What is the "Good News"?

OK I lied! I said this blog would be about accepting criticism but then I ended with that bit about what the "good news" is, and the idea wouldn't leave me alone. So I'm writing about that today.
I started by running a search on the words "good" and "news" in my bible search engine and got about 100 verses back. What I could tell from them was that:
-Good news, in a general sense, isn't always perceived as good news by all recipients
-the "good news" spoken of in scripture seems to alternately be connected to Jesus and the kingdom of God. So those ideas might be fairly close or synonymous.
-the "good news" can have a warning along with it that makes the good news seem more good.

A bunch of the hits were in Galatians so I printed out the book on computer paper so I could write lots of notes in the margin and started studying it yesterday. I got through chapter 3 today.
One thing that stuck with me was how Paul said that he wasn't appointed to do what he was doing by any men or group but by God and how he best carried out what he was compelled to do when he didn't concern himself with what his detractors thought. He also hints that fear of what others think of you as a leader can be the seed bed of false teaching.
Anyway, back to the "good news." Paul is speaking to a group of believers who are being compelled by jewish "believers" to be circumcised and follow jewish customs if they are to be believers in Christ. Paul says that is hogwash and that adding unnecessary rules to the gospel spoils it. He says that we are only made right in God's eyes through faith/trust/reliance on God and not by works/obeying the law/or being good. This led me to the question, what does "faith in Jesus Christ" or "trusting in the Son of God" look like?
At this point my brother and his family, our current church body, came over so we could share scripture together, encourage each other, teach our children about our faith, and pray, the latter two of which didn't happen in this particular meeting. In our discussion though we were reading through 1 John chapter 2.
It is an interesting passage to happen to be reading at the same time as Galatians because Paul and John are talking to audiences with almost completely opposite issues and so their letters sound like they contradict. Paul speaking to Jewish legalists (obeying the law or being good squares me with God) says "If we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die." Where as John speaking to Gentile (Non-jewish, Greek) Gnostics (People who turned the Gospel into a secret set of facts which if learned saved you) says, "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands." Those would seem to contradict each other, but as we struggled through this quandry I felt like God gave me some insight into. When you look at the fact that each author is writing as a reaction against a mistake being made by the recipient group, and so they are speaking in extreme senses then a contradiction doesn't have to be seen.
If John told the Gnostics that a person is saved only by faith they would not have the flaw in their belief system revealed and would feel encouraged that they were correct. The truth they needed to hear was that real faith creates tangible results in the life of a believer. If this gnostic gospel didn't change the lives of those who believed it then it wasn't a true faith. It wasn't a faith in Jesus, but in someone else. Likewise, Paul's audience didn't need to hear that faith resulted in works or a changed life because they would then conclude that they were on the right track when they were not. They needed to realize that they had works but that their works were generated from selfish motives and worldly kingdom building.
This helped me to flesh out another part of my personal theology. The gospel does have to do with historical truths about Jesus life, death, and resurrection, and his relationship to God, but that those truths point to something bigger than dead lifeless points on a timeline. They point to the kind of living God that it is that we serve and the kind of charcter that he demonstrates towards us and those around us, and concordantly the kind of person and character that anyone claiming Jesus as their master would also have to claim. Faith and works being a kind of yin and yang that have to live in equal measure to one another or else not truely exist at all. The book of James chapter 2 talks about this kind of paradoxical relationship as well. Belief that a particular set of historical facts is correct can not save you, nor can trying to cover up the screwed up crap we do to each other by being really good sometimes or in other areas of our life. A true and deep belief in the person and work of Jesus which results in a person who is deeply changed in the way they treat God's people and God's world is the only true or genuine manifestation of faith.

So then what is the "Good News"? The Good News is that God himself acted in history, through Jesus Christ, to help us out of a terrible corner we had painted ourselves into. That Jesus helped us out of this corner at the cost of his own life, and then demonstrated his power as God over the seemingly irreversible laws of this world to give us an example of how to 'look at' and 'act' in regard to God's world and his people. And that we will know that this "Good News" as truely taken root in us if it makes a difference in how we act towards others and towards the world around us.
I think that is the "Good News." Any questions, criticism, comments, discussion?

Hope & where to next

I shared my ordeal, in more brief terms, with a coworker today, a catholic coworker. I think she could tell that we have started off with a rather defeatist attitude. She had the wisdom to remind me that a positive attitude is often credited with having saved people from diseases. This got me thinking about hope. In essence that was what she was saying, hope saves. I think that is a distinctly Christian ideal. Faith hope and love. Hope in the return of Christ. Hope that the kingdom of God will not be like the kingdoms of men. Christians should be regarded as people of hope. She also volunteered that she would be praying for my father. Although I continue to reject many of the ugly faces of the evangelical faith, I still find myself wearing them sometimes. I wish it didn't, but it surprised me that she prays. It shouldn't and was probably more a commentary on my own prayerlessness than anything about her. But that is what our hope should do to, it should drive us to pray for that which we hope for. I hope my dad sticks around a bit longer. I should pray for that.

Another conversation I had this week was with a christian colleague who is working on a book. He had a recieved a letter criticising his manuscript and his natural inclination was to defend his "baby." I can't blame him, I'm sure I'd do...have done...am doing the same. I couldn't help but see valid points in the critics letter. The book purports to be one that could help an unbeliever come to faith, the critic purports not to have faith and to be unswayed by the book. The valid points weren't problems with my colleague but problems with his modern world view, which works for him, but not for his critic, who seems to have a more post modern take on things. I tried to gently share this revelation with my colleague, but seemed to have only limited success, not so much in getting him to agree with me but in getting him to appreciate the comments of his critic. This makes me realize two things:

1. One of the critic's chief problems with my colleagues book was that he saw the chief aim of the faith spoken of in the book was to get people to believe the right set of facts about Jesus. This has been one of my principle concerns with Evangelical Christianity and for that matter probably most faith systems founded in the modern era. They end up being groups of men huddled around a list of "correct" beliefs which they say define the faith. The problem, in my mind, is that they often require a person to take a particular stance on an issue that scripture leaves kind of vague. Often these stands are on peripheral issues, in my eyes. And lastly but most importantly, this group of men then portrays their denomination as all believing these "correct" beliefs when in reality their people have little or no understanding of the "correct" beliefs often times. Because of this, and other similar reasons, I left the denomination I was with desiring to try to start a church that was less handicapped by such problems. As far as I have considered things this far I think the church would be better served by a list of qualities that define believers rather than a list of "correct" beliefs. Therefore in my next blog entry I will endeavor to start fleshing out this character core that I believe scripture more strongly argues is the defining factor for believers. I also believe this character core could be a unifying factor for believers from different denominational heritages.

2. In my next blog I will talk about "accepting criticism" from the many proverbs that talk about the subject. Evangelical christianity is a proud sect that believes it has it all together, all figured out, in a theology unbounded by time or culture, and only wants to help those outside of it come in. An organization creates what it is. A prideful organization can not create humble members. I think because of this, and becuase we all just want to be right all the time, evangelicals are particularly unable to accept criticism, myself included. Maybe our society is too, but certainly we are. We can not offer Good News to others and be prideful. They won't be able to hear it. Which brings up another great blog topic "what is the Good News?" What is it about it that makes it Good News? Should it be able to be perceived as Good News even by those who will choose not to heed it? I'll save that idea as a draft for the future.

So next time Accepting Criticism...

Determinism

I have a struggle going on inside me. I feel like I know too much for my own good. I just found out that the doctors found a malignant tumor in my dad's lung. My mom was sobbing when she told me. If God is in control of everything then I have nothing to worry about. It is his story and as the author of authoring I wouldn't dare question his plot choices, his character development. I fear this view of things though is making me less human because at least so far I am more interested than afraid. Is this great trust in God or a callous unwillingness to enter my mother's pain? The person who wrote the psalms had no problem telling God he wanted him to change a seemingly unjust situation. I have convinced myself that there are no unjust situations, so why should wonder that I lack compassion. I find in these kind of situations I can not solely pray for the healing or restoration of the person without feeling compelled to add in at the end that if what we do not want to happen should happen that he would help us accept that. It gives me peace to know that I hold the characters God has placed in my life with an open and grateful hand. It helps me, but it doesn't help me feel the pain of others. This deterministic view of things doesn't seem mirrored in the lives of the characters of the Bible. Moses argued with God. David questioned God. Hezekiah asked God to change his mind. But then Daniel trusted God in the midst of the Lions. Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego trusted God in the face of the furnace. Stephen looked to heaven as he was being pelted to death with rocks.
Jesus won't even give me peace on the subject. Even though he willingly went to the cross he still asked God to "take this cup" from him if it was possible. Deterministic yet not.
A deterministic view seems noble. A non-deterministic view seems doubting and cowardly, but was Jesus cowardly?
I'd appreciate input on this one.

What's the point of this one?

What should a person glean from this proverb? Why did God inspire Solomon to write this one? Bribery has a distinctively negative connotation in our culture. In what kind of a culture could this proverb make sense?
NLT Pro 17:8 A bribe seems to work like magic for those who give it; they succeed in all they do.
This one appears a few verses later,
17:23 The wicked accept secret bribes to pervert justice.
Heres another that puts secret "bribes" in a positive light. It also equates gift and bribe.
21:14 A secret gift calms anger; a secret bribe pacifies fury.

An Enigmatic Proverb

NLT Pro 14:4 An empty stable stays clean, but no income comes from an empty stable.
Would everyone who reads this blog please give a suggested meaning for this proverb. I'd love to see the diversity of different directions we could go. Remember no right answers, just answers informed by your own experiences. Try to write your meaning before you read anyone elses.

More on whining

Well since my recent post about our city's self-recognition festival, I've been trying to check myself about whining about the heat or other things and I'm still sucking. I'm having trouble figuring out what to say when people ask what I've been up to or how it's going if I'm not going to grumble. I don't want to so cnesor my thoughts as to begin to have bland conversations that are laundry lists of tasks accomplished. Pain or suffering is a common denominator that can draw people together. I don't want to pretend I have none, I just want to stop seeing pain everywhere. In reality in my clearest moments of thinking I see purpose behind everything, even hours of sweating in a bulletproof vest (light personal protection that has been unavailable for the vast majority of the worlds conflicts, none of which I've been pressed or requested to be involved in). I want my conversations to carry the hope and optimism that a big picture view of things can offer. Not to paint myself as a hero with no need of a savior, but as a hopeful man who trusts a book's author even when he doesn't like where the story has gone so far.
I'm just not sure how to do that without sounding cheesy...

Isn't this one hard?

I am so impressed when I see people who can do this one well, but it is really hard to do in the moment...
Proverbs 12:16 A fool is quick-tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted.