Character Counts?

It is popular today, especially in places like schools and in the youth services where psychological understandings of self rule the day, to talk about the character of young people and the values that must be instilled in them before they become adults. The goal, if I may be allowed to simplify things a bit, is to make sure that our young people are nice before they become old enough to suffer the consequences for not being nice. Along with this argument is a call for adults to role model what it means to be nice; a call, in my opinion, that is largely put into practice with a “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy.

I am convinced that contemporary notions of “character” and “role modeling” are deeply flawed and those that promote these ideas are generally doing more harm than good, but that is not the point of this post; the point here is not even if these ideas were sound, they would still be insufficient and far down the totem pole of usefulness for those seeking to assist youth in the process of striving to be the types of people they were made to become.

As C.S. Lewis has said, “We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.”

Why Didn’t God Just Kill Satan?

Question: “God vs. Satan - if God is all-powerful, why does He not just kill Satan?”

Answer: One of the mysteries of the Christian life is why God didn’t just throw Satan into the lake of fire immediately after he sinned. We know that God will one day destroy Satan once and for all by throwing him into the Lake of Fire where he will be tortured day and night forever (Revelation 20:10), but sometimes we wonder why God has not destroyed Satan already. Perhaps we will never know God’s reasoning in this particular situation, but we do know certain things about God.

First, we know He is absolutely sovereign over all creation, and this includes Satan, who is “on a very short leash. Certainly, Satan and his demons wreak havoc in the world, but they are only allowed to go so far and no farther. We also know that God has planned everything from the beginning of time to the end. Nothing can thwart His plans and things are proceeding exactly on schedule. “The LORD of hosts has sworn: ‘As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand’ (Isaiah 14:24).

Second, “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Whatever God has planned for Satan, that plan will be the best one possible, resulting in God’s perfect wrath and justice being satisfied and His perfect righteousness being glorified. Those who love Him and who wait for His plan to be fulfilled will be thrilled to be part of that plan and will praise and glorify Him as they see it unfold.

Third, we know to call into question God’s plan and its timing is to call into question God Himself, His judgment, His character and His very nature. It is not wise to question His right to do exactly as He pleases. The Psalmist tells us “As for God, His way is perfect (Psalm 18:30). Whatever plan comes from the mind of the Almighty is the most perfect plan possible. It is true that we can’t expect to understand that mind perfectly, as He reminds us “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Nevertheless, our responsibility to God is to obey Him, to trust Him, and to submit to His will, whether we understand it or not.

Recommended Resource: The Serpent of Paradise by Erwin Lutzer.

HT: Prodigal Son Magazine

Obama in Jesusland

What Can’t You Say At Church?

Anne Jackson at flowerdust.net asks, “What is something you feel you can’t say in church, or around other Christians?”

I had a conversation with a friend recently about how he would never share certain personal problems with his pastor because he doesn’t want him to know about that side of him. He’s afraid that it would change the way his pastor views him - he’s viewed as a leader in his church and doesn’t want that to change.

I could understand his point but it made me sad. I was left wondering how many people in my church would say something like that about me? The conversation also caused me to ponder how Christians perceive the church today? I know my friend’s heart, but it was almost like he viewed church as a place of social, rather than spiritual, significance. And what message is the church teaching that Christians don’t feel comfortable sharing their lives with those in their congregations?

I don’t think real community can begin to happen in the church until a safe place has been established where people can do life together — share all that stuff that’s behind the mask of happiness that we all wear in typical social settings. We all have doubts about our faith, anxieties about parenting, frustrations about work, concerns about unrealized dreams … the list is endless. As Christians we know that we live in the broken world, but when we gather we often acts as though everything is terrific. Whether it’s in the context of a small group or one-on-one with an accountability partner, we all need to find that place where we can do life with other Christians.

How about you? Can you be honest with others at church? Check out what others have had to say over at Anne’s blog.

Please Pray for the Chapman Family

Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman suffered an unthinkable tragedy Wednesday when his 5-year-old daughter was killed in an accident involving her brother.

Chapman’s daughter, Maria Sue, died after being struck by an SUV in the driveway of the family’s Nashville-area home late Wednesday afternoon. She was playing in the area with several other children. Her teenaged brother did not see her in the driveway when he struck her with the Toyota Land Cruiser he was driving. Maria was the youngest in the family and one of three daughters adopted by Chapman and wife Mary Beth.
Please pray for God’s loving embrace to hold the Chapman family and carry them through this impossible situation.

Source: People.com

Who's Your Boss?

A couple of decades ago, Bob Dylan announced his faith conversion with an album that famously and artistically declared, “You’ve got to serve somebody.” Dylan realized there was going to be an authority in his — and everyone’s — life.  That’s something that fewer and fewer people believe.

Consider the current talk about the emergent church (or emerging conversation, or any one of now a half-dozen labels being used to describe various thinkers, writers, and leaders). Some earnest scholars have tried to figure out how emergent thinkers “fit into” Christianity as we know it, and most admit that the emergent movement itself is splintering into any number of its own factions, proving that while they may not be Presbyterian or Baptist in doctrine, they certainly are in practice. It won’t be long until we see “Reformed Second Mosaic Church of Christ,” or “First United Mars Hill Assembly of Ohio, 2015 Convention.”

At root — the root that really matters — is the issue of authority. It comes down, in a very simplistic sense, to this: Who’s going to be your boss?

Read the rest.

Avoiding Nonsense in Worship Songs

I found this book review by Bob Kauflin, at worshipmatters.com. It’s a commentary on the book, “And Now Let’s Move Into a Time of Nonsense: Why Worship Songs are Failing the Church“, written by Nick Page. Here’s a short, but I think right on, quote from the book:

“Worship songs are not solely vehicles for personal expression, they’re invitations to corporate worship. If you want to write stuff that only you can understand then keep a diary, otherwise you have to cut the rest of us some slack; you have to help us understand.”

I think I’m going to check this book out, but check out Kauflin’s entire review.

Worship Matters

Bob Kauflin at worshipmatters.com asked for bloggers to respond to the question, “Why does worship matter?” The 20 best entries (judged on content, creativity, and brevity) will receive a copy of his new book, “Worship Matters.” Yours truly is among those lucky 20 and I’m looking forward to reviewing Kauflin’s book on my blog in the near future. Here’s my response:

Why does worship matter? It matters because there’s nothing more personal than the way in which we worship our King and Savior, Jesus Christ. It matters because it is at the root of all that is good and all that is divisive within the church today. It matters because it our greatest expression of community and it is the fault line waiting to snap and break our communities in half. It matters because there’s such a thin line between worshiping Jesus and fixing our eyes on Him and worshiping ourselves and serving our own needs. It matters because it can help us understand our fallen condition or pump us full of pride. Worship matters because it involves what matters most to our Father in Heaven – all of His children.
 
What’s your answer?

Why Read Old Books?

Shane Vander Hart has interesting post on his blog Caffeinated Thoughts about a bias that he has observed against old books. I’ve seen the same thing. For a short time I was an instructor at one of the state universities in Iowa and trying to get my students to read anything published before 2000 was a hopeless endeavor. I particularly like what C.S. Lewis once wrote about this issue:

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books.  This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. Wherever you find a little study circle of Christian laity you can be almost certain that they are studying not St. Luke or St. Paul or St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas or Hooker or Butler, but M. Berdyaev or M. Maritain or M. Niebuhr or Miss Sayers or even myself.

Now this seems to me topsy-turvy. Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.

While I’m on the topic, I’d like to recommend an old book that I’m currently reading, A Treatise on Regeneration, by Peter Van Mastricht. It was written in 1769 and published by Soli Deo Gloria Publications in 2002. I’m just getting into it, but so far it’s terrific. Jonathan Edwards once said this Van Mastricht’s work, “This book is much better than any other book in the world, excepting the Bible, in my opinion.” I’m not sure you can get higher praise for a book than that. Check it out if you have time; and be sure it check out Shane’s post, I Read Dead People, as well.

HT: Introduction to Athanasius’ On The Incarnation

Elder Training Resources

Some great audio sessions from the elder training seminars at First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.

HT: Tenth Presbyterian Church