“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. — 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
This is on my very short list of favorite verses in the entire Bible! What a challenge. Am I really willing to step out there and do battle with the prevailing philosophies and ideas in our world today? Am I willing to do my homework and find out answers to the tough questions, understanding that any attempt to “win the war” only on my own strength or intelligence will result in failure? Even more challenging: am I willing to actually take every thought that enters my mind and make it obedient to Christ? Because that is no small task!
Del Tackett may end up being one of the most influencial men in my life. Creator of the Truth Project ( http://www.thetruthproject.org/ ) and a professor at Focus on the Family’s Leadership Institute ( http://www.focusleadership.org/ ), Del has influenced many lives and helped mold many people’s beliefs and worldviews. He is extremely personable, a great teacher, and one of the most intellectually sound and qualified men I have ever met. A humble man chasing after God’s heart. I say all of this because I believe that you will be truly blessed by tuning in to his website http://deltackett.com/ (I have also added it to the blogroll). Journey with Del as he observes the absolute truth of God in every day life. I hope you enjoy!
“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” — 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
I love these verses in 1 Corinthians stressing the importance in believing in the physical resurrection of the dead. This was no analogy, or cute story, or parable. Jesus of Nazareth being bodily raised from the dead was the absolute cornerstone to the whole Christian movement. No resurrection, no Christianity. As church historian Philip Schaff once said:
“The resurrection of Christ is therefore emphatically a test question upon which depends the truth or falsehood of the Christian religion. It is either the greatest miracle or the greatest delusion which history records.”
Paul was willing to (and eventually did) die for this belief, that he had personally seen the risen Christ.
An interesting take and presentation on our generation’s place in the social media movement. How can we use this to our advantage as brothers and sisters in Christ reaching out to a lost world?
The Millennial Christian Generation might be sitting in toughest position in history to reach their very own generation for Christ. The shifts in technology, tolerance, post-modernism, etc. have made things tough for this generation to break through to their peers. I have gone to the advertising industry to see how they are attracting customers. One company and icon that I can not get past is Progressive Insurance and Flo, their awkward and perky salesgirl. This series will take traits and qualities of Flo and relate them to the mission of engaging and reaching the Millennial Generation. This series is not claiming Progressive to be right or Christian but rather pointing out traits and tools that are attractive and can help in reaching others for God’s Kingdom in these hard times. Enjoy the following series of: Lessons from Flo
Lesson 1: Joyful and in Love with Identity and Purpose in Jesus
When engaging within your campus, community, etc., one thing everyone will notice whether you want them to or not: Do you truly love who you are and find true happiness in it? When you live your life, share your faith, or even hang out with your Christian and non-Christian friends, why would anyone want to live for what you live for if it seems like it is an obligation instead of true love. Flo truly is happy and in love with selling insurance and connecting with people. Therefore, people, in and out of the commercials are drawn to her. Because of her attitude, people want what she has. In our case, if we show love and joy in our relationship with God, people will be more inclined to be interested in our Heavenly Father.
Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Be joyful always;”
The following passage serves as an anthem to the fact that we are not compelled out of obligation but rather out of our love for Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:11-21 “11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
How does this affect us on our campuses? One thing that will happen when we take this lesson of finding joy in our identity in Christ and being in love with our purpose of bringing glory to God is that we will gain confidence in our mission and lose our spirit of timidity.
Let’s take a humorous example from LL Cool J on how being timid ruins even the best opportunities to shine.
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.”
Take this first lesson from Flo and live with joy, love, and confidence as you engage with your generation on your campuses. Let your relationship and identity in Christ become contagious. Staying in Scripture and prayer is one way to start in redefining and resparking your love life. Staying in the promises, commandments, and in conversation with the Love of our life, our Heavenly Father, should be something we do boldly and with much joy. Amen.
Psalm 16:5-11 : “5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, [a]
nor will you let your Holy One [b] see decay.
11 You have made [c] known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand”
The very concept of this project is one that is often intentionally avoided by Christians in today’s society. The purpose, I believe, is to renew our biblical worldview. It is to reveal God in every sphere of not only society but in every sphere of our lives. The overwhelming purpose of this paper is to tear down the veil between the sacred and the secular and start believing that God’s commandments and promises apply to everything and He should never be compartmentalized or placed in a box. “Christian discipleship forces us to recognize duality in life: either we serve the Lord or we follow idols” (Middleton and Walsh 95). Dualism is the idea that there is a separation between religious or sacred things and secular activities or objects. It separates certain areas of one’s life from redemption, salvation, and even God. “Dualism blurs the valid duality between obedience and disobedience because dualism identifies obedience, redemption and the kingdom of God with only one area of life. It sees the rest of life as either unrelated to redemption (or the sacred), or worse – under the power of disobedience, sin and the kingdom of darkness” (Middleton and Walsh 95). Dualism is the biggest and most foundational problem facing Christians in the world today. Our world views have become so distorted by the way we view the world in the church and the world outside of it that it is ruining our witness and our credibility in the Great Commission. “A dualistic world view makes a Christian cultural witness problematic at best, impossible at worst. Earlier in this chapter we asked why Christians in our society tend to fit in so well. The answer is dualism. A dualistic world view splits life into sacred and secular realms, and most human culture gets identified as the realm of the secular” (Middleton and Walsh 100). It is because of this that when one hears the idea or word “Christian”, they don’t envision the crazy, radical, different, and obedient followers of Christ and leaders of the world that we are called to be. Unfortunately, “Christians see the world in one of three ways: either as second best in comparison to the life of faith, or as an unavoidable evil, or as something to be fled” (Middleton and Walsh 101). “‘Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;’” (Matthew 10:37-38 NIV). When I read this passage, it speaks to me. If we, as Christians, don’t integrate God in every area of our lives, then are we truly worthy of Christ? If I love my girlfriend, laughter, gossip, etc more than the foundational commandments of the Bible, what am I accomplishing? Dualism would be effectively crushing my world view and my witness.I want to take the principles that I should build my entire life on and root them into my social life and into my free time. I must pray for God’s mercy as I try to break free of dualism and root myself in Truth. “Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26 NIV). This project has helped me discover the severity of the dualism complex, especially in the world views of the American (Westernized) Christian. Not only are we compartmentalizing God and putting restrictions on the areas of our lives that He is in control of and the center of, we are in direct disobedience to Him. Due to this, we become more meshed with the immorality of the world unto the point where the believer and non-believer are indistinguishable. Instead, the only things with specific and finite differences are not Christians and non-Christians but instead the secular and the sacred. As long as our world view as Christians has us being stirred into the melting pot of the world, a complete missional and evangelical movement is almost impossible because we are no different than the world. Not, to mention we are still in direct disobedience to the Immortal God who spoke the Earth into existence. Dualism must be destroyed. God’s promises, commandments, and the Truth of His Word must reign supreme on earth so that more unbelieving souls may see Him reign supreme in heaven for eternity.
What should we consider when considering our Christian worldview and other worldviews? I have explored James Sire’s The Universe Next Door and found some excellent information.
What is a worldview?
“A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart that can be expressed as story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.” (Sire 17)
Some questions that Sire sparks the reader to indulge in when considering worldview are as follows:
1) What is prime reality? – “What ideas are real?”
2)What is the nature of external reality, that is the world around us? -”What in the world is real?”
3) What is a human being? – “Who is man?”
4)What happens to a person at death? – “When you die?”
5)Why is it possible to know anything at all?
6) How do we know what is right and wrong?
7) What is the meaning of human history?
*The previous outline and the following list were taught by Dr. Chris Leland of Focus on the Family. *
What are we up against when considering faulty Christian worldviews and worldviews outside of Christ?
1) A lack of HOPE.
2) A lack of DIRECTION
3) A lack of TRUTH
- There is a battle raging. A battle of the mind and of worldviews. We must challenge ourselves, as followers of Christ, to be fully transformed in our view and thinking in regards to the world as we know it. And we must be prepared to look at EVERYTHING in a new light…
