Fear and hatred, meet love

September 13, 2009 — Persecution links — 7 min read

Persecution is raging against Christians, but the Gospel and its Kingdom is spreading nonetheless.

Yesterday came yet another case of Islamic blasphemy laws, again in Pakistan, being used against Christians: Punjab, Muslim extremists burn church over alleged blasphemy case.

According to these Sharia laws, anyone desecrating the Koran is subject to the death penalty. Consider the warped value system that holds the pages of a book – not even the book’s thought content, but the mere physical paper it’s printed on – to be more valuable than human life.

It doesn’t even end there. Just the overhanging threat of invoking the blasphemy laws is used to coerce and cow Christians (and to a lesser extent Muslims – we don’t want to be discriminatory) and deprive them of freedom and prosperity.

In this case, as in many others, phony desecration charges were used for ulterior motives. A Christian boy and a Muslim girl had fallen in love, and that is not acceptable to many Muslims. So rumors were spread, a mob was whipped up by the local Imams, a church was burned and homes ransacked, and authorities try to cover it over. (more…)

My neighbor’s dog

September 12, 2009 — Christianity, Faith, Spiritual Growth — 8 min read

Discipline is necessary for maturity. We should not be discouraged at trials, because the Lord’s perfect love is behind his discipline.

Several months ago a family moved in next door. We live on a lake, but their house is maybe 50 feet below mine, as I’m on a steep slope going down to the lake.

Everything was fine for a while. They seemed like a nice family, though because they’re on a different road than me we never got to meet.

But then there was the dog. (more…)

The Gospel, reloaded. pt 2

September 11, 2009 — apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Christology, salvation — 10 min read

In part 1 I laid out my need to explicate the Gospel in its basics. Most already know the basics, but sometimes a fresh perspective helps shed new light in the heart. That’s my hope. And especially I would like to help people who are new to the Lord, or who do not know him, to understand him better.

So far, in Part 1, we imagined a God who is absolute in knowledge and power, and who perfectly possesses such character qualities as righteousness, peace and joy. And to that we then added a most amazing aspect to his nature: love.

Love is amazing because it is the one quality that takes a person out of himself and focuses on seeking the good of others in a highly personal way. There are many aspects to love by which this can occur – mercy, admiration, empathy, etc. – but they all fall under the rubric of love.

God exists perfectly content, but if he had a way to express his love others would be blessed as well, and his love would be more fulfilled. He would take joy is seeing others happy. It’s not that he needs it, it’s purely generosity toward those he would love. I don’t have a better way to say it than that, and I suspect it’s ultimately a mystery that we can’t understand.

So God set into motion a plan. He would create. He would create inanimate objects, he would create living creatures, and ultimately he would create beings made in his own image and likeness, who could commune with his spirit. He would create man. (more…)

The Gospel, reloaded. pt. 1

September 10, 2009 — Bible, Christianity, Faith — 4 min read

On my walk today I was thinking that I really needed to lay out the basics of the Gospel very simply. Most of my writing here is fairly intense, and is driven by the supposition that my readers know the Lord and have an understanding of spiritual things. So I hope that my writing will appeal to them, maybe shine a little light in some areas, and mostly serve as a reminder of what they probably already know.

To be even more honest, I really write to express what’s inside me. At the same time, part of me, as I’m writing, thinks about how people will receive what I’m saying and continually asks whether I’m saying it the way it should be said. (more…)

Counting Trials As All Joy

September 10, 2009 — Christianity, Faith, Prayer, Spiritual Growth — 8 min read

I have a confession to make. The past year or so has been one of the most difficult periods of my life. Like Job, I went from being very comfortable, to being very uncomfortable indeed. I was somewhat directionless back then, but it didn’t matter much because directionless was a luxury I thought I could afford. I had accoutrements and diversions to occupy my time, so lack of direction wasn’t a terribly big issue to me.

But when God takes away our toys and yanks us out of our comfort zone, leaving us painfully aware that we are naked, blind and poor, we quickly realize that lack of direction is not a luxury we can by any means afford.

Look at Lot. When Abraham gave Lot the choice of where to live, he pitched his tent toward the green fields of Sodom (Gen 13.10,12). Lot must have known of the godlessness of the Sodomites, but he was naturally attracted to the prosperity of their land. Their wealth brought them ease and idle time (Ezek 16.49), and that in turn fueled their unbridled imaginations (Jude 6-8). Before long the culture was careening downhill at breakneck speed. (more…)

Finding significance in God

September 9, 2009 — Bible, Christianity, Faith, Prayer, Spiritual Growth — 4 min read

I’ve been processing some pain lately, and I’ve felt the need to trace it to its root. When we have recurring spontaneous pain, it’s like the warning light on a car’s dashboard. It’s a sure sign that there’s something going on under the hood that needs our attention.

Ultimately, exactly how we are co-laborers with God in our own salvation and the salvation of the world is a mystery. But we have enough light on the matter to be able to function and bear fruit. On a practical level, I am increasingly convinced that precious little, if any, spiritual advancement happens automatically. We need to be diligent about it. We need to direct our attention to it and press in. When we find obstacles or hindrances, we need to devote ourselves to their removal.

And so as I was making breakfast this morning, out of the blue came a twang of spiritual pain. I tried to rush past it, but then I realized that I needed to deal with whatever was behind it. So I asked, “what was that?”, and it was quickly revealed to me that the pain was from rejection.

Immediately I saw my error. Rejection cannot hurt me unless I am trying to gain my significance from man’s acceptance. If I direct my need for acceptance and significance to God alone, what can man’s rejection do to me? And that is exactly what God wants us to do. (more…)

Religion, Politics, Healthcare and Obama

September 7, 2009 — Bible, Christianity, Church, Culture and Society — 12 min read

In which I finally get to tick off a lot of people

A revival list that I’m on sent out two emails last week, to the effect that we shouldn’t divert our attention from preaching the Gospel to waging the present culture war that increasingly consumes the US. I came away from the emails confused.

I believe that Christ must come first, before everything. Nothing must be allowed to rival His importance in our hearts and lives. He is the God who has become wisdom and salvation to us. He is my hope of glory, and I do not intend on trading that away for anything.

But becoming involved in other things is not always wrong. Sometimes doing so is a practical demonstration of love. And sometimes not doing so is a demonstration of love’s opposite, apathy.

Jesus Himself was scolded by the Pharisees for not being religious enough. Time and again he was caught doing works on the Sabbath, you will recall. At one point he answered His critics:

“Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” – Lk 14:5

Clearly, from this and many other examples, we can firmly conclude that Jesus was more concerned with practical applications of love than with religious observance or empty theological proclamations.

Now let’s take a look at the current political scene. But before I do let me digress a bit on strife and alienation within the Body. (more…)

God’s hidden Kingdom

August 30, 2009 — Bible, Faith, Spiritual Growth — 6 min read

Two coexisting rival kingdoms

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. – Mat 13:44

Jesus came and instituted his Kingdom “ahead of time”, as it were, while satan’s dominion on earth was still functionally intact. We know that God’s Kingdom is unshakable, and that it will continue to increase until all earthly counterfeits are done away with. But until that final day the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of man under satan’s domain coexist on earth. It is hardly a peaceful coexistence, as the enemy of God continually persecutes God’s saints, trying to wear them down through trials or trip them up with temptations.

Jesus left us in the world to bear witness to Him so that His Kingdom would increase. He could have taken each of us to Him the moment we possessed saving faith. But had He done that, who would have witnessed to the remaining lost of this world? In mercy, we were left here for the purpose of serving others.

Or we may think that at least God could have protected each of His children so that the sorrows of this world could not reach us as we went about our tasks. But if He had given his children a life of ease, then others would rush to join the side of Light not out of love of God, but out of selfish interest. So death has been permitted to reign during the present age, even over believers, to try our hearts and make us holy. (more…)

No mere angel

August 23, 2009 — Bible, Christology, Faith — 8 min read

I have a friend who’s been talking with some Jehovah’s Witnesses for a while. As it inevitably had to be, the conversation eventually found its way to the divinity of Christ.

When she had first become a Christian a few decades ago, my friend had come into contact with JWs on this same issue. As a result she became very confused and distressed for a period of time. After all, Christ’s nature is central to the faith. Now, by her own admission my friend hasn’t had too much experience with visions and manifestations. But one night back during this period God woke her up and spoke into her mind. And though my friend is usually a non-assertive person, she adamantly insists that it was God who spoke to her.

The worship conundrum

God asked her what the First Commandment is. Of course it is “I am the Lord, your God… you shall have no God’s before me.” Then, with elegant simplicity, He took her to Philippians, where it says: (more…)

Exaggerated Muslim honor

August 12, 2009 — Culture and Society, Persecution links — 6 min read

This vid comes courtesy of the Atlas Shrugs blog. The video is dramatic, but if there are any questions about the girl being perhaps overemotional, there is no question about the statistical reality of the danger she is in. Ex-Muslims are being killed for the sake of honor even in the US. And at this point, if her father isn’t out to get her, others are.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09WjFwe8pUk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]]

Over in Pakistan a week ago, on mere rumors that Christians had torn pages of a Koran as part of a wedding ritual (hardly likely, knowing it would be suicide in that culture), thousands of Muslims went on a rampage. They shot, they looted, they burned, they burned to death. When it was done 14 Christians had been murdered, eight of them mercilessly burned to death, as the police stood by, claiming to be helpless against the numbers.

So, according to the Muslim mentality, it’s ok to kill for a book. You tear a page of my precious Koran, and I kill you. Allah’s honor is assuaged and I get to sleep with a good conscience.

Few Muslims will admit the gross moral inequity in that. A human life, created in the image of God, for a page of a book? What’s going on here? Why are Muslim so easily and disproportionately offended? (more…)

review: Dating Jesus, by Susan Campbell

August 7, 2009 — Bible, Church, Culture and Society, Faith, Review — 5 min read

Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl

Dating Jesus is very well written. Ms. Campbell is a bit younger than I, from a different part of the country, and of a different gender, but she is a great storyteller and her reminiscences of growing up in church were very engaging.

I don’t think she meant it to be so because she doesn’t dwell on it, but the most piercing memory I took away from the book was when a normally kind Sunday school teacher publically shamed her as a young teen, for asking too many questions about gender limitations within the church. That kind of thing sickens me. It seems not to have affected her as much as it would I. (more…)

Consecration

July 22, 2009 — Christianity, Culture and Society, Faith, Prayer, Spiritual Growth — 7 min read

Back in college days, in a previous life, we would “pull” many an “all-nighter”. Sometimes it was for a party or a “rap session” (remember those?), but more often we were cramming for exams. That was an awful long time ago, and I can’t remember the last time I stayed up all night for any reason.

Until last night. An extraordinary book, The Torn Veil, by Gulshan Esther, actually had the power to keep me awake. It’s an engrossing story of a Pakistani woman brought up in an very devout Shia Muslim family. Crippled by Typhoid before she even learned to walk, her father took her at the age of fourteen on the hajj to Mecca to seek her healing (the mother had died when Gulshan was but two). Despite the sadness of the hajj not bringing the hoped-for healing, the family continued in its deep devotion to Allah.

But still more woe was yet awaiting Gulshan, as her father was to be taken from her soon after their return. This was the crowning blow for the girl. She was alone in life, had no reason to live, wanted to die, and told Allah so. But here enters light – unexpectedly a voice speaks to the girl, indentifying itself as that of Jesus, “the healer”. The voice tells her to learn about Jesus, and where she can find Him in the Koran (in the sura Maryam, et al).

Excitedly Gulshan dives in and begins to learn about Jesus – which is not easy to do in the Pakistani culture. She comes to wonder that this mysterious secondary character in Islam is identified in the Koran as the healer, while Muhammad is credited with no healings at all. More and more her heartfelt prayers become directed to Jesus rather than Muhammad, and she begins to experience hope. (more…)

Faith and character

July 20, 2009 — Bible, Christianity, Faith, Spiritual Growth — 4 min read

Then he had another dream, and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said. “I had another dream. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” –gen 37.9

For a long time I judged Joseph as a brash, even arrogant, young man who could not contain his enthusiasm. If he had only kept his mouth shut, I thought, he would not have fallen into such personal hell.

Perhaps true, but something that should have been long obvious finally hit me full-on today, when a Bible search inadvertently opened to the above verse. If Joseph had not been so brash, his dream never would have fulfilled: He would not have terminally ticked off his brothers, they then would not have sold him into slavery, he would not have risen to be Egypt’s prime minister, and Israel would not have found refuge from the famine gripping the world.

So we see that God, who indeed works in strange ways, used Joseph’s brashness to bring about His will. What exactly is going on here? Is it that God rewards immature people who flaunt their rough edges? (more…)