Interviewed by the Ignorant, Part 2

This is the Part 2 of this article. Part 1 was posted quite some time ago. You will probably need to go back and read it to get the full benefit. Thanks!

2. God is the Creator and Owner of everything, including humans, and therefore has the right to do with it as He pleases.

Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”

Who are you to tell God what He can or cannot, should or should not do with His creation? Romans 9:20-21, But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” God has the right to do as He pleases with this world and those who dwell in it. For God to allow the tragedy in Japan to occur does not make Him uncaring. It makes Him God. That leads to the third part of my response.

Interviewed by the Ignorant, Part 1

“Which is it? Either God is all-powerful, but He doesn’t care about the people of Japan, and therefore they are suffering. Or, Does He care, but He is not all- powerful?”

This is a question asked of Rob Bell by Martin Bashir on MSNBC. All Rob Bell had to say was this is a paradox that is better left alone. My next six posts will be my response to this question.   

To begin with, just asking that question betrays any true knowledge of God. Anyone who truly knows God would never ask such a question. This question is nothing but an attempt to have God painted in a bad light. Nevertheless, biblically there are several things that can be said in response.

1. God’s purposes and plans are beyond human comprehension.

Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

For those who are finite in understanding, and finite in wisdom, and finite in knowledge to question the One who is infinite in understanding, and infinite in wisdom, and infinite in knowledge is foolish. You are saying that God must either be limited in power or uncaring. That is making an assumption based on very limited information. Imagine all you could possibly know is a letter in a book. You may know the letter, but only God knows the word that letter is a part of, the sentence that word is a part of, the paragraph that sentence is a part of, the page that paragraph is the part of, and the book that page is a part of. You cannot be critical of the Author of the book when all your knowledge is limited to one letter. You don’t know enough about God, His ways, or His purposes to accuse Him. Romans 11:33-34, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgmets and how inscrutable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?" Who are you to scrutinize the actions of Him who is inscrutable? You cannot even begin to fathom why God does all that He does. And that leaves you in no place to make foolish assumptions about God or His character.  

A Prayer

Lord Jesus, may Your beauty increase in my sight until You are all I see. May the fragrance of Your knowledge so captivate me that all other aromas fade out of recognition. May Your goodness grow ever sweeter to my taste until I hunger for nothing but You. May Your voice ring ever louder and ever clearer in my ears until all other sounds are drowned out by the roar of Your truth. May Your divine hand upon my life be more real to me than the touch of even my dearest loved ones.

May every step I take bring me closer to You. May every word I say exalt Your magnificence. May every task my hands undertake be by Your design, through Your strength, and for Your fame. May every conscious thought reflect Your unparalleled greatness.

May Your Holy Word be my most prized possession. May Your Holy name be the only banner under which I march. May Your Holy presence be that which I most long for.

 May every breath I take be in service of the Crucified King. May every beat of my heart be out of love for the God who robed Himself in flesh and died in my place.

 May You always have the best of me, and not what's left of me.           

We Better Go Home

How could we have let this happen? Is it really that bad? What can I do to begin to turn things around? These are all questions I asked myself as I listened to a sermon by Voddie Baucham yesterday. The sermon was titled, "The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelization and Discipleship of the Next Generation." He preached from Ephesians 6:1-4. Just a few facts: 1) The church is losing 75-88% of teenagers by the end of their freshman year of college. 2) In the last 30 years: there have been more youth ministry degrees issued than in all of history prior; there are more professional youth ministers than ever; a multitude of parachurch ministries have been created solely to reach teenagers. Yet, we are baptizing less teenagers than ever in history and we are losing more teenagers than ever in history. There is only one conclusion at which we can honestly arrive. Our method of evangelizing and discipling children and youth is not working.

As I listened to Dr. Baucham expound the Scripture I could not help but wonder how we could have missed what seems so obvious in God's Word. The responsibility of evangelizing and discipling children belongs to the parents, particularly the fathers. So the question we have to ask is, Why have we created ministries to try and do it for them? When what we should be doing is equipping and asisting them to do it themselves. I know this presents lots of questions. And I'll be honest enogh to say I don't have all the answers yet. But this much I do know, we are losing the culture war and if parents don't start raising up godly, Christian children in the home, Christianity in America is going to continue to disappear one generation at a time.

Lost at Christmas

Somehow You’ve gotten lost at Christmas

between Santa Claus and gifts.

Our celebrations become consumer-driven

and the meaning subtly shifts.

What should be a time of worship and wonder

that God has come to earth

is used as an excuse to indulge ourselves

instead of honoring your birth.

Somehow You’ve gotten lost at Christmas

despite the Christmas carols and cards,

and the light up nativity scenes

that we put out in our yards.

These things are supposed to remind us

of Your glorious birth divine.

But if we’re celebrating Your birthday

why does it feel a lot more like mine?

Somehow You’ve gotten lost at Christmas

amid the decorations and the tree.

You can see lights brightly shine everywhere

except Your light that You’ve placed within me.

Happy Holidays replaces Merry Christmas

and we quickly make a fuss.

We say, "Don’t take Christ out of Christmas."

But are they any more guilty than us?

Please don’t get lost this Christmas

May we forsake any tradition or plan

until the heart, soul, and focus of the holiday

is once more Christ and not man.

May we not be satisfied with mere tokens

of worship we offer You each year.

May we live and declare the glory of Jesus

loud enough that the whole world can hear.

Somehow You’ve gotten lost at Christmas.

But I pray it never happens again.

Until You return may we celebrate

Christmas in the name of Jesus, Amen!

Shooting Blanks

I have recently been reminded that there are those who believe traditional preaching is a tactic relegated to the past. Some say it is no longer an effective means of reaching people. Case in point. . . Some friends attended a seminar this past weekend on the topic of Bible storytelling. The presenter suggested that expository preaching needs to be abandoned in favor of simply telling stories. He even suggested turning New Testament epistles into stories so people will be more prone to listen. His thought was that traditional preaching just doesn't work anymore. He is not the first to say such things. Even some men fairly well known in preaching circles such as Fred Craddock and Eugene Lowery have said much the same thing.

How shall I respond? Well, I'll just let God speak for Himself. "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:17-18 ESV). Paul said Christ did not send him to practice religious rituals or to proclaim wonderful messages filled with human wisdom. Christ sent Him to do one thing, to preach the gospel, the message of the cross. Now watch closely. Paul said to do those other things would be to empty to cross of its power. In other words, the power of God lies in the preaching of the gospel. Preaching is indeed foolishness to many people. Paul even said so himself. The fact remains, however, that the preaching of the cross is the power of God to reach people. A few verses later Paul reemphasizes this fact. "But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:23-24 ESV). The preaching of the crucified Christ is both the wisdom of God and the power of God.

There is no doubt that much of what we call the "church" in America is suffering from a severe lack of power. The church is not impacting society. Society is impacting the church. The influence of the church has waned. For the first time in our nation's history polls indicate that those who feel the church has a significant impact on society are a minorty. It is said that eight out of ten teenagers who grew up in church will cease to attend church once they leave home. There is an absence of power. Yet the church has sought the power of God down many avenues. Pshychology which seeks to answer all people's questions and solve all of their problems, we've tried that. Entertaining folks with bigger and better buildings, shows, and programs, tried that too. Pursuing politics as a way to influence and change, it has all been tried before. These worldly tactics have made some churches bigger, but it hasn't made them better. It may draw a crowd, but it won't make converts. Despite the endless things the so-called "church" in Amerca has tried, it is more wordly than it has ever been. It is more biblically ignorant than it has ever been. It appears to have less power than ever.

The reason is simple. The power of God lies in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know people say it is outdated. I know the "experts" say we have to give the people something they want. I know it seems foolish, but the Bible says that it is through the foolishness of preaching that God saves sinners (1 Corinthians 1:21). So, go ahead. Abandon Bible preaching if you choose. Tell your stories. Declare your pop-psychology. Trade traditional preaching for an open dialogue. Give up the preaching of sin for the power of positive thinking. Just know this. . . All you are doing is shooting blanks.

Everything to Me

I have been confronted often lately by the cost of discipleship as taught in Scripture. I think it can all be summed up in five words. "Jesus must be your everything." Jesus is not someone you can pay homage to once in a while and then go on your way. It's not enough to sing Him a song on Sunday. When will we ever learn that it is not our religious expressions He desires? He wants our lives, heart, soul, mind, all of it! He will never be content just because you claim to belong to the religion that bears His name. Jesus must be worth more to you than anyone or anything else. The question is, Is He?

It does no good to give Jesus your songs if you won't give Him your self. It does no good to give Jesus your money if you won't make Him your Master. You can't give Jesus your love without giving Him your life. Jesus will not settle for being a part of your life. He wants to be your life.

"I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be His than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands. I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand, than to be the king of  vast domain. Or be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today."

Jesus, please help me to love you more, more than family, more than friends, more than things, more than life itself. Please help me die to self everyday so that I may live for the glory of Your name. Help me to decrease so that you can increase. May You be my highest joy in life. May sharing Your Word and spreading Your fame be my supreme pleasure. Lord, please, grant that I may live to please You alone. All that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to be is Yours. Jesus, be my everything!