Thoughts On Relevancy
February 24, 2009
I flinch when people talk about relevancy with this misconception about Christ being applicable to worldly things. I don’t think he is. I think he is relevant because he’s real. I think he is relevant because he is light in a world that is falling into darkness. I don’t think he is a God that happens to be into secular things, or in them at all (what is the well that secular music is drawn from?). I don’t think he cares about what we think is cool.
For us, as we strive to live lives of integrity and righteousness, being relevant or in the world does not mean that we dabble in darkness. We must be wary about letting what has been created create us. The best evangelism is to touch God and to burn bright on the inside. We can’t be burning if we’re swimming in filth.
So having something to talk about doesn’t mean that we have to be up to date on what’s cool. “Trying to be cool is the biggest waste of time in history” (David Sliker). We don’t disconnect from life, but we choose to be different. God is relevant because he is alive and he is real. He is fully and sufficiently relevant all by himself. We trust that he will make himself known to others when we live lives that are relevant to him.
At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev. 19:10)
February 24, 2009 at 7:44 am
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February 24, 2009 at 11:36 am
Pertinent, especially in line with Jooho’s latest small group leader training in Romans 14-15.
We are in the world, but not of it. I like that James puts it as keeping “oneself unstained from the world.”
We love the world as Jesus loved it. Not by bending to the cultural whims and understandings and playing to them, but by living simply according to His word, in love for one another, and allowing those principles to guide our lives, not culture that we’ve created (Matthew 15:8-9). Let’s never use the veneer of religiosity and “relevancy” or “cultural/relational evangelism” for the sake of sinfulness, or being too timid to stand against the world. God sees right through it, and it is rather shameful.
February 24, 2009 at 7:20 pm
mm.. i like this:
“The best evangelism is to touch God and to burn bright on the inside. We can’t be burning if we’re swimming in filth.”
i’m actually reading a book by d.a. carson called “christ and culture”. it talks in length about whether christ is IN culture or APART from culture or ABOVE culture- basically what is a christian’s relationship to culture? what should it be? i haven’t finished it yet but they’re interesting thoughts.
your entry is food for thought for me b/c i personally don’t like watching tv- it’s something i gave up some time ago b/c i think it’s a waste of time, personally. i guess my abstinence from tv began when my spiritual disciplines were starting to take place. but i feel like now i’m soo out of “pop culture” that i find myself feeling “irrelevant” during topics of conversation. i’ve been thinking “man. maybe i should ‘keep up with the times’ and watch tv or something”. so yeah. this is a reminder for me to chew on.
February 25, 2009 at 3:06 am
this is interesting…but a question comes to mind–you say dabbling in secular culture doesn’t mean you dabble in darkness…which i definitely agree in…but at the same time, you say that we swim in this filth…just how “good” or “evil” is secularism? is it either? by its’ nature, maybe it doesn’t fall entirely on one side or the other.
i think i liked augustine so much because he was “rational”…he said things were only as evil or sinful to the degree in which they were away from god. and things were only as graced as they were close to god. so maybe the question isn’t whether god is in or isn’t in things–but to what degree he is in them. cause i donno, i just can’t imagine an omnipotent god not being in all things…even indirectly–he created us and we created these things. so in a sense, they are touched by his grace. so maybe the more humans “touch” and “manipulate” things is what makes things move further and further away from god…
February 25, 2009 at 3:01 pm
here’s a quote i read today this morning fro my devotionals and i wanted to share it on this post. it goes along with my comment from yesterday:
“The doctrines of the gospel are meant to mould us so that our lives begin to ’set’ in the likeness of Christ. We have made little or no impression upon the world, for the very reason that the gospel doctrine has made a correspondingly slight impression upon us. It cannot be overemphasized that men and women who have accomplished anything in God’s strength have always done so on the basis of their grasp of truth.”
- Sincalir Ferguson, The Christian Life (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1981), 8-9.
February 25, 2009 at 3:16 pm
@vicky – I don’t really believe that this is true. I believe that God created everything and deemed each thing “good,” yet our sin perverts everything. It destroys everything. Everything is in decay and headed towards destruction because of our sin. Unless there is a redemption of purpose for anything, I believe, wholly, that it is “sinful.” I don’t believe in degrees of sin because I don’t read anywhere in the Bible that there are degrees.
@minnow, @anna, @julia – I think Jesus’ high priestly prayer covers a lot of this idea. Jesus specifically prays that we won’t be taken out of the world, but simply kept from the evil one. However, he also prays that we will be set apart, made holy, in praying that we will be sanctified in the truth.
So, unifying both of these – how do we redeem the fallen things of this world? Heck if I know.
February 27, 2009 at 4:04 am
i c what you’re saying steven…but i spose i just have a couple questions on things that are unclear to me. if god created all things good, yet we pervert them, does that mean that god knowingly made us perverted (or that we’d eventually become perverted?) or at the very least, he created the potential for evil..in which case, all of his creations weren’t absolutely good?
and i guess i’m not sure what you mean by everything..does this mean that “things” are sinful? movies, music, a book, a chair? and if so, how can things redeem themselves? or is it that once we redeem ourselves, things become good?
and the bible might not outwardly discuss “degrees”, but i think the bible is still a text to be interpreted. i think just the nature of reading it–you digest it, think about it, have it mold your thoughts, and finally regurgitate it–you inevitably interpret the bible. some things seem clear, but there’s also a lot of it that can be interpreted in so many ways. like different sects and things..but i think they’re all still valid.
this was kinda long, and i just wan to mention that i don’t mean the least offense! i just like religion. and thinking/questioning/arguing about it with different people cause i only have one POV and there’s so many that are out there.
March 12, 2009 at 4:37 am
this is a tough subject because it’s hard to define what activities / things are good and which are bad… some would say that they find God in everything (museums, pop culture, secular music, art, science, etc.) and others would say God is only found in such and such constructs (usually of the religious sort)… i tend to veer towards the latter but have found that people i highly love and respect sit on both sides of the fence… so who’s right? i dunno… all i know is we all need Jesus and we don’t spend nearly enough time with Him as we should (both sides of the fence).. how much is enough? i think our conscience knows the answer to that if we think long and hard about where our time goes… for me it’s always a struggle between the internet, food, and God… between those three, I usually give into the first two.. i don’t quantify this by how much time I give to each of these things (although that’s not an altogether inaccurate way to gauge things like this sometimes)… but rather by my conscience (which is affected by the Holy Spirit’s prompting..)
wow.. i typed a lot.. this is the first time i’m commenting on wordpress.. so many ppl have these blogs.. yay.. thanks anna for posting this.. it was very encouraging and edifying.
March 12, 2009 at 4:43 am
man.. i do this a lot.. i didn’t finish my thought process.. so yeah.. i observe myself a lot and i realize whenever i have a spare moment to relax.. i want to relax by going on the net or eating food or sometimes hanging out with friends / fiancee… this isn’t bad.. but i remember pastor dave saying at the retreat… we are built to have NEEDS.. and why is it that we run to everything else but GOD to fill those needs? e.g., i had a long day at work and i just want to unwind.. lemme surf the net for 3 hours.. and then hang out with so and so for another 2 hours.. and eat this and watch that…
by the time it’s time to pray to God, I’ve already given the “firstfruits” or my “prime time” to all these other things.. and i’m too exhausted to give God any quality time.. if i did this with my fiancee, she’d be pretty sad.. so im sure God is sad when i do this..
he wants to be the first one that i run to when im bored, lonely, tired, want comfort, want peace, want rest.. not these other things..
mm yes. that’s what i wanted to say.