We live in a world full of poverty and oppression. There is real, soul-crushing need out there, and everyone's asking for help. You see it when you open the news. If you ever give any money to any aid organization, you'll get mail from all of them, eager to tell you about the deep needs they're trying to meet. It can be both heart-breaking and perplexing: What can I do? You're only one person, you only have so much money. When there's so much real poverty in the world, who do we help?
I put on an old pair of jeans and was informed that they are fashionable. I've never been in style before, so I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that. Moreover, my daughter will happily adopt them if I'll part with them. Apparently "distressed dad chic" is a thing. I might let her wear them just to see how she plans to keep them up.
Fashions in dress come and go and sometimes come back. Bell bottoms made a brief return, and somehow mullets came back in style. Fashions in sin do the same. Every generation is prone to some sins more than others, and they usually don't even notice.
People can be horrible. As the apostle said, they are "foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures." They spend their lives "in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." This is the natural state of fallen mankind. So how do we deal with living among them?
When people attack traditional Christians for being traditional Christians, there are certain standard moves. Whether it's coming from progressive pastors, cafeteria Catholic comedians, or skeptical scientists, one of the favorites is to compare us to the Pharisees, "the people Jesus denounced most harshly". Let's talk about why that falls flat. Let's look at exactly why Jesus was so harsh with the Pharisees.
I'm a nerd, so gadgets appeal to me. Naturally, Dick Tracy smart watches are cool. I'd love to have spy smart glasses. Those cars with all the digital displays on the dashboard look like space ships! Fortunately, being deeply cheap keeps me from being broke. But I can take it too far. I will occasionally catch myself spending half an hour dithering over two options separated by $5. Thus one character flaw trumps another.
Sin can operate the same way.
What if we're sinning and don't even know it? One of the passages in The Screwtape Letters that has really stuck with me is the chapter where Screwtape explains that gluttony isn't what we think it is, that it's far more subtle and easier to commit than we assume. His discourse opens up a whole world of possibilities, and it's quite unsettling.
Your body needs regular check ups. It's important to visit your doctor and your dentist regularly to keep your body healthy. Your soul needs regular check ups, too. Last time we looked at the need to regularly examine yourself. "How do we do that? Scripture." I think we can be a bit more specific than that.
I was walking around in my yard to see if the ants were in the air conditioner again when I noticed a part of the eave needs to be replaced. There are boards in the fence that need to be fixed. Everything is going to need to be repainted soon. A house requires continual upkeep. You can't maintain some kind of status quo; your choices are regular maintenance or deterioration. The same is true of your soul.
My dad died twelve years ago. On the evening after his funeral, my wife took our kids to Chick-fil-a. They were their usual chipper selves: [big smiles] "How are you today?"
They probably didn't expect the answer, "Not great. We buried Granddaddy today." But they had a great response: They comped their meal and gave the kids little plush cows.
Turns out you can learn a lot from a cow.
If you're one of the many who began this year with a goal of reading the whole Bible, odds are you've already given up. Even if you're someone who has a pretty well-established habit of daily Bible reading, there are probably days that doesn't happen. If you're in either of those categories, that can cause some guilt. If that's you, I have some good new for you:
I'm getting rather tired of me. I grow weary of the same temptations, the same struggles, the same excuses. I ask the man in the mirror, "Is this really the best you can do?" I'm not convinced by his answers.
I hate the pain and suffering in this world. I hate the evil that men do. But I'm most tempted to despair over the evil that I do.
Let me tell you about "Bill." If you know Bill, he's the best guy you know. He's honest, generous, and hardworking. He helps everyone, even people he doesn't particularly like. If you're lucky enough to have him as your neighbor, he's the best neighbor ever. Bill's a better person than most of the "church people" he knows. Because of that, he has no interest in the gospel. He doesn't need Jesus. Christians have taught him that.
As we enter the fall political season, people naturally ask what the Bible says about our many political issues. It's true that the scriptures do not tell us explicitly how to run a government, but the Lord did not leave us without guidance to answer the most important political questions of our age. Let's look at some passages that can help us navigate our political world.
One of the fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. In several places various NT authors exhort us to gentleness. Jesus is described as being gentle. So we know this is important. But what is it? Too many seem to think gentle is a synonym for milksop. What does it really mean?
As an illustration, I'd like to turn to one of the greatest scenes in all of television.
I know the rules: "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires" (James 1:19-20), but like so many, I struggle with anger, often over what are ultimately silly things. But I noticed something about myself that made me think.
I came across an off-hand comment on a blog that grabbed me: "the average Christian’s faith doesn’t touch the sides of their life." He went on to say that most Christians' lives are "largely indistinguishable" from those around us. He's not wrong. It's so easy to live as an average Westerner, to go with the flow the same as our neighbors.
What does it look like when our faith shines through every part of our life?
There are lots of places in the Bible I would remove if I could. Whether it's a rule I don't want to follow or a judgment that just seems too harsh for modern sensibilities, my fallen flesh would love to apply a bottle of white out to many verses. There's one place, though, that's nothing like that. It's convicting without doing either of those things. Right in the middle of one of my favorite passages in the Bible sit a few simple words that always make me squirm.
I like to say I’m a creature of inertia. An object at rest will stay at rest; an object in motion will stay in motion. That’s me. If I can get going, I’ll keep going. But if I stop ... oof! So what I really am is a creature of habit. If I can form a good habit, I’ll just keep cruising.
I used this to my advantage several years ago when I got in the habit of working out at lunch three days a week. I reached that point fitness gurus talk about where I didn’t ask whether I was going to the gym; it was Monday, so I needed to pack my workout clothes. I got into a routine and stayed with it. I was feeling better and looking better. I was happy; my wife was happy. It went on that way for a couple of years. Then circumstances changed. Life broke the habit.
My daughter wears a torture device around her neck. Please don’t think this makes me an unfit parent; it was her idea. Kids these days, right? But no, it’s not just the kids, lots of people do it. “Crazy Americans”? No, it’s not even just an American thing. Why would people voluntarily wear a torture device around their neck?
Let’s look at a passage that is both a powerful statement of the gospel and also a powerful lesson on how to live the Christian life. If you ever wondered what it means to live like Jesus, this little stretch of scripture gives an unforgettable picture of just what that looks like.
Dear friends,
In my last letter I wrote of preparing your mind for battle. Now let’s think about your bodies. Few can get up from a relatively sedentary lifestyle and run a race. You have to slowly prepare your body.
Physical training is uncomfortable and takes a long time, but the results can amaze you. What we need to concern ourselves with now, though, is not physical strength but the lives our physical bodies display before the world around us. Examining and improving our character can be just as difficult and painful as preparing our bodies to fight a war or run a race, but it is essential.
