I have written before about the odd things we read on church signs. Well, I have a new one. A church I pass often has a new sign: "The price of victory is obedience." Oh,well.
The first thought was automatic -- it's the Jemhadar theory of faith! For those who do not know, a former TV show called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine included a race of people called Jemhadar. The Jemhadar were soldiers for the Dominion, bred solely to fight. Their motto was "Obedience brings victory." I never thought I would hear this idea pushed as a version of Christianity. First, of course, it is false. The price of victory was Christ. "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 15:57. Victory does not arise through our works (our "obedience") but as a result of Christ's work. It is a false claim. Second, it is an entirely false way to view Christianity. In our battle with the world (which would include our sin in the world), victory does not come by obedience, but by faith. "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith." 1 John 5:4. Faith is the key to victory in our own lives, not obedience. The danger in these kind of signs is that they show how far we have fallen from the truth of God. The preacher at that church, apparently, intends to tell his people that their works are the key to their victory. He will preach behavior modification as the key to a victorious life, but he will be wrong. He will tell them to work harder, but he will be wrong. Our victory is in Christ and we seize that victory through faith. Obedience is important, but it is not "the key" to our victory. Preach Christ
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In my on-going effort to be "up to date," I have been pretty active on Facebook. One of the oddities on Facebook is that people like to repost "tweets" from Twitter. So, in an odd way, I end up reading lots of tweets that someone I know on Facebook received from someone I do not know. Anyway, such is life.
Tweeting is fine, I suppose, but there is a real problem. The limitation of characters (no more than 140) leads to carelessness in what is said. This tendency feeds into one of the worst characteristics of modern American Christianity, heavy reliance on cliches and cliched ideas. Recently, for example, someone posted the following tweet: "Your doctrine is not displayed by the books you read but by the life you live." Okay, fine. First, of course, this is simply a straw man argument. No one I know believes that your doctrine is displayed by the books you read (I read many books with which I disagree). But the second part is the bad part. That is, the idea that "your doctrine is displayed by the life you live." This is one of those popular cliches that are not correct. First, of course, it says nothing beyond suggesting that "the life you live" is the measure of your knowledge of truth (doctrine). This is false and creates the tendency to be legalistic. This is the idea that "Christians don't drink" or "Christians don't dance" or "Christians don't" whatever you dislike. This is like the preacher saying that "true religion can be told by your calendar and your checkbook." No, no, and a thousand times "no." "True religion is to keep oneself unstained by the world and to visit widows and orphans in their distress" comes to mind in place of this cliche. See James. Your "doctrine" is not measured by your actions at all. Second, of course, it ignores the reality that almost all true doctrine has nothing whatsoever to do with "the life you live" before the world. The doctrine of the Trinity is not immediately ascertainable from observing someone's behavior, for example. Behavior tells me nothing about doctrine. Third, it is false because many people who are good in the eyes of mankind (whose "life they live" is excellent) hold views that are entirely in error. Mormons, who hold doctrines of damning error, are some of the nicest people in the world. When you meet them, you would would never know their doctrine holds that God used to be a man like us, that women's ultimate resurrection depends on their husband's choice, or that "spirit intelligences" from the sex of the gods come to live in our children. Pharisees had wonderful lives to point to, but no truth in their hearts. I do not decide a man is saved because of how he acts in the world. Finally, it is false because doctrine takes time to change lives. When you teach a man a truth, he does not suddenly become righteous in his daily life. The whole point of Protestantism is that salvation is based on the imputed righteousness of Christ, not on our personal righteousness. We continue, in our lives, to deal with sin. The fact that a man sins is not proof that his "doctrine" is in error, it is only proof that he has sinned. The statement is true in only one, very limited sense. It is true that how we live ought to be consistent with how we think. Our doctrine ought to inform our daily lives and, eventually, transform those lives. But, of course, truth takes more than 140 characters, so we post the idea that everyone in the world should judge everyone else in the world on the basis of their observable behavior, deciding (based on observable behavior) who is or is not correct in their doctrine. This is simply wrong. Tweeting is great for sharing your personal experiences. It is not good at all for sharing truth. Yesterday was an odd day for me. I ended up in a bad mood at the end of the work day.
Now, I know some people have bad moods frequently, but I do not. I am almost never in a serious bad mood. I will have moments of being upset about things, but I tend not to stay in bad moods at all. This bad mood, however, was a serious one. Immediately, of course, I started thinking about how I got there (who to blame, in other words). Finding someone or something else to blame for our bad moods is one of our weaknesses. Things have been somewhat odd in my life recently, after many years of stability, so that is part of it. Part of it arises from people around me (co-workers and such), and there is no question that it was immediately triggered and traceable to a particularly harsh and negative comment by an acquaintance. Part of it may be digestive, who knows? But it was a bad mood. It has been awhile since I have recognized being in a bad mood, so I found it interesting. I even managed to live through it. How should I view it, however? First, I fully understand (and understood yesterday) that there is no justification for acting as if I am in a bad mood or for letting it affect how I treat anyone. My duty is to love my neighbor and a bad mood does not lessen or release that duty. How I am feeling is not very important, after all, compared to even the slightest need of my neighbor. My bad mood is just something with which I have to cope. Second, I know it will not last forever. Even in the midst of it, I know it will end sometime. Spending time with my wife is the best way to end a bad mood, by the way. A nap sometimes helps or even a shower. But I know it will end. Third, I recognize that the truth is that I just feel bad. Things are not actually any worse than they were the day before, I just feel bad. I have learned something, perhaps, that I did not know before (such as hearing such a negative comment from someone), but nothing is really worse. I may have a better understanding of how bad something is, but nothing is worse than it was. Fourth, it did, in fact, end. I am not in a bad mood today. I was not even in a bad mood last night. Today, it is as if the bad mood never happened. That is the nature of our life. Whatever we feel at the moment is, to us, the "truth" of that moment. If we feel bad, then we think everything is bad. If we feel good, then we think everything is good. Our feelings become the basis for our judgment. I think this is part of why churches have so generally gone to "feel good" services. You know the kind I mean, the kind where the goal is to make everyone feel good. So, we talk about the kindness and greatness of God, we sing songs about how much we love God and like being His people, our prayers are all about how good everything is. We think that if we make everyone feel good, maybe they will come back to see us again. Or, maybe, we really think that feeling good is what matters most. In the midst of my bad mood, however, I never for a moment doubted God. I never questioned His word or His faithfulness. I never believed for a moment that "everything was bad." I was in a bad mood and knew I was in a bad mood. Habakkuk had this correct long ago: Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, The flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. If I am a true man of God, then I will continue to "take joy" even when there is no fruit, no produce, and no flock. How much more will I take joy when, in the presence of those things, I just "feel" like there is no fruit. A bad mood is just a feeling that there is no fruit, no produce, and no flock. God remains the God of my salvation. All glory be to Him. I attended a baptism service yesterday, of a local Baptist church that baptizes only once annually. They had 34 baptismal candidates. As a Christian, this is always a kind of a mixed blessing, because although you rejoice at 34, yet you are discouraged that there are so few for a church of pretty good size. Thirty-four in a whole year is just not a whole lot of people for whom we can count salvation.
But, more discouraging for me, there were almost no adults. Of the 34, only a few were adults or even close to adults (meaning, say, 13 or older). Many were very young, so young that no one can be certain about how much they understand of what they say they believe. People seemed happy, of course, but there were so many children, some too small to even stand in the baptistry waters. I have never seen statistics on this point, but I wonder how many of the baptisms claimed by baptistic churches are, in fact, young children. Churches turn all their skills at "converting" even six-year-olds, running complex and expensive "children's ministries" filled with special events and entertainment. Speaking generally, I have found that children's Sunday Schools tend to be aimed at entertainment while adult Sunday Schools seem often to be aimed at anti-entertainment. Children's teachers bring excitement, adult teachers are often deadly dull. Children's classes use materials from professional developers, adults tend to use boring materials, all too often. And children are easily swayed to say they accept Christ. They almost are never asked to explain what it means to "repent and believe," because repentance is too hard for them. They can walk down front and say they "want Christ in their hearts" and we treat them as saved. Everyone gets excited that "such a young life" is now dedicated to God. So, we are rewarded for our real efforts (the expense and time put into children's teaching) with "real" results (lots of children saying they want to be with Jesus). This encourages us to do even more for children's ministries, and less for adults, so the yearly numbers skew more and more toward children. In the meantime, we lose our impact on the community. We cease to be a part of God's impact on the lives of adults. And, through it all, we have no explanation for why so many of our "converted" children disappear when they become adults. Our churches so often become just a small culture in which we teach our own children to be like us. So, we end up with many baptisms of very young children and very few baptisms of adults or older children. So many children, so few adults. Is this what we want? In the midst of yet another campaign season, we are again hearing a lot of complaining about how "everything has changed." Neither of the two major candidates is a traditional Christian by any stretch of the imagination (one believing in a God who used to be a man and the other believing, apparently, in nothing at all). Homosexuals are "demanding" the "right to marry," which is nonsense in any sense other than the legal sense. Television continues to be filled with wickedness, movies are "getting worse," children are "getting worse," etc. etc. What is amazing about this is that we remain amazed at the fact that everything changes. Stop and think for a minute. Take a really simple example: maps. Here is a map of Europe from 1957, the year I was born. Now, here is a current map: They aren't the same, are they? And this is without any multi-national wars in the meantime. Things change. Things always change. Big things change (borders) and little things change as well, such as cars. Here is a 1957 and a 2012 Chevy Impala: Not the same, are they? Everything changes in our world. Music and books change. Hobbies change. Clothing changes. Every season we see new things, new ideas, new "stuff." Everything changes.
Except Christ. This, I think, is one of the things that makes church so "hard" for us to handle. God does not change. We change, both individually and as groups, but God does not change. We grow and learn and prosper and fail. He does not grow or learn or fail. He remains the same. We live in a world of confusion, but He inhabits an eternity of His own creation where everything makes sense to Him. Everything changes. Except God. So, let's decide that we will not waste today complaining about change. Yes, the changes around us impact us, but what matters most to us will never change. Whatever happens to nations, to car designs, or to clothing, nothing will ever happen to God. He remains, the same yesterday, today, and forever. I think one of the oddest traits of modern American Christians is our tendency to emphasize things that are rather foolish. We can be serious about the most amazingly unimportant things while, at the same time, caring nothing about things that really do matter. For example, we actually talk and care about "cheating" at solitaire.
Solitaire is an interesting game. Most of us old guys learned solitaire when we were young, using actual cards. Everyone has some amount of time spent alone and solitaire was a way to get through that time. There are lots of kinds of solitaire, but the same concepts apply to all of them. Basically, you have a playing board with cards and a deck of cards and you play the cards from your deck onto the playing board, hoping to get everything played out to end up with four sets, one for each suit of cards. Each game has "rules" that we learn as children. Nowadays, everyone plays on their computer (it is much faster than dealing every time). But the same "rules" apply. If you want to get a group discussion going, ask if it is "okay" to "cheat at solitaire." In any church I have attended where I have done this, there is an immediate condemnation of "cheating" at solitaire. Whatever rules you are playing, they tell me, you must follow the rules or you are "cheating" and that is "bad." In some groups, they will tell you that the rules you follow (which you learned at home) are not the "real rules" and that you are "cheating" every time you play because they know the "real rules." This becomes a serious moral issue to them. If I may say, this is one of the silliest arguments I have come across, the idea that "cheating at solitaire" is a moral issue at all. Who are you cheating? No one else is playing. It is a game. You play it to have fun. By yourself. Who wants to re-shuffle and re-deal the stupid cards all the time. You are just fooling around. There are no "rules" being "broken." So, if one play doesn't work, just undo it and try something else. Who cares? In golf, people will argue over "which tees" to use when driving at the start of a hole. People will say that it is "wrong" to use certain tees. Why? As a professional told me once when I asked about what tee to use, it is a game. Just play however you want to play. If you are not playing for money or pride with others, then enjoy yourself. I promise you I never hit a ball that is sitting on a rock or a root or next to a tree. Why should I break a club in a game that is supposed to be fun? The same people who say they would "never cheat" at solitaire will, nonetheless, speed on their way home. They will violate written laws, enacted by a lawful authority, empowered by God Himself (Rom. 13), and which God Himself orders them to obey. Why? So they can get to Wal-Mart quicker. We are such odd little creatures. We create standards that make no sense (no cheating at solitaire) and ignore God's standards in so many other things. When the Bible tells us that we are God's children, perhaps part of that meaning is that we remain yet so immature that we do not understand what matters to Him. Well, it has been a little while since I blogged here. As I noted earlier, I have moved into a new law firm and the change in my daily life is dramatic, to say the least. In addition to having lots of people to deal with every day, I find myself with a lot less time to just think about things. And, let's face it, blogs come from thinking about things a lot.
It is getting into summer weather here, but still cool enough at night to keep you alive and avoid the really horrible air conditioning costs that will come later. We have finally had some rain, which is nice. My younger daughter is home from college for the summer, which is also a nice thing. My wife and I are in the stage of "almost empty nester," which means that we have one child who is still "at home" plus the daughter who is "in college" and therefore home "sometimes." When she comes home for summer, everything changes from the "when she is gone" stage. I think, more than anything else right now, I am struck by how much change there really is in our lives. I think this is a memory problem for us. Each day, we deal with dozens of decisions, but when we sit down at the end of a week and look back, we don't see it that way. We forget all the little things we had to do during the week. We forget the errands and the conversations and the moments here and there and everything just looks the same. Yet, each day, we deal with all these things. Life is odd like that. We are odd like that. I think this is why the Bible's constant rule for us is to "live today." "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble," Jesus tells us, reminding us not to worry about tomorrow so much. We are told to live today. We are not able to live tomorrow (although we would like to, we think). We cannot relive yesterday (although we spend a lot of time thinking of what we would do if we could). We only have today. Live today. Every time you catch yourself with a regret, snuff it out. Every time you catch yourself daydreaming about some other make-believe day you might have had, nip it in the bud. Love your neighbor today. Listen to your child today. Love your spouse today. It is the only day you have. Recently, preachers seem to have become much more comfortable with preaching against pornography. I have mixed feelings about this. It is clear that pornography is a sinful matter and sin is to be denounced, so that makes this seem like a good thing. On the other hand, I hate having to hear even the word "pornography" anywhere, much less in my church service. I see how people react to the word, especially women, who seem very put off by this new emphasis.
I also have another concern about this. Put simply, my concern is about the tendency we all have to preach against things that we do not do while ignoring what we do all too often. Baptists (my church) have a sad history of preaching against sins they would never commit. They preach against abortion, for example, or against drunkenness, while speaking to small congregations in which there are no abortionists and almost certainly no drunks. But, a good line against abortion is always worth some applause or "amens" from a conservative Baptist congregation. I think this is a problem because, for all the sermons where I hear someone attack pornography, I never hear a word about conversation. Yet, I am sure that most churchgoers commit many more sins in conversation than in pornography. We are, after all, to love our neighbors. That means that, in every conversation, our role is to love the person to whom we are speaking. Yet, I see so many conversations in which both parties are merely doing what they want to do, declaring what they want to say, and saying things of no value to their partner. Likewise, we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, but most Christian conversations are not really about the person to whom we are speaking, but are about us. "We have to share" what is important to us and we take very little time to hear what matters to our partner in the conversation. I have seen very little pornography in churches, but have seen lots of people hurt by cruel words. I have seen no one actually look at pornography while at church, but have seen many people hurt and attack one another in conversations and meetings. I have never seen a preacher read pornography in a pulpit, but have seen many preachers fill their sermons with snide remarks, insults, and harsh language for anyone who opposes their ideas. I think it is a good thing that we recognize the sin of pornography for what it is. I just wish we would recognize our own sins as well. And preach about them. I have recently moved into a local law firm. For those who know me, I have been "on my own" since 1996. This means that I have been practicing without anyone else in my office. I have never had a secretary, for example, or any employees at all. My office was mine. When I went to work, I went to a place that was just me. No one bothered me, except calling for work, which was fine. The office was one place where I could rest, relax, reflect, and restore my calm. It was great.
Now, I am in an office. It is nice to have people to talk to, but there is something I had not really considered before moving here. I have lost my sanctuary. You see, now I am in an office with quite a number of other people. There are five other lawyers, two paralegals, three secretaries, and two receptionists (they share the job). That means that I used to have an office where I never had to think of dealing with others, now I spend all day dealing with others. What makes it hard is that second duty. You remember: "love your neighbor." There is no "work exemption" on that command. I am not allowed to "not love" people at work. I am required to love them. I am required to deal with them as with neighbors. So, the result is that the office has become a very different world for me. Rather than a world where I was at peace, the office has become a place of challenges, a place where I am called to serve God through serving others. It is a very different experience. Not only does it change work, but it changes my home as well. I used to go to work at a place of peace and quiet and came home pretty relaxed and ready for an evening with the family. Now, I come home without having had several hours of peace before arriving. Strange how little things affect us. And big things, too. I have previously posted about various cliches which are popular in modern Christian circles, but there is something else out there which we need to consider. On the Internet, I frequently receive posts of things that people really like, which purport to be some kind of description of how we are supposed to be. Yesterday, for example, I received two of them. One of them was a "man/boy" comparison, as follows:
The main difference between a boy and a man: A man is aiming at a goal; The boy is drifting aimlessly." -Boys are students: Men are teachers --Boys are consumers: Men are producers -Boys play with toys: Men work with tools -Boys break things: Men make things -Boys ask questions: Men give answers -Boys are disruptive: Men bring order -Boys run in gangs: Men organize teams -Boys play house: Men build homes -Boys shack up: Men get married -Boys make babies: Men raise children -A boy won’t raise his own children: A man will raise his and somebody else’s -Boys invent excuses for failure: Men produce strategies for success -Boys look for somebody to take care of them: Men look for somebody to take care of -Boys seek popularity: Men demand respect Okay, it is kind of cute. But did you notice what is not present? Anything about Christ. Or anything about living a godly life at all. Is this really who we are? Is being a "man" simply a series of things we are supposed to do, clever phrases we can apply? Think about them, even just a few of them: "Boys ask questions, men give answers." But what if a man has a question? Men ask questions. Men want to know more than they know. They seek the knowledge of God. We want men who will ask questions. We do not want men who do nothing but attempt to give answers. We all know men who never ask questions but always give answers. They are annoying. "Boys are students: Men are teachers." Really? I have known many men who were not teachers, yet were godly men. I also teach classes filled with men who are, thereby, students. Every man I have ever respected has been a lifelong student. I learn all the time and seek to learn all the time. I am always a student. Learning, growing, is inherent in a man's purpose in life. If we are gong to be worldly in this regard, consider Solon's great quote: "Every day he grew older, and learned something new." Real men are students. "Boys play with toys: Men work with tools." Yeah, and men play with toys as well. They hunt, they fish, they search the internet, they play tennis and golf. All of these are good things God has given us to enjoy. Men play with their children and with their friends and with their families. Men play. "Boys are disruptive: Men bring order." Men are also disruptive, preaching the gospel in places where it is illegal, witnessing for Christ in places where it causes disorder. "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you." Godly men are often very disruptive. Remember how Paul upset whole towns? "Boys seek popularity: Men demand respect." Well, no. Men do not demand respect, they earn it. It is not important whether anyone respects me, as long as God rules my life. Even if the world does not respect me, yet I may have lived a great life of faith and obedience. Again, "woe unto you when all men speak well of you." The problem with this kind of list is that it reflects a world-centered view (and not a very complex view). It does not recognize that being a "man of God" is much more than what it views as "being a man," and that much of what it views as "being a man" is not consistent with being a "man of God." This kind of list is dangerous because it encourages women to a false view of manhood, leaving them unable to understand what God is really doing with the men in their lives and leaving them likely to choose and marry someone other than a man of God. It also encourages men to a false view of what is right for themselves. God's list is a better list. A man of God, as an example, manifests the fruit of the spirit, a life filled with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." There are other lists in scripture, but it is hard to get away from that list. That is what it means to be a man. |