Jackson Symphony Orchestra

Yay! I got a gig with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra! I'll be playing for the Broadway Pops concert on February 10th! Woohooo! Should be fun!

Christian Transparency

It is always interesting to see what brings visitors to one's blog. My post "I Saw a Lot of Naked Men..." sure gets a lot of hits (imagine that), but one post that garners a lot of attention is my post from August of 2005 on Transparency.

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Here is the repost:

The Christian is to live a life that is transparent. This means that the Christian should live their life out in the open, hiding nothing. We should go about our work and play in plain view of anyone, and avoid every kind of evil.

I Thessalonians 4:11-12 "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."

I Thessalonians 2:4b "... we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts."

We are to live in the Light, and when we live transparent lives, all becomes seen in the Light. The definition of transparent is "easily seen through", "free from guile", "candid or open". God sees all that we do, everything. Character counts to a Christian because integrity and character is built by what we do "in the dark", when men can't see. If we are alway conscious of the fact that God is watching, and that we will one day give an account for all that we do. "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight."(Romans 14:12, Hebrews 4:13)


This does not mean however, that we are not to have private moments at all. Of course a Christian has intimate details of life that are his/her own business, but those details are always to be within the confines of Biblical teachings, therefore approved by God. We need not point out the aspects of our life either, we should "make it our ambition to lead a quiet life...", because a life that is in the light will be seen naturally.

What it does mean is that we are to be ultimately accountable to God for our behaviors. Christians are instructed to "submit to one another", "confess your sins to each other and pray for each other" and "do not lie to each other". "We who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Because we, Christians, form one body, it is important that we are transparent with our lives, so that we can all "encourage one another and build each other up". If one of us is involved in sin, the entire body will be affected. One day our pastor gave a powerful visual of just this thing when he used this example: "Let's say I chose to sin and commit adultery"...then he asked his wife to stand up. After she stood, he had his children stand up. Then he had members of the leadership of the church stand, one by one. Then the friends of his family stood. Then the family of the people already standing were asked to stand. By the end of the illustration, the entire body of believers in that gathering place were standing.

Christians are to hold one another accountable. When we see a sister or brother falling into sin, we are to go to them and lovingly try to help them to see the error of their ways, and point them toward Christ who is the only One Who can fully restore them to the faith. If we say nothing, and we allow the sister/brother to stumble, unchallenged, we will be held accountable by God for that inaction. God gave us a voice to use!

Ephesians 4:25 "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body."

Christians who are leading transparent lives will invite intervention by another believer. By that I mean that the Christian who is transparent makes it obvious that they are sincerely trying to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. An observer would feel comfortable (maybe not the right word because the circumstance would be difficult, but they definately would not feel like "I'm not getting involved, it's none of my business") approaching the transparent Christian with words of caution or accountability.

Do not hide in the dark!

Ephesians 5:8-14 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible.

Be transparent! "...let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

I don't believe living transparently means telling every person you come in contact with about each and every aspect or detail of your life. To me it is just what I do...I go to work I work hard. I uphold a certain standard of behavior, the same as I do at home. Different aspects of my personality may be prominent at work, as opposed to home life, or socially, but the foundational character that I have is the same. I'm a honest person, so at work I am trusted, as I am at home. I had a mentor/counselor tell me once that she sees me as someone who is the same at work, home, and at church. That to me, is part of being transparent, because people will see me as the same person in all environments.

Am I always successful at being transparent? No...but it is what I strive to be. Having an accountability partner like Katie really helps in that department too. She is very quick to point out areas of my life that need to be exposed and dealt with. It's scary, but very necessary.

Transparency is necessary in the life of a God-fearing Christian. "If you walk in His light, the lost will see Him more."

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Have you any additional thoughts to add on the topic of what it means to live a transparent life? Are there inevitable consequences for living your life out in the "open"? What about hiding how you live? Does anything good come from that? There are obvious challenges that come from living transparently.

People, including brothers and sisters in the faith, will form opinions about you based on what you share, it's inevitable. Will those opinions be accurate? And, will those opinions change how they deal with you?

Think about it, even if you aren't transparent, people still form opinions about you, and how accurate can that possibly be? They form those opinions on how little they know about you. I guess this is why we all wear our "stained glass masquerades" on Sunday. As Christians, we really need to learn to take those off, cast them aside, and love God and others whole heartedly!

I'm so thankful that God knows me, and chooses to love me. He is the One with Whom I can be transparent, and even when I try to hide, He sees all. (Psalm 139)

1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

There is No Power in Faith Alone

Ever hear or have someone say to you "just believe" or "think positive" and everything will work out?

I'm not saying that thinking positive is a bad thing. Being optimistic is good and keeping your mind focused in a positive way can keep you in a good mood. But, how long can that last? If you keep "thinking positive" and keep sending "positive thoughts" out when BAM BAM BAM, life kicks you and beats you down time after time, how long will you remain "positive"? You might hear someone encourage you with "just believe".

"Just believe" what?

"Have faith"

"Have faith" in what?

There is no power in positive thinking. You might think that there is, but you are wrong.

There is no power in faith alone. Your faith is no better than it's object.

Adrian Rogers, in What Every Christian Ought to Know, says "We're to be 'looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.' Looking unto Jesus. Don't look at your look. Don't put faith in your faith; put faith in God. The reality of faith is not positive thinking. It's not faith in faith. It is faith in God. Weak faith in the right object is better than misplaced faith in the wrong object."

One of the verses in the Bible that makes me chuckle a bit is found in Hosea 4:11. Admonishing His people through Hosea, God says:

"They consult a wooden idol
and are answered by a stick of wood."

That just cracks me up! Oh how many in this world turn to false gods and objects such as crystal balls, tea leaves, lines on your hand, "luck charms", horoscopes, or whatever, for "hope". Well, I've learned that in the Bible, the word hope means assurance with anticipation. Assurance! Not a maybe, but a write this down, mark my words, this is what shall be!

If your hope is found in your latest psychic reading, well, you should understand that you already have your answer. You have already received from that consultation what you will. If you consult a wooden idol, you will be answered by a stick of wood. Where is the hope in that?

Power is not in faith alone, but in the object of that faith. Faith comes from God. "Faith is getting God's will done on earth, and the result of faith is the will of God."

What Every Christian Ought to Know

I am currently three-quarters of the way through a book by Adrian Rogers. Yesterday's chapter dealt with spiritual gifts. In it, Roger's was pointing out that all Christians are given spiritual gifts to use in order to edify the body and glorify God. He told a humorous story that made me giggle so I thought I'd share.

The clergy are those who are paid to lead in the church and the laity, lay people, sit in the pews. That is a main difference between clergy and laity, although all Christians have a role in Christ's church.

Roger's shares what a little girl said when was asked to explain the difference between the clergy and laity. She said,

"The clergy are paid for being good, lay people are good for nothin'!"

Christian Band Named MSN Artist of the Year

Christian Band Named MSN Artist of the Year

The band received an overwhelming number of votes from fans, which was decided solely through online voting.

Wow! Go David Crowder Band!

Can't Anything Be Simple?

The new Blogger upgrade has the nice feature of "labels" now which allows Blogger bloggers to categorize posts. (See "Labels" in menu at right) However, as with the rollout of any upgrade, here come the bugs.

Blogger now tries to create new "post pages" for every single one of my posts for the last 4 years...that's a LOT of posts. It's taking my FTP allotment and I don't like it! I'm not the only one having this issue either and I'm hoping for a fix soon!

I actually just posted this to see what is going to happen with the little "hack" job I did on my server.

Question

How is Classmates surviving when MySpace has allowed me to connect with former classmates for FREE?