Green Spaces: Seasonal Changes for Life

 

Winter Exposure Should Lead to Big Cleanup

 You can’t hide in winter. The green coverage of summer gives way to dead spaces and ugly holes in the landscapes. Cities can be quite ugly at the granular level. Everyone loves a city scape view from a distance though. Who doesn’t love the overhead photos  of New York City at dusk?

Close Ups

One of the best things about watching a TV show like Blue Bloods is the shots of Manhattan from afar. But zoom in and you’ll see a little more grit and grime. Trash piles up in corners and rats scurry into sewer drains. Modern cities started designing with green space in mind. It brings a touch of nature to an otherwise concrete jungle. Central Park was designed to be a center of urban activity from the beginning. But even the best cared for parks lose their canopies in the winter.

We get accustomed to having some of the uglier elements of life hidden during the lush summers. Even small cities like Tulsa have enough greenery along the highways and downtown parks to cover a lot of unsightliness from a distance. Winter forces us to confront how actually trashy our city is. Once the leaves fall and tall grass dies off, we see the place in a whole new light. Here though, I’m not sure what a normal level of debris is for American cities. 

Trashy Living

Why did I become so concerned with the amount of trash along the side of the road? A more pointed question is this, what’s being done to clean it up?

American cities have gotten dirtier and less functional in my lifetime. I won’t pretend things have never been this bad. All you have to do is watch a movie from the 70’s set in New York to see what real blight looks like. I covered one in my movie review from a week ago. One source (HUD) found that homelessness increased 32% from 2022 to 2024. It’s getting harder to hide the rot.

I think there is a biblical principle at work. We can hide ugly behaviors, attitudes and addictions for a while but exposure is just a season away. Samson served Israel during the time of the judges. He was gifted with incredible strength. In one incident he killed over a thousand Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone. Imagine seeing a thousand dead bodies in one place, talk about blight. Samson had appetites that created the conditions for his downfall. He liked women who didn’t share a covenant with God. It cost him a wife and then a girlfriend. He put his people at risk by taking a Philistine wife and avenging her death.

Blind Spots

I don’t get the idea that Samson hid very well though. His strength was in some ways a covering. It allowed him to live life on his own terms and destroy people who got in his way. God gave him a season. Samson's strength was a promise to his parents because of their covenant with God. Samson was hardly a devout, servant of the Israelites. He seemed very selfish. Despite his flaws, God honored the commitment to Samson’s parents and he honored his vows, for a while. But the covering eventually ran out and Samson’s behavior was exposed.

The best solution is to clean up the messes in life. The scripture convicts us when we let it. We ignore the piles of trash at our peril. The trees and brush we’ve built up around it eventually lose their ability to provide cover. Exposure is sure to come.  But we can avoid the embarrassment of a dumpy façade by renewing our mind each day and letting God’s word change our hearts. We might prefer to live in the warm summer seasons of life, but we need the exposure of winter to bring about change and get rid of the trash.

This doesn’t just refer to hidden sin and addictive behavior either. Maybe your trashy space is laziness or unhealthy eating. It’s no secret that gym memberships spike in the winter. The upcoming summer makes us realize we should lose a few pounds and subtract sugar from the diet. Maybe you need to turn off Netflix and do something creative. TV has a way of numbing our senses. It’s a trap we all fall into some of the time.

 The point is, life gives us these repeating seasonal changes to bring attention to areas that need improvement. It took me multiple winters to stop using tobacco. I tried for a while and failed. I tried again the next year and failed, again. Eventually I made it stick. Thanks to God’s goodness and His constant, gentle, pressure to change. He points to the trash in a loving way and reminds us that it has to go.

Conclusion

In cities and in life, winter exposure reminds us where the ugly spots are. We can’t count on the green spaces to cover up the trash. Exposure is necessary and rewarding, although painful in the short term. For cities the solution is collective action, for us it's individual choice. Don’t go another day without ignoring some debris pile that God has warned you about. The author of Hebrews says it best.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (12:1)

 

Purpose in All Things: Life is a Gift

 

Finding Purpose in a Christ Centered Life

I helped my brother rearrange some of his furniture yesterday. My Saturdays are basically on repeat. Early morning runs are followed by breakfast at home, then a few hours of writing before heading to church. My brother texted me the night before. He worked in the morning and had to pull down the baby clothes from the attic. I was impressed with the tidy assortment, 0-3 months, 3-6 months and so on.

Our task was to rearrange a few of the rooms and make one a nursery for his and his wife's incoming baby. I thought he might need help putting the dresser together, or the crib. He’d already taken care of that. The biggest part was pulling down the plastic tubs of clothes and setting up the nursery.

It took two looks at the new set up. We couldn’t figure out how to make the space look open. Every direction and corner the crib ended up in felt cramped. Placing it under the window was a non starter. I guess the noise from street could wake her up. It’s not a terribly loud street but the neighborhood does have a lot of kids. That only left two options for how to angle the crib. The second one just looked better. The middle of the floor was open, the dresser under the window and the bed along the long wall seemed like the best arrangement.

Purpose

We talked for a few hours about life and relationships.

He gives good advice. As an older brother I’m not used to any of my younger siblings doing this. They do though. The married ones at least. For years, some of the best relationship advice I’ve received has been through one of them. ‘Older brothers sort everyone else out, not the other way around. At least that’s been my default attitude towards help, advice and scolding. But it hasn’t been true for a long time. Thankfully, default attitudes fall off when we let them. What was helpful for a time can become a hindrance if we don’t cut it loose.

Refusing to hear advice from younger siblings is called pride. Good advice doesn’t just flow one way when humans are involved. Leaders often struggle with this. Especially if they’ve had success being the go-to font of wisdom. Business CEOs that adjust to changing times can ruin their company with an obstinate attitude and a hardened stance. This doesn’t apply to values and service culture, which hopefully remain, but on course corrections. Churches fall into this as well. A dynamic leader that’s built a large congregation might be loathe to hand it off to a son or daughter. It’s an understandable reaction. When you do something well it becomes your reason for existing, fairly or unfairly. You found your gift. Let others find theirs.

Fulfillment

Purpose drives us. When it’s from God, it’s particularly fulfilling. Even moving furniture and sorting baby clothes is purposeful. It’s not the big picture creative stuff, but it’s critical and worthwhile.

God fashioned us for a reason and put us on this earth to complete a specific plan to meet the needs of others. How we do that varies. It’s something that goes beyond career or skill or interest. Those play a role, but the goal is to share Christ in a meaningful way. Even that description doesn’t quite get at it. Jesus isn’t just a story about a manger, or a ministry, or a death followed by a resurrection. It’s a plan. It’s redemption. It’s victory over sin and death and disease. Life is a gift, but life with purpose is something eternal that we get to discover every day we’re on this earth.

The purpose is the gospel, the “how” is ours to find. The big change of direction for me is seeing life in that order, Christ first and me second. When we put our gifts first, it limits plan of God. We’ve handed Him a matrix through which we offer our service. Here and not there. “I’m a singer Lord, use me”. Or “I’m great with children but not the homeless”. Our interests or skills can be a starting point but they don’t define the mission. When we understand the first principles of following the Lord, our gifts will come alive. We worry about gifts at the expense of the mission.

Conclusion

Paul sums it up like this:

 “There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities; but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all”. (I Corinthians 12:4-7)

We all want to matter. Giving our gifts to God ensures that they’ll be used in the best way. Comparison gets us all in trouble. It’s easy to feel that we aren’t doing enough with our talents. But our task is to be useful where we can and show Christ in every action. The big picture in life will take shape when we let God be the author of our story. Sometimes it’s writing an essay and sometimes it’s moving furniture.

 

2 Corinthians Chapter 4: the Eternal and the Carnal

 

Change Culture Through Gospel: Paul’s Reminder to the Corinthians

Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians is a further reminder of their growth in Christ. In the process we learn how God works in His people through a lifetime of faith. Like most advice on spiritual growth, it’s a slow process because life is tough and real maturity takes time. I particularly like how Paul contrasts the carnal with the spiritual. It’s a comparison that runs through the entire letter. For Christians, the eternal weight of salvation and sanctification overwhelm the trials of daily life.

“We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair: persecuted, not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (verse 8-9)

A Similar Culture of Excess

Corinthian culture was not all that different form our modern, urbane version. They valued wealth and success. They were hedonistic in their philosophy. Corinth was cosmopolitan and filled with pagan religions from all over Greece. Christian virtues of selflessness and sacrifice weren’t appealing to their lifestyles of excess. The apostle Paul does two things in this passage which play out in larger ways throughout the letter.

He focuses on their attention on the gospel, and by extension the physical and spiritual body of Jesus.

I think he does this to counter the some of the pagan teaching of the day that rejected Christ as a physical God. Since we are also physical and spiritual beings, he connects the carnal and physical where necessary. His phrases “earthen vessels” “outward man” and “mortal flesh” are indicative of that theme. The gospel is rooted in the idea that God became man, suffered a physical death and miraculously rose again. False doctrines go after this immediately. They can’t let people think God became man. If Jesus was a perfect man with a body like Adam, then the curse of sin and death was won back from Satan at the cross. If God is only a spirit, then we are all suckers, essentially. It’s fleshed out in the first letter to the Corinthians much more.

All good advice contains some reminder or who we are in Christ. The Corinthians had received the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul was integral to starting this church and had seen their early growth. He takes every opportunity to remind them of their past, present and future as believers.

A Charter for Christ

We all need this whenever we lose our way spiritually. It’s important for Christians but also for movements and organizations. A venture’s beginning will look nothing like its end. Organizations should change with the times if they want to be viable long term. This is certainly true of churches. But what is kept and what is discarded will determine its effectiveness.

The first church in Acts had to expend its mission and size, but they kept their primary goal of taking care of the poor and “fulfilling the law of Christ”. Paul and Barnabas also kept it front and center of their ministry. Because they put people first, they expanded and grew. Obedience to Jesus and His commission made the difference. Christianity grew exponentially during Constantine (306-307 A.D) even though it was often imposed.

Today we live in a world where organizations that have been around for hundreds of years have been corrupted to the point of ruin. Governments lead the charge in distorting their mission. I’m most familiar with the American version so I’ll mention that.

A Government For the People

All large organizations need to be amended, reworked or destroyed at some point. Without this critical process they become entities unto themselves and protectionists. After decades the problem is even more difficult. After a hundred years or so it’s intractable. The reason is pretty straightforward. A constant flow of money creates a class of people dependent on its continued flow. Laziness takes root. Incompetence becomes the defining characteristic, then more greed and eventually evil overwhelm the last smoldering embers of the original mission.

The short version is that they lost their way. We lost our way. We became wealthy and hedonistic (like the Corinthians) and stopped caring about the responsible part of governing. The intelligence community runs operations against Americans. January 6^th proved this. Thousands of businesses depend on the Defense Department for their billion dollar contracts. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encourage foreigners to break our laws by not protecting our borders. Hundreds of agencies all concerned with their own relevance is the most obvious problem. They’re too big to be reined in, unless the taxpayers see the rot and rebel.

A Dollar for the Corrupt

We’re trained to think of our national government as a class of civil servants who perform a necessary task. Much of it is, but it outgrew that role a long time ago. I’m hopeful that Elon Musk and DOGE will make some headway toward exposing the waste and fraud. The difficult (negative) part of me thinks the only way government gets better is if the dollar collapses globally. How do you put out a fire? Deprive it of oxygen. How do you make a fat kid slim down? Deprive him of food. Agencies deprived of dollars will cease to exist in the same way.

But might there be a softer (positive) solution to save the country from its own bureaucracy?

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians focused on who they are in Christ. He reminded them of what they’d learned about Christ, grace and a loving God. The culture around them prioritized money and status. They thought sacrifice was a weakness. By challenging them to live counter to their carnal desires, Paul challenged them to focus on the eternal. Christians today need the same reminder. Our political class is an outgrowth of our culture. It’s easy to mix up our place in the culture with our place in God’s kingdom. But we shouldn’t shy away from building strong communities that impact the culture. As long as we keep our focus on the gospel and don’t lose heart at the current malaise, we become true servants.

Paul reinforces that at every opportunity.

Conclusion

“Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (verse 16-17)

However bad the corruption around us, Paul invites us to see it as a light affliction. The weight of heaven and salvation and eternal life demands we reorder our minds. It’s also the starting place for getting our country back to Godly principles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

God's Plan for Improvement: Running With Perspective

 

Anxious Training and Old Habits that Won't Die

It’s been a rough couple of weeks since I signed up for the marathon in Texas.

 I already mentioned that it didn’t go well. The last two weeks were an off week for me. Not because I didn’t want to run, but I came down with a nasty cold. It was enough to knock me out of even trying to run. I’ve been climbing back ever since. Last Saturday I toughed it out and put in 14 miles. The rest of my team put in 20. I knew I wasn’t going to make it that far, but after not doing any jogging for so long, I was content with the result. The rest of the week reflected a normal pattern of training, 3 days at the gym and 3 days running. Sunday is the Route 66 marathon. No, I’m not signed up. I had a chance to take someone’s bib and run for them. She injured herself a few months ago and is unable to do the race. I’m not ready either.

Thinking Versus Doing

I’ve figured out that I’m one of those runners that prefers to train than race. Because I’m a thinker I’ve thought about it. There is less pressure to train. At least internally, I can relax and enjoy the run without worrying about the pace. Why can’t I do this during a race? It’s not like this counts on some eternal chart. Like, if I don’t improve every time I have to reevaluate my life choice and do something else. But a race is a test. It’s the clearest example of how much you've improved in the time you had to practice. It’s like any other test. It’s designed to measure. I hate tests because of the probability of failure. It might not even be a high probability, but it’s always there or it isn’t a test. If you have a bad race, you fail.

That probably seems like strong language for a recreational sport, but it’s true.

Failing a race doesn’t make you a failure though. People fail tests for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with preparedness. Learning to run marathons efficiently must be a long-term goal. And you might not show improvement right away. A friend of mine made a transition in his training just recently. He’s always been fast. Even on some of our longer distance Saturdays, he slowed down a minute and a half below what he was used to. His endurance improved dramatically. The idea with slowing down is to get your heart rate into a lower setting. This isn’t the place to describe heart rate zones. But let’s say elevated, or exerting a little more energy than a quick walk.

 This is supposed to allow you to have more energy at distance and ultimately get faster.

New Ways Old Attitudes

Your body becomes fat dependent at low heart rates. This means it burns fat at a higher percentage than it burns carbs. Our bodies store fat more than carbs; fat is a better energy source for long distance running. I’ve known this. Fat adaption running constitutes a sort of, marathon training 101. But making yourself run slower is a more difficult than you might imagine. There is a comfort level that develops over the course of your training. It’s never exact, but stays within a certain pace window. My heart rate has been ticking up slowly over the years as well. That’s not good. The higher the rate the shorter the distance you’ll cover. It’s another concern to work out.

Some of the most efficient runners I know are over the age of 50. They’re eager to help with advice too. It’s as helpful a community as there is. But you have to stick with it, even when you feel like a failure.

There is a verse that keeps cycling through my head. It’s more about life in general, but comes up a lot with jogging. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

The first part hits me straight on. Nothing should cause anxiousness in our lives. I think we have a tendency to label issues in life as either “important” or “not important”. We spend more time on the important stuff like family, career, charity and tend to worry more about them. But Paul is clear that nothing should cause us anxiety. By making our requests known we hand off the worrying parts to God and he returns peace instead.

Conclusion

Most people wouldn’t put recreational running into the “important” category. For long term health and fitness it’s certainly necessary, but doesn’t rise to the level of family or career. Whatever place it occupies in your life, it’s never something to be anxious over. It’s a soothing balm of a verse that helps me relax about the trajectory of my training, racing and testing. Perspective is a wonderful thing. It’s even enough to make me breathe a little easer and slow down a bit. I might be able to get my heart rate down a few points. No promises on that though.

In running and spiritual growth, we should put aside old ways of thinking and let God reveal new paths. His peace allows us run with perspective and develop into people that reflect His nature.

Fall Class on 1 Corinthians: Reflecting on Culture

 

Critical Thinking and Biblical Studies: Paul and the Corinthians

I’ve been reading 1 Corinthians for the last two weeks.

 I’ll continue to be in that book for ten more weeks. Every fall we have a chance to enroll in classes that cover books of the Bible. We read selected portions and answer questions. Usually it’s just one or two chapters. I’m familiar with 1 Corinthians, but not about the culture in that community in Greece. The deep dive into cultural attitudes of the people is probably the biggest thing I’m learning. It’s the historical part of the bible that doesn’t always come through in the reading. History and culture animates so much of the Scriptures that we often miss the full context of a verse.

Historical Foundations

I find history to be endlessly fascinating. Not everything needs a two hour documentary or a 700 page book, but context is critical. I watch documentaries to learn about some unknown part of the country, industry or person. Those sports docs always suck me in. ESPN did one called The Last Dance, highlighting Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Ostensible about the final championship season, it recapped the Jordan years since the Bulls drafted him from North Carolina in 1984. There was a lot of new footage of the team on road trips and during practice. Everyone loved it too. I’m sure it was one of their highest rated documentaries of the year. 

I’ve watched a lot of boring shows too.

I started one about the travel cruise industry and turned it off after 20 minutes. Despite the logistical miracle of running a cruise line, it was less exciting than watching the crew eat lunch together. This is a reference to a Gene Siskel metric about films. If you’d rather watch a documentary of the same actors in the movie having lunch, it’s too boring. There was a way make it fun, but they missed. Get a charismatic host next time and have them walk excitedly from room to room and drop nuggets of information. Instead, they used a narrator who sounded like he was reading a recipe for wheat bread. Not all history shows are created equal. I can see some people thinking the Bible is boring too. But with the right teacher, curriculum and context, it wouldn't be.

Cultural Foundations

I’m not the type you have to convince to read, but a lot of Christians are. My hope for those who don’t like to read, is that the culture of Greece during the Roman empire will spark curiosity. Anything that puts the letter of Paul into a helpful construct, makes us understand the scriptures a little more. It also shows us how these issues people dealt with (pride, sexual promiscuity, greed) are still present today. The world isn’t as different as we imagine. Human nature is sinful in any age. That’s important, or we might think our issues are those of a ‘sophisticated’ society.

Sophistication is where the theory of human evolution shows up in modern life. It posits the idea that we evolve to higher states of consciousness the same way we escape our primitive bodies. First we swam then we crawled. Now we walk upright, discard our silly ideas about a spirit world and seek utopia. The world is as corrupt as it was in the time of Christ. History helps us put our life and times into a larger context.

The opposite problem is that we see the scriptures only through the lens of the time in which they were written.

Philosophical Foundations

It goes, Paul’s warnings to the Corinthians were for those people at that time. We shouldn’t read too much into the relationship between their sins and ours. Sure, we can read his words and get a better sense of his instructions and scolding. But we have different ideas today about women in society and slavery. It's not a parallel reading.  

But leaning too heavily on history can contextualize the meaning away. The way to read the Bible is both in its time, and existing as a guide for today. The word of God existed in the past and present, it carries the same impact into the future.

America needs to bring back the importance of the Bible as a common book. What I mean by “common” is connected at all levels of society. Cultures need values that work across all levels. The Bible used to serve that purpose. Even non-religious people (in Anglo societies) realized the underpinning of the Bible on law, medicine and philosophy. George Bernard Shaw, socialist playwright, and G.K Chesterton argued different sides on much of the philosophy of their day. Both were raised in a British society where the Bible formed the basis of cultural learning. Shaw had to undercut belief in God in an established Christian society. He was a radical among the common classes.

Today, Chesterton would be the one arguing against the established humanism of the day. The schools are steeped in postmodern thought and churn out students with that worldview. This means science, medicine and law have been remade into something closer to the views of Shaw than Chesterton. This is in part, because we don’t study the Bible anymore. We’ve let the post modernists tell us that it can’t be rightly understood because of author bias. Once you’ve broken down the importance of scripture for social cohesion, it gets relegated to churches and parochial schools only. Then, in debates on ethics or education or scientific theory it gets treated like astrology, mysticism.

Conclusion

I think the world is ready for another renaissance. We need a new age of enlightenment, one that’s focused on the Light of the World. The twentieth century and the twenty first, have seen enough selfish philosophies to turn us inward for the rest of time. It’s time for critical thinking again. The apostle has something to say about it: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile’.” I Corinthians 3:18(NKJV)

Lost Sheep: Isaiah 58 and Caring for the Flock

 

Restore the Breach Part 2

Everyone loses their way at some point. 

From successful companies to close relationships and even nation states, laziness sets in and selfishness takes over. Depending on how long it goes, disaster is around the corner without a serious recommitment to principle. The Old Testament is full of examples of people that disobeyed God’s direction. A remnant remains of those who value the law of Moses and live by its codes. Prophets are sent to remind the people of their first love and put aside their selfishness for the sake of the next generation. Isaiah writes the last half of the book as a promise to the people of Judah. It’s a message from God, of prosperity and health if they start to value the things He values once again.   

American Morality

Judah's complains to God, why haven't you heard us? God answers, "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers, indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness." (verse 3-4) The short version is that they lost their way. Their religious ceremony's are empty. The relationship is damaged.

I can’t read chapter 58 without seeing a strong parallel to the United States. Church attendance has dropped off significantly and many Christians don’t even consider serving regularly important. Nevermind the ones with no relationship to organized religion. Church attendance is only one measure of a society’s connection to faith anyway. The morality of its government (don’t laugh) and school system are also a measure. Does the innovation benefit mankind or just make people at the top wealthy? What activities do we encourage and what do we restrict? How do we deal with crime, punishment, addiction and war?

These are off the top of my head. I’m sure there are better metrics to pull from. But it shouldn’t surprise anyone that we’ve failed miserably. We’ve become consumed with our own interests to care for each other spiritually. How do I know this? Because our ceremonies are like the people of Judah. There is no heart in our ritual. We go through the motions but our energy is focused on selfish pursuits. It’s why we don’t see dramatic spiritual breakthroughs.

American Ceremony

Our world is filled with ceremonies that are void of meaning and memorials that don’t memorialize anything or anyone. American life is full of holidays, both religious and secular, that have only the scantest connection to the original meaning. A few years ago I wrote a silly piece about Monday holidays. My curmudgeon gifts are strong. We want the 3 day weekend but don’t want to memorialize the person or event. The quickest way to ignore a holiday's importance is to schedule it on a Monday. Before long, the significance of the day is overwhelmed by half-off furniture sales and 3-day weekends.

It shouldn’t surprise us that communist radicals desecrate statues, religious and secular, supposedly to make us angry. But we can’t get upset about statues and memorials we never bothered to make important. 

American Decay

In Isaiah’s day we see a population of people going through the motions of religious ceremony but ignoring the value of them. This is common in wealthy societies that have had money for generations. One generation works hard to create wealth and leave it for their offspring. The following generation grows it and begins to drift away from the values of their parents. The third generation has almost no connection to the first and seeks pleasure first. It’s not exactly like this in every society but human nature is the same across all cultures. Money and security eventually lead to decadence when unchecked by spiritual grounding in deeper meaning.

Isaiah writes to a people who observe the fast and the Sabbath without letting it change them. They’ve inverted the value of the ceremonies and put their self-interests’ ahead of God’. It’s the same with the sacraments. We take communion in church to remember the body and blood of Christ. Paul warns us not to treat such a solemn day with disrespect. Don’t “…eat and drink in an unworthy manner” or risk being judged by God. (I Corinthians 11:29) Just as in Isaiah, God warns His people to take seriously what He takes seriously. The message is the same, examine your hearts and hold them up to the standard of righteousness.

The fast isn’t the problem, neither is ceremony or memorial. Making and money and pursuing generational wealth isn’t wrong either. The problem for us, like in Isaiah’s time, is that we’ve hollowed out these days to be nothing more than marks on the calendar. Our commitment isn’t to each other. We’re used to good times, but there is a strong correlation between taking care of those around us and seeing God’s favor in our world. It’s why Isaiah says if you “extend your soul to the hungry” and focus on the next generation, you’ll be called the “Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.” (verse 12)

Conclusion

God is always looking to bring us back into alignment with His principles. In Isaiah’s day it was the prophet with a word from the Lord. After Christ we had a new covenant and a grace covering for sin. But God’s primary call to take care of each other hasn’t changed. That’s also where real spiritual growth happens. When we reorder our society along Godly principles we see His favor in our world. And best of all, we get to be a part of the restoration project. We're in serious need of repair.

I John 4: The Spirit of Truth and The Spirit of Error

 

How to Recognize Truth and Error

The New Testament letters must be read with an understanding of the urgency with which they were written. Christianity, this new belief, was constantly under attack from both the Romans and from false doctrines. John takes such care to explain the nature of this spiritual reality in which new believers find themselves. The truth is as easy to recognize today as it was in John’s time.   

 “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” (verse 2-3) This might seem confusing if you have no exposure to scripture. With all the cultures around the world and all their spiritual history, how can all spirits be either Christ or Antichrist—truth or error?

We Can Know the Truth

Every region of the world has its own history of gods, idols, traditions and pieties. It’s human creativity that gives these ‘gods’ their characteristics. We assign stories and personalities to deities that exist in the spirit realm. Ancient Greece had Zeus, Apollo and Aphrodite, China and India had Buddhism and its beliefs. Others had monotheistic religions like Islam. I could write an entire book on world religions and not begin to cover all the particulars. You’d think John would leave room for such variety. After all, most of these deities had a presence in the cultures, thousands of years before Christ.

But the variety of spirits doesn’t change their origin or nature. It doesn’t matter how many different weeds cover your lawn, they’re all infectious and designed to kill off healthy grass. It’s in their nature. They seek to take over the whole yard. If you want healthy green grass that chokes out weeds you have to spread good seed. You can use fertilizer to kill the invaders but eventually they’ll come back. The most effective way is to keep the healthy grass full. So too, when the gospel spreads in earnest it pushes out false spirits.  

The best news from John is that it’s possible to tell spiritual truth from error. We don’t have to fumble around this life like a man in a dark cave, searching for truth. We recognize it through its confession. We see its plain truth because it pushes out error and illuminates our steps in an unfamiliar place.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (verse 14-15)

We Can Spread the Gospel

I’ve been watching the series Shogun on Hulu. I’m only a few episodes in but a few things are clear right away. TV shows and movies are essentially atheistic in their spiritual messaging. Anything dealing with power politics will argue that money and control drive the vehicle of history. It treats spiritual/religious belief as either cultural decoration or political manipulation. Christianity is usually shown as an occupying force, a foreign weed that chokes out native soil. The history of European conquest is certainly bloody and reckless. Missionaries were often used by their host nations as tools of imperialism. This is the situation in Shogun during the late 17^th century. But the spread of Christianity has less to do with the people spreading it, and more to do with its undeniable truth.

We’ve been hearing the same cynical story about Christ and colonization for too long. Partly it’s because of our ‘everyone was racist before about the year 2000’ kind of ethics. But Christianity brought civilizing aspects to cultures that had no experience with it. Science, medicine and literacy were introduced with missionaries. Translating the Bible into the local languages, the centrality of the family and planting new churches were hallmarks of Christian missions.

But people are flawed and their message is often drowned out by the politics of the day. Shogun shows the ugly side of Christians and their sociopolitical interests. But it’s only after the Spanish have gained a foothold through territorial ambition. There is little difference between a pirate and priest, both are Christian in the national sense and foreigners. But it’s not likely the first few missionaries were anything but accommodating to the Japanese. They couldn’t afford to be reckless or arrogant in such a strict, brutal culture. The early Jesuits eventually started ordaining local priests, recognizing the importance of engagement.

But the gospel makes an impact despite the mission or the missionaries. It wouldn’t work any other way. It’s a universal truth.

We Can Rescue Culture

The biggest difference in America is our lack of state sponsored missionary work. Churches still take on the burden of training up and sending out, but America is effectively a place where Christianity is consumed with infighting. Its distracted by institutional corruption and doctrinal disagreement. People as different as Rob Bell and Eric Metaxas both claim to be Christians. Their beliefs couldn’t be further apart. Bell teaches a ‘good feeling’ doctrine with biblical language, Metaxas a traditional scholarly approach.

  Political realities have started to overwhelm the underlying truth of scripture. Those who profess an orthodox view are held out of large spheres of life, whether government or business. Denominational loyalty shifts with hot button cultural issues like abortion and homosexuality. We’re on the cusp of an upheaval.

Come to think of it, maybe we do resemble feudal Japan right before the Tokugawa Shogunate.

 It’s easy to get consumed with the sturm and drang of modern Christianity and its shaky future. The weeds are growing rapidly and threatening to takeover the lawn. It’s in this type of environment that John writes his letter to the early church. It’s loaded with the language of hope, love and peace. But crucially in this chaotic time, he separates truth from error and reminds us that we can recognize it. The message of the gospel has survived and thrived in tougher circumstances. During the time of the apostles’ ministry (AD 40 to AD 80) this new religion was nearly crushed in the Roman Empire. It’s the reason for the letters of encouragement and the missionary zeal of spreading the gospel.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.” (verse 18-19)

Conclusion

The spirit of truth shows up in love and casts out fear. If we are in Christ we shouldn’t fear the future. Love, in the person of Christ, did the redeeming work a long time ago. We recognize the spirit of truth when we abide in Him.

Luke 18 and God's Promise to Avenge Speedily

 

Bearing Up and Avenging Speedily

Luke 18 starts out with a parable. It’s a lesson about God’s faithfulness to those who seek justice. It begins, a godless judge becomes tired of a widow approaching him about her adversary and demanding justice. He reasons to himself that if he doesn’t help her, she will bother him about it all the time. He decides to help her, purely due to self-interest.

The Trial

 “Then the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily, Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?’” (verse 6-8)

There seems to be a discrepancy between God bearing long with us and avenging “speedily”. Those look to be opposites. A legal battle that drags on for years cannot be thought of as a speedy verdict. Even with the ruling in your favor. The agony and cost of a protracted fight is too much for a lot of people. Justice must be speedy and inexpensive or it’s not really justice.

 I’ve been following the Mark Steyn defamation suit that concluded two weeks ago. Sued by the despicable Michael Mann, for writing a blog post that called him a fraud. Much of the scientific community has complained about his sloppy research methods. This being a litigious country though, Mann’s team took the case to Washington DC and won a $1 million. He won because the jury didn’t like right wing journalists like Steyn criticizing the “science” community. Mann wasn’t harmed in any way. The jury agreed with that. The award from the court was punitive and designed to chill free speech going forward. The suit began in 2012 and recently concluded, in 2024.

 It’d difficult to find the most egregious aspect of this case, but the sheer length and cost put Mann v Steyn into the duplicitous category.

The Faithfulness

In God’s legal framework His people are assured of justice. Often it takes a while to manifest in our lives. It can take years, even decades to be realized. So why does Jesus use the word “speedily” when nothing about victory feels quick? I think it has to do with the official record and not the reality of the ongoing situation. In heaven our case is won but on earth, we stand on faith. It’s why He wraps up the parable by mentioning faith. In other words, is there enough faith to believe for victory when the trial is so daunting? But faith is built through trying times. Without a season of waiting on the Lord we would never renew our strength (Isaiah 40:31).

No one needs strength like fighters.

But we don’t wait on the Lord like a judge. He isn’t deciding whether or not to rule in our favor. Just prayers from the Saints cause God to move on our behalf. As Christians we are heirs to the promise and entitled to good gifts like healing, prosperity and peace. He already ruled in our favor when Christ went to the cross and rose on the third day. Faith in our natural trial is where we get tripped up. He is working behind the scenes to correct unjust events. But Jesus reminds us of His presence in our weakness. The struggle to wait is often more than we can handle however. It’s why he reminds us that he “bears long” with us.

The Victory

If this doesn’t create a picture in your mind of a loving father holding his son or daughter while they cry, I don’t know what will. I had asthma as a young boy. I remember struggling to catch my breath after running around on a cold winter day. This wasn’t always the trigger but the symptoms were the same, wheezing and shortness of breath. Even walking from my bedroom to the bathroom was a struggle. My parents were always nearby enduring the long days when I hardly moved. There was nothing to do but wait. We all had some long nights. They believed for my healing before I felt better. I didn’t struggle in later years like I did as a child. Occasionally the humidity would cause me to go into a wheezing episode, but I never doubted God’s faithfulness. I had been through the trial with my parents. I’d seen their comfort and reassurance.

The trials are painful and often long. But God shows up as a comforter and reminds us of His verdict on our behalf.

The challenge for us is to build faith in the struggle, knowing that our Heavenly Father is working when it doesn’t feel like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Failure of Christian Leadership: Weakness of Belief

 

God is Great: Islam is a Menace

How mad should I be?

It’s a result of too much news exposure I’m sure, but I struggle with anger at the state of the world. A lot of the news is meant to ramp up anger, outrage and anxiety about the future. But even viewed through the lens of Christianity, I wonder how much of my anger is righteous and how much is reactionary?

The Offense 

I guess I’m disappointed that more people aren’t fired up about the lack of respect for sacred spaces. I watched a video of a Muslim man walk into a church (Catholic or protestant) I’m not sure. He asks the priest (or bishop) if he could spread out his rug and pray. This all happens in French. I’m guessing at the translation. The minister acknowledges him with a nod and moves on with the ceremony. The Muslim man sets up his rug toward the East and kneels, in the middle of the service.

Islam is not a religion of peace and it never has been. This scandalous lie gained oxygen during the Bush administration because of the War on Terror. Whatever you think about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the lie served a purpose. The US government didn’t want the Islamic world thinking we were at war with their religion. Can you find Mosques that preach peace? I’m sure. We have churches all over the country that barely crack the Bible, why wouldn’t the same be said for Western Muslims? When it has the numbers, it takes over every part of civil society. This includes daily prayers too. How many formally Christian cities in Europe and America have daily calls to prayer (adhan) that ring out through the city? I don’t mean within the walls of the mosques either.

The Future

 Minneapolis and Dearborn are two cities without any qualms about bothering their non-Muslim, American citizens who have to hear it 5 times a day.  

Islam is a fanatical religion. It doesn’t want to exist with Christianity. It wants to conquer it. It’s an ‘apostate’ religion as far as Islam is concerned. These milquetoast pastors have no fear of the Lord. I can’t imagine there is much they would protest. These are men without chests to borrow a C.S Lewis phrase. How mad should I be? To see an obvious disregard for the God of Heaven, from both Christians and Muslims, raises my blood pressure. Are followers of Islam welcome in a Christian Church? Absolutely. We are all sinners and need a savior. No one in the rows is more holy than another. But everyone needs to recognize when someone is blaspheming the Lord. This is warfare of the spiritual kind. This faux Christian tolerance has to go.

The Conflict

I also recognize that I have a tendency to run pretty hot. But I’d rather be corrected for acting too rashly than to be corrected for indifference. Righteous anger, rightly directed, brings about a change in hearts and minds. It’s impossible for me to see this affront to Christ and the church as a shot across the bow. I can’t understand why other Christians don’t. Tolerance is not a Christian virtue, love and peace are. Tolerance isn’t a positive or negative characteristic. It’s wholly dependent on the situation. I don’t see a conflict, for instance, between escorting the man with the prayer rug outside and telling him about Jesus. We shouldn’t tolerate abuses in the Lord’s house, any more than we tolerate attacks on our families. The Church is a kind of family.

James 1:19 “…let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”

Is this a “wrath of man” kind of situation, or is this the Godly kind of anger? The Christian walk often feels like balancing on a tightrope. Overreactions can harm your influence with non-Christians. James warns us of this by emphasizing our slowness toward anger. He doesn’t say don’t get angry; his admonition is to the hotheads. I don’t spend a lot of time upset, but when it comes to our Christian family (the community of believers) we need to be more assertive against attacks.

Conclusion

The danger here is that an ‘Us vs Them’ attitude sets in and get reinforced among believers. We should seek peace with everyone around us, but not at the expense of disrespecting the Lord’s house.  Equally worrying is a passive, do what you like, posture from Christian leaders.

There is a desperate need in today’s tense environment to throw down a marker against a clear enemy. Yes, Satan is the enemy and not people. But the church needs to see its leader defend the house, to revere the name of God. Christianity is dying because it’s largely useless in practice. For many, it’s a cultural relic of superstition that animates much of the last century. The Church will lose the mandate from God to be His representative on earth. Islam’s goal is to dominate every space in society. The Church has the spiritual authority to speak to the darkness and command it to go. That’s true of any attack against God and His people. Let's do Better Christians.

Thoughts On Job Part 2

 Why Ask Why: Job's Trials and God's Sovereignty

The Bible isn’t just one book, it’s a historical novel mixed with tragedy and tons of drama. It’s violent but rooted in peace, heartbreaking but hopeful. It’s advice, poetry and a record of the past. It’s a ‘living’ document because it’s inspired by God, not because the lessons can be revised for a modern audience. The story of God’s creation and love for humanity is present from the beginning. It’s the common thread that runs from Old Testament to New, from the law to grace.

Trials of Job

The book of Job is a bit of a hobbyhorse for me. Like a puzzle, you can only see it when all the pieces fit together. Half the book is bad advice from his friends. You can’t cut and paste verses from Job without understanding the whole text. It reads like a series of essays from Job’s circle of friends which seem correct at first. You have to read to the end to find out what God says about Job’s council. There’s a great lesson in that as well. Does the advice from friends or family echo the scripture? Do they have your best interest at heart?

Job is different from the New Testament and even much of the Old. Normally we say the Old Testament is concerned with the law, and the New Testament is concerned with grace. But Job is written before the law. God revealed Himself to us in nature. “His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made.” (Romans 1:20) Their frame of reference for God was different. In Moses day they referred to the law as their guiding principle. In the New Testament it’s Christ, as a fulfillment of the law. In Job’s day they reasoned among themselves.

Job’s wife and friends (except for Elihu) are full of bad advice. They believe Job sinned, and is therefore responsible for his calamity. But their intuition on human nature isn’t wrong. Their understanding of God’s sovereignty isn’t wrong either. They correctly position God as judge and jury in the affairs of humanity. Unlike modern man, their fear of the Lord drives their instincts.

Wise Council?

Zophar, for instance, tells Job “Do you not know this of old, since man was placed on earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?” (chapter 20:4-5) Actually that’s good advice. It’s biblical too. The problem is, it’s applied to Job. He isn’t responsible for the trials. God lays that out in the first chapter. Eliaphaz also treats Job like a sinner but tells truths about human nature. “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? (chapter 15:14)

He's saying that no person can gain righteousness of their own will. Most of his scolding of Job is true for people in general. But his friends haven’t heard from God on how to comfort Job. We can’t apply their instruction in this case. The sum total of their advice is wrong. That’s unlike a lot of the New Testament which points to Christ, the ultimate truth. Read Ephesians sometime, or Philippians. They’re rooted in a clear understanding of who God is and what He demands of us. His attributes and love form the basis for how we, His people, are to live. Kingdom principles fill Paul’s letters.

God’s Sovereignty

Job is a mystery where the title character discovers a universal truth in the end. It’s a foundational book that examines the Creator and His creation. Or better said, it examines our relationship to God as beings that carry His imprint. We don’t understand how He designed the stars or ‘hung the earth on nothing’. But we can know that He is the source of all knowledge and His plan for creation unfolds constantly. God’s sovereignty requires that we come to him in reverence.

It might not be worthwhile to compare Job to Paul’s letters in the New Testament. Nor to compare it to the gospels or the books of Moses from the wilderness years. But I think I’ll always have some reservations about the book of Job. God doesn’t exactly tell Job why he permitted Satan to kill his kids, servants and livestock. We don’t know why, a pious servant who feared the Lord, found himself scrapping boils off his skin. Everything taken was eventually returned by orders of magnitude. Job’s wealth increased after the ordeal. His family was blessed and he “saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.” If he had wealth before the trial, afterwards he became extremely rich.

Conclusion

 That God makes our way prosperous is not the issue. His first covenant was with Abraham, the wealthy trader to whom the Israelites trace their genealogy. Christians do as well since the new covenant.

The struggle in my head is over the ‘game’ that God plays with Satan over a ‘blameless and upright’ man. I can’t shake the comparison to the movie Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. Two bankers make a $1 bet that they can replace their money manager with another and get the same results. In the process they ruin both men’s lives. It’s a crude comparison I’ll admit, but the story is set up this way.

Or is it?

Maybe the whole point of Job is that we don’t get to ask why. Does God permit some trials in our life to test us? I believe He does. James 1:3 says the “Testing of your faith produces patience”. God reveals some things and not others. He determines our path and directs our way. Don’t listen to advice unless it’s from the Lord. But you might not get an answer to your "Why?".

 

Foolishness and Sin Nature

 

A framework for Understanding Foolishness: Ecclesiastes 10

There are two kinds of foolish in the world, the lunatic and the intellectual. We usually lock the first type up for their own good. We used to at least. Now we let people roam the streets until they harm themselves or someone else. The second kind is respected but equally dangerous. They deny the existence of God and use their influence to undermine morality. Not all intellectuals deny God, but history is full of movements steeped in the philosophy of nihilism. 

Ecclesiastes 10:12-14 says “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up; the words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words.”

In true Solomon fashion he gives a contrast, the wise does this and the fool does that. He leaves it vague enough so we can fill in the blanks. We’d rather hear something specific about the fool. What kind of foolishness, or what subjects does the fool focus on? But wisdom and foolishness should be self-evident. At least that’s the idea I get when I read this. Wisdom is clear when it’s beneficial. Foolishness is clear when it’s ruinous. It’s a distinction we all see.

Lunatic Foolish

I went for a short run a few years ago in my neighborhood. Homeless people are usually nearby. On occasion I’ll stop and talk to them. I’ve offered prayer. Some accept, others don’t. A few are completely out of their mind. That’s not a surprise. We use words like “homelessness” to describe people living on the streets because it fits. But it’s increased at an alarming rate. It’s beyond whatever natural distribution used to exist. I don’t pretend to know all the reasons, but it’s at least related to deinstitutionalization and laissez faire attitudes toward drug use. It’s just cheaper to get drugs and live in a tent than it’s ever been. Responsibility for this group was always done on a local level. Eventually the financial burden was kicked to the federal government when Medicaid came about.

That’s a complaint for another time though.

 People on the streets need Jesus. This hasn’t changed. One guy was sitting on the steps at a small Methodist church on the corner. It’s right along my normal jogging route so I stopped for a second. I offered him a granola bar and he declined. The exact details of our short conversation are lost to the ether. I remember thinking that he was completely insane. His thoughts, logic and stories were disconnected. He complained that the cops had beat him up. I got that much out of him. Did he realize how nutty he looked and sounded? Was he aware that most people would see him as dangerous because of his twitchy, shaky movements? He was most likely a junkie. I said a quick prayer when I could get a word in. He agreed to listen to me at least.  

Multiplied Words

Whenever I think of Solomon’s description, I imagine my encounter with this man. He multiplied words like a madman and spoke in disconnected ideas. At one end of foolishness there is a crazy man who dumps words and phrases like a snow plow salting a slick highway. He covers everything with foolishness. But I also think Solomon refers to something closer to home. We don’t encounter crazy people every day. But even people with rational thinking can be fools. Even those respected academics, writers, intellectuals and philosophers can have nonsensical ideas.

Anytime a respected individual disputes the existence of God, they speak foolishness.

Intellectual Foolishness

I watched a debate with Richard Dawkins and John Lennox. Dawkins is a renowned atheist and biologist, Lennox a Christian mathematician. Both men are Oxford professors. Dawkins rejects the existence of God, because of the “pettiness” of a creator who judges the sin of man. He’s a brilliant guy with a gigantic hole in his rationalization of the universe. The moral code we live by came from somewhere. Natural selection can explain why the fittest species survived, but it can’t introduce a moral code. The only lesson is survival at all costs. Our laws aren’t based on dog eat dog survival. They're rooted in Judeo-Christian tenets about morality. Dawkins seems to think morality is self-evident. Other times, he thinks morality itself is kind of irrelevant and tough to define. But a lack of definition and structure leads to chaos. In the long term, a society becomes tribal and war like.

Denied Reality

 Mankind lives in a state of sinfulness that’s been in existence since the garden of Eden. Without the “pettiness” of a Savior, we are doomed to eternal justice. Atheists like to separate the idea of God into categories or myths. “Which god are you referring to?” is a common refrain. But they clearly understand the basis of the question, do you believe in God, or at least, in a universal right and wrong? How about a creator? These might seem like different questions but they’re the same. There is a correct way for a created thing to behave. A toy car rolls forward when you crank the wheels back. It stops working when the wheels won’t crank. If you send the toy back to the manufacturer to have it fixed, you can expect they know what to do. If they said “We created it, but we have no idea how it’s supposed to work” You’d be confused.

Conclusion

Created things function a particular way because they were designed to. Humans were created with an inherent need to behave in a moral capacity. Sin puts up a wall between the Creator and the created, by introducing a ‘work around’. It says you don’t need God. It says you are God. It says there is no God, or creation or ultimate justice.

You can behave however you like. Solomon would call this “raving madness”. His description assumes a self-evident reality. We can understand how things work by observing creation. Foolishness comes in two varieties, socially acceptable or socially unacceptable. Neither is hopeless. Salvation is for all and redemption is for today.

I Peter 2: Understanding Liberty and Vice

 

I Peter 2: Liberty Not Vice

Peter’s letter to the early believers reminds them of their new identity and calls them to live peacefully with their respective rulers. But where are the exceptions to the rule?

“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.” (13 and 14)

There isn’t a lot of wiggle room for rebellion against crooked rulers here. But examples abound where rebellion was warranted. Think about Daniel. The King’s satraps passed an ordinance to entrap him (Daniel 6). If he prayed to God, Daniel would violate the law (or ordinance) against worshipping another god but Darius, the ruler.

How to be Disagreeable

 Jesus also told the disciples to eat the heads of grain when they were traveling through the countryside (Mathew 12). This was unlawful to do on the Sabbath. Yet, he permitted it. 

A lot of what Peter is concerned with is rooted in appearances. The Christian church was a new movement that the Romans would have loved to shut down for rebellion. Peter warns these Jewish believers to “abstain from fleshly lusts” so your enemies won’t find fault. It’s like when your dad tells you not to tarnish the family name. “Don’t’ make me look bad by fighting with your classmates and disrespecting the teacher. People will connect your actions with me, so behave!”

 We read “fleshly lusts” as sexually driven, but Peter could also be talking about anger, bitterness and resentment. Every natural instinct might be demanding you rebel. 

How to Maintain a Movement

 Some might be tempted to throw rocks at officials as they ride by on their horses. Peter might be saying, the minute your fleshly lusts take over and you start fighting against the government, our movement is done. Not only will the Romans come for us, but the citizens won’t support any rebellious religion. Instead of converts we’ll have enemies. So yes, submit because that’s what Christ did. We know the early church multiplied. Despite all the hardships it grew exponentially. They emphasized living like Jesus and carried it out through the beatings. Citizens of every town noticed and converted to Christianity.

In addition, the second part of the ‘submission to government’ starts with a warning against draping yourself in liberty. “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” (15-16) There is an old SNL sketch where Will Ferrell wears an American flag speedo and a half t shirt. The office where he works relaxed the dress code to allow for patriotic clothing. He hilariously uses patriot day to bring attention to himself. It’s not exactly vice, but he is clearly taking advantage of a policy that wasn’t designed for that purpose. Ferrell takes the liberty of the day to get laughs, and mock the purpose of why it was created.  

How to Understand Liberty

The Liberty Peter refers to is the freedom found in serving Christ. Specifically, by not being bound to traditions of old. He reminds them at various points of their new nature as that “incorruptible” seed which “abides forever”. Throughout the New Testament, from Paul to Mathew, there is a theme of newness in Christ. Because of the work of the early church, the disciples write to remind their burgeoning churches of their new identity. This isn’t just a last ditch attempt to get them back on track. It’s a practical reminder of the change that’s taken place in their hearts.

Parents who’ve had to discipline a child for an infraction know this principle. I got in trouble for hosting a party when my mom left town for a weekend. She was disappointed because it wasn’t something I’d normally do. I received a heavy dose of “This isn’t like you” and a long-term grounding for that. But she couldn’t have used that scold on me if I was known to throw parties for my friends at every opportunity.

The reprimand brought me back to the higher standard which I’d forgotten. It’s like saying, “Remember the change that took place in you and do the right thing next time.”

How to Seek Peace

On the second half of the verse, Peter warns about “foolish men”. What’s that about? Who really cares what they think about Christian behavior? I think it means that foolish men look only to ordinances to be there guide when deciding infractions against you. In other words, they’re foolish (or simple) because they don’t have the same relationship with the risen Savior. They don’t understand the things of God because they interpret life through strictly carnal means. If you want to turn simple men against followers the Jesus, just act contrary to whatever restriction exists in society. If there are laws against eating meat or drinking wine, make sure to flaunt them at every opportunity. Foolish men look for a reason to smother this new lifestyle before it gets any air. Be careful.

So where are the exceptions? How might Peter interpret the modern world and would his advice be different?

How to Understand Responsibility

 It’s important to remember that Peter was writing to an occupied people. Their situation was not quite like ours. Jews governed themselves to an extent, but the Romans governed the territory. These were subjects to a government they didn’t vote for. His letter is for us as much as it was for them. But the situation reads different in a few ways. We have churches in America on every street. For now at least they are free to say what they want, despite increasing pressure to avoid certain topics. Christians understand liberty in Christ as axiomatic. We aren’t as bound by tradition. Our collective understanding of grace is much richer than what the early church knew.

A good short hand for knowing when to rebel is asking what’s at stake? The scripture supports this. Daniel was a government official and he broke an obviously unjust law. So did his three companions (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego) when faced with bowing to the god/king Nebuchadnezzar. When law, ordinance, rule, pronouncement or decree drive a wedge between God and His people, disobedience is necessary.

Conclusion

We should promote good governance and leadership on this earth. Proverbs 29:2 says “When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” We have the authority to expand righteousness in the civil realm. Beyond that, we must place a higher value on citizenship of God’s kingdom, than citizenship of our country. Also, lead with prayer and seek peace in the midst of chaos.

  

 

 

Experience in the Woods: Psalm 116

 

Psalm 116: Start at the Tower

“I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live”. (1-2)

A Refuge 

So much of that verse sums up my history with God. Especially when I was younger, God was a refuge and high tower in times of trouble. I tried to do most of life on my own from the ages of 17 to 30 something. I started at 17 because it’s when I graduated high school. I went to a Christian school, attended church weekly and believed whole heartedly in salvation for all and the second coming. But it takes years to develop a relationship with God, where He is more than just a refuge. He will always be that of course, but it’s meant to be a starting point in the life of a believer.

We run to a refuge when nothing else is available and danger is closing in. A classic example of a refuge is a lookout tower in the woods. Its purpose is for the watchman to look for wildfires and notify the authorities. But it’s also the safest place to hide from predators. The unique perspective one gets from a high place determines the next step he’ll take. Whenever I’ve gotten myself into a mess in life I’ve looked for the tower. It helps to reset my soul when I’m in distress. I also feel completely safe, even while the fires spread around me.

A Protector

I read a book a few years ago called Those Who Wish Me Dead now a movie with Angelina Jolie. The story goes, a 12 year old sees a murder and has to go into witness protection. The couple hiding him live in Montana and take troubled kids on wilderness hikes. It’s supposed to be the best way to hide him. They teach survival skills and navigation in some of the harshest terrain. But eventually the past catches up to the boy. After a chaotic chase, he stumbles up to a tower manned by a former smokejumper; she becomes his protector in a threatening and dangerous world.     

We need that comfort throughout our lives. In different phases of life whether student, employee, parent and grandparent we get lost and afraid no matter how many times we’ve walked the trails.

But God wants us to get beyond just needing to be bailed out because we didn’t watch the weather or pack the right equipment. He gives us equipment to use in our journey. It’s designed for the terrain, the weather and the topography. It’s more than just a map of pitfalls, depressions and inclines. Our equipment has the ability to change circumstances. Our words direct our path. The agreement we have on earth comes from the One who conquered the grave. Jesus gives us authority to carry around with us in the form of scripture. We don’t have to run back to the tower every time the sky looks ominous. It’s our duty to use what we already have.

A Compass

This is simpler to say than to know, often because we have the wrong view of God. He doesn’t exist to fulfill our personal goals and visions. That takes a while to figure out as well. Culture works against the notion that God is all we need. It’s a selfish kind of philosophy that (even among Christians) centers around hopes, dreams and aspirations of the individual. As a philosophy it’s somewhere between humanism and hedonism. Needless to say, it’s antithetical to the Creator’s vision for humanity. The more we use the compass, the less we run to the tower. We understand when to go high and when to go low, where to find water and how to set up shelter.

And even better, we begin to lead our own crews through the trails that have now become familiar. There will be other boys who join us for protection, teaching and a new beginning. They’re as unfamiliar as we were at the beginning, just as self-indulgent too. But no matter how scary the surroundings, we’ve learned to overcome them and find our way. The tower is always there. It’s a constant in our lives when we’re lost and scared, we orient ourselves below it.

Conclusion

 Stay in the woods long enough and you’ll experience a fire, a flood, a freeze. You’ll be lost at least once and likely run out of food. But with experience comes peace. It’s why the author of Psalm 116 can say in verse 6 and 7 “I was brought low and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”

The weather won’t change, only our ability to trust in the one Who overcame the storm.

 

Psalm 127: Who is Building Your House?

 

The Master Builder  

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” (verse 1)

So many principles come to mind when I read this verse. Houses represent our lives and what we’re building inside them. Most people build their lives in traditional ways. Look for a job, get married, start a family and grow your wealth. Nothing is wrong with that. The pursuit of happiness might not be a spiritual principle but it’s a cultural norm. But our success in the important ways is tied directly to our trust in Him. No matter what the skill level of the builder, if you aren’t putting the Lord first your foundation is shaky.

Who is building your house?

If you’ve ever woken up and realized your efforts aren’t getting you anywhere, it’s likely you’re view of God is wrong. I had the realization that my image was way off, after reading the Bible with intention. Cosmic Santa was the phrase that stuck with me. I heard it described as a way that young people view God. “Cosmic” because He is out there in space somewhere and “Santa” because he give gifts. I’m embarrassed to admit that for years it was my view of God. He was a kindly, jovial old timer that makes sure your personal hopes and dreams come true. He’s there to affirm your desires and grant your wishes, just as long as you live right. Ugh. Where is the sacrifice in that, where is the accountability?

I was building my house with hopes and dreams, with a god that didn’t exist. The surest way to lose your home in a storm is with a soft foundation. I can remember being so upset with God when my conception of success didn’t pan out. But my foundation was soft thanks to my ill-conceived notion of God. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I wasn’t seeking Him. I wanted a life coach to encourage my efforts and a generous gift giver to cover me when I went over budget.

How do you start?

We learn about the nature of God in the scriptures. Joseph (Genesis Chapters 39-44) was forced to grow up as a slave and a manager, then a prisoner. After his 13 years in captivity, he knew how to trust in the Lord for his provision. He didn’t have the luxury of seeing God as a cosmic Santa. His owed his life and existence to God. All of it was grueling and he probably thought about death constantly, especially after living a comfortable life as his father’s favorite son. God didn’t waste Joseph’s time, despite what it might have looked like in the moment. Every trial he encountered became the framework for future excellence. He learned the Egyptian language and culture at Potiphar’s home. It’s important if you’re going to make decisions for a country full of Egyptians.

He learned how to divide meals among the men properly and read men’s intentions in prison. Both critical skills when you need to save up for a famine and not get swindled by devious people. Joseph’s life proves that God is on His own schedule. He builds our house when we let Him, but not without our faith in His timing. Trusting God the homebuilder looks a lot like grinding away at low wage job or struggling to gain respectability. Faith grows in tough soil. It’s impossible to discover God’s will for our lives without developing a life dependent on Him.  

How do I think differently?

The biggest challenge for young people is taking all of their talent (much of it imagined) and handing it back to God. This doesn’t mean going into ministry (necessarily) or avoiding jobs with the potential to earn big money. It means seeking His will in all situations and letting the Holy Spirit put you where He will. Talented people can go very far on their own abilities but eventually even the best will stall out. We were never meant to do this alone. Trust in the Lord and His wisdom for your life.

What happens when you don’t trust God to build your home? Esau never had a relationship with the God of his father Isaac. He built his life on self reliance. In a moment of weakness he gave up his birthright because he held it cheaply. Whatever your view of God, cosmic Santa or insignificant deity, if you’re building your own house the foundation will be soft. The troubles will overwhelm you and you’ll blame the One who you never bothered to learn about, nor let Him build.

Conclusion

When the Lord builds the house, you get to hand over the fear and worry that comes with striving alone. “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.” (verse 2) He wants to take our anxieties and give us rest. What could be better?