A Lesson from my Call to Poison Control

The other day I was in the kitchen making dinner when my little two year old Jesse came in and started burping and then actually vomiting. My first thought was, “Oh, great, I thought we’d finally gotten healthy again!” But Jesse didn’t have the flu, he had an illness far more deadly: an idolatrous sinful heart. One of my older children came up to me at the stove and said, “Dad, look – all our gummy vitamins are gone.” I thought, “Wow, those didn’t last very long.” But then it hit me. Little Jesse had beat the child-safety lid and eaten them all! This was no small feat. We buy the mega size gummy jars from Sam’s Club – the kind that hold 275. Jesse ate about 200 vitamin gummies and was now having a serious indigestion problem. In a moment I was on the phone with poison control. To sum it up, the type of vitamins he ate would not poison him. His system would expel any unneeded vitamins. Praise God that Jesse didn’t get into something more dangerous!

            I’m reminded of what the Proverbs say:

^NIV Proverbs 25:16 If you find honey, eat just enough-- too much of it, and you will vomit.

^NIV Proverbs 25:27 It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek one's own honor.

What in the world possessed little Jesse to eat a pile of gummies the size of a softball? Sin. Toddlers love gummy snacks. If 8-10 gummy bears are yummy, surely 200 would be even better! But we can have too much of a good thing. In fact most of our idols are not pure evil - inherently wicked in every dimension. Most of our idols are good things that we honor (overindulge in or mis-prioritize) above God. Toddler Jesse overindulged in gummies and paid the price – literally vomiting up all the “honey” he gorged himself on.

I wish I could say that our hearts were cured from the sickness of idolatry in our toddler years. Unfortunately, they are not. I’ve met men who gorged themselves on work, to the point that they were burnt out, divorced and disengaged from their children. I’ve met men and women who abused some substance so thoroughly that they self-destructed every dimension of life. I’ve met women who were such fixers, that they were enslaved to helping others – so completely needing to be needed that they too did not find the love, peace and joy that Christ (the only Savior) offers.

            The bottom line is that our hearts are desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). Our hearts are little “idol-making factories” – constantly displacing the Lord God with other things. What are we to do? One thing is we must consult “Poison Control” – i.e. consult the Scriptures and pray for discernment in identifying idols. Until we recognize what good thing we have turned into a poison by improperly loving it we will not realize our danger. William Greenhill in his book Stop Loving the World wrote, “We meditate most on the things we love.” What do you think a lot about? This may indicate that you’re swallowing fistfuls of gummy bears. Be warned – in seeking your own honor your life may manifest symptoms of indigestion and you may soon be forced to endure the bitter experience of vomiting up what you used to think sweet.

The other thing to consider is that Christ is the only thing you can never have too much of. Paul wrote, “Christ is all.” (Col 3:11) It is impossible to think too highly or too much of Jesus. It is impossible to love Jesus too much. In fact it is only as we love and enjoy Christ first and above all others that we can safely indulge in all lesser loves. So whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)

Christians, YOU are a People of Knowledge

Dallas Willard once said that the real battle going on in our time is over authority and authority is tied to knowledge. If this is true, over the last two centuries the Church has been forced to the sidelines (and at times voluntarily retreated). In the West knowledge was separated into two spheres. The realm of the sense perceptible and the realm of the spiritual. Effectively what has happened is that sciences were granted “real” knowledge and the Church was granted sentiment, values, faith. Thus pastors and Christians and the Bible don’t deal with realities except the realities of peoples’ emotional lives. And so, Professor Willard concludes, pastors are no longer in the “knowledge” business, they are in the “faith” business. Which basically means pastors aren’t relevant to the real world or the marketplace and we have slowly been edged out of significance in the public sphere.

            I for one am tired of being elbowed out of the public sphere. It is increasingly obvious that our communities are adrift. Do we imagine that ruling “faith” out of order in politicians or civil servants or volunteers is helpful? We’re requiring people to ignore half of the universe’s knowledge! Can any society continue to make progress down the road if the steering column has limits artificially imposed on it – such that it can only turn left but never right? Is it any wonder that we seem to be swerving from ditch to ditch?

            It is time for Christians to dig in their heels and refuse to be relegated to “sentiment”. How? First by understanding that the West’s bifurcation of knowledge into two spheres is not Biblical. We must see that the Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word. A word from an Intelligent Being to intelligent creatures. And what does this Word say about knowledge? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Proverbs 1:7. In other words, intelligence and understanding don’t even start until we factor the existence and nature of our Creator and Redeemer into the equation. The recognition of God must be the first move in any pursuit of knowledge. According to the Apostle Paul, when people refused to acknowledge God they became “futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

            We’re now 150 years down the road of futile thinking – a foolish separation of knowledge. Modern advances in technology and the sciences would seem to suggest that the splitting of knowledge into two groups was the right move. But was it? Increasingly “scientific” knowledge is being used foolishly. And we see the silliness of making decisions without factoring God into the equation.

            So what are we to do?  Corporately, churches must no longer cede the realm of knowledge to others. We are in the knowledge business. Let us stop collaborating with those who slice apart the realm of knowledge and would forbid the Church from relevance beyond peoples’ emotional lives. How are we collaborating? By an over-emphasis in our services on sentiment and experience. Pastors must not restrict our study to a narrow sliver of the realm of knowledge. And each of us as Christians must accept that we are a people of knowledge. The Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Church is relevant for us today:

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)

Will Turbo-charging our Economy Lead to $700 Donkey’s Head Stew?

I read an interesting book recently: The New Depression: the Breakdown of the Paper Money Economy by Richard Duncan. To vastly simplify Richard’s argument, it is the supply of credit more than the supply of money that influences our economy now. Or in laymen terms: the influence of a physical press printing greenbacks influences our economy orders of magnitude less than the creation of credit. In 1945 the Total Credit Market Debt held by creditors was $355 Billion. As of second quarter 2013 it is $57.562 Trillion. (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/accessible/l1.htm) A 40 year credit boom has turbo-boosted our economy since the 1980’s. But at what cost? Our debt (government, business & household) now stands at 4X our GDP.

            There seems to be consensus that we are on an unsustainable path. Unfortunately that seems to be where the consensus ends. Some argue for austerity - massive cuts in spending to reduce the deficit. The difficulty with the austerity solution is that our government spends 1/3 of every dollar spent. So any significant cut in federal spending will have a negative impact on the economy. Thus many support the status quo: keep turbo-charging our economy by creating credit. This is essentially Richard’s argument. He does not deny the presence of serious warning signs, but he says we can avoid another Great Depression if we act now.

What should we do? Richard contends that we should continue turbo-charging our economy by creating credit but instead of using that credit to fuel short-term consumption we should invest in long-term profit-making ventures like solar energy. Richard concludes, “What a tragic mistake it would be to impose austerity and see our world implode, when so much credit is available at ultra-low costs. All that is required is for us, as a society, to invest that credit imaginatively. If we do, we can achieve global economic prosperity beyond the dreams of all earlier generations.”

            I’m not an economist but this conclusion seems to me to be a pipe dream. If I was struggling to pay my current mortgage, what sense does it make to buy a second house with an even larger mortgage – simply because the interest rate is ultra-low? You may hope to turn a profit on the second mortgage and thus be able to pay off the first mortgage more quickly. But then again you may not. It is all a very big gamble!

            What should our response as Christians be to the financial mess our country finds itself in? I think we must begin by practicing good stewardship at home with our own personal finances (1 Corinthians 4:2, Matthew 25:14-30). America’s over-indebtedness is not just a federal government problem, over-indebtedness is also a household problem and a corporation problem.

The second thing Christians should do is believe in absolute truth and ground that belief in Scripture and history. Many will say, “We live in a different world now. The economic process is no longer driven by saving and investment. Today it is driven by borrowing and consumption. Yes, total credit expanded 50 times in less than 50 years to keep the American dream alive and to create wealth but credit can continue to push our economy forward if we don’t stop creating it.” Richard argues along these lines. “The U.S. government can now borrow money for 10 years at a cost of 2% interest a year. If it borrows at that rate and invests in projects that yield even 3%, ‘Creditopia’ will survive. If it borrows at that rate and invests on a grand scale in grand projects, precarious Creditopia could be transformed into a sustainable Utopia in which the cost of energy falls 90% and life expectancy doubles.”

The trouble with such logic is that it flies in the face of history and embraces the mirage that you can have your cake and eat it too. The truth is there “ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Personally, I think interrupting the normal boom and bust cycle of economies by turbo-charging them with credit over the last 40 years is simply postponing and probably amplifying the bust. Newton’s third law comes to mind: “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Talk of a “utopia” sounds eerily similar to what Hitler promised Germany during its tumultuous economic times. As Christians we must be salt and light, anchoring our culture to the truth. Our actions have consequences. As anyone who has had a hangnail or a tooth ache knows, postponing prudent action to avoid pain now will only increase the pain later. Dear Christian, read the history of the Kingdom of Israel as recorded in the Bible (1 Samuel – 2 Kings). Notice the action – reaction/consequences connection throughout those centuries. Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” At the height of an economic boom Solomon made gold shields (1 Kings 10:16-17). But the boom was built in large part on the “credit” of forced labor. This boom lasted 40 years (not unlike our current credit boom?) but collapsed when Solomon’s son refused to recognize the need to pull back the throttle and stop turbo-charging the economy. The forced laborers revolted, the kingdom was split in two and 5 years later the very gold shields that Solomon made during times of excess were taken (1 Kings 14:25ff).

Though most of the signs point to difficult times in our future, we are Christians and our hope is in Christ and as such our future is radiant and secure! For the Lord is a Redeemer and His eyes are on His people. At one point in Israel’s history He even rescued them from hyper-inflation that was so bad that a donkey’s head was going for $700 in the marketplace (2 Kings 6:24-7:20). Therefore let us not despair, though the earth give way or we be crushed by deflation or inflation for the city of God shall not be moved because God is in her midst! (Psalm 46)

Will Only Those Deeds done “unto Christ” Last?

In recent posts I have been trying to persuade you that there is no dichotomy between the sacred and secular. In other words, that as a Christian you are advancing the Kingdom of God not just on Sunday morning but wherever you bring order to this world – on the jobsite as an electrician, at home training your children, resolving a friend’s computer glitch, etc. But what has gone implied in some of my previous posts must be stated explicitly now to avoid misunderstanding. Your work advances the Kingdom of God if it is done unto Christ.

^ESV Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

            What does it mean to do our deeds “in the name of Christ”? We cannot hope to answer the question fully in a single blog. But at a minimum, working as “unto Christ” means our labors are done on the foundation of Christ and according to the blueprint that God established in His Word. This is the point of Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish builders (Luke 6:46-49). The wise man builds his house upon the rock: Jesus Christ and according to the instructions of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a man is doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. And thus when the flood comes (a figure of Judgment Day) his work stands firm. I.e. it lasts, though it is purified (vs. destroyed) by fire – melting away the dross and leaving only what was pure (1 Cor 3:12-13). In contrast the foolish man neither builds on the foundation of Christ nor builds according to the blueprints that Christ has given (Luke 6:46). When Judgment Day comes that man and everything he has built collapses and “the ruin of that house was great.”

            Three conclusions:

1) Whatever you build on the foundation of Christ according to the Word and will of God will last. Lay up treasures for yourself in Heaven because you can take it with you! (Mt 6:19-21)

2) Only that which is done “unto Christ” will last.

3) Anything not done “unto Christ” will be lost.

            This suggests that only Christians can do deeds that last. Does this then imply that the efforts of unbelievers are worthless? In considering the full counsel of Scripture I do not think that is what the Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach that only Christians are blessed or gifted or engaged in something worthwhile. God gives gifts to both the good and the evil (Mt 5:45). The gifts and resources that unbelievers are given by God are useful not only in this age but may very well last into the next age. Consider the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25:14-30). At Judgment Day the life’s work of the worthless servant, like the foolish builder, comes crashing down. But notice that though he was cast into the darkness, the talent that he was given isn’t abolished but is transferred to the one who was faithful with 10 talents – i.e. the Christian.

^ESV Matthew 25:29 “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Consider also:

^ESV Proverbs 13:22 “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.”

So it is not that unbelievers cannot accomplish anything worthwhile. It is that because they reject Christ whatever they do accomplish will ultimately be enjoyed by the faithful.

            So we ought not to disparage the works of unbelievers. Often their works of art and deeds are excellent and honor God more than they themselves know. And if we’re honest, much of our work depends on the efforts of unbelievers around us and those who have gone before. (e.g. Some of the people who designed and built this computer I’m using to type this blog were and are unbelievers.) But let us point them to Christ. For apart from Him they have nothing and whatever they build will be left behind for another to enjoy – a faithful person. And let us build our lives on Christ and according to the Word of Christ. For we have the promise that we will enjoy such labors:

^ESV Isaiah 65:21 “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²² They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”

            Questions to consider:

• Why is the recognition of Christ essential to truly enjoying one’s works?
• If you knew that the house you were building now is the house you would inhabit in Heaven, how would you work differently?
• What is your attitude toward your unbelieving coworkers? Do you rightly value their efforts?

Redefining “Ministry” and “Mission” takes more than a Sermon Series

            Every Christian is called by God to advance the Kingdom of God as we support human flourishing. Our support of individual and community flourishing may take “spiritual” forms such as preaching, prayer, mercy ministry, etc. but it may also take “secular” forms such as nursing, home repair, gardening, feeding your family, etc. In the work of bringing order to our sphere of influence in this world, there is no sacred – secular dichotomy as we labor “as unto the Lord”. (Col 3:23)

I’ve been tackling these themes over the last 3 months in my ministry. But a conversation last week convinced me that this sacred-secular dichotomy is deeply ingrained and will not be uprooted in a sermon series or even in a season. I was visiting with long-standing members of our congregation, folks who grew up in the Church and have been following Jesus personally for decades. They are gifted, articulate, balanced, conscientious servant-hearted and intelligent. So I was taken aback when one person mentioned that increased hours for a large employer in Madison was causing them to step back from.

“I am so busy right now at work that I don’t have the time to do ministry.”

“Why? What has led to the increase work load for you? A promotion with more responsibility?,” I probed.

“No. My coworkers have so many needs. Now that my kids are married I have more flexibility and time than I had previously. I often volunteer to cover for coworkers who need time for themselves and with their families.”

From this point I explained to my dear friend that this was ministry! In serving their coworkers in this tangible and practical way they were serving Christ and advancing the Kingdom of God. They were not stepping back from ministry, they were stepping into greater ministry and opportunity – albeit not within the four walls of our local church.

This conversation has convinced me that linking my parishioner’s current labors in the “secular” workforce to the purposes of God will take diligence. But the effort to persuade every lay person that they are a missionary is worthwhile. I think that when this dear saint saw that their current sacrifices and energies beyond the organization of our church were labors unto the Lord it unloaded a truckload of self-imposed guilt and gave new purpose and meaning to their efforts.

In her book Kingdom Callings Amy Sherman quotes a relevant statement from G. K. Chesterton: “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

May we understand that every Christian is a missionary right now where we are planted and may we say grace as those who are dependent on it for the discharge of our duties – to the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord!

Do you Preach Too-Narrow of a Gospel?

I’ve been reading Amy Sherman’s book Kingdom Calling and have come across a provocative question: Do you preach “the too-narrow gospel”? The question is not, “do you preach the gospel too narrowly?” as in do you exclude some group of people from the gospel – racial minorities, Jews, gays, the rich, etc. The question is do we preach a gospel that is too narrow, too small? Ms. Sherman suggests in her book that the evangelical church has often been guilty of reducing the gospel to simply “having a personal relationship with Jesus”. As a Christian trying to live a Christ-centered, gospel-centered life, it would be easy to shrug off such a question and check the box for “got the gospel”. But let’s not be hasty.

            What is the gospel? “Gospel” means “good news”. The good news isn’t that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The good news isn’t that God has a purpose for your life, or that you can have your best life now, or that God loves you and you should start thinking more positively, or that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy & comfortable. The health & wealth “gospel”, social justice gospel, works righteousness, Christianity as therapy, Jesus as an example / noble teacher to follow are not the gospel. The gospel isn’t strictly a truth to believe, it is NEWS to proclaim. The gospel at its core is that God has provided a substitute for sinners, His Son Jesus, to restore our relationship with Him. John 3:16 says it succinctly:

^ESV John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”

The proper response to the gospel is also quite clear:

^ESV Mark 1:14-15 “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, ¹⁵ and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

So the good news isn’t that Jesus is a wise teacher who can help me get my life back on track if I listen to Him. The good news is that Jesus has died on the cross for my sins. And when I repent and believe I’m trading my sins for His righteousness.

So the core of the gospel is that through Christ you can have a personal relationship with God. So in that sense we do preach a “narrow gospel”. There is only one way (John 14:6) of salvation, one way to get right with your Creator: to stop trying to earn salvation by your own efforts and trust in the work of Jesus Christ. No other gospel will save. Belief in God isn’t sufficient (James 2:19). Even believing true things about Jesus isn’t sufficient. You and I must believe in Jesus, i.e. trust ourselves to Him. The Apostle Peter is blunt:

^ESV Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

So evangelicals are right to proclaim the good news that you can have a relationship with Jesus and to proclaim it ‘narrowly’ in the sense of justification by faith (vs. works).

            However if in proclaiming the gospel “narrowly” we teach only about the individual restoration of my relationship with the Creator we DO teach a “too-narrow gospel”. The gospel is not just a “me and Jesus” thing, a private personal individualistic spiritual thing. The personal restoration of relationship with the Creator IS good news, but the good news is better / greater / broader than that! For the gospel is not only that Christ restores your relationship with God, it is that Christ also restores your relationship with yourself, your relationships with others and your relationship with creation itself. If the gospel we preach only impacts the vertical dimension between me and Jesus we are preaching “too-narrow” of a gospel. The power of the true gospel is more comprehensive than that. What Jesus accomplished on the cross restores four fundamental human relationships: my relationship with God, the inward relationship with myself, the relationships I have with others and my relationship with creation.

            Personal forgiveness of sins IS part of the gospel, but it is only part of it. Ms. Sherman is on to something. Evangelicals (myself included) have stressed what the gospel saves us from (sin and death) but have not adequately stressed what the gospel saves us for. Perhaps that is why evangelical churches have excelled at gaining converts but not making followers of Jesus. Let us embrace the wholeness of the gospel and let us follow the Prince of Peace in working toward restoration in every dimension – horizontal and vertical.

The Only Inflation Proof Investment

I don’t know very much about economics. I studied micro and macro economics in college but it was a simple middle school text book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by Richard J. Maybury that has caused me to think differently about inflation. Everyone knows by experience that their dollars don’t stretch as far as they used to. I used to think that rising prices are inflation. Gas cost a $1.15 / gallon when I started driving 20 years ago and this past Labor Day weekend I spent $3.55 / gallon. But Maybury writes, “Rising prices are not inflation. They are a result of inflation.” (emphasis mine) What then is inflation? He argues that inflation is an increase in the number of dollars. Maybury says that “money responds to the law of supply and demand just as everything else does. As the number of dollars increases, the value of each individual dollar falls. Prices rise to make up for this fall.” I’ve read enough to know that not every economist agrees with Mr. Maybury’s definitions. I’m pretty ignorant about all this, but his logic makes sense to me.

            Regardless of all the causes & definitions of terms, I’ve lived long enough in America to be trained to expect that my money will be worth less in the future than it is today. That presents me with a challenge: What does a person invest in that will retain its value over time? Stuffing greenbacks in a mattress or depositing it in a CD that yields a flea’s hair more than 0% doesn’t seem prudent. Stocks? Real estate? Camels? Continued Education? Everything has risk attached to it. Bubbles could pop at any time.

            We live in a world of uncertainty. How then should we invest? Is there an inflation-proof investment? Jesus said,

^ESV Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust¹ destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

A superficial pastor would say, “See, you should invest your money in the Church. That is the best use of your resources!” Perhaps. But I do not think that Jesus was so much giving financial advice on where to put our dollars. Rather, Jesus is giving us 1) a recalibration of our priorities and 2) hope in an uncertain world.

            The bottom line is that there are no guaranteed investments. Nothing in this life that is impervious to thieves, rust and moths. Even a congregation can waste resources in the name of God. There is only one sure thing, one inflation proof investment: the Lord Jesus Christ. Give to Christ all that you have – including your investments, possessions & plans. Trust Him with your future. Trust Him with your resources. Put your confidence and hope in Him.