January 14, 2008

Why doesn't God DO SOMETHING?!

“If there is a God, why doesn’t he do something about the evil and brutality in the world?”

“I won’t worship a God who tolerates killing children, raping women, and other monstrously evil behavior.”

Someone recently posted a variation of these statements as a comment on this blog. He raised a good question. If there is a God, and if He is a loving God as Christians claim, how can he sit by and do nothing as millions of innocent people suffer?

I’ll admit right off that this is a tough question. People far smarter and better educated than I write thick books on the subject. Explaining “the problem of evil” is no easy task, apparently. But it’s important and needs an answer.

So, since I’m a little smarter than the average bear, and over the years have accumulated a smattering of education, here’s mine. Understand, I have little interest in deep philosophical or amazingly complicated theological gyrations. I like things simple and straightforward. Here it is:

There have been some popular movies about someone becoming God for a time. Some are funny, and they all raise some very interesting questions. For example, if you somehow became God and had all power over this earth and its inhabitants, how would you solve this problem? How would you address the evil in the world?

“Well, I’d wipe out the evil. Get rid of the bad guys,” you say. At least, that’s the answer I get from most people. But let’s consider that response.

It seems like a good goal. The world would be a much better place, certainly. But how to do it seems a far different task than just saying it. For example, there are different degrees of evil, from mass murder to petty theft. Would you wipe out all of it? That seems to lack justice. You would impose the same punishment for a boy stealing a candy bar as for a serial killer. And the truth is, if you wipe out all evil, you are left with an earth with nobody on it. There is nobody who has not done at least one bad thing in life. Some little lie, or filching a piece of candy. All evil.

So that doesn’t work very well. How about if we score evil, and only those who reach the magic number of points get toasted? You know, murder, rape of a child, things like that, and – poof! – you’re outta here. But how evil do we have to be to warrant elimination? Is there really a fundamental difference between murder and petty theft? How many sins must one commit to be a sinner? How serious a sin?

So we have a problem: how do we justly decide who gets it and who does not? Because in reality, the only way to wipe out evil quickly is to wipe out us. All of us. We are the source of the evil. There is no difference in kind between me and the world’s worst mass murderer. The difference is in degree. His nature is evil, my nature is evil.

So what can we do? Wipe out the whole lot of us? Then we – we’re being God now, remember – have to start over, creating a new being to replace the old one. But we have the same problem: to have a genuine relationship with this being, we have to allow some free choice. And that’s what started the whole mess in the first place. We have gained nothing.

I think by now it’s obvious this is no easy problem. It simply won’t work to say, “Well, just wipe out all the bad guys.” The bad guys are us.

So here’s what God did: He became one of us, to provide a solution to the problem. He made a way for us to leave the swamp of brutality and moral filth in which we live. In fact, it’s the swamp we created. We don’t have to stay there. We can come into a new “kingdom,” be “born again” as a new creation, and become part of the solution rather than the problem.

Seems to me it’s not only a good solution, but it’s the only solution that can work. So it’s somewhat dishonest for us to shake our fist at God and shout that He needs to stop the violence, when we are the source of it all. God has indeed done his part and a lot more, and now it’s our turn. The solution to our pain is for us to respond to his initiative, to become part of his kingdom and part of the solution, instead of acting like a bunch of children, screaming at God about a problem we caused.

Until we do that, until we do our part, we have nothing to say on the question.

Posted by Avi at 04:50 PM | Comments (30)

December 30, 2007

What does an effective church look like?

A while back, I posted on this site a rant, complaining about the state of American Christianity.

The rant, I am happy to say, drew several comments—nice to know someone reads these things—and some questions. So I feel compelled to write a follow up, though this will not be a rant.

There is a question about a church being the church in contemporary American culture. How can a church make a real difference where they are? And why do most churches make no difference in anything?

Question: If your church closed its doors tonight, would the people in your area know or care?

Here are some thoughts. First, many Christians can tell you the New Testament Greek word for church is ekklesia. It means, they will say, a called out or set apart people. And they’re almost right. But there’s the problem. An ekklesia was not just people called out from the population, but a called-out people with a purpose. They were called out for a specific reason. We might say they were on a mission.

Too many churches have a purpose or mission, but one that’s the wrong one. They exist for their own sake, for the convenience and comfort of their members, but not for the community in which they live. A church that exists for its own sake is an unbiblical church, and one that serves no purpose. It is collective selfishness.

Let’s look at some scripture. That’s there we derive our purpose, individually and corporately. We’ll begin where most Christians never go: Genesis.

First, when God created Adam and Eve, He gave them a purpose. They had a mission in life and a job to do. Be fruitful and multiply. Subdue the earth. Take care of the garden. Don’t eat of the fruit of a specific tree.

It wasn’t complicated, actually: Make babies and run the world, making it better. They were sort of putting the finishing touches on God’s creative work. They were to grow in numbers, and be God’s representatives on this earth, managing and protecting it for him. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say their task was to expand the Garden of Eden to cover the entire earth. They didn’t do well.

But what about the New Testament? Well, it’s there too, so let’s look at a couple examples. First, in John 20, Jesus told his followers, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” He sends us into the world with the same task, the same power, and some of the same authority, to make God real to those we encounter.

Then, Paul makes it even more clear in II Corinthians 5: Jesus has chosen us to represent Him. He has given us the good news of reconciliation, and is, as it were, making his appeal to the world through us. In short, we represent Jesus in our world.

But here's a problem: most people in the typical church aren’t interested. They don’t want to hear about representing God. They have no interest in evangelism. They are comfortable where they are, and don’t want to be disturbed.

Why is this? Leadership. It’s a rule that any group reflects its leadership. Very few exceptions. If the leadership of a church is not focused on a mission, the people will reflect that. Selfish leaders bring selfish followers. If the leadership is passionate about the missio dei—God’s mission—and implementing that in our world, the people will reflect that.

So one requirement is focused, missional leaders. But there’s something else that characterizes an effective church. Such churches have a high view of scripture, passionately and effectively teaching the Bible, and they have an expectation of the present activity and work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people.

Clearly, a church that ignores Scripture cannot be a biblical church. But it is equally true that a church that ignores the Holy Spirit will do no better. It is through the Spirit that God works in and through us. It is through the Spirit we have a "personal relationship with Christ."

If we join the mass of Christians who accept the common definition of the person and work of the Holy Spirit that makes Him utterly irrelevant in the lives of the people, we are doomed to ineffective lives and churches.

There are two forms of any error. You can go off the road into the ditch as well to the right as to the left. So on the one hand, a church can focus on Bible study to the point where it’s an intellectual exercise, with no living relationship with God and no power of God manifest in their midst. The other ditch is where Bible knowledge is shallow, and the focus is on the flashy and spectacular. It’s on what God can do for me today. It’s on making me rich, healing me, working “my” miracle. In both ditches, the focus is on self. One is flamboyant, the other is not, but both are self centered. Balanced churches and Christians are not self centered.

A balanced church is one that holds high both the integrity and authority of the Word and the manifest presence of the power of the Holy Spirit. It has a high view of Scripture, and passionately teaches an in-depth understanding of God’s word. At the same time, it understands that God works in people through the Holy Spirit, and expects the present manifestation of God’s Spirit among the people

When these happen, lives are changed, and as lives are changed and people grow, they change the lives of others. And their world is not the same.

Posted by Avi at 04:26 PM | Comments (16)

November 09, 2007

Some Principles for Living

1. See the world in true perspective: Know what things are important and what are not.

2. See yourself in true perspective: Know your place in the world. Don’t over-estimate your own importance, but don’t under-estimate it, either. You are important, but not all-important.

3. Know your purpose and mission in life, stay focused on it, and know that the things we fuss over are seldom significant in living a fulfilling life.

4. Know that God is working in your life, bringing forth good and sweet fruit, shaping you in his own likeness. This takes time, but it will happen. Few of the things that irritate us make any difference in this task.

5. Be patient with yourself. Don’t demand performance that God doesn’t expect.

Posted by Avi at 11:02 AM | Comments (2)

November 05, 2007

A case study in not having a clue

A couple weeks ago, the state association of a major evangelical organization had their annual convention near here. I have been following with interest, wondering what the week might bring. I was especially interested, because on the first day, I happened to be at their meeting site, and was wearing a sweatshirt with the name of a seminary on it. I wondered if anyone would notice and want to chat with me.

Notice they did. Some openly stared. But nobody – nobody – said the first word to me. Not even a hello. Not a nod. After all, the seminary was not one of theirs, so I must be some sort of heretic.

So here's what happened over the week, according to the local newspaper:

The major topic, with teary-eyed testimonials and rousing sermons, was how we can more effectively be the people of God and represent him before the world.

Oops, wrong bunch. Those guys were somewhere else not far away, talking about being Jesus to the world. And possibly drinking a few beers while they talked. No, here the concern was abstinence from alcohol. A Very Important Person pointed out in a speech that there is no support in the Bible for total abstinence from alcohol. He makes a good point: It’s impossible to say from scripture that it’s a sin to drink a beer or a glass of wine. Nevertheless, the only Christian position on alcohol in the state of Missouri, according to this guy, is total abstinence. And apparently, someone has appointed him the Great High Sheriff of All Things Christian.

So they haggle over whether to have a beer or not, while the world goes its way, laughing at this nonsense. And it’s even more laughable, since this would be the eleventh or twelfth such policy statement this group has issued. Apparently the first one didn't work. Neither did the second. Or... never mind.

Hello! Is anyone home? The lights are on, but there isn't much sign of intelligent life.

What’s with these people? I visited one of their churches some time ago, one that was considering hiring me as an intern. In a mid-week class, a guest “teacher” spent much of the time ridiculing the church because they had removed the denominational name from the church name. Going anonymous, I guess. The class was supposed to be on the church in Acts, and the instructor was a professor at the local denominational university. He said nothing about Acts the entire evening.

What ever happened to being concerned about how we live as followers of Jesus? How we demonstrate the love, grace and truth of Jesus to the world? And, heaven forbid, meeting the needs of others and perhaps even winning some to join us in placing their faith in Jesus?

I am disgusted with these guys -- perhaps it shows a little -- and am happy that most of them don’t call themselves Christians, because I don’t want to be associated with them. They seem to prefer being called Baptists – Southern Baptists – than Christians. Watching them, I am more adamant than ever that I am a follower of Jesus. I don’t want to be known by anything that might associate me with this nauseating foolishness.

They are an embarrassment and a disgrace to the name of our God, even though there are some among them who truly love God and follow Jesus. What I don’t understand is why they stay in such a place.

Posted by Avi at 12:43 PM | Comments (4)

September 13, 2007

The Greatest Gift

The Apostle Paul wrote, in his first letter to the church in Corinth, about spiritual gifts. There seems to have been some confusion and conflict, and he wanted to set them straight. In his letter, he seems to have ranked some gifts above others. But he missed one.

There is a gift that Paul never wrote about, but is a major factor in our success. Perhaps he missed it because it’s seldom thought of as a gift, and in fact, it may be the only “gift” we can freely choose.

But whether Paul saw it or not, this quality is without question the deciding factor in the outcome of much of our life. Do we seek after greatness in God’s service? Here’s the key. Do we seek to succeed in whatever endeavor we choose? This may be what we need. How about simply growing deeper in our faith, and coming into a truly intimate relationship with God? Here’s an essential ingredient.

But what is it? What’s this magic element for our lives?

My favorite illustration is in II Kings, in the Old Testament. Gifts in the Old Testament? Yes, and good ones, too.

The story is about Elijah the prophet and his apprentice and successor, Elisha. We are mostly interested in Elisha.

As we look through the story, we will be struck by the number of times Elijah tries to get rid of Elisha. “You stay here; God has sent me….” Several times, Elisha is told to stay put, and each time he refuses. If Elijah is going somewhere, Elisha is going there, too.

Finally, they come to the spot where Elijah is to be taken up into heaven, and there is the utterly astounding scene of the fiery chariot. It was meant to distract Elisha, but he would not be put off. He was utterly focused. He knew what he wanted, and would not be put off.

The gift of which I speak and which Elisha demonstrates so well is focus. It is being utterly fixed on the thing we seek, to the point of being called a fanatic, even. Another word, less charitable, might be stubborn. It is not a bad thing to be stubborn, when the focus of that stubbornness is knowing and serving God. Perhaps we could say we should be “stubbornly focused.”

So what’s the difference between success and failure? Between being a man or woman “after God’s own heart” or being just another drop in a pool of insipid, lukewarm mediocrity?

Stubborn focus. It is being doggedly locked onto the goal, ignoring the distractions of circumstances.

Put aside the yapping dogs of the distractions of the world and be focused: Only one thing matters in the end. Press toward that one thing. Be stubborn and be focused. Be stubbornly focused. It’s a great gift, and ours for the taking.

Posted by at 09:11 AM | Comments (5)

August 27, 2007

As a man thinks, so is he.

I once had a conversation that stands out in my mind. It was with a high school student, who was doing homework and having trouble with a question. I was looking in his history text at a map of the U.S., trying to understand the problem. As I looked, I realized the map was incorrectly drawn, and the question could not be answered correctly without contradicting the text.

Now, that’s not a huge issue for me. Books are produced by people and people make mistakes. Many textbooks have errors. But here’s the issue: No matter what I said, and despite my pointing out obvious discrepancies on the map, he would not accept that the book was wrong. It was, after all, a textbook. It was reliable. It was inconceivable that it could be wrong.

I have not forgotten the conversation, because the position he took scared me. It was my first encounter with someone who simply refused to think when data fell outside his predetermined parameters.

Later, when I taught college, I discovered that he was not alone. I encountered many products of America’s public education system who simply could not think. Their vaunted “critical thinking” skills were nonexistent.

Americans are far down the road to being a people of ignorance. Survey after survey has shown that Americans in general know little about their history or their government. We are now governed by popularity polls and sound bites, not leadership and statesmanship. Those who should lead are more concerned with showering money on the masses, securing their next election. Projecting this trend into the future is depressing, indeed. A free people must be an educated, responsible people.

How does this relate to the church? I’ll tell you: American Christians are no better off than the culture from which they spring. A great many of those professing to be Christians, to love and worship the God of the Bible, are notoriously ignorant of Bible. (From my contact with European Christians, I think they are no better off.)

Churches are in the main centered on themselves, and do little to serve the community in which they exist. "Worship" is very often listening to "Christian" radio, where the music is sometimes excellent, but more often is musically mediocre and theologically worse.

I recently visited a large, highly regarded church near here. In many ways, these folks are doing things right. But their music, the centerpiece of corporate worship, was entirely about thanking God — for what He has done for me.

Where are we when great numbers of Christians live a life focused on themselves and their desires, and thank God only as He is convenient for them and helps them achieve their goals? Where are we when the lives of those calling themselves Christians are indistinguishable from anyone else?

This is not a good thing. This does not honor the God we profess to worship. The religion of a people shapes their culture and way of life. American culture was in large measure shaped by Protestant Christian principles. Our system of higher education was started by the church. There was an understanding that education was important to a free people. The religion of America today is hedonism and worshipping at the altar of Me.

No people on earth have lived with the privilege and opportunity of modern Americans. And in recent decades, few people on earth have so radically turned to self interest and radical individualism.

Where are the Christians? Where are the people of God? Are they so busy chasing their own dreams and fantasies that they worship God in name only?

It seems so.

What happens when the church, which is supposed to be salt and light to society, is as insipid and as incapable of careful thought and action as the culture around it?

Posted by at 12:42 PM | Comments (9)

June 27, 2007

Lessons from History

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."

--- General Douglas Macarthur

Posted by at 01:47 PM | Comments (1)

December 06, 2006

What is it like to be God's friend?

What is it to be the friend of God? Perhaps a first question might be, can just anyone just sort of cozy up to the Creator? I mean, say we want some bragging material, and we think claiming God as a friend is about as good as it gets, would God cooperate? What would it take? Does God really welcome us into his life? Or is there more to it? Or maybe the real question might be, does anyone even care about the idea of being “friends with God”?

It is common among evangelical Christians to speak of having a “relationship with God.” But that phrase is pretty vague. I can fight with someone from sunup to sundown, and we can say we have a “relationship.” It isn’t a good one, but it’s certainly real. It’s one thing to speak vaguely of a “relationship with God,” and it is something else to speak of being “friends” with God. Even among those few who have even thought about the idea, not all of us want to be friends with God. In fact, most people would probably be just as happy with God at arm’s length, if they let him get even that close.

But for a lot of us, the idea just draws a blank: We cannot imagine any statement about us that includes both of the words God and friend. God is someone to keep at a safe distance, someone who demands things from us that we don’t want to give up, who basically takes from away our life that we both enjoy and want to keep. The fact is, God is dangerous, and so we avoid thinking too much about him.

But that’s not living in reality. It’s living in denial, and a lot of us live there and like it. The fact is, though denial may be utterly foolhardy in the long run, it can make life a lot simpler and more fun in the short run. But we are too often sprinters in a marathon life, right? Life does not consist in the “short run.”

However, there are a few who don’t fit in the description above. There are some people who have a longing in them that draws them to God like the proverbial moth to a flame. These are people who want to know God and to serve him, no matter what the cost. It is from this group that God chooses his friends.

Moses was a friend of God, as was David. Abraham was one of God’s best friends, and we can learn a lot from him about this sort of friendship.

Abraham was called “exalted father,” and he experienced things with God that leave us amazed. For example, there was his initial call: to pack up, taking all of his considerable property, his family, and more, and set out, headed southwest. And here’s the interesting part: Abraham had no idea where he was going. He knew neither where the destination was, nor how to recognize it when he got there. God simply told him to “just go, and I’ll tell you when to stop.” But Abraham obeyed. It’s interesting to imagine what Sarah’s initial response might have been to that.

Abraham did some things that impress and amaze us, and then he did some other things that we wonder about. His near-sacrifice of Isaac is one we really have trouble processing (Genesis 22). We struggle to understand this, but (perhaps to save our own sanity) we can look at it and acknowledge that there may be something very good about this event that we simply don’t see or understand. It has some perhaps poorly understood redeeming value.

But there are some things that are simply appalling, any way we look at them. For example, letting his wife—who was very attractive—be taken into the harems of not one but two kings (Genesis 12; 20). How could he possibly have done that? What could he have been thinking? The modern American mind is appalled at the thought. But Abraham obviously saw it differently.

Abraham teaches us at least two things about being God’s friend.

First, God’s friends are not people who “have it all together.” David and Abraham both had appalling incidents in their lives.

Second, Abraham teaches us that God’s friendship comes at a cost.

God, who wisely does not lightly enter into friendship, will test us first. After all, when we seek friendship with God, we are asking for direct access to the throne room of heaven. So we will undergo experiences that will reveal to us who and where we really are in life, and that will move us more into a carefully chosen, solid relationship with God.

Some years ago, in a difficult time, I visited a church in Denver and heard a sermon on this subject that changed my outlook on life. The speaker spoke of three areas where Abraham was tested. I think Abraham was somewhat typical, so let’s look at some events from his life.

First, Abraham had to trust God for physical provision.

Abraham was a wealthy man when God called him, and he became even richer with time. However, even great wealth was no guarantee of safety and continued prosperity in a nomadic lifestyle where anything from bandits to storms, from disease to drought could quickly devastate even the wealthiest of men. And to simply pick up and go, heading into a land that was unknown but not uninhabited, was a risky proposition. People—like Abraham—with large flocks of sheep need space and lots of it. They also need a reliable and adequate supply of water. They need protection from others who are not thrilled to see all these grass-chomping, water-guzzling sheep moving onto their turf.

Abraham started a long trip with little certainty about anything, except that he was convinced that he had heard the voice of God. And he certainly knew that he was vulnerable and protected only by the shelter and care of God.

We don’t know if this dependence on God was an easy thing for Abraham. We do know that a similar reliance on God for our own care can be very difficult. Some of us know the experience of God telling us to pick up and move, and He will fill in the details later. It’s a feeling a little like trying to bolt the wings on an airplane while rolling down the runway. We hope to have all the parts fastened tight before we reach takeoff speed. Depending on God for physical provision is a challenge for us, and many of us utterly reject anything that we call “living by faith,” not recognizing that we all live by faith. The only difference is in where we place our faith. Some of us have faith in ourselves only, though we profess to trust God.

And Abraham arrived in what would one day be the Promised Land only to find it locked in drought, with little grass or water for his flocks and herds. So, off he went to Egypt.

The second test for Abraham was to trust God with his reputation, a much more difficult task.

I greatly admire Abraham and in many ways envy him. However, his life was not always easy. And it’s important not to idealize him, as we often do with biblical characters. He was as human as we are, and we can see that in his relationship with his wife, Sarah.

Sarah must have been a supremely beautiful woman. When Abraham took her to Egypt, she was about 60 years old, and he was afraid that he would be killed so someone could take her. From our vantage point in modern America, that is pretty hard to imagine. But it’s true.
Sarah was indeed taken into the harem of the Pharaoh—as Abraham’s “sister”—and it appears, comparing “Sister Act I” (Genesis 12) with “Sister Act II” (Genesis 20), that in Egypt, Sarah was sexually compromised. Read the passages, paying special attention to God’s response in each case.

So Abraham, who was very rich and very well known back in Palestine, is now known in a different light: He’s the guy who gave up his wife to save his own skin. That’s a pretty big stain on a reputation, and there was nothing Abraham could do about it, but to trust God to make it right.

From experience, I can attest that it is far easier to trust God for material provision than it is to trust him with my reputation. We hold our reputation close to our hearts, tied to our self esteem. Few things are more important to us. Yet, it is evident that we cannot enter into a really good relationship with God if we can’t trust him even with this.

The third area of testing was that Abraham had to trust God with the deepest dreams and longings of his heart.

So Abraham seems to have passed the first two, though it doesn’t seem from our perspective that he did so “with flying colors.” But now we get to the really tough stuff. We don’t give our fondest dreams up to anyone, but that’s what God was asking of Abraham. But we resist giving up our dream until we are in a place of desperation, because if we give The Big Dream to God and He doesn’t come through for us, we are out in the cold. There is nothing left, and we are without hope. Let’s read about Abraham from Genesis 22:

“Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’”

Notice the way God describes Isaac: “your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac.” It’s almost as if God were rubbing in the pain of this thought, in addition to giving a command.

“So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.’"

Many scholars believe that Moriah, the place of the binding of Isaac, was later to become the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

“Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.”

This scene is even more poignant in Hebrew, because Abraham doesn’t actually say “God will provide,” but “God will see.” (Adonai yireh) The implication is that when God sees the need, He will supply it. Also, notice that Abraham says God will supply “for himself” a lamb, not “for us.” The offering belonged to God.

“Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’”

This has to be one of the most dramatic events in scripture, and perhaps in all of literature. What was going through the mind of Abraham? What was going through the mind of Isaac? It’s an amazing scene.

“Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.’"

Again, Adonai yireh: God will see, and when God sees the need, He supplies the need as we are obedient to him.

“Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, ‘By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.”

The bottom line is, Abraham trusted God with his deepest dream, with the fondest longing of his heart, and God honored his obedience.

I think this is beyond question the most difficult step God can ask of us. We can risk going broke, being hungry, or even—if we think the stakes are high enough—our reputation. However, when we risk the deepest longing of our heart, the central desire in our life, then we put ourselves in a terrible place. If God doesn’t “come through” for us, we are left with nothing. We have already given up material goods, plus our reputation, and now we give up our fondest dream. What’s left?

But this is precisely what Abraham was asked to do when he was told to sacrifice Isaac. There is no question: It is hard to imagine how God could fulfill the promise to Abraham without Isaac, and the request had to cut to the core of Abraham’s being.

From the text, we are unable to see into the mind of Abraham. He seems confident, trusting, certain that God will come through before he is required to kill this one, the son of promise. And his actions seem to say that, even if God did not come through, Abraham was still prepared to carry through with the killing, apparently trusting that God would make another way. The writer of Hebrews ascribes to Abraham a great faith, a certainty that God would bring Isaac back from the dead (Heb. 11). But it’s difficult to imagine this scene without some serious emotional turmoil.

To be a friend of God is no small thing. It is through his friends that God works to change the world. And it is the friends of God, indeed, who in the end, have the richest, most fulfilling lives. God has called us to friendship with him. It’s a great privilege and a high honor. It is not something we should take lightly.

A life of friendship with God is a life with God. As I finish this, I have received an announcement of a conference, called “The With-God Life.” God calls us to a with-God life. And a with-God life is the only life truly worth living.

Amen.

Posted by at 07:41 AM | Comments (5)

January 25, 2006

Sweet Hooters Most Holy

From Fox News; Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Please bless these overly revealing orange shorts, and all who wear them while serving me cheese fries.

The head Catholic priest for the Greater Waco, Texas, area, Monsignor Isidore Rozycki, plans to bless a new Hooters restaurant in a private opening ceremony, according to The Waco Tribune-Herald.

"Blessings are part of the Catholic tradition," Rozycki, the pastor of St. Martin's Church in Tours, told the paper. "You bless the building so it will be a safe haven, so that the families that enter will be blessed, so the employees will be blessed as they support their families."

The public can bask in the Hooters' divinity beginning Tuesday, as the chain's newest location officially opens — since they won't be able to attend the actual blessing.

A man of the cloth blessing an establishment best known for waitresses in short shorts may draw the ire of many local religious leaders, Rozycki admitted, adding that he knows many other residents will find the move bizarre as well.

This fall, some 60 ministers signed a letter expressing disapproval of the restaurant — saying they oppose Hooters because of the sexual innuendo used in ads and the exploitation of female employees.

(Story continues below)

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"I respect [the ministers'] opinion, but I think it's the way and the attitude with which you approach it," Rozycki told The Tribune-Herald. "I look it as a very fun place. It was a place of laughter. You forget about the tensions and stress of daily life and get an opportunity to laugh with friends. And it's great food."

Rozycki, 63, emphasized that giving his blessing is a good way to reach out to his community — pointing to the story of Jesus eating with a tax collector, even though at the time they were thought of as the some of the worst sinners.

Blessing Hooters isn't any different, Rozycki said.

"God's image is in all of these folks," Rozycki told The Tribune-Herald.

Rozycki also said Hooters doesn't deserve its bad rap: Recounting two enjoyable dining experiences at a Dallas-area Hooters.

Without doubt, lustful sinners who head to Hooters will find what they're looking for, Rozycki said, adding that that's true no matter where they go — especially at the local beach or public swimming pool.

Posted by at 03:01 PM | Comments (4)

October 28, 2005

Intimacy II

In Intimacy I, I wrote about my thoughts on intimate relationships, and the difficulty we -- especially men -- have in relating to God on more than an intellectual level. I received several responses, and many said I had hit the target. I hope so, but I don’t assume so. I am not so much “shooting at a target” as I am searching for understanding of a very difficult and important problem. I am certainly no expert in this matter, but simply a man who wants to understand why I have struggled and my friends struggle with being intimate with God. I want to continue on the line I began, and I hope this will begin some dialogue, both between some of you and me, and between you and others. Perhaps even including God.

I have continued praying, thinking and reading about this, trying to understand some things about myself, and about other people whom I know. Why do we have such a struggle with relating to God?

I think there is the obvious element of fear: If we are truthful, this invisible but very obvious God leaves us edgy. I think it’s a little like being in a situation where we have absolutely no control. We don’t like it, sort of like feeling like life is like a bus, and we are passengers, and nobody is driving. Not a fun place. God is driving, but we are not sure we trust his judgment. Actually, that was Adam’s problem, too.

So there is a fear of God. But there is another fear, I think, one that is more pertinent to us in the context of our relationship with God and each other. That’s an internal fear, the fear of being found out for “who we really are.”

I wonder, too, if there is not in men an awareness that we mostly live our lives for something that is ultimately unfulfilling. We live, we work hard, and we die. And overwhelmingly, we leave nothing of consequence to show for having lived. Do we, perhaps without conscious awareness, wonder if we are somehow missing a very important mark? I certainly have done that.

Everyone seeks meaning in life. Nobody wants to “just be.” Life is hard, and for it to be both hard and pointless is too much to bear. Pain with purpose is bearable and can even bring good. Pain that is random is unbearable. And the idea that we can “invent our own meaning” is nonsense. The only person who gets to write the rules is the one whose game it is. Life is not ours to define. God is the source of life, and only God can define success and failure in life.

So what is God’s standard for us? Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is to be good, upright, and people of character. We are to love our wives and children, work hard to provide for them, and be all-around good guys. But that’s not it. That’s not what God really wants from us. That’s only the surface, the easy part.

To understand more, we have to look at Genesis, the account of the beginning of “us.” That account (Chapters 1 & 2) tells us something important about men and women: We were intended to live in open, transparent relationship with God and each other, and our “job” was to be God’s “agent,” acting on his behalf and with his authority, in governing the earth. We were to multiply and subdue the earth, making it productive and orderly. In a more concise way, we were to represent God, being his “junior partner” in running the world. We didn’t do that very well then, and we don’t do that very well now. In fact, I think the whole idea is a complete blank for most people. It’s beyond our imagination.

There is certainly present in men as a group a desire to build, to subdue and to make things happen. We are by nature doers, and that has brought some very good things. It is that inherent urge that has led to the development of advanced technology, and life-saving medical treatments. Sadly, it has also led to conflict and war, and great human suffering.

That urge was put in us by God. And, despite distortions, it remains that God intended that we be his “junior partners” in running the world. We have fallen far short of that. Compared to that original -- and still valid -- purpose, no matter what else a man might accomplish, it is in itself far short of being God’s representative on earth.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God found them hidden and covered with leaves. It is the first occurrence of shame in humans, a shame that came out of betrayal.

I believe that every sin involves a betrayal. Adam and Eve obviously betrayed God. I think we might also say that Adam betrayed Eve, in not protecting her. In some of the sins we commit, we betray friends and family. In others -- more private -- we betray ourselves, offending our own integrity and worth. And in all, we betray God.

Every betrayal brings guilt. Betrayal is an offense against a person, and brings the consequence of guilt before the offended person. The most difficult aspect of having betrayed, however, is not the guilt incurred. Guilt -- a legal concept -- is resolved by forgiveness from the one offended. Guilt is relatively easy to deal with. The bigger issue is shame. Shame is internal, and cannot easily be done away with. “I forgive you” does not touch shame. And shame -- which is seldom discussed or considered -- is a huge factor, because shame warps our self-image into something with little resemblance to the one God created us to be.

Stories are common of those who were caught in some major moral failure, something that brought humiliation on the person, and great pain and betrayal to others. But then there is a confession and a seeking of forgiveness; those offended are quick to forgive, and the offender is joyfully accepted back into the community. Then, after a time, everyone is surprised when the forgiven offender takes his own life.

The problem is that forgiveness by others could relieve the offender only of his guilt. A guilty person who is forgiven is still guilty, but the claims of the offense are eliminated. The guilt is, in effect, done away with. But forgiveness does not touch shame, and shame made his life unbearable. Shame is at the root of many addictions, much destructive behavior, and, I suspect, many suicides.

So coming back to the issue of intimacy with God, is it possible that our problem with intimacy is due to an inner shame -- perhaps deeply buried -- over falling short of what God called us to? A shame over an ultimately wasted life? A shame over betraying both our own potential and our God? I don’t know the answer, but I think it’s worth considering.

I tell people that my greatest talent is making mistakes. Big ones. And sadly, when I look back at my life, that’s more true than I like. However, when I look a the lives of others, I think perhaps “my” talent is not uniquely mine, but is rather a characteristic of people in general, and perhaps men in particular. When I look back at my life, I grieve at the lost years and opportunities. I grieve at the waste I have made of the talents and abilities that God gave me. And, truth be told, I have been inwardly ashamed. I can identify with what Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 6:9a): “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?...”

Continuing, Paul lists a pretty sleazy sounding bunch. You can check it in your Bible if you want the gory details. It’s really easy to look at them and feel at least a little bit superior. But the truth is, the difference between them and me is a matter of degree, not of kind.

While writing this, I finished reading a book called “The Gospel According to Judas,” by Ray Anderson. It is a study in forgiveness, and examines the betrayal of Jesus by Judas.

There is perhaps no name on earth as maligned as that of Judas. Even people who don’t know the history know that to be called a “Judas” is no complement. He is remembered as the ultimate betrayer.

But the truth is, I am little different than Judas. I have betrayed Jesus, repeatedly doing things that I knew grieved him, things that I knew were wrong. I knew and I did them anyway. And I betrayed Jesus, not out of a mistaken zealotry like Judas, but out of a selfish insistence on my own pleasure and will.

But….

But Paul also wrote the following verse: “11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

Notice the tense: Such WERE some of you. I WAS something worthy only of shame, BUT I was sanctified -- set apart for God. BUT I was justified, restored and able to be united with the One who loves me so well, knowing full well all that I have been.

What is the remedy for shame? It is not forgiveness. It is certainly not denial. It is not casting out “spirits of condemnation.” We cannot talk ourselves out of shame.

The remedy for shame -- and there is only one -- is to begin to understand the deep, passionate love of God for me. It is to understand -- only a little -- the joy God takes in me, just as I am.

I know me. I know who I am and of what sort I am. And I am amazed that God would have anything to do with me. But he did and he does, knowing full well who I am and of what sort I am. And I am not where I want to be, nor am I where I am going to be, but I am growing in the likeness of my Redeemer, and I am no longer ashamed.

Posted by at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2005

Intimacy I

I have been wondering just what it is that keeps so many of us from entering into an intimate relationship with God. So many of our “Christian” lives are pretty cold and distant from God, it seems to me. It’s an interesting question, but a difficult one. It seems there are no easy answers to it.

But we are not alone in this problem. The Israelites, in their 40-year trip through the Sinai, saw just a little of God, and it scared them to their core. They didn’t want to be anywhere near this awesome something -- they weren’t quite sure what to think God really was -- and they certainly had trouble living as the chosen people of an invisible yet fearsomely powerful being.

I look at them and I scoff. I say, “Not me, baby! I’m no wishy washy chicken. I would have been right there with Moses and Josh. I’m not one of those crowd-following sissies.” I look down on them and smugly wonder how they could be so foolish. I would have been different! And so would you. Right?

Fat chance.

The truth is, there is something in all of us that is at least a little afraid of God. After all, he’s powerful beyond our comprehension, waaay beyond our understanding, and though he says he loves us, he didn’t hesitate to toast a bunch of people who ticked him off. So we keep a little distance. He’s dangerous.

But inside, we have an empty place that needs filling. We don’t like to think about it, and most of us have denial down to an art. Still, if we read the Bible, and we look at our lives, we have to say, “This just can’t be what God had in mind.” Perhaps that’s why so few of us actually read the Bible.

I think there are several factors involved in this problem. One is the natural aversion of people for God. We will convince ourselves that just about anything is true to avoid Truth. It dates all the way back to Adam and Eve.

And I notice that men, especially, have great difficulty being intimate with God. In fact, my hunch is that most men have trouble being truly intimate with anyone. I think most men are pretty unsettled inside about who they really are, and are unwilling to let many people see “the real me.” But that’s just my opinion. As a man, of course.

I think part of the problem is that our culture was shaped by Christianity. Rather, it was shaped by what came to be known as Christianity. The original “Hebraic” Christianity -- the “Christianity” of the Bible -- came to us, substantially modified, via a church that long ago became dominated by Greek-speaking and Greek-thinking men. Now, Greek-speaking is okay, but Greek-thinking was a problem with some consequences that have plagued us until this day. The Greek-thinking church rejected both its roots in Israel and anything Jewish, with sad consequences.

The immediate problem comes in seeing God -- and just about everything else -- as something to be analyzed and dissected. Life for the Greeks was about reason and logic. It’s no coincidence that the world’s great ancient philosophers were nearly all Greek. As the leadership of the church shifted from Jews to Greeks, the way of thinking about God also shifted. The Greek way of “doing theology” -- thinking about God -- was far different than anything in the world of the Jews. And from this Greek orientation, God became something to be analyzed, the object of reasoning and intellectual inquiry. And so he remains in much of the church and in many of our lives today.

The problem is, the Bible is not about analysis and philosophical discourse. The Bible is about God’s revelation of himself through relationship. It is about revelation that comes from God to us, for the purpose of establishing a relationship between us and God. It is not “systematic theology.” The most “systematic” of biblical writers, Paul, is a long ways from modern systematic theology.

The “system” of the Bible is that we “know God” by experiencing God. It’s like any other interpersonal relationship: A person knows another person only by experiencing that person. Otherwise, all we can hope for is to know about others. It is no coincidence that Genesis speaks of a sexual relationship between a man and a woman in terms of “knowing”: Adam “knew” his wife.

The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is a wonderful work on relational theology. It is an account of how we can know God by experiencing him. And we can know him only by experiencing him.

Now that’s all well and good, you might say, but what’s the solution? Any fool can point out a problem. What’s the answer? Here, I can only talk about my own experience. Perhaps it will speak to you, too.

I grew up in a church that emphasized study. We studied the Bible Sunday morning in Sunday School. We studied the Bible Sunday morning in the worship service. We studied the Bible Sunday evening in youth group, and we studied the Bible Sunday evening in the worship service. But we weren’t done yet: We studied the Bible Sunday night after church, when we had college-level Bible classes. And to be sure we covered the bases, we also studied the Bible on Wednesday night at “prayer meeting” -- where there wasn’t much prayer, as I remember.

I was immersed in it, and I have to say, it built some good habits in me. However, at the end, I knew a lot about God, but I had no idea about knowing God. To say, “I love Jesus” would have been unthinkable. Embarrassing, even.

The change for me, it seems, began when I started reading the Old Testament. (You remember: that bunch of books at the front part of your Bible. The ones you always pass to find John 3:16.) I mean, really reading it, paying attention to what has happening and the story that was told.

As I started in Genesis, I read about Abraham and Moses and others who seemed to have this “friendship” with God. I read the accounts, and I was amazed at the intimacy. And the more I read, the more irritated I became. Who were these guys, that they got to have this amazing closeness while I had to stand off in the distance? I didn’t want to stand at the foot of the mountain and watch. I wanted to go up the mountain with Moses. I’m from Colorado, and I like mountain tops. And after all, God says he loves me, that he has chosen me, that I am supposed to call him daddy, and all that. So why are we so far apart while they were so close?

In my frustration, I began to pray fervently to know God. I copied from the Hebrew text a sentence from the Genesis account of Jacob wrestling all night with the “angel,” and hung it over my desk: “I have seen God face to face.” If Jacob could see him, why couldn’t I? I wanted to know, and I would not accept God ignoring me.

As a result of this passionate longing in me (which I think God stirred up), I began a little at a time to sense God’s presence with me. I began to see new things in the Bible, things that revealed more and more of God to me. And soon I began to understand just a little of how much God loves me. Slowly, we came closer. Slowly, I came to know him and his love for me, and slowly I came to love him, too.

Another factor in the process has been some very difficult times. There have been times when I (1) didn’t think I would live through the experience, and (2) I hoped I was correct.

In these times I very slowly came to understand a little of the apostle Paul’s statement in Romans, that he “exults” in tribulation. I had considered that the mark of insanity. No sane person likes pain. And yet, in tribulation, I began to really know God and stopped all the games and let God break down the walls in me that separated me from him. I didn’t do it because I was a spiritual superman or someone with special wisdom: I did it because I was desperate.

Just this morning I read an interview with a Chinese house church leader, who said, “Persecution is good for those who love God deeply. Persecution is not good for those who love God only a little.” What a profound insight. I have not been persecuted. But there is a broader principle here: Hard times are good for those who want to love God deeply, but don’t know how.

Some years ago I taught from Revelation, and encouraged people who seemed spiritually “high-centered” to pray for trouble in their lives. I said that nothing will get you moving again in your relationship with God better than problems and troubles in your life.

Of course, you know that just about everyone pretty much blew that off. Nobody wants to pray for trouble. But one young woman heard me, and later told me that she had done just that. The results, she said, were a wonderful deepening of her relationship with God. She grew and matured in ways she had not thought possible.

I believe there is no such thing as “10 easy steps to being a man or woman of faith and power.” Abraham and Moses both tell us that the closer we seek to come to God, the more difficult our life will be. But Abraham and Moses also tell us that it’s worth it.

Posted by at 05:06 PM | Comments (2)

October 22, 2005

Does God have friends?

I had yet another birthday recently – a good thing, I suppose – and as I get older, each of these “special” days gives increasing occasion to look back on my life. And so, with some trepidation, I reflect back on the years I have lived, on the things I have done and the things that have been done to me. And as I look, I don’t see what I would like to. If I set up a scale, and put everything that I am happy about on one side, and the things I wish I had not done on the other, I don’t like what I see. I don’t see a life that I want my children or anyone else to model. Too many mistakes and bad choices. Sad.

But there is one exception in that mix.

For as long as I can remember, it seems like I have had something pulling me toward God, and I have had a deep longing for a relationship with God. I am happy for that. I have wanted to be, like some biblical figures, a friend of God. This is something I pray for my children.

But, as I think of the question, “What is it like to have God for a friend?” I have a lot of questions, and not many clear answers. It would seem, from my perspective, that being God’s friend would result in a life that “worked” and was generally recognized as a pretty good life, something worth having. But it doesn’t often seem to happen that way.

As I try to understand this, and try to not get discouraged about things in life, I have to look at scripture, because it’s about the only place where I can see “case studies” of people who seemed to want God as their friend. Or, wanted or not, they wound up with some sort of more substantive relationship with God. Three guys come to mind right off: Abraham, Moses and David.

Abraham had a strange pattern in his life. First, God called him to pack up and move, a long ways, with only uncertainty ahead. He did that to me, also. Then, he was way rich. Well, one out of two is still batting .500. Abraham lacked for nothing in the material world, considering the resources of the time in which he lived. Finally, he left a legacy that was beyond awesome. No single individual in all of history has made as great a difference in the world as Abraham and his progeny. And yet, he made some really big mistakes – I like that – and he had to undergo some really hard times of testing.

His mistakes – three come to mind – included letting his wife be taken into a harem, not once, but twice. (And the first time, in Egypt, I believe there is a good argument that she was sexually compromised.) What could he have been thinking? This sort of action is utterly incomprehensible to me by any reasonable standard. And the third was giving in to his wife and agreeing to father a child by a servant. What kinds of problems came from that! Abraham comes across to me as sometimes lacking character and backbone. Yet, God continued to use him, despite his very human failings.

We see another side of him at the “binding” of Isaac. This account – so horrific to us that we simply cannot agree on what really happened – is beyond imagination. If I were in his place, and my daughter on the alter, what would I do? I honestly cannot say. I don’t know. The entire scenario is too hard for me to imagine.

But as I look at Abraham, I see something we have in common: An ability to do the right thing paired with an ability to really screw up.

Then there was Moses, whose relationship with God was simply breathtaking. He was another example for us, but from a little different perspective. Moses was God’s unwilling friend. Moses was not like Abraham: He did not hear the call of God and obey. Rather he heard the call and said, God, I don’t want to do this. Call someone else. But God was not interested in what Moses wanted.

And so it appears that it’s possible to be a “friend” of God by God’s choosing, and not ours. Putting them together, it seems that God uses people who have major “flaws” – they are seriously screwed up – and He is not above going out and recruiting them, even against their will. Seems that, for the big jobs, He does this more than He uses volunteers. Hmm. An army with drafted leaders.

David is the third case that comes to mind. Here was someone with the natural gifts and talents that make him a logical choice for leadership. And God chose him. And then, after God assured David of his choosing, He let him wander about in the wilderness, hunted like a wild animal, for nearly 10 years. And when we look at David we see a man whose heart was clearly God’s, but who often didn’t live that out well. Ever hear of Bathsheba?

As I have considered David, it seems to me that one might make a case that he was an illegitimate son. I have found that this idea really raises the blood pressure of some folks, but I think it explains some things. First, his father didn’t even consider him when asked to bring his sons to the prophet. Second, David wrote a song about “being conceived in iniquity,” which we take to mean having a sinful nature. But what if this is not a profound theological statement, but rather a simple statement of his own origin? Then there was David’s own parenting record: He was a great poet, musician, and military leader. As great as he was in these areas, he failed equally as a father.

Everything about David’s history as a father suggests that he had no idea what he was doing. Could it be that he had never experienced a real father? Who knows, but it seems plausible.

And all that is very encouraging to me, because my father died while I was still a young boy, and I grew up in a home that could only be called strange and malfunctional. I have not made every boneheaded mistake possible, but I have overlooked only a few. And yet, for whatever incomprehensible reason, God has chosen me to bear his name and carry his appeal to the world. For whatever reason, God has chosen me to be his friend. And that leaves me speechless.

Posted by at 09:45 AM | Comments (12)

October 15, 2005

Teachable...by whom?

We all want to learn and grow in our faith, but here's a pitfall, in the words of Beth Moore: “Our teachability most often depends on our teacher. If we respect the teacher, we might accept the teaching. If we don’t, we dump it.” More accurately, our teachability depends on our perception of our teacher.

How many of us would rush to church if we saw an announcement that the apostle Paul was the guest speaker? Standing room only, right? But if Paul walked into our church unannounced and anonymous, how many would listen to him? Remember, tradition tells us that Paul was a slightly built, scrawny guy with a head several sizes too big. And he had a bad speaking voice, and probably eye problems, so that he couldn’t see well. The bottom line is, in our charisma-driven society, Paul would never make it. And yet, think of our loss by not hearing him.

If we were asked whether we could accept it if God told us something new, the answer would almost certainly be yes. And if the “teacher” was someone like Moses? Again yes. And even if it was Paul, with his charisma problem, we might still agree to listen. What if it was Avi, the writer of these words? To be honest, he isn’t all that charismatic, either. Here it gets tougher, but some might still say yes. But now, what if it was someone whom you consider less mature than you, or less educated, or less spiritual, perhaps less attractive? Someone that you might even look down on, just a little? Could someone we think of as a nobody help us hear from God and know him better? That’s a teachable spirit.

Posted by at 07:32 PM | Comments (3)

October 11, 2005

Do Protestants have a better life?

As I was working out today, I was watching TV, because it serves to distract my mind from what I am requiring of my body. Some will understand. In any case, the TV had a program on the relationship between “natural disasters” and religion.

There have been many occurrences in the past year that have killed horrendous numbers of people. Last year’s tropical storm season was terrible, devastating parts of the southeastern U.S., and killing many thousands of people in even more vulnerable places. Then there was the tsunami the day after Christmas, and this season there have been still more tropical storms – of which Katrina and Rita are only two of many – along with mudslides wiping out entire villages, and now a devastating earthquake in south Asia. The people on the program were discussing those – of every theological bent – who cry that natural disasters are God’s judgment on infidels, whether the infidels are Muslims or Christians.

To that idea, I say nonsense. People who run their mouths like that are demonstrating their own stupidity.

But this idea of a relationship between religion and the life of the people got me thinking about this issue from another direction.

I took a map, and marked those countries where the people have a high degree of political and religious freedom, a stable society, high levels of economic and educational opportunity, and a high material standard of living. Generally, it’s western Europe, North America (U.S. and to a lesser degree Canada), and perhaps Japan. And even western Europe is spotty, with a great difference between Germany, for example, and Portugal.

Then I looked at the same map, and outlined the areas that had their roots in the Protestant Reformation. In other words, what areas had a population that in general has a Protestant Christian heritage?

It’s interesting that there seems to be a fairly close correlation between Protestant Christianity and the more “advanced” cultures. One exception might be Japan. However, post-war Japan was the creation of a Protestant American, Douglas MacArthur. And in fact, Japan is in the past decade or two having serious problems, and one might ask if the influence of the “transplanted” Protestant roots are wearing off, and without that foundation, the culture cannot sustain an American-style free-market economy and democracy.

I don’t know if this holds water. But it seems that there are some very interesting coincidences. Perhaps it’s really true that “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.”

Posted by at 04:50 PM | Comments (5)

October 10, 2005

Some thoughts on knowing God ... and each other

As I look at my life, I see one thing – actually, I see a lot more than one – that puzzles me. It’s my relationship with God.

At the core of my being, I truly want to know God, serve him, and live my life in a manner that honors him. But in the actions of my life, I fall short again and again. And there is something in me that looks at God and the idea of being close to him, and draws back. Know what I mean?

As I have considered this, it has occurred to me that a large part of my relational problem might be found in shame.

In The Gospel According to Judas, Ray Anderson writes about the nature of betrayal. He says that in every betrayal, there are two problems for the betrayer: guilt and shame. First, he is guilty. He has to deal with the issue of guilt. The second is shame. He has to deal also with being ashamed of his conduct.

He gives an example of a prominent man who was caught in some serious transgression, and publicly exposed. He confessed and asked for forgiveness, and his family and friends gathered around him, accepted him back among them, and all was well with the world. It was a wonderful testimony of love and forgiveness.

Some months later, the man killed himself.

None of his friends or associates understood, and his family was devastated. Anderson says there is a simple explanation: shame.

Guilt is a legal matter. It has nothing to do with our feelings; we either are guilty or we are not. And guilt is resolved either by penalty or forgiveness. Any offended party can resolve the issue of guilt by forgiving the offender. But not shame.

Guilt is outwardly focused, and involves a relationship with another. Shame is inwardly focused. Shame deals only with me, and if left unresolved, it can be fatal. Shame kills.

Anderson says that every betrayal involves shame. I would add to that and claim that every sin is a betrayal. It’s inborn in us to want to do well, and when we do not, we have reasons to be ashamed of ourselves. We have betrayed our own expectations. We have betrayed the one least likely to forgive us.

Can it be that a factor in hindering our growth is this shame? Is it possible that the reason we act with such hostility and self-destructive behavior is because we have so many times screwed things up that we are deeply ashamed of ourselves, and so keep everyone else at arm’s length?

You know: “If they knew what I am really like, they wouldn’t have anything to do with me.”

Posted by at 04:10 PM | Comments (3)

October 09, 2005

Doxa + Logos = Word of Praise

Have you ever had a time when nothing you thought about God seemed sufficient? You read, you pray, you sing, you talk, and whenever your thought turns to God, the only thing that comes forth is an overwhelming sense of thanks and praise. They are wonderful times, and too few in many lives.

Some years ago, on a trip to Israel, about a dozen of us were in an ancient church, and noticed the superb acoustics. So we gathered in the center of the sanctuary and sang the Doxology, a song of praise to God. It was a time we will never forget, listening as our voices blended and echoed in singing the wonder of our God. On another day we went to the border between Judea and Samaria, and sat on a hillside overlooking a huge valley, full of history. It was cloudy and foggy, and a light drizzle was falling. As we sat taking in the scene before us, someone began to play the great Hallelujah Chorus, from Messiah, on a battery-powered tape player. Surely this is one of the greatest songs of praise ever composed, and this, too, was a moment never to be forgotten, as if we were sitting at the throne of God.

Probably most of you have heard of “The Doxology,” and I am certain there are a number of musical pieces going by that name, but did you know there are many “doxologies” in Scripture?

The word comes from two Greek words: “doxa” meaning “praise, honor, glory,” and “logos,” meaning “word.” Put together, a doxology is a song of praise, honor, or glory, in this case to God. There are many in Scripture, and they are some of the most wonderful parts of the Bible. For example, these two verses from Jude are one of my favorites:

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling,
And to make you stand in the presence of His glory,
Blameless, with great joy,
To the only God our Savior,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (24-25)

Or this from Romans:

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
For who has known the mind of the LORD, or who became his counselor?
Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever.
Amen.” (11:33-36)

And the Psalmist put it this way:

“Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
Who is the King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift them up, O ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory (24:7-10).”

Or this, also from Psalms:

Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name;
Worship the LORD in holy array.
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters;
The God of glory thunders,
The LORD is over many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful,
The voice of the LORD is majestic.
The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire.
The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"
The LORD sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.
The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace” (29:1-11).

And finally, the “last word” from the ultimate Praise Book, which, of course, is the book of Psalms:

Praise the LORD!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD!” (150:1-6).

What an awesome God we serve!

Praise the Lord, all ye nations, exalt Him, all ye peoples! He alone is worthy to be praised! Amen!

Posted by at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2005

God: hard to love?

A while back, I led a group in our church, working through the popular “40 Days of Purpose” study. We read the book, watch the video, and then discuss the material. One week, we were talking about loving God.

One person in our group said, “I have great difficulty with ‘loving’ a being that I cannot see, touch, or really understand.” Around the room there were nods of agreement. This idea -- loving God -- is a central part of Christianity, of course, and yet I suspect it is one of the biggest problems for most people who call themselves Christians.

It’s a good question: How can I love someone I can’t see, touch, or often even have a conversation with (God seems not very talkative at times)? One characteristic we seem to hold in common as human persons is that we really don’t relate well to intangible beings. We really like -- and need -- someone “with skin on.” So how do we solve this problem? If loving is something that requires knowing, and knowing comes from time together, how can we truly love God?

This is not a problem unique to modern western culture. The ancient Israelites had the same struggle in the desert, trying to relate to a God that was totally unlike anything in human experience. This invisible, intangible -- and dangerous -- “something” that demanded their allegiance under pain of death, how were they to love that?

I think part of the problem for us is in our understanding of love. Especially in America we often think of love in a sort of ethereal sense, as an experience with another person with whom we have a close relationship.

However, the biblical idea has little to do with liking, or enjoying, or being attracted to, or any of the many facets of a modern definition of love. The biblical idea is closely tied to one word: obey. To love God is first of all to obey God. And to obey God is, by biblical definition, the first step in coming to love God. The Old Testament is pretty clear on this idea of obedience, and even Jesus -- God “with skin on” -- said, “If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you” (John 14:15 MSG).

But we might understandably say that sounds more like being the subject of a dictatorial ruler. Isn’t love about more than slavish obedience? And the answer, of course, is that it certainly is. However, slavish obedience isn’t really what this is about, and it helps if we look at what God is trying to accomplish.

God is by nature a creator, one who brought into existence a physical world of breathtaking diversity, complexity and beauty. This created world was at first chaotic and unproductive. God is by nature not chaotic and unproductive, and a chaotic and unproductive creation was not his intent. But he wasn’t finished yet. He took some dirt, fashioned a human person, and breathed life into him. Then he cleared some land, planted a garden, and put the man in it. Then he took from the man and fashioned for him a mate, one to complete and complement him and together with him to be a whole.

Now all this is true, but it is incomplete. What I have not mentioned in this very short history is the *reason* God made these two and put them in this special garden.

God gave Adam and Eve two positive instructions. One was to be fruitful and multiply. He intended that they be the first of many, who would spread out over the earth, subduing it and exercising delegated authority from God -- “dominion” -- over the earth. And in conjunction with that, they were to protect and work the garden, which was the first place to come under the dominion of man. The garden, which I believe was intended as a prototype for the rest of the earth, was a special place of God’s presence. Adam was God’s “on-site” manager for the garden, and, had things played out as intended, of the world.

So, in other words, God created us to be his “partners” in the “family business,” whose mission now is to redeem a lost creation, and to reconcile broken relationships. This is the God we are told to obey, the one who is the creator of a world of fabulous complexity and beauty, and the one who then shares it with us. This is a God who intended that we live in true intimacy with him, simply because he loves us.

So then why the emphasis on obedience? Can’t we all just love on each other and just get along? Well, no.

When I was a boy, I was my mother’s delight. I was her ideal little boy. (I know this will come as news to my brothers, but it’s true.) Then I turned twelve, and when I did…. Well, never mind the gory details.

If you had asked my mother, she would have told you she deeply loved me, and that’s true. She would also have told you that she really would have liked for me to be an obedient son, which I was not. If I had been obedient, her life, my life, and the lives of everyone in the house would have been much less hectic. (In later years, my mother looked at me, her oldest son, the delight of her heart, and said, “You made my life pure hell.” She was -- I hasten to point out -- speaking of days long past.)

The reason she wanted obedience, however, had nothing to do with family peace. It had to do with relationship: We could not enjoy each other unless I gave up being a rebel. Every parent reading this knows what I am talking about.

Our relationship with God is not immune to these principles: We cannot live in rebellion and hope to have any relationship that leads to knowledge of God. So once again, the first step in loving God is obedience.

A relationship with God starts with a decision, a choice of will: to choose to act *toward* as much of God as I know. This has nothing about it that feels like what we think of as love, but we are trying to open the door, to build a foundation on which a relationship can grow.

In honesty I might say, “God, I know I should love you, but I don’t. I don’t know how, or even what that means. So I choose to obey you to the greatest extent I know how.” God responds to this by beginning to reveal himself to me, showing me a little more of himself each time I make a choice toward God and not away from him. Over time, there grows a knowing and a loving relationship. I am not aware of a point in time when it starts, but at some point I look, and to my surprise I can say that I love God. It just “sorta snuck up on me.”

Obedience is the key to loving God, to knowing God, to living a life of fulfillment and fruitfulness. We cannot be rebels and live the life for which we were created. If we think we can -- and many of us do -- we are simply fooling ourselves. It just ain’t gonna happen.

So the question now is simple: Are we going to obey God or not? Put another way, how much more of our life are we willing to throw away, with nothing to show for having lived?

Amen.

Posted by at 05:39 PM | Comments (4)

October 01, 2005

Why is life sometimes so hard?

As I reflect on recent months of writing, it seems like I am spending a lot of time writing about relationship, especially our relationship with God, and our understanding of the sort of God we think is there. This is unusual, because I like variety both in my life and in my writing. I am normally not a “one-song Sam” kind of guy, and it is unlike me to remain focused on one area for this long.

However, I keep coming back to this topic because I keep wrestling with these questions, even though my faith in God is pretty deeply rooted. I think it’s because as I talk with people I hear these questions over and over. People are struggling with the pain in their lives, and the seeming failure of God to answer their prayers, or to rescue them from intense suffering. I hear of loved ones dying a slow, painful death. I hear of jobs unjustly lost. I hear of spousal abandonment. I hear, in short, of lives fallen apart, and people who have been committed Christians despairing of life itself. I hear of struggles to continue living a life that seems devoid of meaning.

Some years ago, I heard a teacher talking about the biblical character Job. He that Job teaches us this: “Just because your life is falling apart doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing something wrong. It might mean that you are doing something right.”

At the time, I was in a hard place. I was unemployed, having followed what I thought was the voice of God. After I committed myself to a course of action, absolutely nothing happened as I had expected. On top of that, my wife was using the “d” word a lot. Further, I was dealing with a teenager who seemed determined to wreck his life and mine, too. And I confess, the statement about Job was music to my ears and it lifted my spirit. Yet, for many long months, nothing changed in my circumstances.

And the questions came, legitimate questions, of where is God in all this? Where is the God who said he wanted to bless me and not curse me? Where is the God who said that as I delight myself in him, he would give me the desires of my heart? Where is the God who claimed to love me enough to die in my place? He’s hard to see in these times.

It seems to me that the God that many Christians claim to worship, and the Christianity that they claim to follow, doesn’t work very well in the real world. By that I mean that it’s a good thing to be a “Christian,” when everything is going our way. It’s even a good thing even if only some things are going our way. And perhaps it’s still a good thing when little or nothing is going our way, as long as it doesn’t last too long. You know, we can tough it out through some pretty hard times if we know there is an end to them -- one not too far down the road -- and that we are headed straight toward it. It’s like going to the dentist for a root canal: We can stand it for a while because we know it has a good purpose and it will end, but even the dentist doesn’t want to live in a dentist’s chair. But when we hurt and we don’t know why, and we don’t know when – if ever – it will end, then is the test of our faith.

Most of the rest of the world would find this a strange attitude, indeed, this idea of things going our way. Christians in most of the world suffer greatly precisely because they claim the name of Jesus. An expectation that a Christian would not suffer is incomprehensible. Christians stand – by their very existence – against evil. Of course they will suffer. And this was the attitude of much of the early church, as well.

How do we deal with these things? They are important: matters of life and death. And, I fear, the “solution” for many of us is to live in denial. We have no answer, and the question is just too hard to think about, so we block it out. However, denial doesn’t work. The questions are real and will not be denied. One way or another, sooner or later, we have to address them. Either we reconcile this conflict, or we will walk away from the God of the Bible. And many have indeed walked away. They have chosen to live with their own God, in their own reality, if that is possible.

I think part of the answer is to try to understand the nature of this world and what God is doing in it. Why does he let hard things happen to us? What is the big picture that all of this fits into? To know the answer to that, we have to go to the Bible. Anything else leaves us with only speculation and opinion, not good materials on which to build a life.

We must point out first that God never intended for us to live in a world of pain and suffering. That came about as a result of our ancestors rebelling, and saying to God, “We don’t trust you, and we don’t need you.” And every generation down to our own has endorsed their decision. We have said, by our own words and lives, “God, I think I can live a perfectly satisfactory life without you. So please go away and don’t bother me.” Here is sin, and here we find the source of suffering, not in some malevolent “will of God.”

God’s intent was that we live in a place of intimate fellowship with him, loving him and being loved by him, knowing him face to face. It was his further intent that we be his partners in transforming the earth from chaos to order and productivity. Read the first two or three chapters of Genesis.

And now, since the option of spreading the Garden of Eden to cover the earth is long past, his intent is that we be his partners in redeeming what was lost, and bringing about reconciliation between people and God (II Cor. 5). It’s important to know and remember this when trying to understand the world around us, and the hard times in our lives.

I recently hired a person for a new supervisory position where I work. I didn’t have the budget to hire highly experienced applicants, so I looked for potential. I wanted someone who was smart, motivated, of high character, and someone whose personality clicked with me and the rest of my staff.

The person I hired is in fact doing well, and will very quickly be an asset. But part of her training process is to spend time knowing me, learning how I think, facing problems, learning ways of dealing with difficult people, and more. Before I “turn her loose,” I will have to know that I can trust her, and that she knows me well enough to know what I would want done in situations where I am not available.

God faces the same situation. He wants someone to be his junior partner in managing the world. But he has to “hire” potential, since experienced people are in very short supply. And complicating things more, the job description calls for only members of the family in these positions. So he puts those who join his “staff” -- those who are adopted into his family -- through a rigorous training and testing time, to know him and how he would have them act on his behalf. Before we are entrusted with God’s authority, we have to truly know him, we have to be found utterly trustworthy to represent him, and we have to understand the task to which we are called.

And the task to which God calls us is unimaginable. How awesome is it to be called by the True and Living God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that is, to be his sons and daughters, and his partners in the task of reconciliation of creation? If that idea doesn’t stop you for a minute, you aren’t paying attention. But the nature of that call has another side: It means we will suffer. Read the accounts of what happened to various of God’s people. Look at the prophets in the Old Testament. Look at the apostles in the New Testament. Look, especially, at Jesus.

So, if we consider the end for which we are preparing, and that the reconciliation process is in fact a war for the lives of people, how can we be surprised that we suffer? How can we be surprised that we are called to a life of trial and toughness, and yet a heart of tenderness? Fluffy, ease-loving people are not much good for important tasks, because such tasks are never easy.

So, I ask the question, “God, why is there so much pain in my life?” And I hear the answer, “Why should there not be pain in your life? Look at the world you live in, and the mission on which you are sent. Look at the one who is your redeemer and leader.”

The life of a follower of Jesus is sometimes a hard life, but the high calling involved makes it worth it all. Don’t give up. Ask God to build your strength. Ask God to show you that his strength is your strength, and your task is to remain snuggled as close as possible to him.

And he is faithful. He never fails. Hallelujah.

Posted by at 04:58 PM | Comments (9)

Just a hassle? Perhaps, but…

It was a fairly stressful time for me, looking at a 1000-mile move in a large rental truck, while towing a car, and doing it pretty much alone. So I planned and I prayed. A lot.

I was concerned because I knew it would take me a week to load the truck by myself, and people we expected would help had other commitments. So, I finally got a crew of 6 lined up, plus myself. One was a woman who was a couple months off of major surgery. Two more were her teenage sons. Another was a petite Chinese woman, who also volunteered her husband. “We are very hard workers,” she insisted. Correctly, it turned out. Then there was a young man who worked for me and who was strong, a hard worker, and a real asset. And finally, there was me, an aging man with a problem knee. There was room for concern.

I thought we could handle it, though, starting at 9 a.m. and finishing up at about noon, before the day got seriously hot. I wanted to leave after lunch get as far as I could to the east, and even perhaps turn north, before I stopped for the night, perhaps somewhere in Mississippi.

Problem number one: The woman and her two sons didn’t come. Problem two: The temperature rapidly soared into the high 90s, with a heat index over 100 and a blazing sun. It was, in a word, miserable.

So, working until we thought we would drop, we finally got everything loaded, and the truck was full to the tailgate. And it only took us -- one strong young man, two hard-working Chinese students, and me … seven and a half hours! So much for my good start. We finished just before dinner time, and were fortunate to do that.

Then, the car carrier trailer broke, and we couldn’t move it for over an hour. After we finally managed to work around that, but before I had gone a mile, the gauges on the truck began to malfunction. I had no idea how much oil pressure or fuel I had, and had to stop. It was still over 90 degrees, now dinner time, and I was stuck. The rental company didn’t offer any hope of help before two more hours. Was I unhappy? Well…

So I went to a motel, while it took until 10 p.m. to get service to the truck. At the motel, I turned on the Weather Channel and was surprised to see the change in that “little storm” in the Gulf, the one named Katrina. She had become a monster, and was headed precisely to the same place I was! And the roads were jammed with people trying to escape, all using the same highway I had planned!

So, being an astute young lad, I got the message immediately and changed my plan. I left at first light, driving straight north, getting as far away from the coast as I could.

To say I was frustrated is a big understatement. I thought several things about the truck rental company for which I had to seek forgiveness. However, my intense frustration over their junky equipment was easing now, knowing that if the truck had run properly, I would have driven straight into the teeth of the storm.

And as I began to think a little more rationally, I was somewhat chagrined as I felt compelled to thank God for an unreliable truck. Could it be that God had a hand in my getting that truck and trailer? I mean, it was really junk, even though it was new. Besides the broken trailer, malfunctioning gauges, and marginal brakes, it ran out of fuel on me in the middle of a construction zone, while the gauge said I should have 20 gallons of fuel left. Give thanks? For that? Yes.

That brings up the question of all the times when things don’t go as we plan or expect in our lives. Could it be that we get caught up with frustration over things not going as planned, or not going our way, when in fact, God is working for our good and we don’t see it? Are we ascribing things to the devil -- or anything else unpleasant -- when in fact it is God at work? I don’t know a nice, neat answer to that question.

But, especially after my recent “moving experience,” I wonder how many times I might have missed the still, small voice of God, to the point that he had to throw all sorts of obstacles in my path to get me to turn away from disaster. Have you ever considered that?

I wonder how many times God uses the problems in our lives -- illness, broken cars and trucks, “natural disasters,” even death -- because we are so spiritually hard of hearing? It’s a sobering thought.

It is pretty clear from reading the Bible that high on God’s priority list is having a close relationship with you and me. Someone has called it a “conversational relationship,” and it is that, but I believe God seeks something far more intimate than a “conversational” level. It doesn’t take a very close relationship to have a conversation, does it? (Though, as I consider it, not many of us even have conversations with God.)

I wonder how much heartache and frustration we would have avoided if we listened and responded to the “still, small voice” of God in the first place? I am certain that in my life it’s a considerable amount.

Posted by at 08:23 AM | Comments (1)