Currently Playing: In My Mind

Reason for God by Tim Keller is currently playing in my mind.  Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  He is answering questions and presenting the gospel in a way that connects to the post-modern generation.  Following is a small sample:

“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that there is something wrong with the world.  According to Christianity our biggest problem is sin.  Yet the concept of “sin” is offensive or ludicrous to many.  

“The primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things.  It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God.

“Defining sin this way, we can see several ways that sin destroys us personally.  Identity apart from God is inherently unstable.

“An identity not based on God also leads inevitably to deep forms of addiction.  When we turn good things into ultimate things, we are, as it were, spiritually addicted.  If we take our meaning in life form our family, our work, as cause, or some achievement other than God, they enslave us.  We have to have them. 

“A life not centered on God leads to emptiness.  Building our lives on something besides God not only hurts us if we don’t get the desires of our hearts, but also if we do.  Few of us get all of our wildest dreams fulfilled in life, and therefore it is easy to live in the illusion that if you were successful, wealthy, popular, or beautiful as you wished, you’d finally be happy and at peace.  That just isn’t so."