Judges 7 Moment in America?

I was reading the story of Gideon to my kids the other day, and it reminded me of the American church. 

The story is really amazing every time.  Gideon is about to face a coalition of the armies of several Midianite tribes.  His army of 32,000 men seems smallish already and woefully ill-equipped for this mission.

But God doesn't say they have too few; He says they have too many.  So Gideon invites everyone who is afraid to leave.  You can imagine how a couple of people left sort of sheepishly, until more and more decided to go, and then it hit a tipping point where it seemed everyone was going to leave.  When everyone had made their choice, 22,000 men had deserted, and only 10,000 remained. 

Now the army seemed really small, but God still said it was too many.  He had Gideon watch the men drink from the river, and everyone who got down on their knees and put their face in the water was sent away.  Well, that seemed to be the normal way to drink from a river in that time, because 9,700
men drank from their knees and were sent home.  Only 300 men remained.

What did these men have in common?  What does it have to do with the American church?

"No Matter What": Summer Detox (excerpt)

 

CHAPTER 1 – SUMMER DETOX

            It used to be that when a guy liked a girl, he couldn’t send a quick “Hey” to her phone or inbox and hope for the best.  He couldn’t hide behind text or a computer screen to maintain the façade of aloof coolness.  No.  He had to walk to the front door of her house, knock on the door, and tell her father to his face that he was there to call on his daughter. Imagine how exposed he would have felt when she finally appeared in the doorway.  All pretenses are gone.  He is there for one purpose: to win her heart.

            Thankfully for you kids, I didn’t grow up during that time or you would never have existed. 

Questions for Jesus: Is It Right to Pay Taxes to Caesar or Not? (excerpt)



Mark 12:13-17

¹³ Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴ They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him.

"Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?  Should we pay or shouldn't we?"

I think this question has added relevance in modern times when many Bible-believing Christians also identify strongly with conservative "Tea-Party" politics, but I will get to that later...

The Presidential Election: An Attempt at an Eternal Perspective

I mentioned on Facebook last week that while I cannot vote for Barack Obama to be re-elected, I was very uneasy with the prospect of Mitt Romney becoming President as well.  It was a feeling that had been growing since the second debate, when a better performance by the President did not stop Romney's momentum in the polls.  More than that, the uneasiness was prompted by a statement by Romney in closing moments of the debate. 

More on that in a minute.

I am also trying in my life to look at things through an eternal lens.  I think that is our task as Christian pilgrims in this temporary world.  The world should be better for our passing through, but this world is not our home, and we have the knowledge that a far greater reality awaits beyond this world, and that reality is more truthful and more real than what we experience right now.

First I suppose that I should explain why I cannot vote for Barack Obama.

Movie Thoughts: Inception

When I wrote about Rob Bell last week, I said I was "late to the party."  I guess when you review a movie that has been out on video for at least several weeks and was the #1 movie in theaters months ago, you could say I arrived at the party when the dip is gone and the drinks are warm.  Still, I have some thoughts about how the ideas of Inception relate to our own understanding of reality.

This is not really a movie review, though.  This post is really for people who have already seen the movie or intend never to see it (it has lots of spoilers).  I am not necessarily recommending the movie (it is really violent in places, has some language issues, and there aren't really any strong positive characters), but I did enjoy it.  Director Christopher Nolan has a knack for producing thought-provoking movies that raise interesting questions about human nature and how we cope with the world around us.  The ideas in Inception relate directly to both the Christian hope and the lie of the devil in Genesis 3...

Rob Bell and Eternal Destinies

I know I'm really late to the party, but I had a lot of thoughts last week about the whole Rob Bell "Love Wins" controversy (for more info, click here, here, and here), and I wanted to share them, in case anybody wanted to read them.  I guess the central fear here is that Rob Bell, who has been called a "rock star" in the Christian world, is now teaching universalism, or that everyone will eventually be saved.  He also seems to suggest that good people in other religions, Gandhi specifically, can gain salvation without a Christian conversion.  The caveat here, of course, is that the book hasn't come out yet, so I'm not going to address Rob Bell specifically, but instead express some of my thoughts (guided, I think, by the Spirit through prayer and by Scripture) about some of these issues.

Treating the "Unpresentable" with Modesty

"...those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment..." -- 1 Corinthians 12:22-24

 

The phrase that jumped out to me when I read this section recently was "the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty."  What is Paul talking about here?  In our human bodies, he is obviously talking about those parts that are indecent to expose to the public.  But how does that relate to the Body of Christ? 

 

I think the "unpresentable" here are those situations and people that are not (or not yet) "presentable" to the world for one reason or another, yet are so important to the life of the church.  For example, we must confess our sins to one another and deal with sin, but these things must be carefully protected within the Body.  There are also immature Christians who are sinful and rough around the edges, but if a church has no immature Christians, then no one is being reached.  These are not "presentable" parts of the life of the Body, but they are "indispensable."  We cannot pretend these parts do not exist or try to force them out.  Instead, although we're not ashamed of them, we know it is not proper to expose these to anyone and everyone.  Instead, we lovingly shelter these treasured and indispensable parts so that they can serve their purpose in the Body.