Doing | The Old Adam Lives!

‘Sin’ vs. ‘Sins’ , and the ‘spiritual muscle building’ game

Posted on May 31, 2008 by theoldadam

Many folks in the Church really like to keep busy by pumping their ‘spiritual muscles’. They’ve substituted the Charles Atlas (I’m dating myself) poster on the wall, for a poster of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount.

I believe that Jesus’ sermon was a re-presenting of God’s perfect Law, wherein no one would be left with any wiggle room at all when it came to living their lives in the manner that God demands.

However, many well meaning preachers and teachers in the Church today believe that it is proper to convince Christians that they can become better Christians by addressing their sins. ( a short audio clip of less than 10 minutes).

Is it possible to become a better Christian by addressing your sins?

Thanks for your input!

Filed under: Audio Snippet from Pastor Mark Anderson, Doing, Dying to Self | 24 Comments »

A ‘Jesus shaped spirituality’?

Posted on May 30, 2008 by theoldadam

The following is my comment on the question of whether we should observe real change in the lives of a Christian. This discussion on the blog, ‘Confessing Evangelical’ is from another discussion on his blog and others, concerning a so-called ‘Jesus shaped spirituality’:

“When someone is in Christ, their lives will change.

Will they all change in the same ways? Of course not. Or to the same degree? Of course not.

Is it for us to judge what is real change and what is not? Of course not.

“He who began a good work in you will bring it to completetion.” – St. Paul

It doesn’t even say there, that we will even co-operate.

Who knows the heart?
Could a person who is in church twice on Sunday and in every bible study and works at the soup kitchen and visits the elderly sick and dying, not even really be a Christian? Sure. We don’t know who the Christians are. We do know who the baptised are, and those that profess Christ.

The trouble here is one of focus. This Jesus shaped spirituality stuff puts the focus exactly where it does not belong…on us.

One starts to look at himself in light of the other and the other’s performance (or lack thereof) in comparison to some standards of behavior that Jesus modeled. What a waste of time. It is not even necessary.

We are free in Christ. Free to live. Free to love others and help them…or not!

The heroin addict dying in the alley might have a much stronger faith in Christ than the preacher in the pulpit.

I say proclaim God’s strong, uncompromising law…and then hand over His gift of forgiveness…freely…with no strings attached.

This emphasis on performance is ridiculous. People are being led astray from Christ..right into the arms of Moses…and the law!

What a huge waste of time and energy.

Thanks for the opportunity. “

I have been accused by some (one ‘post-Evangelical’ in particular) of being a “hyper-Lutheran. If that means one who defends Christ and His work for us, against those that promote a performance based ‘hyper-religiosity’…then I would be honored to be known as a “hyper-Lutheran”.

– Steve Martin A Lutheran who’s spirituality is shaped by Jesus in His Word and sacraments…alone!

Filed under: Doing | 10 Comments »

In a Nutshell…

Posted on May 24, 2008 by theoldadam

My last post was probably a bit convoluted. The examples maybe were not the best.

What I was trying to get across is that so much of today’s preaching and teaching regarding the Christian faith is nothing more than ‘law’ . St. Paul tells us that there in no life in the law…only death.

So when a person goes into a worship service and the law has had it’s way with them all week, at work , at home, and in society, the last thing that person needs is more law trying to get them to improve. It’s like pouring gasoline on the fire! That old, tired, sinful self needs to be killed off (not propped up!) and the new man or woman put in it’s place…by the gospel!

The problem is that so many churches have no idea of this. Their theologies are ‘man’ based to start with, and so they just naturally progress from there along the path of man’s efforts to become more Christlike. They don’t understand the objective nature of the sacraments and the comfort that they bring to real sinners. So the comfort they are seeking and that they need must come from themselves. It has to come from their feelings, their sincerity, their good fruits, as proof that they are really in Christ.

That we are Christians has nothing to do with what we say, think, feel, or do. It has everything to do with what Christ has done, is doing, and will yet do…FOR US!

This is a real problem for folks in the law churches. For them, the whole enterprise is about what we say, think, feel, or do. According to St. Paul, this way of thinking about the Christian faith is very dangerous.

The question is how do we get them to realize this?

Filed under: Assurance, Doing, Dying to Self, Law and Gospel, Sacraments | 8 Comments »

‘How To’ Christianity

Posted on May 11, 2008 by theoldadam

It’s everywhere. Turn on the radio…turn on the television…read “Christian” books…read “Christian” bloggers. ‘How to’ Christianity is everywhere! ‘The 10 Biblical Principles for cleaning your dogs teeth’. 14 Principles to become more Jesus’-like. ‘How to have a better Christian marriage’. ‘How to play basketball like a real Christian’.

What a joke. A bad joke.

People, do you not know that the law is written upon your hearts? The fact that people are running around saying they don’t know how to live their lives as a Christian is a load of bunk. Any adult man or woman knows in his or her heart what God expects of them. They just flat out refuse to do it. They flat out refuse to live up to the high standards that God demands that they live up to so they whittle those standards down and carve them into principles that they can manage or at least enough to fool other Christian friends and neighbors who are busy trying to fool them as well.

Christian Principles for living is just the law packaged in a friendlier format. The law is still the law.

“I wish you would stop talking about Law and Gospel”. “I’m sick of you always bringing up that Law/Gospel paradigm, what does that have to do with trying to live as Jesus tells me to live?”

Just everything…that’s what.

Why is this law banging so pervasive? Why can we not get away from the constant barrage of law posing as gospel in our churches? Because the law is what we do. We are all about the self justification project and we will get better even if it kills our Lord Jesus…and it did.

“He must increase, I must decrease.’ Oh really? Then why in heaven’s name are you trying to pack goodness onto yourselves with your little righteousness projects?

Trust in Him! That’s how He increases! Get off the religion project! There’s a lot more productive stuff you can be doing…like focusing on your neighbor and being a freed human being that loves and cries and mourns and prays and sings and laughs and lives..in the freedom of Christ!

‘How to’? Faaghettaboudit!!

– Steve Martin

Filed under: Doing | 5 Comments »

Homeless in my midst…

Posted on May 1, 2008 by theoldadam

Today was sort of a strange day. For some reason I was thinking about the plight of the homeless people in my area. And since they were on my mind I seemed to notice so many more of them than I otherwise might.

Well, the fact that I was thinking about the homeless isn’t the real point of this posting. The real point of the story is what I did about it… nothing.

Jesus told us so many times and in so many ways to take care of the poor. He tells us in Luke 14:33 that “if we don’t renounce everything we have then we cannot become His disciple.”

So why is it that I don’t sell at least some of what I have and give it to the poor?

The answer is simple. I don’t want to. And that is why today, after seeing and driving by at least 8 different homeless people…I did nothing. Well, almost nothing. I did talk to one guy for a few minutes about Christ, but he seemed totally disinterested and at one point I thought he might lunge out and strangle me. I probably had it coming. Actually I know I have it coming and if it were not for Jesus, the Father would probably do it Himself.

I think I stopped and talked to that last guy from the guilt of driving by the other seven. Another righteous deed bites the dust.

I wonder how many other Christians ignore the homeless as I regularly seem to do? I zip past them like they weren’t even there. Most of the time they might as well not be there. Oh sure, I’ve got plenty of good reasons. “Most of them are probably mentally ill. Most of them would probably just use the little bit of money I might give to them for drugs or alcohol, so I wouldn’t be helping them any. I’m late, so I don’t have the time to stop. I work hard for my money and they are lazy and don’t really deserve anything. It just encourages them to stay in their situation. There are plenty of other people that are out there trying to help them, and telling them about Jesus. They don’t want help. They might kill me. I might kill them.” Lot’s of great reasons not to stop. So I don’t.

I guess in many ways I am like the righteous Jew who steps around the beaten man lying in the road. And, in that way, the Law condemns me.

We all know that we could be doing so much more and we’ve got every excuse in the book and most of them are quite valid as far as we are concerned.

It is exactly for self concerned, self absorbed, possession hoarding sinners that He came and died. We are incapable of the selfless love that He demands of us. We do not want to give up what is rightfully ours (not much of it anyway) and He knows it. That is why He had to die for us.

Should we always stop and help the homeless? Not necessarily. Each of us has to make those determinations for ourselves. Whether we do, or not, is not really the issue here…it is the heart. It is our willingness to ignore others that we might not be burdened. It is our desire to live as our own gods, making up the rules for life as we see fit, ignoring the Lord, the giver of life and His commandments to us.

We are sinners. No doubt about it. Full on 100% grade ‘A’ sinners. We are not half-righteous (those of us that are honest about it), we are not getting better (those of us who are honest about it) we are not earnestly living as God would have us live (those of us who are honest about it).

So what do we do? Try harder? Read more scripture? Pray more often, and more fervently?

Those are not bad things to do and we might benefit from doing those things, and then again… we might not.

No… the answer does not reside in ourselves, or anything that we can or will do. The answer resides in the person of Jesus Christ and in Him alone. He is our righteousness. He is the answer to our selfishness. He is the answer to our sinful rebellion towards a God that made us and sustains us.

We ought feel badly that we are not up to the task. But we shouldn’t despair over it because of the One who has taken our sins, all of them upon Himself and wiped the slate clean. He wipes it clean each and every day… in your life and mine!

Or do you think God holds it against us each time we fail to stop and help someone in need?

Thanks for your insights.

– Steve Martin

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Why must we insist on doing it (wrong)?

Posted on April 11, 2008 by theoldadam

“Joe Blow and Mary Googlanivich got saved yesterday.”

No foolin’?

And just how did that happen?

“Well, the same way it always happens…they decided to.”

Hey that sounds pretty easy…why didn’t I think of that!?

Now, since they’ve done the deed, they can just tool along on their merry way. I’m sure there won’t be any dying going on from here on out. It’s a done deal.

“Not so. Now they’ve got a lot work to do. The spiritual project has just begun!”

Right.

It never ceases to amaze me how folks that elevate the Bible to the status of a paper pope, can totally ignore all the verses that say, without a doubt, that becoming a Christian has nothing to do…with you.

Filed under: Doing, The Sovereignty of God | 4 Comments »

Some suggestions for Godly living…

Posted on April 10, 2008 by theoldadam

I have many friends that are really doing all they can to live the Christian life. They tell me that they are living by Biblical principles and they are being faithful, as best they can, to be obedient to the Father.

In light of these efforts by my friends, I have decided to help them out by letting them know of a few areas( that maybe they haven’t thought of ) where they could be living out their faith.

Here goes:

1) Spend a few hours at an old folks home, or convalescent hospital each week.

2) Visit the terminal cancer patients in a children’s hospital, once or twice a month.

3) Don’t just give money to homeless people on the street, but take them home to eat a meal with you and your family. Maybe they could stay a few days and you could clean them up a bit and buy them some new clothes.

4) Turn off your television set and forego watching the games this weekend and invite all your neighbors over for a Bible study.

5) Set your alarm clock to go off two to three hours earlier and get some good prayer and Bible reading in before you start your day.

6) Instead of going on a vacation where you and your family are basically the only ones getting something out of it, try spending a week or two handing out Christian materials and talking to people about Jesus.

7) Live on a thin margin of income ( affording yourself and family just the basics ) and give the rest to the poor in your community.

Those are some things (there are many, many more) that Christians could should be doing if they decided to use their time, energies, and resources in a way that would be showing good stewardship of the gifts that God has given them.

I’m sure the desire to serve God and the neighbor is so strong that many of my good Christian friends will be greatful for seeing this list of suggested acts of love for the sake of the other.

Filed under: Doing | 6 Comments »

‘The Lutheran Magazine’

Posted on April 4, 2008 by theoldadam

Addendum: Here is a short article, the likes of which rarely (if ever), for the reasons stated below, would be seen in ‘The Lutheran’. click on Easter Faith

I had the dubious opprotunity to peruse the pages of ‘The Lutheran’, the other day. It exhausted me. So many articles on doing. We lutherans are doing this, those lutherans are doing that, digging wells, planting rice, rearranging somebody’s finances, investing here, building a home there…doing, doing,doing.

I had to look long and hard to even find the name ‘Jesus’ anywhere in the publication.

I did find it, in an add, where the church was trying to raise money.

Even there, the name of ‘Jesus’, was associated with doing…your doing.

‘The Lutheran’ is the poster boy for “Christian religion.” But virtually nowhere in those pages do you see anything about what Christ has done for you. What that cross was all about, or the importance of telling people about the One that came to save them. In this day and age that would be just a bit too pushy and judgemental. “Save us? From what ?”

What the folks at ‘The Lutheran’ have figured out is that it is much safer to feel good about yourself and the things you are doing than to actually hand over the Living God to someone and take the risk of being called “intolerant”, by mentioning that name that the whole world just loves to hate, namely… Jesus, the Christ.

Filed under: Doing, Religion | Leave a comment »

‘Break out the ol’ Hammer and Anvil’…

Posted on March 24, 2008 by theoldadam

It ‘s Easter Monday.

So now that we have been totally freed from sin by the Son of the Living God, who’s been raised for our justification, let’s start forging new chains that we may once again be enslaved by “what we do”.

One day of freedom is enough!

The first thing we’ll need are some well meaning preachers that haven’t got a clue as to what Jesus has just accomplished for us all, and a batch of ‘Biblical Principles’…otherwise known as… ‘the Law’.

Since we have subjectivized the gospel message and made it dependent on some sort of action that we take, or that we pray, or that we will, we must now get on with the project of showing our seriousness.

And since our seriousness is what’s at stake here we might as well dispense with the actions that God has decided to take to give to us a measure of His seriousness, namely the sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. Actions on His part that give us the assurance that He wants us to have, apart from anything that we do. We’ll just slide the sacraments over to our side of the ledger and relegate them to a virtual meaningless act of our faithfulness and a sign of our worthless commitment. Now we can get rid of that Altar and replace it with a nifty drum kit, and a Jumbo Tron.

So let us all start hammering and heating our metal! Let us again, create the shackles of our seriousness and tie them to the chains of our faithfulness, that we might be able to prove to those around us and ourselves that we are worthy of the name of ‘Christian’! And then we’ll let the preacher lock us all together with passages right out of the Bible! Now we can all march in lockstep, progressing, climbing, further and further up towards greater spirituality and fruitfulness.

Friend… are you sure that you are doing enough? Your life isn’t really bearing very much fruit, is it? And you dare call yourself a Christian? Couldn’t you try a little bit harder?

Of course you can..of course you will! (won’t you?)

Now that’s the spirit! (which spirit?)

– Steve

Filed under: Assurance, Doing | 2 Comments »