ZerOpaque

Rejection was the least of my concerns growing up. I don’t recall even considering it much. There were times, I’m sure, that I felt its sting for a moment, but those escape my memory. Oh sure, my feelings got hurt, but that’s quite different from being told I was unwelcome. All in all, people liked me and I liked that people liked me. In retrospect, most everything I did and said was to retain a firm grip on that acceptance. Read the rest of this entry »

Is going to church the same thing as “confessing Jesus before men” (Matthew 20:32-33)?  If the people I meet or work with “know” that I’m a Christian because I have a fish on my car – or because I pray before my meals, have I just “confessed” Jesus?  Are my Christian friends the “men” (people) that Jesus is referring to?

Myself, I live somewhere in the space between confession and denial. I’m not comfortable with that.

The idea that confession of Jesus to men (unbelieving people) is simply the absence of a denial permeates the church.

The context of the passage above is a command to evangelize and that we should not fear the “men” (non-believing people) that we are evangelizing to. Our identity as Christians (followers of Christ, Christ followers, whatever) should be crystal clear because of our “confession.” Nothing wrong with the fish on your car or being nice, but it seems like that should be a supplement to our confession of Jesus as Lord.

It’s interesting that, in a similar context of confessing Christ found in Romans 10:9-10, it is clearly pointed out that the confession is to be done verbally.  But even still, within the context of Matthew 10, Jesus refers to “speaking.”

I have a lot of growing to do. Thoughts? (perhaps not about my need to grow, but that’s fine. whatever.)

just a quick blog entry to let you know that I’ve changed the name and look of my blog. It is now called ZerOpaque. BillDBlogger was a stupid name and showed a severe lack of creativity.

New blog posts coming soon!

Bill D. Johnson

Heather, the cashier, says “Happy Holidays!”  in a cheerful tone to the customer just in front of me in line, as she hands over the receipt.  The customer responds in a stern tone with hundreds of words: “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” The man glares at Heather for 45 minutes as he conveys, through his eyes, an essay regarding his frustration with the political correctness of the present world that led her to say the two words she just said.  She offers a stiff smile and glances away at the awkwardness her angry “christian” customer has created. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was young, I was under the impression that a “revival” was just another planned event on the Church’s calendar. I don’t believe that anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

If I have ever been your friend, I still consider you a friend.

Add an enjoyment of writing to strong opinions about faith and politics, and you may have a recipe for offense among friends.  That’s pretty much where I land.

Here’s the thing.  People who enjoy writing tend to write about the things they are most passionate about.  What ends up happening is that you don’t get the opportunity to see the shades of gray within those topics.

Take politics for example.

If I write a blog entry about politics, it will most likely be right-leaning.  I may speak my mind on a particular topic, but not address related topics.  As human as you and I are, here’s what will happen:  You will read the post, you will add to that post other things which you know (or think you know) about me, and then you will fill in the gaps – the missing information – with experiences you’ve had or seen with other right-leaning types.

It’s that latter piece which will deceive your mind into believing something about me which is not true.

Oh, you can’t help it.  It’s what we humans do.  Our minds insist on completing a partial picture.  It is once we have created that picture, likely in an instant, that we can remind ourselves that we have drawn a conclusion that was not stated but rather given a hue from other unrelated experiences; from people whom I may not even know.

I am privileged that some of my closest friends differ greatly from me in their beliefs.  We can respectfully debate, we can passionately disagree, and we can be mature enough to still be friends.

If you don’t see things the same way I do, I don’t think badly of you.  I also don’t think you are any more wrong than you think I am.

If I have ever been your friend, I still consider you a friend.

– read about grace in friendships

Most nights, Alfred Green still cries. He keeps a single lantern lit to provide a dim glow and finds a certain comfort in the creaking patterns that persist from the old wooden rocking chair; sounds which he once despised just yesterday, it would seem. Read the rest of this entry »

On November 4th, 2008 we elected more than just a man into the office of President. We elected more than just a person with dreams and hopes of changing these United States into a better place to call home.
Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I need things to be simplified for me because I naturally tend to overthink.  I will spend years thinking that there is a deep meaning to something that is meant to be relatively simple.  Then a simple phrase is spoken that resolves the confusion and lays to rest the need to continue wondering if I’ve got it right.

“We glorify what we draw attention to” – (Full sermon)

That’s it.

I want to glorify God.  Most Christians do. That is, or should be, the ultimate purpose of our life.  But, that word, “glorify” always confounded me.  It shouldn’t have, but it did.  How do we glorify a God who can’t be made more valuable than He already is?  How do we somehow add to His glory?  We can’t.  This was always my confusion.  But confused or not, I have tried to do my best at carrying out this concept I couldn’t fully define.

What it means seems very simple now.  When we draw attention to something or someone, people say we are “glorifying” it.  When a movie makes violence look good, we say that it “glorifies” violence. It draws attention to violence in a positive light.  Glorifying isn’t always about making something bad seem good, but it’s also about revealing, or drawing attention to the good already present.

I’ve given “credit” to God for things that have happened in my life.  I’ve told other people to give God “credit”, but I didn’t see that as exactly the same thing as giving God glory.  Just credit.  It’s fair for me to be foolish about some things as long as I am willing to accept a new way of thinking when the Truth arrives.

If my life glorifies God, then that simply means that I draw attention to God, that I draw attention to His goodness and Truth.  That paradigm shift truly makes me reconsider everything.  I realize that I can either be spending my time drawing attention to something else, drawing no attention to anything, or drawing attention to God.  The Word says “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  I read that to mean that everything I do should be drawing attention to God.

It’s the “everything” part that I struggle with.  God always sets a perfect standard.  For imperfect humans, there is grace.

Please read “love, sin (part 1)” first

I’m a sinner. I don’t somehow qualify to talk about other peoples’ sins because I believe I’m immune. Do I have contempt for my sin? yes, because I have contempt for sin. So when I hear “love others as yourself,” I don’t believe the Word is speaking of worldly love, but of love that flows from Truth.

As Christians, our desire should be for truth regardless of what feels good or sounds right to us. We can show love to people with tolerance and acceptance, however, it is when that tolerance and acceptance no longer reflects the character of God, that we are no longer showing God’s love and are now participating in worldly love. Two very different things.

To the world, if something I say offends you, then I am not showing you love. In fact, you might even call it “hate”. But if what I said agrees with God’s Word, and it is said with as much gentleness as possible, what should I do? The worldly Christian’s answer might be to choose the pleasure of you over the pleasure of God. That feel-good love is all they know, and the world has taught them that it is the right thing.

The world does not acknowledge sin as sin. The world thinks that the message of the cross is offensive because it exposes sin. The world thinks that the Bible is all about peace and acceptance. The world doesn’t know God and therefore does not understand His love.

All sin of every sort can be forgiven. But God’s Word tells us that we must confess our sins and repent. So where does that leave the person who we’ve left believing that we accept their sin, and in fact support and rally behind their sin?

Robbed, by us, of the Truth.

Showing love (God’s, not the world’s) and gently exposing sin are not mutually exclusive or opposing activities. In the case of worldly love, they are polar opposites. “If you love me, you will accept and support everything about me” is a worldly distortion of love that Christians have bought into. The Biblical Truth is “if you love me, you’ll tell me the Truth.” We see that lived out in letters that the original Christians wrote to believers; showing love through encouragement as well as conveying truth about specific sin.

It is not new that the world attaches themselves to their sins so much that, at times, it seems to be a part of their identity. Shall Christians then embrace sin for fear that the person will feel unloved? No, but we must be gentle. But let us not confuse gentleness with an acceptance of sin, and let us not lie to people about sin and forgiveness.

Satan has accomplished an extraordinarily evil feat if the Church becomes neutral towards sin and forgiveness. Let’s stop helping him.

God’s Word is very clear that Christians should, in fact, deal with sin in the Church (other Christians) ideally after personal confession of those sins, but in some cases where sin is being exalted or hidden, through confrontation.  While reading letters in the New Testament that identify sinful behavior, ask yourself, what is your reaction to fellow Christians who identify specific sins in the same way?  Do you say things like “let he who is without sin cast the first stone?”  Are you aware of what passage you are referring to or is it just a cliche?  If you do, then you will understand that making a correlation between identifying sin and raising a stone, weapon, or fist to kill or physically hurt somebody who sinned is indeed a silly and inaccurate and naive correlation for a Christian to be making.  Clearly violence against some person because of their sin is unacceptable and unnecessary in the eyes of God – as the passage actually portrays.

So what am I saying?  That Christians should be going around pointing out people’s sin? No, not at all. But let’s stop going around supporting sin in the name of worldly love.  Let’s stop selling a watered-down gospel that omits the purpose of the cross.  Let’s stop believing that sin is defined through the subjective filter of our own life experiences, our current time, or our own rules.

The world prefers that we don’t talk about sin, the reason the gospel is important. Unfortunately, it’s a subject that cannot be avoided but should be handled with gentleness, in Truth.