Guilt Lies

I think one of the most devastating snares the devil lays for followers of Jesus is guilt. Well, guilt fully loaded with shame.

It is these feelings of guilt and shame that convince us that we cannot talk to God, listen to God, or relate to God in any way. Shoot, we’re probably not even worthy to talk about him in any real way. He is good. We are bad. Best just to keep our distance.

When the devil lays the trap of guilt and shame for us most Christians will respond by feeling like we better fix our selves, get our crap in order before we go to God for the finishing touches. We know God forgives, but we’re pretty sure we need to go 90% of the way and God can do the 10%.

And this is right where the devil wants us: trying to make ourselves 90% good while keeping God at arm’s length until we’re there. He knows 2 things. First, we’ll never make it to 90%. Second, the guilt and shame of not making it to 90% will keep us away from God. It’s a wicked, self-propagating trap.

But such guilt is built on a lie, a lie of chronology. Guilt tells me that something must happen for me to be close to God. There is something that needs to be fixed, an occurrence that needs to happen or else I can’t talk to God or listen to him or learn about him. This isn’t reality.

Reality is that everything that needs to be done for us to be close to God has been done, for 2,000 years. Jesus finished it with his death. His resurrection sealed and proved it. Verbal Kint got it wrong. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled wasn’t convincing the world he doesn’t exist; it was convincing the world that the resurrection doesn’t exist. Jesus paid the price and conquered all the guilt and shame with which Satan is armed.

Guilt lies. There is nothing left to be done for us to be right with God. Just turn to Jesus and come to God in his name. Jesus did it once and it’s done for all time. Just claim his victory and come to God for forgiveness. There is no 90% for us to do. There is 0% for us to do since Christ has done the 100%.  

Thankfulness To . . .

Tis the season for thankfulness (a season of 2-5 days that begins with whichever day we get off work or school and ends with the me-first grabbiness of Black Friday). We take these 48-120 hours to reflect on all of those people, things, and opportunities for which we feel grateful. And this is a good thing. It leads to a partial week of general good will, peace, and relative contentment.

But does thankfulness mean anything if it for something but not to someone. Is it meaningful to be thankful for one’s family or a table full of food if there is no being that is receiving the thanks?

Thankfulness felt without thankfulness given seems like little more than a welling up of positive feelings. While positive feelings are good (they’re positive after all), they don’t offer much in the way of, well, anything. In order for thankfulness to have real significance mustn’t it be both for something and to someone?

I think it’s easy to fall into the somewhat thoughtless trap of having thankful inclinations without offering thanks. In fact, that’s the very nature of the holiday – a celebration of thankfulness.  But what is that really celebrating?

But if thankfulness is attached to a giver/provider it becomes a relational link and those positive feelings become affectionate feelings that build up rather than aimlessly float away. If I sit down to thanksgiving dinner or look up at the beautiful blue sky or lovingly watch my wife play with my kids and feel thankful that creates a good mood in me. But if I do all those things and express my thankfulness to the cook, to God, and to my family then honor and love are shown and relationship is built up. And that relationship propagates further thankfulness whereas those happy feelings are likely to drift away in a tryptophan induced nap or ill mood that the Packers are beating the Lions.

So, as we careen trough these few days of thankfulness, let’s attempt to consider the giver of all the good things for which we are thankful whether it’s the woman who gave birth to us, the baker of the apple pie, the person who turned on football, and ultimately the creator provider God who made all these things come to pass. Rather than celebrating thankfulness, let’s express thankfulness for something to the being that offered it.

Is God Logical?

God doesn't always make sense. He is a peculiarly puzzling being who often leaves us baffled or even frustrated. Those of us who believe in God generally try to credit him with being in control of "all things". The problem comes when we start trying to piece that together.

God is good and loving. He doesn't do bad things. But he's in control of bad things. So that means he is responsible for tragedies without being at fault for it. Huh? That doesn't make any sort of logical sense.

Even the delightful debates over election and salvation rest in the fact that God doesn't make logical sense. God decides who will be saved and who won't, but we're all responsible for our own actions and sent to hell if we aren't saved (according to one view). Logically that doesn't sound "good" or "loving" to me. Or is it that we all have free will that God is somehow sovereign over? Now I'm flustered.  God makes no sense.

But these accusations of God are misguided because they are wrongly based. They seek to limit God to something we call logic, that is human understanding.

God is not logical because logic is for the finite and the fallible. It is a structure created and given by God so that beings with limited knowledge cold solve problems and have a reasonable world. But God is not limited to the logic we hold up as the ultimate right to disprove all nonsense.

God is not logical. That isn't to say he's illogical. No, God is beyond logic. He is, as the bible puts it, "inscrutable". He is beyond our ability to understand, so to accuse him of failing to be logical is utter nonsense itself. He doesn't fail to make sense. We simply don't have the limitless knowledge to understand him.

It is fair to say that God doesn't make sense, but not to say that God isn't sensible. It is never fair or right to make a judgment of God based on a lack of logic, as we understand it. What’s right for the parent isn't always right for the child, and, infinitely more so, what's right in the mind of the creator isn't understandable as right in the mind of the creation. 

Ligonier Blog Post - Link

Click on the link below for a post I wrote for Ligonier Ministries at their blog.

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/rest-peace/

(Full Disclosure: this post is based on a more brief version I posted here a few weeks ago).

Anger, Pain, and All Things Made New

I made the mistake of watching the news yesterday morning. The lead story was the pedophile rape case out of Penn State University involving a former, prominent football coach and several young boys. (Google it if you’re not aware; it’s heinous.) That story was enough to make my blood boil and my stomach turn, but before I could even begin to process it the ticker at the bottom of the screen rolls with a brief mention of a newborn baby found in a dumpster apparently having been strangled to death. An infant strangled, and it doesn’t even get a mention. But since there is only 30 minutes for the news, the Anchors smoothly transitioned to a story of a 21-year-old woman gunned down on Chicago’s south side. What was the mistake that got her killed? Walking out of the wrong bakery at the wrong time with a birthday cake for her young daughter.

I don’t even have a response to these stories, but I am overwhelmed by the weight of pain that comes with this kind of evil and hurt and loss. I have no idea how to respond, but it’s not because I am numb. There churns within me a desire to reap vengeance on those guilty men, to hurt them as bad as they’ve hurt others and to call it justice. There wells up tears of sorrow for the hurt that exists, for the families that are broken now. Boys lost their dignity and innocence at the hands of a rapist. A mama killed her baby. A baby lost her mama. And there is nothing I can do to fix it, to solve this mess. There aren’t words for this kind of horror, but keeping silent about it is not an option. I have to go to work, do my job, be a husband and dad, and not be paralyzed by this evil.

It’s not supposed to be like this. It’s not ok. It’s not right. Someone needs to pay for this. Someone needs to fix the mess of world.

And so I cling to this hope.

Revelation 21:1-8

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Jesus has paid the painful price for the evil, for any who repent of it; justice has been done. He will forever punish those who refuse to repent; justice will be done.

Jesus will return and bring with him, in purity and power, the perfect world we long for, the world without all this evil and pain. He will make all things new. He will fix this mess.

For all who are faithful to Jesus, this pain will be temporary. It won’t be easy. It won’t be light. And it won’t be eternal.

The only response is “Come Lord, Jesus.”

The Unskeptical Questioner

I am a recovering skeptic. That is to say, I am learning what it means to give the benefit of the doubt and not reject new ideas out of hand. But I am still insatiably curious and I despise pat answers. So I question things.

There’s a fine line, though, between being someone who questions things and being a skeptic. In fact, many people would call someone who questions everything a skeptic.

Here’s the thing; I don’t think many skeptics actually question anything. They may phrase their challenges as questions, but their heart is set on rejection and disproving. To truly question something is to pose questions to it and about it for the sake of understanding. This may lead to disproving or rejecting, but the heart behind it is in learning.

And in this sense, we ought to question everything. And I do mean everything, whether it is the traditions in which we were raised, the authorities over us, the religions we hold to, or the God in which we believe. If the heart of the questioning is to learn, then ask away.   

It is often frowned upon to ask questions of established ideas, structures, or authorities. It is seen as disrespectful, crass, or rebellious. Truly, though, what is more important that seeking every ounce of truth in an established reality? And what is more harmful than abiding in that reality if no truth is to be found there? And so we must question.

So I say to you, question everything. That is find good questions to ask about everything and of everything. Just don’t be a skeptic.   

The Un Darwinian Church

There are numerous churches that are anti-Darwinian because they are anti-evolution. That’s a debate for a different day on a different blog. I’m referring to something different, something more specific. Darwin espoused the theory of “Natural Selection,” also known as “Survival of the Fittest.” While it’s true that these phrases in scientific circles mean something quite defined, in the wider world it has basically come to mean that the strong survive and thrive while the weak fall by the wayside.

But isn’t that the opposite of what the church is supposed to be? It seems to me that the church should be the place that is definitively unDarwinian, where the weak thrive as the strong help them, a place that fosters the ideal of  “survival of the unfittest.” What else would the bible mean when it says this in 1 Corinthians 12?

²²On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, ²⁴which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, ²⁵that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

We are called to be a place that is decidedly, intentionally seeking to help the weak survive and thrive. That could mean the weak in faith, social status, spiritual maturity, financial well-being, marital or familial health, understanding of the Bible and doctrine, and any number of other ways. While the culture around us seeks to be the strong and step on the weak, we are called to raise up the weak and find our strength in the Lord.

The church is to be counter cultural and counter natural, a place where the weakest find honor as they discover our unDarwinianism. 

Of, or Because Of?

People are proud. Parents are people, so it would follow that parents are proud. Parents are especially proud of their kids.

What's tricky is that fine line between being proud of your kids and proud because of your kids.

In being proud of your kids you are beaming on them for their successes and merits. It's an uplifting pride because it puts the child in a place of honor in your heart and mind and conversation. You are uplifting them because you think they're great and are pleased in them.

Being proud because of your kids, though, is not aimed at your kids at all. It's self-focused. It's feeling an increased sense of self because your child had a success. It's a game of compare and contrast with other parents in which your child has become the basis for your success (or failure). It's usury.

When God said “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” he wasn’t saying “Check this kid out; I raised him.” No, God was pleased in his son, not himself. And if the perfect father models being proud of his kid, then we should probably consider doing the same.

The principal holds true in any situation: work, creative expression, ministry, anything. Are you proud of the fruit of your efforts because it has merit and it is good? Or are you proud because of your efforts and want others to think you have merit and you are good?