Straight Shooters

Someone you can count on to tell you the truth is a “straight shooter.” In our politically correct climate, it is getting increasingly harder to find a person who will give it to you straight.

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet used an interesting word to describe God. It is a seldom-used word translated “teacher” that derives from the Hebrew word “archer/shooter” (Is. 30:20).

During a time of national rebellion, as God quietly waited for them to return, the prophet says He withdrew Himself, i.e., not speaking. But Isaiah promised them if they would return, He would be like a teacher [a shooter] who would no longer hold back, but would tell them the truth: “This is the way; walk in it, whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” In other words, whenever they got off the straight and narrow, He would tell them straight out what they needed to hear.

Does it not seem to you that as our mainline American denominations progressively line up with political correctness, there is going to be a greater need for straight shooters?

Infused with Steroids

I promise you (I think) that this will be the last ‘chemo’ comparison I make, but it’s too good to pass up. My cancer-killing chemo treatments are called ‘infusions’ because they are administered intravenously. After my first infusion 2 weeks ago, I had flu-like symptoms for 2 days. My friend Janet told me that as she was praying for me to have a better post-infusion experience, the Lord brought to her mind the words “He restores my soul” (Ps. 23:2)—but not in English; in Spanish, “Me infunde nuevas fuerzas,” which translates “He infuses me with new strength.”

What Janet did not know is that before getting my 2nd chemo infusion, the oncologist gave me a steroid infusion to diminish my symptoms. So Janet’s prayer, “infuse Greg with new strength,” was answered in a tangible way. Making this spiritual event even more interesting is the detail that the English word “steroid” derives from the Greek “sterizo”—meaning “strength.” In answer to Janet’s prayer, I was strengthened both physically and spiritually.

At those moments we are feeling most weak and vulnerable, we tend to reach out to God for new strength! But at a time in Israel’s history when they were vulnerable, they looked to Egypt’s armies for strength rather than God.  So, He patiently reminded them, “In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me], you shall be saved; in quietness and trust [in Me] is your strength” (Is. 30:15). As thankful as I am for man-made steroids, I am thankful for this tangible reminder of His strength. Thus, I am well content with weakness...for when I am weak, I am strong (2 Cor 12:10).

Search and Destroy

After we have received Christ into our hearts and have been forgiven of all sin, there yet remains a process of “putting aside all that remains of wickedness” (James 1:21). For my entire adult life, or so it seems, I have been engaged in getting rid of these ‘remains.’

Having just finished my second week of chemo-therapy—the purpose of which is to annihilate any cancer cells remaining after the surgical removal of my pancreatic tumor—the spiritual analogy is shouting at me. At salvation the sin-centered heart is removed. But afterward, the Holy Spirit uses the chemically-dynamic Word to search and destroy all that remains of the former self.

And even as my chemo therapy is voluntary, so is its spiritual counterpart of “putting aside [putting to death] all that remains of the sinful, earthly things [still] lurking within us” (Col. 3:5). But thank God that while chemo offers no guarantee of success, He does: “After you have suffered a little while, He will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10).

The Success of Suffering

In Jesus' day, the view that suffering resulted from moral failure was widely held. When a blind man was brought in front of Jesus for healing, the Disciples asked, “Whose sin had caused this young man’s blindness—his or his parents?” Jesus clarified it was neither, but only that the works of God should be revealed in him. In other words, something about suffering was divine.

Clearly the Bible teaches that suffering is a virtue. Jesus told His disciples that in the world they would face suffering, and overcome it just as He had (Jn.16:33). Paul declared that anyone desiring to live godly in Christ Jesus would suffer persecution (2 Tim.3:12). And James proclaimed that suffering was an opportunity for great joy.  Clearly, the apostles taught no ‘success’ in the kingdom of God could be expected without traversing the portal of suffering (Acts 14:22).

This is counter-intuitive in 21st century American where we refuse to accept suffering as the norm, let alone as a sign of God’s blessing (Matt. 5:4; 12). But the Scriptures are unambiguous: success without suffering is ‘unbiblical.’ 20th Century NYC pastor Dr. Edward Johnson once said, “Suffering and success go together. If you are succeeding without suffering, it is because others before you have suffered; if you are suffering without succeeding, it is that others after you may succeed.”

Going in Circles and/or Going South

For a year and a half before Altha and I moved to Arizona, I prayed and listened for the Lord's assurances. What followed were many confirmations. And when I was invited to mentor students at Phoenix Seminary, with the possibility to teach, I saw God at work.  Over the next months, one obstacle after another was removed and the path ahead became clear and straight.

But within days after moving to Arizona, my diagnosis of pancreatic cancer turned those plans on their head—‘everything started going south’ (an idiom I’ve spoken of before in this blog). After my ‘Whipple’ surgery, the Lord led us back to California where family (our daughter) and friends could support us thru the chemo/radiation therapies that lie ahead.

Honestly, I can tell you it seemed regressive to me—I was going in circles. But nothing in God’s methods is regressive. But progressive. And though it seemed my life was headed ‘south,’ God assured me it was not. Then this morning the Spirit led me to Deuteronomy, where God speaks to Moses, “You have circled this mountain long enough; now turn North” (2:2-3).

Are you presently feeling like your life is going in circles? Even worse, are you feeling like your life is “going south?” It may look that way by the natural eye. But by faith, you can be sure it is going in a straight line—straight into God’s blessed purposes for you. Before long, I know you will hear Him say, “Things have been going south long enough. But soon they will be turning north!”

Fellow Sufferers

Bombs exploded yesterday at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing 3 and injuring more than 140. Many people are suffering today. Only four months ago, Americans were shocked by the tragedy at Sandy Hook. When such tragedies happen, all America suffers—as persons united to one another by common citizenship.

By now of course everyone knows that Rick Warren’s 27-year old son committed suicide a week ago Friday. He had struggled for years with terrible depression. When I heard the news, I wept. He was not just Rick Warrens’ son. As a member of the body of Christ, he was the son of all of us. “When one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).

To suffer is to feel pain or distress. It can be physical or emotional. Even as it is the one thing that unites all humanity, so it unites all Christians. As I have suffered through an operation, and now chemotherapy, so many of you have asked how you can help. I know it is because you feel my pain and the pain of my family. We are connected to one another. And in some way, which we cannot fully comprehend, by doing so, we are connecting with the sufferings of Christ who left His heavenly abode to live in a world of suffering (sickness and death and the pain of rejection). It is good that we join in the sufferings of others that we might be like the One Who suffered with and for us so that one day we shall never suffer again.

Fools for Christ

Coming the day after what-we-call “April Fool’s Day” here in the US, I was reminded of this quote by Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Jim Elliot was a missionary martyred by the Auca Indians of Ecuador. His quote is a perpetual reminder of the cost (and privilege) of discipleship. But his quote also reminds us that any Bible-believing, fundamental believer will be considered foolish by the world. “We are fools for Christ's sake… we are weak… we are despised (1 Cor. 4:10)… for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… (1 Cor. 1:18).

I am afraid that the further our culture (and even mainline denominations) declines into amorality and universalism, the more foolish Bible-believing Christians will appear. It is time for us to ask ourselves, 'are we willing to be fools for Christ?'