by Christine on February 25, 2009
Alex Sims at Common Grounds Online starts with an intriguing story:
A Preacher and an IRS Agent both had a flight from Denver to DC. They were flying Southwest Airlines, which uses open seating: passengers board and choose their seats in the order they check in.
He relates how the Preacher flying to speak at a Bible Conference has his secretary check him in online. He wisely chooses a seat far from the crowds, but soon realizes the plane will be full. Reluctantly he moves his briefcase to let a woman sit by him, plugs in his iPod and starts studying his speaking notes. Boarding later, the IRS agent, overweight, harried and despised (are you getting the gist?) takes a middle seat between a nursing mother and a businessman. Realizing he won’t be able to pull out his paper work, he thoughtfully engages a seatmate in an enthusiastic conversation about football. By the end of the flight, the Preacher is prepared for his talk and feels satisfied, while the IRS agent has made a seatmate friend and walks off the plane having….
“determined that Jay Cutler would win the 2009 MVP.”
Alex closes his blog entry with the question, “Which man better understood the Gospel?” This story is posted as part of a series: Living the Christian Story: Engaging Culture.
As I live the Christian story and seek to engage culture it’s easy for me to one day be the Preacher and feel convicted of my “I’m better then you” attitude and then become the IRS agent, making temporary friendships wherever I go. I miss the mark on both accounts. Neither the Preacher nor the IRS agent understands the gospel and its implications. The gospel is not merely social action, nor is it just personal testimony, apologetics or the results of evangelism. As Mark Dever says in his book, The Gospel & Personal Evangelism, the gospel includes…
telling people the wonderful truth about God, the great news about Jesus Christ. When we understand this, then obedience to the call to evangelize can become certain and joyful. Understanding this increases evangelism as it moves from being a guilt-driven burden to a joyful privilege.
As I live the Christian story, my prayer is to engage culture – a culture of evangelism.
Photo credit: Zoagli
by Christine on February 16, 2009
Seth Godin blogs about Authenticity. He starts out by illustrating authenticity:
If it acts like a duck (all the time), it’s a duck. Doesn’t matter if the duck thinks it’s a dog, it’s still a duck as far as the rest of us are concerned.
Later Seth writes a provocative statement, referencing Mother Teresa’s confessions in her posthumanous letters published in Mother Teresa: Come be my Light, The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta:
Mother Teresa was an atheist, filled with self doubt. But she was an authentic saint, because she always acted like one.
Was Mother Teresa an atheist just authentically acting like a saint?
The Lord knows, and it’s not my intention to look at Mother Teresa; a woman used by God to extend his love to the poor in Calcutta.
My question is broader: Are we atheists that are now saints because we authentically act like saints all the time? What happens if I flip the question around: Are we Christians (saints) if we do not act like a saint all the time, are not always authentic, in fact, often hypocritical?
We are sinners and our righteous deeds are like polluted garments.
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Isaiah 64:6
We are like the lepers of Calcutta that Mother Teresa loved; infected and infectious. But as a leper, if we act clean, look clean and free of disease – all the time: Are we no longer infectious and infected lepers? The better question is: Can an atheist become a saint, not based on a lifetime of good works, but based on God declaring us justified and righteous in Christ, based not on our goodness but Christ’s? Metaphorically, can a dog become a duck based on Christ’s righteousness – even though it is a dog that often acts more like a dog than a duck?
Our saintly actions do not clean us from our disease, our self-doubt, our sin. We need Christ’s righteousness. Until we are clothed with his perfect righteousness and our sins are forgiven, cast as far as the east is from the west, God’s wrath is absorbed and the plenty for our sin has been paid – only then, are we “saints”. Sin still lives on, but no longer are we slaves to sin (Romans 6:16-22) Sometimes we don’t act like saints, walk like saints, smell like saints and sadly look more like dogs than saints. But because of Christ’s righteousness and the faith he has given us by his grace, we have truly become authentic saints. Day-by-day he renews our mind and grants us his sanctifying mercy as he changes us to act more like ducks (saints) – all the time. (I Timothy 1:12-17)
by Christine on February 3, 2009
There is a cute website that allows you to type in your surname and find out neat facts. How many people have your surname, where they live, how common is your name and other trivia. Try it and then read on!
My surname, “Dattilo” is my husband’s name. When I took his name I identified with him. He is Italian, many assume I am Italian. The Dattilo surname occurs ninth most frequently in New Jersey, my husband’s home state – people often assume I am from New Jersey. When I give my name, Christine Dattilo – people often say, “Oh, you’re Joe’s wife.” By marriage I am united with my husband and this is shown by my taking his surname. As much as I am identified with my husband, I still remain me. My thoughts do not become my husband’s thoughts, my desires, although I love him – still remain different and singularly mine.
When praying in Jesus’ name I had not realized how much and how deeply I become identified with Christ. He is my Elder brother, the Bridegroom of the Church. I am united to Christ. I pray in his name. He intercedes for me. But what is truly wonderful is that through the work of the Holy Spirit as I pray, I am changed and Jesus’ prayers become my prayers.
Douglas Kelly has a wonderful book, If God Already Knows Why Pray?
In it he quotes B. M. Palmer on how by praying in Jesus’ name our identification with Jesus becomes complete. Our prayers become his prayers and his prayers become our prayers through the work of the Holy Spirit. We take more than the surname of Christ, “Christian” when we pray in Jesus’ name, we actually change because of the advocacy of Christ and the intercessions of the Spirit. Prayer changes things — it changes us.
It is the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man (that) prevails. But what renders prayer “effectual”? Not its length, nor its vehemence, nor its eloquence, nor its passion, but simply the living sympathy which is established between the soul pleading in the closet, and the Saviour interceding in the heavens.
When the Holy Spirit thus pleads in the lower court of the believer’s soul, what is it but the echo of the pleading in the higher court above? The voice on earth mingles with the voice in heaven, in the joint pleading for the gift of eternal life. How else shall we interpret the classical passage in Romans 8:26….Have we then two intercessors? Yes, verily; but not divergent and clashing. They are the two comforters – the one and the other – both converging their distinct offices to one result. The one intercedes for us, the other intercedes within us.
This is secured through the intervention of the Divine Spirit. He takes the desires which are in the heart of Jesus Christ, and works them into our hearts so that they become our desires. He takes the plea which is upon the lips of the great Advocate above, and seals it upon our lips as our prayer in Christ’s blessed name. It is this sweet, but secret, correspondence between our Head and ourselves that makes true prayer at all. Aside from this, all is mere posture and the mutter of incantations.
His work…(consists in) bringing the intercession of our Lord above, into the desires and petitions of the Christian below; whereby they become the intercessions of the Spirit, who thus blends his advocacy with that of Christ himself.
by Christine on January 31, 2009
by Christine on January 28, 2009
Taylor Buzzard over at Buzzard Blog has a post on Phone vs. Email. She argues it’s easier to deal with the phone than with email. Her most compelling comment:
“The phone is much better suited to my lifestyle these days. It allows me to communicate with someone, while still looking at my children, physically interacting with them, and turning my body towards them. Email is like a dark cave that requires me to dive in, whereas the telephone allows me to stay at sea level and multitask.”
I think she’s on target and yet misses the target. Her best line – “Email is like a dark cave that requires me to dive in.” True, email sucks you in, requires full concentration (even if you think you’re a multi-tasker – you’re not), is socially isolating, limiting in that you can’t hear the tone of voice, the pace of the conversation, the ambient noise of, “I’m writing this in a room full of screaming children.”
Where Buzzard misses the target for me is thinking she can talk on the phone, “while still looking at my children, physically interacting with them, and turning my body towards them.” From my experience children and even my dogs are smarter than this. They know innately when they’re not getting my full-attention. Body language, hand-motions, the evil eye or even patting them on the back doesn’t fool their radar. Likewise the person on the other end of the line somehow knows they are not getting my full-attention. Don’t you know when someone is browsing the internet while talking with you even if you can’t hear the key-clicks? Same-thing, but children are even more attuned.
My Mom rules for email (and I think it works for Dads too):
- Only enter the “dark cave” of email when children are playing, sleeping, with Dad or happily occupied
- Never check email when you are actively parenting – turn off the bing-bing sound. It is a “siren” call that will suck you in.
- Use a screensaver so that as you walk by the computer you don’t see that HUGE number indicating the number of unread emails.
- Set up a GTD type email system that allows you to quickly file emails into Hold, Action, Quick Response, Respond, Archive boxes (these are the boxes I use). You sort through these later when you really have time.
and I’ve saved the best for last
- NEVER respond to an email in less than 3-5 hours, even if it comes in while you are processing email. It’s important that your email friends know you NEVER respond quickly. That way they know that if it is urgent, a quick question that needs a quick answer or a simple reply to a long-chain of back and forths, they know to just pick up the phone and “leave it on voicemail” – because you NEVER answer the phone either!
by Christine on January 24, 2009
by Christine on January 21, 2009
Stopped into Starbucks the other day. While sipping my Grande Latte (Whole Milk) – I noticed this quote on the back of my cup.
“I have faith. Faith in our wondrous capacity for hope and good, love and trust, healing and forgiveness. Faith in the blessing of our infinite ability to wonder, question, pray, feel, think and learn. I have faith. Faith in the infinite possibilities of the human spirit.”
~James Brown, Emmy-winning sportscaster and co-host of FOX NFL Sunday
Knowing this was bloggable, I snapped a photo with my iPhone. Today I came across this John Calvin quote:
Take away the word, therefore, and no faith will remain – the word itself, whatever be the way in which it is conveyed to us, is a kind of mirror in which faith beholds God. In this, therefore, whether God uses the agency of man or works immediately by his own power, it is always by his word that he manifests himself to those whom he designs to draw to himself.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter II (emphasis mine)
by Christine on January 20, 2009
Lots of talk about new churches, different ways of doing church, even online church. The new and the different sound appealing. It’s nice to think that if things don’t work out we can just change churches or go offline. Here is some encouragement to look again at the church through Jesus’ eyes.
“Do you love the church of which Christ has called you to be a member? For all its flaws and frictions, do you have hope that you and your brothers and sisters will one day shine brightly in the beauty of holiness? When your congregation or denomination seems to suffer one spiritual setback after another–’by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distress’–are you tempted to give up on the organizational church and go it on your own? Do the so-called saints you rub elbows with on Sunday seem to be obstacles rather than aids to your friendship with Christ and your growth in his grace? Then look again at the church through Jesus’ eyes, and in the bright light of her final destination. Jesus’ eyes see all the churches’ blemishes and bruises, yet our defects do not diminish his love for us or dim his eager expectation for the day when he will present the church to himself ‘in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkel or any such thing’ but rather being ‘holy and blameless’ (Eph. 5:27). When we glimpse the bride through the eyes of her Groom, it lifts our head in hope and calms our frustrated hearts for persevering love for one another.”
Dennis E. Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation, p. 343.