Wayne Grudem’s Autograph

Preface:
Wayne Grudem is and should be one of the most respected men of our generation in terms of expanding the Gospel to humans. Other men who I personally categorize along-side Grudem are Tim Keller, Andy Stanley & Rick Warren [just to name a few]. I have a tremendous amount of personal respect for the dedication these men have towards forwarding the love and grace of Jesus through writing, preaching & their lives. And while they aren’t sinless due to their service, they are holy saints, redeemed by the cross of Christ, just like you and I.

Personal thought: Just like you and I… All men are equal in rank but wildly diverse in skill-set and calling; what if there is no such thing as a “super-Christian” only those who follow Christ as leaders and those who follow Christ by following their leaders?

A couple weeks ago I was in a local coffee joint [sozocoffee.org] chatting with a pastor friend of mine and our convo got briefly interrupted by an acquaintance of his. I over heard a part of their conversation where this dude was telling my friend that he got to meet and listen to Grudem speak recently. Without mentioning a sentence of what he gleaned from that day, made sure that everyone within an ear-shot from him heard that Wayne Grudem signed his copy of Systematic Theology!

Don’t misunderstand me, Grudem isn’t [necessarily] at fault for signing an autograph; there isn’t anything inherently wrong with putting your signature in a book [especially when you took the time to write it]. It is just a little weird to me that this guy could have started conversation about so many different things and the one he chose to boast about was getting a book signed by a theologian… Maybe I’m wrong, I just don’t think many people are paying for that autograph.

This is a bit cynical and I understand that, but maybe if you were there and could have heard this dudes level of excitement, you would have thought he was was a pre-teen who left a One Direction with the autographs of every member. We all have our quarks and do dumb things and respond differently to situations, this one just made me laugh.

Maybe consider this question in closing: If Holy Spirit spoke to you in truth and the words didn’t agree with the opinion of your pastor or favorite theologian, who would you be more inclined to displace?   

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To Its Logical End

If logic is your god, at least make logical decisions….

I have some friends who do not believe what I believe… heck, none of my friends agree with me completely in my beliefs. This, in-and-of itself is an interesting thought to ponder. Do you completely and wholeheartedly agree across the board with anyone who carries the same general belief structure as you do? I would venture to say that the answer to this question [if answered honestly] is no one hundred percent of the time.

As humans we are shaped by our experiences, insecurities, what we believe to be true and our ability to carry a situation to its logical end, or maybe it’s our inability to do so.

[disclaimer: If we get into semantics I would agree that there is more that shapes us as people than just these four things, but generally speaking, most any situation can fit into this categorization]

As I mentioned, I have some friends who do not believe what I believe, one of them in particular has continually challenged me in my faith by telling me that I should be more logical in my thinking and give no weight to faith in “God”, because it isn’t scientifically possible. For the duration of our friendship I have been the “Christian” and he the “Atheist”, a yin and yang that has brought about incredibly intimacy through heated and refining conversations for both of us.

One of the things I am most grateful for from our friendship is the way that God has used him in my life to keep me from being a ‘kooky right wing Westboro Baptist version of a Christian’. He specifically forces me to take every single belief I have to its logical end; this is a process that I have tried to adapt in most of my decision making.

I began thinking about writing this post after overhearing, and without tact, butting into a conversation that involved someone I care about dearly. [She will remain nameless to respect her personal life]. She is anxious for a dude to get out of prison in hopes that he will return with polished armor and be the prince who will swoop her into happily ever after. And while pursuing this situation, continually tells my wife and I that “she wants what we have”, and if we let logic run its course on the details of her situation… I don’t think the numbers add up.

So, why… why do we fight so hard for the life decisions that are so contradictory to logic, let alone the idea of taking logic to its very end? Back to my dear friend who believes differently than me and has helped me be a better man because of it. He always tells me that “logic and reason” should be our guide, not a high in the sky esoteric deity.

Look around… think about the last time you read or watched the news, our world is ignorantly selfish and irrational in its decision making. But, somehow these individuals would rather be left to the fate of their gods: logic, reason and karma. It is logical to understand that the way humans treat one another is unreasonable and I pray to God that we’re not left to karma, because we’d all be damned.

To what end is your logic leading you? Is it leading you to self-preservation and honor and respect of others? Or, is it leading you to a broken heart, years as the victim and a perpetuation of the insecurities that eat you alive from the inside? Is your logic leading you closer to God, the author of all the we want to experience as humans: love, joy, hope, peace and grace. Or, does our stubbornness tell us to abandon that nonsense because it interferes with our decision making? With the way we make decisions, any interference would be a blessing.

Think about it… Evaluate it… Do something about it…

Guns Loaded

There are a few men in my life whom I look up to and respect as fathers in The Lord. One of them is a guy by the name of Mike Paschall, and despite our mutual appreciation of one another we have never even met each other in person. The following words were written by him as a part of a daily devotional he wrote called Raw Talks With Wisdom and he has given me permission to post them here.

“Like a thornbush brandished by the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.” Proverbs 26:9, NRSV

“To ask a moron to quote a proverb is like putting a scalpel in the hands of a drunk.” Proverbs 26:9, MSG

I have no interest in insulting your intelligence, but may I point out the obvious here? The reason it’s a bad idea for an inebriated individual to trim a rose bush is because his or her judgment and perspective is impaired.

Rose bushes are awesome when they are bloomed in beauty, but if you mishandle them for whatever reason, there are severe consequences. Again, you want your surgeon sober when he’s removing your appendix. Just saying. A surgeon who is under the influence actually becomes unsafe because of what has consumed him.

Like the rose bush or the scalpel, a proverb isn’t the problem. It’s any of these things in the hands of a fool that wreaks havoc and causes destruction.

So, I want to try my hand at paraphrasing today’s text: “A loaded gun in the hands of a lunatic is like scripture in the mouth of a bitter or legalistic Christian.”

This isn’t an NRA advertisement by any means, but guns are not the whole problem in and of themselves. The fact that bad people, immature people, negligent people stockpile arsenals of assault weapons IS A PROBLEM.

I believe it’s a good idea for law enforcement personnel to carry loaded weapons while they’re on duty. I also think it’s a good thing for our nation’s military to be armed while actively defending our country. A thug with a gun is quite another story.

Scripture is full of life! BUT using it as a license to put people in bondage is not a good thing. Likewise, using the Bible to control how people live is a gross misusage.

I have devoted my life to serving the Lord and his people. It requires me to glean and incorporate the foundational truths and great themes of scripture. But I also must be aware that if I make the text a simple rulebook of do’s and don’ts, I have killed the Spirit of love and help that is infused in the Bible.

I do not have permission to grind my way through life using scripture as the litmus test of “who’s in” and “who’s out,” what is right and what is wrong or what is good and what is evil. What a shallow way to live life!

Honestly, there were seasons in my life where I did that. I was nothing more than a modern day Pharisee who needed to be saved from having to be right all the time! Being full of legalism and self-righteous pride made me drunk with religious zeal. I was nothing like the Jesus I was trying to serve.

The problem wasn’t the scripture. I WAS THE PROBLEM. We need to take some time to make sure we are using scripture correctly and safely.

In The Pages
(this is where you journal your way through the following questions
Do you use scripture to make your point in religious altercations? How often do you use scripture to scold another person’s bad behavior? How consumed are you with having right doctrine? Who ultimately gets to decide whether your doctrine is right or wrong?

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Family First

Hello and happy Friday!!

This is going to be a short and sweet little encouragement to take the small steps toward the big visions…

1st of all, this is Dennis. I am gracefully married to a badass woman… And I don’t say BA lightly, I mean, this chick makes me a better man and keeps me in line while being an incredible mother and nurturer of our domain.

Since being married I have been encouraging Jenna to search for new employment, mainly because I have a little philosophy that I live by, “When you don’t like where your priorities have been stacked, purposefully lose the game of Jenga [The America Edition] you’re playing and start building something new.” Well, my wife has been a single mom for 5 years [I told you she’s awesome] and has provided very well for our daughter, now she isn’t a single mom and her heart is re-configuring some priorities.

Just recently her current place of employment wanted to extend business hours [again], which would put her at work from 6:30am to 6:00pm and something in her heart said, “No! My family comes first… even if it is harder financially…”

She is listening to The Lord and her heart is moldable to what God is speaking into our family. God is allowing me to step up and be a frick’n man in a way that I’ve never been and simultaneously allowing her to be a wife and mom in a way that she’s never been free to be.

Dudes, if your woman is willing to say, “Money is not worth the time away from my family”, don’t be a lazy-ass and try to play video games while your wife puts food on the table. You’re the hunter and gatherer, let her be nurturing and show her LOTS of love! Before I close, I would like to add that not all women are built for the stay at home gig, some women should work [even if you have children] as to not go crazy or drive anyone else there either.

There is a bigger vision for our family… A vision that we both have to see and that our hearts have to align somewhere in the super-natural in order for it to be a possibility that we stay sane and travel together. That vision is not having my wife work 60 hours a week in exchange for some dollars and cents, but rather for us to live alongside people we love, sharing resources, loving one another, and spending time chasing each-other not some silly “dream”.

Displace comfort.
Believe for yourself.
Live for what’s important.

Much love,
Naked Christian Men

Quiet Down & Listen

We choose all kinds of unnecessary conversations to engage in, most of which the bible warns us against having [especially in the company of folks who don’t believe in Jesus]. We waste hours being indignant to our family, friends and strangers who don’t believe what we do, all the while we should know that an argument has (likely) never turned someone’s heart towards Jesus. We write blogs, spend hours reading and exercising our pride for the sole purpose of proving someone (christian or not) wrong.

Please, for the sake of your public esteem, quiet your desire to “be right” in a faith where mystery far out weighs indisputable fact, rather focus on listening to The Lord who (I believe) is far more concerned with you being fully alive than being right.

If you identify yourself as Christian then there are only a few things that we trust as truth, things that don’t dance with mystery:
God is a trinitarian reality who is whole and equally God the Father, God the Son-of-Man [Jesus Christ] and God the Holy Spirit].
That unfathomable trinitarian deity is the visionary, designer and builder of everything, literally everything.
God the Father introduced commandments aka rules to live by and he willingly punished certain humans for being disobedient.
God the Son-of-Man showed up on the same earth that He created to live amongst humans that He created in Their image.
God the Son-of-Man chose to be a normal, functional piece of society. He Built furniture, was full of sarcasm, drank wine, got pissed off, made friends in all walks of his life, exemplified grace and emotional vulnerability and closed the chapter by doing supernatural, prophesy fulfilling things.
God Holy Spirit took over as the voice that speaks the word of God the Father to a humanity created in Their image and inherently attuned to The Voice of God.

These span of events have each demanded a new way of living…
When humanity was living based on the 10 commandments and subsequent laws, humanity was expected to obedient to such rules to justify their holiness.
When God the Son-of-Man lived on earth, the flow of humanity was being stirred and shaken for approximately 33 years; the status quo was changing. He was setting up a new way of living for humanity rooted in freedom.
Now we are under the leadership of God Holy Spirit, the communicator, the mediator, the one who shares divine wisdom and knowledge with His likeness, humanity.

If you are traveling this journey of faith without putting a great deal of weight into hearing from God Holy Spirit then you are greatly discounting the intimacy you could have with a God who wants your time. Joy. Peace. Freedom. Vision. Influence… these are all things that we are promised, if we can only believe that we are worth this type of intimacy and unending love from God the Trinity.

The NCM challenge you to shut up and listen today… If you don’t know what you’re listening for, here are a couple insights:
1. You are as crazy as you feel.
2. You will likely hear “your own voice”, which is par for the course; God Holy Spirit is speaking to you, in your voice, in order to be able to communicate clearly.
3. Ask God to tell you something about someone you know very well [preferably someone who believes that God could speak through you if he wanted… this lessens the “crazy” feeling you’ll have].
4. Just go with what you hear… no matter how weird it may be, don’t try and make it sound “normal”.
5. Tell that person what you heard from The Lord and they will be able to confirm or deny if it is really a word from The Lord.

Happy listening 🙂

Self[ish] Preservation

Over the last 12+ years I have had my hands in something that I hoped to be inspiring to another human being. Whether that be rap-rocking the shit out of a microphone back in the old bloodbaught days [and yes, I know it is spelled incorrectly], or spending hours in middle and high school class rooms baring my entire soul to tens of thousands of students, or by writing, tweeting, facebooking, instagramming and any other excuse I can find to use words. I genuinely enjoy the battle of hypocrisy… knowing that if I’m not who I say I am [and I haven’t always been] then I would likely get found out [and I always do]. I believe with all of my heart that there is no better version of yourself to be than the absolute best version, while fully disclosing all of the ignorant, shady, painful things you’ve done or experience with anyone that will listen.

That said, there are a lot of things about being “vulnerable” and sharing my story that are some weird mix of emotionally exhausting and totally self indulgent. But, there are also very rewarding aspects to this journey that I’m on as well. One of the most rewarding aspects of being able to share my story with thousands of teens is the moment when one of them comes up to me, obviously nervous, and says “You’re the only adult who knows this, but I’ve had an abortion too.”

I started on this journey because very early on in my journey of being a Christian [which probably had very little to do with being like Jesus back then] I got really fed up with fake-ass Sunday smiles, bible study super kids, and a paralyzing fear of reality. Don’t get me wrong, I often smile on Sundays whether I am at church or not, but that’s because I also smile on Thursdays. And there is nothing wrong with having a love and passion for learning, studying and knowing the bible… as long as you have some interest in being who He would ask you to be [this will likely be a rant of it’s own really soon]. Lastly, I know that being honest is scary, and I realize that not everyone needs to know your business and blah blah blah… My response to that very real truth is: stop being so damn selfish!

When you do or don’t do something because of how it makes you feel, there is some level of selfishness attached to it, and that may not be a bad thing; I think it brings The Lord great joy in some heavenly way to know that His kids are really enjoying their time on earth. However, when it comes down to not sharing your story because of how it makes you feel I think you should probably just get over it in anyway you need to, solely for the benefit of those around you. I have been reading a daily devotional that was written by one of my spiritual fathers and he captures the weight of being selfless with your story by sharing an aspect of his:

One weekend, I had my first real encounter with alcohol. Southern Comfort might be its name, but it took me on a trip to the pain zone. I was hung over for two days! I did all the things that a sick person does and more. I could not get out of bed because of the freight train that was clickity-clacking in my head. It was horrible.

Those two days, my parents did not say a word to me. They took care of me, but nothing was ever mentioned. A couple days later, Dad invited me to his office. He wanted to talk to me in private. I was in great dread of that meeting!

To my surprise, he shared some things with me out of his childhood along with a few of the lessons he had learned around his own mistakes with alcohol. Things I never knew, stories I never imagined. I still recall what he wore that day, I remember how he smelled, and I was deeply impacted by the fact that he did not demean me, but instead challenged me to responsibility.

All that to say this:
Regardless of what you believe or don’t believe, the fine print of our story has an unfathomable worth to someone that tries to hide the same details. And with that I encourage you to share the most painful, scary details of your story with someone else when you feel like you should. If you are a Christian, your life should be lived to the service and sacrifice of your fellow [wo]man for the Glory of God… If you believe that God can/has redeemed you from your story then what in the hell are you so afraid of anyway?

DG

Dinosaurs are badass!

There are some odd thoughts, theories and opinions wrapped around Christianity. Opinions that have caused good men and women to lie. Not evil lies necessarily, but the type of lies that we tell when we want to be right, when we know for sure that we don’t have the darndest clue!

Is the existence of dinosaurs contradictory to a biblical account of creation?
Did dinosaurs exist in a prehistoric time?
Wait… What does ‘prehistoric’ actually mean?
If Adam was the beginning of “history” then is it possible to have a “prehistoric” earth?
But what about the ‘facts’ presented by carbon dating?

Who gives a sh!t?

It simply baffles me that these are the conversations we have to try and prove or disprove an account of creation, or more-so, whether or not God exists!

When millions of humans are internally and externally dying from the social and personal depravity that we all experience, the best we can do is dinosaurs?! Get ready for a rough left turn… I recently had a conversation with a new friend named Ross, he was telling me about a newer collegiate major that he called, “Behavioral Economics”. This study focuses on the reality that humans are not rational beings, therefore the historic theory of economics as a prediction of human choice and purchasing habits based on being rational, seems to be a grossly unevolved theory. As I listened to him explain some of the major thoughts of this study, which were: all humans lie to make themselves appear/feel better than they are, and, humans are most likely to be very similar to those that they spend their time within behavior, social class, and appearance, to name a few. [I think I ran out of breath just writing that sentence… congrats if you got through that marathon] I responded to his brief explanation by saying, “It’s very interesting to me that you’re learning about explicitly biblical principals and they are being called a ‘new social science.'” He looked at me as if I had just told him that I wrote The Bible- and after an awkwardly long pause asked me how I had concluded that those were biblical issues. As our dialogue continued he purposefully communicated to me that he was “Jewish”, and later was a little more honest by telling me he “wasn’t very religious” and this was the open air that allowed for our conversation. [taking a right turn back on track]

These are the types of conversations that I want to be involved in… real, life-bringing, thought provoking conversations… Not mindless bullsh!t banter that steals so much life and energy from those involved.

SO… We would probably all agree that dinosaurs are badass! But did they exist? Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t, but that answer will depend on your personal theory of how we got here. In conclusion, let me suggest that you waste your breath on conversations that you believe in, and topics that are worth dying for, as opposed to dinosaurs.

#nkdchristianmen

This is not shock value…

I want to thank you for reading this far and graciously ask you to continue.

Ermahgerd! Naked Christian Men

Initially, your perception may have been that this is a “shock value” site, well let me assure you that is not the intent. Our intent is pretty simple: to be honest with ourselves, with God and with you. We have chosen to do that by letting our sense of humor be the catalyst for our communication,  rather than taking “serious issues” too seriously. We believe that life should be enjoyed amidst the reality that it is miserably difficult at times… Be encouraged that there is far more freedom available to us [than makes us comfortable] to make life an incredible journey.

There are going to be some very sensitive topics written about here and we beg you to join in on the conversation, both here with the Naked Christian Men and also in your own communities.

One last thing before I let you get on with your day… We plan to challenge your thought process, we hope to offend you [at least a little], and our biggest prayer is that we get you to really consider the “why” behind your actions, convictions, judgements and interactions with humans who do life differently than you.

With as much love as a couple naked dudes can give [besides the love we give our wives], we thank you for being here!

– DG & RD aka Naked Christian Men