Thursday, September 29, 2005
A RIDDLE
Can you guess the answer to this riddle? And do you know its source?
"Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."
Monday, September 26, 2005
Sunday, September 25, 2005
A POURED-OUT LIFE
The Scripture text in our Sunday morning worship service was from 2 Timothy 4, where Paul talks about "being poured out like a drink offering." Paul knew that his life was coming to a close and that he would soon be with the Lord. In that sense his life was being poured out.But Paul's life was not just poured out at the end of his days. He poured himself out throughout his earthly life in Christ. His was a sacrificial life, a life of servanthood. He followed in the footsteps of his Master, the One who came into the world not to be served but to serve.
It occurs to me that we Christians should be living sacrificial, poured-out lives. I am aware, of course, that this kind of emphasis flies in the face of much of contemporary Christianity. Many churchgoers seem content to run from experience to experience, from fad to fad, from church to church, from one personality to another, in search of the latest spiritual high. The emphasis is often on what I can get from God, rather than how I can serve God and others. Entertainment and self-centeredness are the order of the day; sacrifice and servanthood do not often characterize "the church of what's happening now."
And yet one cannot read the New Testament and fail to see that the Christian life is primarily about surrender and service. We have much to learn from the poured-out lives of people such as the Apostle Paul. And of course the greatest example of the poured-out life is Jesus Christ, who gave His life for sinners. Jesus says that if we would come after Him we must deny self, take up our cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34-35). How radically different that message is from the one so prevalent in the entertainment-driven, self-centered contemporary church. But the Word of God is clear: Christians are called to live sacrificial, poured-out lives, as we emulate our God and Savior Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5-7). May God open our eyes to the poverty of our spiritual condition and may we see how much we have been seduced and captured by our self-centered, consumer-driven culture. Let there be Christians who embrace genuine Christianity--a Christ-centered, servant-hearted faith that seeks to give more than get ... and in the process brings glory to God! My friend, is yours a poured-out life?
Thursday, September 22, 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
I hope you get this before the day is through!
IT'S BUSH'S FAULT (Not!)
The following is an interesting blog entry concerning Hurricane Katrina. Get Off His Back (Updated) By Ben SteinPublished 9/2/2005 11:59:59 PM***UPDATED: Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005, 2:13 p.m.***
A few truths, for those who have ears and eyes and care to know the truth: 1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying. 2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one. 3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born. 4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery. 5.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile. 6.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell. 7.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue. 8.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization. 9.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander. 10.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off. 11.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day. 12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.God bless all of those dear people who are suffering so much, and God bless those helping them, starting with George Bush.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
CHANGE, WHO ME?!
One of my favorite quotations comes from Will Rogers, who once said, "People change, but not much."
The word "change" (or, better yet, "transformation") is an accurate way to sum up the Christian life. As Christians, we are to die to our selfish selves and become more like our selfless Master, Jesus Christ. For myself, I know that I often resist change, especially where my character is concerned. (Am I really any more patient or self-controlled than I was five years ago?) And I know I am not alone! Surely the Lord did not come into this world, die upon a cross, rise from the grave, ascend into heaven and send the Holy Spirit to leave us unchanged.
I have heard it said that the term "status quo" is another way of saying "why we are in the mess we're in!" Imagine what the world and the church would look like if we who bear the name "Christian" actually took the Bible seriously and began to live more like Jesus Christ, who came into this world not to be served but to serve.
"People change, but not much." I wonder if Will Rogers' oxymoron describes your life? It certainly does mine--more often than not, I'm sorry to say. I find it easy to point out how much other people need to change, while clinging to my old attitudes and selfishishness rather than allowing the living Lord to transform my life. Oh, the Christian hypocrisy of singing hymns like "Have Thine Own Way" while living out the lines of Sinatra's song, "I Did it My Way."
In the midst of a self-centered, self-serving culture, the biblical mandate remains: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). Change, who me?!
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Quotable Quote
Here is a great quotation from Ulrich Zwingli, the 16th-century Reformer:"The Word of God is as unstoppable as the Rhine River."
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
GOD AND MAN IN ONE PERSON
I have been reflecting this week on the two natures of Christ, especially as understood by the Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D. The framers of that creed rightly pointed out that in Jesus Christ we behold two natures in one Person. "The great truth enunciated [by the Chalcedonian Creed]," says Louis Berkhof in his Systematic Theology, "is that the Son of God took upon Himself our humanity, and not, as Brunner reminds us, that the man Jesus acquired divinity." The Chalcedonian Creed speaks of Jesus Christ as truly God and truly man who is "to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably."
The Scots Confession (1560), written more than a thousand years later by John Knox and five other Protestant ministers, railed against heretical views of Jesus Christ. Affirming that Jesus Christ is true God and true man--two natures in one person--the confession states in its sixth chapter:
"When the fullness of time came God sent his Son, his eternal wisdom, the substance of his own glory, into this world, who took the nature of humanity from the substance of a woman, a virgin, by means of the Holy Ghost ... whom we confess and acknowledge to be Emmanuel, true God and true man, two perfect natures united and joined in one person. So by our Confession we condemn the damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and such others as did either deny the eternity of his Godhead, or the truth of his humanity, or confounded them, or else divided them." Jesus Christ is the center of the Christian faith and so it is crucially important to be right in our beliefs about Him. As I recently explained to a Jehovah's Witness, if religious groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, etc., are wrong about who Jesus Christ is, their other beliefs will be out of balance.
Theology matters, especially as it pertains to Jesus Christ--who is the very center of God's self-revelation in history and in Scripture!
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Some Thoughts on Christian Ministry
I have been thinking about the Christian ministry this past week, especially on two points. First, I recognize the temptation to want to serve the Lord in comfortable settings, places immune from suffering, strife and difficulty. And yet, I note from 1 Corinthians 16:8 that Paul decided to minister in Ephesus because God opened a door for him, despite many who opposed him. That really stands out to me (not that I face much opposition in my current pastorate!). Paul did not flee hardship; he recognized it was part of the ministry. Again, there is always the temptation to seek out the easy road in life. None of us goes looking for hardship, yet it is clear from the Bible that the Christian life is far from easy. The same can be said for Christian ministry; there is no shortage of difficult people and difficult circumstances. Which leads to the second thought. I was reminded this past week that soon after Jesus was baptized, having heard His Father's affirming words ("This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased"), Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty intense days of hardship. He was led by the Spirit! That surely flies in the face of the self-centered, feel-good Christian teaching, preaching and literature so prevalent these days. There is no shortage of sermons and books of the "Three Steps to Christian Happiness" or "Money, Come to Me" variety. The life of Christian discipleship and service is a difficult one, full of challenges and hardships. In fact, at the heart of discipleship is the call to deny oneself, take up one's cross and follow Jesus ... wherever He may lead. And following Jesus may well lead to some dark nights of the soul, including persecution and suffering. The Apostle Paul knew that. Those of us who follow Christ and serve Him would do well to remember that, too. Importantly, it is during the dark nights of the soul and difficult times in life that maturity and true spiritual growth occurs. Although I don't entirely agree with his words, the following lines from one of William Blake's poems come to mind: "Joy and woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine; under every grief and pine, runs a joy with silken twine. It is right, it should be so, man was made for joy and woe. And when this we rightly know, through the world we safely go."
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
WAS KATRINA INTELLIGENT DESIGN?
by Pastor John Piper
(Deutero Q recommends this superb article by Pastor John Piper)
On his 89th birthday (August 31) NPR Senior News Analyst, Daniel Schorr, observed that President Bush had “staked out a non-position” on the debate between evolution and intelligent design. Bush had said that “both sides ought to be properly taught in the schools of America.” Then, with manifest scorn, Schorr linked the devastation of Hurricane Katrina with the concept of intelligent design: “[Bush] might well have reflected that, if this was the result of intelligent design, then the designer has something to answer for.”
No, Mr. Schorr, you have something to answer for, not God. God answers to no man. Come, Daniel Schorr, take your place with Job and answer your Maker: “The Lord answered Job [and Daniel Schorr] out of the whirlwind and said: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. . . . Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed”?’” (Job 38:1-3, 8-11).
Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Shall the pot say to the Potter, “This is an unintelligent way to show your justice and your power? Come, Maker of heaven and earth, sit at my feet—I have lived 89 years and have gotten much wisdom—and I will teach you—the eternal God—how to govern the universe”?
No. Rather let us put our hands on our mouths and weep both for the perishing and for ourselves who will soon follow. Whatever judgment has fallen, it is we who deserve it—all of us. And whatever mercy is mingled with judgment in New Orleans neither we nor they deserve.
God sent Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners. He did not suffer massive shame and pain because Americans are pretty good people. The magnitude of Christ’s suffering is owing to how deeply we deserve Katrina—all of us. Our guilt in the face of Katrina is not that we can’t see the intelligence in God’s design, but that we can’t see arrogance in our own heart. God will always be guilty of high crimes for those who think they’ve never committed any.
But God commits no crimes when he brings famine, flood, and pestilence on the earth. “Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?” (Amos 3:6). The answer of the prophet is no. God’s own testimony is the same: “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). And if we ask, is there intelligent design in it all, the Bible answers: “You meant evil . . . but God meant it [designed it] for good” (Genesis 50:20).
This will always be ludicrous to those who put the life of man above the glory of God. Until our hearts are broken, not just for the life-destroying misery of human pain, but for the God-insulting rebellion of human sin, we will not see intelligent design in the way God mingles mercy and judgment in this world. But for those who bow before God’s sovereign grace and say, “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever,” they are able to affirm, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:36, 33). And wisdom is another name for intelligent design.
No, Daniel Schorr, God does not answer to us. We answer to him. And we have only one answer: “Guilty as charged.” Every mouth is stopped and the whole world is accountable before God. There is only one hope to escape the flood of God’s wrath. It is not the levee of human virtue but the high ground called Calvary. All brokenhearted looters and news analysts and pastors are welcome there.
MORAL DEVASTATION
(From a conservative black economist: "Rebuilding New Orleans -- and America," by Thomas Sowell, September 6, 2005) The physical devastation caused by hurricane Katrina has painfully revealed the moral devastation of our times that has led to mass looting in New Orleans, assaults on people in shelters, the raping of girls, and shots being fired at helicopters that are trying to rescue people. Forty years ago, an electric grid failure plunged New York and other northeastern cities into a long blackout. But law and order prevailed. Ordinary citizens went to intersections to direct traffic. People helped each other. After the blackout was over, this experience left many people with an upbeat spirit about their fellow human beings. Another blackout in New York, years later, was much uglier. And what has been happening now in New Orleans is uglier still. Is there a trend here? Fear, grief, desperation or despair would be understandable in people whose lives have been devastated by events beyond their control. Regret might be understandable among those who were warned to evacuate before the hurricane hit but who chose to stay. Yet the word being heard from those on the scene is "angry." That may be a clue, not only to the breakdown of decency in New Orleans, but to a wider degeneration in American society in recent decades. Why are people angry? And at whom? Apparently they are angry at government officials for not having rescued them sooner, or taken care of them better, or for letting law and order break down.No doubt the inevitable post mortems on this tragic episode will turn up many cases where things could have been done better. But who can look back honestly at his own life without seeing many things that could have been done better?Just thinking about all the mistakes you have made over a lifetime can be an experience that is humbling, if not humiliating. When all is said and done, government is ultimately just human beings -- politicians, judges, bureaucrats. Maybe the reason we are so often disappointed with them is that they have over-promised and we have been gullible enough to believe them. Government cannot solve all our problems, even in normal times, much less during a catastrophe of nature that reminds man how little he is, despite all his big talk. The most basic function of government, maintaining law and order, breaks down when floods or blackouts paralyze the system. During good times or bad, the police cannot police everybody. They can at best control a small segment of society. The vast majority of people have to control themselves. That is where the great moral traditions of a society come in -- those moral traditions that it is so hip to sneer at, so cute to violate, and that our very schools undermine among the young, telling them that they have to evolve their own standards, rather than following what old fuddy duddies like their parents tell them. Now we see what those do-it-yourself standards amount to in the ugliness and anarchy of New Orleans. In a world where people flaunt their "independence," their "right" to disregard moral authority, and sometimes legal authority as well, the tragedy of New Orleans reminds us how utterly dependent each one of us is for our very lives on millions of other people we don't even see. Thousands of people in New Orleans will be saved because millions of other people they don't even know are moved by moral obligations to come to their rescue from all corners of this country. The things our clever sophisticates sneer at are ultimately all that stand between any of us and utter devastation.Any of us could have been in New Orleans. And what could we have depended on to save us? Situational ethics? Postmodern philosophy? The media? The lawyers? The rhetoric of the intelligentsia? No, what we would have to depend on are the very things that are going to save the survivors of hurricane Katrina, the very things that clever people are undermining.New Orleans can be rebuilt and the levees around it shored up. But can the moral levees be shored up, not only in New Orleans but across America? http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20050906.shtml
Thursday, September 01, 2005
KATRINA RELIEF
I have stopped blogging for a few days while trying to process all that is happening along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina. Please pray for those affected by this disaster. If you have not done so already, please financially support some of the frontline charities such as Redcross.org.
