Jason Albertson

Yesterday's post might seem like so many arguments about angels on pinheads. Here's where the rubber meets the road: if you struggle with sin related to (for example) anger, envy, same sex attraction, opposite sex attraction, or substance abuse, what you believe about how God works matters. If you are in a church in the Holiness Movement, chances are that you have heard something to this effect: When you get saved, the "tree" of sin in your heart is chopped down, so it stops bearing fruit (acts of sin), but the "stump" is still there. If the stump is allowed to remain, new shoots of sin will pop up from it occasionally. To walk steadily with God, not falling into sin periodically, God will have to remove the stump by entirely sanctifying you. What you expect to happen when you are entirely sanctified matters. When we use language for inherited depravity like "stump" or "heart of stone," I think there's a danger that people ...

As I've studied Galatians recently, it has stuck out to me that for all Paul's talking about walking in the Spirit, he doesn't say anything about something that needs to be removed inside a person for them to walk in the Spirit. The classic American Holiness way of talking about inherited depravity is to describe it as something that needs to be removed, a blight on the landscape of the heart. It's interesting to me that Paul doesn't reference anything needing to be removed in Galatians. I understand this is an argument from silence, but I think it's worth noticing. If inherited depravity is something that needs to be removed from the heart, I would have expected Paul to say something about that. But he doesn't. He says that if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). Someone asked me recently, "What about Ezekiel's description of God replacing a heart of stone with a heart of flesh?" That happens...

Paul actually thinks that walking in step with the Spirit is sufficient for Christians to know how to live (Gal. 5:16-25). If someone's not willing to walk in step with the Spirit, no guidelines of any kind will help (Gal. 5:2-4). Do I actually think that? Do you actually think that?

At IHC this year, I heard a young boy's high, clear voice singing, "The old ledger is clear!" I don't know if I've ever seen an actual ledger. I guess a spreadsheet would be the modern equivalent. I wondered if he knew what an old ledger was. There were people listening to him sing who were blessed by the song. I can figure out what the image means--ledgers are where debts are recorded, and one way you can think about sins is as unpayable debts against God, so for your ledger to be clear means your unpayable debts have been paid by Jesus' death. But the image of a ledger doesn't connect with me. It doesn't bless me. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with the image. If I had grown up in a time when actual physical ledgers were used for the recording of debts, that image would probably connect with me. Maybe that has something to do with why it blessed some people at IHC. For someone who grew up going to camp meetings, camp mee...

I've been reading Seth Godin's blog and book ( Unleashing the Ideavirus ) at the same time as Dallas Willard's The Allure of Gentleness . It's a good combination of ideas. Both have spent lifetimes learning and teaching about how people work. Godin says , "Organizations that grow start by selling their services and products to people who care." That statement is relevant to evangelism and apologetics, I think. The majority of people do not care enough about living life well to seek out mentors. (Jesus is the ultimate mentor.) Maybe they believe that they are actually amazing at living life all on their own, but I think they are more likely complacent. Life on their own doesn't hurt enough yet for them to care about seeking something more. Jesus' call comes to people who care enough to want something different. Are you weary? You don't have to be (Matt. 11:28-30). But do you care enough to want a solution (John 5:6)? Godin's marketing ...

The pastor told me, "Some of the people I trust most have discouraged me from taking graduate classes. They say, 'What's the point of education? Aren't you supposed to depend on the Holy Spirit for help with preaching the Word?'" They're not wrong--education can be dangerous. Pride is one of the primary dangers in the pursuit of knowledge. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that knowledge puffs up, while love builds up (1 Cor. 8:1). "Puffing up" yields a deceptive appearance of growth, while "building up" is authentic growth. The Corinthians were taking pride in their knowledge that idols are just powerless material, and while Paul agrees (1 Cor. 8:4-6), he also puts their strutting knowledge in perspective (1 Cor. 8:2): they don't know anything yet like they ought to, because they are using their knowledge to sin against others (1 Cor. 8:7, 12). If education did always leads to pride, then we would have to avoid education. But I d...

Living simply is not easy. It can be painful at worst and annoying at best to face the way your choices have been determined by values you don’t actually like. Living complexly is easy, in some ways. (Complexly probably isn’t a word, but it sounds like what it is--your tongue has to try to do several things at the same time just to say it--so I think it suits the purpose here.) It takes less effort to avoid conscious decisions than to confront them. Living complexly may be easy, but it can keep your life’s journey from progressing. I’ve ridden some life loops for too long. Maybe you have too. I am less far in my pursuit of my calling than I could be right now because there have been times when I have allowed lesser values to take the wheel. Living simply is not easy. It involves the interruption of habits, paths on which your mind sleepwalks every day. Living complexly is living for some things while saying and maybe even believing that you’re living for other things. Livin...

It’s Instagram doctrine: a simple life is a happy life. Is it true? That depends on your definition of simplicity, I suppose, but I don’t think campfires, guitars, and Edison bulbs are necessary to happiness. This is my definition of “simple life”: A life organized around the values of the one living, excluding what detracts from the pursuit of those values. That is probably the definition someone’s using when they share a cheesy Instagram post with campfires and Edison bulbs, but I think that definition is also worthwhile for Christians to live by. Christians should be known for simple lives--that is, lives organized around their values (Col. 3:17; 1 Cor. 10:31). The thing is, your life already reflects your values, whether or not you consciously chose to prioritize those particular values. In Renovation of the Heart , Dallas Willard insists that what you do actually does reveal your character, and I think he’s right. Right now, you actually are the sort of person who wou...

The “bless” word family (“blessed,” “blessing,” “#blessed”) is usually used to mean, “I’ve got something good and I like it.” Maybe some, when using it, would include God in what they’re saying, such as, “I’m grateful because God has given good to me.” That definition of “blessed” (the state of having something nice and liking it) or “blessing” (the nice thing that I have and I like) doesn’t work in a lot of cases when the Bible talks about “blessing.” The Bible frequently uses “bless” to refer to something someone says--for example, James 3:10 says, “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.” This is another definition of “bless”: say a good word. This kind of blessing happens in personal relationships sometimes, though not very frequently--the experience of giving or receiving a verbal blessing can be awkward and humbling. It’s vulnerable. Blessing with words comes more naturally to my wife than anyone I’ve ever known. When a friend of hers was about to leave on a missions...

Some are institution people. They see processes and procedures as the best way to meet needs. Others people see processes and procedures as irrelevant or even obstacles to meeting needs. I’ll call them pragmatic people for this post. Needs are met most effectively when both types of people work together. ⁂ Robert Strawbridge Asbury's Most Wanted™ Robert Strawbridge is a little-known name. In fact, it may not have been known at all if it weren’t for his pragmatism in opposition to institutional Francis Asbury. Asbury’s name is well-known. He was one of those responsible for setting up the circuit-riding system of Methodist preachers in America early in the history of American Methodism. Asbury was a masterful administrator who lived up to the strict demands he placed on others, winning the respect of nearly everyone who worked with him. Because of the system he set up, Methodist influence spread and endured far and wide. Strawbridge, however, saw needs that were...