Life as a graduand
Posted at 2:20 PM
Today is my first day in what seems like a very long time without a home in Bristol. I’m back in Oxford for a month or two before moving to Brighton, and it’s lovely being back, but the city of Bristol seems like home in a way that Oxford isn’t. I’m excited about what my church is doing, most of my friends live there, I love the city itself, and I’ve just done my first proper gig. I’ve recently got to know many like-minded people (my last night in the city was spent making sushi and watching Japanese films, mainly with guys I’ve got to know this year), and I’ve pushed out beyond the student bubble. It feels like home.
I thought it appropriate, however, that I ended up listening to Dvořák’s New World symphony on the way home (by accident as it happens), as it’s the new world - the next step - that I should be focused on. Relay begins in just under two months, and it’s going to be a very different year. Those who are interested in praying for me, please let me know (in the comments, via Twitter or email) so I can add you to the list. (Those interested in financially supporting me, please drop me an email - it’s my first name at my domain name, in case you were wondering.)
Currently, I’m organising a fundraising concert (if you’re able to get to Oxford on Saturday 15th August (not finalised, confirmation and details to follow), your presence would be most welcome!), as well as trying to track down somewhere to live, raising support, organising what I’m doing this summer, and fixing what’s broken about this website! (Let me know if you spot anything; as far as I can tell, it’s all my end not yours.) I might even finish sticking my South Africa photos up on Flickr.
I graduate on the 17th July, which should be… interesting. I’m told there’s a lot of clapping involved. Meanwhile, I’d like to unpack my clothes, but as we’re trying to sell our house, the chest of drawers in my room is filled with hidden-away extraneous clutter.
I’m quite enjoying life as a graduand!
Thinking about emotions
Tony Payne writes on a related issue to my entry True Belief:
Emotions, I am assured, are an important part of who we are as humans created by God, and so Christian faith should also be emotional in some way. It’s not enough just to think and to do; there’s something a bit wrong with us if we don’t also feel….
[T]he assumption seems to be that experiencing these emotions is an indicator of, or even a path to, spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.
I don’t agree.
Posted directly following mine, you can imagine I was interested to read it - and I’m now looking forward to his part two, as I don’t think I disagree with him, and want to refine my view in light of his. Read the article to make sense of his quotes above.
True Belief
Posted at 5:19 PM
I’ve written before on why theology is not dull and irrelevant. In Theology is the Revolution I talked a little about how we do theology - by trying to think Christianly about everything, getting rid of the idols in our hearts and minds, and above all getting to know God better.
There’s a potential pitfall here, and that’s an intellectual-only understanding of truths about God. For example, it’s perfectly possible to have a fully fleshed out view of the atonement, that encompasses propitiation, justification, redemption and reconciliation, without that moving you to love God more and give him the praise he is due for sending Christ to die in our place. James writes:
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder. (James 2:19)
Even the demons have an intellectual belief in God, but we know Christian belief is different because it results in a changed life. A sign of whether I truly believe something is whether it affects my actions. To take the common and silly example of a chair: if I claim to believe a chair will take my weight, but refuse to sit down on it, then my actions show my lack of belief. James writes later:
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:13)
There’s another aspect to true belief too. If our emotions are not engaged, then how can we say we truly believe? If I don’t love Jesus more because of the cross then I’ve not fully grasped the cross, however great my intellectual understanding. If I say I know that God is glorious but that doesn’t delight me, I either don’t truly believe he is glorious, or worse, I’ve no delight in his glory because of my unredeemed nature. Jonathan Edwards said:
He that is spiritually enlightened… does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There is not only a rational belief that God is holy, and that holiness is a good thing, but there is a sense of the loveliness of God’s holiness. (Jonathan Edwards, A Divine and Supernatural Light)
Jesus says to the Pharisees:
Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” (Mark 7:6)
It’s possible to say the right things - maybe even do the right things - but still have our hearts far from God. We often say that love is a choice, not a feeling - but that’s not the whole story. John writes: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16) - Christ showed his love for us by dying in our place. The writer to the Hebrews says: “[Jesus,] for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2) - Christ died for us because of the greatness of his resulting joy, having saved a people for himself. John Piper’s famous thesis is that obedience and joy go together; our hearts are warmed when we show our love for God through following him, because that is how we are made. True love is never mere decision; it stems from and flows into our hearts.
So here we have three aspects of true belief: the intellectual side, the emotional side, and the behavioural side. You could call them Doctrine, Behaviour and the Heart. They affect our thinking, our feeling and our doing. True belief must affect all three. They’re like three sides of a triangle, which must go together, otherwise the triangle is distorted.
We might naturally have a tendency towards one or another. For example, the rationalist philosopher might tend towards thinking as ultimate, ruling out emotions and objective tests. The existentialist might concern themselves much more with feelings. Or, perhaps closer to home, the conservative evangelical might expend much effort getting their thinking straight, but not letting what they “know” affect their hearts or change their lives; parts of the church might play down the importance of doctrine as long as we’re doing something (about the environment, the poor, the marginalised); other parts might be tempted to base truth around experience and not Scripture. All have distorted the triangle in some way; all need correction.
When we read the Bible, or a Christian book, it should never remain intellectual only. If what we’re “learning” isn’t changing our lives, we’ve not really learnt it. If it’s not warming our hearts, we don’t truly understand it. God’s truth should change us from the inside out, and not just inform our minds: it must warm our hearts and change our wills, too.
When I open up the Bible, I might read a passage for the umpteenth time and say that I know it - but most of the time my life won’t look like I believe it, and my heart is still cold to its truths. I need to take the chance to refresh my understanding so as to affect more than just my mind.
When I come to theology, it should turn my world upside-down, affecting the way I think, the way I feel, the way I act. It can’t just be limited to one area - it’s got to affect them all. It’s only then that theology will be truly revolutionary.
Treasuring Christ above all means everything else fits as God intended. A very challenging (and well-produced) video from Desiring God. (Via John Piper.)
Reading the Bible
Posted at 4:27 PM
On the fifth of May, Lionel Windsor over at the Sola Panel challenged readers to “share God’s story”.
Get the story, know the story, share the story. Don’t feel obliged to do an hour-long intensive devotion every time you open the pages of the Scriptures. Just do it! If you get to know the stories, then when you do come to read the New Testament explaining the Old, or when you hear the doctrine of God spoken of and explained, you will find that you already know this God. You know him because you have shared his story — the story of his Son Jesus Christ.
On the same day, Glen Scrivener encouraged readers to join him in reading the Bible in ninety days.
It works out at 12 pages a day. About 16 chapters. That’s do-able right?
On the next day, Dave Bish links to Glen’s post, and adds that there’s something over at Theology Network of relevance. Ron Frost writes:
Isn’t it time for us to read the Bible vigorously, steadily, and fully?
Combine that with my aunt’s new blog about Bible reading, my realisation that I’ve probably read at most a quarter of the Old Testament prophets, the paucity of my knowledge of Scripture outside of the gospels and a few epistles, and the imminent end of my exams… I thought I’d give it a go.
So far there are two things I’ve struggled with. The first is familiar to anyone who’s tried to read the Bible from cover to cover: Exodus 21 to the end of Deuteronomy. There are easier bits in there, but after the fast-paced action that’s kept you going right from Genesis 4, it’s harder to keep going with all the laws and lists.
The second is probably familiar to anyone who’s ever tried to read the Bible while busy. We believe the lie that reading God’s word will not give us rest. Of course, sometimes it doesn’t - sometimes it makes us uncomfortable, challenges us, rebukes us - but we think that this means when we’re busy or stressed, the last thing we need to do is to read the Bible. No, it’s the first thing we should do - we need God’s perspective on our lives even more so when we’re busy! However, my problem is slightly different. I’m now on holiday, and in trying to wind down and relax, I act like the Bible won’t help me do that. So when I’m no longer busy, I think of the Bible as part of the busyness that I’m now having time off from. I believe the lie that the Bible will stop me from resting. As a result of listening to the lie, I’m not going to finish in the ninety days - but, of course, that doesn’t matter at all! Dan Hames’ article at Theology Network is helpful here:
[T]he Bible is given to us as a gift to feast on, rather than a project to complete before judgment day. We will find we go to it to savour and enjoy, and when we miss a day we might feel hunger pangs, but we could never feel guilt, fear, or condemnation. In the same way that skipping breakfast is more of a missed opportunity than a morally dubious choice, not going to the scriptures for nourishment is not a matter of calling down the anger of God, but of omitting to take advantage of his good gifts to his children.
I need to get those around me to challenge me: “Are you sharing in God’s story?” “Are you savouring God’s word?” To encourage me to keep going. Bible reading’s been low down on my agenda for too long, and I’ve noticed the results in my life. I need to remember Psalm 19:
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure,
and all of them are righteous.They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
hearts & minds
A new trailer for the film I helped write the soundtrack for has been released, using my music. (Click “Play full trailer”.) If you’re in Bristol next week, it’s being shown on Wednesday and Friday.
My co-composers were Pippa Cleary and Sara Garrard, who actually wrote most of it. I just got the two scenes of violence.
Edit: Jack Vaughan also wrote the music for one scene; I don’t know him personally.
Cameron pledges shake-up of power
More rumblings about Parliamentary reform. I want to seriously think about how much devolution to local councils I think is a good idea, and how much would lead to even greater disparity of services across the country.
He doesn’t say anything about voting reform, though - keeping quiet about his opposition in order to be seen on the reform bandwagon? Either way, I’d go with some of his suggestions.
Update (26th May): Just watching Cameron live on BBC News - he’s opposed to proportional representation and particularly AV plus.
“Proportional representation takes power away from the man and woman in the street and hands it to the political elites,” he says. “Instead of voters choosing their government on the basis of the manifestos put before them in an election, party managers would choose a government on the basis of secret backroom deals. How is that going to deliver the transparency and trust we need?”
In other words, a proportional system would lead to coalition governments which are not voted for specifically by the people, which is true. Of course, under the current system a minority of people vote in the government anyway - the majority in Parliament is down to the first past the post system, not a majority of people voting for them. So more thought needed, then.
Finger Painting
New Yorker magazine’s latest front cover was painted on the iPhone. The video (and painting) is good, even ignoring the medium.
Cabinet member urging electoral reform
Health Secretary Alan Johnson wants a referendum on electoral reform. Can I encourage anyone with a Labour MP to write to them and ask them to publicly join his stance?
The system he advocates - “Alternative Vote Plus”, they call it - seems to be about as proportional as you can get while still retaining an MP–constituency link.
Also of interest is a BBC Magazine article on Parliamentary reform.
(What do you know? Watching the West Wing has made me all political again…)