The Healthiness of Forgetting

For years, I've kept a daily journal. I love looking back to recall what God was teaching me through certain events. But, frankly, some things need to be forgotten! Therapists and pastors often help people forget that which might keep them from sound mental/spiritual health. Paul said it was the “one thing” he did to ensure his progress: “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:14).

forgetting (like forgiveness) is a process that begins with a choice. Jesus said, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).  Looking back signifies recalling the past, whether with happiness or regret, in a way that hinders our commitment and/or progress.

Of course forgetting is not so easy. Our brains are hard-wired with memories—we cannot erase them like a data file. But what we can do is “not call to mind—choosing to not think about— former things” (Is. 43:18). I am so grateful we have a God who forgets: “I will remember their sins no more” (Is. 43:25).  

Happy are those who ‘forgive.’ Happier still are those who ‘forget.’

Feeling Disconnected in the Age of Hyper Connectivity

Digital devices may be wireless, but their users are hard-wired. From phone to tablet to television, the hyper-linked are showing no sign of slowing down. 

The Millennials are the first generation to grow up so hyper-connected.  In a George Barna survey, they identified technology as that which distinguishes them most. But when asked what they feel is lacking in their lives, they identified “meaningful” relationships. It would seem that so-called hyper-connections are starting to fray around the edges—texters and tweeters are feeling under-connected in ways that matter to them!

Three thousand years ago, David discovered the ultimate connection: “face time.” “When you said, Seek my face; my heart said unto you, your face, LORD, will I seek… there is none on earth that I desire beside you” (Ps. 27:8; 73:25). Whatever generation we are, and whatever high-tech toys we enjoy, we must be careful not to get so distracted that we deprive ourselves of our most hyper connection.

Is Too Much Stress making You Sick?

A sign of our times is the volume of people seeking therapy because they are over-stressed by too much change. You might be surprised to know that this malady was first diagnosed in the 1800's (by a Dr. Miller Beard), when industrialization and urbanization were causing people symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, depression, and restlessness. The ailment was labeled “neurasthenia,” an over-taxing of the nervous system. Sound familiar?

But take hope; there is a cure. In fact, the cure has been around for a long time. To the over-stressed and restless throngs, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are  weary and burdened, and I will cause you to rest” (Matt. 11:28). To the Jewish believers who  had been expelled from Jerusalem and were facing martyrdom, Paul simply said, “Be diligent to enter His Rest” (Heb. 4:11). And centuries later, Augustine rightly said, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.” The greater our stress, the more we will need “the times of refreshing that come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

Who Needs a Church?

When pollster George Barna asked Americans what would help them grow in their faith, they answered 'prayer, family, friends, and reading the Bible.' But 'belonging to a church' didn’t even make the top-10. Over half said church attendance was not important.

Combine that with a recent poll asking Americans to identify their purpose in life. A majority said “enjoyment and personal fulfillment,” which may explain why so many are leaving smaller congregations (who rely on member participation) for big ones that have plenty of parking, stadium-style seating, rock-concert lights and sound systems, and a winsome, charismatic preacher. These mammoths offer almost everything and require nearly nothing.

Let’s face it—megachurches are fun and stimulating. But they must not be very “salty” if half of all Americans don't think they can help them grow in their faith. Will someone please pass them the salt! (Matt. 5:13)

Brain Implants: Doing the Unimaginable

Would you like to have a memory chip implanted in your brain giving you perfect recall? Or would connect your brain directly to the Internet? Scientists say brain implants may be as common as laser eye surgery in 10 years. Neuroprosthetics will become part of us, enhancing performance, changing how we perceive the world, and opening up possibilities heretofore unimaginable.

I couldn’t help but see the spiritual analogy. You and I already have an implant—the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:15). And although we ‘have’ His mind, we are responsible for employing it: “let the mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:15). That is, think as Jesus does, with “your mind on things above, where He is” (Col. 3:2). Just like those neuroprosthetics, the mind of Christ becomes part of us, changing the way we perceive the world, doing things heretofore thought unimaginable (1 Cor. 2:9).

Westboro's Fred Phelps is Dead; the Love of Jesus Lives

The Rev. Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, died last week.  You may know of him for his hate-filled protests at the funerals of U.S. soldiers, claiming their deaths were God’s revenge for America’s tolerance of homosexuality. His animus disgraced the Gospel with his unadulterated message “God hates gays.”

How unlike our Lord Jesus who came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). Are you not troubled when you hear so-called fundamentalist Christians speak hatefully against sinners, and even more venomously against those who struggle with sexual identity? Our culture has given rise to numbers of believers who are engaged in this battle. Yes, God hates sin, but “God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Jesus not only loves the lost, He loves His lost sheep who have gone astray (Luke 15:4).

Rumors of War in Ukraine

It now appears that the Mideast civil wars were a warm-up for a cold front in Europe. When Ukrainians rejected Russian-leaning policies and arrested their president for murdering their citizens, Putin retaliated with the annexation of Crimea. Russian troops move to the Ukrainian border, as a nervous international community watches helplessly. 

John Kerry said: “It can get ugly fast if the wrong choices are made.” Indeed, the conflict is now rapidly escalating. The Pentagon announced it is sending troops to Poland. In response, Russian allies in Belarus are asking for more warplanes. Things are as tense as they have been at any time since WWII. What does it mean for us? What does this portend?

“And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom… But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come” (Matt. 24:6-8). More to come is right. Keep alert!

A Vanished Plane and The Rapture

Two weeks ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Without a word of distress, it vanished—its unexplained disappearance captivating the world, and triggering a massive search across the Indian Ocean.

If the world is so confounded by one missing aircraft, imagine its reaction to the Rapture, when a thousand planes disappear into the seas and remote places, due to vanishing pilots (and passengers). Will astonished air traffic controllers and frustrated inspectors think the explanation will be found in 'black boxes?' How long will it take before they begin searching for answers in the 'black book,' and find Paul's words:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the trump of God, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.(1 Thess. 4:16-18 edited). Perhaps they will read this post after we're gone!

What pictures hang on the walls of your imagination?

In the past few months, I’ve gained perspective on being God’s dwelling place. But it has  also sobered me on keeping a clean house. Solomon said, “Keep your hearts [house] with all diligence” (Prov. 4:23). 

Each of the Apostles had a way of expressing housekeeping: “Keep yourself in the love of God (Jude 1:21); “Keep a good conscience” (1 Pet. 3:1); “Keep yourself from free from sin (1 Tim 5:22); “Keep yourselves from idols” (1 Jn. 5:21). And Jesus' all-encompassing  command, “Keep My Word” (Jn. 14:23).

If your heart was a ‘house of thoughts,’ would kind of residence would it be for the Holy Spirit? Oswald Sanders asks, “How uncomfortable would you be if others saw all the pictures that hang on the walls of your imagination.” If we are to keep a clean house, we must be daily washing in the Word, and confessing our sins to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.(Eph. 5:26; 1 John 1:9).

Observing LENT: Has anyone ever died from fasting?

Two weeks ago, Ash Wednesday began the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter. The idea behind Lent fasting is to identify with the sufferings of Christ.  According to a Barna survey, 30% of Lent observers fast food or drink, 28% fast meat, 28% sugar.

Although I can appreciate the intent of Lent fasting, I am not an observer.  Someone will have to convince me that suffering the loss of sugar for 5 ½ weeks is tantamount to the travail of Jesus. Admittedly, it is easier to skip a meal every day for a month than “pick up your cross daily!” Our highest call, according to Paul, is to be conformed to Christ's death (Phil 3:10; 1 Pet. 4:1). 

The true disciple's fast is not seasonal—but a lifetime of daily self-denial. Fasting one’s self is Jesus' mandated method for attaining more of His life and vitality. Has anyone ever died from this fast? Yes. Paul did: I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). But, listen to this: if we die with Him, we shall live like kings with Him (2 Tim 2:11-12, edited). 

Are Obama and Putin playing “Chicken?”

The U.S. and Russian governments are polarized on the future of Ukraine, and the annexation of Crimea. The outcome will affect Euro/Russo/U.S. relations for years to come. If Obama concedes, he'll look like he's kowtowing to Putin, who is unlikely to abandon plans to enlarge Russia's sphere. Is this an international game of “chicken?” 

This is not the first game of “chicken” between these two. Last year Obama surrendered control to Putin over the issue of disposing chemical weapons in Syria. And since drawing a red line with Iran, Obama has been resisted by Putin in stopping, or even slowing down, Iran's Russian-backed nuclear development program.

Why does this matter to us?  Most theologians believe Bible prophecy excludes any U.S. role in the end times. Is it too implausible to think that the influence of the world's only superpower could be waning? Could these failed “chicken” games be, as Joel Rosenberg would say, a harbinger of things to come? Is it not incumbent on us to discern the times, and to pay attention to these things?

Shall we Impeach Joel Osteen?

Last week $600,000 was stolen from Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. Some of Joel’s antagonists have already begun to turn this into another opportunity to impeach his character. While his teachings may be dangerously vacuous, slandering him is not an option: “Let all wrath and anger and slander be put away from you, along with all malice” (Eph. 4:31).

As troubled as I am by Joel's teachings, I believe he is a brother who is greatly deceived. John says, “How can you say you love God, if you hate your brother?” (1 John 4:20). Even to those who are disobedient to the Word, Paul counsels: “Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (2 Thess. 3:15). Any censure of Joel Osteen will have to follow this biblical rule of ‘etiquette.’

So let us pray for Joel as we would a brother, that he will realize the opportunities afforded him, and the consequent responsibility to “accurately handle the Word” (2 Tim. 2:15)—to fulfill the mandate of every teacher, to “present every man and woman complete (mature) in Christ” (Col 1:28).  

Are You Listening for the Last Trumpet Call?

When I was in grade school, my parents bought me a clarinet, and I joined the school orchestra. Now I’m wishing I had learned to play the trumpet. There will be trumpets in Heaven. (I’m not sure about clarinets.) In the book of Revelation, John speaks of 7 trumpets, sounded by 7 angels (chapters 8 – 11).

Trumpets were used in ancient Israel for many occasions. One of the most significant was the trumpeting of the watchmen from the ramparts that the enemy was near. Trumpeting was also a metaphor for trying to warn of spiritual danger: “I set my watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen’ (Jer. 6:17).

God repeatedly warned the Israelites to pay attention to His signs. It is the same today. Through global financial insecurity, is God not warning us against trusting in wealth? And are the signs of our times not calling us to a state of alert? The last trumpet will be the one that anounces the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:16). In the meantime, 21st century watchmen are trumpeting to get us ready. But believers are so dulled by the passing of time and false alarms that the watchmen might as well being playing clarinets.

Is Anyone Listening?

This is a season of my life when I feel a heightened need to hear the Lord. I am not only listening for personal direction, but also to discern the times—understanding how our culture is affecting us and our faith.

Jesus said, “My sheep listen [pay attention] to my voice; they follow me” (John 10:27). The writer of Hebrews says, “We must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it” (2:1). Is this not a significant ‘word’ for our times, when society is rejecting Judeo-Christian values, and droves of Christians are drifting from belief in Scripture's inerrancy?

This theological drift is not new. To a rebellious Israel, God says, “Stand by the old paths [the Scriptures], where the good way is, and walk in it… but they said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jer. 6:16). And through Isaiah, God laments, “I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen” (66:4). Can’t you almost see God in His throne room, asking the question: “Is anyone listening?”

Be Careful what you Listen to

The ability to hear is universal. It requires no more conscious effort than breathing. In the English language, we distinguish between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening.’ When we were children, our mothers would say, “when I talk to you, it seems to go in one ear and out the other,” meaning, we were hearing, but not ‘listening.’

Listening connotes ‘response.’ In the parable of the seed and the sower (Matt. 13), Jesus explains that the different types of soil are like people’s response to the Word—the seed. Though all ‘heard,’ not all ‘listened.’  The good soil is like the one who ‘hears’ the word and understands it—and acts on it.

In the Garden, Adam ‘heard’ God’s command ‘don’t eat from that tree,’ but in the end, he ‘listened’ to his wife. Paul says we become the slave of whomever we listen to (Rom. 6:16). Considering all the voices vying for our attention in our multi-media age, it behooves us to be careful what/who we listen to.

Who am I and Why am I here?

Until my 30’s, I struggled with  my “identity.” Though I was born again, and supposed to be a saint, I felt like a sinner caught in a web of failure and futility. But then, the Holy Spirit revealed to me who I was (am) “in Christ.”

 
Today, I feel no more saintly than in those days of ignorance, but I now have an objective, biblical definition of who I am! Feelings do not define me. I am a son of God, a new creation, a new self (John 1:12; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:24): truths that exceed my best self-evaluation.

And herein I employ Ray Stedman's words: “We think that we have to change the way we act in order to be different; God says, No, I have made you different, and when you believe it you will automatically change the way you act. This struggle can cease only when we reckon on who we really are in Christ. It is a new self-image that delivers us, when we begin to think of ourselves as God thinks of us...” (Edited)  When you know who you are, and whose you are, you will also come to understand why you are here (Eph. 2:10).

The Honest to God Truth

Has hypocrisy in the Evangelical community increased in the last few decades, or does it just seem that way because of a ‘real time’ media ever ready to pounce on our shame? Not surprisingly, young evangelicals have embraced authenticity as a core value.

What does it mean to be authentic? To be honest about your weaknesses. But we know that sharing 'honest' feelings is a subjective reality, and not always positive (Phil. 2:14); and Paul said, “Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them” (Eph. 4:29).

Where's the balance? While honesty is an essential element of our intimacy, subjective human experience must always occupy an inferior position to objective truth which transcends experience. Honestly, “apart from Christ, I can do nothing; there is nothing good in me” (Jn. 15:5; Ro. 7:18). Objectively, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). And that's the honest to God truth!

“The OSTEENification of American Christianity.”

Hank Hanegraaff of CRI has published a book, “The OSTEENification of American Christianity” in which he calls Joel Osteen the “provocateur of a seductive brand of Christianity that reduces God to a means to our ends… a fast-food Christianity that’s long on looks but dreadfully short on substance.”

“Why give so much attention to Joel Osteen; isn’t he harmless?” you say. Think about this. Joel Osteen is THE public face of evangelical Christianity. Not only the leader of America’s largest church, he is the most listened to preacher on the planet. His influence is almost unparalleled.

Joel's message is not pure Gospel, but a politically correct, inclusive, positive-thinking philosophical mix which non-Christians, even Buddhists and Hindus, find appealing. How unlike the exacting call of Jesus, who thinned out the crowds with His “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). Jesus' call to self-denial has been Osteenified into believe in yourself.

Quiet Time with God, by 'Appointment' Only

“And in the morning, a long time before daylight, he got up and went out to a quiet place where he could be alone, and gave himself up to prayer” (Mark 1:35). How well Jesus must have known “Be quiet and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10).

From the time I was a teenager, I began having a daily quiet time. It’s a very ‘natural’ part of my life. But I know that many Christians have no deliberate quiet time. I find it interesting that from the beginning of His relationship with His created beings, God models 'face-time.' The Genesis narrative implies that God visited Adam and Eve every day at an appointed time: the cool of the day; we call it dusk.

Over the years, I've seen believers ramp up their 'God' time when they are hurting! But do we have to be in pain to want time with God? Shouldn't it be a regular part of our day? Amos asks, How can two walk together unless they have an appointment? (Amos 3:3)? What does your appointment book look like?

You are "Out of this World!"

Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven. I am from above, not of this world" (Jn. 6:38; 8:23). Likewise, now that we have been born again, our new home is with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). That's why Paul tells us set to our minds on things above, where Christ is (Col 3:2).

As long as we remain in this world, we will feel, as Peter characterized us, like aliens and strangers (1 Peter 2:11). Even as Adam and Eve were created for a perfect world in harmony with God and nature, so are we. The problem: we are part of a new creation, but still live in the old one! Why then are so many “pilgrims” looking for permanence? Is it possible they have not yet found their place with Christ—in the heavenlies?  Until we understand what it means to live from above, we will find ourselves yearning for something more: something out of this world.

North Korea's Crimes Against Humanity

Last month the UN issued a report charging North Korea's leaders with human rights violations against its citizens, rising to the level of crimes against humanity. Let us not forget that our brothers and sisters in Christ are among the mistreated.

Coincidentally, John Short, a 75-year-old Australian Christian visiting North Korea with a tour group in February, was detained for possessing Christian materials printed in Korean. John's wife told reporters that he was aware of the risk. “North Korea is not an open country and it doesn't welcome Christians—we realize that. But that doesn't mean we stand by and do nothing.”

John Short will, no doubt, be released, but not North Korean believers. “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself, and those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” (Heb. 13:3). The next time someone snubs your faith in Christ, think of those persecuted in North Korea. And pray for them.

Keep Your Fork

After the table is cleared from the main course, and dessert is yet to come, the hostess will say, “Keep your fork,” meaning something sweet is coming—something not to miss, so “keep your fork.”

One time I taught a Friday/Saturday seminar to a men’s group that was followed by a teaching to the entire congregation on Sunday. Just before my sermon, several men got up and shared how the week-end seminar had affected them. I’ll never forget one man who stood up with a fork in hand. Lifting it up, he said he had come that morning expecting another good meal, something even sweeter than the day before, and he didn't want to miss a morsel.

What if we approached God like that! Yes, He provides our daily bread, but doesn't He give us dessert too!  After our main meal of the day, it is easy to put down your fork and walk away, as though our sweet fellowship is over. What delights we miss when we do not expect His desserts. If you don’t have a “keep your fork” attitude, you could miss the sweet things He has prepared for you throughout your day.