Anyhow, I thought I’d blog through some of the questions from the included discussion guide. The guide is split into weeks that cover multiple chapters, each with multiple questions. I’m going to be picking the most interesting question from each chapter and writing a little on it. Feel free to comment, or take the questions and add your own discussion on them, I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Here’s the chosen question from Chapter 1:

What if the ultimate goal of everything Jesus said and did was not just to get us to believe certain things about Him, but for us to become like Him? What would that look like in your life? How would it change the way you live?

There’s a testimony in Prototype that sounds a lot like mine, I won’t go into details as I’m sure that’s covered in later questions, but essentially a huge part of why I claimed agnosticism and disliked Church and Christian culture was because it seemed very much to me that believing in Jesus was far more important than being like Him.

Flick on the TV, watch any random Christian figurehead proudly pronounce they were saved. That they believed in the one true king, that Jesus was their man, the numero uno, saviour and Lord over their life. Now, if only those stupid Muslims, Liberals, Atheists and Godless abortionists would get it into their thick skulls and just agree. Oh yes, the Prince of Peace was totally by their side, especially when they’d march to fight the war, every year,  over the word ‘Christmas’.

Growing up, I found the teachings of Jesus far more relatable in Buddhism than anything I ever saw in a Church or come out of a Pastor’s mouth. God, you see, was only interested in the weekly affirmation on Sunday that Jesus was King, how you lived your weekdays was your own business.

What changed in me, was stumbling entirely by accident, into the men’s bible study over at Life Spring Church in Rockwall and coming face to face with men of all shapes and sizes of belief who were committed to sculpting their own lives after their role model, Jesus. To them that is what being a Christian was all about. I did not know it, but it is what I’d been longing to hear my whole life.

So what does that now look like now that I too have accepted that challenge in my own life? Well, somethings haven’t changed, I still have a mouth that runs far faster and smarter than my brain. I still frequent the same places and have the same friends.

What has changed is internal. I find myself forming friendships with people I would have discounted and being genuinely interested in their well being and opinion. I have approached my wife with greater love, respect and far more willingness to serve, even passing this onto my four year old son who already loves the joy of service to others.

I also walk my path with greater confidence, while ‘WWJD’ is unforgivably cliché, it brings with it a peace and hopefulness in my life that I had not before known. Gone is much of the fear, anger and bitterness I so desperately clinged on to and cloaked myself in. A fact noted with some relief and joy by my wife.

Yet even with a blueprint, there are questions, there are times when I’m challenged by just exactly what would jesus do? The last election cycle is a textbook example. How do I, with my deeply held political views, try to channel the man who brought the zealot and the tax collector together? How can I be a peacemaker when every fibre of my being wants to run to the rooftops and scream at the lunacy of it all? I failed miserably to find my inner peacemaker, of course, but even so there’s a yard stick to measure myself by, a path to stumble my way back to.

When we look at Jesus’ life not just as something to believe in, but indeed as the prototype of that which is fully human incorporating the fully divine, we find a purpose and direction in our lives that brings with it the peace and contentment we all crave, yet find impossible to grasp.

How has living this way now changed my life? Almost imperceptibly, yet at the same time almost unrecognizably.

On some positions cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency asks the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
…
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular
but he must take it
because conscience tells him it is right.

Martin Luther King Jr.

At times, I often feel like I’m reading an entirely different book, as the message I see through the teachings of Jesus Christ sits at odds with much of this view-point, so I wanted to share my thoughts on marriage and the bible.

Marriage is not static

A popular defence against same-sex marriage is that this would be a redefinition of marriage, marriage being the union of one man and one woman, that has remained unchanged since handed down by God himself. Yet in Matthew 19 we see the Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus with the very fact marriage had come to be redefined, “If God forbids divorce,  why did Moses allow it?” they ask.

He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so”

Matthew 19:8

Biblically, the definition of Marriage changed, because men’s hearts were not up to the task. Jesus then goes on to proclaim anyone who divorces a faithful wife is guilty of adultery, which is something we’ve chosen to let slip from the modern concept of marriage.

Another spanner in the one man/one woman view are the multiple wives of Abraham, David, Jacob, Saul and a host of other biblical figures who had God’s favour. Nowadays polygamy is not so accepted amongst God’s people.

Somewhere along the way we’ve confused the tradition of marriage with our interpretation of the tradition transforming it into an institution that must remain fixed for all time, along with the wrong belief this always been the case.

In an interview, responding to the issue of same-sex marriage, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee expressed this exact belief:

The mistake is that we sometimes base our public policy decisions on how we feel, how we think, maybe even some personal experiences, and we don’t regard a lot of these issues from the standpoint of an objective standard.

Let me explain what I mean by that. If we have subjective standards, that means that we’re willing to move our standards based on the prevailing whims of culture. Politicians have an obligation to be thermostats, not just thermometers.

The notion of an objective standard of marriage as a one man, one woman, forever unchanged, doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist in biblical history and it doesn’t exist in recent history with the battle to allow inter-racial marriages still in recent memory. Even so, the view put forward here is that it is absolutely vital to adhere to the myth of this objective standard even when it contradicts emotion, reason and experience.

My mind recalls when Jesus is tested by the Pharisees to see if he’d break Jewish law surrounding the sabbath:

They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

Mark 3:2-4

The message I see from Jesus here is that he felt that the laws and traditions were there to serve the Kingdom and when they prevented it, the work of the Kingdom takes precedent. For Jesus, the law was never above reason, never above emotion, never above bringing God’s message of love and healing. We see this more clearly in Matthew 23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.

Matthew 23:23

Here Jesus again rebukes the religious Pharisees for obedience to the law that is blind to the serving the greater good, which is described similar to the passage in Micah that resonates so strongly with me. Justice, Mercy, Faith, for Jesus these are the “weightier matters”.

Marriage is not about Religion

The argument over same-sex marriage is about religion, not justice, right? After all, we’re talking about allowing marriages that go against God’s will.

The Church is not the only provider of marriages and for over 150 years this power has also been extended to public registrars. In all this time, marriages have and are conducted, legally, that do not meet all of the rules and criteria of a biblical marriage. These marriages are not performed in Churches, nor by clergy and not concern is raised. In essence allowing same-sex marriage does very little to alter the status quo. Same sex marriage would have little to no effect on Christians.

When we choose to interpret only certain passages from Leviticus to remain law while ignoring others, we stand ourselves above Justice, Mercy and Faith, looking down on them and those we condemn.

If same-sex marriage would allow same-sex couples who wish their relationship to recognised not only as a commitment to each other but allow access to their partner’s medical insurance, death benefits, hospital visitation rights, inheritance and other such legalities, then denying same-sex marriage indeed becomes a matter of Justice and of Mercy, one that we, as compassionate brothers and sisters to all God’s children should feel obligated to help amend.

Most of all, I advocate same-sex marriage because it is heart breakingly clear that adopting a message that condemns and denies same-sex marriage looks nothing like the work of the Kingdom. See if you can spot the fruit of the Spirit in the picture below:

If you’re interested, the verse in question is a summary of Micah 6:8 and says simply:

Seek Justice
Love Mercy
Walk humbly with our God

The issue is not so much there aren’t strong progressives voices out there, simply that, like our dear Evangelical friends, the majority of the louder and more noticed voices are those that utterly fail to represent us.

To illustrate what I mean, let us take a peek at one of the more prominent progressive groups, The Christian Left.

This passage from Luke is a go-to verse for progressive and liberal Christians, so it isn’t surprising to see it posted to their Facebook page posing the question “What part of this is difficult to understand?”

This question may perhaps be less a challenge to others and more self-reflection as this was posted earlier the same day:

I’m not the only person to notice this apparent schizophrenia on the part of progressives, the following tweet seemed to read my mind:

Some progressive Christianity must just BE satire. I’m telling you. This can’t be real or serious. People cant lack self-awareness THIS much

— Sarah Moon (@SarahNMoon) January 23, 2013

Indeed,  it looks a lot like modern progressive Christianity is simply about demonizing Evangelicals and the political right, in retaliation for having been demonized by elements of them.

I find it hard to climb aboard the bandwagon, in part because it seems utterly against the very same teachings of equality, open-mindedness and love for all that we progressives cling to like a security blanket, but also because there are Evangelical men and women of God in my life that I admire, respect and, braces yourselves fellow progressives, view as role models.

When we build fences around ourselves or other groups, we do so with hard hearts allowing fear and hate to put distance between us and “those guys”. Tearing down walls is what Christians are called to do and for Progressives this call should be even stronger.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Point to Ponder: Living with purpose is the only way to really live.
Verse to Remember: “For David…served the purpose of God in his own generation” Acts 13:36 (NASB)
Question to Consider: When will I take the time to write down my answers to life’s five great questions? When will I put my purpose on paper?

I’m going to skip the five great questions, because honestly I’m not sold they’re so great and they ask for easy answers. The character of my life? Why Jesus of course! So instead, I’m going to continue sharing more of my life message over the coming weeks, about my turn to Christianity and how I feel I can reach out to others, who like me, are perhaps turned off by a lot of what is seen as the public face of the Church, yet find great value in the teachings of Jesus and how salvation and grace can change your life, help you discover true joy and lead to discovering you purpose in life. Which is what this journey was all about.

Please feel free to share your own 40-day Purpose Driven Life journey with me, I’d love to hear your thoughts and what impact it has had in your life.

Point to Ponder: Blessed are the balanced.
Verse to Remember: “Live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as those who do not know the meaning of life but as those who do.” Ephesians 5:15 (PH)
Question to Consider: Which of the four activities will I begin in order to stay on track and balance God’s five purposes for my life?

Passing on what I know is perhaps the hardest for me. I still struggle with a lot of the language around Christianity and know that those words were like lighting gun powder near me. Yet, when I do open myself up, I’m more often than not, rewarded with honesty and a heartfelt message in return. Hopefully I can use this to continue to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone and share more, more often. While I don’t think I’m ready to start challenging people on accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, there are other steps I can take, offers of prayer for example, that allow a boldness to my faith currently lacking, without worrying about offending the other person.

Point to Ponder: The Great Commission is my commission.
Verse to Remember: “Send us around the world with the news of your saving power and your eternal plan for all mankind.” Psalm 67:2 (LB)
Question to Consider: What steps can I take to prepare to go on a short-term missions experience in the next year?

Never say never, right? I’ve long said never about an overseas mission trip. Being honest, it is hard to be away from family and a wife I adore. We’ve never been apart for long and the time we were apart at the beginning of our marriage due to immigration issues, was pure misery for both of us.

Yet, here I am, on the verge of a new job offer that’ll take me away from the family for extended periods. Part of me can’t help but see it as a test from God, a preparation for a mission trip and being away from the family. Hopefully it is a test that myself, my wife and my son manage to deal with in our reluctance and come out the other side of it, stronger, more grateful and with a deeper and renewed love for the precious moments we share together. In doing so, hopefully we, as a family, will be better able to cope with whatever else comes our way, including a possible mission trip.

Point to Ponder: God wants to say something to the world through me.
Verse to Remember: “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15b-16 (TEV)
Question to Consider: As I reflect on my personal story, who does God want me to share it with?

Everyone. A point made clear when someone influential in my life as being what I consider a role model in my walk in faith, questioned his own purpose with a very dark outcome. I made it a point during his recovery to let him know how vital his life has been in shaping my own. Not by being a super hero, saving people from a fire or for waving a sword and battling evil, just by being a good man, it helped make a huge impact on my life and bring me into the Church.

In the same way, each of our lives holds that same potential and purpose. You don’t necessarily have to be out pounding on doors or dive into counselling to make a dramatic impact in someone else’s life and turn them around. You can do it, simply by being you and loving God.