What is a human anyway?

Descripción

I grew up in an atheistic family and had no spiritual guidance whatsoever, yet, like many brooding teens, I still spent a fair bit of time contemplating existential questions. At the time, I was in a death metal band called Society Sucks… I was the epitome of teen angst, and proudly so. So while I earnestly pondered the question of “what is a human?” I was also happy to adopt an extreme position. I sought to be controversial, edgy. In my mind it was clear that humanity was a negative force on the world, and after some thought, I concluded that humans must be a virus. A virus with a god-complex. I know… so edgy. But looking back now as a Christian, I wonder if it was really that extreme a position to take. The view that humanity is some sort of virulent plague on the earth is not all that rare. This is a pretty mainstream notion around the world. My younger self would be quite deflated to hear my own position echoed by so many squares. In one shape or another, this message that humanity is harmful to Earth is not fringe. Having fewer babies in order to save the planet - for example - is a widely and strongly held principle. The American Psychological Association (APA) reported [https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/07/fewer-children] last year that 39% of young people globally feel hesitant to have children due to climate concerns. It is mainstream for young couples to plan on having fewer or no children in order to reduce the harm humans inflict on the environment. This permeates secular thinking in all sorts of different areas, with disastrous consequences. This materialistic view of human life is what influences the world’s view of unwanted pregnancies, of the terminally ill and of the elderly. In these areas, all the secular arguments in favour of life have been eroded down to nothing, to the point where Canadian society fully embraces the culture of death. A 2022 Angus Reid poll [https://angusreid.org/abortion-canada-personal-experiences-unwanted-pregnancy/] found that 1 Canadian woman in 6 has had an abortion, while at least 1 pregnancy in 5 is aborted. The exact number of abortions is unclear but assuredly under-represented since the introduction of Mifegymiso, the abortion pill, which is not included in any of the statistics and the Ontario government hands out [https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/45782/abortion-pill-available-across-ontario-at-no-cost] for free. Meanwhile, the Canadian government’s Medical Assistance in Dying program is picking up steam and is now putting more than 15,000 of its citizens to death every year. This represents more than 1 in every 20 deaths in Canada. It is clear that in abortion and assisted suicide, this society has recast our worst enemy as our best friend, they have rebranded man’s worst enemy - death - as a fundamental human right. How could they be so fooled by such an obvious lie? Death is no one’s friend, it is not a right, it is a sentence. But this stems from the fact that they have the wrong answer to the question of “What are we?” If we can be lulled into believing that we are what we contribute, then we make ourselves an easy mark for this most devastating con. Our culture has been conned into defining who we are in the light of what we contribute. This answer stands in stark contrast to the Christian conviction of the value and dignity of all human beings and the sanctity of all human life, regardless of age, of health, of wealth or power or status or athletic ability or address or citizenship. Nor do Christians reserve human value for the religious, the pious, the faithful or the Christian. In Psalm 8, David marvels at God’s glory and is struck by the thought that such a majestic God would be mindful of such lowly creatures as humans. While he praises God for his love for his creation, he does not claim that God’s love is reserved for God’s own people, but for all people. David does not ask what are we - your faithful followers, but what is man… all mankind. Men, women, boys, girls regardless of their background, their religion, their political views, their criminal records, their sexual orientation, their gender expression or their pronouns, regardless of their sin, and of whether they believe in god at all or whether they express out and out hatred towards God. The Christian love is a radical love. That is the truly extreme position. Where does the Christian find inspiration for this radical notion that all humans have intrinsic value and worth? What inspired William Wilberforce or Harriet Beecher Stowe to fight for the abolition of slavery? What led Corie Ten Boom to risk her own life to hide Jewish people from the Nazis? What inspired great missionaries like Hudson Taylor to lay down his children’s lives to spread the gospel to China? What inspires Christians around the world and across Canada to give to the poor, to love their neighbours, to serve in pregnancy care centres and homeless shelters and prison ministries, to open up their homes, to give sacrificially and to give up their time for men and women, boys and girls they do not know? I’ve seen this radical love in my local church. My church loves men and women, boys and girls in the community. Why? What are these men and women that we should regard them? It comes back to the question that Psalm 8 asks… what are we that God would regard us? That God would be mindful of us and care for us? This fundamentally Christian belief is anchored in the very early pages of the Bible! Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” We carry in the very fabric of our being the imprint of the one who made us, we bear his signature in our cellular make up, embedded way down into the deoxyribo-nucleic acid is the incontrovertible imprint of the God of the universe… Each and every one of us is an original masterpiece, there are no forgeries. Every single young man and woman in their prime as well as every person in their nineties, riddled with cancer and no memory of who they are... Every babbling baby who knows nothing yet, and every baby still in the womb that doesn’t yet know the taste of air… It doesn’t matter whether you are in a jail cell, in a dead-end job, in debt, in bondage, in slavery, in porn videos all over the internet, in prostitution, in crisis, in destitution… No matter your circumstances, how beat-down and how relegated this world has made you feel, you are a priceless marvel because of who made you. Wait! If that’s the case, then why are Christians always banging on about us being sinners? Do not misunderstand: that does not devalue any one of us. Nor is that a contradiction. We are indeed sinners. But Psalm 8 reminds us not of our worth based on what we do, not of what we make of ourselves, but of what we are made to be! That should lead us to reject our sin and to turn toward the one who made us the way we are. We are not viruses, we are not a negative force on God’s creation. God has made us his crowning achievement in all of creation, and Psalm 8 urges us to live our life in light of that exalted status. May we see ourselves and those around us in light of God’s love for us. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com [https://somestephenjones.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Enter into the Joy of Christ

Imagine you wake up one morning and you open your front door as you do every morning to pick up your newspaper or to take your dog out, only to find a treasure on your doorstep. Please use your imagination freely here, how ever you would like to picture this treasure is fine… a suitcase full of cash, a chest filled with coins or a stack of gold bars, you pick. But the treasure sits there unattended. There is no one there… just a treasure with a note that says: “For you.” This is not a mistake, it is yours. What would you do with this treasure? If you are like the average lottery winner, you might live the next few years of your life in the lap of luxury. And then, after those first few years, you would probably end up in a worse position than you started in, financially speaking… The problem most jackpot winners face is that they adopt a much more expensive lifestyle, but without ongoing cash flow, they can only sustain their new luxurious habits for a short period of time, and then end up back where they started. Or worse. The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards estimates that one out of three super jackpot winners end up filing bankruptcy. Now, take a few more steps with me down this imaginary path… Many years have gone by since your unexpected doorstep discovery, and now someone runs up to you out of the blue and asks: “So? What did you do with the treasure? Did it change your life? Did it make you happy? Did you use it well?” And so the mystery of the treasure is finally revealed to you: This stranger explains that he sold everything he had ever owned, his house and all of his belongings, he gave up everything he possessed for that treasure and left it on your doorstep, for you. This stranger gave everything he ever owned to you. How would you feel about your ability to account for how you spent that money? You would undoubtedly start to reflect back on how you spent this treasure… Did you share in your unearned bounty? Did you pay any of it forward? Do you have anything to show for it today? Are you a better person for it? What would you feel upon this revelation about the source of the treasure? Gratitude? Or would you be struck with self-loathing and condemnation at the recollection of your reckless spending? Would you regret gambling a large part of the money away? Would you be embarrassed about purchasing luxury items that have since tarnished and lost their value? Or would you even start to resent the stranger for this unimaginably extravagant gift that you never asked for, but which now weighs on you as an unrepayable debt? Would the knowledge that what you had gained came from someone else’s sacrifice change the way you viewed it? Would you have valued it any differently? Would you have used your resources differently? Uh oh… Are you onto me now? Do you see where I’m going with this flight of imagination? You have an opportunity right now, today, to live the kind of life that will ensure that when you meet Jesus Christ face-to-face, you can give an account for each and every day that makes him smile, and say to you: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” You have that opportunity to live a life that is pleasing to Jesus. Forget WWJD? What Would Make Jesus Smile? This is not a new revelation, but sadly, rather than feel overwhelmed with gratitude and joy at the notion of pleasing the one who sacrificed everything for us, we too often feel weighed down by a sense of burden and of condemnation that such a life is too far out of our reach. We may even resent the Giver because we cannot shake the notion that his gift comes with strings attached. That is why I was so encouraged this week when I was reminded of this simple truth while reading Jesus’ Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. I was struck by the fact that the Master does not just congratulate the faithful servant, he says, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:23) In pleasing Jesus, you get to enter into Jesus’ joy! We have the opportunity to bring joy to our saviour and then to rejoice with Him! I apologize for the excess of exclamation points, but that is an incredible picture! A true celebration of life, a life well lived, a life that was lived in the light of its preciousness, a life that was not taken for granted but recognized the costly sacrifice that made it possible. I want that! I desire to live my life with an ever-present gratitude for the tremendous cost that was borne by Christ. Christ delivered a treasure at my doorstep even as a stranger to me: He gave me freedom from the fear of death, he granted me a life to be enjoyed in the light when I was plunged in darkness. At a time when I believed that everything I wanted in this life was going to have to be earned by the sweat of my brow, swindled by the deviousness of my mind, or taken from someone else by the ruthlessness of my conscience, that is when Christ revealed Himself to me and showed me that it is all already mine, and I am free to do with it as I see fit. Free to me, because the cost was paid by Him. I acknowledge that after receiving this treasure, I then spent the next little while trying to understand where the strings were attached and when the catch would finally be revealed. Some people tried to convince me that although there were strings, there was also a loophole: You just had to point at the strings and call them Legalism. But I have come to understand and accept the truth of the matter: There are no strings and there are no loopholes. The truth was much simpler and the truth is what set me free. Christian freedom is not just about forgiveness of sins, it is not even just about growing in sanctification by the Spirit. Christian freedom is looking forward to the day when you go through every one of your receipts with the man who dropped a treasure at your doorstep and together you can rejoice over all the ways you spent that treasure. The ways it brought you joy, the ways you shared it and gave it and used it to tell others of the lavish generosity of the Giver… The hope it brought, the burdens it relieved, the fears it calmed, the pains it soothed, the tears it dried. The love it spread. Sure, life is not easy. It can be down right hard. And some days feel like studying for a hard math test: You are not sure what is going to be on the test, or which concepts you should be working on more. You are confused about which formulae apply to which equations. You hope a certain kind of problem never comes up. But, having recently experienced this I can tell you that it is a special kind of joy when you get to rejoice with your child, whom you saw labour over his math lessons, as he brings home a hard earned A… or even B-... or, well… It was a pass anyway! Rejoice! Jesus has relieved us of the burden of the fear of failing. That is no longer a possible outcome, so we can carry on and fight the good fight, we can finish the race, we can keep the faith, knowing that there is laid up for us the crown of righteousness. But we all know that on some days, that fight feels exhausting, and that race feels wearisome, and on other days, our strength is renewed. That is because some days, I am driven by the slight nausea I experience at the thought of seeing disappointment in Jesus’ eyes. And while that might spur me on for a little while, it invariably leads me to exhaustion. Even though I know Christ sympathizes with my weaknesses and he readily forgives me, yet still, there are days when my efforts are fueled by guilt, fear, and condemnation. These make for bad fuel. But on my best days, I run on the good fuel of Christ’s joy. On the days when my strength is renewed, when I feel like I am soaring on wings like eagles, and I can run and not become weary, I can walk and not faint, on those days, I have set my mind on entering into Christ’s joy. To share in the joy of Jesus with Jesus as he rejoices in what I chose to do with this day, which cost him so much and yet which he gifted to me so freely… that is my most cherished desire, and that is the only truth that encourages me to run the race with endurance. Thanks for reading Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com [https://somestephenjones.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

31 de ene de 202611 min

When your faith is in tatters

Do not give up hope in your weariness. Your faith is worth holding onto, even when it is in tatters, shredded and abused by the circumstances of life under the curse of sin. This fallen world of ours has a way of draining us and leaving us gasping for breath. Suffering, injustice and persecution will leave us weary, and so will our own sin, after it leads us astray with its false promises. But God will make a way back to Him for you. Naomi in the Old Testament book of Ruth teaches us that even when our faith is on life-support, we can revive our hope by shifting our focus from this weary world to the one who will redeem us. The book of Ruth opens up with a young Jewish family, a married couple and their two sons: Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and their two boys Mahlon and Chilion. They are living through troubled times in Judah, in the town of Bethlehem. This is God’s promised land, but it feels less than idyllic… There’s no King, and the rulers are unrighteous and they’re spiraling further away from God. And there’s no food, famine has settled on the land. And so, the patriarch Elimelech, in an act of rebellion against God, makes the ill-advised decision to flee Judah. Rather than seek and submit to God’s will within the land of God’s choosing, Elimelech decides to run. He leads his family out of Judah to Moab. He leads them into exile, and then Elimelech promptly dies. Naomi is left alone to raise her two sons in this foreign land. And when they are both grown up and married, and you start to think that her job is done and that she should now be able to be taken care of by her sons’ families, both her sons die childless. Her sons leave behind only two widows, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi is still in exile, where there is no support network for the trio of widows, and she finally accepts that she has come to the end of the road in Moab, she has reached a dead-end. The only way forward is the way back to Bethlehem. Thanks for reading Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. While Orpah starts over in Moab, her homeland, Ruth sticks with Naomi and joins her in Judah, in Bethlehem, in the promised land of God’s people. And as Naomi and Ruth leave Moab and enter back into the promised land, they step through the looking glass into a mirror image world. Naomi, whose name means sweet or pleasant, now calls herself Mara, which means bitter. And she declares that she went away full, and the Lord has brought her back empty. Naomi left amidst a famine and she returns at the beginning of the harvest. Naomi shows up in Judah empty handed, having been stripped of her ambitions for a better life outside of God’s will. Naomi has lived through an extended season of trials, and her circumstances still appear bleak. There were not too many options available to a widow back in those days in the middle east. And the rulers of Judah are crooked and the people are not righteous, they are not generally inclined to take care of the vulnerable, they are not faithful to God. But the laws of Judah were handed down by God. God’s law is just, and the law does provide hope for the hopeless. So this is the part of the story where we see the dams of God’s Grace are about to burst. Even under unrighteous rule, God’s promised land is a better place for God’s people. Even with a weak faith like Naomi’s, being surrounded by God’s people under God’s law in God’s promised land is a far better place to be. This truth holds up for you today, so plug yourself into a faithful local church and seek to surround yourself with God’s people, spend time in the Bible, get to know and be shaped by God’s love for you, cry out in prayer to God and submit to His will for your life, that is where you will find His blessing. The laws in Judah were handed by God through Moses to provide for the destitute. The widow Ruth is allowed to glean at harvest time, the law allows for her to pick enough grain to avoid starvation. So Ruth goes out to glean, and by God’s providence she ends up gleaning in the field belonging to an extended family relative of Naomi’s late husband named Boaz, who shows her favour. This is not a stroke of luck! There is no such thing as luck. Only the sweet providence of the one who is sovereign over all things. After Ruth puts in a full day’s work she has an impressive harvest to show for her efforts. When Ruth returns home, Naomi is surprised by Ruth’s haul, and she asks her where it came from. But very quickly, we see that Naomi had figured out that Ruth has found favour with someone, so she quickly exclaims “Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” It is a telling detail of this exchange that Naomi redirects her thought patterns from focusing on where to focusing on who. This shift is hugely consequential for Naomi, and it is just as important for you. Elimelech lost sight of who he was living for, and decided to focus on where he was living. He strayed from living for God and pursued a better place to live. He anchored his hope in where he lived, in his circumstances rather than anchoring his hope in the Lord, the one who is sovereign over his circumstances and who is the only trustworthy source of hope. I invite you to redirect your thought patterns in the same way as Naomi, right now. Let this be your turning point if need be, stop worrying about where you live and focus on who you are living for. Shift your source of hope from your circumstances - no matter how comfortable or dire they are - and focus your mind and heart on the one who is sovereign over your circumstances. Focus on the one who can redeem your circumstances. For Naomi, by God’s provision, the source of her hope is her kinsman-redeemer Boaz. Although Ruth had not known who he was, Naomi had known this man all along. That was conceivably part of the reason behind the return to Judah… When Naomi was in exile, she had no relatives. But in Judah, while she is still a widow with no children, there are extended relatives like this man, who is worthy, and part of the clan of her late husband. So when Ruth mentions this name Boaz, Naomi immediately knows that this is good news! Ruth has not merely stumbled upon someone who can make a big difference in their lives, Naomi realizes there is even more at play here. So she cries out in praise to God, whose Hesed (steadfast love) has not forsaken her or her family. Naomi praises God who has ordained this turn of events, because he has not forgotten her, he has not abandoned her. God is faithful. God’s grace does not depend on the strength of Naomi’s faith, her faith was on life support, it barely had a pulse. Yet, it was God who was working in her life all along, He was her provider, He was guiding her path. God was responding to her small act of faithfulness in returning to the promised land. And it was small. It was not because of Naomi’s steadfast faith that she chose to reject the schemes of men like Elimelech and to depend solely on God’s grace. No, she ran out of options, she hit a dead-end, there was no place left for her to run. It is only because of God’s steadfast love that Naomi came to depend on God’s grace. By the merest wisp of tattered and shredded faith that she had left, Naomi returned to Judah spiritually empty. But as she stepped through the looking glass out of Moab into Judah, out of God’s enemy territory and into God’s promised land, she became spiritually filled. No longer bitter. Because she then saw that God was near. In fact He was all along. If you are clinging to your bitterness, it’s time for you also to put it behind you, because it will not do anything for you but blind you to God’s grace. If you see God’s hand at work in your life as Naomi did, then take up her example and shed your bitterness and turn to God like she did. Naomi thanks God for her kinsman-redeemer, and so should we praise God for our own kinsman-redeemer. Ours is the perfect kinsman-redeemer who became our kin at Christmas, so that he could become our redeemer. So, when your faith is waning and you feel weary, shift your focus from your circumstances and rejoice! Rejoice as you focus on the birth of your kinsman-redeemer, the one that God has sent for us. Christ is better even than Boaz. Christ is your kinsman, your redeemer, your Lord, your God. He is worthy of your faith. As you sing along to O Holy Night this Christmas, I hope you are encouraged by the verse “A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices”. We are indeed weary, and there is indeed hope for the weary, even for those whose faith is frayed in their weariness. Turn from focusing on the circumstances of this world, and focus on the incarnation of God who came to exercise His sovereignty over your circumstances. Your redemption does not lie in your own strength, your redemption has already been accomplished by Christ. And do not even trust in the steadfastness of your own faith, it will waver and falter, but trust in God's faithfulness, his steadfast love, his Hesed for you. And see the heart of God for you in the story of Christmas, because you are the object of that love. Thanks for reading Increase Our Faith (Luke 17:5)! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit somestephenjones.substack.com [https://somestephenjones.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

12 de dic de 202412 min

What is a human anyway?

Descripción

Comentarios

Empieza 7 días de prueba

Todos los episodios