“There is legitimate guilt that is removed through repentance and restitution, and then there is irremediable guilt. When people say, “I know God forgives me, but I can’t forgive myself,” they mean that they have failed an idol whose approval is more important to them than God’s.”

It comes across somewhat harsh. But I believe Keller is right. Many people, including myself at times, have no intellectual problem accepting God’s grace and forgiveness. But on an emotional level, we remain weighed down with guilt.

If we honestly believe that God’s approval is what matters and that, although we have failed him, he has truly and fully forgiven us, then part of accepting that forgiveness must be forgiving ourselves. If we refuse to forgive ourselves, we must not fully believe that God has forgiven us.

If we continue to wallow in guilt and despair, it must be that there is some other deity in our heart that we believe we need forgiveness from—an idol. But an idol can never forgive.

I see this illustration to be true in my own life. Ridding ourselves of idols doesn’t only mean that God gets all the glory he deserves from us, but it also means we get to live in the joy that comes from fully understanding and accepting what it means to be forgiven and accepted by God.

Related posts:

1. Veiled Idols
2. A Sign of Religious Idolatry
3. No Reason Outside Himself

Encyclopedias? I don’t think I stayed in school long enough to really grow accustomed to using them. The internet seems to do the trick nicely.

Well, today, as I was browsing the net, I came across this image on thereifixedit.com. It seems to serve as what might be a pretty accurate omen to the future of most print material.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, conveniently modified into a broom to brush away debris on the floor.

Having little higher education, and not having read too much up until about four years ago, I personally have no attachment to the printed medium of literature. Well, other than the fact that I don’t really want to sit in front of my computer screen to read. But, with the advent of a versatile digital media device like the iPad, I can foresee a time when I don’t have a single book shelf in my home and all of my books are consolidated into one little digital media portal. Not unlike the way we’ve ditched shelves and shelves of DVD and CD cases.

I have friends who decry this attitude of mine. Clinging to the nostalgic feeling of several hundred pages bound together to tell a story or communicate an idea.

But a post of Craig Mod’s blog seems to sum things up pretty nicely. Well, for the immediate future, at least.

He argues that a huge amount of our familiarity with the written word will be challenged. Nothing is necessarily sacred. Just because we have lived for hundreds of years interacting with books on a page-by-page basis, doesn’t mean we will continue to. In fact, a digital medium will explode the formatting potential of our literature. Hopefully, in a good way.

As someone with no attachment to the analog methods we’ve used for centuries, I say bring it on!

Related posts:

1. My Severed Digital Cord
2. All of Grace
3. Digital Eavesdropping

I couldn’t help but take the chance to invite you into my morning routine from the last few days… you know, before the rain starts and spoils it all!

Related posts:

1. Reflections on a Thunder Storm
2. Spiritual Self-Examination
3. Preemptive Frustration

Usually, I’m a big fan of competition between business. It usually leads to lower prices and better products and I’m all about that. (Come on wireless providers, someone take the plunge into affordable wireless PC connections!). But sometimes, companies that compliment each other well and together offer something great, do something stupid. Like trying to deliver the whole package themselves.

See, like people, companies are often good at one thing, while being weaker at something else. Hence wonderfully symbiotic business relationships. But, when those companies decide they want to compete with each other, rather than work together, I, the customer, lose!

Who else could I be talking about besides Apple Computers and Google.

I’m a huge fan of both of these companies. Apple does the whole personal computers and handheld devices really, really well. And Google does pretty much everything internet really, really well. Maps, docs, calendars, wave, voice? Hello! It’s freakin’ amazing. Google’s integration on the iPhone couldn’t be any more convenient. Google is even Safari’s default search engine. Of course, because that’s the search engine we all use and love.

But now, Google has gone and done something stupid. They decided they wanted to make their own browser (Chrome, which is pretty great), and their own OS (also Chrome, which is kind of a joke), their own mobile OS (Android, which the jury is still out on) and now their own branded handset which goes head to head with the iPhone (the Nexus One). By the way, did you know that Google doesn’t have call centers ready to answer people’s questions about their products? Yeah, even the $500 Nexus One handset. And of course, now customer service satisfaction is at a dismal low. Probably because it doesn’t exist.

(Interestingly enough, you know who does have call centers and one of the highest customer service rankings anywhere? Apple Computers.)

Of course, Google couldn’t just stick with what it was actually good at. Instead, they had to move into this whole new realm of physical devices and thereby forcing Apple to make other plans. (Possibly even with Microsoft!)

Now, Apple has bought a maps related company. Presumably in anticipation of edging Google Maps off their devices in the future. And, there’s even talk of replacing Google as the default search with Bing. Bing! Are you freaking kidding me? I know, it sounds crazy, but that’s what the rumor sites are saying. That steaming pile of crap they call a search engine is not what I want to use. I want to use GOOGLE!

And seriously, Apple, are you going to send thousands of camera equipped vans all over the world to give us street views for your maps application? No! Of course not! You’re product isn’t widely adopted enough!

Ugh!

So, Apple—please don’t be afraid of Google. Continue to embrace what they do well and give us what we want. Integration with Google and it’s horde of amazing products.

Google—Your web stuff is awesome. But your whole cloud computing, netbook, ChromeOS thing isn’t going to work out unless you also plan to give everyone dedicated, 100% internet. I spend too much time away from a wifi hotspot. ChromOS, useless. Stick to what you do well and don’t run my mobile computing experience into the ground by making other great companies choose lesser solutions.

Microsoft—Just start over completely.

In Conclusion

Competition isn’t always good.

This rant has been brought to you by my frustrations with the unfolding situation between Apple and Google. Now that it’s out of my system, hopefully it won’t come up again any time soon.

Related posts:

1. Digital Eavesdropping
2. Microsoft is a Terrible Company
3. Stick it to the man! Finally!

An idol is something we look to for things that only God can give. Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to positions of a false god. This occurs when people rely on the rightness of their doctrines for their standing with God rather than on God himself and his grace. It is a subtle but deadly mistake. The sign that you have slipped into this form of self-justification is that you become what the book of Proverbs calls a “scoffer”. Scoffers always show contempt and disdain for the opponents rather than graciousness, This is a sign that they do no see themselves as sinners saved by grace. Instead, their trust in the rightness of their views makes them feel superior.

Does that sound personally familiar to you? It has to me. Perhaps not as severely right now, but in the past, definitely. Sometimes we may not even realize that we have placed some of our hope in something other than the Gospel.

Many churches look at the churches around them as competitors, rather than partners. Or theological diversity as a threat to their ministry. I doubt this is anything short of a sense of religious idolatry.

Even if our theology is right, and our church is healthy, our attitudes toward other people’s theological ideas and churches reveal a good deal about what our own thought and theology means to us. “Scoffing” and “disdain” for anyone is not a good thing. But it’s especially revealing when those things are directed at people who share the same salvation we do.

Related posts:

1. Greed is an Invisible Sin
2. Non-Negotiable
3. An Idol’s Approval

Related posts:

1. ‘Kings’ on NBC is the Biblical Story… sort of

(Can’t see the video? Watch it on YouTube!)

Related posts:

1. Video Blogging Has Begun
2. I Have a Problem With Church Authority
3. Don’t Treat Me Like a Dollar Sign!

But while most Americans don’t seem to bat an eye at the basic concepts of Christianity, I submit that Christianity would be, in fact, the craziest.

When we hear the ancient bells growling on a Sunday morning we ask ourselves: Is it really possible! This, for a jew, crucified two thousand years ago, who said he was God’s son? The proof of such a claim is lacking. Certainly the Christian religion is an antiquity projected into our times from remote prehistory; and the fact that the claim is believed – whereas one is otherwise so strict in examining pretensions – is perhaps the most ancient piece of this heritage. A god who begets children with a mortal woman; a sage who bids men work no more, have no more courts, but look for the signs of the impending end of the world; a justice that accepts the innocent as a vicarious sacrifice; someone who orders his disciples to drink his blood; prayers for miraculous interventions; sins perpetrated against a god, atoned for by a god; fear of a beyond to which death is the portal; the form of the cross as a symbol in a time that no longer knows the function and ignominy of the cross — how ghoulishly all this touches us, as if from the tomb of a primeval past! Can one believe that such things are still believed?

from Nietzsche’s Human, all too Human

“Sins perpetrated against a god, atoned for by a god.” This is the cornerstone of Christianity’s would-be madness. Though none of us bats an eye, or even wonders at it.

If the statement “It’s so crazy, it must be true”, were ever true, it would be so of Christianity. In this way, Christianity is completely unique among world religions. Of course, it has its similarities as well. The core principles are absolutely all its own and unlike anything else.

Man would sin against God and lose all hope in himself for reconciliation, but in the face of that, God himself would become the reconciliation for man.

In the climate of the many world religions out there, For me, and many others, the uniqueness and, in a sense, the absurdness of Christianity adds a drop into the bucket of evidence which helps to strengthen my faith. Ironically, quite the opposite of Nietzsche.

Related posts:

1. True Repentance is Never Satisfied
2. Sennacherib’s Hard Argument
3. The Humility in Tasting the Sour Wine

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Paul writes these words to the Corinthians. He has just explained some of how he chooses to interact with the Lost. Giving up many of his own liberties, at times, to better meet those people where they are. And so he tells the Corinthian church to imitate him, as he imitates Christ.

This verse is often used in the more direct sense that we should imitate our leader’s as they attempt to imitate Christ. This is an apt application of the scripture. But it occurred to me this morning as I was reading that we could also probably apply this in a broader sense as well.

As believers we all are imitators of Christ. We all have his Word and his Gospel. While the early church needed leaders to be a kind of ‘walking scripture’ to remind them of the Truth (they didn’t have very may written copies yet, and no one had a copy all to themselves which they could study daily), we now have the written transcripts and almost all of us have one all to ourselves. Those leading figures in our community remain important, but perhaps not always in the exact same way.

Because of this, we are all in a position to learn from each other and pour into one another. In some ways, we are all to each other, as Paul was to the Corinthians. We are all imitators of Christ to each other.

It stands to reason, with some limit, that we ought to not only look to our assigned leaders for our example, but also each other as to how to imitate Christ. To assess what is honorable in each other and imitate that.

Perhaps I have a great will and ability to read and study God’s word, while you have a great will and ability to seek God in prayer. These are both honorable things, and looking to each other, we should see what is good and attempt to emulate that as well.

I suspect this would help us to have a healthier view of following and serving God in our various ways, rather than idealizing church leadership and viewing that as the ‘pinnacle’ of following Christ.

Related posts:

1. How Does the Church Miss Paul’s Words?
2. Challenged by a Brother
3. But These Are Written

Most of the quotes in Mohler’s post came from Catherine Davis, a pro-life advocate with a focus on the black community, and the website toomanyaborted.com.

The reality of abortion is a shameful stain on our culture. And while it has evolved into something appearing to be ‘benevolent’, it’s roots in the eugenics movement (a pseudo-science aimed at selectively breeding the ‘superior humans’, and sterilizing the ‘unfit’ ones) are grotesque.

Davis thoroughly believes that abortion is a prevailing piece in a huge conspiracy to ‘cleanse’ the human race of black people. I suppose it could be, but that doesn’t seem like the most rational answer to me.

Now hear me out and please, don’t confuse what I’m saying. I hate abortion. I hate the idea that human beings of any kind can be nullified in the name of ‘freedom’ and ‘choice’. Americans have choices and freedom, but only to a point. And this is true across the board. I have the freedom to face an accuser, or not to. But I don’t have the freedom to rob him, or kill him. I have the freedom to quit my job and live on the streets begging for money. But I don’t have the freedom to steal my food and clothing.

Similarly, a woman has the freedom to engage in sex with whoever is willing, but she shouldn’t have the freedom to simply dodge the consequences that may follow when that means violating another person’s freedoms—the child she inadvertently conceived.

The abortion industry has an obvious slant toward black people. Though the statics are skewed. It also has an obvious slant toward low-income people in general. Unfortunately, this often means the Hispanic and black parts of our culture.

The abortion industry is incredibly lucrative. There is tons of money to be made. And this, I believe, is the pressing matter. Money. Not racial cleansing or hate. Liquor stores also have a concentration in minority areas as well. Yet I doubt there is a racially based conspiracy driving liquor sales.

It would seem to me, more likely, that there are cultural and economic situations in these particular people’s lives that make them more likely to pay for these procedures. Or, at the very least, makes public programs which pay for such procedures for these people much easier to achieve while appearing to do social good.

Even slavery throughout history wasn’t driven primarily by hate, but by money. ‘Free’ forced labor is ‘good’ for a business owner’s bank account. Or, at least in the short run it is.

Consider this, as a middle-class, white American, I am much more likely to walk by an Apple store. And, their marketing is almost definitely targeting me. But is that racist, or simply economic? It’s economic. There are all kinds of cultural and economic things that make me more likely to buy, and so their marketing campaigns have their crosshairs set.

I see no problem in speculating what may be the motives of those perpetuating something as terrible as abortion. But that really can’t be verified. And, staking a claim like racism or genocide, I believe, may have some really dangerous social consequences.

It hasn’t been that long since blacks in America were considered sub-citizens and it wasn’t long before that that they were considered by Europeans and new Americans to be sub-human. Those are deep wounds and they will take more time to fully heal. I believe that taking something as widespread and socially ‘acceptable’ as abortion and building an uprising against it on the claim that it is motivated by racist conspiracy will work against the efforts for social healing and reconciliation.

In fact, I think part of the reason her movement is gaining so much steam is because those wounds still exist and are very real. If you can fuel a social cause with something else people are passionate about, they will be more emotionally connected to the whole thing. But, while I think this could lend itself well to brining an end to abortion, looking back it may also go a long way to stunt the healing of a huge group of people.

I commend Davis for speaking out, and particularly for speaking out to the black community. However, I don’t think it is necessarily beneficial, or even responsible, to build that following on the possibility of racially motivated conspiracy. We want our children, who are lucky enough to survive the womb, to grow up secure in and loving their racial heritage, but also loving and respecting everyone else’s.

Kudos Davis. But please, reconsider the talking points.

Related posts:

1. Reflections on the Abortion Distortion
2. Pleasing Thoughts & Actions
3. No, Mr. President