“Not Afraid” by Eminem

“Yeah, It’s been a ride…I guess I had to go to that place to get to this one / Now some of you might still be in that place / If you’re trying to get out, just follow me / I’ll get you there”

“I’m not afraid to take a stand / Everybody come take my hand / We’ll walk this road together, through the storm / Whatever weather, cold or warm / Just let you know that, you’re not alone / Holla if you feel that you’ve been down the same road”

Eminem is one of the most highly paid hip hop artists on the market.  He recently checked out of rehab to get off of his addiction to sleep medications.  His newest song “Not Afraid” is a song calling people out on their addiction to follow him.  That they are not alone and that they have someone to follow.  That no matter what he is going to be there for them.  It seems like Eminem is getting onto the right track and if I could meet him now there are three things I would love to tell him.

It is only with the gospel that we can clean up.

One of the things mentioned in this song is that he cleaned up for himself, for his fans, but mainly his kids.  He says that he promises to focus soley on his responsibility as a father.  He definitely has a misconception thinking that he is in control of his change, but he’s not.  It is only through the gospel that one can be saved.  It is only because of God’s graces that I can change.  Ya, he might be off of his drug addiction, but why was he addicted to begin with?  It was definitely because there was something that was out of control in his life and he had to fix it with whatever it was and drugs was the easiest thing to get his hands on.  So the first thing I would tell him is that he needs Jesus.  Not because he’s been a bad father, or because he was addicted to drugs, but because Jesus is the only one that can bring true satisfaction in our glorifying Him.

Helping others does not mean not helping yourself

I think Eminem thinks that by helping others he is helping himself, but that is not the model one sees in the Bible (Yes, I know he’s not saved.)  The model we see in the Bible is that while we are being a model to one person we are to be modeling someone more mature than us in Christ.  Eminem seems to be placing him at the top of the list with this song.  In watching the music video at the Bridge he breaks down the walls and mirrors and breaks through to a different world one in which he can fly.  He is the only one flying showing that he is the first to do so.  Who is he following?  So that is why I would tell him that Helping others does not mean not helping yourself.  I need just as much help with my walk as the one I am helping.

You’re not alone

Every Christian has been where he is now.  We have all been enemies of God and the cross and making that first step to know God and Christ is the biggest step one will ever make.  No, it won’t be easy.  In fact, it gets harder, but it’s worth it in the end.  He’s not alone in this world.  People will let him down.  Christians will let him down, but Christ will never let him down.  Christ is the only one that can say “I’ll get you there.”

If you met Eminem today what three things would you tell him?

Raising Purity by Gerald Hiestand

I have to preface this review by saying I am as single as they come.  I don’t have any children.  I don’t have a wife.  Actually, I’ve never even been on a date, so my review on this book is based on my personal understanding and conversations I’ve had with others. 

This book is definitely a good book for parents to read.  Gerald Hiestand makes some great points in this book that many parents overlook.  One major point is actually in the last chapter.  I really wish the last chapter would have been placed closer to the front.  I understand why Hiestand placed this chapter at the end, but I also think some of what Hiestand talked about would have made sense in the context if this chapter was at the beginning.  One of these things that I loved was when he said that privacy was overrated.  Many parents don’t think about this.  They feel as though they should let their children have their privacy and not intervene.  Then, when they need to intervene they don’t because they haven’t been involved.  We shouldn’t swing the other way and not trust our kids at all.  The older they get the more responsibility we should give them. 

There were a few things I didn’t agree with about this book.  One was the dating friendships.  While, yes, I would agree with Hiestand by saying that commitment in dating relationships is overrated I would also say that in the context of this kind of relationship it would almost encourage guys to not be committed.  Guys already have commitment issues and I almost feel like this would encourage them more.  I know this wasn’t his intention, but this is how I understood it.  I would also say that I would agree with the three sections that are placed in the Bible, The Family, Neighbor and Marriage relationship, I would say that because our culture has changed and we no longer are given in marriage with arranged marriages.  Yes, I plan on treating my girlfriend with the utmost respect, I don’t see a problem with holding hands.  I also have no problem with dances.  I’ve taken ballroom classes and I think it’s a great way to get to know people and learn a new skill. 

I do see a difference in romance and sexuality.  When I am in a relationship I will take my girlfriend out for a romantic evening without having the intention of “arousing or awakening love.”  When I begin dating I will not be dating trivially.  I will be dating to marry.  I think this should have been a distinction Hiestand should have made in the beginning.  Overall, this was a good book.

I did receive this book from Gerald Hiestand for free to review.

Altruism

Altruism is defined as “the quality of unselfish concern for the welfare of others.”  This has been a subject I have been pondering for a little while now and while more philosophical at the heart I do believe it is necessary for any type of evangelical discussion.  Proverbs 21:2 says that “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”  When we were unbelievers we thought we were good people.  Most people when asked if they are good people would immediately proclaim their own righteousness.  “Yes” would be their immediate answer and when asked for specific examples they could easily come up with ways in which they have done some great thing for their community or for a group they support.  “I haven’t murdered anyone.”  “I’ve never robbed a bank.”  “I volunteer my time at AAA”  Then when asked why that makes them good they could easily point to people that they are better than.  “My next door neighbor doesn’t help in the community.”  “There are jails filled with people who are worse than I am.”  And these excuses can go on all day.  With God outside of the picture anyone, except for Adolf Hitler, could be good.  Well, even Hitler could be somewhat good.  I mean the man wouldn’t kill his mother, so he even had a portion of goodness in his life. 

People will continually bank on their goodness to get to the paradise they think they should receive.  Whether it’s the Muslim following the five pillars of Islam to get to paradise, the Buddhist monk following the four noble truths and the eightfold path, the Catholic hoping that they don’t commit too many carnal sins so that they can go to Heaven or not wait so long in purgatory, or the person attending church that was baptized at a young age hoping that if they go to enough services and because of their baptism they can gain favor with God and be let into heaven.  Time and time again I see this Proverb being true.  People when looking from their own eyes will say they are right. 

Back to the subject at hand, from a postmodern standpoint, altruism is perfectly possible especially within the context of a religion because most religions promote peace and selflessness.  Yet, when we open the Bible it gives a completely different understanding of the human race.  We are told that the human race is wicked, evil, not good, not righteous, not holy and that the heart of mankind is deceitfully wicked above all things, that no one understands.  Which means that if I am trying to be altruistic I cannot be.  There is no middle ground according to the Bible.  Either a person is good or they are not.  Even if I am trying to be altruistic I cannot be because I am still the source of my selflessness.  When I try to help people, my help is not selfless because I am still getting something out of it.  What are am I gaining out of helping someone who is helpless?  I am gaining the satisfaction in my own eyes that I am a good person.  I am feeling good about myself because I have helped someone that couldn’t help themselves.  Is this true altruism?  I think not.  Especially with the definition I gave at the beginning.  Instead, this is reciprocity.  Reciprocality is given or felt by each toward the other.  “I scratch your back.  You scratch mine” mentality.  Is altruism possible because up to this point it seems like it’s not?

There is a good and a bad answer.  The good news is that it is not only possible to be altruistic.  The bad news is that not only can we be altruistic it is commanded for us to be altruistic.  “What?!?!?!”  I can already hear the cries.  “How am I supposed to be altruist?”  “You said  my heart is deceitfully wicked above all things that no one even understands how wicked I am and yet I am supposed to be altruistic?”  “How is that even possible?”  To begin with we cannot be altruistic in and of ourselves.  In order to be completely altruistic we have to have something or someone to which we are dedicating our altruism.  But it’s not enough to dedicate just to dedicate or to gain something or else that defeats the purpose of altruism.  The only way any action can be truly altruistic is if the item or person we are dedicating our altruism to is deserving of the altruism and is enabling our altruism.  “Wait, you said item.   How can an item enable altruism?”  It can’t.  Therefore we can conclude that inanimate objects cannot be something to which we dedicate our altruism because inanimate objects can neither be altruistic nor enable altruism.  So, our altruism must be dedicated to someone.

For instance, say a mother with four kids, one of them is a baby about 18 months, is at Panera Bread.  They have their drinks and haven’t yet received their food.  While waiting one of the children spills their drink all over the table.  Say I immediately jump up to help with the mess.  I go and grab about a hundred napkins and begin to sop up all of the mess.  If I dedicate my altruism to myself and my motive is for me to receive something from that action it is not altruistic.  For example, if my motive is for the end result of feeling good about myself, that is selfish and therefore makes the action reciprocal and therefore not altruistic.  If my motive is for the end result is to gain favor in the eyes of God, my action is reciprocal and therefore not altruistic.  If my motive of the end result is for favor within the eyes of not only the mother, but those around the table and all the people I tell about my “altruistic” action, my action is reciprocal and therefore not altruistic.  So, I cannot dedicate my altruism to myself because I gain something in the end. 

Nor can my altruism be dedicated to someone to which I owe a debt.  If this were the case then altruism would be possible because we would be paying off a debt we owe to someone with our selflessness.  So this cannot be the case because we tend to gain something in the end.  Therefore this is reciprocality and not altruism.  What if I dedicate my altruism to the person to which I am helping?  That would go against what I previously said because the person you are helping is not enabling the altruism.  They are enabling you to which altruism is shown, but not to altruism itself.  Altruism is not the action that takes place, instead it is the “unselfish concern.”  So, no we cannot dedicate our altruism to the person to which we are helping.  “So who are we to dedicate our altruism and what causes this altruism?”  Grace is what causes altruism in a persons life and we dedicate our altruism to God because He enables us to be altruistic. 

God is infinitely morally perfect.  He is perfect in many other ways, but I am going to focus on his perfect morality.  God is so holy that he cannot be around sin, He cannot even look at sin.  We have all sinned.  At some point in our lives, whether you want to admit it or not, we have done something with the intent to make much of ourselves.  In making much of ourselves and not God, no matter the action, is sin and separates us from God.  Earlier when I said infinitely morally perfect I mean that God’s perfect morality was infinitely before he created the world and will continue forever.  Our morality is not infinite.  Our morality began as late as our birth, but really began with Adam in the garden.  Paul says that because of one man (Adam) our sin entered the world and death came because of sin.  So Adam started this chain of us placing ourselves on the number 1 spot in our lives and therefore causing us to rebel against God.  Now when he sinned his sin was a finite sin against an infinitely holy God.  his caused our debt to God to be that of an infinite debt because in order to gain perfection we would not only have to never do anything bad again, but all of our actions would have to be completely altruistic.  Which is not possible because we would be being altruistic because of a debt we owed therefore making it reciprocal. 

OK so this is how sin entered the world.  Fast forward a couple of thousand years and enter Jesus.  Jesus was completely altruistic because His life was spent on not himself, but on helping others and dedicating His altruism to God.  This brings up a few questions.  Wasn’t Jesus God?  Absolutely.  Then wouldn’t He be dedicating his altruism to Himself?  Absolutely.  But wouldn’t that go against what you said in paragraph 5?  Not at all.  Why?  Because in being God, Jesus was both infinitely altruistic and infinitely egoistic.  God is all about His glory.  Everything God does is so that in the end He will be glorified.  Jesus, was all about the Father’s will.  Jesus was completely selfless in His entire ministry on earth, but His selflessness was for God’s glory.  This is not an oxymoron, or a false dichotomy.  So Jesus was infinitely altruistic in everything he did on earth.  He was crucified on a cross for the sins of the world.  In His sacrifice His perfection, if we accept Him is transferred to us making us perfect in the sight of God. 

Grace is giving a person something they don’t deserve.  When we accept the give of forgiveness of God from the sacrifice of Jesus God has shown us grace by allowing us to use Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins.  We went from being enemies of God to not only friends, but sons and daughters of God.  Our entire past, present and future sins are forgiven.  Because of grace we no longer owe anything to God, so when we are altruistic we are not paying our debt off.  Also, we are not trying to gain a better position in Heaven, so when we are altruistic we are not gaining anything.  Instead, when we are altruistic we are showing the grace that we have already been shown.  Not to the extent to which it was shown, but a small portion. 

All in all is altruism possible?  Yes, but only because of the sacrifice of Jesus and his altruism can we even think about having an altruistic attitude towards others.

Please if you have any comments or concerns please either email me or comment below.  These are just my thoughts out loud and I in no way want to be misleading.

The Gospel?

As most of you should know already I am not a huge fan of the “Prosperity Gospel.”  How far does this gospel go?  To what extent does this “gospel” go from gospel to heresy?  Well this is going to be the topic of this blog.  I have a summary of the gospel

Gospel means “good news,” but what do we mean by good? If by good we mean that we will be healthy, have a lot of money and that nothing bad will happen to us, then do we really understand what the gospel is?  The Prosperity Gospel tells us if we come to Christ we will have all of this and more.  Not only that, but that if something bad does happen to us it’s because we don’t have enough faith in our Father God and because of our lack of faith He is not “giving us the desires of our hearts.”  There are millions of reasons that make this gospel no gospel, rather that make it heresy and something that is not making Christians, but false converts.  With that said the next question that will be asked of me is, “Are you saying that all people brought to the gospel through the prosperity gospel are not saved?”  No, there are some, I believe that are saved that were saved through the prosperity gospel, but not many. 

The first reason that this gospel is not the gospel is because it is based on works.  Initially, the men that proclaim this gospel would reject this, but taking a closer look they would have to agree. If we are not being healed, taking in money hand over hand, or nothing in life is going as it “should be” we have a lack of faith.  If this was based on faith that God gave us why would God “punish” us for a lack of faith He gave us?  And if it’s brought on by faith that we have in God then it is something inside of us that makes this faith in God, so that if we do something wrong and lose faith in God it is because of us that we are being “punished.”  Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9 that it is not by any works that we’ve done that we are saved so that no one could brag about the salvation that we accomplished.  Is it really gospel to tell someone that it is based on something that they do/did in order to have a relationship with God? 

Another argument proving this gospel to be “nongospel” is the thought of trials and persecutions.  The Prosperity Gospel says if not everything is going right something is wrong in your relationship with God then what are their answers to trials and persecutions God causes us to go through in order to grow us?  A verse that continues to stick to my mind with this subject is 2 Timothy 3:12 that says “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  If when we come to Christ everything is peachy keen why would Paul say that we will be persecuted?  The initial argument could be that that was for those people then.  Paul was one of the closest people to God ever and yet he was persecuted. 

To sum up this post I would like to impose that the Prosperity Gospel is not good news in any sense of the word.  If it were it would be based on our actions towards God and based on us rather than His grace.  If it were based on us we would not have come to God to begin with let alone put the faith we have in Him at all times and the moment we stop He discontinues His works of faith.  Rather the gospel tells us that it is not based on anything we have done/ are doing/ will do that stops God giving us grace.  It is God that gives us the faith that we have in Him and it is only natural that He would want us to put that faith back into Him, but He promises that those that desire to live a godly life will be persecuted.  We aren’t going to receive health, wealth and prosperity because we come to Christ.  Earthly articles should never take the place of heavenly and that is ultimately what the Prosperity Gospel teaches.  The Prosperity Gospel places the gifts above the giver.  We should savor Christ for who He is; not His works.  There is a lot more I could say that I won’t and that I don’t have the time for.  Please post any comments you may have or email me.  I’m always up for discussion on this subject.