Not too apologetic

I've never been that into apologetics. Apologetics being the reason-based arguments for the defense of or proof of the Christian faith. It seems to me that there is a lot of "bad science" involved. Well-intentioned believers become convinced that the world will come to Jesus if they simply have a chance to lay out the air-tight case for Christianity. They become so eager to do this that they start throwing around unproven (if not unlikely) theories for things like the flood. "I heard somewhere" sorts of information gets passed quickly and widely as fact.

It's not as though there hasn't been any credible work, but every bit of "bad science" seems to take us back further than good science is capable of bringing us forward. And it's not as if evolutionists are never guilty of the same thing, but that is none of my concern.

The whole idea of having an air-tight argument does not jive with me. Attempts to defend the faith often turn into intellectual jabs that do more to harm the faith than Darwin ever could have (I think of decals which have the ICTHUS eating a Darwin fish). Well-formed defenses (non-argumentative) can aide in removing some doubt, bt ultimately, Christ must be taken on faith.

But I over-react. Apologetics are, in my opinion, so dominated by quips and slogans that I tend to avoid any association with it. That's not a good stand. That's not the one Saul/Paul took. Acts 9:20 "At once [Saul] began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. 21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" 22 Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

What proofs can we offer?

Edwin "Fast Eddie" Keel passed away this week. 94 and half years lived unto the Lord. He told me that he would have liked to have been a preacher, but a speech impediment prevented him from pursuing it. God knew what he was doing with Eddie. As a lay-leader, he was instrumental in the planting of three area churches (Meadowbrook, Elizabeth Lake and Tri-County). He also served as an elder for many years, but the main role for which I will remember him is as deal closer. When Cindie and I were trying to decipher whether or not this was where God was leading, the then 89 and half year old man came over and talked to us 22 year-olds. We had plenty of doubts. However, his words of encouragement, tender and true, clamped down on us like a steel trap. We knew there was no getting out of this. His steady and persistant encouragement over the last five years at the church together with his constant prayer on my behalf have given my weak knees strength to stand. I am so glad to have known him, and I will miss him. 

Smelling the Flowers

My three year-old daughter repeated one request the whole evening. "Let's go smell the flowers."


My wife would take her over to where the flowers were, and Hannah would sniff away. But if you watched her closely you cold see her peaking out of the corner of her eye at the lady who was laying in the box.

I wonder about what she thinks. I worry about what she thinks. In my vocation, there will be many funerals and visitations to attend. I'm concerned about how my kids will handle it.

This was not someone she knew, really. But at the end of the week there will be a funeral for Eddie Keel, a 94 year-old man I will be writing on later, that she will certainly recognize.

I'd like to shelter her from this. She is extremely compassionate, and I worry about how this will shape her.

Add to this that many of the people closest to her are senior members of the church. How do I prepare her for the day when one of her Pa Pa's die?

Morning Star Response

I got a question about a post I did last November or December on the "Morning Star". It's from a fellow named Dustin (who I do not know). Dustin said...

Sorry to be posting here, but I wasn't sure if you'd see it if I posted to the post I read. I have a question about your morning star post. What was Jesus saying when he referred to himself as the bright morning star in revelation 22:16? Is this the same kind of phrasing that was used in Isaiah to describe the king? I realize one is greek and one is hebrew but...yeah...Was Jesus a megalomaniac by his own definition, or does he mean he is a guiding light or something?



The term "Bright Morning Star" seems to refer to a new hope... the dawning of a new day. It was a perfect fit for Jesus was indeed the new hope (Luke 4:26-21). But why does he use the term which has been used to mock an evil king? Perhaps, it is to say, "I am what he claimed to be", the same much of the imagery of Revelation is borrowed from current Roman royalty to say "I am who they claim to be". They claim to be the Son of God, I am. He claimed to be the morning star, I am the Bright Morning Star.

I'm not sure what you meant by megalomaniac. This is the primary definition given by dictionary.com: A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.

Jesus believed himself God, but his assertions were not delusional fantasies. Hope that is the answer that you were looking for.

Jesus

John 17:1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. 6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

13 "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Prayers of pain

Paul says in Philippians 4 that when we present our requests to God by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, that the peace of God which is beyond figuring out, will stand in guard of our hearts and minds.

But praying through pain is never easy. Today, I did a graveside service in a part of the cemetery where tombstones were shaped like Mickey Mouse. The casket was not carried by a team of men, but by a young mother.

In moments like these I always find myself praying to God to give me the words to pray, asking to know what to ask for.

In 1989, Northern Israel was hit by terrorists. 29 people in small island died. Steve Stockman was asked to give a prayer on BBC radio less than a week afterward. This is what he prayed:

Lord, we come to the end of another week
Except that it hasn't been just another week
It has been the worst week of our lives
And even worse for some
Lord, help us to be honest, vulnerable, and somehow hopeful in the reflection of our feelings.

Lord, we have been shocked
Shocked by how one tiny second can tear our lives apart
Shocked by how far humanity can fall
Shocked by how callous and painful our actions can be, how low we can stoop.

Lord, we are grieving
Grieving for the loss of lives with so much love and energy still to give
Grieving for the man and woman and child we will never be able to hold again
Grieving that our history is so sad and twisted.

Lord, we are confused
Confused at why this should happen
Confused about how this should happen to the innocent
confused about where You and faith enter into these events.

Lord, we are angry
Angry at why we allowed our family and friends to go shopping
Angry at how evil people could rip our world asunder
Angry that You allowed it to happen.

Lord, we are seeking
Seeking some kind of feeble consolation in the midst of our deluge of tears
Seeking some kind of hope that good might come from evil
Seeking your Spirit, whom Jesus called a Comforter, to whisper into our maddening silence.

Lord, we are squinting for faith
Faith that the majority might have some kind of say in the future
Faith that love will end our hate, good will end our evil, and grace will touch our broken hearts
Faith in a God who is as angry as we are and who is reaching out his hand to us.

Lord, we are remembering
Remembering those who today can no longer be shocked, grieve, be angry, be confused, seek or squint for faith
Remembering that You watched as Your Son, covered in blood, die at the futile whim of injustice
Remembering that His death is the only thing we can grope after in the dark of a week like this.

Lord, we have planted our loved ones deep in the bloody earth of Ireland this week
We have watered them with our tears
Lord, may You allow them to be seeds of love that will grow into our peace.
Lord, remember us.

Amen.

A "Change-Me" Prayer

I think a real mark of Christian maturity is when we stop praying "Change-my-circumstance" prayers and start praying "change-me" prayers.

Here is a great example:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon,
where there is doubt, faith,
where there is despair, hope,
where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I might not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. (St. Francis Assisi)

Praying the will of God

Jesus instructs us to pray that God's "will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And in dark Gethsamane he modeled that sort of prayer: "Not my will, but yours..."

I want to pray for God's will, but it's difficult. I often am unclear on what his will is. Do I pray for healing or comfort while dying? When a brother wonders off in disobedience, do I ask that God would spare them harm, or do whatever it takes? Other clear examples escape me. But I found the following prayer by Thomas Merton to be helpful:

My LORD God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (found in "Thoughts in Solitude")

What to pray for

I don't always know what to pray. Sometimes I pray the same prayers so often that I am hardly think aout them as I pray. I know that this is not what God desires from my prayer life, but sometimes it's difficult to know what to pray for. When I begin to get in a rut like that, I like to do what Daniel did. He let Scripture lead his parayer"

Daniel 9:1 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes... I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel had been exiled to Baylon along with all the other leaders in Jerusalem as a punishment against God's people. Jerusalem itself, lay in shambles. Daniel was reading Jeremiah. He found a prophecy that said this banishment from Jerusalem would only last 70 years. It was almost 70 years when he read it. What follows is one of Scripture's most beautiful prayers.



"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
DA 9:7 "Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame--the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
"Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
DA 9:15 "Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
DA 9:17 "Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."

Try to start some prayers by reading God's word. See where the conversation leads.

God to the rescue

2 Samuel 22:2-3
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior-
from violent men you save me.


There are nine terms here (two different terms for rock) which all speak of God's rescuing abilities. Some more modern terms might be guard dog, Mama bear, defense attorney, 401k, anti-lock breaks and power steering, miracle drug, big brother, helmet, safety belt, jaws of life, military, Constitution and Bill of Rights, union rep, firefighter, deadbolt, Onstar, firewall... I'm sure you can think of others.

In doing such brainstorming, we might reveal that we have placed our trust in some of these things rather than God. But the point of the Psalm is the GOD is (fill in your trustworthy protection metaphor).

Let's pray that we would learn to trust him above all, and that he would give us opportunity to display that trust.

my girl turned 3 this week 

my boy 

Daddy can feed me! 

Daddy can dress me too! 

Hannah in Algonac 

Show the blind man

In Acts 9, Saul sees the light... and then he sees nothing for days. His head must have been spinning. He thought he was defending the true faith, now he finds out he had actually been persecuting it. What irony, a blinding vision allowed him to see. And the man most hellbent on stopping the church becomes the one man (other than Jesus) most responsible for its worldwide success.

Males me wonder if there could be a modern-day equivalent out there. Think of the person most hellbent to stop the church in our day... The president of the ACLU? Marilyn Manson? Osama Bin Laden? Think of the impact such a person could have if Jesus met them and turned their life around!

My favorite part of this section though, is the Lord's message to Ananias: "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." I will show the blind man what life with me will be like. Yet, instead of complaining of the new assignment of suffering, he would often boast about it. (Phil 3:7-14) Man, I long to see some Big-Time repentance like that in my day!

The Order of the Sheep

After the accounts of Stephen (a man of great power who laid down his life) and Simon (a man of power whose lust for more power brought condemnation upon himself) comes the account of the Ethiopian Eunuch (8:26-40).

A little digging shows that this "baptism passage" says a whole lot about power. The Ethiopian was a servant to the Queen. She ruled for her son, the King, because Ethiopian kings thought themselves to be the sons of the Sun (god). That, they believed, made them much too divine for the business of governing. So the Eunuch was familiar with a son of a god who was so powerful (divine) that he was useless.

Add to that, he himself was a high-ranking official, but being a eunuch may have felt too emascualted to feel powerful. I won't over-analyze here, but the tension between being a powerful man and an emasculated man is too much to ignore.

He is reading Isaiah, perhaps because it contains the good news for eunuchs (Isaiah 56:4, 5... is there a word play in there?). He was reading this from Isaiah 53:

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before the shearers, so he opened not his mouth; 33 in his humiliation, justice was denied him; and who can express the wickedness of the people of his generation? For his life is taken from the earth."


Philip explains to him that this "sheep to the slaughter" was the Messiah, Son of the True God. What a contrast from the son of a god he had already known. Apparently, such a powerful man acting in such a selfless way was very attractive to the Ethopian. He decides to surrender his life to the Lamb in the waters of baptism, which is itself a pouring out of power.

Why does a book about the church's beginnings have so much about the pursuit of power in it? I have an opinion. When surrounded by sheep, the temptation to "power up" and take charge (with all the emotional highs and the status that go with that) is very real and very dangerous. To be right, we, the sheep, must follow the First Sheep, Jesus. He did not pursue his own power, but poured out his power for the good of others. That's what Stepehen was doing. That's what Simon did not get. That is what won the heart of an emasculated Ethiopian powerhouse.

power and servanthood

Acts 8:5-24


What a huge contrast between Stephen and Simon. One with true power did not seek more power even when his life was on the line. The other saught power whatever the cost.


Peter, was none too thrilled with Simon's heart. The self-seeking nature of his request was diametrically opposed to the heart of Christianity.


I liked this photo because it shows someone like Stephen who had power butthe heart of the student.


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Last week, I tried to write something about my brother, Jason. He died three years ago. I didn't/couldn't finish it. Maybe soemday.

Persecution

8:1-4

Did God cause the persecution to get the church "off its backside" and on with the plan (1:8)? Or did God take the opportunity created by evil and use it expand the church?

Frankly, we are not given the answer. Either way, we see God is in control and the church is an unstoppable force. (Matthew 16:18).

At this point in the book, we need to ask, "What can stop a church from succeeding?" The church started in extraordinary circumstances, the Sanhedrin has tried to stop it a couple of times, inside problems threatened it (Ananias and the Grecian widow problem), and now murderers threaten it; but each threat only makes it stronger.

Nothing can stop Christ's church. There are rough spots, but they can be used either as friction to slow us or as traction to speed us up.

Achan and Ananias revisited

Ray Vanderlaan said that Achan was not punished just for stealing. Lots of people steal. You could even say that all of us steal in one way or another. The reason he was so severely punished was because his actions radically contrasted and threatened the community that God was trying to establish. He was not just disobedient, he was only thinking of himself.

As Achan's New Testament counterpart, the same could be said for Ananias. This would help explain God's severity toard Ananias and Saphira. Their deeds struck at the heart of this new community that God had established.

Look for posts on power as we move into Acts 8.