Are You an Ear-Whisperer?

Our biggest local news story is now a huge national news story. Michael Vick grew up here in Newport News. I watched him play when he was at Warwick High School (and Tressa was cheering for Denbigh High). Most people in our area followed his career at Virginia Tech and then with the Falcons. Last week, Michael Vick was indicted on federal charges that he helped to raise and train dogs for the brutal and barbaric “sport” of dog fighting, and the indictment alleges that Vick himself participated in killing of eight dogs which had lost fights. Vick’s career and his freedom are in question at this point. One of the pundits on ESPN said this morning that Vick would never again play for the Falcons and the chances were only 50-50 that he would ever play football again.

I cannot help but wonder if there was not someone close to Vick that recognized the brutality and cruelty of this “sport” that could have been an "ear-whisperer" for Vick. Surely there was a friend, associate or teammate who had Vick’s ear that could have whispered to that that this was a federal crime and that the NFL is getting tough on players who break the law. Sure someone could have pulled him aside and whispered in his ear, “Man, this is NOT a good idea. This is very wrong, and you need to get away from this and right now.” But see, when you are a celebrity, what people tend to whisper in your ear is what you want to hear, not what you need to hear.

There is a lesson here for us all. God has placed us in a community of faith, surrounded by brothers and sisters with a common commitment to living for God. We are not called in scripture “associates” but rather “brothers and sisters.” The church is a spiritual community in which we are tied to one another because we share the same Father. What practical good does that do, however, if we don’t at times whisper in each other’s ear, “This isn’t a good idea. This is wrong, and you need to get away from this right now.” Paul says this in Galatians 6:1--

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path” (NLT).

If we don’t care enough (or aren’t godly enough) to step in and help out when a brother or sister is making a bad choice, then we are missing something vital in our Christian lives. If we are going to tell people what they WANT to hear rather than what they NEED to hear, we might as well not be part of a church at all... and join the NFL.

Handling Snakes

Monty Long was doing what grandfathers do—he was in his back yard watching his two year old grandson Booker who was playing by a birdbath while a 10-month old Chihuahua named Zoey explored nearby. All of a sudden, the dog darted between the toddler and a large rock, and it wasn’t until then that Long saw the rattlesnake on the rock near the child. The snake struck, but the bite intended for the toddler was taken by the dog.

The grandfather grabbed the toddler and took him to safety, and then he grabbed a pipe and took care of the snake. But the dog had been bitten on the head, which swelled up until it was the size of a grapefruit. Booker’s mother Denise Long said, "You couldn't tell where her eyes were... just this little button that you could tell was her nose." The dog survived, thanks to antivenin from a nearby vet. All he has to show for his ordeal today is a one-inch scar on his forehead. This cute little human-interest story could have been a horrible tragedy if not for Zoey’s heroic act.

OK, I not going to make an direct parallel’s between Zoey and Jesus; Aslan the Lion from C.S. Lewis seems a much more fitting animal kingdom metaphor than a 4 ½ pound Chihuahua. But I could not help but think of a parallel here… because of the snake. In the Garden of Eden, the crafty serpent spewed out venom that threatened to destroy the human race. Adam and even bought the lie (and did their children) and plunged with their prodigy toward destruction. But Jesus would come between us and the snake, and he took the venom that was ours. “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). We put ourselves under the fangs of the old snake, and Jesus took the bit for us.

I have to wonder if this is the reason that one of the miracles to follow believers was “they will pick up snakes with their hands… it will not hurt them at all” (Mark 16:18). And Paul does just that when he was bitten by a poisonous snake while gathering firewood. He rather nonchalantly “shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects” (Acts 28:5). Does an overcoming of poisonous snakes underscore the victory Jesus won at the cross over the old snake Satan? OK, maybe that is a stretch.

By the way, fundamentalist “snake handlers” who use this practice today are often bitten, and when they are, they suffer the same ‘ill effects” that Zoey the dog suffered. And sometimes they die. Paul apostolic pattern for handling poisonous snakes seems to be to get rid of them quickly— not to keep picking them up! I glad that we don’t have to handle snakes. I’m glad that Jesus took care of that for us.

Our God Is In Heaven

At some point, all believers are frustrated by seeming difference between the boldness of their faith claim on the one hand and what they see going on in the world on the other hand. Our faith proclaims that our sovereign God reigns over all His creation; He is Supreme and All-Powerful. We proclaim with David, "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." (Psalm 115:3). On the other hand, what we see around us is a world that seems to spin out of control. Not only does it not appear to be under the control of a holy God, it doesn't appear to be under control at all. How can we say that God reigns over all the earth while there seems to be so little evidence of that reign? We see many evidenced in this world-- power and greed and pride and wealth. But sometimes God is not seen nearly so obviously.

In Psalm 115, the psalmist asks us to look at this from a very different perspective. The nations taunt Israel, "Where is their God." Unlike the nations, Israel's God was not represented by an idol. The temple of Yahweh contained no representation of His likeness; there were no gold and silver statues that portrayed His presence. The gods of the nations were cast in silver and gold because they were too small to be God. Yes, these idols could be seen... and that was precisely why they could not really be God (Psalm 115:5-8).

5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Our God truly is God because He is in heaven. He reigns above this material reality because He is beyond this physical reality.

Yes, we see the material things of this world more plainly than we do the spiritual realities beyond. We have material eyes, and we see the material-- and those things can impress us. Wealth and power and prestige are real and visible, but they are only idols. They are not God. These things can distract us with their immediacy, but they are not worthy of our affection or our praise. Our God rules above the things of this world, and thus only God deserves worship. The nations may ask, "Where is your God?" One day they will see... and bow down.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

I hope you don’t have a case of paraskevidekatriaphobia. That is the irrational fear some people evidently have of today-- Friday the 13^th. Some people are so convinced that this is a day of extreme bad luck that they stay home where it’s safe. Of course, the majority of accidents happen at home, so staying home may be the most unlucky place to be.

Why is Friday the 13^th unlucky? No one knows. Some connect it to the death of Christ on Friday after there were 13 people present at the Last Supper... but that is a stretch. The DaVinci Code says the Knights Templar were betrayed and killed on Friday the 13^th (Dan Brown is so careful with history that there must be something to that... not!) The truth is, there are no historical references to Friday the 13^th as unlucky or sinister until the 19^th century, so it is a thoroughly modern superstition. And it is likely that references to Friday the 13 in 20th-century books, movies and even TV have created the superstition.

My grandmother was superstitious about a number of things. When we moved her from Arkansas, we have to buy her a new broom as soon as she got here because she believed that it was unlucky to move a broom. The Bible actually condemns the “superstitions” connected to witchcraft and astrology (Isaiah 2:6). But the superstitious fear of bad luck contradicts the belief that God is sovereign and in control of his world. Faith in God protects us, not throwing salt over a shoulder or knocking on wood.

Have a great day today. And don't be lucky... be faithful!

Are You Happy?

Are you happy? More specifically, are you very happy, pretty happy or not too happy? Last year a survey suggested that 32.4 % of us are “very happy,” 55.9 % are “pretty happy” and 11.7 % are “not too happy.” In 1977, a similar survey found that 35.7 % of Americans were "very happy.” (1977 was a very happy year for me—Lynn and I were married and Arkansas destroyed Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.) Why are fewer people “very happy” today than we were 30 years ago? After all, we now have high speed internet, flat panel TV’s and the iPhone!

Could it be that it is precisely because of all of those things that we are less happy today? Could out rising affluence push us to acquire more and more of things and thus leave room for less and less happiness? We never can keep up with the Jones’ and our effort to do so leads to more debt, more stress, more anxiety and much less self-fulfillment. There is an interesting article in Newsweek by Robert J. Samuelson entitled “The Bliss We Can't Buy.” He suggests that economists have recently been studying this question to find out why we aren’t as happy. Ultimately they won’t find answers; happiness is not an economic question. Notice this quote from Samuelson’s article—

The old adage is true: money can't buy happiness. We ultimately get satisfaction from our relations with family and friends, the love we give or receive, the meaning we find in work, service, religion or hobbies.

The American Dream has often been couched in terms of things—2 cars, 2.5 kids, the house in the suburbs, etc. That is not a recent development. Alexis de Tocqueville observed in 1840, “Besides the good things which he possesses, [the American] fancies a thousand others... This thought fills him with anxiety, fear, and regret.” There is the problem with looking to stuff for happiness—you can never have enough stuff.

Jesus warned a young man (and us) long ago, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Ultimately what money buys is diversion, not true meaning or lasting happiness. In fact, pursing and possessing money can divert us from both meaning and happiness. Integrity before God, good relationships, meaningful work—that is the stuff of true happiness. Pile up a bunch of cool junk, and you just might end up being the same unhappy person with a pile of cool junk… and looking to add to the pile.

An Apocalyptic World View

Richard Hughes’ book Reviving the Ancient Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1996) suggests that the paradigm for understanding our history in Churches of Christ is the basic tension that existed between Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell (and that was passed on to their followers) in how they understood the end of time.

• Campbell was postmillennial. He believed that Jesus would return to earth after the golden age of the millennium. The world would get better and better until there came to be the kingdom of God, and Jesus would return for us after that kingdom. The mechanism that would bring about that millennium was restoration of the ancient order. Campbell called his paper The Millennial Harbinger.
  
  
• Barton W. Stone was a product of the great camp revivals of the Second Great Awakening. The Cane Ridge Revival which he led in 1801 was marked by charismatic outpouring that Stone insisted was the work of God. Stone was premillennial in his view of the end time, believing that the world would get worse and worse until Jesus came to rule over the millennial kingdom.

Campbell and Stone viewed the world very differently. Campbell saw an advancing world in which science, education and "the restoration of the ancient order" was making the world better and better. Stone saw a retreating world that could only be saved by an act of God. Stone's premillennial view wasn't the full speculative "Left Behind" theory of today; he didn't have a "In case of rapture, this mule will be unoccupied" sticker. But he did have what Hughes calls an “apocalyptic world view.” He looked for God to break into His world at any time, which is why he was perfectly willing to accept Cain Ridge as the work of the Spirit. Hughes sees the clash of those two different views as the engine that drove the history in churches of Christ. Though Campbell and Stone forged a unity in 1832, they continued to see the world very differently. Hughes suggests that the Campbell view gradually came to he held and that we lost Stone’s “apocalyptic world view.” We become more and more comfortable belonging to this world.

David Lipscomb was the most influential leader among our churches in the last quarter of the 19^th century. Lipscomb believed that Christians should not serve in the military, run for office, work for the government… or even vote. He believed Christians were citizens of the kingdom of God and that we must keep ourselves from entanglements in the kingdom of men. Many accepted Lipscomb’s views until World War I. By the 1930’s, Lipscomb views came to be denounced by many leaders as heretical. By then, many had crossed the tracks, become successful, educated, connected and thoroughly entrenched in the things of this world. The “apocalyptic world view” of Stone and Lipscomb seemed pretty strange and radical.

What’s my point? Maybe I don’t have one. Right now my big project is ripping up carpets in my house and so that the hardwood floors underneath can be refinished. We just replaced the our upstairs air-conditioning unit (I don't known when A/C moved from luxury to necessity, but am sure that move in status has taken place). And the Palm Treo that I wrote about in my blog last year was finally ordered this week (now that the iPhone is the gold standard of conspicuous consumption, it is OK for me to have a rather pedestrian Treo, right?). In other words, I’m pretty invested in this world. Last night I thought, “Would Paul rip up perfectly good, 40 year old carpet like this?” I decided, “No, Paul wouldn’t, but Peter probably would because he was married.” If I really believed that Jesus could come tomorrow, would I rip up carpet? Would I order a fancy phone?

Peter says, “Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear” (1 Peter 1:17). Are we strangers here? Do we have an “apocalyptic world view” where our identity comes from the kingdom of God? Or have we settled so comfortably into this world that the real “strangers and aliens” are those who take the kingdom of God seriously.

Responsibility-Disabled

Roger Tullgren is a 42 year part-time old dishwasher in Hässleholm, Sweden who has a partial pension because of a disability. Tullgren is addicted to heavy metal music (specifically Black Sabbath), a condition recently recognized by the Swedish government as a disability. He first became “addicted” in 1971, and it seems that little else has mattered to him since that time. He attends 300 concerts a year, often skipping work to do so. For some reason, Tullgren has had a hard time holding a job. But now with an official diagnosis of a disability, Tullgren cannot be discriminated against. His current employer allows him to listen to his music while he is working and gives him plenty of time off to attend all of his concerts, as long as he makes up the time later.

So, is rock and roll an addiction disorder? Well, if he really attends that many heavy metal concerts, he will likely eventually become deaf, and that IS a legitimate disability! If we want to call Tullgren’s behavior an addiction, then that is OK. Or we can call it an obsession, an extreme passion or a manic fascination. The label really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we not excuse the personal responsibility that Mr. Tullgren has in choosing music over gainful employment. An addictive behavior does not remove responsibility. One skeptical psychologist comments on the Tullgren story, “If somebody has a gambling addiction, we don't send them down to the racetrack. We try to cure the addiction, not encourage it.”

Nature and nurture factors leading to our moral choices do not remove responsibility from making those choices. Some people are prone by nature or nurture or both to easily loose their temper. Or to abuse alcohol or drugs. Or to homosexual attraction. Or to any number of things. But ultimately the choice to engage in immoral behavior is just that—a moral choice for which we are responsible. We need to understand the forces that drive our addictive behaviors because that helps us to overcome those behaviors. But as in the case of Mr. Tullgren, very often we rather use them to excuse behavior and mitigate moral responsibility.

At some point, someone should have told Tullgren, “Dude, you can’t keep acting like Beavis and the other guy; you gotta grow up and take responsibility for your life. Sloth is irresponsible and immoral, and you need to stop it now.” Whatever our sin struggle, that is what we need to tell ourselves. And that is what we need others to tell us as well!

Endowed By Their Creator

On July 4, 1776, John Hancock was the first to put his John Hancock on Thomas Jefferson’s little document that we call The Declaration of Independence, and the grand experiment that we call “The United States of America” was born. Those who signed this document pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the idea that “these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” Among other things, this documents says—

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain Inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Jefferson and his friends staked their claim to their right to freedom and independence on God. The right of freedom was given by God, and the inalienable rights that they were claiming had come from God. From the beginning of our country, there was an assumption that things like freedom, rights and liberty were not human constructs at all. These were things intended by God and came from God.

It is hard for many to imagine this foundational assumption in our modern secular culture. The founding fathers did not want a state religion; they certainly did not envision a religious state. But the idea that there was some sort of wall of separation between faith and the state would not have been imagined. James Madison knew something about the intent of the Bill of Rights—he wrote them. But he also said this—

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Would Madison think that displaying of the Ten Commandment on a courthouse wall somewhere somehow violated the Bill of Rights? Certainly not! He saw the Ten Commandments as the foundation of government.

Well, we live in a different world, don't we? In our multicultural secular world, the Ten Commandments are seen as “establishing religion” and having Christian chaplains pray in the name of Jesus is seen as sectarian. Granted, being even-handed in a diverse world is not such a simple thing. Most of us would be offended if a Muslim chaplain prayed in Arabic at some official government function, wouldn't we? There very ones who complain about the lack of prayer in school would complain if prayers were led in school in "tongues" while the teacher handled snakes. But the end result of being "sensitive to diversity" has been the disappearance of faith in the public arena or the creation of a civic religion that doesn't really mean anything.

So what do we do? What are Christians to do who still believe that God is and must be the foundation of all true freedom and justice today and forever? Well, what we do is trust God, honor God and live for God. Hear the word of the Lord in 2 Chronicles 7:14—

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

What do we do? We humble ourselves, pray to God, continue to seek God and turn from sin to live in holiness. What we do is live faith. The faith upon which America was founded and became great was never an official and national faith. It was rather the faith of men and women who believed in God and who acted in accordance with that belief.

If you and I live our faith even when the world around us doesn’t seem to acknowledge it, if we live by the standards of God even when those around us don't, if we can depend upon God even when the world tells us to depend on ourselves, then we can make a difference. God told Abraham that only ten holy people could have saved Sodom from destruction. Our call as "believing Americans" is to live such consistent lives of faith and service that we are a leavening influence on those around us. American never has been a Christian nation. But it has been a nation in which Christians live and work and pray… and make the world better. And it can be that again!

What They Are Saying

Paul had been eagerly anticipating his return to Jerusalem following his third missionary trip. This was not because he was homesick; he was from Tarsus, and Antioch was his "home church." No, he was returning to Jerusalem with a financial contribution from the Gentile churches he had planted to help the needy Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. It seems that Paul saw this as an important opportunity for the Gentile church to express unity and solidarity with their Jewish brothers and sisters (see Romans 15:26-27).

What did Paul find waiting for him when he arrived in Jerusalem and met with church leaders? Rumors. Gossip. Scandal. People had been talking. Particularly the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem who were still “zealous for the law.” Luke records these words of James in Acts 21:21--

They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.

Yep, people had been talking. And what "they" were saying was that Paul had been teaching Jews to give up Jewish practices and traditions. What "they" were saying was that Paul was on a mission to completely eradicate their Jewish heritage. That is what they were saying. But that was definitely NOT what Paul had been saying at all! He taught Gentiles that they did not have to follow Jewish customs or proselyte to Jewish faith. He taught Jews that they were not to judge Gentiles as inferior because they were not Jews nor kept Jewish law. Not only did Paul not try to inhibit Jewish Christians from continuing Jewish practices, he himself participated in those practices (see Acts 18:18). The entire Jewish church was suspicious of Paul because of all the things that "they" were saying. His entire "peace mission" to the Jewish church was compromised because of what they were saying.

Historian George Bancroft once said, “Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement.” Unfortunately, far too many of us seem to depend on our neighbors for amusement. How many people have, like Paul, been hurt because the rest of us mindless listen to and pass on what they are saying. Besides being a sin against God (see Rom. 1:29, 2 Cor. 12:20), gossip undermines the work God is able to do through and among his church. The reason that many refuse to seek help at church with their struggles is because they fear the rumor mill. Many suffer in silence, choosing to keep their pain hidden, because they don't want to be the subject of gossip. If Paul was derailed by the rumor mill, how much damage can it do to us? The next time sometimes begins to tell you something that “they” are saying, why not remind them about what God says?