Forward Progress

God is Not a Pre-Programmed Robot

Posted by MK | Filed under Theology

I had the pleasure of joining a group of people on Friday that included a Christian man from Ghana. He loves Jesus and he holds tightly to the promises of God in ways that are beautiful and humbling. He has been evangelizing, mentoring and teaching for years in Western Africa, including in some very dangerous places.

Last year he lost his daughter to an illness of some kind, a beautiful 21-year-old young woman about to finish college. He and his wife suffered greatly. The response from some of the Christian ‘leaders’ he knows made me sick: ‘confess your sins to me and she will be made well’ or ‘I have received a prophetic word that God has heard your prayers and she will leave the hospital.’ So little compassion, so much presumption, and so little Bible.

Yet, he knows that God is sovereign and good.

In fact, he spent most of the time talking about the dangerous advance of the health, wealth and prosperity gospel. Too many ‘pastors’ are selling God as little more than a robot programmed to respond to certain actions: if you need money, give the church more money and it will be returned to you in blessing; if you experience sickness, it is your fault because you don’t have enough faith, or you have unconfessed sin, or you have not been generous enough with your church.

No talk of the suffering Jesus told us to expect. No talk of Jesus being of greater treasure than all earthly goods. No mention of seeking God above all things. No hope in future grace.

Read the rest.

(HT: Z)

Bourne Vivaldi

Posted by MK | Filed under Just for Fun, Videos

Super cool. Enjoy:

A Scandalous Capitulation

Posted by MK | Filed under Current Events

Christianity Today recently posted an opinion piece surrounding the question: Should churches educate their singles on how to use contraception? Though there was a point / counterpoint in the article, Jenell Paris thinks so. Her article is called “Both Chastity and Contraception: A Sacred Compromise” (responding to this article), and she recommends that churches “uphold premarital chastity as the biblical ideal, and encourage and educate unmarried singles about the effective use of contraception.” In other words, we ought to “educate” unmarried singles about contraceptives without “affirming” their use.

In reaction to her piece, Trevin Wax is justifiably feisty:

The idea of “both chastity and contraception” is not a “sacred compromise.” It is a scandalous capitulation to the unfettered sexual mores of 21st century American society.

This idea does not maintain the “ideal” of chastity in singleness alongside the “compromise” of contraception. Instead, it devalues the struggle to remain chaste while legitimizing sexual expression among Christian singles as something unavoidable. It trades the sumptuous feast of covenanted sexual expression for a mess of pragmatic pottage.

He goes on with this example:

Let’s apply this line of reasoning to other illicit sexual activity. Imagine that survey results come in showing that one in four evangelical men admit to having extramarital flings. Young evangelicals perplexed by this state of affairs (no pun intended) gather to discuss an appropriate response:

Well, centuries of absolutism regarding marital fidelity sure haven’t stopped men from cheating on their wives! It’s a shame some of these affairs produce unwanted children. It’s also devastating when the wife and kids find out about dad’s indiscretion. We don’t want anyone plagued with guilt and shame, now do we?

Here’s an idea! Let’s maintain the ideal of marital faithfulness while offering some information to these husbands about how to do their side business a little more discreetly. Let’s educate these men (not affirm them, mind you) on using contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Let’s encourage them (not push them, of course!) to learn new ways to maximize the moments with their mistresses without causing pain and heartache for the family.

Read the whole thing here.

What If Your Greatest Chance to Change the World is Also Your Greatest Source of Pain?

Posted by MK | Filed under Books, Theology

Who doesn’t want to change the world? There’s something inside of all of us, I think, that desires to leave things different than when we found them. That manifests itself in all different kinds of ways:

- We build libraries.

- We donate money to charity.

- We raise our children.

- We tell people about Jesus.

Here’s the rub: When you think about changing the world, usually you think of something big. Massive. And joyful. Something that gets your name in the papers or on the best-seller list. But here’s an uncomfortable question:

What if your greatest chance to change the world is also your greatest source of pain?

I wrote about this dynamic in Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal:

See, it’s one thing for someone to say, “I just got bumped up to a six-figure income, bought a house in the burbs, and have a beautiful wife and 2.5 healthy children. Glory to God!” God should receive glory for all good things in our lives.

But it’s an entirely different matter when people are weeping over the state of their circumstances, their health, and their world – yet they say along with Job in the Old Testament, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25 NASB). That’s powerful. That is evidence of someone who doesn’t just stick with Jesus during the good times. That is the life that screams out to the world around it “Jesus is enough. And He’s better than all of these circumstantial and fleeting blessings.” And that kind of person propels and magnifies the glory of God… even through their pain. They prove to a doubting world that Jesus is good enough to hang onto. Jesus understands better than we do that many times the most effective way for the glory of God to be advanced is through the suffering of His people.

Should you desire, you can get the book here. The quote is from chapter 4.

Fridays Are For One Question

Posted by MK | Filed under Fridays Are For One Question

Tomorrow morning, I’m going to join about 50,000 other folks to run in the Country Music Half Marathon and Marathon through the streets of Nashville. Just to be clear, I’ll be in the “half” section.

There seems to be some question in scholarly circles right now about the appropriate way to eat before such a race. In years past, it was thought that the night before you go out and pound some lasagna or spaghetti, but now I’m hearing more and more that you should eat light the night before; your heavy meal should actually be the night before the night before.

Whatever.

But I’m curious. Let’s think hard about today’s question, because it’s not so much about what you should eat, but what you shouldn’t:

“What would be the worst possible meal for you to eat the night before running a marathon?”

The Fragrance of Heaven Rising From the Stench of Death

Posted by MK | Filed under Bible Study, Current Events

What a discrepancy. All around is death. Putrid, stinking decay. And yet, seemingly from out of nowhere, the fragrance of heaven erupts. It’s like the man, possessed by the demons, who lived among the tombs. Day after day he cried out among the dead, cutting himself with stones.

All around him was death, and he, too, lived a shell of a life, surrounded by the rotting corpses. And yet from the stench of death erupted the fragrance of life:

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and knelt down before Him. And he cried out with a loud voice, “What do You have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God, don’t torment me!” For He had told him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” (Mark 5:6-8).

Jesus, with a sentence, uncorks heaven’s fragrance of life into a place of death.

But to those who had grown accustomed to the death around them, the smell was foreign. Frightening, even:

[The people] came to see Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed by the legion, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid (Mark 5:15).

The smell of death is everywhere. On billboards. On television. In our jokes and anecdotes. So accustomed to death are we that we might even be frightened by the sweet smell of the freedom of the gospel. But for one who has inhaled deeply what Jesus brings, the effect is intoxicating:

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed kept begging Him to be with Him. But He would not let him; instead, He told him, “Go back home to your own people, and report to them how much the Lord has done for you and how He has had mercy on you.” So he went out and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and they were all amazed (Mark 5:18-20).

The scent never left his nostrils. He proclaimed, to the amazement of others, taking the fragrance of life with him. Such is the case with all who look back at the tombs among which they used to live until Jesus uncorked the smell of heaven:

But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).

Dad, You’re a Dead Man Walking

Posted by MK | Filed under Marriage, Parenting

At the Together for the Gospel Conference, I heard CJ Mahaney make a remarkable statement:

“Behind every fruitful church is a dying pastor.”

He made this statement while preaching on 2 Corinthians 4, a chapter in which Paul exhorted his readers to not lose heart. The idea behind the statement is one that is pervasive in lots of other texts as well:

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24).

Something has to die in order for something else to live.

Of course, we know that this is most importantly seen in the death of Jesus: Jesus died so that all who believe in Him might live. But it occurs to me, especially in light of CJ’s comment, that this principle is applicable in all areas of leadership.

In particular, it applies to dads.

That’s part of the responsibility of leading a family, and it works itself out in all kinds of ways:

- Dads, you wake up earlier than anyone else in the house so that you can have the family devotion ready at the breakfast table. You die to your desire for sleep so that the kids might have life through the Word of God.

- Dads, you choose to learn all you can about basketball even though you don’t enjoy playing so that you can help coach your son or daughter’s team. You die to your desire for your children to be interested in the same things you are so they might have life in their own God-given talents.

- Dads, you choose to get up day after day and go to work even though you think you might want to quit your job. You die to your desire to see your own dreams fulfilled in order that your family might live and thrive in security.

In short, fathers, you are dead men walking.

This is yet another way that we, as the leaders of our home, are also the ones who are the most willing to step to the front of line to take the hit.

Dying is more than just being willing to give up our lives for the sake of those we love. It’s fleshed out in a thousand little choices day after day whereby we take the sacrifice joyfully into ourselves for the sake of another.

Death, in this sense, isn’t just one big choice. It’s something continually done. And because it is, the only real way we are able to take the tiny pin pricks of death over and over again is by remembering that Jesus has done so for us.

He died. We live. And now He has entrusted the work of dying to us.

Chuck Colson Remembered

Posted by MK | Filed under Current Events

When the news was released several days ago that Chuck Colson was near death, I walked to my book shelf and took down my copy of How Now Shall We Live? and perused through it again.

Admittedly, I haven’t picked up the book in several years, but I immediately remembered sitting in the student commons as a college student between classes when I read it the first time. It was through this book, more so than most others during that time, that God helped me to that Christianity was not the religion of the stupid.

Indeed, what Christianity needs isn’t less intellect; it’s more.

Trevin Wax eloquently writes about the same idea in his post appropriately titled, “Chuck Colson taught me how to think.”

Me, too.

Here are some of Trevin’s words in regard to the life of Colson:

I thank God for Chuck Colson. He was a man who sought to use his platform to be a faithful witness to the grace and love of Jesus Christ.

Others will speak of his prison ministry, his political involvement, and his keen understanding of the times in which we live. But I’m thankful personally for the way he helped me think. He was a man who pointed pilgrims and wanderers to the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In Colson’s words:

Either we are pilgrims looking for answers in order to make sense of our world, or we are wanderers who have turned off onto byways of distraction or despair, alienating ourselves from wonder. If you are reading this book, you probably are a seeker. That’s good. To be alive is to seek.

Fridays Are For One Question

Posted by MK | Filed under Uncategorized

Tonight is a big night for the Kelley family.

Tonight we uphold the long-held tradition when a child comes of age and then bravely throws his / her pacifier in the trash in exchange for a bribe from their parents.

This time, the child in question is Christian. The prize in question is a Buzz Lightyear that can live in his bed.

He thinks it’s a good idea… so far.

It’s tough to get rid of something like a pacifier when you’re a kid. But maybe it wasn’t a pacifier you held onto for security. So what was it?

Blanket?

Duckie?

Poor, mistreated pet dog?

That’s today’s question: What was your security item as a child?