All things

“THE AVENGERS” AND JESUS

The insatiable appetite for superheroes continues. 

The Avengers stormed the box office this weekend, obliterating all domestic opening weekends with a $200 million kickoff. 

The plot line is nothing new: a big threat to human life is looming, and a superhero or team of superheroes rises to meet the challenge and save the day. To say it another way, a proverbial hell is looming and people cannot save themselves from this terrible fate. So, a humble savior comes to make a great sacrifice so that evil can be defeated, people can be liberated, and a new kingdom can dawn in which people can live peaceably.

What is curious is that the superhero is usually part human and part something otherworldly. In that way, the hero is like us but simultaneously unlike us. Or, the hero is like us, but better. They have emotional frailty, moments of grief and sadness. But, they somehow overcome all odds to do good and vanquish evil selflessly and tirelessly for the good of others. They also have superhuman powers, insights, and abilities. Sometimes they even die, or seemingly die, only to return to life as if they were invincible.

Some superheroes can walk on water. Some can read people’s thoughts. Some can walk through walls. Some can bring the dead to life. Some live lonely lives without a spouse or children. Some are poor and misunderstood. Some are lonely and not really known by even those closest to them. Some have a secret identity. Some have an archenemy. 

No matter how many times this same, tired story is told with some new crisis or savior to meet it, people still line up and pay good money to escape reality for a while. With a bucket of popcorn in one hand and an Icee in the other, I guess it’s our way of not losing all hope and dreaming of a world where a half-man, half-something else superhero was coming to defeat evil liberate the oppressed and usher in a new kingdom of peace and life.

Too bad we then have to leave the theater and enter reality again. If only there were a real Superhero. Maybe everyone who bought a ticket to The Avengers deep down really wants to meet Jesus?

-Mark Driscoll

Read more http://pastormark.tv/2012/05/08/maybe-everyone-who-bought-a-ticket-to-the-avengers-deep-down-really-wants-to-meet-jesus

A high view of God’s sovereignty fuels death defying devotion to global missions. 

-D.P.

…The receiver accepts His gifts with thanksgiving. This gift for this day. The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived-not always looked forward to as though the “real” living were around the next corner. It is today for which we are responsible. God still owns tomorrow…

E.E.

MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM

If Satan wanted to destroy the church, how would he do it?

Wait a minute. Scratch the if. Satan wants to destroy the church. His main purpose is to push people away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, away from grace, away from repentance, and away from saving faith. He longs for souls to take part in the second, eternal, death.

So, what methods does he employ?

Consider these words of J.C. Ryle about our enemy:

Inside the church he is ever laboring to sow heresies, to propagate errors, to foster departures from the faith. If he cannot prevent the waters flowing from the Fountain of Life, he tries hard to poison them. If he cannot destroy the medicine of the Gospel, he strives to adulterate and corrupt it.

When Christian Smith and a team of researchers from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied the religious beliefs of American teenagers, they found a belief system that came to be known as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Here is a summary of the beliefs of MTD:

1.) A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.

2.) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3.) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4.) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.

5.) Good people go to heaven when they die.

Conspicuously missing from these precepts is…well, the Gospel, in any shape or form. Human depravity, sin, wrath, redemption, atonement, grace, sanctification, resurrection. To start with. It’s safe to say that this list is not about Jesus.

So what is this list all about? Having Your Best Life Now!

The researchers conclude:

A significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten stepcousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

This, I believe, is one of Satan’s most prosperous businesses. Foster a new “religion” that feigns Christianity but denies (or is apathetic about) all of the crucial (and saving) elements of the faith. It makes people feel good. It makes real Christians seem weird, out-of-touch, and fanatical. It caters to peoples’ wants and needs while demanding nothing other than what will further their good feelings. God is the servant of this faith, and humans are the exalted ones.

From the report:

In short, God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.

Ask yourself, do you, even in part, subscribe to this new-age doctrine?

Millions in America do. And it’s a hot export as well, promising health and wealth to people who have never had either. Instead of declaring the holiness of God and the hopeless state of humanity apart from the Savior, it does the opposite, bastardizing the faith of Jesus Christ, using His name to sell a perverted form of Neo-Paganism that exalts “self” over all. It’s comfortable. It’s indulgent. It’s non-confrontational. It will massage your ego. It never mentions sin. It calls you a champion. There is no hell. It’s quite seductive!

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is called the “new American religion” by Al Mohler. It has been spreading through congregations everywhere, fueled by itchy ears and a pop-culture that’s excited to have a “christianity” that is palatable to lost sinners while meeting little resistance from a Christian populace that’s afraid to speak out against anything that dubs itself “Christian”, lest they be called judgmental legalists.

The reason this “gospel” is popular and marketable is because it is no gospel at all (Gal 1:6-8). A lost world sees it on TV and is spoon-fed a fake Jesus that cannot save them.

Do you reject Islam, New-Age, and Buddhism as false religions that cannot save? Then even more so you should reject this false feel-good gospel that tramples underfoot the sacrifice of the Savior while claiming His holy name.

http://whiteflagproject.com/post/19967441832/moralistic-therapeutic-deism#notes

This will not take long. It’s the eve before yet another important test, and I’m blogging. I think my professor thought I was exaggerating when I said I didn’t have good “time-management” skills….I wasn’t kidding. I just thought it was necessary to stop and note how much I treasure friendship. I love the example Christ’s gives us, as one studies the New Testament, and learns that he had comrades, family members and a close inner circle of true friends. This semester has definitely been one of friendship. Maybe it’s because I had been feeling to lack of any sort of bond to the kids at GCU last semester, or maybe it’s because organic chemistry feels like a war, and the group which survived part one and held has held their breath during part two feels more like brothers and sisters than simple classmates. For they know what I am thinking before I even speak, my friends pack me food because they know I always forget. Hard-core party friends send me texts that they are trying to pray for me, my tutor is eating more veggies due to our numerous “health talks”, and Nhi always knows when I am about to smack her, which only happens during the stretched out torturous days in o-chem. I guess my lack of protein in-take has made my muscles atrophy, so she doesn’t mind my attempts to hit her  : ) Those days often end in fits of laughter as I spill water on borrowed books, or Nhi randomly eats a food garnish…We’re an odd bunch to be sure. During lab this morning it began to rain, and without hesitation my friends and I flew outside and ran onto the huge grass lawn, twirling and screaming and sprinting into the eye of the storm. Standing in the middle of the field, Nhi said she hasn’t had such fun in a long time. It’s the simple moments which bring the most joy. Shivering afterwards, my friend came over and pulled my sweater up over my shoulders, and I couldn’t help but blush because she noticed that I was soaked and cold, even though I hadn’t,  and she cared enough to help. Maybe it’s silly to even remark on this, but it’s so easy to blog about the bad, and forget about the pure moments of goodness which are present in the grimmest situations. And i feel abundantly blessed. Silly enough,  I liked a guy this semester, and I made a complete fool of myself in the process, for I was convinced I could somehow get him to like me, or for starters notice me. But through much prayer, God was able to show me time and time again, that this was NOT the boy for me. And looking back, I am mortified and completely embarrassed that I ever liked such a boy. (Notice, I am not even using the term man, he doesn’t deserve the recognition. No he’s just another boy who can shave). Actually, he is more in-love with himself than Jesus, and that to me is most unattractive.  With much prayer, help from family, friends and my new best friend Elisabeth Elliot, I am reteaching myself again and again, every day it seems, to be solely content in the Lord. For he fulfills me, loves me perfectly, and as Tom Shrader always notes, he loves me in spite of me!  As Addison Leitch said, “When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die”. So everyday, we must say no to self and yes to God. I think I could have spent the entire day sitting in the muddy grass field. I just want to sit, without noise, electronics and the pressure of time, tomorrow and truth.  I have no idea what the summer holds. I am wrestling with something in my soul lately, I have this weird urge to flee, to travel, to scream, to sleep, to bake, to laugh, to cry, to DO SOMETHING worth noting for the Lord. Whether it be summer classes, a Sedona retreat, or a spur of the moment adventure to NY, I just crave simplicity interwoven with radical change. 

You know you live in an odd house, when it’s 4 AM and everyone’s awake.