On Yard Work and the Meaning of Life

I spent most of my afternoon off yesterday working in the yard, doing the yearly fertilize-aerate-thatch-seed deal that ensures I will have plenty of grass to mow next spring. We are also turning a big flower bed (Dad’s old garden plot) back into lawn so that I will have even more grass to cut! A big chunk of yesterday was actually spent digging at and chopping on a big stump in the middle of the flower bed that had to be removed before it could be tilled and seeded. Boy, I’m sure going to a lot of trouble to be able to cut grass next year!

I was reminded of a passage from Ecclesiastes while I was working yesterday. Not just the “vanity of vanities” part, but I was specifically thinking of Solomon’s setup in Ecclesiastes 1:3-8a--

3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say.

He could have just as easily said, “The grass that is cut grows back again; the thatch that is de-thatched becomes thatch once more.” That kinda sounds Solomonic, doesn’t it?

How much of our daily work sounds just like this? The project we complete is simply swapped out for another project; the briefing we present is replaced by another. The house that we clean becomes messy again; the meals we prepare must be prepared again tomorrow. What is the point of doing all of these things that are done but are never really done?

Solomon’s point is that nothing means anything “under the sun.” What gives meaning to life is what comes from the other side of the sun. Nothing ultimately has a point in life unless you understanding the God that reigns over all of life. The mundane and ordinary things of life are infused with meaning because of the God that gives meaning. So Ecclesiastes can say this in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

Even the mundane and ordinary things of life are giving meaning because they are gifts of God and ways that that He blesses and teaches us. While the grass that I plant and cut and plant again seem like mundane vanity, the fact that all is done under the rule and domain of God changes everything. “Everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it” (Ecc; 3:14). God reigns in the mundane things of life, and because He reigns, even the mundane things are blessings form God.

People of Integrity

Someone has said that character is the kind of person that you are when no one is around to see what kind of person you are. The word that Scripture uses is "integrity." (See Deut 9:5, 1 Kings 9:4, Job 2:3, Psa 78:72, Prov 10:9, Titus 2:7). The word "integrity" comes from the old Latin word "integritas" meaning "soundness." The word is defined as "The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness." This is the meaning of the word "integer" or "whole number." Integrity is used of the person who adheres to a high moral standard. I like Nehemiah's description of his brother Hanani whom he put in charge of Jerusalem-- I guess nepotism is OK as long as you keep it in the family. He said that his brother "was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do." (Neh 7:2).

But what looks like integrity isn't always real integrity. Chuck Swindoll, in his book Growing Deep in the Christian Life, tells this story about integrity that is really not integrity at all.

Several years ago, in Long Beach, California, a fellow went into a fried chicken place and bought a couple of chicken dinners for himself and his date late one afternoon. The young woman at the counter inadvertently gave him the proceeds from the day-a whole bag of money (much of it cash) instead of fried chicken. After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to open the meal and enjoy some chicken together. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken--over $800! But he was unusual. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. Mr. Clean got out, walked in, and became an instant hero. By then the manager was frantic. The guy with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, "I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money. Here." Well, the manager was thrilled to death. He said, "Oh, great, let me call the newspaper. I'm gonna have your picture put in the local newspaper. You're the most honest man I've heard of." To which they guy quickly responded, "Oh no, no, don't do that!" Then he leaned closer and whispered, "You see, the woman I'm with is not my wife...she's uh, somebody else's wife."

God calls us to be complete, whole people. That is only true when we seek to what is right no matter the setting or situation.

There Is No Justice!

Tonight the eyes of the college football world will be on the clash between national powerhouses Rutgers and South Florida as a BCS bid and possible national championship is on the line. What? Run that by me again! Rutgers and South Florida? Come on! In one of the weirder things to come down the pike, Big East newbie South Florida— which only started playing major college football 10 years ago—is ranked #2 in the BCS rankings and would play Ohio State for the national championship if the season ended right now! All of the pre-season top 10 teams have lost, and all the current top-10 teams may lose again. This has been a crazy year.

So what do you think? Has true parity really really come to college football or is this year just a blip on the radar screne and sanity will be restored next year? Last year showed the flaws of the BCS system when there was no real #2 team to play #1 Ohio State, so Florida was chosen at random (largely because their coach whined so pitifully). Of course. Florida then pasted OSU for the title. This year there is no best team… and that means there is no second best team. As one writer put it, “There is no #1… just a bunch of #11’s that keep taking turns.” So at the end of the year, they will have to pick two teams at random to play for the national championship.

Can we not have some playoffs in D-1 football like every other sport! The current system works only if you end up with two clearly best teams, and that has happened like twice! And this year promises to be particularly pitiful because we may end up with 25 mediocre teams and no real #1. South Florida and Rutgers? The only redeeming thing about this year is that Notre Dame hasn’t won a single game!

So what is the Bible point to this rant? Little know Bible Fact: Job said, “Though I cry, ‘I’ve been wronged!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.” (Job 19:7). Well, he was talking about the BCS system!

Ode to Lice and Radar Guns

Nineteen year old Zachary Skinner was only going 101 mph in his 2006 Hyundai when he flashed past Deputy Grant Steube and his radar gun. He was probably going even faster than that before Steube finally caught up to him with his flashing lights and blaring sirens. When Steube asked him why he was driving so fast, Skinner said that he was rushing to get home before dark because he didn't want to get into trouble for breaking his curfew. As you can probably guess, Skinner was arrested and charged with reckless driving… which meant that he didn’t make it home by dark! You may be wondering why Skinner had a “be home before dark” curfew? Because he had received four other tickets (this was the 5th) in the last 11 months, including two for speeding!

It’s easy to see other people’s hypocrisy, isn’t it? Does it make sense to be so concerned that you make curfew that you drive 100 miles an hour? Not much? How about the Pharisees who so used tithing as an excuse not to care for their aging parents (Mk 7:9-13). Some Jewish women today believe that modesty dictates that their head be covered in public, and they do that by wearing wigs made of human hair and costing thousands of dollars! I heard about one big-hearted guy who robbed a local business because he wanted to give some money to a local charity (maybe he though he was Robin Hood?). Yes, it is easy to see inconsistencies and hypocrisies in others.

But those puppies are a bit harder to spot in our own lives, aren’t they? Robert Burns’ famous poem “Ode to a Louse” ends with the line “O would some Power, the gift to give us, To see ourselves as others see us!” Indeed, it is easy to be blind to our own warts and flaws. I am sure that the Priest and Levite felt completely high and holy when they passed by on the other side and didn’t help the wounded man. Hey, maybe they were on their way to church and didn’t want to be late! But how much harder it is to see when we are the Priest or the Levite!

Let’s do a better job straining out the camels in our own lives, then maybe the gnats (or lice) of others will take care of themselves.

Anything for Love...

By a wide margin, the highest grossing motion picture of all time is Titanic. Well, that makes sense. It is really two movies in one— a love story sandwiched wrapped inside a disaster flick, which makes it the perfect date movie. It is the story of Jack, a fun-loving, self-absorbed penniless artist and Rose, a sad, suicidal socialite being forced to marry a man she did not love. These two people are about as different as night and day, but the boy from steerage accidentally meets the girl from the first class, and they fall immediately and deeply in love. Unfortunately, they don’t live happily ever after; this is after all the Titanic. During the sinking of the great ship, Jack dies so that Rose can live.

Marc Newman uses the movie Titanic to make a point to college students about the nature of true love. The question Newman asks his students to debate in class is this— “Given what we know of Jack’s character, do you think that he and Rose would have had a successful marriage?” After all, their love story didn’t really even get started before it was ended in the great disaster. Would their marriage have worked, or would it have been a disaster. Newman writes—

When push came to shove, Jack was able to make the single grand gesture to the beautiful woman, and give his life that Rose might have a chance to live. But could Jack, would Jack, have married Rose? And if so, could he have put up with the daily self-denials that are required to maintain a marriage over fifty years, when his lover is no longer young and nubile? G.K. Chesterton commented that many people say that they will do anything for love, except sacrifice for it.

Is it possible that dying for the one you love in a blaze of glory is not nearly as difficult as living and sacrificing for them daily? I think Newman is on to something there. Living for someone in a daily sacrifice of love and self-denial is much harder than a single gesture. Maybe that explains why so many people are giving up on their marriages these days. Maybe that explains why so many people are giving up on living for God.

Coincidental Confluence

Well, I had something happen yesterday and today that I can’t remember ever happening before. I have been Max Lucado’s Grace for the Moment Daily Bible for my devotional Bible readings this year. Like the One Year Bible, it divides each day into readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Unlike the One Year Bible, it also has devotional thoughts by Max Lucado each day. But that is not the reason that I bought it. As I explained in a blog earlier in the year, I bought this daily reading Bible 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 $11.00 at Sam’s Club. I was going to use the NLT this year, but it is hard to beat $11.00!

Here’s the point. Yesterday my New Testament reading was from Colossians 1. Today my Old Testament reading was from Jeremiah 7. That is what has never happened before (that I can recall). Last night, the text for my Wednesday night class was Colossians 1. Today I’ll finish writing my sermon for Sunday, and the text is Jeremiah 7. Both my study texts for the week in my sermon and class study were covered in my devotional reading. That might not sound earth shaking to you, but it has never happened before. I have no point to make here—just that this was highly unusual.

If I tried real hard, I could probably find some parallels in the two passages. Jeremiah warns Judah not to “trust in deceptive words” concerning the temple; Paul tells the Colossians that it was the gospel that was “the word of truth.” Jeremiah tells Judah that God did not just give their ancestors “commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices” but the command “Obey me, and I will be your God.” Paul warns the Colossians not to let others judge them “by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.”

I could find more parallels like that, but I don’t have the time. I have to go write a sermon on Jeremiah 7.

A Gospel According to Judge Judy?

Sometimes churches that are new or small don’t have men that are qualified (or feel that they are) to serve as elders. What do you do when you have a church, but no elders? What generally happens is that church decisions are made by a majority of the “Men’s Business Meeting.” Where do you read about that in the Bible? You don’t. It would be Biblical for the whole church to discuss issues, pray about them as a group, and then cast lots (see Acts 1:15-26). But Men's Business Meetings aren't in the Bible.

And sometimes the transition from “Men’s Business Meeting” to eldership is problematic… and traumatic. Very often men who are influential leaders in the Men's Business Meeting model are not Biblically qualified to serve as elders. That means that as the congregation transitions to the Biblical model of elders, these men must to some extent to give up power and influence. Sometime they aren’t willing to do that, and they oppose the move to appointing elders. This can be further complicated when these non-elders have served as trustees, which is required by the state for non-profit organizations owning property.

Several says ago, Alan Smith emailed me a new item (under the subject line "So Sad") that tells of a church in Tennessee that showed up for Bible study only to find the doors of the building had been padlocked closed. It seems that a disagreement had arisen among the leadership concerning the issue mentioned above. The church was moving toward appointing elders, some men opposed that (or perhaps the men who would be appointed). They were trustees, and they seized control of the church building, fired the preacher and padlocked the property… all supported by a legally obtained court order. Perhaps we will being seeing the next Men’s Business Meeting of that church held before Judge Judy!

I wonder if at some point someone thought about what Paul wrote about Christians and property issues in 1 Corinthians 6:1, “If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints?” Having one Christian standing in court against another Christian only serves to advertise to the world that Christianity doesn’t really work. We are supposed to proclaiming a message of eternal salvation and peace that passes understanding… and we sue each other over property? Paul says, “If you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!” Even the simplest and least prominent Christian is better to mediate property disputes among Christians than Judge Judy. Paul says this—

⁷ The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. (1 Corinthians 6:7-8)

OK, it’s human nature-- We want to be right. The only thing better than being right is to have the courts tell us we are right and then enforce the rights we have because we are right! Paul says that when we get to that point, we have already lost.

Here's the annoying part. I need to be as disgusted with myself about my infernal need to be night as I am with churches in far away places. It fact, it is much more important that is challenge my own pride issues. It's just not as fun.

I Will Sing of You Among the People

I ran across a long discussion yesterday on Mike Cope’s blog on instrumental music and our a cappella worship tradition. I won’t try to reconstruct the conversation. But I also ran across a website that was an affirmation of belief in a cappella only worship music. I won’t try to reconstruct that conversation either. But I did spend some time reading through some of the comments made on both web sites. Now my personal history in our heritage only goes back about 5 generations, but I guess there is something about this whole thing that I just don’t get.

Oh, I get the part about the richness of our cappella tradition. And I get the part about the beauty of human voices blending together in harmony. I can’t do it, but I do get it. (Wasn’t harmony made up about the same time and by the same people who made up the instruments in the church thing? Wouldn’t singing in unison be more theologically significant than 4-part harmonies going off in different directions at once? But then I digress.) And I get the part about the danger of turning participatory worship into a presentation or entertainment where the audience becomes only casual observer. (Though the temptation to “show off’ for the benefit of others is just as real for the guy singing tenor as for soloist or guy playing acoustic guitar). And I do get the beauty and simplicity of a cappella, congregational worship. As one of the praise songs that we sing begins, “There’s no place else that I’d rather be…” I have zero desire to change our a cappella worship music tradition. Zero as it none!

But what I do not get is the idea that heaven and hell rests on whether or not you get why you shouldn't use instruments. There are 17 verses in the New Testament that mention singing. Five of those are from Revelation (like the faithful holding harps of God and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, Rev 15:2). Five are quotations from the Old Testament. Most of the rest simply say that someone (Jesus and the disciples, Paul and Silas, etc.) sang. There are no examples of singing in a church worship setting, except for 1 Corinthians 14:26, which sounds more like someone presenting a song solo, not congregational singing. The two texts we discuss the most (Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16) are not even in contexts discussing corporate worship at all—they are discussing personal spiritual living. We are a little short on data to know exactly how God wants us sing praises.

Even if I'm right in deciding that a cappella singing best fits the New Testament data (and I always think I’m right), can’t I at least admit that there really is a bit ambiguity here? Can’t I be comfortable in the choice that I make each Sunday while respecting brothers and sisters down the street who make a different choices? But since the data is ambiguous, should we not take the safest choice and sing sans the piano? Maybe. Or maybe we should say, “You know, there is ambiguity in what the New Testament says about church music, so let’s go back and see what clues God gives us about praise in the Old Testament.”

I don’t want to change our church music. I think there needs to be an a cappella music tradition in the kingdom of God, and I think we’re in a good position to help out there! But what we need to lose is the idea that God moved heaven and earth to send His Son to die on the cross to take captivity captive and make a public spectacle of the powers and authorities … only to see most Christians go to hell because they missed the fine print (or the absence of a fine print) about pianos and organs. If we think that faithfulness and salvation depends on us figuring everything out correctly-- or that we can have no fellowship with anyone who figures things out wrongly-- then we are doomed to spend the rest of our church lives arguing over praise teams, children’s classes, Bible translations and whether we can eat in the church building. I would like to think that there is room in our churches for those of us who really do prefer singing a cappella praise…. but who really don't think it is such a big hairy deal when someone else doesn't.

I met last night with a couple who are placing membership with us. They came to us from a background that uses instruments. They said that they had some reservations about coming to a church that doesn’t have music because they really enjoy that, but then said, “I was ashamed that I had worried about that because the singing here is so beautiful and worshipful.” That's the point, right? At that moment my phone rang—my ring-tone is the chorus of Philip, Craig and Dean’s worship anthem, “You are God alone. From before time began You are on Your throne. You are God alone.” That’s is the point, isn't it?

On Keyboards, Life and Stuff

Well, I believe that an eight year odyssey finally came to an end yesterday. I think it was about that long ago that my old Northgate programmable keyboard finally died. Northgate was a computer company more for keyboards than computers-- they had a very heavy-duty (and just plain heavy) mechanical switch "clicky" keyboard that was infinitely better than all new modern keyboards (which are made with rubber bands or something). The keyboard weighed more than the computer, it never moved around when I typed, and it clicked when you typed just like the original IBM keyboard.

The Northgate company died, and so when my Northgate keyboard also died, I was stuck with a rubber band keyboard. I have tried several after-market keyboards looking for one that I can type on... OK, so the problem may be with me.. But the mushy keyboards they sell these days just don’t work— even with all their multimedia and wireless bells and whistles. I just want a heavy duty, mechanical click keyboard made of metal the way they did in the good old days of the IBM PC

Well, it cost me $70 bucks, but I found one. It seems that a company called Unicomp obtained the rights to the old IBM keyboards from Lexmark, and they are still making them today. You can buy 15 year old IBM keyboards for $150 or more (no kidding), but Unicomp will make you a brand new one in a variety of layouts in any color you like (as long as it is black or white). They even have one with the Control key back beside the “A” key so if I want to go back to using WordStar (if I could find a copy of WordStar) and its old control diamond, I can do that (actually the keyboard is made for Linux users). The keyboard is great, it makes typing much more precise for me, and now all is well with the world. That is, until Lynn reads my blog and realizes that I spend $70 bucks on a keyboard!

There is a lesson here in miniature, I think. How often have we bought into Satan's lie that things in life will be much better when I get a new thing… a new job, a new car, a new house, a new keyboard. Hey, I’m not saying that I was waiting for this keyboard to make my life more fulfilled, but that would make just as much sense as looking to those other things, right? We have proved this truth to ourselves time and time again-- new stuff has an incredibly short shelf-life as far as its ability to satisfy us. If we are made happy by the new stuff, the fact is that what is new today is old next week, and so we’re right back in the hunt looking for something new. No matter how great a “thing” might be, the one thing it cannot do is stay new!

The only thing that never gets old is contentment. Paul says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Tim 6:6). He also said, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:12-13). Notice that the “I can do all things through Christ” comes right after “I have learned the secret of being content.” Content is not our natural or normal state as human beings. It came only when Paul trusted in Christ and looked to Him.

This really is a great keyboard. But you know, I bet voice recognition software would be even better!

Pass It On

In their book False Assumptions, Henry Cloud and John Townsend tell of a Christian client they call “Roy.” Roy struggled with depression to the point where he began to think about suicide. Christian friends were concerned about him and told him, “Just trust in the Lord” and “Take some time off and rekindle your walk with God.” One friend offered the pious advice, “Just let God’s rod and staff be your comfort.” And Roy did begin to spend more time reading the Bible and in prayer. But the depression and despair finally got the best of him, and one night he sat with a loaded revolver ready to take his life.

What saved Roy’s life was a neighbor who came by to borrow a Phillips screwdriver. He sensed something was wrong, and asked Roy what was wrong. They started talking. Roy poured out his heart to this neighbor. The neighbor just listened, asked some questions, and offered no advice. He then invited Roy out to dinner, and they talked some more. When Roy got home, he unloaded his revolver and started down the road to recovery.

What Roy needed was not sanctimonious talk about God. He didn’t just need to read the Bible more or pray that much harder. No, what Roy really needed was to share his life with a friend. He needed people in his life. God was able to work through the listening ear of Roy’s neighbor in a way that was powerful. And that is often the way it is when God moves in mysterious ways. Sometimes He works through circumstance. Sometimes He parts the Rea Sea. But often, He works through people. Very often God gives us spiritual strength through the strength we borrow from other people. Paul says that God “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor 1:4). God comforts us so that we can comfort others. Pass it on.

I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy

I like David Letterman’s Top Ten Lists. I used to never go to bed without watching his monologue just to hear the Top Ten List. And that was back when he came on at 12:30 a.m. after "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" went off. How did I sit up so late back then? I had to "sit up late" last night to watch the season premier of CSI, which goes off at 10:00!) Anyway, some time go I ran across the Top Ten List of “Things You Seldom Hear in Church.”

• “Hey, it’s my turn to sit on the front pew!”
• “I didn’t notice the sermon ran 25 minutes over.”
• “What this church really needs is more announcements!”
• “Personally, I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.”
• “Let’s give the $500 a month we pay in country club fees to church.”
• “Who do I see to volunteer to teach the Junior High class.”
• “I just love it when we sing those new songs I’ve never heard before.”
• “Nothing inspires me more than another sermon on giving!”
• “Our list of volunteers is getting to long; we need to cut it down”
• “Nothing is more enjoyable or fun than coming to church.”

Do we often use the word “church” and “enjoy” in the same sentence? Or do we see church as being like medicine… it’s really is good for you, but it tastes bad... and it really isn't good for you unless it does taste bad! And maybe it’s not just church. Maybe we approach the entirety of our Christian lives like that. How many Christians look like they were weaned on a sour pickle? How many believers are joyless pessimists who see life like a glass a half-empty? How many church members are by nature critical of others and critical of things at church?

We act like we don’t understand that the Christian life to be a life of JOY. The noun "joy" (chara) appears 59 times in the New Testament; its verb form (chairo) is used another 72 times. So, there is a lot of joy in the New Testament! In fact, that was the standard Greek greeting. You met someone, you didn’t say, “How’s it going?” You said "Joy be with you." This is the greeting Paul uses, along with the Hebrew “shalom” (“peace”) to begin his letters. This is also the greeting used two other special occasions.

• The angel who told Mary she was with child said, “Joy” (Lk 1:28)
• Jesus met the women after Resurrection said, “Joy” (Matt 28:9)

Joy is mentioned at the beginning (birth of Jesus) and end (the resurrection) of the gospel story itself! The gospel begins and ends with joy. That doesn’t mean that life will always be a happy-go-lucky-pinch-me-I'm-so-excited expereince. But it does mean that our lives should always reflect the joy of the Lord. I think we need to consider our hole outlook on life. If our lives are not characterized by a deeper inner joy that expresses itself in some positive way, it is entirely possible we're not doing Christianity right.

Apocalyptically Speaking

Yogi Berra is a hall of fame Yankee catcher, former Yankee manger, successful TV pitch man and philosopher. Maybe philosopher is not quite right; Yogi has a famous grasp of the obvious that has resulted in sayings known as “Yogi-isms.”

• “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
• “Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.”
• “Nobody goes to New York anymore; it’s too crowded”
• “I wish I had an answer to that question because I’m tired of answering it.”

Maybe his most famous Yogism was made when the pennant race came down to Yankees and Red Socks just like it did the previous season. Yogi said, “Yeah, it’s spooky; it’s like deja vu all over again.”

Most of us have felt at some point that something was like “deja vu all over again.” You have a conversation with a child or your spouse and think, “Haven’t we had this talk before?” You sit down to pay bills or go out to mow the lawn and think, “Didn’t I just get finished doing this?”
As we talked about a bit in class last night, the Greeks had a “deja vu all over again” philosophy of history, a view that many still have today. They saw history is a circle, a cycle of repeating events that happen over and over. We say, “History repeats itself,” and sometimes it does seem that the human family makes the same mistakes over and over. It’s like deja vu all over again.
But take that “history repeats itself” view too literally, and pretty soon the point of history is that history really has no point. We are on a treadmill, and endless cycle, an unending “Circle of Life” to use the title of “The Lion King” theme song. Mufstafa dies, Simba becomes king, history repeats itself, and the cycle continues— with no real point, no real meaning and no real hope.

Scripture has a totally different view of history. It presents history as not as a circle but a straight line. History had beginning (“in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”), it has a middle (the coming of the Messiah), and history will also have a definite end (Jesus is coming back to end all things). The prayer of ancient believers continues to be the prayer of the church, “Maranatha.” Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20).

While I was working on my Wednesday lesson on 2 Peter 3, a thought struck me. It may not be precisely right; that’s the way it is with most of my flashes of insight.

First, some background. I have always had an “amillennial” view of the end time. I think the best way to understand what the scriptures say about the second coming is that Jesus will come back, end time, judge the world and take us to heaven. No literal rapture, Armageddon, or millennial reign. I believe that Revelation is a symbolic picture of the histroical struggle between Rome and the church, and by extension the eternal struggle between good and evil, God and Satan. (See Revelation 17:14). Reverse-engineering the geopolitical events of our day so that they seem to fit into scripture prophesy seems artificial and strained. In fact, every generation from the crusades to the present day have found ways to make Bible prophecy “fit” their day as “the end of days.” We suggested last night that Peter’s point about the end of days is that we be so convinced it is coming one day that we live holy lives today so that we are ready whenever it comes. Peter said, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” ( Peter 3:11).

So here’s my flash of insight— right or wrong, good or bad. I think people who do accept and stress those premillennial ideas of rapture, Antichrist and Armageddon do seem to be more focused (maybe obsessed?) on the end time than those of us who take all that “figuratively.” I wonder if we need to a bit more millennial in our mindset! I wonder if we would be better off if we were a little more apocalyptic in our world view! Peter ties the certainty of the second coming to our focus on holy living. So maybe we need to be a bit more focused on the last day so we are a bit more focused on living for God today!

So, anyone have an old copy of Left Behind I can borrow?

God's Favor

It seems that these days I keep bumping into the modern American religious belief that God wants His people to prosper. The idea seems to be that our faithfulness to God will be rewarded by prosperity— material prosperity. God wants us to prosper, and He wants us to believe that we will prosper. Joel Osteen, one of the best known spokesman for this idea, says this—

I believe one of the main ways that we grow in favor is by declaring. It’s not enough to just read it. It’s not enough to just believe it. You’ve got to speak it out. Your words have creative power. One of the primary ways we release our faith is through our words. There is a divine connection between you declaring God’s favor and seeing God’s favor manifested in your life. And some of you are doing your best to please the Lord. You are living a holy consecrated life, but you’re not really experiencing God’s supernatural favor. And it’s simply because you’re not declaring it. You’ve got to give life to your faith by speaking it out.

This teaching is variously known as “the word of faith” or “name it and claim it.” One critic calls it “blab it and grab it.”

I’ve been reading Jeremiah a lot lately... Jeremiah as in "The Weeping Prophet." I don't believe Jeremiah subscribed to this health and wealth theology. Frankly, I think Jeremiah would have been offended by the quote above. Jeremiah faithfully declared the word of the Lord to a people that variously ignored him, made fun of him, accused him of treason and tired to have him killed. None of the things that Osteen would call “God’s favor” seemed to attach themselves to Jeremiah. What Jeremiah declared was "the word of the Lord," and it was not a word of favor or prosperity. In fact, a consistent idea throughout Jeremiah's book is that the prophets of prosperity in his own day are false prophets that deceive the people (see Jer. 5:13, 14:13-15, 23:16)

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I had my yearly (well, it should be yearly) physical this week. It would seems that I am as healthy as a horse. Blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. all on the low end of normal. That is truly a blessing from God, and He gets thanksgiving and praise. But it would be arrogant to think that I did something to deserve God’s favor. It would be more than arrogant to think that those who struggle with health concerns somehow did not do something right to declare God’s favor in their lives.

It seems to me that the idea that what we do somehow earns or engages God’s favor in material things (health and wealth) is really not that different from suggesting that we do religiously deserves salvation. God gives grace to who God gives grace. God gives the gifts of wealth, success and prosperity to some. Some (like Jeremiah) receive the gifts of struggle, hardship and
difficulty. To all who seek him and live our their faithfulness, God gives the gift of Himself. That is the ultimate favor of God!

The Dance of the God-Struck

As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David dancing and celebrating, she despised him in her heart. (1 Chronicles 15:29)

It is not hard to imagine David dancing before the Ark. In fact, we see David’s heart dancing before God all through the Psalms. So, I guess it makes sense that we would see the rest of him dancing for joy as the ark is brought home to Jerusalem. And David's dance here was not some highly-stylized liturgical choreography; it was rather an expression of celebration and thanksgiving. It was not the dance of the stage but rather the dance in the end zone. David’s dance was where worship meets pure joy. (OK, that sounds a little too much like Max Lucado; I must have read that somewhere, but I don’t remember where).

But David’s wife Michal is right there to throw the flag on David for "excessive celebration." As she watched David’s dance from a distance, there was nothing but coldness and criticism in her heart. The word here “despised” means “to hold in contempt.” It is the same word for used to describe how Goliath dismissed David in 1 Samuel 17: 42. David was lost in joy and thanksgiving before the Lord; Michal was lost in her own critical spirit.

What is the point of this story? It’s not that we need more dancing in church. But maybe what we do need is less criticism of the worship of others. This story is about David’s heart. Worship, ministry and piety must come from a heart that overflows with God. Michal saw a lack of protocol and propriety; David just saw God. The heart that finds it easy to be judgmental and dismissive based on external appearances is a heart that will not see God. In an article entitled “The Dance of the God-Struck,” Mark Buchanan puts his finger on the essence of this story--

Occasionally we get glimpses of Deepest Reality, intimations of what remains after all else has been shaken out and burned up. This is the reality that earthy things sometimes hint at and sometimes hide… Glimpsing it, that Deepest Reality, can make you do funny things. You can become stony still. Or giddily happy. Or chokingly afraid. It can calm you with uncanny peace, or disrupt you with implacable dread. It can make you, simultaneously, not yourself and fully yourself. It can make kings dance.

Suing God

A Nebraska state senator is suing God, seeking a permanent injunction ordering God to cease all harmful activities. The suit charges God with causing, “fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like.” Chambers also says God “has manifested neither compassion nor remorse.” He asks for the court to grant him a summary judgment and enter a permanent injunction enjoining God from engaging in the types of deleterious actions described in the lawsuit. State Senator Ernie Chambers has filed this lawsuit to prove a point about frivolous lawsuits. He says, "Anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody- even God." So he decided to prove his point by suing God.

Who is to blame for “fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes” and the other things mentioned in the lawsuit? Obviously, the blame for much (most?) of what is wrong with the world today can be laid directly at the feet of human beings. Much of human misery comes from things like war and crime, which are purely human constructs. Even much of the suffering from things called “acts of God” can be traced to human rather than divine fingerprints. Many famines have been created or made worse because of human greed; the suffering following hurricane and tsunami is often made worse because of a failure to properly allocate needed supplies. The lion’s share of blame for the state of our world rests solidly on the shoulders of mankind.

And properly understood, the rest of the blame is ours as well. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God and introduced sin into the world, something shifted in the order of things. The world fell. Not just Adam and Eve— something shifted on its axis in the entire created order. Paul describes a creation that groans under the curse of the fall—

19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8:19-22, NLT).

When Adam and Eve rebelled again God, there was something fundamentally broken. Not broken just in humans; broken in all creation. We should not be surprised by the seemingly random and unfair suffering that happens in our world. The world is broken; we broke it! Senator Chambers may be making a statement against frivolous lawsuits, but he has the wrong defendant. He should be suing us!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I just got back from the doctor’s office, and my yearly check-up (which I have without fail ever 2-3 years) reveals that I’m in excellent health. The nurse wanted make sure that I was awake when my blood pressure came back 102/68. But then, it’s Monday; I’m lucky to have a blood pressure on Monday! People that don’t preach have no idea how much a Sunday takes out of the preacher. I don’t get a 30 minute nap on Sunday morning like everyone else!

It took a bit longer than usual to out-process me after my visit. So I’m standing there by the window to the office when I notice a very familiar (and very strong) smell. It was a smell that took me back to my childhood— Fedron. I knew instantly it was Fedron. I looked around the corner and sure enough, there was a repairman working on one of the two office typewriters that they still use to type labels and fill out forms (how quaint). The repairman was using Fedron, and the distinctive smell took me on a trip down memory lane. (Sniff that stuff long enough and it will take you on another kind of trip!)

My Dad was in the office equipment business for years. Fedron was the industrial strength solvent that he used to clean and restore typewriter platens and dissolve the “gunk” (technical jargon) on the typewriter keys. According to a supplier who will sell you a 4 ounce bottle for $10, Fedron is “a clear liquid, blended of highly refined pure chemicals, specially formulated for cleaning rubber, metal, Teflon, silicon, and similar materials.” What they don’t tell you is that it will eat through almost anything else!

Dad bought it in 10 gallon drums or something, and he used it for many different applications. When we bought our first house, the floors were saturated with the smell of the 6 or so adult dogs that the previous occupant kept inside… without ever letting go outside. I mopped the floors with a bucket of Fedron that Dad gave me, and it killed the smell of the dogs. It would have also killed the dogs had they been around! This was strong stuff.

I never thought I would grow nostalgic over the smell of a commercial solvent, but I did. As I stood there smelling the Fedron, I was taken back to summers working for Dad hunched over an Adler 21-C electric typewriter at Bethel High School cleaning the gunk off the keys and getting paid 75 cents an hour… and getting a headache from smelling Fedron. I have a headache now from smelling it in the doctor’s office, but somehow I don’t mind.

Enjoy every day that God gives you. You never know which day you will look back upon as “the good old days!”

Where Were You When...

Where were you when… There have been three events in my lifetime that were so monumental that everyone remembers where they were then they heard that the event had taken place. Oh, there are many personal monumental events that I will always remember— when I was married, when my children were born, when Arkansas beat Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. But three events are so universal that most who were alive then remember where they werewhen they heard

First, “Where were you when you heard President Kennedy had been shot?” I was in Miss Riddle’s first grade class at deer Park Elementary. They closed school early and sent us home. I remember being really upset when I learned that the president had died. I remember Mom saying, “That’s really a bad thing, but it won’t affect little boys in Virginia.” That made sense, so I went outside to play.

Second, “Where were you when you heard that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed on the moon?” I was in the first bottom bunk on the left side of Cabin #2 at Idlewild Christian Camp listening to the radio. (Later it would be against rules to have a radio, but we had a radio that day.) That when we heard that “The Eagle has landed.” I thought that was cool, but I thought it was even more cool that I were getting ready to play softball.

Third, “Where were you when you on September 11, 2001 when you heard about the attack on the World Trade Center.” I was at the church building. We had just started a program where Elaine Denman came to the building once a week to do Christian counseling. Someone called, and we set the TV up just in time to see the second plane hit. It was the most surreal morning that I can remember. Seeing the second crash… hearing of the Pentagon… watching the Twin Towers fall. Unlike the shooting of JFK, we knew that this was going to directly affect us for the rest of our lives. Terrorism came home. It got real.

God has blessed us with many things in the world, but what He does not ever promise is a world without hardship, tragedy and death. What God gave us is a world in which we are free to make our own moral decisions. That freedom allowed a handful of evil men to turn airplanes into bombs and turn the murder of 3000 innocent people into a political statement. But that freedom also allowed those brave fire fighters and police to rush into the burning Twin Towers and military personnel to climb through the flames at the Pentagon in a valiant effort to save others.

Lisa Beamer became probably the most visible face of 911 in the weeks and months following the disaster. Her husband Todd died during the battle to take back the plane that crashed in a Pennsylvania field but was supposed to crash into the Capital. She became a source of inspiration and strength with her book and many appearances. Todd’s final words “Let’s roll!” became our unofficial national motto. Lisa shared how it was that she was able to roll on after Todd’s death—

If I were trying to hold my life together based on my human strength, I wouldn't get out of bed. I am so thankful to have my God-given strength and courage. Every day seems like such a dichotomy, because I'm human, with emotions of sadness and grieving. But on the other hand, my perspective is much bigger than just the things that happen in this world.

Today we seek that divine perspective as we remember one of our darkest days as a nation. The courage and sacrifice of those at Ground Zero and the response and resolve of millions across the country help us to see that through the darkness the light still shines brightly. May we always remember those who died that day. May we live daily top bring the light of God into our dark world.

The Dark Night of the Soul

The cover of the September 3, 2007 edition of Time has the picture of Mother Teresa with the provocative title “The Secret Life of Mother Teresa.” (Did they select that title hoping that people would assume something lurid, like she ran a dog-fighting ring or something?) The “secret life” of this the most recognizable nun of history was her constant struggle for faith. In 1946, she heard what she believed to be the voice of God calling her to minister to the poor. Though the voice of God grew quiet, she devoted her life to serving the poor. She lived in what appeared to be cheerful faith to those around her, and that made the publication of her letters expressing doubt that much more jarring. In those letters she felt abandonment; the vividness of her memory of God’s love and voice made His silence that much more unbearable. She writes—

Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love— and now become as the most hated one— the one You have thrown away as unwanted, unloved. I call, I cling, I want, and there is no One to answer

Sunday’s Daily Press paper carried an editorial by Michael Gerson, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post and a former speechwriter for President Bush. He discusses Mother Teresa’s faith-struggle and asks what it might mean for our faith. All believers go through what St. John of the Cross called “the dark night of the Soul.” Perhaps what Mother Teresa reminds us of here is that faith and doubt, struggle and service, questioning and faithfulness can all take place in the same soul at the same time. Gerson says this—

There are lessons in this complicated spiritual life-- that holiness has more to do with obedience than spiritual feelings; that faith can coexist with suffering and doubt; that sainthood can be harsher and more difficult than we imagine… There is no easy answer here, but the question is central to the Christian faith. Other noble religious traditions promise serenity, detachment from striving and release from the suffering of the world. Christianity, in contrast, teaches that grace is found in the worst of that suffering, and through a figure who despairs of God's presence in his parting words. This anguish is not convenient -- "Why hast Thou forsaken me?" is hardly the best religious marketing slogan. But for millennia this abandonment has offered hope that God might somehow be present even in shame, loneliness and betrayal, even on the descending path of depression, even in the soul's hardness and doubt, even in the silence of God himself -- and that all these things may be the preface to glory.

Jesus quotes David from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Both David and Jesus absolutely feel forsaken when they speak these words. But I have to wonder that they also speak those words because we so desperately need to hear them. The act of crying out to God is an act of faith, a desperate faith certainly, but an act of faith. We may read in Mother Teresa’s letters a sense of her feeling of abandonment, but what we see in her life is her absolute abandonment to absolute obedience to the voice of God... even when for her that voice had gone silent.

Only a Step

On December 30, an Arizona driver in a 1991 GMC pick-up was traveling east on State Route 59 just outside of Hurricane, Utah. (Hurricane? I’m sure they get a lot of those in Utah). The driver told police that he was traveling 55 mph (though skid marks indicate he was going closer to 83 mph) when the truck left the roadway. The truck left the road onto the right shoulder when the driver overcorrected and shot back across both lanes and hit and broke through a cement barricade that separated the road from a roughly 200-foot drop down the canyon. The truck finally came to rest and the driver was fine.

Well, he was fine until he looked down! This second pictures adds a little perspective to things, doesn't it? The truck evidently went through the guard rail so fast that it was propelled through the air, spinning it 180 degrees along the guardrail clearing the concrete drainage culvert and coming to rest on a small ledge over looking the 200 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon. There has been a lot of debate if this is real or Photoshop, but the police evidently say that it is real. One Web site ran these photos under the headline, “I bet this guy will be in church Sunday!”

This was an especially close call, But then our lives are really nothing but a series of close calls. Even if you obey all the traffic laws, you are still hurtling down the interstate at nearly a mile minute sitting in a contraption of metal and plastic surrounded by other people doing the same thing. Our hold on life is always very tenuous, is it not? David told Jonathan, "Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death" (1 Samuel 20:3). Maybe you don't have Saul breathing down your neck trying to skewer you with a spear. May all you are doing is driving to work... while the driver above is driving on the same road in a new truck! Only a step.

The only way to be ready when your appointment with death comes is to live ready at all times. And obey the speed limit.

I Have Hidden Your Word in My Heart

So, need any more good reasons to keep your Bible close to your heart? How about the case of Pfc. Brendon Schweigart from Andover, Maryland. Schweigart was serving in Iraq when he was hit by a sniper's bullet. The bullet injured him, but not nearly as severely (or as fatally) as it could have because it lodged in the Bible he carried in his shirt pocket. Schweigart says that the Bible “definitely prevented more serious injury, because if it wouldn't have been there, it would have ricocheted off my bullet-proof plate and more than likely would have gone back into my chest, causing more damage.”

Several things came to mind when I read this— “Just think how effective his Bible would have been had it been a hardback study Bible with a concordance, maps and study notes!” Or maybe “The bullet probably stopped in Leviticus; a lot of people stop in Leviticus when reading through the Bible.”

God intended his word to be a protective shield. David said, “I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:10-11). When Jesus confronted Satan in the desert temptations, He resisted by quoting scripture. The Bible says, “The word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.” In fact, it says that three times (2 Sam. 22:31, Psa 18:30, Prov 30:5).

On one of our mission trips to Ukraine, Tom Gilliam, became separated from the group when he got off the trolly bus at the wrong stop alone… and the buss pulled away before he realized his mistake. So Tom was alone in the middle of a strange city in the middle of the night… and none of us even missed him! We had been traveling across the city to hand out Bibles, and Tom was carrying several heavy bundles of Ukrainian Bibles. When we found him later, he later told us that he had decided that if anyone attacked him, he would have just hit them with his Bibles! God’s word does come in handy, doesn’t it? Ask Brendon Schweigart. Ask Tom Gilliam.