On April 15, 2010, Federal District Barbara B. Crabb declared that the National Day of Prayer established by act of Congress in 1952 violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Her injunction takes effect at the conclusion of any appeals filed by the defendants, President Obama and White House Press Secretary Gibbs. The text of the decision may be obtained at http://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/SummaryJudgementGeitner.PDF.
It is understandable that many Christians are upset by this decision, and they see it as a further erosion of our national Christian heritage. They are right. But I, for one, am not so concerned that some judge in some court has again denied the right and prerogative of the Congress to set aside one day as a National Day of Prayer. After all, this government has not been a friend to Christians for a very long time, nor do I expect them to change in short order.
My concern is that we are, again, overly dependent upon the government to take the lead in restoring and protecting our Christian heritage. We receive nothing from government; we receive all good and right things from God. The atheist shares in this blessing only because God is good.
Before anyone gets their shorts in a knot, ask this question of yourself. When was the last time your church called for a day of prayer? If they did, how well was it attended? Did you attend?
We don't need the government to declare a National Day of Prayer. What we need is our churches to declare a National Day of Prayer, Fasting, and Repentance, pleading with God to remove from us our national, ecclesiastic, and personal sin and shame. Once we get serious about that, then the government will follow, as they should.
If you pray, they will follow because Jesus is King, even over the United States of America.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Setting Low Expectations and Failing to Meet Them
"Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead? Acts 26:8
On Sunday morning, faithful Christians will go into their churches for worship (or is it more correct to say “to worship”?). Imagine for a moment that sentries were posted outside the doors of every church asking each individual man, woman or child, “What is your purpose in coming here? What do expect to accomplish? What do you expect to receive? ” What would be your answer? Now, what if these sentries were to ask the preachers the same questions? Would the preachers answer differently than we would?
When we go to worship (the more correct saying; worship is a contact “sport"), preachers should expect that the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, will move through the preaching of His word in the hearts and minds of His people. And Christians should expect the same! That’s right; we should expect the Holy Spirit to do this. Unfortunately, a spirit of idleness, skepticism, and unbelief has so permeated the church that we expect little of the Holy Spirit. We probably have so little expectation of Him because we pray so little.
Thankfully, Paul and the other apostles did not have such low expectations; nor should we. We should desire and expect that the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. We should desire and expect that the Holy Spirit will comfort us that, indeed, our warfare against God is ended, that we have been reconciled to him through the Cross of Jesus, and that we will receive grace to walk before God in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. And we should expect conversions. Not one here or there, but conversions in the hundreds and thousands. However, if we pray little, we will have low expectations.
We desperately need a visitation from the Lord as he did in older days, and we should expect to receive one. So tonight, the evening before worship, and tomorrow morning before worship, pray for your pastor that God would bless the preaching of His word in ways we could not even think imaginable. If God has given us the Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, shouldn’t we raise our expectations beyond our meager limitations to level of the promises that God has made? Why should we think this incredible?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Hope against Hope
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)
Hope is a fragile human sentiment in which we expect the fulfillment of our desires. We might hope that our desires for a new job or a high score on a test will be fulfilled. We often hope in people; we hope the doctor will tell us what has been troubling us physically, or that our parents may take us on an exciting summer vacation. We also often hope in objects; we hope that new laws will make us more secure in our persons and in our endeavors, or that our cars will last until we can afford to repair or replace it. We also hope in circumstances, such as when we hope that it will not rain during our planned picnic, or that the economy will improve. And we hope that our children’s future, success, and prosperity will be greater than ours. Hope is a powerful motivator that gives us encouragement and comfort in times of trouble, difficulty, and uncertainty.
There are times, and thankfully they are relatively infrequent for most of us, when our hopes are dashed because of circumstances that are beyond our control, or because our resources are too meager to bring about the desired result, or simply because other people let us down, not following through on promises that they have made to us, which gave rise to our hope. The economic events of the past two years have certainly tested the hopes of many people. Many retirees saw their savings accounts, upon which they hoped to live on, significantly reduce in value. Approximately 15 million workers, or 9.7 percent of the population willing and able to work, were unemployed in March 2010, while only 162,000 non-farm jobs were added to the payroll in the same month. Of the jobs added in March, 48,000 were temporary jobs associated with the census. There are many people and families whose hopes for the future have been stretched to the breaking point. It is difficult to offer a word of encouragement or hope to people in this situation because we recognize that we ourselves are powerless and subject to the same limitations as everyone else. It is difficult to offer comfort and hope, but not impossible. God, through his word and Spirit, does give his people abundant hope in the most trying of circumstances. Let me outline just one example.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells of the hope that Abraham had in the promise that God had made to him.
For this reason it is by faith, that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, "A father of many nations have I made you") in the sight of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 4:16-25 (ESV)
God made a promise to Abraham that he would be a father, not just of a son, but of many nations. There was only one small problem. Abraham was almost 100 years old and Sarah was about 90 years old when God chose to fulfill the promise of a son to them. That they were old beyond childbearing years is evidenced when God asked Abraham,
“And the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?' "Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." Genesis 18:13-14 (ESV)
Now, I specifically cited this example because it describes the impossibility of Abraham’s physical circumstances over and against the promise of God. If a ninety year old woman were to give birth to a child today, we would consider it most extraordinary news. But, the main issue here is the statement “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?” Our knowledge of what is physically impossible is directly contrasted to the promise that God made. Abraham considered the impossibility of his physical situation as well. Abraham certainly knew of the deadness of his own flesh and the deadness of Sarah’s womb, and he hoped against hope! Abraham hoped in the promise of God, even though his physical condition and that of Sarah gave him no hope.
So, what does all this have to do with your children and our students? As Christians, we hope against all the evidence to the contrary that God will fulfill our promises to our children because we do not hope in the innate ability of ourselves or our children, nor do we hope in the circumstances that they will face. We hope against hope because we hope in the God who made these promises and who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead!
We are engaged in a great and abiding work for the future of our children. We cannot coordinate the circumstances which will make them successful, but God has promised them good. We cannot change the hearts of our children, but God has declared that they belong to him. We cannot make everything okay for our children, but we know the God who works all things for our good.
The Christ-centered education your children receive is intended to help them to become self-consciously aware that God created all things in the physical world out of nothing and sustain his creation by word of his power. With that as our starting point, we educate children to ask the really tough questions about the physical world, and not be intimated by those who begin at some philosophical or scientific point other than the Creator God of the Bible. Establishing that God is the Creator, we educate children to see God as the Redeemer in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who they must trust for their daily vocation, whether as a student or some other endeavor. Having established God as Creator and Redeemer, we educate children to live their lives, in whatever calling they may walk in, as imitators of Christ.
This is tough work, both as a parent and as an educator. But it is one work which will bear much fruit in the lives of our children. Not because of our ability or accomplishments, but because of the God who has promised us success.
We hope against hope, and God will never put us to shame.
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Monday, April 5, 2010
Paradigms of Reality
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:24-29 (ESV)
I have been deeply troubled in my heart, asking myself when did my faith in Jesus become cold and distant. I remember days when it was my delight in knowing him, reading of him, talking with him, speaking to others of him. There were the blessed days of witnessing to complete strangers on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, California, and the Bible studies with dear brothers and sisters who helped me when I first trusted Jesus. When did my trust in the Person of Jesus Christ lose its lustre? And, more importantly, why?
I have been over the familiar rubrics for asking these questions. Unconfessed sin? Certainly. Ungodly thoughts, words, and actions? Most assuredly. Foolishness? Without a doubt. But, even as I deal with these issues, trusting in the forgiveness that Christ promises me in his Word (1 John 1:9), I find myself yearning for more of Christ. And I doubt I am the only one who feels this way.
With deep gratitude to the weekly preaching of my pastor, I have been forced into a much more careful consideration of the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, than I have ever considered it before this time. What has become a commonplace tenet of orthodox Christianity, has become too commonplace for me. It is too familiar to me; too much is taken for granted. The physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead is much more than a tenet, it is the vindication of all that the Father says of the Son, of all the Son says of himself, and all that the Holy Spirit has to say of the Son (1 Corinthians 15:14). If I have taken the resurrection of Jesus from the dead for granted, then I have taken Jesus himself for granted.
When confronted by the resurrected Jesus, Thomas's confession is, at least in my opinion, the most profound confession of Jesus as the Christ in all of Scripture, easily exceeding the confessions of Peter and of Paul. Thomas's (my namesake by the way; the older I become, the more apt I think my parents named me) entire worldview was overthrown when Jesus says to him, "Put your finger here." Thomas knew that the Romans were experts at killing people, and in the Roman world, life was cheap. But, standing before him is the resurrected Jesus. Thomas can only reply, "My Lord and my God!"
The grinding of gears that you hear is the shifting of another paradigm of reality. Now, it's time to examine more closely the paradigm of reality that Jesus established by his resurrection from the dead.
The grinding of gears that you hear is the shifting of another paradigm of reality. Now, it's time to examine more closely the paradigm of reality that Jesus established by his resurrection from the dead.
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. Luke 24:5-7(ESV)
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Living in the Shadows
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:20 (ESV)
Over the last several days I have read comments by several well intentioned Christians that the Church should not celebrate Easter. They claim, as the basis of authority for their opinion, that Scripture does not expressly commend the observance of Easter, and that to do so is a regression into Romish superstition. To this argument I have only one word; bunk. If this appears too blunt of a response, I apologize. I did refine it quite a bit, however.
Perhaps these people have forgotten that the people of God are to celebrate and declare to the world the mighty works of God, as in Psalm 92 or in Psalm 106; or as in Psalms 115 to 118. Or perhaps we have forgotten the greatness of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Perhaps we have personalized the Cross so much that we limit Christ's work to merely getting ourselves into heaven. If so, shame on us, for we are living in the shadows.
I look forward to the day when we will put aside our petty squabbles, and begin again to ponder anew and share the great hope of God making all things new, as he has adequately and sufficiently demonstrated to the world through the death and resurrection of His Anointed Christ, the Lord Jesus. With the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God has declared Jesus his Son with power, that we might walk in newness of life. Instead of hiding in the shadows, we should walk in the open glory of the Risen Christ, declaring to men that their greatest enemy, death, has been put to death.
John Donne, better than most of our contemporaries, got it right when he wrote,
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Our rallying cry to all men tomorrow, and everyday, must be and needs to be, "The LORD's Anointed Christ, Jesus, has put to death death itself. Now, come to Jesus and live."
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