Living Above the Routine

It officially became Fall last night. I say that because I attended the first high school football game of the new season. Tressa is living out what was once her dream—teaching at Denbigh and coaching the cheerleaders. So we were there to watch her working with her girls… for some reason, the image of “herding cats” comes to mind here! (If Tressa were writing this blog entry, it may be entitled “Careful what You Wish For”)

Although it was a brand new season, it was very much the same old Denbigh football team. There were some flashes of promise, but we got pushed around pretty well by Woodside in a 34-14 loss. And unless Woodside turns out to be very good, Denbigh may be looking at another very long season.

But the game itself was overshadowed by what happened with 5:00 minutes left in the second quarter. After a pretty routine play, the line judge—a man named George French— went down on a knee. The play had been run his way, and I thought maybe he had been bumped by one of the players. But then he just collapsed to the ground, falling over hard on his face. Within a few minutes the rescue squad was frantically performing CPR, and before long an ambulance came and took him to the hospital. He apparently had a heart attack, but as of this morning, there has been no word available on Mr. French’s condition. Keep him in your prayers.

The reaction insider the stadium during this drama was interesting. As you might expect, a hush came over the whole crowd when he collapsed. The other officials gathered around him, one frantically waving to the sidelines for help while another walked about 15 yards away and went down on one knee in obvious prayer. After a brief minute, the announcer in the press box haltingly said, “Uhhh.. now for some scores from some other games.” And in very few minutes, the crowd was back to buzzing and Tressa was back to fussing at her cheerleaders.

You never know when the routine of life will become very un-routine. James says, “You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing” (James 4:14, The Message). We know that… but we don’t seem to live like we know that. We live our lives as if the daily grind is all that matters. But we never know when a routine play (or day at work or short drive or whatever) will turn into a life and death drama. That happened last night at Todd Stadium. It can happen today wherever we happen to be. We must live our lives above the routine so that we will be ready when the routine is shattered.

Spiders and Snakes

Christina Ryan is the reigning Mrs. Tennessee and is in Phoenix to compete in the Mrs. America Pageant. She was just getting ready to walk up an outside staircase at the resort hosting this weekend's competition when she saw a spider on a step. She instinctively jumped away from the spider… and onto a rattlesnake which bit her on the right foot. So she spent a day in the local hospital receiving ten vials of antivenin. She’s fine now… except that she has to walk in high heels in the pageant on a very swollen right foot.

There’s gotta be a metaphor for life in there somewhere! Just when you think you’ve got the spiders beat, up pops the rattlesnake! It’s just like Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, “It’s always something!”

This story made me think of Jim Stafford’s 70’s hit song “Spiders and Snakes.” More seriously, it also made me think of Amos 5:18-20—

It will be as though a man fled from a lion
only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light—
pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

Amos describes the smug, self-satisfied and materialistic Israelite who looked forward to the “Day of the Lord” because they thought this would be the time when God would destroy their enemies and give victory to Israel. The Day of the Lord was the time of God's judgment, but it would be directed at them! God would hold them accountable for their sin, and they would not escape His wrath. It would be as though they ran from a lion right into a bear, and then escaped only to be bitten by a snake in their own house. They would not get away. God tells his people that when His day came, in the immortal words of Rambo, “I coming for you!”

OK, besides pegging the meter for references to 70’s pop culture, what is the point here? Actually, Amos makes it rather plainly, doesn’t he? True, eternal safety exists only for the people of God… and only as they live like the people of God. We can’t buy God off with the right rituals and church done “decently and in order.” God is looking for hearts that beat for Him and lives that are lived for Him. Amos continues (Amos 5:21-24) with what for me is some of the most dramatic words of the Old Testament—

"I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them
Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Lost in Translation

"This is next are acts. Calling to inform you. That your order 1. 822. 5. For. 3. 5. When she had gone. Tuesday. this plenty 8. And should arrive within side. Business days or sooner. If you chose to exit out your order. Thank you from next Iraq's. Goodbye."

That is a message that we received today on our voice mail. Well, actually that is the message as translated by Vonage, our VoIP phone company (at least until Verizon shuts it down). Vonage has this neat feature that takes voice mail and translates it to text and emails it to you. That way you have the message you missed at home sent straight to you wherever you are.

So what is the above gobblely-gook? This is a computer-generated message sent to a computer-based voice mail interpreted by a computer algorithm with no human interaction at all. Very helpful, isn’t it? The message, whatever it is, is lost in translation. Don’t computers make our lives so much easier?

Lost in translation. I wonder if that is what happens with our Christian lives among our non-Christian friends and co-workers.. How often is there a 'lost in translation" disconnect between what we say we believe and how we actually live. We speak of a “peace that passes understanding.” What others see in our lives is the same full-bore, flat-out rat race dominating our life just as it dominates theirs. We may talk about faith in a God that controls the world while what they see in us may be the same fretting, fuming and fussing over life that would be there if God were NOT in control.

Does the gospel lose something in translation between what God calls us to be and what others see? Peter says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12). Boy, talk about a verse that is easier to quote than to live! But then, most Bible verses are that way. How much of the gospel is lost in translation by the way we live it… or don’t live it?

O Fill My Cup

I don’t know whether anyone out there in Blogville gets Al Maxey’s e-newsletter Reflections. Each month there is a long article by Al that appears in Reflections, and all of the articles are posted on his website. Many of his articles, though by no means all, raise questions about some of our traditions in Churches of Christ. Such is the case in the issues I received yesterday.

As you may know, there is a branch of our movement that practices communion with only one cup. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. I have been places that used one cup to emphasize the unity of the church in communion, though I was careful to make sure I sat on the front row so I got the first sip. (In was also wine rather than grape juice; a little germ killer “for thy stomach sake” isn’t a bad idea in such a setting). The problem is that these brothers and sisters insist that one cup is the only right way to do communion. Multiple cups are sinful.

Maxey’s article points to a publication called The Old Paths Advocate (which he renames Odd Paths Advocate) that raised the question of whether or not it was scriptural to refill the one cup during communion. The question was, “What should be done if the assembly proved too large to be able to commune together from the cup normally used by the congregation?” The Old Paths writer points to an elder who decided that the cup could be refilled and then communion continued from that point. That elder argued that as long as one cup was used, it could be refilled as often as was necessary to serve everyone. But this was heresy to the writer in Old Paths Advocate. I'm not making this up; here are his words--

Where is the Bible passage that either explicitly or implicitly authorizes a congregation to refill the cup and continue with the distribution of the fruit of the vine at the place in the assembly where the first cup was exhausted? There is no such scripture… We do not intend to consider even for a moment the idea of 'refilling the cup in an emergency' as described in this article. Such would entail sin and digression. We will not, must not, countenance such a corruption of the Lord's Supper. Uncertain sounds concerning the doctrine of Christ cannot be tolerated.

I thought I had LONG AGO run across all the strange ideas and practices that my religious tradition has come up with in an effort to be scriptural, but this one is a new one to me! I kept waiting for there to punch line in there somewhere. I had a professor who liked to say, “Some positions are so absurd that they must only be stated to be refuted.” This one qualifies, I think.

God calls us to be faithful to Him, and it is through scripture that He reveals His will to us. But continual arguments and divisions over logical nuance has caused more harm to the church than any direct attack of Satan. Paul warns Timothy to warn his people (and us) about such issues, “Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen” (2 Timothy 2:14). And later he says to Timothy, “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels” (2 Timothy 2:23).

So if you will excuse me, my coffee cup is empty and I need to go refill it… if that is OK!

The HOW Versus the WHAT

Several years ago I remember someone asking the question, "What would happen if Paul came to town looking for Christians with whom to worship?" I don’t know exactly how this would happen, but imagine you are coming out of Big Lots or something and there is Paul says, “Excuse me, but can you tell me where the Christians be meeting this Sunday for worship?” The exchange just might go something like this—

You answer, "Sure, they meet right down the street there at the church building right beside the high school." Paul looks a bit puzzled and asks, “Church building? What is a church building?”

You smile and answer, “You know, the church building is the place where we have the auditorium (or “sanctuary” or “worship center”) in which we assemble for worship." But that only leads Paul to ask, “Auditorium?” (or “Sanctuary?” or “Worship Center?”) “What is that?"

Now you are getting a bit frustrated and answer, “Oh, that's the big room where we meet that has all the pews (or chairs) and the podium.” Of course, Paul says, “Podium? What is a podium?”

You answer, “Duhh, that’s where the song leader stands when he leads singing.” And of course, Paul asks, “Song leader? What is a song leader?”

OK, face it-- it is a little bit annoying for those of us in a "Restoration Tradition" to have to admit that there are very few things that we do in the worship and work of the church today that looks anything like what it did in first century. Church today looks so different from the first century that it is unlikely that Paul or Peter would even recognize it as church! Now I think that we are hitting at WHAT the first century church was doing, but we don’t do those things anywhere near HOW the first Christians went about them. We aren’t even close.

And yet, most of our squabbles and fractures in fellowship today is over HOW we do things! It really is hard to imagine Paul getting all worked up over the issue of a single song leader with a mike verses multiple song leaders with a mike when Paul’s church not only didn’t have mikes, we have no reason to believe they song song leaders (“When you come together, everyone has a hymn,” 1 Cor 14:26). The stately hymns of Isaac Watts and gospel songs of Fanny J. Crosby would be just as foreign and strange to Paul was the contemporary anthems of Dennis Jernigan! Flannelgraph would be as much an innovation to Paul as would PowerPoint!

It is all too easy for us to ourselves to get worked up over the HOW’s of church that we ignore some very plain WHAT's. Peter is pretty plain about the WHAT when he says, “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble” (1 Peter 3:8). How are we supposed to do that? The HOW is up to us, but we must do WHAT Peter says here, right?

May we never ignore the WHAT because of our understandable and unavoidable differences over all the HOW's of doing church.

A-Rod and Avalanche Ranch

I was watching sports on ESPN yesterday—one of the few times ESPN bleeds over clearly enough for me to pick it up. (This year we will "real" cable during football season, especially if Tank makes the Eagles again). They were discussing an award given to Alex Rodriguez for reaching the 500 homerun mark in his career. They had a little ceremony with some baseball officials standing with A-Rod on the field. The unveiled the award with a flourish-- too much flourish. The easel folded up like a cheap suit and the plaque bounced down the first base line like a bad bunt! The commentator said, “What was with this award; it looked like something a bunch of kids made in VBS.” The other commentator looked at him blankly; he had no clue what was meant by "VBS." Some people are just culturally challenged like that.

Well, we know what VBS is around here! We are right in the middle of our Avalanche Ranch VBS this week. We’ve had a really good crowd of kids (more than we were expecting) the first two nights, and I don’t see any reason that this trend will not continue. When I was a kid, VBS meant we got a cookie and Kool-Aid. Well, its a bit more than that now! It’s been great watching all the excitement, enthusiasm and childish wonder… and that’s just been Len doing his cowboy imitation during praise-n-worship! I do appreciate all the hard work so many have put in, especially Kati heading everything up and putting it all together.

For some pictures, take a look at http://www.denbigh.org/Events/AvalancheRanch/. If you think these pictures look a bit grainy, you should have seen them before Photoshop. Will King will take some good pictures later, but these will give you an idea.

It's All About God

I made it through our recent trip to Arkansas by listening to several books on CD. Getting lost in a good story is the best way for me to make monotonous miles bearable. OK, I know I should “enjoy the journey” and all, but after 30 years of that same trip (I-64 to I-81 to I-40), the only thing I enjoy about it is getting it over. And listening to books is the best way I know.

The most interesting book was Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel The Lovely Bones. It is the story of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old girl murdered and dismembered by a serial killer who was her neighbor. Susie narrates her story from heaven as she watches her family and friends deal with the aftermath of her death. This was not an easy book to read… but it was even harder to put down.

Susie inhabits her own unique heaven. All the buildings look like 1960-era school building. There are lots of dogs. She has an intake counselor to help her adjust. At times her heaven intersects that of others, so she does have friends. In one chilling scene she meets other victims of the same serial killer. Mostly she sits in a gazebo and watches earth—and she is variously worried, afraid, sorrowful, lonely and bored. She watches her family grieve and struggle and fall apart… and then eventually pull together and survive. She watches her killer evade justice. She watches the place where her “lovely bones” are buried and are never found. She watches her friends grow and change. Mostly she longs to return to her life… which she does in one strange and never fully explained scene.

Susie’s heaven is a stopping place before she moves on. She is told that once she stops longing for life on Earth, then she will go to a heaven that bigger and brighter and fuller. But there is nothing really that compels her there. She sees only earth, and she longs for life there. Ultimately the only real peace she experiences is when her family starts to find their own peace with her loss.

What is missing from Susie’s heaven is God. At the center of the heaven of scripture is a throne. There is no sun and no night because God is the Light. Those in heaven are not looking back on their lives on earth; they are too focused on the glorious joys of being with God. There will be no sadness or fear or pain or loneliness because God is there. We will not long for what we lost on earth because the peace and joy of God will be too great. I liked Susie; I wish she’d have seen the real heaven—the one with God. That is the real point of heaven.

And that is the real point of Earth. We shouldn’t get too focused on Christianity as a way to live so we can see God someday. It is really about living in relationship with God both NOW and FOREVER.

The Daily Grind

Well, my week-long sojourn in Arkansas has come to an end and I’m back home to the old daily grind. (Well, the real daily grind doesn’t start for 2-3 weeks when Lynn goes back to work. I get a little extra sleep when her alarm doesn’t go off at 4:45 a.m.) Angelynn is one of the trainers for Harding’s football team, so she had to be back before the football team starts practice today, so her summer break ended in July. Fall practice has also already started for Coach Tressa who already getting her Denbigh High cheerleaders in shape for football season. Just so that things don’t get too quiet with Angelynn gone, Courtney and her kids are with us for awhile while Tank is in training camp with the Eagles. So the signs are that summer is heading toward being over. Boy time flies when you are having fun, huh?

Or maybe time just flies. Why does time seem to fly faster and faster as you get older? When we were kids, it took forever for Christmas or birthdays to come around; now they come and go with increasing rapidity. While time is fixed and precisely measured, our perception of it is very relative. Two minute seems pretty short when it’s a coffee break but an eternity when you are holding your breath underwater! Does time fly faster as we get older because of the percentages? To a child, a month is a large percentage of their entire life; it not that large of a percentage to us geezers. Or is it that children are more finely tuned to the moment—they enjoy, experience and endure each moment in the moment. As we get older, we fill our present moments with "the daily grind" and put off living for the future moments-- evenings, weekends, and vacations.

It is easy to view Christianity as anything but living in the moment. We look back to the cross (past) that saves us so that we can go in heaven (future). If we are not careful, we may sanctify the past and look the future while we forget all about the present. But Jesus tells that faith means trusting God for today, right now, rather than being anxious about tomorrow. He says, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matt 6:34, NLT). Today's troubles are enough for today. So is today's joys. And today's daily grind.

Trusting God today means that we won’t to worry about what will come tomorrow. So we must live in the moment… remembering the past (cross) with an eye on the future (heaven). But we live right now in the moment. Today with its "daily grind" is a precious gift from God.

Are You an Ear-Whisperer?

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

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

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

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

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

Handling Snakes

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

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

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

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

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

Our God Is In Heaven

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

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

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

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

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

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

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

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

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

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

Are You Happy?

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

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

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

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

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

An Apocalyptic World View

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

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

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

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

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

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

Responsibility-Disabled

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

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

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

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

Endowed By Their Creator

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What They Are Saying

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

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

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

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

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

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?