If you visit this blog regularly, you know that I believe in the authority of the Bible as the final voice regarding what God has to say about our world, where it came from, what’s wrong with it, where history is headed, and how humankind can be restored to God. You know, too, that I believe in the uniqueness and centrality of Christ, and preach that He is indeed, the door, the way, the truth, and the life – the single door through which all must walk for eternal life. I agree with my most conservative friends on all these things.
But I part ways with those same friends, sometimes, when it comes to an understanding of how we live these things out in the real world. In my last post, I began a conversation which I’ll continue next week regarding creation, science, and how we read the first chapters of Genesis. Today, I ponder another challenging issue, namely how Christ followers relate to the cultural practices of non-Christian cultures. For example, today I visited my friend, the acupuncture doctor, for the 2nd day in a row. This man, born and raised in China, lives and works very close to the church I pastor and has, in fact, visited a few times in the past. We became friends, and as a result, I visited him five years ago when I had a stubborn cough that was slow to heal. After two visits the cough was gone.
Casey Anthony. Who is she? Why is her case important? Or, is her case important, or before that Anthony Weiner’s case, or before that some other politician or movie star, or both – why is anyone at all paying attention to this string of social pablam? And we Christians have our own diversions: “Good bye-Rob Bell”? “Eugene Peterson is the devil because he wrote the Message”. Are these conversations more important than our national fiscal crisis, or the torture of citizens in Syria by their own government, or the ongoing challenges of human trafficking in Asia, and right here in our own country? Are these stories more important than how I’m dealing with finding my calling, or how I’m dealing with my family challenges, or vocational challenges? And most significantly: Are these stories more important than my threefold calling to 1) live justly by advocating, paying attention to my lifestyle choices and affects they have, being the first to cross social dividing lines, 2) love mercy, by cultivating a heart that is quick to forgive and relentless in pursuing honest, open, and reconciling relationships, and 3) walk humbly with God, which means developing a real relationship of intimacy with God by making time for Bible reading, prayer, and receiving God’s revelation through creation, life circumstances and relationships. (I unpack all three of these much more in my 
If nutrition is a hobby of yours, then you know that something as simple and straightforward as eating food has dozens of conflicting schools of thought. Macrobiotic people swear by rice and seaweed. Paleolithic people think rice, and most agriculture for that matter, is from the devil himself. Vegetarians think meat eaters are cruelly killing animals, and, by eating meat, their own bodies. 
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