Author: Dan G.

Blogging for transparency

I was talking to a friend of mine today and he mentioned that a gal he’d met online was surprised to hear he had a blog. She thought it would be very uncomfortable to have your thoughts put out there in a public forum for anyone to see.  It’s an interesting point, because there are certainly times where it’s nice to be able to hide your beliefs or politics or opinions in the name of getting along or fitting in. I’ve always said I feel open, honest representation of yourself is the best way to live – but sometimes it’s not so easy to actually live out.

When I started this blog, I deliberately obscured my name and was careful not to link to it from my Facebook or anything else that had my full, real name. I didn’t want this blog to come up whenever people looked up my name, because I knew some of what I wrote could be controversial. I didn’t want potential employers or coworkers to find what I wrote and get offended by what they saw.

But a while back, I don’t remember exactly when, I decided that it wasn’t in line with my policy of transparency to try and hide this blog behind a fake name. Now, I still use the first name and last initial moniker because it’s a habit and it’s consistent across where I post elsewhere, plus it’s just easier. But this blog is now the #2 search result when you look for my name, only behind Wikipedia’s article on the eponymous railroader from the 1800s.

Not actually me.

And I don’t mind, because this is who I am. And if I take a little flak for being excited about the Scripture or thinking that socialism is a terrible form of government, then so be it. What I would love is if someone came up to me at work tomorrow and said “hey, I googled you the other night and found your blog. Can I ask you a few questions about this whole Jesus thing?”

Well, so much for that

Yesterday was super-busy, and I didn’t actually get home until well after midnight which means that my “write every day in November” goal has failed. However! I do plan to keep writing and stay on track for 30 posts in 30 days, so hopefully I’ll be staying consistent through at least the end of the month. In the meantime, work is calling so I shall write more later.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

Justified

So I’ve been listening to Mark Driscoll’s Trial series and we’re in 2 Peter now. I was really struck by the message today. Peter opens his letter with a simple statement, but one that is really quite profound:

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…

The key phrase here that I love is “obtained a faith of equal standing as ours.”  It’s so obvious, but so awesome – we have, purely by grace, obtained a faith as excellent and powerful as that of the apostles and Peter himself. Equal standing! These are the men handpicked by Jesus to follow him around for years, learning at his feet. Peter, in particular, is one of the three closest to Jesus, and ultimately the leader – he got to meet Moses and Elijah at the Mount of Transfiguration, to preach the gospel at Pentacost, and write books of the Bible before ultimately giving  his life for Christ – and he says we have a faith of equal standing to his own.

Your first reaction should be, “How?”

We obviously haven’t had the opportunities he had. We haven’t made the sacrifices he did. We, on good days, read the Bible – he wrote some of it. So how is our faith even in the same ballpark as his, much less completely equal?

Because it isn’t our own faith.

Let me repeat that, because it’s a big one:

It isn’t our own faith. It’s Jesus’ faith.

There’s an astonishing doctrine called “justification” that a lot of people kind of gloss over as they’re studying the Bible. Justification is the act of making the unjust into that which is just. This is something that sounds simple, but think about how this would look in a day-to-day example: imagine a judge trying a man for murder, and the jury finding him guilty after monumental evidence is brought against him. The judge hears the guilty verdict, then turns to the man and says “you are innocent, and free to go.” If a judge were to do such a thing, he would lose his seat! But that is exactly what God has done for us.

But how can a just God allow that which is unholy, which is sinful and abhorrent into his presence? If heaven is perfect, then how can we imperfect people get there, regardless of how good or faithful we are? The obvious answer is that we can’t, not on our own. This is where the sacrifice of Jesus comes into play.

The faith we are judged upon is that faith which was given us by Jesus, not our own. His is the only one that is perfect and pure and complete, and not even the apostles could add one iota of worth to that gift. So – do you see now? Regardless of what we do, regardless of who we are or how good or moral we are, we are unable to earn our way even into God’s consideration. It is only by accepting that perfect gift of Christ’s, that which is so far beyond anything we are remotely capable of, that we can stand boldly before the throne of grace and expect anything but eternal damnation.

It’s not you. To think you can add anything to his work is blasphemy. While dying on the cross Jesus cried out that his redemptive work was finished, and who are you to dare say you can add anything more to what God himself said was complete?

That’s justification. We’re all in the same ballpark because that’s where Jesus put us all there. Peter didn’t deserve it any more than you do. Knowing that, how can you not be overcome with hope? With joy? With a complete and total sense of unworthiness and thankfulness?

This is the God we serve, people. How awesome he is!

Quote of the week

From cosmo_drazi:

“I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he send six pings or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, with all this packet loss I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is an ICMP echo request, the most straightforward protocol in the world, and would DDoS your server clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel laggy? Well, do ya, punk?”

No, this doesn’t count as my daily post. That will come later. But this is still awesome.

Politik blues

After getting about an hour of sleep last night, I decided to take a nap after getting home from work today.

…And I just woke up. Oops.

So! It’s been a fun one. Last night I was listening to Obama’s “town hall” in Shanghai and was amazed at how bold some of the questions were. One of the attendees asked him what he had done to earn the Nobel prize and how he was qualified with his educational background. I about did a spit-take when I heard that one – can you imagine an American reporter having the gall to ask that? Didn’t think so. Additionally, while talking about freedom of information and the “great firewall of China,” Obama slipped one of the more honest quotes I’ve heard from him:

“There are times I wish information didn’t flow so freely so I wouldn’t have to listen to people criticize me.”

It’s remarkable that the president would say such a thing. To have such thin skin as to wish that information was unavailable so that his political opponents would have nothing bad to say about him? Ridiculous and juvenile. He’s already taken plenty of swings at Fox News in particular, so it’s hardly surprising, but it is a little disheartening to hear him come right out and say something like this.

I don’t know what will surprise me about this president anymore. At first I thought he would be incompetent, having no experience and all the naivete of a young politician fresh on the national stage. After it became clear that he had an agenda above and beyond what he’d revealed, I was worried he’d cause some grief, but couldn’t imagine that the sort of thing he’s managed to achieve could possibly happen – not here, not now. And now we stand on the brink of a complete government takeover of health care, under the watch of a man who’d rather daydream about silencing those who criticize him than think about the consequences of what he’s doing.

So for those who’ve asked me in the last couple weeks why I’ve focused a bit less than usual on politics, it’s largely due to the fact that I’ve been getting increasingly depressed about the state we’re in every time I look at what’s going on in the political realm.

So that’s that, tomorrow we’ll avoid politics. Goodnight, all.