An Open Letter To My Daughter

The other night you asked your mom how we know that God exists. You wondered if maybe someone made up all the stories. How can you at six ask such questions? You are growing up much too quickly!

Probably the most fascinating story of them all is the one about the peasant family that gave birth to a baby boy in a dusty cave. Yet we are told this was the birth of God...at least as a human. What do you make of this one? It seems like it could have been made up but there are some details about the story we can be certain happened. This Jesus was born. How could that have been made up? There were shepherds and Magi and priests and plenty of others who saw the baby. He was born in a stable and that couldn't have been concocted out of air because there was an inn keeper who knew about it. The birth registry of the Romans would have documented his birth and anyone wanting to prove he never was could easily have looked that up. Of course the question about Joseph being the father is a bit of an oddity in the story but there is no reason to make that part of the account up. It would look too bad for the family of God to have the child not have the father who should have been his father his. How do you explain that to normal religious people anyway that you want to be your friends except that it is what happened. Make up the story that God was the baby's real father and you become a nutcase in a small town with enough gossip already in it to fill a stable. Either Joseph was the father (which obviously was not the case) or someone else was (which would have been the most reasonable conclusion except they never say it--because to their complete humiliation there wasn't another father). The story is a bizarre myth (which nothing about it except the virgin birth sounds like one)or it is what it is. God born the only way He could be born. To a mother normal like you and me but with God as His real Father.

The angels in the sky seem a bit weird too and that is understandable that you think it sounds like something from The Lion King. But again, it was real, filthy, dirt poor shepherds who saw it all and the story was never refuted...and could easily have been proven because the shepherds were there. No one questions a car wreck if seven people saw it. The fact that we haven't had many angel sightings lately doesn't prove they haven't occurred any more than a lack of George Washington sightings make the George Washington legend unbelievable too.

Now I realize that I haven't proven God exists but the other stories about Jesus are just as reasonable. The death of Jesus was witnessed by Romans, Jews, friends and enemies and no one refuted His death when the stories started circulating.

Oh, but the big story, the one of Jesus climbing out of His tomb after he died is certainly up for disbelief. But can we really question it just because we don't have dead grandfathers popping out of their coffins or dead aunts slipping back to us after they have been cremated. Just because I haven't seen such a thing can't always disprove it's something true. Again, I did not follow the Apollo rocket up to the moon and although it hadn't happened before, I am not one to doubt that shocking turn of events didn't happen. I believe the hundreds of NASA workers who tracked the thing and followed its progress through the skies. More than five hundred people saw Jesus alive after He died and they couldn't have all been a bunch of quackers with duck brains. There believability packed the Temple grounds of Jerusalem with normal souls like me and you who were too convinced to shy away from the most hated and purged "myth" to come along. No one made a movement of killing off Aphrodite lovers or Isis lovers. Those myths were just silly little tales. But the one of Jesus coming back to life was right there for all to see and prove right or wrong. And more than that, the myth cost you everything you had if you held to it too tightly...including little girls like you. You had to be certain you were right. Your world depended upon it.

The stories of God are a strange collection it is true my child but strange doesn't mean false. How do you explain a rag-tag band of one million slaves marching away from the greatest and most imposing army of its time if not by means of the sea splitting apart and the first borns of the slave owning nation all dying at once. The legend was too big for myth-hood. It was the most easily of all little stories to refute but the entire nation of Israel held to it not because it made them something special (psychotically special is what I really mean)but because every last grandfather of them and grandmother too (who are certainly more believable)said it happened. To top it off, the Egyptians all knew it happened and never made mincemeat (I know you have never heard of mincemeat--it is an ancient myth of still more ancient peoples than your own)of the crazy reports...because it happened just like Michael Jackson happened.

Myths that are really myths are just foolish but the myths that are true are only too good to believe. But then, I could say the same of you. Too good to be true!

Starting At First Corinthians Continued

The church is identified as “the purified ones” in Christ Jesus. The Greek word I translate, “purified ones:” is the famous “hagiazo”, the noun form being the term we know as “saints” Paul is noting that the church is all those who have been made saints, or to put it more precisely, purified and separated out from the rest of the world. This is not a work of the church, nor something any individuals within the church accomplish. It is an action outside the church, a doing that is incomprehensible in a purely natural sense. We look at physical, emotional and even spiritual qualities and try to mark the church by what we see but according to Paul, it has nothing to do with what we perceive. The Church is comprised of all those who are supernaturally purified in Christ Jesus.

The picture is of a container, being Christ Himself and those who are purified have been dropped in Him. Mysteriously, mystically, each one placed in Christ is made purified and set apart as God’s own…the collection of whom is the “Church”. The very meaning of the word church hints at this process. Ekklesia or church means “called out ones”. It is the assembly of the transformed; those who have been pulled out of their circumstances and placed within Jesus Christ in whom everything changes. Paul probably felt this sense of being taken out and dropped in more than anyone he knew. Enemy of Christians and persecutor of the Church, by the supernatural sky hook of the Holy Spirit, Paul was torn out of his old life and dropped without warning into a completely different world of Christian faith. Flying overseas has a bit of that same feel to it. One hour you are in a familiar airport within your own country, twelve hours later you are in Seoul Korea and no one talks like you and no one looks like you and everyone bows and likes kimchi. Paul was catapulted into a new world by Jesus and he could honestly say, “it wasn’t my fault”. The only difference between Paul’s transformation and the example given is that not only was Paul put into a new world, he was made into a new person, it is as if he was suddenly Korean without looking any different, and that is what makes the church the church.

Our identity as a church is not based on what we have done: it is completely determined by where we are placed. We are, as Paul puts it, “in Christ Jesus”. Now the question could easily be raised, “what part do we play in all of this”. Intuitively it feels like we are not just robotically programmed into following Jesus. The end of verse two explains the connection between God’s call to us and our interest in following Him. It literally reads, “with all the ones calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in all the places of them and us.” A true Christian is marked by this lovely quality. She is continually calling upon Jesus everywhere she goes. We cannot let the expression “name of our Lord Jesus Christ” confuse us in this. The name is simply the person, the cry to the Lord Himself. The Christian community is a dependent collection of misfits who are only really at home in the bond they have to Jesus. Take out the stuff of Christian activity…whether it be the prayer meetings or evangelistic events or the Bible classes and the core of Christian life is this dependence on Jesus that finds no other outlet but Him.
To Be Continued...

Dr. James Dobson's Thoughts

Dr. Dobson, the founder of Focus On The Family and a leader in Evangelical Circles provided the following thoughts on the McCain/Palin ticket. I promise I won't spend a lot of time writing on the election but Dr. Dobson is someone whose thoughts I value greatly...

Earlier this year Dr. Jim Dobson, President of Focus on the Family made news when he announced on “The Dennis Prager Show” that he “cannot and will not vote for Senator John McCain.” Today, on The Dennis Prager Show, the conservative leader changed course and announced his enthusiastic support on the heels of the announcement by Senator McCain of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
Dennis Prager: I have a guest here who’s extremely significant in American life, whether you call it American political, certainly American religious life, one of the best known Christians in America— Dr. James Dobson who is president and founder of Focus on the Family…. The last time you were on was a very serious conversation about your feeling at the time that you just couldn’t vote for John McCain, and where do you stand now?
Dr. James Dobson: Well, Dennis, I shared with a colleague just a few minutes ago exactly what you said about the period of time when Ronald Reagan had broken onto the scene and I was in Washington D.C. the day he was inaugurated. That was one of the most exciting days of my life, because everything that we had hoped for and been working for had come to pass. I feel very much that way today. Maybe that’s an overstatement. Maybe time won’t validate it, but this is a very exciting and encouraging day for conservatives and pro-family activists. I am just very, very pleased.
Prager: In light of that, may I infer that when you enter the voting booth—and I am putting you on the spot. I fully acknowledge, and you’re certainly free to say it’s a secret ballot you don’t want to say, but you’re too public to really get away with that, so what’s the story right now?
Dobson: Well, you know I did a radio program about a month ago with Dr. Albert Mohler, and we talked about what was at stake in this election and our concerns about the policies that Barack Obama would implement. The more I hear the more I learn, the more concerned I am, and so on that program Dr. Mohler and I talked about the fact that John McCain is not the perfect candidate. He’s certainly would not be my choice and, for over a year, I did not feel that I could vote for him. But I said in that radio program that “I can’t say it now”—which was then, because I didn’t know who his vice presidential choice would be, and he if would come up with Lieberman or Tom Ridge or somebody like that, we’d be back in a hole again. But I said for the first time “I might, I might.” And some people call that a flip-flop. If they do, so be it. Campaigns are long. You get information. You find out what the choices are. So I’ve been moving in John McCain’s direction. I don’t know if anybody cares, but for me…
Prager: Plenty, plenty of people care and that’s why I am having you on. I care, many people care and you have a lot of followers. You have earned the right to that respect. So are you prepared to say, “Folks, look, given this pick and all I have learned about what would happen with a Democratic victory we have no choice, but to enthusiastically work for the McCain-Palin ticket?”
Dobson: You know, I have only endorsed one presidential candidate in my life and that was George Bush in the second term after I had watched him for four years. I did not do that in his first term. So I’m very reluctant to do that. You marry a politician you can be a widow pretty quickly.
Prager: That’s right.
Dobson: But I can tell you that if I had to go into the studio, I mean the voting booth today, I would pull that lever.
Dobson: And that’s a long way’s from where I told you a year ago.
Prager: No kidding. No kidding. I am honored that you used this show to make that statement.
Dobson: You know, Dennis, the things that concern me about John McCain are still there. I made those comments not just based on emotions, but based on his record and some of the things that took place—embryonic stem cell research, and other things, the campaign finance, and other things. Those are still there. So, there’s still concerns. But I tell you, when I look at the choices that are ahead and what the implications are for this country, and now especially with this selection, with just an outstanding V.P. candidate as a running mate, I tell you what I am relieved and very excited.
Prager: Well, if you’re very excited given your previous reservations then I have to believe, and certainly based on the handful of calls I’ve been able to take the first hour before my “Happiness Hour,” I took the calls and people were so excited, palpably excited. Jim Dobson, and I got to tell you… if your base is energized then that is the biggest nightmare that the left has.
Dobson: I was just with about 300, maybe 400 people in a large auditorium, and they put Sarah Palin’s speech on the screen and we sat there and watched. I’m telling you it was electric. These were conservatives, you know. They were mostly Christian, but not all of them were. I mean to tell you, it set that crowd on fire. If that’s any indication, I think we are going to see some things.
Prager: We sure are. Well, you made my day. I just want you to know that.

Starting At 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:1-3 NIV
Paul, called apostle of Christ Jesus, through the will of God and Sosthones the brother To the church of God, to the one being in Corinth, to the purified ones in Christ Jesus, to the ones called holy with all the ones calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in all the places of them and us. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.


Corinth despite what is popularly asserted was a rather normal Roman Hellenistic city. It had been a thriving cosmopolitan complex until its destruction in 146 B.C. But in 46 B.C. it was restored under the leadership of Julius Caesar and made a Roman colony. Like other colonies, it was settled by Roman veterans who established its allegiance to Roman principles, values and customs. As a port city and a strategic commercial thoroughfare, it quickly rose in prominence and became a wealthy center of commerce and culture. People from all over the world settled there and it was a strategic location for a church to be founded. As the Gospel spread through the city, it naturally was taken abroad by new converts who were engaged in international commerce. Many think of Corinth as a center of immense corruption but in Paul’s time it probably was not much different from any other Roman city. It was however a place where there were throngs of poor and a concentrated minority of the immensely rich. No form of corruption was kept from the wealthy and that is where its reputation for perversion rested.

Most scholars contend that the book of 1 Corinthians was written by Paul from Ephesus in Asia Minor somewhere between 55 and 57 AD. His introduction at first glance would sound a bit self-promoting, a bit like someone referring to himself in the first person plural or calling himself “Mr. President”. Yet with his words, “Paul, called apostle of Christ Jesus” is establishing his identity as nothing more than one sent out by Jesus. He is not a shop keeper, not a baseball player, not a father or husband or rock and roll singer. He is a “sent out” (the meaning of apostle) because Jesus has sent him out. Identity is quite simple. It is what God designs us to be. The most fragile and disconcerting part of life is the step away from this one part. I have a point and it is completely tied to God.

Paul wasn’t an apostle because he always had a fascination with that sort of thing. He certainly never listed it as a young student on any vocational interest surveys. This apostleship was thrust upon him…not like a dog owner puts a vest on her little poochie but as a part of a complete transformation of identity. Paul was not an apostle as such, not even an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was a “called” Apostle of Christ Jesus and that completely altered the way his core operated. He could not drop his work in Ephesus because Paul was a called apostle. He could not stop loving the crazy Corinthians because he was a called apostle. As long as you are an apostle you can do whatever you feel like doing, even if you are an apostle of Christ Jesus Himself because it is just a work you do. A called apostle though cannot. He is transformed into this identity…much as a parakeet who is miraculously transformed into a seal no longer avoids swimming and stops wanting to fly. A called apostle has a new view of all he does and why he does it. He is who he is because he is first and finally called.

To Be Continued

Vote, Vote, VoteI

I'm quite certain I know who will win this election and pretty sure I know who would make the better president. But I don't care to think too much about it nor study a great deal the claims and counter claims, charges and counter charges, promises and counter promises. Not one president we have ever had has measured a stick to a forest the work of Christ. Jesus brought the Roman empire to its knees by his blood and by the blood of the mass of martyrs who lived for Him. No political system has had the impact on the world Christian faith has had. No economic policy, no global warming endeavor, no tax break will launch a world-wide change of heart. But a few who walk with Jesus cannot be stopped in their efforts to turn their parts of the world around. Politics is a powerful diversion but diversion none the less from the one thing. The Bereans may not have had Newsweek to keep them up to speed but they had the scriptures and of all people...they were nobler than the rest.

"...for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day..."Acts 17: 11b

Does it Matter What We Believe?

A recent report by the Barna group indicated that there is a significant difference in the way Evangelical Christians act and the rest of Americans. They discovered that 74% of Evangelical Christians do not use profanity, 88% don't view pornography, 95% don't gossip, 97% are not engaging in inappropriate sex and 99% do not lie or engage in drunkenness. On the other hand 60% of atheists and agnostics use profanity, 50% view pornography, 34% gossip and 33% are engaged in drunkenness. Those from other faiths are twice as likely as evangelical Christians to use profanity, view pornagraphy and lie. If you are interested in the full article from the Barna Group, click on the link given below. It really does matter what you believe!




John 17:20-23
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17: 20-23

Friend

Isn't it amazing God calls us His friend? There are few things I have found in life as wonderful as the friends who make their lives my home! As I get ready to leave the office, I wonder if I have put down the hoe enough times...I certainly am good at picking it up!






When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit. Robert Frost


Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 John 2

I Am Sorry

Most recognize the words, "I am sorry" as the mark of John the Baptist's ministry. "Repent" But what is mostly forgotten is that "I am sorry" was at the core of Jesus' own preaching. In fact many of His sermons were just "Repent for the Kingdom of God is before you." I realize that many do not acknowledge, "I am sorry" as a legitimate theological step to living for Jesus but it is the most mystical and revelatory of them all. For without the "I am sorry", there is no acknowledgement of personal sin, no realization that I am genuinely wrong. I can never be in God's presence without an assurance of "I am sorry" pressed within me. What more can be said of Isaiah's confession, "Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips..." if not it is a full-blown "I am sorry." The other day I was reminded again of just how twisted Satan can make our personal theology. I heard an "I am sorry" but there was a caveat attached. "I am sorry you were so..." followed by an "I am sorry they didn't act..." connected to the most unmistakable "You sorry..." The name God is wonderful unless Satan slips next to it a verb of denouncement. We are most Christian when we have an "I am sorry" flowing off our lips but if we connect it to someone else, we fall as far from Jesus as is possible in this life. "I am sorry" is the beginning of all praise and the true start to real fellowship. We cannot live within God if we do not have a few "I am sorry"s spontaneously jumping out of our hearts. We just have to leave everyone else out of our "I am sorry" if we want to get it right.

Uz Too! Concluded

Unfortunately the writer keeps going. He should know better. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:35-38 NIV) The bad theology gets worse. The conclusion of the passage states that all of these…the ones who opened the mouths of lions as well as those who were lion food were commended for their faith.

What can be said about Paul’s litany of disasters described in 2 Corinthians 11? If God thought it so crucial we have a great life, why did he let Paul get flogged five times, shipwrecked three times and three times be beaten with rods. Not only that he had to constantly justify himself to the churches he started, always needing to prove his apostleship! Sure Job ended up with more cattle and sheep than he had before his disasters but that does not take away the fact that he was tormented…with God’s acceptance. If prosperity rules, then why do the majority of believers world-wide have such a tough time of it? My friend in Russia pastors a church of less than ten; makes do with just enough income to keep him and his wife from starving and is constantly working out new ways to share the gospel with little success. Does God think less of him than my friend in Southern California who is on staff at a mega church that brims with excitement? The truth is that God is not all that enamored with success and feels no compulsion whatsoever to make every one of His best friends successful or even “above average”.

Third, fairness is not a part of the Christian equation. Every parent with more than one child has heard the complaint, “it’s not fair” at least a thousand times. Believers who think God acts “fairly” must find Job almost incomprehensible. God is not “fair” and never pretends to be. Prayers based on trying to get God to play fair are missing the main part of prayer. God is working all things together for our good but He is not making things fair. It certainly isn’t fair that a little gymnast who strained her entire life to reach the Olympics falls off the balance beam and loses her chance at a medal. It isn’t fair to her parents who sacrificed their life savings to get her the coaching she needed to do well. It isn’t fair for the teacher who worked long hours without pay to help this little girl become a star. It wasn’t fair that Job’s children died. It wasn’t fair Jeremiah was put in prison for preaching what God told him.

The sawed in half prophets and the conquerors of Palestine listed in Hebrews 1 are woven together with a single strand. Faith! Faith is what ties the loose ends of our lives together…the “fair” parts and the “unfair”. The climax of Job is not the restoration of Job’s prosperity, it is the faith his friends exhibited when they sacrificed the bulls and rams upon God’s word..not upon any promise everything would work out. As Job in faith prayed for the three, everything came together for all of them. We enter heaven through faith, we move mountains by faith, the dead are raised through faith and we make sense of our lives through faith. As long as Job tried to get things fair, he was a mess, a chaotic wreck. When however he accepted in faith God’s giant greatness overriding his circumstances, Job came together, his life came together and his religion came together.

Faith, when it is born, is conceived in the unfair. The misinterpretation of Jesus’ comment on the eye of a needle has confused many about the Kingdom of God. Jesus, if He was saying anything, it was that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Now if He was merely stating that we can’t get into heaven through what we have, then He would not have stopped with the rich. He would have told us that the poor also can’t get in and the middle class can’t get in. What Jesus specifically stated was that it was not possible for the rich to enter the kingdom. Why? It is because prosperity is the enemy of faith. In richness, I have no use for faith. Riches are tangible, viewable, countable, holdable. Faith is none of that. Faith is trust in God who is not seen, belief in God who cannot be pushed, hope in God who is not fair. As long as life was squared off and safe and understandable, Job could only have the weakest and most barely sufficient part of faith. When Job was made certain through his suffering that nothing in life was ever to be fair, then to follow God, He had to take it in faith.

When God makes us poor whether it be one way or another, it is to strip us of our hope at fairness and push us to trust Him. Salvation does not come to us because it is fair. It comes because God is kind. I asked my kids if they would rather have me be fair or have me love them. The Cross is God giving us the final word. He is not fair. But He is good. While we were still SINNERS, Christ died for us. You can only take this in faith…just as you take your broken leg in faith, your dropped savings in faith and your lost career in faith, and even your good health. God may not be fair. He never tries to get you to accept that. But He does love you. Jesus spent a lifetime helping us see that.

Terrorism At Lake Elizabeth

I have this nasty habit of walking clockwise around Lake Elizabeth. Almost everyone else walks counter-clockwise and it puts me in the most frightening position of having to actually look at people as they go past me. The scary part of this is that many stoically refuse to notice me. Perhaps it is my low levels of self-esteem that drive this sick compulsion I have to say hi to people as they walk by. I have actually had to look straight at people and with my loud preacher voice nearly yell out, "good morning" before they would notice me. Some smile and greet me warmly while others cut their eyes at me in a slicing flash of acknowledgement and in cracking tones, do their best to beat out of themselves a good morning to their own chagrin. When I was in Moscow, I tried to do the same thing, smiling broadly at the elderly "Babushkas" and firing out a hearty "kagdula" to them as we met on the street. Most just looked away in disgust but every once in a while I would receive a cheery smile...perhaps out of pity for my poor Russian. The other day I passed along to one of my fellow walkers an invitation to our church. Now he won't even look at me when I give him my "good morning".

What makes us so difficult to reach even with friendly intentions? Why is there so much sourness in our world? I wonder if Jesus was ever shocked by how mean spirited so many were who gawked at Him as He preached the Kingdom of God. Jesus was the Jerusalem terrorist who brought horror to those who just wanted to keep to themselves. The shocking part of Jesus was that He forced God upon the world. For the first time ever, an entire nation had to look at God and gaze upon His smile. How horrible it must have felt for so many to actually have to watch Christ heal the blind, raise the dead and make the lame walk! Some people...all too many, do their best to avoid the freindly gaze of Jesus because I guess they just don't want to smile.

There certainly is too much grumpiness out there, too much cynicism and too much bitter angst over what is going wrong. But there is one thing right we must never miss. The smile of Jesus can warm the coldest heart and even tired babushkas walking around Lake Elizabeth need a hint of it.

Uz Too! Part 2

When Job settles into the horror of his situation, he does what all of us try to do given rough circumstances. He tried to make some sense of it. The question is out there for him. “What is happening?” But like so many of us, Job doesn’t really think he will ever get a chance to ask it. I know for many the turning point in Job is God’s response to him out of the whirlwind. But I don’t think it is. The fulcrum of Job is his call for a “hearing” with God. Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing. (Job 9:16 NIV) He doesn’t think it will happen but that is what he wants. Not success, not power, not health; all those things he has lost interest in as priorities. What Job wants is answers. “What are you doing God?” “What is happening?”

What is happening of course is that Satan was trying to shake Job free of his devotion to YHWH. But that does not explain God’s part in this. Was God watching with eager anticipation to see if Job would give up his faith in the same sort of way we watch the Olympics to see who wins or was God doing something else with Job that was not quite so small as Him showing off Job’s resilience as one might show off the skills of a prized racehorse? It certainly sounds ridiculous and certainly is ridiculous to think God at any point is waiting with eager anticipation to see how things turn in any part of the Universe and it is just as absurd to think God is vain and must show off His stuff to make Himself feel good.

If it is true that every person would like a hearing with God and is wondering often enough, “What is going on”, then it seems that Job as the ultimate transcript of human despair and God longing should give us something to help us know what we should do with our feelings toward God. Of course the book ends with very little to say about why God let Job suffer so much and it gives us little to hope that any of us should ever expect an explanation in this lifetime for what we go through. Job’s friends thought it was the “what goes around comes around” karma God they had but if there is anything that clearly comes out of the book it is that God does not operate that way in any sense. Karma does not govern any part of the universe and Job’s friends, for positing it as the reason for Job’s suffering were fiercely rebuked by God and made to offer animal sacrifices and beg for Job’s prayers to avoid an undisclosed punishment for their “folly”.

There are three clear conclusions we can make from Job that help us understand God’s dealings with us. First, as mentioned above, life is not a wrap around. What comes around goes around is a ludicrous view of life. If that were the case, then we all would be burned up in a ball of fire by now for our sins stink to heaven. God does not treat us as we deserve. I understand that the Proverbs point out the value of right living and that God does punish sin but as we see in Job, there is not and has never been a one to one correspondence of action by us and reaction by God. Bad people prosper and good people fail and good people prosper and bad people fail and that is the way it is. God never apologizes for this to Job, Job’s friends or anyone else. Karma, instant or otherwise is a myth.

Second, God is not overly concerned about our prosperity. Prosperity has never been the ideal Christian life although we seem to be enamored with it. Just a casual reading of Hebrews 11 makes that quite clear. Oh we love the teaching of verses 32-35. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Now that sounds like good theology doesn’t it? Joel Osteen must love this passage.

To Be Continued...

A Different Preaching Direction

For the next several months I will be taking a break from my normal preaching schedule and preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians out of the Greek text. It clearly is a great book to teach and loaded with important information for anyone wanting to have a passionate faith.

Uz Too! Part 1

Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." Job 1:8-11 NIV



The biggest question in religion has nothing to do with the existence of God. Children wonder if He is myth but not adults. There is too much evidence for a creator to give serious thought to tired arguments for a God free universe. Evolution proves nothing of the atheist contention that life spontaneously generates or even more importantly that matter exists without an atom builder. God is accepted everywhere as being present…to contend otherwise is to beat your head against a thorn prickled stone wall. What we do ask a thousand times a day in ten thousand different languages is what ancient Job also asked. “What is happening?’

Everyone loves to hear the success story but even Michael Phelps has crashed into the swimming pool wall, lost his keys and said something completely ludicrous when he was nervous. Yet the daily pound of difficulties is not what makes Job’s question so universal. If the troubles were expected, we would simply roll with them like the gold fish that looks up at the top of the bowl and sighs, “Fish food again!” But that is not how it is! Human beings expect something different, something better…especially of a God they know is there.

The difficulty the introduction to Job presents is that it would be easy, if that was all of Job you really took with you is the horrifically but understandable mistaken belief that somehow Satan got in to the mix and like he did with Eve, made a mess of God’s ideals. There really are only two ways to think of God if you aren’t careful, God is really good but sometimes blunders and lets Satan talk Him into making life blow up on us or God is not really good and needs us to help Him develop a warmer and kinder personality. Like the wife who tries to help her husband realize he needs to spend more time with his kids, we pray with the same sort of corrective motives.

The other day I was praying for God to help me fix my broken door. After much frustrated effort, it still would not stay closed and I angrily wondered why God hadn’t made it right. The entire pagan system of human sacrifice and pantheon of gods was an attempt to make God work, or at least find one who would sympathize with your plight. Islam is built on the same principle…Allah is harsh and unbending; better make sure you meet his demands or he will take away your lunch…paradise. Witchcraft and astrology both make much of wielding power over supernatural forces so that you can get a fair shake in life. Karma turns life into a giant equation that forces fairness into everything. Each false religion is a human attempt to get at the paradox everyone intuitively recognizes. God is and life at times seems senseless.

Continued Tomorrow

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the Lebers and the finalization of the adoption of their three kids! What a great answer to prayer and show of God's power in putting this family together!!!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

Finding Nemo

Yesterday Nemo committed suicide. He jumped right out of the fish bowl and landed on the floor under my desk. With no one to rescue him or give mouth to gill resuscitation, he died. Needless to say I was stunned by this senseless waste of life. He had everything he needed to make him happy. A bowl to swim in endless circles, fish food...three tablets every day. A bowl to swim in endless circles...fish food, three tablets every day. Did I mention he always had that fish bowl where he could swim in circles? He even had the opportunity to look at me for hours at a time while I worked. My son said he thinks Nemo killed himself because he had to listen to me practice my sermons. I am sure he was just kidding! I think Nemo thought he was a bird and was convinced he could fly. Maybe I am in denial and refuse to deal with the inner turmoil Nemo suffered. Needless to say, it is a bit depressing staring at my empty fishbowl knowing that I didn't do enough to make my Nemo happy. Perhaps I should have taken him on walks or turned his fishbowl light on and off more during the day to give him something else to think about. I am just glad he didn't die from global warming...that would have been really bad! I need to find something to do with myself to take my mind off finding Nemo...on the floor. Perhaps I'll go fishing...

A Gentle Mystery

At our cell group last night we discussed the mystery of John the Baptist and his relationship to Jesus. The Baptist makes a bit of an odd comment in John 1: 31 He comments as he points out to several of his disciples Jesus strolling nearby, "I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel." So what did he mean by this? Is he saying that he did not know Jesus before he started baptizing? The question spins on the meaning of "know". Of course we may sound like we are parsing out the definition of "is" but there is a quite important spiritual lesson to learn from this. The two most important Greek terms translated "know" in John are ginosko and oida. Ginosko and oida are nearly identical in their meaning but ginosko has more the sense of personal knowledge, the knowledge of intimacy. Oida has the sense of understanding, of "getting it". John was not saying that he had no idea who Jesus was. He was indicating what is quie important to recognize. He could not know Jesus, he could not get it about Him even if he watched Jesus every day unless the Spirit revealed to him who Jesus is. His own brothers apparently did not really know Jesus as indicated in John 7 because even then after so many miracles they did not believe in Him. You can be very close to God and the things of God and never know Him unless the Holy Spirit makes Him clear to you. That is why it is so painful for us to "grieve" the Holy Spirit. We cannot know Jeus without Him. Pray, "open my eyes Lord." There is so much to see that most of the world is missing. The biggest and maybe the only part to see is waiting for you. What do you know?

Time Out

Perhaps the most famous time-out in history was the one Job received. Everything going well and without warning he was stopped in his tracks. What makes Job so shocking is not the horrors Job faced but rather the seeming unfairness of it all. Many have suffered just as worse or more than Job but no one has been so "unfairly" treated. The turning point in Job is Job 9: 16 Even if I summoned him and he responded, I do not believe he would give me a hearing.

Have you ever wanted a hearing with God?

The Perfect Image

Is there a more perfect metaphor for Cell Group ministry and the total Christian life than Jason Lezak's come from behind victory over Alain Bernard, the world record holder in the 100 freestyle? Few sports are more painful than swimming sprints and almost no one ever comes from behind to win...that is why it is so magnificent when it happens. I know of very few cell group leaders who do not feel continually like they are behind Alain Bernard with no shot at victory. We pound away and yet the gold is always just too far beyond our reach. That is why I love so much the Apostle Paul's bellow from the heavenly stands. "So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit." Or, as Michael Phelps screamed, "Go!" My friend, the pool is all yours. It's your time to make a run at it!