Winning Ways: Sharing Our Lives as Well As Our Gospel

I read about sandals with treads that leave the words "Jesus" and "Loves You" as you walk along sandy or muddy ground. The sandals can be ordered for about $25 from a website called "Shoes of the Fishermen." The company also sells snowboots for those who want to leave their mark while walking in the snow.

I guess you could buy some sandals that leave the Christian message as an impression in the sand. But what are you doing to leave the Christian message as an impression in someone's life?

In 1 Thessalonians 2:8 Paul said, "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."

Paul said he shared two things with them. First, he shared the gospel with them. He wanted them to know Jesus, to know Jesus' forgiveness and guidance and power for living. But Paul said he shared not only the gospel with them but also his life: his time, his energy, his heart. He was passionately connected with them.

You go to enough churches enough times and you'll hear a challenge to share the gospel. But maybe the missing ingredient that keeps us from being effective witnesses is friendship. That's largely what our citywide "Explore God" campaign is all about. It's about learning to share our lives as well as our gospel.

I'm thrilled to see the enthusiasm the Hillcrest Family has for this campaign! You've exceeded every goal we've set in the training phase of this project!

It's incredibly important to get prepared for your part in the Explore God effort. Two weeks ago adults gathered in the gym for Session One training following the morning service. This Sunday all adults are encouraged to return to the gym at 11:00 for Session Two training.

While Session One guided us on how to have spiritual conversations, Session Two will introduce us to the treasure trove of resources at the Explore God website.

If you can't make it this Sunday, please join me for Session Two training on Wednesday, August 7 at 6:15pm in A-161 (in the Adult Wing), or Sunday, August 11 at 11:00am in A-161. Or just get trained online at our "Explore God" portal on the church website.

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Links to Your World, Tuesday July 30

Better than watching paint dry: "For more than 50 years, Professor John Mainstone has stared at a shiny dark blob dangling from a glass funnel hoping to see it drip....The experiment that has consumed Mr. Mainstone has captivated hundreds of thousands of spectators across the globe who tune into an online webcam trained on the pitch day and night."

Every email should be 5 sentences long.

"Your illness is not your identity, your chemistry is not your character,” [Rick Warren] told people struggling with mental illness. To their families, he said, “We are here for you, and we are in this together.” There is hope for the future: “God wants to take your greatest loss and turn it into your greatest life message.” ... Then, as the service closed, Rick joined the worship team in singing a favorite evangelical hymn, “Blessed be Your Name.” He lifted his Bible high above his head and declared boldly to the God he serves: “You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name.” From a Time magazine article on Rick Warren's return to the pulpit since his son's suicide. He pledged to remove the stigma associated with mental illness in the church.

 

This man was labeled a dwarf at 21 and then a giant at 32, growing in adulthood from just under 4 feet 10 inches tall to 7 feet 2 inches tall.

 

Among the just-so stories created by the evolution metanarrative, we finally have an explanation for our incurable human restlessness. Nature has to keep us fit, so nature has to keep us moving, so nature has to keep us dissatisfied with where we're at. Augustine had a better explanation.

 

Owen Strachan in The Atlantic: "How strange was it...that leading news sources referred to the fetus of William and Kate as the “royal baby.” There were no pre-birth headlines from serious journalistic sources like “Royal Clump of Cells Eagerly Anticipated” or “Imperial Seed Soon to Sprout.” None of the web’s traffic-hoarding empires ran “Subhuman Royal Fetus Soon to Become Human!” No, over and over again, one after another, from the top of the media food chain to the bottom, Kate’s “fetus” was called, simply and pre-committedly, a baby....The media was right; gloriously, happily right." Read the rest.

 

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"More information on you than could be contained in Google's servers"

"Consider what [a demonic] intelligent being with an expansive ability at data collection could learn by simply observing you over a 24-hour period. Imagine that they can see not only the content of the e-mails you type, but also what you wrote and erased before hitting the send button. Imagine they took notes on what websites you visited, how long you stayed on a page, and the facial expressions you made while reading the content. Imagine also they listened to your cell phone conversations and overheard you gossiping to your spouse about a coworker.

"What sort of profile could the demon-agent assigned to you build by just watching you for a day? How much could they know if they had been observing you since birth, tirelessly taking meticulous notes? Imagine if the demon network had collected more information on you than could be contained in Google's servers."

Joe Carter's explanation of the data my supernatural enemy has on me makes me glad to have the protection of Christ. Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from [the] evil [one].

 

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Links to Your World, Tuesday July 23

8 Things I Wish Jesus Had Never Said

 

"In 1700 the average Englishman consumed 4 pounds a year. In 1800 the common man ate 18 pounds of sugar. In 1870 that same sweet-toothed bloke was eating 47 pounds annually. Was he satisfied? Of course not! By 1900 he was up to 100 pounds a year....Today the average American consumes 77 pounds of added sugar annually, or more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day." A History of Sugar

 

Maybe I'll get this bracelet made of dentures for Diane's birthday in August:

 

Welcome to "The Dictionary of Christianese." Let's start with "traveling mercies."

 

Here are some clever alternatives to the default "Sent from my iPhone" that automatically shows up on emails sent from a new iPhone.

 

Ross Douthat suggests pro-life liberalism is the route to "turning Texas blue."

 

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Links to Your World

Before there was "swag" there was "Quagswag," and the world was a better place for it. Learn these nine old-timey funny words and never be labeled a hoddypeak again!

 

Why I'm sometimes found in a coffee shop for sermon-prep.

 

I regularly watch John Stewart's The Daily Show, but I also draw my news from a wide variety of sources. There are actually people whose only source of news is late-night comedy monologues and Comedy Central mock news programs. Denny Burk wants such people to know that the highly-edited "interviews" on The Daily Show "are nothing more than an entertaining form of propaganda, and it matters very little to them who they trample under foot for the act."

 

"The full story of Rivera’s career is unmistakably a story about faith." Read Lisa Miller's longform NYT piece about the legendary and soon-to-retire Yankee closer, Mariano Rivera.

 

How many replicas of Noah's Ark are there? More than I thought.

 

"Christians who condone premarital sex, either explicitly or tacitly, have no principled reason to object to homosexual activity....We cannot take a morally credible stand against the sexual sins of the small minority of the population if we condone the sexual sins favored by over 90% percent of the population. If fornication is okay, if casual divorce is no big deal, then it rings utterly hollow to try to take a loud (or even a quiet) stand on homosexual behavior." Jerry Walls, HBU

 

"If the church is going to call gay and lesbian men and women to deny their sexual desires for life, then it must be willing to embrace them as brothers and sisters and walk alongside them on the long road of chastity. Humans...can live without sex. But they will die without love" (CT article).

 

"Human-rights movements have traditionally existed to help the voiceless and those without agency gain progressively more rights. Yet in the case of abortion, the voiceless have progressively lost rights at the hands of people who claim to be human-rights crusaders." Kirsten Powers explains why she doesn't stand with Wendy--nor do most women.

 

"It really surprised me to find out that the supposedly "literal" versions are often not literal in places where they could have been. There is also a surprising number of places where the intentionally nonliteral versions actually end up closer to a word-for word rendering....I don't think anyone is intentionally trying to mislead. But when Bible scholars call a translation "word for word," they know that cannot possibly mean that every word in the translation matches every word from the original. The term "word for word" is unfortunate. To the average English-speaking Bible reader who has no access to the original languages, it implies a higher degree of correspondence with the original than is true of any English version" (Bible translator Dave Brunn, discussing translations like the ESV and NASB that claim to be "literal" or "word for word" as opposed to those like the NIV and the CEV that go for "thought for thought." Read the rest.)

 

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Eleven Books in Thirteen Days: Snapshot Reviews

I downed a lot of books during the last 2 weeks. It's a good use of the time that is freed up flying back across 9 time zones to teach in Zambia, away from TV, internet, and church responsibilities. Here are some "snapshot" reviews.

 

Lit: A Memoir
Mary Karr

Mary Karr recounts her descent into alcoholism and her struggles to come to terms with God as a necessary part of her recovery. There's a lot that can be learned here about why we resist the divine remedy to our fundamental problems--and the role that community plays in helping us overcome that resistance.

Dead Aid
Dambisa Moyo

This highly-regarded book by Zambian economist Dabmisa Moyo is a critique of the way the West has left Africa in continual dependence by well-intentioned handouts. She offers several market-based alternatives to aid.

Winner Take All:
China's Race for Resources and What It means for the World
Dambisa Moyo
China's rapid growth is providing opportunities and challenges for developing countries all over the world, especially in Africa. Moyo simplifies complex economic concepts for the average reader, but I still found it hard to evaluate her arguments.

Orthodoxy
G.K. Chesterton
I wanted to read it because of the memorable quotes I've read by other authors (quotes I've used myself in preaching and writing). Turns out, about the only things useful from the book were the quotes. The book assumes a familiarity with 20th century Britain that makes tough slogging for any reader not from that era or that part of the world.

Subversive Kingdom
Ed Stetzer

If life apart from God is rebellion, Stetzer calls on believers to join the "rebellion against the rebellion" by living in a way that attracts people to Christ and his kingdom values.

Deep and Wide:
Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend
Andy Stanley
Where Stanley best serves church leaders is by reminding us that our congregations rise or fall largely on our ability to lead. Like his other books, then, this one serves as a useful corrective for ministers who want to dodge the blunt reality that their work is fruitless by saying that what really counts in ministry is that work be faithful. In the deeper and wider Center Church, Tim Keller also refuses to allow church leaders to use "faithfulness" as an excuse for "fruitlessness," and this is a welcome and bracing conversation church leaders need to have with each other. Stanley is less helpful in his promise in Section Five to show pastors of established churches how to transition their churches. This is simply not familiar territory for him, since he started Northpoint Church as a breakaway from his father's church. For an author who writes so well about finding the right processes to effect change, he offers no real process a leader can use to bring about change in an established church. Instead, the section mostly devolves into a satisfying but toothless rant about laity who stand in the way of church leaders who want to transition their churches. And what's with that offensive story about God's conversation with Jesus upon the Son's return to glory? "We're never going to turn the church into a global enterprise with the fishermen you chose as apostles," Stanley imagines the Father saying to the Son, "so let's enlist Paul for that." Yeesh. I'm sure he only meant this as chummy (along with his frequent use of "em" for "them"), but it's simply one more reason that some men who most need to read the book won't crack the cover.

Dad is Fat
Jim Gaffigan
A sweet book on parenting by one of my favorite comedians. Of course, most parents will identify with his observations on raising small children, but his observations on raising five small children in a two-bedroom apartment in the Bowery District of New York City takes the book to a new level of interesting.

Praying Backwards:
Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus' Name
Bryan Chappell

Here are some good reminders that prayer is an exercise for the believer to come into alignment with God's purposes.

Amazing Grace:
William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
Eric Metaxas

Metaxas may be better known for his bestselling biography of Bonhoeffer, but add this one to your list as well. Metaxas does a good job making Wilberforce and his period come alive, which make the parallels to our own day come to mind very easily. Unfortunately, however, the Audible audiobook edition was performed by a reader with a reedy voice who regularly gulped to clear his mouth of saliva. This may not be noticeable if you're listening in the car on a road trip, but in the intimate context of earbuds, it became maddening.

Lost At Sea:
The Jon Ronson Mysteries
Jon Ronson

One of my favorite books of the trip. A collection of true-life vignettes by the author of The Men Who Stare At Goats. His chapter on visiting with Nicky Gumbel of The Alpha Course was particularly fascinating to me. You should get it in the Audible audiobook edition and let the author himself read his book to you.

The Writing Life
Annie Dillard

For a while now I've had two books on my to-read list about being a writer: Steven Pressfield's Do the Work! and Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. I think I'm hoping these two books will spur me back into writing a novel. Yes, really. About 15 years ago I had a plan and wrote six chapters before setting the work aside. It's gathering dust in a filing cabinet. Is it time to get back to it? Dillard gave me some inspiration.

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Scientism Refutes God, but Does Science?

Does science refute God?

I subscribe to the podcasts for the entertaining “Intelligence Squared” debates, but with my schedule it sometimes takes a while to get to them. Here was one from back in December, arguing for and against the statement: “Science refutes God.”

Here are some thoughts in reaction.

One: Shermer misses the point when he says he just wants Christians to be atheistic about “one more god.” He says Christians are “atheists” when it comes to all the other gods humans have believed in, and all he asks is that we be atheistic about “just one more.” It’s a clever line, but it misses the point. There are many different “sciences” out there, but Shermer would say that some are more right that others. Peter Singer’s “science” says we ought to be allowed to kill a child up to the age of 2 if we’re disappointed with it. The “science” of the eugenics movement in the early 20th century engaged in practices and drew conclusions that we find chilling today. There is a “science” that advocates for policies to address global warming and also the “science” that resists the claims behind such advocacy. There are many different “sciences” because that’s how truth is pursued. The fact that some of these sciences have been proven wrong and some of these sciences are currently disputed doesn’t disqualify all scientific claims. And the fact that there have been many and disparate religious claims doesn’t disqualify all religious claims to truth.

Two: Shermer (I think it was Shermer) said that the difference between science and religion is that religion insists that you take “on faith” certain things whereas scientists build doubts into their system. I laughed out loud when he claimed that if things he held to today would be proven wrong tomorrow he would immediately drop his incorrect belief and embrace the new thing. Any undergraduate who’s read Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions knows that’s historically not how scientists have responded when their world is shaken by new claims. Kuhn discovered that at every scientific revolution scientists have had to be dragged out of their no-longer-adequate worldview, sometimes across a generation or more. This reality, of course, doesn’t mean science is unreliable in the pursuit of truth; it just means that science is as prone to human frailty as any other human endeavor.

Third: In a question from the audience and a response from the panel, there was a claim that 3 of 5 scientists are atheistic, and there was an assumption that such a stat certainly proved that a study of science leads inexorably to atheism. This ignores the psychological complications of being a scientist who is also a human. Though we humans fancy ourselves as independent thinkers, none of really escaped the tractor beam of peer pressure since we first felt its pull in Middle School.  We are instinctively tribal--we are primal joiners.  This means not only are we anxious to identify with those we consider our peers but we are also desperate to distinguish ourselves from those our peers dismiss.  So, a grad student not only adopts the skepticism of his professors and peers but also wants to avoid the suspicion he's like the yahoos who cling to faith. (I've found that the more a person feels he's vulnerable to this suspicion among his peers—say, because of the part of the country he’s from, or the school he graduated from, or the church he was raised in--the harder he feels he has to work at distinguishing himself from the yahoos.) More about that here.

Fourth: In the end, the debate organizers didn’t have the right statement to argue. Clearly, the question the panel really dealt with was not, “Does science refute God?” but rather, “Does scientism refute God?” There is a big difference between science and scientism. Shermer and the others on his panel advocate for scientism, which is the belief that natural science provides a complete account of everything we see, experience, and seek to understand. This article by Austin Hughes explains how "the reach of scientism exceeds its grasp." Scientism is a philosophical presupposition that we bring into the scientific endeavor rather than something inevitably found within the scientific endeavor. You can learn more about scientism in this lecture at Socrates in the City (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Winning Ways: Pack a Bucket--Serve the World

Help people help people help people.

Actually, that sentence makes more sense than it seems at first.

Thousands in southern Africa die each year from sicknesses like AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, and other life ending diseases. Often the only care they will receive is at home. Missionaries and nationals connected with our International Mission Board want to minister to family caregivers in these homes. Assembling a bucket with Baptist Global Response (BGR) is a way to help people help people help people.

Last Sunday I challenged you to join Diane and me with this project. You can participate as an individual, as a family, or as a Hillcrest Bible study group.

The challenge is to pack at least one BGR bucket and bring it to Hillcrest by Sunday, August 18.

The BGR bucket is a collection of medical and hygiene supplies to assist caregivers of home-bound, terminally ill patients. Items in this kit will make the caregivers' tasks much easier, but more importantly, will ease the suffering of the ones affected by the illness. The kit consists of a 5-gallon, heavy-duty bucket with a sealable lid. Inside the bucket are items that assist in keeping patients clean and dry. There are also items to protect their mat or mattress from soiling. Medicated lip balm and lotion help treat the skin problems that those suffering from AIDS battle. Other items are included that make life easier and less painful.

By putting together at least one kit, you will help provide a physical and spiritual touch to those in sub-Saharan Africa who are dying from AIDS and other illnesses. Our local Baptist and field partners in Africa will distribute the buckets in a way that gives dignity and hope to each family receiving a kit.

Everything you need to participate in this project can be found at HillcrestAustin.org/BucketProject. We will have print copies of these documents at Hillcrest as well. We're asking you to do four things:

Purchase the products from the shopping list.

Pack your buckets according to the BGR instructions.

Pray for those who will receive your buckets.

Bring the buckets to church and add it to the growing collection on stage.

Join us in this vital project!

__________________________________________

Subscribe to "Winning Ways" and

it will arrive in your inbox each Wednesday

hillcrestaustin.org/newsletters

 

 

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Links to Your World, Tuesday July 2

The Showboat, the Oprah, and 6 other Facebook personalities. Which one are you?

 

WaPo: Praying as a nonbeliever

 

"[Alan] Chambers's statement reflects aspects of theological drift and a capitulation to a prevailing culture that is unbecoming to an organization grounded in scriptural truths." Good reaction to Chambers's apology for and shuttering of Exodus. I would have written this.

 

Trevin Wax explains why the cultural shift toward same-sex marriage is both good and bad for believers.

 

Mollie's right: Journalists presented last week's love fest for Wendy as actual reporting on the Texas abortion bill. You ready to hear more about her pink shoes this week?

 

Related: Five Facts the Media Aren't Telling You About the Texas Abortion Filibuster

 

Studies show a "causal component" between pot use and mental disorders like schizophrenia.

 

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