Milestones

For the first time since 1993, I am no longer the father of a teenager. And unless God has a big “Abraham-and-Sarah-meet-Isaac-like surprise” in store for us (a possibility I bring up in jest and don’t want to even contemplate in real life), I will never be the father of a teenager again. Angelynn is twenty years today. That hardly seems possible to me. I am tempted to say something about Angelynn being such a great kid. But she isn’t a kid. She is gown young woman… who is still financially dependent on Mom and Dad so we still get to treat her like a kid. That’s in the contract somewhere, right?

I still see Angelynn in my heart as the little kid pictured at right. And what is more, I still see myself as the thirty year old that I was when Angelynn was born. But I’m not. Time marches on, and it reminds me of its march ever morning when I get out of bed with the kinds of aches and pains I used to have to chop wood or something all day to get. I don’t know where the time has gone, but it is gone.

I’m not the parent of a teen any longer. Now, I’m not saying that like that’s a bad thing. It’s not! At times (just sometimes, not most of the time) the best thing about raising a teen is that you know that you will be done at some point! But milestones like today do remind us that time is rapidly slipping through our fingers, and we’d better made the most of the 24-hour chunk that we have today.

Happy birthday, Angelynn! You are still Daddy’s little girl… and you always will be!

The Case for Teaching the Bible

There is a very interesting article that appeared earlier this year in Time Magazine entitled “The Case for Teaching the Bible” written by associate editor by David Van Biema. The article makes a case from a secular point of view as to why Bible literacy courses need to be taught in our public high schools. While there aren’t that many such courses, they are rising in popularity. And in our multicultural, secular world, these courses in basic bible literacy are precisely what we need, according to Van Biema.

Note one example: a 1995 a federal appeals court upheld the overturning of a death sentence in the case of a Colorado kidnap-rape-murder because jurors had inappropriately brought in Bibles to discuss the Exodus verse “an eye for eye, tooth for tooth ... whoever ... kills a man shall be put to death.” Focus on the Family complained that "It is a sad day when the Bible is banned from the jury room.” Van Biema asks, “Whose most at fault here?” The jurors who didn’t realize that Jesus rejects the eye-for-an-eye rule? The Focus on the Family spokesman who likely knew of Jesus' repudiation of the old law but chose to ignore it? Or liberals who were too ignorant of the Bible to bring it up?

Why should Bible literacy be part of a secular high school education? The Bible is the most influential book ever written, far more so than the writings of the prolific bard who occupies second place (they do still read Shakespeare in high school, right?). And the rest of the literature that is studied, from Shakespeare to Hemmingway, is so influenced by the Bible that knowledge of the Good Book is helpful in reading other good books. Much of the political rhetoric of today is couched in Biblical references. Van Biema observes that while liberal Democrats seem to accuse Bush of “speaking in code” when making Biblical references, “the Democratic Party seems to have come around to the realization that a lot of grass-roots Democrats welcome such use.” He argues that in a world driven by political harangue, blogs, and advertisement, references to scripture (and other great literature) keeps us from being so shallow. He says, “The world is flat, sure. But Scripture is among our few means to make it deep.” Since our heritage is one so influenced by the Bible, even the non-religious among us would be served by better knowing the Bible.

You need to read this article. It makes a great case for the need for Biblical literacy in the public square. Let me end with a point he makes in passing. This one should hit closer to home. Are those of us who are Christians and who claim to hold the Bible in such high regard really acting consistently with that claim? You see, Biblical literacy is a bigger problem for the church than it is for the world. While we claim to know and follow the Bible, we see to know the Bible less and less. Let me leave you with the quote… think about it.

According to Religious Literacy, polls show that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the Bible holds the answers to "all or most of life's basic questions," but pollster George Gallup has dubbed us "a nation of biblical illiterates." Only half of U.S. adults know the title of even one Gospel. Most can't name the Bible's first book. The trend extends even to Evangelicals, only 44% of whose teens could identify a particular quote as coming from the Sermon on the Mount.

First Things First

I thought I had been caught in some kind of time warp this morning. The headlines read “Paris Liberated!” Had the news people picked up a World War II headline bouncing around in hyperspace or something? It is not exactly news that Paris was liberated by the allies on August 25, 1944. So why would all the news sources now want us to know about the liberation of Paris? Of course, what they were talking about was the releasing from jail of Paris Hilton after serving 23 days of a 45 day sentence for driving after her license was suspended following a DUI. Paris is our of jail, so stop the presses!

It seems to me that there may have been a few more significant things going on in the world yesterday. Like a key Republican senator and supporter of the President urging him to make a complete change in the entire course of the Iraq War. Or the eleven Americans killed in Iraq on Monday. Or a dangerous, drug-resistant staphylococcus germ that may be infecting as many as 5 percent of hospital patients. Or any number of other stories. Evidently all of that pales in comparison to the big news that Paris Hilton is free. There are some priorities mixed up here somewhere, don't you think?

But then, we all have our priories mixed up, don't we? We all have a problem separating the really important things from the more pressing urgent things in our lives. I spent 30 minutes yesterday on the web finding the very best deal for a wireless network adapter for Tressa's computer. Was that important? Not even a little bit. But then it did seem urgent... to get her computer working so that she would get off of mine! Urgent, but not important. It seems these are the kinds of things we so often spend out time doing. Urgent, perhaps, but not important.

Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” (Matt 6:33). We believe that, don't we? We do know that eternal things are the most important because they are eternal-- they will last forever. Paul tells us to focus on spiritual things because “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:18). We agree with that… and then we spend the bulk of our time pursing the urgent things that won’t last. Someone has their priorities mixed up. Is that someone us?

Both... and Neither!

Ann Holmes Redding has been an Episcopal priest for 20 years, and this fall she will teach as visiting professor of New Testament at Seattle University. Fifteen months ago, she also converted to Isalm. Today she claims to be both a Christian and a practicing Muslim. There is no real conflict in this to her. Sure, some minor details have to be worked out, but then people in every religion disagree over some of the details. “So why would I spend time to try to reconcile all of Christian belief with all of Islam.” She goes on to say this—

At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That's all I need. ... It wasn't about intellect. All I know is the calling of my heart to Islam was very much something about my identity and who I am supposed to be. I could not not be a Muslim.

Both Christian and Muslim leaders puzzle over her affirmation that she is both Christian and Muslim. One Muslim professor said, "The theological beliefs are irreconcilable… for Muslims to say Jesus is God would be blasphemy." A Christian professor says, "I think you have to give up what is essential to Christianity to make the moves that she has done.”

What Redding has given up is Jesus. Christianity stands or falls with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus told his followers, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me… Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:6,9). Christianity is built on the foundation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt 16:16). He is the ^“radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” who is today “sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3). Jesus is the eternal word of God who was with God at the beginning and who is Himself God (John 1:1).

Either Jesus is who he said he was or Christianity is false. Either faith stands on the foundation of God’s action in history in the person of Jesus or it does not. Either Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and who was raised as the firstfruits of the dead or He was not. Either Jesus is Lord or he is not. One really does have to choose. And to try to accept both Jesus and Mohammad is to choose against Christ.

What do we think about Jesus?

Experts vs the Collective?

Andrew Keen has a new book entitled The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture. In his book, he points to some of the dangers created by the internet and things like blogoshpere and Wikipedia. Of course, I didn’t read the book; I read a review of the book by Michael Rogers on MSNBC’s website, which probably proves Keen’s thesis about the dumbing-down of our culture!

Think about Wikipedia here. As you likely know, Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is written, edited and rewritten by its users. The information is “peer-reviewed” in the sense that anyone can correct and add to information in its articles. It is “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” according to its homepage. The “collective” provides its own checks and balances for accuracy, so there is no need an “expert” to edit the information. Keen worries that a “cult of amateurs” becomes the authority on information, and then points to its own work as authoritative. So like American Idol becomes the authority on music, so the collective becomes the authority on information.

What Keen is worried about is things like the loss of objectivity in reporting on news. Of course, as I was reading this, I was translating his points to church? Who provides checks and balances on what the church teaches and practices? We would say, of course, that God and His word is the authority for the church, and that is true enough. But who decides what God means and what the Bible says when there are disagreements in teaching and application? You may have noticed that people and groups equally committed to God and scripture sometimes disagree. So who is the “editor” of what the Bible means?

• Is it the “collective?” Is the church a kind of Wikipedia in which every member constantly writes and rewrites an understanding of how we are to live scripture? Are we not all accountable for what we believe and how we live? Is not theology an ongoing process in which all Christians participate?
  

• Is it local leaders? Does God not God gift each church with leaders that are called to feed, shepherd and protect the flock of God? Are elders called to pastor? Aren’t preacher’s called to teach? Is there not a leadership that goes on in every church where “the collective” is instructed, taught and guided by those called as leaders?
  

• It is “the experts?” Doesn’t God also gift the church with scholars who are themselves gifted in areas of language, church history, theology and the like? Should the church not listen to those who have expertise in ways that local leaders never will?

The answer has to be “all of the above?” The church is “a Christian collective” that writes and rewrites our story in the world and to the world. But God has given us local church leaders to teach and shepherd us. And God has given us “experts” and scholars that serve as resources to the church. What God hasn’t done is left us alone as individuals to figure all of this out for ourselves.

Another Night with the Frogs

The pool at Camp Idlewild was always one of the most popular places for campers, but one year it was the place to be if you were a frog. Hundreds (thousands?) of little green frogs descended on the pool, many finding their into the pool skimmers. It was a huge mess. The camp director issued the edict that our athletic director would also be given the job of frog wrangler; it was now his job to remove all the frogs from the pool area. Well, he couldn’t just blow his whistle and say, “OK, everybody out of the pool!” (Come to think about it, that didn’t work with the kids either). So the athletic director spent much of one night capturing hundreds (thousands?) of frogs and placing them into five gallon buckets... which he then placed outside the camp director's door! I could not stifle a laugh the next morning at breakfast when the director said, "Boy, those frogs sure made a lot of noise last night!"

The plague of frogs on Egypt in Exodus 8 was far worse that the one that we had at Camp Idlewild. God showed his sovereignty over the nature deities of Egypt in dramatic ways— the sacred Nile River turned into blood, the sun (god Ra) was hidden by darkness, etc. The people of Egypt suffered because of Pharaoh's stubborn refusal to release his Israelite slaves. One of these plagues was a horde of frogs that found their way into every nook and cranny of Egyptian life. It was so awful that Pharaoh sent for Moses and begged him to remove the frogs. Moses told Pharaoh that he could pick the time that the frogs would be removed, and Pharaoh said, "Tomorrow." In essence, he chose one more night with the frogs.

So why do we choose one more night with frogs? We often make the decision to go on a diet or start a exercise program or do something else to improve our lives... and we always decide to do it “tomorrow” (or "next Monday"). Sometimes our resolution is more spiritual— we will start reading the Bible daily or attending church more faithfully or get involved in a small group or get some help in overcoming a recurring sin. But again it seems that our favorite time for starting is always TOMORROW. We chose another night with the frogs. But tomorrow often never seems to come. This Monday always seems to slip into the next Monday. We always seem to choose another night with the frogs. And we never seem to get rid of them.

What is it that you need to do for the glory of God? Don't put it off! Get rid of the frogs today!

Til I Entered

H. G. Wells once described God as “an ever absent help in time of trouble.” While we may be annoyed by the accusations of the agnostics, most of us have felt that way ay some point or another. We believe God is there and in control, but what we see going on in our lives doesn't really seem to match up.

That is exactly what Asaph struggles with in Psalm 73 (my daily reading for today). What Asaph sees in the world does not correspond with what his faith taught him. Faith said that God was good to Israel and to those who are pure in heart. But what Asaph saw around him was that the wicked prospered and the righteous often did not. He says in verse 3, "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." Then he describes the prosperous wicked in verses 4-12, ending with “This is what the wicked are like-- always carefree, they increase in wealth” (v. 12).

But as Asaph struggles with this view of the world, he gets another and fresher perspective. And that perspective comes to him in a surprising place. He enters the sanctuary of God, the place of worship and praise, and then everything becomes clear to him (Psalm 73:16-17)

When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.

As long as Asaph was isolated from the people of God, from the community of faith, then he struggled with his doubt. But when he goes back to the sanctuary, when he reenters the community of believers in worship, then his faith is renewed and refreshed. His faith in God is restored as his participation in worship with the community of faith is restored.

And within the house of God Asaph gets a whole new perspective of the wicked. He begins to see their prosperity as a house of cards, vulnerable to every wind of chance (73:18-20). This new assessment led to the strong conviction that God does not forsake His own! God is present in the valley of darkness, even in the valley of the shadow of death. He offers comfort in times of distress, counsel in times of perplexity, and strength in times of weakness. So the psalm that began as a bitter cry of disillusionment and lost faith ends with one of the strongest statements of faith and confidence that we find in scripture (Psalm 73:25-28)

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

Being a Bit Conservative*

* I am being a bit conservative today... in the sense that the entry below was part of yesterday's sermon that was cut out because of time considerations. (When I recognize in advance that I'm being long-winded, then I am being long-winded indeed). But why waste a whole page of type, especially given how slow I type? So here are my recycled thoughts that I present in interest of conserving work.

Sigmund Freud would have said that people with poor impulse control have “weak ego boundaries.” Freud’s theory of personality saw the id as the pleasure principle, the superego as the morality principle, and the ego as the reality principle. The ego’s job is to satisfy the needs of the id while respecting the superego and the needs of other people. So Freud would have said that people who don’t seem to be able to delay gratification have an unbalanced id that the ego can’t control, this weak ego boundaries.

Freud was no friend of Christianity, and he indeed saw this whole process a as purely psychological phenomenon. But several years ago, Joe Beam (in his book Seeing the Unseen) suggested that Freud may have been on to something here. Not that this process is merely a psychological issue; Beam argues just the opposite. But he suggests that there is a indeed a three-fold battle that rages within.

• What Freud calls the “id” the Bible calls the “sinful nature” or literally “the flesh.” This is the part of us that wants what it wants when it wants it. It is inherently selfish, and it cares nothing for delayed gratification or the needs of others.
  

• What Freud calls “the superego,” the Bible calls “the conscience.” This is the part of us that tells us to do what is right, moral and good. It is the “sense of oughtness” placed inside each of us by God that spurs us to do what it is that we ought to do, even if that is not what we want to do
  

• What Freud calls “the ego” the Bible calls “the mind.” It is the rational part of us that makes choices and decides what we will do. Our minds get messages from both our “flesh” and our “conscience,” from our “sinful nature” and from our “higher nature.”

This is the battle that rages within us, but there is more involved than just what is within us. Our sinful nature wants what it wants when it wants it, and it is precisely here that Satan tempts us, prompting us to do evil. While our conscience prompts us to do what is right, Christians receive promptings from the Spirit of God within us. So this struggle between good and evil within us is really a spiritual battle. But we have the final choice-- our minds decide what it is that we are going to do.

Is all of that clear? Sure it is! Well, maybe my explanation isn’t all that clear, but we are surely clear in the way that this works in our lives. Each human heart is a spiritual battlefield that Paul describes so vividly in Romans 7:18-23—

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

There is an ongoing spiritual battle between flesh (our sinful nature plus Satan’s temptation) and the Spirit (our conscience plus the prompting of the Spirit within). We always receive mixed signals. But we remain key players because our minds (our conscience selves) make the choice as to which voice we are going to hear and which action we are going to take. Our inner being (conscience) delights in God's law, but there is also a law at war within us (sinful nature) that wars against our minds. And the war goes on.

Extraordinarily Tragic

Angelynn decided Monday night at 8:30 that she could not survive another day without getting to Target to buy some make-up. I think she looks fine without all that stuff, but surprisingly she wasn’t open to that suggestion. She HAD to go to Target that night right then, and she needed someone to go with her. Neither Mom or big sister were able to go, so of course I was the next choice… and last resort. Great chance for a little father-daughter quality time, right? Yeah, well I had a headache from working all day scrapping up 40 year old carpet padding that is welded onto our floors (in preparation for getting the floors refinished). I was in no mood to make a run to Target to buy makeup (as opposed to most days when I would jump at the chance to do so). So Angelynn went to Target alone late at night, grumbling to herself about her family.

The next day, the national news started carrying the story of Kelsey Smith, an 18 year old woman from Kansas City who was abducted from a Target parking lot on Saturday night seconds after coming out of the store. Security video from the store shows her leaving the store with the gift she had bought for her boyfriend; another security tape shows her forced into a truck and driven away. Her body was found yesterday afternoon in a wooded area about 20 miles away from the store. Today police arrested a suspect in her abduction and murder.

I wasn’t a bit concerned about Angelynn going to Target Monday night. But then Greg Smith (Kelsey's Dad) probably wasn’t a bit concerned about his daughter going to Target two nights before. This world is filled with evil, and we never know when that evil will cross our paths, when the ordinary will be shattered by the extraordinarily tragic. Greg Smith would give anything today if he would have made that Target run with Kelsey on Sunday evening. To tell you the truth, I’m feeling guilty for not going with Angelynn on Monday night. We always think that those things we see on TV happen to someone else; I’m sure that’s what the Smith’s thought too.

I’ll pray for the Smith family as they deal with their loss. I’ll also pray that nothing like that ever happens close to home... or close to anyone's home. And I’ll pray that Tressa and Angelynn’s Daddy does a better joy of enjoying them and not taking them being here for granted.

From the Land of Fruits and Nuts

All Leo Serrano thought that he was doing was renewing his driver's license. Evidently in California, part of that process us having your fingerprints scanned into a database, and that just struck Serrano the wrong way. He made an offhand comment to the DMV agent, "I'm against their mark of the beast system." He thought no more about the incident until he discovered last week that his new driver's license had been suspended.

He was told by the California DMV that his comment about the “mark of the beast” had raised red flags. This reference from Revelation refers (in one interpretation anyway) to the end of the word, and that evidently flagged Serrano as being suspicious. He was given a medical form to fill out and was told to call a driver's safety official in Fresno. In other words, referring to the book of Revelation was enough to call into question his mental health! I know how he feels; I once preached a sermon series on Revelation and several people thought I was nuts! When the DMV was asked to clarify their position, they declined to comment because the case involved medical confidentiality! Isn’t that cute!

Now, I don’t believe that scanned fingerprints are “the mark of the beast” of the Apocalypse. In fact, I have a totally different take on the book than the one evidently espoused by Mr. Serrano. But to have one’s mental health questioned because one makes a passing reference to the Bible is itself crazy, even given the "Continental Shift Theory." That's the one where the continent shifted and all the fruits and nuts rolled over to California!

At any rate, we can no longer assume appreciation for the Bible is a mainstream view in our culture. To take the Bible seriously as a spiritual guide in the 21^st century will be viewed as quaint (at best) and as crazy (as with Mr. Serrano). The time when most people recognized the Bible as the “Good Book” has long sense past. To follow God in our world will more and more take us out of step with the culture around us. So what are we to do? Peter tells us to live such good lives before the world that their insults pack no punch—

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:12)

Feel the Love

I have always been amazed and amused by churches who regularly have a “love offering” for their minister. I know of churches who have a contribution each week just for the preacher -- “separate and apart” from the regular offering for the church. And if the preacher doesn’t “feel the love” and believes the people can give more, they send the baskets around again! Wow! I feel guilty sometimes just cashing my paycheck, let alone having a special contribution just for me.

But then I may give that love offering deal a try. For years several years, Lynn has really wanted to rip up our 40-year old carpet (exaggeration, it’s only 38 years old) and have the hardwood floors underneath refinished. Just as we decided to splurge and have that done (and ripped up the old carpet, making a huge mess) our upstairs AC unit died a horrible death… and needs to be replaced. The air handler is fairly new, but the upgrade from 10 to 13 SEER means the air handler also needs to be done. The old bank account is beginning to hemorrhage… so if we have a love offering next week, you’ll understand why.

This has been a rather interesting lesson in priorities. There was absolutely no question about whether or not to get the AC replaced. My first question when we got estimates was not “how much” but rather “how fast?” We can go without food, but we really have to have AC! Actually, God has blessed us with some fairly cool nights (while doesn't the AC ever go out on February?). And Dan’s Heating and AC has promised to put in a temporary unit tomorrow so that we’ll have air while we are waiting to have the new system installed.

As near as I can figure it, by the time the new AC is installed and has things cooled down, they will just be getting started on refinishing the floors. So between the heat and toxic fumes, the old homestead is not going to be a pleasant place to live for awhile!

A Powerful Testimony

We know that we are to take every opportunity to share our faith story whenever we have the opportunity. We also know that most of us don’t do that often enough when we have the opportunity... or look for ways to create opportunities. Lauren McCain is still taking the opportunity to share her faith more than a month after she died in the Virginia Tech massacre. Lauren was videotaped on February 22 on the Tech campus as part of a Campus Crusade for Christ project to compile interviews of students discussing their faith. Her interview is an enthusiastic and profound testimony to her relationship with God. You can watch the video on the Daily Press website.

Perhaps the most powerful moment comes when Lauren describes a moment of longing for God when she was particularly down and depressed, and she asked God during a time of worship to show her His presence. She said, “As human beings, we're not going to see his face until we're in Heaven, but I was like, ‘Oh man, just let me die then, and let me see your face.’” Little could she have that less than two months after her testimony was filmed that she would see God face.

What a powerful testimony to a living faith.

An Atheist Goes to Church

Jim Henderson runs Off The Map, a church growth ministry and the website ChurchRater.com. His group created a stir several years ago when they hired atheist Hemant Mehta (actually bidding for his services in an eBay auction) to visit churches and give observations as an unbeliever. Well, he is at it again with a new book, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians. Matt Casper is a marketing copywriter and singer… and he is an atheist. He was hired to travel with Henderson to visit megachurches around the country like Saddleback (Rick Warren), Willow Creek (Bill Hybells), Lakewood (Joel Osteen), Potter’s House (T.D. Jakes) and others. This book seeks to be an insight for churches into how they are seen by outsiders.

I’m not completely sure that the exercise is completely fair. Casper is not a seeker—he is an unbeliever who is 100% sure that there is not God. He likely would have never stumbled into any of these churches looking for God, so maybe his observations aren't all that reliable. But it is certainly true that the church’s view of itself is almost always different from how it is perceived by non-believers. This is especially the case even the church prides itself on being “user-friendly” to outsiders like these megachurches.

What exercises like can this help us see is this-- the things we might think are important to outsiders may not be all that important. Henderson suggests that things like worship style, church size, the charisma of the preacher, or presentation of the preaching are largely “culturally determined.” Henderson suggests that the most significant factors of a church on non-churched visitors are their outward friendliness, their bias toward action (doing things that serve others) and what he calls “grace/tolerance” (a willingness to accept people “just as I am.”) This grace/tolerance is the reason why AA is safer for struggling people than church.

One thing these three have in common is that they are not easily manipulated. It’s fairly easy to sing peppy songs and preach upbeat sermons. But it's hard to be friendly and accepting without really being friendly and accepting. Studies show that most churches that rate themselves as “very friendly” do so because they are very friendly to each other; outsiders often feel that these “friendly” churches aren’t very friendly at all! It is easy to say that we accept and show grace to everyone… while we actually expect them to basically look and act just like us. And it is extremely hard look like you’ve involved in the lifestyle of Jesus without actually living like it. In other words, the kinds of things that may actually attract outsiders are those things that cannot be manipulated or rearranged to make us more attractive to outsiders.

Someone observed that a stagnant church that changes its worship style in an effort to grow will most often end up a stagnant church with better worship. Outward changes to make us more “user-friendly” to those outside are necessary and important; sometimes we have to get ourselves out of the way so others can better see God. But these external changes are helpful only if they reflect changes on the inside, changes that reflect the power and presence of God Himself.

He Is Risen Indeed

We had a great weekend with Tommy South leading us in a study of “What Can We Know About Jesus?” Tommy pointed us past the recent attempts to undermine faith in the reliability of the New Testament— things like The Jesus Seminar, The DaVinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and the Gospel of Judas. He pointed us back to the historical sources that affirm the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and assured us that our faith is founded on a foundation of history. Accepting Jesus will also be a decision of faith, but it is a decision to accept historical truth claims about the person of Christ.

Paul L. Meir’s novel “A Skeleton in God’s Closet” anticipated much of The DaVinci Code hoopla back in 1994… with a twist. In fact, one reviewer of the re-leased 2004 edition calls it "The DaVinci Code in reverse." In the book, a tomb is found in Palestine that is proven to be that of Joseph of Arimathea… and the tomb has a skeleton in it that isn’t that of Joseph. The body is rather that of a thirty year old Jewish male who had been crucified. Evidence is piled upon evidence, and the conclusion that is reached is that this is the body of Jesus! A world-wide panic ensues as skeptics now finally have the smoking gun that disproves the central claim of Christianity.

The hero of the story is Dr. Jonathan Webber, and Biblical archeologist who is also something of a skeptic. He slowly pieces together the evidence and puts the clues together. In the process he is almost murdered, but he finally proves that the supposed body of Jesus as a diabolical forgery. The tomb really was empty, just as the Bible writers suggest.

The Story ends on Easter morning as Webber worships at his home church. His adventure has reconnected him to his faith. At the critical part of the worship service, the minister proclaims, “He is risen.” And the church responds with renewed faith, “He is risen indeed!” Webber’s eyes mist… because he knows it is all true.

And it is all true! There are a dozen sites in the holy land that some point to as the historical tomb of Jesus. It is doubtful if any of them truly are. But if archeologists ever do find the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, I am absolutely confident of one thing. It will be empty! I know because I've read the book!

Strange Bedfellows?

The death of Jerry Falwell last week underscores a change taking place among conservative Christians and their involvement in politics. Falwell convinced evangelicals that they could exercise influence through political action when he founded “The Moral Majority” in 1978. This organization was made up of conservative Christian political action groups campaigning against things like abortion and homosexuality and for things like school prayer and the traditional family. During the heyday of the Moral Majority, the “religious right” was seen as a single political group with a single agenda, and it indeed exerted its political influence. History will judge how far-reaching and long-lasting was that influence.

But times have changed. Conservative Christians still vote, but the “religious right” is no longer one voice with one religious leader. Christians are still very concerned with social issues, but they aren't all focusing on the same social issues. Witness the emphasis of men like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, for example, on the AIDS epidemic in Africa. No one can honestly accuse these guys of not emphasizing evangelism for the sake of social issues.

Joel Hunter is another example. Hunter works with several evangelical organizations, and he was selected as the president of the Christian Coalition, the conservative group that inherited the mantle of the Moral Majority. But Hunter declined the job because he wanted to focus on social issues other than abortion and same-sex marriage… issues like poverty and environmental protection. So Hunter represents the “greening of the religious right,” saying “Our first order in the Garden was to take care of the Earth.”

Poverty is a social issue. So is health care. So is the AIDS epidemic. For many of the so-called “new evangelicals,” it is just as clear as where Jesus would stand on these issues as on those staked out in the 70’s by the Moral Majority. Conservative theology and more moderate and liberal politics can exist consistently within the same value system. We must be very careful not to assume that agreement on the gospel means we must stand in the same place politically.

Religious Conversations

Are you familiar with http://www.wikihow.com? It is a web site that gives “How-to” instructions for anything from “How to Swat a Fly without a Flyswatter” to “How to Roast a Turkey.” It is you basic How-To guide for just about anything. Including “How to Avoid Uncomfortable Conversations About Religion.” The process is fairly straightforward; here is simplified version—

• Don’t argue. It's difficult to overlook a statement that seems ignorant and ungrounded, and you'll likely have the urge to correct the person. Instead, just smile and say "Interesting..."
  
  
• Redirect the conversation. Ask about their children, health, or job or make a joke like, “Religion? No, I haven't seen that movie."
  
  
• Delay. Suggest a better time to have the conversation; this will allow you to control the environment, length of discussion, etc.
  
  
• Excuse yourself. Take bathroom break, greet someone who just arrived or even take out your cell phone.
  
  
• Bring in another conversationalist. When you can't avoid a person who wants to talk about religion, look for another person who has strong opinions about religion introduce the two, and leave them to split theological hairs together.
  
  
• Be straightforward. Tell them that this is the wrong time for this discussion.

We’ve all known people who press their theological point of view in polemic debate at any and every moment they have opportunity. You know, the guy or gal who can’t tell that nobody wants to hear them argue for the umpteenth time that day about why the Bible teaches that Bill Gates is the antichrist (the number of glitches in Windows 666). We have all gotten roped into conversations or debates that we could have done without.

Understanding that there is a time and place for everything, our real problem is not getting out of unwanted religious discussions… it is getting into them. We need to do a better job of initiating discussions about our God because we are His ambassadors. That is not always an easy—or safe—thing to do. But if God is the great truth at the center of our value system, then that should come out more than it does, should it not. The reason that we can have certainty and hope in a world so short on both is that we have faith in God who is in all and above all. Some trust in horses and chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God!

When we are drawn into discussions of the war in Iraq, the shootings at Tech or myriad of other events and topics, maybe we can honestly and naturally point to the reason we believe that eventually everything will be all right.

Fear of Molestation

When I was growing up, I remember one of the prayer phrases often used in church prayers was “We thank Thee that we can assemble for worship without fear of molestation.” As I got older, the term “molestation” came to have a more technical meaning (as in "good touch, bad touch"), and that prayer seemed a little strange. But it also seemed strange because the persecution of the church was something from the distant past, taken away by Constantine at the twilight of the Roman empire. Of course, even as we prayed that prayer, Christians were being arrested, tortured and killed in the U.S.S.R and Red China. It is often pointed out that more Christians died for their faith in the 20^th century than in the first three centuries combined. Stalin and Mao could teach Decius and Diocletian a thing or two about persecution.

Today faith flourishes in China and many of the former Soviet republics. It is now radical Islam that poses the greatest threat to believers in the world. That was emphasized again today by an article Brian Brown sent me from the Fox News website. Pakistani Christians in Charsadda, a town bordering Afghanistan, have received letters from the Taliban demanding that they close their churches and convert to Islam or they will be targeted for bombings. Many Christians have fled town and others live in fear. All believe that the authorities are failing to take this threat seriously.

Christians (along with Hindus and minorities) make up only about 3% of Pakistan's 160 million residents. Until very recently, most Christians have been able to live peacefully with the Muslim majority. But attacks and threats against Christians have increased greatly after the September 11 attacks and Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States in the war against the Taliban. Like their brothers and sisters in the Roman Empire of the first three centuries, Christians in Pakistan are powerless and easy targets for the growing “Talibanization” of Pakistan. Keep our brothers and sisters in these dangerous areas of the world your prayers.

Big Days / Family Weekend

This was a church family weekend for us. On Saturday, David and Jasmine (Costen) Feliciano were married at the chapel at Ft. Eustis. There is always a ton of stuff to do to get ready for a wedding, but we all got through it. The highlight of the whole thing for me was Angelynn and Tressa fighting over the bridal bouquet. I'm glad Tressa gave up easily; I was afraid someone was gonna get hurt in that tussle! Congratulations to David and Jasmine... and to Josh and Sylvia for getting through the ordeal. It really was a big day.

Sunday was a big day as well. I thought worship was particularly uplifting, but it was Melissa and Julie Foster coming forward to be baptized that made it super special day. And then Thomas' emotional table-talk before communion... well, it was a great day.

Last night, our small group had a party to welcome Glenn Sweatt back home after 6 months in Afghanistan. We had a great time. It was a great family weekend. BTW, special credit goes to Bill Foster who pointed out that yesterday we sang the song "Wake Up O Sleeper" right after my sermon, which everyone found appropriate!

Mother's Day is always a special day, but many probably noticed that we didn't do a lot of special stuff (like we sometimes have in the past). No slide shows or special songs... or even a sermon on mothers. What is with that? Those things are fine, and we'll likely do them again in the future. But Mother's Day is a very hard day for some people-- like those who have lost mothers, mothers who have lost children, and those who cannot have children. Sometimes I think it is good to understate the whole Mother's Day thing for that reason.

God's Plans and Our Plans

I have been using “The Grace for the Moment Daily Bible” for my daily Bible reading. It is one of those Bibles that has 365 Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs readings, one for each day of the calendar year. I bought it for two reasons— first, it was the New Century Version, and I wanted to use an unfamiliar translation rather than the original language (the NIV). Second, it only cost me only $11.00 at Sam’s Club. I was going to use the NLT, but it is hard to beat $11 .00!

I am sure that all these Bibles do is to parse the Bible into 365 readings more or less by size, but it is interesting how often the days readings from the different sections of the Bible seem to have a related theme. I guess that shouldn’t be a shock since all parts share a common Author. Notice today’s reading, for example.

• The Old Testament reading is 1 Samuel 22-23 where David is on the run from Saul. Saul kills a whole town because one priest helps David by giving him food and a weapon, and then Saul “was making evil plans” (23:9) to trap David in the city of Keliah. David prays to God who leads David to leave the city one step ahead of the posse. Saul was under the illusion that God was helping him in his evil schemes (23:7), but God has other plans.

• The Psalm reading is Psalm 59 which the superscription ascribes to this same phase in David’s life. David talks about evil men with evil plans, and yet God has plans of His own. “But, Lord, you laugh at them; you make fun of all of them” (59:8). David faith allows him to turn this time on the run into an opportunity of praise. “God, my strength, I will sing praises to you. God, my defender, you are the God who loves me” (59:17).

• The proverb for today was Proverbs 16:1- “People may make plans in their minds, but only the Lord can make them come true.” We may think we have plans, but ultimately everything works out according to God’s Day-Timer.
  

• The New Testament reading is the prologue of John, that amazing word about the Word that became flesh and lived among us. The ultimate plan of God was worked out among human beings. The world had other plans— it lived in darkness, but the plan of God was for His Light to come into our world.

God’s plans and our plans. We may want to boldly proclaim with Invictus, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” But then, we know better, don’t we? We live our lives at times like we are large-and-in-charge with all kinds of plans and preparations, and we are really in charge of very little. Ultimately, the only lasting power that we have is the power to put our faith and trust our lives to the Sovereign God has control over all things.

And Thought of Me Above All

I read an article the other day entitled “Good Lines and Questionable Lines in Worship Songs.” The author points to some lines in songs that he finds extremely powerful and some that he thinks are questionable. That is a good idea—there are some songs that aren’t that strong in the theology department (like "Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goal Posts of Life"). But I think the author totally misses it when he uses Michael W. Smith’s “Above All” as one of his examples. The line that he objects to is “He thought of me above all.” The author sees this as an example of over-personalizing and “navel-gazing” when it comes to the gospel. He writes—

Michael W. Smith’s song paints a nicely personal picture, but “thought of me above all.” I can’t read Jesus’ mind any better than Michael W. Smith, but from the story it seems Jesus was thinking of his mother, John, the thief, forgiving Gentiles and Jews for what they knew not, his disciples, his Father, so perhaps the line could be, “And thought of me, among other things” but had that un-poetic line been written, I don’t think we’d have even heard of the song.

I’ll be the first to admit that Jesus was not thinking about me personally to the exclusion of thinking about Mary, John, the thief beside Him… or even you. But then, that is not even close to what the song says. Notice the lyrics—

Above all powers, above all kings,
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man,
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified. Laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me above all

Jesus did think of me above all… above all powers, kings, thrones, wonders, etc. The song expresses the profound thought that Jesus was above all but though of you and I above all of that. While I do believe that we can over-personalize the gospel and navel-gaze and focus on ourselves while forgetting that “red, and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” But I don’t believe this song does that... not at all. Rather it expresses for me in a profound way the fact that Jesus set aside the throne of the heavens to live and die among us because he loved us above all.

Facing the Giants

Several years ago, the giant toy company Mattel sued a man named Gopi Mattel. It seems that this Indian immigrant registered the domain name “mattel.org” and Mattel Incorporated brought domain name arbitration proceedings against him claiming copyright infringement. The arbitration ruled against the toy-maker, concluding that Gopi Mattel had the rights in his own surname. So if you visit www.mattel.org, you can read Mr. Mattel’s resume and some articles on brokerage sales—but you cannot order Barbie dolls or Matchbox cars. The title of an article in USA Today about the incident is “David Beats Goliath in Domain-Name Dispute.”

The metaphor of David and Goliath is routinely rolled out anytime the little guy wins out despite tremendous odds in business or sports or politics. And the metaphor makes sense… if you look at the Biblical story from the viewpoint of the Philistines. When the warrior hero Goliath saw David come out to fight him, he said, Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” (1 Samuel 17:43, my daily reading for today). Looking at the battle through the eyes of the world, it was dead solid certain that David had no chance. But David saw things a bit differently—

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (1 Samuel 17:45)

The difference in Goliath and David take on the battle was not that David believed that sometimes the little guy does have a chance. No, they disagreed on who was really the little guy. The giant pointed to his size and strength and experience... and David pointed to God. David knew that the living God was mightiest of all warriors, and thus poor little Goliath never stood a chance.

May God give us the faith of David as we go out to face the giants of our world. May we always remember that battle belongs to the Lord! May God give us the absolute certainty of Paul’s declaration, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31). At the end of the day, Goliath always wins... but the true Goliath is God! Everything that the world throws at us, as intimidating and overwhelming as they seem at times, become pretty puny when compared to the awesome power and majesty of our Goliath God.

Oh what I would do to have the kind of strength it takes to
stand before a giant with just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me time and time again.
"Boy you can never win! You can never win!"
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
© 2003 by Casting Crowns

New Comment Policy

I've changed the setting for comments to this blog. With all the "anonymous" postings, I had a hard time following who was saying what. Anyone can still post comments, but you have to register (and log in) with blogger first. Hope this isn't too much of a inconvenience.

Pepperdine Report

I mentioned yesterday in the sermon some of our travel travails on our trip—lost luggage coming and going, 2 canceled flights, Lynn booked on the wrong plane, and arriving 5 hours or so late on both trips. Of course, they ended up putting Lynn in first class both trips. She was with singer Ciara and her entourage on the flight from LA to Atlanta while I was back in steerage on the very back row (the one where the seat doesn’t recline) on another plane. For some reason, she was a lot happier with the mix-up than I was!

What I didn’t mention yesterday was that the lectures were fantastic. Jerry Rushford did his usual spectacular job (his 25^th year running the lectures). Some of the highlights (in no particular order)—the Wednesday keynote sermons (11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.) by John York and Harold Shank (best same day keynotes in awhile), hearing Rubel Shelly teaching on divorce-and-remarriage (hearing Rubel speak on anything is always a treat for me, even when on a simple little subject like this one), the evening songfest lead by Ken Young and Hallal (we got there 45 minutes early each night to get the very front row seats), David Fleer’s imaginative (and that is UNDERSELLING it) sermon on Jeremiah 31 (wow!), Don McLaughlin’s class on “The Restoration of Passion,” and Randy Harris speaking on whatever it was that Randy Harris spoke on.

Lynn and I spent the 3 days before the lectures started in Pismo Beach (actually, we were down the coast at Avila Beach this year). Just being together with absolutely nothing to do was the most important and needful part of the trip. The transition of complete-leisure at the beach to a regimented begin at 6:30 a.m. (breakfast) and end at 10:00 p.m. (late-night) schedule is jarring. Both are great! The countdown timer on my Google homepage now says 355 days until Pepperdine!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

When I was a kid, we spent three weeks each summer in Arkansas. It was a glorious time of fishing with cousins in Wolf Creek, working on my uncle’s chicken farm, and exploring the countryside around my Grandmother’s house. (Grandmother lived just outside town—Delight, Arkansas, population 243… salute—and everyone else lived out in the country. We also went to Arkansas during Christmas vacation, but that wasn’t nearly as fun. We opened our presents early, left them all at home, jumped in the car to ride 24 hours or so just to get to Arkansas in time to watch my cousins open their presents! That was loads of fun!

One of the things I remember Mom talking about is how hard it was to get ready for those trips. She ran by Dad’s office for the family business, and before she left she had to do all of her regular work and all the work that needed to be done while she was gone. While she was gone, she worried about what she didn’t think to do. And then when she got back, she had to catch everything up that piled up. I remember her saying that it was almost not worth going.

In a few hours, Lynn and I will leave for our week in California for a 3-day mini-vacation and the Pepperdine Lectures. And I feel a little like Mom, wondering what it was that I was supposed to do that I forgot about. Unlike Mom, I don’t plan on worrying about it while I’m gone. And thanks to our mission committee setting up Paul Reganathan to preach and teach Sunday and Roger and Cathy taking care of everything else, I don’t have anything to worry about anyway.

I won’t have internet access where I’m staying and I’m not taking the laptop, so I don’t plan on filing any blog reports while I’m gone. (I will have the Dell handheld, so if I get real motivated I might scratch out something, though the Dell doesn’t read my writing much better than humans can.) I’ll most certainly have some thing to say about Pepperdine when I get back.

Now, what was it that I am forgetting?

Countdown

Several months ago, I downloaded a widget (or is it a gadget) that puts a countdown timer (http://calebegg.com/countdown/) on my Google homepage. The timer counts down the number of days until an event. My timer, which said “140” when it was installed, now says “4.” That means 4 days until we leave for our annual Pismo Beach and Pepperdine getaway. This marks the 17^th year in a row that we’ve made the trip to the Pepperdine Bible lectures, and we look forward to it as much as we did the first time.

For the last 10 years or so, we’ve combined the lectureship trip with a 3 day mini-vacation at Pismo Beach on the Central Coast of California. Why Pismo Beach? Well, this picture from Wikipedia may have well been taken from the window of the hotel where we have stayed for several years! What a view! Of course, that hotel has gone up from $80 a night to $300… so we don’t stay there anymore. But Pismo Beach does have a Motel 6.

Randy and Better Tanner and Roger are joining us at the lectures this year, and we’re happy about that. Mike and Joann Guthrie have been out there a couple of times too. We wish that more of our family from Denbigh could make the trip to Malibu for the lectures. But not Pismo Beach… that’s just for us.

Closer to Home

We got a call from Greg Ericksen this afternoon that reminded us that the tragedy at Virginia Tech was more personal for our Denbigh family than we realized. One of the students who was murdered Monday was Lauren McCain. Lauren was a neighbor of the Erikcsen's and Jessika's friend, and she had visited Denbigh several times. Jessika had been calling her to make sure she was OK. She wasn't. The following entry appeared on the MSNBC website--

Lauren McCain, 20, of Hampton, Va. An undergraduate majoring in international studies.

On her MySpace page, McCain listed “the love of my life” as Jesus Christ. Her family said McCain became a Christian some time ago.

“Her life since that time has been filled with His love that continued to overflow to touch everyone who knew her,” the family said in a statement. Her uncle Jeff Elliott told The Oklahoman newspaper that she was an avid reader, was learning German and had almost mastered Latin. She was home-schooled, he said, and had worked at a department store for about a year to save money for college.

She spent several years of her childhood in Oklahoma, but her father’s Navy career also took the family to Florida, Texas and then to Virginia.

"Lauren had such a sweet innocent heart," Jeanne Meadows, who attended church with McCain, wrote to MSNBC.com. "I can bet you at the last moment of her life she was most likely praying for the gunman and forgiving him."

Our hearts and prayers go out to Lauren’s family and friends as well as the families of all the victims of the senseless tragedy. It somehow makes the heartbreak worse to realize that we had this passing personal connection. But her testimony of faith brings hope to the heartbreak. Here is her full statement on her MySpace page—

The purpose and love of my life is Jesus Christ. I don't have to argue religion, philosophy, or historical evidence because I KNOW Him. He is just as real, if not more so, as my 'earthly' father.

Fox News has a pretty article entitled “Questioning a Tragedy: Where is God?” The article ends with these words—

So where is God? He is in the prayer vigils. He is in the rivers of tears flowing from everyone affected. He is in the community coming together to offer support to the families. He is at work in the love and strength people are offering each other. God is with us.

What Kind of World?

As Clifford said in his response to yesterday’s blog, “No better reminder of how quickly things can change is witnessed in the massacre at Virginia Tech.” There was a time when we could not even imagine incidents like the one which happened yesterday in Blacksburg. But in our post-Columbine, post-911 world, perhaps the most shocking thing about the mass-murder at Virginia Tech is how it was not really shocking. Sure, we were surprised and appalled that it happened so close to home this time. But we are no longer surprised to learn that we live in that kind of a world. I know Blacksburg seems to be a quiet place for such horrible events, but didn’t the last school shooting take place in a one-room Amish elementary school? Surely we live in a broken world!

And this world will stay broken until Jesus returns to end it. I don’t subscribe to the end-time theory that the world is getting worse and worse as we get closer and closer to Armageddon. God’s arrival into our world 2000 years ago wrapped in flesh and in swaddling clothes was accompanied by the slaughter of the innocents. And our word’s innocence was slaughtered long before that! Our world was twisted on its moral axis in Eden, and we have been finding new ways to rebel against God’s goodness ever sense. There are many good people in the world, and too many of them died yesterday in Blacksburg. But evil is always here with us, and the evil one will never give us a respite from his dark influence. It is easy for us to see things like yesterday’s bloodbath and ask, “What is our world coming to?” Sadly, our world is simply living down to what our world has always been. One Virginia Tech professor survived the holocaust only to die yesterday! What a sad, sad commentary on what our world is and was and ever will be.

But though we live where evil reigns, we also live surrounded by goodness. We live in a world where professors and students risk their lives (and give them) to block the way of the killer into classrooms so that others have the time to escape. We live in a world in which the memory of the Twin Towers collapsing is match by the memory of police and firefighters running into those building to seek to save others and die in the effort. We live in a world where evil reigns, but it does not reign supreme. And it never will!

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who were killed and with those recovering from their injuries. We look forward to the day when God will forever destroy the evil one and take us to live in a place beyond the reach of pain and death.

We Never Know...

Lynn went shopping the other day. She does do that often, but it’s getting close to time for our Pepperdine trip and that, of course, requires a whole new wardrobe! She was at the cash register with another customer who was talking on the telephone. Lyn could tell by the woman’s body language that something was wrong. She closed the phone and said to no one in particular, “My son is dead.” Her 26-year old son had been killed earlier that day in an automobile accident, and the California police had been trying to track her down. The found her on her cell phone in a store across from Lynn.

To be fair, the CHiPs officer asked her to go home so he could call her there, but she insisted that he go ahead and tell her. Lynn tried to help her and offered to drive her home, but she said that she would be OK. Of course, she wasn’t going to OK. She went home knowing that in as sense, her world would never be OK again.

We never ever know what life is going to bring us, do we? You can go from mindless browsing at a thrift store to mind-numbing grief with one single phone call. We never know. All we can do is live each day to its fullest and to make the most of every opportunity. The old Tim McGraw song tells us “To Live Like You Were Dying.” Well, we all are dying. We have very little (if any) real control over what will happen to us in the future. What we do have is control over how we live our lives today.

Knocking on Heaven's Door

^9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ^10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

No one likes to be be a pest. We have been trained to be polite and not to bother other people unnecessarily. So if we are really following the rules of etiquette as outlined by Miss Manners, we may find ourselves saying something like, "Excuse me my Good man, but if it is not too much trouble, could you possibly back your car up just a bit; your front tire is on my foot." OK, so most of us aren't quite that polite, but we never want to be a bother to anyone.

So we are a little surprised perhaps when Jesus tells us to make a pest of ourselves in prayer. The parable that he tells in Luke 11 encourages us to pray persistently. The apostles ask Jesus to teach them prayer, and he responds with Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer. Then he tells them a story--

⁵ Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶ because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Luke 11:5-8)

So are we to pester God long enough until He gets so annoyed with us that gives us what we want? Well, not really. The point is rather if we really believe in the power of prayer, then we'll continue to pray and not be deterred when our answer is delayed. We never really learn the point of prayer until we learn that God answers in His own good time and in His own good way. We generally can't tell the difference between God's "No" and God's "Wait." So all we can do is continue to pray. We must keep on asking, keep searching and keep knocking (see the NLT translation of Luke 11:9). God will answer, but our job is to keep knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door.

... For Tomorrow We Diet

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going back on a diet after my week on vacation where one of our main pastimes was eating. So now I’m back to watching what I eat. Well, I always watch what I eat; it is just that sometimes I watch myself eat a whole lot more than I should. Now it is time to knuckle down and get serious about dropping a few pounds. That is, I was serious before I read of a report that was released today.

It seems that scientists at UCLA have conducted one of the largest comprehensive reviews of dieting research ever, and they have concluded that dieting does not work. The researchers analyzed every study they could find that followed people on diets for 2 to 5 years, and what they discovered is that it would have been better for most to have not gone on a diet at all! Why? At the end of five years, their weight is the same plus their bodies have gone through wear and tear from losing and then gaining the weight. While 10% if dieters have lost weight after 6 months, 33 to 66 % gain more than they lose within 4 to 5 years. This is not the encouragement I need to pony away from the feedbag and drop the excess weight.

What dieting is (at least from my experience) is a period of depravation (that’s the diet) following a period of indulgence (the rest of the time when I eat what I want). I’ve seen books on dieting for Christians like “The Bible Diet: 40 Days to Cleanliness” (based on Daniel and his refusal to eat the king’s food) and “The Maker's Diet” (based on clean and unclean food regulations). To my knowledge, no one has written “John the Baptist Diet” extolling the benefits of locusts and wild honey, though John didn’t live long enough to know what the long term results of this high-crunch, high-carb fare.

I rather suspect that if God did write a diet book it would tell us to eat what we enjoy, just not too much... and to take the extra we forgo and share with those who are hungry. I think He may tells us to never over-indulge in food or drink and to make wise and healthy choices about what we eat and don’t eat. He would tell us to undergo both periods of fasting and feasting, but to have spiritual and not just physical goals for each. And He would tell us not to become obsessed with how we look but to make wise choices that care for the physical temple which is our body and which He uses to accomplish His will. I think He would expect us to make those kinds of healthy and wise choices because we are self-controlled people of moderation. I mainly think God would say those kinds of things about our diet because God has said those kinds of things. But these are a lot easier to blog about than they are to live, aren't they?

I'm Back!

I'm back. It has been forever since I have posted anything on the blog. We were out of town all last week on vacation with my parents in Crossville, TN. What is in Crossville? Well, not a lot. There was no internet access, so I could not make any blog posts. We were at a timeshare there because Crossville it is about halfway between Little Rock (where my parents live) and Newport News. So we met them there and spent a relaxing week doing very little except sleeping late, eating, playing a little golf, eating, watching old (really, really old) movies on TV, eating, playing dominoes… and eating. So today I’ve started a diet trying to loose 5-10 pounds before our Pepperdine trip at the end of the month (eating is a pretty big part of that itinerary as well!). We also go to drive into Nashville on Sunday to attend church at Otter Creek and eat lunch with my brother-in-law and niece. (My sister was out of town touring New York City with a friend; she had that trip planned before she knew we were coming... I think!).

The brother who did the table talk at Otter Creek shared a great quote from Mother Theresa. When she was asked how it felt receiving all the attention after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, she pointed her questioner to the story of the triumphant entry as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey. Mother Theresa asked her questioner that with all the palm branches being waved, the coats being laid down, and the singing and praise going on in Jerusalem, do you really think the donkey thought all of that was for him?

This is a powerful reminder that it is all about Him, not about us. We can get bent out of shape over a lot of things that happens at church when we forget that it is not about us. We can become smug and self-sufficient in who we are and what we have done when we by into the fiction that it is about us. It is all about Him. They donkey would not have dreamed about thinking that the worship was about him. We should resist the temptation to let the donkey come off smarter than are we.