RonParrs.com: Notes from My Desk...

Ferguson, Missouri & the Gospel

When you're making comments or sharing news or other's comments on Facebook, good discussions can often begin.

Last night (November 29, 2014) I reposted a story from Ferguson, MO, USA, that highlighted a protestor who while out looting and pillaging, accidentally set fire to and burned down his own home. This man who got wrapped up in the emotion rather than separating himself from the mob and is now homeless as a consequence to his actions.

Some of us may gloat at this poor guy's actions, misfortunes, whatever you want to call it, but in reality it's a tragic reminder of what can happen when we don't engage our minds and follow only with the heart.

God's Love, Part 3: Sovereignty, Surrender & Submission

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done."

Everyday tens of millions of people around the world recite those words as part of their prayer time. Those words are prayed in public and in private. For some, those words are part of a rote exercise, but for others that phrase is a heartfelt plea to the Almighty.

I'm going to go out on a limb and make the statement that some people understand those words while most do not. It's not so much that people don't understand the words, but they don't understand what they're truly asking God and the implications that will come from or through those words.

Unfortunately, we may pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" but in reality our hearts are praying "Thy Kingdom come, MY will be done." We want God's Kingdom to be fully present and operational here on earth, here in our lives. We want God making a difference in our lives and in the lives of our families, friends, loved ones, our businesses, our investments, our giving to the poor, our philanthropies. But the crux of the problem is that we want His will to be done according to our (my) needs and from our (my) perspective.

God's Love, Part 2: Freewill & Forgiveness

"If God is Love, then why is the world in such a mess? Why doesn't He do something about it? I guess God either doesn't care or can't do anything about it..."

The harsh reality is that we live in a fallen world that is rife with sinning sinful people and at least on the surface, appears to be careening out of control into a nuclear oblivion. That picture is a picture of the furthest thing from God's Love. Remember, until we understand how God loves, and then put it into practice, we won't be able to love freely or fully. We won't even be able to love and live as abundantly as He has created us all to be, and therefore, this stressed out world will never be the paradise we believe it should be. That's the problem: we want the world to look a certain way, our way and not necessarily God's way or design - that idea was lost or corrupted a long time ago.

The fact remains that God still has his remnant living in the world and almost more importantly, God still loves ALL of mankind because we are created in His image for the purpose of reflecting His glory. In the end, God's Will will be done; He will not be thwarted. But right now, it just doesn't seem that way.

Plus, we still haven't answered our unbelieving friends' questions of: If God is love, then how could He allow this mess? Why is there poverty? Why does God allow death and destruction? Why does God allow murder and rape? And so on.

After that they make statements such as: God just doesn't care. God must be totally impotent. God is mean (especially in the context of the death of a loved one or a miscarriage or miscarriage of justice). You know the phrases of condemnation.

A Christian Response to God's Love, Part 1

John 3:16, says: "For God so loved the world..."

That Bible address is quite ubiquitous. We see it virtually everywhere. All kinds of sports stadiums and events. It's written on placards and even on peoples faces or bodies.

We Christians - forgive me for saying this - almost bandy this wonderful verse of hope and truth about. We read it and repeat it; we even love and cling to this verse, but do we understand it and its implications and can we properly explain it to our friends, relatives, co-workers, fellow students or strangers?

Jesus speaking to Nicodemus (a learned man and leader in his own right) told him specifically what He was about and what God the Father had always wanted to communicate to His creation. Nicodemus realized that there was something miraculous about Jesus and as a devout Jew desired to see and experience God's Kingdom first hand, but like many of that time, Nicodemus misunderstood this first coming of Messiah. Nearly everyone expected a conquering hero and very few realized that Messiah would be a suffering servant. I would go futher to say that they lacked this understanding because they didn't understand, or better yet apprehend, the true essence of Who God is and what He's really all about.

A Christian Response to Poverty - Introduction

Let's start with the presumption that we don't clearly know what "poverty" is...

Although some may balk at that notion, it's nonetheless true. We really don't know or understand the idea of poverty. Maybe it would be better to say that we in 21st century western culture actually have the term poverty too narrowly defined.

When we think of poverty, most of us think of the homeless person or American Appalachia or the slums of Rio de Janeiro or areas of war torn Africa. Earthquake stricken Haiti may also come to mind. These examples are just tips of the iceberg when we come to the subject of "poverty".

 Poverty is actually much more than that. The dictionary (any of them) defines poverty as: 1. the state of being poor (don't you hate a definition that uses the root of the word?) and 2. a lack of something.

One of the things that confounds so many non-Christians is that we Chrisians live a dichotomous life. What does that mean? Well, as an example the Bible tells us that in order to be strong, you must first become weak or even broken. To the unbeliever, that just doesn't make sense. But then again, we're speaking of God's way of doing things and God's economy so of course it's not going to make sense to those who believe that the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) is just a silly book rather than God's Holy Word.

A Christian Response to Our Culture

To say that our culture is in disarray may be an understatement...

We throw around terms and phrases like "we're living in a post modern society" or "it's a post-Christian world" may be absolutely true  but what do those phrases mean? What do the terms "post modern" and "post-Christian" really say about our society?

Especially over the past fifty or so years (since about the 1950s), our society - and most of Western society in general - has purposefully and decidedly chosen to cast off the ideals of the prior two millenia. Why have we done this? There are a miriad of reasons that are good and reasonable. Some will say that we're now much more educated and scientific. Then there's the idea of our supposed sophistication and all that goes with it. In a word, many believe that our society has "evolved" to this newer and higher level of "freedom". We've been able to cast off the shackles that unfairly bound us to "old thinking" that's outdated.

A Christian Response to Poverty

Like it or not, we live in a world of the haves and the have nots.

I hate to sound or come off callous or even pessimistic, but this has been the human condition since the beginning of human civilization. As much as we want to rid ourselves of this scourge, it lingers. Try as we may, poverty - and all of its aspects such as homelessness, disease, pestilence, are here to stay.

More than anything else, I'm trying to paint a realistic picture of what we're facing, why we're facing it and how we can fight it.

What I want to speak against is the idea from the "Christian left" that fighting poverty is best seen through the lens of "social justice".

Poverty is NOT just a financial problem - although that's what many progressives, liberals and those otherwise on the left will attempt to paint it as. Poverty - and its solutions - is a matter of the heart. And God has called the believer to this fight.

An Understanding of the "Christian Left"

Labels, labels, labels. Each one of us has a label attached to our foreheads!

Liberals, conservatives, believers, non-believers, Jews, gentiles, blacks, whites, Latinos, gay, straight - the list goes on and on. I don't quite understand why we label, but we do and for most of human civilization, we have. It's how we identify one another - whether we like it or not. Sometimes the labels are appropriate (and accurate), sometimes not.

Frankly, I don't care for labels. Not on my clothes (unless they display my company logo) and definitely not on people. My problem is that I do in fact label people. It's not right, and I apologize for labeling any of you.

The only One who should be labeling any of us is God. He's the only One who can label us fairly and accurately - and lovingly. And we remember that God's love is nothing like ours; it's not squishy but it is true and just.

Sorry for appearing a bit verbose or squirrely, but there is a reason for all of this set up. I better get to it!

Apologetics: Three Fundamental Questions, Part 1

When you break it all down, living life is about answering three fundamental, simple, yet profound, questions.

That's it. Just three simple questions.

The thing is though when you ask these questions, they lead to other questions. And although they are foundational, they are in a way, somewhat "surface" questions.

These questions should be at the forefront of our minds each and every day. Why? Because when we ask these three questions day in and day out, we can better live our lives. I say better live our lives because these are not just rhetorical questions. Some would say they are, but that is not true or intellectually honest.

These questions help to show and provide purpose for our lives as well as give us direction. These questions, when asked sincerely and properly, put our relationships into their proper perspectives. These questions do end up helping us live a superior life in light of conflict and division as well as preparing us for the unsuspected twists and turns and even heartaches of life.

These three questions (when answered honestly) form the foundation of our individual worldview. Remember that a person's worldview is composed of seven basic parts of understanding or of how we view the world around us: metaphysics or ontology (the nature of reality); cosmology (the nature of the physical world around us); anthropology (the nature of man); epistimology (the nature of knowledge); ethics (the nature of morality); teleology (the nature of the purpose of and for life); and finally commitment to any or all of these basics.

Spiritual Gifts: In Search of Personal Significance

All of us are in search of personal significance and relevance.

For us Christians, we must - and I would probably go so far as to say that we are required - to break and even destroy that worldly definition. We have to understand Whose we are.

The apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church put it this way:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

The context of the verse above deals more specifically with joining with a prostitute. But when you think about it, as we look for significance from the world, we are in many ways, prostituting ourselves. Instead of drawing close to the One Who truly loves us for who we are, we draw close to those people and things that only choose to use us for temporary gain.