The New Crusaders

Christian bloggers in the US tend to think that the most important theological issues today revolve around the “Emergent” vs. “Modern/Evangelical” perceptions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its outworking in the Church today. Is the Church missional…attractional…or…is it…dangerous? As some theologians move to deconstruct entrenched hierarchies and creeds, another movement has arisen while we were looking elsewhere.

A front-page article by Andrew Higgins in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, entitled “As Religious Strife Grows, Europe’s Atheists Seize Pulpit”, explores the rise of militant atheism in Europe. Although Europe’s churches have been in decline for years, the influx of adherents to Islam has made religion a growing issue. A dying religious brand of Christianity was not a threat, but a growing and more committed Muslim population is. That combination of religious ideology and a growing demand for political voice has brought the atheists out into the playing field.

France, in particular, has experienced both civil unrest because of Muslim discontent and a rise in what Higgins calls “zealous disbelief in God.” In fact, Michel Onfray, the French “high priest” of atheism, has written a book entitled, “Atheist Manifesto”. It is a best seller in France, Italy and Spain. In it, he suggests that “change is at hand and the time has come for a new order.” Since the meaning of “atheos” is “godless”, Mr. Onfray is opposed to any representation of God or a god, such as Allah, Buddha, or any other worshipped being.

The French are not the only ones promoting the new atheism.

Last month there was a public debate in London in which British atheists contended with defenders of the Christian faith. Tickets cost nearly $40 each, and the event sold out…with the atheists declared the victors.

What does this mean for Christians here in the US? Will we demonstrate classic American myopia and spend our days debating each other over denominational politics, definitions, and methodology? Will we even support our European brothers and sisters? Atheist thinking has undermined much of our culture and even much of the church. Will we wait for a declaration of war by American atheists before we realize that while we’ve been fighting among ourselves, there is a battle to be fought right outside the Church door?

Uppers and Downers

Yesterday, many churches sang the wonderful words, "He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign." Soul-stirring words, weren't they?...yesterday...

Easter is a soul-stirring day, an emotional "upper" for the Church of Jesus Christ--His Body here on earth. Many of us rose early to greet the sunrise (if there was one, and even if there wasn't), and we sang "Christ Arose." We believed it then.

And we filled up on sugar (Easter breakfasts and Easter candy)...and on spiritual sugar, too...eye and ear candy to seduce us into believing that what we were doing was "worship". The music was great, even if there were none of the old hymns, and the beat was a trifle loud and we stood looking at lyrics on the wall for 40 minutes. The pews were cushioned, even though we had to sit a lot farther back in the sanctuary than usual. The dramas were, well...dramatic. The message or reflection or meditation was short enough so that we could get home in time to change out of our church clothes and prepare a "Martha" meal for the extended family. Appetizers, salads, an interesting entree and plenty of yummy dessert. Insulin, adrenaline and somnolance. Now that was a great Easter...wasn't it?

Or was it?

It's Monday morning, and where is the resurrected Christ now? And where are His saints? Are they truly reigning? Is He reigning in them? Is He reigning in me? Are today and tomorrow and the tomorrow's after that downer's? Are we living in the reality of Christ's resurrection? Or are we all just a little sick from all that sugar? Too much sugar is bad for the heart...and maybe for the soul and spirit.

If we truly believe what we sang as the sun rose yesterday, we'd better let Christ reign in us today.

http://where-we-live.blogspot.com/2007/04/uppers-and-downers.html#links

For Sale: Easter

For the industrialized church, Easter is the greatest marketing opportunity since Christmas. Re-enactments of Christ’s Passion, Seder for Gentiles, Tenebrae, Taize, Cantata’s…all are employed to fill the pews and to reinvigorate the faithful. Each year we have been conditioned to expect something just a little more spectacular or a little more “spiritual” to satisfy the vague discontent we have with the product offered each week at our local house of worship. Why?

Is it because we are so used to media hype in every other area of life that we have come to expect it in our spiritual lives, too?

It is a great temptation for church leaders to follow the world’s example and to use Easter (and Christmas, for that matter) as a sales pitch…a public relations opportunity to get their name out before the public at a time when it is politically acceptable to do so. We’ve all gotten the catalogs offering Easter press kits and door hangers and bulletin covers and posters and DVD’s and… We are a nation of consumers, so I guess we expect people to respond to advertising, but I don’t see that as a Biblical principle in evangelism. There is more to making disciples than persuading people to wear team t-shirts or lighting candles or walking a labyrinth once a year or packing a pew.

Perhaps a more pervasive problem to that vague spiritual discontent felt by so many believers is that we are also a nation of spectators. There are far more people in the stands at a football game than there are on the field. From a spiritual standpoint, there are far more spectators in the congregation than there are vibrant players in the field—and I don’t mean the worship team or the Sunday School teachers or the pastor. We all have the option of becoming spiritual spectators instead of participants in the Body of Christ. And spectators become bored and dissatisfied when the team isn’t winning.

So, every year it becomes a greater challenge to motivate people to appreciate the Ultimate Sacrifice. Where does the answer lie? Should we quit celebrating the Resurrection as a one-time event, and begin looking at it as a present reality?
What do you think?

Check out bob.blog's The Dangers of Easter”
http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/bobblog/2007/03/the_dangers_of_.html
and Greg Laughery’s Living Spirituality at

http://www.livingspirituality.org/index.html

Is There an Atheist in Your Closet?

Geoff Baggett’s blog today referred to a news article about Congressman Pete Stark from California, who has just come out of the closet as the highest-ranking government official to admit that he is an atheist, or non-theist as they call themselves these days.
It’s true that Americans have a right and a responsibility to determine the values of the people they vote into office, so there is benefit in knowing the core beliefs of those who would be our leaders. At least, with Pete Stark, Californians know what they have endorsed as representing them.
On March 14, the San Francisco Chronicle ran the story about Congressman Stark and made some observations by a pollster about the importance of religious beliefs in the democratic process.
Pollster Ben Tulchin stated, “California…, is probably one of the most nonreligious states in the country -- maybe the most nonreligious state.'' He went on to say, that in polling in California "we rarely target voters by religion.''
That doesn't mean Californians "are not religious, don't believe in God, or don't go to services,'' he cautioned. For example, he said, "you have a fast-growing population in Latinos, and religion does matter to them, and religious issues matter to them. But on a day-to-day basis, religion doesn't play a significant role in most Californians' lives in a way that shapes their politics on a daily basis,'' he said.
In other words, people who have always voted for Stark will vote for him, anyway.
They may be “Christians” by profession…but atheists in practice.
It’s easy to criticize California voters, but I wonder how many Christians are doing the same thing. Every time we leave God out of the equation when we make choices in our own lives, we are practicing atheism…even while we profess Christ. Most of us really don’t let God play a significant role in our lives in a way that shapes our actions on a day to day basis. We live as though He does not exist.
Is there an atheist in your closet?

Tax Season and Theology in Life

In just twenty-seven days, Tax Season 2007 will be over!

What is tax season? And what does it have to do with theology? Well, at our house, it has a lot to do with it. My husband is one of three elders in our local church…and he is also a Certified Public Accountant with both corporate and individual accounting clients. At our house, January 1 marks the first day of tax season, and that means work weeks of up to 90 hours until April 15.

For people in bi-vocational ministries, as we are, there are stresses and time crunches that threaten to erode both personal time with the Lord and planned times for study and ministry. And, when Sunday is one of the focal points of public ministry, it can be more draining than refreshing.

That’s when plurality of leadership within the church is such a blessing.

Although my husband has been responsible for most of the Sunday morning preaching, one of the other elders will taking over that ministry. The third elder has been teaching the adult class, as well as planning fellowship activities. He also meets with some of our men for a weekly Bible study, and my husband teaches a mid-week study at our home.

Bi-vocational ministry—working in the secular world (as our elders do)—and also ministering to a body of believers is far from the norm in our area. As churches grow, they are hiring more and more staff people to take the burden of leadership off the pastor. And that’s okay, but it does tend to build a protective barrier between the “clergy” and the “laity”, a bit like the barrier the secretary provides between the CPA and his demanding clients.

When the members of the body know that their leaders are facing the same kind of pressures on the job that they are, when they can sit down with them in their homes, when they see them cleaning the floors and changing light bulbs in the place where they meet…Then they are seeing their theology in action. They can see how Christ meets the leader’s needs when he faces tough situations or uses opportunities to share God’s grace in the secular world. They can experience hospitality and real servanthood.

There are twenty-seven more days til the end of Tax Season. Twenty-seven more opportunities to show people how to experience God’s grace through the high-pressure days of life. Twenty-seven more opportunities for God to show us how to live so that others can see Christ in us.

I wonder if twenty-seven days will be enough time for the lessons to be learned?

What are your thoughts on bi-vocational ministry? I’d love to hear from you.

Re-Thinking the Lord's Supper

Alan Knox, over at his blog, The Assembling of the Church, recently published the following post: The Assembling of the Church: The Lord's Supper as a Meal? Since then, he has posted a series of reviews on some of Watchman Nee's teaching, including one on The Breaking of Bread. In the first, he posits the celebration of the Lord's Supper as an actual meal (instead of the appetizer-sized elements that most of us utilize). In the second, he brings out the command for the unity of believers as we come to the table. Some interesting and thought-provoking stuff.

At Living Hope Bible Church, we have varied the times and manner of our celebration (although it is all too easy to fall into a pattern of same-ness. Sometimes we include the Lord's Supper as part of a Sunday evening supper. The one that made the most impact on me was a "Bread and Water Supper", of which the menu consisted of....bread (any kind, as long as it was bread), butter & honey, and water. We did use matzoh and grape juice as the elements for the time of remembrance, but our focus was on Christ as our Bread of Life and Living Water.

I guess one of the things the Lord has been impressing on me is the need for His Supper to be central when we celebrate...the focus for the morning (or whenever we gather for that purpose) instead of it being the "closing act". Perhaps everything should point to that as the reason we are gathered instead of its being an accessory.

Read what Alan has to say, and stop back here to share your comments. I'd love to see what you think. How can we make the Lord's Supper meaningful for children? Any ideas?

The Bible as Textbook

Possibly as early as next Monday, the Georgia legislature will take a final vote on revisions on a bill to establish elective courses in the public schools in both the Old Testament and New Testament. The bill has already passed both houses of the legislature overwhelmingly. If the revision passes, it will make Georgia the first state in modern times to establish the Bible as part of its public school curriculum. The state's Department of Education will have a year to create these elective courses.

The Bible is already being used as a course study in as many as 1,000 American high schools, and has been allowed by the US Supreme Court, as long as it is presented objectively and not taught as fact. The option to use the Bible has been open to local school boards, but Georgia is the first state to implement Bible courses throughout the entire state, although individual school districts may opt out if they wish. Apparently Alabama and Missouri are also considering statewide Bible courses.

Sponsors of Georgia's bill say that students need an understanding of the Bible to better understand the foundations of Western culture. Much of Western literature and art, from Michelangelo, to Shakespeare, to contemporary writings draw from Biblical sources.

In the late 1700's Congress actually printed 40,000 copies of the Bible, and it was the most quoted source for the writngs of our Founding Fathers. Early textbooks relied on Scripture text to teach both reading and comprehension, as well as moral lessons.

As more states consider adding the Bible as literature and history courses to their curriculum, there will be a much wider debate about its scope and the intent of its Author.

What do you think about it? Should the Bible be taught in this fashion in public schools? Why or why not?

Show Towels

Recently, a guest in our home asked an innocent question after visiting the powder room. “Do you mind if I use your show towel?” she asked. I guess the towel in question had a holiday theme, but we do use it, not just look at it.
After she’d left, though, I started to wonder how we treat different areas of our lives. We decorate our houses…but some areas are off-limits to regular family use. They are the “show rooms”. They are what the world sees, the public places, not the places where we really live. Those places aren’t always color-coordinated, stylistically consistent. We tend to have a lot of unfinished business in those rooms. Stacks of papers (at least in mine) and projects that never made past the planning stages. They are the places, too, where real relationships are forged.
And that brings me to the show towel…
When people look at Christians, when they look at me, what do they see? Do they see an authentic life, or do they just see a show towel that cannot be touched? Our “working” towel gets used for all kinds of stuff. Spills on the floor. A grandchild with a nosebleed. The mud that didn’t quite get washed off. It gets stained by life as we live it. Because life IS messy, and when I invite someone to share mine, their messes affect me.
Jesus has invited me to share His life, and He has taken on my mess.
If I am to communicate that to others, I have to be willing to do Jesus as well as to tell Jesus. He was no unused show towel. I don’t have the right to be one either.

If It Looks Like a Duck...

I read a pretty unsettling blog today regarding an evangelical church in Seattle, Washington, which is hosting "Beer & Bible" men's Bible studies and has just introduced men's poker nights...all in the name of Christ!

In their own words: "It's not about poker, its about relaxing, enjoying the company of some men, making grunting noises, and laughing at Junior High humor. If you're a man, and you have 10 bucks, here's your chance to prove your poker skills or lack there of. Depending on the number of men who show, we will have several $5 games in before the night is through. Bring your favorite soothing beverage (barley pop, soda, water, etc.) and bring something fattening to eat! For the same price as a movie, you can enjoy some laughs and, if you're lucky, go home with a little extra. Invite your buddies! "

I expect that if Jesus were invited to stop off at the corner bar after work, He just might go. After all, He came to save sinners and there are, no doubt, as many there as there are in church on Sunday morning. If He were invited to go to a poker party, He might go, too, although He'd have an unfair advantage (being omniscient and all), so I doubt if He'd play a hand. I think He just might go...but I can't imagine that He'd lay in a keg of beer and host a casino night just to get the chance to talk to sinners!

Why do Christians seem to think that they have to camouflage Jesus' offer to reconcile sinners to their Creator God with worldly activity? Jesus never had to shout over a back-up band. He didn't have fund-raisers to finance His ministry. He didn't seem to care whether the world liked Him, and He walked all over the toes of the prevalent culture. And, although He hung around with sinners for 33 years, He never began to look or smell or act like them. I guess that's why our sin was so offensive to Him when He hung on the cross to pay for it...it never tainted Him until He literally became sin for us. Why are believers so unwilling to be different for Him?

An old comparison seems apt here. If it looks like a duck, and it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck....Why do we think it's anything other than a duck? If God has transformed you into a swan, why do you want to be a duck again?

p.s. Thanks to Rod Albert for posting the link to this information at http://rodneyalbert.blogspot.com/

Blessed by a Toothache

I never thought I'd thank the Lord for a toothache, but He has used one in my life today. After having a root canal procedure yesterday (which is only slightly more fun than a CT scan or maybe back labor), I woke up with a toothache today. Sore, achey jaw, headache, the works. Great day to stay home after I cancelled an appointment to have my hair cut at 10 a.m. And then...

Around 10 a.m. I had a phone call from a gal who needed prayer and encouragement for a meeting she was attending tonight. We talked for awhile, I shared some examples from God's Word with her, and then...

About 11 a.m. I had another phone call--this time from a man who's had multiple times of depression and discouragement. He called from Detroit to ask me about something else, to thank me for sharing Scripture with him when he needed to hear it and for being there to listen when he needed an ear.

How often don't I whine about pain and its inconvenience. How often don't I ask to have it removed! It's a good thing God doesn't always give me what I ask for. Today I can thank Him for the toothache that kept me home...where He wanted me...for the ministry He had for me today.

Thank you, Lord, for a toothache.

Looking Through His Eyes

Do you attend church on Sunday mornings? Does your church need a new roof? Have you taught your toddler to play "This is the church, this is the steeple....?

When you hear the word "church", what image comes to your mind? What do both Christians and unbelievers associate with the word "church"? An old children's chorus by Richard Avery and Donald Marsh said it well:

"The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place, the church is a people."

Nowhere are we told that the church is His bricks and morter. Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus command us to build temples to Him. Instead, He says that we are His temple. We are not told to establish religious corporations. He says we are the corpse. The Bible says that the church is the Body of Christ...His hands and feet here on this earth. He is the Head, and we are the flesh and bones of His Body.

I wonder what He thinks when He sees corner offices in religious high-rises, mega-entertainment empires, and denominational power-plays. How comfortable would He be sitting behind an executive desk?

Recently I was appalled to see the following statement of purpose on a local church web page:

"_______ church exists to win the lost to Christ through equipping and training believers to present inspiring, dynamic worship services and events.”

Is this the way Jesus works though His body? Jesus did not die for an event or a building or a church franchise. He died for people. Did He not come as a servant/sacrifice/mediator to reconcile sinners to God? Maybe we should stop equating the church with events and empires. Maybe we should start looking at people--one at a time--the way He did. Bring Him to them one at a time, not through entertainment or self-help programs, but through personal sacrifice. If each believer made a point of being Jesus' hands and feet in someone else's life, people would really be able to see the church. And they could really see Christ.

I wonder what He thinks when He looks at me.

The Case for Quiet

Today, Skye Jethani, on the blog Out of Ur, posted some insights on what he called “the quiet moments of inspiration.”

In our lives, there are often too few moments of quiet. Everywhere we go, we are surrounded by noise and distraction. We are such slaves to cell phones and Blackberries that silence is often disquieting. Many of us avoid quiet because we cannot relate to it. And we don’t even know what we are missing. What great things could God prompt us to do if He could only get our attention.

Would Moses have even seen the bush burning or heard God call his name if he’d been concentrating on his DVD player in the wilderness?

Would David have written the Psalms if he’d spent his days listening to his IPod while tending sheep, instead of listening to God?

The writers of our greatest hymns wrote out of full hearts, not full ears. And some of their most beautiful songs speak of the quiet times when God spoke to them. They are intensely personal.

Good music certainly should have a place in our lives, but our deepest fellowship with God doesn’t need auditory or visual enhancement to make it happen.

We are too willing, I think, to depend on surrogates in place of genuine experience in corporate worship, too. Music, art and drama in a worship setting are just an imitation of the reality of God Himself. They are valid only when they are expressions of what has already taken place internally. Otherwise they are only noisy entertainment.

Many of us have become spiritual forgers, turning out counterfeit worship instead of giving God time to accomplish the real thing. We come together expecting to be sung at and entertained, not to listen quietly for God to speak—to actually have Him confront us. Few of us will hear Him speak from the burning bush when we are listening for nothing more than drums or tambourines or pipe organs to give us the cue to begin to worship.

If we are to present to our God authentic worship, personally or corporately, we need to make quiet a priority—not a novelty or a threat. David wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God…”

How ironic if God had to tell His people that again…after they’d just choreographed the perfect worship service.

Lemonade in the Desert

Lately I've been following a number of blogs (mostly on SBC affiliated sites) that have stressed the need to maintain a position of separation from groups who do not hold to orthodox Christian beliefs. And if not separation, then certainly at least a healthy suspician! The Bible certainly warns Christians to expose heresy and to avoid fellowship with it.

Sometimes in our zeal to stay untainted by heresy, however, we lose our balance--avoiding fellowship with any church that does not agree with our understanding of Scripture. Today I had the opportunity to step outside the box and to visit another local church.

It was not my idea.

God, in His Sovereignty, stopped up the water supply at the building where Living Hope Bible Church meets each week. How we depend on water! When it became apparent that the problem wouldn't be fixed before Monday, it was evident that our Sunday service would have to be canceled. It was also evident that my husband would not be required to preach a sermon, as he does nearly every week. So...When God hands you a lemon, make lemonade!

That was what brought us to the 1st Presbyterian Church in Oostburg this morning.

Although we have lived in this community for most of our lives, we'd never worshiped with the Presbyterians, although we have close ties with many folks in that church. And, although we don't agree on some doctrinal issues, God gave us a "lemonade" opportunity to enjoy warm fellowship on a cold day (-16° here this morning). We thoroughly enjoyed singing the old hymns of our mutual faith. We appreciated the strong missions emphasis (and we do financially support several of the same missionaries). We appreciated the welcoming handshakes and were made to feel right at home. And we were blessed by Pastor Jim DeCamp's message about God's strength in the midst of our weakness (timely, since I'm teaching a Bible study on that topic tomorrow!).

When the Israelites had no water in the wilderness, God told Moses to strike the rock...and He provided water. When we had no water...He provided lemonade.

God For Dessert

For several weeks, I’ve been following a couple of blogsites that have addressed some intriguing topics relating to the church today.

Out of Ur is a blog initiated by the editors of Leadership Journal, and has covered a range of issues such as the commercialization of the church and church growth. Today’s blog is titled, “Have We Become Crypto-Christians?” A crypto-Christian is one who has adapted his beliefs and hidden them so that they are not apparent to others. He looks just like the culture around him—a survival technique practiced by many conquered peoples who have been forced to “convert.”

Geoff Baggett, a Baptist pastor, has a blog called Along the Shore that is also worth reading. He has tackled questions dealing with everything from inconsistency in his denomination’s baptism policies to multi-site churches to the urgency for real involvement in missions.

Although I do a lot of e-reading, there is a certain satisfaction when my print edition of the Wall Street Journal comes each day. It’s hard to fold my keyboard and lie down to read it, or to circle articles for my husband when he gets home. I circled today’s “De Gustibus” column because it addressed some of the same issues of interest to Christian bloggers. The column by Naomi Schaefer Riley is titled, “Reviving Judaism: Consultant-Speak Goes Religious”. Apparently, synagogues are facing the same problems mainline churches have faced for years: declining attendance and a listless constituency.

Just as many churches have become an industry focused on growth, market expansion and product development, Conservative Judaism is now looking to see what Jews want. A new project called Synaplex, sponsored by the Star Foundation, is designed to “provide people with new reasons to make the synagogue the place to be on Shabbat.” Traditional services may give way to “Torah and Yoga”, according to Rabbi Hayim Herring, the foundation’s executive director. Other events might feature a musical service with “latte cart” or a Friday night wine and cheese reception. According to the article, some of the synagogues participating double or triple attendance when they offer a “Synaplex” Shabbat.

The author offers an insightful closing to her column. “Listening tours, marketing gambits and strategic plans may be an inescapable part of modern life, even in the realm of religion. But in the end, for a particular faith to thrive, God can’t just be for dessert.”

Book Life

I just love to open a new book. A book is the mind of the author in black and white. And it can be a meeting point, a place of discovery, or it can be a battleground.

A good book prompts the reader to question issues and his own beliefs.

A great book raises questions about the author and what has driven him to write about the issues.

The greatest book exposes both the author and the reader and leads to some conclusions about both.

The book of Philippians holds some of the most challenging verses in the Bible. Chapter 2, verse 5 commands: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus...” To have the same “mind”—the same goal, the same worldview, the same heart attitudes as Christ, Himself—seems to be outside my reach. There is so much of my mind that gets in the way of Christ’s mind. In order to have His mind, I have to look out through His eyes, to see others as He sees them. I have to look at myself as He sees me, too, nakedly and without pretense. There is nothing that His eyes cannot penetrate. And what is the purpose of all this? The challenge continues in chapter 3, verse 10. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death...” Without the mind of Christ, I can never truly be His “soul mate”, intimately becoming one with Him. Without the mind of Christ, I will never experience His resurrection power in my own life. Without His mind, I can never truly suffer on behalf of another, nor appreciate what He suffered for me. And the only way I can climb into His mind is to immerse myself in His Book.

Live The Gift

Christmas 2006 is now history. For many people, it was stressful, depressing, an economic disaster. Lots of smoke and lights without any real substance that left them with mounds of empty boxes, empty emotions and empty check books...a legacy of debt.
What freedom, what joy we can have as Christians when we consider the reality of the greatest gift ever given--God's giving of Himself in the person of His Son that first Christmas. Everything else is just a pale imitation.
This Christmas eve, Living Hope Bible Church was again privileged to host a short time of remembrance of God's provision to pay our debt of sin. We saw how His promises given to His people in the old testament were fulfilled in the birth of Christ. We sang the story that is proclaimed in the carols of Christmas, and we heard it read in the words of scripture.
We met together with folks we knew and folks we'd never met...in a shed...on a farm...to celebrate Christmas. The baby cried, and the sheep tried to "bale" out...possibly the same things that might have happened on that first Christmas eve in another shed. Then we went home to live out the gift.

DIY GOD

Yesterday, at our Bible study at Oostburg Pizza Ranch, one of the ladies said that she had been talking to someone who sincerely believed that God is a God of love only…not a God of judgment. Nothing that my friend could tell this person seemed to sway her belief in who she thinks God is.
Many people today seem to be like this women, fashioning their concept of God upon what they “think He should be like”, a “Do It Yourself” God, rather than on what He says He is in His own words. They look to experience or emotions or, perhaps, just wishful thinking, and they see a god of indifference, a god of wrath and anger, or a soft and fuzzy god of love. But they do not see the God of the Bible because they do not listen to what He has said there about Himself.
Various accounts in the Bible reveal different facets of God’s character—some of which seem paradoxical—but God is really a sum of those seeming contradictions. Because He is holy and perfect, there is no tolerance for man’s impurity. Because He is righteous and just, He demands man’s absolute obedience to His commands. Because He is merciful and compassionate, He chose to serve man’s death sentence for disobedience (sin) Himself, so that His perfect justice could be satisfied, and man could live under the covering of His perfection.
All through the ages, men have attempted to fashion gods to their own standards. The Greeks and Romans and those who followed in their cultural footsteps pictured a pantheon of deities as sort of superheroes, larger than life, but with the same inherent failings of character that they experienced themselves. The Egyptians and those who worshiped the natural world assigned magical qualities to their gods of the heavens, the rivers, the animals. Some venerated wise men, teachers, and political and spiritual leaders, in spite of their human failings, and lifted them up as gods, worshiping them in both life and death.
Today, we live in an age of widespread religious tolerance and intolerance.
People seem ready to tolerate the elevation of both man and nature to objects of worship, yet they refuse to recognize God, their Creator, as He has represented Himself in His Word, the Bible. They are not willing to tolerate all of the attributes of God…only those that agree with their philosophy of who God should be.
But wishful thinking does not change the facts. DIY--Do it Yourself--is fine for home improvements, but it is a dangerous thing when we tinker with God.
God is not what I wish Him to be. He just Is what He Is.

Our Ultimate Objective

The October 19, 2006 Wall Street Journal had an interesting article by Emily Parker on Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi architect. Apparently, Ms. Hadid has a very original outlook regarding the relationship between design and function in architecture…in fact, she designed the BMW Central Building in Germany with conveyer belts carrying cars in production directly over the heads of employees. The article goes on to explain the reason for this novel approach: “Having the presence of your ultimate objective within view helps remind you of why you are there.”
We who are Christians would do well to remind ourselves of that fact.
If we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, as Romans 8:29 tells us, should we not “keep the presence of our ultimate objective within view”?
When we lose sight of Christ as we work, as we play, as we worship, we forget why we are here on this earth. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Maybe so many of us are so ineffective in doing God’s work because we have lost sight of our ultimate objective…Jesus Christ, Himself. This is an area where I need to be reminded again and again to look at Jesus. It is so easy to focus on the work at hand…on plans for the future…on past failures…and not to focus on the One Who is both past and future.

Come, Meet the Stranger

When Jesus walked this earth 2000 years ago, He met people where they were--whether they were fishing or collecting taxes or worshiping God in the Temple in Jerusalem. He ate lunch with the religious leaders and with known "sinners", and He valued His friendships with women and children just as much as He did those with the inner circle of men He lived with each day. He invested nearly three years of His life in someone who would ultimately betray Him. And yet...even those who knew Him best really didn't know Him at all. Perhaps those of us who think we know Him well don't, either.
Today, I met with seven other women to study the Bible so that we can see God from His own perspective, through the lens of His Word. We will be meeting at 1:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the Pizza Ranch in Oostburg, Wisconsin, so if you are in the area, we'd invite you to stop in and listen to what God has to say about Himself. We will use the book, Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, by John Cross, as our guide. There is no cost for the books, and Pizza Ranch is serving the coffee, so... ya'll come!
If you've already read the book, I'd love to get some feedback from you. Let me know what you think of it---and if you can't make it to Oostburg, maybe we can meet online.

Sunrise Over Gibbsville

There was a fantastic sunrise Sunday morning! I love to paint, and I know how hard it is to paint light convincingly. God just makes it look so easy. When I looked at that magnificent light display, it reminded me again of the Rich Mullins song, "Awesome God". If all He ever did was sunrises, it would be reason enough to stand in awe of Him.