Evil-lution II

Iam constantly amazed at the proliferation on "Just-So" stories being foiseted off on the gullible public. I just watched a show on the Discovery Channel called "Evolve" that made me want to laugh out loud. The smoke, mirrors and outright contradictions being sold to the viewers was all quite professional; production quality was high end, experts were quoted, explanations all quite logical on the surface. If one listens uncritically it is all very believable and entertaining. On the other hand, if one lisens carefully, the inconsistencies are glaring.

They brought out one expert to discuss the transition from water to land animals. He pointed out that if evolution were correct, there ought to be a transitional form, then he brought out a fossil to demonstrate how that was exactly what we have.

Um... If evolution is correct there ought to me thousands of transitional forms, not a transitional form. This is still a massive unsolved dilemna evos face. And the big selling point of the supposed transitional form he brought out was the fact that it had a neck!

A neck.

Really? So we're supposed to believe that some lucky fish just happened to suffer the right genetic mutation to spontaneously produce a fully functional neck? That's your proof of evolution?! C'mon, I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I know that's just stupid.

What's that? Evolution depends on massive periods of time to slowly produce such changes? Oh, I get it. Sorry, I almost lost it there. But since that's the case I suppose the fossil record will reveal the tens of thousands of transitional forms that produced this necky fish animal. What's that? We don't have them? Um... again, isn't that a bit of a problem?

YES!

The other really amazing blunder I saw that caught me off guard was the expert on giraffes who pointed out that their necks were so long because they used their heads to fight. Never mind that plenty of other short necked animals use their reads exactly the same way, what floored me was his off-hand revelation that this is also why their horns are blunted. Sharp horns, you see, combined with long necks would inflict lethal wounds during male-dominance combat. "Evolution," he said, "does not kill. Only people do that."

Wow.

I'm not sure, but I'd bet that sounded stupid even to his evolutionist colleagues. Evolution doesn't kill. HA Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!! I think he was like a professor at the Carnegie Institute or something. Seriously, I think he was trying to point out that natural selection favors species who don't kill their own in large numbers, or something like that; evolution doesn't like intra-species warfare. Even that is debatable, but what he actually said looking into the camera was one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

What makes me worry though is that he sold it well. He stood in the middle of the African savannah, looked right into the camera and after his cedentials as an expert were established he said it like it was the gospel truth. He ought to be arrested for that kind of intellectual irresponsibility, but I'm sure he'll get away with it and thousands of people will see the show and tell their friends that giraffes have blunt horns because evolution doesn't favor killers (except people, of course.)

I love good science, but THAT is not good science. Lord, save us from 'experts' like that.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving, a day to be thankful for the long list of things God has blessed me with. Family, friends, freedom, fishing, football... AHhhhhh.... football. Watching maybe the singe worst Thanksgiving lineup in history this afternoon I realized how thankful I am to have seen Barry Sanders jukin' and groovin' through opposing defenses for the Detroit Lions on so many wonderful Thanksgivings. Seeing this year's Lion team struggle to rise above putrid to become merely horrible as they got plastered by the Tennessee Titans, I was reminded how incredible Barry was to watch. In twenty years of avid NFL fandom, I've never been so entertained as when Barry had the ball in his hands. So on this Thanksgiving, I just want to give my appreciation to the most entertaining back in NFL history. Thanks Barry.

Church Rant

“I’ve heard it hundreds of times: I’m looking for a church that meets my needs. Can you admit for a moment how incredibly unbiblical that statement is?”

--Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor, lifechurch.tv

I ran across this statement the other day and was struck by how familiar it feels, how I can relate. One of the hardest aspects of working with students is encouraging them to connect with a local church. Yes, I’m going to pick on students, but this tirade has much much broader application, and I have to confess that during my time as a typical student at the University of Oregon, “I am the worst of them.”

After pure, unadulterated sloth the excuse I receive most often as to why a student hasn’t connected with a local church is that they haven’t found ‘the right church,’ but when pressed on what that is, ninety-nine times out of a hundred they fall back to ‘one that meets my needs.’ It’s a consumer mentality. They want a church they can really ‘get something out of.’ It rarely, if ever, occurs to them that they should really be seeking a place they can give something back to. There are, of course, exceptions, but most want a place where they can sit with a large group of people who look, talk, act and smell like them so they can all feel comfortable doing as little as Christianly possible. OUCH! And yes, I just made up a new word, but try to focus on the point, which is that we have GOT to get better at challenging one another to live richer lives in Christ (Hebrews 10:24-25). And I believe that begins by connecting more closely with the entire body of Christ, not just those parts that seem most attractive to us.

Statistically we, who claim to follow Jesus, who claim to be empowered by the Holy Spirit of the Living God, are nearly identical to the world around us. (I say nearly because the argument can be made that we’re actually a little worse off.) Statistically we are NOT being transformed by the renewing of our minds, but instead doing a nifty job of conforming to the world (Romans 12:1-2). Perhaps if we disciplined our bodies a bit more rigorously (1 Corinthians 9:27) we’d be a bit more likely to actually share the light of Christ with the world.

What would happen, do you suppose, if a million college students actually went to bed one Saturday night (while it was still was Saturday night and not Sunday morning), got a good night’s sleep and went to church on Sunday with a mindset of giving instead of receiving? What if a million students walked into sanctuaries across America next week and asked all those pastors, “What can I do to help?” My guess is that once the shock wore off we’d see a revival break out. Of course, that assumes that the students are actually willing to serve in whatever capacity the church leaders see fit. I’ll never forget hearing one of my seminary professors, whom I greatly admire, tell us that the one of the best things we could do to prepare ourselves as pastors was serve in a church nursery for a year. Rocking babies and entertaining three-year-olds may not seem like much, but it’s actually some of the most valuable service you can offer. Likewise, vacuuming the sanctuary or cleaning the church bathrooms or mowing the lawn around the building; all amazing feats of ministry that many Christians haven’t got the spiritual maturity to handle. Helping park cars for Jesus makes a difference! What would happen if a million college students gave an hour a week—or even half an hour!—to help the local church?

The unfortunate truth is that we may never know. Because the typical student goes to a church once, and if they don’t see a large group of other students milling aimlessly about they leave and never come back. And whether it is called ‘church shopping’ or ‘church hopping’ the result is the same. They walk in with a Me First mentality and look for the exit at the first sign of discomfort. They walk in looking for an excuse to not come back! Ouch.

Now, if you’re a college student and you’re reading this, don’t act all surprised and offended. First, you know I’m generally right, and second, it’s not all your fault. The vast majority of you grew up in churches where were were marginalized from birth. I know, I know, that sounds ridiculous, but think about it. How involved are the youth and children of your church in the life of the congregation? Not, how central, how involved? Kids generally are central to a church; they tend to get their share of space and money from the budget, parents wouldn’t have it any other way, but what is expected of them? Are they ever invited to business meetings? Are they included in planning for outreaches and celebrations? Do they as individuals and a group have any responsibilities to the body of the local church? Or are they coddled?

I serve in an association of over 50 churches. Every year we meet to talk about what’s going on with one another and discuss any pressing business. Then we break for a meal and have some sort of ministry rally. During that time we traditionally have one rally for adults and one for youth… in separate locations. Now, the youth rally is really cool, with good speakers and a kickin’ band and lots of kids are effected deeply by the experience, which is awesome. However, think about this for a minute. We’ve taken them away from the rest of the church. They have no responsibilities at the main meetings, no input, no expectations, no involvement whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. ZERO. They DO have an awesome time with one another in a controlled environment where they don’t have to do much other than show up and hang out with other youth. And that’s the problem. All they see is one another and that’s the view they develop of what a healthy church should look like, and it’s wrong. Listen, people argue about what a healthy church looks like all the time, but everyone agrees that it’s multi-generational. You need senior adults and children and people of all ages to really understand what the body of Christ was meant to be. To give up, or substitute a generic campus ministry (as I did and many other students continue to do) and call that ‘church,’ is a cop out.

Sometimes we do the most damage with the best intentions. We have a tendency to keep the bar low for our kids, spiritually, and wonder why they underachieve later. This generation of college students grew up getting trophies for being on the team, as if that was an accomplishment, they had kindergarten graduation parties; they were spoiled. We’ve given them everything we could except self-esteem. They’ve never had to work for accolades so they feel entitled. They are the children of the original “me” generation, and true to form (at least when it comes to church), they’re as self-centered as their parents. We’ve valued such that they don’t understand value. In a sense, we’ve denied them hard labor, and we’re surprised that they’re soft.

So, in order to avoid the ‘cranky old man’ label, I’m not only going to sound the alarm like a good watchman, I’m going to offer a couple of solutions.

Solution 1: Responsibility—Churches need to get children, youth and students used to having responsibilities early on. Let them clean a couple of Sunday School rooms when they’re young, help take the offering or light candles or help with the audio/visual systems as they get older, and give them a place in front of the congregation as opportunity arises. In America you have to be 35 to be president, but in far too many churches you have to be over 65 to pray in front of the church…

Solution 2: Involvement—Get youth and college students involved in the business of the body. Yes, that means inviting them to business meetings and even encouraging them to talk and give input on decisions. No, you don’t have to do everything they say, but if you don’t train them to speak, don’t be surprised by their silence. As a man sows, so shall he reap…

Solution 3: Expectation—Or accountability. If we’re going to get younger generations to participate in body life, we have to raise the bar for them and hold them accountable for reaching it. This means giving establishing goals and consequences for them. We have to give them a path to follow and apply both the carrot and stick to keep them on it. Keeping with the farm metaphor, how do train an ox? You put the younger one with an older one to guide it along until it knows how to do the job. We’re not doing that much in America today, and we’re paying for it with generations who aren’t looking to till a field, just munch the grass they find growing on it.

Can I be honest here? I think that students today represent the best hope the world has for real change. Your passion for social justice is overwhelming. Your desire for relationship is incredible. Your environmental awareness is nearly omnipresent. And your empowerment is at an all-time high. Never have so many had so much to do so good. If only you would stand up and seize that potential! If only you would become the leaders you were meant to be!

We all know people are basically selfish. Face it, you are. I am. Every child coming straight from the womb is entirely self-centered. I’m not saying that’s wrong, but it is a problem you have to overcome. But that’s not my point. My point is that selfish people often do selfish things. Slavery? Selfish. Rape? Selfish. Physical abuse? Selfish. Selfish. Greed? Selfish. Pride? Selfish. That burning desire to do what YOU want to do is what drives us. And sometimes that leads us to accomplish great things, but let’s not pretend to altruistic motives for progress just yet. The United States first landed a man on the moon not because we wanted to explore outer space, but because we wanted to beat the Soviets to the “high ground” in a war of nuclear proliferation. Drug companies spend millions of dollars on research to cure diseases not just to help people, but because billions of dollars are at stake.

People are basically selfish. And selfish people do selfish things, often to one another. And for that reason there is a ton of social evil in the world. People are killing each other. Children are starving. Poverty, illiteracy, homelessness—take your pick, they’re all out there; sexual slavery, genocide, drug abuse... The world is full of bad things. But they’re often preventable. And your generation knows that. Your generation cares. And that compassion can drive you to do great things, good things for the right reasons. Don’t let that slip away.

Keep following the dream of a better world. Keep volunteering at shelters. Keep giving to charities. Keep shopping at socially aware businesses. Keep writing letters to the editor of your local paper about the injustice you see and the opportunities to fix it. Keep planning your careers and families around the idea that your life matters not just to you, but to the entire world. Keep starting socially aware businesses. And above all else, keep positive. Don’t get dragged down by news of defeat. Don’t sink to the level of violence and deceit that you’re trying to abolish. Don’t give in to the money. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” You and your generation can change the world, but you have to commit yourself, your whole life to that idea.

Be the difference

I think the world needs to change, don’t you? Children are starving. Disease, treatable disease, is rampant. People are homeless, illiterate and poverty-stricken. Sexual slavery still exists. So does war and AIDS and a host of other evils. And the greatest instrument on the planet for doing something about it is us. Me. You. We are the ones tasked with changing the world, and we have everything we need to get it done. God gave us the instruction manual for global change (The Bible). And he gave us an example to follow (Jesus Christ). And he gave us the resource to carry it out (The Holy Spirit). And he gave us the responsibility to do it (The Great Commission). So we really are without excuse.

The world is broken and God has made it clear that you are his plan for fixing it. It’s not about the money. It’s not about the time. It’s not about the resources it takes to make something happen; the brains, the talents and abilities. It’s about your commitment. God will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things, but you’ve got to be ready!

Listen, I want to change the world. I want my life to be the difference between what is and something better. According to God I am part of the thin red line between heaven and hell, and since it’s the blood of Jesus that makes that line red, I take that responsibility seriously. And the odds are that I’m not going to be the guy that cures cancer, but I’m pretty sure I can accomplish something, not only because the Bible says I can, but because my life is like that story about the little boy and the starfish:

Once there was a storm, and the storm left a particular beach covered with starfish. A man was walking along the beach looking at the devastation when he noticed a small boy picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the ocean one by one. The man said to the boy, “Why are you doing that? There are thousands of starfish here and you’ll only get to a few before they die. You really won’t make any difference.” And the boy picked up another starfish, threw it into the surf and replied, “I made a difference to that one.”

There are billions of people on this earth. What difference can I make? I don’t know. But each and every person whose life I can help change is a person who matters. Everyone counts. So if I only change one, isn’t that something worth doing?

I heard another story about a woman who lives on the East Coast. I can’t remember where exactly, but she grew up in somewhere in that mess that used to be Yugoslavia. As a little girl her life was torn apart by the genocidal war between the Serbians and Croatians and Bosnians. I don’t think the war has a name, but the words “Ethnic Cleansing” were used a lot. Anyway, I can’t imagine being a child in a war zone, how that must feel. Bullets and blood and bombs going off, and fear and violence everywhere… not much to be happy about. Then one day, at Christmas, she got a shoebox from a group called Samaritan’s Purse. Seems silly really. I mean, what difference could someone in America make by filling a shoebox with toys and mailing it to some random kid who might be gang raped and butchered before they get to open it? Well, this woman opened that shoebox, and inside she found hope. Someone had put a gospel tract inside the shoebox along with the requisite toys, and reading about Jesus, she found hope. Today she works full-time for Samaritan’s Purse, sending thousands of shoeboxes to kids all over the planet. The irony is that whoever put that shoebox together probably has no idea what a difference they made!

But this isn’t about starfish or shoeboxes, this is about you. This is about your life. You see, God didn’t give the responsibility of changing the world to me alone. He gave it to everyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus. He wants us all to be committed. He wants an army of His children on the beach throwing back starfish together. Too many of us are strolling along with our hands in our pockets admiring the view when we should be actively engaged in creating a better world. He’s given you everything you need to be the difference, to stand firm, to be the thin red line of hope. What are you waiting for?

Ways to create change:
1) Draw near to God (We are called to BE the difference, not just MAKE a difference.)

a. Memorize one verse each week.
b. Read your Bible through in a year.
c. Fast for a day.
d. Take notes during church and talk about it over lunch with someone.
e. Journal (Blog about God to God. And keep it private!

2) Volunteer (Churches, shelters, etc, always need help.)
3) Make your major matter (Know how your career makes a difference.)
4) Tithe (Give 10%, save 10%, live on the rest. It’s God’s plan, but you can hear it from pretty much any financial advisor regardless of their religious leanings.)
5) Write a letter (… to the local paper, your congressman, interest groups, etc.)
6) Vote (Let your voice be heard!)
7) Educate your children (Give them a voice worth listening to!)
8) Shop at socially aware businesses (i.e., Tom’s Shoes.)
9) Recycle (Duh.)
10) Pray (I mean REALLY pray, not just once-in-a-while-if-I-remember pray.)
11) Clean out your clutter (See how much you can donate to Salvation Army or Good Will.)
12) Give generously to charity (She needs it.)
13) Share Jesus with someone (Not only is it expected, it is also the most loving thing you can do for someone.)
14) Buy eco-friendly. (Yes, it will probably cost more, but so what?)
15) Go on a mission trip. (LIFE is a mission trip, but we don’t think of it that way often enough.)
16) Give random street people gift certificates to McDonald’s (They can’t spend it on alcohol or drugs that way!)
17) Go to a protest. (Or protest a protest…)
18) Conserve resources (What’s YOUR carbon footprint?)
19) Plant a tree. (Earth Day 2009 is on April 22.)
20) Bring someone with you into any of the above mentioned activities. (2 Timothy 2:2)

Faith and Sound Doctrine

I find so many of us as Christians today disparaging the importance of theology and am grieved. In truth, my heart is cleft by the willful ignorance and outright rebellion against learning sound doctrine. After all, faith without sound doctrine is faith without foundation. Yet that is where millions of us find ourselves today. Instead of applying ourselves (heart, soul, mind and strength) to the study of God’s direct revelation—the Word of God—we choose instead to rely on personal experience to interpret who He is. Though God has given us the Bible as a telescope, “to see Him as He longs to be seen,” we look instead through the kaleidoscope of thoughts and feelings that swirl around us and see wonderful and entertaining patterns which we label “God,” but is at best only a pale shadow of who He really is, and many times is a complete distortion of the truth. As one theologian put it, “God made man in His image, and man is returning the favor.”

Instead of developing a Biblical worldview, we develop a chimeric understanding of reality built from a combination of desires and opinions and fears we experience as we are buffeted by the storms of life raging around us. When faced with hard or even merely moderately difficult decisions we rarely say, “The Bible says…” More often we are inclined to spew out such gems as, “Well, I think…” or “I feel…” or “I believe…” and then we go on our merry way. Who cares what I think/feel/believe?! As followers of Jesus Christ, the only opinion that truly matters is the Lord’s! Of course, ultimately we will have to incorporate our thoughts, feelings and beliefs into our decisions. They are, after all part of who we are and were created to be by the same God we’re blessed to follow. My point is that those things must first be tempered by prolonged exposure to the Word of God.

Indeed, that we should have a deep and abiding concern for sound doctrine is evident both implicitly and explicitly in scripture. Implicitly we can see the “messenger formulas” given hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament which point out that it is not just another person speaking, but the Lord himself. (A messenger formula is the phrase used to describe the source of a particular message, i.e., “Thus says the Lord.”) In the New Testament we see the Lord Jesus Himself quoting scripture repeatedly in His teaching and most poignantly in His confrontation with Satan during a time of temptation (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13). As a child He is lost for three days and later found in the temple debating scholars who were, “astounded at His understanding and His answers.” (Luke 2:41-50) And one might be tempted to argue that He was God and therefore theology was moot for Him. True, but He also left us a record of Himself continually throughout His human existence engaging people with sound doctrine, in the temple, the marketplace, the street, and even in the wilderness. He wanted His followers to understand Him that way! Beyond that we have the example of Jesus’ apostles at the beginning of the church. Their earliest activities as described in Acts 2:42, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…”

Explicitly, we have both what the Bible says about itself as well as the admonitions it contains to pay attention to what we believe. In the Old Testament we find God telling His people in no uncertain terms, “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7) God is creating a culture there based on the understanding of His Word. Then in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says, “Be conscientious about yourself and your teaching; persevere in these things, for by doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16) And, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) In context we find a young pastor fighting bad doctrine—poor theology—in his church. Paul’s answer? Sound doctrine. And where does that come from? “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints, and marrow; it is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) “so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do].” (Isaiah 55:11) “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

And maybe you’re reading this now and saying, “I don’t need theology, I just need Jesus.” That’s great, but which Jesus? I mean, there’s a lot of people out there who agree with that simple statement; Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science Church, Moonies and Unitarians to name a few. Unfortunately, unless you want to buy into universalism—the idea that EVERYONE goes to heaven—somebody has the wrong Jesus. Jim Jones loved Jesus too. Want some of his Kool-Aid? David Koresh loved Jesus so much he thought he was Jesus. Didn’t turn out so well for his followers (Branch Davidians), but that’s just more theology you don’t need… or is it?

Listen, everyone is a theologian. We all have opinions about who God is and what He’s like. Even atheists have theological ideas. The question I think we need to focus on is where do those ideas come from? Have we thought them through? Muslims call Christians, “Followers of the Book,” meaning we live according to what the Bible says, but do we? When we pooh-pooh theology, complain when a pastor teaches deeper thoughts about God instead of “Ten Steps to Better Living,” or whatever other “me first” sermon we want to hear, are we really doing ourselves any favors? I don’t think so. Next time, instead of whining about how boring it was to hear about the authority and inerrancy of scripture, or the importance of Baptism, or the person and work of the Holy Spirit, perhaps we should focus on how amazing it is that we serve a God who cares enough to let us hear and understand so much about Him and His world.

When a husband bears his soul to his wife, should she ask him to be more relevant to her and turn up the television, or praise him for his openness and apply herself to understanding him all the more? Isn’t intimacy desirable in marriage? Yet we, the Bride of Christ, don’t want to hear much about Him. We want to hear how he’ll bless us and make our lives easier, but we really don’t want to invest much time in understanding who He really is. It’s as if we’d rather be married to a vending machine. We’d put it in the attic (so our guests wouldn’t know it’s there), then when circumstances warrant, say for instance, when we needed a better parking spot, we could put in a little prayer and out pops a miracle! And we wonder why our faith is so weak, why our lives don’t reflect the joy we were promised, why the “abundant life” for which Christ came seems so flat… We lack sound doctrine. We treat it like spiritual broccoli. We live only a shallow faith, one built on the shifting sand of personal experience, and we wonder why life isn’t better than it seems.

Maybe it is. Maybe it is and we don’t know it because we’re spiritually malnourished. Faith without sound doctrine is faith without foundation.

Dalai Bama

I wake up this morning in the Obama Nation. What will the next four years bring? To listen to the Republicans, socialism and left wing extremism on an unprecedented level, increased taxes, more abortion clinics, the complete undermining of Biblical marriage, etc... Obamunism. To listen to the other side, Obama is, as Louis Farrakhan put it, "the Messiah." Seriously. Barak Obama is nothing if not charismatic, and his followers, in my experience, tend to elevate him to the status of religious figurehead. They wax eloquent about him to the point that you begin to wonder if he puts his pants on one leg at a time or if they just materialize around his waist. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between. He'll start out fairly centrist, then lean increasingly to the left. And there WILL be change. Of that there can be little doubt. The Dems not only took the Presidency, they also increased their leads in both houses of congress. That means that, for better or worse, Obama has tons of friendly support with which to accomplish whatever it is he sets about doing.

Truthfully, I could care less what the man does. (And what will the NAACP do now that "The Man" is black, I wonder? You can't go blaming 'the man' when you are the man, right?) I mean, I'll have an opinion about government policies, and I might even share that opinion through an opinion piece in a newspaper, or an e-mail to my congressman or senator, but the reality I care about is much closer to home. As awesome as it must be to influence 300 million people with the strke of a pen, I'm much more comfortable talking to people face to face. And no matter what the president does from his office in Washington, I'll be ready here to help people deal with the reality of day to day living in a broken world.

Oh yes, the world IS broken, and no president, not even Barak Obama can change that. As Dallas Willard once wrote, "Human problems cannot be solved by human means." And that's the real problem here. Millions of people are looking to a new president to solve the problems in their lives, but what everyone seems to miss is that only Jesus can satisfy the lnging in their souls. Better health care, free gas and a winning lottery ticket in every mailbox just won't get it done. It might make you a bit more comfortable, but for how long? Until the next divorce? The next bankrupcty? The next human tragedy that touches your life? Jesus is the Messiah. The president is just a man. Unfortunately, I think a lot of Americans have forgotten that.

He's just a regular guy, people!

I voted this morning, but to be honest, I didn't vote for either McCain or Obama. So I'm really not trying to influence who anyone votes for or make a political statement one way or the other about either of the two major party candidates. While piddling about the internet I stumbled across these posters, however, and I do have to say that they really caught my attention. Why? Because I've seen way to many Obama supporters who have elevated him as a candidate not based on merit, but because they bought the hype that he's going to change everything tomorrow, and we'll all have better jobs and insurance and world peace will break out instantly, poverty will end overnight, adult illiteracy will stop now, and dogs and cats will get along and I won't have to pay my mortgage anymore and magic fairies will take out the trash for me every week! Hallelujah! Amen and amen!

Gimme a break! Honestly. I don' care who you vote for, but at least have the common sense to understand that Barak Obama is just another man. On the upside he's thoughtful, intelligent, and charismatic. And I LOVE that he's there at the end of every single one of his ads that I've seen. Good or bad, "I'm Barak Obama and I approved this message." There's an element of integrity to that which is seriously lacking on the Republican side who's ads are backed by various political action committees and private interest groups, but rarely by McCain himself. (Of course, I can only speak from my experience here. It is possible that this argument would be entirely undermined by a greater sampling of political ads on both sides, although I'm pretty sure the surgeon general would agree that that would be bad for my health.) Anywho, on the downside, Mr. Obama is given to questionable judgment in who he associates with, makes outrageous claims he can't possibly back up, is determined to undermine Biblical marriage and thinks its okay to kill babies before they're born. Now, given that we already have a strongly democratic senate and congress, I expect that the nation will change pretty radically in the near future. But not because Obama walk on water. His pooh stinks like everyone else's. And the change he represents isn't necessarily for the good.

Anyway... I don't want this to be an anti-Obama diatribe, I just wish his followers would be a little less blinded by the glitz and glam of his 750 BILION dollar campaign. I could just as easily hash the McCain campaign for entirely different reasons. It just so happens that I didn't stumble across any really cool anti-McCain posters.

When will we wake up to our desperate need for stronger third party voting?

Oil-industry profits

So, Exxon Mobile Corporation reported nearly $15 BILLION in quarterly profits this week. Not bad. In fact, in the history of mankind, in the history of business, since the first cavemen traded rocks and sticks, nobody anywhere in any industry has ever reported bigger profits. And whose record did Exxon break? Its own. When was the previous record reported? Last quarter. Yes, in the past six months Exxon has made over $25 BILLION for its shareholders. Not bad. And, of course, those profits are completely unrelated to the price of gas. Just ask the company. For the past year they (and every other major oil corp) been telling anyone who'll listen (using media interviews, paid lobbyists, and advertising) that there is no correlation between their industry-wide record profits and the price of gas at the pump. And all this time I thought the companies that bought, processed, distributed and sold the product had something to do with setting the price of their product. Silly me. I guess I need to take a few more business courses. In the meantime, I'm gonna go get jacked at the pump again by whoever does actually make money on gas...

American politics, ugh.

“In my country, we have two parties. The stupid party, of which I am a member, and the evil party, which we oppose vehemently. Sometimes my party wins, in which case we get lots of stupid legislation. Sometimes the other party wins, in which case we get lots of evil legislation. Occasionally, the parties act together in what we call 'bipartisanship,' in which case we get legislation which is both evil and stupid.”

-Anonymous

I don't know who came up with that, but I'd like to kiss them right on the mouth. Our beloved presidential candidates who care so much about our country are spending more than a BILLION dollars combined to get themselves elected. The audacity of WHAT?! Obama will collect somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 million by election day. (He raked in $150 in September alone! Meanwhile, approximately eighty-seven thousand children starved to death in the same month. Uh, Senator...) McCain, meanwhile, is way behind with a measly $400-or-so million. And you'd better believe they'll use it. Of course, there'll be a little left over, I'm sure, to retire on if they need it. (It pays to be a candidate, or did you actually think Governor Palin was going to return that $200,000 wardrobe for which the Republican Party recently paid? Your financial contributions at work.)

And here I was thinking that the economy was in trouble. Apparently not. Apparently there are a myriad of Mavriholics and Obamunists out there who have plenty of disposable income available to give. If only we could convince them to give to something worthwhile...

Summer Olympics XXIX: Beijing 1

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. Summer, winter, it doesn't matter. I love the Olympic games. All the events, the medal ceremonies, the pomp, the grandeur of it all. It is pretty much the epitome of sports, and in many ways the pinnacle of humanity. Sort of like World Cup Soccer, only better.



It doesn't hurt to be American either. Being a world sports powerhouse, it gives you plenty for which to cheer.



Yesterday I heard the story of Lin Hao and nearly cried. All hail the Chinese for brilliantly placing the 9-year-old life boy next to the 7-foot 6-inch basketball hero Yao Ming during the opening ceremoies (which I missed). Yao might be the biggest celebrity in China, but even he should be humbled by the hero of the Sichuan earthquake. (When asked why he went into the rubble of his collapsed school twice to pull out classmates (2/3 of whom died in the quake), Hao said, "I was the hall monitor, it was my job to look after my school mates..." Kid's got more courage in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. The contrast between sports celeb and life hero was staggering.



Then there's American swimmer Dara Torres, at 41 she's still winning Olympic medals and so concerned about the issue of a drug scandal she's volunteering for extra testing and requested that samples of her blood be frozen so future tests might be run as the technoogy becomes available. 41? Are you kidding me?!



Or how about the 33-year-old German female gymnast Oksana Chusovitina. I say German, she won a gold medal for the Unified team in, get this, 1992! Later she competed for Uzbekistan. When her son needed chemotherapy for Leukemia, she immigrated to Germany for better medical treatment. WAY TO GO MOM!!! A thirty-three-year-old gymnast?! She's old enough to be the mother of an olympic gymnast. AWESOME!!!



Of course, there's always the pool. I was literally screaming at my television today during the 4X100 freestyle. A member of the French team, Alain Bernard, shot his mouth off before the meet saying, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." Well, the American B-team set a world record in the prelims, and then the A-team got the job done in the final that saw five teams eclipse that record. M. Alain had a body length lead going into the final leg, then choked like a... Frenchman... and lost the race by .08 seconds. HA! (I told you it was great to be an American.)



Cullen Jones. Just another random athlete? No, he's an Olympic swimmer who very nearly drowned as a kid. They pumped a pint of water out of his lungs before he started breathing again. Oh yeah, and he's only the second black American to win gold in a swimming event (the above mentioned 4X100 freestyle.



With stories like these, how can anyone not love the Olympic Games?

The (Lamentable) Exhuberance of Youth

George Bernard Shaw once said, "youth is wasted on the young." At 37, I'm still a fairly young man, but I have perceived that he's right. By the time you're wisdom--and the maturity and discipline to follow it--set in, the flower of life has begin to fade. It's not that visible at first, I mean, at 37 I'm still pretty much in the prime of life. Still, I'm not who I once was. Physically at least, I've peaked. Oh, yes, I could potentially whip myself into the best shape of my life, but really, I understand now that physical ability and appearance are only shadows of reality. They have some value, but no real eternal significance. More importantly I've begun to see how important it is to understand real wisdom and to pass it on to others. Time and again I see a generation behind me making "smart" choices and all I can do is hang my shake my head in awe at the laughable excuses they make for the results they reap from the folly they justify in their pride.

Most evident to me is the error (sin?) of Christian liberty. The young will claim their freedom in Christ as they commit one foolish act after another. "Flee temptation," says the Bible. "PFFFT," say the young. "Restraint!" says the scripture. "Eat, drink and be merry!" cries the young Believer. It is often only with age that we understand the difference between the sarcasm of Solomon and the plea of Christ to "be of good cheer." Rare indeed is the 20-something willing to let go their freedom to embrace the blessed slavery of the cross. Rare indeed is the youth capable of or even interested in understanding the difference between being save from sin and saved to serve. More common is the attitude of independence that claims the middle ground, lives not for Christ, not for Satan, but for self--if truth be told. Loudly they cry out, "NO! That's not true!" Then they'll head for the pub to talk about it, then go home to complain about it to their live-in girlfriend, blissfully unaware that they look and sound like idiots. (Justifying their questionable behavior with hollow, yet firmly held arguments such as "Luther did it" or "We're changing culture." Which is just a lot of bullsh... What they really mean, if they were honest with themselves is, "We want this. The world says it's hip, and we want to be hip too, so we're going to do it no matter what you say." Their theology, mostly gleaned by trolling the internet, is populist and sad; grounded in self rather than scripture.

If only they could all star in their own Youtube hit series! That would prove their intelligence! Wouldn't it?! If only we gray-haired old fogeys would read their blog! THEN we'd understand how the world REALLY is, and we'd KNOW how messed up WE are and how righteous THEY are. If only we'd bow to their superior interpretations of reality... But we don't. Mental midgets that we are, we insist that education and experience trump Myspace.

They want to change the world by conforming to it as much as possible without actually sinning. Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? I have. And I noticed while there that they always put these guard rails up not at the very lip of the canyon, but set back several feet. Why? So you don't trip and fall over; to warn you of the danger you're in. And what do most kids do when they get there? Jump the rail and head for the edge! Now, they might not fall over, but that doesn't mean they made the right choice. The smart choice. The wise choice. Does it? Of course not. Yet that's the attitude of so many of today's youth. They want to push the limits.

Alcohol? "Who cares? Everyone drinks, don't they?"

Pre-marital sex? "Cool. As long as it's not actual intercourse, it's okay."

Gambling? "More innocent fun."

Co-habitating with your boyfriend/girlfriend? "If you don't like it, that's your problem!"

In all these cases and countless more, SIN is not necessarily present, but is CLEARLY lurking nearby. What it the WISE thing to do? I'll leave you to figure it out for yourself, just please don't ask anyone under 25.

I like the way J. Robertson McQuilken puts it:

I think God has planned the strength and beauty of youth to be physical. But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty that is temporary so we'll be sure to concentrate on the strength and beauty which is forever. It makes us more eager to leave behind the temporary, deteriorating part of us and be truly homesick for our eternal home. If we stayed young and strong and beautiful, we might never want to leave!

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Looking back at what I've just written, I can't help but feel a sense of deja vu. I've written this before. And it sounds like I hold a grudge against those blessed with the youth I've lost and misspent. I'm sorry for that. The fact is that I care very much for those in whose hand I must eventually leave the world. And they are wonderful, for all the mistakes they make. My own generation cannot escape the plain truth that WE are the ones responsible for failing to make the world a better place for them to grow up in, so how hard can I be, really, on those who follow?

Truth be told, I'm excited to see the incredible things they will do once they understand how precious life is; once they cease to take for granted the time they have and wisdom sets in like a fire out of control. Perhaps their passion will burn hot enough that they will succeed where we have failed. Wisdom, their great failing now, inevitably WILL come. And therein lies the hope. My own generation, the original "me" generation, has aimed our full measure of force on seeking our own selfish desires first. Perhaps our children, and theirs, will be wise enough to learn from that mistake...

One great day

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. I spent some serious man-time with Nate during the day and got to baptize both him and Anna in the evening. The whole thing started out innocently enough with Anna asking to get baptized. She's asked several times about baptism over the past year, but we told her she needed to wait until she was seven. Yes, its somewhat arbitrary, but we decided that although all three of our kids accepted Christ at such a young age (the girls at four, Nate at five) that we'd make them all wait until they were seven to get baptized. Naturally, once Anna brought it up, Nate asked about it as well, which was interesting since he's never really mentioned it before. Anyway, we settled on the details (June 21 at the Saturday night service at church) and everyone was excited. Then we realized that Disney's newest pre-teen hit Camp Rock was scheduled to be released the night before. Now, I could care less about Walt Disney, but Alyssa was excited, so we arranged for her two cousins (Ava and Olivia) to come up from Commerce, OK to watch it with her and spend the night. That's when things got interesting.


With the girls coming over to spend the night, the plan was to send them home with family the next day after the baptism. Great plan, but there was a flaw: Nate. I love my son too much to abandon him to a day long estrogen festival. At this age, he needs some man-time. So I talked it over with him and we formulated our own plan. Friday night we watched Pirates of the Caribbean. Good movie, even if it is a little old for him. Then on Saturday, while the girls giggled and played dress up and had tea parties and all other sorts of fluffy fun, we went to Prairie State Park and hiked the Drover's Trail. It was a blast. Eighty-five degree heat, no trees, no water but what you carry in, and bison. Yes, bison. Huge, hairy, manly bison. And let me just add that there is no such thing as a girly bison. The bulls are over a thousand pounds, and even the cows are intensely manly, if for no other reason than that they can kill you if you play with them.


Anyway, our adventure started out with a close encounter with the bison. The herd was hanging out on the trail, so we approached with caution hoping that when they sensed our presence they would move. I was surprised at close we could get without startling them... And for the most part, the plan worked perfectly. The only exception is that when they did finally move, they moved in our direction! Not good.


"Nate, move faster!"


They weren't charging us, they were just curious about who we were. But when you're only seventy-five feet away, its still a bit scary to see about a million pounds of muscle and horns coming right at you. So as they meandered directly toward our position, we beat a hasty retreat back to the visitor's center which was the longest quarter mile I've ever had to travel. Since the Drover's trail is a loop, we decided to travel in the opposite direction and hope the bison had moved on when we got back to that point.



Did I mention that there is ZERO shade on the Drover's Trail? There are however, prairie chickens. I've never seen a prairie chicken, but we found three on our hike, which was really cool since they wait until you're almost on top of them before they break cover. The second one was so close when it took off that Nate and I were both startled enough to take a step back. Then an amazing thing happened; Nate found a chick. A prairie chick. That's just unheard of. We could go back on that trail a thousand times and not see it. I walked right over it. I think any adult would, but Nate's still pretty close to the ground, so he spotted the movement right away. I caught it and we took a picture with it... beautiful. The staff at the visitor's center was astounded. They asked for a copy of the picture.


By the time we got back to the place where the bison had blocked the trail, they'd moved on, so we had a clear shot to the visitor's center. The prairie was beautiful.



The prairie was also hot and muggy. We'd been on that trail for about two hours in the heat of the day and we here scorched, so our next stop was the creek that runs through the park. We soaked our feet, drank some water (I filtered it first!) and just relaxed for a bit before getting back in the car and heading for home. On the way out we stopped to help a box turtle cross the road. I love turtles. So does Nate. And, honestly, none of our adventure would have been worth it if he hadn't been there to share it with. I hope we can have many more outdoor adventures like it in the future.


The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful, but church was great. Pastor John brought a great message, Lloyd and the band were ON, and, of course, the whole family (Mandi's side) was there to watch the baptism. Anna and Nate did fantastic. The only hitch was that we got confused as to where the person taking pictures should stand, so all we got was their backs. Oh well. Being able to baptize your own children is one of life's greatest blessings. It's hard to describe, but it feels like you've done something right. And I don't mean that you didn't drown them, I mean that for the duration of their little lives it feels like, as a parent, you're not a complete failure. I think you have to have kids of your own to understand what I mean by that. Anyhow, I can't wait to see who they become as Christ molds their lives. Thank you, Jesus, for a fantastic day.

Tiger Woods: Human?

Now, like most rational human beings on planet Earth, I am a monotheist; Southern Baptist by flavor. Let me just say that up front. But has anyone noticed that Tiger Woods seems to be something other than human? I mean, he's won 10 of his last 13 tournaments on a ruptured ACL, hasn't finished worst than 5th in any of them, and just stole his 3rd U.S. Open on a fractured tibia. I'm not saying he's a god, but that certainly challenges the limits of believability if you think he's human. I'm not a golf fan by any stretch of the imagination, but Tiger is simply a joy to watch. I mean, really, if God did play golf, how much better could He be? Which brings up an interesting point. I know Jesus was fully man and fully God, but was He fully Tiger? At this point I'm not sure.

Not that Tiger deserves to be worshipped, that would be a sin. Idolatry to be exact. So I guess I'm not really sure how to deal with him. Should we admire him for being such an incredible golfer? Or should we shun him for slumming around here on earth, masquerading as a real person, when he should be off on some other planet or in some other dimension with others of his kind.

I wonder if, wherever he's really from, he's such a good golfer there?

Mormons. Wow.

"I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man
that has even been able to keep a whole church together since the days of
Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul,
John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a
work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day
Saints never ran away from me yet."

--Joseph Smith, History of the Church

Jenni's note on "why"

My friend Jenni Perkins wrote this great blog on her facebook page and I wanted to save it because I believe she dead-on right.

THOUGHTS ON ASKING "WHY"

The question “Why?” is posed about 420 times in the Bible (according to The Strongest NASB Exhaustive Concordance). Some of the questions are directed to God from man, others to man from God, and still others between men.

We begin asking “Why?” at a very early age, usually as a toddler. It is in our human nature to want to know the reason or purpose for actions we must take or events that happen in our lives (or the lives of others). I remember a little boy I used to baby-sit, who is now driving, by the way… Wow, that makes me feel old! He was never satisfied with any answer I gave to his questions. Each answer was followed with another “why?”

“Why is the sky blue?”

“Because God made it that way.”

“Why?”

“Because He wanted to.”

“Why?”

“Because He thinks it’s a pretty color”

“Why?”

“Because…..”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why?”

Eventually you can distract a 4-year-old with a toy or game and his inquisitive mind gives you peace for a time. However, as we get older, we become more persistent in ask “why?” Especially when we don’t understand the reason God allows certain situations that bring us grief or pain or lack the knowledge of purpose behind it. Thankfully, our Father is patient with us when we continue to question Him and comforts us with His Word. His answer is often a simple “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

In the Bible, Job’s questions with questions (and a bit of sarcasm) that bring the realization of the Lord’s supreme authority over all things.

God answers:“Would you discredit My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself? Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like His? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.” (Job 40:8-10)

Job replies:“I know that You can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You ask, ‘Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”(Job 42:2-3)

I really like Job’s response. He humbly acknowledges God’s ability to do “all things” and his inability to understand the reason why God allows suffering. In the end, we may still have questions and they may never be answered to our satisfaction, yet, we must trust that God knows what He is doing. He created us and everything around us. He causes everything to work together for a purpose, even when we don’t know what it is. This is a difficult lesson to learn (and re-learn) during difficult times in our life. We so often want to be in control and want to know the “why” of everything. Sometimes we just have to trust.

I pray that my heart will be as the following verses—with earnest trust in our Father’s lovingkindness and faithfulness.

“LORD, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child with its mother. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—now and always.”(Psalm 131)

Maybe God is trying to tell me something here, I don't know. I've been thinking a lot lately about the problem of evil, and read Jenni's blog only minutes after finding this passage in J.B. Phillips' You God Is Too Small:

Modern man has a lust for full explanation and habitually considers himself in no way morally bound unless he is in full possession of all the facts. Hence, of course, the prevalence of non-committal agnosticism. Yet it would seem that Christ, God-become-Man, did not give men a full explanation of the origin and operation of the evil forces in this world. (It is perfectly possible that in our present space-time existence we could not comprehend it, anyway.)

I think there's something in us, a hubris, that leads us to believe that we have the right to question God regarding evil. But honestly, whether it be the result of sinful actions (our own or someone else's), or some natural calamity, who are we to judge?

Of course, that doesn't mean that we'll never understand any of the evil that troubles us, occasionally we do understand and I believe we should always try to understand, but the idea that we can always understand, or that we have a right to understand... where does that come from? Certainly not the Bible.

Which leads us to our application. (After all, contemplation without application leads to constipation.) I guess, for me, the application is comfort. Not that I've suffered unduly in life, but I've been through my fair share of "evil" and I expect a lot more is coming, but I take comfort in the knowledge that although I will try to see the reasons behind it all, I don't have to understand it all. It helps me keep the world in a proper perspective, really. God is God. He's infinitely bigger that I am. He's infinitely smarter than I am. He's ultimately more wise than I am, and He's going to take care of everything. My life might never be the same. I might be completely shattered by circumstances, but He's not surprised, He's not in panic mode, He's in control. And yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take comfort in the sure knowledge that evil is only a shadow. It will be cast away by the light of heaven where in the end all things are made new, right and holy. This life will be marked by suffering and pain. Only a fool would deny that. If it hasn't come yet, it will. So the application comes in the hope of a future set apart, in the comfort of knowing that justice and healing will come in God's perfect time.

I don't get it... or maybe I do.

I was thinking recently about the Problem of Evil. It is, perhaps, he greatest quandary of the Christian faith. I've read several books on the subjects and I'm sure I'll continue to study it in the future, but one thing I realize that amazes me continually is that I don't get it... And by that I mean, I can't get it. The Bible speaks quite clearly to this issue in both Job and the Gospels and the answer that God gives, however unsatisfactory, is that there are some things we just can't understand. And that may sound anti-intellectual, but its true nevertheless. The fact is that there are things out there that are fully incomprehensible, metaphysical questions that we will just never grasp. And at some point we need to embrace that. I don't mean we should stop funding science or anything like that. I just mean that at some point we must come to grips with the fact that we ourselves are not capable of understanding everything, that it is only intellectual arrogance to assume that all knowledge is within our grasp.

I think the event that prompted this little nugget of wisdom occurred about nine years ago, with the arrival of our first child. When Alyssa born and I held her for the first time, there arose within me a feeling that was hitherto unknown. It was the love of a father for his daughter. And I remember thinking at the time, "Oh, that's what they meant." It was at that moment that I finally understood what it was my parents had been telling me for 28 years when they said that they loved me. Up to that point my perspective on love had been limited to the understanding of a son to a parent. Now, I stand on the other side of that relationship and I can say with absolute certainty that it's completely different. Until I was a father myself I had no idea what my own father meant when he said that he loved me. I understand now, but I had to actually become something else to gain that insight.

On perhaps an even simpler level, consider this: what is it like to be a mother? I will NEVER know. I'm a man. I can talk to mothers. I can try to serve a mothering role to a child, but I will never go through a pregnancy or give birth. I will never develop the bond that a mother has with a child she has felt grow inside her body. I cannot understand. No man can.

Anyway, my point is that I had to BE a father before I could understand the whole measure of a father's love. One who is childless simply cannot get it. Oh, sure, there is some limited understanding, like seeing a bride through her veil though, it's not the same thing. SO, without trashing science or philosophy or any other pursuit of knowledge, when it comes to God's response to the problem of evil, I get it. I understand why the Bible doesn't offer a likable explanation. It's not that God can't explain it, its that we're too dumb to understand it. And, yes, that's a gross oversimplification, but the point is made: There is a realm of mystery we just can't unravel, and the answer to the problem of evil often dwells in that realm.

And I realize that might be incredibly frustrating for some people. What makes it okay for me personally is the knowledge that even though I don't always get it, sometimes can't get it, I know that God can get it, does get it, and is on my side. I don't have to understand every evil that happens around the world, or even to me personally, because I serve a God who is good and who will ultimately take care of it, even if I die before justice is served.

In the end, I don't enjoy ignorance on these matters, but neither do I fear it. Evil is still evil, and we should always try to understand the world around us, but let us not be so arrogant as to assume that the answers are ours for the having. Sometimes they're just not...

What must I do...

A friend recently asked me a great question about salvation. She wanted to know what the minimum is that a person needs to believe to be saved. Her point was that there are a lot of people out there calling themselves Christians that tend to believe that salvation rests in, “Jesus and.” Jesus AND baptism. Jesus AND good works. Jesus AND sacraments. Jesus AND having a bus load of kids so you can populate your own planet after you die…

Honestly, it’s a hard question to answer. I mean, who wants to be the one who says that someone is or isn’t going to heaven based on a conjunction? And frankly, I have a lot in common with a host of those folks. Still, it’s an honest question that deserves an honest answer. So, here it is. Simply put, Jesus saves. Jesus alone saves. I think where most cults and false religions go wrong is with the conjunction of faith and works. “Jesus and,” is a killer. There is no "AND." There is salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Not Jesus and baptism. Not Jesus and good works. Not Jesus and populating your own special planet. Not Jesus and any other thing. Just Jesus. "Jesus and," means that I'm not really depending on Him for salvation. He's just helping me out a bit. But that's a theological crock of pooh. When I was an undergrad at the University of Oregon, my campus minister put it to me this way, "Jesus isn't my crutch, He's my iron lung." I like that. It shows how silly it is to think that I have anything to do with my own salvation, which is what all those “Jesus and” people want to think.


At the end of the day though “Jesus and” is really only subtraction by addition. “Jesus and” teaches that Jesus Himself is not enough to save us. It subtracts from the power of the cross by adding some other prerequisite for admission into God’s presence in Heaven, which is totally bogus. Jesus is pretty explicit in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” He didn’t say that He is one of many ways, or part of the way, or the way for some people but not others; He is THE way. The only way. “Jesus and” implies that He’s not enough on His own. It implies that something else is necessary, something I supply, something I am responsible for. And that just isn’t true.

I think the real problem for all those “Jesus and” people out there is that they haven’t really put their faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, they say they have, certainly. But they don’t mean it the same way that the “Jesus only” people do. You see, their understanding of who Jesus is is fundamentally flawed. They make Him less than savior and lord. They make him partially responsible for salvation, and I’m just not sure that’s enough. As I read the New Testament accounts of who Jesus is, I am struck by how totally clear it is that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and I just don’t think “Jesus and” fits that description. (I wonder if this could all be summed up by pointing out that Jesus is THE Christ, the Messiah, the one who saves. You can believe in some dude named Jesus, but if your Jesus isn’t Christ, you’ve got the wrong Jesus.)


SO, I’ll stop short of condemning all the “Jesus and” people to hell. After all, it isn’t my job to determine their eternal destiny, BUT I will say that I’m pretty I’m glad I’m not the one who has to face God the Father and explain why I don’t believe that his Son’s death, burial and resurrection are insufficient for salvation and He should let me into heaven because I also got dunked in the right church, knocked on enough doors, and tithed properly.
Diatribe over.

Devo?

So, I'm reading through the Bible in a year, using the Chronological Bible (NLT) by Tyndale Press, and, yes, I'm a week behind. However, I noticed something interesting in my reading this morning. King David, at the end of his life, in his final instructions to his son Solomon who has already been named king and is sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, basically sets up two final "acts of justice." He tells Solomon to arrange the deaths of Joab and Shimea, both of whom deserved death much earlier, but received mercy from David to this point. What I found interesting was that in Psalm 4:4 David writes, "Don't sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. (The Chronological Bible lists most of David's psalms right after he dies, not knowing exactly when they were composed.) Anyway, I found it very interesting that David followed his own advice to keep silent, but I have to wonder if he let his anger control him. I mean, certainly, in the heat of the moment he was careful not to let his anger get the better of him (although lust is another story), BUT the fact that he his last words to his son include instructions to kill his former enemies leaves one guessing about his ability to let go of that anger. I look forward to getting back to the study and digging into this intriguing aspect of his character...

Jesus the What?

People often say about Him, "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I won't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Thank you, Dr. Lewis.

Unnamed poem

One day, there was a man named Jon,
who worked at the BSU.

Some people liked him,
but he thought himself too cool.

He forgot he was a white guy,
w/ his Christian rap & hip iPod.

So they made him look in a mirror,
& he saw himself for what he was - rather odd.


by Noelle Ott '08

Relativism? Give me a break already!

There's so much more to say. I hate to even post this because it seems so shallow, so uncritical. It ignores important arguments to draw light to certain issues, and I hate that, but what can I do. I'd write a book, but within the context of this issue, there's not much to be said. It just needs said louder...

Moral relativism is a concept I've been wrestling with since I was in high school, over 20 years ago. And I'm just dumbfounded that it still exists. "True for you, but not for me," should've died out a long time ago. Given it's porous philosophical underpinnings, I can only attribute it's longevity and current popularity to the desire of man to ignore God and justify sin. Its impressive failure as a viable worldview should've sent it the way of dinosaurs and 8-track tapes, but it clings tenaciously on, as hip as ever, even if it does have the intellectual appeal of the emperor's new clothes. Its like the bacteria of the philosophical world; ubiquitous, often annoying, and unevolved.

What explains this unexpected stamina? I think it must be the sin nature of man. Because man is basically selfish, or evil, he desires above all else to serve himself. Anyone who's ever watched a baby sleep might argue, but everyone who's ever had a child knows this to be true. Babies are pre-programmed to get what they want, and they usually do. Nothing against children here, after all, I have three of my own whom I adore, but they are all undeniably selfish at heart. They have to be taught to share, serve and be considerate of others. It doesn't come naturally.

Altruism, which undeniably exists in human culture is an issue of conscience. C.S. Lewis called it the voice of God. But conscience dictates what we ought to do, not what we actually do. In this sense, conscience represents an understanding of Truth that exists apart from ourselves. Adam Smith called it an "impartial spectator." Whatever we might call it, it is the driving force behind that truth we each call 'morality.' Now, morality might be different from person to person and culture to culture, but it exists universally in the human condition. We are ALL moral people, even if those morals might put us at odds with one another. Some people might be immoral, but no one is amoral.

oops, I digress...

My point is that relativism, which is just, philosophically speaking, pooh, bunk, brain plaque that survives because we are all pre-programmed to fulfill our own desires (regardless of conscience) and relativism gives us the framework to do that. It makes it okay for me to do whatever I want because whatever I want is right for me. Relativism says that its okay for me to cheat on my wife because if that's what I feel is right, then it is right. Never mind the messy painful (for her)divorce, the psychological damage to the children, the awkward uncomfortable plight of friends. If I want to have an affair, its okay because its what I want. Relativism is the supreme elevation of the I within the philosophical moral framework. You are ultimately irrelevant. So if, for instance, I want to start bashing gays, or promote slavery, or forsake preserving the planet for future generations, you shouldn't have a problem with it. After all, as a moral relativist, you can't in good conscience impose your beliefs on me.

"But what about tolerance?!" you might cry. Tolerance is only a virtue if it exists outside the relativist framework. For that matter, the same can be said of diversity. The moment you start blathering on about tolerance, you refute your relativist position, you forsake your own moral high ground, hoping to have it back when non-relativist truth is imposed. But rationally you've lost. Like a spaghetti strainer, your worldview holds no water. Sorry.

The Truth is that relativism is a shallow excuse for people who want to thoughtlessly pursue their own selfish agenda without consequence. It is the philosophical low road. That university professors or their students embrace such claptrap remains unconscionable, not even worthy of the oft misabused title of Dogma.

Deep thoughts, with Jon Smith.

I recently came across this quote that in my own experience as a student at a secular school in the Northwest during the 1990's, and as one who works closely with many students who attend a secular school in the Midwest today, rings quite true:

"Indeed, parents who send their children to college should recognize that as professors 'we are going to to right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.'"

The quote is from Dinesh D'Souza's book, What's So Great About Christianity, and illustrates how religion in general and Christianity in specific is viewed in the majority of the academic community. What D'Souza (a devout and very conservative Catholic) points out is that there is an organized movement afoot to discredit faith as an option in the public square. College students are taught not that their beliefs are debatable, but that they are laughable. Unable to win a fair fight with religion in the academic arena, atheists (humanists/materialists/etc.) have deemed it prudent to instead attempt to marginalize believers of all faiths by terming their views silly, antiquated and ignorant. Incapable of winning the debate on religion these "brights" (a term they invented for themselves, but now try to avoid, realizing belatedly that arrogance doesn't sell) use the bully pulpit of the college classroom to teach their students that faith is not worth discussing because only a fool would engage in such an exercise. They want desperately to convince the world that, "The Cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be." (Carl Sagan)

Why am I posting about this? I post it as a warning in the hope that maybe, just maybe, a light will come on and someone will realize that they are being systematically manipulated by people who want nothing more than to eliminate religion from the world stage. More than anything these 'brights' long for the day when students are too afraid or too ashamed to speak of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and they are happy to use their position as educators to accomplish the task. And the sad fact is that all too often students are willing to comply. Willing because the humanities professor has a Ph. D. and they don't. (Maybe now would be a good time to point out that there are plenty of Ph. D.'s on the other side as well. They just don't tend to get hired by liberal state schools.) Willing because their grade is somewhat dependent on their ability to appease their prof. Willing because they are scared of losing an argument, or being embarrassed or getting labelled by their peers. I remember being afraid to speak up because if I did, and I was somehow beaten, it would be like failing God. Better just to keep quiet...

But, the dirty secret is that Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and their sycophants are desperate. They are desperate because they are losing. Losing to truth, losing to logic, losing to common sense, and losing to reality. They're like the emperor who's new clothes are a bit drafty. They need to deny the reality of their intellectual nudity in order to save face. And the louder they wail and moan, the more obvious it becomes that they have nothing truly threatening to say. Their best arguments are tired and beaten. All they can really hope is that the students they want to influence are too ignorant or lazy to fight back.

Politcs. I hate politics.

You know, I was going to write something about the war in Iraq, or maybe politics, or how amazing it is that most people believe they have half a clue about either when, in fact, they don't, but I think now that I won't. I mean, just because you watch a little CNN or read a few newspaper articles, trolled the internet or caught some professorial tirade in a humanities class, or if you've done all of the above, it doesn't mean you know what you're talking about. And I know I'm in that category, so why bother expressing an opinion tainted by ignorance (free of the burden of knowledge, untainted by intelligence)? I mean, after all, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or a Greenie, is pretty irrelevant to the war in Iraq. Only a dolt would believe that anyone really supports the war anymore. I mean, we ALL "support the troops," and we all want them to come home, so we agree on that. And I'm pretty sure that everyone with an I.Q. higher than your average fence post understands that we can't just pull everyone out and expect a better world, so we all pretty much agree on that. All we're really arguing about is what the criteria are for a stable Iraq. I mean, no one with an ounce of intelligence is going to pull troops until that objective is reached. The annoying thing is that you never really hear people talking about what a stable Iraq looks like... Shame on us all for ignoring the one issue we really ought to be discussing.

Meanwhile, we've got this real doozy of a presidential election coming up and I'm so excited I just might not vote. On one hand you've got John McCain, one of the most left-leaning Republicans out there, and on the other hand the only two democrats in the country that could actually lose. Seriously, if you'd told me a year ago that the Democrats might lose the election, I'd have laughed in our ignorant face. Today, that ignorance looks a lot like prophesy. Hillary Clinton may be the most hated woman in America, and the most loved. But people will vote for anyone to keep her from the Whitehouse. And the thought of having Bill Clinton for First Husband... scary. But the other option, Barrack Hussein Obama, isn't any better. Yes, he's wildly popular with people who don't listen very carefully to what he's saying, but he's getting shredded by pundits even before he gets the party nomination, and the gloves haven't even come off yet. He calls himself Christian, but his version of Jesus is skewed far from what most evangelicals believe and his pastor has already offended pretty much all of America. He connects well with his message of hope, but has no actual ability to deliver on his promises. And he a black man with the middle name of Hussein. Don't think that will be ignored. (It should be ignored, but let's be honest, if everything Democrats say about America is true--we have problems with religion and racism--it won't be.) So we've got the three lamest ducks anyone's seen in a long time vying for the right to become the President of the United States of America. How did it come to this?

Cancer Sucks

So today I found out that my mother has breast cancer. We don't know exactly what that means yet, but everyone is trying to stay positive because it was caught very early. Inside, however, it is as if a sledgehammer just collide with my soul. I can't really even talk about it without choking up. Mandi asked me when I got home from work if I was doing okay. I told her that other than swallowing hard to avoid crying every thirty seconds, I'm fine. Yeah, it's scary. I mean, she's my mother. I love her as much as I love anyone. The idea that I might lose her to cancer is a crushing weight.

Still, there is hope. When I first heard the news I was reading my Bible. The next verse I read after the call: 1 Samuel 2:9, which starts out, "He will protect his godly ones..." It was as if the hammer of God had struck back. I nearly wept on the spot. What does it mean? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps everything. But I have a hard time considering it a coincidence. The more time I spend with the Lord, the more such coincidences line up.

If you happen to think of it, I'd appreciate it if you'd say a prayer for Jacquelyn Smith, one of His godly ones...

Transformation

10 Ways I am transforming the world:

1. I give money to good causes, of which the church is one.
2. I recycle aluminum.
3. I vote.
4. I boycott certain foods/businesses/industries.
5. I write letters to the editor of my local newspaper.
6. I pray to a God who can do ANYTHING.
7. I carpool, when I can.
8. I help organize community outreach programs, like blood drives.
9. I inform my government representatives of my opinions on key issues they can effect.
10. I treat other people with respect.

SO,
What are YOU doing?

Why churches suck at reaching students

It is no secret that one of the greatest challenges in campus ministry is getting students to connect with local churches. It is a never-ending battle that has become increasingly difficult as they witness the relentless infighting, back-biting, political wrangling and moral game-playing that takes place in every denomination and most churches. And although a big part of that is ignorance and immaturity on their part, part of it is also ignorance and immaturity on the part of the church. The sooner we own up to that fact, the sooner students are likely to embrace the church. Right or wrong, students sense that churches are in competition with one another, and too busy taking care of their own, in between doctrinal shouting matches, to reach out to the world. And since every student, given the opportunity, wants to change the world, we have a problem with connection. Frankly, one of the most attractive qualities in a local congregation is community outreach. Apart from that, don't expect to see many students on Sunday morning.

Movie Day

So yesterday was a 3 movie day. I am so ashamed. We watched Horton Hears a Who, Surf's Up, and I Am Legend. Of the three, Legend was the worst by far. It was disappointing on more levels than I can easily share, or care to. Horton Hears a Who, on the other hand was pretty good. Not only was it somewhat entertaining, it had some pretty decent theological implications that I was glad my kids got to hear. The whole thing revolves around the idea that Horton the Elephant is in contact with people he can't see because his ears are so big. Soon, the rest of the jungle shuns him, led by a vicious kangaroo who boldly (and errantly) claims that if you can't see it, hear it, or feel it, it doesn't exist. Horton is labeled a dissident and the fun begins. The kangaroo will go to any length to rid Horton of the clover on which his invisible friends rest, including violence.

How like our own society. How like the atheist movement. It was uplifting to know that my children were there to witness on screen how easy it is to persecute someone who might not fit in exactly with the culture even though that person is totally justified in their beliefs and actions. Horton took a stand for what he believed, facing down even an angry mob because he knew he was right. How noble. How integritous. (I think I just invented a word there.)

The truth is that Horton's belief in his invisible friends, who had proven beyond reasonably doubt their existence to him, was the metaphorical equivalent to my own belief in Jesus Christ. He has proven to me thousands of times over that He is not only there and real, but Lord and God. That many others don't agree is a shame, but it doesn't make me wrong to believe as I do. The Flying Toaster and Spaghetti Monster crowd can shout and rant and rave all they want, they only look increasingly silly, ignorant and desperate for doing so. They can persecute the truth all they want, but they can't change it.

On the opposite side of Horton's dilemna is the mayor of Whoville, himself beset by weak-minded fools who impugn his reputation and resort to name-calling to prove their position. Again, the resemblance to most neo-darwinists I've encountered is uncanny. Yes, there exists an informed minority in the humanist/materialist/atheist crowd who are willing to politely engage in reasonable debate, but they are just that, a minority. Most of them fare no better than Seuss's kangaroo.

Buffalo National River 3.21.08

Although I have to admit a fair lack of diligence on my part, I was still thoroughly surprised today on my search for a decent outdoor experience in the Midwest. The Buffalo National River really came through. Ironically, we didn't actually visit the Buffalo River. Instead we spent several hours exploring the Lost Valley Trail, which is neither "lost," nor a "valley." Ha! Anyway, the trail ( just over 2 miles altogether) leads to Eden Falls and Eden Falls Cave, but has plenty to see along the way. About the only thing to complain about is the massive crowd of people who flock to the place.

The guidebook said it was a popular trail, but pulling into the parking lot at the trailhead was like pulling into a mall. There must have been at least thirty cars. And tents everywhere. It looked more like a tailgater at a fooball game than nature preserve. Still, it was better than anything I've seen yet in Indiana or Missouri. I'm pretty sure the Hoosiers would've paved the trail to make it wheelchair accessible. Sad wouldn't quite cover it... Anyway, it was a great experience.

As we headed up the trail I was at first disappointed, both by the crowd, and by the large sign that said "No Camping Beyond This Point" posted just a few feet from the trailhead. That first impression though was quickly proved inaccurate by the natural beauty of the surrounding area. The trail basically just runs along Clark Creek for a mile or so. We had a great time crossing and re-crossin the creek and at one point stopped for a while at a pool below a small set of falls coming out of a cave we could actually crawl through and come out on the opposite side back on the trail!

We climbed all over the place. Fortunately, we'd read a little beforehand about what to expect, so getting wet and muddy wasn't an issue. Dry, clean clothes were waiting for us back at the van.

Nate in particular had fun. I mean, we all had a great time climbing over the rocks, trying not to get swept down the creek into the pool, or break our necks falling off a ledge, but Nate was just fearless. He always has been. I remember as a baby he would climb relentlessly. I can't count how many times he fell. I'm afraid I've failed him as a father by yelling at him so much, from the time he was born, about trying what he can't do. If he ever cops to an inferiority complex, I'm the cause. Yet he's still just fearless. Today he climbed out onto a ledge overlooking the pool that even I was hesitant to go out on. I mean, other people were doing it as well, but one slip would mean cripplin damage or death for a six-year-old. And still I had to hold him back. Could he do it? Of course. He's Nate. He's as surefooted as a mountaingoat, a trait he's been working on forever, but I'm his dad. All I could think about was his safety. So we hit the ledge together.


By the time we got to Eden Falls we'd already climbed through one cave, seen a few spring flowers, played in the stream, and stood under several cliffs and small waterfalls. All in all, if we hadn't gone any farther, it would've been a good day. But Eden Falls were by far the biggest we saw. Not the tallest (only 35 feet), but definitely the highest volume. Of course, Mandi the Waterfall Lover was happy. The best, however, was yet to come.


At the top of Eden Falls sits Eden Falls Cave. After climbing the trail to the entrance, we set down our packs and hiking sticks, donned flashlights, and set off into the darkness. For once I was glad for the crowd. I think having other people in there with us helped calm any fears the kids might have had, and, naturally, it made it a lot easier to trace the route. Crawling on hands and knees through the darkness to the back of the 200 foot cave was messy, but fun. At the back end it opens into a large chamber with a small (20 foot?) waterfall coming out of the ceiling. Way cool!!!


One of the personal highlights for me was also one of the most unexpected. On our way into Eden Falls Cave we passed another family on their way out and I overheard the man mention to his wife that he'd lost his knife. It was just a casual remark, but for some reason it stuck with me. Then, on my way out, on my hands and knees, staring into the clear water of the creek only inches from my face, what do I spy in the feeble light of my headlamp? A knife, still in its sheath. So I grabbed it out of the water, tucked it into a pocket, and kept on crawling. Later, in the parking lot at the trailhead, I caught up to the man and wa able to give him back his knife. We were both surprised by the exchange. But Mandi admitted afterward that she'd prayed for it to happen. What a woman! ;-)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. On ur way home we got to drive past a forest fire just outside Springdale, AR. It was dark enough that we could see the flames clearly along a .3-.4 mile stretch of US-71, and it was close enough that we could smell the smoke. How anything could burn with all the rain we've had lately, I'll never know. But it was a pretty good fire.