A Work of Creation

In the midst of the creationist-evolutionist debate, many of the basic theological and spiritual affirmations of the creation narrative are neglected. One such affirmation is the concept that creation is a redemptive act and therefore, salvation is a creative act.

Genesis 1:1-5 begins with the declaration that the act of creation began as the Spirit of God moved over a chaotic, formless deep. Into the darkness, God called forth light and began the process of bringing order out of that chaos. The dark chaos begins to be fashioned into the created order which will be declared to be good. This is an act of redemption.

So it is with sinful humans. Our lives are dark and chaotic. God penetrates our darkness with the light that is Christ. Into the chaos of our existence, the will of God brings purpose and order. The Spirit of God moves over us in an act of re-creation which moves us from the darkened chaos into the new person God wants us to be.

In John’s commentary on this passage (John 1:1-17), he declares that Jesus is the light that shines into the darkness and that those who believe in him are given power to become children of God—born not of blood and flesh but of God (John 1.12-13). Just as creation redeems the chaos into order, the believer is re-created from a chaotic existence into a child of God.

Life: A Reflection

This week has reminded me of the nature of human existence. On the one hand, I have been working with several couples on the preparation of their weddings. I see the excitement, the love, the joy. They have shared with me their journeys and I have observed how they have stood with each other and supported each other with the ongoing challenges of life. I am reminded of the joy of life.

On the other hand, several stories have come to me of families facing unexpected tragedies in the form of human violence and accidents. The grief and fear of these families are the polar opposites of the joy and hope of the couples planning their weddings. These stories have reminded me of the sadness that human life can be.

Both categories of experience have refreshed in my mind the wonderful thing called life. It is the joy of new beginnings, the hope of love, the pain of loss, and the mystery of the unexplainable. The stories of happiness and the stories of sadness reinforce for me the sacredness of human existence.

And these events remind me of the grace of God--the giver of life and the giver of love. A God who never promised us an easy life, just a more abundant one. A God who is there with us to enhance the joy of our weddings and a God who is there to comfort us in our funerals. A God who is there with us by the side of a hospital bed and in the routine days that pass uneventfully.

For those families experiencing great joy and excitement: a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of love and happiness. For those families facing the most difficult days of their lives: a prayer for strength and comfort. For all of us: a prayer to value the sacredness of life itself with all of its joys and sorrows.

Calvin Miller. The Path of Celtic Prayer

The Path of Celtic Prayer by Calvin Miller was published by Intervarsity Press in 2007 as part of the Formatio series. Formatio presents studies on spiritual formation. Miller's contribution seeks to glean what contemporary Christians can learn from the prayers of the Celtic Christians.

Miller's reflections on his visits to Celtic Christian sites and on the reading of Celtic literature leads him to six principles of prayer that Miller believes will help deepen the prayer life of the contemporary believer. At the same time, Miller provides pointed observations about the shallowness of discipleship in much of the modern church in America.

The six principles are: 1) Trinity Prayer, 2)Scripture Praying, 3) Pilgrim Praying, 4) Nature Praying, 5) Lorica (breastplate) Prayer, and 6) Confessional Prayer. Miller is an evangelical scholar writing for a (primarily) evangelical audience. However, his source material is the Celtic tradition which was rooted in Roman Catholicism. Evangelicals will learn much we need to hear however about a more mystical, meditative, and theological approach to personal prayer. The chapters on Trinity prayer and confessional praying are quite insightful and reflect nuances of the devotional life often overlooked in today's evangelical church.

Because his focus is a Roman Catholic tradition, those of the Roman Catholic tradition, Eastern Orthodox traditions, and non-evangelical Protestants will profit as well from reading this book. The emphasis is on the believer entering into the presence of the triune God in reverent prayer. This emphasis transcends the categories of the Christian family tree.

Christians unfamiliar with the history of Christian devotion and the writings on spiritual devotion and discipleship from the richness of the history of the church may well find a whole new world opening to them in this brief introduction to Celtic prayer. The 170 pages are an easy, but mind-provoking, read. More importantly, I think you will find this book spirit-provoking.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
And lean not upon your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge him;
And he shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3.5-6

Decision-making--do you remember a time when you did not seem to making decisions and choices almost minute by minute? I am not sure I do. I suspect that as a child (so many moons ago now) I went minutes, perhaps hours without having to decide a single thing. It is only a suspicion though—I simply cannot remember not being a decision-maker, a chooser. Perhaps that is when we realize we are adults: when life seems to be just a continual process of deciding.

In this selection from the Hebrew wisdom literature of the Old Testament, we are given a basic principle on approaching life. Consequently, it gives us wonderful insight into decision-making and choosing. The passage draws a distinction between what I will call the “human equation” (HE) and the “divine equation” (DE).

The HE approaches life from the ability and capacity of human reasoning to analyze, interpret, and comprehend life situations. It seeks to solve the problem, make the choice, or make the decision based on human wisdom and knowledge. In short, when at a crossroads of life, the HE attacks the situation from my own ability to deal with the choices.

Now, this is not altogether bad. I like human reasoning. After all, I have devoted a huge part of my professional life to the study and teaching of the history of ideas. I believe that the human capacity to think, to reason is part of the imago dei (image of God) in humans. I have been teaching a course called Critical Thinking for a decade now and all research in that field indicates that those who employ critical thinking skills, on average, have more successful lives and are more content.

Why? Pardon the humor—it just makes good sense. Because of their use of critical thinking and effective reasoning, they have made fewer bad choices; therefore, less self-inflicted wounds. Their lives are usually less chaotic and when difficulties do arise, they apply their thinking skills to problem-solving and effective ways of approaching the difficulties. This either minimizes the damage or gives them an able method of coming to terms with, and adjusting to, the situation. Those who just react or who do not apply reason in an effective way tend to make more bad choices, create more problems for themselves, and have less of an ability to come to terms with changing circumstances.

My point here is that the HE, when used badly, leads to bad choices and worse outcomes. The HE, when used to its best, can provide a great deal of benefit to the situations of life.

However, if reason is part of the imago dei and if reason leads to better decisions, how much more effective would the DE be? The DE looks at life situations from God’s ability and capacity to deal with it. It is going to the source of human reasoning at its best—the mind of God.

You might recall that in Isaiah, God says through prophet, “Come, let us reason together…..” Yes, the Book of Isaiah later says that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts not our thoughts. However, look at what the two together seem to be saying to us. Humans have a capability and reasoning together with God (because of the imago dei). That said, God’s reasoning is so far superior to our reasoning that we cannot fully comprehend it.

This is not a bad thing though. If human reasoning, with its limitations, can still improve life, then how much more improved would life be if we employ the superior reasoning of God? I think this is the point of the thinker that penned Proverbs 3.5-6.

Hebrew poetry (and Proverbs is written in poetic form) employs parallelism as a major structural component of what it is trying to communicate. In other words, it is not just the meaning of the words in each line, but what those words mean in syntactical relationship to the lines around each line.

For example, “trust” in the first line means to put your whole weight on something. That is to say, to trust something to hold you up (like a chair or tree limb). This parallels “lean” in the second line. We are to trust in the Lord with all our “heart.” Look at the parallel to “heart.” It is “understanding.” The problem is that we use heart as a metaphor for emotion; in Hebrew culture, it was the metaphor for the thinking of a person, the will, the consciousness. It was used by them the way we use “mind.”

So, adjusting for cultural metaphors, the two lines form an antithetical parallelism (the second line contrasting with the first line): “Put the weight of your thinking on God and do not lean on your own thinking.” This is reinforced by the next verse where the reader is told to acknowledge God in all the ways of life and he will provide direction.

The application: when confronted with a decision, I can take one of three possible categories of approaches. Option one: I can approach the situation using my own mind but not to the best of its ability and I will have increased odds of choosing poorly and making my life worse. Option two: I can use my human reason exclusively but use all the best critical thinking skills to choose as wisely as I humanly can. This, on odds, is a better option than number one. Option three: because the best of human reasoning is modeled on the image of God in each of us, yet still pales in comparison to the reasoning of God, I can seek the direction of God as his wisdom is far better than mine, even at its best.

Option three is the best. That does not mean the choices are easy are that my life becomes trouble-free and utopian. It does mean that the odds are better and even when I can not understand why things are the way they are, I can trust there is a greater wisdom at work. As one who still suffers from earlier decisions poorly made, I can verify the superiority of this approach to the normal human approach.

This is not faith to the exclusion of reason; rather, it is reason and faith informing each other. Give it a try—what do you have to lose?

Measuring a Prophet

Ezekiel 2 provides us with the commission of Ezekiel to the prophetic ministry. God tells him that his audience is a rebellious people (v. 3). They are described as “impudent children” and “stiffhearted” (v. 4, KJV). Ezekiel is given every indication that they will probably not listen to his message.

This passage teaches us that the worth of a prophet is not determined by the response of the people. Rather, the worth of a prophet is determined by his obedience in the proclamation of the message. We tend to judge on audience size and audience response. God judges obedience. When we judge on the audience and response, we are in danger of creating celebrity cults.

In Ezekiel 33.30ff, God describes a people who come to be entertained but are not changed by the word. It is not Ezekiel’s fault as he delivers faithfully the message given. It is the people’s fault as they are more interested in the experience of the moment than in life change.

The church in America today has become such a people of God. We have created celebrity cults around the speakers who make us feel good and entertain us. Some of those speakers tell us what we want to hear. Others proclaim a definitive “thus saith the Lord” yet we are so focused on the experience of the moment that we are not challenged to change. God is not measuring the prophets on the number of seats filled in arenas. He is measuring the obedience of the speaker to the command to proclaim the word. He measures the audience not on attendance and experiences but on the changes in life.

Remember, in John 6, Jesus begins with a multitude of 5000+, by the end of the chapter, he is down to the twelve (really, eleven, since one is a betrayer) and Jesus is asking if they too will leave. If we had measured Jesus by the standards of the cult of celebrity, we would have to count him a failure. Clearly, God measures by a different rubric altogether. By the measure of obedience, Jesus is a clear success.

What Is Worship Anyway?

           The nature of worship? Religion often focuses on cultic activity.  Biblical Judaism, at points in its history, exhibited this tendency.  The history of the Christian Church is full of such focus. The Greco-Roman world referred to acts of religion (prayer, sacrifice, liturgy, etc.) as “cultus deorum” which can be translated as “care of the gods” (cf. Bart Ehrman’s The New Testament, vol. 4, pp. 26-27).  [Note:  Do not confuse cultus/cultic with the contemporary vernacular use of the word “cult” for what is thought of as a dangerous religious group.  Here, cultus/cultic refers to the worship practices of a group.]

            The Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament argued that such cultic activities were secondary to showing compassion and justice to others.  Jesus taught that if you come to make an offering and remembered someone had something against you, go and be reconciled to that person before continuing the act of worship.  Paul wrote that all the Torah (including the cultus) was fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself.  James reminded us that true, undefiled religion is the care of widows and orphans.  In other words, the true “care of God” is taking care of his children. 

            Without compassion and justice, liturgy is empty, void of meaning.  While we should devote ourselves to praise and worship, we must remember that true praise and worship is in helping those who are suffering.  Without that, everything else is putting on a show.

Isaiah 1 Reflections

                Isaiah 1 might have a message America needs to hear.  Isaiah describes a nation that is falling apart and is in danger of destruction.  Why is this happening to them?

                It is not because they are not a religious people.  They are!  Their society is full of religious activity.  In verses 11-15, Isaiah pictures them as full of a multitude of sacrifices, presenting their best offerings to God, attendance is great (“trampling of my courts”), numerous meetings (assemblies), a calendar full of events (new moon celebrations, etc.), and they were a people of prayer.  Sounds like an energetic, on fire church to me!  This is the kind of religious observance and activity that can draw a crowd and lead others to copy you hoping to duplicate your spiritual success.

                Then what could possibly be the problem?  Well, religious activity can be like a truck stuck in the mud trying to get out—a lot of energy being used, a lot of noise being made, a lot of attention being attracted, a lot of mud being slung—and only getting deeper into the mire: going nowhere, fast. Instead of honoring God, He says He is weary of it and finds it appalling to look at (He turns His eyes away).

                The real problem is that all their religious activity, observances, and spirituality have been made empty and meaningless by the nature of their society.  In verses 16-17, they are told what they need to do.  I take from this list that these are the things they are lacking.  There is a lack of justice, failure to encourage the oppressed, failure to defend the fatherless, failure to plead the case of the widow—a complete failure to practice social justice and show compassion to those who are most in need of it.  The lack of love for their neighbors points to a lack of real love for God.  Therefore, their religious activity is not motivated by love for God.

                Look at the options they are presented in vv. 18-20:  if they will think it through and realize what is really happening, they can be cleansed and their nation will be blessed.  However, if they continue to resist and rebel, they will be destroyed—their religious façade not withstanding!

                Someone might argue though that this is Judah, the chosen people of God.  This is not America.  “You cannot impose how God treated the ancient Hebrews on modern America. We are not the people of God.”  True enough; but then again, neither were Sodom and Gomorrah.  Yet, Isaiah compares what is threatening to happen to Judah to what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.  Though not the chosen people, God destroyed them for their evil and violence.  I would add that after the time of Isaiah, God warned the Assyrian capital of Nineveh that it would be destroyed for its evil if the people did not repent.  So, my response is:  “Yes, you are right, Isaiah is speaking to the chosen people and America is not the ‘chosen people.’  So what?  God has demonstrated that he will destroy any people (chosen or not) who inflict injustice on others.”  To assume America is exempt from this precedent would be to assume American exceptionalism.

                Are there parallels?  Yes.  Note in vs. 22 how economic and resource devaluation occurred.  Isaiah proclaims this as warning of judgment.  The rulers are described as rebels acting as thieves and taking bribes while failing to carry out their responsibility to administer justice.  Does this remind you of any headlines over the past few years?

                The children of Abraham were commanded to look after the widow, the orphan, the poor, the strangers in their midst while the Torah was full of commandments on how to do just that.  If the church claims to be the “New Israel,” are we not then responsible to lead in the effort to bring social justice.  Does this not match the teachings of Christ?  Paul’s teaching that the whole law is fulfilled in loving God and our neighbor?  Does it not match James’ definition of true religion as helping the widow and the orphan?

                Instead of evaluating our society on the basis of religious activity, maybe it is time to evaluating using God’s criteria—how much blood is on those praying hands?

The Purpose of Prayer

            The purpose of prayer?  For most people, prayer is the asking God for what they want.  While we should bring our needs before God, there is more to prayer than submitting our Christmas list to God.     

            At the end of Matthew 9, Jesus points out to the disciples that the fields are white unto harvest.  The disciples are commanded to pray that God would provide workers for that harvest.

            The next story (Matthew 10:1ff) has Jesus bringing the disciples back together and sending them out in teams of two to proclaim the Gospel and minister to the needs of others.  The disciples become the answer to the prayer for laborers.

            As Rees Howell observed, “One can never be a true intercessor until he is first willing to be part of the answer to his own prayers.”

            How often we pray that God will do something and yet never ask how we can be the channel through which the answer comes.  We pray for the salvation of others while never sharing our faith.  We pray for the hungry without sharing bread.  We pray for missionaries without going out ourselves.

            We should not be surprised if one day we ask for the Lord to do something only to hear Him say, “Go, do it.”  Prayer is not to be just on our knees but also on our feet as we move forward to carry out the prayer.  The purpose of prayer is not receiving.  The purpose of prayer is to receive our marching orders from the Supreme Commander.

The Cry of Wisdom

Proverbs 1:20-33 paints a picture of wisdom as a woman crying aloud in the streets.  She seeks and calls out to all.  She is not elitist or exclusive; her offer is available to all.

Yet, despite her accessibility, she is rejected.  Those who reject do so to their own destruction.  Wisdom can only laugh at their foolishness and the pain it brings to them—she did all she could do—it did not have to be this way.

Had they responded, she would have filled them with her thoughts, her wisdom.  Instead, they focused on their lives of simplistic foolishness and mockery.  As fools, they mocked at wisdom.

When their destruction comes, they cry out for wisdom but it is too late; the damage is done.  Their choices now bear fruit that they must eat.  Their foolishness has been self-destructive.

In contrast, those who hear the call of wisdom and listens to her teachings will be at peace and in safety.  What is the wisdom that they accept?  The fear of the Lord; respect for His teachings and His path.

Wisdom still cries aloud in the street calling out to all who will listen.  Each person faces the age-old choice: the path of wisdom or the path of foolishness, the path of life or the path of death, the fear of the Lord or destruction.

Which will we choose?

Wasting Resources

Lewis Mumford wrote that modern man has operated under the delusion that humanity could use science and invention to “fabricate an artificial world infinitely more wonderful than that nature has provided.” (Mumford. The Pentagon of Power. p. 11).  Mumford believed that this delusion contributed to man’s attitude of waste and misuse of natural resources.

If Mumford was correct, the implications are even more serious for the Christian.  For the Christian, it would not be a waste rooted in the belief we can create a better world than nature created, but a waste rooted in the belief that man can create a world better than God created.  The Greeks would have called this hubris.

Waste and misuse are not only poor stewardship; they are symptomatic of “anthro-deification”—the worship of man as God.

American: Christian Nation?

America the Christian Nation—a claim often made and often debated.  Whether it should be or not is a subject for another day.  What being a “Christian nation” means is also for another day.  Today, I want to look at the findings of a recent Parade Magazine poll on American religious beliefs and practices.  It is my opinion that the findings of that poll put to the thesis that Americans are a religious people and because of the culture influence of Christianity in America, American religion is expressed in what are, broadly speaking, Christian language and concepts.  However, that does not mean that the majority of Americans are practicing Christianity.

Consider the positive statistics: 69% claimed to believe in God.  77% claim to pray outside of religious services.  51% say they pray daily.  This would suggest that the majority of Americans are religious.  However, when you consider that only 15% of those who pray are motivated by a belief that God expects it while 67% are motivated by prayer bringing comfort and hope, you have to ask whether God is the focus of the praying or whether self-interests are the objectives?  Certainly, those of us who pray receive a great deal of comfort and hope from prayer.  Likewise, one should not pray out of a legalistic obligation to commune with God.  Yet, my observation is that much of what goes on in American religion, including the church, is centered on the self rather than on the God we serve.  Much of what I hear from many preachers is self-help with references to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible salted in periodically.  Remove the religious references and it is really just another version of any motivational speaker.

When asked about participation in organized religion, 70% said they did not participate at all or participated only sporadically.  50% rarely or never attend religious services.  30% claim to attend services once a week.  Christine Wicker, the author of the article presenting the poll findings, points out that academic researchers who do actual head counts believe only about one-half of those who make such a claim are attending weekly.  If so, only about 15% of Americans attend religious services weekly.  As I reflect on this, it is my speculation that given some adjustment for regular attendees who are out each Sunday due to illness, work, travel, etc., it might well be that on a given Sunday morning, only 10-12% of Americans are in church.  Some parts of the country will have higher or lower averages due to regional cultural patterns I suspect.

I know that some argue that organized religion and true faith are not the same thing.  Indeed, I agree with that.  However, when it comes to quantifying religious practice, organized religion is much easier to measure that faith.  Yet, from the Christian standpoint, the biblical imperative is to “not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.”  Therefore, when some 85% of Americans are doing just that, the only two conclusions I can see is that either 1) the majority of Americans are not practicing Christianity and/or 2) a good number of Christians are openly disobeying a directive of scripture.  Regardless of one’s definition of a “Christian nation,” it is hard for me to apply that designation to a country where eight out of every ten are routinely not in church for worship. Add to this observation that 27% of Americans do not practice a religion at all, 5% say they are atheists and 7% claim agnosticism. 

The real crux of the matter might be revealed in two other statistics from the poll.  59% of Americans say all religions are valid.  Only 24% say religion is the most important thing in their lives.  This clearly indicates that America, for all the claims by some that it is a “Christian nation,” is a nation of people who do not accept the claim of Jesus to the “…the way, the truth, and the light—no one comes to the Father except through me.”  In addition, the demands of total obedience to the Kingdom of God with Christ as Lord of our lives are not part of the America equation.

In light of this, perhaps we need to stop claiming America is a “Christian nation” and to begin seeing America for what it really is: a mission field.

The findings of this poll were published in the Christine Wicker article “How Spiritual Are We?”  Parade October 4, 2009, pp. 4-5.  It is available online at http://www.parade.com/news/2009/10/04-how-spiritual-are-we.html

Power of Language

Language does matter. People evaluate intelligence and professionalism based on a person’s language skills. Is it fair? No. Is it reality? Yes, it happens every single day. Successful people tend to be good communicators. If someone detects a grammatical or spelling error on your part, they may think of you as uneducated, unprofessional, or, at least, sloppy in your quality control.

For example, have you ever been in a presentation using Powerpoint © or some other visual material and observed a misspelled word or grammatical error on the slide? How did you react? At the very least, it was a distraction. Often, you speculate on the presenter’s skills or his/her professional standards for letting that slip by him/her.

Yet, there is a more important reason for the proper use of language and that is cultural success. To illustrate, think of the story of the Tower of Babel from the biblical Book of Genesis.

According to the narrative, mankind spoke a common language. They set to constructing a tower unto heaven. This probably was not an attempt to build a tower to climb into heaven but a temple for the worship of the heavenly bodies. Whatever the purpose, the project was a mammoth undertaking.

As the story goes, God was displeased with this plan. So, God mixed the languages of the people so they could no longer work together to complete the project. With the cooperation rooted in shared communication, there was no limit to what they could accomplish. With the chaos of diverse language, what they could create was limited.

There is a lesson to be learned from this story. When a culture shares a language, when the people can understand each other completely, they can work together to build great things. However, if they have “a failure to communicate,” their ability to collaborate, to build together, is greatly reduced.

If a culture wishes to build, to develop, it must have the capacity to communicate effectively. When the rules of spelling and grammar become anarchical or are ignored, when everyone speaks his/her own “tongue,” the ability to work together as a team diminishes. There is a chilling effect on development potential.

So, my students will have to forgive me if I include writing and language skills as part of course evaluation. Their potential for future success personally and the potential for culture achievement corporately depend in part on those communication skills.

Walking on Water

Walking on water—Jesus did it. But we forget that Peter did too; for a while anyway. As the story goes, as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on the water. He began to sink when he looked at the storm.

Peter’s experience mirrors the church today. The church faces a severe challenge. Islam is poised to become the largest religion in the world sometime around mid-century. In many respects, whole areas of Europe are essentially lost to Christendom. Church attendance and Christian religious affiliation in the United States, while still high compared to the world and in total number, is slipping as a percentage of the overall population. All the while, the population of the world is exploding.

Many in the church see the moral fiber of American unraveling while anyone who stands for morality is ridiculed. Immorality is prevalent in the church—both pulpit and pew.

Many have desired to bring America back to God—worthy indeed! However, despite political influence, this has not happened. Instead, those involved fell all too often into immorality and greed themselves. Those who hold unchristian perspectives have been emboldened while the church has been co-opted by forces on both ends of the political spectrum.

What happened? What went wrong? Like Peter, we lost focus. We took our eyes off of Jesus and focused on the storm and everything else. Though empowered to walk on water, the church has been sinking.

Jesus told us that if we seek his kingdom, all would be added to us. Yet, we have sought everything else in hopes of having the kingdom thrown in. The Declaration of Independence became more important than the declaration of freedom in Christ. Debates about the Constitution replaced the development of a personal constitution built on Christian character. The Bill of Rights became more precious than living right. Republicanism replaced repentance and being a Democrat replaced denial of self. Government was heard more than grace, debates about federalism drowned out the proclamation of forgiveness, and security trumped sanctification.

As important as loyalty to the country and patriotism are, for the Christian, the first loyalty has to be to the Kingdom of God. If we focus on America, we will miss the Kingdom and lose American for the Kingdom. If we focus on the Kingdom, then we can trust God to take care of America if He desires. Focus on God, and God will take care of everything else. Focus on everything else and we sink. Walking on water requires the proper focus.

Walking on water—Jesus did it. But we forget that Peter did too; for a while anyway. As the story goes, as long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on the water. He began to sink when he looked at the storm.

Peter’s experience mirrors the church today. The church faces a severe challenge. Islam is poised to become the largest religion in the world sometime around mid-century. In many respects, whole areas of Europe are essentially lost to Christendom. Church attendance and Christian religious affiliation in the United States, while still high compared to the world and in total number, is slipping as a percentage of the overall population. All the while, the population of the world is exploding.

Many in the church see the moral fiber of American unraveling while anyone who stands for morality is ridiculed. Immorality is prevalent in the church—both pulpit and pew.

Many have desired to bring America back to God—worthy indeed! However, despite political influence, this has not happened. Instead, those involved fell all too often into immorality and greed themselves. Those who hold unchristian perspectives have been emboldened while the church has been co-opted by forces on both ends of the political spectrum.

What happened? What went wrong? Like Peter, we lost focus. We took our eyes off of Jesus and focused on the storm and everything else. Though empowered to walk on water, the church has been sinking.

Jesus told us that if we seek his kingdom, all would be added to us. Yet, we have sought everything else in hopes of having the kingdom thrown in. The Declaration of Independence became more important than the declaration of freedom in Christ. Debates about the Constitution replaced the development of a personal constitution built on Christian character. The Bill of Rights became more precious than living right. Republicanism replaced repentance and being a Democrat replaced denial of self. Government was heard more than grace, debates about federalism drowned out the proclamation of forgiveness, and security trumped sanctification.

As important as loyalty to the country and patriotism are, for the Christian, the first loyalty has to be to the Kingdom of God. If we focus on America, we will miss the Kingdom and lose American for the Kingdom. If we focus on the Kingdom, then we can trust God to take care of America if He desires. Focus on God, and God will take care of everything else. Focus on everything else and we sink. Walking on water requires the proper focus.

Missions and Population

The population explosion – we hear a lot about it and the implications are often discussed. What is not asked as often however is the affect this population growth will have on the fulfillment of the mission of the church.

First, the numbers: the population of the world reached the 1 billion level in the early 1800’s. It took millennia for humanity to reach that number. It only took one century for that number to double to 2 billion (around 1930). It only took 30 more years for the count to reach 3 billion (around 1960). This rapid growth in the 20^th century occurred despite the enormous loss of life in two world wars, a major flu pandemic, and a century of genocide around the world.

The population doubled to 6 billion around the year 2000. At current rates, the world population is projected to reach the 12 billion level sometime around mid-century. Of course, cataclysmic world events could retard the growth rate. On the other hand, the horrific events of the 20^th century did not deter the growth of that century significantly.

The church of Jesus Christ has been commanded to proclaim the gospel to the whole world. The enormity of that task grows exponentially, daily.

The church must begin to ask serious questions. Do we have adequate plans for missions and evangelism to reach 12 billion people? Are we committing enough resources, both financial and human, towards the task? Are we promoting the idea of a calling to missions among the youth of the church?

Globalization and new technologies create new challenges for the church but also new opportunities. Are we seizing the opportunities? How will we employ all of this to fulfill our mission?

It is not just evangelism. We are called to feed the hungry and clothe the poor. As James wrote, true religion is caring for the widows and orphans. Amos condemned ancient Israel for failure to care for the “have-nots.” How will the church address the human need that 12 billion people will represent?

The challenge is daunting. The time to pray, plan, and prepare is now. When faced with the challenge, we must remember that we follow the Lord who multiplied the loaves and fishes. However, we must turn over our loaves and fishes to him instead of devoting them to building our own little church kingdoms, promises of personal prosperity, and political patronage (both liberal and conservative).

Order Instead of Chaos

In the creation narrative of Genesis 1, the world is in chaos—without form and void—and in darkness. The Spirit of God then moves and a process begins that brings order, harmony, balance, and light. It is God who can bring harmony out of chaos, light out of darkness.

The power of God to do this on the personal level is illustrated by the Gaderene Demonic—head full of demonic voices, living among the dead, self-destructive (Mark 5.1-20). His life was a cacophony of voices that had driven him into a state of living death. His existence was utter chaos. After the touch of Jesus, he was clothed, calm, and in his right mind.

The chaos of his life was replaced by peace and harmony. As the creative force of God brought the chaos of existence into order and harmony at the beginning, the creative force of the Son of God brought order and harmony to the chaos of this man’s existence. This story tells of an act of creation.

There is a lesson here for us all. We will all go through chaos in our lives. We all have episodes or chapters of life where our minds are full of a cacophony of voices trying to make sense of it all. We can make choices that become self-destructive. Our lives seem to be spinning out of control. Our lives can seem like more of a living death if the chaos becomes acute.

When this happens we must remember the God who has brought order out of chaos from the beginning of time. It is what He does. After all, He is the creator. We should turn our lives over to Him for that creative act of imposing order on our chaos.

Realistic Love

“I love you more today than I did yesterday” is a romantic idea that sounds wonderful. Is it reality? As much as we might like for this to be the case, it is a fairy tale--and a potentially dangerous one.

It is dangerous because it creates an unrealistic expectation. Marriage experts say that a leading cause of marital failure is unfulfilled expectations. If we go into marriage with expectations that are so unrealistic that they cannot be fulfilled, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

Why is the notion of an ever-improving love an unrealistic expectation? Because the love that is being described is an emotional love. All human emotions come and go in intensity. Emotions are based on our physical and mental energy levels. If we are tired, not feeling well, under stress, etc., our emotions fluctuate. This is true of love, anger, happiness, joy, sadness, and grief.

Let’s be honest. There are some days when we do not feel passionate about anything! We are physically drained from work or family commitments. Perhaps our diet has been less than idea. Perhaps we are sleep-deprived. Maybe we are over-stressed. Whatever the circumstances, our physical and mental ability to love emotionally or to express any emotion with passion is limited. Our emotional gas tanks are empty! There are times when our spouse may not be very lovable. Perhaps their emotional gas tanks are empty as well. Perhaps their work or their commitments to family life have depleted them. Maybe their stresses have made them irritable or
impatient.

The idea of love as an emotional experience, as a passion, growing through the years on a daily, steady basis is an illusion. It is an impossibility--physically, emotionally, and mentally. A graph of emotional love would not be one that shows a straight line of upward progress. Rather, the graph would resemble the design of a roller-coaster with upward inclines, downward plunges, even a few loops!

Yet, if we have gone into marriage with a fairy tale view of an overwhelming passion for our mate growing to escalating heights unabated, we will be devastated when the realities of life ambush us with the truth of inconsistent passion. This disappointment results in a sense of a failed dream. This relationship is not what I had planned. The relationship does not live up to expectations. It has failed. Should we divorce?

However, the problem may not be the relationship. The problem may be that the expectations of the relationship were so unrealistic that no human relationship could have lived-up to those expectations. It is not the relationship that needs to be changed, it is the expectations that need to be changed.

If the expectations were based on a faulty view of what love is, then this view is the place for the adjustment to begin. At the root of the problem is language. In English, we have one word “love” that is used for any number of meanings. I “love” my wife. I “love” my children. I “love” lasagna. I “love” basketball. Now, clearly I mean different things by “love” in each of these sentences (although my wife may dispute that at times!). The Greek language that the New Testament was written in has several different words for love based on the different meanings. This approach seems more realistic. For example, the Greek “eros” is the word for romantic, passionate love. It is the word for the emotional love of man and woman for each other. Another word for love was “agape.” This is a love not of emotion but of attitude. It is a love rooted in a conscious decision that the needs and well-being of the beloved ismore important to you than your own needs and well-being. It is a love that is totally other-focused rather than self-focused.

This type of love is not affected by the ups-and-downs of life as is emotional love. Emotional love is contingent on feelings, circumstances, and energy. A decision of commitment to the spouse and his/her well-being is not as vulnerable to the changes and stresses of life. Because of what is happening at work, I may not have the energy to love you emotionally with the depth of passion that I had last week but I can still honor my decision to put your needs ahead of mine.

If love is the emotion only, then it is going to come and go because that is the nature of emotions. If that is all we expect out of marriage, then during the emotional down periods, we have nothing left. We are hurt. We are frustrated. We are disappointed. We want out or we look elsewhere for the emotional boost. The relationship is in danger.

But if love is the choice, the decision to commitment to the fulfillment of the need of the spouse, then the relationship is stronger. The changing contours of life do not alter the attitude as easily as they do the emotions. The attitude of love can hold the couple together until the emotional batteries can be recharged and the passionate love is re-energized.

A relationship based on expectations of a constantly expanding, growing, flourishing romance where one is over-powered by the emotional experience is doomed to failure. Real life human beings simply cannot function consistently on this level. However, if the relationship is built on a conscious decision that you will have an attitude of self-sacrificing commitment to the spouse, then if can survive. The attitude can carry the couple through the valleys of emotional love until the heights can be restored. Happily ever after cannot be achieved with merely emotional love, it can only be achieved with an attitude that assists the emotion.

The Crucified Santa

Religious studies and sociology scholar Clifford Geertz told a story of a visitor to Japan who went into a Tokyo department store during the Christmas season. Among the displays was a Santa Claus on a cross. The “crucified Santa” no doubt represented a misperception of images and confusion about western culture and Christian belief.

Or perhaps not—perhaps the truth is that outsiders see us more clearly than we see ourselves. A Santa on the cross may be the perfect symbol for a United States cultural religion—a materialistic, feel good about yourself, pseudo-Christianity.

American cultural Christianity is often little more that self-help conveyed in theological rhetoric. Some sermons focus much more on financial success than on forgiveness of sin.

Instead of the sovereign Lord of all creation, the contemporary Jesus of many Americans is Santa Claus. He fills our stockings if we are good little boys and girls. He wants us to be entertained instead of educated in the truths of the faith. American Christianity is far too much Christmas and not enough Good Friday and Easter.

We have indeed dressed Jesus up in the red suit and relegated him to the self-help version of a jolly old elf. Perhaps the department store worker who set- up that display was not confused. Perhaps that is precisely the image of Christianity we project. If so, are we not guilty of taking Christ’s name in vain (i.e., making empty the meaning of his name)?

If so, then is it any wonder that there is such moral confusion in American culture today? For if the American Jesus is a Santa Claus who gives us our wish list, then should we be surprised that we have become a nation of takers instead of givers? A nation where doing whatever is necessary to gain financially and materially is fair game, regardless of who it hurts and the long-term consequences. I love Christmas but despite the emphasis on giving, it does become about receiving. Have we become a culture of little children scurrying down the stairs to check our stockings instead of believers following the Lord and his commands?

It might be that the department store did understand who our real god is.

Can God Be Trusted?

The conversation between the serpent and Eve in Genesis 3 sets the stage for the basic question with which the Bible confronts us. It is the fundamental question of human existence: can God be trusted?

The thrust of the questions raised by the serpent and his argument to Eve can be restated as: “God is holding out on you. He knows that if you eat of that tree, you will be equal to him and God does not want that. Therefore, to cover his own selfish desires, God told you that you would die. You will not die—that is just his way of making sure you don’t eat of the tree. You cannot trust what God says or his motives for saying it. God cannot be trusted!”

In the story, Adam and Eve no longer trust God and the mistrust led to disobedience (the eating of the fruit). Ironically, the failure to trust God led them to no longer trust each other; thus, the need to cover up their bodies.

The entire biblical narrative then becomes story after story of the results of trusting God and the consequences of not trusting. Take Abraham for example: in Genesis 12, God tells him that if he will leave the comfort of the known and step out into the unknown (he is not, at that point, told where he is going), then God would bless him. The essence of the whole conversation is God asking Abraham, “Do you trust me?”

With the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, God has, spiritually, placed each human at the foot of another tree (the cross) and confronted each of us with the same question: “This is the path to me and to my Kingdom—do you trust me?” Each person must answer that question. Each of us becomes Adam and Eve facing the same decision as they did. Each of us must decide whether we can trust what this God says and his motivation for saying it. As with Adam and Eve, our destinies hang in the balance on that question.

Adam and Eve’s mistrust led to their disobedience; in contrast, trusting God leads to obedience. If we trust him, then we will obey his commands since we trust that he has our best interests at heart. Disobedience is rooted in a failure to trust.

Donald Spoto, in his excellent book on Joan of Arc (Joan: The Mysterious Life of the Heretic Who Became A Saint. HarperSanFrancisco, 2007) reminds us that “[t]his abandonment, this absolute trust in God, lies at the core of all Christian spirituality; it is also the incontrovertible mark of authentic prayer. It does not imply inactivity or passivity: it is the mark of a life that gives up trust in self in order to give that self over to God.” (p. 33).

As the Apostle Paul said, “The righteous will live by faith (trust).” Each of us should ask daily how we are doing on the “trusting God” meter.