My "2X4 Repeatedly to the Head" Moment

Have you ever felt that God was trying to tell you something? I am not talking about a vague whisper or a gentle tap on the shoulder. I am talking about every time you read something or every conversation you have tends to lead to the same place. I am talking about verses popping out of the pages of scripture that you have read before but missed this message. I am talking about every day, situations come up into which this nugget of truth that God has laid before you speaks volumes. That is where I am at right now. God has a message for me and unfortunately, it takes a 2X4 repeatedly to my head for me to understand it:

His desire is for each of us to fall in love with him.

We use all sorts of other terms: follow him, choose life, turn to him, become a disciple, ask Jesus into our heart, believe on Jesus, be born again, etc. As an analytical person, I got lost in the mechanics of the gospel and how to lead someone to make a decision. While those are important, they also miss the real goal of why God put us on this earth. God wants to share his love with us and he wants us to love him back.

Most of my Christian life has been focused on knowing God and serving God. A song that I learned when in a singing group illustrates most of my life as a Christian: "I'll obey and serve you. I'll obey to show I love you. I'll obey my life is in your hands. For it's the way to prove my love when feelings go away. If it costs me everything, I'll obey." There are times when we all need to sing this song. My problem was there were few times that I had those "feelings" in the first place. Maybe it was because I grew up in a Christian home and was saved at a young age. I do not remember much of anything before then and since it was when I was young, I am not sure how much change was evident in my life. Thus, the emotions surrounding that event were muted and they have been so since.

Time and time again, God has been opening up my heart to feel God's love for me and relish that relationship rather than just going through the motions of the things that I should be doing. Spiritual disciplines have been the things we do to get closer to God. While that is true, it is more of the dates we take with God to foster our relationship with him.

My Bible reading has me in Leviticus, which may be a surprising place to see God's love and care for his people but it is there. The different offerings are ways that God provides for us to come back to God after we mess up. Even in what is being offered, God shows care in that 1) it needs to be something of value to show the importance of our relationship with God but 2) he allows a graduated scale to be used to determine what should be given based on the situation of the person offering the sacrifice. God is less interested in what we do and more interested in how and why because a relationship is what he wants with us.

God pointed out through a friend that our relationship with our kids and with our spouse is an illustration of our relationship with God. What did I do to fall in love with my wife? Am I doing that with God? What do I want from my relationship with my sons? That is what God wants from us!

How are you helping your love relationship with God to grow today? What are you doing to spend more time with him to just enjoy being with him? God loves you and wants to show it to you.

The Star - Movie Review

This past week, after the turkey was had and the Vikings had won (SKOL!), Wanda and I went to the movie The Star. We felt a little out of place walking into a movie theater for an animated "kids movie" without kids. When we sat down, Wanda was even asked where our kids were. (Tyler was watching Justice League in another theater). We joked and said that I was a children's pastor and that this was "research".

It was interesting that all of the reviews I read before we went (including mine) basically said the same thing about the actual movie:

1. There are some big differences in the chronology used in the movie and what is presented in the Bible.

2. In order to make a compelling movie (particularly to kids) from the stories in the Bible, one needs to "fill-in-the-gaps". The Bible is not a screenplay and so it does not layout everything one needs to make a story come to life on the big screen.

3. The basic story of Mary & Joseph, from the angel appearing through the birth of Jesus, was kept intact. Also, they did a good job of making sure that this baby was God's son and not just another baby.

4. The Gospel was not clear from the movie.

From this point, the difference in the reviews that I read stem from the goal the reviewer had for the movie. If they saw the goal of the movie was to present the Christmas Story from the Bible, they took a negative view of the movie and focused on items 1, 2, and 4 from above. If they saw goal of the movie was to present a child-friendly, child engaging, retelling of the Christmas Story to let the audiences get a new perspective on the Biblical account, they were much more positive towards the movie and focused on item 3 from above.

As one reviewer noted, this story is presented from the eyes of a donkey, how accurate can we expect it to be! For me, the movie was a very enjoyable movie and extremely kids-friendly. The characters were engaging and Mary and Joseph were portrayed as real people going through a difficult situation. I would recommend the movie to everyone I can.

That being said, how should we deal with the problems of the movie? Well, I do not think they are insignificant but I also think that they each can be discussed in light of the Bible. Here are some suggestions to deal with these issues:

1. Afterwards, talk about what was the same and what was different from the Bible account. Why do you think the movie makers made the changes that they did to the real story? Was it necessary to make the "animal story"/movie go or was it part of the real story?

2. See the characters in a new light. Since we all have heard the story many times before, how did the movie show you something different about the real story? How was Mary and Joseph portrayed? What were they feeling as they were traveling? What problems did they have?

3. Pay attention to the response by the animals to seeing the baby. What should our response be to Jesus? How did the camels respond? Donkey? Dogs? 

Finally, please do not be surprised that it is rated PG. According to IMDB, the rating is due to content in the "Violence and Gore" category. Here is what it says (not much at all): 

"Few characters get frightened by a group of wolves but sometimes, characters get a little bit hurt in some scenes." I was not aware that it was PG until after I saw it and I was shocked. There was nothing that I could see that warranted a PG rating.

To be honest, the questions listed above should be how we look at all "Bible" movies. Instead of blasting the movie for where it is wrong, let's use it as a great conversation piece and point people to the real story. This movie is a great way to get kids excited to talk about Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That should be our real goal to see this movie.

Our Hope in Times of Trouble

My reading plan today put chapter 27 & 28 in Job next to Psalm 46. These chapters could almost be written one right after the other because of their similar message. They present a stark contrast between the ways of man and the ways of God. In Job 27, he is pushing back against his friends that are not being real friendly. While they are telling him to humble himself and repent of the sin that he is obviously being punished for, Job still holds to his integrity.

In all of his troubles, Job takes the time and gives us a wonderful section about where his hope rests. He talks about people who have their trust anywhere but in God. They have not hope of being heard when they are in trouble. Whatever they rely upon can be taken away in an instant. The task of holding on to these things is on him and him alone. Thus, he is always fearful of what could ruin what he has amassed.

In chapter 28, he looks for significance in everything he does. He is able to find and use the different minerals in the earth: gold, silver, iron, copper. He even makes stone tools and uses them to build things. People can go into any work but in the end, they do not find what they are looking for.

In verse 12, Job tells of their futility by saying “But where shall wisdom be found?” The next few verses, he tells that wisdom far surpasses any and all jewels in value.  Then in the very last verse, he states that “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” In the end, our significance is found in God alone. From that perspective, we can see the world and gain a true understanding of what is going on.

Psalm 46 continues this idea by praising God as our “refuge and strength, a very help in trouble.” Verses 10 & 11 say “Be still and know that I am God… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” In times of trouble, the godless person has no hope but the God-fearing man has hope.

We have deep troubles in our world today. Can we look to society to save us? Can we look to our government? Can we insulate ourselves and pour into our jobs or our financial position to find security? Job tells us no. All of those things will not last. Why does Job find hope in God? Because he is a rock and a fortress. He will last. Thus, we can build our lives on him instead of these other things that will fail us.

What is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is an inward attitude of humble reverence towards God, in light of his self-revelation, that results in an outward expression of Christlikeness. If we see God correctly, it will change our lives. We will see everything differently and we will act differently. God gives us a new way of understanding the world around us. Will you heed God’s plea today: “Be still and know that I am God”.

What the number 6174 can teach us about Prayer

Just recently, I ran across an article by a Japanese professor about the uniqueness of the number 6174. Being a math major, it piqued my interest and I was not disappointed. A mathematician by the name of D. R. Kaprekar came up with an operation where you would take any 4-digit number where not all the digits are the same, and make the largest number out of the digits and the smallest number of the digits, i.e. arrange the digits from biggest to smallest and from smallest to biggest adding 0’s as necessary. If you subtract the smallest from the biggest, you get another number. That is the Kaprekar Operation (hereby called KO). The amazing thing is that if you then take the final result and do the KO on it and repeat, you will eventually end up with the number 6174. In fact, we can say that it will take you at most 7 times of doing that KO to reach 6174.

For example, let’s pick 5623. The biggest number is 6532 and the smallest is 2356. Subtracting, we get 4176. Repeating we get 7641 and 1467, then 6174. If we continue, we get 7641 and 1467 (look familiar?) and then 6174 again.

Another one, 40. Biggest number is 4000 and smallest is 0004, or 4. Subtract, 3996. Then 9963 and 3699, subtract, 6264. 6642 and 2466, subtract, 4176. Then 6174,

For me, this is the area of Math that I really enjoy. It is called Number Theory. It gets into how you can tell if a number is divisible by 3, 6, 9, 4, or 8? What is a pattern to the decimals when you divide a number by 7? How can you find prime numbers? Etc. So of course, this was so cool to me that I wanted investigate it. Now in math, you can do this a couple of ways. First, you can try it out on a few numbers. So I did and it worked. Then, since we only have 9999 numbers to try (actually there are even less that we need to try but I was in a hurry), I wrote a quick Excel Macro to run the operation and spit out the results. Boom, it worked like a charm. After 72 lines of code, I had a spreadsheet that had all the possible input numbers and the result of using the Kaprekar Operation on them iteratively. By Joe, all of them ended in 6174 in 7 or less iterations. Thus, this article called this number Beautiful in a mathematical sense. Yes, math nerds have a different take on what is beautiful when it comes to numbers.

By the way, these are called the kernel of the operation. If you use 3 digit numbers, the kernel is 495. There is no kernel for 2, 5 or 7 digit numbers and there are multiple kernels for 6, 8, 9, or 10 digit numbers.

But that was not fully satisfying to me as a Mathematician. I wanted to know why. What is going on behind the scene? This is where the article burst my bubble. It said that we can show that it works for all 4-digit numbers where the digits are not all the same; we can show actually that we only need to check 30 numbers to ensure that it works. But the one thing that no one can prove is why this works.

After mentioning a couple of other of these type of beautiful numbers, the author made a comment that seemed interesting to me. He said that we are drawn to these numbers “because they are so beautiful. And because they are so beautiful we feel there must be something more to them when in fact their beauty may just be incidental.”

While the analogy breaks down a bit, I started thinking about prayer. Sometimes, we want to pray and tell God to do what we want. When it works, we are happy. We think we found a formula: we pray, God responds, we are happy. Beautiful, right? Yes, it is beautiful but that does not prove why it works. Prayer works like that only when we happen to want the same thing as God’s will. Incidental! We did not discover some great truth. In a sense, we got lucky. If we want something outside of God’s will and pray for it, we then can get disappointed when God does not answer our prayers the way we want. We cannot manipulate God. We need to rethink our attitude about prayer. As Carey Nieuwhof said in his blog, “prayer is not a button to be pushed nearly as much as it is a relationship to be pursued.”

But prayer is like the KO. Where the KO changes the number, prayer is meant to change the person praying. And just like eventually with the numbers, you will get to the kernel, with prayer, eventually, we get changed into someone looking after God’s will and not our own. Yes, it takes more than 7 times for this change to happen but if we let the Holy Spirit work on us, it will happen.

How can we be sure of that? Unlike with the KO, we do not have a finite number of cases to run to verify that prayer works. In addition, we have no way to mathematically prove that it works either. But, we can look at the Bible and see the pattern of God revealing his will when his people submit to him. I know that I fall into the trap of seeing prayer as a grocery list that we give to God. Instead, we need to see it as a way for us to grow closer to Him. We may ask for our way but God gives us something better: His Will. Just as the KO changes the number each time and eventually gets to the kernel, may we use prayer to help us change to be more conformed to God and His Will for our lives.

It is more than a Bathroom issue.

With the news this week of President Trump revoking the Executive Order signed by President Obama about transgender people and their use of bathrooms and locker rooms in schools, there have been vicious attacks lobbed from both sides in this cultural war. Those for the order are saying that if you are not for it you are against transgender people and you are fine with them being bullied. Those against it are saying that the other side is fine with predators going into bathrooms and locker rooms to prey on the vulnerable. It seems like name calling has replaced arguments these days, particularly on Social Media. I am saddened by this disintegration of the conversation to sound bites without addressing the logical basis hidden on both sides.

So what is the basis for each side’s argument? On the side supporting President Trump’s actions, there is the idea that gender dysphoria (the belief or feeling that your biological gender and the gender you identify with are different, man trapped in a woman’s body or vice versa) is a mental health issue.  This is the main historical stance including the American Psychiatric Association (APA) up until 2013. If gender dysphoria is a mental health issue, then the best way to help them is to help them see reality in a more correct light. We do this with depression and other mental health issues. If someone has depression, we do not leave them to be trapped in their own thinking. We do not tell them that what they are thinking is correct and affirm what their brain is telling reality. In order to get their brain functioning correctly, counseling is needed and sometimes medication is prescribed because of a chemical imbalance. Dr. Paul McHugh is the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital and he disagrees with the APA’s stance on gender dysphoria. He said:

 “gender dysphoria  ... belongs in the family of … anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder. Its treatment should not be directed at the body as with surgery and hormones any more than one treats obesity-fearing anorexic patients with liposuction. The treatment should strive to correct the false, problematic nature of the assumption and to resolve the psychosocial conflicts provoking it.”  (“Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist: It Is Starkly, Nakedly False That Sex Change Is Possible”, http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/paul-mchugh/johns-hopkins-psychiatrist-it-starkly-nakedly-false-sex-change-possible by Paul McHugh published 6/17/2015)

In other words, the treatment is to fix their wrong thinking rather than affirm it. Thus, the executive order is not addressing the issue but hiding it and telling them they are fine. It is not the best way to help these individuals.

On the other side of the issue are the people supporting the work that President Obama did in enacting this order. They are following the changes that the APA made in 2013, when the DSM-5 focused on if the person feels distressed or not.  The APA came out and changed how they look at Gender Identity Disorder renaming it Gender Dysphoria. With the name change, the focus was changes on how it should be treated. If the person does not feel distressed with “their cross-gender identification” then is it not a problem (thus it is not a “disorder”). For example, a person with depression is almost by definition in distress as a result of their depression. Thus, it is a problem. The APA now sees Gender Dysphoria as a different type of issue from the other mental health issues. Not only that but they go on to interpret much of the distress “arises as a result of a culture that stigmatizes people who do not conform to gender norms.” In other words, it is not a disorder with the person but it is a problem with society. Thus, the best way to help them is to change society. (“Gender Dysphoria: DSM-5 Reflects Shift In Perspective On Gender Identity”,  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/04/gender-dysphoria-dsm-5_n_3385287.html article by Wynne Parry published 6/4/2013 on Huffington Post)

Now that we have presented the basis for most of the arguments on both sides, there are a few items that should be pointed out.

1. You can hold to either side of this argument and care deeply for the people with gender dysphoria. The viciousness needs to stop if we are to remain a civil society. Regardless of which side one falls, care for the person is paramount. From a Christian’s perspective, they are going through this because of living in a fallen world but not because of any moral failure they have done. (Mark Yarhouse, June 8, 2015 http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/july-august/understanding-transgender-gender-dysphoria.html)

2. There is not consensus on the cause or treatment of this issue. Yes, the APA is has its followers but there are others that disagree. As quoted, Paul McHugh and Mark Yarhouse are two of the many others that disagree with the APA’s stance.

3. No matter the treatment, one needs to weigh the benefits verses the costs. As an example, the costs of the bathroom directive do include a loophole for people (predators) to use the “other” bathroom without society having the ability to stop them. Is that a large risk? Some say yes and some say no. Also, we need to figure out the benefits of it as well. Does this help the people suffering? Again, it goes back to what you believe the problem truly is.

Finally, as a Christian, our job is not to get the other side to see our perspective but to point people to God. Too many of the interactions I see that Christians have little to do with preserving our witness but siding with one political perspective or the other. The truth of the matter is that God does not make mistakes and he loves everyone. He loves and cares for those on both sides and he loves and cares for those suffering from gender dysphoria. No matter what, the Gospel meets everyone at the same place: we are sinners in need of a Savior. When we finish our conversations with others, do the people you are interacting with know this? The Gospel is more important than your stance on gender dysphoria or the bathroom directive.

Letter to America

Dear America,

I write this letter to us early in the morning of January 20, 2017. This day will be an important day in history. Today, if all goes as planned, Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States. Unfortunately this fact carries along a lot of baggage and some disturbing narratives that should be addressed.

First, Donald Trump did not divide America. We were divided before he jumped into the race. He may have used the divide but most politicians do, including our outgoing President.

First-a, disagreement does not equal hate. I can disagree with your stand and still call you friend. We need more of that.

Second, like it or not, Donald Trump will be our next President. While I did not vote for him, enough people did that he won the election. Whoever else you voted for, they lost. Deal with it. As Rep. John Lewis said, “I've always said if you can't respect the man, respect the position.”

Third, everyone has the right to protest in America. That is what makes out country great. On the other hand, if you break the law when you protest, there are consequences for your actions. Just because you have the right to protest does not give you the right, if you are not being heard, to escalate it to violence and/or crime without paying the price. This goes for individuals, movements, and city and state governments.

Fourth, character matters. If we are appalled by what we see in Washington, we need to make the change in us and in those around us first.

Fifth, as a Christian, I am first called to be a man of God. Then, I choose to stay living in America. The order and the difference between the two are important.

Sixth, God calls us to love our neighbors. Part of love is rebuking and correcting when people stray from what it right. On the other hand, that is most effectively done in the context of a relationship.

Seventh, God wants us to be so full of Him that His fruit pours out of us. Then, people will want to know about what makes us different. We shouldn’t beat them over the head with it.

While each one of these items could be a piece by themselves, they are important to consider together. John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” As America, I feel we have lost that. In fear of promoting one faith over another, we have removed religion from politics. And without that standard to measure against, we have lost our moral compass. Everything has become relative and everyone is starting to do what is right in our own eyes. That did not work out well for Israel and it will not work out well for America.

I pray that we will turn to God for answers and our joy and not rely on the administration in power.

Response to the Responses to Orlando

Unfortunately, we live in a time where there is evil in the world. Too many times, we turn on the news and hear of another tragedy that happened. When they are in other parts of the world, we get numb to them. We pass off violence in Africa because they are not as far along as a society as we are. We ignore violence in the Middle East because they have a long history of killing each other. Too often, though, the news has not been coming from overseas. It is coming from our own backyards. Does that make the violence worse? No, but sad to say we pay attention to it more. We feel our way of life is being attacked.

In the wake of the horrible attacks like Sandy Hook or Orlando or of the many others we hear about, we as Americans feel we need to do something. We line up on our different sides: “BAN ALL GUNS” vs. “EVERYONE SHOULD BE PACKING” (Please note that both of these sides were represented with hyperbole on purpose. I have not heard anyone say either one of these statements). If we have more guns on the street, we will have more accidents and more incidents of people being shot over misunderstandings. If we have fewer guns on the street, we will have more opportunity for crime and larger shooting sprees by criminals with guns. We had crime and murder before guns were invented.

If we look at both sides, they are both trying to reduce the number of incidents and the number of victims. Neither one is getting to the root of the problem. The real problem is that we have people who get to the place where they feel hate and killing people is the only way to deal with it. Jesus tells us to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44. As one of my relatives put on Facebook from the band “Gungor” “We don’t have to agree on a single thing in order to be kind to one another.”

“But Brad, they were in a gay bar so they got what they deserved.” Wrong attitude. First of all, we ALL deserve much worse because of our sin against God. They are no more a group of sinners than those that fill our churches on Sunday mornings. If God gave us what we deserved, there would be no one left on earth. Second, they were made in God’s image just like the rest of us. And taking someone’s life is a grievous sin in the Bible because you are marring the image of God. Thus, 50 people were killed and 50+ were injured for no good reason. We should be sad at the situation and we need to mourn and pray for the victims and families. Pray that God will make himself real to those left behind as well as comfort and healing during this time.

“Brad, does it matter that the shooter had ties to ISIS?” Unless we can tie him to a broader conspiracy to have multiple attacks like this, it appears he acted alone. Even if he was trained by ISIS, which no one has said anything like that, the fact that he is Muslim is a side note only. He does not represent all of the Islamic faith just like Westborough Baptist does not represent all Christians. Just because someone shoots at or blows up an abortion clinic does not mean they are acting in the will of the God of the Bible.

On the other hand, like it or not, the facts are that ISIL, ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Taliban (to name a few of the Radical Islamic Terrorist groups) are more active in terrorist attacks in the last few years than at any time in history. Does that mean all Muslims are terrorists? Not at all. Most are not. But to say that these groups are not Islamic is to not be realistic about their origins. Just like Christians can have their own favorite area of the Bible and try to down play or ignore the parts they do not like, Muslims do the same thing.

Bottom line is this: this incident should not bring us to ban all guns or to give everyone a gun. It should not be thought of a punishment for the gay lifestyle. It should not cause us to look at our Muslim neighbor any differently. It should cause us to mourn, grieve, and pray for those that lost their lives. It should make us rethink our lives to make sure we are following Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And finally, it should make us increase our efforts of sharing the Gospel with those who do not know you. Because we never know where evil will strike again. It might even be in your own town. As Queen Esther was told, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 She was able to save her countrymen. 

Who are you supposed to point to Jesus?