Oklahombres

ere’s that hot new hymn everybody has been raving about. It is storming the congregations in America. The opening lines say it all:

Fourteen thousand members and me,
Watch the preacher up on the screen.
I have never shaken his hand,
My two-dimensional pastor man.
Welcome to America.

Go listen—you’ll love it!

ust a quick thank you, you core faithful here at the Hombre’s. The cards, calls, and “other” expressions of thoughtfulness were much appreciated. Just a little heads up for 1 and 2: 3 cooked breakfast for me Thursday morning, and I’m not talking Pop-Tarts. Bacon and eggs with biscuits and gravy it was. Just thought you would like to know, so you can plan for next year.

Thank you, all.

“I’m a five-point Calvinist. That means I believe there’s not any perspiration on God’s upper lip.”

Steve Brown, December 19th podcast of Steve Brown Etc.

omething to think about:

“All Americans are Christians.”

“All Americans are rich.”

“All Americans are immoral.”

We had a missionary couple from an Islamic country preach in our service a while back, and during a Q & A the above is what all the locals believe. We were told this perception is based mainly on two things: the fact that famous figures such as Madonna prominently wear a cross around their neck, and most of the American tourists throw a lot of money around and dress and act immorally.

Because of this they introduce themselves as “followers of Jesus Christ, the Messiah,” and they try to dress as modestly as possibly, among other things, to differentiate themselves from “Christians.”

What a novel idea. Maybe we here in the U.S. should adopt similar measures. Ya Think? Well, maybe we would first have to adopt different views of our faith.

We had an interesting discussion yesterday (I started this post on Monday.) in Sunday School on the topic of sin. I have been working my way through the book, The Reason for God, which is a modern approach to apologetics by Timothy Keller. I have to say that I am still quite fond of Mere Christianity, but I can see the need for this new approach in a post-modern age of skepticism. I have gleaned profitably from Keller’s book for these lessons, however, and some weeks we have had some lively discussions. Yesterday’s look at sin may have been the best yet.

In a nutshell, the chapter on sin works to point out that the fact that deep inside each one of us we know that things aren’t the way they are suppose to be, which points to a thing called sin, which points to God. Before that, critical ground work is laid by throwing away the popular yet ill-suited definition of sin—wrong doing—and redefining sin as taking good things and making them ultimate things in your life.

As the chapter on sin winds down to the final paragraphs the thrust turns from apologetic to evangel. Every good apologetic should lead eventually to the gospel. So what is the solution to this sin problem? Even as the popular definition is ill suited, the popular solution is equally amiss. Jesus doesn’t just clean up our lives, he makes us anew. Therefore we do not merely give our obedience,  but ourselves, our all.

Some of you may have noticed a bit of cynicism in the past few posts; looking at Christianity and then at “Christians” and seeing a disconnect. What is worse, is looking in the mirrior and seeing that same disconnect. As my dear pastor is fond of saying “Christianity is simple. That doesn’t mean it is easy.” So how does one put his faith into practice? I believe Paul puts his finger on the heart of Christian practice in Romans 12:1-2, where he tells us that because of the mercies of God we are to present our whole selves to him as a living sacrifice. The way that we go about that is by renewing our minds, which leads to transformation. Christianity involves the mind; such a novel idea, especially among some Southern Baptist folk.

I have been looking for a way to introduce the beginning of a series of posts that I have been planning for the coming new year. This post seems to be the one to do that. You may have noticed the text that has recently appeared at the top of the sidebar here at Oklahombres introducing the coming of the Heidelberg Catechism to this blog in serial form. The opening post will begin this coming Sunday, with what I believe may be the most poetic as well as accurate description of what it means to be a serious, thinking, real Christian. In the following 128 questions a three-part catechism is laid out as to how one lives out a real faith, how one lays hold of that opening question and makes it his own. Those three sections fall under the heading of Misery, Deliverance, and Gratitude.

In this coming year I challenge you to make use of this resource for the mind by at least reading the posts sometime early in the week. If you have a schedule that permits, come back to the week’s questions daily and meditate on them, and if possible memorize them. My prayer for you is that in this new year this resource will be used to bring you to a closer, more thoughtful walk with our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.