Ask Andrea

In this 200 page Christian living title from waterbrook press, Joni Lamb, Vice President of Christian television’s Daystar Network, takes a half a cup of scripture, a tablespoon of a classic hymn, and three cups of anecdotes, bakes it at 350 degrees, and produces Surrender All: Your Answer to Living with Peace, Power, and Purpose

Seriously, quick, concise and thought provoking, Surrender All conveys a central point of the Christian faith that is often missed by Christians engulfed in a self-worshiping culture that demands we be independent and in control at all times rather than God-dependent followers of Christ who take up the cross and die to self. And let me be honest: I live here, too. I can personally attest there’s plenty here to challenge as well as inspire, though Lamb would have been wise to acknowledge more that she also lives here. But our culture comes with a pressure for would-be role models to pretend perfection, so that much is to be expected.

Speaking of which, my usual concerns. I would have liked to see this totally biblical concept grounded more in scripture. Meaning, she missed an opportunity to build a case for surrender from the scriptures. We do get taken to the garden of Gethsemane, but very late in the book. It is there, I just would have liked to see a deeper exploration of the words of scripture on this subject. This may shock some, but there’s no anecdote as powerful as the living word. At least I don’t think any of us would claim to have a story we could tell that’s as sharp as a two edged sword to divide bone and marrow.

Likewise, she pulled her punches a tad too much on issues like divorce and homosexuality  and, in an attempt to be compassionate, sent what to me sounded like mixed messages. On women’s roles, especially in terms of career, she clearly sees the pain and confusion we all suffer from in our culture, but like most of us, in unguarded moments, doesn’t appear to realize what most women really want–and if you’d like to know what I think it is, feel free to ask.

Finally, I’m concerned about at least one of the anecdotes being dangerous if misunderstood. She’s clear earlier being surrendered means following the Holy Spirit’s guidance in such situations, but there’s a reason counselors are loathe to tell abuse victims to actually reconcile with the perpetrator and even discourage it. In my opinion, only God has the right to tell someone to put themselves back in a situation where they are almost certainly going to be in physical, spiritual, and/or psychological peril, which the Lord did in one anecdote in the book, which could be taken as an example for all to follow rather than an example of being obedient even when the Lord’s instructions defy all common sense, as they often do.

So in terms of dealing with “hard cases” the book suffers somewhat from disorganization, the rather common lack of a “been there” feel that makes it sound like the authors don’t know what they’re talking about even if they objectively do, and the even more common lack of the ink space the subject really requires. So, if you’re seriously wounded and hurting, I’d address that before tackling this book.

However, save for the last group, who may ironically feel a little like Job did when his friends offered their well-meaning advice if they read this, none of the human flaws takes away from the divine wisdom she does convey and well. Surrender, taking up our cross and following Him, dying to self, being obedient, whatever one calls it, bowing to Christ’s lordship is a critical area most Christians are struggling in today and it’s one that separates us from the Lord–and sadly this could be a permanent condition if never mastered. A chilling thought as we all have times we struggle there, but scripture doesn’t leave much wiggle room. We can’t serve two masters. A routine habit of living for self, of being the one calling the shots of our lives, is a soul killer.

We all want Heaven.  Upwards of 80% of Americans in particular want Jesus as our Savior. But do we really want him as Lord? That’s the question that matters for eternity.

Too many in church on Sundays are just trying to use the Lord:  happy to accept his sacrifice, eager to embrace him as a friend and a brother even, but reluctant, or outright refusing, to accept Him as Lord. When we reconcile without repentance, we perpetuate the lie they can get away with it, too. We’re the bible they believe, and the way we forgive is the way they expect God forgives–with deadly pathologies on both sides of the coin, for certain. Only the Lord can balance us properly.

Regardless, Joni Lamb’s handling of this issue makes this a good book to give to that someone we all know who hasn’t made the all-important decision to Surrender All yet. Or if we’re needing a refresher.

Popularity: 31%

Dear Andrea,
I’ve had several “Christians” accuse me of having a “post-modern worldview” and insist that I need to develop a “biblical worldview.” But I don’t even know what post-modernism is! For that matter, what’s a world view? Why do some Christians make such a big deal about it?
Thank you,
Ima Googler*

Dear Googler,

I’ll take “what’s a world view?” first. A world view is simply the lens through which you view the world. It’s the sum of all your unconscious beliefs about the nature of the world, truth, reality, God, and so forth. The nature of a worldview is such that it is impossible to hide your worldview, at least from someone paying attention. Our worldview is betrayed by the words we use and the choices we make. Christ himself observed this when he said out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, and by their fruit, you shall know them.

Our worldview forms, osmosis-style, from the influence of our parents, our teachers, peers, and, equally importantly, the media we consume.  The worldview of the media we consume will seep into us and be incorporated into our own world view unless we are paying attention and actively engaged in picking apart what is true and what is not, which most of us don’t find entertaining.

For media-makers, and writers especially, this means, if you have a biblical worldview, you have to actively work to not write from that view. It’s actually the mark of a master if they can convincingly write a character with a worldview that sharply contrasts with their own without betraying the author’s view. Of course, that it’s a challenge to do that doesn’t necessarily make it desirable.

Worldview can be a problem even in Christian media. Statistically, very few Christians, around four percent last I checked, actually have a biblical worldview. But whatever worldview a writer has (including screen and TV script writers) will show up in the finished product, unless they are consciously aware of their worldview and intentionally hide it. Good writers do this when portraying characters with different worldviews from their own, but most cast those folks in the role of the bad guy. In most cases, the hero shares the basic worldview of the writer (if nothing else.)

Now, post-modernism. That is just a fancy intellectual word for the most prevalent worldly ideas of the day. More common terms that you might be familiar with include: tolerance, diversity, multi-culturalism, and of course, “don’t judge.”

Yes, the last one is in the Bible, but your worldview, Googler, transforms the meaning of the words into an affront to the very nature of Christ’s being as God. Thus, Christ could not possibly have meant what you think He meant. Otherwise would be to deny Himself! And 1 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” Googler, I realize you may still not understand just yet why, for Mathew 7:1-5 to be the affirmation of post-modernism that you believe it is, then Christ would be denying Himself, but first we need to back up and explain more what post-modernism is.

The basic idea behind post-modernism is that there is no absolute truth. Rather, it holds, whatever metanarrative (the gospel and Evolution are both metanarratives) that works for you is your truth and whatever metanarrative that works for me is my truth, though your metanarrative may not be true for me, it is no less valid than mine.

Thus Evolution is truth for the atheist, the Cross for Christian post-modernists, the teachings of Islam for the Muslim, Karma for the Hindu, Gaia for the wiccan, Global Warming for the Environmentalist, and so on; all ideas, all cultures, and all values are equal. Post-modernism is the world’s marketplace of ideas, where you can pick whatever works for you, and mix and match to your heart’s content.

What’s the problem with post-modernism for Christians?  Why does your friend have to be so mean spirited, critical, and judgmental as to dare suggest you can’t be both a Christian and a post-modernist?

Tell me, if you knew a liquid form of cyanide was being marketed as a delicious and extremely popular brand of cola, would it be mean-spirited, critical, and judgmental to forward this information on to everyone in your address book? Of course not, as the email you got telling you this said, if you hate your friends, don’t forward this email!

Now, I was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but seriously, post-modernism is deadly poison to the Christian, spiritually. Why? Simple, the bible’s term for all metanarratives besides it’s own is “idol.” Further, the bible promises salvation to all who believe in Jesus. Why is this a problem? Because it is impossible to believe in Jesus and simultaneously disbelief His claims about Himself.

The easy scripture to cite is John 14:6, “I am the way the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me,” but there’s also Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

And let’s not forget, as Christian post-modernists often like to, John 1:1,14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Also, in John 18:37, Jesus said, “For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

Then we have Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” Note, in this passage, Money is personified as an idol.

Finally, Jesus demands in Luke 14:27,28,33 (cutting out the parable for brevity,) “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. . . . any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Googler, having heard the truth of the Word, can you now look me in the eye and say straight-faced that the same Jesus who declares He is the only way to God, that he is Truth, and that He never changes (via the author of Hebrews), and demands He be more important to you than your family, more important to you than your own life, more important to you than your pocketbook, more important to you than all your possessions, that this Jesus “understands” when you go whoring from Him in the marketplace of ideas, picking and choosing what parts of the Bible you will believe and what ideas you will borrow from His competitors, creating a comfortable religion customized to suit you?

My friend, any Jesus who tells you that is not the Jesus that died on the Cross for our sins, but the spirit of anti-Christ. If you’re worshiping a false Christ made in your own image, warning you the phony Jesus can’t save you is not mean, it’s loving you as the real Christ loves you!

Certainly, God is patient, and in the business of changing old into new, but “be not conformed to this world, but ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2)  was not a mere suggestion. Neither was the point Jesus was making in Matthew 9:17, “Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” The wine is Christ’s lifeblood,  the old wineskins our carnal worldview, or post-modernism for most of us, and new wineskins the biblical worldview.

“But Parables can be interpreted in so many ways,” you may be thinking, Googler. Yes, but we can know for certain this interpretation is correct because it lines up with the Word. In Ephesians 4:17-24, the Apostle Paul writes:

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Again, worldview is just a modern term for what the Apostle Paul described as “old self” and “new self.” 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” Googler, you can never rightly divide the Word (i.e. properly understand it) so long as you’re reading the Word through the lens of your sin nature, which intellectuals have decided to call “post-modernism.”

Now, gentle readers, post-modernists do have one absolute truth, that there is no absolute truth, and can be quite hateful to those who love the Truth and dare to speak it. Thus, in the eyes of your typical Ima Googler, I’ve just painted a target on my back, but that’s nothing new. It’s the nature of sin, and we were promised from the beginning, if we’re faithful to Christ, we will be persecuted. Thus, attacks come, not because we’re hateful as commonly believed by Christians today, but because we’re being faithful disciples and a faithful Bride.

We were commanded, not to apologize for the truth and learn to be nicer when we’re hated on and condemned by even fellow Christians as harsh and judgmental, but to rejoice, for great is our reward in Heaven. In fact, you need to be careful, for Christian post-modernists (whom the prophets would, frankly, call whores and the apostles heretics) disguise “convert to Christian post-modernism” as urges to be nice and even dare to invoke the names of love and kindness, and will tell you being faithful to our Divine Groom is harsh, critical, mean-spirted, judgmental, and hateful. The irony of ironies in this criticism? Jesus made it a requirement that we hate even our closest relatives to be His.

Now you know what He was talking about! Post-modernism isn’t so modern, after all–not if Jesus used it’s definitions some 2000 years ago to make a point!

One of the most fatal, and most subtle, encroachments of post-modernism into the Church is that so many Christians are using a post-modern definition of love. This is how we miss the fact that, though Christians are known by their love, true Christian love can be viewed as hate by the world. Brothers and Sisters, we must learn to love as God loves. A glance through the prophets while keeping John 1 in mind will radically transform any worldly views you have of Christ’s love, if you will listen.

If you don’t know where to start, my suggestion is Ezekiel 16, in the no-holds-barred version rather than the wussy versions that soften the terminology God used so it could be cited in sweet prairie romances without making the target audience blush. (not that they would cite it, anyway.) Also check out the Truth Project. You should be able to take this class for free at a local church.

In Christ’s Truth, and His Love,

Andrea Graham

P.S. Since we discussed the impact of media on worldview earlier, if you’re looking for Christian Fiction that’s gritty, real, with exciting adventures, and grounded in a biblical worldview, check out Laser & Sword Magazine. As the assistant editor, I naturally have total confidence in this publication!

*Ima Googler is a tongue-in-cheek, self-depreciating nod to the readers who find my site by turning to Google for advice–love you guys! If you still have any questions after reading one of these, please feel free to write a letter for the advice column.

Popularity: 55%

 Gentle readers,

Lately, I’ve been hearing, in one way or another, and from diverging sources, a single cry, ringing out. Namely, that the Church is supposed to be a family, but too often in America, it has more in common with daycare, a country club, thrift store, pick the business metaphor of your choice. Too many churches today are literally run as non-profit commercial enterprises and mean “when you’re here, you’re family” in the same spirit as the Olive Garden. We have people in the Church today, raised in it their whole lives sometimes, who have no, or little, understanding of the gospel.

The surrounding culture, it’s gone from “there are no boundaries” to “your boundary is wherever you want it to be, and mine is wherever I want it, and we’re both fine as long as we’re doing what’s right for us.”

And the church often responds by preaching this as the gospel:

“Bad news, you were born on the wrong side of the boundary, and are in capable of getting on the side where God lives. Good news, Jesus died to remove the boundary.”

Sounds good at first blush, but listen to what the post-modern soul just heard: “By saying a little prayer, you can live however you want and still go to Heaven.”

The only difference between that and what they’ve already got is the saying a little prayer (plus getting up early on Sundays to get hit up for ten percent of your income) This is a gospel attractive primarily to those looking more for a commitment-free eternity-insurance policy, not a life-changing relationship with a Holy God, and in this proposed transaction, the throne of their hearts rarely comes included.

Jesus didn’t die to remove the boundary, but to make a way for us to cross over it. He nailed our sin to the cross, yes. And as Ephesians 2:8,9 says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Rather, the misunderstanding comes in with our understanding of grace.

Grace isn’t a static thing where Jesus ONLY accepts us as we are anymore than he’s a far-away-tyrant demanding we do what the bible teaches we’re incapable of in our own strength.

Rather, when we’re born again as the bible teaches we must be, God freely places within us a new spirit–a new heart–one that lives on the right side of the boundary and wills to act in accordance to His will. This is, as the bible teaches, a gift solely of God’s craftmanship. The hitch is we also still live in a body of dead flesh just as wrong-side-of-the-boundary as ever.

Christians, then, live in a state of, “already, but not yet” and at every minute of the day, we face a choice we never had before: whether to walk in the ways of our dead flesh, or in the Spirit, with His grace actively giving us the will and the strength to live in accordance with Christ’s ways. All we have to do is ask, step back, and let him change us.
In His Holy Grace,

Andrea

Popularity: 38%