Gay Marriage and Iowa

Here in the state of Iowa we are having a discussion about a marriage amendment that has ramifications for the entire nation. The Iowa Conservative has a post about what is happening:

"It's readily apparent though what this money is paying for: stonewalling the people in Iowa so out-of-state activists can pin their hopes on an activist urban court and a Supreme Court that rarely overturns cases, trying to light a fire that will eventually usurp federal law and the will of the American people who want to stop the sanctification of a wicked, immoral and dangerous lifestyle."

This is a issue that needs to be on more of our radars.

The Resurrection of Christ

At bethinking.org Dr. Peter May has an article which looks at the resurrection account found in the Gospel of Matthew.

"Now I first approached this story as a sceptic. My assumption was that it was obviously not true. Dead men don’t rise; we all know that. This was so central in my thinking that I read the New Testament sifting out all references to the resurrection from conscious thought or analysis. It was only on reading it a second time that I began to see the size of the problem. This was not an insignificant detail that could be marginalised from the story or swept under the carpet. It was the central event. Any credible conclusion that could be drawn about the person of Christ had to include a view on this matter. The more I looked at it, the more difficult it became."

I think it is worth reading and pondering. The Resurrection of Christ in Matthew's Gospel

The Irrelevance of Expectations

It think it is very important for us to have an understanding of our abilities. I for one am not gifted in debate nor have I been trained in philosophy. What I know about this world would fill a thimble compared to the vast amount of knowledge out there. I am just a simple guy who likes to read and think. That is who I am and one of the reasons why I don’t engage in debates.

Because I like to think I will from time offer a comment or two about things that I have read. One of the things I have been thinking about the past couple of weeks is an argument against the existence of God. This is how I would summarize the argument: If God existed we would expect a smaller universe (in both age and size) than what we observe. So this is an argument based on expectations. One the thing that should be noted about expectations is that they are formed by our education, experience, and other variables so what I might expect might not be what you expect.

The main point about expectations that I would like to point out is that expectations, when applied to God, are almost always wrong. We see this clearly in the Gospels when it came to Jesus being the Messiah. The Jews had come to expect a Messiah that would free them from Rome and reestablish the Jewish nation. Jesus on the other hand came to free people from their sins and establish God’s Kingdom. The result was that many people missed the fact that Jesus was the Messiah because of wrong expectations, even though those expectations were rooted in the Scriptures.

Jesus even had to warn John the Baptizer not to be led astray by his expectations of the Messiah. Our expectations can become an hindrance to understanding what is really going on.

Based on science, history, and logic we can come up with expectations of what the world and the universe should be like if God existed, but unless we understand God’s mind and His plan those expectations will be wrong. It would seem that expectations are irrelevant when we are wondering whether or not God exists, especially if those expectations are made by people who don’t know God. The more we know the person the more accurate our expectations of their actions will be. What is the basis for a non-believer using to give us expectations of what God would do?

Let’s move on from the talk of expectations, because when you get don to it expectations don’t matter, what matters is reality. We live on a small pale blue dot in a vast universe of stars, planets, and a number of other things. Why is this all here? What probable reason did God have for creating it all?

Indulge me as I take us back to Jesus one more time. According to the Bible Jesus is the exact representation of God (Hebrews 3:1). The means we can expect the sort of things Jesus did on earth are the same things God does.

Since this is the case I want to ask you a question: Why did Jesus teach? There probably isn’t one answer we can give to this question, but it is apparent from the Gospels that one of the reasons Jesus taught was to separate people who would live by faith from those people who had different agendas. We find evidence of this reality when the disciples asked Jesus why He taught with parables. This is Jesus’ answer:

11 He answered them, “You have been given knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but it hasn't been given to them. 12 For to anyone who has something, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the one who doesn't have anything, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 That's why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but don't see, and they listen but don't hear or understand.’ 14 “With them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says: ‘You will listen and listen but never understand. You will look and look but never comprehend. 15 For this people's heart has become dull, and their ears are hard of hearing. They have shut their eyes so that they might not see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 “How blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear! 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but did not see them, and to hear the things you hear but did not hear them.” (Matthew 13:11-17; ISV)

This is hard for us to understand, but the reality is that God is looking for people who will simply believe in Him, but people who will live by faith. Faith begins with belief, but also requires commitment, love, obedience, and trust. The teachings of Jesus were designed to mature the faith of seekers while throwing up obstacles to the expectators, those people who expected things from God but weren’t willing to live by faith. There were people who came to Jesus with certain expectations who left disappointed after they heard His teaching. We find evidence of this fact in the Gospel of John:

59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. 60 When many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This is a difficult statement. Who can accept it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 What if you saw the Son of Man going up to the place where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 But there are some among you who do not believe.” For from the beginning Jesus knew those who wouldn't believe, as well as the one who would betray him. 65 So he said, “That's why I told you that no one can come to me unless it be granted him by the Father.” 66 As a result, many of his disciples turned back and no longer associated with him. (John 6:59-66; ISV)

Jesus didn’t go out of His way to prove that He was the Messiah. Sure He offered evidence, but He wanted to make sure that people followed Him out of faith and not out of a faulty belief and wrong expectations. Jesus intentionally used His teachings to separate people. Some people found what He said to be too difficult and no longer believed in Him, and a select few stayed with Him because they had committed their lives to Him.

What does this have to do with the size of the universe? Remember we are dealing with reality, and the reality is that we have a large universe. What probable reason would God have in creating this vast universe?

The apostle Paul tells us that the universe, all of creation, is a teaching tool of God:

20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:20; ISV)

In creation we have enough to lead us to begin our search for the Creator. Yet, just like how people responded to Jesus’ parables, people look at creation but they miss the greater significance behind it. To think that God created is too hard of a truth to accept so they create their own reality, which sounds plausible to their ears.

Understanding this reality of God it shouldn’t be surprising that we discover a universe just like what we have. A universe that inspires awe and humility in a faithful follower of Jesus, but is also a stumbling block, an obstacle to the person who expects God to act in a certain way and is disillusioned when He doesn’t.

Eternal Significance

It is essential for us, especially as Christians, to understand history. It is through history that we begin to see God working through to bring about His purpose. To understand history is to understand the heart of God, and where He wants to take us.

For pre-scientific cultures, history and legend were very important in developing the sense of purpose and meaning for life. Many eastern societies are still dominated by pre-scientific thinking.

Science is a western way of thought. The irony of it is that science came into dominance because of Christianity. Science emerged out of Christian thinking because the Christian says that the universe is orderly and that it can be studied. Christianity paved the away for the scientific method to dominant our thinking. While science is a valid discipline, and can teach us many things, it has hindered us in our ability to understand why we are here.

We will not discover how God is working in the world by looking through a microscope. God’s work in the world is primarily discovered through studying revelation (the Bible) and studying history. By joining God in what He is doing through history means that we are giving our lives to that which will last.

One day everything around us will go up in smoke. There is nothing that we can do about it. Sooner or later our lives on earth will end, and at that time nothing will matter. As Solomon points out in Ecclesiastes it is all meaningless. Unless we can give our lives away to a higher purpose our lives on earth will be meaningless. Consider what the apostle Peter wrote:

8 Don't forget this fact, dear friends: With the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day. 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some people understand slowness, but is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day the heavens will disappear with a roaring sound, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be exposed.

11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, think of the kind of holy and godly people you ought to be 12 as you look forward to and hasten the coming of the day of God, by which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire. 13 But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. (2 Peter 3:8-13; ISV)

The sad truth about life is that what we do, the accomplishments we have, and the successes we achieve mean very little. They may be great for a time, but most if not all, will fade in our life time. Relative few are the people whose accomplishments survive them.

Only a life lived according to God’ s will, being faithful to what God is doing through history, will give us lasting significance in our lives. The reason is because what God is working through history is the transformation of people. God is using His revelation as well as history (our time on earth) to make us people fit for heaven. Therefore the outcome of a person’s life carries with it eternal consequences. For the person who is not faithful to Jesus their eternity is destruction. For the Christian, the faithful follower of Jesus, our eternity is heaven, which allows us to be eternally in God’s presence.

There are many things we can give our lives to in this world, but only what we do for God will last. We have the choice on how we can spend our lives. We can spend it pursuing things that will melt away in the end, or we can spend it following after Jesus. The way to eternity is clear: Jesus said to him,“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6; ISV).

• Point to Ponder: Unless we can give our lives away to a higher purpose our lives on earth will be meaningless.
• Passage to Remember: 2 Peter 3:8-13
• Question to Consider: Are you living for God or for yourself?

The Eyes of the Heart part 1

So far Ted Dekker in The Slumber of Christianity has presented the case of how we, as followers of Jesus, have lost our desire for heaven and thus have lost what it really means to live. When we expect the things of this life to satisfy the longings of our hearts we will be disappointed because those longings can only be satisfied in heaven. On the other hand when we hope for heaven the things of this life become a little sweeter because we are not expecting them to satisfy us.

As Dekker moves into chapter 8 of his book he begins to take us on a journey to bring us out of slumber so we can once again live with passion because of the hope that we have discovered. This journey begins with seeing the world with the eyes of our heart. To push away from focusing on just the material and seeing the larger picture.

One of the problems we face as Christians is using language that doesn’t match up with the way we live. We talk about a “spiritual” life but we continue to live as if the physical was the most important part of life.

“Most Christians speak as though their spiritual beings are far more material than their bodies, yet they tend to dismiss spiritualism for fear of heresy prompted primarily by the New Age movement. We say we fight against principalities and powers and our pleasure is of another world, but we stay firmly planted in this world...”(p. 128)

We talk the talk, we parrot what we have heard other Christians say, but it isn’t real in our lives. Far too many of us know the lingo but we don’t know what it means. Our lives and our desires remain unaffected by what we have been taught. We don’t even know what to hope for.

“If the eyes of the heart can’t see heaven, the mind will never obsess after it. Most Christians have no vision at all of the afterlife, much less a vision that is attractive or inspiring, The eyes of their hearts have grown heavy and have subsequently been closed by slumber, and they no longer see the afterlife with the eyes of their hearts. Without a vision of heaven in clear view, they quickly lose interest.” (p. 129)

I have been there and many ways I am still there. I prefer to think about the future of my life here on earth rather than to think about what heaven will be like. It is a little mysterious and a little scary. The result is that we settle for talking about life right now rather than nurturing the hope for heaven in our lives.

So how do we begin to see with the eyes of our heart? According to Dekker we begin by gaining knowledge through word pictures and developing our imaginations.

“The eyes of the heart see with vision that brings knowledge through metaphor and analogy and word pictures and story. It is a vision that resides in the mind and the heart, but it is not less spectacular than any vision see with the eyes.” (p. 130)

When talking about things we can’t see all we can do is use words that will get our imaginations working. Since we can’t see heaven now we have to use our imagination to understand what we are talking about. That is part of what it means to see with the eyes of the heart. Dekker points his readers to Ephesians 1:18-19:

18 Then, with the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you will know the hope of his calling, the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and the unlimited greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his mighty strength... (ISV)

Dekker goes on to write:

“Paul was praying that his readers’ minds would be expanded so they might understand the richness of the bliss that awaited them in a way that fueled their desire. He was begging them to envision heaven. He was crying out for them to have a clear vision of their inheritance.” (p. 131)

When we use our imagination we can begin to form an idea of what heaven is like even though we have not seen it. Imagination is a gift from God and it sets us apart from the rest of creation. Imagination enables us to think beyond the here and now.

“Do birds use their imaginations? Do ants or worms? It is we humans, created in the image of God, who are blessed with an imagination. And it is through the imagination that our hope is primarily informed.” (p. 132)

Before you bristle at the notion that imagination plays such a key part in informing us about God and heaven remember that we live in a world of imagination. We use our imaginations so much that we don’t even realize that we are doing it. Imagining is part of life.

“If you think about this carefully, you will quickly discover that we live in a world of imagination. The moment something becomes reality, it passes into history, right? Our minds are occupied primarily with memories of the past and imaginations of what might occur later. We experience the present, but that experience is so fleeting that our primary engagement of any experience is through the imagination, either in the form of anticipation or memory. We depend on our imaginations.” (p. 133)

Perhaps the reason we aren’t more hopeful for heaven is because we are much too busy using our imaginations to anticipate future events in our lives.

“Again I will ask, are you desperate for heaven? No? May I suggest it’s because you have no living hope for the bless of heaven? And you have no living hope because you imagine heaven to be far less interesting than the earthly vacation you have your eyes on, or the man you would like to marry. Your imagination in regard to the vacation or the man is fully fleshed out. You’ve already picked out the destination for the vacation and the tuxedo for the man.” (p. 134)

What an indictment! We have allowed our lives to become consumed with this world and have ignored the promise of heaven. We have lost the vision for heaven.

“But vision is nothing more, or less, than raw imagination. It is a perceived outcome that follows a plan of action with the hopes of achieving that outcome. Envisioning an outcome, such as heaven, is the same as imagining that outcome.” (p. 135)

Dekker reminds us what Solomon wrote about vision: Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Prov. 29:18; KJV) He then goes on to write:

“Where there is no imagined outcome fueled by the creative power granted us by God, our hope will surely die and we will slip into a deep slumber. (p. 135)

Our imaginations play a key part in our interactions with God:

“In fact, we experience God primarily through our imaginations.

“Our experience of God is based on faith and hope, not on what we can see now, as Paul so emphatically insisted; otherwise, it would be no hope at all. So when I say that we experience God primarily through our imaginations, I am saying nothing new. I’m simply using rather pointed terms to say what we all already know. Our interaction with God occurs in our minds and hearts.” (p. 136)

In order to communicate truth to us God has relied heavily on our imaginations:
“Are you hearing this? God leans heavily on the human imagination when communicating with humanity. In fact, the use of mental images is God’s primary paradigm for illustrating truth, but through the writers of the Bible and through Christ’s use of parables.

“Now there is one critical element to figurative language that you must understand. Figurative language is fictional.” (p. 139)

I think this is the reason why we react negatively at the suggestion that we experience God through imagination. Fiction and imagination seems to mean not true, but that isn’t necessarily the case. In this case it means something that isn’t real at this moment. For example the Bible calls Jesus the “Lion from the Tribe of Judah.” Yet, Jesus isn’t a real lion. The name is a metaphor to help us understand His character.

What Dekker is trying to accomplish is something the likes of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis have already suggested: myth is a means God communicates truth. We, as followers of Jesus, should embrace story as a way to communicate the God’s truth to a reluctant people as well as to fuel our imaginations for the life that is to come.

Find the other chapters:
Chapter 1: The Death of our Dreams
Chapter 2: The Search for Pleasure
Chapter 3: Foundations
Chapter 4: Give Me Pleasure or Give Me Death
Chapter 5: The Slippery Slope to Slumber
Chapter 6: In Living We Die; In Dying We Live
Chapter 7: Created to Obsess

This Was Cool For Me

For those who do not know Victor Reppert from Dangerous Idea linked to Paul's Ponderings this week. He linked to my little rant about true conservatives. This was cool for me because Victor is a C. S. Lewis scholar and author of C. S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea which I read about a year ago (I don't know how much I understood it, but I did read it). It was cool to have a scholar like that land on my blog and think enough of something I wrote that he would link to it.

The Power of God's Promises

Part of faith is being able to accept the forgiveness God gives us when we make Jesus Lord and Savior of our lives. One of the biggest burdens we have as Christians is that of guilty. We carry around the memory of sins of the past and the current temptations we struggle with and we convince ourselves that God cannot simply forgive us, that there is something we must do to atone for our sin.

This is a lie from Satan. He wants us to burden us with those sins, via guilt, that God has already set us free from. In the process Satan hinders us from accomplishing what God has called us to do. We need to fight Satan on this. We fight Satan by using the promises God has had made to us (i.e. the Word of God).

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing God's glory.

3 Not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 Now this hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For it is rare for anyone to die for a righteous person, though somebody might be brave enough to die for a good person. 8 But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

9 Now that we have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life! 11 Not only that, but we also continue to boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation. (Romans 5:1-11; ISV)

Let's take a quick look at this passage from Scripture and discover the promises it has for our lives.

Verses 1, 2:
The Apostle Paul reminds us that it is our faith which gives us salvation or a right relationship with God. There is nothing we can do to achieve eternal life or friendship with God. We have to believe in God and trust Him by living as if His promises were true. Many times we won't understand God's promises or God's will seems to be illogical to us, but trusting God means we go ahead and do it God's way.

Verses 3-5:
We are going to have problems in our lives. These problems raise doubts in our minds about our salvation. We have a small accident and Satan whispers: God is punishing you for this sin. Someone at work or school mistreats us and Satan reminds of a time we messed up: Did you really think God would forget? The problems in life are opportunities for Satan to accuse us of the sin in our lives. Yet, if we fight through this, if we hold on to the promises of God, we emerge on the other side more convicted of God's love for us.

Verses 6-11:
Here is the great promise of this passage of Scripture. Because God has made us His friends through the death of Jesus; He will certainly discover eternal life because of Jesus' resurrection. Paul wants to remind us that Jesus death accomplished something beyond our comprehension: God saved His enemies. So if God has already done something so amazing, won't He also keep His promise and bring us into eternity with Him? For the person struggling with guilty this is a great promise. The death of Jesus wiped out our sins, and His resurrection guarantees us Heaven.

How do we make these promises real in our lives? We make the promises real by having faith in Jesus Christ. We live with hope and faith that God will keep His promises, even when things don't go they way we expected them to go.

Satan will accuse us of wrong doing and he will try to burden us with guilty so that we miss out on God's best for our lives. As Christians we need to hold firm to what God has promised and remind Satan of what God has promised and then live our lives based on that reality.

Point to Ponder: We make the promises real by having faith in Jesus Christ.
Passage to Remember: Romans 5:1-11
Question to Consider: Is your life lived in with the knowledge of God's promises?

Testable Prayers

When we choose not to believe we can throw out any number of “experiments” to prove our position. After all we want to make our position look rational, reasonable, and scientific. When I read this about praying prayers that are testable at Debunking Christianity I just had to laugh. It seems Mr. Loftus has fallen into a similar trap that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day fell into: asking for a sign.

11 The Pharisees arrived and began arguing with Jesus. They tested him by demanding from him a sign from heaven. 12 He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 Leaving them, he got into a boat again and crossed to the other side. (Mark 8:11-13; ISV)

The Pharisees demand a sign and Jesus says no. Why? Doesn’t Jesus want them to believe? Believing isn’t the point, faith is the point. While faith begins with belief it is so much more. Faith also requires action, commitment, and trust. Besides the Pharisees weren’t interested in Jesus, they were looking for reasons to discredit Him. Instead of giving them a sign Jesus actually gives them what they are looking for: another reason to “prove” He wasn’t the Messiah. If Jesus couldn’t provide a sign then obviously He isn’t who He says He is.

Why should we expect God to answer our prayers when we make our prayers the equivalent of demanding signs? Remember prayer is not about getting God to do what we want done, prayer is about aligning our wills with God’s will. When we make prayer about anything else we miss the point of prayer. Sure we can take a few verses and use them to prove that prayer is how we manipulate God to do our bidding, but this can only be done if we ignore the rest of what Jesus taught about prayer.

Take Mark 11:24 for example:

24 That is why I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. (ISV)

Wow! What a promise! The problem is that all I have to do is look at my own life and realize that it isn’t true. I have prayed my share of prayers that weren’t answered, and let’s put away this notion that they were answered but the answer was no. They weren’t answered because I was trying to manipulate God, to show me a sign, or to “bless” me with my hearts desire.

Read what Mark Moore, professor of New Testament at Ozark Christian College, wrote about this passage:

“If we take this passage alone, we could potentially pray for some extravagant and frivolous things (cf. Mk 10:35). A number of other parallel passages place some parameters around our prayers. For example, we should ask:

1. In faith (Mt 21:22), and obedience (1 John 3:22).
2. With persistence (Lk 11:9; 18:1-6).
3. According to the will of Jesus (i.e., “In my name”), (Jn 14:13-16; 15:16; 16:23-26; 1 Jn 5:14-15), remaining in him (Jn 15:7)
4. In cooperation/conjunction with other believers (Mt. 18:19)
5. With unselfish motives (Jas 4:2-3)

And we are to pray for:

1. God to send workers into the harvest (Mt. 9:38).
2. The Holy Spirit (Lk 11:13).
3. That which is necessary in order to bear fruit (Jn. 15:16).
4. Wisdom (Jas 1:5)

So while we don’t believe that we can just ask for any old thing, we mustn’t deny the power of prayer. Ephesians 3:20 says, 'Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...' The very real danger to most Christians is not asking extravagantly, but not asking at all." (The Chronological Life of Christ: From Galilee to Glory; p. 155)

The problem that comes when we think that prayer is about getting God to do our bidding is that we don’t know what is best. One of Jesus’ teachings on prayer dealt with this very point:

9 “There isn't a person among you who would give his son a stone if he asked for bread, is there? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he wouldn't give him a snake, would he? 11 So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who keep on asking him!” (Matthew 7:9-11; ISV)

According to Jesus, just as most human parents do their best to give the good things needed for life to their children, God gives His children good things. Parents, because of the knowledge they have from education and experience, know what is best for their children. They will give them the things they need and with hold the things that might cause them harm.

God, because of His position as Creator, Savior, and Sustainer, knows what is best for us and what will harm us. He will give us those things that will help us become more like His Son Jesus and He will not grant those requests for things that will make us spoiled brats. When we realize that God’s interest isn’t about making us happy right now but rather about making us holy ( for the purpose of enjoying heaven) the focus of our prayers will change. God isn’t in the business of indulging our fantasies, but He is in the business of making us people fit for heaven.

When we demand that God performs a sign for us or fulfills our desires we are not living by faith. Instead we are saying: God, I will believe in You if... Instead of God dictating to us what will happen we are dictating to God and if God allowed Himself to be controlled in this manner He would cease to be God. Prayers aren’t testable, because it is ultimately God’s will and not our will that matters. When the purpose of our prayers is to see what happens or to force God to do something then we cease to pray.

Remember what C. S. Lewis wrote about praying for experimental purposes:

“For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them. Invariable ‘success’ in prayer would not prove the Christian doctrine at all. It would prove something much more like magic--a power in certain human beings to control, or compel, the course of nature...

“I have seen it suggested that a team of people—the more the better—should agree to pray as hard as they knew how, over a period of six weeks, for all the patients in Hospital A and none of those in Hospital B. Then you would tot up the results and see if A had more cures and fewer deaths. And I suppose you would repeat the experiment at various times and places so as to eliminate the influence of irrelevant factors.

“The trouble is that I do not see how any real prayer could go on under such conditions. ‘Words without thoughts never to heaven go,’ says the King in Hamlet. Simply to say prayers is not to pray; otherwise a team of properly trained parrots would serve as well as men for our experiment. You cannot pray for the recovery of the sick unless the end you have in view is their recovery. But you can have no motive for desiring the recovery of all the patients in one hospital and none of those in another. You are not doing it in order that suffering should be relieved; you are doing it to find out what happens. The real purpose and the nominal purpose of your prayers are at variance. In other words, whatever your tongue and teeth and knees may do, you are not praying. The experiment demands an impossibility.” (The Joyful Christian; pp. 97-99)

Is it an obstacle for people to believe in Him when God doesn’t provide a sign? It sure is, but God has no need to make people believe in Him. According to the Bible one day everybody is going to believe in Him, so this isn’t about belief. This is about God molding and making people who are fit for heaven.

Read this carefully: if you want to remain dead because you refuse to believe the signs God has already revealed that is your choice not God’s problem. You are already lost. Your refusal to believe doesn’t doesn’t move you from saved to unsaved, you simply remain unsaved. So if you demand that God perform a sign before you will believe in Him don’t be surprised if He moves on and allows you to be on the outside looking in.

Created to Obsess

Chapter 7 of The Slumber of Christianity author Ted Dekker moves on to talk about the emotion of hope and how hope should drive us to prepare for heaven. He writes:

“If we don’t abandon ourselves to hope for the afterlife, we certainly won’t groan for it. If we discard hope as an untrustworthy emotion, or limit our hope to things that are immediately tangible, how can we develop great passion for something as intangible as heaven?

“We can’t.

“And so it is not wonder that our hope for glory has been put to sleep. We are far more comfortable clinging to and hoping for what we can see, here in this life, than hoping in a future that is not yet seen. As a result we have directed our hope toward objectives that are immediately tangible, the foretastes of the bliss that awaits us, and away from that which awaits us itself.” (p. 110)

To illustrate his point Dekker directs his readers to the parable Jesus told in Matthew 13:44:

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man found and hid. In his joy he went and sold everything he had and bought that field.” (ISV)

Do we show the same obsession for heaven as this man who was sold everything in order to buy a field and thus the treasure it contained. We go to great lengths to find pleasure in this world, but we hardly give heaven a second thought. Dekker goes on to say:

“Clearly, Christ wasn’t promoting deception, but he obviously thought it was a useful tool in showing just how far someone might go to secure the kingdom of heaven. He was promoting a kind of obsession with the kingdom of heaven.” (p. 113)

Are we obsessed with heaven? Speaking for myself I know that I am obsessed with this life. Things like getting married and having that perfect ministry dominate my thinking. I think I can safely assume other followers of Jesus Christ fall into the same trap. That is why this passage from Luke that Dekker cites is worth considering:

33 “Sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor. Make yourselves wallets that don't wear out—a dependable treasure in heaven, where no thief can get close and no moth can destroy anything. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:33-34; ISV)

Dekker goes on to write:

“What bold statements! [he also cited 1 Timothy 6:19] Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If the treasure you obsess after is on this earth, your heart will remain on this earth; but if your treasure is in heaven, your heart will be there as well.” (p. 116)

The problem with obsessing over heaven is that it is unreasonable. It is much more reasonable to be concerned about the things of this life and to try to create a life that in some small way makes us happy. Why bank on something that is not visible? Dekker reminds us that following Jesus isn’t reasonable:

“But is following Christ reasonable?

“This is where the paths of Christianity as a religion and following Christ part ways in dramatic fashion. The fact is, following Christ is not a very reasonable thing to do in the eyes of unbelievers. Our following is based on faith, not on reason. There’s a tremendous amount of reason along the way, yes, but the journey itself is based on faith. This is a critical distinction when it come to understanding hope.” (p. 117)

The more a rely on reason the diminished capacity we have for hope, especially hope for heaven and eternal life. Dekker writes:

“We in the West are obsessed with reason, in the same way that I am going to suggest we be obsessed with hope. Our preoccupation with reason is what leads us to conclude that emotion is untrustworthy after we see it failing us repeatedly. So it could be said that one of the casualties of our reason is emotion, or passion for the afterlife. Our slumber is, in part, brought on by reason.” (p. 118)

Have we forgotten that as Christians we are to live a life of death? We are dead to sin, dead to this life, and that our lives are offered as a sacrifice to God. Yes, there is the power of the resurrection, but that power is only fully revealed to us after we have died. Dekker makes this point:

“What’s more, we Christians claim to live a life of death that brings life. ‘Take up your cross and follow me,’ Christ called. We are now dead to sin, buried and risen with Christ. True, Christianity hinges on the resurrection of Christ, and we like to live in resurrection power, but resurrection comes only after death and will not be complete until the day of our salvation after Christ returns.” (p. 119)

There is a great danger to forget about heaven. That danger is that we try to find all of God’s promises fulfilled in this life, but because we live in this world of sin that won’t happen. We will be disappointed and disillusioned. Read Dekker’s thoughts:

“But what if we who are being saved take our eyes off the great message of redemption at the end of time? Then we place responsibility for all of the gospel’s benefits on this life, and when those benefits fail to materialize as we once hoped they would, the gospel begins to sound a little foolish to us as well.” (p. 120)

Faith and hope really defy explanation. Sure we can cite reasons why we have faith and hope, but concrete realities allude us at times. There has to be a time in our lives, if we are really going to follow Jesus, when we say; “God, I don’t know, but I am going to trust You,” and then live our lives based on that commitment. Dekker writes:

“The day I tried to prove my faith in college was the day I lost that faith. When we shift the focus of our faith from the eyes of the heart to a purely rational exploration of fact, our faith will almost certainly weaken.” (p. 120)

I know that sounds like a scary thing. We want to be seen as reasonable and rational, but Christians throughout the centuries have appeared the opposite. The apostle Paul understood that this desire for heaven at times made him sound and look crazy:

13 So if we were crazy, it was for God; if we are sane, it is for you. (2 Corinthians 5:13; ISV)

Don’t allow the judgment of people deter you from pursuing heaven. While we are beings of reason and intellect we are also beings of emotions and desire. To hope is part of what it means to be human. Dekker writes:

“Birds and butterflies live in a world guided solely by the set of facts that surround them. They perform various functions based on a strict set of requirements for life.

“Not we humans, created in the image of God. We are guided by desire. We were created to hope, and the greatest kind of hope is nothing less than a form of obsession.” (p. 121)

Too many Christians have fallen asleep. We have settled for religion rather than living a life of desire for heaven.

“Christians have fallen asleep to the promise of the afterlife and no longer dream of that great day. Their obsession for eternity is in slumber. And being creatures created to obsess, many have redirected their obsession to the pleasures of this world alone.” (p. 121)

We do this to our own peril. This world can’t possible satisfy the cravings of our hearts. Not only do we do this to our own peril but we also do it to the neglect of Christ’s commission to make disciples. We are so consumed with creating life that we forget about the vast majority of people who have no hope for life. A desire for heaven opens our eyes to the evil and suffering of this world. When we understand the horrors of this life we will be motivated to bring hope to the hopeless.

Find the other chapters here:
Chapter 1: The Death of our Dreams
Chapter 2: The Search for Pleasure
Chapter 3: Foundations
Chapter 4: Give Me Pleasure or Give Me Death
Chapter 5: The Slippery Slope to Slumber
Chapter 6: In Living We Die; In Dying We Live

Sunday Video: Is Faith Nonsense?

Pleasure as Worship

The world is full of broken lives. They are broken, not because of pain, but because of pleasure unrestrained. My heart breaks to think about the number of people who are stuck in bad relationships, in addictions, and with broken hearts because they did not have the strength to put pleasure where it belongs. We live in a country where pleasure and freedom and promoted without regard for whose lives might be destroyed. Consider what Ravi Zacharias wrote in Cries of the Heart:

“Neither the Supreme Court nor law can change the wills that are determined to market their products that offer pleasure without restraint and destroy people without apology” (p. 123)

When pleasure is pursued unrestrained the result is broken lives. The reality is that we never have the option of only breaking our own lives, but we also end up breaking the lives those around us as well. While this is a terrible reality there is very little we can do about it. We can’t control what other people decide to do.

The number of abortions in this country is a direct reflection of people unwilling to put the pleasure of sexual intimacy in its proper place. To them sex is all about pleasure and it is to be enjoyed whenever. A life is created and because there is no commitment beyond that of pleasure, the baby is killed. No Supreme Court ruling can change the fundamental problem of an inaccurate view of pleasure.

God desires us to have pleasure and to experience joy. That is one of the reasons He gave us all the different senses that we have. The ability to touch, smell, taste, see, and hear all bring pleasure into our lives. God wants us to experience life with our senses, to find pleasure in His creation.

Pleasure is ultimately a pathway to God. Why? Pleasure is a pathway to God because it gives us a foretaste of the life God wants us to have. It also stands in stark contrast to the evil and pain in the world around us. Pleasure helps us understand that we were made for another world.

There is a danger of equating the feelings of pleasure with our relationship with God. The majority of people don’t even realize this is what they do. They have just bought the lie that the most important thing in life is to feel good, to experience pleasure. Anything that is painful is bad and is to be avoided at all costs. Pleasure in exalted and used as a way to escape the pain, and God is ignored.

As Christians we shouldn’t think pleasure is evil or sinful. Just because something feels good doesn’t mean that it is wrong! When put in their proper context the pleasures of life bring us closer to God. This is how twisted Satan gets us to think. He helps the world glorify pleasure above all else, and he gets Christians to feel guilty about the pleasure in their lives. The next time you are having a good time, wherever it is, doing whatever, use it as a time of worship. Thank God for the experience, for the people with you, and for giving you life.

It is up to us, as followers of Christ, to show the world the real purpose pleasure serves in our lives. King Solomon wrote:

The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like complete darkness. Those who follow it have no idea what they are stumbling over. (Proverbs 4:18-19; NLT)

We cannot stop people from destroying their lives with pleasure. That is a choice they have to make. We can worship God through the pleasure He gives us through our lives. Turn your times of joy into times of worship. Let the world know how much pleasure you have in your life.

• Point to Ponder: Pleasure is ultimately a pathway to God.
• Passage to Remember: Proverbs 4:18-19
• Question to Consider: What part does pleasure play in your life?

Swept Under The Rug

One of the books I am currently reading is 4th and Goal by Bill McCartney. The book is a collections of short thoughts intended to inspire and challenge men to respond with integrity to life’s challenges. This morning I the short read I read dealt with dating violence among teenagers and challenging fathers to be involved in their children’s lives.

As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, our culture’s attempt to celebrate love and romance, I think it is important to understand what is happening in the “love” lives of the children of our country.

As far as I am concerned they shouldn’t be having “love” lives, but they are, and they are increasingly becoming violent or abusive. In August 2001 CNN.COM did an article about a study that looked into teen dating violence. The study revealed that 1 in 5 teen girls are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse.

Just today the Washington Times had an article about a new study. This study focused on “tweens” (identified as children 11-14).

Perhaps more surprisingly, almost 30 percent of these young teens think oral sex and sexual intercourse are expected in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. And hundreds of tweens report that their dating partners have harassed them, bossed them around or tried to monopolize their time.

A few even report physical abuse, such as hitting, slapping or kicking, or being pressured into having oral sex or intercourse.

As if being pressured into doing things you don’t want to do and being called names isn’t abuse enough a “few even report physical abuse”! This is terrible. I don’t think we appreciate how much of an impact that these things have on the rest of a person’s life. These poor children are being harmed and we turn a blind eye to it.

Where does the blame lie? Certainly the entertainment industry plays a part. I don’t have to tell you the filth that flows from the music industry, TV, movies, and video games. The sad thing is the reason I don’t have to mention it is because we are hip deep in it ourselves. The more we support trash the more we harm the young people in this country, including our own children.

I think blame also lies with our promotion of romance. Romance is all well and good, but it is not essential to life. You won’t die if you never kiss a person of the opposite sex or have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Yet we are bombarded with the lie that we need to have romance in our lives. Just standing in the check out line at the grocery store reveals this to me. You would think that we would be experts in romance and bringing the passion back to our relationships since every month every magazine has at least one idea on how to do this. Yet, this is also seen in the adults who just need to be in a relationship, even if it is a bad one. So what do the kids in those situations learn? That having someone is more important that anything else, even your dignity and respect.

After saying all of that what it really comes down to is parents. Parents have to be vigilant about what their children put into their minds. Parents have to monitor how their children dress and the friends that they have. Parents have to be part of their children’s lives. What is really sad is that these things are happening and the parents have no idea. Their child is hurt and they don’t know it and allow that child back out into that vicious place of teen dating.

Church if we are going to talk about justice let’s start with those with the weakest voices. Our children are being bombarded with stuff they are not ready for (are we ever ready for it?) and they need people who will speak for them. This has less to do with education and more to do with speak the dark and ugly truth. That is what light does it reveals what is in the dark. Let us stop sweeping the abuse of our children under the rug and help the world understand the real evil that is going on.

In Living We Die; In Dying We Live

Chapter 6 of The Slumber of Christianity deals with the teaching of Jesus that real living is found in heaven. According to Ted Dekker we put ourselves at risk of falling into slumber when we put our expectations in finding satisfaction in this life.

“We expect perfect bliss in our marriages here on earth when when such a bliss isn’t available, at least not here.

“We beg God for better jobs, but none come.

“We trust for growth in our churches, but numbers stagnate.

“And when we don’t find these expected benefits to our faith, we begin to falter.

“We must dump the loads of expectations for nirvana in this life along with the burden of find ultimate happiness. That happiness simply isn’t available during our alloted eighty-odd years. The bliss we seek awaits in the next life. Our faith is being sure of this hope. The pleasures God has given us serve as a reminder of far greater pleasures to come.” (p. 81)

Dekker goes on to talk about death and how true life is found when we die. He then asks this question:

“In living we die. But don’t fear, because in dying we live! Then we do we sweep death under the rug?” (p. 82)

Good question. We try our best, even in our sermons and lessons and books, to avoid talking about death. We want to avoid that discussion at all costs, but according to Biblical theology it is through death that we truly begin to live. When we don’t fear death, when we have hope for better things to come, then we can enjoy the things of this life better without being bound to them.

Have we forgotten the promise, the Good News, of the New Testament?

“Spiritual death was a thing to be feared, which explains why Paul wrote tirelessly on the subject. The world lives in spiritual death, but through Christ we are born again into a new life. Not a new physical life, but a new spiritual life that makes physical death irrelevant.” (p. 85)

Do we believe that? Honestly it is hard for me to not think about all the things I will miss out on if I died today. Death, physical death, hardly seem irrelevant to me. No wonder I do what I can to protect this life I have.

“Yet we seem to have it backward. We tend to go to extremes to protect the body rather than the soul. And it’s no wonder, really. The god of this world know all too well the devastating nature of spiritual death. He’s gone to great lengths to distract us from that death by redirecting our fears of death to physical death. He began by slaughtering Christ. Then he continued by killing as many of Christ’s followers as he could, intending to strike fear into their hearts.” (p. 86)

Instead of fearing physical death we need to put our trust and our hope in Jesus. Yes, Satan killed Jesus, but God raised Him from the dead. What a promise for us! Can we find hope in the resurrection? Yet, for us to find hope in the resurrection we have to believe that heaven holds more joy and pleasure than what we can find here. Let’s face it we like this world way too much.

“We Christians, like the world, are so taken with this life full of its colors and sounds and tastes that give us joy, we don’t really want the next life, which, as far as we can see, consists of nothing more than playing harps around a throne. It’s no wonder we don’t want to die.” (p. 88)

When we lack the hope of a better and indescribable life to come we put ourselves at risk of losing our faith completely. Hope is what keeps us going when everything else looks bleak.

“Christianity’s foundation rests on a living hope that fills us with an inexpressible joy for that which is to come. Without this hope, our faith will fail, we won’t have the power to withstand our trials, and we will slip into a slumber.” (p. 91)

Our hope rests in the promise of Jesus to prepare a place for us. We might be content in building huts and play kingdoms in this world, but Jesus is in heaven preparing us a place that is wilder than anything that we can imagine.

“There can be no mistake about the object of our hope. It is not in what we see now. It is not in the gifts of the Spirit. It is not in a large ministry or a thriving church. It is not in a good marriage or good health or good food.

“It is heaven. This is true Christianity, and this is what we were saved into. A kingdom so rich in reward, our hope for that kingdom causes us to groan.” (p. 97)

If our hope isn’t in heaven do we really understand the gospel?

“One has to wonder if we truly understand the good news at all. Buildings and programs and attendance and well-run services aren’t the gospel, yet they preoccupy our minds. The fact that because of Christ there is coming a blessed day when we will finally be able to dive into God himself rather than be eternally separated from him, is the good news. We ought to let that reality ravage our minds.” (p. 98)

Dekker references the parable of the ten bridesmaids (Matthew 25-1-13). He makes the point that the only difference between the five who were let into the wedding banquet and the five who were shut out was their preparation. He goes on to write:

“The notion that we have some responsibility to secure oil for our journey to the wedding feast is an unpopular notion in Christianity today. Our religion is focused on quick fixes that require nothing. But here Jesus is clearly making the case that the virgin’s responsibility to secure oil before the wedding was critical to their journey.” (p. 102)

Dekker suggests that the lamp oil represents hope. So hope isn’t just something that is given to us, but it is something that we must find. I don’t know if he is right, but I would agree that hope is something that we must find. While is initially a gift it grows as we live by faith and experience God more and more. If we are not living by faith and just going through the motions of a religion we, like the five bridesmaids who run out of oil, will find our light fading as our hope runs out.

“And of all the gifts, hope is perhaps the most personal. You can show love, you can demonstrate faith, but you either have or do not have hope. The amount of hope you have, like oil, may be shown in how bright your lamp shines. You may attend a church filled with colorfully dressed Christians who sing and wave their lamps in celebration. But check the flames that light the path to the wedding feast, and you will know if the bridesmaids you dance with are wise or foolish.” (p. 103)

Hope is what attracted so many to the Church.

“The New Testament is like a seed itself, rich in the oil of hope. You can’t read a single book without being soaked in it. The early church thrived in this oil. Hope lit their lamps and attracted thousands into a persecuted movement.

“The early Christians eagerly awaited their inheritance. Each day they sang songs about death being swallowed up in victory at the end of days. Their entire faith burned with hope for a day that would soon come, not only for the days that had come.” (p. 103)

We need to take some time and rediscover the teachings of the New Testament. Not to dissect them and discover who has the correct doctrine, but to immerse ourselves in the promises and the hope that it contains.

“It is time that we understand the true nature of our own faith. Christianity is as much about death as life. It’s about the end of spiritual death, through a spiritual birth, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection. Death has become life, in part now, and in whole after this life. After we die.

“And the way we engage this entire truth is through a small portal into the reality that lies beyond. The portal is hope.

“But our eyes of hope have grown heavy and dark, and we can no longer see past the skin of this world into the next.” (p. 104)

Life takes on a whole new significance when we allow ourselves to die to the things of this world and long for what God has prepared for us in heaven. Clinging to Jesus, His death and resurrection, means we don’t have to fear death any longer, because we know better things wait for us on the other side.

Find the other chapters:
Chapter 1: The Death of our Dreams
Chapter 2: The Search for Pleasure
Chapter 3: Foundations
Chapter 4: Give Me Pleasure or Give Me Death
Chapter 5: The Slippery Slope to Slumber
Chapter 7: Created to Obsess
Chapter 8: The Eyes of the Heart part 1
Chapter 8: The Eyes of the Heart part 2

The Sin of Mismanagment

What are you doing with the blessings (talents, resources, experiences, relationships, and opportunities) God has given you? Do you consider it a sin to mismanage what God has blessed you with?

I look at my life and I can’t help but realize how I have failed to use God’s blessings to bless other people or to bring glory to Him. Too many days go by with out me making any sort of effort to impact the life of another person It is very sad that I have hoarded God’s blessings instead of sharing what He has given me. While I have hoarded His blessing I have help myself back from becoming the person God created me to be (Ephesians 2:10).

Each one of us will be held responsible for the gifts God has given to us. That is the point of one of the stories Jesus told about judgment.

14 “For it is like a man going on a trip who called his servants and turned his money over to them. 15 To one man he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, based on their ability. Then he went on his trip.

16 “The one who received five talents went out at once and invested them and earned five more. 17 In the same way, the one who had two talents earned two more. 18 But the one who received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money.

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The one who had received five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I've earned five more talents.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy servant! Since you have been trustworthy with a small amount, I will put you in charge of a large amount. Come and share your master's joy!’

22 “The one with two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I've earned two more talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy servant! Since you have been trustworthy with a small amount, I will put you in charge of a large amount. Come and share your master's joy!’

24 “Then the one who had received one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you haven't planted and gathering where you haven't scattered any seed. 25 Being afraid, I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here, take what is yours!’

26 “His master answered him, ‘You evil and lazy servant! So you knew that I harvested where I haven't planted and gathered where I haven't scattered any seed? 27 Then you should have invested my money with the bankers. When I returned, I would have received my money back with interest. 28 Take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has something, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the person who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away from him. 30 Throw this useless servant into the outer darkness! In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” (Matthew 25:14-30; ISV)

This parable shows us that we are judged on the type of stewards we are. Perhaps it is just me, but I don’t think we talk about this enough. We challenge people to pray and read their Bibles. Don’t get me wrong I think spiritual disciplines are important, but I wonder if they are the most important actions God wants from our lives.

When we neglect or misuse the blessings of our lives we miss out on living the life God has prepared for us. We miss out on touching the lives of other people. We miss out on proclaiming Jesus to the world. We miss out on changing our lives. Using our blessings moves us from people of belief to people of faith.

We cannot become the people God created us to be until we are willing to be good stewards of His blessings. Using God’s gifts helps us experience the life God created us to live. When we hoard the blessings God has given us we sin.

Peter wrote:

7 The end of everything is near; so be sensible and clear-headed for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, continue to love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without complaining. 10 As good managers of God's grace in its various forms, serve one another with the gift each of you has received. 11 Whoever speaks must speak God's words. Whoever serves must serve with the strength that God supplies, so that in every way God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Glory and power belong to him forever and ever! Amen. (1 Peter 4:7-11; ISV)

Being good manager or stewards comes down to be servants. We need to ask the question: How can I help another person with this gift. Do you have a house and food? Then you should show hospitality. Can you write? Perhaps you can write a note of encouragement. Are you gifted in mechanics? Change the oil in the car of a single mother. The things we can do with blessings God has blessed us with is limitless. When use them we put ourselves on the path of becoming the person God created us to be.

• Point to Ponder: Using God’s gifts helps us experience the life God created us to live.
• Passage to Remember: 1 Peter 4:7-11
• Question to Consider: How are you using God’s blessings?

Not My Home

The follower of Jesus Christ is being led through a rough and dangerous land to home. I wonder if we, as the Church, have missed this point. Our sermons, lessons, and books deal with having our best life now and living life on purpose, but we seldom hear that we strangers in a strange land. Our teachings help us blend into the world rather than helping us stand out.

An alien in a foreign land stands out because they are different. They speak a different language (or at least with an accent), they dress differently, celebrate different holidays, and have different values. According to the New Testament a Christian is to be different, like a stranger in a strange land. I have used this verse time and time again in my ponderings, but here it is one more time:

11 Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. 12 Continue to live such upright lives among the Gentiles that, when they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good works and glorify God when he visits them in judgment. (1 Peter 2:11-12; ISV)

How does the apostle Peter want us to live? As aliens and exiles! We are displaced. We are not at home. I want you to catch this: when we live no differently than the world we are no better off than the world. God isn’t interested in people who will merely confess Him and believe in Him, everyone is going to do that anyway. What God wants is a people who will live by faith. People who will be motivated by a different set of desires. People who live by a different set of standards. People who love people no one else will love. People who will remember they are on a journey to get home. What is the value of believing in Jesus if that belief doesn’t change your life? Is such a belief really faith?

Read what Erwin McManus wrote in The Barbarian Way:

“From the moment we become citizens of the kingdom of God, we become aliens and strangers in a world that chooses to live absent of God. From the first step taken to follow Jesus, we are out of step with the rest of the world. Once your life is in sync with the story of God, you become out of sync with any story that attempts to ignore or eliminate God. You are a stranger to them, an alien among them, a nomadic wanderer who, while refusing to be rooted in this life, seems to somehow enjoy this life most.” (p. 93)

Are you walking out of step with the world? I am afraid that most of us aren’t. Sure we may have morality issues with how the sinners live, but our hopes and dreams are wrapped up in the very same things the world hopes and dreams for. Success, money, happiness, and love. The list could go on, but the point is that while we are morally different from the world we are not spiritually different from them. That my friends was one of the problems Jesus had with the Pharisees. They looked good on the outside, but the inside they were filled with dead men’s bones. White washed tombs. We need to quite fooling ourselves that be different from the world is just about morals. Being different from the world primarily has to do with our desires, dreams, attitudes, and thoughts.

I am coming to believe that one of the ways we truly begin to live differently than the rest of the world is to begin to desire heaven. An exile doesn’t put down roots in the land he is living. Instead he hopes and dreams for his home and thinks of ways to one day return. How can we think about settling for the things of this world when God is offering us so much more? How can we think about being like the citizens of the world when God is calling us to be citizens of heaven? This world is not our home so let us not act like it is.

• Point to Ponder: When we live no differently than the world we are no better off than the world.
• Passage to Remember: 1 Peter 2:11-12
• Question to Consider: Are you living out of step with the world?

The Slippery Slope to Slumber

Ted Dekker in chapter 5 of The Slumber of Christianity makes the case that what is missing in our lives and makes life so disappointing is hope. As one reads the New Testament he/she can’t help but notice the amount of hope that shows up. Hope is what made the difference for those early Christians. The early Christian’s hope was made living by his faith, but it was still hope (p. 66). Is hope still present in your life?

The premise Dekker offers in this chapter is that we have been robbed of our hope and the robber is none other than Christianity:

“Nothing could stop you, because you were a joint heir with Christ, a bride awaiting the great unveiling of that heavenly wedding with eager anticipation. Christianity had delivered you into bliss.

“Nothing could stop you...Nothing except Christianity itself.” (p. 68)

What follows is a description of how the religion of Christianity takes away the hope of salvation and heaven and replaces it with a hope of a good life now. Let me add that I don’t think this is done intentionally. I think preachers and teachers have good intentions. They want to help people with where they are at and so the speak about having better marriages, having a more successful career, and talk about the wonderful blesses of a life lived for God. Being a preacher I can tell you that is what we are told to preach about. “Be relevant,” we are told. In the process we rob people of the hope that comes with salvation and replace it with a lesser hope of a good life today. Let’s remember that the apostle Paul endured many terrible things as he took the gospel to the nations. Why did he endure? Paul was able to endure because he had the hope of heaven to look forward to.

Describing the slow descent into slumber of a new Christian Dekker writes:

“As the months rolled by and became years, your own enthusiasm began to fade. And you noticed something else. For all their talk of success, the Christians around your were generally no more successful than the non-Christians you knew. In fact, perhaps less.

“The most active office in the church was the counseling office. Divorce was as common among Christians as those from other faiths. Financial hardship was rampant, despite the endless promises of reciprocation if you tithed.

“Worse still, most Christians talked nonstop about their struggles and characterized them as attacks from the enemy, but they never seemed to gain victory, At least not a victory that lasted longer than a week or so.

“The more these Christians struggled to be happy, the more they failed to do so, and the more energy they poured into finding the key to happiness. So many sermons preached from the pulpit followed a predictable template that looked something like this: Yes, yes, I know you’re not there yet, but if you’ll just follow these five points that all start with an R, your marriage and your job and your relationships and everything else in your life will improve. Rejuvenate, Restore, Remotivate, Reanimate, and Regurgitate.” (pp. 69-70)

I don’t know about you, but I have been there. When I was on the brink of walking away from Jesus it was doubts about God that had done me it, but it was a lack of hope. A lack of hope that resulted from playing the game with nothing changing. People will walk away from Christianity when they discover that it fails to deliver what we promise it will deliver.

“This is a path familiar to most modern Christians. But the path doesn’t end there. At this point, you followed one of two paths that often became the same path. One, the path followed by those who settled into a never-ending pursuit of God’s blessings for this life, or two, the path of those who saw the obvious disconnect and began to lose faith in Christianity altogether.” (p. 71)

We cannot afford to believe or preach a Christianity the is centered on finding happiness now. Jesus didn’t die so we could have the American dream, but so we can enjoy an eternal relationship with God. That is the hope that will make life really come alive.

“Worldly Christianity is simply heavenless Christianity.

“It’s a form of godliness, stripped of the power of hope. In so many teachings and books designed to prod us unto successful Christian living, there’s a preoccupation with life on earth rather than the life to come. In many ways, we have become our own greatest enemy.” (p. 75)

Here is good news for us who have allowed ourselves to fall asleep to the salvation Jesus has won for us:

“What falls asleep can be awakened. This is the hope held out to all who have lost that first love.” (p. 78)

It is time to wake up and live in the hope God has given us through Jesus Christ.

Find the other chapters:
Chapter 1: The Death of our Dreams
Chapter 2: The Search for Pleasure
Chapter 3: Foundations
Chapter 4: Give Me Pleasure or Give Me Death
Chapter 6: In Living We Die; In Dying We Live
Chapter 7: Created to Obsess
Chapter 8: The Eyes of the Heart part 1
Chapter 8: The Eyes of the Heart part 2

Where Have The True Conservatives Gone?

I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of hearing the collective groan by the supposed conservatives of the Republican party about John McCain's frontrunner status. They want to know how something like this could happen. It is interesting that a man who has backstabbed his own party so many times is now in the lead to represent that party nationally. So what happened? Like most things the answer has many different components to it. I can't point to one thing and say, "This is what brought the Republican party to this point." With that being said let me offer a few of observations about what has happened to the GOP.

The first observation is George W. Bush destroyed conservatism in the Republican party. Tell me what did George Bush do during his eight years that was in line with conservative ideals? Yes, he cut taxes. He also got us into a unnecessary war and dramatically increased the size of government. How would McCain be more liberal or unconservative than President Bush already is?

This leads into a second observation which is we don't know what conservatism is. Conservatism is about the role of government in our lives. Part of the problem is that the term conservative has been hijacked by people who believe that it is the government's role to promote their ethic. Religious Right I am looking at you. What followed was that conservatism started to be equated with the agenda of the Religious Right, and now they are upset because McCain hasn't courted their favor as other candidates have. That is one of the reasons why George Bush is a hero in their eyes while McCain is a villain. The basics of conservatism are following the rule of law (in our case the Constitution), limited government (including low taxes), a sound financial system, a strong defense, and the protection of personal liberty. Out of all the candidates for president, on both sides of the aisle, which one has even talked about one of these things (let alone all of them)? The answer is Ron Paul (the only true conservative left in the race), but I forget that he is a kook and unelectable. When you settle for something less than true conservatism don't be surprised when "hard liberals" emerge at the surface.

A third observation is that talk radio, and Rush Limbaugh I am primarily talking about you because you set the standard for everyone else to follow, has become anti-liberal rather than pro-conservative. Every time I turned on Rush through December and January he was talking about the Clintons (Clinton, Inc.). He wasn't talking about why conservative ideas were superior just trashing the Clintons. Now he is making it known why McCain is a liberal, not why conservative ideas are good for the nation. After listening to Rush I can't help but conclude that he has forgotten what true conservatism is (which is sad because Rush used to be a great voice of conservatism and I learned about it at his feet). Rush is the best at what he does and I still enjoy listening to him (unlike Hannity who I can't stomach). Rush get back to talking about conservative ideas. You have always said that ideas win elections. So why did you stop talking about conservative ideas in order to become anti-Clinton Inc.?

True conservatism is dead in this country. We have very few candidates who run on a truly conservative agenda and those who do are labeled unelectable. I want to say to all those so-called conservatives complaining about McCain that this is what happens when you choose to win elections rather than standing up for what is right.

Unexpectedly

I have three small books which contain questions intended to get the students in youth group talking. They are a good resource to have in youth ministry, but I haven’t used them much since leaving youth ministry three years ago. What I have used them for is to ask questions to my girlfriend as we got to know each other. They contain silly as well as some more thought provoking questions and can help you discover things about each other that wouldn’t be right out in the open.

This morning I was skimming through the book of unfinished sentences (the object is to finish the sentence) and the sentence that caught my attention was: When the Second Coming of Jesus occurs, I think most people will...

How would you finish that sentence? This is how I would finish it: be surprised. I think people will be surprised for a few different reasons. The will be surprised because it will happen so unexpectedly. It will be just an ordinary day and all of a sudden everything changes. We will be sitting at our desks, eating supper, washing the car, playing with the kids, or doing a number of other everyday activities when the heavens open up and the last day of life as we know it is over.

Not only will it come unexpectedly, but it will also be different from what we have come to expect. The Jews of Jesus’ day had access to Scripture, and they their Scriptures very well. What had happened wasn’t an ignorance of Scripture, but elevating certain interpretations of Scripture which caused them to miss out on Jesus. When we get so tied to our interpretations and doctrines that it causes us to miss hearing what God is telling us through Scripture we have problems. I think there are some Christians who have fallen into that same trap that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time fell into.

Another reason why I think it will be a surprise is because it will be something that we can’t even really imagine. We might think we have an idea, but our wildest dreams won’t be able to compare to reality. When Jesus comes back our jaws will drop because there it will be the most awesome experience in our lives. It will be awesomely horrible for those who have not put their faith in Jesus and awesomely joyful for those who have.

I don’t know when Jesus is coming back, I think it very well could happen in my lifetime, but I think it is something that we need to ponder about. Are we ready for Jesus to return? Is it something we are anticipating or dreading? Do you hope He holds off for a few more years so you can accomplish your dreams? Is the prospect of Heaven something that you desire or just a pipe dream you haven’t really thought about? Do you want Jesus to come back today?

Perhaps one of the things the Church needs today are more people willing to pray what John wrote in Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20; NLT)

Crazy Living

Following Jesus isn’t the sane thing to do. I do admit that given the stakes and the evidence it is the logical thing to do, but to really follow Jesus is such a radical thing to do that it makes us look crazy to the rest of the world. It is crazy to give money when we are urged to spend to the point of being thousands of dollars in debt. It is crazy to love the grumpy old neighbor when everyone else on the block just complains about him. It is crazy to celebrate a funeral while the rest of the world mourns the lost of life. It is crazy to give up time to volunteer when there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to accomplish what we would like to get done. It is crazy not to have sex before you get married when the world tells you that is the right thing to do. To live a life that truly follows Jesus makes us crazy.

Erwin McManus wrote about this reality:

“When the Spirit of God envelops your soul, your spirit comes alive, and everything changes for you. You are no longer the same. And to those who cannot see the invisible, to those who refuse to believe it exists, the path you choose, the life you live, may lead them to conclude that you are not simply different but insane. People who are fully alive look out of their minds to those who simply exist.” (The Barbarian Way, p. 69)

I think the danger that we often face is to make following Jesus reasonable. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think being a Christian requires us to shut our eyes to evidence and allow ourselves to be blindly led by the hand. Faith in Jesus Christ begins our decision to accept and trust the evidence for His life, death, and resurrection. But if that faith doesn’t start to affect the way we live then that faith is dead. Living faith pushes us to make changes and to do things we wouldn’t have done before.

Consider what Peter wrote about the change that should take place in our lives because of faith.

1 So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin, 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries. 4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you. 5 They will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:1-5; NET)

People who are guided by the passions and desires of this world think it is strange, they are astonished, that Followers of Jesus live differently. It doesn’t make sense to them because they have come to believe that life is found in the things of this world. Even through their pursuit of pleasure and money have left them unsatisfied they keep telling themselves that happiness is just around the corner. It is crazy to them that life can be found in giving our lives away. It doesn’t make sense to them.

Here we are and I wonder if we have really allowed a crazy change to take place in our lives. I am not qualified to talk about anyone else but myself and I am disappointed to say that I have not. Yes change has come. I see the world in a totally different way than I did just three years ago. I have made important lifestyle changes. Yet it seems that judge life by the same standards as the world does. I think the happiness is just around the corner. If I could just do this or that or have this amount of money or marry this person then my life will be complete.

Following Jesus is crazy because it goes against everything we have been told about what brings happiness to our lives. Jesus tells us that life is found when we lose our life. Jesus tells us that we are great when we are the least. He says that being a servant is more rewarding that being a superstar. He tells us that we are blessed when we are persecuted. It is crazy to follow Jesus if that is what He is asking from us.

To follow Jesus isn’t about add Jesus to our lives it is about conforming our lives to the life of Jesus. It won’t always make sense to us and people around us will think we are crazy, but it is the path God has established for living true life. Are we crazy enough to follow it?

• Point to Ponder: Following Jesus is crazy because it goes against everything we have been told about what brings happiness to our lives
• Passage to Remember: 1 Peter 4:1-5
• Question to Consider: Am I crazy enough to really follow Jesus?