I was reminded of this phrase a few weeks ago as the next topic for this blog was coming together. When in virtually an identical context a friend here mentioned it I was convinced that I would write about it.

When I was a younger I attended a very small church in the states. The pastor often used this saying:

“Some people are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.”

I’ve been lately pondering this phrase and have concluded it really is a crock. I’ll explain.

It is true that in Christian circles there are people who verbalize things quite a bit differently than others. It seems so “spiritual”, and often seems to carry so much authority. I’ve heard a lot of different ways to phrase things, “the Lord told me”, or “I sense in my spirit”. It is a way of speaking that really enhances the authority of whatever message. After all in order to question the actual message you must first question “the Lord told me so”. People of faith are very prone to resist skepticism because faith after all is overcoming doubt. What a debacle. So if a person puts “the Lord told me” and some completely human philosophy together even mature Christians will find themselves battling themselves in order to question the philosophy and discern rightly.

“What is truth?”, “how do you know?”, … those questions are not just a part of being Christian, but being human. Sincere human beings seeking to know the right reason to live are always asking those questions. Christians can sometimes be the worse at answering them. “the Lord told me” doesn’t hold much weight for someone who hasn’t met the Lord. Then when it is followed by a pile of nonsense it just drives them further away as the Lord has now been made seemingly responsible for the pile of nonsense. Of course the creator of the universe is never wrong, and a relationship with Him will lead to revelation and revelation is the revealing of truth.

Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

So lets just get to the bottom of this. It seems so simple just this moment. Truth after all is very simple, truth is reality. Writing is such a great medium. I can avoid the “heavenly minded” response of “not always” or “truth transcends reality“. … Few rational people would argue this point, though I can think of quite a few people who would argue this point. “Faith is about unseen right?“; they would say … Well, yes, of course, but it is about unseen reality. Not unseen fantasy.

ra-tion-al : being in or characterized by full possession of one’s reason; sane; lucid:

“Faith isn’t always rational“; they would say. Oh I’ve heard this so many times… Well… there I strongly disagree. Rationality is based on reality, not on what you see. It is completely rational to follow the sound of a person crying for help. Even if you’re the only one who hears them and even if you can’t see them. In the same form going to a person who is crying for help that you cannot see or hear is just as rational… assuming there is actually a person there when you get there. People of faith do believe there are more senses than just the obvious ones. I do. It just seems that a lot of very sincere Christians have fallen into a trap of blaming that unseen sense for a lot of piles.

When I was younger I tried my hand at racing dirt bikes. It was such an adrenaline rush and worth every ounce of the danger. Having ridden for years, and quite aggressively, without ever seriously hurting myself made me quite confident. Confident enough to do very well for the first 3 laps of my first race ever. Then on lap 4, having passed everyone as far as I knew, I very confidently landed in a ditch, broke my ankle, and never finished the race. It turns out that this is not a very unusual scenario for amateur motocrossers. Some tend to be a bit too confident but reality will catch up and change “confident” into “too confident”. After the confidence of having not hurt myself was gone, I proceeded to break my collar bone just a week later, I was one of the slowest guys on the track. For 2 races I looked like I was going to get somewhere, after that … I was a joke. I raced more, but just ended up with lots of dirt in my face.

This happens to Christians and seekers alike. God is real, and His words equal reality. If the words do not equal to reality than the words are not God’s no matter how confident the speaker was. It is as simple as that and doesn’t matter if they said “the Lord said” or not. It is as rational as it gets. Even the most rational human cannot claim through his own reasoning alone to get everything right. In fact it would be fairly safe to say that would be irrational. God does though. Consider this Old Testament warning:

Deuteronomy 18:20-22 “But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”

You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD ?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”

So even the bible testifies that if it is God it will come true. Don’t miss the last bit. Just because something comes true doesn’t mean it is God. Real events can lead people away from God, but reality will still remain. Life without God is death just as the world without light is dark.

“Too heavenly minded to be any earthly good?” Ridiculous! If that can be said about someone then the reality is they are not heavenly minded, they are fantasy minded. The most heavenly minded person, Christ, made the most earthly good of any flesh to ever walk it. Truly heavenly minded must equal earthly good. Though the fruit is not always apparent.

In a relationship with the One True God faith continuously grows as revelation after revelation comes true. More often the revelation is personal and not for public display, but for the person it is undoubtable. I believe there are still prophets on the earth, but you won’t likely find them. They choose the lowly places.

To apply this practically you must know God, His word, and be familiar with His ways. He is still and quiet, not loud and obnoxious. He hates all kinds of evil. Even to things we may consider harmless he says “cast it off and throw it away”. Greed, gluttony, pleasures… are common and very wrong motives. Even success can be a wrong motive. How many people have spent away their entire life pursuing a career? I’m pretty sure “I made CEO” isn’t going to impress God too much. Especially if that pursuit was a boat load of self indulgence mixed with a few acts of miniscule sacrifice. That’s who I almost became and may become if I do what my flesh wants. Following the flesh is a lie. It promises satisfaction but never delivers. If you are looking for truth look at what your flesh wants and look the other way… it’s probably over there.

Lord, please “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil!”

In earlier posts I mentioned a lot about my belief that God continues to reveal Himself in new ways despite the fact that He never changes. I referred to them as “wine skins”. I believe as we get nearer to the day of Christ’s glory we continue to get a better picture of the reality that the Lord has meant for us all along. It really seems that people have lived most of these out at all stages of History, but sooner or later they become a standard and even those who would not readily discover them can be taught them through discipleship. Until the stigma is removed the majority will tend to go with what “their pastor told them” and defend that quite adamantly. Once the Pastor stops preaching the lie the truth can flow freely through the congregation and new revelation can flow out on top of it. Let me give an example…

At one point in History the earth was considered to be the center of the universe. Many people during many periods of History likely lived out their faith without that idea ever playing a role. However, the Church had built its theology on that misinformation and when the time came to end the notion they didn’t let go easily. The fact was people before that time were being taught something at Church that they then had to unlearn in order to see the world accurately. After that lie was dismantled the Church finally accepted it and now teaches the truth in place of the lie. How many times over has this happened? How many more times will it happen?

It is funny to wonder but who really knows? Maybe Jesus will come back tomorrow…. or perhaps we are only a tenth of the way down the path he has planned. No matter how far along we are I wonder how many lies are still accepted and intertwined into our faith. It is astounding to think that perhaps we don’t know everything.

We started a study with some great friends on a book called “Velvet Elvis”. It struck me that the author is trying to convey the exact same points. Elvis was cool for a while, but for most of today’s generation he’s just tacky, even for many irrelevant. As we go through this book I ponder a lot on the possible “quirks” that mainstream Christianity may have yet to work out. There is a lot of talk nowadays about “The Emerging Church”… I’m sure glad “it” finally got around to “Emerging”. I’m going to try to learn how exactly we define this phenomenon. Is it something we can expect to find “emerged” in the next few years? Or is it, maybe, the Church that has finally realized that it must always be “emerging”?

Either way it ties closely with my conviction that God continues to do “Nu thangs” (sorry for that throwback to the 80s… I was a teenager then after all). Maybe when it finally “emerges” it will have hit a few more of the throwbacks. Or better yet, maybe it actually will be a Church that embraces change instead of rejects and condemns it. I hope to get the guts to throw on the table some of the possible misnomers that we have blindly accepted as prerequisites to knowing…. or more importantly… being known by Jesus. Maybe some day the church will be made up wholly by people who know (and are known) by Jesus. At the very least, we know that after He returns He will accept no less. (Matthew 7:22-23)

Stay tuned… or maybe if you have some guts throw some out as comments! C’mon, show me how it’s done.