I never promised you are rose garden

 This verse stuck out to me today:

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.”

At first reading, this seems like a very good promise to hold onto. That is until you look at the context. This is Job 22:21 and is said by Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends who was trying to give Job godly advice but missed the mark. Eliphaz’s thought was that Job was being punished because of his sin. Thus, the remedy was to turn back to God so that God will life the suffering from Job’s life. One can see a hint of this thinking after the Israelites returned from exile in Ezra and Nehemiah and fully on display in the Pharisees of the New Testament.

This was contradicted by the first two chapters of the book of Job when it is revealed that Job’s suffering came because he was righteous (not perfect but a God-fearer). Continuing to the end of the book, God rebukes Job’s friends for this bad advice and sets them straight. In regards to the Pharisees, Jesus was very explicit with His frustration with them on this topic.

Looking back at these accounts, we may be tempted to scoff at the friends of Job and the Pharisees and their foolishness but fail to see this same thinking in our own lives. How many times do we get mad at God for not handling things the way we want or letting bad things happen to us? How many times do we pray and not get the answers we want and walk away grumbling? Who of us has not said that a good God would not allow this or that to happen?

This reminded me of a song I remember growing up by Lynn Anderson. The chorus is:

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you are rose garden.

Along with the sunshine

There’s got to be a little rain sometime.

While this is a song about human relationships, this same idea holds try about our relationship with God. One of the brothers in my small group said today, as he often quotes John 16:33:  

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Let’s be clear: God did promise us a life without pain, tears and sadness. However, that is in the new Heavens and the new Earth, not this one. That does not mean we are without hope for this life. He has provided the Holy Spirit to be with us in the midst of the storm that life is throwing our way.

Reading John 6, one sees that Jesus addressed this when his followers were seeking another miracle as they did with the feeding of the crowd. They were so enamored about the gifts that they received, they did not pay attention to the person giving the gifts. So, when the gifts stopped, they rejected the giver. This is true of us many times as well.

When things do not go the way we expect or want, we start grumbling and complaining. We question God and we throw a pity party for ourselves because of all the bad that God has given us. I say this from experience and I know others close to me that have experienced it more than I have. I am not saying that acknowledging the hardship we face is wrong. Nor is feeling exhausted in having to deal with it, especially if it have been a long battle. I am encouraging us to remember the good gifts that God has given us which should point us to the God who is good no matter what we are going through.

In these rough times, often, there are two responses. One is to point to the idea from Job’s friend and argue that God is not holding up His end of the bargain. We could complain and may even leave God behind. The other option is to recognize the idea in the song and John’s verse that we will have struggles but God is with us. Acknowledging our weakness and need of his strength is necessary and God understands when we are honest with Him about why we are struggling. David does this often in the Psalms but most of the time, he returns to praise God and look to Him for shelter and refuge.

May God be our fortress, which provides strength and comfort, in the midst of the circumstances we face in this life while we wait the glorious promised hope of a beautiful life to come for those who believe (John 6:47).

Comments on He Gets Us ads

 

There are two main objections I have seen to the He Gets Us ads that aired during the Super Bowl from the conservative side.

1. They tell a distorted picture of who Jesus is. Often, the complaint is that the ads leave out important parts of Jesus message because nobody gets the full gospel.

2. There is a lot better way to spend those millions of dollars to spread the Gospel.

These are both valid concerns and critiques of this campaign. That being said, from what I have researched, they are trying to reach a different audience than what most of us are used to. They see a vast number of people that are “post-Christian”. This means they have seen what the Christian faith has brought onto society and are having a hard time believing that it is good. Fairly or not, they have plenty of choose from. They can point to the scandals, abuse, power struggles, politics, hate, etc and they see that the people in the church are just as messed up and they are. So, why bother with the church at all. On their website, it asks two questions: “How did the story of Jesus, the worlds greatest love story, get twisted into a tool to judge, harm, and divide?  How do we remind people the story of Jesus belongs to everyone?”

In light of those two questions, the goal of the ads is not to tell the Gospel per se because many will tune it out. The goal is to show that Jesus values all people. He does not value you because of what you stand for or against. He does not value you because of what you can do for the church. HE VALUES YOU BECAUSE HE MADE YOU!!!

With that in mind, the goal of the first critique is not the initial goal of this ad campaign. Yes, eventually, the goal is to lead them to Christ but there is lots of work to be done before some people are ready for that. So, this is a step to give a different perspective of Jesus than they are seeing through the mainstream or social media.

As far as better ways to spend the money, if and when we are entrusted with how to spend that kind of money or if we are asked by a friend for advice on spending the money, then we can tell and show how we would spend it. I am sure there are about as many ways to spend money as there are people being asked. The reason I bring this up is that complaining on how someone spends their money yields little fruit. The fact is that it is their money and these ads are shown during the Super Bowl and other times during the year no matter how loud we complain about them. Is there another way to view them?

Let’s look at this from someone who those ads are reaching. If you are complaining about the ads and how they are awful because of this or that, would someone who has a bad impression of Christians to begin with consider talking with you about anything in the ad that resonated with them or would they see that you are reaffirming all of the negative stereotypes they have about Christians in the first place?

For me, like them or not and agree with them or have convictions against them, they are “conversation starters” that we can use to engage with people about who Christ is. However, our reaction to them can either open doors to communication or they can close them real quick. Christians need to be ready to use them to show that everyone has value and Jesus welcomes everyone. Unfortunately, the church has had a long history of being very judgmental, harmful and divisive, which is the reason for this ad campaign. Our reaction can either reinforce those impressions or help to tear them down and show them a different view of the love of Jesus then they see elsewhere. Which of those would you rather see?

Is God narcissistic? Does God need us?

 

Acts 17:24-25 tells us that God does not need us. He is self-sufficient. He is not needy and waiting for us to praise him to help his self-esteem. He is fine.

If this is true, why is God so adamant with the commands that he gives us in the fact we are to worship and in the manner he wants us to worship him?

What if God made us to be in proper relationship with him? What if instead of God needing us, we were made and designed to need him and God is directing us to love, worship and honor him in the right manner so that we can live our lives the way God intended?

What about God being jealous? The Bible says that our God is a jealous God (Ex 34:14;20:5), and since God cannot sin, this is not a wrong emotion. I just listened to a podcast of Think Biblically where they talked to Erik Thoennes about Godly Jealousy. That conversation was very helpful in forming some of these thoughts on jealousy.

There is a difference between being jealous “for someone” and being jealous “of someone else”. Godly jealousy is the former where God is jealous for us in that he wants that relationship with us to such an extent that He pursues us and show us his love for us. This is the pure form of jealousy that is referred to in the Bible. However, in our human nature, we often distort things to serve our own purposes and the same is true about jealousy. Often, we are jealous “of someone else”. This is when one is jealous of someone else that their significant other is paying more attention to then them. Often this is because we do not think we are good enough in and of ourselves for the attention/love of our significant other. So, we deflect our insecurities onto someone else and become bitter at them. While we cannot remove the fact that we have needs and in a relationship, those needs include a closeness and bond with our significant other, we also can see that a relationship would be in danger if something got in the way of that closeness and the jealousy “for” our significant other can be a good thing. Jealousy in this sense is the desire to return the relationship between the two to that closeness.

That is the way Godly jealousy shows itself. He is not mad at what pulls us away from him but he does see what is getting in the way of our relationship with him. And if the relationship with God was the reason humans were created, that roadblock is hindering us. In his love for us, he wants that to be removed so that we can return to Him, not for himself but for us. That is how we can flourish.

God’s commands for our praise and love is not because God is narcissistic and needy. It is because he knows what is best for us because he made us with the need to have a relationship with him. And a proper relationship with God has us honor, praise, and love him in this way.

I am also reading Dalla Willard’s book, The Spirit of the Disciplines where he lays out the biblical foundation for the spiritual disciplines and their practice in our lives. Early in the book, he explains that God made us unique and that what he has commanded us is for our benefit to fulfil the calling he gave to us, as humans in general and as individuals. Looking at the spiritual disciplines in this way helps us see that they are not ways God gets his needs met but they are the tools that God has provided for us to grow in our relationship with him and “live worthy of the calling” (Eph 4:1). God made us to have that desire and then provided the ways for that desire to be met (Psalm 37:4).

Enemies Within The Church: A Movie Review

 

A pastor from Sioux City, IA has released a new movie called Enemies Within the Church. When I lived in Sioux City, I knew of the church but do not remember ever meeting the pastor. If we ever did meet and if the movie is any indication, we would agree on some things like the true definition of the Gospel and we would disagree on some things like their claim that Marxist ideology is taking over the church, which is the main premise of the movie. 

Cary Gordon is the pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach Church and is a third generation preacher. In the movie, he describes his family’s ministries and it is clear he has a passion for the Gospel of Christ. At the end of the movie, they include an extended clip of Gordon preaching on how pastors need to preach the Gospel and how Christians need to live by the teachings of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. He rightly criticizes Pastor Andy Stanley for his comment that we should be “unhitched” from the Old Testament. The OT is where God gives humans his law and as Paul points out, the law is what makes us realize how sinful we are and how we cannot do anything about our sin problems on our own. This then points us to the Savior Jesus Christ and the work he did on the cross to pay for our sins. This is the Gospel and it includes both the OT and the NT. I applaud his passion and see that this movie is based on this message.

There are, though, a number of places where I struggle with the ultimate goal that this movie has and feel it is presenting a myoptic view of how the Gospel is applied to different cultural issues. As an example, the movie shows a clip of Pastor David Platt saying that he does not want to preach parts of the Bible that he, as a white pastor, prefers and neglect the parts that the black community prefers. They present this as a negative preaching of the Bible and point to it as he is bowing down to the “leftist” agenda. This could not be further from the truth. Platt’s comment is admitting that there are passages that people read differently and we should preach the whole Bible and not just the portions we like. This is one of the ideas behind the push to go through whole books of the Bible and not just preach topical sermons. There are hard passages and they need to be taught to our congregations.

The movie makes a lot of claims about what different leaders and pastors are doing and they all boil down to a Marxist agenda is taking over the church and thus, water-down the message of Christianity to the point where it is ineffective. What America needs is the Church to get back to preaching the Law of God. This will show people how lost they are, have them turn back to God, then they will follow the rules of God, and we can then get back to our conservative Christian principles, which is the basis of America’s prosperity and status in the world. Anything that does not align with their view of what should be is deemed as part of this Marxist shift in the church and needs to be called out and rejected.

While I understand the push and love the call to get back to following God with our whole heart, the makers of the movie fail to see that much of what they are “calling out” is actually people trying to live out the Gospel with their whole heart, just in different ways than Gordon, et.al. Thinking hard about racial reconciliation and religious freedom do not come from Marxist ideals and are not “woke”, as they use the term pejoratively in the movie, but by looking at the Gospel and seeing that God made each person in His image. This gives them value and should be treated as such. Christians showing people they have value helps them see that God gave them value and has a purpose for their life. In order for that plan to be realized, they need to be reconciled to God because of their sin, as the Gospel says.

There are many examples but this one portion stuck out as a microcosm of the movie and illustrates the struggles I have with it. After spending the majority of the movie pointing out what they feel is a leftist shift in the church and calling out many different organizations and leaders for pushing this evil agenda, they stop and ask why would anyone teach this when it is so obviously against the Bible message. Michael O’Fallon is the founder and CEO of Sovereign Alliance and gives the answer to this question. He says that the reason that people are spreading this message is because these leaders are in search of power.

This answer comes across as lazy and arrogant. It is lazy because if one spends anytime reading Russell Moore, Tim Keller, and David Platt, their thinking about the Gospel is deep, rich, and fundamentally Biblical.  To assign this motivation to them is not being honest to their writing and their ministries. They may apply the Gospel differently than the makers of the film, but to say they are anti-Gospel because of how they apply the Gospel to current events is meant to be a “gottcha” argument because to the makers of the film, there is only one correct understanding and application of the Gospel.

This leads to my second point of the answer being arrogant.  Instead of trying to understand where these leaders are coming from and their definition of the Gospel, which is very similar to Gordon’s, they assume that anyone that does not agree with them is unbiblical and wrong. They gloss over any idea or stance that they disagree with as harmful because they cannot understand that they themselves may have an incorrect view of that issue and their approach may not be Christ-like.

For example. in the movie, it is presented that Russell Moore and the ERLC (Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention) worked to overturn zoning laws so that Muslims could build a mosque and used as evidence that Moore is working against the Gospel by supporting this false and dangerous religion. What they failed to present is that Moore was acting in complete agreement with the belief in the Baptist Faith and Message (the Southern Baptist Statement of Faith) on Religious Liberty in fighting against unfair zoning laws that discriminated against any religion. This statement is deeply rooted in how the country was founded and is based on the power of the Gospel that is only present in Christianity. Thus, if there is a level playing field with regards to religion, Christianity has the power of God and will ultimately win. So, the government should not be “stacking the deck” in the favor of one religion over another. Besides, like political power, this only works for the party in control. As soon as the other side takes over, they will be crying foul.

Please remember, the Pilgrims did not come over to America so that they could be Christians. They were able to be Christians in England. They came over to America because they did not want to be told which type of Christian they needed to be. They wanted the government to stop favoring one brand of Christianity over another or one religion over another.

Unfortunately, the makers of Enemies Within the Church see their perspective as the only one and everything else as “Marxist” and “leftist”. They throw many accusations up on the screen. Some are valid and some are not. Some are supported well and others are supported inadequately and even use distortions and spin instead of honestly presenting the facts. In the end, this movie is about making Christians into people that support conservative values on social values as indicators of a changed heart. The end goal is not holiness to God through a changed heart but that changed heart as a means to a society that holds conservative views. This is why I think this falls flat. They are accusing others of using the Gospel message as a means to change society when they are doing the same thing only in the opposite direction. The Gospel is not to be used in this manner.

The Gospel should lead us to Christ so that the Holy Spirit can change our lives so we can bring others to Christ, all stop.

Date of Christmas

 

This was started during the Christmas season but took awhile to assemble this.

What is the truth?

During the holiday season, people look forward to celebrating with their family traditions. Whether it is gingerbread houses, singing Christmas carols, or even lutefisk, traditions have a way to bring people into the Christmas spirit like nothing else can. Besides baking, my mother loved watching White Christmas each year and I would watch it with her. With her gone, Wanda and I have kept that tradition as one of the ways we enjoy Christmas because it reminds me of her.

Another tradition that appears this time of year is the argument about the beginnings of Christmas. Many people argue that the celebration of Christmas is really an adoption of pagan celebrations and some go as far as saying that what is really being celebrated is the sun god regardless of what people say they are doing. Many Christians don’t really care and just celebrate the date as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus but there are some Christians who argue that the date of Christmas was determined independent of any pagan holidays but was based on the date of the death of Jesus.

When these arguments are investigated, it is clear why the issue is so cloudy. It is hard to determine what is fact and what is conjecture. Different arguments give conflicting evidence about what happened when. While I have done some research, it is not extensive nor complete. That being said, I wanted to try to separate facts and opinions. This is a work in progress and will be updated as new research is done and new arguments and evidence are found.

At this point, it is clear that there is nothing that has been proven. There is circumstantial evidence that Christians used an existing pagan holiday to celebrate Christ’s birth. On the other hand, the contrasting theory that the Christians used the idea that Jesus was conceived on the same date on which he died as was a belief for prophets has little mention let alone proof in the historical record. It is simply not true that either of these ideas has been proven.

Since we are not dealing with a Deductive proof, as in a mathematics/Geometry proof where the conclusion is a direct result from the premises provided, we are in the realm of Inductive proof, which is more of a weighing of the evidence at hand. Because of the limited evidence, it is hard to be definitive either way. While opinions can and are formed, they should be called as such and not proof.

Christmas Facts:

The first century Christians were more concerned with the date of Jesus’ death than they were his birth. While Christians celebrate communion to remember what He did, Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians links the Passover celebration and the death of Jesus directly by telling his readers to “keep the Festival” because Jesus was our Passover Lamb that was sacrificed (1 Cor 5:7-8). The Epistle to the Apostles, written in the middle of the second century, has a similar plea to celebrate the Passover because of Jesus death.

Saturnalia was a celebration of Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and time. By 133-31 B.C., it was a weeklong celebration starting on Dec 17^th. Using the Julian calendar, the festival ended on Dec 24^th and the Winter Solstice was on Dec 25^th.

Around the year 200, early Church father Clement tried to put dates on the birth and death of Jesus. For His birth, Clement said it was in the 28^th year of Augustus on the 25^th of Pachon (Egyptian month) which translates to May 20^th. His death was dated in the 16^th year of Tiberius on the 25^th of either Phamenoth (March 21) or Pharmuthi (April 15).

About that time, another early Church father, Tertullian, applied to Jesus the Jewish tradition that prophets would die on the same day that they were conceived. This is a strange idea but talks to the idea of completeness of their message.

In 274 CE, the Roman emperor, Aurelian, officially made Sol Invictus the religion of the Roman empire. To celebrate the sun god, they held chariot races every 4 years about October 19-22. This is a separate celebration from the one they held in December.

The fact that Aurelian was able to make this declaration is evidence that this is not a new cult. In fact, the earliest mention of them is 158 and Aurelian himself was born into a community of this religion. The image associated with Sol Invictus was included in the Roman coins until 387.

By the 4^th century, the Christian church was divided between two dates for the birth of Christ. The Church in the east was using January 6^th while the Church in the west was using December 25^th.

In the Middle of the 4^th Century (336?), a Roman Almanac has a list of various Christian bishops and myrters. The first entry is for Dec 25^th: Natus Christus in Betleem Judeae”, or Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.

Historian of paganism Ronald Hutton quotes a Christian writer “the Scriptor Syrus” who in the 4^th century said that both pagans and Christians celebrated on December 25^th. “Accordingly, when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians has a leaning to this festival, they took council and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day.”

The no evidence that Sol Invictus was on Dec 25 before 354/362.

Church father Ambrose wrote in the 4^th century that Jesus was better than the other gods using imagery of the sun.

In 400, Augustine wrote against the Donatists and how they were keeping the celebration of December 25^th but not January 6^th. The Donatists started in 312.

The first mention that the date of Christmas was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts is found on a margin note by Syriac commentatot Dionysius in the 12^th century. His note was that the date was moved from Jan 6 to Dec 25^th to correlate with Sol Invictus.

In 1687, The Reverand Increase Mather of Boston said that Christmas was set at December 25^th to correlate with Saturnalia.

 

 

 

While the Biblical accounts do not give many clues about the timing of the birth of Christ, the Bible is quite clear that Jesus was crucified around the Feast of Passover. Using this as the starting point, they tried to figure out when Jesus was born. Because the calendars that those in the east and those the west used were different, this starting point was different. The east said he died on April 6^th and the west said March 25^th. However, both used the idea that Jesus died on the same day he was conceived and so added 9 months to arrive at January 6^th in the east and December 25^th in the west.

 

 

Calculating Christmas by William Tighe. http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v

How December 25 became Christmas by Andres McGowan. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/how-december-25-became-christmas/

You Call it Christmas, We Call it Yule… Pagans, Celebrate! By Peg Aloi https://www.patheos.com/blogs/themediawitches/2015/12/you-call-it-christmas-we-call-it-yule/

Saturnalia by History.com editors https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnalia

Why is Christmas Celebrated on December 25? By Sarah Pruitt https://www.history.com/news/why-is-christmas-celebrated-on-december-25

 

 

 

Difficult topic in this election cycle

 

Abortion is a topic that brings out strong emotions with many people. It is a significant factor that many Christians consider when going to the polls. With the election 2 weeks away, it is helpful to understand the issues and since this is such a major issue, it should be discussed.

The Holy Post Podcast (Phil Visher from Veggie Tales and Skye Jethani) posted an informational video about abortion (see link below). Jethani correctly describes the history of abortion in the US, the downward trend in abortions in the US regardless of the party of the sitting president, and what the results would be if the unlikely, Roe vs Wade being overturned, would occur (spoiler alert: abortion would not be illegal in the US but become a state issue). Since most pro-life voters point to using fighting abortion, pro-life judges, and ultimately overturning RvW as their motivation in voting, Visher and Jethani’s video was created to show how that does not help in reducing abortions in America and thus, should not be the primary criteria for voting. In fact, some of the Democratic policies (universal health care and support for the poor) have shown a greater impact in reducing the number of abortions than the president.

As a response to this video, Andrew Walker, a professor that came to SBTS after my time there, wrote an article taking issue with some of the conclusions that were implied through the video (See link below). In pushing back, Walker sees abortion as a moral evil much like slavery is. Substituted the slavery into the logic used in the video, we would not be co willing to say that reducing slavery is acceptable when it is a moral evil. He goes on to say that Christians should fight with all we have to rid America of this morally repugnant practice. Fighting to reduce the number is great but making it illegal should be the ultimate goal.

Both of these posts help further the discussion on this contentious issue and I appreciate their civil discourse. These two perspectives also show the divide in our country’s believers and most fall into one or the other camp. To me, neither side is fully compelling. I agree with Visher and Jethani that using abortion as the only criteria is short-sighted and ignores many other important issues of the day. However, I reject that the sole goal in voting pro-life is to overturn RvW and even so, many would welcome the issue becoming a state by state fight instead of a national one. On the other side, I agree that abortion is a moral evil and should be fought but I find it troublesome to treat it as a “win at all costs” issue. This leads us to compromise on other principles just to possibly win eventually on this one. For example, voting third party is considered wrong because that takes votes away from the main candidate, which may cause a pro-choice candidate to win and that is unacceptable. I reject this approach as well.

So how do we fight abortion without compromising other biblical principles? I join others and take a middle ground approach. It rests on the idea that being pro-life is necessary but not sufficient to earn my vote. Abortion is a moral evil that needs to be made illegal as well as reducing the numbers. So being pro-life is required for me to support a candidate. However, it is not the only issue out there. There are many other issues that need to be discussed including character, racism, immigration, et al. Thus, a candidate must have other qualities for me to support them other than just being pro-life and if the main candidates do not have the qualities I am looking for in a candidate, voting for a third party is a viable solution, one that I have used and will use in the future.

Video by Holy Post

Andrew Walker's Response

Are we Prepared?

The other day, I was reminded of the story when Jesus cast a demon from a child as told in Mark’s Gospel. One of my favorite quotes that I have used as a prayer many times is the child’s father saying, “I believe. Help my unbelief.” That part that stuck in my head this time was Jesus’ answer to why his disciples could not drive it out, “This kind can come out only by prayer” and the fact that Mark does not record Jesus praying. The obvious conclusion is that Jesus had already spent time in prayer and because of that, was ready for what the day had in store.

A friend of mine wrote an article about taking time to “observe” and that we do not do that enough. I am not sure why that article reminded me of this statement from Jesus. Maybe because football has started and to be prepared, players need to watch game film and observe their opponents tendencies.

What struck me hard was that this is not my natural way of living. My whole life, I struggled with creating things on my own. I played sports growing up and I was always better at defense where you would react to what the offence did rather than create a play yourself. Even as a project manager, I was reacting to the task I was assigned. Since the possibilities of what could happen are endless, it is easier and more practical to react than to prepare for multiple situations.

With that in mind, one would think that if praying is all we need to do to prepare for what God will bring our way, that I would jump at the chance. Sadly, I have struggled with my prayer life my entire Christian life. When things are going well, I would forget to pray. When things were going bad, I would feel guilty for only praying when things are bad. Even when I did pray, it seemed like I spent more time with my checklist of prayer requests than on anything else. I saw very few answers to prayer and I had to convince myself of those.

What if we combined these two ideas: observe and pray?

What if our time with God each day was spent with “observing” God in the Bible, “observing” God’s face in praise, and then praying to God with thanksgiving and our requests?

Lord, help me to see you better in the Bible, in the world around me, and in my life so that I can praise you and pray to you more. Prepare me for what you have in store for me.

James: God’s call for Godly Living

Our men’s Bible Study looked at the book of James this week. The most common comment was that it was a “hard book”. Through the discussion, it did not seem that too many people liked it and they will be happy to move on from it. Personally, James has always resonated with me and I have enjoyed it over the years. While it has caused some controversy in the past, I see it as a clarion call for all believers today to be different from the world in our actions.

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

(James 1:19-22)

The book of James in the New Testament is one that stirs up different emotions as one reads it. As a practical book, it talks about the actions that believers take and how important they are to their faith and salvation. One the one hand, it seems to directly contradict the message that is given in Paul’s letters: people are saved through faith not by works (Eph 2:8-9). This causes confusion and even doubt about the message of not only this book but about the Bible in general. On the other hand, it calls followers of Christ to a much higher standard than most American Christians want. It literally says that when someone read the Bible, they are to “do what is says.” It even goes so far as saying that if someone is not showing their faith by what they do, they may not be saved.

The famous Reformer, Martin Luther, struggled with James because of the important that the author puts on works. At the time of Luther, the Church had many practices that over emphasized works of the believer to ensure their salvation. This was troubling for Luther when he taught on the letters of Paul. Luther saw the clear message of the Gospel saturating all of Paul’s writings. Grace comes freely from God and it is through this grace and through their faith that believers receive salvation. Good deeds have no part of the work of salvation. So when Luther read James and it says, “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not be faith alone.”, it is understandable that he would react strongly[1].

The key to understanding both James and Paul is in acknowledging the differences in their audiences. For Paul, he was writing to groups of believers that included both Jews and Gentiles. He also was pushing back on the prevalent thought that even Gentile believers needed to follow the Jewish laws and customs in order to show a changed heart. To combat that idea, Paul was emphasizing the fact that salvation is a work of God only and that humans only receive it by faith and not by anything we do. He would go further and say that since believers are saved through grace and not under the law, there is no requirement to follow the Jewish law. He was pushing against a works-based religion and proved that works according to the law were not needed.

James, on the other hand, was written to believing Jews. They had just come out of this works-based religion and were free of the requirements that had been part of their lives since birth. For them, this newly found freedom through Christ’s sacrifice was attractive. They knew that they were saved apart from the law and so what they did had no effect on their eternal destiny. This freedom, evidently by the words of James, caused them to neglect the parts of the law that showed God’s character and were universal in nature and not tied to the practices of the Jewish religion. Because of this background, James highlights that believers need to live out their faith in their actions. To him, a person that believes the Gospel (sin is bad, Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of the world, believers then respond by following Jesus) will live differently than the rest of the world and will show God’s character in how they treat others. Believers, then have a high expectations for their lives like the Jews did but the reason is different. It is not leading to salvation but it is as a result of salvation.

Looking at our Christian culture today, I see more similarities with the culture James was addressing rather than Paul.  There is always a danger of becoming legalistic that needs to be avoided. However, the world is not puling believers in a legalistic direction as they were with the Judaizers that Paul was confronting. Instead, there is constant temptation to slide into compromise and to not stand out as a Christian. One only needs to look at the string of Christian leaders whose actions show the lack of care in living differently for Christ. That is why being different for Christ is so critical today.

My father lived this out. His life was a testament to striving to apply one’s faith to one’s actions. He was not afraid to stand up for what was right and he suffered the consequences for the stances that he took multiple times. Seeing that example has inspired me to watch what I do. His often quoted this definition to me: “The fear of the Lord is the continual awareness that God is watching and weighing all of our thoughts, words, actions, and attitudes.” Because of his guidance and example, Biblical ethics has become a passion of mine as well and why James speaks to me so much. James is a harsh reality check that reminds us that God is telling believers that our lives are important and what we do does matter. It is almost like James read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians when he said “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”(I Corinthians 10:31) Today’s culture needs believers who are willing and able to show their faith in God through their actions.

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[1] While Luther struggles with James, he never suggests that it should be ignored nor removed from scripture.

Political Viewpoint _ Long Read

As with most people, my social media circles has people from various stages in my life. Because of that, I have people from very different places on the political spectrum. In the past few years, I have disagreed with both people on the left and on the right. Ironically, both sides assumed that I was opposite of them on everything simply because I disagreed with them on an issue or a few issues. During this time, I have posted articles that I mostly agreed with and “stalked” other people’s posts and only commented when I felt they went too far. My default is to react to others rather than be proactive (that is why I was much better at defense in sports than offense). Since I have some time on my hands, I wanted to express my opinion more completely and on my own terms rather than just reacting to others posts. I feel like the chorus from the song “Stuck in the Middle with You”: “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, Here I am stuck in the middle with you.” I guess I am just a jester/fool in the middle, neither a clown nor a joker. I would rather be called a fool and stand by my convictions than be thought wise and compromise.

Problems with the Right:

My position has been and always will be that character matters when it comes to our leaders. That was a lesson that I learned from both my father and my father-in-law: treat others with respect, help others regardless if they “deserve it” or not (because they deserve it as much as or more than we do), and work hard in everything you do. While there are many other character qualities that are important, there is a basic line that needs to be obtained in these basic qualities in order for one to be considered for leadership. In my lifetime, there have been three Presidents that in my eyes have failed this test: Nixon (not that I remember much from then), Clinton, and Trump.

Unfortunately, many of my evangelical friends have tossed out the character issue for a more pragmatic approach to political debate. While many in the ’90s said (and ironically still say it) that character matters, it does not matter enough to make a stand when it would hurt politically.. I have heard that “we are in a war for our nation”, “leadership is a character trait”, “look at all he has done”, “he has endured so many attacks from the other side and still has done so much”, “we are not voting for a pastor but a president”, “We do not like his character either but...”, and others. Every one of those reasons are based upon the same premise: the character of our leader does not matter as much as their ability to accomplish what we want them to. In other words, the “character” test that was applied to Clinton can be ignored when it comes to our political allies.

As a Christian, this saddens me greatly to see so many abandon basic decency for pragmatic “short-term” wins in the political arena. Not only that, but I am hearing more and more that people who stood on their convictions before are setting them aside for political expediency in the upcoming election. This last week, the president of the seminary I attended just came out saying he was going to vote for Trump in November due to the policy stance and behavior of the democrats and he felt that voting a third party is wasting his vote. While I respect him and his stance on many issues, this was vastly disappointing. In 2016, he said “When it comes to Donald Trump, evangelicals are going to have to ask the huge question, ‘Is it worth destroying our moral credibility to support someone who is beneath the baseline level of human decency for anyone who should deserve our vote?’” He went on to say this:

“Can we put up with someone and can we offer them our vote and support when we know that person not only sounds like what he presumes and presents as a playboy, but as a sexual predator? This is so far over the line that I think we have to recognize we wouldn’t want this person as our next door neighbor, much less as the inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And long term I’m afraid people are going to remember evangelicals in this election for supporting the unsupportable and defending the absolutely indefensible.”

It is hard to see anything in President Trump’s actions in the last 4 years that would change one’s perspective on this matter regardless of what his opposition has done. I have not heard that he has addressed these comments in light of his previously recorded statements about the president.

Most of the criticism of the president comes from those on the political left and so they attack his policies. I am a conservative and my perspective is a bit different. As far as what he has done for the religious right, he has done many things that I agree with from a political perspective: His appointments for judges have been consistent with a constructionist legal perspective and supporting pro-life arguments; his undoing of many of the Executive Orders that President Obama used to bypass the legislature and enact some of his agenda; and wanting Congress to change current immigration laws to be more workable are just some examples of positive actions he has done. On the other hand, he is not a conservative and so his expansive budget, his used of tariffs, his method of enforcing immigration laws, and his consistent inability to speak the truth when his ego is involved are just some examples of actions that the Republicans have typically been against in the past but support because their man, Trump, is in charge.

My one question to those that support him is this: Do we need to take all that baggage that he brings to achieve these victories? Absolutely not. Besides, the methods that he uses to achieve these wins is childish, mean, arrogant and insulting. His managing style would never be used as a positive example in any reputable business school and the way he treats those under him swings from flowing hyperbolic flattery to ugly attacks and personal insults. It is no wonder that turnover is so high in his administration. This behavior is not acceptable in the normal business world and it should not be accepted in our political leaders either.

Problems with the Left:

While there are serious problems on the political right, the left has its fair share as well. Because I am a conservative, I will not address the political differences that I have with those on the political left. That list is quite large. Instead, I will highlight a few areas where those on the left have bent over backwards to turn actions other presidents have done into attacks on the current president.

Quite a few years before my dad passed away, he had a conversation with someone talking about Journalism schools. At the time, a dean of a prominent school said that over 90% of all the professors of Journalism schools were democrats. A truth a few years ago has blossomed into the mainstream media (MSM) loosing all credibility because of their bias against the political right and President Trump. The latest example is the way the MSM is treating the (more) credible accusations against Biden compared to the accusations against Judge Kavanaugh. Someone did a comparison of CNN’s coverage of the stories. The day the accusations against Kavanaugh came out, CNN did multiple stories and in three weeks, they had done 700. Compare that to the fact that three weeks after the accusations against Biden came out, CNN had not done a single article and it is clear the statement they are trying to make. The NYT editor even justified their bias reporting and even changing a headline because the Biden campaign asked them to. He said that they want to give all the information so that their readers can make their own decisions except for when they [The New York Times] need to make a judgment. In other words, they will report the news as long as it agrees with their perspective. Then, they cannot be relied to give the basic facts. While the MSM is counted on to ask difficult questions, their antagonism for anything the president does or says taints any questions they ask and articles they produce because of their own bias and agenda.

The Democrats in Congress are also showing themselves unable to keep from distorting facts and spinning quotes intending to inflict political harm on the president. While the presidents actions are childish, they never rose to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and required him to be thrown out of office. The manner the House hearings were held was pathetically partisan and unfair and the rhetoric that has come against the president at times is ludicrous.

Stuck in the Middle:

If anyone has read this far, I am pretty sure I have offended everyone by something I have said. I know that I am in a VERY small minority that does not support President Trump but agrees that he should not have been impeached. I believe that we should enforce immigration laws and work to make them more viable but I also feel that some path can be carved out for those currently here to be treated humanely without destroying their families. I also believe, to paraphrase Lord Acton, Power corrupts, but political power corrupts absolutely. Our political landscape has turned from fighting for what is best for America into fighting to regain/retain political power even to the point of compromising on the basic tenets of the ideology each side claims to represent. I would love to see a third party of Common Sense arise. The current two party system is broken and the parties are drifting farther and farther apart: the Democrats are going more left and the Republicans are going like they are “three sheets to the wind” (my favorite idiom); not knowing what their foundation should be.

Thankfully, my hope is not in the political system. my hope is in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, while I understand we are to fight to bring God’s truths to bear here on earth, I feel it is a poor trade to vote on the basis of achieving your agenda for making a stand and preserving your witness. Political gains are fleeting and temporary. Your Christian witness is more significant and besides, we are commanded by God to pay attention to it.

Autumn Foliage

Fall brings in cooler temperatures, pretty fall colors, Pumpkin Spice everything, and football. We love look at the different trees and the variety of colors that are hidden from us the rest of the year. Deep reds and purples and bright yellows and oranges show up in a dazzling display of God’s creativity. As pretty as they are, they do not last long. For some, it seems that one day all the leaves are changing and then the next day, they are down on the ground.

So what causes the leaves to fall? During the spring and summer, a storm can come through and have gale force winds but most of the leaves stay on the trees. During the fall, a light breeze can make a clear yard littered with colorful souvenirs. What is the difference?

While it has not been confirmed, I suspect that the leaves are not getting what it needs to stay healthy in the Fall. Because of that, the environment is better able to affect the leaf and dislodge it from its place on the branch. Some leaves stay longer than others; some trees hold their leaves longer than other trees. In any case, they drop because they are not secure to the branch anymore because they are not getting fed.

That is a wonderful illustration of the Christian life. We can be healthy and thriving in a church where we are receiving what we need. There might be differences in what each person needs but there are some basics: feeling God’s love, taking God’s Word and applying it to our lives, and the encouragements to and from other believers. These help us stay “green and healthy”.

On the other hand, when we are not getting those things, our spiritual health disintegrates. There can be many reasons for this. We could let our feelings and emotions get the best of us and we are not able to receive those things. We may let the environment around us influence us so we cannot get the benefits from God’s gifts. We may even see the church or our relationship with God in a way that does not focus on getting what God has for us (Abiding with him) and so even in going to church, we are not able to grow. As we lose that nourishment, our connection to God is weakened and like in the fall, it will not take much to send us tumbling down in doubt, despair, or hopelessness. In this state, our environment will have more of a negative impact on us than it did before.

While the pretty colors are nice, it does indicate that the leaf is dying. As a picture of my Christian life, I would rather be seen as a leaf on a Pine tree. Regardless of the weather or time of year, its leaves are still attached and growing. Regardless of what is happening in my life, I want to be attached to the tree that never stops giving me my daily bread. What are you doing to stay attached to the “Tree of Life” and are you able to receive your daily needs from God?

In Christian Ethics Does the "Why" Matter More than the "What"

Today is Halloween. I dislike Halloween. The commercial version that is on TV or the movies is not enjoyable to me. The scary, creepy, and spooky are not my choices for entertainment. I will be glad when tomorrow comes around and that theme of entertainment has passed on again.

Halloween in general was never a big deal at my house growing up. I do remember going out trick or treating once with some neighbors but that was not the norm. Typically, my mom and dad and I would go out for dinner and that would be the one night that dad would go to a movie with us. When we got home and since we did not have any candy, we would turn off the front lights and be in a back room. It was always the “Devils’s holiday” and we did not want to participate. Over the years, my view has changed and I now see that it is a great day to show community and be a presence for God this this dark night.

To my surprise, Dr. Russell Moore, former faculty at SBTS and current head of the ERLC of the SBC (that is enough acronyms), put in his new book the fact that he loves Halloween. The reason I was surprised needs some background information. While I agree with much of what he writes and stands for, there has been one item that I have always thought differently than him. He has written against the practice of cremation and said that it does not point to the hope of Christ’s return. His argument has never convinced me. Without getting into the particular arguments, I would have thought since he was against cremation, he would be against Halloween also.

So it was a surprise when I read his excerpt saying that Halloween was his favorite holiday. I was curious how, when he says that cremation cannot be redeemed, Halloween can be. His explanation was telling and shows what the Christian life is all about. To him, Halloween expresses the true nature of reality. There are invisible forces in the world as told in the Bible and those are "celebrated" once a year openly. There are times when we should be scared because evil is real. However, just like having an adult with you to protect you from the scary stuff outside and then going home and being safe inside your house, we can be safe from evil and the bad invisible forces when we are in the presence of our heavenly Father.

Whether you agree with that argument or not, I found it informative that he considers how his life, including how he treats Halloween, will “preach” the Gospel and point people to the hope we have in Christ. As Christians, we tend to just see actions. We tend to be legalistic about drinking, movies, daily devotions, music, etc. i.e. good Christians would not do this or that. We are more about doing the right things rather than being the right person and being the right person involves bringing all of our actions in line with our faith (1 Cor 10:31). I am not saying that what we do does not matter. It does. There are things that are off limits for Christians. On the other hand, the reason those things are off limits speak to what it means to be a Christian. It shows that being a Christian does and change things.

While there is a danger of justifying wrong actions, using unbiblical ideas, and giving the Sunday School reasons, I believe most Christians are committing the opposite mistake of not even considering why they do what they do. How much have you considered why you do the things you do? How do your everyday activities reflect your relationship with God?

Do we approach God like a cat or a dog?

We just got back from a week-long vacation and our cat, Luna, is showing us that she missed us. When I sat down for my devotions today, she jumped up on my lap and wanted me to pet her. For those of you who do not know, while I love cats, I am allergic. Every time I pet her, I need to go wash my hands before I touch my face or else I will breakout, particularly in my eyes. Since she needed some loving, I indulged her until I had enough and stopped. Surprisingly, she stayed on my lap for 5 minutes after I stopped. During that time, she was looking at the birds and acted like she wanted to go but never did. Finally, she jumped off and is laying down next to the sofa I am on.

If you haven’t experienced it, cats are different from dogs. Cats will come to you when they feel they need something. When they are finished, they walk away, or in the case of our cat, when she does not want you to pet her anymore, she will bite you. She is very lovey when she needs attention or food or water. Once you give that to her, she will ignore you. That is not the same as our dog that we had when I was growing up. Ginger would come up to me at any time and want to play or just me next to me. In general, cats are independent and only come when they can get something from you. Dogs want to just be with us regardless what we are doing. I wonder if they realize that they get something out of just being with us.

Before Luna jumped up, I read Psalm 4. In that Psalm, David says to God, “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.” Later on, he states “… the Lord will hear when I call to him.” David is expressing the truth that God is always with us and we can rely on him for what we need. That is a wonderful truth and as Christians, we need to be reminded of that daily.

What struck me today is that too often, I approach God like a cat and not like a dog. I know that God is always there but when I approach him, I try to get something out of him. Maybe, I need a word of encouragement. Maybe, I need to be rescued from my own sin. I come to him needy. But when I get what I want, I leave. I walk away satisfied and that I can do things by myself again. Like a cat, I walk away to be independent.

Instead, we should approach God like a dog approaches its owner. The dog is just happy to be with their owner and do whatever the owner wants. If the owner wants to play, great. If the owner wants to pet the dog, great. If the owner wants to feed the dog, great. If the owner just wants to sit with the dog, great. The dog just wants to be with its owner and gets something out of it by just being with the owner.

How much to we approach God with that anticipation and excitement of just being with God? How often are we excited to spend time with him? My to do list each day always gets in the way of me just relaxing and enjoying time with God. How do you approach God? How much do you enjoy spending time with him? What can you do to put everything aside to enjoy God today?

Head - What type of knowledge do you want?

Last week, I used the image of building a snowman to help understand discipleship particularly in the family. A well formed snowman has 3 sections. Those sections relate to areas we need to grow as a Christian: Head (Know about God), Heart (Love God), and Feet(Service for God).  Today, I want to talk about what it means to make sure the head of our snowman is well-formed. How do we grow in our knowledge of God?

One of the things we do from time to time as a family is to watch Jeopardy. We like to watch to see how many of the answers we know. We know that we will not be good enough to make it on the show but we want to see what we know. We all have our strong subjects where we might now over half of the answers in that category. Rarely do we know all of them in a column but it does happen. Now, when I do know the answer, quite often, I struggle to explain why that is the right answer or how I know that answer.

We use a term for that: trivia – interesting facts that are not well-known.  Most of the time, they are unknown because they are also trivial – of little worth or importance. Knowing who all the wives of Zeus is not going to impact how I live. Knowing the different countries that Paul visited on his second missionary journey is not really going to help me deal with problems that I have at work. Completing the song line: “Sing us a song, you’re the piano man” does not help when I have an argument with my wife.

While Jeopardy focuses on the trivial, we can have knowledge of more important things and weightier topics. For example, we know the other people in our family in a much deeper way than just the brute facts about them. Our hobbies are another place where we can find this more robust knowledge. Both of my boys are into Marvel movies. When we go to one, they can talk about the backstory about this character and how the movie was different from the comics. I sit there and all I have to say is that I liked the movie. Their knowledge of that topic is significant. They do not just know the facts.

So what is my point? What kind of knowledge should we have of the Bible, God, The Gospel, and Theology in general: trivial or robust? Okay, that was an easy question. Obviously, we should have as robust knowledge of God that we can. Great. Which is easier to teach: trivial or robust knowledge? Unfortunately, trivial knowledge is fact based and is right or wrong. It is easy to teach, correct, reproof, and train basic facts into people as opposed to making them think. I am not saying that we should not teach kids the names of the books of the Bible. I am not saying that we should not encourage Bible Memorization. I am not saying that we should not push our kids to work on their Awana workbooks. What I am say is that those things do not translate to a deeper walk with God. We need to get kids out from thinking just because they know the facts, they know what they need to know. I was that kid. I knew the right answers. I knew God broadly but never knew him deeply.

The key to getting kids to know God deeper is to ask better questions. A webcast from Truth78 said it this way: we need to ask questions that lead to Biblical conclusions that are linked to practical applications in their lives. We need to “blow their minds” with deep questions or push back on their pat answers so that they can see their “trivial” answers just won’t cut it in the real world. We need to make sure that we are teaching for the right kind of knowledge to make it easier to connect with the heart. How is that done? We will talk about it next time.

Discipleship - Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

My folks gave me a wonderful gift by raising me with a strong foundation in the knowledge of God and seeing the world through the lens of the Bible. One of my dad’s popular sayings was “prove it to me in Scripture”. That foundation stuck with me and helped me through times where I questioned my faith. For example, I took a religion course at NDSU from a Lutheran Pastor/Professor. He had some different ideas and openly questioned the validity of the Bible. Because of the foundation that my parents instilled into me, those questions and comments drove me to learn more about God through the Bible rather than drive me away from the Christianity.

In some of my interactions with atheists personally or through their writings, I found that many grew up in the church but lost their faith. What makes some hold to faith and some loose it? I think the answer is found in their foundation. If kids are taught to ask hard questions and lean into the Bible, their foundation will be much stronger than the kids that received the Sunday School answer to their questions. Some do not get any answer to their questions at all. This is why I think Children’s and Family Ministry is so important. We need to build that foundation of faith on the Rock (Matthew 7:24-27) so that when hard times come, their house will stand.

It was not until recently that God gave me a helpful picture of how disciples are “grown”: a snowman. Growing up in Minnesota, I have built a few snowmen in my days. The best snow for it is the wet, sticky stuff. To make a snowman, you gather up some snow into a ball. They you roll the ball on the snow. As you roll it, it gets bigger and bigger. If you are getting the shape of a tire, you need to roll the ball sideways so the ball can stay round. If you have some spots that need to be filled in, you can pack some snow in there. As you are going, you are trying to grow the snowball in all directions at the same time.

This struck me as a great analogy for how we need to help our kids grow as disciples. Larry Fowler[i] (Awana Ministries) and Mark Steiner[ii] (DiscipleLand Ministry) both use a three-pronged model for growing disciples: Know, Love, Serve. For our snowman picture, what we know about God is our Head, what we feel about God is our body (which has our heart), and what we do for God is our Bottom (our feet). We want a well-formed snowman which means that all three need to grow together. Too often, we focus too much about knowledge and facts and not enough about learning to Love God. So the idea is that we want our kids to grow in knowledge about God, grow in our desire to have a relationship with God, and grow our character into being like Christ.

The passage of scripture that helped this vision is Philippians 1:9-11. In this passage, Paul talks about how all three areas work together. We start with growing in the knowledge and wisdom of God (Know). Then we “approve what is excellent” which deals with our hearts desires (Love). Then, we strive to live pure and blameless lives (Serve). And we do all of it for the praise and glory of God. That is our goal: to help our families to bring God all the glory in everything we think, say, and do.

In the next few weeks, I will be blogging about what it means to grow in what we Know, Love and Serve about God along with some other ideas about how we can help our kids grow in these areas as well.

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[i] Fowler, Larry. Raising a Modern-day Joseph. 2009

[ii] Steiner, Mark. “Measure Your Ministry”. 2014 DiscipleLand Brochure.

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.