Will we stand firm without religious freedom?

I read news on the internet all the time, and it continues to surprise me at the religious persecution and violations of religious freedom in America, especially if you are a Christian.  Recently I read of a valedictorian of her high school class in Monument, Colorado, who thanked her parents and classmates in her short speech, but also thanked Jesus Christ and spoke of the sacrifice he made for sinners.  She basically said that if you don’t know Christ personally, to find out more about the sacrifice he made for you.  The school demanded that she make a public apology or lose her diploma!  She made the apology, but is suing the school for a violation of her First Amendment freedoms.  She said what she said in her short valedictorian address out of conviction and not out of coercion.  I have to believe that she loves Christ, and that while thanking those in her life that made a huge impact, also thanked Christ for the ultimate impact.  Christ changed her life, and out of that change she is impelled to tell others. 

However, this brings to mind a serious question that has been nagging me off and on for some time.  When the time comes, will I be able to stand up for Christ?  In today’s world, there are three taboo topics in the workplace, in any public place: sex, politics, and…yes, religion.  Public etiquette now prohibits anyone from discussing topics that quite frankly matter most in life.  However, do I value public etiquette more than I value the saving grace of Christ, or do I value etiquette and feelings more than the eternal soul of people?  What do I value more?  And will I be able to express those values and stand for those values when the pressure comes? 

The gospels and epistles state on a number of occasions that those who follow Christ will be persecuted by the world, because Christians are not of this world.  Jesus speaking in John 15 states, ¹⁸ If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you:  ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. However, Jesus prayed for us in John 17, and sent the Holy Spirit as our Helper.  Jesus also stated in John 16, ³³ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. 

There is an increasing amount of religious persecution in America and he world today.  No, we are not being stoned, shipwrecked, beaten, or killed, at least in America!  Yet…  However, I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I believe that these occurrences will become more and more common in the years to come.  So the question remains, Will I be able to stand for Christ when the time comes?  Will I choose my job over Christ?  Will I choose a relationship with someone over Christ?  Will I choose my life over Christ?  I constantly pray that I will have the power through the Holy Spirit to withstand the embarrassment, mental persecution, and even physical persecution that will inevitably accompany the proclamation of the gospel of Christ.  I know the Comforter is with me, and I know that Christ is sanctifying me through the Word (John 17).  May we all have the boldness of the apostles to proclaim the gospel like it is the life that it is! 

Children’s Ministry – The Future of Evangelicalism

“It is said by some that children cannot understand the great mysteries of religion. We even know some Sunday-school teachers who cautiously avoid mentioning the great doctrines of the gospel, because they think the children are not prepared to receive them. Alas! the same mistake has crept into the pulpit; for it is currently believed, among a certain class of preachers, that many of the doctrines of the Word of God, although true, are not fit to be taught to the people, since they would pervert them to their own destruction. Away with such priestcraft! Whatever God has revealed ought to be preached. Whatever He has revealed, if I am not capable of understanding it, I will still believe and preach it. I do hold that there is no doctrine of the Word of God which a child, if he be capable of salvation, is not capable of receiving. I would have children taught all the great doctrines of truth without a solitary exception, that they may in their after days hold fast by them.”  Charles H. Spurgeon, Autobiography, vol. 1, page 73. 

I took over the children’s ministry for a year or so after our children’s pastor left.  I basically recruited a whole new team of volunteers, trained them, and then worked with them to pick out a good curriculum for the kids.  After doing a lot of searching, I was disappointed to discover that there is not a lot of kid’s church material out there that actually is designed to train kids in the contents of the Bible, the doctrines of the faith, and the application of those doctrines in life.  Most of it consisted of a memory verse, a few games that were supposed to illustrate a point, but rarely did, and a lesson that was maybe 5-10 minutes which didn’t say much.  I began to wonder, what are we teaching our kids?  Do we really believe our kids are that stupid (sorry, I shouldn’t say the “s-word!”)?  Dumbing down Christianity starts with our children, and continues through adulthood. I wasn’t aware of the Children Desiring God material, which looks like great stuff!  Other than this, I was hard-pressed to find much out there from any of the major outlets.  Maybe I just didn’t look hard enough.

I bring all of this up because we are starting to go through a book with my younger daughter called Big Truths for Little Kids, and a book called Bitesize Theology with my older daughter, both of which I got from monergismbooks.com.  Big Truths is basically the shorter catechism with a kid’s story and also application questions.  So far it is really good.  Bitesize Theology is a nice book with short, 3-4 page chapters, on the doctrines of the Bible.  It is short on pages, but not on content.  They are both eating this up.  Bible reading is good, but as parents we need to take the Scriptures and explain them and show our kids how great doctrines all fit together in the grand meta-narrative of the Scriptures.  It’s the difference between solo Scriptura and sola Scriptura. 

My other thought is this: If our kids in most evangelical churches are getting soft Christianity that is fun, feels good, and looks sharp (there is nothing wrong with these things), but is very light on doctrine and challenge, what kind of adults are building?  After all, kids become teens who become adults.  These are the future of Christianity.  Don’t get me wrong – God draws who He wills.  But that doesn’t exempt us from diligently pursuing the great commission with as much vigor and excellence as we possibly can.  After all, this is not just math or grammar; God uses us for eternal purposes!  Bradford Pear trees look great in my yard; they grow up quickly. But when a storm comes, you can see them all over my neighborhood lying on the ground, in the street, or on houses!  Why?  Because they grow quickly but have no deep roots.  Consequently, they do not withstand the storms that inevitably come along in the great state of Missouri.  The same analogy applies with our kids.  Unless kids are rooted and grounded in the Word of God, the doctrines of the faith, and a solid Biblical application, the storms will come and pull them up and smash them down because there is no solid root system. 

For the sake of the future of evangelicalism, we as parents, adults, and ministers must devote time and energy to the training and building up of our kids.  Not with childish, dumbed-down, me-centered lessons, but with age-appropriate, challenging, and engaging exposition of the Scriptures and the doctrines of our faith.  Don’t worry; your kids can handle it! 

More Observations on Culture – How the gospel affects everything

After my last post and some really great comments, let me pursue this a bit further.  Once God draws you to Himself, regenerates you, justifies you, and begins the growth and sanctification process, you change.  Yes, that goes without saying, but it is true.  You change.  Many things change, but your outlook in general should – must – also change.  The name for this outlook, often overused but still valid, is your worldview.  The gospel changes everything about how a Christian views the world around them.  In my last post, I briefly mentioned how the gospel changes one’s view on priorities in life.  But the gospel also affects how we live and view our everyday life as well.  I have a ministry and a secular job, and often, very often, those two come into conflict.  Not necessarily the two jobs, if you will, but the two worldviews. 

Now, these are real examples, and I don’t want to hammer anyone.  But they do serve as a reflection on each worldview, one of Christian, and one of practical atheism.  The CEO of my company told me specifically in a meeting that he cares for nothing except how much he can put in his pocket.  I am in marketing, and if I can’t show how my contributions to the company add to what is going into his own pocket, then I am not contributing.  Consequently, my company, while making over $150 million each quarter in net profit, has decided to cut the expenses for flowers to those employees who lose family members.  We are late paying our suppliers, and late delivering to customers because we can sell the raw material used to make our product on the market for 2-3x what we can get for our product.  People are fired for no reason (literally), forced to compromise their integrity on a number of occasions, and must sit and listen to certain individuals use more 4-letter words directed personally at them than I heard in general in the Army! 

Now this bothers me.  Not because I don’t like a challenge, or the environment is tough.  Work is work.  However, it is the fundamental philosophy behind all of these actions that bothers me.  Why does this company under the current executive officer behave the way it does towards employees, customers, suppliers, and others?  Because the fundamental worldview dictates that behavior.  And quite frankly it doesn’t surprise me.  And it shouldn’t.  Those without Christ do by nature behave this way.  If this world is all there is, then we can, perhaps should, be greedy.  After all, if this world is all I have, I should make the best of it for me.  And if I have to directly or, better yet indirectly, hurt someone, perhaps not physically, then why not?  We all know right from wrong, for God has put this in our hearts (Romans 2), but those that don’t know Christ repress this truth and live accordingly.  Selfishness, greed, pride… all of these when practiced by an unbeliever should come as no surprise.  And quite frankly, I don’t think we should condemn unbelievers for acting the way they do, either.  They are only acting out their nature.  See 1 Corinthians 5: 9 – 13 for a discussion of this. 

For a Christian, on the other hand, these traits should not be the norm.  Yes, we are all still sinners, but we have been, and are being, transformed by the power of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christians should view the world differently, and therefore act differently.  God created mankind in His image, so therefore we see all human beings as created in the image of God.  We consequently treat and value people differently.  God sent His son into the world to sacrifice for us, so we sacrifice for others.  God provided grace and even the faith we have as gifts, so we are not greedy, but freely give. 

You see, at least with me, and I am sure with others, we live in tension with the world on a regular basis.  This is easy to say, but hard to live.  After all, I make decisions in finite space and time that are, yes, included in God’s providence, yet still affect me and my family on an individual level.  There is a tension in life that causes me to decide to compromise my integrity in a company that does not value integrity, or to uphold my integrity and risk losing my job.  This is a tension that is real.  Unbelievers may have a similar tension due only to utilitarian aspects. Christians experience this tension because we are not of the world, but yet are in the world, just as Christ was not of the world, yet came into the world to save sinners (John 17).  We live in this tension because the world rejects us and our new nature just as the world rejected Christ.  This is the outworking of the change that is wrought within us by the Holy Spirit.  This is the manifestation of our worldview as followers of Christ as walk in a world that does not like us even though we are on a specific mission as change agents for the gospel of Christ. 

What am I saying in all of this?  I firmly believe that once God grabs us and changes us, we become aware of this tension in our lives between two worldviews.  However, as a Christian, if we continue to live in the world and do not feel this tension, then perhaps we have not been changed.  When we see people mistreated or neglected, does this conflict with our view of people who are made in the image of God?  When we are part of ongoing greed and selfishness, does this not create tension in our very souls because we want to give out of the abundance of our hearts?  When we are asked to compromise our integrity, do we feel the tension as we choose to value integrity because there is something more than the here and now?  This is where the gospel meets the road of life. 

Observations on Culture – Your Best Life Now

Ok, so why is everyone so obsessed with trying to get in shape, look 20 years younger, and extend their life for another 20 years by eating granola and drinking V8?  Not that I am knocking any of that, but as I watch what little TV that I do, I find it amazing that so many of the commercials are designed around one of three themes:  one is trying to make you look better than you are now, another is trying to extend your life for some period of years, and the third is satisfying you in this life now.  Exercise tones your body with no real increase in body strength, but at least you look really good!  Healthy food is not just healthy, but extends your life.  People are in debt up to their ears because they have to have all that life has to offer now.  After all, don’t you deserve it?

Why do people act like this?  It’s because people don’t honestly believe that there is more to life than meets the eye.  If there is no afterlife, and this life is all we have, then we might as well make the best of it now.  Why does it matter if we are in debt up to our ears, and we die with that much debt.  We have enjoyed our life; let someone else worry about it. After all, we are here on this earth to have our best life now, because, quite frankly, isn’t that all there is?  This is what evolution tells us.  We came from protoplasm that was struck by lightening in a primordial pond somewhere, and to that pond we will return.  What we have now is all we have, so we had better enjoy it now.  Even Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:32, speaking of the resurrection specifically, that, If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Paul clearly understood that if there is no life after death, that if there is no resurrection, then there is no point except to enjoy our life now. 

And Christians are just as guilty of this attitude and worldview as any other person, even though we as Christians should know better.  Those of us that know Christ, have been given a new nature and a new life, should know that this life is but a glimmer of the life to come.  But if you look around, many so-called Christians encourage us to have our best life now.  And I not just knocking one person with a book by that name.  We are all guilty of this attitude.  I surely am! 

However, God has not given us this life as an experience in self-gratification.  God has not given us this life to have more shapely bodies, more exhilarating sex, more money in our bank accounts…better lives now.  He has given it to us, as Christians especially, to be the spokesperson for Jesus Christ.  We all know this section of Scripture: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18 – 20).  Jesus specifically gave us all a mission.  Yes, we may enjoy life, but that is not our primary focus. 

Additionally, look at John 17, ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. Notice Jesus didn’t ask the Father to remove us from the world after we were saved, but to keep us from the evil one.  Why?  That is verse 18.  Jesus was sent into this world by the Father, and just as the Father sent Him, so He sends us.  We are sanctified (set apart, made holy) in truth, by the Word of God.  Why? So we can then just enjoy life to its fullest and have a great time indulging ourselves?  Yes, we are to enjoy life, for life has been given to us by God.  Yet our purpose in life is not to see how much stuff we can get, or how good we can look, or how good a network we can build up.  Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended into heaven, ⁸ “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”(Acts 1:8)  This is our purpose.

First Commandment: What is a god?

 My daughter and I are going through the 10 Commandments one by one. I realized that if we get the first commandment right, then all others will fall into place.  ¹ And God spoke all these words: ² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ³ “You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1-3 NIV)  Now, as I was studying this lesson and preparing to discuss this with her, I thought to myself, what is a god?  Reading the First Commandment, it appears to me that the definition of “god” is key to understanding this whole statement written by the finger of God.  What is a god?  A god is something we worship.  It is something we love; it is something we trust with our very lives.  As I was researching this, I came across this definition by Martin Luther in his exposition of the Ten Commandments in his Shorter Catechism.What does it mean to have a god? or, what is God? Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart….That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god. 

Wow!  The significance of this definition hit me really hard between the eyes.  If a god is something we set our heart upon and trust, then that can encompass a lot more than a statue or a figurine.  Think about it.  I know people who literally worship their jobs.  Their whole meaning and existence is wrapped up in their jobs.  They put their trust in their jobs.  The question is, What happens if they lose their job? 

I know people who put their trust in their bank account.  They are incredibly rich, worth millions of dollars, and never give a thought to anything outside their bank account.  Their sole existence is to make more money.  They will use people, companies, and even bend and break the rules to get what they want.  What happens if the stock market goes south? 

I know people who literally worship, find their entire meaning and life, in another person.  I knew one young woman who was contemplating suicide because her boyfriend broke up with her.  She had wanted to go out with this boy for a long time, and when it finally happened, it became life to her.  But people will always let us down.  What happens when we worship and put our sole trust in another person, so much so that the other person becomes what we live for, and that person leaves us or lets us down?

We create gods for ourselves.  We trust in something else for our happiness, our security, and our future.  When the First Commandment is put in this perspective, it hits home.  Idolatry becomes something meaningful rather than our allegiance to a stone object or a doll with a big belly that we rub to get stuff.  I think when we couch idolatry in these terms, it becomes more clear to those who don’t know God, and who don’t really understand what we mean when we say we will not have any other gods before God.  It also becomes clear to those who love God, are called to be His children, and who strive daily in the power of the Holy Spirit to live a life pleasing to Him. 

Ask yourself…what do I value?  Do I value this more than God?  Do I trust it to make me happy? Or provide for my security?  If so, it may be a god.

God is in control

I remember at some point singing one of these 7-11 modern choruses (7 words, 11 times!) about God is in control.  We all sing that, and perhaps we even say that in our daily walk with Christ.  But do we really believe it?  I have had a good dose of God’s sovereignty lately as I am struggling with some major things in my life, and it has made me stop and think about how honest I live in the light of God’s sovereignty.  There is no way we can live outside of God’s active providence, but we can live our lives as practical deists in that we live out our lives with no respect to God’s active sovereignty.  We trust in ourselves instead of the Almighty God.  We fool ourselves into thinking we are making our own plans, doing our own thing, all the while we are governed by an all-wise, all-powerful, and sovereign King.  I am reminded of the fact that God may be the Creator of the Universe, but He also cares and is intimately involved in every detail of what goes on here on Earth.  Jesus in Matthew 10 states, ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. While Jesus is saying this in the context of the expectation of persecution, God’s sovereignty is written all over this, especially verse 29.  God is intimately involved with every detail that happens or doesn’t happen to anything and anybody. 

There are many other verses that have come to mind about the sovereignty of God.  Psalm 115:3 states Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.  After all of the wrangling, Job 38 – 42 is a necessary read for those of us who somehow try and live our lives apart from the sovereignty of God.  This one section alone brought tears to eyes, repentance to my heart, and submission on my knees.  Another section that the Lord brought to mind is Lamentations 3, ³⁷ Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? ³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Anyone who doubts for a moment the complete all-encompassing reign of God must seriously wrestle with these texts, as well as many others. 

While the sovereignty of God is clearly a fact, it is also a huge comfort.  After all, shouldn’t we, shouldn’t I, rest assured in the fact that nothing on this earth happens outside of the providence of God?  How can I claim one minute that a calamity against an enemy of mine is God-ordained, and a calamity against a friend or mine is caused by Satan?  Evangelicals do this every day!  Honestly, how can I reconcile those ideas with the Scriptures?  I can’t, and that is a good thing.  What the Bible teaches is that there is nothing that happens outside of the control of God.  Satan doesn’t hatch some plan in the back room somewhere and slip one past God.  This just doesn’t happen!  This is a huge comfort, because just as God will not let one sparrow fall from the sky apart from Him, so too, doesn’t He care for His children more than the sparrows?  How humbling is that?  How comforting is that? 

With all of the major stuff going on in my life, I was beginning to lose sight of the sovereignty of God and, as human beings typically do, attempt to take control of my own life and live as if there was no God.  I professed the belief in the sovereignty of God, but acted otherwise.  Through the ministry of the Word, other brothers and sisters in Christ, podcasts from favorite pastors, and books, God has brought me to my knees, where I should be.  As I was listening to a message from Arturo Azurdia, God used this wonderful man to break my spirit.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit I am now putting my focus on the King of Glory instead of my circumstances. 

¹⁰  In God, whose word I praise,

  in the Lord, whose word I praise,

¹¹  in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.

  What can man do to me?

Psalm 56:10-11

Doctrine matters

I recently attended a church service where the pastor was quick and adamant to admit that they did not care about doctrine, and that doctrine only divides.  In fact, one of the leaders there told me that they did not care who attended the church or what they believed, but only cared if they loved Jesus.  There were many supposedly-ex-Oneness/United Pentecostals there who were confused about in the trinity, and believed that tongues were a prerequisite to and requirement for salvation.  One supposedly ex-UPC person was even baptized by the pastor in Jesus’ name only, as opposed to the evangelical orthodox Trinitarian baptismal creed, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because the pastor didn’t want to offend the person or their still-UPC family.  This church is part of the Assemblies of God, which is supposedly an evangelical Christian denomination. However, this incident made my stomach turn, and felt a heavy weight in my spirit.  How can a pastor say that he did not care about doctrine, that doctrine divides, that loving Jesus was all that mattered?  Doctrine essentially is an embodiment of the teaching of Scripture.  Isn’t doctrine reflective of the rule of faith?  One simple question I have is this: How can you say you love your wife if at the same time you don’t desire or really care to know anything about her at all?

Original Sin: Forgotten, neglected, unpopular… yet necessary

Sin.  How many times have you heard that word in church lately?  Probably not a lot.  Sin seems to be taboo, and not in the way you think!  We don’t talk about sin much in our everyday conversations.  We don’t even talk about or teach much on sin in the church setting.  Why not?  There are a number of reasons.  First, the idea of sin, especially original sin, is quite frankly in most modern minds a bit outdated.  Its theological relative, depravity, is also considered outdated, especially in America.  We live in a prosperous country, where even the poorest American is better off than a vast majority of the world.  We also have been fed since birth a diet of self-esteem and positive thinking, so much so that we all believe that we can make the world a better place if we can just change our attitudes and actions.  Every Disney movie, Saturday morning “tween” show, and even most sitcoms show that life is good, and that we can be whoever we want to be. 

Follow me, part 2 – BE – KNOW – DO

Continuing on this theme of following Christ, I would like to explore some aspects of this.  What does it mean to follow Christ?  The term “Christian” has so many meanings in today’s language that people can say they are a Christian because their families were Christians, because they were born in the United States, because they believe God is real, because they are spiritual, or perhaps because they actually do follow Christ.  Once the Holy Spirit has drawn us, and we have been set free from the bondage of sin and have become a child of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ, what then?  We owe our very lives to Christ, but how dos that work out in real life? 

We are called human beings, not human doings, for a reason.  Society teaches us that we are what we eat, we are what we wear, and we are what we do.  However, the Bible teaches us that who we are in Christ should be the basis of what we do.  Biblical transformation is inside-out.  Sanctification is a process that begins with our being adopted into the family of God, and continues as we grow to know, love, obey, and abide in the presence of Christ.  I have come to see sanctification as a journey, rather than a cut-and-dry process with clear milestones and mile markers.  And this journey is saturated with the grace of God, because without it, at least for me, this process would be an exercise in frustration!  However, God is patient, faithful, and yes, often forceful in His working within us to shape us and mold us into the image of His Son. 

Follow me!

If I had a dime for every time I heard the phrase, “It’s not about religion, it’s about a relationship,” or “You need to have a relationship with Jesus,” or even “It’s all about a relationship,” I’d be a zillionaire.  Salvation in the modern evangelical church is equated with or defined as having a relationship with Jesus.  Now, maybe it’s me, but I can’t find this anywhere in the Bible, and especially in the gospels.  Furthermore, and let me be honest here, this phrase makes me a little uncomfortable.  Why?  Well, I am a man.  A manly man.  I am a West Point grad, former cavalry officer, combat veteran.  And when I hear that in order to get right with God, I need to have a relationship with another man, well, that just doesn’t sit right with me.  Yes, I am a Christian, but when someone tells me I need to have a relationship with another man, salvation, God, and righteousness, aren’t the first things that come to mind.  The first thing that pops into my head is something I can’t write here!  And men, let’s be honest here.  What is the first thing that comes into your mind when someone tells you that you need to have a relationship with another man?