The Danger of Christian Apologetics

I'm not Catholic, but I like the way this guy thinks...

Building with small stones: Day 14

Alphabet praise, part 1. For each letter of the alphabet from A-M, complete one of these sentences:
>God, I thank You for _____.
>My God is _____.
>Jesus _____ my life.
>The Spirit is growing _____ in me.
>I surrender my _____ to You, Lord.
>Be Thou my _____.
To make it more challenging, try to stay away from words in the Bible or commonly used in church.

For me: My God is...

My God is aware of everything going on in my life.
My God is brewing coffee for me before I wake up. (That's poetic expression coming from Chris Rice's song, Smelling Coffee.)
My God is carving daily a new me, and using difficulties and sorrows to make some of the most beautiful cuts.
My God is determined to see me through, and have others see Him through me.
My God is exquisitely beautiful, and the source of all other beauty.
My God is full of wisdom, grace, and truth.
My God is gigantic--next to Him, the slime monster is like a teeny little cornflake! (early Veggie Tales reference)
My God is hard to comprehend, but easy to know.
My God is intense--Beth Moore said He's "the bossiest thing." (one of the best stories ever--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtk5WgzZcYA)
My God is juggling all the stars and planets, all the nations and kingdoms, and you and me--without ever dropping one.
My God is Killing My Old Man. (Petra, 1981)
My God is looking into the parts of me that I can't yet see.
My God is making me more the me He made me to be.

Building with small stones: Day 13

Confession time: What's something you are proud of? Is it your financial success? Your physical fitness? Your home or car or job? Your grades in school? Your sense of style? Whatever it is, write a paragraph on the theme of being more humble in this area.

For me: I'm proud of my reasoning. My intellectual ability to analyze an argument logically, and use language specifically and effectively. I can think of at least three reasons not to be so proud of this strength. First, I can take no credit for having a logical mind. As Chris Rice says in The Face of Christ, "See you had no choice which day you would be born
Or the color of your skin, or what planet you'd be on
Would your mind be strong, would your eyes be blue or brown
Whether daddy would be rich, or if momma stuck around at all" I didn't choose my gene pool, or to be born in a country with free public school, or to have white skin which gave me an advantage in that school system, or to have a dad who could pay for college. Not to discount the work that I (and everyone else with a college degree) had to do to graduate, but the opportunity itself was a gift that not everybody gets. Second, the reasoning abilities I have could be gone in a second. One stray bullet, one stray blood clot, one stray lightning bolt, and I could be looking at a life with much less ability to think, or articulate, or both. Third, the abilities I have, I have not always used well. I have hurt my wife by arguing to win. I have been unkind (most recently in a debate on facebook these last few days in the comments on Small Stones day...10, I think it was). So, to recap, I can't take credit for any ability to reason, every moment that I retain that ability is a gift, and I have misused that ability on multiple occasions. So yes, a little more humility in this area would be in order. God help me.

Building with small stones: Day 12

Choose any article, online or hard copy, and take time to read the entire thing, beginning to end, word for word, thinking about the content, and refusing to "click away" before you are done.

For me: I chose the first article I saw at www.desiringgod.org, entitled "What the Devil Doesn't Want You to Know," by Jon Bloom. I had to choose whether to hover over the Bible references, whether that would equate to clicking away. I decided since the verse just popped up and then went away, and since it caused me to focus MORE on the content of the article, rather than just glossing over the Bible references, that I would read each Scripture as an integral part of the article. The article is about the greatest commandment (to love God), how it sets us free to obey God's other commands, how God's grace applies Christ's obedience to the greatest command to our account, and how life marked by love is a foretaste of Heaven in the here and now. And how the Devil doesn't want us to understand any of that.

Building with small stones: Day 11

What is a verse or passage of Scripture that you are currently unable to make sense of?

For me: Matthew 12:39, Matthew 16:4, Luke 12:29, and Mark 8:12. In each of these, Jesus says people are evil to seek a sign, and He won't give them one (except the sign of Jonah). But Jesus did signs and wonders all over the place! So I don't understand what He's saying in these verses at all...but I intend to dig deeper and see what I can find!

Building with small stones: Day 10

What books, besides the Bible, have shaped who you are and how you think? Which one do you need to go back and reread soon?

For me: Experiencing God, by Henry Blackaby. I have gone through this again recently with our Wednesday night group, and it was just as challenging as ever. The Purpose Driven Church, by Rick Warren. Brothers, We Are not Professionals, by John Piper. The Contemplative Pastor, by Eugene Peterson. Celebration of Discipline, by Richard J. Foster. That last one is probably the next one for me to reread.

Building with small stones: Day 9

Confession time: what's a time you blamed someone else wrongly? Bonus points for apologizing to them if you haven't already.

For me: I remember as a kid, I had joined the Columbia House Record and Tape Club, and I had several tapes already. I left one of them on the back bumper of my mom's car. Of course it got run over. I blamed her for not checking out the back of the car before driving it. Ridiculous, but at the time I wasn't prepared to face my own fault, and I wanted to blame someone.

So, I just called her, and as you might suspect, she had no memory of the incident, but she appreciated my apology, and we had a nice talk. Go thou and do likewise.