biblical worldviewing

One of my students is on the computer looking at a video game preview that has virtual bumper cars (my students are autistic) and this 12 year old boy says:

“Mr. Law? Have you ever seen this before? This is a game of old-fashioned bumper cars.”

I say “Oh yeah–I love bumper cars! Have you ever been on them before?”

And he says, “Yeah! Oh, do you mean a real life one? No…”

Ever heard the expression, “Pray as if everything depends upon God, work as if everything depends upon you”?

Now I can see why such a statement would be made. I can see the heart behind such a saying! It’s encouraging people to have profound times of prayer and ask the Lord for help–which is a good thing. It’s also saying to not only be hearers but doers, and work to bless and serve others–which is another good thing. The problem is not in the heart of the saying, but the actual words. The saying is not reality. There is no ‘as if’ about everything being dependant upon the Lord–everything really is dependant upon the Lord, praying and working.

The Bible is so wonderful because not only does it make clear what a believer in Christ is supposed to do, but the why! To the Bible, motive is important.

1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.

1 Peter 1:16
since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”

Hebrews 13:12-13
“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.”

The Bible is concerned with the real. The Lord would not ask us to do something based upon any false motivation when true reasons that call for action are enough. The saying “Pray as if everything depends upon God, work as if everything depends upon you” is so much less encouraging than something that was real, something like this:

“Pray because everything depends upon God, work because everything depends upon God and he has ordained ordinary men and women to fulfill his purposes, and to God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

‘For example, if I saw a person in need, and I took your money to help him, I’d be arrested and convicted of theft. If I get Congress to do the same thing, I am seen as compassionate.’
A good quote from a World Net Daily article about the reason why people like government. I try to stay away from discussing politics at all, for many reasons, but mostly because the government is upon Christ’s shoulders, and the Church is more powerful than all governments put together–why invest so much activism in something that matters so little compared to the Church? I could go on, but anyway, the point made in the quote is the same as something my Dad told me a long time ago. He said when he was about 16 in the 50’s and welfare was starting to gain more and more legislation, he remembered having the same thought that there is no real virtue in welfare. The people made to pay it (taxpayers) have no virtue in it because they are forced to pay, and the people allocating it to the needy have no virtue in it because it is not really their own money. What you’re left with is someone receiving a heartless pity offering from people who never wanted to pay, with no feeling of thankfulness other than to a faceless state. Consider how much better is the way the Church advocates–cheerfully and personally giving sacrificially to relieve the suffering of the poor and outcast, especially eternal suffering.

‘They say a perfect love… is a world without hunger’ - Caedmon’s Call, Share the Well

This is the funniest thing said today (after a long day of work detail involving the aqueous weeding of certain disgusting river weeds, and in a circle of counselors around a fire on the top of a bluff):

The question asked of the group: “Why are you here at camp to be a counselor?”

The answer, given by a guy named Garreth fresh from New Zealand: “Well I saw this movie called Brokeback Mountain, and really wanted to have some of that experience.”

Result: Much laughter