Man Eating Lion

Oftentimes when I think I’m doing pretty good in my walk with the Lord I watch sermons or talks by pastor Paul Washer. Pastor Washer is a very godly man who can break down pride like no other.

I’ve been watching a video in a series of talks he did in Canada a few years back on “The Christian Life” where he had some very strong words men who claim to be Christian.

In this talk he claimed that if a man eating lion was set loose in North America it would starve to death because there are no men to be found anywhere.

Ouch.

Sadly, he is correct. When I think about what I’m doing right now compared to what my grandfather was doing at my age it humbles me. I pretend to play war on my XBOX, he fought in World War II.

Thankfully there are still some men out there. Let’s hope the lion doesn’t find them. If he got loose in Washington DC I think we’d be safe.

Old Journal Entry

One of my resolutions this year is to start writing in my journal more consistently. I’ve been writing in a journal off and on (mostly off) since 2013, but in the last 9 months I’ve hardly written anything of note. I could also say the same about my blogging, it has been a few months since I blogged anything either. Hopefully I can be more consistent with this as well. We’ll see. As for right now journaling is more important to me.

I was looking back on old entries and found a quote that really encouraged me. I didn’t write a date for this entry and I didn’t attribute the quote to anyone. If I had to guess I’d probably say it was A.W. Tozer.

 “However sin may abound it still has its limits, for it is the product of finite minds and hearts; but God’s ‘much more’ introduces us to infinitude. Against our deep creature-sickness stands God’s infinite ability to cure.” 

Often when I look at the world and most especially when I examine my own heart, it is hard to believe that sin has limits. But it does. When Jesus healed people, it wasn’t a partial healing. When we believe that Jesus can heal us of our sins and make us holy it can happen because God has an infinite ability to cure.

I look forward to this year and what God has in store for my life and for your life too.

If you are seeking a perfect savior, you will find one in Jesus Christ.

On Good Friday There Was Bad Heresy

Before Easter Sunday Christians celebrate Good Friday, the day in which our Lord and Savior was crucified on a Roman cross. It was on the cross that, “He [God The Father] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor 5:21) It was a tragic, unjust event to be sure, but the results of this event are glorious. The Rev. James Martin wrote a short essay on the Huff Post Religion site entitled, The Five Lessons of Good Friday in which he used the events of Good Friday to provide encouragement for people who are suffering, but whether he meant to or not, he propagated some serious heresy. I’d like to point out the parts of the essay I found heretical.   

His first heresy comes during his second lesson in which he comments on the emotional suffering of Christ on the cross. To quote Rev. Martin:

“Now, here we enter some complicated theological terrain. On the one hand, since Jesus had a human consciousness, he would not have known what was going to happen. On the other hand, since he had a fully divine consciousness he would have. So, on the one hand, it is possible that Jesus knew that the Resurrection was coming… In fact, Jesus predicts the Resurrection at various points in the Gospel. But it is also possible that Jesus the fully human one may have been surprised on Easter Sunday, when he was raised from the dead.”

It is not at all possible that “Jesus the fully human” was surprised to be alive on Easter Sunday. Put aside the fact that His death and resurrection were a part of God’s salvific plan from eternity past, there is no “Jesus the fully human” and “Jesus the fully divine.” Jesus is fully human and divine! According to the Chalcedonian Creed of 451: He is to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In other words, Jesus’ two natures are not confused. He doesn’t hop back and forth between being God and being a man. His manhood cannot be divided from His divinity. This is what theologians call the ‘hypostatic union’. This is an orthodox belief across the Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox branches of Christianity. It is really surprising that a so-called “man of the cloth” would get this basic doctrine so wrong.

The other blatant heresy in Rev. Martin’s essay comes in his third lesson in which he claims that “suffering is not the result of sin.” He emphatically states that, “most of the time, particularly when it comes to illness and other tragedies, it is assuredly not [the result of sin].”  He then goes on to say, “if you still harbor any doubts about that, think about this: Jesus, the sinless one, suffered a great deal. He was not being “punished for his sins.””

Wow.

Clearly Rev. Martin needs a refresher course in Romans 5. It is in this chapter of the apostle Paul’s great doctrinal letter where he says:

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”  (Rom 5: 12-14)

Through Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin. Humanity is fallen and cursed because of this. All pain, suffering, sickness, tragedy, and death that we all experience in the world is a result of sin. This doesn’t mean that when you or a loved one gets sick or dies that God is punishing you. This also doesn’t mean that when hurricanes or other natural disasters occur that God is punishing a specific group of people. What is does mean is that everything is broken because of sin- our bodies, our minds, our sexuality, creation itself is broken and tainted by sin. God did not design sin into the world. He created a world which was “very good.” It is sin that caused things to turn upside down.

What is truly unbelievable is that Rev. Martin tries to prove his heretical beliefs by claiming: “Jesus, the sinless one, suffered a great deal. He was not being ‘punished for His sins.'”

It is true that Jesus wasn’t punished for HIS sins because He was punished for OUR sins. That’s why He has to suffer. That’s kind of the whole point of why Jesus is amazing and that His gospel is awesome. Again the apostle Paul explains this in Romans 5.

“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”   (Rom 5: 18-19)   

I frankly don’t see any evidence from this essay that Rev. Martin understands the gospel at all. His basic misunderstanding of sin is a dangerous one because without fully understanding our sin and the cosmic effects of our sin one cannot fully understand why we need a savior. Without a correct understanding of who Jesus is (i.e. fully God and fully man) one cannot fully understand why He had to die for our sin, why His dying for our sins saves us, and, most importantly, why we can have a full blessed assurance of our salvation in Christ.

I’ve never read anything else by Rev. Martin (I’d never heard of him before reading this essay) so I don’t want to judge his whole theology by one essay. I also don’t typically enjoy being a ‘heresy hunter’ because I usually don’t feel like that really helps anyone. However, in this case since the essay appeared on a popular website and the errors were so gross I felt I had to comment. Getting the gospel right is critically important and you can’t get it right without knowing the effects of sin and the necessity of a perfect savior.

I hope everyone had a great heresy-free Easter.

Blessings

 

AMC’s 3 Hit Shows And The 3 Powers of Enslavement

It’s rare that I go to see movies in the theatre. However, just this last weekend, my wife and I went to go see Divergent. It was terrible. Had I not read the book, I probably would have hated it even more. The problem that plagued Divergent was that it simply wasn’t interesting. There was little depth to the story and I didn’t care about any of the characters or what happened to them. This is a problem that is plaguing most Hollywood movies these days. Even though the average movie length seems to be growing, screen writers can’t seem to tell tight, deep, interesting stories anymore. I think this is because of the medium itself. It’s difficult to fit a deep story with deep characters into a 2-3 hour movie. I believe this is why the medium is dying.

Nowadays, the most interesting stories are found on television. Television gives writers the ability of telling a story over a longer period of time in small chunks. This allows them to dive deep into multiple story lines and character back stories, which simply can’t be done with movies*. Three of the most interesting, and most popular, shows of the last few years have been produced, surprisingly, by AMC. These shows are: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. I enjoy all of these shows. They are well written, they have great characters played by great actors, and they are deep.

Simply stating that the shows are deep is admittedly a subjective judgment on my part. Some people my not find the shows that deep. Since I’m not a trained critic and I’m not very skilled at the critical analysis of narratives, I would simply like to propose a reason why I think these three shows have resonated with the American public: each show illustrates a particular power that enslaves people to sin.

There is one thing that is common to all people: we all sin and fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23). Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians about the three powers that enslave us to sin:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” (Eph. 2:1-3 NASB, emphasis mine)

The world, the flesh, and the devil. These are the powers that enslave us to sin. Oftentimes these three powers work together to entice us to sin but sometimes they work alone. I propose that the three popular AMC shows are wonderful narrative illustrations of the powers that entice us to sin. Mad Men illustrates the power of the world, Breaking Bad illustrates the power of the flesh, and The Walking Dead illustrates the power of the Devil.

Mad Men is all about the power of the world. The main character, Don Draper, seemingly has everything the world can offer. He’s good looking, he’s rich, he’s powerful and respected in his field (advertising), he has a beautiful wife and children, a nice house and a new car. He lives the “American Dream” but is completely miserable. He smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, cheats on his wife, could care less about his children, and is always reaching for something more in his field. The show demonstrates well a problem that is prevalent in America today, namely, that the world can never be enough. You’ll either get everything the world can offer, like Don Draper, and you’ll be miserable, or you’ll never get anything of what the world can offer and you’ll be miserable. It’s no surprise then that everyone on the show is miserable. It’s also no surprise why many people in the United States are miserable. Every commercial on TV tries to sell you the one thing you need in this world to have a fulfilled life. Use this cologne and get all the girls. Lose weight with this pill and get all the guys. Eat this food and never get cancer. Drink this drink and be the life of the party. Ironically, in between all these miracle product commercials are commercials for the latest anti-depressant.

The power of the flesh is on full display in Breaking Bad. Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher who gets diagnosed with cancer. Knowing that his treatment will be expensive and fearing that he will die and leave his family with nothing, he begins to look for some way to make some extra money. He gets inspired by a news report about a meth-lab bust, in which he sees a large amount of cash that was recovered from the meth-lab. As a chemistry expert he knows how to make better meth than anyone in town, and so he gets to cooking. Unfortunately, he knows nothing of the meth world and quickly begins to discover that getting rich in the drug business isn’t as easy as he first thought. He begins lying to his wife and family, he is an accomplice in theft, and he even has to kill a guy. Despite all this ugliness, Walter continues to cook meth, and continues to get better and better at it. Along the way friends and family members offer to pay for all of his cancer treatment, but Walter refuses. His pride has now consumed him. This sin of the flesh is all too common in all of us. Most people would rather do anything than let their pride get hurt. It’s no wonder that the Bible is full of warnings about the dangers of too much pride. Pride drove Walter White to keep building his meth empire. Pride made it easier for him to lie to his family. It made it easier for him to steal, cheat, and kill. He reordered his world according to his pride, and his pride was his ultimate downfall. (A very interesting, well done, spoiler-free analysis of Breaking Bad written by Leonard DeLorenzo of Notre Dame can be found here.)

Last, but not least, is The Walking Dead. Since I’ve already covered the world and the flesh that leaves one power of enslavement left: the Devil. In The Walking Dead, the zombies represent the devil. Unlike Mad Men and Breaking Bad which focuses mainly on one particular character, The Walking Dead is more of an ensemble show that focuses on several different characters. Most of the characters in the show are basically “good” and likeable people that must face the Devil all around them in the form of zombies. Some react reasonably well, some do things they probably wouldn’t otherwise do. They are all driven by their instinct to survive and along the way, they help their neighbors–sometimes. Fortunately, we don’t live in a world where a zombie infestation is possible, but that doesn’t mean that the Devil isn’t all around us. Satan stirs up trouble all over the world in the form of injustice, war, famine, basically anything that opposes God. It is Satan who whispers in our ear telling us that the world can give us everything we need or that indulging in our flesh will give us everlasting joy. Clearly these are lies, because Satan speaks only in lies.

While I enjoy all these shows there is one thing that none of them offer: salvation. None of these shows move beyond the third verse of the second chapter of Ephesians. This is unfortunate because it’s the next few verses that show us how we can escape the three powers of enslavement!

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph. 2:3-9 NASB)

There is an immeasurable amount of joy in these verses! By God’s grace we are saved through faith in Christ! Christ broke the chains that bind us to sin. We no longer need anything the world has to offer because we have everything in Christ. We no longer have to indulge the desires of our flesh because true everlasting joy is in Christ. We no longer have to fear the Devil because he has been defeated by Christ.

Freedom from these powers of enslavement is what Jesus offers because only Jesus can offer it.

I pray that you would take Him up on His offer.

Blessings.

 

*There are exceptions of course, but only a few exceptions.

Denial of Services

I’ve been using Twitter™ for several years now, but it’s becoming increasingly less and less useful to me. Recently they’ve made a change that I find particularly annoying. They now allow some users to “promote” their tweets. Basically, any blogger, corporation, special interest group, NGO etc. can pay money to Twitter™  and then Twitter™ will allow them to propagate their message on my, and presumably everyone else’s, news feed whether we follow them or not. This morning when I checked my feed I saw a promoted tweet from @ShaneJordan5 who apparently is a “Political Advocate for LGBT rights and [a] @Huffingtonpost blogger.” This is what he tweeted:

And this is what he posted on Facebook™ that got him “blocked” (FYI, I blocked out the curse words)

While I’m not too familiar with the Facebook™ Community Standards, I think that if Mr. Jordan had refrained from using coarse language and had stated his opinion in a more thoughtful way, his comment wouldn’t have been removed.

Be that as it may, I would like to respond to Mr. Jordan’s comment in a respectful, Christ-like manner.

Mr. Jordan was referencing an Arizona bill (which has now been vetoed) that would’ve allowed business owners to deny services to people if they felt that providing their services would violate their consciences because of their religious beliefs. Arizona wanted to pass this bill because of events that have occurred in other states where Christian business owners such as bakers, florists, and photographers have refused to offer their services to LGBT “weddings” because they felt this would be a violation of their consciences because of their religious beliefs. In each of these cases, the LGBT couples involved have sued the Christian service providers, citing discrimination. The Arizona law would have tried to protect the business owners in these cases.

I can infer from his coarse language that Mr. Jordan believes any Christian who upholds the orthodox biblical Christian position concerning marriage is a “bigot” and that expressing these orthodox biblical beliefs is the same thing as spewing “hate and intolerance.” I have already addressed this issue in a previous post but I will reiterate that calling something sinful is not actually hateful and holding an orthodox Christian position on marriage is not bigoted. However, I don’t feel I could ever convince a guy like Shane Jordan of this so I won’t belabor the point.

FUNDAMENTAL MISREPRESENTATION  

Mr. Jordan asks, “What if the tables were turned and establishments could deny services to a person for being a Christian?” I think this question fundamentally misrepresents the issue. No one, at least no rational person, is in favor of denying services to members of the LGBT community simply because they are LGBT. To do so would be bigoted and intolerant. In the same way, it would be terrible if a Christian was denied a service simply for being Christian, but that’s not the issue. If my Christian beliefs violated the conscience of a service provider I wouldn’t expect them to provide their services to me.

For example, let’s say I wanted to have a conference at my church whose sole purpose was to share the gospel with Muslims and I needed to print flyers and posters to promote this event. If I go to a print shop whose owner is a Muslim and request his services this would clearly be a violation of his conscience based on his religious beliefs and he should have the right to deny his services to me. But what if I needed flyers and posters to promote a fundraiser at my church to help the poor in my community? In this situation the Muslim print shop owner wouldn’t have a legitimate reason to deny his services to me.

Now let’s take religion out of the picture. Say you own a catering company and you’re a big time Democrat Party supporter. I mean you’re a true believer. You volunteer for Democrats running for office in your county, you donate as much money as is legally possible to the Democrat Party and you actively campaign in your neighborhood for Democrat Party causes. If your county’s Republican Party wanted you to cater an event whose sole purpose was to get Democrats out of office wouldn’t you want to have the right to deny your service to them? I believe you should have that right. However, if a guy wearing a Ronald Reagan t-shirt walked into your catering company and wanted to hire you to cater an event for his widget company there should be no reason for you not to provide your service to him.

The point of these hypothetical examples is to show that we all have to tolerate and provide services to people we disagree with. It’s inevitable. Society would fall apart pretty quick if we didn’t attempt to tolerate and serve people we disagree with. However, we shouldn’t be forced to provide our services if doing so would explicitly violate our consciences. This is an important difference.

CALM DOWN EVERYBODY, JIM CROW IS NOT COMING BACK

Many opponents of the Arizona bill (and other bills like it) have asserted that it would create a modern day “Jim Crow” environment for gay people. I think this is a outrageous accusation.The Jim Crow laws allowed any business owner to deny their services to any black person simply for being black. I’ll say again, no one, certainly no mainstream Christian group, is calling for an outright denial of all services to LGBT people simply because they are LGBT. I would stand shoulder to shoulder with my LGBT friends to try and stop any law that would implement that type of heinous system. The fact of the matter is, no one is calling for this type of system and the Arizona bill would not create it. Under the bill, Christian restaurant owners would still have to provide food for LGBT people, Christian EMS workers would still have to save the lives of LGBT people, and Christian bakers would still have to bake birthday cakes for LGBT people. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is lying to you.

In summation, I would agree with Mr. Jordan’s assertion at the end of his post that this is a free country with liberty and justice for all. In a free country we should have the liberty to not violate our own consciences. To Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians, marriage is a sacrament. To many evangelicals it is a holy institution created by God Himself. We believe that marriage has a meaning, namely that it is the union between a man and a woman. To affirm or support anything other than that would be a violation of our consciences. Forcing Christian business owners to provide services that celebrate LGBT “weddings” violates the liberty of the business owners and is ultimately unjust.

Blessings

Abortion

When I was dead in my trespasses, in an effort to please my fellow men and prove myself intellectually progressive, I tried to come up with a solution to the abortion issue that could please both sides, or at least displease both side equally. I found out quickly, like most arrogant young fools who try solve the world’s problems in college, that when it comes to this issue there is no “middle of the road.”

You either believe that life begins at conception or you don’t. It’s that simple.

If you don’t believe life begins at conception then you are probably like this couple in the video below who had to reschedule an abortion because of the recent Texas law that strengthened safety regulations regarding abortion clinics in the state.

The video title leads you to believe that this couple didn’t end up having an abortion, but they did. They killed the baby inside the mother’s womb because it was inconvenient for their lifestyle, plain and simple. Forgive me if my heart doesn’t break because they were “forced” to go to a different doctor IN THE CITY THEY LIVE IN. Can you believe that their biggest concern about going to this other doctor was that they’d have to wait in the waiting room 4-6 hours before getting to kill their baby?

It is difficult for me to bridle my tongue (James 1:26) when talking about this issue. As a Christian I can take no other position that the pro-life position. We are all creatures created in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and loved by Him. One need look no further than the Holy Scriptures to see God’s position on life in the womb:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (Ps 139:13)

If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had grievance against me, what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account? Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers? (Job 31:13-15)

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. (Ps 51:5-6)

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. (Luke 1:15)

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:41)

My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s position on this issue is clear and we must stand with God for life. We must continue to stand together and fight against the slaughter of innocent blood. We must continue to speak out. We must vote for politicians who are anti-abortion and against those who are pro-abortion. Even though it’s an uphill battle I believe we are making progress.

Above all, we must pray and share the gospel. It is God alone who can change the hearts and minds of men through the power of the gospel (Rom 1:16). We must pray that he will.

Blessings.

Calling Something Sinful is Not Hateful

I saw a video a while back of magician Penn Jillette describing an encounter he had with a Christian man after one of his Vegas shows. The man offered him some kind words and a small Gideon’s Bible. Jillette is an outspoken atheist, but whenever I’ve seen him engage with theists he has always been, in my opinion, fair and kind. How he reacted to this man’s gift was no different. He says in the video he has a lot of respect people who proselytize and then asks a convicting rhetorical question, “how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” See the video for the full story:

I was reminded of this video while thinking more about the Phil Robertson “anti-gay remarks” controversy that I recently wrote about. In that post I feel I didn’t make it clear enough that I agree with what Phil Robertson believes concerning the morality of homosexuality. I would not have said it the way he did, but I completely agree with him nonetheless.

The Bible is crystal clear about God’s design for human sexuality in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his mother and his father and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  Jesus Himself affirms this in Matthew 19:4-6 “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate.” There’s no need for me to cite Leviticus or any other passage because God Himself made it clear: sex is for marriage between one man and one woman. Any sexual act that is not within the context of marriage between one man and one woman is sinful.

A more in depth look into sexuality will require a future series of blog posts. For now, let me just say that I agree with what the Bible says, and what Christians for 2000 years have believed about marriage. I know that believing in this and saying it publicly will likely get me branded by some as a bigot, homophobe, or a hater-much like how Phil Robertson is being branded now- but I don’t believe this is fair.

Calling a sin a sin is not hateful. Christians declare that all people are sinners, not because we hate them, but because we love them. We don’t call people sinners to make them feel bad for the sake of feeling bad, but to demonstrate their need of the gospel. Everyone needs the gospel. Homosexuals, heterosexuals, atheists and Christians all need the gospel. Believing in the gospel is the only way to find peace with God and inherit eternal life. Believing in the gospel means you recognize that you need a savior, and the only way you can recognize that need is to realize that there is something you need to be saved from. To really understand the good news of the gospel you must be aware of the bad news of our natural, fallen state.

If you are a homosexual, let’s set that aside for the moment. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that homosexuality isn’t a sin. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever been envious of something someone else had? Have you ever been impatient? Have you ever become angry because something didn’t work out exactly the way you wanted it to? If you said ‘yes’ to any of these questions then you are a sinner and you need the gospel. Homosexuality is not the worst sin in the world and if you are a homosexual it’s not the only sin of which you are guilty. Your sin probably pales in comparison to mine. I am in no way superior to you or more righteous than you. I need to be saved from my sins just as much as you. Being homosexual doesn’t exempt you from the gospel because there is no sin that makes you unworthy of the gospel.

Christians believe that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-24).  We believe that God “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5) We believe that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:12). We believe that in Christ everlasting life is possible, but to receive this free gift, one must have faith in and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and repent of your sins. The only way you can repent of your sins is to realize that your sin is in fact, sin.

My hope and prayer for this post is that you would walk away with at least a little bit better understanding of where Christians are coming from when we call certain things sinful. I’ll ask Mr. Jillette’s question again, “how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” I believe that to properly share the gospel and tell you that everlasting life is possible requires me to tell you that we are all sinners. While it may be uncomfortable to label some things as sins, to not do so would be, in my opinion, very hateful.

Blessings

Duck Dynasty dust up

As I write this post, A&E, Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson are the top three trending topics on twitter. This is usually the case when the new season premiers, but that’s not the case tonight. Earlier today, GQ Magazine released an interview that Drew Magary did with the Duck Dynasty patriarch, Phil Robertson.  A few quotes from the interview concerning homosexuality has everyone’s kickers in a wad.

For those who haven’t read the quotes, or don’t know anything at all about the dust up, I’ll do my best to fairly put it all in context. Magary was talking with Robertson about his thoughts on Duck Dynasty’s popularity. Robertson said, “We’re Bible-thumpers who just happened to end up on television,” and that “…the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.” Magary then explains that according to “Robertson’s worldview…he sees the popularity of Duck Dynasty as a small corrective to all that we have lost” due to the secularization of the United States. Robertson then goes on to say, “Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong, sin becomes fine.” It is here that Magary asks, “What, in your mind, is sinful?” Robertson’s answer to this question is what has set off the social media firestorm.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he then paraphrases 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the  adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the  greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the  kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

In the article Robertson is also quoted as saying, “It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, A&E, the network that airs Duck Dynasty, released a statement saying, “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD), applauded A&E’s decision to put Robertson under hiatus. GLADD spokesperson Wilson Cruz said, “By taking quick action and removing Robertson from future filming, A&E has sent a strong message that discrimination is neither a Christian nor an American value.” An article from the GLADD website adds that Robertson’s statements are, “far outside of the mainstream understanding of LGBT people.”

Entertainment Weekly shared a statement from Robertson in reaction to the controversy:  “I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.” The EW article goes on to say that, “Robertson’s statement isn’t very contrite and seems to contradict his previous statements.”

Immediately folks via twitter came out to either drum up support for Robertson or to rail against him. Many were upset that he compared homosexuality to bestiality and many were outraged by his use of crude language concerning vaginas and anuses. Many conservatives bemoaned the loss of freedom of speech for Christians and many liberals lauded A&E for standing up against “homophobia.” A lot of Christians screamed “persecution!” and a lot of non-Christians used the opportunity to criticize all Christians as backward thinking bigots. I think all sides are wrong and this whole culture war brouhaha is ridiculous.

I do like it that Phil Robertson has a passion for sharing the gospel with as many people as possible and that he is using his TV platform to do just that. But he has got to realize that with bigger platforms come bigger responsibilities. You have to be careful about what you say and where you say it because things can be taken out of context or twisted to make you look like a fool. Doing an interview with GQ was a stupid move. I can’t believe his PR people didn’t try to stop him from doing this interview. They should be fired.

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore you to be careful about who you get behind. A lot of what Phil Robertson said in this interview was ridiculous and ultimately unhelpful for the cause of the gospel. His thoughts on the pre-civil rights era Louisiana, which are surprisingly being ignored in most media reports, are completely ignorant. His conflating of homosexuality with bestiality is careless. His paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 was fairly accurate, but you shouldn’t throw out difficult Bible verses unless you can intelligently discuss them. Phil Robertson is not Jesus. He is our brother in Christ, but he isn’t a preacher and he isn’t a scholar, he should stick to sharing the gospel and stay away from hot button issues like homosexuality. It would be advisable for all Christians to stay away from hot button issues unless you can talk about them intelligently.

I would also warn my fellow Christians to be careful about throwing around the word “persecution.” A rereading of The Boy Who Cried Wolf would be apropos. Yes, Jesus warned us about persecution that would come from following Him. However, I think Jesus was talking more about being killed, tortured or imprisoned rather than simply being made fun of in a culture war. There are Christians in the Middle East today who are actually getting killed or jailed for their beliefs. The culture in the US may be shifting against traditional Christian values, but we do not yet have to suffer for our beliefs. Calling yourself a Christian in the US is still relatively easy.

For my conservative friends who claim to be supporters of the constitution, you need to take the time to actually learn what the first amendment protects. I agree it was a bad judgment call for A&E to suspend Phil Robertson, but they didn’t trample his right to free speech. A&E employs Robertson and they are free to suspend him if they don’t like what he says in public. The first amendment protects us from the federal government punishing us for expressing opinions. If it could be proven that President Obama ordered the FBI to arrest Phil Robertson for speaking about his beliefs, that would be a violation of his first amendment rights. We should avoid imbecilic statements like those that came from Sarah Palin concerning this fracas: “Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.”

For my liberal and LGBT friends I ask that you would please stop claiming to be the beacons of tolerance and please stop self-righteously sticking your nose up at those who disagree with you. Whenever anyone deviates from or disagrees with your worldview even slightly you start to throw out the standard pejoratives: “racist, sexist, bigot and homophobe.” All those pejoratives do is silence debate. Instead of trying to silence people you disagree with, or celebrating when people you disagree with are silenced, please try to engage in civil debate with them. There are a lot of people on TV I disagree with and there are a lot of shows I don’t like, but I would never advocate silencing or banning anyone.

In conclusion, these media driven “culture wars” are hurting and dividing us in terrible ways. People from both sides of the divide are guilty of talking past each other instead of to each other. If we all took more time to actually learn what other people think and believe we would be better off as a society.

Blessings

Temptation

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Cor 10:13)

Sometimes the Spirit can light up your soul with just one verse. I’ve been meditating on 1 Cor. 10:13 the last couple of days and it’s been incredibly fruitful. Temptation is an important topic that, in my opinion, isn’t talked about enough. I’d like to share a few of my reflections on the many truths packed in this verse.

The first obvious truth is that our temptations aren’t special or unique. Every temptation we face as individuals are common to all. This makes sense as we are all made in the image of God and all share the same human nature. For example, we all get hungry, we all get tired and we don’t like to be alone. While these basic human needs and desires are not sinful in and of themselves, Satan uses them to get his foot into the door of our souls. First Peter 5: 8 tells us that the devil “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” This seems like a hopeless situation, and it would be, except that God is faithful to His children and will not allow Satan to tempt us beyond our ability. Just as God placed limits on what Satan could do to Job, he has placed limits on Satan regarding us. This is not to say that God doesn’t use the devil to test us. There are many examples of God testing His children in the Bible (ex: Abraham in Genesis 22, Israel in Ex 16:4, Jesus in Matthew 4) but God never tempts us. James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one.”

So what are we to do when faced with temptation? Paul tells us that God provides the way of escape, but what is it? We need to look no further for an answer than to our perfect example, Jesus Christ. In Matthew 4 we are told of His temptation and it is here that Jesus demonstrates for us the way of escape. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” (Matt 4:1-2) Jesus was alone in the wilderness, hungry and tired*. Needless to say, He was vulnerable and Satan tried to take advantage of this by using His hunger against Him. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” (Matt 4:3) But Jesus didn’t even blink. “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4) It is here that Jesus gives us the way of escape, namely, the word of God.

Sometimes we forget just how powerful the word of God is. We forget that the whole universe was created by God’s word (Gen 1:3). The writer of Hebrews describes the word of God as “sharper than any two-edge sword.” (Heb 4:12) When Jesus was attacked, either by the devil or by men, the word of God was His primary weapon. So when it comes to escaping temptation, the only way to do it is with the word of God. I know this isn’t very profound, but usually simplest solutions to problems are the best. How do you escape your temptation? Read, pray and meditate on God’s word. While this is a simple solution, it certainly isn’t an easy solution. God provides us a way of escape, but we still must endure temptation.

Temptation will be a constant in our lives which is why reading scripture must be a constant in our lives. I know how difficult it is to take time out for God’s word, but I can’t stress enough how important it is. We all have busy lives. Some of us work full time, other have to take care of their families and some have to do both. However, our lives today are no more busy than the lives of the ancient Israelites and yet God commanded: “This Book of Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  (Josh 1:8) Clearly God believes that reading His word is essential for a happy, productive life. There is much more that could be said about the importance of reading scripture, but for now I will leave you with a section from Psalm 119 that has been helpful to me in the fight against temptation.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you , O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. (Ps 119:9-16)

Blessings

*I know the text doesn’t specifically say that Jesus was tired, but I think it’s safe to infer it. If you’ve ever fasted you know that tiredness goes hand in hand with hunger. Also, we know from John 4 that Jesus could become weary just like you and me.

Fog.

Most people I run into don’t have any idea what an aircraft dispatcher does. This is what I do for a living. Basically, I handle the things that are necessary to make a flight happen that don’t involve actually flying a plane. For example, I have to make sure that my pilots won’t break any regulations regarding their flight or duty time. I also have to build flight plans and make sure we will have enough fuel to get from A to B safely and within the regulations. One of my most important functions, however, is to monitor the weather. Obviously, I can’t send an aircraft into the middle of a thunderstorm or hurricane, but there are other more subtle weather events that can make my life very difficult. In my opinion, the most subtle and frustrating weather event is fog.

I really hate fog. You could be having a night of beautiful weather and then, all of a sudden: fog. Fog is such a big deal because if you can’t see the runway you’re supposed to land at, you can’t land there and you have to go to your alternate. Fog is also problematic because it normally isn’t isolated to just one place, but is typically spread out over large areas. This can make finding an alternate difficult. I remember once I had a pilot in Shreveport that had to drop cargo in Mexico, but before we could go to Mexico we had to make a fuel stop in Austin. Everything was going hunky-dory when, out of nowhere: fog. A big layer of fog covered almost the whole state of Texas. This fog wasn’t forecasted, and it was super dense. Between Shreveport and Mexico, there was nowhere we could safely do a fuel stop. This delayed the flight for several hours and there was nothing we could do but wait for the fog to go away.

Dealing with weather is an aspect of my job that keeps me humble. I’m constantly being reminded that I can’t predict or control the weather. Weather lies in the domain of God’s sovereign hands. While God’s sovereignty is self evident in scripture, it is an attribute that troubles most of us because of the riddles we will never find answers to in this life. If God is sovereign, why does he allow evil and suffering to exist? Why do we have bad weather and natural disasters? Why is there fog?  God is sovereign, couldn’t eliminate these miseries from our lives?

I can’t offer any great answer to the problems of pain and suffering, but one thing I know is that we have a high priest in Jesus Christ who is sympathetic to our sufferings. He knows our heartache. He knows our troubles. He has faced all of our temptations in ways we could never understand. He knows because He became like one of us. He lived the life we should’ve lived and died the death we deserved to die.

Sometimes in life we have to deal with fog. It could be the fog of death, the fog of sickness, or the fog of persecution. Sometimes it’s just hard to see where you are going. Sometimes you have to land somewhere else. I’m comforted, however, by God’s sovereignty. I know that “My God will supply every need of [mine] according to His riches in glory in Jesus Christ. (Phil 4:19) I’m also comforted by the fact that, for those in Christ, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Th 5:9) Jesus promised that if we hear His words and do them, we are like the wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matt 7:25) Jesus promises that, in Him, we will not fall. He never promised that the storms wouldn’t come. Jesus gives us sight, but He never said there wouldn’t be fog.