The awesomeness of the Holy Spirit vs. the awesomeness of your magic powers

I stumbled across this website and in particular this question today, which got me thinking.
http://www.gotquestions.org/miraculous-gifts.html

They're right on most points, and in particular it's very important to underscore the purpose of the miraculous signs and wonders performed both in the Old and New Testament, as well as to whom they were given.
What I disagree with:
1. God speaking directly to people today. The article in fact provides the reason why I don't believe this happens: Because the Word of God was finished in Revelation. Everything we need - all the information He chose to reveal to us this side of the grave - is contained in the Bible. Now I have heard of conversion experiences and powerful feelings and a sense of God directly speaking to you. However, being suddenly quite sure of what you're called to do or say vs. God speaking into your heart is an important distinction. Understand: God DID speak to you in that you have a heart beating, lungs breathing, and a brain thinking. God IS speaking to you in that the decisions you face in your life are guided by the Word He spoke into existence which He gave to us for guidance. God does speak to us so that we are here, alive, with choices and the wisdom to make them. But God does not whisper into your mind, "Marry that woman."  I pick on the worst examples, yes...but the point is solid.

2. God still performing miracles through a Christian. Nope. Does God perform miraculous healing? Yes (more on that later). Does God do it through a charismatic and lively fellow dancing about and with a vigorous cadence proclaiming the power he's brought upon your diabetes? Nope. Again, for the same reason the article provides for the prevailing lack of miracles- that there is no purpose for them now.

Ok, so moving on to the important points.

Miraculous happenings in the world today: Yes, they happen.

But let's define that.

When you cut yourself on a piece of rusty metal, and you would otherwise get tetanus, become paralyzed, and die- God heals your body. In fact, through the science God gave us and the world He created He's given our doctors the ability to prepare your body to fight tetanus ahead of time, so 7 or 8 years later, you can still fight that disease! Your body remembers how, and it effectively battles the disease, bringing you back to health again.
I could go on- what about how your body fights a common cold, or how your hearing adapts to loud and soft music, or how you experience the awesomeness of the seasons and the temperatures and all creation like it's the brand new show in town because you pass from one place to another so you forget what the last was like. Who hasn't experienced the awesomeness of that first fall smell and, knowing that it has happened many times before, yet rejoiced at the beauty of it. God made your body that way. We were made to never run out of wonder.
And what of one of the most amazing acts of God - the birth of a child! Could you pray that two people together could create a microscopic life that could, over the process of mere months and years, grow into a man, 6'1 and 250 pounds, full of individual thoughts and feelings and living, breathing, smelling, tasting, and enjoying the world around him? Tell me that isn't miraculous.
Let alone the existence of the rest of Creation. Look at butterflies and galaxies and hundreds of thousands of species of animals and tell me that's not miraculous.

Ah, but we sigh. We yawn. All that's just been there forever.

The problem is, we take all that for granted because science has decreed the laws and so, as cool as some of these things are, they're run by our demi-god chance. God set the watch for those, maybe, but they're not miraculous. They're "normal."

Excuse me? Trees turning into diamonds and caterpillars turning into butterflies and the cry of a newborn are normal?

The point is this: God is active in the world always, constantly, amazingly, beautifully, and thoroughly. If He weren't, we wouldn't be having this discussion. I wouldn't be laying by the doorway feeling a cool autumn breeze filtering through the screen, smelling the death of millions of leaves who head for the ground while others wait stored in their parent, awaiting birth next spring.

And on top of all that, God DOES sometimes take away terminal cancer in a night, or spare a man's leg, or see the doctor's prognosis on your lifespan and raise him an extra couple of years to live and love family and friends.

But you want to perform miracles? What is this, God's magic dispensary? Is the Holy Spirit your PEZ dispenser?

I say nothing (or not much, anyway) of the constant work of the Holy Spirit Himself- is it NOT miraculous and wonderful that He intercedes for our prayers since we do not know how to pray? Is it NOT miraculous and wonderful that we are SAVED in spite of ourselves, and indeed are made able to turn to God in spite of our utter sinfulness by the Spirit? Is the miracle of your wretched self predestined, called, justified, and glorified before the Father NOT an unparalleled wonder?

We need to understand- God is at work in the world, and He is at work in you, but through the use of the abilities He gave you to further His kingdom. He does not perform miracles or speak in tongues through you. He does not need to. He has given His Bible to the world and filled the earth to the brim with the knowledge of His existence, whether they admit it or not. The time for those signs is past. Glory in the present, in His Word, and in what you can do by His grace. Love Him for Salvation and your life. Serve Him. Truthfully.

The Art of Contentment: Why many Christians don't have it

During this past weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to work at a pro-life booth at the local fair. It was an amazing experience, and I plan on talking a lot more about it in further posts.

Today I want  to talk about the man I met on Friday night though, because though he is a stranger version, he is not that different from many people I've met over the years. He explained to me how Jesus appeared in a dream to him and told him he was to go to the fair and save souls. He and his sign told me how if I believed in God, I could have the power to heal others and speak in tongues and other such things.

I told him I didn't need those things.

Now, granted, that's not much of a theological argument. I could spend a long time going over the purpose of miracles and tongues in the Old Testament and in the New Testament up until the finishing of God's revelation. I could talk about how Biblical revelation is only ever the bringing of a new message from God, not telling your friend something you shouldn't have known about them, or speaking to someone with the vagueness of a horoscope about the problems in his/her life and how they need to repent. 

Ok, I did just talk about those. But I'm not going into them further. John MacArthur has a book called "Strange Fire" coming out soon, and many other well-known ministers have spoken to the theology better than I.

What I told him was the argument given to me through the words of N.D. Wilson across his two great books, "Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl" and "Death by Living". If you want to completely change/renew/expand the way you view life and creation with joy and thankfulness, read these two books.

One quote from Death by Living in particular stuck out to me as I read it a couple days after the exchange between me and that man.

"Every rock is spoken by the Word. Every time I touch a stone, I am touching the Voice of God. Every cell of me is crafted by that artistry. My life is His breath. But we mortals grow numb. We want to feel more. And so we add MSG to our earthly brands of holiness.
The evangelical worship leader bounces on stage with his eyes shut, thumping his T-shirted breast - pushing, pushing, pushing people to feel as the chords progress. In Jerusalem, a freshly quarried rock is offered to pilgrims beneath trickling mystical smoke.
Lord, we flail. Forgive the lies we tell from purple thrones on TBN. Forgive the lies we tell in shrines. Forgive our every attempt at self-redemption, the holy efforts we call our own, all the clawing we call resurrection." -Death by Living."

If I could have handed a piece of paper to that man, I would have cut this out of the book and given it to him. He needed it more than I - I've known this much of my life, though putting it to words and really KNOWING it came with the reading (and re-reading) of the book.

That man was, all other labels aside, bored with God. 

Think about it. He was sitting there, using a skeletal and muscular structure crafted to bear his weight, breathing in the air crafted JUST right to sustain human life and so many other types of created things. He was hearing the sounds of the fair, the craziness and bells and whistles and people and children laughing and couples being romantic. He was seeing the wide and beautiful variety of people going by. He was feeling the comfort of a chair to rest his old body in. He was no doubt tasting something he'd had for dinner, or had that day tasted something. If he bought it at the fair, odds are it was both too expensive and really tasty.

He was wearing clothing. What I mean to say by that is, it wasn't so burning hot that he couldn't bear it with clothes, and it wasn't so deathly freezing that he had to pile himself under a ton of reflective blankets. Why? Because our Maker put the Earth in just the right place to make sure that life was supported perfectly. We get to shiver a bit (or a lot, depending on location) in winter, and sweat and swim in summer, and all of that knowing that it won't ever get so unbearable that we perish on the spot (all proper preparations made of course).

And you know what's best of all- he, if he was a Christian, worshiping the God I know who gave us the Bible we read, would be saved for all eternity.

The beauty of creation. The miraculous wonder of life, as it is, in all its complexity from the vast black holes and galaxies (put there if nothing else for the beauty) down to the ants and the underwater creatures. Salvation from the damnation we all earned an uncountable number of times.

These are a few of my favorite things.

But for all that, he didn't have enough. I told him of my Christianity (not as thoroughly as I am here, unfortunately) and he told me my Christianity was "boring." 

Boring nothing. If you can look at life and the promise of salvation and still come away with "I want miraculous healing and special conversations directly with god and prophecies" then YOU, sir, are bored.

I told him a paraphrase of something I heard in a quote from Doug Wilson on his Youtube channel. I said, "Wanting to have the powers of faith healing and tongues and prophecies and all that...that's like if I were to hand you ten million dollars and you looked at me and said, 'I want a car, too!' God has SAVED me, and given me life in spite of everything. God's HOLY SPIRIT *made* me able to repent and turn to God when I would have turned. God's Holy Spirit is *constantly* interceding for me when I pray to God so that I don't bring down judgment on myself with my imperfect words and sinful thoughts. Christ DIED on the Cross. And on top of all that, I'm alive and creation and life are BEAUTIFUL!" 

Even for those who have little and who suffer, there is beauty! (and sometimes they even notice it better than we do, by the grace of God) 

How can we read parts of the Bible like the end of Romans 8 (or indeed the whole book of Romans) and not fall down laughing tearfully in joy at the immense awesomeness of what God has given us? And this man wants MORE? This man wants God to keep giving him revelations, when God finished His Revelation? This man wants powers from God so he can heal people?

How often are we like this man, so tired of our lives and tired of our worship because it's too old and slow, or doesn't have the notes and tunes we like, and so we say "we need more emotion!" and so change our songs? How often do we trade the true character of God cast in the simple beautiful melodies of older centuries for the restless repetitive cotton candy music of today's contemporary church? Where have the Psalms gone? (sacrificed on the altar of postmodernism)

I understand the numbness. I have been and still remain a perpetrator of the sin which is the product of boredom which leads to rebellion. God is opening my eyes to the beauty so that I am less bored, so that I do not seek to take what is not mine and to fill voids that have not been filled yet by God. 

We ought to live our lives fully, run our races freely, and expend every breath with the full exertion of an athlete in the 100-meter dash, knowing that the path is longer but there are rests along the way, and really awesome trophies at the end. We ought to be so thankful that the Word of God, the salvation through Christ, the freedom of predestination, and the perfect promise of eternity are all that we need to live joyful and wait with bated breath for death and the journey upward!

His boredom will, I'm afraid, be the death of what faith he may have once had.

Quote from N.D. Wilson, and a blog about stories. (1st of a number of interactions with quotes from Wilson's new book)

"I am often asked why I write fiction for children. Because those whom I am called to feed are still children. Because I am still a child. Because the world is big, and the world is wonderful, but it is also terrifying. It is an ocean full of paper boats. And for many children, the only nobility, the only joy, the only strength and sacrifice that they see first-hand- that they see enfleshed- comes in fiction. Imagined friends and heroes can shape loves and loyalties and choices as much (or more) as real ones. Even when children have plenty of joy in their lives, good stories reinforce it. And I write for children because I have read more than my fair share of adult ideas set out and explained by adult thinkers and theologians, philosophers and pundits, and I may as well admit that I have been more influenced (as a person) by my childhood readings of Tolkien and Lewis, and by those moments listening to tales of Tiny Tim, and by that stack of pages my father handed me about an imaginary goblin war, than by any idea books that I read in college and grad school. The events and characters in Narnia and Middle Earth shaped my ideals, my dreams, my loyalties, and my goals. Kant just annoyed me."
-A lengthy excerpt from "Death By Living: Life is Meant to Be Spent" by N.D. Wilson.


I  love this book, and the quote in particular here really stuck out to me, for a couple of reasons. Both reasons have to do with it being very true, though one is perhaps more so true for me than for others.
First then: This is true for me because it ALMOST exactly mirrors my own experience. While I do occasionally enjoy a good dig into a philosophical or theological mine, burrowing amid the thick verbiage and brushing aside heavy phrases in search of nuggets of wisdom, the fact is that I much more enjoy, and much more learn from, stories. If C.S. Lewis's "Surprised by Joy" had simply been theological treatises, I would have yawned and closed the book halfway through. It was the story that filled the pages that made the theology live, walk, and speak into my ear as a friend the truths I would gain. (Though let it be noted that even so the theological bits were questioned well on entry into my mind)
The need and the power of story is a reality that is true more and more for all of our generation, a fact that Christian churches are finally waking up to (though for the most part their responses are weak, if not wrong). We learn from stories. Stories are, in fact, made to teach lessons to us.
It's perhaps more obvious when we're dealing with fairy tales and children's books. The Cat in the Hat and so many other children's stories are full of morals and lessons. But so, too, are all stories- some just hide it better than others. Harry Potter may not teach your child that magic spells are real and can be used- but if it does, it is not through the foolishness of the child who failed to discern the difference between fiction and reality. It's through the foolishness of the author who made a story in which good people use, and need, magic to accomplish the work of good.
On the other hand, Harry Potter could also teach you that fighting evil is a difficult business filled with tragedy and serious effort, and that love and sacrifice (thoroughly Christian values) will always triumph over evil. In creating a Christ-like narrative of sacrificing one's life for others to defeat the power of the devil, and then returning to destroy him, Harry Potter could very well familiarize many children with the story of Christ before they ever hear it from a preacher.
I am neither condemning nor advocating for the reading of Harry Potter to children- I'm simply illustrating the point that stories teach. The more you're aware of this, the more you will awaken to the good lessons and absorb them, and the more you will (hopefully) recognize and reject the bad lessons.
And that is where the other truth comes in, one that I think we can all agree with. Stories teach, and that makes choice of story and the weight of responsibility on the author all the more important. It is not enough for a Christian to write a story, or a poem, or make a movie. That story, poem or movie MUST convey a Christian morality, must portray the world in real terms, and must speak whether overtly or indirectly of a God that matches the Christian one. Because our stories teach children, and they are very, very impressionable.
More important even than that is the weight of responsibility on parents, teachers, and all others who are involved in the raising of children. Satan is quite busy in the world in his efforts to subvert God's people through the use of story. There are lies all around us, clothed in likable characters and simplistic love stories. It is not simply enough that we allow and introduce stories to children - they must be good stories, stories that will shape and will grow. Not stories that will lead astray and tear down.
Finally, it is important that we are aware of the stories that WE are fed with. No matter who you are, your ideas and beliefs ARE shaped by stories. You may read something and recognize it as false, but to recognize it you have to be looking. Will you fill your life with stories about fake and misleading love between unrealistic people and so in time breed contempt for the gift of the love story you are living? Will you read stories about characters who, while "nice" and "good," are living lives entirely and cheerfully against the will of God? Is it enough for a story to be "better than most of Hollywood" or should we require it to be great?
Whatever your answer, it cannot be enough to simply feed on stories indiscriminately.

My 3rd pro-life poem. Can't think of a name for it though

I was looking at the "tiny baby feet" pin at Life Cycle Books and got inspired to write this poem. Let me know what you think.

Two feet tiny, toes now stubby

Knit with love and formed to grow

One heart beating, thumping, needing

Life from all this baby knows

Two hands feeling, fingers flexing

Finding newness all around

One soul living, loved and lovely

Bides within this body sound

Two eyes clenched for that first birthday

That would see a life so whole

One nose built for cakes and flowers

Waits to smell the world in full

Two days left but he’s not knowing

That his life is near its end

One decision, made so poorly

Will his soul from earth now rend

Two hands push a syringe, sickly

Sending silent senseless death

One cord bearing not nutrition

But the stuff that stops his breath

Two arms flailing, thrashing, failing

Reach for freedom feet away

One heart falters, fumbles, ailing

One mouth frowns his last dismay

Two hearts beating, four lungs breathing

Used to echo and repeat

One heart ends, no anger seething

In that boy you’ll never meet

Two lives broken, one forever

In these sterile, lifeless rooms

One life wealthy, rich from murder

From each baby’s helpless doom

Two paths given, one life taken

Stops his heart and kills his hope

Naught for her but guilt now crushing

With a lifetime left to cope

God protect those formed and precious

Save them from their young demise

And redeem the world so broken

Come thou Lord, so we may rise