Thomas Brooks on the Sufficiency of God

God has in himself all power to defend you, all wisdom to direct you, all mercy to pardon you, all grace to enrich you, all righteousness to clothe you, all goodness to supply you, and all happiness to crown you.

Brooks, Thomas

Thoughts On American Christianity, Part 2

This past Sunday, the pastor of our church, Rev. Ken Pierce, gave a wonderful sermon that helped me think through and organize some of my thoughts on American Christianity. As he preached, I wrote down my thoughts about what he was saying and I am largely indebted to him for the following.
One of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is the parable of the hidden treasure. “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44). Human beings are kingdom builders. The question that we, as Christians, need to ask ourselves is, “Whose kingdom are we building?” Jesus commands us to be in the business of building God’s kingdom, not our own. Yet, the American culture that we have so deeply embraced is fundamentally about building our own kingdoms and rarely do we notice the difference. Why does God command us to build His kingdom rather than our own? Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and follow Jesus?
It seems to me that the answer is clear in Matthew 13 (and quite a few other places in Scripture). The kingdom of God is infinitely valuable, unstoppable, and ultimately the only source of true joy for us. As Americans, we have simply adopted the American Dream and said that you can build up your own personal kingdom here on Earth while, at the same time, building up God’s kingdom throughout the world. If this were possible, why did Jesus say that the man who found the treasure went out and joyfully sold all that he had to buy that field? Why did Jesus, similarly, tell the rich young ruler to sell all that he had to follow Jesus? Why is it necessary to give up so much to have the treasure?
Sin tells us that happiness is found in building our own kingdoms. It is so ingrained in us that we usually don’t see anything wrong at all with the American Dream. That is why we see pastors living luxurious lifestyles well above the average American family and even above the average church member (and I don’t mean just in the Health, Wealth and Prosperity movement which is so obviously sinful, but in some very conservative, reformed denominations) and we see presidents of mission agencies (mission agencies, for crying out loud!) making well over six figures while the missionaries out in the field (building God's kingdom, mind you) are struggling to stay on the field because part of their support is going to pay the salaries of the mission agency’s “executives”. Ridiculous.
I firmly believe that we are very much out of touch with real Christianity of the first century. Just look at the apostle Paul. His entire life after encountering Jesus was all about spreading a passion for the kingdom of God. He gave up his own personal kingdom of wealth, power and prestige (calling it “rubbish”) to pursue God’s kingdom, no matter the cost, and he is clearly one of the most joyful people in the Bible!
My biggest fear is that we are missing out on so much of what Christ has to offer. “There is far more in Christ than we have yet apprehended” (Dr. Raymond C. “L.L. Cool Ray” Ortlund, Jr.) American Christianity is so safe, watered down and ineffective to change the world that it would be barely recognizable to the apostle Paul if he showed up at a modern American church, I am afraid. We wonder why we don’t see God moving more in our communities and among our non-believing friends. We are far too preoccupied with our own kingdoms.

Thoughts on American Christianity, Part 1

One of the great blessings of living abroad is the gift of being outside of the American culture and being able to see it differently than from within. I lived in Spain for four months and in Mexico for a grand total of about five years. Both experiences were incredibly enlightening for me and some of my greatest spiritual growth took place in those times. In fact, I had a much harder time re-adjusting to life back in the States than I did learning a new culture. I had heard missionaries saying the same thing for years at various mission conferences, but I never quite believed them fully. I mean, how hard can it be to become re-acclimated to your own culture, especially one that has virtually anything you could want?

I think that is part of the problem. We are so used to having so many of life’s conveniences, that we spend our days trying to make sure that we, and our families, are as safe and comfortable as possible. Many of us work to make money to purchase things that either entertain us, make us feel good about ourselves, or meet basic needs in extravagant ways (spending a great deal in regular visits to our favorite restaurants or buying houses far above the average need), among many other things. I am certainly guilty of doing or desiring to do all of these things! Having these things is the American Dream, isn’t it? And isn’t the U.S. a country founded on Christian principles? How bad can it be?

The problem that I am having is that I don’t see the American Dream anywhere in the Bible. In fact, I see something quite opposed to it, but we tend to try to make the gospel fit with our own culture rather than the other way around.

One of the reasons that we love John Piper is that he is so passionate for the spread of the gospel and decidedly un-American (but not anti-American). Some time ago, I was at a Christian fellowship group with some wonderful, Godly people, most of whom I didn’t know all that well. The group was reading through Don’t Waste Your Life by Piper and the chapter (4, maybe?) had to do with laying up treasures. I found it ironic that we were meeting in the house of a family that was clearly very wealthy. What Piper teaches in his books is very difficult for us to actually put in to practice precisely because it is so un-American. After a brief discussion in which we sort of all agreed that Piper is right and we are all convicted, the leader of the discussion said that yes, he has some very expensive things in his very nice house, but he feels thoroughy blessed to have those things and if God took them away, he wouldn’t mind at all. He then said, “Besides, God needs rich Christians. He needs rich Christians to be able to reach out to other rich people.”

Nobody questioned that conclusion at the meeting, but something certainly felt a little off to me, although I didn’t feel like speaking up at the time. I thought about it a lot afterwards and realized that we (as a Christian community, not just those at that particular meeting) have so many things backwards. I wondered, how does all of this square with Jesus’ teachings to the rich young ruler to sell what he owned and give to the poor as a prerequisite to following Jesus? Was Jesus only saying it to him or is there a principle that we are supposed to apply to our lives? And what about the apostle Paul? His life, it seems to me, was exactly the opposite of the American Dream. He gave up riches and stature and power to radically love others in Jesus’ name. The more he followed Jesus, the more he gave up his wealth and comfort and stature in his Jewish community, and the more joyful he became. Jesus was everything! And Paul, even after giving up his wealth, was still able to preach to and show the love of Christ to the wealthy and prominent of the ancient Roman world, as well as the poorest of the poor. It seems to me that precisely because he gave up his worldly possessions that he was so powerful a witness to those that had so much.

It seems to me that most of us think that we can (and should) have both, even if we don’t ever say it clearly. We don’t fall for the “health, wealth and prosperity gospel” because it is clearly evil, unbiblical and no gospel at all. But are we really all that different? It is certainly a good thing to recognize that all that we have in terms of worldly goods could be taken away by God at any time. But for most of us, that is about as far as we get. We still go on storing up treasures for ourselves here on earth and it is largely encouraged and even admired by the Christian church.

We must look at our culture and our Christian faith and see that they are largely opposed to each other. We need to spend far more time in the Word and see how far we have strayed from what Jesus and others clearly taught about wealth. We are far too comfortable with the idea that we can be pursuing Jesus wholeheartedly while at the same time we are gaining wealth far beyond what is needed. American Christianity has fallen for this lie. If we really want to change our communities and our world, then we must stop looking like our hope is in the same things that everyone else hopes in, namely wealth, comfort and ease. Once we, as the body of Christ, start joyfully sacrificing ourselves and our possessions to be able to radically show the love of Christ to the world, we will be an unstoppable, happy witness to a lost and dying world.

More thoughts on American Christianity to come…

The Value of Reading Bad Books

I am presently reading Kenneth C. Davis' Don't Know Much About the Bible and it is fascinating. It is also very flawed. I have read a couple other books by Davis in the Don't Know Much series and thought they were great. The first was on American History and the second on the Civil War and he has many others. Davis is a historian, but he is certainly no theologian. I have enjoyed many aspects of the book that present broad historical pictures, discuss life in ancient times and make connections that are not always obvious. Unfortunately, Davis seems to be set on attacking the infallibility of the Bible in ways that can be misleading to the casual reader. To Davis, differences in the Bible usually equal contradictions. Other times, he points out problems in the Bible that can be solved simply by going to the original languages if he had only taken the time. Davis also regularly refers to a divide between historical truth and faith which is to say that many things in the Bible are not historically true, but are to be believed by faith. This is not what the Bible was intended to be. It seems to me that Davis must have relied heavily on some very liberal theologians and historians who were eager to assist in the attacks on the infallibility of the Bible. I, personally, have no problem with people asking honest questions and raising doubts about the Bible. If it is true, then it should stand up to our toughest questions. However, when a historian writes "Many scholars think..." or "It is widely accepted that..." and then presents an argument that is based on the work of a relatively few liberal minds, I think it is dangerous, unconvincing and ultimately less than honest.

Because of this, I am also reading The Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason L. Archer, Jr. (May 22 , 1916 – April 27 , 2004) Dr. Archer taught for 30 years on the graduate seminary level in the field of biblical criticism. He graduated from Harvard majoring in classics which gave him training in Latin, Greek, French and German, and then in seminary he majored in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. He also studied and taught elective courses in Syriac and Akkadian and later studied Coptic and Sumerian. He also went to law school and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. This was a man who knew his stuff and knew how to think! I am so glad that he loved Jesus.

It is fascinating to read Davis and understand what the modern (somewhat liberal) scholarship position is on many biblical issues. It is even more fascinating to read somebody like Archer essentially responding to the liberals with thoughtful, reasoned explanations from an expert of the highest order. This has been such an enlightening experience for me. It would be very easy to lose faith in the infallibility of the Bible by just reading a historical analysis like Davis', but it is very reassuring to read a brilliant scholar like Archer defend inerrancy so convincingly.

I have greatly enjoyed this study of history and biblical inerrancy and highly recommend something like this to others. There is great benefit from reading books like Davis' to gain greater understanding of the context of the Bible and the cultures in which it was written. But it is even more benenficial to have Archer in the other hand to provide answers to questions that Davis raises and to defend the Bible.

Sam Storms on Following Jesus

"Following Jesus is an increasingly joyful conformity to how he thinks and a deepening delight in what he loves, together with a healthy aversion to whatever might threaten our complete satisfaction in him."

~Sam Storms of Enjoying God Ministries

I don't know how to say it any better.

Piper on Experiencing and Glorifying God

"God is glorified in His people by the way we experience Him, not merely by the way we think about Him. Indeed the devil thinks more true thoughts about God in one day than a saint does in a lifetime, and God is not honored by it. The problem with the devil is not his theology, but his desires. Our chief end is to glorify God, the great Object. We do so most fully when we treasure Him, desire Him, delight in Him so supremely that we let goods and kindred go and display his love to the poor and lost."

~John Piper, When I Don't Desire God

Only in America?

I recently heard on NPR a story about red light cameras that are being used in Texas. These are the cameras installed in street lights that detect and photograph cars that run red lights at intersections. Apparently, in larger cities like Dallas and Houston, running red lights had become a fairly significant problem and quite a few accidents had occurred because of it. The cameras have been at work for about a year and their success, by all accounts, has been remarkable. That is why the city councils and mayors in those areas have just agreed with local officials to remove many of these red light cameras. Some argue that the cameras have caused more accidents due to more rear-end collisions, but studies are showing that this position is very debatable at best. The real issue is that because so many motorists are aware of the cameras and very concerned about being automatically ticketed, there are relatively very few incidents of running red lights and the system is not generating enough revenue in fines to pay for itself. As with most things involving government programs, it is all about revenue. The system works to encourage people to abide by the laws of the land and, as a result, makes the world a little safer, so let's get rid of it. The irony of the law.

Here is a link to a short summary of the issue from a news station in Houston: http://www.click2houston.com/investigates/15969702/detail.html