Obsessed with death...and life

A visitor from a foreign country who arrived in my neighborhood in the last week might be stunned by this culture's apparent obsession with death. Just down the street, there is a house with a yard full of gravestones. Across the street, my neighbors have a skeleton hanging in their tree in the front yard and a coffin on the porch. A visitor from another culture who has never been exposed to the American holiday that is Halloween could indeed say this culture is obsessed with death. Why? they would wonder. Why this celebration of death? Why this focus on the gruesome? Why this obsession? What's wrong with you people?

As I sat in my church's Lord's Supper service this morning, one of the brothers brought up the point that the same visitor might ask the same questions of us in that meeting. You're celebrating the body and blood of a dead man? You're singing songs about His suffering? You're meditating on how he was beaten and crucified? Why are you obsessed with death?

...but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about ... a dead man, Jesus...

They aren't new questions. Why celebrate this dead man, Jesus? Why the obsession with death?

The answer...

... whom Paul asserted to be alive.

We aren't obsessed with death. We are obsessed with life. He came, He died, He LIVES that we might have life, and have it abundantly. By proclaiming his death, we proclaim His Life. By celebrating His death, we celebrate His life...and ours.

(Scripture taken from Acts 25:19)

A brief paper on holistic Christian education

I'm taking an English Lit class from Liberty University Online this semester. Our first assignment was to write a (very!) brief paper in support of or opposition to one of the first week's lectures. This is mine...

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What is Christian education? Is it “reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic” with a little Bible study added for good measure? While a Christian education involves all these disciplines, learning them is of little or no value if what is learned is not applied and integrated into a Christian’s life, as discussed in Lesson 1. Indeed, a Christian should regard every concept and image he encounters, both in a scholastic environment and in daily life, as an opportunity to grow in his understanding of the world and its relationship to God.

Paul’s direction from the second book of Corinthians explains how a Christian can take what he is learning and use it as a tool to further his spiritual life. There, Paul instructs the believers to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This means that whatever enters the mind, including that which comes through non-Biblical sources, should first be examined carefully under the light of the authority of Scripture, and then be responded to in obedience.

A truly holistic approach to Christian life and education requires that Christians be willing to approach all of life as an opportunity to learn and apply God’s will in their lives. In his letter, the apostle James warns believers not to be like a man who, having looked at himself in a mirror, goes away and forgets what he looks like. The apostle encourages the believers to take what they have learned and act upon it!

The educated Christian thoughtfully examines every concept to which he is exposed, integrating into practice that which is true, while rejecting and refusing to practice that which is false. An educated Christian remembers what he has learned and is changed to be more like Christ.

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Now my job is to go over the other students' papers and write a response to one of theirs. I think I'm going to respond to the one that says we can learn "new truths" about Jesus from extra-Biblical literature. Hopefully, I can manage to be kind AND truthful!