Click “Practical Atheism Assessment“ for a PDF version of this assessment.
It can be hard to know and even harder to admit if I am living as a “practical atheist.” If I’m a nice guy (or girl) who doesn’t hurt anybody and tries to be fair, it seems awkward to think I am not living as if God existed. After all, doesn’t God want me to be nice and fair?
The 20 questions below are meant to describe what it looks like to live as a “practical atheist.” This term is not meant to be derogatory, but merely to capture what it looks like to live as if God’s existence or involvement is inconsequential to their daily life.
_____ When I do something wrong I try harder instead of repenting.
_____ I have to remind myself to pray outside of crisis times.
_____ My level of hope fluctuates strongly with my circumstances.
_____ I fear the future or get caught up in “what if” thinking.
_____ I demand to see justice when I have been wronged.
_____ I neglect reading my Bible, particularly when life is going well.
_____ My casual conversations rarely reference God or I feel embarrassed when they do.
_____ I take tomorrow (and today) for granted instead of viewing it as a gift.
_____ A primary motivation in my life is to please people and make everyone happy.
_____ When I meet new people I rarely consider if they are saved.
_____ I am more comfortable being friends or socializing with non-Christians.
_____ I do not avoid or try to avoid thinking about what is after death.
_____ I struggle to give cheerfully to God through His church.
_____ My parenting focuses on changing my child’s behavior more than their heart.
_____ My advice to family or friends rarely references God or the Bible.
_____ I tend to think that non-Christians are able to have more fun.
_____ I believe “time heals all wounds” instead of considering how God would redeem my suffering.
_____ I explain things as being “lucky” or I am superstitious.
_____ I take credit for good consequences and feel upset about bad consequences.
_____ I expect my close relationships (spouse, kids, parents) to be able to keep me happy.
There is not a scale for this evaluation. If we try to develop a scale for our awareness of God, then the authentic worship of living continually in the awareness of God degenerates into legalism. Instead of “scoring” this assessment, look at each item you checked and consider it as revealing another opportunity to experience God in the details of life.
If you checked a significant majority of the items, examine whether you have ever truly embraced the Gospel and, thereby, truly know God. Have you viewed your life as desperately needing Jesus’ death to pay for your sin and His resurrection to purchase new life? Have you surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus, committing to follow His teaching and doing whatever He calls you to do? If the answer is no, we at The Summit would love to talk with you about the hope of Christ available to you.
Posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago at 12:22 pm. Add a comment
Suffering is simply the difficulty in life that we experience which is not the result of our personal sin. It is the fall out of living in a broken world with fallen people.
One problem (among many) with suffering is that it is such an intense experience. It is the epitome of “UNFAIR!” While we are wrestling with what to say and do in the midst of what should not be, we miss the messages that we are learning. We miss the messages, because most often those messages are being taught implicitly (like a child learns whether a stranger is safe by monitoring the mood of his/her parents) not explicitly (like recognizing the letters of the alphabet or multiplication tables).
In some way we begin to assume that “what is” is “what will always be.” From this we adapt our expectations (both of self and others), our level of hope or pessimism, our accepted social practices, and even God.
We don’t really assess these beliefs, because in the midst of suffering one is more concerned with surviving than evaluating. The few times we did dare to speak up we were likely “put in our place” and the few times we girded up the hope to think about what should be it only made the suffering more difficult.
Yet this becomes its own trap. Once we quit assessing life and merely accept suffering, we begin to accept lies (i.e., you deserve this, there is no need to try, no one can be trusted, if you ever show weakness you will be taken advantage of, it is always better to be quiet, fairness is a fairy tale, etc…) as truth.
After we accept these lies as truth, we (by default) surrender to their influence on our life. The only responses left are cynicism, anxiety, depression, or bitterness. These dispositions are so entrapping that we miss the significance of changing life events (moving out of a home with abusive parents) or new life opportunities (going back to school, the perspective of a new friend).
Eventually we even begin to fear that our lies might be proven false, because then we would have to learn a whole new way of life. All of the ways we have made sense of things would be taken from us. That almost seems worse than the suffering.
These thoughts are not meant to multiply despair, but I hope they do make the following points of application make more sense.
- The road out of suffering can be as scary as the road into suffering for the person walking it.
- It is hard to put the lies of suffering into words because they were not taught that way.
- Great faith is required to denounce the lies of suffering because they have often been a means of survival.
- Patience is required for those who will help people coming out of suffering. The freedom of being able to walk at their own pace is part of getting their voice back and learning to trust their new found freedom.
- Resistance is not always rebellion in the aftermath of great suffering. Often it is merely the mustering of courage to step out into this “new” truth.
These five points will not fit every situation, but I think they are worth considering for Christians who are befriending, pastoring, or counseling those who are experiencing or coming out of significant suffering. As you reflect on these points it might be good to read Exodus, Job, the grief/depression Psalms, and I Peter – books that address the subject of suffering, oppression, change, and endurance.
Posted 1 year, 10 months ago at 3:07 pm. Add a comment
Seeds Reveal Our Response in Salvation
(Click Here for Printable PDF Handout)
“What must I do to be saved?” asked the jailer in Acts 16:30. Paul replied simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).” In the parable of the sower, Jesus expands upon Paul’s answer. Below are the four responses we can have to the Gospel and the adversary most prone to disrupt the growth of the Gospel in the soil of our heart (given in parentheses).
The Path: (Satan) This person does not pay attention, retain, or value the Gospel when it is presented. Satan’s work is to not let the seed sit long enough to sprout. The application for this person is to listen and be willing to consider eternal things—things heavenly seem insignificant compared to things earthly. The battle is one of attention span and embracing conviction.
Rocky Soil: (Trouble or Persecution) This person is attentive and celebrates the goodness of God’s conviction. Yet for this person earthly things (although initially viewed as less significant than things heavenly) like trouble and persecution distract and drown out things eternal. The lack of roots – discipleship and involvement within a local church community – make it too difficult to weather this heat and they wither.
Thorn Soil: (Worry, Success, & Desire) This person weathers trouble and persecution with reliance upon and understanding of God’s Word in a context of Christian community. Yet God’s blessings become their demise. Worries concerning the family, health, finances, and dreams God blessed them with cause them to take their life back into their own hands. God gives them the desires of their heart and then they choose the desires of their heart over God.
Good Soil: (Fruit) This person is content to be a fruit producer. They value things eternal, weather persecution, experience God’s blessing, but maintain their primary identity as laborer/citizen of God’s kingdom. Because God’s blessings did not become their measure of worth (the yield of the crop fluctuates), they could take joy in what they were allowed to contribute to and avoid getting lost in various self-preoccupations.
I pray you are able to use this sheet to take a “soil test” of your life now and to trace your own Christian journey.
Seeds and the Role of the Evangelist (v. 26-29)
Confusion is a common reason for avoiding evangelism. We are not sure how it works, so we don’t know if we have done it right and we sure do not want to foul up someone’s eternal destiny. Jesus says we need not understand how sharing the gospel penetrates a stony, hard heart to bring life from death anymore than a farmer needs to hold a Masters degree in biology to understand how dry and wet dirt combine to produce fruit.
The farmer has one task and that task is not professor, it is sower. Similarly, the Christian sharing his/her faith has one task and that task is not theologian, but witness. It may be helpful for many to consider that the same faith with which we share the gospel (somewhat fearful and uncertain of how it will work) is the same faith with which an unbeliever receives the gospel. In this the Christian models what he/she is asking of the unbeliever while asking them to respond.
If we had to understand more in evangelism than the farmer does in sowing, then our faith would not be in the grace of God and work of Christ but in the system we presented. If we know that we are sinful and that Christ as our substitute is our only hope, then let us sow and be amazed whenever and however the harvest comes.
Seeds and the Impact of Faith (v. 30-32)
“God is doing something large and my life, my abilities, my understanding, or my available time is so small. There has to be a problem.” Have you ever thought something like this? Jesus replies, “That’s the point! That is what my kingdom is all about.”
A major question that this parable raises is, “Where do you find your security?” What is it that you think you should offer God that would make your contribution to His kingdom significant? Those are the very things that fuel our insecurities and hinder the activity of God’s kingdom in our lives.
In light of this thought, read I Corinthians 1:18-31 for another picture of God’s kingdom and the normal object of our security. Our chief mission in life is to bring God glory. When we have done that we have done the highest thing a human (or any other part of creation) can do. Any largeness on our part gets in the way. When God makes great bushes (does awesome works that blesses others—“birds of the air perch”) with small seeds (ordinary folks) then God gets the total glory. The seed is secure throughout the entire process because it was only concerned with its mission (glorifying God) and gets to be the “largest of all garden plant” in the end (which still may not be a Giant Redwood Tree).
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry”
BLOG: “Teachers Equipping Ministers Through Prayer Time“
Posted 2 years, 1 month ago at 3:31 am. Add a comment
The Focus of Application in Psalm 23
In our desire to make application we can have the tendency to too quickly ask the question, “What does this passage say about or to me?” The effects of these errors are particularly strong for Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is not a psalm about being a good sheep (i.e., instructions to stay close to and pay attention to the shepherd). Psalm 23 is a psalm about the Good Shepherd (i.e., God’s character, activity, and presence in the midst of all the trouble we sheep get into). As you study and teach this passage keep the emphasis on the Shepherd (comfort) more than the sheep (instruction).
The Journey of Psalm 23
This Psalm takes a journey (both in time and location). The psalm begins in the Spring (v. 1-3) when water and vegetation are plentiful. Then the psalm moves to the Summer heat (v. 4) when the Shepherd must guide his flock through more treacherous terrain to find their needed nourishment. Finally, the psalm moves towards the temple at Harvest (v. 5-6). We see that our shepherd is prepared for all seasons and terrains of life. As we trace the fullness of this journey we can appreciate more deeply the thematic heading of verse 1, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”
Learning to Trust Our Shepherd
(Click Here for Printable PDF Handout)
The big question of Psalm 23 (and life for that matter) is, “Do I trust the Shepherd and have I embraced Him as my Shepherd?” Often we make the big questions about what we should do rather than whose we are and whom we trust. When we make this error we tend to become legalist, cynical, guilt-ridden, or prideful.
Use the following reflective questions to guide you to more fully embrace and trust the Shepherd.
v. 2 – Do you rest well (physically, emotionally, relationally, or spiritually)? What does this reveal about the kind of Shepherd you believe God to be?
v. 3 – Do you embrace wisdom and righteousness? Do you believe the “good life” is outside righteousness and want the Bible to be proven right? What does this reveal about the kind of Shepherd you believe God to be?
v. 4 – Where do your eyes look first when hardship or evil shows itself? When you think of God with a rod do you believe He is for you? What does this reveal about the kind of Shepherd you believe God to be?
v. 5 – How do you respond to blessings (awkward embarrassment, prideful self-sufficiency, or humble gratitude)? What does this reveal about the kind of Shepherd you believe God to be?
v. 6 – When you think of God’s presence is He on your back (driving you), on your case (checking up on and shaming you), or on your side (loving you)? What would it be like for that presence to be eternally tangible to you? What does this reveal about the kind of Shepherd you believe God to be?
v. 1 – Is the Lord truly your shepherd and do you trust Him in such a way that you can truly call Him your good Shepherd?
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry“
Posted 2 years, 4 months ago at 2:29 am. Add a comment
Chapter 2 Verses 15-16:
When making application of a Bible passage it is wise to always begin with context. James’ illustration of clothes and daily food takes on more significance when we realize that he was writing to a group of refugees—individual’s chased from their homes because of religious persecution. They had faith—faith enough to leave their homes for Christ. They did not have jobs, food, shelter, clothes, or a network of friends. James is telling these desperate, heroic Christians that their faith must continue to be expressed through rallying together in the midst of poverty, instead of saying “every Christian for him/herself.” As each one found a job they were to care for the group and not just say, “I’m sure God has something good in store for you. Just trust Him.”
Chapter 2 Verses 18-20:
“Faith and Works”
(Click Here for PDF Handout with Clearer Chart)
Some of us are naturally thinkers. Others of us are naturally doers. Some of us prefer to emphasize grace; others truth. God does not give us the freedom of balancing one another out. We are to strive for a balanced expression of Christ’s character in each of our lives. This requires self-awareness. Use the chart below to provide some “laundry baskets” to sort out your life. Consider those areas of faith (i.e., trust, knowledge, hope, etc…) in which you are both strong and weak. Do the same with works (i.e., service, humility, sacrifice, etc…).
Faith Works
Strengths
Weaknesses
James 2:22
What does it mean for faith to be perfected (i.e., made complete) through works? I believe it is helpful here to consider the metaphor of a seed. A good seed will bear fruit. If a seed is planted and it does not bear fruit, it was either a bad seed or a pebble confused for a seed. When the seed bears fruit, it results in more seed. Both seed (faith) and fruit (works) begin to flourish. If we hoard or emphasize either to the exclusion of the other, we lose both. If we only stockpiled seeds, they would go bad and we would starve. If we consumed all the fruit, we would have no seeds to plant.
Go back to the chart on faith and works. Play a matching game. Draw a line between a particular expression of faith that motivates a particular work. Do the lines connect between strength-stength, weakness-weakness, or strength-weakness? What aspects of faith are needed to motivate your quadrant of works/weakness? What expressions of works would make your faith weaknesses more tangible?
Introduction to the “Living Our Faith” series.
TOOL: “Using Prayer Time to Cultivate Ministry“
Posted 2 years, 6 months ago at 1:53 am. Add a comment
