Happy Friday:
The earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2
Assessing Your Trajectory? We grow older. Between today and our death, aging is inevitable. The question is, do we also grow wiser? Are you “getting better”? Are you becoming more Christ-like? Many stop growing decades before their death. Peter did not. The letters he wrote not long before he was martyred (i.e., First and Second Peter) are so profound – and the Greek so polished and learned – that liberal religion professors argue they could not have been written by the impetuous and uneducated fisherman on display in the Gospels. But they were. Peter simply kept learning and growing. Are you?
Our Combined Total: This past weekend, my niece’s husband (Aaron) ran The Rim to Rim to Rim – which means he ran down one side of the Grand Canyon, across the valley, up the other side, back down, back across and back up to where he began. It took him 14 hours to cover the 55 miles. On the same weekend, one of my brothers ran a half marathon. I will always remember this weekend as the time when Aaron, Mark and I combined to run 71 miles.
Reunion Thoughts 2.0. A few weeks back, I shared about my 40th high school reunion – noting my encouragement at how many of my former classmates have come to a vital faith in Christ. I have shared similar things about my fraternity reunions, where so many are now following Christ that one of the lone hold outs asked if this was a fraternity reunion or a God-Squad meeting. I share all of this to say, I graduated from high school and college a bit discouraged that God had not answered more prayers for the conversion of friends. I needed a longer time horizon. We should not expect to plant and harvest on the same day.
Temptation: I am speaking on the Seventh Commandment this weekend – i.e., do not commit adultery. I am not about to suggest that I am immune to sexual temptation, but I suspect that one of my greatest temptations is to substitute what I’m doing for God for my time with God.
The Gospel: BTW, because we are all Pelagians at heart, let me remind you: we do not love God in order to be “purified”; we love God because our soul has been purified through the work of another (Christ).
What Undoes a Church? The headwinds blowing against churches have picked up. That is reason enough to ask, what causes a church to fail? Is it: bad preaching, a declining budget, the lack of a good smoke machine? No, it is slander, envy, deceit, malice, hypocrisy.
Three Insights from Keller. I spent last Friday at a conference designed to mobilize church planting efforts in North America. One of the speakers, Tim Keller, picked up on the work of Leslie Newbigen to argue that we must develop: 1) a Christian high theory and apologetic; 2) a truly Post Christendom Evangelism dynamic; 3) a category-defining Christian social project; 4) a counter catechism movement; and 5) “grace to the point.” In a future update I plan to develop what he said, which was a bit darker than I have heard him in the past. For now, let me share three of his observations: 1) Today’s culture is five to ten times stronger than it was 20 years ago. Meanwhile, the Christian subculture is growing weaker; 2) We should expect / prepare for a Western culture that is unrecognizable in five years; and 3) Modern efforts to be free are not working. As a result, we are left with: values that are relative, relationships that are transactional, and identities that are hyper fragile. (More to follow.)
Part of the Problem: It used to be that Ds and Rs agreed on the goal, they simply disagreed on means – i.e., both thought we should help the poor. The Ds wanted to raise taxes on the wealthy to provide aid, while the Rs thought it best to cut taxes so the economy would lift up more people. This is a simplistic summary. I share it only to say, the Ds and Rs now seldom agree on any goals.
Quotes Worth Requoting: On Wednesday of this week, two of the devotionals I read cited English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s famous phrase about the glory of God via nature. I am passing it along: Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes, the rest sit ’round it and pluck blackberries.
Gratitude: This week’s update is late because I ended up spending time in an ICU waiting room in Iowa. I am thankful to report that the brother-in-law we gathered around is trending well. I am also thankful that the extended family stepped up. We need each other! We need families to be strong. And we also need to be reminded that life is short, eternity is not and the opportunity to make a difference is now.
Prayer Requests: Given my brief summary from Keller and the upcoming elections, there are obvious prayer requests. To all of this, may I add the ongoing prayer that the Holy Spirit would draw us into a greater intimacy with Himself and that we would be willing to obey His guidance in all things.
Closing Prayer: Lord, strengthen me with heavenly courage, that I may fight against pleasures and vanities that harm the soul. I do not expect or ask that trials and sorrows should cease. I ask only that, in your strength, I resist the temptations to seek consolation in sin. For I know that only by clinging to the gospel of righteousness, and by grasping at your eternal grace, can I ever experience true and lasting joy. Thomas a Kempis (1380 – 1471)