Author: kevingdrendel

I am sixtiesh, an English Literature major in college and an attorney by profession. Faith informs my life, and this blog is about my faith journey.

Calvin & Will

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Lynn Johnson Calm Beach

Calvinism and Arminianism represent two diverging views of God’s relationship with man. The two views are summarized at the graceonline.com website and charted at the jesusfollowme.com website. In a nut shell, Calvinism represents the view that people are predestined to believe or not believe; and Arminianism represents the view that people have free will to believe or not to believe. I am oversimplifying the positions, of course.

As an aside, I am no theologian. I was one thesis short of a religion major in college (finished with an English Literature major). I became a believer in college in the midst of prevailing liberal thinking and unbelief. I say this only to acknowledge that I am not an expert, but I have a personal faith in Jesus Christ. I have no doubt that I was drawn by God and that salvation comes by grace through faith, not by anything I have done or will ever do.

The countervailing views get to the heart of the Christian faith. Does God choose man? Or does man choose God? Continue reading “Calvin & Will” →

The DNA of Words

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I am fascinated by the thought that God spoke the world into existence. In the Gospel of John, who was easily the most revelatory of the New Testament writers, I have always been intrigued by the statement: In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. That explains why I was drawn to the following headline: Russian Scientists Reprogram Human DNA Using Words and Frequencies.

Apparently, Russian scientists have found that our DNA stores data like a computer and uses grammar and syntax rules like language. More incredible, they discovered that human DNA can be “changed and rearranged with spoken words and phrases!” These scientists have changed frog embryos to salamander embryos without physical contact by use of vibration and language.

Aside from the ethical quandaries the discovery might pose, the fact that human and other DNA, the building blocks of life, have language-like characteristics and respond to language is just another example of the wonder of God’s creation. It is another indication of the truth of the Bible, which claims to be the inspired Word of God. (2 Tim. 3:16) The statement God spoke the world into existence, words written well over 2500 years ago, at a minimum, and the statement that the Word was in the beginning of the creative process, written about 2000 years ago, make more sense in light of the apparent discovery that the building blocks of life, DNA, have language-like characteristics and respond to language.

The “Do’s” and the “Don’ts” Don’t Do It

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One of the more common perceptions is that Christianity is all about “doing the right thing” and not committing sins. Being religious means being pious and observing a list of do’s and don’ts. But that is just plain wrong!

Consider what Paul says in Colossians (2:16, 20-21):

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day….

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?

Those are liberating words we wish most churchgoers would take to heart. Right? It may be news to many non-churchgoers that Paul in the Bible rejects the notion of living by a list of rules. Indeed, many churchgoers have quite missed the point in that respect. But Paul is not saying that sin does not matter.

In the next chapter of Colossians, he writes: (Col. 3:5-9)

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming…. you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other….

And shortly thereafter, he states: (Col. 3: 12-14)

…. clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Is not this just another list of do’s and don’ts? He says one thing, and then he contradicts himself in the very next chapter of the same letter. Right? Well…, no. He is saying something quite different.

I left out verse 17 of Chapter 2 on purpose because I wanted to compare the two statements first in order to focus on the difference. Verse 17 gives us a clue to the difference between the two statements. Paul says that the rules regarding eating, drinking, the Sabbath, etc. (i.e; the “Law”) are “a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

Paul goes on to describe the type of person who focuses on the do’s and don’ts:

Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. (Col. 2:17-19)

Paul calls such people “unspiritual.” Ironic, is it not, that many non-churchgoers think of the self-righteous, pious person when they conjure up a picture of a “Christian”; and, of course, they want nothing to do with that! Such a “puffed up” and self-righteous person is only a shadow; he is not the real thing. The reality is Christ, not a list of rules. The reality is a person in a relationship with Christ!

The list of rules lacks any value, ultimately:

These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. (Col. 2:22-23)

It is the reality that we need! Paul tells us the reality is in Christ (Col. 3:1-2):

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

We are flawed by sin. (Rom. 3:10) Sin is in our nature, and we separated from God by that sin. (See Is. 59:2). Though we are separated from God, God has offered us redemption from the very thing that separates us. (Rom. 6:23) They way we access that redemption is simply to receive it, and to let go of our own striving and pride, to die to that sinful self and to live for God.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:3-4)

Salvation requires the surrender of self to God.

Now, we come back to the passage that I compared to the list of rules above (Col. 3:5-17)

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

We do not follow a list of rules; we follow after Christ who is our savior! We put sin to death because we do not want to be separated from Christ; we are being renewed in His image! We have set our minds on Christ, to be like Him, to know Him, to be conformed to His image, to let Him rule in our hearts! We do not want the shadow; we want the reality! We do not live a religious life self-imposed; we live a changed life that flows out of our relationship with God who saves us and calls us to Himself!

It is Not so Hard to Imagine

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I have been learning how to use HootSuite this weekend. The HootSuite technology allows a person to leverage one’s finite time in a way that one can communicate in almost real time with a vast number of people. It is a website for tracking and posting to an almost unlimited number of social media sites and groupings within sites at one time. In one stroke of the keyboard, a person can tweet, post on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare, WordPress, Mixi and within those social media sites on specific groups and pages, potentially reaching thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people simultaneously. At the same time a person can almost simultaneously follow and respond to dozens and even hundreds of other people posting things in the same social media sites and groups. It is pretty remarkable.

Technology brings to us what was only dreamed about a few years ago and what might never have been imagined just a couple of generations ago. As we become more self-sufficient than ever as beings, the tendency is to become less reliant on faith and God. One thing technology has not changed is the certainty of death. We are also still beings. This world is bigger than us, and we do not ultimately control our own fate…. but that is another topic for another day.

It occurred to me as I learned my way around HootSuite this weekend, that God’s ability to have an individual relationship with each and every person is not such a farfetched concept. If one finite person can simultaneously communicate with hundreds and thousands of people, it is not hard to imagine that God, who is infinite, can communicate with each one of us on an intimate, personal level.

It is written that God knows every hair on your head. (Luke 12:7) Even more than that, the Psalmist says that God knows your comings and goings and the very thoughts in your head! (Psalm 139) God knows when you get up and lie down. There is nowhere a person can go that God is not there and is not aware of what a person does. It really is not so hard to imagine that God can do that in light of the ability that we have at our fingertips. God knows you

Bitter Pill

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Some stories need to be repeated. This story comes from a 40 year missionary in Brazil. It involves a people known as the Katukina, who survive with their own distinct language and separate culture in the Brazilian jungle. Jerry and Gloria Kennell are off the mission field now, due to health issues that have slowed them down a bit, though they continue the work of revising and editing the translation of the Bible into the Katakunan language. (See Kennell blog) According to native-languages.org, only about 200 people speak the Katukinan language. They are a remote tribal group in a remote area of the world.

Jerry recently described an incident during his time with the Katukina in which a man fell ill with malaria, a jungle killer. Quinine is only cure for malari. One of the ways the missionaries serve the tribal people is by bringing in medical supplies, including quinine.

There are two main forms of malaria. One results in horrific physical symptoms such that a person suffering from this form of malaria might wish to die, though it is usually not fatal. The other form does not carry with it the awful physical symptoms, but it results in death if not treated early. The man who contracted malaria suffered from the second, lethal form of malaria. With quinine, however, people usually recover. The man was given quinine pills and aspirin to give him relief from the symptoms. It was thought he would be fine, but a number of days later, in spite of receiving the sure antidote, the man was found dead in his house/hut.

They later discovered the reason. Under the man’s hut, tossed through the cracks in the floor, were the quinine pills. The man had taken the aspirin, but he threw the quinine pills away. Quinine is very bitter. It causes ringing in the ears and is not pleasant to take. The aspirin, on the other hand, was not as bitter and gave him immediate, noticeable relief. The man took the medicine that relieved the symptoms, but he rejected the medicine that would save his life.

We are like that man in the hut. We seek relief from the sufferings of life with things that only relieve or mask the symptoms. We seek self-help, positive thinking, drugs, alcohol and other modern placebos, but we reject the one thing that will save us from our human condition. Many things are pleasant and give us sometime relief, but the one thing that will cure us from what sin and death has wrought we reject.

He who loses his life will find it. He who is last will be first. Narrow is the road that leads to salvation. It can be a bitter pill to face one’s sinfulness, to concede control of one’s destiny, to humble one’s self in the sight of God, to be vulnerable at the core of one’s being. Salvation is not something that comes from anything we can do; it only comes by what God has done for us. Christ is our example. He came humbly and lived among us as a man; he was obedient, even to submit to death. (Phil. 2:8) The way to life is to accept what he has done for us and to submit to it.

Salvation can be a bitter pill, indeed. It means the end of my pride; it means no more of me. Many people, me included, would just about do or concede anything but the very core of ourselves. the bitter pill, however, is the gateway to real salvation, life, joy. No one has described the dilemma of the soul surrendering to his maker better for me than C. S. Lewis:

“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

“Surprised by Joy” is the title of his autobiographical work. Indeed, the one who takes the cure that God has offered us from the disease that is within us, within all of us, finds not only the cure for the particular ills that personally trouble us, but the cure for ills that we did not even notice because previously tolerated or even embraced them. All sin leads to death. It stands in the way of being the majestic beings we were made to be. It plagues us until we die, even those who have taken the cure. The cure is not instant; it is a process; and it requires continual submission to the One who loves us, who bought us with His life. When we have first received the cure, however, there is a taste of heaven to come; and it grows as we grow in faith, knowledge and submission of our lives to God’s providence.

Like the quinine pill for malaria, there is no other way to be cured from this disease of sin and ultimately death but by the salvation offered by God in Christ. Anything else is nothing but a momentary relief from the symptoms of the disease.