le blog de willis: une tragé-comé-drame épique

With great consternation, I must admit I wouldn’t be a good MI6 operative. All my intentions are very clear, I suppose. Both clear and not innocent (parents’ pov).

Hanging out with my sister is obvious; my mom tells me to stop taking her to Christian things. But stuff like if one day I choose to stay at home instead of go out, my dad will call me out on wanting to convert the family.

Why do the only people on the planet that really understand me are against my life’s main thrust? God, you are my help.

Big Chinese gatherings are the best environments for such an endeavor. Here, we have females my age that my parents would want me to talk to. With the latest email received a couple minutes ago replete with contact info for some Chinese schoolboard official’s niece who goes to Bucknell, I’m convinced this whole matchmaking thing is fun for them. I’d probably do the same to my kids, but probably more for entertainment than actual looking out for them.

So when we finally have these sought-after conversations, I would refuse to stop talking about the Bible and how God’s working in my life. Much to my mom’s dismay. “You’re doing it all wrong!”

When you come out of a conversation with them, you’re all energized and refreshed. It’s refreshing to talk to a humble person.

In pursuing holiness, I’ve recently been using two concrete strategies in the midst of anxiety/depressive attacks:

1. Expel the lesser love with the greater. If Jesus came back and found me longing for something that wasn’t him, I wonder who’d win the shame game. I can’t simply rip out a love for sin without replacing it with another object of affection lest my heart be subjected to worse (Matthew 12:43-45). It doesn’t matter if the idols themselves (items, persons, or ideals) don’t have malicious sentiment against me, for the sake of winning the war I must have utter hatred of them relative to Jesus’ place on my heart’s throne.
2. But at the moment is it hard to love Jesus over this current idol? Get foresight and look at the outcome doe. My idols want nothing but to distort all of my faculties and leave me a bloody, pitiful mess on the side of the street with all the other prostitutes (am I not a prostitute when I idolize?) This is the outcome of every idol but Jesus. We can find this in scripture but past pain should testify to this as well. 

These are ultimately gospel-centered methods - not only because Jesus told us himself to do so - because we can effectively use them in light of the good news. No longer under the power of sin are we (Romans 6:14-18)! Die die die!!

We’re aware of the many opposites of God - in scriptures Matthew 20:16, 1 Corinthians 3:19, Luke 17:33 - and I’ve simply been cataloging how this plays out in real life.

• Had a conversation with friend who has gone through special education and found myself very annoyed talking to him. I realized this was because he talked all about himself and didn’t have any questions for me nor show interest in my life. The spirit at that moment hit me with the weight of hypocrisy where earlier in the evening I had been talking to people all about myself in times of fellowship. Except with me, I have neither disability nor shortcoming to find excuse in.
• I judged this person, honestly, for never being able to have a successful social life. Startlingly, he talked about a tenuous plan for marriage and how its more about sacrificing for the other person. Then proceeded to talk about organizing a hangout for the ministry. This person’s main priority was all about what he could give rather than what he could receive, in which the lord would find due delight.
• My father was being oppressive to my mom and I demanded he apologized, leaving fiery words in my wake. God would have it that I would be the one to first feel ashamed, and so therefore I was the first (and only) one to be humbled and apologize for my own sin in using words as a sword rather than a salve (John 18:10). Gah, that wasn’t the original plan doe!

His ways are indeed higher!

My parents always warn me of the grave potential of possibly becoming a Christian extremist. If you actually read the text, would a world full of people following the submissive, humble, and truthful example of our savior actually be that terrible?

I dreamt earlier this semester some outlandish dream where I was talking to old people about SQL server, ActivePerl, ASP .NET + C#. Lo and behold, I somehow learned all this ish in two weeks. Life is strange.

I feel like a complete idiot.

One of the gems of reformation doctrine is the enabling of an individual to interpret scripture without a church cardinalship breathing down your neck or supervising your every step. “Sola fide” came out of a presumed “sola scriptura,” in that Martin Luther referred to the authority of scripture over all other man-made doctrine.

The fine print for us now is recognizing that the original authors had a specific context, intent, style and audience. We would do well, with our privilege to read and study scripture, to study it accurately. Peter writes in his second epistle how there is such a thing:

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:19-21)

A couple chapters later, the author confirms that there are indeed right and wrong interpretations for scripture, regardless of whether the reader initially understands (here referencing Paul’s epistles): 

There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. (2 Peter 3:16-17)

These verses on interpretation, thankfully, do not leave much room for interpretation. Before we quickly pull out John 3:16, Jeremiah 29:11, or Philippians 4:13 to apply to a situation, let’s take some time to contextualize the author’s intent within that whole passage according to the audience’s situation. This is crucial in grasping God’s revealed will for us. In addition, be wary when pastors pull out shotgun verses on a topical sermon to back up an argument without regard to the history behind the verse.