Three days and 9 miles

My brother and I spent three days backpacking through Dolly Sods this weekend. Since I don't feel like using proper grammar or paragraph structure I will use my ol' friends the bullet points.

• We left Friday morning, returned Sunday evening and hiked roughly over 9 miles.

• In the same day we hiked in an open field, marshy bog, shallow river, a dried up river bed of huge rocks, over multiple hills, sparsely wooded areas, and brush so thick that we had to climb on it.

• We spent the last half mile of our hike climbing through and on top of mountain laurel.

• Saturday night we camped in an AMAZING spot that I hope to return.

• We stopped about every half hour to pick blueberries.
  

• I saw 2 deer, a snake, and caught & boiled 11 crayfish.

• We set multiple small game snares but caught nothing.

• Walking sticks are great tools. They help with stability and determining water and sod depth.

• My best hiking friends

  • Sleeping bag - $50

  • Knife - $25

  • Water filter - $75

  • Framed backpack - $50

  • Waterproof hiking boots - $125

  • Wool hiking socks - $15

  • Quick drying underwear - $25

• Yep, nothing like spending over $350 so one can “rough it” in the wilderness.

• Camelbaks are ridiculously convenient.

• We built lean-tos and I used sod as my roof.

• Tents are for females.

• Since it has a tundra climate it is great to hike in 70 degree whether in July.

• My brother lost 9 lbs and I went down to 140.

• It feels good to do something unnecessarily manly every now and then.

Ultimately it was a relaxing weekend of enjoying God's creation and brother bonding. I am an incredibly blessed guy.

Corinthians 7, part 2

In 1 Corinthians 7 verses 2 and 9 Paul states, “ But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. … But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” If we do not take into account the context of the passage, Paul's other letters, or the whole of scripture, then we can easily come up with a plethora of contradicting interpretations. Since I've already dealt with the more popular misinterpretations, I now hope to provide a more consistent and accurate interpretation. I recommend reading 1 Corinthians 7 in its entirety before hand and following along as you read this.

We love to make things neat and tidy, so we look for clear-cut directions. However, God's sovereignty does not always need to be reduced to specific, clear-cut instructions (also known as legalism). Ultimately, all God asks of us is to love and serve Him completely and He will take care of the rest. (Hebrews 13:21) In 1Cor 7, Paul was not giving Christians a command about which lifestyle God wants them to pursue. Instead he is assuring them that since God has it all under control they have the freedom to serve Him regardless of their present situation. He repeats this idea three times in chapter 7 (verses 17, 20, 24)

1 Corinthians 7 is far more simple than most people make it out to be. Paul does not say that everyone should get married, nor does he say that everyone should be single. Instead, he celebrates both life situations by addressing their advantages and disadvantages. The main point of chapter 7 is that Christians are to serve God in whatever life situation they are in, whether they be married, single, engaged, in slavery, or married to a non-christian. Slaves may gain their freedom or they may not (21-23). A spouse may become a Christian or they may leave (10-16). A person may get married or not(2-9 & 25-40). The purpose of the text is not to say that one lifestyle is good and the other is bad. The point is that God is big enough to use us no matter what our situation is. Our main priority in life should not be to change our situation. Instead we should focus on how we are to glorify God in our current situation even if we are also seeking to change it.

Paul starts off the chapter by addressing a legalistic view that was influencing the church. Apparently, some of the Corinthians were teaching that ALL sex should be avoided. So Paul responds by clarifying that married couples should have sex and that if the single people want to have sex then they should get married too. He further dismantles their legalistic mindset by refusing to condemn or require any specific life situation.

When the sanctity of sex is attacked, Paul responds by clarifying that sex is not inherently bad. In fact, having sex is a good part of a proper marriage. Therefore, if you want to have sex, then get married. If not, that's great too. You can be content with your situation and still work to change it. So if you want to have sex, honor God with your singleness and then pursue marriage rather than focusing on your lust. Pastor Mark Driscol expressed this sentiment to a male in today's culture when he said, “You need to stop watching porno … A naked lady is good to look at, so get a job, get a wife, ask her to get naked, and look at her instead.”

Some are offended that sex is condoned as a proper reason for marriage. This is probably because they assume it is the sole reason rather than merely a reason. Since the topic was sex, Paul mentioned sex as a motivation for marriage. Sex was never condoned as a sole reason for marriage, it was merely the topic at hand. Scripture is filled with other reasons for marriage that are far more important than sex. (Eph 5: 22-33) So, sex is A reason for marriage, but it certainly is not THE reason. Now, just so we are clear.

Should marriage help us avoid sexual immorality by providing a God ordained outlet for our natural desires? - YES!

Should marriage be expected to fix and fulfill all of our sexual and emotional issues? - NO!

We need to avoid our tendency to go from one extreme to another. Marriage is not the fix-all of sexual temptation. But it should help. Only God can make us holy and no person should ever be expected to fufill God's role in our life. They will fail every time. No guy should expect that his issues with porn will just go away once he is married. No girl should expect that her issues of self worth and insecurity will be solved by her husband. Instead, they need to look to God as their savior and each other as their helpers in pursuing holiness. That is the way God designed it.

Corinthians 7, part 1

(1Co 7:1) Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman."

(1Co 7:2) But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

(1Co 7:3) The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

(1Co 7:4) For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

(1Co 7:5) Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

(1Co 7:6) Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.

(1Co 7:7) I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

My interpretation of this passage has changed multiple times over the past few years. I grew up in a conservative bible believing Southern Baptist church and was quite influenced by the wider Christian culture. One of these aspects of popular Christan culture is its emphasis of marriage and family. Sadly, many Christian teachers venerate marriage and family to such an extent that they either misinterpret or completely ignore the biblical teachings of singleness. Naturally, as I grew to better understand God's word and how to implement it in my life, I realized that much of what I had been taught about singleness did not line up with the whole of scripture. However, like the brilliant, prideful, rebel that I am, in my zeal to correct this overemphasis on marriage, I overemphasized singleness.

(It is a classic mistake that every young generation makes in some way or another. Some of the more popular issues recently would be alcohol, cussing, music, smoking, preaching, media, and church structure to name a few. Gone unnoticed, this over-correction causes many people to associate thoughts and words with either their own extreme view or the extreme view they oppose. Then, of course, people end up arguing against this perceived extreme rather than the literal thoughts and words that are expressed. Once this occurs, communication breaks down and all hope of objective reasoning and civil discussion is lost.)

When I first read 1Corinthians 7 I thought and was taught that, “Paul says Christians should get married unless their blessed with the gift of singleness. Since I very badly want to have sex then I must not have this supernatural gift of singleness. Therefore God has someone picked out for me to marry and its only a matter of waiting on God's timing until I get married.” I am confident that the majority of american Christians hold to this interpretation either explicitly or implicitly. That means, some people have this view because they have studied the scripture and reached this conclusion, but many have just accepted this as truth without realizing that other views exist. It wasn't until after high school that I realized how unbiblical my view was.

Then I discovered the joy and contentment of singleness. I learned that nowhere in Scripture are all Christians commanded or promised to marry. In fact, Paul uses a later part of 1Corinthians 7 to extoll the virtue and benefits of singleness.

(1Co 7:32) I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

(1Co 7:33) But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,

(1Co 7:34) and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.

(1Co 7:35) I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

Match that with Paul saying in verse 7, “I wish that all were as I myself am.” and it seems like Paul is saying that singleness is better than marriage. If that is the case then what is he saying in verse 2? If singleness is superior to marriage then Paul is encouraging Christians to pursue their own fleshly desires (sex) over what is best (singleness). It is as though he is giving a concession for sin. But since Christians have the Holy Spirit living inside of them they have no excuse for pursuing anything other than holiness. Pursuing anything less than God's perfect glory is sin. Therefore, verse 2 simply cannot be a concession for sin. Rather than verse 2 being a positive affirmation of marrying for the purpose of sex, it must have been intended to reveal their sinful motivations and bring them to shame. An example of this teaching method can be found in how Jesus addresses divorce in Matthew 19:8. Jesus was not condoning divorce, but rather he was condeming those who wanted to divorce by telling them that their hearts were wicked. In the same manner Paul was not condoning marriage for the purpose of sex. Instead, he was revealing their shame in that they lacked sexual control so much that they saw marriage as the only alternative.

There are a few problems with his interpretation. First off, Paul never says that singleness is entirely better than marriage. He is simply stating in Chapter 7 that there are some advantages to singleness over marriage. The thrust of that whole chapter is that God can and will use you in whatever life situation you are in. Marriage is a gift just as singleness is a gift. Maybe God will see fit to change one's life situation or maybe He won't. That is not where our focus should be. Rather, we should focus on Him rather than focusing on changing our situation.

After the premise of singleness' superiority is removed, the rest of the logic crumbles with it. Since marriage is not inferior to singleness then Paul is not necessarily condoning sin by encouraging people to get married and have sex. In Matthew 19, Jesus was talking about an act that was always sinful (divorce) whereas Paul was talking about an act that is generally condoned (a married couple having sex). Jesus referenced an ACT that was sinful, but in Paul's reference only the MOTIVATION could be interpreted as sinful. It is still possible that Paul could be using the same teaching method as Jesus, but it is becoming less likely. After all, I am less interested in how it “could” be interpreted than how it “should” be interpreted.

Though I am willing to see certain passages of scripture as sarcastic or hyperbole, I am very hesitant to do so unless it is incredibly obvious within the context of the passage or if a very literal interpretation would contradict the rest of scripture. Otherwise it would become very easy to just write off tough passages of scripture as sarcasm rather than digging deep into the Word and determining what it actually says. The same danger applies with claiming that certain passages were only meant for certain cultures or contexts. Since God designed all of scripture with the purpose of spreading the Gospel to all of the world and all cultures He would not have included solely cultural specific instructions. It would be counterproductive and so I reject that premise outright. With that said, I don't think Paul was being sarcastic and I don't think he was talking only to the Corinthian culture. Instead, I think a very literal interpretation of 1 Corinthians 7, tempered with a proper understanding of temptation, marriage, and holiness, produces a far more glorious insight into the grace of God and his awesome design.

And i've written two pages and have yet to actually get to the actual interpretation of the text. Hopefully after clarifying what it does not say, I can more easily explain what it does say... in my next post.

Quote the Driscoll? Nevermore!

"You need to stop watching porno and crying like a baby afterward and grow up... A naked lady is good to look at, so get a job, get a wife, ask her to get naked, and look at her instead. Alright?" - Encouraging words from Mark Driscoll

I posted this on facebook a few days ago because I thought it was a cute quot

e. Click here to see the link and comments

I was not anticipating the backlash that ensued. This is a danger that comes with posting any quote on facebook since it is very easy to derive many meanings from one single quote. That doesn't mean that it HAS many meanings, only that it is vague enough to allow for many different interpretations. Because of the ease of misunderstanding this quote, I probably should not have posted it. Nonetheless, the deed has been done and now I must explain my interpretation of the quote so that people don't assume I support the objectifaction of women, downplaying holiness, or prooftexting.

To properly understand any text you need to take into account the context. This is a quote from Mark Driscoll's book “Confessions of a Reformission Rev” in a section focusing on his evolving role as a pastor. A college student called him up at 3 am to ask him to pray for him because he just watched a porno. The middle sentence that I ommitted was, “I don't have time to be your accountability partner, so you need to be a man and nut up and take care of this yourself.” Mark was not using this as an example of a complete and gracious counseling session. These were harsh words spoken guy to guy to a member of Mars Hill who had heard Driscoll speak on this topic more in depth.

The sin had already been committed and there was no real urgency or need for him to call his pastor at 3 am. I am a firm believer that true repentance is not made evident in the midst of sin nor immediately after. Its the decisions we make when we are not emotionally driven by our circumstances that reveal the true desire of our heart. This guy was not emotionally stable at this point.

Since there was no real urgency, it was very inconsiderate to call his pastor at 3 am

Though he was repentant, his actions were still selfish. As someone who has had their own fair share of porn struggles and has been a part of quite a few accountability groups, I can testify that a Christian will almost always feel remorse, heart broken, and guilty after doing the deed. I can also testify that those feelings rarely effect actual change. Mark was not going to be able to say some magical prayer or give some life changing advice that would solve this guy's porn problem at 3am. So, Driscoll just told him to grow up, stop being emotional, and deal with the problem. Then he gave the guy something positive and biblical to pursue instead of just focussing on what he should not do.

“A naked lady is good to look at, so get a job, get a wife, ask her to get naked, and look at her instead.” Scripture celebrates sexual desire and nudity within the context of marriage and condemns it any other way. (Since the word “lust” can refer to either of these contexts i'll instead use the umistakeably generic term “sexual desires.”)

Sexual desire and nudity are not inherently sinful, rather they were designed by God for His glory. Sexual desire becomes a sin only when gratification is sought outside of God's plan of marriage. Matthew 5:27 Jesus tells us what God's standard is when it comes to purity and he takes it pretty seriously. In Genesis 2:24-25 Adam and Eve are unashamedly having sex and being naked before the fall

. I am fairly confident they enjoyed themselves because I just can't rationalize sexual enjoyment and the consequent desire being a result of sin rather than a gift from a good God. The problem is that we have taken a good thing, and turned it into a god thing

. Put simply, looking at a naked lady is good; looking at a naked lady that isn't your wife is bad. Idolatry is what occurs when we pervert God's good creation and make it bad. That means I am not a disgusting pervert because I like breasts. It means I am a disgusting pervert because I like the breasts of women that aren't my wife.

We live in a culture that worships sex and romance. Therefore, it is quite easy and probably fairly common for us to trade one sin for another. I really liked what Joey said when he wrote, “We take every thought captive, not because a naked woman is wrong, but because we are idol makers and our focus becomes torn from God.”

Sadly many in our society make marriage their idol, but Christians can pursue marriage without making it an idol. There are many benefits and purposes that God has given us through his plan of marriage. Scripture tells us that one of those benefits and purposes is sex.

We do not need to pretend that the only benefits to marriage are the really spiritual ones. Though they are certainly the most important ones.

God created sex. God created marriage. God created mankind and encouraged them to get married and have sex. That is encouraging! That means God has provided a way in which I may one day enjoy this part of His creation fully and unashamedly. It does not mean that marriage or women are only for sex. In fact, sex is only a small part of God's purpose for marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33), and God has WAY bigger plans for women than just their ability to gratify men. But ignoring the smaller pleasures of something in order to emphasize the bigger purpose is just silly. Please allow me this illustration.

While shopping for a new car I was pretty excited about having air conditioning for the first time in my life. Ultimately, though, AC ranked pretty low on my list of reasons and priorities for getting a new car. Still, I didn't need to stop anticipating air conditioning so I could focus on a low price, good gas mileage, and dependability. Thankfully, Chevy designed a car that could give me all these at the same time! Likewise, God, being a wise and good God, designed marriage with many purposes and sex is just one of them.

Since I would one day like to have sex, then pursuing a righteous and responsible lifestyle would be conducive to God blessing me with a wife. Being mature does not guarantee that God will bless me with a wife, but being immature, jobless, and homeless will seriously hinder those possibilities as well as my relationship with God. In pursuing holiness and righteousness, I will not only grow closer to and better glorify God, but i will also be better suited and more likely to be blessed with a wife. God, in His infinite goodness, has designed it so that i may glorify Him AND potentially have sex.

How cool is that?!

I can get a dependable car with great gas mileage at a reasonable price and STILL GET AIR CONDITIONING.

Seeing as how I have written way more than I wanted and took way more time than I intended this will have to be a two parter. I must address 1Cor 7, and i'm kinda glad that it will get its own post. Cause its worth it.

Reformation or Revolution?

I look at the American church and I see a system that is neither biblically consistent nor culturally relevant. The more ministry experience and education I receive, the more the chasm between how things should be and how they are seems to widen. The chasm appears so wide that I wonder whether most churches are beyond help. Can they be reformed into effective great commission churches or are they so fundamentally flawed that a restart is the best solution?

The best analogy that comes to mind is political. If a country's government is not serving its people then the people should seek to reform it within the system. Sometimes though, the government is so far from what it should be that a revolution must occur in which the whole system is scrapped in favor of a new one. Trying to get a church to actually carry out the “great commission” effectively can feel like trying to get a communist nation to become a democracy. Small changes within the system are only going to provide temporary or negative results because the problem lies in the structure itself. Reformation will not suffice; a revolution must occur.

Here is one example of a fundamental church issue that would be tough to change. For the past 50 years many churches have offerred different programs to meet the needs of the congregation and those in the culture. The mindset has been developed that if someone wanted to do something differently then they just started another program. But what does one do if they feel that the programs are the problem? That change would require a complete restructure or the whole church and would probably cause a lot of strife. Therefore, is it better to seek to make that change from within or to peacefully start another church with a “no programs” mentality? (The question of whether or not programs are good is just an example and is in no way fully argued in this post as that is NOT the topic at hand.)

Here is the question. Should one try to start a reformation within a church or should they try to start a revolution outside of that church? I think that is one of the reasons many young adults are attracted to starting new churches. They feel that most churches need such a drastic fundamental change that it is easier to start fresh than try to “fix” an already established church. I only recently realized that this was part of my motivation for wanting to help with a new church. I do not want to give up on traditional churches that are filled with amazing, godly people. Nor do I want to be a part of a church whose very structure does not allow for the change that I feel is necessary to effectively fulfill the Great Commission . I am certain that a blanket statement of “do” or “don't” cannot be found in the Bible. Every scenario is different so personal examples and hypotheticals are only going to cause rabbit trails. I am more interested in hearing what others think of the general pros and cons of reforming an established church from within versus just starting fresh. This issue is very disheartening for me since I love the church and only desire to see it grow and glorify God in it's intended manner and I am unsure of my own personal role. Martin Luther described wonderfully the tension that of one's feelings of love and dissapointment with the church when he said, “The church is a whore. And she is my mother.”