tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-135194032024-03-13T04:37:36.813-04:00God Entrancedby Dan WaughDan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.comBlogger916125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-60622678488770111162021-11-03T08:27:00.005-04:002021-11-03T08:27:54.373-04:00Switched Platforms<p> Hello friends, followers and verbal pugilists: I have moved my blog to a Wordpress platform. This blog site has not been updated in some time. Please go to <a href="http://Godentranced.com">Godentranced.com</a> to continue reading more current posts.</p>Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-8577019501344203732020-04-01T12:39:00.001-04:002020-04-02T08:24:52.031-04:00Praise Me.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
We can all think of someone who is constantly telling you how great
they are, or fishing for compliments, wanting people to fawn all over
them. It’s not an attractive personality trait and we cringe when we see
it. (If you can’t think of someone…maybe it’s you!)<br />
<br />
<span id="more-9092"></span>
A young CS Lewis thought of God this way, annoyed by God’s
constant demands for praise, especially in the Psalms. Lewis describes his
discomfort, “I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all
religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the suggestion that
God himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance
of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the
crowd of people around every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who
gratify that demand.” (<i>Reflections on the Psalms).</i><br />
<br />
Lewis isn’t wrong; God does demand praise. It’s is everywhere in
Psalm 144-150 (the reading for today). The phrase ‘Praise the Lord’
appears repeatedly throughout these chapters. Sometimes it is actually
the word <i>Hallelujah</i> – not a command, but an interjection of praise. Other times, however, it is an imperative, a command (<i>hallal</i>).
This command, ‘Praise the Lord’ appears twenty-five times in the Psalms
alone. In addition, there are many more related commands, like ‘extol
the Lord’, ‘worship the Lord’ (5x), ‘glorify Him’, and ‘sing to the
Lord’ (10x).<br />
<br />
As Lewis wrestles with this, he considers what we mean when we say
God ‘deserves’ praise or a painting ‘deserves’ admiration. We certainly
mean more than it is admired – people with bad taste admire ugly stuff.
Nor do we mean ‘deserves’ in the sense that some injustice has been
done if the painting is not admired. What we mean, in Lewis’ words, is
that “admiration is the correct, adequate or appropriate, response to
it…that if we do not admire we shall be stupid, insensible, and great
losers, we shall have missed something.”<br />
<br />
Lewis eventually understood that God demands praise not out
of insecurity or need, but out of a desire for his creation to enjoy the
supreme goodness and beauty that is God. It is in worship that God
“communicates his presence to men” and we can best appreciate the “fair beauty
of the Lord.” Lewis takes note that all
enjoyment “spontaneously overflows into praise” unless stifled. This is true of
a good book, a good meal, a landscape, etc. Our praise, Lewis rightly
concludes, is actually the completion of our enjoyment, “its appointed
consummation.” It brings our enjoyment
to its fullness.<br />
<br />
In other words, God commands our worship because allows us
to more fully enjoy Him. Let me encourage you to take time to worship and
praise God this week. It can be in song – Sing to the Lord! <br />
It can be in
prayer. Probably we don’t spend enough time in praise as we pray; petitions
tend to crowd out praise. It is good for you; according to Lewis “praise almost
seems to be inner health made audible.”Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-18949854185672531632020-03-18T11:54:00.000-04:002020-03-18T11:54:07.632-04:00A Liturgy for Those Flooded with Too Much Information<br />
In a world so wired an interconnected,<br />
our anxious hearts are pummeled by<br />
an endless barrage of troubling news.<br />
We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord,<br />
than we can rightly consider,<br />
or more suffering and scandal<br />
than we can respond to, or more<br />
hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice<br />
than we can engage with compassion.<br />
<br />
But you, Jesus, are not disquieted<br />
by such news of cruelty and terror and war.<br />
You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed.<br />
You carried the full weight of the suffering<br />
of a broken world when you hung upon<br />
the cross, and you carry it still.<br />
<br />
When the cacophony of universal distress<br />
unsettles us, remind us that we are but small<br />
and finite creatures, never designed to carry<br />
the vast abstractions of great burdens,<br />
for our arms are too short and our strength<br />
is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and<br />
redemption, are your great labors<br />
<br />
And yes, it is your good pleasure to accomplish<br />
such works through your people,<br />
but you have never asked any one of us<br />
to undertake more than your grace<br />
will enable us to fulfill.<br />
<br />
Guard us then from shutting down our empathy<br />
or walling off our hearts because of the glut of<br />
unactionable misery that floods our awareness.<br />
You have many children in many places<br />
around the globe. Move each of our hearts<br />
to compassionately respond to those needs<br />
that intersect our actual lives, that in all places<br />
your body might be actively addressing<br />
the pain and brokenness of this world,<br />
each of us liberated and empowered by<br />
your Spirit to fulfill the small part<br />
of your redemptive work assigned to us.<br />
<br />
Give us discernment<br />
in the face of troubling news reports.<br />
Give us discernment<br />
to know when to pray,<br />
when to speak out,<br />
when to act,<br />
and when to simply<br />
shut off our screens<br />
and our devices,<br />
and to sit quietly<br />
in your presence,<br />
<br />
casting the burdens of this world<br />
upon the strong shoulders<br />
of the one who<br />
alone<br />
is able to bear them up.<br />
<br />
Amen.<br />
<br />
- "A Liturgy for Those Flooded with Too Much Information," <i>Every Moment Holy, Vol 1,</i> Douglas K. McKelvey.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-18924751045481418032020-02-03T13:55:00.000-05:002020-02-03T13:55:52.782-05:00Why are we Shocked?<span style="font-family: inherit;">Don't forget, we live in Babylon. And Babylon isn't Jerusalem - never has been, never will be (in fact, earthly Jerusalem ain't no Jerusalem either).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In two stages, Israel was taken into exile. First, the Northern Kingdom was conquered carried into exile to the Assyrian empire in 722BC. The Southern Kingdom of Judah help off exile for more than a century, but finally fell to the Babylonians in 586BC when Jerusalem was sacked and the temple destroyed. For roughly a generation, the people of Israel had to learn how to live as faithful Jews in Babylon. Babylon wasn't Jerusalem - there were other gods, other laws, other peoples, other priorities, and sins that were appalling in Jerusalem were celebrated in Babylon. It was in this context that men like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, with Daniel and later Esther and uncle Mordechai (in Persia) lived faithfully and served nobly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As believers, we share more contextual connectedness with these exiles living in foreign lands than we do with Israelites who lived in the Promised Land. As Peter tells us, we are 'elect exiles of the Dispersion' (1 Peter 1:1). We aren't natural-born residence of this world, our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and we are 'strangers and aliens' or 'sojourners and exiles' in this world (1 Peter 2:11). This is a truth we tend to forget, or maybe a truth we never fully embraced. There were times when we may have been fooled into thinking we lived in a spiritual city - a Jerusalem - because the mores and norms were superficially Judeo-Christian. But, it was a mirage only. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me be clear. We aren't aliens and strangers in America because of cultural decline or unfavorable court decisions. We aren't aliens and strangers because America is a post-Christian society. We are aliens because America (and England, and France, and China, and Yemen, and every other country) is Babylon. This applies to all civilizations through all time (save one). So Calvin, "For, if heaven is our homeland, what else is the earth but our place of exile."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">American is no more, no less, Babylon now than it was in the 1950s or the 1770s. The US is no more, no less, Babylon than the UK or China. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">No earthly city corresponds to the heavenly Jerusalem, not even the earthly Jerusalem. All cities, all nations, all powers, are a part of the temporal, temporary, and corrupted Babylon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And in Babylon we reside, though only as pilgrims - exiles waiting to go home.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The picture of Babylon is negative, but not wholly so. There are still good things to enjoy and be grateful for. Here in Babylon we, like Israel in its exile, we can</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:5-7, ESV).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, we recognize these good things for what they are - temporary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And, we recognize the city we live in for what it is - temporary and corrupted. Babylon will never be Jerusalem and we should never expect it to conduct itself like Jerusalem. We shouldn't be shocked or dismayed when sin is celebrated. Sin is the way of the world. Sometimes my social media feeds are flooded with friends expressing outrage over some new manifestation of Babylon being Babylon. Why surprised? It's what we should expect (we expect two-year-olds to get grumpy when they're tired, teenagers to be sleepy in the morning and leopards to have spots).</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH-cvQdf4euqyT_l3oyvhK8sZe96ty_oufs-7EVqeI_a-nY0AlRnOs0oWlz4iH3GyJGL7PcSC2EN0tiCAu9rm6l8pThvzEsZYlfvyZuMO0a1ZvcXWyng09d74_ZAaVJFL6zrsX/s1600/vegas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="263" data-original-width="641" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH-cvQdf4euqyT_l3oyvhK8sZe96ty_oufs-7EVqeI_a-nY0AlRnOs0oWlz4iH3GyJGL7PcSC2EN0tiCAu9rm6l8pThvzEsZYlfvyZuMO0a1ZvcXWyng09d74_ZAaVJFL6zrsX/s320/vegas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Expecting it, maybe we can be less shrill - as though our way of life was being threatened. It isn't, because our life is elsewhere. We reside here, but we shouldn't expect Babylon to conform to our mores and norms or be shocked or bitter when it doesn't. It won't, it never has (and when it appeared to, it was superficial at best).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the other hand, seeking the good of the city means we grieve sin and we want those who are impacted by its devastation to experience the fullness of redemption and restoration. And working for the good of the city might mean we use the tools of the city to better the city (like Joseph, or Daniel) - working with governments to restrain the most egregious evils, to mitigate against the worst of sins effects, alleviate injustice, remedy hurt and pain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, maybe a bit less whining and a bit more hoping and working would serve the evangelical church well. Just sayin.</span>Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-44288069436786480682020-01-06T11:51:00.001-05:002020-01-07T08:09:10.463-05:00Faith vs DecisionI was recently in a conversation with someone I respect immensely. They reported something they heard a pastor say that troubled them. Via the grapevine, it was reported that this pastor taught that his kids didn't need to be saved because they already were, by virtue of him being a pastor.<br />
<br />
I suspect, knowing something of this pastor, it was a slight misunderstanding. I suspect, though I don't know for sure, that the pastor probably said something like "my kids don't need to become Christians, they already are," or "my kids don't need to 'make a decision' for Christ', they already trust him." If that's what was stated, I agree.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3WUIOHCnuYDMTtgQ9EVz_y83_EX_JMoQ4FJtIllPMFKk6srDFBuUsD-rxf1ZIoznIzX2M8_-yD1HOc_VDMNC5P9vQ03FruN4DI-3mYOU8i3IeoRka8sFIlzVZz-7rax5ik77v/s1600/Babybaptism-GettyImages-155134002-5a3f489bbeba330037c9a01d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3WUIOHCnuYDMTtgQ9EVz_y83_EX_JMoQ4FJtIllPMFKk6srDFBuUsD-rxf1ZIoznIzX2M8_-yD1HOc_VDMNC5P9vQ03FruN4DI-3mYOU8i3IeoRka8sFIlzVZz-7rax5ik77v/s320/Babybaptism-GettyImages-155134002-5a3f489bbeba330037c9a01d.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FYI, not a picture of Caleb or any of my sons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Eight to ten years ago my son Caleb went through a "Dig Session" at church. Dig sessions at ECC are designed to help kids prepare to participate in the sacraments of baptism and communion. One of the questions the worksheet guided me to ask Caleb was something like "when did you become a Christian?" He looked at me with wounded eyes - "Dad, I've always been a Christian." He was right. He had never been a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Rastafarian or an atheist. He'd always been a Christian.<br />
<br />
Oh, but someone will object, "He needs to make a decision to trust Christ!" <br />
<br />
But does he? I asked, "are you <b><i>trusting</i></b> Christ to forgive your sins and are you committed to following the rest of your life" and he replied, simply and forcefully, "Yes!" Does he need to have a point where he <b><i>decided</i></b> to trust Jesus? I'd say no.<br />
<br />
Let me use a favorite illustration for us evangelicals to make the point. We often say, correctly, that head knowledge is not the same as faith. You might know, so the illustration goes, that this chair will hold you. But, when you sit in it, you're exercising faith.<br />
<br />
Ok, but in your childhood home did you <b><i>decide</i></b> you'd trust the Lazy-Boy. Or, did you just trust it because every day, everyone around you sat in it? I don't ever remember deciding to trust a chair, but I do trust them (with the occasional exception of ones in my office I've tried repairing, but remain sketchy). Many who grew up in the church with godly parents were taught of God's faithfulness, of Christ's love and kindness. They trust Jesus because they've always, as far back as they remember, trusted Jesus. If I had asked Caleb, "When did you decide to trust Jesus?" he would have said, "Dad, don't be an idiot, I've always trusted Jesus!"<br />
<br />
Similarly, when did you decide to love your grandma? Or, have you loved her from before you can remember. She was always in your life. She was always there and kind (I know, not all are, but I'm speaking from my experience). Loving grandma wasn't a decision, it was and is just a fact of life from as far back as I remember. I could have asked Caleb, "When did you start loving Jesus?" and he would have said "Ok Dad, I'm tired of this line of questioning. I have always loved Jesus."<br />
<br />
There are situations when the above isn't true. Someone who's never seen a chair before may need to decide to trust a chair. Someone who meets their grandmother for the first time as a teenager may need to decide how they will respond to this new person in their life. Someone who hasn't grown up in the faith, or only nominally in the faith, may need to decide to love and trust Jesus and become a Christian (with the irresistible aide of the Holy Spirit - my inner Calvinist can't write "decide" without due clarification).<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
But, for those raised in the church and/or a home saturated in faith, trust in Jesus and love for him is part of the air they have breathed from the beginning. "Deciding" isn't necessarily necessary. Deciding does not equal faith.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-48334491412560575742020-01-04T15:41:00.000-05:002020-01-04T15:41:31.645-05:00Evangelicals, we don't want prayer in schools (or why we shouldn't)Several months ago, sitting in the Indiana Memorial Union with my friend Adam deWeber, two students approached us and asked if we'd do a quick survey for a class project. We agreed and were given sheets with twenty-five or so questions. One of the questions was 'do you support prayer in schools?' I asked what they meant by that, but they said the couldn't/wouldn't explain more. As it stood, that's an impossible question for me to answer.<br />
<br />
If you mean, should we allow students time to pray privately (emergency prayers before finals will always be needed), or to voluntarily gather in groups to pray together (i.e. See You at the Pole), then yes, I support this.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/h4jcfIoRcn2X85FXcJckd3tTTIo=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/schoolprayer-56b33cdc5f9b58def9c96b9f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="768" height="204" src="https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/h4jcfIoRcn2X85FXcJckd3tTTIo=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/schoolprayer-56b33cdc5f9b58def9c96b9f.jpg" width="320" /></a>But I suspect they mean officially sanctioned prayers led by a teacher/administrator with student participation expected or encouraged. This is what most from older generations bemoan losing when Madalyn Murray O'Hair won her lawsuit and school prayers were no more (the historical timeline of prayers in public schools is more complicated than this, I know).<br />
<br />
If it is this type of officially sanctioned prayers led by a school official, then I DO NOT WANT PRAYER IN MY KIDS' SCHOOL. That's right, I would oppose this type of prayer in our local public schools. Why? Two big reasons:<br />
<br />
First, I don't want my kids learning how to pray in school because it isn't the job of a school official to teach my children how to pray. It's mine and the church's responsibility. Would I get to choose who leads them in prayer in day and thus teaches them to pray? If so, I'd find a faithful Presbyterian or Evangelical to teach them (if not, then a Lutheran or Catholic could be fine). But I doubt I'll get to choose. What if it's a crazy "health-and-wealth-prosperity-gospel" teacher? What if it's a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness? What if it's some crazy liberal who prays to Mother God or something like that? What kind of prayers would be offered - vague general prayers that are innocuous and unChristian? I'd rather my kids not pray like that. I don't want civil religion types prayers - I'd rather have no prayer.<br />
<br />
Second, if we insist the prayers are truly Christian prayers, in the name of Christ and informed by core Christian doctrines, then what of the sizeable minorities who do not claim to be Christians. What of the Jews in our schools, the Muslims, the atheists. Should we force their children to pray to in Christ's name? What about regions where Christianity is the minority, like Hamtrack, MI or in Jewish neighborhoods in NYC? Is it the majority that chooses what kind of prayers are offered? What of the Christian students in these areas - should they be forced to pray to in a Muslim way?<br />
<br />
We live in a pluralistic culture. The job of the schools is not to promote religion; they wouldn't be good at it.<br />
<br />
J. Gresham Machen, the staunch opponent of liberalism at Princenton who went on to found Westminster Theological Seminary, likewise <a href="https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/j-gresham-machen-the-politically-incorrect-fundamentalist/" target="_blank">opposed Bible readings and prayers in school</a>...back in 1933! Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-41008487174013542142019-10-26T16:34:00.002-04:002019-10-26T20:59:29.414-04:00Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.argentum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Hands5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://www.argentum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Hands5.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I remember hearing a talk radio host recently warn people that if their church spoke about social justice, they should leave because the church isn't Christian, it's communist. I understand that labels can mean all sorts of things, but I find it hard to be <i><b>against</b></i> social justice. If you're against it, are you for social injustice? The Bible does speak about social justice all the time - not necessarily in those words. In fact, maybe we should call it what the Bible calls it - righteousness.<br />
<br />
Everyone talks about justice, Democrat and Republican, though they'll use different language to do so. Justice for the unborn. Justice for oppressed. Justice for the immigrant. Justice for those whose convictions go against the cultural tide. And all these groups deserve justice!<br />
<br />
But, I don't hear many talking about intergenerational justice - and I think we need to start talking about that in earnest. In a 2011 statement, a group of evangelical thinkers (Evangelical for Social Action with Center for Public Justice) issued a <a href="https://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/IntergenerationalJustice/">Call for Intergenerational Justice</a>, contending “Intergenerational justice demands that one generation must not benefit or suffer unfairly at the cost of another.”<br />
<br />
The issue that sparked the petition was the mounting debt crisis. Unfortunately, this crisis has not gone away, though it is being ignored. The federal budget deficit was $984 billion in 2019 - a 26% increase from the year before. Our national debts is $23 trillion ($23,000,000,000,000). Obviously, this is not sustainable. It's also unjust! To fix today's problems on tomorrow's dollar keeps snowballing...and the monstrous snowball will destroy our children's economic futures.<br />
<br />
And I listen to debates where politicians promise new programs - free this, free that...with no viable way to pay for it - and I think we're selling our kids to the god of mammon, unwilling to sacrifice a modicum of our material prosperity today to help them in the future. Biblically, it is the parent's role to save for their children, not mortgage their children's future (2 Corinthians 12:14, and a lot of wisdom literature).<br />
<br />
My small-government Republican friends may like this post so far. You won't if you keep reading...<br />
<br />
As unjust as those who rack up massive debt for their children are those who use up all the earth's resources, leaving it polluted and stripped. Some will quibble over the science of climate change. Set it aside. Can we quibble over the loss of 3 billion birds in North America in the last few decades (or are bird watchers and ornithologists also just a tool of 'big solar' - ok, I'm getting a bit sarcastic)? Shouldn't we all be able to agree that we want clean water (not like what my mom and dad lived with in PA where some of their neighbor's water was flammable)? Shouldn't we be able to agree that we need clean air - not like people in the LA Basin suffered through a few decades ago? Shouldn't we agree that there are some places of such awe-inspiring beauty that we shouldn't befoul them with oil rigs or mines and ruin them for future generations?<br />
<br />
Regulations (that were barely addressing the massive problems to begin with) are being rolled back to make energy cheaper, manufacturing more competitive, etc. But it is unjust. Biblically, the land (and sea and sky) doesn't belong to us - we are stewards of it for God. And, it's a common good - not just ours to use, but everyone's, including future generations. The Bible has quite a bit to say to those who destroy the earth (i.e. Revelation 11:18, Proverbs 12:10, Deuteronomy 20:19-20).<br />
<br />
I am sure there is a myriad of other applications of this concept of generational justice. Let's include this in our dialogue, expect it of our elected officials, and strive together to find solutions for everyone, even those who are yet to be born.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-39868945414040168142019-09-30T09:26:00.003-04:002019-09-30T13:21:16.808-04:00The Excellencies of Christ [and His Church]This past week I was studying for my ACG class [topic is 'Mother Church'] and was reminded of my favorite sermon by Jonathan Edwards. No, it's not Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (though that one is very good too). The sermon, titled 'The Excellency of Christ', is based on Revelation 5:5-6:<br />
<blockquote>
And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain...</blockquote>
Edwards points out that John is told by the angel that the Lion of the tribe of Judah can open the scroll. In his vision, it would be quite natural for him to expect to see this Lion; instead, in his vision he sees a Lamb. Edwards reasons,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
He is called a Lion….He is called a Lamb. That which I would observe from the words…There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ. The lion and the lamb, though very diverse kinds of creatures, yet have each their peculiar excellencies.</blockquote>
Throughout the sermon, he helps the reader consider the diverse excellencies that meet in Jesus - the strength of the Lion, the meekness of the Lamb, the infinite majesty of God Almighty and the infinite condescension of the Suffering Servant. This leads Edwards to his application or 'uses'. First, there is an evangelistic use. He contends,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let the consideration of this wonderful meeting of diverse excellencies in Christ induce you to accept of him, and close with him as your Savior. As all manner of excellencies meet in him, so there are concurring in him all manner of arguments and motives, to move you to choose him for your Savior, and every thing that tends to encourage poor sinners to come and put their trust in him: his fullness and all-sufficiency as a Savior gloriously appear in that variety of excellencies that has been spoken of.</blockquote>
In other words, what could you possibly need in a Savior that can't be found in Jesus? He is all-sufficient for every need you have. The second use of this truth is for the Christian.<br />
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Let what has been said be improved to induce you to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and choose him for your friend and portion. As there is such an admirable meeting of diverse excellencies in Christ, so there is every thing in him to render him worthy of your love and choice, and to win and engage it. Whatsoever there is or can be desirable in a friend, is in Christ, and that to the highest degree that can be desired.</blockquote>
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I love this sermon. It's rich, Christo-centric, stirs my affections and makes me want more of Christ. But what drew my mind from my study of ecclesiology to this sermon? For the six weeks, I have been leading my ACG (Adult Community Group) through a study of the different images of the church in the New Testament. There are many - Paul Minear describes ninety-six images related to the church! We haven't considered all ninety-six, but the ones we have are very diverse. The church as the Kingdom of God is an image to be held alongside the church as the Body of Christ. The church as a building is to be held alongside the church as a vine. The church as the Bride of Christ is meant to be held together with the church as a sheep pen. Diverse images for sure!<br />
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So why so much diverse imagery from the pens of the New Testament authors to describe the church? Let me plagiarize Edwards,<br />
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"There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in the church of Jesus Christ. The building and the vine, though very diverse kinds of images, yet have each their peculiar excellencies." </blockquote>
No one image would suffice to sum up the beauty and the mystery of the Chruch. My 'use' of this truth mirrors Edwards. Let the consideration of this wonderful meeting of diverse excellencies in Christ’s church induce you to accept it (not reject or eschew it), serve it (instead of consume it), and love it, as Christ does.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-79460450392295426642019-03-22T19:23:00.002-04:002019-03-22T19:27:12.266-04:00Don't use Dead Christians to Score Political/Rhetorical PointsOver the past few days, I have seen a few disturbing Facebook posts about Christian's slaughtered in Nigeria and the Philippines. Of course, as a Christian and, frankly as a human, I am deeply saddened by this. But, these posts have been rhetorically dishonest and so devalue and dishonor those who have died.<br />
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The reports are not usually posted with a simple "this is sad, we should pray and remember Christians who live in hard places and have their lives taken from them." No, instead it's, "the media is falling all over themselves to report the massacre in New Zealand, but nary a word about the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria and the Philippines." It's a rhetorical trick attempting to demonstrate that the media ("the left wing media") doesn't care about the plight of Christians. Problem is, the facts are very wrong.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZgjJCO2IC0zPFP-Ea3aOnS7Bh48tpF4u1BOg6Wg2xwcmOXSOZNgt0rVX8dr32BeQBggUU76HJv1MkQ_ivwfTjOhVpo5wLmFlAFoS-faisfBZEkApFyzeTvbSej6SOz4RDVfD/s1600/Screenshot_2019-03-22+Denise+Navarre.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="645" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZgjJCO2IC0zPFP-Ea3aOnS7Bh48tpF4u1BOg6Wg2xwcmOXSOZNgt0rVX8dr32BeQBggUU76HJv1MkQ_ivwfTjOhVpo5wLmFlAFoS-faisfBZEkApFyzeTvbSej6SOz4RDVfD/s320/Screenshot_2019-03-22+Denise+Navarre.png" width="320" /></a>First, consider what is being spread regarding the bombing in the Philippines; the following post is an example. This was posted on March 15th, shortly after the New Zealand mosque killings.<br />
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Indeed ISIS terrorists did attack two Catholic churches in the Philippines and killing at least twenty, wounding dozens. But this attacked happened in late January (not, as the post implies, in mid-March). And, <b>the tragedy was covered by media when it actually happened</b>, including CNN, Fox, NYTimes, BBC, Reuters and many more.<br />
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The killings in Nigeria are different, more complicated. The posts that have been circulating, often referencing a Breitbart headline, claim that Muslim militants have killed more than 120 Christians in Nigeria. Again, this is a mixture of truth and error. The numbers vary from agency to agency, but 120 is very likely. However, this is part of a larger feud between farmers and herders that is raging in Nigeria currently. Muslim nomadic herders (Fulani) have been in conflict with the ethnically Christian Adara people in Nigeria. Many on both sides have been killed. In February, Adara gunmen, in response to an attack by Fulani, targetted Fulani settlements and killed at least 130. In March, yes 120 Christians, or more, were killed as a part of this conflict.<b> It's ugly. It is war. Which makes it categorically different than a white supremacist walking into a mosque and killing fifty, wounding more. </b><br />
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The Christland shooting has received more attention than either of the other two events. I don't doubt that, but it seems completely understandable too. There is a 'first world bias' to events we read about or hear about from the media. A factory fire that kills 20 in Bangladesh won't make the news. Same fire in Chicago or Londo will. And, this kind of violence isn't expected in New Zealand, but we have become somewhat calloused to it in other parts of the country. A gangland shootout killing three or four people won't make the news if it's in Chicago or LA. If it's on the streets of Cape Cod or in Disneyland it would. <br />
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Let me be blunt, misrepresenting these horrific events to make the point that Christians are ignored by the media is dishonest. It is, in terms of the Ten Commandments, bearing false witness. And, it dishonors the dead - they aren't tools to be used in your war against the media. Shaping public opinion by using false data is, at best, manipulative. It feeds the "us vs. them" mentality that is doing so much harm in our nation and across the globe. Please stop.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-6273668425415074352018-06-27T14:35:00.001-04:002018-06-27T15:02:11.729-04:00Not a Political Post: Our Elected Officials Do Speak for Us, Whether We Like It or NotThis post isn't a political one, but I have noticed something over the past few years regarding how we talk about politics that I'd like to call out, partly because it's just incorrect, and partly because it has implications for how we read and understand the Scriptures.<br />
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For a long time now I've seen social media posts that read, 'He's not my President' or 'He/she/they don't speak for me'. It's not just under the current administration that this kind of rhetoric has been common - many conservative/right wingers said the same kind of thing under the previous administration. Well, hate to break it to you, but they do - whether you like it or not. Again, this isn't a post in support of any politician or party, court decision or policy. I don't post political things (usually), and I'm not doing so here. It's just a post about reality.<br />
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The U.S. is a representative democracy - we elect representatives who represent us. They speak for us, enact laws on our behalf, appoint judges, make decisions, strike treaties, etc. I have never done any of those things, but my representatives have on my behalf. I don't always like their decisions, but they do speak for me. If Congress declares war on Canada [or the President; War Powers Resolution is iffy constitutionally], then we, including me, are at war.<br />
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It is a special expression of our western individualism [run amuck] that says things like 'PersonX doesn't speak for me' when PersonX clearly does. And this individualism makes it hard to accept a key principle of Scripture - federal headship.<br />
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Did I appoint Adam as my representative? No, I didn't have a say. Do I approve of what he did? No (but, slightly off point, I would have failed just as miserably - I do it daily). But still Adam spoke and acted as my representative. He declared independence from his Maker, thrust himself and me into conflict with the Divine Judge/Jury/Executioner. "But he doesn't speak for me!" Yes, yes he does.<br />
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And so does Christ. He speaks for me and all those who are 'in him'. He, as the second Adam, is our faithful and true representative who makes terms of peace for us, accomplishes the peace, and imposes a new law of love. At the same time, I am conscripted by him into an ongoing war against darkness, sin, and the devil.<br />
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Our western, individualistic presuppositions can truly make it difficult to understand texts written in the Ancient Near East, and to the degree that such presuppositions are fallen and twisted, they make it hard to understand how a holy God operates too.<br />
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[note: I will not engage political discourse in the comments, but if you have questions about the theology of this post, ask away] Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-55682302178364008922017-03-02T09:34:00.002-05:002017-11-27T20:18:31.232-05:00Further Meditation on God's WisdomYesterday I posted some <a href="http://godentranced.blogspot.com/2017/03/gods-wisdom.html" target="_blank">thoughts related to God's wisdom</a> as it is revealed in the story of Joseph. I kept thinking about it last night and into this morning, and am all the more in awe of God's wisdom.<br />
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In essence, I came to the the conclusion yesterday that if Joseph hadn't been sold into slavery, we're all going to hell. How did I come to this fairly startling conclusion?<br />
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Joseph being sold into slavery, though a series of convoluted machinations, places Joseph in a place of tremendous influence in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. In this role, Joseph institutes a plan that will save thousands of lives during a seven year famine that God warns of in a dream. Among those lives saved are Jacob (Joseph's elderly father) and Joseph's brothers. These men represent the covenant community, the descendants of Abraham and Jacob that will become Israel.<br />
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If this small group of sojourners die of starvation (and they would have had Joseph not provided them grain), God's promise that Abraham's descendants would be numerous would fail. And, God's promise that Abraham's seed would be a blessing to the nations would fail too. If they die, there is no Israel; no Israel means no Messiah to bless the nations; no Messiah means we're still in our sin.<br />
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That was my thought line yesterday.<br />
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Then I started to question it and said to myself, "Surely, God would have found another way!"<br />
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But that's not right. That God is all wise means God never has to go to Plan B. He chooses the right plan - the right goal and the right means to achieve it - from the outset.<br />
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And because God is good and holy, we can be sure Plan A is a good and holy plan - a perfect goal and just means to accomplish it. Because God is all knowing, no unforeseen circumstances will arise and force him back to the drawing board. Because God is Almighty, no force can stand in his way when his plan has been determined.<br />
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Saying God is Wise means no Plan B is needed!<br />
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Job 42:1-2:<br />
Then Job replied to the LORD: <br />
2 “I know that you can do all things; <br />
no purpose of yours can be thwarted<br />
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Isaiah 14:26-27<br />
This is the plan determined for the whole world; <br />
this is the hand stretched out over all nations. <br />
27 For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? <br />
His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-47224815554314649972017-03-01T10:40:00.002-05:002017-03-01T10:40:27.807-05:00God's wisdomThis morning I am studying the story of Joseph, getting ready to speak on God's wisdom for the men's group. It's such a familiar story, it's all the more striking when some new insight hits you. And that's what happened this morning.<br />
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Joseph is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. He endures life as a slave, mistreatment by Potiphar and his wife, incarceration and more. He's been betrayed and forgotten. But God is wise.<br />
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Eventually, due to some disturbing dreams Pharaoh has (dreams play a huge role in Joseph's story), Joseph ends up in the court of Pharaoh in a incredibly influential position. Pharaoh's dream warned of a long famine that would follow on the heels of years of prosperity. In wisdom, Joseph helps Pharaoh make ready for the years of famine by storing up grain during the years of plenty. In so doing, he is instrumental in saving the lives of countless thousands of people.<br />
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And here's where the story gets fantastic. Some of the people he saves are his own family - his scheming, treacherous brothers and his aging father. His wisdom rescues them from starvation. That, in and of itself, makes the story really cool. But consider that Jacob (Joseph's father) and his brothers are the descendants of Abraham and Isaac. They are the covenant community. They are the people that become the nation of Israel. They are the forefathers of the Messiah.<br />
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So here it is...<br />
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If Joseph isn't sold into slavery, he doesn't find himself in Pharaoh's court preparing Egypt for famine. <br />
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If Joseph isn't sold into slavery, Jacob and his brothers die of starvation.<br />
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If Joseph isn't sold into slavery, there is no Israel.<br />
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If Joseph isn't sold into slavery, Jesus isn't born in Bethlehem as Messiah.<br />
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If Joseph isn't sold into slavery, we aren't saved by Jesus from our sins.<br />
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If Joseph isn't sold into slavery, I am going to hell for eternity.<br />
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Lets all sing with the apostle Paul:<br />
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33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! <br /> How unsearchable his judgments, <br /> and his paths beyond tracing out! <br /> 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? <br /> Or who has been his counselor?” b <br /> 35 “Who has ever given to God, <br /> that God should repay them?” c <br /> 36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. <br /> To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-84413003465970287372017-02-23T09:14:00.000-05:002017-02-23T09:14:15.951-05:00Finding the Right Balance in Family Bible ReadingThis morning I will be sharing with the Mom's group at ECC on the topic of family Bible reading. Our family has certainly had it's ups and downs, its trials and errors, and its successes. There have been, shamefully, periods where we've gone months without consistent Bible reading together. And, there's been other periods, more regular and more sustained, when we've read the Bible together faithfully. During all of it, there are a few things we've tried to keep balanced.<br />
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<b>1. Regularity vs. Legalism</b><br />
We certainly want to be regular in our ingestion of God's Word together as a family. But we've not been legalistic about it either. If we miss a night or two, we don't stress about it. Last night we went to my nieces last IU game at home - it was senior night. It was awesome and went into double overtime, ending in an IU win (Karlee played extremely well). We didn't get home late and kids were tired, Caleb still had homework to do, etc.<br />
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So, we didn't do devotions last night. Doing so would have been overly burdensome. Insisting we do so would have been legalistic.<br />
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Now we have taken, at times, this libertarian approach too far and fallen out of a real habit. That's worse. But you and your family need to find the right balance.<br />
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<b>2. Big Story vs. Little Stories</b><br />
Growing up I knew all the little stories of the Bible. When we played Bible Trivia (and we did often), I was pretty good. Christian school, Sunday school, my parents, my dad's sermons, etc., all taught the stories of Bible.<br />
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But it wasn't till much later that I could put these together in a comprehensive way - in a way that reflected an understanding of the Big Story of the Bible.<br />
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I think that trend has been reversed in my kids. They know the Grand Story...I've told it over and over again. Our church emphasizes it. We've read devotionals that teach it. But, I'm not sure they know the stories like Gideon, Ehud, the story of the rich man and Lazarus, etc.<br />
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Both are important. In fact, the Big Story is hard to tell without certain of the small stories. And the point of the small stories is easy to miss if you can't put them in the context of the Big Story. So find the right balance.<br />
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Note: using the word story with your kids...we emphasized that the Bible stories are true stories, not stories like Hansel and Gretel or Dr. Seuss. <br />
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<b>3. Moral Lessons vs. God's Provision of Salvation</b><br />
The Bible stories teach moral lessons. David was a courageous young man. Daniel stood up for what was right. Ruth was loyal. Amen. Our kids need to hear these moral lessons and need to have good exemplars of the faith to model. And, there's biblical precedent for this - simply look at Hebrews 11 where Abraham et al are held up as models of faith leading to action.<br />
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But these stories aren't about moral lessons; in fact, Moses, Daniel, David, etc. - they're not the heroes of the stories. God is!<br />
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At one point when we were teaching through the stories of the OT, we had a little ritual. I'd tell the story, make my wise, fatherly/pastoral comments, and then end with a question, "What's the point of the story?" The kid's response was "God saves his people!" <br />
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Teach the morals, but never lose sight of the real point of the stories!<br />
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<b>4. Paraphrases vs. God's Word</b><br />
Is it ok to use a kids Bible, or a Bible story book that paraphrases the stories, or must we read straight from the Bible?<br />
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I think both are good. And I think, again, both have Biblical precedent. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan they erected altars. They were told to so, so that when they passed by later with their children and the children's asked, "what are these?", they'd have the opportunity to tell them the story of God's deliverance. Not read it or recite it, tell it.<br />
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But certainly, we're commanded not only to read Scripture but hide it our hearts. Reading the word of God as God inspired it is incredibly important. I remember passages that I never memorized, but I've heard read over and over again. That is so important.<br />
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So tell the stories and read the Word. Do both.<br />
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<b>5. Age appropriate vs. Challenging</b><br />
It's hard, especially with several kids, to find the right balance here. What's appropriate for one is very challenging for another (or overly simplistic). We probably lean towards the challenging. Sometimes the youngest may feel it's over his head. But, I've seen a few things happen repeatedly. One they ask questions, and conversations start that are priceless. Two, the older kids take on the role of tutor, and explain it in more simple terms. That's awesome! Three, the younger kids understand way more that I think they do. Four, months later, they'll recall something we discussed. They didn't get it at the time, but now the light bulb went on. Love it!<br />
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So we tend to the challenging, maybe not always age appropriate. But if that's all we did, it probably wouldn't work. Sometimes the conversations are more simple...and the older ones know it's not always all about them. Plus, who of us doesn't need to be reminded and dwell on the simple lessons from time to time?<br />
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We don't have all this figured out. We did. Then we had kids. My encouragement to you is to struggle through it. Find the time, make the mistakes, do your best. Find the appropriate balance in these areas and pour into your kids, showing them that the content of our faith really matters.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-43431499336684454132017-02-14T12:41:00.001-05:002017-02-14T12:41:34.332-05:00Christ Would be Lord of Your Emotions Too (Thoughts on Valentine's Day)Emotions get a bad rap. I remember my dad saying things like "you can't trust your emotions." Now, I agree that you can't trust fallen emotions, but you can't trust fallen reason or the fallen will either.<br />
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But, Christ redeems us whole, not just reason, not just will, but emotions too.<br />
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And, Christ is Lord of it all. That means he commands us to think and believe, to will and to act, and to feel and emote.<br />
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I didn't realize this was controversial till I stepped in it [the proverbial 'it'] last week. Somewhere along the line, we drew a false distinction between joy and happiness, between love as an act and love as an emotion. I believe these are absolutely false distinctions.<br />
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Let me make a case briefly, using love as my example. No Christian can seriously question that we are called to love - to love God, to love neighbor, even to love our enemies. Sometimes this gets interpreted to mean that we ought to do loving things for the other, after all, love must be expressed in practical, real ways. It's not just a warm fuzzy emotion.<br />
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With this, I can partially agree. Love isn't <i>just</i> an emotion. It's more, <b>but it's not less</b>. Love <i>must</i> include affection.<br />
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Think about worship for a moment. What would worship be like without genuine feeling, without affection for the one we worship? Is God content to have us do loving things for him, like serve him out of duty, obey him, etc? No! We <b>must<i> feel</i> </b>something for God. We must feel love <i>and </i>serve <i>and </i>obey. I think 1 Corinthians 13 makes this pretty clear.<br />
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13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (ESV)</blockquote>
Paul speaks of loving things - worship in tongues of men and angels, giving to the poor, surrendering to martyrdom. But if these aren't done in love, read 'with genuine affection/feeling', they are nothing! <br />
This is true of our earthly relationships too. If my wife does loving things for me - buys me Valentine's Day candy, cooks dinner, keeps my clothes clean and ironed, even shows all kinds of physical affection - but <b><i>feels</i></b> nothing for me, is she a loving wife? No! Emotions are important.<br />
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The same is true of joy and happiness. We've divided the two concepts when no such division is sustainable biblically (and doesn't show up in church writings until very recently). Too often we've contended that you can be joyful, but not happy - in other words, joy isn't an emotion. But it is! The Bible uses words that get translated 'joy' or 'happiness' as synonyms. True, biblical joy/happiness is deep and well rooted because it's grounded in the gospel and in God, but it's still an emotion. And it's true that it's possible to be joyful/happy and grieve and be sorrowful and mourn. They aren't mutually exclusive but that doesn't mean joy isn't an emotion. Joy is an emotion, call it happiness if you will, and it should touch our faces sometimes (in smiles). You can't be glumly joyful! <br />
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So, I don't always feel happy or feel love. I''ll admit it (and it comes as no surprise to those who know me). Is that ok? My answer is no. It's not. Something is wrong in my faith and obedience and I should repent, seek forgiveness. If I don't feel love for my wife, I should still show love, but pray fervently that God would fix my emotions and allow me to <i>also </i>feel love. If I'm not happy, I ought to ask God to make me happy - not the kind that depends on my circumstances or comfort, but deeply, biblically happy <i>in Him!</i><br />
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Christ commands. He is Lord. The wind and the waves obey...so should my heart!<i> </i><br />
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<i>For more on happiness and joy, look here at <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/joy-happiness.html" target="_blank">this article</a>, and also this <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/is-happiness-different-from-joy" target="_blank">interview with Randy Alcorn</a>. </i> Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-66245686578025593152017-02-07T15:45:00.000-05:002017-02-07T15:45:12.004-05:00Why I Cringe When I People Say America Was/Is A Christian NationBelow is text from one of my 2010 posts. Claims that the U.S. was/is a Christian nation get repeated by the right (when arguing for traditional family values) and the left (i.e. as a Christian nation we ought to welcome refugees)...and it always make me cringe.<br />
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Last night I spoke to a small group of international graduate students on the topic "Is America a Christian Nation?" I asked at the outset if they had been given the impression that America was a Christian nation and they all agreed that they had.<br />
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I began by asking what it is that makes an individual a Christian. I outlined three essential things. First, an internal work of God referred to as 'regeneration' or 'being born again'. That is the work of God and the sine qua non of being a Christian - without that work, we are still dead in sin and not a part of the Kingdom. This internal change will be manifested externally in the Fruit of the Spirit, but these externals flow from (necessarily) the internal change and cannot be forced or produced simply by the will of man.<br />
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Second, Christians are defined right belief. I asked, "if I told you I was an atheist who believed in God, what would you say?" Rightly they understand that I wouldn't be a real atheist, for atheists are marked by a specific belief, namely in the nonexistence of God. Likewise, real Christians are marked by certain beliefs. John, in his first letter articulates a doctrinal test -those who are truly believers will confess Christ. Those who don't, aren't genuine believers, but antichrists. Paul articulates the importance of right belief in several places, but look specifically at Galatians 1:6-9 and his condemnation of 'another gospel'. The early creeds, accepted by Catholics and Protestants (and with minor disagreement, Orthodox believers) are a wonderful summary of what true Christians have believed for centuries.<br />
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Finally, there are certain actions that mark of genuine Christians. Again, I asked, "what makes someone a vegetarian?" Obviously, vegetarians are marked off by certain practices, more so than beliefs. They don't eat meat. So Christians are marked off by certain actions, among them is participation in the sacraments of baptism and communion. The New Testament does not allow for a category of believer that is unbaptized or non-participatory in the sacramental life of the Body of Christ (I know, the exception is the thief on the cross). Likewise, the NT doesn't allow us to conceive of believers who are not connected to the life of the church.<br />
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Having established what it means for a person to be a Christian, we moved on the discuss what it means for a nation to be Christian. First, a nation could be officially Christian in that it recognized/supported/regulated a state church. England is officially Anglican. Denmark has the Danish National Church (Lutheran). In a similar way, many states officially support Islam as the state religion (Iran, Kuwait, etc.), and several officially support Buddhism (Cambodia, Thailand, etc.).<br />
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Second, a nation could be established explicitly on Christian principles, theology, Scriptures, etc. The charter of the Plymouth Colony(Mayflower Compact) is such a document, stating,<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic;">"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the </span><span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Christian Faith</span><span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic;"> and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic..."</span><br />
<br />
Third, a nation could be considered Christian if the vast majority of the population is Christian (but, on that, see the discussion above regarding the marks of a true Christian). So, do these apply to America?<br />
<br />
Going back to the early 1700's, N.America was controlled by three colonizing powers: France, Great Britain, and Spain. Before the 1700's, other nations, like the Dutch, controlled some portions of N. America, but by 1700, it was those three that controlled the entire N.American continent. Two of the three were Roman Catholic, England was officially Protestant. Of the three groups of settlers (English, Spanish, and French), only one came for explicitly religious reasons. The Pilgrims (Separatists) and the Puritans settled in Massachusetts in hopes of finding freedom from (Anglican) persecution. However, not all British settlers came for religious reasons. Alongside the Dissenters (Pilgrims & Puritans) looking for freedom came good Anglicans who were motivated by the hope of a new life or financial prosperity.<br />
<br />
Moving ahead to the time of the Revolution and the founding of the United States as a nation, many Christians look back to our Founding Fathers as pillars of Christian virtue who sought to establish a nation on the Christian principles. There is, however, good reason to question this. (I won't even raise the issue of whether or not rebellion against a sovereign is biblical, I'll just direct your attention to 1 Peter 1:13 and Romans 13:1-7). While it is absolutely true, that many pastors were supportive of the Revolution and that many of the Founding Fathers were good Christians (Patrick Henry, John Witherspoon, and Samuel Adams -who's better known for his beer than his role in founding our nation), that is certainly not the whole story. Among the founders there were quite a few Deists (and heretics). Ben Franklin denied the deity of Christ. John Adams denied the Trinity. Thomas Jefferson took scissors to his Bible and cut out all things supernatural, including the resurrection of Christ. Can such men be considered Christian? The did talk of god, but they eschewed a Christian understanding of God. They're god was sub-Christian. Thomas Paine was worse yet (or maybe better yet). He said, <span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-size: 100%; font-style: italic;">"</span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic;">I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman </span></span><span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic;">Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."</span> No wonder he was referred to as the 'filthy little atheist'! </span>Moreover, Washington, while being a regular church goer refused communion for his whole adult life. In addition, he was a Grand Master in the Masonic Lodge - something that cannot easily be reconciled with genuine Christian convictions. (Regarding the image: in the words of an author I can't remember, 'Praying doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.' Ok, the quote is actually, 'going to church doesn't make you a Christian...' but you get the idea.)<br />
<br />
Considering all of this, I believe we can say that Christianity was certainly influential, but not exclusively so. Maybe more important than Jesus or Moses were the Enlightenment philosphers in vogue at the time - Kant, Rousseau, etc - and their elevation of autonomous reason over revelation (ie. 'we hold these truth to be self evident').<br />
<br />
Moreover, beyond the small circle of founders, the population at large, while certainly thinking of themselves as Christian, could be thought of as only nominally so. Belief in God can be assumed, as well as a general Judeo-Chrsitian ethic; however, it is estimated that only 10-15% of the population attended church regularly. [Interestingly, more people attend church regularly now than when this nation was born, in terms of sheer numbers and also percentage of population. So it could be argued we are more Christian now than then. I don't think most would like that argument.]<br />
<br />
In addition, when you look at the founding documents of the United States, you don't see any gospel orientation (not even a specifically Christian orientation like in the Mayflower Compact). Certainly vague talk of God or Creator is there, but Deists could affirm that No mention of Christ or the gospel. There was never an officially sanctioned state church for the nation (though many states supported the church - Anglican or Congregational). In fact, our Constitution distances us from any form of established religion. Our leaders are not subject to any religious test (Article 6.3), and religious liberty (not just of Christians) was articulated in the 1st amendment. Interestingly, Patrick Henry understood this to be grounded in the gospel, writing,<span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic;">"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship."</span> I disagree with him on the first part, but affirm the connection between the gospel and religious freedom in the second part of the quote. <br />
<br />
It must be conceded that American's breathed Christian air. The Judeo-Christian ethic was assumed. I've even heard it said that the god atheists disbelieved in was the Christian God (not a Muslim god or Hindu god, etc). However, that is a far cry from saying we were founded on Christian principles.<br />
<br />
So, I believe saying America is a Christian nation doesn't do justice to the historical complexities surrounding the birth or our nation. In addition, and more importantly, it doesn't do justice to the nature of genuine Christianity. This is why I cringe when I hear pastors or theologians or lay people saying it. Do we really want that baggage?<br />
<br />
First, American civil religion isn't Christianity. Morality isn't Christianity. Christian does come with a moral system, but the moral system, which American did, by and large, embrace, isn't what is essential to Christianity.<br />
<br />
Second, looking at the history of our nation, we cannot claim it was a Christian nation and then turn a blind eye to the atrocities we have, as a nation, committed. This is, I believe, very important to own. Slavery. The dispossession of and slaughter of Native Americans. The confinement of Japanese in internment camps. Entrenched racism. And that's the short list. No wonder people in other parts of the world hear America claiming to be a Christian nation, look at our history, and conclude they want nothing to do with Christianity.<br />
<br />
Lastly, I think Christians should think long and hard about whether or not the idea of a Christian nation is even biblical. Can a Christian America be squared with Jesus' statements regarding the spiritual nature of his kingdom? I don't think they can be easily reconciled.<br />
<br />
I'll conclude with a long quote from Richard Alpert in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Huffington Post</span>:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-style: italic;">“Speaking from the heart of the Muslim world in Turkey's Cankaya Palace in April 2009, President Barack Obama answered the question with the nuance that has come to characterize his public statements: America, he declared, is "a predominantly Christian nation" but "we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation."<br /><br />The President's answer seems to strike a discordant tone between reality and self-perception. On the one hand, American has no official church or religion. The United States Constitution expressly forbids a national religion. Yet on the other hand, Christianity is the religion of a substantial supermajority of the American population. According to the latest results of the Pew Research Centre's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, nearly 80 percent of Americans self-identify as Christian.<br /><br />But there is no contradiction in the President's statement. America is, and indeed always has been, a nation of Christians but it is not, nor has it ever been, a Christian nation.”</span><span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0 , 0 , 0);"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0);"><span style="color: rgb(0 , 0 , 0);">Want more. Watch this <a href="http://youtu.be/GdygGthHca4?hd=1">short video from Bryan Chapell</a>, President of Covenant Theological Seminary.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(153 , 0 , 0); font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-21471597439051105042017-01-05T15:13:00.001-05:002017-01-05T15:13:19.103-05:00The Obedience of Faith<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (ESV) </blockquote>
This morning I read Romans 1 as part of my devotional reading. One phrase from the above paragraph kept coming back to mind throughout the day - "the obedience of faith". The NIV renders it as "the obedience that comes from faith". <br />
<br />
My first thought was personal. My faith, the beliefs in the truths of Scripture, my trust in Christ my King...all of this <i>ought</i> to lead to obedience. There is a malfunction in my faith if it isn't leading to obedience.<br />
<br />
My second thought was church related. This was Paul's goal; it ought to be ours too. Not just acceptance of doctrines, not just faith by itself, but faith accompanied by works, trust and obedience. Not cheap grace and flimsy faith, but vital faith that produces the fruit of obedience. <br />
<br />
Paul holds together two great doctrines we have driven a wedge between - justification and sanctification. They are different, but go together. Justification is by faith. So is sanctification. Justification precedes sanctification, but is never found all by itself.<br />
<br />
These two doctrines go hand in hand because both are found in, and only in, union with Christ. It is by being united to Christ that we receive his righteousness and are declared 'saints' before God's bar. But, being united to Christ means his life flows through us and pushes itself out in good works, in love and in holiness. We can't be united to Christ for one, justification, and not the other.<br />
<br />
Paul's ambition should be ours - obedience from faith <b>for the sake of his name!</b>Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-50149131921694816662017-01-04T11:28:00.000-05:002017-01-04T11:28:06.379-05:00Shakespeare and CatsImagine with me two actors stepping onto stage to do a scene. One of these actors is dressed in a traditional Elizabethan costume - fine, clean, almost regal. The other actor, is in a Cat costume. They begin delivering their lines, and they are very clearly reading from a different script, with a different setting, different use of language, etc.<br />
<br />
That was me. And, it is indicative of many churches and the fundamentalist church culture. We were cats on stage in a Shakespearean play. We were out of place, looked odd, talked funny. I wore shirts that said "His Pain, Your Gain." I listened to different music (Petra, Degarmo and Key, Stryper if I was in a spandex mood), read different books, spent my time in different ways (though we had a weakness for movies, so on that point there was commonality between me and my non church friends).<br />
<br />
Looking back, there was benefit to this kind of church culture. It was clear we were to be different; we were living a different story. But it is possible that these kinds of superficial differences between the church and the wider surrounding culture can, I'm afraid, mask points of alikeness - even sinful alikeness. We may listen to different music and wear weird tshirts, but do we still love money, worship power, etc.?<br />
<br />
Imagine a different, but similar scenario. Two actors walk onto stage, both wearing the same Elizabethan type costume. Both deliver their lines with the same accent, cadence. It takes a little while because of the similarities, but eventually you realize that they too are reading from different scripts. One is reading from Othello, the other Hamlet. Different stories, but similar in more ways than Shakepeare and Cats.<br />
<br />
That, I feel is an appropriate illustration for much of modern evangelicalism. We're similar to the wider culture in many ways - and that is not always inappropriate. One can listen to U2, or even Megadeth on occasion and enjoy the talent of these musicians, even be edified by truths the speak of in their lyrics. I can buy some shirts from Old Navy and not all from Christian bookstores. I can read non Christian novels. I watch many of the same shows and movies (though not all) that my non-church going friends do. Many similarities. But many very important differences.<br />
<br />
The challenge is that these differences are not always easy to notice. They differences are less superficial and more nuanced, not at the level of fashion or musical preferences, but of loves and priorities. For this reason, it is easy for watchers to think we're reading from the same script, at least for a while.<br />
<br />
I think this is true for our kids too; after all, our kids are our biggest watchers. Growing up in a fundamentalist background, we knew we were 'aliens and strangers'. It's not as clear to my kids, I would suspect. The differences aren't as blaring, not as noticeable to the naked eye.<br />
<br />
So I, and all parents of kids in evangelical or mainline churches need to be more vigilant, pointing out where the scripts for the Christian and the nonChristian diverge. Our kids need to know that they're living in a different story and a different plot line. It won't be as obvious as when you see a Cat on stage with Romeo, but it's incredibly important. So, we need to be vocal about our loves, motivations, priorities, etc. And, we need to make sure out kids have a firm grip on the central story of God and his people!<br />
<br />
We need to do this work of reminding ourselves, and our kids we're in God's story.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-80293710319019491262016-12-26T13:28:00.001-05:002016-12-26T13:28:40.436-05:00Complete Reading List 2016<h2>
BOOKS 2016 (Rated out of five thumbs up)</h2>
The Theology of Augustine, Matthew Levering 👍👍👍👍<br />
Augustine on the Christian Life, Gerald Bray 👍👍👍👍<br />
Confessions, St. Augustine 👍👍👍👍👍<br />
What is the Mission of the Church, Kevin DeYoung 👍👍👍👍<br />
Being Mortal, Atul Gawande 👍👍👍👍<br />
The Man Of Sin, Kim Riddlebarger 👍👍👍<br />
1&2 Thessalonians, John Stott 👍👍👍<br />
Religions Next Door, Marvin Olasky 👍👍<br />
Christianity and Religious Pluralism, Harold Netland 👍👍👍👍<br />
The Baptized Body, Peter Leithart 👍👍👍<br />
Public Faith, Miroslav Volf 👍👍👍<br />
Silence, Endo 👍👍👍👍👍<br />
Ordinary, Michael Horton 👍👍👍👍<br />
Silence and Beauty, Fujimura 👍👍👍<br />
Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic Age 👍👍👍<br />
Janson Equation, Robert Ludlum 👍👍<br />
Blood in the Water (Destroyermen Series), Taylor Anderson 👍👍👍👍<br />
Only One Way, DCosta, Knitter and Strange 👍👍👍<br />
A Theology of Inclusivism, Neal Punt 👍👍👍<br />
Who Can Be Saved, Terrance Thiessen 👍👍👍👍<br />
Top Secret, WEB Griffin 👍👍👍👍<br />
Hillbilly Elegy, JD Vance 👍👍👍👍<br />
Assassination Option, WEB Griffin 👍👍<br />
The Samauri, Endo 👍👍👍👍👍<br />
To Change the World, James Davidson Hunter 👍👍👍👍<br />
Introduction to the Blues, Elijah Wald 👍👍👍<br />
How not to be Secular, James Smith 👍👍👍Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-19582203580676902192016-12-16T10:46:00.000-05:002016-12-16T10:46:17.730-05:00My Best Reads of 2016 (Fiction)So my 'Best of 2016' list is not the best books published in 2016, it's the best one's I read during the year. My pics this year range from fiction, to theology, to biography. I really enjoyed some good books this year.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Fiction</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Silence_novel.jpg/220px-Silence_novel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/71/Silence_novel.jpg/220px-Silence_novel.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
1. <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1250082242/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PYFFKNOXV86V&coliid=I2YLU3AUMC27GN" target="_blank"><i>Silence</i></a> and <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0811213463/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2PYFFKNOXV86V&coliid=I38ZN3I2H14T0G" target="_blank"><i>The Samurai</i></a> by Endo. These two books are heartbreaking, but important. Fewer than one percent of Japan is Christian, but that was not always the case. In the fifteen and sixteen hundreds, Japan was the focus of a massive mission effort by the Catholic Church of which Francis Xavier was the pioneer. Thousands of Japansese became Christians during this time. But, it wasn't long before the church in Japan fell under relentless persecution and many fell away from the faith (though not all - there is also the history of the hidden church in Japan that continued, cut off from the larger church, and morphed in inexplicable ways). These two novels explore the mixed motives of the missionaries, the converts, and the faithful. They wrestle with questions related to persecution and apostasy, raising questions we, in the West, out to be thinking about. The novel Silence is considered one of the great novels of the twentieth century, has inspired musicians (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2qbCW767sL7AEnOIGPHI4Y" target="_blank">Symphony #3 "Silence,"</a> by MacMillan), and is a soon to be released <a href="https://youtu.be/IqrgxZLd_gE" target="_blank">motion picture by Martin Scorsese</a>.<br />
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Soon I will be posting favorite Biographies, books on culture, Christian living, and theology of 2016.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-8489681745522024632016-12-15T09:33:00.002-05:002016-12-15T09:34:29.098-05:00I call Bulls--t!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
This week I read an article that a friend posted on
Facebook. I shouldn’t have, it rarely turns out well. Normally though, it doesn’t
produce such rage and almost never the kind of tirade you’ll be reading if you
continue.The article was so bad, it has brought me out of blogging retirement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sam Eaton begins his article, “12 Reasons Millennials are Over the
Church,” by stating he wants to love and be excited by the church, but just
can’t. Cool. I guess Jesus would be okay with that right? The church has
blemishes and sin. It’s not perfect. What is there to love? At least you want
to love it Sam. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But wait, didn’t Jesus love us when we had blemishes, sin and
were generally unlovable! Didn’t Christ command us to love others, though
they’re flawed and sinful, just as he loved us in our wretchedness. And,
doesn’t Christ love his church – yes HIS CHURCH, his Bride, warts and pimples
and all. It seems to be an inescapable conclusion: if we’re Christ followers
who love him, we MUST love his church, not just want to love it. And here is my
real, big picture problem with Sam and his article – he is justifying a lack of
love for the church, giving space for millennials (or anyone really) to feel as
if their lack of love for the church is acceptable. IT IS NOT.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know Sam doesn’t speak for all millennials. I know plenty
of them who are engaged with the church, love the church, and serve her not
because they’re blind to its faults, but because they know their own, and they
know how they contribute to the church’s beauty and mess.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What reasons does Eaton give for not loving the church? Here
they are, point by [ridiculous] point (with my thoughts interspersed).</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nobody’s Listening to
Us</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sam writes,<b> “</b></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Millennials value voice and receptivity
above all else.” He bemoans that the church plugs along without listening to
the millennials and their concern. I have a stereotype of millennials, and
unfortunately Eaton plays right into it. These comments are so self-centered
and unaware, as if millennials are the first generation that wanted to be
heard. He does know about the 60s, right?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I want to say to Sam and those whom he speaks for, “Maybe the church
heard your concerns and listened to your advice and didn’t take it. Maybe the
institutional wisdom borne out of centuries outweighs your feelings and
insights, you annoying little brat.” Ok, maybe that truth needs a little more
grace seasoned in there, but he sounds like to twelve year old whose parents
refuse to let him do whatever he wants and complains that no one understands him
and gets him. No, we got you, but you aren’t always going to get what you want.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Eaton offers solutions.
I selected a few.</span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Create regular outlets (forums, surveys, meetings) to
discover the needs of young adults both inside AND outside the church.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe, we have a book
that tells us what millennials need, and boomers and xers and
generation-whatever-comes-nexters too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Really, we need a focus group? Dumb. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Invite millennials to serve on leadership teams or advisory
boards where they can make a difference.” Again, this is so typically
millennial it really is the low hanging fruit. I have something to say, I
want to be a leader, I am ENTITLED to lead, so give me a role in
leadership. Earn it? No. Give it to me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, maybe he has a point. No, no he doesn’t. The church I serve in
has lots of millennials as deacons, small group leaders, even elders. I
like that. But, I also believe these leadership roles should be guarded, ensuring
people who occupy them have shown themselves to be qualified, hold sound
doctrine, live upright and godly lives, etc. And, part of that would
probably mean not bitchin and moaning that the church doesn’t do things my
way. Sam, not been asked to serve as an elder? I think I know why! </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hire a young adults pastor who has the desire and
skill-set to connect with millennials. Ok, so there’s no millennials in
the church (he has stats to prove it), but we should hire a pastor to
connect with them. What percentage of churches have a budget to hire a full-time
pastor to the millennials? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very few
I think. So Sam is likely talking here to about 1% of churches.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2. We’re Sick of
Hearing About Values & Mission Statements</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, on point two, we may agree. I do think the church has
overdone it when it comes to adopting business models, including value and
mission statements, strategic plans, etc.. Any you know what, that was in
response to boomers and their generational paradigm. In a few generations, the youngins
will hate hearing about ‘being authentic’ and ‘just serving’. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He writes, “We’re not impressed…with
Christianese words on paper. We’re impressed with actions and service.” And
there it is…the church exists to impress the millennial. That kind of thinking
is often in the background; it makes it easier when it bubbles to the surface.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3. Helping the Poor
Isn’t a Priority</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cough, cough, Sam-you’re-an-idiot,
cough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He urges us to “clock the number
of hours the average church attender spends in ‘church-type’ activities. Bible
studies, meetings, groups, social functions, book clubs, planning meetings,
talking about building community, discussing a new mission statement…” and then
compare it to the hours spent “serving the least of these.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His response, “oooo, awkward.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jackass. (As you can tell, this point
gets me pretty steamed, because it diminished the great work individual
Christians and churches have been doing for centuries!) What if a good number
of ‘the least of these’ are in our church activities and are being served –
physically, socially, emotionally, and, oh yes, what the church is best
equipped to do, serve them spiritually!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh, and what about the many Christians
who work in vocations where they serve, under the banner of Christ but in
secular institutions, the least of these. Can we count their hours?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like those who, in answer to a call on their
lives, teach in impoverished communities, or work with foster families, or are
employed by non-profits that feed the hungry. Do they and their hours count?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh, and what about all those Rescue
Missions that care for the homeless in nearly every city. Who started those?
Christians – often fundamentalist Christians!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the Salvation Army. And Groups like World Vision, IJM…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh, the poorest countries. Who goes
there? Lots of great organizations – Peace Corps, Red Cross, World Vision…and
missionaries, sent by the church. Often the missionaries were the first to go. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh, and what about the work of the
deacons…in most churches, aren’t they serving the needy?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4. We’re Tired of You
Blaming the Culture</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ok, I don’t know what he means by ‘blaming the culture.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know how the church blames the
culture. We do point out the darkness in the culture, and hopefully celebrate
light where we find it. Is this blaming? To point to violence, rampant
immorality that is deemed perfectly acceptable, etc., is that blaming culture?
If so, how can we “explicitly teach” how to live life differently from the
culture, something you explicitly demand of the church, if we don’t point out
the sin of our culture. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5. The “You
Can’t Sit With Us” Affect</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He complains that there are cliques in church and suggests we seek a kind
and more compassionate way to be, different from what people are used to
outside.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My response…some people in your church are self-centered jerks if they
say or imply that you can’t sit with them. That doesn’t mean my church is
clique free. In a sense, we encourage cliques, but call them friendships. We
also encourage people to be open and generous with their friendships. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And, please remember, Sam, that churches are made up of sinful people who
are striving to get over themselves and their sinful tendencies, including the
tendency to exclude others. You have your annoying and sinful traits too.
Fixing them doesn’t happen all at one!</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His solutions? They are ridiculous.</span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Create authentic communities with a shared purpose
centered around service.” Ok, we’ll give that a try. Hadn’t thought of it before,
but sounds good. Idiot. You do it – tell me when it’s done. We haven’t
sought inauthentic communities, but sometimes they happen. They will in
your generation too – maybe people will fake authenticity, then they’ll be
inauthentically authentic. Awesome. And service again. What about
worship…can we have a group centered around that? Or learning? If
everything is serving, where do we get to learn about the one who served
us!?</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Create and train a team of CONNECT people whose
purpose is to seek out the outliers on Sunday mornings or during other
events.” Ok, don’t add programs. But get a team and train them? Sounds
suspiciously like a program to me.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Stop placing blame on individuals who struggle to get
connected.” He speaks here of the introverts who are overwhelmed by the
risk of putting themselves out there. Ok, I’ll agree in part – it’s hard
for churches to figure out how to get some connected who won’t venture
out, and we may not always do it well. But at some point, you either risk
or you lose out. That’s how relationships work. The church maybe ought to
do better and reaching out, but that’ll only be a part of the equation. </span></li>
</ul>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6. Distrust &
Misallocation of Resources</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Part of me agrees with Eaton here – we
do need to encourage frugality. And, there should be a level of transparency.
But the level of transparency he calls for would be soul-crushingly oppressive
to those who worked in the church. He writes, “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We want pain-staking transparency. We want to see on the church homepage
a document where we can track every dollar.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Holy Crap! Well, there goes massive amounts of time and energy! For
someone who wants his money to go provide “food, clean water and shelter for
someone in need” this is remarkably short sighted. Do the kind of reports he
wants on every church’s homepage generate themselves? No, they take time and
energy from people who could be better used serving the church and those
outside the church. </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Part of his
solution: </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">church workers should be “asked to
justify each purchase.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, Holy Crap!
That’s stupid. Kids need more crayons in the nursery…call a meeting to justify
the purchase. The toilet is running constantly in the men’s room, call a
plumber. Oh no, wait to a have a meeting to justify to the suspicious why we
need to purchase a new flapper. Books for small group…justify it. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In addition, he wants staff to ask
constantly, “Could these dollars be used to better serve the kingdom?” Two
things: first, does he ask this of every dollar he spends, say on his pumpkin
spice lattes? How many homeless people could I feed with my fufu drink
purchases in a week?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, every staff
member I know works hard to make dollars count, often contributing their own
funds to make events successful, ministries run, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">AND, <span style="text-transform: uppercase;">serving the church is serving the kingdom</span>.
Doesn’t he get this!?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">7. We Want to Be
Mentored, Not Preached At</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sam contends, “</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Preaching just doesn’t reach our
generation like our parents and grandparents.” Instead, “Millennials crave
relationship, to have someone walking beside them through the muck.” Ok, the
sermon portion of Sunday services is now cancelled. In its place, cuddle time
for the millennials. Everyone, find yourself a millennial and cuddle up. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They want
mentoring?! I thought they wanted to be heard? I thought the older generation’s
ways just weren’t working?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hey, I value
relationships, advocate for intergenerational discipleship, but this is a
totally false dichotomy. You need preaching<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>AND discipleship; you need proclamation of truth AND relationships.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You don’t value
preaching. So what! Should we rewrite Paul to accommodate what you value? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Preach the word, until it’s not connecting
and some youngings don’t think it’s valuable. Then, do whatever they think is
valuable. That’ll be good.”</span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8. We Want to Feel
Valued</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Oh wait, we’re back to this one again.
I thought this was point one. Ok, but this time IT’S WORSE!!! For one, his
whining makes no sense. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We want to be valued, he says. Churches
tend to rely heavily on young adults to serve, he contends. And also,
“Millennials are told by this world from the second we wake up to the second we
take a sleeping pill that <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">we aren’t
good enough. We desperately need the church to tell us we are enough, exactly
the way we are. No conditions or expectations.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What? 1 + 1 = 287?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I smell on non
sequitur.<b> </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And
theologically, it’s bulls--t! Millennials, you aren’t enough exactly the way you
are. You are a stinky, smelly bag of sin and other nastiness. And, so am I.
We’ll accept you, but with “no conditions or expectations”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We won’t do that. We can’t. If we did that,
we wouldn’t be very loving and we would cease to be ‘the church’!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being a part of the church means accepting
conditions, and it comes with a lot of expectations. Thank God there’s grace, because
we all fall short of meeting them. But we can’t set them aside for you or your
namby-pamby friends.</span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">9. We Want You to
Talk to Us About Controversial Issues (Because No One Is)</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now here I need to recognize that I
serve in a church where our motto is “we may not have all the answers, but
we’re not afraid of the questions.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
feel like all we talk about sometimes is controversial issues. So, maybe there
are churches that refuse to do so. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My biggest problem with this complaint
is how he wants to address it. He acknowledges a sermon series on the nitty-grittys of sex may not be appropriate in a church service with kids, “but we
have to create a place where someone older is showing us a better way <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">because these topics are the teaching millennials are starving for.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This from
the guy who said shut down the programs unless they are serving the poor. This
is a program…in some churches it might be called a Young Adult Sunday School!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The whining circles back on itself to the
point where you think he actually means cut every program in the church <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">except </i>the ones I (and my friends)
need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">10. The Public
Perception</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Well, here I agree. He writes, “It’s
time to focus on changing the public perception of the church within the
community. The neighbors, the city and the people around our church buildings
should be audibly thankful the congregation is part of their neighborhood. We
should be serving the crap out of them.” I would suggest a rewording though…I prefer
“serving the spit out of them” – alliteration is cool. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The church does have a public
perception problem, especially if you carry the label ‘evangelical’. We should
work to overcome this and have a “good reputation with outsiders,” <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so
far as it depends on us</i></b>. The church has always been maligned, even when
serving the bejezers out of the community and rescuing newborns from the
streets. But, if we’re honest, we certainly have contributed to our own PR
problems of late. </span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">11. Stop Talking
About Us (Unless You’re Actually Going to Do Something)</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He writes, “words without follow-up are
far worse than ignoring us completely…We are scrutinizing every action that
follows what you say (because we’re sick of being ignored and listening to
broken promises).”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s my promise – I
won’t kowtow to your whining. I won’t jettison preaching because you don’t
think it reaches you. I won’t jump on your band wagon of slander directed
towards Bride of Christ. I will call you out as a wolf who’s leading sheep to
turn their back on the lifeboat of the church. Promises. May God find me faithful
to keeping them. </span></div>
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<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12. You’re Failing to
Adapt</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Heard you loud and clear. Here we
stand, we can do no other. You want us to cease to be the church, to jettison
tradition (that we’re called upon to hand down from one generation to another),
to devalue what God values. You are right, this generation is “terrifyingly
anti-church” – at least, this generation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in
the West.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You place the blame
ENTIRELY on the church. Admittedly, there is sin in the church – we aren’t all
we are called to be. But we’re still beautiful…and still embassy of the kingdom
of God. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maybe – no, certainly, you are to blame as well, with your "it’s all
about us and feeling valued" mentality. Why must the church change…why don’t
you change!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>His Conclusion</b> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The condescending attitude of his
article reaches a peak in his conclusion. He writes, “You see, church leaders,
our generation just isn’t interested in playing church anymore.” So, up to now,
or at least for the past generation or two, you Christians are just playing
church. Now the millennials are here and we want to show you how to do it
right. Sam, you’re an arrogant a--hole (and you need to hear it). </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He continues, “It’s obvious you’re not
understanding the gravity of the problem at hand and aren’t nearly as alarmed
as you should be about the crossroads we’re at.” Uh, no, we get it. GenXers
whined too – doom and gloom (I know, I am a GenXer) and we started new churches
and services just for them. And we get it, you don’t like church. More, “You’re
complacent, irrelevant and approaching extinction.” Umm. No!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church, is growing worldwide. Maybe the
millennials in the U.S. aren’t around much, but that hardly amounts to a threat
to extinction! </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You know what, the gates of hell will
not prevail against the church, I’m not afraid of a bunch of complacent, wussy whiners
like you taking it down. There’s plenty of Biblical millennials who are on
board with God’s mission AND the church’s role in it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You do not speak for your generation you
little brat. This is not the end. The church will endure continue its kingdom
work until Christ returns. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Want to be a part of it?</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sam, we’re only a couple of years
apart. I’m about 5 years too old to be a millennial. But we couldn’t be further
from each other. I know I’m an asshole, and can be self-centered. Thing is, I
don’t expect the church to change itself to accommodate my every whim. Where do
you get this right? Oh, are you entitled to it?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am so glad I work in the church I do because I know for a fact that Sam doesn't speak for an entire generation. There are plenty of millennials involved, working with, serving, and loving the church! I get to see it every day. Do they see the flaws? Of course, who doesn't. But they know God's mission and that he has a church for his mission, so they're on board, striving to make it as holy, as effective, and as beautiful as they can...without pissing off everyone who's been a part of it for more than they're the past twenty years or so! </span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Postlude</span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not surprisingly, Eaton has received a
lot of backlash from ‘angry Christians’ who just don’t want to listen.
Hmmm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For someone as self-focused (listen
to me, accommodate me, do it my way), it’s hard to image someone being so
self-unaware at the same time. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why may his words have sparked anger? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because they were an attack on the
church.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because he accused previous generations
of ‘playing church’.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because he insinuates we don’t care
about the poor.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Because his words read as a threat – do
it our way of we’ll kill you off.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sam, complaining about the anger you
stirred up is like a little kid playing with matches mad he burnt his finger.
Sorry. Kinda. </span></div>
Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-11120022625847607372015-09-22T16:27:00.001-04:002015-09-22T17:12:37.343-04:00A Beauty Regimen for God's PeopleThis fall I've been teaching on the topic of holiness in my ACG. I decided on this topic for two reasons. First, there was the desire to tackle something more practical than topics we've covered recently. Second, the connection between holiness and the church's (and believer's) witness is a strong one in both the Old and New Testaments. The holiness of God's people is to be attractive and beautiful, an adornment to the proclamation of the gospel.<br />
<br />
This second theme is one that is counter-intuitive to many of us because when we think of holiness it doesn't seem all that at attractive or beautiful. In fact, when asked what images or thoughts come to mind when we think of holiness, the response was typically negative. That's not true when I asked about we think about God's being holy, but when asked to think of people who take holiness seriously, the images were stogie, prudish, unhappy, grumpy, etc.<br />
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This shouldn't be the case. Holiness is beautiful. Just look at Psalm 29:<br />
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Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, <br />
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. <br />
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; <br />
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. <br />
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There's an ambiguity in the last phrase above. It's unclear if the holiness referred to is God's holiness or if the psalmist is calling us to come and worship God clothed in holiness. Either way, the fact remains - holiness is deemed beautiful, splendid! The same words come again in Psalm 96<br />
<br />
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; <br />
tremble before him, all the earth. <br />
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Think also of the scenes of heavenly worship we're given access to in Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4. The angelic beings sing 'Holy, holy, holy'. Yes, these words are definitely filled with a reverent awe. But it's more. It's also an appreciation of that which is supremely beautiful.<br />
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Here's an important bridge in my thought process. The holiness we as believers are called to ought to be beautiful since God's is. Theologians divide God's attributes into two categories: incommunicable attributes and communicable attributes. The incommunicable attributes are those which we, as creatures do not share, like eternality, like self-existence (aseity). God's communicable attributes are those which he shares with his creation - like love, patience, and holiness. There is a difference in how we are holy when compared to God. God is holy. We are made holy by God, by sharing in his holiness. So, if we're sharing in God's beautiful holiness, our's ought to be beautiful too.<br />
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Why don't we see holiness as beautiful? I think there's two key aspects of a full answer. First, those who speak much of holiness are often displaying a caricature of holiness - a version of holiness that is culturally conditioned and usually has a lot to do with lists of taboos (cards, drinking, dancing, movies, etc.). I once worked at a summer camp that was serious about holiness. I was handed a list of tshirts I had worn to work that were deemed inappropriate. It included a Petra shirt (yes, the classic Christian rock group) and a Levi's "Button your Fly" shirt (remember those you children of the 80s/90s). If that's what holiness is, it's not beautiful.<br />
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But the second reason is even more to blame I think. We don't see holiness as beautiful because our eyes are out of focus. They're clouded by the remnants of our sinful natures. They don't quite see as God sees; not yet.<br />
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So, I pray that God will put lenses on to teach me to see that holiness is indeed beautiful. To fight for holiness isn't just to fight against sin, the world, and the devil...it's to fight for BEAUTY!<br />
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I love these words from Edwards, "holiness is a most beautiful, lovely thing. Men are apt to drink in strange notions of holiness from their childhood, as if it were a melancholy, morose, sour, and unpleasant thing; but there is nothing in it but what is sweet and ravishingly lovely. Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all other beauties; tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth…” Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-72264905455323757672015-04-07T11:36:00.002-04:002015-04-07T11:36:46.574-04:00Missional Application of the Seven Letters: Emphasize Warnings and PromisesIt is clear from the seven letters that the reward of eternal life with Christ is conditioned upon perseverance. Persecution is not the only pressure that threatens the church and her mission so perseverance is not only to be thought of in terms of enduring suffering, but also persisting in doing good, in pursuing holiness, and in loving well.<br />
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Throughout the study of the seven letters we have seen that faithfulness to the witness bearing mission of the church requires fidelity to God as the sole object of worship and does not allow for a syncretistic blending of allegiances or affections. Moreover, the mission requires the church to keep itself clean from the stain of immorality and pursue holiness. Love is also an essential element of the witnessing task given to the church – a love for God, love for brotherhood of believers, and a love for the unbelieving neighbor. In summary, the church is to be a contrast people, their uniqueness serving to draw the world attention and ire.<br />
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Jesus takes the mission of the church quite seriously and threatens to come in judgment upon those churches that forsake, compromise or abandon their missional calling. It is, I believe, the duty of the the church and especially its pastors to issue these warnings to its members on behalf of Jesus, calling her to become “conquerors” and so fulfill the mission given to them and attain the promise of eternal life in the kingdom.<br />
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In five of the seven letters Jesus issues explicit warnings and calls to repentance. Jesus threatens to come to Ephesus and remove her lampstand if they did not return and “do the works they did at first” (2:5). The church at Pergamum would face Jesus waging war against them with the sword of his mouth if they did not repent of their toleration of false teachers leading them into idolatry and immorality. In Thyatira, Jesus had given Jezebel and her followers ample time to repent, but proving unwilling they faced judgment including being thrown onto a sickbed and death. Jesus will come against Sardis like a thief in the night if the church does not wake up. The Laodicean church is about to be spewed out because they have become indistinguishable from their culture and hence useless.<br />
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Maybe even more significant are the conditional promises given to each church. In each of the seven letters the inheritance of salvation is made conditional upon “conquering” (νικάω). Implied in these promises is a threat that those who do not conquer (or “overcome”) forfeit the promised inheritance in the future kingdom. Two examples will suffice to emphasize the nature of these implied warnings. To the church at Smyrna Jesus says, “The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” Implied in these words is the warning: those who don’t conquer will suffer a second, eternal death. Also consider Jesus words to the church at Sardis, “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life.” Again, it only those who conquer will have their names indelibly written in the book of life. Could the stakes be any higher?<br />
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When considered together, the seven letters present the church with an urgent plea to overcome all that will threaten her ability to faithfully complete her mission of bearing witness to the world. Conquering always includes maintaining belief and refusing to give into disbelief, but it also includes overcoming sin that is a stain on the church's witness, false teaching that threatens to shipwreck the church, resisting idolatry and immorality and, in summary, being the distinct people of God.<br />
<br />
Moreover, it is clear that conquering or overcoming must be a persistent activity; one does not conquer once, but must continue conquering, persevering to the end. Even those churches that were commended are called to persevere in their faithful witness and lay hold of their eternal reward.<br />
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This concern for perseverance in faith must inform the teaching ministry of every pastor; yet, several factors conspire to make many pastors reluctant to emphasize these and the many other warning passages of Scripture as well as the conditional nature of many biblical promises.<br />
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Of course, threats and conditions will never be popular, even when the pastor is only communicating a threat made by the church’s Lord. But even courageous pastors are often reluctant to teach the biblical warnings. The main reason, I believe, is the lack of clarity regarding the complex of issues surrounding these warnings – issues related to the nature of faith, the importance of works, assurance of salvation, etc. In some cases this reluctance may be the fruit of an overly simplistic doctrine of perseverance of the saints or eternal security, while in others it may stem from a reluctance to preach anything akin to a work-based salvation.<br />
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While a complete study of the issues related to perseverance is not possible, a few truths need to be considered as important theological background to a proper presentation of these warnings. First, regarding faith, pastors need to acknowledge and teach a robust understanding of faith that is more than simple mental assent or belief. Schreiner and Caneday liken faith to a multifaceted gemstone and demonstrate how the many metaphors utilized in scripture for Christian faith are necessary to fully grasp what is required by the concept, metaphors that include athletic images (running a race, training, etc.), military images (fighting the good fight, armor, etc.), rational metaphors (knowing, understanding), sensory language (hearing, seeing), images of discipleship (following), bodily action (eating, drinking), and metaphors of endowment (receiving).<br />
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While some of these metaphors emphasize the passive aspects of faith, when taken as a whole it should not be missed that there are many active aspects to faith. Commenting on Hebrews 11, Schreiner and Caneday point out “In every case, faith sprang into faithful action. God commends each one [Abel, Noah, Abraham, Rahab, etc.], not merely for possessing faith, but for faith that obeys.”<br />
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This truth is also apparent, for example, in the letter to the church in Ephesus where Jesus calls them to “do the works you did at first.” Christ expected their faith to give rise to action. Schreiner and Caneday continue, emphasizing faith’s perseverance, “God is pleased with faith that perseveres; God does not commend a person for a singular act of faith that fails to endure. God does not reward faith that does not go the distance.”<br />
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This too is seen in several of the letters to the churches in Asia. To the church at Smyrna Jesus says, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
This does, of course, raise the issue of a believer’s eternal security and assurance. How does one fit the necessity of perseverance alongside Biblical promises that seem unconditional and emphasize the believers secure standing before God?<br />
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In navigating these doctrines, teachers must avoid blunting the warnings by superimposing the promises overtop of the admonitions to persevere (and vice versa). Schreiner and Caneday are right,
"We believe that God’s promises of assured salvation have their proper function to ground our faith in God and to assure us that God faithfully keeps his promises to his children. We also believe that God’s admonitions and warning have their distinctive function to evoke faith that perseveres in holy devotion to God’s heavenly call on in Christ Jesus. Thus, God’s warnings do not conflict with God’s promises. His warnings serve his promises, for his warnings elicit belief and confidence in God’s promises."<br />
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Pastors who blunt the warnings of Scripture, refuse to preach Biblical warnings, or avoid the conditional nature of biblical promises deprive their churches of the full counsel of God. In so doing, they fail to recognize that God uses these warnings, admonitions and conditions to reinforce faith and beckon the believer to persistence.
Too often pastors get caught up explaining [away] these warning texts, importing the theological truths that those who truly comprise God’s people and have genuine faith will persevere till the end (being preserved by God’s sovereign power through his Spirit) and this truth’s corollary, that those who fail to persevere prove their faith was not genuine saving faith. But, the point of these texts is different.<br />
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The conditional promises of Revelation, let alone the repeated warnings, are not included in Jesus’ letters to the church to explain that those who have fallen away were not sincere in their faith to begin with (though other texts make this point), but to call the churches to repentance and encourage them to persevere and overcome. Schreiner and Caneday call attention to this propensity for pastors to interpret the “the biblical warnings from the retrospective vantage point of apostasy completed rather than from the prospective threat lest someone fall away.”<br />
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While the retrospective vantage point is the focus of some passages (i.e. 1 John 2:19), turning every passage this way is unwarranted and counterproductive – God inspired both the backward looking explanations of apostasy and the forward looking warnings for the good of his church.
Just as the author of Hebrews urges individual believers to “lay aside every weight” that hinders them from running well and “run with endurance the race set before us,” so in Revelation 2 & 3 Jesus urges every church and every member of the church to cast off that which would hinder them from their mission of bearing witness and remain faithful so that they will numbered in the company of who conquer and lay hold of their eternal reward. Pastors must bring these pleas to their churches.
Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-60784915723986436422015-03-23T14:29:00.000-04:002015-03-23T16:30:28.910-04:00Could Paul Have Been Wrong?<a href="http://www.reactionface.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/Node_Page/images/1311609332291.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.reactionface.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/Node_Page/images/1311609332291.jpg" height="320" width="265" /></a>Maybe.<br />
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The question came up (not for the first time) last week as I was preparing to preach on 1 & 2 Thessalonians. It's common to hear that Paul, at the outset of his ministry, thought Jesus would be returning within his lifetime. So, did he? Could Paul have been wrong?<br />
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It depends. <br />
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Paul might have thought the earth was the center of the universe. He might have thought Spain represented the western edge of the world. He might have thought baseball was boring. If so, he would have been wrong. <br />
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Paul could have been wrong about a lot of stuff because Paul wasn't inspired, inerrant or even necessarily authoritative in all areas.<br />
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Not even all his theological opinions were necessarily correct. For example, I have conversations with my Grandma and occasionally, the topic will turn to Christ's return. Grandma usually says something like, 'I really think I'm still going to be around when Christ returns.' Is it possible Paul had similar conversations? Sure. 'Hey Timothy, did you hear Nero set the fire in Rome. Dude's crazy. The world's going nuts. I think maybe Christ could be coming soon.'<br />
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Problem? No!<br />
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It's even possible that Paul articulated some of those theological thoughts in sermons in churches.<br />
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Pushing it a little further, not even all of Paul's writings were necessarily inspired. There's probably some letters we don't have - a lost letter to Corinth, one to Laodicea. Maybe one to mom and dad. Could there have been errors in those letters. Sure.<br />
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It's the letters of Paul that are included in the canon of Scripture that are inspired and free from doctrinal error. It's the teachings of Paul (and James and Peter and whoever wrote Hebrews, etc.) included in the pages of the New Testament that are authoritative. <br />
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I think we as evangelicals sometimes get caught fighting battles we don't need to fight because we assert too much. I have no interest in defending Paul, James, etc against error. I do have a stake in the fight when it comes to the Bible and to the apostles inspired and authoritative writing.<br />
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So, the much more important question: Are Paul's NT writings on the timing of Christ's return in error. Did Paul teach in the pages of the NT that Jesus would be coming during his lifetime?<br />
No, he didn't. But, I can understand why people might think he did.<br />
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Here's a few of the places where Paul may appear to be saying Christ's coming was going to be soon (since some attribute Hebrews to Paul, erroneously I believe, I'll handle two verses from Hebrews as well):<br />
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1. Phil 4:5 - "The Lord is at hand."<br />
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Sam Storms, of whom I a huge fan, points out that this could mean one of two things. He writes, "This phrase 'at hand' could be taken temporally or personally. That is
to say, he may be referring to the nearness of Christ in terms of time
or space.<br />
<br />
If it's personal, then its saying Christ is with you and there to give you the strength you need. This phrase does come, signicantly, in a prayer.<br />
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However, I think it's likely a temporal reference. But, this doesn't mean Paul was teaching that Christ would come back soon (as we think of soon). He spoke at the end of Philippians chapter three of our citizenship in heaven from which 'we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ'. I think Paul is speaking of Christ's return which is 'at hand'. And it has been 'at hand' for a long time and simply means 'impending'/'imminent'. It could happen at any time (though in 2 Thes., written well before Philippians, Paul teaches that it won't come until the 'Man of Lawlessness' is revealed) .<br />
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2. 1 Thess 4:16-17 - "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." <br />
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Since Paul says "we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up..." some have used this verse to argue that Paul mistakenly thought Christ would return while he was still alive. This, I think, fails the common sense test. Paul was alive when he wrote it, so naturally he would have put himself in the category of those who are alive vs. those who are dead. He could have said, "then we, if we're still alive at the time, will be caught up...," but that's just needlessly cumbersome and a little pedantic. Paul put himself in that category because, at the time, it was true - he was among those still alive who'd be caught up with Christ in the clouds, not one of those who'd be resurrected.<br />
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Paul writes similarly in Romans13:11, "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand." Obviously, if Christ's return is an event in history it's nearer now than it was earlier. Time/History move forward - future events get nearer. But what about the night being done and the day being at hand? Read below on the Hebrews 1:2 passage.<br />
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3. Hebrews 1:2 - "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son"<br />
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Again, I don't think Hebrews was written by Paul (it doesn't claim to be), but many do. This text clarifies a lot I think. In these last days God has spoken to us through his Son. So the last days are connected to the revelation of the Son, which means the last days began when he was revealed. <br />
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The Bible speaks of two stages of history - this present (evil) age and the age to come. Sometimes the language is used to convey this same idea is 'former days' vs. 'later days' or 'last days'. With Christ the age to come broke into the present evil age and the two ages now, for a time, overlap. But, the entire period from Christ's first advent till his return is rightly called 'the last days'. See also Acts 2:17 where Peter reminds the people witnessing the outpouring of the Spirit that this is what the prophet Joel said would happen 'in the last days'. <br />
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4. Hebrews 10:37-38 - "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” <br />
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The author here is contrasting the relative shortness of waiting (and enduring suffering) with the length of eternity. The greatness of the believers reward, which is eternal, is worth waiting for. In fact, the wait, though it seems exceedingly long to the one suffering, is but 'a little while' when compared to the span of eternity in which they'll enjoy their reward.<br />
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Also, the second half of this verse is a quote from Hab. 2:3-4. The full quote is helpful, "If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay." There is a recognition that the response could seem slow, but wait for it...it won't delay.<br />
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The quote fits our call to wait for Christ's return very well. It may seem slow by our standards. But God isn't delaying - it will come in the fullness of time. Wait for it. Be awake, vigilant, prepared and eager. <br />
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No problems here. No real challenges to the truthfulness of Scripture. Paul wasn't wrong in what he wrote. To see this you just need to look at the fullness of what Scripture teaches, not simply isolated texts and phrases. And you can't define terms as you wish, you need to understand how Paul (or anyone else who writes) used a phrase. Hermeneutics 101.Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-21133526596648432552015-03-19T13:25:00.003-04:002015-03-19T13:25:47.832-04:00Take a Load OffEspecially true of sound eschatology...as the books of 1& 2 Thessalonians attest.<br />
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<br />Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13519403.post-48347630950914525032015-03-18T16:21:00.001-04:002015-03-18T16:21:15.268-04:00Missional Application of the Seven Letters: Prepare for SufferingContinuing to think through some missional applications of the seven letters to the churches of Asia Minor, we need to consider the theme of suffering. As we learn to live the narrative and “indwell God’s story”, our individual and corporate life's will increasingly be shaped by the story. As the church lives out her mission and becomes the “contrast community” she was called to be, persecution will inevitably follow.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nocompulsion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-21-at-11.10.20-PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://nocompulsion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-21-at-11.10.20-PM.png" height="124" width="200" /></a>Persecution is explicitly mentioned in two of the letters we have examined. Jesus knows of the tribulation of the believers in Smyrna and encourages them in the face of what they are about to suffer while calling them to be faithful even unto death. Also, Antipas was martyred in Pergamum, and despite this the other believers were holding fast.<br />
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Three other letters speak of the enduring church, though violent persecution is not necessarily the source of suffering. The Ephesian church was “enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake” under pressure from false apostles (from what we know about the circumstances in Ephesus it is likely that Christians were the object of intense vitriol and violence; see Acts 19). Thyatira is commended for their patient endurance and called to “hold fast” to what they had, not yielding to temptation, false teaching or persecution. Philadelphia is suffering from the false Jews who comprise the synagogue of Satan, but are patiently enduring.<br />
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Sardis and Laodicea do not appear to be suffering any degree of persecution at the time of writing (or be in significant danger of suffering except under the judgment of God). This lack of suffering is likely due to the degree to which they had sinfully assimilated themselves into the pagan culture. The conclusion that can be drawn from these letters is that faithful churches will likely suffer and need to endure tribulations that may include persecution, whether slander or violence.<br />
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Stott writes, “If the first mark of a true and living church is love, the second is suffering.”
This has certainly proven true through large swaths of the church’s history and is true in many places across the globe today; yet, in the West the church has enjoyed a relative amount of ease and comfort. That is not to say there has been no pockets of persecution even here in the United States , but on the whole, this has not been the norm. This should lead us to ask two poignant questions.<br />
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First, why are we not facing more opposition? Is it because God has blessed us with a period of peace and allowed the church to flourish or is it because we have become so sinfully accommodating to our culture that we are no threat to the status quo. I believe there is some truth is both answers and both need to be thoughtfully explored, though likely the latter is more to credit/blame. Again, Stott writes, “We shrink from suffering. The ugly truth is that we tend to avoid suffering by compromise.”<br />
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Secondly, the we need to ask if we and our churches are prepared for suffering and persecution should the situation change. How would the church fare if she were to face the same kind of persecution and suffering that Pergamum did, or Ephesus? Faithful shepherds will, as we see Jesus doing throughout these letters, prepare the church for suffering. Keener states it bluntly, “If we have not prepared ourselves and our congregations to die for Christ’s name if necessary, we have not completed our responsibility of preparing disciples.”<br />
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I believe there are five important ways we need to be preparing ourselves and our churches for suffering. First, we need to remind ourselves that suffering is normal for the faithful Christian; it is their lot. Peter tells us as much, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Demonstrating this truth will be natural for the pastor committed to telling the grand story of Scripture: Abel was murdered by a jealous brother for his righteous offering. The people of God suffered in Egypt. The prophets suffered and were persecuted by unrighteous kings and queens. Peter and Paul are a part of this suffering story. The story includes people who, though righteous, suffered. This part of the story needs to be heard in our churches, for as much as we would hate to admit it, the “prosperity gospel” has found an all too eager audience in our evangelical churches. Suffering is seen as something to be avoided and even a sign of divine displeasure. People have been taught that being in God’s will is a safe place, free from danger or hardship. So we need to start by reminding ourselves and our churches that suffering is normal, and according to Jesus would inevitably come to his followers.<br />
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Second, suffering needs to be put in the context of God’s love and commitment to do his people’s good. Of course God disciplines his children, as every loving father does. But even beyond discipline which calls for repentance, God allows his people to suffer persecution to test and refine their faith (see James 1:3,12; 1 Peter 1:7). There is a mysterious element to God’s will as it relates to suffering: in some instances God rescues from violent persecution while at other times he allows his church to suffer greatly. Yet, in both circumstances, we must place the outcome within the context of God’s love and concern for their ultimate good. Keener comments, “Suffering has a way of reminding us which things in life really matter, forcing us to depend radically on God, and thus purifying our obedience to God’s will.”<br />
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Third, God's promise His grace is sufficient to see us through the suffering needs to be heralded over and over again. Jesus makes his intimate knowledge of and presence with the churches a point of emphasis in each of the seven letters – he is the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands and “knows” them. To some this would be disconcerting, for Jesus knew their failings. But, for the faithful church enduring persecution it was meant to be an encouragement. Jesus knew their struggle, was with them in the midst of it, and offers his strength to endure it.<br />
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Fourth, we need be pointed to Christ and his pattern of suffering. Jesus himself does this in the letters to Smyrna and Philadelphia. To the suffering church at Smyrna Jesus identifies himself as the one “who died and came to life”, reminding them that he too suffered but also that he prevailed. The church at Philadelphia had taken to heart “the word about my [Jesus’] endurance”, noting and emulating his pattern. Of course this theme is an oft repeated one throughout the New Testament. For example, Hebrews 12:3 encourages the believer, “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Churches need to sound this note clearly – our suffering is something the author of our faith himself endured and it is, in some mysterious way, participation with him in suffering.<br />
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Finally, we need to think often about the hope we have if we will endure. Setting aside the conditionality of these promises for a moment (more on that soon), we need to have our eyes set on our future hope so that we grasp what it is that stands to be gained on the other side of patient suffering. The glory the believer will attain and the reward of eternity in God’s perfect shalom needs to be a theme we come to often in our teaching, preaching, praying, and conversing. This is the focus of each letter’s conclusion – the right to eat from the tree of life in God’s paradise, immunity from the second death, hidden manna, a place in Christ’s kingdom, white garments, the crown of life, God’s name, sitting with Jesus on his throne, etc. The sufferings the believer endures will only seem “light and momentary” if we know and long for the true “weight of glory” that will be granted to those who endure.<br />
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Keener sums this call to be ready for suffering up well, “Revelation prohibits us loving our lives more than his gospel; it summons us to follow the model of Antipas as faithful witnesses, no matter what the cost.” Being faithful to our mission will lead to suffering, but Christ, our suffering servant walk with us through it and rewards us richly after we have suffered "a little while."Dan Waughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13239327568868739040noreply@blogger.com0