Thinking-Christianly

You find yourself in a conversation where someone dismisses everything religious. He or she argues that every religious system in the world is nothing but a variation on a single hollow theme. How do you respond to someone who maintains that all religions are the same?

One useful approach to this generalization is to ask a question or two. You might respond by asking, “Can you tell me how Christianity and Islam agree on the crucifixion of Jesus?” Christianity teaches that Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15:14 this is the truth on which Christianity either stands or falls. Islam teaches that Jesus was not crucified at all.

You might ask, “Does Hinduism or Buddhism teach that God is personal? Do they teach that God is external to that which he created?” Pantheistic systems declare that God is within all that he created, but Christianity teaches he is external to it. Pantheistic religion claims that God is impersonal. Christianity declares he is personal.

You might ask, “Does Christianity worship one God or thousands of Gods?” Hinduism embraces the idea of tens of thousands of deities, where Christianity is rigorously monotheistic.

You might ask, “Where does the Koran indicate that Allah has a son?” The Koran repudiates the idea that God can exist in the form of three persons, as Christianity maintains.

The point of the questions is that the object of worship is very different in each case.

Someone might argue that all religions are the same because they use similar words. You might ask, “Is the government of Russia the same as the government of the United States?” Both declare themselves to be republics, but they define the word in completely different ways. In our recent political conversations some define patriotism as a willingness to fight in the armed forces to defend freedom. Others define patriotism as a willingness to pay increasingly higher taxes to the government. Common words do not guarantee shared beliefs.

Another argument is that religions are identical because they have similar components. There are churches or temples. There is music and ritual. But again similar structures do not indicate similar beliefs. A company that produces bicycles may have many of the same structures of a company that makes computers. But a bicycle is not a computer. An Internet company that markets houses may use some of the same concepts as a company that markets pornography, but the two are not therefore identical in purpose or intent.

The differences in the core concepts of the nature of man, the world, and eternity are so striking that it takes a great deal of imagination to label them as one.

Last week I had the privilege of celebrating a life that was well-lived. Gary was by most accounts an ordinary man. He was bright and ambitious. God took hold of his heart and his potential and challenged him to serve the kingdom of Christ rather than chase the toys of this world. He and his wife Ruby invested themselves in reaching out to a population that most of us pretend do not exist—the indigent, the addicted, individuals whose choices push them to the cracks of society and leave them at the bottom of the pile.

Gary had a great sense of humor. He would retell a joke for the 100th time, and enjoy it as if he had just heard it. Most of all, he enjoyed telling people about the wonderful grace of Christ and how Jesus could transform anyone who would come to him in humility and repentance. Like the rest of us, Gary was not perfect. But he had an enduring respect for Jesus and his willingness to partner with us in life.

I sometimes forget that each ordinary day is remarkable because Christ offers to share it with me. He is eternally transcendent, ruling above the affairs of men and nations and above all conceptions of time and space. But he is also imminent.

The quite miracle of the follower of Christ is that he is present in the hearts of those who have surrendered to his kingship. He is aware of my thoughts, my fears, my struggles, and my dreams. And somehow there is room in his infinite perfection to show interest in me and tutor me daily in the things of his Father. He serves me, not by being my personal butler, but by training my heart to surrender its pride and self-centeredness and bow before his majesty.

Paul ended his second letter to the Corinthians with the reminder, “And the God of love and peace will be with you.” In the bustle of life and the entanglements of religion, I can forget the simple wonder of this relationship. I can become preoccupied with my goals and dreams and daily challenges. The danger in such moments is that I start to rely on other things as my source of joy or security or fulfillment. But there is something that quiets and focuses the soul when the Christian rests in Christ. Celebrating the wonder of that relationship enriches the spirit, clears the mind, and renews the hope that so easily fades.

Many words are written and spoken these days about leadership. In the political arena, many incumbents argue that they should be re-elected because of the influence they have. To trade their position on a powerful committee for an newcomer is folly, they often argue. The argument is that power is one of the key credentials for leadership. Leaders step forward in church life as well, asking others to grant them positions of influence because of the power or influence that they bring to the table.

One of the factors we often overlook when it comes to leadership is not power but wisdom. This factor appears in the first chapter of the book of Daniel. The text tells us in verse 17, “To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.” Nebuchadnezzar tested Daniel and his three friends, and they passed with flying colors. Verse 20 adds, “In every matter which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” They were not men of power, but of wisdom.

I can think of few resources that families, churches and our Western society need in complex times more than men and women who are wise and discerning. Nebuchadnezzar recognized this commodity more than we often do. The catch in this quest is that the core of true wisdom is built around a growing understanding of God himself. Proverbs 9:10 states, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

We tend to quickly grasp the financial, physical, emotional, relational, or psychological wheels of power and assume that we can steer the course of our family, church, or country by these means. But when we leave out the component of divine wisdom, we often find ourselves racing in an unfruitful direction. Great skill and great power without wisdom guarantees nothing. It wastes both time and resources. It trades the illusion of progress for the reality.

God calls us to influence those around us, solve the problems of life, and build a better future. Let those of us who know Christ marinate our hearts and minds in his truth so that our efforts may reflect the kind of wisdom Daniel and his friends displayed. As we grow in God’s wisdom, our contributions will grow in quality and our opportunities to glorify Christ will multiply.

We live in a time when God is increasingly marginalized. People who believe in the teaching of the Bible are encouraged to keep their thoughts to themselves. They are not to share their convictions in the public square because it is divisive. It goes against the pluralistic acceptance of all values. Biblical truth can be whispered in houses of worship, but it does not belong anywhere else. To speak of Christ as Savior and Lord is to be arrogant and socially offensive, at best.

The prophet Ezekiel spoke in a similar age. Worship was superficial. The typical Jew still followed some of the rituals, but they did not shape ordinary decision making. They did not impact culture.

How does God reveal himself in times like that? In the book of Ezekiel, he promises to show himself in two ways to mankind—in judgment and in deliverance. One of the reoccurring themes of the Ezekiel’s latter chapters is: “Then they will know that I am the Lord.” You see it in Ezekiel 33:29; 35:4, 15; 36:11, 23; 38; 37:13; 38:23; and 39:7, 22. Another repeated phase is, “Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.”

I’m not a prophet, but I suspect that in one sense God is demonstrating who he is in our time through judgment. I’m not talking about something like the demolition of Sodom and Gomorrah or the plagues of Egypt. In the Old Testament the judgment of God is more often along the lines of reaping what we have sown. It’s living with the unpleasant consequences of our God-denying choices as a culture. You could summarize many of the warnings of the prophets by a principle like, “Turn your back on God and things will go downhill.”

What does that look like? Casual sex and abortions have crippled the ability of many nations in the West to maintain their populations. Stock traders make decisions on the basis of adrenaline and fear rather than on logic and sound reasoning. Politicians focus on spin and image management rather than wise governance. Citizens surrender freedoms for the hope of security. This quiet unraveling of the strands of culture is perhaps a reflection of the judgment of God. It at least vindicates the truth that when we replace his precepts with our solutions, we will suffer.

This need not make any of us cultural pessimists because we also love in the hope of the restoration of God. In his mercy he does bring about great cultural reversals by revitalizing and empowering those who follow him by faith. Ezekiel’s prophecies are punctuated by God’s intention to restore those who are faithful to him and honor his name through them. Like all who have loved God in ages past, we live in an age where both judgment and deliverance are part of God’s word to us. We may not know how each of these factors will play out in any moment, but we can move forward in faith, knowing that God will use both realities to call men everywhere to follow his Son as the only final hope in the world.

In his book, No Place for Truth, David Wells observes that our technological society tends to draw people together into cities for economic reasons. He notes that even though this urbanization is bringing people closer physically, it is actually increasing the sense of loneliness in what he calls Our Time. Ironically, we are closer together physically but tend to be farther apart emotionally.

As we shuffle from one social context to another, it is a big challenge to become people who understand and live in community. Ideally, churches can offer a safe haven from the isolation and loneliness in the world, but even there building community can be a struggle.

This week I had the opportunity to interact with a team of leaders who understand the importance of community. They talked with excitement about a fellowship that does not program family members into compartments, but strives to keep parents and children together as much as possible. They described a church without a Sunday school or highly structured programmed activities throughout the week, but one which draws most of the attendees into personal relationships with one another through small groups.

As our relationships become more complex and our social fragmentation more acute, the church of Christ has a growing opportunity to offer something very special to generations who are lonely in the crowds of life. But to do so will take a re-examination of the structures, systems, and schedules we use inside the church in order to accomplish ministry. We have to ask ourselves if we are inhibiting the development of the kind of community experiences we seek to foster.

It’s not uncommon for people to classify the book of Job as an ancient Hebrew myth. For them, it’s a quaint story like Johnny Appleseed. It is a fictional morality play. It teaches about perseverance through suffering in the name of God.

I attended a lecture where a professor nicely broke the book up into three parts. The prelude, which was invented, was the interchange between God and Satan in heaven. The second section that comprises the core of the book is the semi-historical story of Job and his tragedies. The third part was another fabrication where God confronted Job’s comforters and restored the earthly things back to his devoted servant. This presentation packaged the supernatural and the natural into convenient categories. On the surface you have the simple story of a man suffering. Then on either end is a human invention of God’s role in this tale—at least from some anonymous author’s point of view.

If I were sitting in a university classroom listening to this presentation as a student accustomed to the secular thinking of the day, I would likely be convinced that this was an accurate representation of the book.

The problem with this approach is that it collides with the view of Job in other parts of scripture. One passage that must be considered is Ezekiel chapter 14. In this chapter God warns his people about their rebellion and predicting judgment if they do not repent. Verses 12-14 warn:

The world of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, if a count4ry sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch our my hand against it to cut off its food supply and to send famine upon it and kill its men and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness declares the Lord.”

The argument is that the rebellious person has no immunity from God’s judgment because of location or association with righteous people. Rescue or ruin is a personal matter.

The striking fact about this declaration is the three people mentioned—Noah, Daniel and Job. All three men are treated as historical figures, with Daniel being the most contemporary. To assume that two are fictional is to claim that Ezekiel would be saying something like, “Consider the character of JFK, Popeye, and Paul Bunyan.” We don’t mix real and fictional characters in our language like that, and neither did the Old Testament writers. Smooth logic never replaces careful study.

Yesterday I spent some time getting my lawn ready for winter by spreading fertilizer on it. That is a revolutionary action for me.

I’ve always wanted my lawn to look great, but the sad reality is that it has looked neglected. That’s because it’s been neglected. All the wishful thinking in the world will not remove weeds, nurture roots, trim around fence posts and seed bare spots. And still my tendency is to want a great looking lawn without the effort.

I fear that most of us apply that same thinking to our spiritual lives. We want them to look green and lush and healthy. We desire qualities like endurance, faithfulness, joy, and courage. We want depth of insight into the things of Christ. But somehow we hope that all this will come without the work.

We visit the church, the spiritual greenhouse, once a week and look at the spiritual flowers. We appreciate the fragrance of Christians who are in bloom, using their gifts in a way that glorifies God. We delight in the rainbow colors we see in the lives of those who bring the beauty of God into the fellowship. And then we leave with those fresh memories captured in our minds.

But none of this is the same as tending our own gardens. Digging up the quack grass from our lives is no fun. It looks green and healthy from a distance, so we let it alone. Fertilizing the roots of our faith with the word and prayer is mostly a private task that others do not notice or affirm us for. So we tend to neglect it.

Whenever the lawn of my faith suffers from neglect, my whole life quietly suffers. I may not see it immediately. Others may be largely unaware of it. But the lack of nutrients and care damage my life with Christ nevertheless.

We’re never wise to neglect the basics of the word, prayer, reflection, and obedience. I invite you to join me in being more deliberate in this work of spiritual gardening. The difference it makes will be worth the effort.

Our world trains us to be shrewd in the way we use our resources. Entrepreneurs develop a business plan, analyze a market, and target their promotion and advertising to that segment of the customer base that they believe is ripe for their product or service. Political parties minimize their efforts in what they regard as “no-win” states and concentrate on those undecided races where a little extra effort can bring victory. On the personal level, many of us find ourselves weighing the option between repairing the vehicle we own or selling it for a different one. We do a formal or informal cost/benefit analysis of each option and make a decision accordingly.

Investing our resources this way is wise. It helps us make the most of what we have and leverage our resources as good stewards.

I’m struck that God is willing to follow a different set of rules when it comes to declaring his truth to the world. He reaches out to mankind in a way that seems wasteful. Consider what God says to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:4-5:

The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Sometimes our modern approach to evangelism and missions targets those people who are most likely to respond to the message of Christ. Human logic reasons that we should perhaps concentrate on people or countries that are the most responsive at the moment. In global missions, that would have us target places like India and Latin America and avoid Western Europe and the Middle East.

But God is willing to ‘waste’ his resources on people who don’t really want to hear his truth. I’m not suggesting that focus in evangelism or missions is wrong. What I see in the text is the reality that God is incredibly gracious. Out of his mercy and kindness he invests in people who are not inclined to respond. He does not give up on people as we often would, but persists with the message of life. That’s how his message of life found its way to my stubborn heart. And perhaps yours.

The good news is that no effort to share the truth of Christ with an offspring of Adam or Eve is a waste. It may feel fruitless. It may result in rejection, scorn, or mocking. But in the end it will not be wasted, because God demonstrates that he wants to reveal himself to all kinds of hearts in every age. He simply refuses to quit. And for that we must be very grateful.

I just opened a savings plan document and experienced sticker shock. I was tempted to keep it sealed and not peek. The numbers were ugly. I didn’t want to know how ugly.  Maybe some of you had the same reaction.

But keeping the envelope sealed until another time would not have changed reality. It would only have reduced the clarity of the reality I was faced with.

Sometimes we pretend that we’re better off closing our eyes to realities that are not easy to deal with. We think that avoidance will somehow help us cope or help us respond to life better. Maybe that’s the kind of thinking that gave birth to the catchphrase, “Ignorance is bliss.”

That mantra is challenged by much of life. In many areas of life we do not applaud willful ignorance. We expect people to know it’s wrong to shoplift. We hold someone accountable who breaks the traffic laws even if they were not born in the U.S. We remind our children that just because we did not specifically prohibit coloring the living room walls with magic markers, their choice to do so is still wrong. Ignorance of diabetes or heart disease or cancer is not something we rejoice over.

It’s odd that when it comes to spiritual things, we often retreat to ignorance. We don’t want to look too closely into the recesses of our lives in case we see something ugly and unappealing. And so we avoid reflecting on what’s really there. We believe the lie that this will increase our happiness and build our self-esteem.

In James 1:23-24 the Bible describes this behavior as typical of someone who listens to the word of God, but does not act. It’s hearing, but not doing. The analogy scripture uses is one of a person who looks in a mirror and then goes away. They don’t do anything with the knowledge they have glimpsed at. And it does them no good.

Such texts rebuke me. I have the courage to look at the drop at my small 401(K), but sometimes lack the fortitude to look at the text of scripture with the kind of reflection that would do me any good. It’s a reminder that in some places in life, the courage to look is the beginning of real change. May God give us the grace to be people who see ourselves through the mirror of scripture with such clarity that we can act on what we see and not pass it off as an illusion.

A cute 5th grade girl comes to your house with a big smile holding an order sheet for girl scout cookies. Your boss suggests a date for a key planning meeting that coincides with your 10th anniversary. Your best friend invites you to join her for a shopping trip the same afternoon your husband wanted your help with some landscaping. Your daughter fumes for days because you won’t extend curfew by an hour. She claims you’re being unreasonable. A waitress asks if the meal was great when it was crummy.

There is a pressure all of us feel at times that persuades us to say what people want to hear. We see this conflict in the life of a school board official or a city councilman who desperately tries to accommodate constituents who have opposite goals and objectives. We see it in an academic dean who has to balance the pressures of a law school dean, an acclaimed athletic program, and a growing adult learning division. And we see it in ourselves.

On some occasions where truth or values are not at stake we give a polite or acceptable response. But sometimes we sacrifice a lot more. And that’s when we provoke God.

One of the groups of people that God criticizes most harshly when they say what is expected is his spokesmen. In the Old Testament it was the men known as prophets. Through Jeremiah, God makes declarations such as this one: “They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?” (Jeremiah 23:17-18) In that chapter God repeatedly calls his spokesmen to account because they will not speak his truth into their culture.

The message God wanted his people to hear was to them offensive, negative, and highly unpatriotic. Two chapters later an attempt was made on Jeremiah’s life for disagreeing with the prevailing sentiment and advocating surrender to Nebuchadnezzar.

The pressure to accommodate the message of God’s word to the thinking of the day never changes. We’re told that the church is known for its stand against homosexuality, cohabitation, and abortion. That’s the caricature a secular media has effectively crafted. We’re reminded that the church needs to do positive things to demonstrate it loves people and isn’t preoccupied with money. That is true. Yet somewhere in our desire to be sensitive, and to call people to life in Christ we must not abandon the challenging declarations from God that expose the darkness of the human heart and the rebellion against his will.

We cannot be silent on those issues where we will be branded as mean and manipulative. We cannot scratch sin and obedience from our vocabulary and replace them with self-esteem and self-actualization.

All of us feel the pressure that comes when the Christian world view seems judgmental, old fashioned, and out of touch in the eyes of the real people we interact with. We see the looks of disbelief. We hear the sighs of exasperation. We sense the anger and bitterness of others who have bought the lies of the world and who see Christian truth as an enemy to their happiness.

But as we speak the truth in love we cannot afford to capitulate. To do so will extinguish the last lights that prevent our culture from plunging into absolute darkness. In those moments when courage is demanded, God invites you and me to bear his truth, unwelcome as it may be, as we show sacrificial love for those who respond negatively to the message we bear.