January 30, 2008 - Essential Elements
Slow down, find a quiet place alone and ask yourself this question: "What is the essential element in my faith?" What is it that keeps you in the community of believing people? The church? Your friends? Obligation? Where in your life does gratitude to the Redeeming God fit? Which is better? To be in the community because of what we can get out of it? Or to be in it because of what we have already been given? It's worth pondering.
August 23, 2007 - A First Century Church?
Robert Banks has written an intriguing little book - only 48 pages - titled "Going to Church in the First Century." It is the story, surely fictitious, of Publius Valerius Amicus Rufas. Written in the first person, Banks recounts what it must have been like to have been invited by a friend to attend a service of Christians. You will enjoy reading of his mid-afternoon walk to the home where the service was to be held, and of what happened there. I have the book and you may borrow it if you wish. RLM
July 6, 2007 - I am willing
"Evangelism" is a hot topic right now in American churches. One could walk down the Christian isle of a local bookstore and be overwhelmed by the amount of literature on how to grow your church and evangelize the lost. In the Gospel of Luke, the first charge Jesus gives his disciples to evangelize is found in Luke 5:10. After a miraculous catch of fish, Peter realizes he is in the presence of the divine and is overcome with fear and dread (much like Isaiah's reaction to the vision of God's throne room in Isaiah 6). Jesus assuages Peter's fears and gives him this charge, "from now on you will catch men (NIV)." But Jesus does not stop with a clever analogy as we see in the next story recorded by Luke - He teaches them how to fish. A leper approaches Jesus in humility and declares, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." This man, who has been deemed "untouchable" by society, is at the mercy of his creator. Does this sound familiar? It should because the leper's story is our story. As Christians, we place ourselves at the mercy of our creator asking the only one who can save us to cleanse us of our sins. And God's answer is the same given to the leper. He reaches out his hand and touches the untouchable announcing, "I am willing." Through this action, Jesus teaches his disciples that being fishers of men is about getting your hands dirty in the lives of people. Evangelism, according to Jesus is a simple formula, and yet it is profoundly difficult. When we make a commitment to reach the lost, we commit ourselves to loving our neighbor, which can often get messy. It is more than just a friendly wave and a "how are you today?" Sometimes it calls us to be at our neighbor's side during the great fires of life - those times of awkwardness when we do not know quite what to say. Loving our neighbor is often inconvenient and laborious. And yet we love others because Jesus loved us first and showed us how to love. While we were still sinners, Christ came down and lived a life of self - sacrifice, dying on a cross to redeem us from our sins. There are those around us crying out for healing. As Christ's ambassadors, Jesus asks us, "are you ready to get your hands dirty?" Are you willing to love your neighbor?
May 2, 2007 - "Elect" and "Chosen"
God’s covenant was made with a particular people. God’s people is a chosen race (1 Peter 2:9), that is, a chosen group and not chosen individuals. The people of God is an elect people, a chosen people (1 Peter 1:1— “elect” and “chosen” are alternative English translations of the same word). For the connection between “people” and “election,” note the parallelism in Psalm 105:43, “So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing.” God chose a people for his own possession (1 Peter 2:9); note the connection of election and possession in Psalm 135:4: “For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.” The idea of Israel, or the Church, as a “chosen people” is often offensive, and the doctrine of election has been the subject of much theological controversy through the centuries. Hence, it is important to explore as carefully as we can the biblical doctrine of election. [Ferguson, A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today. pp 78-79
April 26, 2007 - Invitation to Solitude and Silence
Blaise Pascal, the remarkable scientist, theologian and Christian of the seventeenth century, remarked in his *Pensees* (section 136) that “all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own room.” The reason for this inability, he found, is “the natural poverty of our feeble and mortal condition, so miserable that nothing can comfort us when we think of it closely." In order not to “think of it closely,” we turn to what Pascal calls “diversion” to distract us from ourselves. He writes: "hence it comes people so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible." [Dallas Willard in the foreword to Ruth Haley Barton’s *Invitation to Solitude and Silence*)
March 28, 2007 - Agree or Disagree?
There were two battle cries associated with the Protestant Reformation—“Semper reformada” and “sola Scriptura.” These cries were heard not only in the works of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, but also in the later English Reformation of the Wesleys and George Whitefield. But what does the commitment to these two principles (having only Scripture as the final authority in matters of faith and practice, and at the same time always being committed to reforming) ultimately amount to at the end of the day? How successful have those of us who have embraced the legacy of the Reformers really been in implementing the game plan, so to speak? One thing is for sure: none of the original Reformers could have imagined modern-day Evangelicalism. [It is] a many-splintered thing with more denominational expressions than one can count, and like much of the rest of the church is to a large extent biblically illiterate or semiliterate.” Ben Witherington III, writing in +The Problem with Evangelical Theology [Testing the Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism and Wesleyanism]+
January 25, 2007 - Age of Enlightment - Can We Manage It?
Age of Entitlement
This is the era in which our children are growing up. Three elements morph together here: The first relates to development, the second to growing up in a high-tech world, and the third to our sinful human nature.
A baby thinks the world revolves around him. Or, you can say a baby is egocentric. That's often reflected in the emerging language of a toddler who says "I do it" or "Mine." A young child believes everyone and everything revolves around him. Gradually a child de-centers. The self-centeredness decreases as he begins to respect others and develop more adult-type logic, which allows him to mentally view the world from other perspectives. This natural de-centering process is being artificially delayed for children growing up in the current Age of Entitlement.
In previous generations, an "attitude" emerged when a 16 year old slid behind the wheel of a car. Today, an eight year old who fixes a glitch in the home entertainment system exudes a similar "attitude." Children live in a digital world, so going online is as natural as going outside to play. Helping Mom program the microwave is no big deal. Reprogramming the digital clock may challenge Grandpa, but it's easy for a nine year old. This high comfort level with technology fuels the notion of entitlement. Follow the logic: "Because I am a cool tech kid, I am entitled to ... "
* wear a trendy shirt.
* stay up later.
* door-to-door service to all my activities.
You might not fall for it, but even a young child may communicate, "You owe me." After all, this is the dawn of the Age of Entitlement. Generations of parents have taught both humility and compassion, but today, those efforts must be more intentional. This begins with helping a child identify and understand her own feelings. Once she can articulate how she feels, then she can express concern for others.
What can I do?
# Be the boundary-setter for your child.
# Expect polite behavior every day.
# Integrate empathy into daily life.
# Help a child develop compassion.
_Trend-Savvy Parenting_, pp. 3-6
Dr. Mary Simon/Focus on the Family