Month: December 2004

Something to Ponder

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Since I’ve been out tending to my book and other freelancing (and probably won’t get back into the regular blogging swing until the first days of 2005), I thought I’d post a link to an old article that seems to be just as apropos today—and even more so—as it was in 1996.

As a wine drinker and aficionado, I always appreciate it when someone manages to note how the Gospel and wine intersect. In his piece “The New White-Wine Pietists,” Craig Parton doles out 750ml of pure Barolo Reserva right into the maw of the White Zinfandel pietists who have gutted much of the core of modern Christianity.

Now I don’t agree with all his points, but even when I think he’s off, he may be closer to the truth than the other side is.

Quaff away readers and give me a few tasting notes while you’re at it.

Blessings!

Thanks to Conrad over at Not Quite Art, Not Quite Living for bringing this post to light

Lord of the Bored?

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No one is saying it, but someone has to: There are a lot of bored Christians out there.

What is American Evangelicalism's fascination with materialism and consumption? It's a cure for boredom. Why are the charismatics traveling like nomads in search of the next "spiritual" high? They're bored. Why are so many leaving their traditional churches in favor of postmodern or Emergent ones? They are looking for an escape from the boring.

The monster bestseller Wild at Heart by John Eldredge has at its very core the premise that Christian men are bored. Boredom leads to dissatisfaction and, eventually, the fruit of boredom, sin. On this he won't get any arguments from me, but is the solution to go hunt grizzlies with nothing more than a pointy stick? Is life simply about rescuing damsels in distress?

No, there is something more.

I think the "problem that dare not speak its name," the issue that so many Christians are struggling with, is a lack of connection to the Lord. Our churches are filled with people that simply are not experiencing the fullness of the Lord Jesus.

But why is this? What have we done to create a generation of disconnected and bored Christians?

The reasons are many, but five stand out:

1. Leadership. We like to think that everyone in America is an individual, but Jesus' assessment that we are like sheep has not skipped over this country. People still need good role models and leaders. But much of the leadership of churches today can't help people get to that next level of discipleship simply because they have never been there themselves. There has not been a true revival in America in almost a hundred years, and despite a few local revivals (that sadly stayed local), virtually no one pastoring a church today has seen a real revival. Subsequently, we don't know what one looks like, nor have we experienced the deep, abiding presence of Christ that falls on those who have been set aflame by revival. The people can't get there unless the leaders out there show us the map. Leaders, guide us!

2. Anti-supernaturalism. Some say that we are in a postmodern age, while others contend that modernism still reigns in the churches in America. Regardless, we still live in a largely secular world that has driven supernaturalism out of Western churches. If we do not believe that prayer can drive mountains into the sea, then we will absolutely never see that occur. What happened to our faith? Does anyone still believe that if we abide in Him and He in us, we can ask anything in His name and it will be done? I'm not talking Word of Faith craziness here, but simply taking the Lord at His word. What will the Lord do through us if we believe Him for the miraculous not just when miracles are needed, but at the core of our beliefs?

3. Love for the world. 1 John 2:15 has never changed:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

We can't get blood from a stone. If the world has calcified our hearts, then we need that heart of flesh restored in us, a heart that burns with love for Jesus—and Him as Lord over all we are. Yet why are so many Christians absolutely no different than the worldly? Sadly, this appeasement of culture by Christians and the culture's inevitable penetration of the churches in this country is being preached with greater intensity as a GOOD thing. How foolish! That Christians look and act no different from unbelievers is shameful. We are the aroma of Christ, not the foul stench of death! Instead, we have become like rats with electrodes wired to their brains, gratified by every push of the entertainment lever, a new wave of stimulation washing over our addled minds. How sad!

4. Higher criticism of the Bible. It's been more than a hundred years since German higher criticism washed up on the shores of America and crawled into our churches unannounced. The damage this has done to the authority of the Bible in the minds of the average person, Christian or not, is incalculable. When Christians don't believe the Bible speaks to every part of a man, nor that it is authoritative for learning and correction, what basis do we have for anything we say or do? How can the revealed truth of Scripture capture anyone's heart if even our church leaders don't truly believe it?

5. Time. We live in an age in which everything presses us for time. People are harried in an era labeled as The Age of Leisure. How then can we expect to reach that sacred place of standing before God on five minutes of prayer dashed off as we rush to work? In other times, people would be travailing on their knees for hours before the Throne of Grace, but does anyone reading this know anyone like that anymore? (Not only do I not know anyone like that, but far worse, I can't count myself as one of those people even though I once was.) But there is no instant discipleship. Those of us who seek it only find boredom when we fail to break through to God. Our lack of time committed to Christ can only lead us to lament our sorry states, questioning if God is even there.

And so we are bored. Bored with the Bible. Bored with our church meetings. Bored with the Lord. How that must break His heart! All eternity, the entirety of His own Self, ready to be revealed to those who press on, and yet so precious few do.

One thing I do know—those who press on to know the Lord are never bored. I pray that for all of us. Let us press on to know the Lord and put boredom behind us.

Anger: It’s All the Rage!

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In fashionable circles within many churches in America it is quite the rage to be angry at God. Doing so is said to relieve all sorts of issues and free us up to be better people. Not a day goes by that I do not hear or read about how necessary it is to be angry at God when we have to be.

But anger is a tricky emotion because it is a response to attack. We must, therefore, consider what is being attacked that we should respond in anger to anything, since anger is not typically a positive emotion.

If something that carries eternal value is attacked (e.g.—another person, the character of God), then we have recourse to be angry as long as we do not sin. Jesus himself was angry at the pharisees for leading the simple astray, and He was also angry at the moneychangers in the temple who besmirched the character of the Father by turning the Father’s temple into the world’s most thieving flea market.

If my wife is attacked, whether bodily or in character, I believe that God—who saw fit to give her as a blessed gift to me in the first place—honors the anger that I may possess as a result. Again, what I do with that anger is important.

But the kind of “righteous” anger we have is rarely directed improperly. We know the offenders and what they have done and why their offense causes anger in us. The poor man ripped off my the rich man, or the husband who beats his wife and children—those are enough to understand. Where it gets dicey is when we are angry not for righteous reasons, but unrighteous.

What defines unrighteous anger? In most cases, I believe that we become angry because something we cherish that is truly not of God is attacked—our hidden sin, our selfishness, our greed, our pride, our pet “brokenness,” or our sense of entitlement. I would suffice it to say that the inordinate amount of circumstances in which we are angry fall into this category. And none of this anger is for godly reasons.

So it is odd to me then that so many recommend we get angry at God since the strong tendency is that we are foolishly doing so based on unrighteous anger. The truth is that the very reason we are experiencing what is making us angry is that the Lord is trying to purge from our lives the very flawed thing to which we are clinging. To in turn blame God for His desire to make us holier is the ultimate in foolish thinking and ungratefulness.

The humble man or woman of God rarely becomes angry and never so at his/her Lord because such a person understands the nature of God’s goodness in cleaning us out. To become angry at our Maker is like the dog that bites the hand that feeds him.

The worst part of turning our anger against the Lord is that it does nothing but undermine faith. What faith is there in rejecting “Not my will, but Thine be done” in order that we may covet our anger? None at all. This is not the faith that says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Instead, being angry at God has the built-in assurance that we will continue to be angry and more often as we reject God’s merciful correction that leads us away from unrighteous anger and to the truth.

We should never have reason to be angry at God. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and His way is always perfect. Better to live then in submission and humility than to act like ungrateful mutts at feeding time.