ComfortBetrays.com » francis schaeffer http://www.comfortbetrays.com Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:38:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Punched in the face by what she said http://www.comfortbetrays.com/2009/07/punched-in-the-face-by-what-she-said/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=punched-in-the-face-by-what-she-said http://www.comfortbetrays.com/2009/07/punched-in-the-face-by-what-she-said/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:51:59 +0000 Daniel http://comfortbetrays.com/blog/?p=116 The other day I heard something at work that just punched me in the face with a “What now?!” follow up. If you come at it from a similar viewpoint that I do, maybe it’ll strike a chord with you as well. The story behind this is that my company puts all of their employees through a rigorous leadership training program that kicks off with a 4-day main session, follow-up weekly group meetings, an accountability partner, and another 2-day session after 12 weeks. The training is a huge investment for the company and it builds a specific culture (think “family”) as well as communicates to everyone how much the upper management cares about the well-being of their employees. I could talk about the obvious strong points of the program, or the underlying core beliefs in it that I think missed the mark and don’t line up with reality, but that’s not the point of what hit me the other day. For our discussion’s purpose, this training program is a full-fledged belief system, based on a book and meant to be integrated into all aspects of personal and professional life, complete with an extensive binder that is a practical guideline for living it out (…sound familiar?!). Some employees certainly attempt that and their enthusiasm about the program shows; others I would naturally guess aren’t as strong of supporters for various reasons.

It was from one of the program’s biggest fans that I was convicted. It’s simple and here’s why. She casually mentioned that she goes through the material that’s provided in the binder for 30 minutes every day.  …Okay let me just stop for a second… does the word “devotion” or “discipline” come to mind? Ouch, I just got punched again.

Thirty minutes a day. What an accurate example of someone really going for it amidst the hectic schedule that I know she has. Do you see where I’m going with this? How about bringing in a quote that sums it up? This wasn’t my main point, but you get the picture from two guys I look up to:

“G. K. Chesterton correctly remarked that the problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting but that it has been found difficult and left untried. In response to an article in The Times of London entitled ‘What’s Wrong with the World?’ Chesterton replied, ‘I am. Yours truly, G. K. Chesterton.’ That is precisely Jesus’ point – we are wrong with the world.” – Ravi Zacharias

Can I tie in something I heard during my time at The Master’s College? I only vaguely remember this, and it might’ve been a guest speaker, but it was an interpretation of Luke 16:1-15, also known as The Parable of the Shrewd Manager, or Unjust Servant, that stuck with me. In this parable that Jesus tells, he congratulates a manager for what seems like deceiving the boss whose money he was put in charge of, but the key is the second part of Luke 16:8, that “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”  So this shrewd manager actually took action in light of something he heard (read the chapter), used his resources wisely, and Jesus held him up as an example.

To bring in just one more point, I think it’s sad but true that a lot of Christians define the health of their faith by the things they’re choosing not to do or participate in: think getting drunk, sex in the wrong context, drugs, even dirty language. But if that’s what we’re using as the measuring stick, something is not right. That leads into the concept behind Francis Schaeffer’s short but powerful little book called “The Mark of the Christian,” which I wrote about in another post. The connection I’m trying to make between this sincere woman applying the leadership training program everyday in her life, and my own convictions about my shortcomings (they never cease to amaze me), is that there is so much more living out to do. Who do I think I am, that I could skip out on the hard work of devotion and consistent discipline it takes to live the things Christianity is all about?

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]]> http://www.comfortbetrays.com/2009/07/punched-in-the-face-by-what-she-said/feed/ 1 The Mark of the Christian http://www.comfortbetrays.com/2009/04/the-mark-of-the-christian/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-mark-of-the-christian http://www.comfortbetrays.com/2009/04/the-mark-of-the-christian/#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 06:08:30 +0000 Daniel http://comfortbetrays.com/blog/?p=41 I was reading The Mark of the Christian by Francis Scheffer, in which he points out what the Christians have been known for down through the years has been their love for each other, and I’ve come to realize that’s not as much the case today. They’re known for plenty of other things, like being against abortion [pro-life], for having childish t-shirts and annoying bumper stickers, for dressing up on Sundays with their clothes and a happy smile, for talking in long intimidating words that their favorite theologians use, for voting republican, for making jokes about homosexuality, and for being jerks to people who disagree with them.
 
There’s something really wrong with this picture. 
 
Something that caught my eye, or more accurately my mind, came from Donald Miller in chapter 11 of his book, Blue Like Jazz. He speaks of a time on his university campus where the students have a large festival for getting high, drinking, and whatever else goes on during the partying, with the authorities kept out of the loop. Don and some Christian friends decide to try something different by setting up a confession booth in the midst of campus, but there’s a catch. They don’t accept confessions; they give them to people, apologizing for the crusades, televangelists, neglecting the poor and lonely, and not representing Jesus well.
 
Well, I don’t know if his method of starting with the failures is the right one specifically when in dialogue with those who do not claim to be Christians, but those issues must be addressed within the ranks of Christianity, rather than swept under the rug, as I’ve seen happen in Christian circles, Christian schools, etc. And when brought up, it may just be to acknowledge where we’ve been failing, even if it was likely not true followers who lead the crusades, who are on your TV asking for your money, and who bomb the abortion clinics. Now let me say that I can point out many good Christian friends who are known for their love, and that’s where I get so excited seeing the outcome, and example after example in their [and hopefully my] life where responding with love was what opened the door that changed a life.
 
So Schaeffer may have been on to something by writing his book about how things should look, instead of calling it something like “The Problem with Christians.” He focuses on what a Christian must be known for: love. And when I say “love,” I don’t just mean it in a limited sense of getting used and being taken advantage of. Those certainly happen, but love can include showing someone the error of the path they’re on so that they can see the right one they should be on, in a sense saving them. It’s the old example of a doctor giving someone news that may seem terrible: the test results show you have cancer. So is it good news or bad news? Bad of course, but certainly good news that the cancer has been discovered, AND that it can be cured. And I’ll remind you the doctor was merely the messenger, so why does everyone want to shoot the messenger? Could it be because of how we messengers have messed up the whole process?
 
The whole point is this. When the Christians are characterized by love, then those around are forced to deal with the God who is there, rather than get choked up on little excuses about all the problems with the people called Christians. I’ll end by just challenging any Christian who is reading this to ask the question, “What am I characterized by?” And I’ll be asking myself the same thing.
 
(centered around: John 13:33-35)
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