Challenging everything you learned in Sunday school.

The premise of this blog is that the Pharisees were a little bit good. You may now produce your torches and pitchforks.

I would, however, ask that you please hear me out before the Frankenstein-esque attacks on my person begin. First off, for anyone who is not aware, the Pharisees have been set up (and not without reason) as some of the worst "bad guys" in all of scripture. They constantly stood in the way of Jesus attempting to love people, and could potentially be used to define the term legalism in terms of a religion. Whereas these individuals were meant to be the shepherds of Israel, they were instead its persecutors.

I honestly think that there is something which we can learn from this group. To begin, I want to examine a premise that I feel is well known to a good many people who have come to know the Lord, that being that God is capable of finding good in just about anything. For example, in the case of the interaction between Jesus and a woman he meets at a well, Jesus knows full well that the woman with whom he is speaking has sinned a great deal, but chooses to cross all manner of social borders in order to show her that she is cared for in a deeper way than she could ever imagine. God in turn used this woman to proclaim the gospel to those living in her community. Fast forward to the modern day, and we see that God is still using plenty of messed up people, deeply troubled and wounded individuals (myself included) to show the world His love.

For one who chooses to identify as a Christ follower, it becomes their goal to live as Jesus lived. This means taking on a certain burden, including attempting to emulate His ability to find the goodness in anything, no matter how depraved it might have been. This is the polar opposite of an easy task, but if accomplished to even a small fraction of the ability which Jesus had during His time on the Earth, it has the potential to change lives more dramatically than we could ever know. So, if we are indeed called to love as Jesus loved, to seek the good in people as Jesus did, what about individuals such as the Pharisees?

Before I go any further, I want to clarify something. I am by no means attempting to justify the actions of the Pharisees. These men abused people in the effort to prove Jesus wrong, and harshly held Israel to a moral code so unreachable that upon Jesus' arrival, those who heard Him were incredibly eager to hear anyone who spoke of freedom from the yoke which had been placed on them.

There is, however, a good which can be found, even a group as deplorable as the Pharisees. I think we would be hard pressed to find a Christian in the modern day who knows scripture to the same extent that these men did. Though they misused it, though they abused it, they knew it. Scripture was something which was carved into the minds of these men. Though 90% of the example which the Pharisees provide is only useful to show what not to do, I think that, if we are to follow after Christ, we should desire to have the ability to discern that which is indeed beneficial. The knowledge of scripture seen in the example of the Pharisees, coupled with a truly passionate heart to follow after God, would bring with it a love so profound that it would have the ability to do unthinkable amounts of good, truly beyond anything I can imagine.

I believe that this is a practice we need to work on. The ability to see an opportunity to seek God in all that we do and in all of the situations in which we find ourselves is something too great to pass up. From that which glimmers with holiness, to that which is so dark with depravity that it is painful to behold, there is the potential to find some level of good in anything in this world, though it does require a choice. Making this choice is more often than not incredibly difficult, is there anything which is truly good in this world that isn't?

With His love and hopefully His grace,

Taylor

Because my show is your show but your show's not my show.

No thank you, people in my life, I would not like to watch True Blood. Now please allow me to explain why in what will hopefully be a wise manner.

I recently read an article in Relevant magazine (a great read if you can find it) which discussed five shows currently on television and how they were "saving T.V." The article focused on how, even though shows might not be directly worshipping God, they could still discuss important spiritual points, challenging those who identify as Christ Followers to grow in their faith and challenge complacency or hypocrisy in their own lives. I feel like I should add in a note telling you to go read the article now, so as to avoid copyright weirdness. Of course, I'm not really important enough for them to care.

Anywho. I agree with most of what this article has to say. I think God can be found in amazingly strange places in which we would never think to look for Him (see the blog on Alice and Wonderland). I believe that, as a Christian, it is important to engage with the culture around us and not simply shelter ourselves in our own little God box. We are called to go out into the world and directly confront all of the messiness out there with His love, not horde all that we have been given for ourselves.

However, we need to be smart about how we do that. Television can be a little like a mine field. Some of you may feel a very different way, but I think that modern media is filled with all sorts of things which can distract us towards sin and are ultimately detrimental to our lives. Some of you are probably thinking that right now I sound like one of the very same out-of-touch Christians that I warned against in the previous paragraph, but again, I am not proclaiming avoidance, just caution. One would not (at least hopefully) charge into a mine field blindfolded doing a polka while throwing grenades everywhere yelling "By golly I sure hope I get blown up right now!" This is how one ends up dead.

I feel that a similar mindset should be taken when engaging modern media, particularly television. We each have unique triggers which will cause us to stumble or to downright fall into a place where we do not need to be. With this in mind, each of us needs to have the maturity to know what challenges and tempts us, and respond accordingly by not engaging with certain shows, songs, what have you. Often, Christians assault the media for throwing so many detrimental things in our faces. However, I feel that there is a personal responsibility which each of us has to know what is and is not beneficial for us, and adapt the way in which we live in the world but not of it accordingly.

Again, I want to drive home the point that it is extremely important for Christians to engage modern culture. Not doing so brings with it the risk of fulfilling the stereotype that Christ calls us to only be detached from this world. I do not believe that anyone is necessarily in sin just for watching a T.V. show, but we need to be mindful of the temptations which exist in this world, and take necessary action to remove the things from our life that are keeping us from God.

With His love and hopefully His grace,

Taylor

You done gone and said a bad word...

...and that word was "heaven".

There are a lot of things about Christianity that make people uncomfortable. These various objects of offense take many different shapes, ranging from the fact that Jesus actually claims ownership over our lives to the representation (not always in line with Truth) of God in the political arena. From foundational to, in my opinion, almost completely unimportant, respectively. There is something, however, which I feel inspires apprehension in both those who have a relationship with God and those who would not identify in this fashion, an aspect of the faith which I believe falls well within the realm of the former (substantially more important) classification of my entirely subjective scale. This would be heaven.

Bear with me if you will, as we embark on a journey of imagination together. That's right, this is Reading Rainbow, which makes me LeVar Burton, and you all tiny children. Think of the last time you hears a message in a church which has to do with heaven, or was even remotely related to the idea that we are promised eternal life if we follow after God. The only word I can come up with to describe how I feel during these times of teaching is anxious. Why, one might ask? I honestly don't know. Part of it is my constant fear that someone, somewhere, is going to be offended by what is being proclaimed. I think I am going to focus on that fear for right now, which is admittedly a tad dangerous I have just come to that conclusion this very instant.

In matters of heaven, really any part of Christianity which is excludes those who do not know God (as I have said before, though, we all have the opportunity to come to know God, I do not want to write about this without doing all that I can to make that clear), I often let my fear of other people's opinions rule me. There is a reality, however, which I feel must be understood by myself and anyone else who struggles with this. Christianity does indeed offend people. No matter how loving we try to be, no matter how deeply we know an individual, when sharing a faith which calls someone to turn away from the way in which they have lived and follow after God the reality we must face is someone will be put off by what is being presented to them. In making this statement, I make no effort to lessen the legitimacy of a person taking offense. I have experienced all manner of claims, some more reasonable than others, for why an individual is not comfortable with Christianity, or even the concept of a single infinitely loving God.

With this reality in mind, one who identifies as a Christian must ask how they are to live in light of the fact that their faith does indeed offend people from time to time. Blame can be cast in any manner of directions for why a person might be offended, from the individual sharing the faith, to the person listening, to the very God who made it so that there was anything to be shared at all. By sharing my faith, by acting in spite of the fact that I may temporarily offend someone, I indeed make myself a nice big target for that blame.

But does that really matter? We are not dealing with (often temporary) feelings of anger and discomfort here, we are dealing with the eternal fate of a soul. I think that someone who identifies as a Christ Follower should make every effort to educate themselves to other world views and recognize that those who support them (hopefully) consider their chosen conceptualization of the world to be extremely important to the way in which they live their lives. With this need to educate oneself in mind, I also believe that the greatest mistake a Christian can make is to let the fear that we will potentially offend someone paralyze us. In order to truly love people, we must push aside the fear that we do not know enough, that we will misrepresent God, that we ourselves will be defamed, whatever it is that holds us back. In no way is this easy, but it is infinitely necessary.

With His love and hopefully His grace,

Taylor