Winning Ways: The Easter Encounter

Everything’s bigger in Texas, they say. Apparently that includes roadside crosses.

One in Groome, for example, stands 190 feet, and a 100-foot cross with a chapel can be found in Ballinger. In Houston, Sagemont Church planned a 250-foot cross; the FAA limited approval to 170 feet, which still makes it taller than the Statue of Liberty.

But a recent article in the Houston Chronicle reported that not everyone’s thrilled with roadside crosses. “The process for building these enormous crosses isn't easy,” according to the Chronicle, “Even though they're on private land, zoning regulations or angry neighbors can cause a legal stir.”

Take the controversy in Kerrville, for example. The Coming King Foundation has been trying to erect a 77-foot cross since November but neighbors filed suit. A compromise was recently reached (which includes the requirement of a fence so the neighbors don’t have to see the cross).

When it comes to lifting up roadside crosses, I can understand why some are touched by the piety and others are annoyed by the kitsch.

When it comes to lifting up the meaning of Christ’s cross, though, may it always be dear to our hearts.

The death of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Scripture, made all the difference in such large-scale issues as rescue from sin, ongoing victory over evil, reunion with God, reconciliation with each other, the ability to live lives of patience and forgiveness, and the chance to attain eternal life.

This week, we get another chance to lift up the cross through “The Easter Encounter.” It’s a time to remember, reflect, and rejoice.

• On Thursday, April 1, join us for the Lord’s Supper at 7pm and remember.

• On Friday, April 2, join us at noon for our Good Friday service and reflect.

• On Sunday, April 4, join us at 10 a.m. for our Easter celebration and rejoice!

Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, ESV). Lift up the Lifted Up, and that magnetic force still exerts its pull today.

Even if you don’t have a roadside cross.

__________

(View a photogallery of giant roadside crosses at the Houston Chronicle)

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

“There was always a will by this administration, and now there’s a way”

“Abortions will be performed at CHCs [federally-funded community health centers]; you can bet your foreclosed mortgage on that. There was always a will by this administration, and now there's a way.”

Kathleen Parker, in an opinion piece explaining why the new health reform bill will fund abortion—and was always intended to.

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 31

Portion sizes increase in 'Last Supper' paintings.

 

Fewer than half of Americans link Easter to Resurrection

 

The Resurrection Changes Everything!

 

Butcher your own meat at home: Classes on DIY butchering taking off. Nah, I don’t think I can get Diane to join in…

 

Self-defeating behavior is real. But why?

 

Americans are borrowing less and reducing their indebtedness. This is good news.

 

You can have a sustainable diet on $3.57 a day.

 

Indian military to weaponize world's hottest chili

 

50 Caffeine-Free Ways to Increase Your Energy

 

More smiling = longer life.

 

Posts at Get Anchored since last Tuesday:

The CSM Coverage of “The New Calvinists”

They’re OK with “Trinity” on the diploma, but not “Anno Domini”

Song of the Week: "Nothing" by Chris Rice

1000 Attacks in 500 Days

Lost: “There must be some way to earn forgiveness”

The Difference Between a Geek, a Dork, and a Nerd--Illustrated

A Home is for Ministry, Not for Impressing

LeaderLines: Christ’s Blueprint for his Church--Oneness

“The occasion for serious soul-searching among conservative pro-lifers”

Lost: Black and White

Winning Ways: Get Anchored!

“The trip-wire for me is the issue of human life”

“A Christian Became My Friend”

The CSM Coverage of “The New Calvinists”

The Christian Science Monitor:

Five centuries ago, John Calvin's teachings reconceived Christianity; midwifed Western ideas about capitalism, democracy, and religious liberty; and nursed the Puritan values that later cast the character of America.

Today, his theology is making a surprising comeback, challenging the me-centered prosperity gospel of much of modern evangelicalism with a God-first immersion in Scripture. In an age of materialism and made-to-order religion, Calvinism's unmalleable doctrines and view of God as an all-powerful potentate who decides everything is winning over many Christians – especially the young.

This is good news. Of course, I’m biased.

The Monitor’s story, “Calvinism is Back,” is not a perfect one. For example, the author says that Calvinism focuses on “God's need for glory”—which is not quite how any Calvinist would ever put it. But its worth a read.

They’re OK with “Trinity” on the diploma, but not “Anno Domini”

The Houston Chronicle:

A group of students at Trinity University is lobbying trustees to drop a reference to “Our Lord” on their diplomas, arguing it does not respect the diversity of religions on campus.

“A diploma is a very personal item, and people want to proudly display it in their offices and homes,” said Sidra Qureshi, president of Trinity Diversity Connection. “By having the phrase ‘In the Year of Our Lord,' it is directly referencing Jesus Christ, and not everyone believes in Jesus Christ.”

Qureshi, who is Muslim, has led the charge to tweak the wording, winning support from student government and a campus commencement committee. Trustees are expected to consider the students' request at a May board meeting.

So, let me get this straight. These students enrolled in a private school named Trinity which is loosely affiliated with the Presbyterians. And now they’re shocked—shocked I say—to see the traditional phrase “In the Year of Our Lord” on their diplomas.

Um…yeah.

Song of the Week: "Nothing" by Chris Rice

Here's Chris Rice's song, "Nothing," to focus your heart on the cross and resurrection this week. If you're in Austin, join us for "The Easter Encounter"--

REMEMBER
Join us for the Lord's Supper
Thursday, April 1, at 7:00pm

REFLECT
Attend our Good Friday service
During your lunch break
Friday, April 2, at noon

REJOICE
Celebrate the Resurrection
Easter Sunday, April 4, at 10:00am.

Click the audio player to listen to "Nothing" by Chris Rice--

1000 Attacks in 500 Days

“Minority Christians in India's southern state of Karnataka are under an unprecedented wave of persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former senior judge on the Karnataka High Court.” (Report)

Lost: “There must be some way to earn forgiveness”

Nancy Guthrie:

In this week’s episode [of Lost], a character who accidentally killed a man bowed before a priest before being put to death. But the priest refused to absolve him of his sin.

“There must be some way to earn forgiveness,” he said.

This scene captures the desperate cry of all those who have done wrong. “There must be something I can do! There must be some way I can earn the pardon of God not only for what I’ve done, but for who I am!”

Perhaps the answer in the gospel might seem, at first, as harsh as that of the priest in the drama who says there is not enough time to do penance. Because the gospel says, “No, there is no way you can earn forgiveness. Your debt is impossible to pay.” But into this hopeless situation Jesus steps in and says, “I will pay. I will earn your forgiveness by my own sinless life and through my own sacrificial death. I will provide for you the forgiveness you do not deserve and cannot earn.”

The Difference Between a Geek, a Dork, and a Nerd--Illustrated

Finally someone explains it in a way I can understand:

A Home is for Ministry, Not for Impressing

Megan Dunham, learning the art of opening your home to hospitality:

In Andi Ashworth’s book, Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring, she quotes writer Karen Mains as saying, “Entertainment has little to do with real hospitality. Entertaining says, I want to impress you with my beautiful home, my clever decorating, my gourmet cooking. Hospitality, however, seeks to minister.” Ashworth follows this by writing, “Our willingness to let others see our imperfections and to receive them in theirs opens the way to honest exchange. It’s risky. Facades crumble, and we are exposed as the vulnerable, still-on-the-journey-but-haven’t-arrived-yet people that we are. But we also are able to offer the grace of a true home.”

LeaderLines: Christ’s Blueprint for his Church--Oneness

If you’re a church leader, it’s important to review Christ’s vision for his church. As the Apostle’s Creed summarizes it, we are to be “one,” “holy,” and a “communion.” In LeaderLines, lets take 3 weeks to reflect on each of those 3 words.

The first word to capture Christ’s intent for his church is the word “one”—“I believe in the one holy church.” If you’ve spent time in a church that regularly quotes the Apostles’ Creed, you’ve probably heard the word “catholic”—“I believe in the holy catholic church.” The word is an English transliteration of the Latin catholicam, which itself derived from the Greek word katholikos. The word means “universal” and it speaks of the oneness of all believers around the world, across cultural lines, and down through the ages. To-day, though, most people understand the word “catholic” to refer to a specific branch of Christianity: the Roman Catholic Church. Since a word that once referred to the oneness of all Christians is now identified with only a segment of the Christian body, I prefer simply to speak of the church as one instead of as catholic.

Jesus intended his church to be one. On the night before he went to the cross, he prayed that his Father would bring believers to “complete unity” (John 17:23). It’s meaningful that the night before he was killed, he prayed that those whom he united to God through the cross would be united to each other. After praying for the tiny band of disciples who had ministered with him, his thoughts turned to the future (John 17:20-23):

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Now, in one sense, Christ’s intent is already fulfilled. Down through the ages and around the world, God’s church transcends cultures, generations, languages, and governments. In one of his letters, Paul uses the word “one” seven times in just three verses to speak of what we experience in church: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).

Still, Jesus prayed, “May they be brought to complete unity,” and that implies an unfinished process. Disciples of Jesus have the responsibility to move toward the vision of one-ness Jesus intended.

As leaders, we have to teach disciples to do three things to fulfill our Lord’s vision: connect, protect, and intersect.

First, we must connect with a specific congregation. Other religions may say, “To know the purpose of life, obey these rules,” or “take this path,” or “meditate in this manner,” or “practice this routine.” Jesus says, “To know the purpose of life, gather with others who love me. Where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them” (see Matthew 18:20).

Second, we must protect the unity of that congregation. The Bible tells believers, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). It takes work to achieve and to guard the oneness Jesus intended us to have.

Third, we must intersect our congregation with other congregations for meaningful causes. On the one hand, believers are wrong if they acknowledge their membership with the universal body of all believers without any real connection with a particular congregation. The universal church of all God’s people around the world and across the ages is made real to you in one congregation that you make your church home. On the other hand, believers are wrong if they simply affiliate with a particular band of fellow Christians without acknowledging their union to the other congregations. Paul’s perspective was the right perspective. He addressed his first letter to the Corinthians with these words: “To the church of God in Corinth,” but then he added, “together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Our commitment ought to be to a specific congregation even as we have consideration for “all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If you spent some of your childhood days in church, or if you’re taking your children to a church now, you’ve probably come across the little hand motions that teachers use to teach kids the habits of church attendance. You weave your fingers together, palms up, and then fold your hands together so that the thumbs are before your face. With your index fingers pointing upward as a kind of steeple, you say to the kids you’re teaching, “Here’s the church, here’s the steeple,” and then you open your hands and wiggle your linked-up fingers as you say, “Open the doors and see all the people.” I love Randy Frazee’s reminiscence about that little rhyme. He writes:

I have a son who was born without a left hand. One day in Sunday school the teacher was talking with the children about the church. To illustrate her point she folded her hands together and said, ‘Here’s the church, here’s the steeple; open the doors and see all the people.’ She asked the class to do it along with her—obviously not thinking about my son’s inability to pull this exercise off. Yet in the next moment it dawned on her that my son could not join in. Before she could do anything about it, the little boy next to my son, a friend of his from the time they were babies, reached out his left hand and said, “Let’s do it together.” The two boys proceeded to join their hands together to make the church and the steeple.

I can’t think of a better way to illustrate the truth of that little children’s rhyme! Paul prayed, “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5-6).

Deciding to become a Christ-follower means joining other believers to fulfill the vision of oneness in our life together. As church leaders, this is a vision worth putting in front of disciples. Next week we’ll look at the vision of holiness that Christ set out for our life together.

(This week’s edition of LeaderLines is adapted from Chapter 14 of my book, The Anchor Course: Exploring Christianity Together. Learn more at www.AnchorCourse.org.)

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

“The occasion for serious soul-searching among conservative pro-lifers”

Ross Douthat, reflecting on the loneliness of pro-life Democrats like Rep. Bart Stupak:

There’s been a lot of talk on the right about how his eleventh-hour surrender marks “the death of the pro-life Democrat.” But that possibility should be the occasion for serious soul-searching among conservative pro-lifers, rather than just satisfaction about having been right about the Democratic Party all along. After all, there are still pro-life Democrats for a reason: Because many abortion opponents can’t reconcile their views on social justice with the harder-edged, “any redistribution equals socialism” tendencies in the Republican Party. Some of these pro-lifers are older Catholic Democrats like Stupak; some of them are younger Americans who are hostile to abortion but don’t vote on the issue because they can’t imagine themselves being represented by the party of Limbaugh and Beck. A successful pro-life politics desperately needs these constituencies to find representation — and if there’s no place for anti-abortion sentiment among the Democrats, then pro-lifers need the Republican Party to feel hospitable to voters whose impulses on social policy tend in a more communitarian direction.

Mind you, I still think Kathleen Parker got it right: "The man tried to be a hero for the unborn, and then, when all the power of the moment was in his frail human hands, he dropped the baby." But Douthat warns that those of us who are driven by pro-life convictions had better broaden the ideological tent or see more defeats to come. "Pro-life" is not a synonym for "fiscal conservative."

Lost: Black and White

Last night’s episode of Lost should put to rest those who’ve been thinking of Jacob as some sort of Christ-figure. Yes, you could say he “baptized” Richard in the ocean in the process of calling him to be his representative. Yes, he exists to “contain” evil like cork in a bottle. Yes, his opponent (the Smoke Monster) is a liar and a murderer. But you’ll miss the religious backstory of Lost if you try to interpret in terms of the Christian worldview. As I’ve said before, there’s a yin-yang thing going here.

Winning Ways: Get Anchored!

We all operate out of a set of assumptions about the way the world is. Assumptions such as:

“If I do good things, then good things will happen to me.”

“The only person you can count on is yourself.”

“Life is a dressing room for eternity.”

“God likes me.”

“God hates me.”

We make our decisions and respond to circumstances out of the suppositions we hold. And maybe its time you examined the beliefs that drive you.

That’s where the Anchor Course can help. It’s an 8-week course designed for seekers who want to discover the Christian faith and for believers who want to develop in their faith. The study is ideal if...

• you're a spiritual seeker who wants to learn more about the life and teaching of Jesus, but you don't know where to start, or

• you've become curious about the Christian convictions of your friends, or

• you're married to a believer and you want to learn more about your partner's Christian faith, or

• you're a parent who's wondered how to explain Christianity to your kids, or

• you're a believer who wants a better grasp of the main points of your faith.

The Anchor Course is a place to build friendships around a weekly meal, and to build faith around a weekly discussion.

Want to learn more about the Course before you commit? Come to my "Get Anchored" Dinner on Wednesday, April 7, 6:30-8:00pm. You'll enjoy a good meal and learn more about the Course.

By coming to the "Get Anchored" Dinner, you're under no obligation to sign up for the full study. But if you decide to register, you'll receive a copy of my book, The Anchor Course: Exploring Christianity Together. We'll then meet eight weeks for dinner and discussion starting Wednesday, April 14, 6:30-8:00pm. Your children can join you for the meal and then go to preschool care and children's activities, which take place at the same time.

There is no cost for the "Get Anchored" Dinner, but we need your registration. Contact my assistant, Jami (345-3771 or jami@hbcaustin.org). To learn more, go to the Anchor Course website: www.AnchorCourse.org.

Spread the word about the dinner! It's easy to invite someone: Just forward this e-mail to them!

_____________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

“The trip-wire for me is the issue of human life”

Albert Mohler, writing before the health care bill passed:

I have refrained from extended comment on the health care reform bills — not because I do not have multiple concerns about the bills, but because I recognize that committed Christians can and will disagree over the political and policy issues involved. The trip-wire for me is the issue of human life. The current bill spells disaster when it comes to abortion. I cannot remain silent in this crucial moment where the sanctity of human life is at stake.

I, too, have tried to limit my objections to the health care reform proposals in Congress to one concern: abortion funding. There are worthy arguments on both sides of President Obama’s heath care reform. But, as Dr. Mohler put it, “The trip-wire for me is the issue of human life.” 

When it came to assurance that federally-subsidized health care would not force taxpayers to pay for abortion, our hope was in Rep. Bart Stupak and his coalition of pro-life Democrats. Stupak wanted the language of the historic Hyde Amendment as a part of the health care reform bill.  (The Hyde Amendment for years has prevented federal funding of abortion). Sadly, they gave up their push for the Stupak amendment to the bill on the promise of an Executive Order that the health care bill would maintain the protections historically provided by the Hyde Amendment.

Most pro-life leaders fear the Executive Order is toothless, and that even its rather limited force is in force only as long as Congress continues to support the Hyde Amendment (which they vote on annually).

Good summary of the reaction from pro-life leaders here.

“A Christian Became My Friend”

David Shenk:

In Sarajevo several years ago I asked a half dozen former Bosnian Muslims, "Why have you become believers in and followers of Jesus the Messiah?"

A woman responded with tears caressing her cheeks, "I became a Christian because a Christian became my friend."

Let us ponder this Bosnian woman's tears of gratitude.

“I wonder if we wouldn’t represent Christ and his kingdom better if we did it with a certain tranquility of Spirit”

Russell Moore:

Is it a problem that some of us who are tranquil as still water about biblical doctrine and ecclesial mission are red-faced about Nancy Pelosi and the talking heads on MSNBC? Is it a problem that some who haven’t shared the gospel with their neighbors in months or years are motivated to vent to strangers on the street about how scary national health care will be?

It’s not that I think Christians should be disengaged from issues of justice (God forbid!). It’s just that I wonder if we wouldn’t represent Christ and his kingdom better if we did it with a certain tranquility of Spirit, a tranquility that signals we’re not afraid of the rise and fall of temporal kingdoms and their policies.

Read the whole thing.

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 23

They’re called “Mall Girls,” mostly middle-class teens who turn tricks—not to support a drug addiction but to buy stuff. Disturbing.

 

David Frum on the health care debate: “Today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry” (Read it all)

 

New College Graduates To Be Cryogenically Frozen Until Job Market Improves.

 

“Research suggests that, in middle age at least, absent-mindedness is a particularly male problem.” Find the article, um, now where did I put that link….Oh yeah.

 

Holy Hip-Hop at SXSW

Slate explores the phenomenon of young women uploading YouTube videos of their shopping trips, called “hauls.”

 

Thomas Frank in the WSJ offers some worthy cautions against what he sees as excesses from conservatives on the Texas Board of Education.

 

As someone who lived in Maine a couple of my high school years, I was glad to read about an apparent revival in Maine.

 

Posts at Get Anchored since last Tuesday:

How Millennial Are You?

Song of the Week: "Long Sermon" by Brad Paisley

Nicole Marett’s World Race

The Whole Book of Proverbs in Five Sentences

Hilarious!

LeaderLines: Observations on Leadership

Lost: Making the Reading List

Review of Dawn Eden’s “The Thrill of the Chaste”

Winning Ways: Telling People About God

Lost: “Nothing’s Irreversible”

How Millennial Are You?

Someone sent me this link to the Pew Research quiz called “How Millennial Are You?” (HT: Pam):

http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/index.php

I scored halfway between most Boomers and Gen-Xers, which is pretty accurate considering I’m, well, halfway between Boomers and Gen-Xers. 

As I have said over and over again, the “Boomer” label is artificially imposed over those born in the early 60s. We were preschoolers during the events people list as formative for Boomer identity (the Kennedy assassination or Woodstock, for example).

It leaves me jonesin’ for a generational identity for those who are too young to be Boomers and too old to be Xers.  Hmm….

Song of the Week: "Long Sermon" by Brad Paisley

I thought of this one when writing last week's Winning Ways. Click the player to listen to Brad Paisley's "Long Sermon"--

Nicole Marett’s World Race

If it’s been a while since you’ve checked in on the World Race of our fellow Hillcrester, Nicole Marett, click here. You can read her blog posts here.

The Whole Book of Proverbs in Five Sentences

Want a good summary of the Book of Proverbs?  How about in five sentences?

Tim Keller suggests that Proverbs 3:3-12 has “all the themes of the rest of the book, and therefore a kind of mini-guide to faithful living.”

We need to be:

• “rooted in his grace,
• obeying and delighting in his Word,
• humble before other people,
• sacrificially generous toward our neighbor, and
• steadfast in trials”

Keller says this was the life of Jesus, whom the New Testament tells us is the personified ‘divine wisdom’ of the Old Testament (Mt 11:19.):

• “he showed the ultimate trust and faithfulness to God and to us by going to the cross,
• he was saturated with and shaped by Scripture,
• he was meek and lowly in heart (Mt. 11:28-30),
• he, though rich, became poor for us, and
• he bore his suffering, for us, without complaint.

Read the whole thing. It’s brief.

Hilarious!

C’mon, fellow pastors. Don’t you just wish you could be as honest as this guy with some music numbers you have to follow? Cracked. Me. Up.

 

LeaderLines: Observations on Leadership

When Will Willimon was chaplain at Duke Divinity School, he had some interesting observations on leadership in the midst of a sermon from Jeremiah 1, where we see God's call of the prophet. Leadership, Willimon said, is ultimately is rooted in the call of God:

It is odd of God to pick Jeremiah. Jeremiah knows as much. He lodges a basic objection: 'I can't talk good.' In saying that he is not good at public speaking, Jeremiah is not acting humbly. He really isn't any good at any of the skills listed on a job description for a prophet.

To Jeremiah's objections, God promises to give him all he needs to do the job right. Perhaps God believes in Jeremiah more than the boy believes in himself. Maybe an all-knowing God sees something in Jeremiah, some potential awaiting development, that Jeremiah can't see. From this vignette I derive three Principles for Biblical Leadership:

1. Leadership begins in the mind of God, as gracious inclusion of humanity into the plan and purposes of God. The roots of biblical leadership are essentially theological rather than anthropological. God's choice tells us more about the quality of God than the positive qualities of the people who are called to lead.

2. Speaking of the people who are called to lead, they are almost universally, laughably, the wrong people. That is, it is almost as if God goes out of God's way to pick those who, at least on the face of it, have no virtues or qualities that suggest they would be good leaders. Perhaps God likes a challenge. Maybe God, being a Creator who makes something out of nothing, considers vocation a continuing aspect of creation. Any God who could make an introverted kid like Jeremiah into a really quite wonderfully prophetic leader must be some God.

3. The qualities of 'good leadership' are more gracious gifts of God to be gratefully received rather than skills, techniques or knowledge to be savvily developed. When the chips are down, all biblical leaders have for credentials is faith in the promise, 'Go. I will be with you' (1:1).

I know. It goes quite against our grain to conceive of leadership in this way, as the choice and work of God, rather than something that we do. We enjoy thinking of our lives as something we decide, a project we have chosen, a path we have conceived on our own. Specifically biblical leadership begins, not in our ambition to rule, or in realistic assessment of our talents, but rather in summons. As Jesus put this in Gospel Leadership 101: 'You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last...' (John 15:16a).

These three principles should encourage you if you feel you’re over your head in the work you’re doing in the Lord’s vineyard. At the same time, these three principles should humble you if you think your talent is the reason God chose you to serve him. What we do for God is ultimately rooted in his call. And when tempted to give up—or tempted to coast—it’s his call that keeps us offering our best to him!

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Lost: Making the Reading List

Seth Stevenson:

Lost throws so many book covers up on-screen…that they almost serve as a bibliography, signaling the series' broad themes and interests. The stream of author shout-outs also seems like a quick and painless way for a TV show to advertise its literary gravitas. Lost is like that guy who purposely leaves his copy of Beloved out on the coffee table for when he brings home a date.

Gotta love that last line.

Go ahead: name the books you’ve read or plan to read because you wanted to know why they tied in to the Lost story.

Review of Dawn Eden’s “The Thrill of the Chaste”

I picked up Dawn Eden’s 2006 book, The Thrill of the Chaste, from a sale bin a couple of weeks ago. I recommend it to you if you are an unmarried woman or the the dad of a daughter. I am neither, of course, but I read the book as a pastor to both kinds of potential readers.

First, if you’re an unmarried woman, I suggest you read it. Unmarried men will benefit from Eden’s work, too, but she writes from inside the fears and temptations of women.  Eden is a journalist who first made her mark covering the rock scene in New York City. Raised as a Jewish agnostic, she placed her faith in Christ in her late 20s. Her book deals primarily with how she is learning to live out the implications of Christ’s Lordship in the area of sexuality. 

With honesty and vulnerability, she describes the mindset behind her sexual decisions in the past and the new mindset she’s trying to live out of now that she’s follows Christ.

Unmarried believers, particularly women, will find some well-written guidance here. You’ll find sound reasons for honoring the Christian commands regarding sex, and you’ll be able to identify with Eden’s mistakes and resolve on the road to sexual faithfulness.

But, as I said, I also recommend this book to dads of daughters. As Eden tells her story, its clear that her relationships with men in her young adult years were driven in part from the uncertainty she had about her own father’s love. While she does not shift blame to her father for her actions, it’s still clear that her father’s physical absence and emotional distance contributed to a deep need to attract and hold a man’s attention. This book should remind dads how important they are in a daughter’s formative years. 

Winning Ways: Telling People About God

This summer, I will mark 30 years of being a pastor since my start as a college sophomore. After attending many conferences and reading many books on the work of ministry, I still haven’t found a better definition of a pastor’s job than the one given by my firstborn when he was a preschooler.

When Michael turned four, it was time for him to start sitting with his mother in church services instead of attending the preschool care. After a few weeks of observing the hour-long services of songs, prayers, and my teaching, he had an observation.

“I know what your job is, Daddy,” he told me over Sunday lunch.

“Oh?”

“Your job is to tell people about God.”

“Well, that’s right, Michael. I’m a pastor, and my job is to tell people about God.”

“Daddy?” he continued.

“Yes, son.”

“It takes a lo-o-o-ong time to tell people about God, doesn’t it, Daddy?”

Well, I guess the boy was right! When your job is to tell people about God, there’s a lot to say.

What an honor to be called to the “noble task” of pastor (1 Timothy 3:1)! Throughout the week, about a third of my time is spent in study as I prepare to tell people about God. The rest of the time is spent in telling.

Most of you see me doing that job in the pulpit, but there are many more settings for practicing “prayer and the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:2). There are the phone calls to visitors, prayer with shut-ins, encouragement in a hospital room, Anchor Course sessions, and counseling at the office, to name the most common settings for me. These days, technology extends the ministry of the Word through responding to e-mail and creating e-newsletters, blog posts, status updates, and, most recently, “tweets.”

I was reminded of the joy of this job last Sunday. After preaching (where, yes, I took a lo-o-o-ong time), I dropped by the Dell Children’s Hospital to visit a family. The dad and I talked as he held his recovering 3-year-old in his lap. He regarded his daughter’s crisis as his spiritual wake-up call, and we talked about how to make Jesus the center of life.

Yes, my job is to tell people about God. And my job rocks.

_______________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Lost: “Nothing’s Irreversible”

Doc Jensen at EW often spins away into thin speculation when writing about Lost, but he’s fun to read anyway. Here are his ramblings regarding Lost’s allusions to C.S. Lewis:

I'd like to...bring in our old dead Christian author friend, Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis, whom Lost has cited via our dead red-headed Freighter friend, Charlotte Staples Lewis. C.S. Lewis wrote a great many books that thematically mirror Lost. Besides the Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, and The Space Trilogy, there's The Pilgrim's Regress, an allegory about spiritual development involving a man who as a child has a vision of an island that can bring spiritual fulfillment and human purpose. As an adult, he goes on a journey to find the island, only to discover two things: (1) the island is embodied by a person; and (2) The road to the island leads back home. And then there is this:

The Great Divorce

The Great Divorce was Lewis' sorta-kinda response/rebuttal to Dante's Inferno and especially William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. But Lewis' vision of Heaven actually functions as an allegory for how life should be lived in the here and now. Lewis has two big points to make with the book. The first: We can either view the world we live in as an upward slope leading to heaven, or a downward slope leading to hell. The second: As long as we draw breath, there is always time to reverse course. Now here's where the applications to Lost get really interesting:

In his introduction to the book, Lewis (who preferred that his friends call him Jack) tackled the question that's at the center of Lost: How do we ''fix'' ourselves? …His answer:

''I do not think that all those who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists of being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit-by-bit, with 'backwards mutters of dissevering power' — or else not. It is still 'either-or.' If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth), we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.''

…

Application to Lost:

Jack was right in ''LA X'' when he said, ''Nothing's irreversible.'' But healing change does not come from blowing up the past….Stop running away! Stop ''simply going on,'' because it will never ''develop into good,'' and ''time does not heal it.'' And then, once we've dealt with it, we need to bring in the words that Rose gave us in ''LA X'': We need to ''let it go'' and move on. Leave our ''souvenirs of Hell'' behind and move into the fullness of life, and then what lies beyond.

Jensen also speculates that the Lost creators may be playing off an unfinished story of Lewis's called The Dark Tower, published about 14 years after his death (and, not to be confused with the Stephen King series by the same name):

Lewis' The Dark Tower begins with a conversation about time travel. The characters conclude that the past can't be changed. They then find a device called a ''chronoscope'' that allows them to peer into the past or future — or so they think. Looking into the chronoscope, they witness a past or future world (they can't tell which, so they just call it ''Othertime'') in which a devilish character leads people astray, clouding their minds and turning them into virtual zombies. Then a character makes a discovery: The chronoscope isn't a device that allows peeks into other times — it allows them to peek into parallel worlds. He then makes another discovery: His double in Othertime is a bad guy. To prevent him from doing bad things, he crosses over...and accidentally switches minds with his bad doppelganger. And so, while the Good Guy tries to save the day in Othertime, his evil doppelganger wreaks havoc in ''the real world'' and the Good Guy's ''real world'' friends try to stop him.

...

C.S. Lewis technically never finished the story. The Dark Tower only exists as a fragment of a novel, an unfinished work — a Lost story....Part of me is in love with the idea that those Stephen King-loving, Star Wars-grooving writers of Lost are basically taking the raw material of Lewis' Dark Tower and building something new out of it. At the very least, I find myself wondering if Jack made the same mistake in ''Lighthouse'' that the characters in The Dark Tower made about the chronoscope: those mirrors inside the Lighthouse didn't peek into the past — they peeked into the Sideways World.

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 16

Yikes! 45 Shots of Human Stupidity.

 

Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text. “‘It demands so much of my time and concentration,’ said Chicago resident Dale Huza, who was confronted by the confusing mound of words early Monday afternoon. ‘This large block of text, it expects me to figure everything out on my own, and I hate it.’”

 

“When it comes to breakfast tacos, Austin trumps all other American cities.” (NYT). Torchy’s Tacos, new location on Spicewood near the Mesa intersection. Yessss.

 

Finally! “The Future Is Here: Jetpacks Now Commercially Available”

 

Man marries his pillow.

 

Gendercide: The war on girls.

 

Time magazine explains why 24 was groundbreaking in 2001…and why it’s time to bring it to a close now.

 

Extinct modern technology presented like fossils

 

Posts at “Get Anchored” since last Tuesday:

“A simple loaf of bread could become a luxury”

Mohler on Beck’s Slap at “Social Justice”

Song of the Week: Erin Shore by The Corrs

Are the Words “Social Justice” Code Words?

“The battle is between God and the devil, between good and evil, between sin and righteousness, not between bourgeois and bohemian.”

LeaderLines: When You Get Knee-Jerk Reactions Against Your Influence

Choosing Virtual Reality Over, Well, Reality

Lost: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?

“Assisting at the Death Bed of a Word”

Winning Ways: Purchased By and For God

“A simple loaf of bread could become a luxury”

Want a good scare for your Monday morning? I’ve been watching this news item slowly rise to the media surface across the last few years. It’s about a stem fungus dubbed “Ug99” that is decimating grain crops by the acres and (so far) has proven unstoppable. Unsettling stuff. From Wired:

Ug99 is storming east, working its way through Africa and the Middle East and threatening India and China. More than a billion lives are at stake. “It’s an absolute game-changer,” says Brian Steffenson, a cereal-disease expert at the University of Minnesota who travels to Njoro regularly to observe the enemy in the wild. “The pathogen takes out pretty much everything we have.”

…

What’s more, Ug99 could easily make the transoceanic leap to the United States. All it would take is for a single spore, barely bigger than a red blood cell, to latch onto the shirt of an oblivious traveler. The toll from that would be ruinous; the US Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 40 million acres of wheat would be at serious risk if Ug99 came to these shores, where the grain is the third most valuable crop, trailing only corn and soybeans. The economic loss might easily exceed $10 billion; a simple loaf of bread could become a luxury. “If this stuff gets into the Western Hemisphere,” Steffenson says, “God help us.”

Indeed.

Pray for the scientists working on this looming crisis, and have your finances in an order where you will be able to help when calls for famine relief begin in the next few years.

Mohler on Beck’s Slap at “Social Justice”

Albert Mohler:

Glenn Beck's statements about social justice demonstrate the limits of our public discourse. The issues raised by his comments and the resultant controversy are worthy of our most careful thinking and most earnest struggle. Yet, the media, including Mr. Beck, will have moved on to any number of other flashpoints before the ink has dried on this kerfluffle. Seriously minded Christians cannot move on from this issue so quickly.

I referenced Beck’s remarks in an earlier blog post. Dr. Mohler makes a good contribution toward “our most careful thinking and most earnest struggle” on this issue. Be sure to read his post. In sum, he says that, on the one hand, beware those who belittle “social justice,” which has a solidly biblical mandate. On the other hand, beware those who would make “social justice” a replacement for the message of the cross. 

Song of the Week: Erin Shore by The Corrs

For your Saint Patrick's Day this week, here's "Erin Shore" from The Corr's project, Forgiven, Not Forgotten. Click the player to listen:

Are the Words “Social Justice” Code Words?

Glenn Beck told his audience to leave their churches if the phrase “social justice” is advocated:

I beg you, look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!

Of course, Beck’s target was the Religious Left—churches and organizations and spiritual leaders who advocate for liberal policies:

If I'm going to Jeremiah's Wright's church? Yes! Leave your church. Social justice and economic justice. They are code words. If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, "Excuse me are you down with this whole social justice thing?" I don't care what the church is. If it's my church, I'm alerting the church authorities: "Excuse me, what's this social justice thing?" And if they say, "Yeah, we're all in that social justice thing," I'm in the wrong place.

But Beck is painting with too broad a brush if he thinks the phrase “social justice” is code for theological or political liberalism. Those with unquestioned conservative credentials use the phrase “social justice” as well.  As Tobin Grant at CT points out:

Beck's comments came on the heels of a new six-part video small-group study, "Seek Social Justice," put out by the Heritage Foundation, a flagship conservative organization. The video series features Chuck Colson of BreakPoint, Al Mohler of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Sean Litton of the International Justice Mission, and other evangelical leaders speaking on the meaning and importance of social justice.

Oops.

And then there’s Tim Keller, the NYC pastor and NYT bestselling author, and a cofounder of the theologically-conservative Gospel Coalition. I’m looking forward to his forthcoming book: Generous Justice.

My point is not that everyone who uses the phrase “social justice” is harmless. My point is that not everyone who uses the phrase “social justice” is harmful. In fact, depending on how it is defined, a commitment to “social justice” is a sign of biblical faithfulness.

“The battle is between God and the devil, between good and evil, between sin and righteousness, not between bourgeois and bohemian.”

Kevin DeYoung:

You may have noticed from books like Stuff White People Like and Hipster Christianity that there is something of a backlash afoot against pretentious coolness. Please hear me: there’s nothing bad, and probably lots good, about listening to emo bands, drinking fair trade coffee, and reading Wendell Barry at Panera Bread. Just don’t wear it all as a badge of spiritual honor.

[On the other hand] those who like McDonalds more than Starbucks and Bell’s Pizza more than Magdalena’s Tea House need to be extra careful that in an effort to defend the “uncool” they don’t end up demonizing the “cool.” Some people like the things that “hipsters” like. No problem. They need Jesus too. We all need Jesus. The battle is between God and the devil, between good and evil, between sin and righteousness, not between bourgeois and bohemian.

Forget hip and unhip. Don’t try to be cool. Don’t revel in being uncool. Just be who you are and love your neighbor as yourself.

LeaderLines: When You Get Knee-Jerk Reactions Against Your Influence

The leader’s intent is to influence, but the intent to influence will bring out the rocks.

Oh yes. As John Acuff blogged today, “There Will Be Rocks” (a riff on the film title, There Will Be Blood), sometimes those you want to influence have rocks ready to throw at you. He wrote:

The rocks are built of all the negative experiences they’ve ever had with the idea you’re trying to tell them about…They hold a rock composed of a church they fell in love with only to have the pastor have an affair. They hold a rock full of all the conversations they’ve had with hypocrites and liars who once shared the same idea you are.

And they want to throw it at your idea. To unleash that rock.

Have you experienced this as a church leader? As a parent? As a boss? As an intervening friend? As someone who expressed an opinion on social media? What’s your gut reaction when the rocks come out?

Some leaders disengage: They quit trying to influence (and thus quit leading). They find (or gather) people of like minds who won’t try their patience. It’s interesting that in our churches we still use the title “church leaders” for people like this who have become nothing more than program organizers.

On the other hand, some leaders engage with the rock-throwers, but only in terms of combat. They become defensive, prickly, perhaps even relishing the verbal equivalent of a cage match with their opponent. I’ve seen too much of that at church and on social media sites.

Acuff has an alternative:

What I’ve learned is that the best thing to do is to confess those rocks are there. To get off your platform, whether in a one on one conversation or on a blog, and stand beside the person and say honestly, “Hey, you’ve got a rock in your hand. It’s a rock that I helped put there with my own hypocrisy and mistakes.” And then, once you’ve said that, once you’ve built a relationship that is real, I think you can ask them for the rock. You can say, “Can we talk about that rock? And while we talk, can I hold it for you?”

You know what happens when they give you their rock? Their hands are open and empty. They can now hold something new in those hands. Something like truth and mercy and grace. You can hand them something new when they hand you something old.

The art of communication isn’t about merely getting something off your chest but about getting something into another heart. And that requires that we process through the knee-jerk reactions we often get as we begin to communicate. As Acuff puts it:

There will be rocks, but that’s OK.

We serve a Christ who knows a thing or two about moving rocks.

_______________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Choosing Virtual Reality Over, Well, Reality

William Saletan:

It has come to this: A child starved to death while her parents cared for an imaginary child instead.

It happened in South Korea. A man and woman met online. Their online relationship became physical. They made a real baby.

But the baby was troubled. She was premature. Her parents never named her.

Instead, they found another child to raise. She was healthy, happy, and beautiful. She lived in a world called Prius Online. It's a 3-D-graphics-enhanced universe where you can find new friends, a new job, and a new child. Her name is Anima.

…

Maybe this is just a weird story about a sick couple on the other side of the planet. But look in the mirror. Every time you answer your cell phone in traffic, squander your work day on YouTube, text a colleague during dinner, or turn on the TV to escape your kids,you're leaving this world. You're neglecting the people around you, sometimes at the risk of killing them.

…

So get the h--- out of here. Go kiss your spouse, hug your kids, or walk down the hall and say hello to your colleagues. There's a beautiful world out there. Live in it.

Lost: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?

Seth Stevenson on Lost:

“Perhaps the island is like Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, forcing the characters to take a long, hard look at their own weaknesses and failings. Just as Scrooge did, we viewers wonder: "Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be, only?"

“Assisting at the Death Bed of a Word”

BB Warfield addressing ministerial students at Princeton Theological Seminary on September 17, 1915, emphasized that a pastor must press home the truth of Christ as Redeemer:

You see…what we are doing today as we look out upon our current religious modes of speech, is assisting at the death bed of a word. It is sad to witness the death of any worthy thing, even of a worthy word. And worthy words do die, like any other worthy thing--if we do not take good care of them….

The words “Redeem,” “Redemption,” and “Redemer” are going the same way…. I think you will agree with me that it is a sad thing to see words like these die….And I hope you will determine that, God helping you, you will not let them die thus, if any care on your part can preserve them in life and vigor. But the dying of the words is not the saddest thing which we see here. The saddest thing is the dying out of the hearts of men of the things for which the words stand. As ministers of Christ it will be your function to keep the things alive….The real thing for you to settle in your minds, therefore, is whether Christ is truly a Redeemer to you, and whether you find an actual Redemption in Him,--or are you ready to deny the Master that bought you, and to count His blood an unholy thing? Do you realize that Christ is your Ransomer and has actually shed His blood for you as your ransom? Do you realize that your salvation has been bought, bought at a tremendous price, at the price of nothing less precious than blood, and that the blood of Christ, the Holy One of God? Or, go a step further: do you realize that this Christ who has thus shed His blood for you is Himself your God?

Sunday’s message focuses on the cross as the place where the ransom was paid to set us free.

Winning Ways: Purchased By and For God

Lou Johnson was a star player for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1965 World Series, but drug and alcohol abuse cost him everything from that magical season. To feed his addiction, he sold his uniform, glove, and the bat he used to hit the winning run in the deciding game. Most painful to him, though, was the loss of his championship ring to a drug dealer in 1971.

When Dodger president, Bob Graziano, learned that Johnson’s World Series ring was about to be auctioned on the Internet, he immediately wrote a check for $3,457, bought the ring, and gave it to Johnson. The old outfielder, clean and sober for years, wept, saying, “It felt like a piece of me had been reborn.”

We believers know the feeling. Jesus paid a great price to recover what we lost through sin.

Redeemed…purchased…ransomed. That’s an image the Bible writers returned to again and again to describe what happened on the cross. In at least 18 places the word “redeemed” is used. In 6 places the Bible speaks of Jesus’s death as “buying” or “purchasing” us. In at least 2 places the Bible says Jesus “liberated” or “set us free.” I especially like how Ephesians 1:14 says we are God’s “purchased possession.”

The image of redemption actually began with Jesus, who said he came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). But what did he redeem us from…and what did he redeem us for?

This Sunday we’ll answer that question as we continue our series called Cross-Purposes. During the four Sundays of March we’re looking at four biblical images that explain why Jesus died for those he would call to himself. As we approach Easter, we’ll visit the altar, the marketplace, the courtroom, and the laundry room. Each of those images reveal the meaning of Christ’s death: Christ absorbed God=s holy anger that burns against our impurity, Christ bought us for himself, Christ exchanged moral records with us to enable us to pass the Judgment Day, and Christ washed us clean. You can review the sermons at our website.

Join us at the foot of the cross this Sunday @ 10 and every Sunday in March. Can you think of a better way to spend the month leading up to Easter?

________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday March 9

How Lazy Can You Get? A young British man has lost his driver's license for walking his dog along a country road by holding the leash outside the car window while he drove.  (story)

 

61% of women in their late 30s have cohabited, but studies show the practice decreases the likelihood of a lasting marriage. (NY Times)

 

“Of all the things that get our sneakiness juices going, there is nothing like a little darkness.” (Intriguing report in Time magazine on the finding that darkness increases unethical behavior)

Science and the Sacred reflects on the wonder of clouds.

 

Are You Gospel-Shaped, or Just Religious? Excellent 3-point test!

 

40 signs from the spelling impaired.

 

How long do you think it took them to set this up:

 

 

Posts at Get Anchored Since Last Tuesday:

The Quid Pro Quo God

Pray Against the Violence in Jos, Nigeria

Song of the Week: "Awake My Soul" by Mumford and Sons

Good Question! The Purpose of Parables

Christians at the Movies

What Does Your Heart Search For? Google and God Know

LeaderLines: Leading in the Midst of Personal Trials

Lost: A good story that will fall short of the Good Story?

Winning Ways: Christ Without the Cross?

Lost: What to Make of Jacob and non-Locke

The Quid Pro Quo God

Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase meaning "something for something." Mark Galli says too many of us serve a quid pro quo god instead of the God of the Bible who loves us with an unimaginable grace:

The quid pro quo god is one who does something for us if we do something for him, and the one who refuses to do something for us, or even punishes us, if we fail to do something for him.

Put this way, it seems impossible that anyone in their right mind would believe in such a god. The rub, of course, is that none of us are in our right mind—that's one of the effects of sin. And one reason we're attracted to the quid pro quo god is that he's a god we can get our minds around. He makes sense. He seems reasonable and fair: We do our part, he does his, and all will be well.

. . .

[But] what about that fellow from first-century Galilee, who by all accounts did everything right and absolutely nothing wrong, who abided by all the dictates of the quid pro quo god and still ended up dead in the prime of life.

Good thing that Galilean didn't believe in the quid pro quo god, otherwise, he would have been in despair as he hung on the cross. Instead, even at the most horrific hour of his life, when all hope seemed lost, when he felt most deserted by his God, he prayed. Not to the quid pro quo god, but to his Father in heaven. Even in a moment when he felt forsaken, he called out, "My God, my God."

The problem with the quid pro quo god is that we can never call him "my God." We never feel that close to him.

Read the whole thing.

Pray Against the Violence in Jos, Nigeria

Violence between Christians and Muslims has flared up again in Jos, Nigeria, according to the BBC.  Below, watch "Neighbors," shot on location in Jos, Nigeria:

Neighbors from Nathan Clarke on Vimeo.

Song of the Week: "Awake My Soul" by Mumford and Sons

London's indie band, Mumford and Sons, released their album, Sigh No More, to the U.S. market in February. They're coming to Austin June 9. Click the player to hear "Awake My Soul"--



You can hear the whole album at Lala. I'm a new listener, and my only knowledge of the band comes from the lyrics on this album. So correct me if I'm wrong, but on several of the songs the writer expresses a faith he has yet to grasp (or has abandoned). In "Roll Away Your Stone" for example, you can almost hear him gently pushing back against a Christian friend or relative trying to explain to him "how this grace thing works." But in "Awake My Soul," he comes closer to acknowledging his need for faith than on any other track. Stylistically, don't you love how it builds in intensity?

Good Question! The Purpose of Parables

I’m going to try a new feature at Get Anchored: I’ll post a question I’ve been asked, and my stab at an answer. Agree or disagree at the Facebook fan page for Get Anchored, and drop me a line with your own questions.

First up: the purpose of parables. Amy writes: "Alright, I've got one for you. In Community Bible Study we've talked a lot about the fact that Jesus used parables so that those whose hearts are ready and open will understand his message. We've also talked about how those who didn't understand still had hardened hearts. So, now for the question: What if a Christian has difficulty understanding the message of a particular parable? Is it evidence that the person is not completely open to God's teaching or still resistant to it in some way?"

The question comes from Luke 8. In verse 10 Jesus tells his disciples the reason why he often spoke in parables:

"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
" 'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.'

Amy asks if a Christian struggles to understand the meaning of a parable, is that a sign that he or she is resistant to it in some way.

Probably not. Of course, as believers we can resist what the Bible has to say on a subject and remain in spiritual immaturity. But when Jesus quoted from Isaiah (6:9), it wasn’t to set up a formula by which we could measure our spiritual maturity as believers. He was explaining the more fundamental issue of why people don’t put their trust in him at all.

Here’s the fuller text that Jesus was quoting from in Isaiah 6. Keep in mind that this comes right after that exalted vision of Isaiah’s call to ministry in the heavenly temple. When we’re teaching this beautiful passage, we often stop at his exclamation: “Here am I! Send me!” But notice how God sends him with these words (verses 9-10):

He said, "Go and tell this people:
" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."

Isaiah was given a frustrating call as a man of God. He lived in a time of spiritual rebellion and apathy, and God said, “Isaiah, I’m sending you to preach to a people who aren’t going to respond to you.” How’s that for a ministry vision! Would that fire you up for your life’s work?

But Jesus said that’s the way it always has been: When we try to make a difference in our world, particularly when we try to make a difference for the glory of God, our words will repel some even as they attract others.

So, Jesus was quoting these words to explain the fundamental problem of unbelief, not to give believers a tool to measure our spiritual maturity.

I should go on to say something else about this text, though these comments go beyond Amy’s question. Like most Bible passages that deal with this subject, notice that there is a mingling together of two profound truths: human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Do we turn to the Lord, or does the Lord turn us to himself? The answer is yes!

On the one hand, if anyone comes to Christ it’s because that person thinks through the facts, discusses the issues with others, reads books or listens to sermons, and finally it’s because that person made the decision to come to Christ. That’s true for our growth in Christ, too: as a believer, I grow in Christ when I make a decision to study, to discipline myself, to stick to the task even when it gets tough. In short, I must choose to come to Christ and grow in Christ. In our text, Jesus says that people who don’t do anything with the spiritual truths he teaches will soon not feel any impulse toward spiritual things at all. And he says that those who grasp spiritual truth and build their lives upon it will gain even more spiritual insight. So, he says the burden is on us.

But on the other hand, the Bible is clear that none of us will make any progress if the Lord isn’t leading us. The Bible says that before you came to Christ you were spiritually deaf, spiritually blind, and spiritually dead—other than that you were OK! We came to Christ because God enabled us to do so! And that’s true for any spiritual maturity you’ve enjoyed as a believer: whatever growth you’ve enjoyed, whatever knowledge you’ve gained, it’s because of God. In Luke 8, he speaks of spiritual truth “given” to some people. That’s the activity of God.

So, do we turn to the Lord, or does the Lord turn us to himself? The answer is yes! As believers, is it up to us to develop in the Lord or does the Lord develop us? The answer is yes!

Now, when I reflect on that reality, it makes me patient and humble as I do the work of a difference-maker. All I do—my encouragement and explanation and warning and service and sacrifice—I’ll do all of this and in the end some will grow spiritually and others will resist. But in the end, God will evaluate my life on what I did and said, not on how people responded to it.

That’s true for you, too. Maybe you’ve been teaching in the youth ministry, and you feel like you’re beating your head against the wall. All year you’ve prepared your lesson and taught it every week, you’ve tried to get to know your class, you’ve prayed for them—and you feel like you’re losing them and you’re thinking, “I’m not cut out for this.” Jesus says, “Be patient when you face resistance. It happens to everyone who’s trying to make a difference. Keep doing the right things and leave the results to me.”

Or maybe you’re a heart-broken parent. Parents are difference-makers. Maybe you’ve set a good example in your home, you’ve taught God’s instructions for life as best you could, you made sure you had your family in church—but now you’ve got adult sons and daughters who are making all the wrong choices. Jesus says, “Be patient when you face resistance. You have no idea how I’m using all your years of parenting even to this day.”

We’re simply an instrument in the hand of God, an actor playing a bit part in an epic drama. We don’t direct the drama, God does, and we simply play the part assigned to us.

____________

Amy, thanks for the first question in this new feature, “Good Question!” Agree or disagree at the Facebook fan page for Get Anchored, and submit your own question. It can be a question on Bible interpretation, theology, church practice—anything!

Christians at the Movies

CT says that evangelicals evaluate films in 2 ways—as engagers or as separatists.  CT’s conclusion:

The reality is, the engagers could stand to learn a few things from the separatists, and vice versa, as both camps survey the pop culture landscape. The engagers have developed keen eyes to find Light in the most unexpected places. Yet the separatists, who have an instinct for sensing the subtly devastating aspects of culture, can quicken our steps on the path of sanctification. With the engagers' vision and the separatists' instinct, the church and its moviegoers can navigate Hollywood's muddled spiritualities with rigor and grace.

Read the whole thing.

What Does Your Heart Search For? Google and God Know

Tim Challis:

In 2006 AOL made available to the public a massive amount of search data, releasing the search history of 650,000 users over a 3-month period. That totaled some twenty one million searches….Some searches were dark and disturbing, others unremarkable in every way, and still others strangely amusing. Often you could reconstruct a person's life, at least in part, from what they searched for over a period of time….What is so amazing about these searches is the way people transition seamlessly from the normal and mundane to the outrageous and perverse. They are, thus, an apt reflection of real life….These searches are a glimpse into the hearts of the people who made them.

This all raises two great questions in my mind. First, would I be prepared to have my searches revealed to the public…? The second question is whether I would be prepared to address my search history with God. What would I say to him if he were to ask me about the things I have gone looking for online. Could I tell him with confidence that what I have sought is an indication of a heart that is aligned with his purposes? Or would I have to confess that my searches point to a heart that is drawn to what is evil and perverse?

You should read “God Watches You Google” by Tim Challis.

LeaderLines: Leading in the Midst of Personal Trials

Serving God isn’t an insurance policy against hardship. When the personal trials come, how do you continue your church leadership?

How do you continue shepherding your Sunday School class or Common Ground group as you try to process the heartbreak of your child’s rebellion?

How do you continue to lead people in praise through your music ministry when conditions at home have left you wondering about the future of your marriage?

How do you continue confidently teaching the promises of the Word when serious illness hits you or a loved one?

Bob Kauflin wrote about this issue recently at his blog, Worship Matters. A few days before he was scheduled to lead the worship music at his church, he found out his 2-year old grandson had leukemia. He wrote:

The songs had already been chosen. The focus was the Father’s personal, particular, and passionate love for those he has chosen from before the foundations of the earth and adopted in Jesus Christ.

What was he to do? His options:

I guess I could have struggled with the apparent dichotomy between my circumstances and the songs we were singing. Or ignored what my family was going through altogether and pretended that nothing was wrong. Or complained about how hard life is sometimes. By God’s grace, I actually drew great comfort from God through the truths we sang.

Personal hardship doesn’t disqualify us from leading and singing and teaching at church. Instead, when we hurt, the Word we’ve been pressing into the lives of others is balm for our own wounds as well. As Kauflin wrote:

We don’t lead others out of a vacuum or a sanitized form of Christianity that bears no resemblance to normal life. It’s important that we take time to grieve, acknowledge pain, and confess our struggles. But when, not if, you find yourself leading out of weakness, challenges, and trials, don’t minimize what’s going on or succumb in despair to your burdens. Lift your eyes, even as you lift the eyes of others, to the Father whose compassions never fail and to the Savior whose mercies are new every morning.

Whether God changes our trials, or more importantly, changes us through our trials, we praise him now in joyful anticipation of the day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).

Amen. So, when you’re hurting, don’t shut down the service you’ve been providing your church family. The teaching and music and encouragement you’ve been providing them may be the very medicine your soul needs now.

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Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 300 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

Lost: A good story that will fall short of the Good Story?

Jeff Jensen is seein’ what I’m seein’ in Lost’s Jacob-unLocke storyline—an unfolding Yin/Yang view of the Island:

Jacob isn't ''good,'' per se — he's just capable of giving life. Put another way: Jacob is the god of beginnings. He is The Alpha. The Man in Black? Not evil — he's the god of endings. He is the Omega. The beginning and the end. Polar, warring opposites, but absolutely necessary for life to bloom (Alpha) and to have form (Omega). Both are necessary for anything to have meaning. Jacob unchecked leads to chaos; Man In Black unchecked leads to annihilation. Both need to exist in balance; both need to be equally weighted rocks on the scale.

Jensen may be premature on his assessment. After all, we’ve only seen the Man in Black unchecked and how that leads to annihilation; we haven’t seen Jacob “unchecked” yet so we don’t know if such a state would lead to chaos.

I tend to think Jensen is getting this right, though (with the caveat that the writers are famous for misdirection). And if he’s right, then Lost will end up being at best a good story but not the Good Story. In the Good Story of Christianity, good and evil are not in balance as warring-but-equal opposites. Satan is not God’s dark counterpart in an unending cycle of existence. Instead, evil is an aberrant intrusion into God’s world, and will be destroyed in the final act of the Bible’s linear drama.

(By the way, stories that track with the Good Story celebrate this truth. There is no “balance of powers" in Narnia: Jadis the White Witch loses to Aslan. There are no eternally-existent polar opposites in Middle Earth: Sauron is snuffed out when the Ring of Power is destroyed.)

It will be interesting to see if Lost tracks with the Good Story or simply ends as nothing more than a good story.

Winning Ways: Christ Without the Cross?

They wanted Jesus but not the cross. It’s a parable for our times.

A couple of years ago thieves snatched an 8-foot statue of Jesus off a crucifix in Detroit’s Church of the Messiah. Police suspect that the thieves had assumed that the image of Jesus was made of copper and robbed it to sell as scrap. They didn’t see any value to the cross and left it behind.

As I said: A parable for our times. A lot of people prefer Jesus without the cross.

But while many may respect Jesus as a great moral teacher, his teaching is only a small part of what the original Christians considered important. As you read through the Gospels, the account of three years of teachings and miracles moves quickly. Then the writers slow down to linger over the details of the week leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection. The events of that single week dominate the four New Testament Gospels, taking up two-fifths of Matthew, three-fifths of Mark, a third of Luke and half of John. I recall one of my seminary professors saying that the Gospels were essentially “Passion narratives with extended introductions.” The word “passion” traditionally means “suffering,” and clearly the four Gospels consider Christ’s Passion the most important part of the story.

The centrality of the cross shows up in our artistic designs and architecture today. Judaism is identified by the Star of David, Islam by the crescent moon, and Buddhism by the dharma wheel, but Christianity is identified by the cross. Why?

During the four Sundays of March we’re going to look at four biblical images that explain why Jesus died for those he would call to himself. We’ll go to the altar, the marketplace, the courtroom, and the laundry. Each of those images reveal the meaning of Christ’s death: Christ absorbed God’s holy anger that burns against our impurity, Christ bought us for himself, Christ exchanged moral records with us to enable us to pass the Judgment Day, and Christ washed us clean.

Don’t be like those Detroit thieves who only wanted Jesus and they left the cross behind. P.T. Forsythe said, “You do not understand Christ till you understand his cross.” Join us at the foot of the cross this Sunday @ 10 and every Sunday in March. Can you think of a better way to spend the month leading up to Easter?

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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.