Spinning Clay

Chat with a skeptic

2011-12-01T20:02:00.001-08:00

A chat session with a skeptic (slightly edited for clarity). It began before this as a political discussion, but where it went from there is interesting.

Skeptic:
Why not? We have been lied to since the beginning of time :)
wait till you see what's in store for us in the next 20 yrs
the enslavement
Myself:
I'm not expecting history to end pleasantly - anyone who reads the Bible knows that, but I think people will act "rationally" right up to the end
Skeptic:
why is the bible the only religious book that's accurate?
why are all the others wrong?
Myself:
well, I believe that it is accurate, and any others are accurate at least as much as they agree with it
if they disagree, then I know which one I think is correct
Skeptic:
maybe we're all praying to the same god with a different interpretation
me personally even though I'm a christian, I'm more impressed with the Dali Lama than any other top religious leader
Myself:
Krishna = Allah = Jesus = Confuscious = ...?
Skeptic:
strong in mind body and spirit
with much conviction
Myself:
do you really believe that they're all the same?
Skeptic:
or were they all made up by a man?
Myself: well, if one man told a story 2600 years ago about another man who was going to die and rise from the dead to save his people, how did he know that 600 years later it would happen?
Skeptic:
and how did the story not get twisted?
and how do we know that it didn't?
Myself:
because we have texts from before the events that say the same thing as they say now
Skeptic:
maybe they put them in a washer and dryer many times so they look old
Myself:
you're funny
Skeptic:
and how do they know the earth is 4million years old
wheres noah's arc?
Myself:
the Jewish Bible has the story told 2600 years ago - why would they have twisted it if they don't believe in Jesus?
Skeptic:
shouldn't we have found animal carcasses?
why do jews believe the messiah hasn't come yet?
Myself:
because they don't believe that Jesus fulfilled all of the promises
Skeptic:
and why would they be god's people if they don't believe he has come yet
doesn't that show the ultimate form of historical ignorance by his "chosen people"
what about me? why am I not chosen?
as you can see I have a lot of questions :)
Myself:
why should you be chosen? Do you want to be?
Skeptic:
if I was confirmed and convicted maybe I'd die for these sacks of trash that forsaked me too
anyway I'm going to sign up to help "people"
not gods
Myself:
it looks to me like you've set up all kinds of barriers against being convicted - that every evidence that might point that way is a human invention and every evidence that points against it is gospel truth
so I really don't expect that you ever will be
Skeptic:
that's you're opinion and you're entitled to it
but at the same time I've been told that if I have ever been saved then I am always saved
so does that mean that I can do whatever I want now?
Myself:
saved people are saved from their sin, not saved to sin with abandon
Skeptic:
so what's worse, sin against myself or sin against others?
or are they the same
Myself:
all sin alienates us from God, some sin also does damage to our neighbors
Skeptic:
what if I treated everyone like god's chosen children but sinned against myself
am I going to hell for that?
but sin is still sin
Myself:
define "sin against yourself" - what do you mean by that?
Skeptic:
I'm sure you can think of some
how about suicide
drug and alcohol addiction
doing things in general to hurt your chances at this life
Myself:
ok - all of those have the common effect of making it difficult or impossible for you to use your life to glorify God or bless your neighbor.
so they are sins against both
they demand that I get to do what I want with myself and have no responsibility to others
which is the essence of sin
there are extenuating circumstances, granted
and God may forgive these too
Skeptic:
on what terms?
is this a case by case basis?
how does he have time for that?
Myself:
the same terms as He forgives all sins - with the blood of Jesus for someone who recognizes their need for it
God is omniscient and eternal - he has all the time he needs to deal with each of us individually
Skeptic:
it all sounds glorious
but is it real?
Myself:
it is
Skeptic:
in your opinion
Myself:
I'm not alone in that opinion
Skeptic:
there are 2 billion muslims that think the same thing of their religion too
Myself:
more Christians than that
Skeptic:
I heard there were only 1 billion christians in the world
Myself:
see here: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html - 2 billion Christians, 1.5 billion Muslims
but majority vote doesn't prove things - all I'm saying is that if you think I'm a fool (which I may be), there are a lot more like me who are fools
Skeptic:
never said you were a fool
I respect your beliefs
Myself:
well, if I'm giving my money and my time away spending it on the hope of a future which is all wishful thinking, then I'd say that I'm a fool
why should I not spend it on my own pleasures instead?
Skeptic:
I know there is something there
I can feel it
and for which some of MY Christian friends think that I am a fool
I have to read the word to understand or know it
I can't feel it
thats too hard for them to grasp
Myself:
so you're sure that something is "there" - that you can feel it?
Skeptic:
of course
the true fools are the ones that can't make that distinction
all of this universe
multiverse
the galaxy the solar system
the sun the moon the planets
the rock were on
and we are the only things that are here
gimme a break
my deeply religious friend told me the human was much more impressive than all of that
I vehemently disagree with that compared to the rest of whats out there
we are a mere biproduct
of brilliance
like a Mozart or Beethoven symphony across the stars
Myself:
so the big bang exploded and left behind Mozart or Beethoven...
I agree that the things that you describe are amazing, but I don't attribute that to the big bang by itself
I think they are evidence of God's shaping hand on the universe
Skeptic:
never said they weren't
I'm talking about what's out there
and here we are on this tiny little rock in one solar system
that's been around as long as a "vapor" according to the bible
and somehow we have aquired this divinity?
really?
Myself:
well, it wasn't by our doing, that's for sure
but evanescence doesn't say anything about our value
you can have two pieces of paper
one wrapped around a tube in the bathroom
one with the picture of a president on it with $10,000 in the corners
both paper
not equally valuable
we are dust, but dust with value
because we've been imprinted with a picture of God
Skeptic:
I hope your right
but I still find it hard to believe
Myself:
absolutely - it's the height of vanity to believe this if it's not true
Skeptic:
I'm not that attractive
Myself:
of course not - neither am I
money gets torn and damaged too - but remains valuable
and (as you well know from your Christian experience) Jesus died to make us clean again
so it's not up to us
Skeptic:
good conversation my friend
Myself:
yes - I very much enjoy talking about this kind of stuff

Psalm 100

2010-06-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

[His Steadfast Love Endures Forever]
[A Psalm for giving thanks.]

[100:1] Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
[2] Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

[3] Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

[4] Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

[5] For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
(Psalm 100 ESV)

This morning I was thinking about why our Christian witness is so feeble sometimes, and it occurred to me that it may be that we have forgotten how to truly rejoice in the Lord. We are burdened down with the cares of our own life and flooded with bad news from TV, radio, newspapers and the web to the point where the cares of the world threaten to completely swamp us. Under such circumstances, rejoicing in the Lord seems to be little more than whistling in the dark, a futile attempt to deny the real pains of this world.

But the ancient Jews also knew much about suffering, yet somehow they managed to write poetry like Psalm 100. And they begin by urging "all the earth" to make a joyful noise to the Lord. Even pagans, idolaters and deadly enemies of both the Lord and His people are called to serve Him with gladness. It is something to imagine the noise that would be made by this polyglot crowd, each proclaiming the goodness of God in their own tongue.

The Psalmist then goes on to proclaim with joy the reason why his people in particular should celebrate. "The Lord," that is the One Whom they worshiped and Who called them out of Egypt, this One is truly God, not a dead idol. And the people He chose are the sheep of His pasture, the people whom He faithfully watches over, protects and guides into good places.

So it is good to celebrate, and we are urged to do so, to enter into the gates of His temple with thanksgiving, rather than long somber faces burdened down with the cares of the world. We are to be grateful for the Lord's steady provision and rejoice in His goodness and greatness, "for the Lord is good, and His steadfast love endures forever." Implicit in this is the idea that we ourselves will also live forever, and so be able to enjoy His love and provision forever.

This is perhaps the reason why the Psalmist could rejoice; he saw beyond the troubles of his day, real though they were, to a life in which the Lord had overcome all these evils. Evils are transient, but God's love never ends. The people of God will outlive all of the sufferings that might plague them and will enter into a joy that makes those sufferings tame by comparison.

Do we live this way ourselves? Do we see that we are part of an eternal kingdom, that Jesus has prepared a place for us in it, and that we shall live forever with Him in glory? Can we look honestly at our sufferings and the sufferings of others and know with confidence that they will fade away, and that God is able to work them all for good? If so, does this realization engender joy in our lives, a joy that shows even in the troubles of life? If we live with a vision of the sure joy that is ours, then that ought perhaps trickle out a little into the rest of our lives, and may add something to our witness that is missing now, and might help some people to believe that there really is something in Christianity that they might want.

May it be so!

Psalm 103

2010-01-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

Of David.

103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all (every bit - nothing left out) that is within me,
bless (make Him happy with my praise of) his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits (why is it so easy to forget these?),
3 who forgives all (every bit - nothing left out) your iniquity,
who heals all (every bit - nothing left out) your diseases (indeed, the life in my body that enables it to recover from sickness is all from Him),
4 who redeems your life from the pit (again and again, as I lose myself once more in the pit),
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy (oh yes! love and mercy that endure through a thousand failures and missteps - what a splendid crown!),
5 who satisfies you with good (if it were up to me, I'd be dissatisfied with good - always looking for something "more" that is really far less - but He teaches me to be satisfied and more than satisfied with what is truly good).
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (woohoo!).

6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed (wait patiently - it will yet come).
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel (how wonderful for God to choose this little people).
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious (not giving us what we deserve and giving us what we don't deserve),
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (how sweet the endless undeserved good).
9 He will not always chide (not like my wounded pride, which constantly chides me),
nor will he keep his anger forever (not like the resentment that gnaws my heart).
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins (that's for sure),
nor repay us according to our iniquities (whew!).
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him (this is incomprehensibly wonderful);
12 as far as the east is from the west (keep going...),
so far does he remove our transgressions from us (they are gone! - all of them!).
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him (the good father, the one who runs to meet the prodigal son).
14 For he knows our frame (better than I know it myself);
he remembers that we are dust (how often I'd rather be more than dust - a superhero - but I wear myself out trying) .

15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more (the promise was that we'd be like gods - but on my own I can't be. I'm too weak and wilt like grass under the summer sun).
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him (in His love, I will live from everlasting to everlasting - as enduring as His love),
and his righteousness to children's children (thank you, Lord, for loving my children better than I can),
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments (by your grace, Lord...).
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all (everything - nothing left out - He is Lord).

20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels (yes!),
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts (yes!),
his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works (yes!),
in all (every one, none left out) places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul (Amen and amen) !

Isaiah 13-20

2009-12-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Assyria, Egypt - all powers in the land, none of them friends of the people of God. Yet despite the power with which they dominated or seduced God's people, the Lord will have the final word.

The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day (19:21).

In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying "Blessed by Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."

Assyria, Judah's most dangerous foe, and Egypt, her most dangerous ally, will be united with Judah and they will all be God's people. Thank you, Lord, for overcoming your enemies by making them your friends and your people.

Numbers 4

2009-12-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

God was dangerous then. Only designated people could handle His things, and then only in the appropriate way, lest they die. He is still dangerous, and if He were to approach us so closely again, we would be in the same peril. Only the designated people could stand. Today we celebrate the birth of the One by whom we become the designated people of God, a kingdom of priests, who may touch His things without peril. It is His blood that cleanses us, that sets us apart so we may enter the Holy Place of God and stand in His presence without dying. Thank you God, for sending your Son so that all who believe in you may stand before you and live.

Numbers 2

2009-12-23T11:47:00.001-08:00

Everything decently and in order. For those of us who feel like order and structure stifle the Spirit, this passage is an antidote. Thank you God for working in orderly ways as well as in the unexpected, for being the Creator of patterns and structure and order as well as the One who interrupts all of our tidy arrangements. Help me to learn from your ordering of things and to joyfully submit to the order that you establish for my life.

Psalm 98

2009-12-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

Rejoice, celebrate, make a racket for the Lord, the righteous judge, comes! All we have had until now are unrighteous judges, who could not tell evil from good, whose own interests interfered with what was really right, who were blind to the truth. Even I myself have unrighteously judged myself, condemning what was right in my life and excusing what was sinful. But now the righteous judge comes and he will show the unanswerable truth about who we are. The good will be seen and celebrated for what it is, and the evil will be seen and condemned for what it is. No more wolves in sheep's clothing, no more invisible and unacknowledged good. And for those who have turned their lives over to the good shepherd, the evil that is condemned will be washed away by the blood of the Lamb and the good will be raised to new life. Praise God, for He will make things right at last!

Leviticus 26

2009-12-20T08:04:00.000-08:00

Thank you God, for making it hard for us to not follow you. Thank you for the burdens that make life on our own insupportable, that finally drive us back to you to seek what we should have been seeking all along. And thank you that it doesn't matter when we turn, or what we were doing before we turned, that you will receive us back. Your arms are open and you will run to us and celebrate our homecoming even though moments before we were fighting you with all our hearts. Thank you for your forbearance and love.

Leviticus 25

2009-12-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

Thank you, Lord, for having in mind for us sabbatical years, when we and our land can rest. I have no idea how that would work today, but I want to get closer to that in my life; to find seasons where I need not drive myself to achieve, but can step back and rest in your provision. It would be sweet to enter into your rest that way. Indeed it is necessary to; the Israelites were exiled one year for each sabbatical year they did not observe. May I not find myself set aside that way because I would not rest in you.

Leviticus 24

2009-12-18T07:15:00.001-08:00

Light and bread, the two signs of the presence and provision of God through all the ages. Thank you, Lord, for being with us in the basic stuff of life, the essential provision we need.

An eye for an eye does not fix anything - that has to wait for the Second Coming - but it does make the pain of the crime felt by the one who committed it, and limits the vengeance of the one who would take two eyes in return for the one he lost. Thank you, Lord, for ordaining justice rather than injustice.

Leviticus 23

2009-12-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

God gives His people holidays woven out of our walk of faith with Him. One day out of seven, the Sabbath teaches me that I can trust Him and let go of my agendas and my struggle to do it myself. Passover and Booths remind me to look back to God's provision for His people in delivering them from slavery and walking with them in the wilderness. First Fruits and Weeks remind me of His present provision in giving me food, clothing, my home and all that I have. Trumpets points me forward into a new year in God's care and Atonement brings me face to face with my need for cleansing from my sin and God's provision of Christ to make that once-for-all atonement for that sin.

How far my celebration of holidays has drifted from the spirit of Leviticus. Father, though I am not a part of a community that celebrates the holidays you gave your chosen people, help me to walk in their spirit in my day. Fill my Sundays, and Christmas and New Years and all of the seasons of the year with reminders that you have been faithful, you are being faithful and you will be faithful through all the seasons of my life, and help me to rest in that faithfulness and give you the praise and glory for being our faithful God.

Psalm 127:3

2009-02-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him.

It's sad to think how our attitude towards children has changed. This was brought to mind for me when I saw the dismay some people had towards the recent birth of octuplets. Instead of celebrating the arrival of new babies, many people were horrified by the burden it placed on the parents and society, and talked about the irresponsibility of the parents (or fertility doctors) in having so many children.

Contrary to popular belief, we are not threatened with overpopulation, in fact the world will reach its maximum population this century and start declining from that point on. Some countries, such as Russia, are experiencing near catastrophic population decline and will encounter serious social problems as a result of the diminished number of young people in their society. Far from loving children and receiving them as rewards from God, we are now increasingly begrudging them, and only willing to accept the challenge of having children after we've got home, career, hobbies and everything else under control, by which time it may be too late. And woe betide the baby if it comes "too soon," when it's "not yet convenient" - we insist on our right to abort inconvenient babies, and some are even promoting infanticide if the child doesn't turn out as expected.

Lord have mercy on us and teach us again to prize our children even as you do.

Jeremiah 49:12

2009-01-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

If even those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished?

Who are the innocents who must drink the cup of God's wrath? Have we, who have "become like God," also become self-appointed agents of God's wrath, pouring out the cup on those who, in our self-serving judgment deserve it, even if in God's holy judgment they do not? One could certainly find evidence enough in human history of this kind of behavior, from Abel down to the gulags and concentration camps and the contemporary holocaust of abortion.

Oh Lord, how we have sinned, taking on the "right" to judge which lives are worth living and which are not. Have mercy on us and open our eyes to what we have done and continue to do, that we might fall our our faces in horror and abject repentance for the devastation we have wrought by seizing from You the judgment that is Yours alone. Turn us from our devastating ways, that you might not have to pour on us the cup which we have poured so recklessly on those who did not deserve it.

Mark 7:6

2009-01-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

Where is my heart this morning? In today's news, with the latest about the economy, the housing market, sports, Obama... Is it in my job, with thoughts about what I'll be doing when I get back to work tomorrow? Or in the sports or comics section, looking for a distraction? Where is my heart, and how do I bring it back close to the God who is Lord over my life, whether I attend to that fact or not?

Lord, draw my heart back to you. Let my worship not simply be the repetition of familiar phrases, the delight in intellectual knowledge, the subtle strutting of my abilities before friends who like the same lifestyle I do. Help me to desire You first and to do all things with an eye towards knowing and pleasing You better. Make the words of my lips be the fruit of a heart that is truly close to You, that You might be glorified.

Jeremiah 48:47

2009-01-24T07:37:00.000-08:00

Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come.

This is a remarkable passage, situated, as it is, at the end of a chapter filled with vivid prophecy of disaster. God has reached the end of his patience with the idolatry, brutality and pride of Moab, and they are to be destroyed in a great cataclysm of war. Yet they will be restored. Evil though they have been, God will not annihilate them completely, but will mercifully restore them as a people.

But what of those who actually endure the warfare and destruction, who flee weeping from their burning cities, who fall to the ruthless sword of the invader - what of them? How can they who are dead benefit from a restoration that happens long years later? Indeed God's justice requires a resurrection, otherwise his promises of restoration are useless to those who hear them. Only in the hope of a resurrection can those who die look to the fulfillment of the great promises that God has made to heal and restore. The promises like these of the Old Testament find their fulfillment in the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits of all who will rise at the end. Because Jesus rose from the dead, God will restore Moab, and all who are devastated by his judgment on sin.

John 5:31-47

2009-01-20T06:24:00.000-08:00

"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony is valid."

Jesus recognizes what we have all at one time or another discovered, namely that we can talk all we want in our own defense and it will not be heard or accepted unless it is supported by the witness of another. In most situations, that witness is the heart of the listening person. If the person to whom I speak is inclined to trust me, my testimony will be valid in their eyes. But we can be deceived in either direction; trusting those who do not deserve trust and refusing to trust those who deserve it, so the fact that we accept a testimony does not make it valid. Jesus, however, had testimony in his favor that went deeper than personal trust. This testimony was found in the prophetic word, as exemplified by Moses and John the Baptist, and in his own works. God spoke of Jesus' coming and his work before he appeared on the scene, and Jesus lived and ministered in a way that showed himself to be the man of whom God was speaking. If our hearts do not assent to this testimony, this speaks not to the weakness of the witness, but the hardness of our hearts. We have failed to trust what is supremely worthy of our trust, and that is no fault but our own.

Colossians 1:15-20

2009-01-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

There is so much here. Jesus is so great that the language strains to catch a hint of his glory. But what struck me particularly was what this passage also says about us. We too are created in the image of the invisible God. While Jesus is firstborn, we share the family likeness, marred though it may be by sin. We have not created all things, but we are creators. As head of the church, he is not head of an alien population - a foreign potentate ruling over a subjugated people. His church is made up of people who look like him; who are family. We are redeemable by Christ because we are made in his image. He could not have become incarnated as a frog, but only as a human who shared his likeness. And we, when we are redeemed, shall be made like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Like the one who spins the universe into life and holds all things together... We have no real idea yet what we will be like in glory, but this passage points us in that direction, even as it points to Jesus.

Psalm 119:41-42

2009-01-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise;
then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.

It is interesting that the Psalmist does not say "I trust in your word, therefore I have an answer for him who taunts me." Trust is necessary, but it alone is not enough; he needs to know God's steadfast love and faithfulness. Trust answers the negative side of our faith; when I trust God, I am not afraid that he will do anything wrong or allow me to be hurt. However trust does not motivate me to positive action; it does not drive me to speak out to others or seek to engage my faith in their lives. That happens when I have seen God in action; his saving power has reached out and touched me and I saw it. Then I speak, indeed I find it hard not to speak. "Did you see what God did? I was desperate and he acted, I was hopeless and he rescued me, I was lost and he found me, dying and he raised me to life." While trusting in God gives me the strength to answer him who taunts me, it is when I have seen God's steadfast love and salvation that I am actually motivated to speak.

But Father, I am blind indeed to your saving acts, which are all around me. You constantly deliver me and bless me and fill me and I do not see or pay no attention. Help me to attend to your never failing love, so that I may be filled with the gratitude you deserve and speak out of the fullness of my heart. May you be glorified in my speech today.

Jeremiah 40:1-4

2009-01-14T06:32:00.000-08:00

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he took him bound in chains along with all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The Lord your God pronounced this disaster against this place. The Lord has brought it about, and has done as he said. Because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey his voice, this thing has come upon you. Now, behold, I release you today from the chains on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well, but if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go.

There was the group of prisoners, bound in chains, ravaged by the long terrors of war, guarded by their captors, the Babylonian soldiers. Then one of the leaders of the army recognizes Jeremiah - we're not sure how - singles him out and releases him from his chains. Imagine how conspicuous he must have been, how all eyes must have turned to watch as the military leader unchained Jeremiah, talked with him, and set him free to go where he would. How bitter the people must have felt; "there goes the man who sided with the Babylonians, who betrayed our people, who urged others to defect - traitor! quisling!" And how uncomfortable Jeremiah must have felt - how awkward it must have seemed to be getting favorable attention from the captain of the enemy forces, the man responsible for burning Jerusalem and ravaging its people. Yet it was Jeremiah who was in the right and his message of judgment was God's message, one that had to be said however unpopular it was, and the chains the prisoners wore were their own fault for not listening to the message Jeremiah brought.

Sometimes we're also in a position a little like Jeremiah's. We have an uncomfortable message to bring - against abortion, sexual promiscuity, homosexual behavior, theological error, popular fad, or whatever - and it makes enemies for us even in our own community. And "strangers" come alongside to commend what we say, making us look even less like we belong to our community. Indeed, we don't really belong there any more, at least not the way we'd like to, for we belong to God first, and must speak his message even to our own people, and even if they don't want to hear it. In such a position I too often keep silent for fear of offending my community. God help me to speak - lovingly yes, humbly absolutely, recognizing that I too am a sinner of course - but frankly and clearly nevertheless, because if I keep silent, I may find myself watching my community taken away in chains by the sins they did not reject. There's no assurance they will respond well to my words (they didn't to Jeremiah), but if they fall, let it not be because I could have warned them and didn't.

John 5:16-23

2009-01-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

Jesus calls God "my Father...". Not "our Father," or "the Father," but "my Father." No wonder the Jews tried to kill him. And how intimate the relationship he describes! "I do what I see my Father doing." It's like a kid in his father's workshop, watching his daddy's every move and copying it on his own set of smaller tools. And it's not just a little of what the Father does that Jesus copies, but everything, even raising the dead.

Is Jesus talking here about the last days, when all the dead shall be raised when the Father raises them? Or is it about his miracles? Or does the word "dead" describe all of us, people "dead in our trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:8), whom the Father raises constantly as He draws people to Himself? Probably all of them are in Jesus' mind as he speaks, for the Pharisees are as astonished that Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners as that he raises Lazarus.

And this is where judgment comes in, the judgment that God has given to the Son, for when we reject the work of Jesus, we reject God's work, and we reject God Himself.

Father, help me to see and rejoice in the work that Jesus does in the world, for in doing so I bring praise to You. In Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm 119:1

2009-01-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!

The law of the Lord is the blameless way, the road on which it is blessed to walk. No potholes of corruption, no detours into rebellion, no dead-ends of ignorance - God's law safely takes us where we need to go. Those of us who have been lost on bad roads as a result of bad maps know what a joy it is to return blameless path, one that is smooth, well-lit and takes us to our desired destination. God's law is such a path for us if it is God whom we truly desire, and if we desire Him, we will know blessing as we walk in His law.

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 21

2008-10-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 2 - Today Uncle Floyd took us hiking at Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park SW of Barnesville, and we were joined by Monta Rae’s three boys, Scott (19), Aaron (17) and David (14). After a hot and humid hike, we went swimming at a spring-fed pool in the park, and then barbequed hotdogs next to the Park Headquarters where Lynn’s mother worked for three summers during college. (Her father, A. Newton Moye, was Georgia State Parks Director around that time.)

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 20

2008-10-05T15:36:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 1 - Our destination this day was Barnesville, Georgia, about one hour south of Atlanta, where Lynn’s mother grew up and her family has lived for many generations. Ralph and Lynn stayed with Lynn’s uncle and aunt, Floyd and Twila Moye, while the boys stayed with their son, Fred, and his family down the road. The Moyes have developed the old family farm (Redbone Farms) into a Fly-In Equestrian Community - Little Tobesofkee Creek - with 10-12-acre properties for people who have their own small planes. Their daughter, Monta Rae, and her family also live down the road.
That evening, Cousin Fred took Adam fishing at the nearby pond, where he caught his first fish, a 3-pound catfish! The next morning they went out again and Adam caught a 4-pounder (see picture). Fred prepared and cooked the fish, which we enjoyed on Sunday evening.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 19

2008-10-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 31 - Since we were in western Virginia near the Blue Ridge Mountains, we decided to drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to North Carolina. The scenery was marvelous but the winding road was much longer and slower than we expected so we were late arriving at our destination, Shelby, North Carolina. (We were always trying to pack in too much each day!) Along the way we made a stop at the Blue Ridge Music Center where we were treated to some Bluegrass music.
We stayed at the home of Marywinn and Dickie Amaya, Lynn’s second cousin, where we had a great dinner and got to see their daughter, Isabel, who flew in that evening from Wyoming for a friend’s wedding, and their married son, Evan, who lives nearby.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 18

2008-10-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 30 - Since we were not driving far this day, we spent the morning and early afternoon touring Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, on the Potomac River south of DC. We were very impressed with the wonderful restoration that has been done by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association which began restoring the property in 1858! Half of the furnishings are original to the house as it was in 1799 and the other half are originals from the same time period.
In the afternoon we drove west to Sperryville, Virginia to spend the night with Lynn’s mother’s cousin, Demaris Miller, and her husband, Jim. We had an enjoyable evening with them and their three dogs - two Shelties (Tilly and Trooper) and an enormous German Shepherd named Thor (who at nine months wasn’t even fully grown!)

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 17

2008-10-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 29 - We took our leave of Rochester and headed south on US 15 toward Washington, DC. Lunch was at a small state park on a bluff overlooking the Susquehanna River. Then we made a quick stop at Gettysburg, spending only a little time in the Visitor’s Center with a drive through the battlefield. Our time was short as we were heading to Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of DC for dinner with old friends, Peter and Cheryl Rice. After a great visit with them and their children, Jared (23) and Ellie (18), we drove to Annandale, Virginia where we spent the night with John and Sandy Stait, Navigators missionaries that we have been supporting for many years. Our visit with them was brief as they were flying out the next morning for meetings in Chicago. We greatly appreciated their hospitality in hosting us despite their busy schedule.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 16

2008-10-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 28 - Today we all piled into our van to go see Niagara Falls. When we reached the park on an island in the Niagara River, we started out by walking to the top of the falls. The island is between the Horseshoe and American Falls, giving an impressive view. Next we took the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the base of the Horseshoe Falls. Despite the ponchos they issue, we were quite soaked, but it was an experience not to be missed! The volume of water is truly impressive, especially after we learned that part of it is diverted for power generation, so you don’t even see the full force of it!
That evening Peter and Christina treated us to a nice dinner at a German restaurant in Rochester. The rainstorm we ran into on the way back from Niagara had fortunately passed, so we could enjoy dinner on the patio.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 15

2008-10-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 27 - This morning we went to church with Peter and Christina at North Baptist Church of Rochester. Afterwards we went for a walk along the Genesee River to see the falls.
That afternoon we drove to a beach along Lake Ontario, where some of us went swimming. Since it was right by where the Genesee River empties into the lake, the water was a lot muckier, although warmer, than Lake Michigan. In the evening we had dinner at the sidewalk tables of a nice neighborhood restaurant near Peter and Christina’s place.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 14

2008-09-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 26 - On to our primary destination - Rochester, New York - where we would spend three wonderful days with our oldest son, Peter, and his wife, Christina. Aside from a brief visit they made to Southern California in May, we hadn’t seen them since they headed out to Rochester a few weeks after their wedding last year. We stayed at a La Quinta Inn in Rochester, but one night Peter and Christina graciously allowed the boys to stay with them in their small flat and give Ralph and Lynn some private time.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 13

2008-09-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 25 - Another short driving day, only as far as Mount Vernon, Ohio - NE of Columbus. Here we stayed with Bob and Theresa Kasper, old friends from our old church, First Baptist of West Los Angeles. They also have three sons, Joseph (15), Daniel (18) and David (21), but unfortunately they were all away at the time. This was especially disappointing as we wanted Nathan to meet Daniel who was born on the same day as he in the adjoining labor room at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles! But we had a great visit getting re-acquainted with Bob and Theresa, whom we had not seen since before Adam was born.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 12

2008-09-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 24 - This was one of our shortest driving days as we were only traveling as far as Fishers, Indiana (outside Indianapolis), where we stayed with Tonia and Tony Sargent. Tonia was one of Lynn’s college roommates and one of our bridesmaids. They have three sons like we do, Matt (15), Ben (19), and Tom (22), but Ben was out-of-town and we only say Tom briefly. We had a fun evening playing the "Settlers of Catan" board game with the rest of the family.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 11

2008-09-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 23 - We relaxed at the Vranishes’ in the morning, doing laundry and shopping, then we all piled together into their van along with our dog, Troy, and their 90-pound Labradoodle, Rover, to go to a leash-free dog beach on Lake Michigan. Rover loved swimming, but Troy, who is not a water dog by any stretch of the imagination, studiously avoided the water and Rover - when he got out and shook off! With the wind coming off the lake, we had waves similar to our Pacific beaches, but it was quite cold. Brrrr! It was a lot like an ocean beach but without the sticky salty feel to the air or the salt-water to sting your eyes. David returned home that evening, so we got a chance to visit with him.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 10

2008-09-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 22 - We battled mid-morning traffic to drive through downtown Chicago and see the Sears Tower, then had pizza at a nice restaurant (though not Chicago-style pizza!) and sang a belated happy birthday to Adam along with the restaurant staff. After more than a week camping and seeing the natural wonders of our country, we were pleased to be visiting old friends in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the next two nights. Ken and Peggy Vranish are old friends (Lynn and Peggy went to junior high and high school together!) that we don’t get to see nearly often enough! We continued the celebration of Adam’s birthday with a cake that Peggy had purchased at Lynn’s request. Their oldest son, Job, and his wife joined us for dinner, but their younger son, David, a certified search-and-rescue person was on a search in the Upper Peninsula area of Michigan. Their daughter, Teá, took Nathan swing dancing with friends that evening, which he greatly enjoyed.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 9

2008-09-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 21 - The morning of Adam’s 11th birthday was spent in Sioux City finding an internet café (because the Motel 6 didn’t have wi-fi) and doing laundry. The weather had cleared in Sioux City, but we saw lots of evidence from the storm in terms of downed tree branches. Traveling across Iowa that day, we trailed the storm, only experiencing a few downpours, but our night’s destination, a KOA campground in the Des Moines/Moline Quad Cities area, had no power due to the storm. Unfortunately the power outage was wide-spread, so there were no other lodging alternatives in the Quad Cities. We had to travel farther into Illinois, ending up at a Super 8 motel in Rock Falls at 10:30 that night.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 8

2008-09-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 20 - We attended a church service at the KOA put on by a group of college students who were working at the campground for the summer, then back to Mount Rushmore to get some daylight views before heading out of the Black Hills. Our next stop was the Badlands National Park for some amazing rock formations and wildlife, including pronghorn and prairie dogs. We crossed the Missouri river out of South Dakota and into Iowa where we stayed at a Motel 6 in Sioux City. That night we were treated to a spectacular thunder and lightning show as a rare severe weather event, a "derecho,"cut a 60-mile-wide path across Iowa and into Illinois, with winds of 65- to 95-miles-per hour. (Check out this article for more details about the derecho: http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/07/21/news/local/doc488516843a5d0341872392.txt)

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 7

2008-09-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 19 - In the morning we toured Jewel Cave National Monument, currently the second-longest cave system in the world. It may well pass up Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, since based on airflow out of the cave, they may have only mapped 2-5% of the passages!
We spent the afternoon doing laundry and relaxing around the campground. That evening we watched the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore which was very inspiring (despite the ranger with her elementary school teacher style of talking s-l-o-w-l-y about how the four presidents portrayed were known for taking "risks.")

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 6

2008-09-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 18 - As the museum allowed two days of visiting for the price of admission, we were able to see more of the museums in the morning before leaving Cody. Now on to the Black Hills of South Dakota by way of the Big Horn Mountains. On the way to our campground we caught a glimpse of the unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial being sculpted from the hills near Mount Rushmore. We checked into our cabin at the Palmer Gulch Resort and KOA - the 2nd largest KOA in the nation, with 2 pools, water slide, water park, giant bounce pillow, fishing pond and more!

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 5

2008-09-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 17 - This morning we packed up and headed out of Yellowstone by way of one last area - Mammoth Hot Springs, a part of the park with many travertine terraces. As we headed out of the park we encountered a large bison coming up the opposite lane of the road. Notice the picture with the driver’s sideview mirror showing in the corner. That’s how close it was! (Of course we stayed in the car!) We had planned to take the Beartooth Scenic Highway from the NE entrance of Yellowstone up into Montana, considered to be one of the most scenic drives in the country, but we decided that we wanted to visit Cody, WY to the SE, so we only went partway up the Beartooth Highway before detouring down the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway over Dead Indian Pass. Cody is home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (www.bbhc.org/), including five world-class museums. Since Nathan and Adam had just finished performances of the musical, "Annie, Get Your Gun," about Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody, we really enjoyed seeing exhibits about the real people involved in the musical, including Pawnee Bill, whom Nathan played.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 4

2008-09-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 16 - We crammed as much of Yellowstone into one day as we could, seeing many amazing sites, including Old Faithful (no pictures unfortunately because our camera battery died right before it erupted!) We saw many other geysers and geothermal features, plus lots of bison and other wildlife, and the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" river and falls. We were especially impressed with the volume of water in the rivers and in Yellowstone Lake, wondering where it all flowed from since Yellowstone straddles the Continental Divide, and is a relatively level area.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 3

2008-09-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 15 - We made a quick stop by the Great Salt Lake - pretty hazy - and snapped a few pictures of the Mormon Temple while driving through downtown Salt Lake City. Since we would have one less day in the Yellowstone/Grand Tetons area, we decided to head to our campsite in West Yellowstone, Montana, by driving through Grand Tetons National Park in order to at least get a glimpse of it. We got some beautiful views and pictures of sunset over the Tetons, but this route took a lot longer than expected, leading us to drive up through Yellowstone largely in the dark and arrive at the KOA campground just before the store closed at 11:00 pm so we could get the key for our cabin!

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 2

2008-09-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 14 - In the morning the mechanic informed us that he could not recreate the problem we were having, and his best guess was that it was caused by overfilling of the transmission fluid which then overflowed when heated. We praised God for a wonderful answer to the many prayers (thanks to all you who were praying for us!) and continued on, making it to Provo, Utah for our second night, losing one day at Yellowstone because of the delay. After dinner in Provo we visited a small, but beautiful waterfall, just out of the city, that had been recommended by a local we met at dinner. We managed to get some nice pictures of Bridal Veil Falls despite the gathering dusk.

next...

Cross-Country Trip - Summer of 2008 - Day 1

2008-09-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 13 - After church, we returned home to load up the dog and the food (having loaded everything else the day before.) Our first night’s destination was Cedar City, Utah. However between Baker and Las Vegas, we developed transmission trouble and had to be towed back to Baker - not a salubrious place to spend the night. We had visions of major expense and delay, or possible curtailment of the entire trip!

next...

Why and How Jesus Would Vote - Part 2

2008-08-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

From Barbara Walter-Skinner's Why and How Jesus Would Vote (see here for the beginning of the discussion).

Point 2:

As the author of life, God is committed to protecting the lives even of those who have for any reason taken the lives of others. Candidates should be evaluated by their commitment not to protecting life as it is unborn, but to protecting even the lives of criminals who are incarcerated in states that support the death penalty for heinous crimes. God values all life that he alone has created.

Frankly I'm appalled that Dr. Walter-Skinner believes that Jesus would be indifferent to the lives of the innocent unborn and is committed to protect the lives of those guilty of murder. All you have to do is perform a word search on the phrase "innocent blood" in the Bible and you will find ample evidence of God's horror for those responsible for the wilfull death of innocents (see Jeremiah 19 for a particularly graphic instance of this).

As for the administering of the death penalty, in Deuteronomy 19:11-13, God makes it quite clear that to not punish some crimes with death is culpable leniency and that such a failure makes us guilty of the crime as well. If Dr. Walters-Skinner claims that Jesus' death overrides this principle, she still has to deal with NT passages, such as in the deaths of Annanias and Saphira (Acts 5), Romans 13 (where Caesar is given the sword for a reason), 1 Corinthians 11:30 (where people die because of their eating the body and blood of Christ in an unworthy manner) and especially in Revelation, where vast quantities of blood are shed by God in judgment. While God may mercifully spare a murderer (as he did King David), this sets no precident requiring murders may never be executed.

Given the uniform testimony of Scripture in this regard, the views of Dr. Walters-Skinner in this regard are inexplicable. What she should say is

As the author of life, God is committed to protecting the lives the innocent, and candidates should be evaluated by their commitment to protecting the unborn. On the other hand, the state may (and perhaps even should) require that those who have wilfully taken the lives of the innocent be punished by having their own lives taken in return.

Why and How Jesus Would Vote - Part 1

2008-08-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

Barbara Williams-Skinner, in her article Why and How Would Jesus Vote: Creating a New Framework for Evangelical Voters, published in the Spring 2008 edition of Fuller Theological Seminary's Theology News and Notes, identifies five basic guidelines that she suggests "might be taken into account by evangelicals seeking to manifest as close [sic] as possible the the entirety of sacred Scripture through their civil engagements." These five points are very revealing of a particular perspective on Scripture and culture, points which I'd like to engage with from a different perspective. As I am able, I plan to post once for each point, giving her position as well as a response.

Point 1:

The day of voters electing candidates simply because they oppose abortion or vow protection of the unborn for nine months while in the womb, yet refuse to provide heathcare, quality education, housing, safe streets, a fair justice system, and a livable environment once the child is born, is hopefully over. Candidates should be evaluated based on their commitment to a government that values all of life---from the womb to the grave.

My response:

Per Cardinal Egan of New York (from Hugh Hewitt):

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Given that Jesus would insist that a candidate oppose abortion, it is not the only issue on which we may decide who to elect to office. We should certainly take into account the candidate's effectiveness in dealing with other social issues. However, it is not necessarily the responsibility of the federal government to deal with all of the issues listed above. Safe streets are largely the responsibility of the local government, as are quality schools. The experiences of Canada and England indicate that socializing healthcare may well make it less accessible to those who now can easily obtain it. So while the candidates we elect should be concerned about these issues, they may sometimes best demonstrate that concern by doing nothing directly about them and leaving the resolution of the issue to those best equipped to do the work well.

To judge or not to judge.

2008-08-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm having a conversation with B. Snyder on Episcopal Cafe about if and when a Christian is permitted to judge another Christian. Since I'm unable to post there right now, I'm posting my response to his (or her) posting of August 13, 2008 at 10:56 PM below in the hopes that he (or she) will be able to get here to see it...

B. Snyder...
There are times when the plain sense of one passage of Scripture contradicts the plain sense of another passage. An obvious example of this is Proverbs 26:4-5. When that happens, you can either decide that one passage is wrong, or, if you honor the authority of all of Scripture, try to look a little deeper to find out how the two passages are to be understood in a way that does justice to them both. For example, I conclude from the Proverbs 26 passage I just mentioned that there is no safe way to deal with a fool, for whether one answers him or not, you cannot avoid getting into trouble. The contradiction of the plain sense of the two verses is a way of highlighting the quandary we find ourselves in in this case.

One has to do the same thing with Jesus' warnings not to judge and the statements he and others make in Scripture urging us to judge. You can either assume that one of them is wrong (as you seem to assume Paul is) or you can try to honor both of them by looking a little deeper into them. If you assume Paul is wrong in 1 Cor 5, you also (it would seem), have to assume that a number of other "judgmental" passages in the NT are wrong as well, e.g. Gal 1:6-9, Romans 3:10-18, 2 Peter 2, 1 John 4:8. Since I'm unwilling to assume that any of the authors were in error in writing what they did, I assume that the judging Jesus forbids is not the judging that Paul, Peter or John are doing. In particular, I conclude that Jesus is talking to people with planks in their eyes who are making judgments against people who only have dust specks in their eyes. The planks may be spiritual pride, hypocrisy or any of a number of other very toxic sins, while the dust specks are probably things that may not be sins at all (e.g. styles of clothing or music). In any case, the person with the plank needs to realize that he will be examined by God as closely as he is examining his neighbor, and he may not like the results.

But when we have dealt with the planks in our own eyes (like Jesus says we should), we may be able to deal with the dust specks (or planks) in the eyes of others. This is what Paul is doing in 1 Cor 5, and what I'm claiming that we need to do more often than we are.

You have concluded that my primary target here is "the way the Church treats homosexual persons," and argued that the same approach that I use to justify judging can be used to justify homosexual behavior. You are welcome to try this, but I don't think it will work. For one thing, there are no passages in Scripture whose plain sense is "sex between two men or two women is ok." So you don't have anything that contradicts the passages in both the OT and NT whose plain sense is that such sexual behavior is wrong, and thus no justification for looking for a deeper meaning than the plain sense of these passages.

Absent any internal contraction of this sort in the plain sense of Scripture, you seem ready to resort to love or reason or to override the plain sense of Scripture. But it is neither loving nor rational to encourage people to do what Scripture forbids, regardless of how much they want to do it. If God says through Paul

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21)

then it is the height of irresponsibility to encourage people to go on with a little drunkenness, or bit of sorcery or some occasional sexual immorality on the assumption that their faith or other good works will override these sins and that God will forgive it all in the end. The truly loving and rational act is to warn people to stay away at all costs from these behaviors, because the pleasure that comes from them cannot possibly compensate for the loss of the kingdom of God. And if it takes ejecting some people from the church (and I do not restrict this group to the those who are sexually immoral) to make clear to them their peril (as Paul recommended in 1 Cor 5), then that is what love and reason should urge us to do. Though we can't say for sure, 2 Cor 2:5-8 appears to indicate that this strategy worked in Paul's case.

2008-05-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

I went to see "Expelled" tonight with my friend George. There was a lot more they could have said about Intelligent Design itself, but their focus was more on the conflict between the "scientific establishment" and those trying to gain a hearing for ID. The connection they made between Darwin and Hitler (and then with today's scientific establishment) was rather chilling, and led me to think more about the possible spiritual aspects to this conflict.

The ID controversy is similar in a number of ways to the other major point of scientific controversy today, that of anthropogenic global warming (AGW). In both cases, the scientific establishment is adamant that the point is settled in their favor and that it is an affront even to question the "scientific consensus." Anyone who does question the consensus is assumed to have an ulterior motive, either religious or commercial, and is dismissed without serious consideration. The mainstream media has taken the side of the establishment in both cases and generally refuses to seriously investigate either the tactics that the establishment uses to defend its position or the legitimacy of the arguments uses to put forward dissenting views. How is it, I wondered, that the same sort of battle has developed around these two particular issues? Could these issues be manifestations of a single deeper spiritual purpose that could account for the similarity of these reactions?

One of the points that Expelled clearly made was that Darwinian thought has provided justification for people pursuing dehumanizing thoughts and behaviors. The principle of "survival of the fittest" nurtured Hitler's efforts to destroy the Jews and create of the German people a superior race. The conviction that human beings are simply highly evolved animals has allowed Darwin and others since him to conveniently hold the conviction that it was ok to treat human beings as a farmer would treat animals; breeding those who seemed likely to produce desirable offspring and killing off those whose cost to society exceeds their perceived value. On the other hand, AGW has justified a kind of hatred of technically advanced human beings as destroyers of the world. The more advanced the society, the larger its "carbon footprint" and therefore the more it is to be hated because of its perceived contribution to a pending global catastrophe.

The combined effect of these two theories is to make both weak and strong human beings liable to destruction. Darwinian survival of the fitness will ensure that the weak (including the unborn and the elderly) will be killed off, while AGW will ensure that the strong get hamstrung to reduce their carbon footprint. When these two ideologies have done their work, only the middle will be left. Since the middle will have its weaker and stronger members as well, they too will be destroyed in time. Left unchecked, these forces will destroy humanity.

This looks very much like spiritual warfare to me. If so, a victory in either of these areas will require combat in the spiritual arena. The Christian conviction of the dignity of all human beings as bearers of the image of God and stewards of the world is under serious assault by both of these movements and we must take up our spiritual weapons to defend this conviction, or else we may find ourselves losing the benefits that Christianity has brought to western civilization.

Satan's strategy.

2008-02-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

A thought from the preacher at my church this morning: when we are unbelievers, Satan bends his energies to make sure that we think that we are good enough already and don't need anyone to redeem us; once we are believers, Satan's goal is to make us think that we're not good enough to represent our faith to anyone else. Interesting, isn't it...

That pent up desire.

2008-02-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

I was asked this last week by a co-worker if, when one became a Christian, we could hope that our bad desires would disappear, or whether our best hope was to jam them down inside and keep them caged as best we could for the rest of our lives, only expecting them to disappear when we were raised into new life in heaven. This question probed me deeply, because that has been exactly my strategy for dealing with a lot of my desires over the years, and it has worked poorly at best, causing me stomach problems, loss of sleep, headaches, and other problems. What are we to do with desires that won't go away and we dare not let out?

When I think about the dynamics of sin, I find it helpful to look at Genesis 3:1-6, which is probably the finest short exposition of how sin works there is. The passage reads as follows:

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate (ESV).

There's a lot that can be said about this passage, but for now it's good just to notice that the serpent made God out to be a liar who was depriving Eve of what was rightfully hers and would benefit her greatly if she had it. Once Eve believed this about God the outcome was obvious; she would take the fruit, just as I would have had I been in her place.

In fact this is how I justify much of my sin today; by telling myself that God is wrong to have forbidden what he did, that I'm entitled to have it and that it will greatly benefit me (or others, if I flatter myself into believing that I'm altruistic). As a result, I grab what I want, despite God's prohibition. Or, if I am too weak or afraid to impose my will on the situation in which I find myself, I don't grab what I want, but I harbor in my heart a deep resentment against God for placing me in a situation which prevents me from having what I need and deserve.

What happens when I become a Christian? Hopefully I am less prone to claim that God is wrong when he forbids things that I want and more likely to believe that some (at least) of my desires for things may be wrong. But I still encounter things that God appears to be forbidding (or at least refusing to make possible) that are (to my eyes at least) manifestly good or even necessary. What do I do with these?

In C. S. Lewis's allegory The Pilgrim's Regress the main character John asks the heroic lady Reason what would happen "if a man wanted to know [something] so badly that he would die unless the question was decided --- and no more evidence turned up." Reason's answer was simple; "[t]hen he would die, that would be all." Is it possible that if I were to ask God what would happen if I encountered something that I urgently needed and could not get, that he would also answer me "then you would die, that would be all?" Is fatalism the answer to possible disappointment?

I don't think that God wants us to stop caring or to stop striving for what is good or to stop petitioning him to give us what we and others manifestly need. But I need to remember that if God chooses not to give what is good, it is not because he is indifferent to my situation. The worst that can happen to me in this life if God fails to answer my prayer is that I die - and then I go to heaven. I may not get the job I want or my family may not treat me well or society may make terrible choices, but in the end we all die, and what happens then? Do I really believe that God has done in Christ all that needs to be done to make good the suffering and evil in my life and in the lives of those I love, even this present suffering that I find so intolerable?

If I don't really believe this, then I will find myself furious at God for allowing this evil, convinced that nothing can justify the suffering I now endure. But if I look at the cross, I sometimes realize that maybe there are reasons why God permits unjust suffering, and that if I or someone I love finds ourselves in that position we are in good company. And that realization may help the inner urges to subside, if I realize that if they're not satisfied "I'll just die," and that that's not such a bad thing.

Truth Project

2008-02-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

Our Grace group (home fellowship group) just saw the first lesson from The Truth Project. I was impressed at the radical argument this study makes; that in Jesus Christ we see the truth about everything that exists and that the root of all evil in the world is that we prefer to believe a lie rather than the truth.

You can't simply get the DVDs for this series and study them on your own, but it's well worth it if you can join a group that is going through this study. The people who put out this series want to change your life, and it looks like, for me at least, they might have a chance to do just that.

Back again... experience with a homeless woman

2008-02-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

The example of some friends has prompted me to start blogging a little again after almost two years away from it. I don't expect a big audience, but perhaps a few people will find it interesting, and if it's a choice between writing something to post and solving my 95th game of Sudoku, I think this is the better alternative.

An experience my wife and I had trying to help a homeless woman told me something about my own faith. We spent a number of days paying for a motel room for her while looking for resources in my neighborhood that might help her. Unfortunately none of the resources we identified met her exacting requirements, so in the end we had to stop and say that we had nothing to offer her. She was furious and called us a bunch of hypocrites who were a blot on the church.

We were rather angry at her behavior, but when I stopped to consider how often I do that kind of thing to God, I realized that this woman was only acting out in a different context what I do quite frequently in a more socially respectable fashion. I commonly go to God asking for help with strings attached. God must deliver His assistance in a way that does nothing to undermine my self-confidence, my comfort level, my social status and anything else I hold dear. When God offers his assistance (perhaps with instructions to apologize to my son or fast for a day), I am offended - this wasn't the sort of help I wanted at all; how dare He call Himself a loving God if he doesn't give me what I need in a way that meets my requirements.

Unfortunately, just as was true for the homeless woman, the requirements I set down for God's assistance are frequently the cause of my problem in the first place and are incompatible with its resolution. It was my self-confidence that got me in trouble with my son and created the situation where I needed to apologize to him. It was my slavery to food that caused my heartburn and lost for me most of a night's worth of sleep. If I go to God for help I need to set my conditions aside, for they are the very things that get me into trouble and so long as I cling to them I will remain in the trouble from which I am demanding deliverance.

Response to DanielR - major political issues

2006-09-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

I've been in conversation with DanielR at the Daily Episcopalian regarding the different perspectives of liberal and conservative Christians on major political issues. For some reason I've been unable to post my latest response to him on that site, so I'm putting it up here for him to see if he's interested:

Daniel, I'm impressed. I was thinking that there wasn't much more we were going to be able to say to each other, but you substantially altered the tone of the discussion and now there's lots of room to keep talking.

I think that a large part of our disagreement stems from different perspectives on the unborn child and what is done when a woman has an abortion. You say abortion is a tragedy. How big a tragedy is it? What would you honestly compare it to, and what would you say is the magnitude of the loss resulting from having an abortion? When we have clearly answered this question, it will be easier to say what Jesus would do when presented with the option of having a young girl have an abortion.

Regarding your concern for the woman who's been raped, it is also worth looking at the side of the child conceived by the rape. Here's a story of one at least who's glad she wasn't aborted: http://www.righttoliferoch.org/nforgotten.htm, and here's the organization she founded: http://www.stigmatized.org/information.htm

You say that you are not for unlimited unrestricted on-demand abortion, but that is in fact what the courts have required since Roe v. Wade. Would you be willing to see the Supreme Court rescinded Roe v. Wade and turn the responsibility for this decision back to the states? This would allow those states where public opinion runs strongly against abortion to pass laws like those of South Dakota, while permitting those states which support the current status quo to pass laws allowing minors to have abortions without their parents' knowledge or consent. As you've noted, this may not completely please the absolutists, but they would certainly be happier than they are now and they'd be free if they wished to continue the battle for the hearts and minds of individuals at the state level.

Your concern about children being unwanted or unloved has long been a standard argument for abortion, but there is no evidence that the children born since Roe v. Wade have felt more wanted or loved than they did before. If anything the trend appears to be in the opposite direction, with the evidence being that children are valued less than they were before. In some places, families with more than three children are now called "breeders" and are the objects of either pity or scorn. Under such circumstances we will certainly find it more difficult both to encourage women to keep children they would otherwise have aborted or to find people who are willing to adopt the children women cannot raise on their own. This is another reason why decisions on what laws to pass regarding abortion should be left to the states rather than enforced nationally. Those states whose people place a higher value on children will be the more likely to restrict abortion, but will also have a better environment into which children can be adopted.

Regarding evolution, I would teach something like the following: "The generally accepted view among scientists today is that life arose as a result of the random combination of non-living materials and that living creatures evolved to their current level of diversity by a process of natural selection from variations caused by the random mutation of the genes of previously existing creatures. While there is no doubt that the process of evolution caused by random mutation and natural selection (RM&NS) can cause variations among organisms, some scientists are not convinced that life could have spontaneously originated from non-living materials or that it could have acquired its more complex characteristics through RM&NS alone. Some who have expressed this doubt have suggested that it is only through the intervention of some kind of intelligence that life with the kind of complexity that we now see could have come into existence." Unfortunately, efforts to include statements like this in state curricula have so far been struck down as violations of the separation of church and state.

Regarding care for the poor, my wife and I support a small denominationally based organization located in downtown Los Angeles called "Hope Again" that does case management and counselling for people who want to get off the street and learn to take care of themselves. For a fraction of the cost of welfare, they have helped thousands of people get homes, get jobs and get their lives together again. Federal support of such organizations would doubtless be ruled a violation of the separation of church and state (and they might not want it anyhow if it meant the intrusion of federal supervision and regulation), but if I had my choice, I'd rather put my money into organizations like these than into federal programs any day. If the churches mobilize to form more organizations like these, I suspect we could do a lot more to combat systemic poverty than any number of federal programs could.

Laws like the South Dakota law against doctors performing abortions are not an intrusion into "our bedrooms and private lives," they are simply a restatement of the Hippocratic Oath (not, by the way, either a Christian or a Republican document), by which doctors have sworn for over 2000 years that they would "not give to a woman an abortive remedy" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_classical.html). You can do what you want in your bedroom in South Dakota, but if you don't like the results, you can't go to a doctor to "fix it."

The reason pro-life people can oppose abortion and support the death penalty at the same time is that we can tell the difference between innocent and guilty life. The unborn child is innocent of any crime, some people are guilty of crimes that are severe enough to warrant their being put to death. To say that someone could torture and murder a dozen people and not deserve the death penalty is to be guilty of an irreverance towards the lives of the victims.

The example of George W. Bush

2005-09-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hugh Hewitt has a lovely post on the example President Bush sets for us in dealing with our critics and the critics of the New Orleans disaster recovery. It would be wonderful if we could follow it.

The God Who loves diversity - 1 Corinthians 12

2005-08-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

In our weekly Bible study (which I haven't posted in a few months now), we've been studying 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul teaches about spiritual gifts. Two of the things that became really visible to me as we studied were how much God loves diversity, and how He intends for the diversity in His church to be a source of blessing for His people.

God's love for diversity is clearly shown in the two lists Paul gives of the gifts that God has given his people. While the lists overlap, they are by no means the same, which indicates that rather than being exhaustive lists of the spiritual gifts, they are representative of a potentially much larger group of the gifts God gives. God has a vast and diverse array of gifts He means to give to His people, according to His purposes for them and their needs in the particular time and place in which they find themselves. While the focus is on the powerful and spectacular gifts which so entranced the Corinthians, Paul also hints that some of these gifts are not ones we would desire to have in his discussion of how the human body fits together. In verse 23, he makes reference to parts of the body that are less presentable and require more modesty and yet are still essential parts of who we are. Given the force of the analogy with the church, it seems reasonable to believe that God also gifts the church in the same way, with people who are less presentable and require more modesty, and yet are inseparable from what He means His church to be. God likes not only those in our midst who are spectacular and beautiful but also those who are weak and unimpressive, and He's glad for part each of us contributes to the body of Christ.

We, on the other hand, prefer the prominent gifts, and perhaps with some justification, as Paul himself told us to eagerly seek the greater gifts. But the greater gifts are to be sought not because of the added luster they give to us individually, but because of the blessing they give to the body as a whole. The Corinthians were notorious for the factionalism and their tendency to push the envelope of their spiritual freedoms, both of which were rooted in a desire to gain personal prominence and power. Thus they sought gifts like tongues because such gifts made it unmistakable that God was speaking through them even if no one had any clue what He was saying. But God wants us to use our diverse gifts to bring diverse blessings to others because our needs as a body are diverse. We need not only teaching, but also encouragement, not just good leaders, but also faithful followers, not only people with great faith, but also people with only a little faith who provide the strong with an opportunity to use their strength to bless those in need.

This is rather different from many churches today, where homogeneity is considered a strength and personal weaknesses are kept carefully hidden so as not to be a source of embarrassment. But from what Paul says, these churches are actually rather ugly in God's sight, sort of like a gigantic eye with no body to support it, or a torso with a hand and an ear attached to it. While homogeneity may promote efficiency and make it easy for everyone to get along, God seems to prefer a diversity that forces us to move out of our comfort zones and be stretched to bless people who are very different from us, and perhaps even to receive a blessing from them in return. Where we tend to prefer age-segregated adult fellowship groups and would rather keep the disabled and handicapped in "their own place" if we allow them at all, God would rather we bring college students, grandparents, middle-aged homemakers and those on wheelchairs or with speach impediments all together in a diverse group of people who love Jesus. I've seen this diversity in my church, and God uses it in unexpected ways to make something very beautiful.

Technology and the church

2005-08-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

My #1 son and I were looking at some computer software designed for churches, and we found ourselves rather bemused by some of the capabilities of the software. You can, for example, create sophisticated personalized letters for bulk mailings and photo id badges for church members that make it easy for church staff to call people by name and can be scanned to record the member's attendance.

One possible use of these features is to make it easier for the staff of a large church to create for people the illusion that they are connected to the leadership. It's comforting to be addressed by first name and to receive letters that contain personal information rather than being simply addressed to "Occupant." And it can be nice to have someone say "we missed you on Sunday" even if they only knew about your absence because you didn't get your badge scanned.

But we need to more than just an illusion of connection, we need to actually be connected to each other, and that's a much more difficult challenge. When the time comes that we encounter strains in our lives and need someone to talk to, what we really want is not simply to talk to a pastor whose only knowledge of us is the information he's reading from his computer screen as we talk. But people have only a limited amount of time for each other and a limited capacity for meaningful relationships, so pastors can very quickly reach the point where they simply can't keep in touch with any more people in a meaningful way. What churches really need from technology is not simply assistance in creating the illusion that people are connected to each other but help in actually connecting people. Software that can effectively help us to identify people who are inadequately connected and to bring them in contact with others who have open capacity for relationships would help churches to take a step towards creating real Christian fellowship within the community.

Unintended consequences of war

2005-08-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Belmont Club has a fascinating comment on how the rush to get a technological edge on our enemy has unintended consequences that, for better or worse, we have to live with.

Thirteen numbers that tell about George Bush - part 3

2005-08-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the last of the numbers that the Democratic Party believes say something about George Bush. Some of these are guesswork, some are of uncertain interpretation, and none of them in my opinion say anything particularly bad about a man who is a better president than his opponents give him credit for being.

Here are points 9-13 (see below for the others):

9. 5 million - the increase in the number of people who have no health insurance since George Bush took office.
“One of the groups with the greatest risk of being uninsured is non-citizen immigrants; almost half (45.3 percent) were uninsured in 2003.” A better policy for dealing with illegal immigrants would greatly reduce this figure, and would go far to dealing with many other healthcare issues.

10. 20,000 - the number of premature deaths annually resulting from the Republican gutting of the Clean Air Act
This number is not easily proven and needs to be considered against other projections, such as the number of people who would die early because of the loss of healthcare because of their unemployment as a result of their employer’s being forced out of business by the expenses of implementing the Clean Air Act as it now stands. Some of the rationale for President Bush’s Clear Skies act are here. The act will result in more than 60% reduction in major pollutants from current levels - perhaps not as much as the Clean Air Act would have, but a lot nevertheless, and perhaps as much as we can afford.

11. $400 million - ho w much the Bush administration wants to slash the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.
As documented here, this is a 6% reduction in the budget and reflects reductions in the spending on water cleanup. Other areas of the agency’s budget are increased.

12. 3 - the multiple by which North Korea has increased its nuclear weapons arsenal while George Bush has lead us into Iraq.
I would have thought that the Democratic party would have expected this to be an issue for the United Nations to address, just as it is addressing Iran’s nuclear weapons development plans.

13. 0 - the number of mistakes George Bush admits to making in his first term.
It’s not clear why this should be a surprise.

Thirteen numbers that tell about George Bush - part 2

2005-08-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

More on the numbers relating to President Bush (see the previous list for more information on where these came from). I've learned a lot from this exercise, both about how numbers need to be taken in context and how an awful lot depends on whether you trust the sources providing you with the numbers. Here are numbers 5-8 of the list:

5. $236 billion - the surplus Bill Clinton left George Bush
This followed the huge dot-com boom and was diminishing rapidly during the last year of Clinton’s term due to the impending collapse of the boom..

6. $333 billion - the current deficit under George Bush
On the heels of 9/11, the dot-com bust, and Operation Iraqi freedom, this is not a terribly surprising number. As a percentage of the GDP, the federal debt is been smaller under President Bush than it had been at any time between 1998 and 1999.

7. 800,000 - the net loss of jobs in George Bush’s first term
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total number of civilians employed increased from 137.8 million to 140.2 million between January 2001 and January 2004, a growth of just under 2.5 million jobs, and this despite both 9/11 and the dot-com bust. Unemployment levels are now the same as they were during President Clinton’s first term, which is a better base of comparison than his second term when they were artificially deflated by the dot-com boom.

8. $13.1 billion - how much George Bush has underfunded the No Child Left Behind Act.
See here for some rebuttals to this accusation. Education is getting funded at a remarkable level in this country (about $10,000 per pupil from all sources in California, for example) with no real proof that the additional funds are providing a commensurate improvement in educational quality. We need to concentrate on using existing funds more productively before looking at increasing funding further.

Thirteen numbers that tell about George Bush - part 1

2005-08-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

The Democratic party recently distributed a fund-raising letter in which it listed thirteen numbers that “tell how poorly George Bush and the Republican Congress have served America.” At first glance, these numbers look serious, but when we look a little deeper they loose much of their force against the President, and in some cases highlight how well he has actually done his job. I’ll post these questions in a couple of chunks together with a brief analysis of why these numbers do not make the point the party leaders apparently think they do.

Numbers 1-4:

1. 1766 - number of American soldiers killed in Iraq as of July 18, 2005
This works out to about 61 casualties per month or two per day. For a war of this magnitude, this level of casualties would seem to be remarkably low. At this rate it would take over seventy years to reach the number of casualties suffered in the Vietnam war (58,226) .

2. $181 billion - spent on the Iraq as of July 18, 2005.
Operation Desert Storm cost $61 billion for about 100 days of combat. Iraqi Freedom cost three times that much for almost ten times a long a period, or one third as much to sustain over a much larger front.

3. 0 - number of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq
While fear of WMDs was one justification for the war, war was authorized for many other reasons, including Saddam’s support for terrorism and violation of numerous United Nations resolutions. The unanimous opinion at the time was that Saddam had WMDs (even his own generals thought so). If he did have them, he also had plenty of opportunity to get rid of them or convert them to peaceful uses (e.g. fertilizer plants) before we invaded. For all we know they may still be hidden out there, since we’re still discovering new weapons caches every day.

4. $98 billion - how much George Bush has underfunded first responders since 9/11
As of early 2004 (see here) only $1.1 billion of the $6.3 billion allocated for first responders under the Homeland Security grant program had actually been spent. It is difficult to see how we could usefully have spent almost 100 times that much, or given the current budget deficit, how it would have been funded.

Not by might, nor by strength...

2005-08-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning I found myself thinking "not by might, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." God said this to Jeremiah, and I believe that it is the key for me too. Nothing I do on my own propers, but if I let God lead and enable me, then good things start to happen. I found this true at work today; when I let God lead, things moved along ok but if I got distracted or my trust wavered, I started to slump. Now my hope is that tomorrow I'll wake up with the same thought, and the day after as well, until it becomes a habit and a settled conviction. Then God might finally have His way with me as I think He's intended all along.

Still alive...

2005-08-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

My family is in a new home and we're mostly oriented to our new neighborhood. It's been a big learning experience for me, with one of the big lessons being that I need more help from more people with more things than I have been willing to admit. Admitting this is tough on my pride, which values self-sufficiency more than a lot of other things. But the effort to be sufficient to all the needs I've been encountering has threatened to make me really sick and has undermined my ability to do the things that I really should have been able to do.

With God's help I've relaxed some, reducing my expectations in some areas and getting help in others. People are graciously stepping in to help, and my stomach has stopped hurting. And I'm hoping now by God's grace to be able to start some low-key blogging, believing that He has a few things He wants me to say here.

Stay tuned...

Proclaiming enough of the gospel

2005-06-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today at church, my Sunday school class was talking about what is minimally needed to be able to say that we've proclaimed the gospel. Listening to the many interesting and insightful comments, I began to realize that this is not such an easy question to answer as I'd thought. For one thing, it doesn't take much under the right circumstances for God to work in a person's heart to draw him to Himself. Often just a fragment of the gospel suffices to begin the work, even if it takes many years after that for that fragment to fully take root and bear fruit. But only rarely will we know in advance what it is that is actually needed for the transition to take place. Some of what we say that is true will be misunderstood, and some will be beyond the capacity of our listener to adequately process. And some of what is needed may be beyond our own ability to adequate explain. But we are not engaged in this process alone, for God is working in the hearts of our listeners even as we speak, and can make what we say powerful in ways we could not expect.

All of this indicates that we are not likely to be able to say that we have done all that was needed to present the gospel when we speak to someone. But some things are foundational to faith, and need to be said to people who are seriously considering the significance of Christianity or their lives. These include the following:

There is one God, the creator of the universe, who is different from us and cannot be fully comprehended by us.
We are born alienated from God, and cannot enjoy His company, nor He ours while we are in this state.
This alienation is called sin and is the cause of most of our present suffering, a suffering that will only be intensified after death unless it is remedied.
For us to be reconciled to God requires the intervention of God Himself; we cannot do it on our own.
Because He loves us, God tooke the initiative to send His Son into the world as Jesus Christ to die and be raised from the dead in order that we might be reconciled to Him.
We need to believe that God has accomplishedin Jesus Christ the work we need for our reconciliation and accept it as a free gift in order for it to have value for us.
Being reconciled to God involves a change of heart and lifestyle as we seek to live lives pleasing to Him rather than for our own purposes.
Being reconciled to God also involves being baptized as a tangible sign of our participation in God's purposes and becoming unified with God's people in a local church.

Not all of these things need to be said in the first five minutes of a conversation on spiritual things. Some of them may not be said for months or even years. But until all of them have been understood and accepted, the gospel has not been fully understood or accepted. Because this is often not done, many people fall away from Christianity, for they never full had Christianity in the first place.

We have our home

2005-06-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

We have sold our current home and purchased a new one. Now comes the process of moving in, which will last at least a week. We're renting back our old home's guest house to keep a reasonable proximity to our children's schools. We'll complete the move when school is over or sooner if we decide that the longer commute (30 or so miles) is worth the effort.

I'm finding that now that all of the effort involved in buying and selling is past, I have more energy for thinking about blogging. I had underestimated how much emotional and spiritual energy I need to be able to blog, and I was just too drained over the last month to even think about it. God willing, I should be able to pick up the pace some now.

Wasting one's life.

2005-05-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight on my way to and from the "Y" where I was exercising, I heard two separate programs on our local Christian radio station both of which urged us not to waste our lives. I think that God was giving me a warning here. I've let the stress of buying and selling a home together with frustrations about some aspects of work lure me into things that are supposed to be restful, but are really wasteful. Computer card games are one of the biggest offenders for me; they accomplish nothing, require lots of focus to do well, and leave me with neither satisfaction nor renewed energy for my other tasks. Better to go for a walk, talk with a co-worker, play with my son, read a book, wash dishes - indeed almost anything is better than losing large chunks of time to playing computer cards onto a computer screen and accumulating numbers on a computer scoreboard.

"I am the way..."

2005-05-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

In my morning Bible study, I was reading Jesus' well known statement "I amd the way..." and asking myself "what does that really mean?" The visual image I get reading that passage is something like Jesus lying down and us walking on Him, but that doesn't seem like a good way to understand what He means. Then I thought of communion and another one of His mysterious statements, that we must eat His flesh. Perhaps the way Jesus is speaking about is the way of transformation that we follow as we take His life into our own. Jesus is the Way because it is He who changes us to become like Himself.

I don't know for certain that this is what Jesus meant, but I believe that it is closer to His meaning than my previous image.

It is good sometimes to ask yourself as you read Scripture "what does that really mean?" You may find that God is waiting there to help you see a little deeper into the truths of His Word.

Back with updates.

2005-04-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

I'm back. Stress knocked my energy level way down, and I just couldn't find the energy to post.

One challenge has been a work related. I'm in a technical field, but the recent demands have been more for adminstrative than technical effort. My difficulty is that I'm not good at administrative stuff, and I'd frequently come home weary from filling out forms, and missing the satisfaction that the technical work frequently gives. What's more, the stakes have been raised, and people are now getting disciplined for mistakes that used to be tolerated. The stress this generated was very tiring.

Another more pleasant but still taxing effort has been putting our house up for sale and looking for a new place. The market is amazingly hot right now, and our home has hugely appreciated over the seven years we've lived there, so things look pretty good for sellers. Homes are getting snapped up almost as fast as they hit the market, so there are no houses for sale near us. After doing a lot of cleanup and some minor repair (which should have been done years ago in some cases), we put the place on the market, and within less than a week had two offers at our asking price. Right now we're in escrow with one of the buyers, having asked the other to stand by as a backup just in case.

But what helps us as a seller makes it harder as a buyer. Our first bid we made was $25,000 over asking price on a beautiful house that attracted seven other bids after being on the market less than a week. We ended up being #2 due to the contingency of the sale of our house despite the fact that we had two offers on the place. The next house we looked sold after less than two days on the market. So we have started looking at less desirable places that can meet our needs without attracting such a bidding storm.

One of the main contributors to the tremendous speed of the market is the Internet, which allows the news about a new home on the market to get to interested people with great speed. But we've realized that we cannot allow ourselves to be dragged along at such a breakneck speed because we will be totally overwhelmed by the effort needed to keep up with all the options. Instead we pray, believing that God can and will keep track of all the offers out there, that He will keep for us the home that He wants for us, and that if we simply do our best to follow His lead that He will keep us from missing the place He has for us.

This conviction has played out in some interesting ways during our search. When we first visited the house on which we made our first offer, I was immediately attracted by its beauty, but at the same time I had this inner feeling of uncertainty and darkness that I couldn't account for. Knowing my proclivity to depression, I thought that I could simply be overreacting to the stress of all the real-estate transactions we were involved in, so we went ahead and made our offer on the place. But during the following few days the darkness deepened, to the point when one day as I was driving home I was crying out to God not to let us buy the place if it wasn't what He wanted for us. So it was with a sense almost of relief that I learned that night from our realtor, a sweet woman and longtime friend, that our offer hadn't been accepted. I ended up comforting her, for she was very disappointed, and not the other way around.

This sense of God's guidance has continued to keep us through a number of other bumps in the process. We are confident that we'll our place will ultimately sell at the right time to the right people for the right amount, and that we'll be able to get into the right home when we need to for a price we'll be able to afford. So as places come and go on the market, we don't feel driven to check every one of them out, and don't fret as much if others get there first. It's not stress free, that's for sure, but I'm much more relaxed than I would be on my own. Hopefully I'll be relaxed enough during the process to have enough energy to post here on a more regular basis than I've done in the past.

God bless!

How evil can grow in society

2005-04-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here's an incredibly insightful account of one man's experience of the growth of evil in society. His experience is in England, but it's not so far from us that we couldn't learn a lot.

Thanks to Belmont Club (this is the backup site) for the pointer.

Good news for Mae Magourik (and us).

2005-04-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Dawn Eden reports good news for Mae Magourik. The battle for her life is not over yet, but at least some sense is being heard on the issues. Pray for the stamina of those fighting to defend her; it is so easy to grow tired in these struggles, and so wrong to give up. As Paul urges us, "do not grow weary of doing good." (1 Thess 3:13)

Another Terri Schiavo - despite a Living Will

2005-04-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

If you thought that a Living Will would resolve the issues that made Terri Schiavo's case so painful, you may be wrong. Here is a situation where the Living Will has been made and would appear to guarantee food and water, and yet a woman is being starved and dehydrated...

Spread the word - perhaps Mae Margourik can yet be saved.

It is terrifying how easy it is becoming to kill of the weak among us.

Thanks to Dawn Eden for raising the red flag.

Another Terri Schiavo - but worse

2005-04-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

The weekly Bible study - question on the wisdom of God.

2005-04-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

We weren't big enough for a regular weekly Bible study last week, but I was asked an interesting question about 1 Corinthians 3:20. If "the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise are futile," then what happens to our prayers for wisdom? Why ask for what is futile?

The distinction we need to make here is between the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God. In the previous verse, it says that God "catches the wise in their craftiness." Craftiness is a good term for human wisdom, for its goal is to circumvent the healthy limits of human life to gain some particular power or prestige. The crafty person manipulates situations for his own good rather than working within the situations to achieve God's intended good. Now God cannot be manipulated, so he catches the crafty, those who are humanly wise, and reveals the futility of their scheming.

The wisdom of God, however, seeks to accomplish God's purposes within the situations he has given us. It starts not with a desire for self aggrandizement but with a deep concern for God's character and purposes, described in the book of Proverbs as "the fear of the Lord," which, we are told, is the beginning of wisdom. This kind of wisdom looks at things not from the perspective of how they can make us happy (as Eve looked at the fruit of the tree in Eden), but how they can satisfy God. One person looks at a jar of perfume and sees how it can satisfy God by being poured out in love on Jesus' feet, another sees it as a vehicle for gaining some spiritual brownie points by selling it and giving to the poor (while perhaps taking a cut off of the proceeds for himself - John 12:1-6).

So if we pray for wisdom, God will not hear us if we are only asking for better skill at manipulating situations for our own benefit. However, if we are asking God to help us to see things better from His perspective so that we can better accomplish His purposes, we can expect Him to honor His own promise to give abundantly to those who ask for wisdom (James 1:5). By giving us this kind of wisdom, God equips us to do what He most wants done, so we should ask eagerly and then spend freely of what He gives for His glory.

What people really think about Terri Schiavo's death

2005-04-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

A number of polls taken regarding Terri Schiavo's death seemed to indicate that the majority of Americans thought that forcibly removing her feeding tube was the right thing to do. But it's important to be careful about interpreting polls. Here's a poll that tells a different story. The most revealing question:

If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water.

When they actually knew what Terri's situation was and were asked directly what to do about it, 79% of the people surveyed said "no" such a person should not be denied food and water, while only 9% said "yes." That's the message our government needed to hear and respond to.

Pope John Paul II has gone home to glory.

2005-04-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

Here is a remarkable eulogy for a remarkable man, truly a giant of our times.

Thanks to Touchstone for the link.

Pope John Paul II is dying

2005-04-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

Or perhaps he has died by now. As many people have noticed, it is a remarkable concurrence of events to see him moving towards death as Terri Schiavo was being forced in the same direction, and that in the shadow of Easter. God speaks to us in these times and helps us to see what we would have missed otherwise. As Pope John Paul said, we live in a culture of death, which seeks to conceal human weakness and frailty by killing those who can be killed and packing the rest off to nursing homes where they can safely be ignored until they obligingly die or reach a point where we can kill them off. But the Pope would not go that way, and the Schindlers did not allow their daughter go that way either. National Review Online has a beautiful article on what we can learn from the Pope's public silence.

The question is unmistakably before us; will we learn to see the value of those who are frail and cannot defend themselves, or will we find new ways to "mercifully" get rid of them? California is presently considering a law legalizing euthanasia. Some may consider this an improvement on the starvation and dehydration that Terri Schiavo endured, but wouldn't food have been a better option than murder? Joni Ericson Tada has been wearing herself out these days on behalf of those who cannot feed themselves on their own; she is a quadraplegic and cannot feed herself on her own either. If euthanasia becomes acceptable, how long will it be before the government decides that it is better to mercifully get rid of people like her than to allow them to continue to live?

The weekly Bible study - 1 Corinthians 3:16-4:5

2005-03-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

In 1 Corinthians 2-3, Paul warns the Corinthian church about confusing the wisdom of man with the wisdom of God. Human wisdom places the wrong value on things, so that we end up building our lives out of things that are worth no more than "wood, hay or straw" in the eternal reality (3:12). Such things, while perhaps satisfying in this life, will not survive the fires of God's testing. If our lives consist of nothing more than that which the world prizes, we will arive in heaven as refugees from the collapse of the world, with nothing to show but our skin for all that we have done on earth (3:13-15).

If our own self interest is not reason enough for us to be careful to invest ourselves in the things that God prizes, Paul in verse 16 flips things over to show us God's perspective on our labors. By sending His Holy Spirit into believers, God makes us into His temples, places where His very nature dwells. This is no small thing, indeed we are as significant as anything anywhere. As God's temple each one of us is sacred and set apart for Him. We are not free to fill our lives with trashy thoughts, junky behaviors, or warped affections any more than we would be free to fill the White House with compost or trash. Your body is not your home but God's, so if you mistreat it you insult the God who dwells there and can expect that he will respond accordingly.

The problem is that because human wisdom prizes what God considers to be trash, by relying on it we deceive ourselves into becoming fools in God's sight (v19). We are far better off being thought wise by God even if it means the world thinks us simpletons. Indeed, the world prizes craftiness, for all human wisdom is based on self-interest even though all efforts to exalt ourselves are ultimately futile. While the Corinthians were concerned to make themselves look good to others by affiliating with the "right" preacher, God evaluated them according to what they did with the preacher's teachings. The Corinthians worried about who their mailman was, while God wanted to know what they did with the million dollar check that he delivered.

This is not, as Paul points out, to say that the preachers are of no significance (4:1), but rather to see them in the light that God sees them, as messengers entrusted with God's message to them. As such, their business is not to impress the Corinthians, or even to satisfy themselves, but to satisfy God that they have properly handled the message He gave them to deliver. External evidence won't by itself tell us what God thinks, anymore than the color of the mailman's uniform will tell us about the quality of the job he's doing. It is when God Himself reveals His assessment of his messengers' labors that we'll be able to accurately judge how well they have done.

This does not mean that we will never be able to judge if a believer is doing well or not, for there are some truths that God has already revealed by which we can judge each others' behavior and teachings. However there are many more criteria by which people are prone to judge each other, and it is in these areas that the wise man or woman will wait until the appointed time, to discover what God has to say about each of us. As Jesus has told us in the parable of the talents, we are all given different gifts, and will be judged not on how our fruit compares with the fruit of those around us, but on how fruitfully we have used the gifts we were given. The widow's mite was the greater gift than the wealth of the Pharisees because Jesus is more interested in the quality of the heart that gives than the amount given. So we need to beware of judging those who labor on God's behalf; given the resources and calling that God has given them, they could be doing far better or worse in God's sight that it appears to us and we'd never know it until the end.

Kenya trip - at Mara Safari park.

2005-03-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

With Peter's allergy having subsided, we were able to continue our planned trip to Mara Safari Park in south western Kenya. It provided a remarkable exposure to animals up close in their native habitats. Cheetahs, gazelle, zebras, water buffalo, giraffes, lions, warthogs, hyennas, jackals, wildebeast, rhinos, hippos and elephants were among the many creatures we saw on the savannah, up close and personal. It was an awesome encounter with African wildlife, like nothing any of us had ever experienced before. Bouncing over muddy ruts and crevaces in an old open-top Toyota Land Crusier, admiring the huge open spaces, watching cheetah hunt, elephants graze and lions sleep and then returning to our luxury tent to sleep made for a delightful tourist interlude in the midst of an otherwise very work-oriented trip. We came closer together as a team as a result of the trip, and left the park with a much greater appreciation for the magnificent wilderness that Africa still has.

to be continued...

Up in the middle of the night

2005-03-25T02:58:00.000-08:00

I'm up in the middle of the night for work stuff. I've been doing this the last few nights because I'm working on a problem with a printer at a medical lab that only shows up in the middle of the night. It's dried up the few remaining creative juices I have so I haven't been posting. With Easter weekend coming up I probably won't be posting much either, but there are a few topics I need to post on so I'll try to get a few things out by the end of the week.

Terry Schiavo

2005-03-22T20:57:00.000-08:00

The increasingly desperate struggles to get permission to restore Terry Schiavo's feeding tube before she dies of thirst and hunger are well documented by Dawn Eden. Keep praying, both for Terry and for ourselves, that somehow we may as a society repent of the things that brought us to such a place that a man can starve his wife but can't starve his dog...

Too few people really care...

2005-03-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

Hugh Hewitt grieves this morning that "Too few people really care that human life is being snuffed out left and right." Thus we have the Terry Schiavo debacle and now the Columbine replay in Minnesota. Forty years ago (when I was a kid...) events like these would have been inconceivable. How far we have come. I ask myself where my own outrage is - have I become simply resigned to the inevitable degradation of society? Have I become so preoccupied with looking after my own satisfaction that I haven't got time or energy left to care for others?

Jesus told us that as we care for the prisoners, the sick, the weak, the orphans, those who are hungry and thirsty, we care for Him (Matthew 25:31-46). If it is Jesus who's feeding tube is being pulled or who's being gunned down in a classroom, how will we stand before Him if we have not done all we can to prevent it?

The Kenya trip - medicine and missions.

2005-03-21T22:47:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned last time, our project ran into a major challenge early on, which was Peter's health. While we were still in Nairobi, Peter started noticing a rash, which he first attributed to insect bites. But each day it turned worse, then suddenly hives appeared on his large parts of his body. Dana Witmer (who is sitting at the end of the table in the picture above, next to her youngest son and across the table from Ted), being a doctor at Kijabe, diagnosed Peter as having an allergic reaction to the anti-malarial drug he was taking. She prescribed benadryl which helped Peter to sleep through the night, but didn't appear to touch the hives. Now Peter's younger brother Adam had had an allergy just before Christmas that has responded well to prednisone, so I mentioned this to Dana and she prescribed that as well. The hives then became periodic, leaving in the morning and returning in the afternoon. This began to look like food allergies, so we restricted Peter's food, but never saw any clear cut response. The itching interfered with Peter's ability to do his programming and Dana was concerned about the possibility of anaphylactic shock, which would have put Peter in the hospital as a patient, rather than a programmer. She warned us that if Peter didn't improve soon, she was going to call off a safari trip we had planned for the weekend, since it would put him too far from medical care if he needed it. But on Wednesday night Peter saw some significant reduction in the severity of the hives, and Thursday there were only a few spots left. We all heaved a huge sigh of relief, and packed our bags for Mara Safari club in south west Kenya, where we were to have the most remarkable exposure to African wildlife any of us had ever experienced.

next...

The Groningen protocol

2005-03-21T22:29:00.000-08:00

Today I was in a discussion with a young woman who had been born with cerebral palsy and didn't move for almost two weeks after birth. According to the Groningen protocol, had she been born in Holland, she would have been a prime candidate for euthanasia. Brain Shavings has put together an excellent information page on the protocol, which is a perilous step down a slippery slope. We need to be aware what is happening in Europe in these matters, because it is often not long before the influence of Europe's thinking is felt here. Witness a recent Supreme Court decision which quoted European thinking as a basis for establishing a judicial precedent.

Could Jesus have sinned?

2005-03-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

The question was asked at my church today "could Jesus have sinned?" The first thought that came to my mind was "why?" Perhaps Jesus could drink untreated sewage but why would He? No one knew the horror of sin like He did, why on earth would He indulge in it? He saw sin for what it was, how it corrupted human hearts, the endless grief and sorrow and pain it caused, its utter ugliness in the face of the holy God, how could He choose it? With our fallen natures, our ears are tuned to Satan's voice and welcome his lie that sin is attractive, but Jesus had none of the fall in Him. He saw sin with God's eyes, and even Satan's most eloquent lies, his nearest approximations to the truth could never make it look other than grotesquely ugly. To use C. S. Lewis' magnificent mataphor in the The Great Divorce, it would be as if a female corpse, already liquid with decay, should come out of the grave, smear its lips with lipstick and attempt a seduction. Satan never had a chance.

Why Brian Nichols turned himself in.

2005-03-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

Peggy Noonan recounts a remarkable story of how a remarkable woman named Ashley Smith was instrumental in leading Brian Nichols to turn himself in after escaping from the Florida court building. You really do want to read this; it puts flesh and bones on 1 Peter 3:14-16.

Credit: Carol Platt Liebau

The Kenya trip - hard at work

2005-03-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

On Monday after we arrived in Kijabe, we plunged into work, quickly establishing ourselves in a small room in the basement between Ted's office and the computer room (where you see Peter working and my laptop set up next to him). First we set up the computers, discovering in the process a few problems with the hospital's network configuration. When Tim was able to fix these problems, Ted declared our trip to be a success regardless of what else we accomplished. Peter promptly set up his Mac and continued work on his customization of the Care2x software. Allison went down the hall two doors to the inventory room and started helping the woman who worked there to set up and use the new inventory system that the hospital has recently obtained. I started talking with people and looking at the forms and putting together a list of changes needed to make the database useful in Kijabe. It quickly became obvious that we weren't going to be able to do a quarter of what was really needed and wanted, and I spent a lot of time saying "no." It also became evident that the designers of Care2x hadn't quite anticipated using it in a hospital like Kijabe, so we were going to have to strip it down considerably and add some features to have any hope of making it useful. All of this had to be done in two weeks, because in our last week we were going to roll the software out and do all the training and cleanup necessary to make it work. So we plunged in and got to work, spending our days in this little room and working as rapidly as possible to make this happen. And by God's grace, we made good progress, though one problem threatened to torpedo our efforts right at the beginning.

next...

The Incredibles

2005-03-18T19:31:00.000-08:00

We got the Incredibles DVD yesterday and watched it at home last night. I'd forgotten how much I loved the movie, one of the best animated movies I've ever seen, another in a long string of Pixar hits. It's got great humor and is wonderfully family friendly. It's so great to be able to watch a movie and not have to cringe for the main characters. They are real people, good people, with worthwhile ideals and very human weaknesses and temperaments, and yet with something more. If you haven't seen it, get the DVD and watch it, and share it with your family, friends, neighbors, whoever. It's good for the soul.

Terry Schiavo - hanging in the balance and why we should care

2005-03-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

Captain's Quarters posts some moderately encouraging news for Terry Schiavo and those who care about her. Powerline reminds us of why her fate matters greatly to us, and the downstream implicati0ns if we ignore her situation. Keep praying, and go here to get information on how you can speak out on her case to our Senators, who may yet act in time.

Weekly Bible study - 1 Corinthians 3:1-15

2005-03-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

Up to this point in 1 Corinthians, Paul has been teaching the Corinthians about the wisdom and foolishness of God as compared with the wisdom of men. The cross of Jesus is the foolishness of God, and it surpasses the wisdom of men (which fails utterly to understand God's purposes). The wisdom of God is the grace God gives His people to see the world in the light of His Spirit. Without His Spirit, we are blind to the purposes of God, but by the Spirit of God we can see begin to see things as God does and value them according to His purposes.

Now Paul brings the discussion back home to the issue which started the whole discussion in 1:10, that of factions within the Corinthian church. Paul reminds them that when he first came to Corinth as an evangelist it was only natural for him to speak to them as infants in Christ since they had only newly become believers. But he finds that years later he still must speak to them as infants because by their factionalism they betray the fact that they have not grown significantly in spiritual maturity since then. The Corinthians, by making a big issue out of who is their preacher of choice behave like toddlers who get more excited about the wrapping paper of their Christmas presents than about the present inside. What makes the preacher significant is not his eloquence or stature or social grace, but the power of God that is manifested through the message he carries. A farm laborer's hard work sowing and watering his fields would be useless if he was sowing gravel instead of wheat seed. The life is the essential thing, and that comes from God alone.

Paul then shifts the metaphor from farming to building, identifying his role as laying the foundation of Christ in the people's lives and leaving them with the opportunity and responsibility to build on that foundation. They first need to realize that, as Jesus also pointed out in Matthew 7:24-27, it is impossible to build anything that lasts on any other foundation than Christ. Many people have discovered in the recent rains the perils of building on insecure foundations, for a house can be completely destroyed when the ground shifts underneath. But even if we build on the good foundation, it matters what building materials we choose. Good materials (gold, silver, and costly stones) will survive the fires of God's testing, while bad materials (wood, hay and stubble) will be consumed in the fire, leaving us with only the original foundation. If we build our lives out of things that matter to God, then we will not lose these things when God tests us, while if we build on anything else, God's judgment will sweep it away as worthless.

This raises the natural question of how we distinguish the precious building materials from the worthless ones. In some circles, this distinction has been identified with godly vs. worldly activities, so praying and evangelizing were precious materials while dancing and playing cards were not. Others have distinguished between sacred and secular employment, so missionaries and pastors have built with gold, while grocery clerks and bankers have built with wood. But this does not seem to be the division that Paul is making. Jesus gives us a better view of the divide between precious and worthless labors in his encounter with the woman who poured perfume on his feet in Mark 14:3.

Putting perfume on a person's feet doesn't necessarily look like a very spiritual act. Dumping large amounts of perfume that would probably have cost over ten thousand dollars in today's money would look like an extravagant ostentatious waste - building with straw for sure. In the estimate of Judas and others of the disciples, the way to build with gold was to sell the perfume and give the proceeds to the poor. After all, isn't charity an obviously spiritual thing, and so pleasing to God?

That's not how Jesus saw it. He saw the heart of a woman who loved Him deeply and desired more than anything to give Him glory. As John tells us, this woman was Martha the sister of Lazarus. Not long before this Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. Martha's act sprang from a profound gratitude to Jesus for what he had done and a premonition of what He would yet do in raising us all to life on the last day (John 11:24). Nothing less than the best she had to give would even begin to do justice to the love and praise she had for Jesus, so she gave unstintingly to bring Him glory, and even, as Jesus said, to prepare for His death. Selling the perfume and giving the proceeds to the poor, while it would certainly mark the giver as a charitable person in the eyes of all the onlookers, would fail utterly to give Jesus the glory due him. The foolishness of Martha was far wiser in glorifying God than the wisdom of Judas (which only glorified himself).

We build with gold when we follow Martha's example of giving all we have to the glory of God. It doesn't have to be "spiritual" stuff like charity or prayer, indeed those things can be very strawy when we do them more to feel spiritual than to please God. If the Corinthians listened to Apollos preach because he helped them to grow in the knowledge of Christ, they built with gold, if they listened because he was the "cool" preacher that all the right people listened to, they built with straw. If we do our jobs well because it pleases God and provides a benefit to those we serve, we build with gold, while if we only care about impressing our bosses as a stepping stone to promotions and recognition, we build with stubble. If we play a musical instrument out of a desire to create something beautiful that reflects God's beauty, it is golden, while music that draws attention only to the virtuousity of the performer is straw.

Building with straw can be fun because we usually get recognition from the "right" people when we do it. But building with gold, though it may not be recognized (and may even be mocked) by the world, will be recognized by God and will endure when He comes to test our work. So Paul warns the Corinthians (and us too) to pay attention to how we build the things of our life, for in the end if we build poorly it will all be lost to our sorrow, while if we build well it will last for all eternity.

Back.

2005-03-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

This was a killer weekend. I was up from 12:00 to 3:00 Sunday morning putting some changes into a computer system I support, then spent from 8:00 AM until 11:00 PM (with a few breaks) on Sunday trying to fix unexpected problems that resulted from the changes and then finally rolling them out. I sent my family off to church at 9:30, then at 10:30, when I thought I might be able to go myself, I went out to find that a car had hit our garage door and dented it enough so that I couldn't open it (the driveway is less than 15 feet long from the street and is used for turnarounds at times, which is how it must have happened). So I didn't go to church, which was a good thing because I got a nap in just before getting another phone call and spending the rest of the day on the computer. I'm sure glad for he remote support capability that I have over our cable modem - if I had to go to work for this it would have been even worse.

Hugh Hewitt has a transcription of an interview on his site today with a woman from Lebanon who observed the largest demonstration for democracy on record in the Middle East. Read it - it's a remarkable account - then pray for the people, and urge our leadership to stand by the Lebanese people in this time.

Our first Sunday in Kenya

2005-03-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

Our first Sunday in Kenya Ted drove us over some of the roughest roads I've ever been on to one of the few truly "multicultural" churches in Kenya. Like in the U.S., most churches tend to reach out to specific cultural groups; in Kenya those groups are tribes. But this church, remarkably enough, members from both the Masai and Kikuyu tribes (the two largest tribes in Kenya) in addition to members from other tribes as well. This is difficult for them when hostility erupts between the tribes (as it did the last week we were there) but gives the church a special ability to reach out as mediators when such hostility arises.

We enjoyed over three hours of worship with the congregation in their little corrugated steel sanctuary which they packed to the walls. There was lots of singing, in all the represented languages, tribes and generational groups. The sermon was given by Ted in English for our sake (he usually preaches in Swahili there, which he knows well enough to correct his translator if needed) and communion was served. Everyone formally greeted everyone else, time was taken to specially acknowledge the presence of a number of visitors including ourselves, and a gift of a Masai bracelet was given to each visitor there. After the service, Alli played a game like jacks with the children (instantly attracting a crowd), and we had lunch together. All in all, it was a beautiful time of truly cross-cultural fellowship among believers.

The church is slowly building a new sanctuary for itself. The speed is limited by both a lack of funds and a shortage of labor. Since people have to walk miles in many cases to come to church, the time is limited that they can give to the work, and the work proceeds slowly since they have to shape each beam by hand for the construction. But the need is real and progress is being made, and one day, God willing, they'll have a new larger sanctuary to accommodate the growing congregation there.

next...

Evolve!

2005-03-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

I saw an add for a correspondance school on my way home today that invited me to evolve to my next level. I doubt they expected me to react to that invitation the way I did, but I was rather disgusted by the suggestion. To me, it suggested that I am fundamentally inadequate, and my essential structure needs to be changed (for this is what evolution is about). And if it's evolution according to Darwin, then the changes will be the result of random mutations, some of which will hopefully produce an improvement. So I must allow my fundamental nature to be prodded, tweaked, and twisted by random forces outside of my control, and then be tested by natural selection to see if all this banging around actually improved something. If it did, I survive, if not, oh well...

I hope this isn't the model education that school actually proposes. I'd prefer to think of education with imperatives like "grow!," "mature!," "develop!" or the like, because these speak to me of bringing to fruition the potential that is already present in me. I think that's a better model for education, and a better model for human growth as a whole.

The Kenya trip - home away from home

2005-03-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

On January 7th, Ted Witmer came to meet the team and drove us out to Kijabe, a town about 80 km NNW of Nairobi and the largest missions station in the world. Kijabe is the home of the Rift Valley Academy, a well-known boarding school, a seminary, Bethany Crippled Children's hospital and Kijabe Hospital, where we would be working for the next three weeks. Peter and I stayed in this two bedroom apartment, while Tim and Allison stayed with the Witmers.

I quickly discovered that the things we were used to being able to handle at home weren't necessarily going to be quite so easy here. The first challenge was food. We bought the food we thought we needed in Nairobi, but I don't have much experience with putting together a week's shopping list, so there were some gaps that needed to be filled. Groceries were available at a small store in Rift Valley Academy (open on Monday and Wednesday), produce and bread was sold by door-to-door vendors who came on Tuesday and Saturday. Thus I had to plan carefully to make sure I had everything I needed until it was next available. Improvising was sometimes necessary since a lot of familiar foods weren't available or took a different than expected form (we ate a lot of English muffins in the absence of other breads). Sometimes we came up short, and some food spoiled because I'd gotten too much, but overall we did pretty well, and by the time we left, I had the planning down reasonably well. The biggest disruptions to plans were the fairly frequent and very welcome invitations we received to eat with the Witmers or other people at Kijabe.

next...

This week's Bible study

2005-03-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

At yesterday's lunchtime Bible study at my work we discussed 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. It was interesting for me to see how alien God's wisdom is from human wisdom. As Paul pointed out previously, in his day Jews looked for miracles, and Greeks for wisdom, but God provided something entirely different. In the birth of the Messiah, the Jews expected a spectacular miracle and Herod prudently saw a rival, but God provided a baby who would grow up to be a suffering savior.

God gives what the world can only recognize as foolishness, but is in fact wisdom, a wisdom that can be discerned only with the aid of His Spirit. Paul speaks somewhat cautiously about these things, limiting himself to those who are "mature" (NIV) because talk about the wisdom of God is a dangerous thing, prone to misunderstanding. It is too easy for the ignorant and immature to think of themselves as special in some way because they have access to God's wisdom. But it is only because God graciously gives us His Spirit that we have any way to receive His wisdom. Without God's Spirit, we are like young children attempting differential equasions when we encounter the things of God; not only are they incomprehensible to us but no amount of teaching can enable us to comprehend them. With God's Spirit, not only do we have a little access to God's thoughts, but we have His abilities to think these thoughts with Him, so they can make sense to us.

Being able to think about things in some sense as God does, we are in the position to see and evaluate these things according to His plans and purposes. We are then truly able to evaluate things as they truly are. Without the Spirit, people have no way of making such an evaluation, so they will judge things wrongly, while we have the potential to pass true judgment on those things we see with the Spirit's insight.

The question arises, "what then did Jesus mean when he said 'judge not, lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1)?'" The context here helps us, for Jesus is talking about the person who is searching out specks in the eyes of others while failing to notice the plank in his own. This is not the Spirit's judgment, for the Spirit will show us our failings rather than leave us blind to them. The person Jesus is referring to is judging humanly for the primary purpose of gaining power and prestige by finding fault. The judgment of the Spirit seeks out God's perspective in humility, being equally open to finding our own faults as well as the faults of others and using the insight to heal rather than harm. Jesus frequently urged the Pharisees to correctly discern what he was doing when he healed on the Sabbath, taught in parables and performed miracles, and in all these cases he was calling them to the judgment that comes through the Spirit. When they called themselves wise and discerning and yet accused Jesus of doing evil they showed that they were using human judgment rather than the Spirit's and could therefore expect to find themselves judged by God.

Reward for service in Iraq - for some it's prison

2005-03-10T20:09:00.000-08:00

Life as a military reservist in Iraq is full of challenges, but this is disgusting. It's absolutely shameful that we would convict a soldier of a felony and imprison him because of debts acquired as a result of his of reserve service. There ought to be either an opportunity for a waiver or a fund that will cover these costs in such circumstances.

Sudan - it's worse than we thought

2005-03-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

LittleGreenFootballs tells us that the situation in the Darfur area of Sudan is worse than we thought. It's difficult to know why people think that the U.N. is the place to go to resolve international issues when this disaster has been allowed to continue unabated for close to a decade. Pray that a resolution is found soon, or that the people who are allowing it to continue be replaced with some people who will do the right thing.

Florida legislature acting on Terri Schiavo

2005-03-09T14:25:00.000-08:00

Here's perhaps the best defense Terri Schiavo has against the courts and her husband who would kill her. Keep praying and write to the Florida legislature to get this passed. Then, while you're at it, write to our own legislators and insist that we get the same protection in case the court should ever be asked if we should live or die.

Academia upside down

2005-03-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

If you've been following the Ward Churchill story at all, you know that he's a radical leftist professor at University of Colorado who's drawn heat for attacking the victims of 9/11 as being "little Eichmanns," forging artwork and falsely claiming that he's American Indian to gain clout as a representative of a minority (and more besides...). CU is standing behind him claiming that it's all a matter of academic freedom, but when they are confronted with the academic freedom of an award winning Christian professor, it looks like it's a whole different story. Thanks to Blue State Conservatives for the pointer.

CU could really use a breath of fresh air, but do you think they'd hire Hugh?

More on Terri Schiavo - please act!

2005-03-08T08:43:00.000-08:00

Good news/bad news on Terri Schiavo. The court has ordered her feeding tube removed on March 18th and expects her to be starved to death. But the Florida and Federal legislatures are acting to protect her. Keep praying, keep fasting (if you can), and go here to find out how you can encourage the legislatures to move quickly while she's still alive. You can also go here to send email to our local representatives urging them "to co-sponsor and vote for The Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act of 2005, sponsored by Rep. Weldon."

Update: You really, really, really want to go here for more information on the action you can take to help Terri and other disabled people who's right to life is being challenged (thanks to Dawn Eden for the direction).

The Kenya trip - an unexpected opportunity

2005-03-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

I'm posing here with Samuel Kibe. He is a former street kid who, when we met him, was tending the gate at the guest home we stayed in our first night in Kenya. While we were waiting for Tim and Allison to arrive the following evening, we got introduced to Samuel and found that he had a passion to reach street kids like he once was who didn't have any prospects for a job. To do this, he wanted to open a barber shop and teach the kids how to cut hair. Additionally, he would earn enough from the barbershop to support his family, who were staying with his wife's family since Samuel's income at the guest house wasn't enough to support them. We talked about how much it would cost to do all this, and it came out to $160 US for equipment plus one month's rent of a small shop. Remarkably enough (or perhaps not so remarkable given how God had orchestrated the trip up to this point) we had an extra $160 in hand, which we had brought to cover the cost of customs on the computers we were bringing with us. However we were simply waved through customs and didn't have to pay anything, so we gave the money to Samuel, and he's used it to establish his barber shop and reunite his family. In his first month of business, he earned just enough to keep it all together. Now he's praying for the additional equipment his wife can use to cut and style women's hair. The initial investment is more costly, but it earns more in the long haul, so he and his family would be in good financial shape if that were possible. We stay in touch with him via email, and hope to have a chance to see him again if God sends us back to Kenya.

next...

Slavery in Niger (?)

2005-03-05T22:56:00.000-08:00

From the BBC:

The government of Niger has cancelled at the last minute a special ceremony during which at least 7,000 slaves were to be granted their freedom.
A spokesman for the government's human rights commission, which had helped to organise the event, said this was because slavery did not exist.

Oh. Should someone tell the person who originally organized the ceremony (or the 7,000 non-slaves they apparently invited)?

Hat tip: Powerline

What have you done for us, anyhow?

2005-03-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

"[A]part from liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, undermining dictatorships throughout the Arab world, spreading freedom and self-determination in the broader Middle East and moving the Palestinians and the Israelis towards a real chance of ending their centuries-long war, what have the Americans ever done for us?"

Love it! Read it! (Hat tip: Carol Platt Liebau)

Teaching principles and character.

2005-03-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

The principal of the high school that Nathan (my middle son) attends wrote recently to all of the parents explaining how he plans to teach principles and character to the students. It's all founded, he said, on the basic rights and responsibilities we all have. The rights are

freedom of expression
equality
justice

all which, he informed us, have been upheld in the courts. The responsibilities are:

to come to school with a legitimate academic purpose
to act in a safe and healthy manner
not to disrupt the educational process
to care for and use appropriately individual and state owned property

The principal's strategy for handling situations where students do not receive what is their right or fulfill their responsibilities

"is not the Dean's office, nor is it in detention, nor is the solution in an assistant principal's office. the solution is in the entiere school community opening and continuing [a] conversation through principles."

the hoped for outcome being that

"Teachers would be living what they were teaching, students would be living what they are being taught, and a mutual respect between individual teachers and students would develop. Ideally, principled actions would follow."

This sounds to me a lot like how the United Nations works. We all agree on principles that people should be nice to each other, not stockpile weapons of mass destruction, not practice genocide and not polute the world. When some nation disobeys these principles, the diplomats of the various nations get together and talk to each other and try to persuade that nation that it really ought to be good and conform to the previously agreed to principles. Sometimes treaties are signed with promises that everyone will be good to each other in the future. Yet nothing really seems to change. The genocides continues, polution continues and the contries busily sell each other technologies to produce yet more weapons of mass destruction. Sometimes the weak nations go along with the treaties because they have no resources with which to do differently, but those who are strong and stubborn largely ignore the treaties and sanctions and continue as they have always intended to.

In a fallen world, power is sometimes needed to restrain evil. It is necessary in the U.N., and it will be necessary in a high school as well. Conversations are fine up to a point, but when the talking is done there needs to be a big stick, whether it be a suitably powerful military force or the Dean's office to enforce the desired action. Those who have the principles already may be susceptable to verbal persuasion, but those who do not and have the strength to resist will not be persuaded by words alone (though they may pretend to be to satisfy others). Without a stick of some kind, the unscrupulous will continue to go their own way and those who have suffered at their hands in the past will continue to suffer in the future. If the high school principal has any doubts about this, he can ask the Sudanese (to name only one of many examples)...