The Journey Comes Together

Last December things jelled as God was finally able to get me to see that there is no such thing as sacred and secular. That God expected His son Jesus to be Lord over.... everything! It was an earthquake for my spiritual life as I realized that "all of my life" was supposed to be a spiritual life. Instead of just, you know, the "spiritual" parts. That everything has a spiritual basis that it is tied to, no neutral ground, no spare atoms, no unknown thoughts, no subject of life that God didn't require to be brought to the cross in subjection to Jesus. Who knew?

Here, I wrote down what I was seeing for the first time as a cohesive viewpoint. A worldview that started tying together my fragmented pieces of life. I felt like I was changing from a cardboard cutout to a real 3 dimensional Christian.

Because of it, tonight (last Dec.) I had the family look at Col 1:16-17 for by Him all things were created...visible and invisible...all things were created through and for Him.... and in Him all things consist.

Kayla asks what's invisible, which turns into a naming game, gravity, air, time, space, thoughts, reason, logic, love, numbers, atoms.... and "in Him all things consist," for Him and through Him.

Hosea 6:3 Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.

A) As Doug would say, "does a fish know he's wet?" We are so use to everything being fudgable, relative, and why not, it's the world view we have been constantly exposed to our whole lives. Can we recognize this world view to stand against it, or do we, without even knowing it continue to feed it with our choices of what we put in front of us and our families.
Jesus is Lord. We must love the Lord our God with all our heart, our strength, our minds, our entire being. Having acknowledged this, are there any areas of life where God's word doesn't apply? God either sets the standard or man does. Is there any other alternative?
Any and all areas of human endeavor should be approached and brought into submission to Christ. We must look at everything in the light of God's Word.

B) If these are just my thoughts, who cares. But if we can discern God's thoughts after him, then out of obedience we should yield our wills to His. Does He want us to use His standard for every area of life. Or must we feel convicted about it? Does God ever tell us that our hearts should be the standard for obedience? I know Jiminy Cricket said, "let your conscious be your guide." Our God said, "I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt...you shall have no other Gods before me.."

C) At any point where we let our hearts decide what we must obey from God's Word, at that point our hearts have become an idol. They, in effect, are higher than God's Word. Does God present his wisdom to us as "optional wisdom". Does God's Word illuminate his "preferences" for us or does his word show how he wants us to approach every area of life taking every thought captive to obedience to Him?

D) I know that some people hold to a view that if it isn't expressly spoken of in the Word then we must let people decide for themselves. That it's "not binding" on us. (I hope I am not creating any straw-men here, if so, my bad) I still haven't found this in God's Word. In effect, this lets us take huge areas of life and lets us set the standard. Understand, I am not talking about areas like infant baptism where two sides both use God's Word and come to 2 different conclusions, they are both trying to submit to God's Word.

E) He does not ask us to take every thought captive to what we think but rather "bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ". I submit that God would not ask us to do something that is impossible. Jesus said, "he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. "Matt 12:30. God's Word says that there is no neutral ground.
Things are either brought into submission to his definitions and order or they are in rebellion to their Maker. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

F) God's Word is full of examples where His people ignore His commands and are then spoken of as ever listening but not hearing etc, where God's own people no longer can see clearly what is happening around them, or even what God's Word is telling them, because they see God's Word through their or other mens presuppositions. God walked among them and they knew it not.

G) Until recently I didn't even know that this is how I operated. I now realize the deepest mark that public school and and its accomplice, pop-culture, had impressed on me was a reality in my mind that God (if he was there) was irrelevant to most of life, that we as people can spend most of our time functioning in every day "normalcy" without need of God's Word for most simple decisions in life. That faith is personal, a heart matter. I now realize that this is a world view full of religious implications. It does subtle violence to the first commandment.

H) After writing the above I sat down and was just reviewing the book "Always Ready" which had been gone from me for sometime, borrowed by different people. I "just" turned to chp 10 and 11 by
"accident".. and will now basicly submit what Bahnsen articlulates so well...
"God clearly reveals himself in every fact of the created order, it is utterly impossible that there should be any neutral ground, any territory or facet of reality where man is not confronted with the claims of God, any area of knowledge where the theological issue is inconsequential...
God declares whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine (Ps 24:1)...man is commanded to do everything to God's glory (1Cor 10:31)...everything we do whether in word or deed comes under his command(Col 3:17)...even the use of reason or our minds must be according to God's direction and for his glory (1Pet 4:11)...unto him we must be holy (1Pet 1:15)...therefore the God who created all, rules over all (Ps 103:9)...no one can serve 2 masters... (Matt 6:24).
We must not think that ..our mind is the final court of appeal in all matters of knowledge. That ourself is to be the reference point for all interpretation of facts.."

I) This is all said to establish first in our minds, That God's Word does direct us to discern the mind of Christ about everything, that God doesn't invite us to see if we feel "convicted" but rather to be obedient and honor His judgements, His standards to "not my will, but thy will." "Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement because he willingly walked by human precept." Hosea 5:11

J) This will also set itself against the Opra standard of "judge not lest ye be judged" or as Jesus also said "...my judgement is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me. John 5:30

So using a Biblical worldview, we can try to determine Godly understanding, and then direction for our lives about movies, art, books, school cirriculum, music...