See Y’all Tomorrow!

Frank

That is, I assume if you’re reading this you’re a Christian. In which case I’ll wave to you as we’re passing through the clouds. And if you’re not, well it sucks to be you.

In case you haven’t heard, the world is ending tomorrow. I couldn’t quite figure out why tomorrow, but Matt at The Church of No People ran the math and it now makes perfect sense. Comforting to me, is seeing who’s behind this. No, tomorrow’s series finale isn’t news to me, but this article was the first I’ve seen that connected tomorrow’s big event to the same prediction back in 1994. I vividly remember that day. Some friends and I were in our school’s library at the prescribed hour watching the news for something, anything, to indicate there might be a hint of truth to that prediction. There wasn’t any. Of course, like most predictions of this kind, when the end of the world does not come the reason is usually some kind of math error: “I forgot to carry the one.” (Or “I forgot to check Jesus’ words that I wouldn’t know the day or the hour. That’s what I get for only reading Revelation and Tim LeHaye.”)

There is legitimate reason for concern, of course. This article from Slate sums up all the disasters around the world that could give us pause, or at least remind us of our own mortality and fragility. These are called “Black Swan” events, where the consequence is so high it would be catastrophic, yet the probability is so low that it shouldn’t keep us from getting out of bed in the morning.

At least that article is based on good science. I got home yesterday with a flier in my door warning me of the end of the world. Not tomorrow, necessarily, but sometime in the near future. Their reasoning isn’t global warming which was dismissed as being a political distraction from the real issue- Solar Flares. Yep. All the earthquakes, flooding, and tornados recently are because of solar flares. And the solar panels being installed all around town, especially at our local schools, are to protect those facilities from the oncoming devastation. I didn’t know that’s what solar panels were. I thought they were for, like, producing electricity or something. I also didn’t know that there were shadows on the moon that cause explosions that could destroy the Earth and that they just started happening, like last week!

If you look at my Twitter profile, I describe myself as a “space geek”. That’s not in an amateur astronomer kind of way, but in a I-do-this-for-a-living kind of way. I couldn’t believe the bad-science this church was promoting. Of course the motivation of it all was to get right with Jesus. I guess if solar flares motivate your relationship with Christ, more solar power to you.

When faced with the end of the world, or our impending death, many consider what they’d do if they only had a couple hours, days, weeks to live. A “bucket list” so to speak. Recently when putting together notes for my Crazy Love small group, I turned the question around into a personal gut-punch. The question isn’t what you’d do if you only had one day to live (spend more time with family, tell my boss what I really think, etc) but rather what would you do if you knew that in one day you would be face to face with the Creator of the Universe. Different question entirely. And the reality is, good or bad science, end-times theology or not, we all have to face that question because that moment could come at any

time. (Made you think I raptured, didn’t I)

(One final note. In the NYT article above, a few say they’ll be waiting for Jesus’ return by being “glued to our TV sets, waiting for the Resurrection and earthquake from nation to nation.” Yep, nothing looks more like following Jesus than watching TV. If I really believed the world was going to end tomorrow, I’d be out sharing the Gospel until the moment Jesus comes back. I wouldn’t be watching the news for reasons to gloat. I’m sorry, but that attitude ticks me off.)

Night Driving

Frank

I recently went on a business trip, driving after work six-plus hours through the night to get to my destination. Driving through the night can be intimidating. There are no streetlights with only the moon to light the sky. And it is lonely with only the occasional fellow red-eye driver on the road. Not to mention having to fight off sleep and keeping the mind from wandering too far.

Along this long stretch were few signs. And as the miles and hours passed, the signs to guide the way seemed further and further apart. My inner-clock deceived me into thinking that I have been driving longer than the many times I had been on this road before. I began to feel insecure. Did I miss a turn? Did I miss a sign? At night I couldn’t see any landmarks to guess at my location or even determine my direction, and I was too tired to trust the miles rolled off my odometer. I just had to have faith I was on the right road, heading the right direction.

Life doesn’t have signposts. We’re not given directions in advance. And we’re often too prideful to stop and ask for directions. Am I on the right road? Am I going the right direction? I think I’ve been down this road before.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

The road following Jesus is narrow. It may be scary to look over the ledge while carefully navigating each switchback as you climb closer to heaven. But you are safe. There aren’t many other cars on this road, but you’re not alone. Thankfully, you don’t have to make this drive in the dark of night. You can follow the light ahead of you. And you don’t have to know the way. Jesus isn’t your co-pilot, he’s your GPS.

This post is part of a blog-carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. Our theme this week is “road“. Check out other contributors for more road-wise posts.

All-In

Frank

I’m not much of a poker player. I can’t keep a stone-cold face to hide whether my hand is good or bad. And I don’t have much of a betting strategy. But I like to play. Maybe more so, I like to watch. There’s just something about watching pros at the table playing a game of wits, wondering what they are going to do next. I know it’s not for everybody, but I get a kick out of the tension and the drama, especially when someone decides to go all-in.

All-in. At that moment you are totally committed to your course. There’s no turning back. You either survive to fight another hand or you are knocked out. So you just hope beyond hope that you’re holding the better hand.

The dramatic made-for-TV reaction when going all in, is the player who stands up, steps back from the table and takes off either their hat or sunglasses. They dramatically hop around anxious for the results. And really, there’s no reason to stay at the table. At that point, there’s nothing more they can do but await the outcome.

I think a missing piece to modern-day Christianity is the notion of surrender. Going all-in, fully committed to Christ, with no turning back. Instead we subscribe to a casual faith from which flows a casual commitment. Consider Jesus’ own words:

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31-32)

And then the kicker:

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (v 33, emphasis added)

My small group has completed Francis Chan’s Crazy Love and now we’re moving on to Chip Ingram’s Living on the Edge. Surrender/going all-in is a significant theme of this book, as it digs into the example of discipleship described in Romans 12. I’m not going to blog on it week-by-week as I did with Crazy Love because I already did so last year. Check out the R12 tag for those posts.

I believe there’s a hunger in mainstream Christianity for something more… Christ-like. Almost daily this site gets hit on Google searches related to R12. Most frequently questions like, “why is Christianity so hard?” or “what does it mean to surrender to Christ?” It is sad that many cannot answer these fundamental questions (it’s not supposed to be and I’d love to sit down, open up the Bible and show you). I pray reading this blog leads some to the answers they seek. I pray also it calls each of us higher, away from casual complacency towards all-in surrender.

Grass of the Field

Frank

A couple of weeks ago I transplanted a tree. In my head the chore seemed simple enough- dig up the tree, dig another hole (3 times the size of the root-base of the tree), drop the tree, add potting soil/fertilizer mix, top off with the dug up grass, wipe the sweat from my brow, call it a day. It didn’t exactly work out like that.

I don’t have a green thumb. I’m 3.5 for 7 successful in planting trees at my house. The half is for the tree I transplanted. I’m not ready to call it a success, but it’s not yet a failure. It wasn’t dying. But it wasn’t growing either. Where I live, the ground is mostly clay, so it takes some work to get things to grow. This tree’s roots couldn’t spread and it wasn’t getting enough water. Fill in your favorite agriculture reference from your Bible:

He (the one who delights in the law of the Lord) is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. (Psalm 1:3)

Some fell on rocky places (or clay), where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. (Mark 4:5-6)

Since this tree didn’t have much root, digging it up was the easy part. The trouble came digging the new hole. I knew it would have to be big, and that I’d have to fill it in with better soil than was there to begin with. What I didn’t expect was how hard it would be to dig up the grass.

Grass gets a bad rap in the Bible. It quickly withers (Psalm 37:2, Ps 90:5-6, Ps 102:4 & 11, Ps 103:15-16, Ps 129:6, Isaiah 5:24, Is 15:6, Is 37:27, Is 40:6-8, Jeremiah 12:4, 1 Peter 1:24), is compared to the wicked (most of the same refs as before plus Psalm 92:7), and is thrown in the fire (Matthew 6:30, Luke 12:28, Revelation 8:7).

Yet it is the go-to popular ground-covering for our homes. Why? Because they’re weeds. They don’t require a ton of water, their roots entangle which preserves the soil from eroding or blowing away, and it is easy to plant.

It’s the entangling roots that got me thinking. The hardest part was digging through this dense network of roots. The top layer of grass was a single piece. I couldn’t just dig with my shovel and toss aside whatever came up with it. I had to literally cut out pieces of grass of manageable enough size to lift, and then dig my hole. Ok maybe that’s obvious to the rest of you, but it wasn’t to me.

Back to that network of roots. Isn’t that how God wants us to be? Sure, we get the illustration of the tree planted by water. But I live in a desert and when I see trees like that, they are usually standing alone. But grass is plentiful. It spreads. And each blade depends on the others. Alone they are frail, but a five-foot across circle is strong (and heavy!).

You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth. (Job 5:25)

Let grain abound throughout the land; on the tops of the hills may it sway. Let its fruit flourish like Lebanon; let it thrive like the grass of the field. (Psalm 72:16)

When you see this, your heart will rejoice
and you will flourish like grass (Isaiah 66:14)

Your Heaven

Frank

I woke up the other morning with this song in my head for some reason. It’s Five Finger Death Punch’s “Far From Home”. The video below, with over three million hits, is a tribute to America’s Armed Forces. The video is moving, but I wonder about the lyrics.

The chorus goes: “It’s almost like, your heaven’s trying everything to keep me out” Keep me out alternates with “break me down.”

Doesn’t sound like any heaven I know. What is misunderstood in the Gospel message is that heaven is exclusionary- keeping certain people with certain beliefs or certain lifestyles out. Yet the truth of the Gospel is that heaven has come down to earth for every one of us. Jesus, the Son of God present at the creation of the world, walked on this earth in the flesh experiencing all the same struggles as you or I only to be gruesomely killed to atone for our sins. Heaven isn’t keeping anyone out because heaven came down to us.

It’s almost like, my heaven’s trying everything to get me in.

Do You Agree with Rachel?

Frank

(A rare Saturday post to participate in the Rally to Restore Unity being hosted by Rachel Held Evans, author of Evolving in Monkey Town. When I first heard about this from other bloggers I follow, I thought “hey, that’s cool” but didn’t go check it out. I finally did take a look yesterday, and wow! There’s a lot to digest there, but it’s all worth reading. I don’t agree with everyone, but that’s kidna the point. On with the show…)

When I was converted in a campus ministry I left behind the traditional, religious experience of most of my life. It was hard. Harder, was knowing that there were good friends of mine who I knew sincerely loved God and Jesus but, in my new found convictions, were way off-base. I felt like Paul lamenting over his people:

“I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” (Romans 9:2-5)

Then I read Jesus prayer in John 17 and this became my new prayer: “God, I pray for all who believe in you through your Son, that we may all be one just as You and He are one, so that the whole world may believe.” (v 20-23) Well God answers prayers in funny ways.

Not long after I started praying this prayer I started to see fliers around campus reading “Do you agree with Rachel?”. The next day, the same question written in sidewalk chalk. And this continued for week or so before the signs were updated with a date, the next Saturday. The next phase of this viral campaign (before there even was such a thing!) was t-shirts that others started wearing around campus. But the message again changed. On the front the t-shirt read “Do you agree with Rachel?” and on the back it read “Rachel believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for your sins and rose again three days later.” No denominations. No direct tie to any campus ministry (though one of the more prominent ones was behind it). Unity under one message: the Gospel of Jesus.

At the time there was a lot of competition between different campus ministries for numbers and reputation. One group would tell incoming freshmen not to go to another group. The larger groups would intentionally schedule devos and events on top of smaller groups to take away their membership. And gossip, lots of gossip (you wouldn’t believe what what’s her name got away with in that group!). Rachel simply wanted it to stop.

I met Rachel before anyone knew who she was, or what we were even agreeing with. My small group co-leader and I had a nice conversation with her one day at the food court. Here was a girl that I could tell struggled under the weight of Jesus’ prayer in  John 17. Who loved Jesus so much she was willing to risk her reputation for him. Who was grateful to meet other believers who felt the same way she did. Of course I didn’t know she was behind the campaign. It never even occurred to me to put two and two together (her name was Rachel, duh!). But I walked away from that conversation thinking, “there’s someone who gets it” while at the same time hoping she’d come and check out my campus ministry because it was obviously better than all the others.

Of course when word got out who Rachel was and what her message was going to be there was significant backlash on this liberal campus. Jesus was mocked. Teachers who wore her shirt were suspended (separation of Church and State and all that), and she was openly persecuted.

When I found out who Rachel was I smiled and thanked God for answering my prayer. Then I skipped her rally because my church had something else going on that was more important.

Maybe I didn’t agree with her after all.

Flashback Friday: Call Your Mother!

Frank

***Originally posted right before Mothers’ Day 2009. I think I’ve called my mom at least once since then. 🙂 ***

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. -John 19:25-27

Even in Jesus’ most trying time, he remembered to take care of his mother. Even after being arrested, humiliated, beaten, and crucified his mother stood by him to the end. Thank God for moms.

Happy Mother’s Day

Legalism versus Obedience

Frank

As my small group concludes Crazy Love, I’m struck by the opposition this book gets. The most common theme I’ve seen is that it swings too far from the “Prosperity Gospel” towards a “Poverty Gospel” (watch the interview of Francis Chan by Mark Driscoll and Joshua Harris to see this debate in action) and for some this translates into a “salvation by works” doctrine.

Of course that ruffles the feathers of many. “Saved by grace through faith alone” I believe is a security blanket held on to so tightly than anything approaching a “hedge” such as raising standards or expectations is avoided out of fear of legalism. But what is legalism anyway? Is it works? Why does Hebrews say we should encourage one another? (Good deeds) What are we saved for? (The works God has prepared for us) What is faith if absent of works? (dead as a doornail) So the fruits of the Spirit, evidenced by works isn’t legalism, it isn’t a poverty gospel, it isn’t preaching sanctification through personal sacrifice. At the same time, we’re reminded that such acts if unaccompanied by love are worthless.

In this book, and in his life to be perfectly honest (and I think this is why his views upset the status quo), Francis Chan simply puts his money where his faith is. And he’s not alone. Nor is he alone receiving such criticism.

David Platt just released the anticipated sequel to his bestseller, Radical, called Radical Together. I like the approach- the first book challenges what you are doing on faith personally, and he follows up with mobilizing churches to do the same. But he has to devote an entire chapter (short as it is) to deflect the criticism he received in the first installment.

And the criticism is coming from surprising corners of evangelical celebrity. Jared Wilson, author of Your Jesus is Too Safe (doesn’t that sound legalistic?), raises the above issues and cites similar concerns from Skye Jethani, author of The Divine Commodity and Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk. Now I’m not familiar with all of their writings, and I don’t know them personally, but just based on their public persona and the titles of their books/blogs, you’d think they’d be lockstep behind Chan and Platt. Like I said before comparing Crazy Love to Mere Churchianity, we all see the same problem and are moved to do something about it.

This debate exposes the tension between Justification as taught by Paul, and the Kingdom as taught by Jesus. For more on this, check out this article in Christianity Today. The conclusion is not to start with either Justification or Kingdom, but rather the Gospel of Jesus himself. I couldn’t agree more. After all, Paul instructed us to “follow [his] example as [he] follows the example of Christ” and that our “attitudes should be the same as Christ Jesus”, that Christ is the “chief cornerstone” on which we build our own personal convictions, and to “live as Christ and to die is gain”. (1 Corinthians 1:11, Philippians 2:5, Ephesians 2:19-22, Philippians 1:21)

So now the question becomes, is expecting a Christian (recall the definition has nothing to do with belief, but rather imitation) to live a Christ-like life legalistic? Through the lens of “saved by grace” it would appear so:

  • In the parable of the four soils, three seeds sprout yet only one is saved. How can we tell the difference? By the one baring fruit.
  • In the parable of the talents (or bags of gold in the new NIV, blech) the only servant condemned is the one who does nothing. Even the one who does a little is rewarded. Also the reward is proportional to the service.
  • At the same time, in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, all are rewarded the same regardless of how much work is done. Yet there is still a connection between work and reward.
  • In the parable of the sheep and goats, Jesus couldn’t make it clearer when he delineates “that which you do for the least of these…” (In fact one of the Crazy Love study guides I found online tried to explain away this passage as only applying to service towards believers at the tribulation)
  • And I want to remind us of the rich young ruler. He was holding on to something that would keep him from entering into the Kingdom. We all have something we’re holding on to. It doesn’t necessarily have to be money or possessions. Yet just like the wealthy, it is impossible to give it up. “But with God, all things are possible”

Going back to the definition of love from 1 Corinthians 13, legalism versus justification or works versus grace can be resolved simply by establishing the motivation. Obeying Jesus out of fear, guilt, obligation, pressure or people-pleasing is legalism. But obeying Jesus out of love is not.

Love. I think that shows up in Chan’s book somewhere.

Are We Spoiled?

Frank

Today marks the 400th anniversary of the King James translation of the Bible and boy have we come a long way. From YouVerision’s site:

In the 14–16th centuries, a controversial question had been dividing nations: should the common man be able to read God’s Word? It was so incendiary that some people were killed for their translation efforts.

The KJV was not the first translation of God’s Word into English, but it has been one of the most influential in making Scripture widely available to everyday people in their own language.

The KJV is revolutionary in its reach. It has endured as one of the most widely read books in human history.

Written during the era of Shakespeare, the KJV is praised for its beauty and poetry. Many phrases we use today originated in the KJV, like the salt of the earth, a drop in the bucket, eye to eye, and labour of love.

Are we spoiled today? I went to the local Christian bookstore the other day to look for a new Bible for my wife. She wanted a replacement for her favorite, of which its cover has come off, pages have fallen out, and is a general pain to carry around. She wanted something the same size and didn’t want one with helps or devotions. Sounds easy, right? But I walk in and see an entire wall filled with Bibles of every kind and color. Different translations, different devotionals, different helps; each marketed to a different segment. There are Bibles for firefighters, Bibles for pre-teen girls, Bibles for retirees, and I could go on and on. Of course I’m a sucker- I own at least a half-dozen Bibles with different emphasis to aid in my Bible study, but what about a good, plain old Bible? I couldn’t find one. Well I could, but it was only the extra thick, black bound, meant to put on a bookshelf and never opened version. There were ones like she was looking for, but then they had to gussy up the covers: flowers, camouflage, purple…

And don’t even get me started on translations!

I guess I find it funny that a few hundred years ago you could have been killed for having a contemporary translation of the Bible. In some parts of the world today you could still be killed for having a Bible, no matter the translation, publisher, or color of leather binding. Some friends of my sister can’t even name the country they’re in translating for Wycliffe. Yet in America today we have more Bibles than we know what to do with. In fact, we have so many we find ourselves debating semantics and political correctness rather than focusing on its message.

Fact is, few of us are risking our lives by owning a Bible. It is hardly the radical document that it is meant to be. Many own one but never open it. Many (like me) own more than one just because we can. We’ve come a long way.

I love the movie The Book of Eli simply because of its theme: what lengths would you go to to preserve the last known Bible? And I’ll be honest, I was tearing up at the end. The inspired Word of God is that beautiful, that powerful.

Do you take owning a Bible for granted?

For the Word of God is living and active… (Hebrews 4:12)

Flashback Friday: It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Frank

***Originally posted September 10, 2009 when the Large Hadron Collider became operational. Reposted because of news this week that the “God Particle” aka the Higgs boson may have been found. To save you from digging out your old physics textbook (surely you still have it) the Higgs boson is the subatomic particle that is theorized to give objects their mass. In layman’s terms: it’s what all the fuss in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons was about. But maybe we shouldn’t get our hopes up quite yet. I wonder if this discovery will be confirmed before the actual end of the world which we all know is going to be May 21. (And I need to remind everyone of this scripture: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. -Matthew 24:36)***

It’s the end of the world as we know it… and I feel fine.

I’m behind my posting, but I had to get something up because today is the end of the world. What, you didn’t hear? No I didn’t get this information from someone locked away in a commune in Idaho or from a guy on a street corner holding a sign and asking for change. In fact, I don’t have any religious reason for saying this at all, rather purely scientific. You see, today scientists turned on the Large Hadron Collider, a super-collider in Europe that is intended to create subatomic particles and replicate the big bang.

So what does that have to do with the end of the world? Well some are so afraid of the science behind it that they believe small black holes will be created that could eventually swallow the Earth. They’re so afraid in fact, that they’ve tried to sue to keep it from operating. Not exactly how my Bible describes the end of the world. On the other hand, if they can create a singularity, and wormhole theories hold true, then maybe after the Earth is swallowed up our promised “new Earth” will emerge on the other side. Of course, that would require Jesus to have already come back and depending on which-millennialist doctrine you subscribe, another 1000 years or so to pass. So maybe today’s not the day. But I’ll be keeping oil in my lamp.