This is a response to a question asked regarding a previous post: how do you limit the noise in church? In order to answer this question, one must have a proper understanding of noise. What is it? Is it completely external? Noise is anything that hinders clear transferal of communication. Examples of external sources of noise would be an email written in cell phone text language, a noisy room, staticy phone, etc. In church, some examples would be the pastor wearing a clown suit, the sermon being choppy and illogically presented without flow. These are some typical examples. However, one often goes unnoiticed: a traditionalistic mindset in the congregation. This mindset finds it's comfort in the fact that everything is done the way it's always been done. If something is different, critisism and offense arises in the minds of the people. Notice this comfort and basis for offense has nothing to do with what church is about. This mindset comes with a "spiritual" contentment with "doing church" regardless of terminology involved. Therefore, the working of the Spirit is quenched by "leave everything the same" mentality. Change is a swear word. The mindset toward church inevitably latches onto one's mindset toward spiritual things in one degree or another. As I have observed churches, this is typical. A church gets stuck in a rut of traditionalism, spiritaully grows weaker - both tr'ism and spiritual weaknes working together - but then experiences revival. Then things naturally tend to change in the service: the people welcome and even encourage spontanuity, things are cut out of the service to give room for something else that's actually worth doing, etc. So what needs to happen to eliminate noise? One thing, get rid of comfort in how things have always been done. The people need to come to church wanting to worship their God together, regardless of the order of service or elements involved (as long as those elements are worshipful in the first place). If the mindset of the people worships God with the individual elements, then they can do so no matter what order they are in. The problem is that people just "do" the elements of church without being consumed by their God in those elements. So, the lack of noise starts with a right heart. Other options beyond that is to change things up to help people not get stuck in a rut. If a rut is perceivable, it might be wise for a pastor to have a family discussion with the congregation about it, and maybe even take out the cause of the rut for a sufficient amount of time. The service does not have to reflect the immutability of God, but rather praise Him for Him.

A house fire will eventually go out on its own. But the hard work comes with preventative measures - keeping the fire from starting in the first place. Most Christians think they show patience when the internal heat eventually goes away. Rather, such quenching is the natural degression of the flame as teh flame sparking event grows more distant from the concern of the individual. This happens faster or slower depending on the personality's response to or thought processes concerning a certain event. But the flame itself, though not necessarily displayed outwardly, is still spiritually destructive and sinful. Patience is the spiritual fruit that prevents a flame from appearing altogether when a spark occurs. It is making the house flame resistant by nature. This quality grows in a person as Christ imparts to that individual His mind and heart. "Let patience have her perfect work." To be perfect is not to be relative to the extremity of circumstances.

Some see hell as the gun held to their head as someone threatens them. "If you don't accept My grace, I'll pull the trigger!" Hell was never intended to be used by God to threaten. It is a byproduct to ignoring His grace. It was "created for the devil and his angels," i.e., not for humans. So why does one go to hell? That one fails to allow Go'd grace to reign and do His work, i.e., to reject the saving blood of Christ. Why does a person go hell for that? It is a rejection of cleansing by the stained person whose stains cannot enter the presence of God because of His holiness (uniqueness, seperateness). It is a challenge to His glory. Therefore, we are saved for His glory, not our eternal comfort, nor because we give into the hell-gun threat. To give into a threat is not to do so because of the worthy nature of the threatener, but because of desire for personal comfort and life. We are not saved for such reasons. This would mock God by our pride filled motives. We are not saved for us. Heaven is not a reward for accepting His grace. We are saved for God and because of God. We are created for His pleasure - should we be saved for any other reason?

Two new posts today. . .what in the world.
What is it to give one's will? one's desires? It is to seek the best for another, to want good for another regardless of personal gain and satisfaction. How does God do this? Doesn't He love Himself first? I suppose my definition of love is merely how humans ought to love. Since God is transcendant He is also unique in the sense that He deserves glory. How would only be just by acknowledging this fact. Therefore, He gives that we might be satisfied in Him alone, thus acknowledging His Holinessand self-sufficiency compared to our opposite nature. He loves that we may respond in worship. Though there be no attractive qualities in us, He yet seeks a personal relationship with us, for we are His image barers, spreading or quenching His fame in the eyes of all. How does He deal with both in love? The spreader He gives yet more grace to thrive. To the quencher, he who resists His grace, he remains consistent with Himself and performs justice where justice is due. On earth, He deals justly that the quencher might turn into a spreader. In eternity, He deals justly because He loves His own glory, and cannot look upon sin, and cannot accept the stained into His presence.

God's glory is foremost on His mind in every action and thought. he created all things with the intent that all created beings would bring Him pleasure and glory in one way or another. An olympic runner carefully trains himself that each step He takes will be as effective as possible - to the end that he might reach the finish line. A goal is always more important than the means, because it is the driving force that causes one to utilize said means. If the goal is appropriately assessed, the means will properly conform to the nature of the goal. So what is it to "glorify God"? Is it not to inwardly exclaim His magnificence and fame, producing outward response, the exclamation of His Name in one way or another?So how is God's goal of personal glory attained by Him? He knows His specific tactics. But that which is obvious - He gains Himself glory according to His love: for others and for Himself. In short, love is the giving of one's will freely for the benefit of others without thought of personal gain or satisfaction. Satisfaction is merely a natural outcome of love. So how is it that for His own glory's sake, God freely dispenses His will and desire to another? Love is a display of His glory. To be a receiver is to suggest on is lacking in some area and subject to the supply of another. To be a giver is to suggest that one is sufficient and another is in need. God's love for us is different than our love for Him. We love Him because He first loved us, and gave Himself for us. Being in sin, we cannot love God without His provision of grace. God is unique, holy, in that He is sufficient. He cannot help being love. Though He is love, however, He is also just, because He loves Himself foremost. When a man denies His free grace, He, being righteous and unable to commune with sin, must remain seperate from that sinner for eternity. Condemnation glorifies God since it magnifies this righteousness and justice. Plus, whatever God does spreads His fame. If it didn't, His action wouldn't be perfect, and He wouldn't be God. Therefore, the condemnation of a sinner brings Him glory, though He is yet not willing that any should perish.

So I was reading today in 2 Cor. 9 where it talks about generosity. I don't suppose it would be too far a stretch to say that the generosity of which Paul speaks could refer also to spiritual gifts. According to my understanding, shaped by 1 Cor. 12-14, our gifts are not there to benefit us. Rather they are there to give us something to express our love through, that God may be glorified through the edification of the church. And let us not forget that these gifts are given individually for specific reasons by the one who has the lives of us all laid out before Him. Now we get to our passage in 2 Cor. 9. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times ,you may abound in every good work" (v. 8). In other words, in order to complete His good work, God, who has every moment and every area of our lives laid out before Him at all times, has given us all everything we need to do what He wants us to do. There is not a time in our life when we are deprived of any source needed to use our gifts as God would have us use them, for His purposes. Verse 11 states, "You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God." "In every way" is an interesting statement. What is included in that? Is it only physical enrichment for physical generosity? money, housing, stuff, physical labor, etc? Or would that include those areas that are inside ourselves? To the bible communicator, would God deprive you of those things necessary to appropriately address a situation? Isn't such a conversation or sermon a tool He provides to bring Himself glory through the edification of the church and teh evangelization of the lost? Would He deprive Himself of glory? So doesn't it make sense that He would provide the understanding and the means of communication that are necessary to do so? Will He not work in the listener that they might understand also? So why do we worry? Shouldn't we rather seek the mind and heart of the One who knows what He is doing? He has promised to provide what is necessary for us to bring Him glory. So, where we seem to lack, we don't really lack, cuz God doesn't, for some reason, mean to glorify Himself in that area, but rather another. He gives us gifts. Why is the provision for the physical always pounded, while not giving thought to the spiritual? He provides the means to glorify Himself within us more, cuz without the inside, how will we be what we should be outside? To the communicator, God promises to give what is necessary to communicate effectively. Will we neglect His provision by not acknowledging it? It's His work. Don't think it's your own. Otherwise, you provide for yourself from your empty storehouse, and ignore God's abundance.

So what's the deal with church? Why are yawns more common than Amens? Why is easy believeism practically becoming its own denomination? Why are the churches with the biggest bands and most up beat music and entertaining programs the churches with the greatest attendance? Is it the fault of the pastors? the people? the culture? I believe, yes, in different degrees in different circumstances. Here is a commonly overlooked initiator (common because I've never heard it as a reason before, so common to me): Noise. Noise is a business term that describes anything that interferes with effective communication. In many fundamental churches, the truth is preached(properly is a different issue), but the people are not phased. One aspect of this noise is daily information overload. Most people in our congregations are involved with business on a daily basis in one form or another. Information is thrown at us from every direction constantly. No longer is work highly physical labor, but rather mental. We get information in every internet page we visit. We get it in every meeting, email, letter, business document, conversation, newspaper article, and radio broadcast. Also, on the way home information is given through music, signs, dashboards, construction zone. At home it is given through answering machines, grocery lists, children, husband/wife, etc. The world is busy. The world is full of easily accessible and forced information. So it's no wonder our minds turn off when we go to church. The church also throws information at us constantly, even before the sermon. By the time the service gets to something that matters, noone cares anymore. The pleasant church surroundings and cushioned pews provide a nice atmosphere in which to zone out. The church member hears enough information to parrot when the time comes to act spiritual, but the rest of the week is spent in the "real world," as it has been made to be known. Little of the reality of Christ is known. The constant intake of information that doesn't need to be taken to heart trains a person to hear the Word and accept it only mentally. The heart is not trained to respond. Therefore, the people cannot understand a vibrant relationship with Christ. Therefore, they die, or remain in their death. So when will the church decide to cut out the unecessary noise and get to what matters? 3 services on Sunday, and one midweek, all complete with announcements the people already read in the bulletin, 400 verses from the hymnal that noone cares to understand, special music that rarely raises an eyebrow, 4 prayers that noone really means, a sermon that the people are too tired to listen to by then, an invitation that is more honestly a nap time, another clincher hymn, and then dismissal, which the people actually look forward to. Why do we tire the people out for the sermon? They're already tired of receiving information by the time they get there. "Prepare their hearts" - how do you prepare a dormant heart? Do we get bigger upbeat music? No, that just covers and excuses the problem at hand. So do most contemporary tactics. I say, according to the character of the church, start with cutting down the unneccessary noise. Who cares if that's how we've always done it. The sermon has just becomes another addition to the service. It is not longer the desire of the people. It is a "have to, cuz that's what we do." More later concerning church.

How is it that we can think of Christ apart from emotion? Can we think of a lover apart from it? What is "first love" love? I like how John Piper put it: it is the love that is known between a wedded couple on their honeymoon, when they can't bare to be apart from each other for even a moment. If they're not wrapped up in arms, then they are lost in their eyes. Are we told in Scripture that we are supposed to lose this love for Christ? Then how can we think about Him without emotion? Is it because our considerations of Him are purely scholastic? Is it because we have given our love to another, and left little for Him? Is it becuase for one reason or another we have obstained from the full relationship that He wants to have with us? When Christ spoke with the woman at the well, He mentioned that He would give her "living water." Contrary to popular exegesis, "living" refers not to eternal life, but to vibrant, rushing waters. He compares the life He wishes to give to His own to the raging, bubbling, turning and tossing waters of a rushing river. But why is it that fundamental Baptists especially have traded this promised life for stagnant, bitter cisterns? Why have we left our first love? In order to leave one thing, one must go to something else. What have we sought in the place of Christ? To whom have we given our deepest love? I think, ourselves. This makes sense in context with this thought. Eternal life grants us not only length of life, but quality of life as well, which quality begins revealing itself in the mortal flesh. To love Christ, to abound in such a relationship with the one who calls His chosen the "dearly beloved of [His] soul," to be overwhelmed with His living water, is to enter into the quality aspect of eternal life. To love self is to retain the length of eternal life, but to deny the quality of it. Therefore, pride equals misery when one considers the life Christ gives. Not that we love Christ to gain abundant life, for to do that would be to miss the boat completely, living in the world of stagnant self-aggrandizement. To love Christ is to at the same time be "for Him" in every way shape and form, to show His splendor. To think otherwise is to lack love all together.

Let's discuss love again. Why is it so hard to love people that we really don't get along with? And yes, "not getting along with" and "love" are two seperate, sort of unrelated ideas. Personalities clash. It's a known fact. There's not much one can do about that. But, we can set our pride aside and love them anyway. We see love as though it is something that needs to have handles to hold on to. Like, there has to be some substance to which it can hang on. We can see something of the nature of love by the classic and undermined example of God loving us. Did we provide God's love with a handle (I am NOT talking about "love handles." On that note. . .)? Rather our nature does everything possive to push his love away from getting ahold of us, that He might love us, let alone depriving Him of a handle. Therefore, we ought love as God loves. "Uncoditional" is the term used, but what the stink does that mean? It's in our head. It's in our heart. It has nothing to do with those we strive to love. To have Christ's mind and heart is to with all our feeling, emotion, drive, desire, compulsion, longing, be for the sakes of others. Love is not a feeling that comes up at situation altering (greatening and quenching) moments. It is a state of existence that comes only to those who find it with God in their life in His immediate, yet, invisible presence. If one does not find that their above inward state characteristics are for God, then it will never be for man no matter how hard he tries. The unsaved have no real understanding of love. They can't find it, for to find it, one must gain it from a relationship with God. Let me clarify something - a relationship with God is not there so one can love. One loves so he might inflame the fire of God's popularity and image of beauty and majesty (aka glorify). So the question is - why do you want to love? Why do you want to better yourself? Why do you want to be successful in ministry? Why should you care about any of this? If the reason ends with anything other than God's glory (that's not just a textbook answer; it's never known by a 2 second soul searcihng) then your throne is occupied by vanity. WHY is a wonderful question to ask yourself throughout life. The answers come short of His glory all the time. But it's a needed thought.

I admit, it's been a while. I also admit, a part of me misses writing on this stupid thing. Only a small part though, which, to be honest, is shameful. The whole reason I started doing this was to lay out my thoughts on various subjects that I stumbled across, and, while doing so, provide a means of edification whether it be through the mind of a reader, or through personal spiritual and rational developement put to use in every day situations. But, here I go anyway. But I warn the reader: I do not wish that this motive should change. In fact, I would purge the more-or-less statement of -or-less in reference to wanting to do it for personal enrichment, whatever that means. This is a warning because my unfiltered thoughts can sometimes lack tact to a great degree, so read at your own risk and take the statements merely as unfiltered thoughts containing no desire to offend negatively. Only positive offenses allowed, that is, those offences that draw us nearer to our Lord. But, acknowledging the presence of an audience, I will do my best to limit those offences cloaked with negativity. That's all for today. This post is a good example of my ability to say so little in so many words.