senses potential competition from another fertile female will chemically mark the pretender; that female will then be attacked by lower-ranking females. Biologists Jürgen Liebig and Adrian Smith of Arizona State University suspected that something similar might go on even without the queen's intervention and believed the answer might lie in scent chemicals called cuticular hydrocarbons.

Ants that are capable of reproducing naturally emit hydrocarbon-based odors, and the eggs they produce smell the same way. Ants that can't reproduce emit no such odor. Liebig and Smith produced a synthetic hydrocarbon in the lab that had the same olfactory properties as the natural one, then plucked a few completely innocent ants from a nest and dabbed the chemical on them. When they were returned to the colony they were promptly attacked — never mind that they had essentially been framed.

The sexual environment does sometimes loosen up in ant colonies. While the place may never become a Caligulan free-for-all, collective breeding will resume if the queen dies or is experimentally removed — but only until a new queen establishes herself and the reproductive lockdown resumes.

Complex critters like us might be glad to be part of a species that's free of such Draconian sexual rules, but Liebig doesn't think it's wise to get above ourselves. All manner of lawsuits, divorces and blood feuds have erupted over people breeding when — or with whom — they oughtn't. Often, the methods used to expose the cheaters aren't terribly different from those of the ants: more than one philanderer, after all, has been exposed by a whiff of the wrong perfume on his clothes when he came home. "The idea that social harmony is dependent on strict systems to prevent and punish cheating seems to apply to most successful societies," Liebig explained in a comment released with his paper. Regardless of the genome, in matters of sex, nature still appears to prefer us not to stray.

Thoughts on Tradition

The irony of holding to "tradition" as some sort of unbreakable golden standard is that at their inception, those very traditions were new, groundbreaking and revolutionary (and sometimes controversial). Music is a great example of this axiom: classical forms, which are today considered by many to be "untouchable", were at their birth sounds or combinations of styles never before heard.

The point: lighten up, people - what is new is not inherently undesirable. In fact, the claim that "this is the way it's always been done" is mostly untenable, there was always a first time.

Learn to judge by innate quality (or lack thereof), not by comparison to a prior tradition, unless comparison is inescapable because of the nature of the form.

Follow up to last post

So the previous videos were terrible, but you can't mock this. Pity it's only representative of experimentation of 20 years ago and not more recent.

India - An Ancient Musical Culture

With great emotion, and with welling pride I present the present baton-carriers for an ancient cultural tradition of musical art of high excellence,

In instrumental virtuosity & showmanship


and in vocal excellence


Sniff. My eyes are filled with salt water.

A picture speaks for 200 lives.

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes.

Don't Sleep, There are Snakes seems to be an Interesting book, and I think I want to read it. From the review:

Daniel Everett came to the Pirahã as a Christian missionary. Thirty years later, he left an atheist. The indigenous Brazilian tribe had no need for his Jesus, just as they had no need for numbers, colors, rituals, sound sleep, daily meals, permanent shelter, the concept of God or stories about things that happened in the past.

Everett is a professor of linguistics, and his studies in themselves seem to be fascinating. But the question that I want to hear him answer is what led him to reject his profession of faith, not sure he will, but I want to see what the book says about his relationship with Christ before his journey, during his journey... faithlessness is never sudden.

Not of This World

A great brief exposition by John Piper on 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
He used it to talk about voting, but I like it as it is... so I edited it up to post here.

1. “Let those who have wives live as though they had none.”
This doesn’t mean move out of the house, don’t have sex, and don’t call her Honey. Earlier in this chapter Paul says, “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights” (1 Corinthians 7:3). He also says to love her the way Christ loved the church, leading and providing and protecting (Ephesians 5:25-30). It means this: Marriage is momentary. It’s over at death, and there is no marriage in the resurrection. Wives and husbands are second priorities, not first. Christ is first. Marriage is for making much of him.

It means: If she is exquisitely desirable, beware of desiring her more than Christ. And if she is deeply disappointing, beware of being hurt too much. This is temporary—only a brief lifetime. Then comes the never-disappointing life which is life indeed.

2. “Let those who mourn [do so] as though they were not mourning.”
Christians mourn with real, deep, painful mourning, especially over losses—loss of those we love, loss of health, loss of a dream. These losses hurt. We cry when we are hurt. But we cry as though not crying. We mourn knowing we have not lost something so valuable we cannot rejoice in our mourning. Our losses do not incapacitate us. They do not blind us to the possibility of a fruitful future serving Christ. The Lord gives and takes away. But he remains blessed. And we remain hopeful in our mourning.

3. “Let those who rejoice [do so] as though they were not rejoicing.”
Christians rejoice in health (James 5:13) and in sickness (James 1:2). There are a thousand good and perfect things that come down from God that call forth the feeling of happiness. Beautiful weather. Good friends who want to spend time with us. Delicious food and someone to share it with. A successful plan. A person helped by our efforts.

But none of these good and beautiful things can satisfy our soul. Even the best cannot replace what we were made for, namely, the full experience of the risen Christ (John 17:24). Even fellowship with him here is not the final and best gift. There is more of him to have after we die (Philippians 1:21-23)—and even more after the resurrection. The best experiences here are foretastes. The best sights of glory are through a mirror dimly. The joy that rises from these previews does not and should not rise to the level of the hope of glory. These pleasures will one day be as though they were not. So we rejoice remembering this joy is a foretaste, and will be replaced by a vastly better joy.

4. “Let those who buy [do so] as though they had no goods.”
Let Christians keep on buying while this age lasts. Christianity is not withdrawal from business. We are involved, but as though not involved. Business simply does not have the weight in our hearts that it has for many. All our getting and all our having in this world is getting and having things that are not ultimately important. Our car, our house, our books, our computers, our heirlooms—we possess them with a loose grip. If they are taken away, we say that in a sense we did not have them. We are not here to possess. We are here to lay up treasures in heaven.

This world matters. But it is not ultimate. It is the stage for living in such a way to show that this world is not our God, but that Christ is our God. It is the stage for using the world to show that Christ is more precious than the world.

5. “Let those who deal with the world [do so] as though they had no dealings with it.”
Christians should deal with the world. This world is here to be used. Dealt with. There is no avoiding it. Not to deal with it is to deal with it that way. Not to weed your garden is to cultivate a weedy garden. Not to wear a coat in Minnesota is to freeze—to deal with the cold that way. Not to stop when the light is red is to spend your money on fines or hospital bills and deal with the world that way. We must deal with the world.

But as we deal with it, we don’t give it our fullest attention. We don’t ascribe to the world the greatest status. There are unseen things that are vastly more precious than the world. We use the world without offering it our whole soul. We may work with all our might when dealing with the world, but the full passions of our heart will be attached to something higher—Godward purposes. We use the world, but not as an end in itself. It is a means. We deal with the world in order to make much of Christ.

Remember: “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

The Gospel In Hindi - "Do Marg"

This is a Hindi translation of an English message of the Gospel of Christ on Matthew 7:13-14. It is actually a translation of John MacArthur's sermon on the same passage.


Free to share this link.
Audio Here

Hide not Thou Thy face from me

Who, O Lord, will grant that I may repose in Thee? Who will grant that Thou mayest enter in my heart and inebriate it, that I may forget all my wicked ways and embrace Thee, my only good? What art Thou unto me O Lord? Have mercy on me that I may speak to Thee. Or what am I to Thee, that Thou shouldst command me to love Thee; yea, and be angry and threaten to lay huge miseries upon me if I love Thee not? Is it perhaps of itself no great misery, if I do not love Thee? Woe be unto me. Tell me, even for Thy mercy's sake, O Lord my God, what Thou art unto me. Say unto my soul, "I am thy salvation," but say it so that I may hear Thee. Behold the ears of my heart are set before Thee, open Thou them, O Lord, and say unto my soul, "I am thy salvation." I will run after the sound of that Voice and thereby lay hold on Thee. Hide not Thou Thy face from me; let me die, that I may see it, lest otherwise I die because I see it not.

from The Confessions of St. Augustine, Chapter V

For Orissa

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire...

...To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

From 2 Thessalonians 1:3-8,11-12

Karan Thapar on the VHP's violence against Christians in Orissa

Karan Thapar is a journalist of renown, a Hindu.
From the Hindustan Times:

Of love, and hope.

Love is not defined
by the hopelessness of past relationships

Love is not characterized
by the negativity of one's own limited frame of reference

Love is not an uncontrollable temporary passion
that passes when the inferno fades

Love is as hopeful
as the work you are willing to put into it

Love is as strong
as the habits of years

Love is as energetic
as the emotion you invest in it

Love is as long-lasting
as your own humble tenacity with it

Love is as happy
as the joy of serving the object of one's love

Love is as powerful
as the source from Whom true love is experienced

Love has no inevitable collapse,
it needs no optimist's saccharine promise

Love is evidently modeled. Look up.

Unsung Grace

The hymn's oft-sung, worldwide, but here's a verse from Amazing Grace, which John Newton penned that should be sung often, and isn't at all:

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

How to fix a leak...

...a Skittles Leak.



These ads are priceless. The great thing is there are so many out there!

Oprah's on the Downslide. Yay.

I unashamedly despise what Oprah Winfrey stands for, and I think that what she espouses is an embodiment of the subtle godlessness that media broadcasts so freely (that, and her religion). Call me what you like, It's got nothing to do with my views of women.
Why Is Oprah Sliding? Don't Blame the Other O
From the Article:

Oprah is perhaps the closest thing America has to a secular religious figure (“She was like the pope,” a professor told the New York Times) or even, let’s be honest, a goddess. She inspired worship and devotion. She guided her flock spiritually. She anointed disciples (Rachael Ray, Dr. Phil) and sent them out into the world.

This kind of thing warms me on the soulside.