Saturday afternoon I went to North Park to work on my lesson for Sunday, visited Tyler at Dorothy Lane Market, bought a sumatra coffee (ohhh, so good!), went to Best Buy and Blockbuster with Ams and her boyfriend Luke (bought Constantine and Lord of War really cheap), and finally accompanied Tyler to Apex in Centerville; the speaker spoke on how Christ calls us out of a life of self-worship and to embrace a life of selflessness and servitude. Wonderful. We drank hot cocoa in the coffee shop and talked about postmodernism, the emergent church, and the social implications of the gospel. In our conversation, we agreed that one cannot read the gospels without discovering its social implications; after all, Jesus himself said that his followers will be marked by their social action! I said, "It bothers me when Christians think that the only reason they're here is to evangelize; it bothers me when they focus so much time, energy, and money into only evangelism when the world is going to hell, when 30,000 kids are dying each day of starvation, when AIDS is raping Africa, when people are suffering from the injustices of the world. We're here to evangelize, yes, but we're also here to be God's hands and feet, to make the world a better place in the name of God! Just because someone doesn't share our faith doesn't mean that we don't do all we can to help them out!" Around 10:00, Megan Hague came over, and she drank coffee and I drank some calming Tazo Tea, and we sat up in my room on my bed, talking about all kinds of stuff late into the night: our own heresies, hell (eternal torment or eternal destruction? we both believe in eternal destruction), how to understand the God of the Old Testament (with special emphasis on God's command to Joshua, "Massacre the men, women and children of the Canaanites."), we talked about homosexuality and gay marriage ("People argue for the sanctity of marriage, but I think they use it as a front just to unleash their anger and discomfort against homosexuals..."), cultural sins (such as cussing), and (one of my all-time favorites) social injustice. She is a very free-thinking, open-minded girl; she finds out what she believes and why, so I really admire her.

On Sunday morning I ate breakfast at Tim Horton's: a delicious coffee with a similarly-delicious peanut-covered donut. I looked over my lesson and made sure I knew what I would be teaching. I taught class (Ecclesiastes: Part Two) with special emphasis on the new life and new community that brings us satisfaction in a world of suffering. I felt led to include several of my "heresies": in this case, my thoughts on creation and my thoughts on hell. I explained my purpose in sharing these heresies: "I don't want you guys to flat-out believe everything I say. You guys shouldn't swallow whole everything I tell you! You need to think about these things yourself, you need to find out what you believe and why. I don't expect all of you to agree with my every opinion, and--honestly--I don't want you to. What I really want you to do is to think about these things for yourself. Don't swallow what people tell you." I confessed, "These are my opinions now, but my opinions change as more information comes to me." I shared the heresies to share my point of view, yes, but I also shared them so that they will be motivated to really consider their faith rather than just embrace it because they're told to. I'll be honest: I have more respect for atheists who know why they believe what they do than for Christians who believe everything they're told without really thinking about it! I think the atheist is wrong (obviously), but I still respect his or her decision if it's founded upon reason ("I want to do whatever I want so therefore there is no God to keep me accountable" is a pathetic reason, a mere cop-out of personal responsibility).

Last week at work I lost 5 pounds: the work is tedious, strenuous, and I go home exhausted. I love it! There is no better God-send for my weight loss journey than this job. I've also been eating a lot better (minus the donut yesterday, hah), which helps. I am hoping to lose weight and buff up, so I look better physically. 3rd Place was wonderful tonight: Mike led us into an exploration of the latest Nooma video, "Rich," focusing on how Christians are commanded by God to be a generous people in an ungenerous world. During the conversation, the issue of legalism--"I'm saved because of my good works"--came up. Mike made the observation, "We rant and rave about legalism and how we are saved by grace through faith, not works... but how many people are really crying out, 'Works saves us!' It's like we're battling an opponent who doesn't exist." I agree with him, but I believe that the legalistic mindset is a mindset that saturates our culture. We live in a culture where we earn brownie points to succeed, and culture influences our faith (this is called synchretism by people who like big words or people who want to show off); so legalism's influence on faith exists. To be honest, I experience it myself: I know it's wrong, and I don't build my theology around it, but legalism haunts the back of my mind. I often find myself thinking that if I am a better person, then I'll earn favor with God (really, favor with God is experienced through faith in His Son), or things such as that. I believe legalism is alive and well, resting in the back of our minds and whispering in our ear, though--at times--inaudible. The Judaizers just happened to blend their legalism with their faith, and thereby perverted their faith (read Paul's anger at this in his letter to the Galatians).