It is appointed unto men once to die.

This evening I'll do something I've done scores of times. I'll share God's word at a service remembering and honoring someone who has died. What makes this funeral notable for me, is this is the first time I've done this on this side of the world. It reminds me of the universality of death.   “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”  (Romans 5:12, ESV) “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, ESV)   Geography is just one of the factors that don't matter. People in some places may live longer than people in less developed lands, women outlast men, and the wealthy can afford better healthcare and forestall the inevitable, but sooner or later, all people, everywhere, will pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. I don't think anyone really denies that fact, we just live as if it weren't true. That is foolish. The fact is, though death is inevitable, defeat by death is not necessary. Jesus is the Lord of life. In Him, not only can we overcome death in the final moment, we can live live a quality of life right here in this death-dealing world that is beyond what we can live on our own.   “. . . when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So . . . be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” (1 Corinthians 15:54–58, NLT) Go out and live, really live, wherever you dwell on this globe. (You can find out how here. It's STTA (Something To Think About).  Find out about how the Son of God redeems our past, gives purpose in the present, and hope for the future, here.

No, all ways of seeing things are not equal!

Something To Think About, No, they aren't just like us: 2/28

It's been a New Millennium long enough that most of us are comfortable with it, indeed, it's all that many young adults really know.  Here in the US, where I live, one of the universal laws of culture is that no one has a right to say that one way of life--one way of seeing the world--is better than another.  We buried the Moral Majority years ago.  A while back we decided to stop making anybody feel bad for the things they think or believe.  Acceptance and tolerance are rule of the day.  Who am I to tell you that your choices or conclusions about what is right and wrong are inferior to mine? Look carefully at the picture of Abubakar Shekau.  He is the leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.  The name means 'western education is sinful."  I'm at the front of the line of those who challenge what's wrong with my "Western" culture.  Take notes on any given Sunday, and you'll hear me challenge the values, or lack thereof, of my time and place.  Don't get the idea, though, that this makes me and Abu--I hope he doesn't mind--equal.  We are not.  I, following the tradition of two millennia of Christian preaching, seek to engage people in thinking, and feeling.  I seek to persuade about what is right and wrong.  I ask people to join me in seeking the God of the Bible, and committing our lives to him.  Not only do I refrain from physical coercion, I find it repulsive.  I condemn it.  Abu on the other hand [Warning: What I am about to say is really ugly.]  Seeks to make his point this way: This past Tuesday morning Boko Haram came to the dorm of a boarding school in Yobe state, Nigeria.  While the boys slept in the predawn darkness they set their dorm on fire.  The door was locked.  The terrorists shot and knifed those who attempted to escape through the windows.  At the end of their "raid" about forty boys, and teachers were dead, some burned to ashes, others found dead in the bush, where they had bleed to death in their attempt to flee.  Look at Abu.  He is not ashamed.  He is not a man who gave into what he considers baser motives.  He is proud of what he has done.  He believes that slaughtering school boys in the middle of the night is the right thing to do.  Likely, he will sleep well tonight. Have atrocities been committed in the name of Christ?  Without doubt.  Painting a cross on a shield does not make the unspeakable right.  Are there problems with my "Western" culture, the one Abu hates with such virulence?  Again, there is no doubt.  I'm not trying to whitewash my way. What I am challenging you to do is look into Abu's eyes and then tell me that all world-views are equal.  That no one has the right to tell anyone else that that they are wrong. That view is idiocy. Abu is a fiend. It's STTA.

Here's An Alternative: Do Right!

Something To Think About, Choosing Better: 2/26

Some of my colleagues--conservative Christian leaders--took offense at descriptions of Olympic Gold-medal skier, David Wise as living an "Alternative Lifestyle."  Sit down friends, so you don't faint.  I'm on the media's side.  Yes, the fresh-faced Olympian has chosen an alternative way of life.  Further I very much encourage other young adults to follow in his ski-tracks.   What got my associates' culture-watching noses out of joint is the history of the term "Alternative Lifestyle" in the culture wars.  A real quick survey is in order: We begin with a time not too long ago, when language that referred to people who made sexual/family choices that put them outside the mainstream was intended to put-down, hurt, inflict shame. There was push back and in some cases appropriate repentance.  Being right does not give one the privilege of being mean. As the pendulum swung past center, it became common to describe choices about how humans relate socially and sexually not in terms of right and wrong, but as alternatives--one way is as good as another. Still, because heterosexual, marriage-bound, child-bearing families continued to be the backbone of our culture, most of us reserved the term "alternative" for everybody else.   Now David Wise skis into our living rooms, and hearts.  He is a twenty-three year old husband and dad, who, in spite of his baggy pants and totally rad freestyle routines appears really quite grounded, in the traditional sense.  And then Skyler Wilder of NBC Sports refers to the young man as living an "Alternative Lifestyle.  To quote the kids, conservatives like me are "all like, 'whoa, that's not alternative that's regular.'" No it's not.  Not any more.  I was reminded of that again for the umpteenth time just last night. I'll let others argue about the latest numbers about who is in bed with whom.  I'm just going to speak from my observation.   Brothers, we kid ourselves if we think that most young adults are choosing--even attempting to choose--even considering the choice realistic and desirable--to live by the standards of the Bible.  Premarital, extra-marital, and even inter-marital are not whispered words.  They are celebrated.  The various gender-identifiers are so numerous and fluid that one needs a scorecard to keep them straight.  The one thing that is easy to understand is that our culture accepts them all.  So, I agree with Wilder's characterization, David Wise has chosen an alternative lifestyle.  I don't know him well enough to give a blanket endorsement, but as far as I know he has chosen to do what is right. This is the point that those of us who claim to speak for God need to make clearly and strongly: Morality, right and wrong, that which God blesses, and is therefore acceptable for us to bless in His name is not determined democratically!   When Jesus described the two ways at the end of the Sermon on the Mount,he made clear that most people are on the wrong way.  When Paul counseled the Christians living in the debauchery of Corinth, he clearly challenged them to choose a different way.  Too many of us have been trying to stretch an old, thread-bear sheet of public morality (which may never have been as moral as we would like to believe) over a culture that refuses to be covered.  Rather we need to call people young and old to an alternative--a radical alternative--following Jesus Christ, bringing every aspect of our life under his Lordship. I'm not upset with Skyler Wilder.  Actually I thank him for the reminder. Let's all be alternative.  Do right for a change. It's STTA.

Tension can be good:

I spent a considerable bit of time recently shopping for a movie to use on a date night with my lovely wife.  Weeding out all the choices that are too this or too that, doesn't leave a large selection.  I'm certainly open to your suggestions, but I digress; that's not the purpose of this piece.

One of the things I noticed as I looked at the plot summaries, especially of the older flicks, is that many of them are built around the tension that exists when one finds a romantic interest in someone other than the person in whom they ought to have such an interest.  In plainer terms:  "I'm married to, engaged to, going steady with, Bob (or Suzie), but I'm falling in love with Jane (or Bill)."  Sometimes this conflict is developed through comedy, and in other presentations it leads to tragedy in the fullest sense.  I'm wondering, though, when the pull that the viewer needs to feel in order for the plot to work will no longer be present.  Is the device becoming like the elastic in an over-used garment?  You can pull on it, but it doesn't pull back.

The stress that such plot lines depend on is dependent on certain qualities in the viewer: 

• Marriage is a special, even sacred, relationship.
• Sexual activity should have some relationship to love.
• People ought to keep their promises, and
• In general tell the truth.
• To use another human being for one's own advancement is wrong.

In other words the elastic is the watcher's commitment to a basic system of morality.  I see that basic morality being drained from our culture at large.

I don't figure that a plot-line built on the debate of whether whale oil or beef tallow was the best fuel for lighting homes would gain much traction in our electrified world.  

I'm wondering whether we are rapidly headed to a place where stories that depend on what one ought to do, will be meaningless, because most people will have concluded that other than to do what pleases me at the moment there is really nothing that I ought to do.

It's STTA, but add in Matthew 5:13-16 & think about it some more. 

You can find out here about how Jesus changes hearts.