Hope in the Midst of Hard Times

Something To Think About Hard Times and Hope:

The Apostle Paul was a remarkable man.  I think his natural abilities and educational achievements were somewhere off the chart, then, when we add in his God-giftedness, it’s easy to think that he was a superman.  Reading 2 Corinthians makes clear that he wasn’t.  He had invested a couple of years and a great deal of energy in the evangelizing and discipling those who responded to the Gospel in the wicked, important, highly intellectual city of Corinth.  It appeared that things were coming unraveled.  The folk in the Corinthian church had a serious case of “They don’t get it.”  They were enamored with a band of smooth—very smooth—talking false apostles.  They had indicated that they would participate in the fund-drive that Paul had organized for the church in Jerusalem, a church to which Gentile churches like the one in Corinth owed a great debt, but now I don’t think he was sure whether they would come through or not.  One commentator said that Paul “bared his heart and declared his steadfast love for the Corinthians even though some had been extremely critical and very fickle in their affection for him.”1 Now the Apostle was on the other side of the Aegean Sea in Turkey.  He had dispatched Titus to find out how the members of the Corinthian Church had responded to his painful letter.  He had agreed to meet Titus in Troas, but he didn’t show up.  The Apostle couldn’t stand it.  He got in a boat and went to find his emissary. Paul said he was “hard pressed on every side.”  He “had no rest.”  (2 Corinthians 4:8 & 7:5)  Words like affliction, sorrow, and weakness abound.  When you read the last three chapters of the book it is clear that he wasn’t sure that he had won the day.   Maybe it is odd, but I find all of this encouraging.  I gave up being super-anything a long time ago, but fear and uncertainty—I’m good at that.  As I read 2 Corinthians I found myself identifying with Paul.  If God could use him . . .  I think Paul would be pleased.  He opened his book with this reasoning: God “comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:4–5, NASB95)   I’m still being comforted and encouraged by the Apostle Paul’s affliction almost two millennia later. I need to: Know I can’t handle it. Rejoice in my weakness, because that is where God’s power is showcased (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) Be honest and open so God can use me. It’s STTA. 1 Hampton Keathley

The Gospel Saves and Changes:

Something To Think About Salvation and Change:

I’ve been working my way through a book by a couple of really smart guys.  D. A. Carson & Douglas J. Moo take as their goal to capture the flow of the books of the New Testament and of each individual book.  They do a good job of not only writing what it means, but what it feels like.  Note the word, “passionately” in the following quote.  If you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, or just 2 Corinthians 7 and 10-13, you’ll see the passion.  It wasn’t an athletic event or winning an argument that generated such emotion in the writing of the Apostle.  He was concerned for the spiritual lives of those in whom he had invested his life “ . . . Paul passionately develops a theology of the cross that shapes Christian ethics, Christian priorities, and Christian attitudes, the apostle directly confronts all approaches to Christianity that happily seek to integrate a generally orthodox confession with pagan values of self-promotion. The cross not only justifies, it teaches us how to live and die, how to lead and follow, how to love and serve. . . . The problem was not so much that they were relapsing into paganism, as that their Christian faith, however sincere, had not yet transformed the worldview they had adopted from the surrounding culture. They had not grasped how the theology of the cross not only constitutes the basis of our salvation but also and inevitably teaches us how to live and serve.”  Everything in opposition to the Gospel “must be overthrown:”  (Carson, D. A.; Carson, D. A.; Moo, Douglas  J.; Moo, Douglas  J. (2009-05-26). An Introduction to the New Testament.Zondervan. Kindle Edition.) As Paul said in another place,   “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” I can understand the Apostle’s passion.  It has been a life-long battle personally, and at the heart of my life’s work.  It’s not as eloquent as the Apostle’s words, but the three words are loaded down with Passion. Live for Jesus! It’s STTA.

The Bad News Leads to the Good

Something To Think About BAD NEWS/GOOD NEWS:

Where the bad news and the Good News meet. I’m one of those folk who grew up Fundamental.  Not so much my family of birth, but my spiritual/church family was clearly a part of that staunch band.  Flannel-graphs, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Bible camp, and sword drills were key elements in my spiritual upbringing. I can’t remember when I first heard the Romans Road explained.  Basically it is way of sharing the Good News about salvation in Jesus Christ, using key verses from the Book of Romans.   There are many versions of this simple evangelistic presentation, but all of them I’m familiar with have Romans 3:23 first or second.  It's a verse that announces the opposite of good news.  “. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  The first half of the next verse in the presentation is an even more severe downer.  “The wages of sin is death” (6:23).  You’ve got the disease and it’s fatal, and if you understand the fullness of that death—more so. The fact is the first three chapters of Romans are almost totally bad news.  Read 3:1-20 for a summary.  Actually, by the time we get to Romans 3:23 the Apostle Paul has already turned a corner and has begun to tell us about the Good News.  Verse 21 shares “now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested.”  This “righteousness of God” is accessed “through faith in Jesus Christ.”  It is available to “all those who believe; for there is no distinction” (22).  Verse 23 is where the bad news and Good News meet.  The Gospel (Good News) is offered to all who believe.  Why is it offered in this way?  Because all have sinned, we all fail to measure up.  Left to our own devices none of us will make it.  All are lost.  All who believe will be saved.  The bad news leads us to the good, and encourages us to knock on the door. Go ahead. Read more here. It’s STTA.

The Intelligence Behind Jellyfish

Something To Think About The Intellegence Behind Jellyfish:

Because of the kind generosity of some colleagues here in Palau Kathy and I were privileged to an unforgettable afternoon trip.  We flew over one of the wonders of the world, the Rock Islands of Palau, to the site of a major World War 2 battle, Peleliu.  Again, and again, I and the other three passengers in the little plane asked, “How can you take it all in?”  The answer is, You can’t. One of the wonders we flew over is the “Jellyfish Lake.”  Actually the lake is one of several marine lakes in Palau, each inhabited by a unique strain of jellyfish.  This is the best known of the lakes because it is open to visitors.  Several years ago I was privileged to make the short hike over one of the ridges that separates the Jellyfish Lake from the lagoon, and slip into the quiet water and swim with the strange, beautiful creatures.  It’s not like you see one here or there; the delicate creatures totally surround you.  It’s like swimming in a giant bowl of soggy Cheerios. You can read more about this natural wonder here.  The symbiotic relationship of lake, jellyfish, algae-like creatures, sun, and water is utterly amazing.  The jellyfish derive nourishment from microscopic creatures that inhabit their gelatinous bodies.  To maximize the photo-synthesis of these creatures the jellyfish migrate back and forth across the lake on a daily basis.  They congregate on the sunny side of the shadows cast by the vegetation on the shore, thus avoiding the region where their prime enemy, a breed of anemone, lurks, looking for jelly for lunch.  I figure if you take all the intelligence in that lake and put it together you wouldn’t have enough smarts to learn to not look up in the rain and drown.  Yet, there it is, a precise, beautiful, delicate, complicated dance, repeated day after day, and it works.As we were flying I asked our pilot about the manufacture of the airplane.  He told me that they found it, gassed and ready to fly, on the downwind side of a junkyard after a typhoon had blown through. In case you didn’t catch that, that was a joke—a joke with a point. It’s STTA.

Well Done.

Something To Think About Charles Ryrie:

News came to me, yesterday about the death of Dr. Charles Ryrie. I live and minister way downstream from the likes of Charles Ryrie.  I was not privileged to be in one of his classes, though a number of my friends were.  I heard him preach a time or two.  To be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed.  I don’t think preaching was his forte’.  On the other hand, I have been very blessed and helped by the books he wrote, and the legacy he left.  As I write, I’m looking across the room at one of his Theology texts.  His Balancing the Christian Life not only helped me maintain equilibrium, but as I taught its truths to others it helped them stay on track as well.  My alma mater, a school where I serve on the board, another where a friend is on staff, and I have no idea how many others have all been blessed by donations from his foundation.  Dr. Ryrie chose to write and minister in a way that reached down to people like me who, though not in the realm of academe, need folk who work in the upper stories to send some stuff down the chute to us.  On the first page of his Basic Theology he said, “Theology is for everyone. . . . every Christian should read theology.” Thank you for giving us something to read; your legacy remains. Dr. Ryrie was an unapologetic dispensationalist, in fact, he is one of the definers of the movement.  He maintained that view in a day when it isn’t cool.  I haven’t read about young, restless, and dispensationalbloggers.  Many disagree with his conclusions, about Israel, the church, and last things.  I’m still mostly on that side.  I disagreed with him about his views on divorce (I’m glad I was never asked to debate him, though.), and I pretty much landed on the other end of the unfortunate “Lordship Salvation” debate.  It always appeared clear to me, though, that Charles Ryrie had a trait about his scholarship and writing that we need a lot more of.  His writings, teaching, and the way he oversaw the investments from his foundation reflect this basic truth: “. . . the entire Bible came from God to show us how to live. . . . God used men and gave us a completely truthful Bible.” What Charles Ryrie believed, taught, and wrote, came from what he believed to be the teaching of Scripture. A few months ago a friend of mine had the privilege of sitting down and chatting with Dr. Ryrie.  They talked Theology.  I figure he’s doing a lot of that about now. It’s STTA.

The Staying Power of habits

Something To Think About The staying power of habits:

About four weeks ago, when I had just arrived in Palau, I sharedsome thoughts about habits, breaking old ones and making new ones.  My thoughts were precipitated by driving a right hand drive automobile.  I shared with you that I had read that it takes about six weeks to establish a new habit.  That’s what I’ve read.  How has it worked out, though? I will now go several days, maybe a week, without stepping up to the left side of the car to get in and drive.  I generally still think about it, though.  I almost never turn the wipers on when trying to signal a turn.  Most importantly, I haven’t run over anybody or anything.  But it still feels weird to drive from the right side of the car. The process is serving as a warning and a powerful lesson to me.  Here is a pattern of behavior that is not driven by desire, profit, or self-interest.  It is just a pattern reinforced at least 35,000 times over fifty years of life.  I want to break it, or not be bound by it; I’m totally neutral about left or right, yet “Get in the left side.” still dominates parts of my mind.  I need to be really, really careful about the habits that I allow to be formed in my life.  Just a simple pattern, repeated over years, exerts a powerful influence.  When that pattern is reinforced by one of the lusts that pervades our life—“the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 John 2:16)—the hold becomes all the more powerful.  If addiction is involved the habit becomes a strangle hold—often tragically literally so. Solomon counselled the young to “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).  The patterns and habits that will shape our lives are built then.  Right now each of us is as young as she or he will ever be. It’s STTA.

Roll on, truth!

Something To Think About Reproduction:

A song that got totally worn out a couple of decades ago talked about fire that started with a spark—that’s all it takes.  You can thank me later for not having the song playing as you read.  As glad as I am that the song has seen its day, I am very pleased that the concept is alive and well. The Great Commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19–20, NASB95) includes a recycling concept.  If each spiritual generation teaches the next to “observe all that [Jesus] commanded,” that would include this command, so like a great wheel it will roll on and on.  The Apostle Paul clearly had the concept:  “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2, NASB95) I just saw it in action a few hours ago. Roll on! It’s STTA.

The Backside of the Superbowl & the front end of the Gospel

Something To Think About Opportunities:

I'll be watching the big football game on Monday morning.  I just mixed up a batch of muffins for Superbowl breakfast and I’m waiting for some friends to come over.  When I mentioned online that I’d be watching the game this morning, one friend mentioned that I should avoid looking at Facebook, so I wouldn’t see the game’s outcome before I watch it.   No need, the game is live on Monday morning on this side of the globe. It is one of those reminders of how big, and small our world is, all at the same time.  Just this morning I read a note from a friend and colleague who is headed to Germany.  Yesterday I listened to a young man from Germany preach here in Palau.  Oddly I, a guy who only speaks English, preached in the Palauan service while my Deutsche friend spoke in the English service.  The unprecedented ability to circle the world that globalization brings, gives us opportunities never seen before in the history of the world. Well, maybe. In God’s providence, three hundred years before Christ was born, Alexanderconquered the Mediterranean world, and beyond.  Because of him from Spain to well into the Middle East, from Africa to Southern Europe, people understood—many spoke—Greek.  The Romans had established a system of roads unlike anything the world had seen before, or would see again for more than a thousand years, and they established a reign of peace that was likewise unprecedented.  By the time the last Apostle, John had died, the Gospel had penetrated Africa, all of the Mediterranean nations, as far east as India, and some say as far north as England.    We are still profiting from the incredible effort of that first hundred years. In the First Century of the Third Millennium we have opportunities that are greater than any since that first explosive hundred years.  I’ll enjoy the Superbowl with my friends, but as I, in Palau, watched soldiers standing at attention in Afghanistan, and heard fans in California cheer for them, I ask myself, what are we, the prosperous, wired and frequently flying body of Christ doing with what God, in His providence, has given us.   It’s STTA.

DON'T MESS WITH THE JEALOUS GOD

Something To Think About God's Jealousy:

I just saw a post about God’s jealousy.  It’s not a term that we see much any more.  It is in the Bible.  It is found, for instance in Exodus 20, the chapter where we find the Ten Commandments. “You shall not worship them or serve them [other gods]; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,” (Exodus 20:5, NASB95). We often use the word “jealous” in a negative way.  Jealous husbands murder competing suiters.  Jealousy in a girlfriend is not typically seen as an attractive trait.  God’s jealousy, however, is a passion for the basic fact of the universe.  “In the beginning God.”  Period, nothing else, everything else exists because of the will and activity of that one-and-only God. Some students and I just walked through one of my favorite Old-Testament stories that illustrates God’s jealousy.  1 Kings 20 tells about an invasion of Israel by the Syrian Army.  At first Israeli King Ahab was willing to agree to Ben-hadad’s harsh demands.  The Syrian ruler, though, was determined to pick a fight, so he raised the ante to an intolerable level.  When Ben-hadad heard that Ahab refused to surrender, some of the greatest trash-talk of all time ensued.  The invading King bragged about the overwhelming size of his army in macho-poetic fashion, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.” (10)  Though Ahab had many faults, an inability to come up with a good come-back was not one of them.  “Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.”  (11) Meanwhile, in heaven, more was going on than two kings puffing up their already over-inflated egos.  God was going to give Israel a victory so that they “would know that I am the Lord.”  (13)  So Ben-hadad marched his vast army, including the thirty-two kings who had allied with him, onto the field of battle and promptly began to drink himself into a stupor.  When it was reported to him that a small force had come out from the capital of Israel to engage the enemy, the drunken ruler gave orders as if he were dealing with few dogs that needed to be captured.  “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive.” (18)  To his utter surprise the small force of Israelis carried the day.  Ben-hadad fled back to Damascus with his tail between his legs. In step the religious advisors.  They analyze the data and come to, not only the wrong conclusion, but one that is highly offensive to the jealous God.  “Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.”   I can almost see the God of Heaven calling one of His angels over and asking, “Did you hear what those guys said?”  I’m not going to let them get by with that.    “At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. The sons of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the country. Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” So they camped one over against the other seven days. And on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the sons of Israel killed of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber.” (1 Kings 20:26–30, NASB95)     It’s STTA.

Knowing God:

Something To Think About Knowing God:

“Doing Theology” always involves a balancing act.  The first part of the word comes from the Greek word for God.  “Ology” is the study of.  When one sets out to study the God of the universe, they are sure to get to a place where they are over their head.  It has been humbly expressed this way:    “If God couldn’t do anything I couldn’t understand He wouldn’t be much of a God.”   Theologians, both real and would-be have been accused of trying “to put God in a box.”  Clearly, we don’t have a container big enough.  On the other hand, God has revealed himself to us.  While we can’t know God completely, we can know some things about Him accurately.  God reveals Himself, and His ways to us not to satisfy our curiosity, but to give us what we need to know so that we can live our lives as we should.  The New Living Translation does a good job capturing the heart of this from Deuteronomy 29:29.   “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” The task of the Theologian—whether amateur or professional—is not theoretical; it is intensely practical.  Doing theology is gathering information so that we can successfully do life.   It’s STTA.

Dr. Luke on Prejudice:

Something To Think About Prejudice:

Fear rides on the back of “news.”  At its most basic level a neighbor tells those who live around him that there is some danger—the water is bad, a rabid animal is on the loose, or a fugitive criminal has fled to the area.  Quite properly the neighborhood bands together to protect its citizens, especially the most vulnerable.  It’s the kind of thing we read about in Little House on the Prairie stories.  The problem is we now get our news, not from a neighbor, but from a talking-head on the TV screen, or via a story on the internet.  The danger is amorphous, and there is nothing that I or my neighbors can do about it.  Fear festers in an environment where I really don’t know, and, in particular, where I’m helpless.  There is no fire to put out, no tornado to shelter from, no mad-dog to kill.  Just as mold grows in the damp, prejudice tends to flourish in these conditions.  Unless we guard against it we tend to think in terms of “those people.”  “All retired, gray-haired men are embezzlers.  I just saw a story about it on the evening news. I find the message of the Gospel of Luke incredibly relevant to our situation.  Dr. Luke goes out of his way to champion the cause of groups—those people--who were despised.  Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan in dialogue with an expert in Jewish religious law.  Jesus finished the story with a question, “. . . which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits” (Luke 10:36)? The Samaritan was clearly the hero, but the expert couldn’t even bring himself to answer the question in the obvious way.  Instead of saying, “The Samaritan,” he replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”   The Parable of the Good Samaritan is but one example of Luke challenging the prejudices of his day.  It’s hard to read Luke and not ask, “If Luke were writing today would he stick-up for some people that I tend to put-down?” Luke tells us about the birth of our Savior.  The good news that He brought was for “all people” (Luke 2:10), even “those people.” It’s STTA.

BREAKING BARRIERS:

Something To Think About Barriers:

With a bit of hyperbole, the Apostle John tells us “there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books” (John 21:25).  From the vast selection the four Gospel writers, directed by the Holy Spirit, selected, arranged, and adapted the material to present their unique portraits of the Lord.  There is much that each of us can learn from each of them, but probably if you take the time to get familiar with the four presentations of Jesus you’ll find one of them that particularly rings your bell.  I like Luke.  He wasn’t a Jew, but it very well could be that he had become a “lover of God” before he came to know Christ.  In spite of the insulation that the Jewish religious establishment had wrapped around the message of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Luke got the truth.  We know that when he heard about Jesus Christ, the Messiah Isaiah predicted, Dr. Luke became a follower of Christ.  Maybe it was because Luke had once been an outsider to the religious establishment that he championed others who often had to look in from beyond barriers that shouldn’t have been there.  A simple word count will reveal Luke’s emphasis on women.  He mentions them about twice as often as the other Gospel writers.  At the very beginning of his Gospel we meet Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna.  Throughout he elevates the status of women.  Even more obvious, though, is Luke’s reaching across a cultural mote to the Samaritans.  Only Luke records the parable of the “Good Samaritan” (10:30-37), and he alone tells us that out of the ten who were cured of leprosy only a Samaritan returned to show gratitude (17:11-19). We live in a day in which the temptation to prejudice is growing.  Political candidates pander to our fears.  We see stories of horrendous deeds and we are pushed to think that all “those people” are like that.  They aren’t.  In the midst of all that is swirling around us, I encourage you to read the Gospel of Luke.  It will be a couple of hours well-spent.  Read it with an open heart.  Are there groups of people whom I have wrongly put on the outside?   Here is one that doesn’t take a stretch.  Tax-collectors have never been among the most admired.  Yet Jesus felt he had to go to Zaccheus’s house for dinner.  At the end of the account Luke quotes these words from the Lord, “. . . the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).  Even Samaritans and tax-collectors.  Stay tuned, but clearly He sent us to continue the task. It’s STTA.