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How much should Preachers Talk About Themselves? Part 2

2011-11-11T11:46:00.001+11:00

If we look at Scripture, we see that Jesusdid in fact talk about himself a lot.

We need only to think of all the 'I am' statementsin John’s gospel for example.

But of course this doesn’t apply to usbecause Jesus is God and of course he needs to draw attention to himselfbecause he is the message. He is the oneto whom we need to look as our example, our Lord, our sacrifice, our Saviour,our Mediator, our Intercessor. I mightbe an example to people, but I am no one’s Lord, Saviour, Mediator orIntercessor. Only Jesus is.

So what about Paul? Paul does say toimitate him as he imitates Christ. Andhe does write to the Thessalonians saying that he shared not just the gospelwith them but ‘his very life’ (1 Thess 2:8). But apart from Paul’s letters and a few speeches in Acts we early don’tsee much of what Paul’s regular preaching ministry looked like. Andthe sermons of his we do see are not typical sermons. Paul wasn’t a long-term pastor of a church assuch, he was more of an itinerant preacher.

So looking at the Bible it’s hard to getany direct instruction on preachingand how much personal sharing there should be. Indirectly, we know that the ultimate goal of preaching should be topoint people not to a preacher, but to Jesus so that they love Him and trustHim more. But Hebrews does say ‘Rememberyour leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome oftheir way of life, and imitate their faith’ (Heb 13:7). It seems natural in giving application of God’sWord that you would use your own life because that’s the life you know the mostabout! You could talk about how itapplies in the life of John Owen or Charles Spurgeon – and people do and shoulddo this – but there is also a lot of benefit in people hearing how it applies inyour life as the preacher.

For one, you’re close to their time andcontext so they’re more likely to relate. Second, you’re closer to them physically so they can watch you and seehow faith works out in your life. Peoplecan watch you even if you don’t speak about it, but putting words next toactions can make them clearer and more instructive.

Third, for Christian faith to be real itneeds to be an experienced reality. And there’sreally only one person’s experience you can speak about with authority and that’syour own.

Now obviously people fear that talking toomuch about yourself may detract from focus on Jesus and it may become a ‘cultof personality.’ And I guess these are dangers. But we need to weigh up the helpfulness factoras well. My hunch is that preachers in Australia(and I guess in Britain) need to share a lot more of themselves in their preaching. I like the way the Americans do it and that’sa big part of why I listen to so many of them. The application bit is often the bit where I part company from them, butat least they’re giving me something.

How much should Preachers Talk About Themselves? Part 1

2011-11-11T11:03:00.001+11:00

On the plane yesterday I was listening topodcasts from a Leadership conference in the Sates with Perry Nobel, CraigGroshell, Judah Smith, Mark Driscoll and others. They were very helpful and stimulating presentations on leadership andministry. But one thing I noticed washow much these guys talked about themselves – what they do, what theythink. Brits and Australians tend not todo this. It’s famous that John Stott andJ.I. Packer almost never talked about themselves. I don’t know many other British preachers –Nicky Gumbel does talk about himself a bit in the Alpha talks. Dick Lucas I don’t recall did much.

And I suppose of all the American megachurch pastors, Tim Keller might talk about himself a little bit less than theothers, although thinking about it now he does quite a bit, he just doesn’thave such a ‘big personality and so you tend to notice it less perhaps.

My question is ‘Do Aussie preachers or justpreachers in general not talk about themselves because they really don’t havegod working in their lives?’

It seems to me that there are two crucialelements to a good sermons – 1) truth and 2) applying that truth powerfully andaccurately (others would probably say 1) exposition and 2) application but I’llleave that for another post). And itseems to me that one of the most effective ways of applying truth is throughpersonal testimony. I have beenextremely helped by the preaching of John Piper and Mark Driscoll. And in many circumstance I find myself asking‘What would John Piper or Mark Driscoll do?’ (I don’t always do what I think they would do, but it’s often a goodstarting point and quite often I think do know what they would do. This could be because I’ve listened tohundreds of their sermons whereas I’ve only listened to about 5 John Stottsermons??)

One fact seems to be this: Whether inAustralia or America, people like preachers who talk about themselves. Or to put it another way: if you look at mostof the big churches in Australia and America you will see a senior pastor whoshares his life openly from the pulpit. People 'like' it. It's interesting.

Now this doesn’t mean it’s a good thing, itjust means that people like it. It mightbe a totally bad thing. It might be just tickling itching ears. But to find outthe answer we’ll need to look at Scripture. That will be part 2.

Decision Making part 2

2011-10-05T13:08:00.000+11:00

The way people decide things like moving jobs or moving house reflects their priorities and whether they are Kingdom priorities or not. So Annie and I are actually about to move house to a bigger place that is a bit closer to church. It has a bigger lounge room, one more bedroom and a yard for the kids to play in. And our concerns were 1) to be closer to church so I could spend less time commuting and more time with my family; 2) to have more space for the kids to sleep and play and; 3) to have more space for hospitality (especially hosting small group). Our housing serves the mission we believe God has called us to, not the other way around.

Many Christians do value working for God and his Kingdom, but it comes way down on their list of priorities. They will accept a job in a city, without even knowing what churches are there and what God is doing in that city. This lack of intentionality is why the church is flagging so badly in the West. Christians just don’t care enough about God’s mission. They don’t prioritize it. They prioritize worldly things like more pay, living in a cooler suburb, city or place, having a more prestigious job and so on. There’s nothing wrong with having a high paying job or a prestigious job or living in a cool part of town. It’s just that if we’re going to live there we need to be there because we’re on mission there to those people, not simply because we like the area.

It’s ideal I think to live, work and attend church in the same area. This provides the greatest opportunity for relationships and evangelism to naturally happen and to be able to invite people to church.

Why I'm not happy with a few of my old blog posts

2011-10-05T12:38:00.004+11:00

Reading back over my old blog posts from a few years ago - I'm not that happy with them.
I'm tempted actually to delete some of them but for now I think I'll leave them up. I've gone back and changed the language on one or two of them.
The thing is, in 5 years time, will I be unhappy with what I wrote yesterday? My thinking does evolve and change over time, hopefully getting sharper (!?) and so it is possible.
My general beef with my blog is that it seems to focus too much on sin and not enough on God and his grace. And this I think reflects a tendency of mine which is not good. It's a negative tendency in both the sense that it's bad and in that it's a negative view on the world. It's also rather angry, rather than compassionate.
My blog post on theodicy in particular concerns me. The language is sloppy. In it I said that the fall was in a sense 'good' and I'm no longer comfortable with that sentence. I've just preached through the book of Job at church and my views on suffering have, I think (I hope!), mautured a bit since then. But the post does make some interesting points and I do on the whole still agree with it, so i think it's worth keeping up there. I am also uncomfortable now with the idea of 'the best of all possible worlds.' I'm not saying I don't agree with it anymore but I think I/we need to be very careful about the way we talk about it - more careful than I was in my blog post.

So here's a promise to say that I wil try to be more careful with my language from now on and to ask you to please take old posts with a grain of salt if you are going to go and read them. They're not heretical (quite), but some of them are just not well worded. And from now on I will aim to be more 'positive' in what I say and how I say it. I will aim to be less angry at sinners and more compassionate - like Jesus.

I have gone back and 'softened' my post on 'shyness as a sin' but I still think it's too harsh on shy people. We're all shy and boring!

Decision Making Part 1

2011-10-05T12:18:00.001+11:00

We all have to make decisions. Life is a series of decisions and the ones we make have a massive impact on our lives. How as Christians are we to make decisions?

As Christians our decisions need to reflect our commitment to God and his Kingdom. This means that the goal of our lives is ‘thy Kingdom come, thy will be done’ (Matt 6:10)

So the lens for all Christian decision making is the will of God, not our will. So when it comes to a new job or moving house or whatever, the dominating question, above all the other questions is: Which option will most glorify God and further his kingdom?

Often in our decisions it’s not obvious which one is best. For example, moving to a different state or country. This decision will likely affect you economically, relationally, spiritually and emotionally. How do you weigh up these different factors and decide which are the most important ones?

Typically in our culture the dominant factors are economic and emotional. So people decide to move to London or New York because the pay is better or the idea of living in London seems appealing. There are great cultural experiences to be had and great travel opportunities.

In the Christian worldview however, economic and emotional factors are important but only so far as they serve the Kingdom. And spiritual and relational factors are generally more important. So if you’re deciding to move to London or not, you need to think about what that will do to your relationship with God, with your family, your friends and most importantly, your mission. One of the factors most often missed here is the importance of church community. While it is true that the Christian church exists in most places of the world (and there are certainly a lot of great churches in London!), you need to think about the ministry and the mission that God has called you to. And that ministry and mission always involves a church because God’s plan to renew the world is through the church. So really the question is ‘what ministry and mission has God called me to?’ And then ‘what church has God called me to to do that in?’ Since the Christian life is a life that belongs to God and lives for God and his mission, these need to be the dominant questions in any decision. Many Christians don’t think of themselves as missionaries in the first place or if they do it’s in a lackadaisical ‘I’ll-be-a-missionary-wherever-I-go’ kind of way. Of course we want to be missionaries wherever we go and sometimes we have little or no control about where we go. But when we read the New Testament, particularly the book of Acts, we see the apostles constantly thinking and praying and being led about where to go (Acts 13:3-4; 16:6). It was deliberate and it was missional.

Typically these day people decide like this:
1) What job do I want (job)
2) Where can I live that’s close to that job (house)
3) Where’s a church that’s close to that house (church)

But the Christian framework is the opposite:
1) Where does God want me to work/serve to build the Kingdom? (church)
2) Where can I live that will best serve that work/ministry? (house)
3) What job can I do that will best serve and support that work/ministry? (job)

What’s the order for you?

Job  House  Church/Mission OR Church/Mission  House  Job

The Big Churches

2011-09-14T13:01:00.004+10:00

I've just been looking through this list of the largest churches on America - the megachurches!:
http://www.sermoncentral.com/articleb.asp?article=Top-100-Largest-Churches

I've been clicking on some of their websites to see what some of them are like. I was actually only familiar with a few of them like Saddleback (8), Willow Creek (4), Lifechurch.tv (5) and of course the mother of all churches - Joel Osteens' church in Houston with a staggering 43,000 members (although how they count these I'm not sure).

What's interesting to me though is what these churches do and do not have in common. And I obviously have not done an in depth study of this so this is based on like 1 hr of page surfing plus my previous experience.
1.Most of the big churches are in Texas, the south or in parts of California (not in LA or San Fran though). SO the first thing you need to have a big church is to be in a bible belt area.
2. The churches all have high technology. They have great websites. Most do live video-feeds to other campuses. They have elaborate stage set ups and video recording devices.
3. Almost all of them are multi-campus. This is not surprising given the difficulty in getting 30,000 people into one location.
4. Hardly any of them are Reformed. Most of them preach topical sermons, rather than expository. Even the so called 'Reformed' ones that are in there such as Mars Hill Seattle or The Village in Dallas have preachers who clearly do more than just 'expound' the Bible. Driscoll and Matt Chandler give tonnes of application, a lot of it just their opinion on stuff. I'm not saying this is right or wrong at the moment, I'm just commenting on what they do. I'm just nothing that if you want to preach strict 'expository' sermons, don't expect to see your church rocket into the top 100 anytime soon. People like 'practical' and 'topical' sermons. Or if you want to look at it another way. If you define preaching as 'truth through personality' (one definition I was taught at college), then what most of these big churches have is a big personality. They do what Paul did - 'share my very life with you' (1 Thess 2:8). In British and Aussie contexts we're a lot more coy in this area. But these American pastors seem to lead with their lives - at least the parts of their lives they want you to know about.
5. They're all led by a male.

But after this, one of the things that stands out is how different they are.
They are all led by a very capable leader, but the leader doesn't fit the same mold each time. They are all quite different - sometimes very different. Some are strong personalities, others are strong teachers. Some I suspect are genius administrators and organizers and just OK preachers. Others are just amazing preachers and have other people doing all the admin stuff.

In the end it's very hard to put a finger on what it is that made these churches big. It's one thing to note what they have in common now that they are big. It's much harder to work out what got them to where they are. Of course they all have great music and great technology now that they are huge, but did they start with that, or did that come later?

And then of course is the issue of how fruitful these churches really are and how much tickling itching ears is going on or just entertainment. One could argue that to reach modern, tech-savvy people, you need a tight, professional, entertaining show on a Sunday. And i suspect a lot of people go to these churches because thy are missionally minded and they want to go to a church where they feel proud or comfortable to invite their non-Christian friends. But the opposite argument could also be made. It's easier to adopt a consumer mentality at a large church and there are probably lots of folks with that attitude too.
The thing to remember I think is that there is nothing inherently better or worse about a large or a small church. It totally depends on the church. Some mega churches are fantastic, missional, biblical etc and others aren't. Some mega churches do community really well and some small churches suck at it.

Why sin causes pain: Good pain v. Idol pain

2011-09-09T15:16:00.001+10:00

We all know that sin causes pain: murder, rape, malice, gossip, greed. It’s obvious how these cause pain in our world. And as Christians we know that all pain ultimately is a result of sin. Pain and suffering entered our world due to sin.

But there is another level to it that is not talked about as much. And that is how we experience more pain in many situations, because we are sinners. Let’s think of some examples: Your cat dies. A girlfriend dumps you. Your team loses the football. You get retrenched. You’re boss is a jerk. These are all things that would generally be considered bad and cause some distress or suffering.

But the amount of distress or suffering they cause depends on many factors, including the extent to which you are an idolater, or – to say it another way – a sinner.

Psychologists tell us that depression and suffering result from some sort of loss. So in the above examples: You lose your cat. You lose your girlfriend. You lose some pride. You lose your job (perhaps money, status etc). You lose respect, encouragement perhaps.

Now the way the gospel works is that when it works deeply in us and transforms our minds (Rom 12:2) and our hearts (Rom 5:5), we are weaned off the things of this world and our hearts are turned towards Christ. You could say, we begin to love God more and love the world less, except what actually happens is you begin to love God more and love the world more, but you just love it less than God. What happens though is that your inordinate desires become ordered. You gradually start to love the right things and to the right extent and for the right reasons. This is called sanctification or Christian growth or being renewed by the gospel or being changed by the love of God. And when this happens we get many things, including: 1) a new identity, 2) a new security, 3) a new joy, 4) a new hope, 5) a new king, 6) a new relationship.

So whereas we used to look to money, status, sex, affirmation and all these things to feel good about ourselves, we no longer need to, since we have all that we need in Christ. He gives us peace, joy, security, love and affirmation. And the Bible says that we were created to find our joy, our meaning, our security and purpose in God. And when we don’t, the bible calls it sin, or idolatry. When we look to other things like money, or sex or family or status to fulfill us and make us happy, they become idols. It’s not that these are bad things at all, it’s just that when we make good things ultimate things, we become idolaters.

And when we do this, we often create pain or add to the pain of something. For example, say your cat dies. An ‘ordered’ person who has their desires in the right order, will be sad abut this. It’s natural to love your pet and it’s right to feel sad when it dies. But some people feel excessive sorrow over this because their cat is an idol. It’s too big a thing in their life.

Or say a girlfriend dumps you and you are single. Again, it’s normal and healthy to be upset about this. People matter and relationships matter and the person who doesn’t care at all at the severing of a relationship is usually a psychopath. But some people get excessively upset when this happens. Some people even commit suicide. For some people the thought of being single is the worst thing they can imagine. What has happened? Romantic relationships are an idol to them. Or the person they are grieving over was/is an idol to them. Instead of having their identify and affirmation in God, it’s in a person, real or imagined. So their sin, increase their pain.

One more example, you lose your job. Let’s say there are two men, from the same friendship group at school (the ‘jocks’) who both work at different companies but earn similar amounts doing similar jobs. On man, Bob, loves his job. In fact, all he ever does is work. He is totally committed to the company and gives everything he has to see it succeed. Some friends have suggested he should take a holiday this year but he is not interested. He’s aiming to become a partner in the company and needs to work at least 70 hours a week if he wants to stand any chance of getting promoted. His friend from school who he sees most weekends are all very successful in their fields too. Bob prides himself on being a part of this ‘cool group’ of boys from school and earning the kind of money that allows him to eat at the fancy restaurants they frequent and drive the same cars they all drive.

Another man, Steve also loves his job. He works hard and earns good money too. In fact, he used to be just like Bob. But he’s become a Christian and since becoming one has decided that there’s more to life than earning lots of money or keeping up with the boys from school. Steve has started tithing to his church and giving money to sponsor a few kids in Africa. He’s actually told his boss he won’t be working late anymore because he wants to have a family. And he’s also told him that he won’t work on Sunday’s anymore. His boss has told him that this is OK, but he shouldn’t expect any promotions in the near future. Steve would like to be promoted but not at the expense of time with his family or church commitments on a Sunday. And since his pastor at church has been doing a sermon series on Daniel, he has been learning more and more what it means to trust God and rely on him for everything.

Now, a recession hits and both men get retrenched. Who takes it the hardest? Bob does. Steve is upset and slightly anxious about providing for his wife and impending baby. Steve starts praying about this, and has a strong sense that God will provide for him though this time. But Bob is devastated. His identity was completely tied up in that job. Not just the status of working in the role but the nice pay packet that went with it. Bob’s world is completely rocked and he spirals quickly into depression and alcohol abuse. He locks himself away at home, not wanting to face his friends.

Bob’s life is in ruins. He has excessive sorrow over losing his job because it was an idol or him. Steve is upset, but not too badly. He’s concerned, but he’s not depressed, an in act, he’s finding that this has actually helped him deepen his relationship with God and his family and he’s even begun volunteering at the church 2 days a week.

Now this is an extreme example. But it makes the point that idolatry can add pain.

Now in saying all of this, one might think that I’m saying that Christians should be happy all the time and never suffer. That would be completely wrong. There are many, many times when it actually works in reverse. That is, being a Christian and having a solid identity in God, makes life harder and more painful. It shouldn’t take me too long to show you this. Think about Jesus for a minute. He had a perfect relationship with God the Father. He had no inordinate desires or idols. He knew the love of God totally and fully. His dependence on human approval was zero. He was 100% secure in the father. But did Jesus get hurt? Yes. Did Jesus get sad? Yes. Why? Because the world is a sad place and lots of sad things happen. And the more in tune with Reality you are, the more you see the dreadful pain and suffering all around you. For example, one time we know Jesus was sad was when he wept over Jerusalem:

Luk 19:41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Jesus saw the sin of Jerusalem more clearly than anybody. And it grieved him far more than it grieved anybody else. He also saw/sees the eternal damnation that was waiting for the many people who reject God. And this grieves him more than it grieves anybody else.

So being idol free does not mean being pain free. In fact, it probably means experiencing more pain. It does however mean experiencing the right pain.

Aristotle wrote: ‘Anyone can be angry – that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – this is not easy.’

Aristotle is talking about perfection. Jesus was perfect. All of his emotions – anger, love, sorrow – were directed at the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and expressed in the right way. Jesus loved perfectly. He hated perfectly. He got angry perfectly.

And so Jesus experienced a lot of pain that we will never experience because we are idolaters! He looked at poor people and lost people in a way we can’t even imagine. He grieved with them in a way we never will. But he also escaped a lot of pain because he wasn’t an idolater! Jesus experienced if you like ‘good pain’, but never ‘bad pain’ or ‘unnecessary pain’. Idol pain is unnecessary because it’s based on untruths. It’s based on a warped view of the world, where God is not at the centre. But ‘good pain’ is good, because it’s based on truth, it identifies with God and it leads to right actions.

Our aim as Christians ought to be growing every day in our knowledge and love of God and allowing his love and truth to saturate our hearts and minds. As this happens, may we find ourselves experiencing more ‘good pain’ and less ‘idol pain’ to the glory of God.

Birthdays are the Devil

2011-09-09T13:52:00.001+10:00

Why Birthdays are the devil

I have had a growing disdain for birthdays over the past few years and I haven’t been able to work out why. The other day I was talking to someone about a church training event I really wanted them to go to and they said they’d love to but it was someone’s birthday. I told them, tongue in cheek – ‘birthday’s are the devil.’

People think I’m a real stick in the mud when I joke about this, so I wanted to flesh it out some because there is a definite seriousness to my thoughts on this.

There are two issues that I can see:
First, birthdays are very common! They happen all the time! People think they happen only once a year, but as far as I can see they happen every day! In fact millions of people are born every day. I was born on the 26th May 1979. I share a birthday with about 16.5 million people. So every day it is 16.5 million people’s birthday! Let’s narrow it down though. I have about 600 friends on facebook. So on most days it’s one or two people’s birthday and during September it’s about 5 people’s birthday. Every day. But then think about what happens with birthday parties. Given that people work during the week and normally don’t celebrate their birthdays until the weekends, there ends up being a lot of people having a birthday most Saturday’s or - and this is more to the point – Sundays. So one issue for me is the sheer amount of birthdays. I can’t keep up. That is a relatively minor point however.

The more important issue I think is the culture of celebration we have in our society. I heard a preacher last year preaching right before Christmas. He was talking about how Christmas has lost some of it’s appeal because we have so many feasts and celebrations! We have so many celebrations and so much food and wine and festivities. People no longer need an excuse it seems other than it’s Friday night. We are wealthy. And so we eat a lot of nice food and drink a lot of alcohol. We live in an almost permanent state of celebration. The preacher encouraged people to fast or at least refrain from feasting for the few weeks leading up until Christmas – something I’m sure most people in the congregation found very difficult to do or completely ignored!

I very much believe in celebrations. If you read the Old Testament, you see that God very seriously ordained that there be a number of feasts and festivals. And they were lavish! And they were extremely important for lots of different reasons: religious reasons as well as mental health, marking occasions and setting rhythms in our lives. They’re also just fun!

But they can become a problem when a) they become too frequent, or 2) they distract us from God and his purposes. I see both problems. The most common excuse for not attending church on a Sunday that I hear is ‘It’s my nan’s birthday.’ And it’s almost impossible to come back to. It’s a conversation killer. You don’t want to mess with nan!

But is nan really more important than God? And aren’t there 6 other nights of the week that you could have celebrated nan’s birthday? Oh, but no, you see, because Monday is basketball practice and Tuesday is small group night and Wednesday night is my night class that I’m doing at the moment and Thursday is date night and Friday – well that was taken up with an engagement party and Saturday was footy and another birthday party and so on… So all that was left was Sunday. That was the only time we could get everyone together. Of course, because our culture decided a long time ago that we would give everybody a day off each week to celebrate birthdays. No, hang on, wasn’t it for something else? Oh yes, home renovations. Or was it sport? I’ve forgotten now. Why do we have one day off in every seven day cycle?

Ahh yes, that’s right, it was for God! It was to worship Him, focus on Him and serve Him. So my issue is mainly that we don’t prioritize the right things, but also that we risk becoming man-centred rather than God-centred in all these celebrations that don’t celebrate God, they celebrate us – birthdays, Father’s day, Mother’s day, Anzac day. These are all celebrating who man is and what man has done. Even if all you did was get born! Marketers and advertisers of course want us to make every occasion as much as possible. The one thing they hate the most is a contented Christian who gives most of their money away to the poor and doesn’t buy into all the ‘special occasions’ they have told us are special (they don’t seem to mind if we keep Christmas and Easter on top too, so long as we spend money then they don’t care!). Let’s listen to God’s Word. What days does God say are special? And are they the same one’s our culture says are special? So why do we just go along with the world in this? I think we’ve been duped.

So let’s keep special occasions. Let’s just keep the right one’s and remember the Lord.

Germain Greer and Racism

2009-10-09T10:46:00.002+11:00

There's a show on Thursday nights called 'qanda' on channel 2 (I think?). It' a very interesting show where a panel of 'experts' and a host discuss 'big issues' and they have questions from the audience and video questions from others around Australia. Last week the topic was religion and they had Christopher Hitchens, a Jesuit priest, a Muslim university lecturer (very cool and young) and others.

Last night they were talking about a number of issues - racism (following on from the Hey Hey its Saturday 'scandal'), same-sex marriage (this seems to come up every week!) and climate change. they had a Labor MP, a Liberal MP, Germain Greer ('author and feminist' - that was her title on the show), and this uber-coll advertising executive in his early 30's who I think had something to do with earth-hour. All the panelists are very intelligent an articulate.

But I get very sad watching this show. As a Christian who thinks and engages with the world, I find this show fascinating but profoundly depressing -the absolute crap that these smart people come up with! At times it seems like a competition as to who can be the most politically correct. You've got Germain Greer saying

There's contradictions everywhere. One woman was helpfully pointing out that the Australian public say they care about carbon emissions and do 'want the government to do something about it', but said that once they find out how much money it will cost the, they won't be very interested anymore. Which I think is a very good point. Australians like the idea of caring for the environment, but as soon as it cost something, mmmm, not so sure.

The advertising guy (who wants a drastic ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme)) was bagging out this woman (an the government)for using 'scare tactics' in order to prop up a modest ETS (reducing carbon emissions by a measly 1% or something). But then he proceeded to preach to the audience, pronouncing that if we don't act drastically now the whole earth will 'go to hell in a handbag'.

mmmm, scare tactics?

The whole show is just platitudes and politicizing. One feels that if you went on there and really desired the truth, you would get lynched by the mob. One wonders if people really are seeking truth. And I guess thats the real point of sadness for me. Do these people really want to know the truth? Are they really prepared to sit down with someone and talk this stuff out? How long would it really take for them to see that their positions aren't that tenable? Germain Greer thinks that marriage is inherently oppressive to women and thinks that any woman who does get married it 'stupid.' Can we even nuance this a little bit? Arrhhhhhh.

Ditching my mobile

2009-09-21T11:16:00.002+10:00

I'm thinking about getting rid of my mobile phone for these reasons:

1. It's a distraction. We live in a world of speed and noise. If we're to really spend time with God we need solitude and silence. A mobile phone is this thing that is always with you and always on and could go off at any moment. Psychologically I think that does something to us - at least to me. I think it means I'm never quite in the moment. I'm never quite present with people like I want to be. It adds to the background noise of my life and makes it harder for me to hear God's voice.

2. By having one I'm encouraging disorganisation. Mobile phones have enabled us to be more lazy and disorganised and get away with it. We send a last minute text message to find out an address. We leave organising things till the last minute. The most rude I find is when people text me with a question. I feel like I’m Google. I’m a service that they can access to find out information. Why don’t they call me and speak to me? Because they don’t really want to. They’re not that interested in me, they’re interested in finding out what time the party starts (nevermind the fact that I sent them an e-mail about it which they didn’t read! Don’t worry, I just love writing e-mail for fun!).

3. Mobile phones help connect people but they also don’t. We think we’re connected with someone because they’re number is in our phone or because we send the occasional text message (similar with facebook). So we deceive ourselves into thinking we have genuine relationships. In addition, some people spend half their time at a party or a social gathering on their phone texting people! If those people on the other end of the phone are so important, why aren’t they here!? I wonder sometimes if it’s a security blanket. People use their phones so it looks like they’re busy or popular or something. When I see someone sitting down with a hone in their lap, as if they’re just waiting for someone to call or text, I’m much more reluctant to go up and try to have a decent conversation with them. It just doesn’t seem worth it. The vibe they’re giving off is ‘I’m not really here. I’m here sort of, but I may have to go at any moment if my phone rings.’ There’s nothing ruder than your phone going off when you’re talking to someone. It’s like saying ‘I know you’ve made the effort to actually be here in person, but I’m going to reward the person who hasn’t made the effort, by answering my phone and ignoring you and talking to this person who was too lazy to come and see me in person.’

Conclusion
It’s a sad world we live in and all these things are complicated. Loneliness and depression are at crazy levels in our society now despite mobile phones, facebook and all the great ‘social networking’ technologies we have. The most used button on facebook has to be the ‘maybe’ button - The non-committal generation wishing that people would commit to them but not willing to commit to anyone. Using facebook and their mobile phone to survey the landscape and see what products there are out there on the market to consume. Like everything God has made, phones can be used for good and evil. The problem isn’t phones, it’s people. I’ll probably keep my mobile phone because people expect me to have one. But I think I’m going to turn it off a lot and have it on silent a lot. That way, I may not be as accessible to people, but at least when I am, I will be hopefully have something to say.

The relationship between insecurity and sin

2009-08-28T12:15:00.001+10:00

Everyone is insecure. It’s the most annoying thing about life. It stuffs all of us up. It stuffs up all our relating. It affects the way I relate to my friends, my wife, the person at the shoe store and people I minister to and with.

It expresses itself in various ways – competitiveness, anger, aggression, shyness, nastiness, maliciousness and so on. It always results in a failure to love other people.

What is insecurity and where does it come from? Insecurity is not being secure. It’s not feeling confident in who you are. It’s about our identity. It’s to do with not feeling loved. Or feeling loved, but only conditionally. All of us are insecure to some degree because none of us had perfect parents who loved us perfectly and unconditionally. And even if they did, this would not provide total security because we could question the objectivity of their judgment. If both my parents love me, but everyone else thinks I’m useless, then I might start to question the accuracy of my parents judgment and become insecure.

Insecurity drives even the most ‘altruistic’ (I say ‘altruistic’ because altruism is a myth. See my other essay on love) and benign activities. For example, I am in ministry. I work really hard to build a big church and preach good sermons and run a good small group and offer good advice and be a great leader. I strive to be godly and wise. Why? Why do I do all this? Well, because I love Jesus and I want to build his kingdom. Of course! If only it were that simple! If only my heart was that pure! The answer is, I do all this for very mixed motives. Sure, I do love God and I love people and I long for them to meet Jesus and grow in grace and love and wholeness. I have a passion for the glory of God and the joy of man. But another part of me wants to build a big church and be a successful minister because I want to find my worth in my ministry. I want to be affirmed by people. I want acclaim. Perhaps even, I want riches, because prestige and money are always closely related. Even in spending time praying and working on my relationship with God, insecurity is right there. I know that if I’m close to God, I will increase in wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit. I will become a man of God which means a man of influence. As a man of influence I can write books that sell lots of copies and make me lots of money. I can preach amazing sermons that blow people away. I gain power over people and my security is bolstered. I can also say ‘Look, my church is bigger and more successful than your church’ and boast.

Insecurity is what drives so much of our behaviour and hard work. Olympic athletes are almost always driven by insecurity. What else could possibly motivate a swimmer to train that many hours a week? When you’re the fifth fastest swimmer in the world, what motivates you to become the first fastest? So you can swim half a second faster! Big deal! But it is a big deal, because you’re not training so you can swim faster, you’re training so you can be recognised. You’re training so that you’ll be someone. Someone worthwhile. And noone remembers who came fifth. As Rob Bell would say, ‘this is about that’. The swimming is not about the swimming. It’s about the respect. About the acclaim. About feeling secure. If you win gold, then you’ll be somebody. And we all want to be somebody. It’s the search for significance. And that’s what drives an athlete to train 8 hours a day. It’s what drives teenagers to do well in school. It’s what drives parents to raise successful kids (smartest, fastest, prettiest etc). It’s what drives me to read lots of books and preach good sermons and be a great leader. It’s what drives people to be rich and famous. It’s all about feeling significant which is all about feeling secure which is all about feeling loved. And that’s where this all ends up. It’s all about love. When you drill down to the bottom of it all, you get to significance, then you get to security and then you get to love. We strive as humans because we’re insecure. And we’re insecure because we’re not sure if we’re loved. It’s about identity, it’s about security and it’s about love. Who am I? What gives me worth? What do I have to be or achieve so that I can be someone?

The Bible says that God is like a Rock in whom we take refuge (Gen 49:24; Ps 18:2). He is our fortress and our strength (Ps 31:2-3). In the NT, Jesus says that the man who hears God’s word and obeys is like the man who builds his house on the rock (Matt 7:24ff). The Apostle Peter says this:
‘As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”’ (1 Peter 2:4-6)

What does this mean? It means God is unchanging. He is immovable. He is strong. And it means that his love for us is as solid as anything. He is our security. He loves us with a perfect, unconditional love that will never change. It doesn’t matter if we have a learning disability or a physical disability. It doesn’t mater what our IQ is or how good looking we are or how much we earn. God loves us. Period. He made us in his image and he doesn’t make junk. Yes we are fallen and sinful. Yes, we fall short of who God made us to be. Yes we fall short of how glorious we used to be (in Eden) and how glorious we will one day be (in the new heavens). But God loves us: ‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ (1 John 4:9-10)

And what is more, his opinion is the only opinion that really matters. He says to us ‘I love you, because I made you and you are fearfully and wonderfully made.’ (Psalm 139; John 3:16 etc) This should provide us with massive security. This love should set us free from slavery to what people think of us. This should set us free from constantly relating to people out of insecurity. This should set us free to actually really love people. To actually think about them and their needs rather than ourselves and our own needs. Having all our need for love, security and acceptance met through God, we are set free to love and serve others.

This is what I’m striving for now. I am striving for my identity to be completely in Christ. Not in my ministry. Not in my sporting ability. Not in my academic achievements. Not in my ability to raise good, high-achieving kids. Not in my ability to wear cool clothes. Not is my ability to preach amazing sermons or write interesting blogs. Not even in my ‘being a godly person’. I want my whole identity to be in Christ so that I am completely set free to be the man God wants me to be and completely set free to love and serve others without even a thought for myself. As Tim Keller says, the transforming love of God doesn’t make us think more of ourselves, or less of ourselves, but to think of ourselves less. That is exactly right. This is the problem with the ‘self-esteem gospel’ that says God loves you and wants to improve your self-esteem. Actually God wants to improve our ‘God-esteem’ so that we esteem ourselves less. This will naturally result in us having ‘higher self-esteem’ in the sense that we will be better ‘actualized’ and ‘higher-functioning’ - to use psychological language, not biblical language. It is an important note that – the Bible doesn’t talk about us becoming more ‘adjusted’ or better ‘actualized’. The reason for this is that it’s not about us. Well it is, in a sense. But in another sense it’s not. God does want us to become more whole, more human, more like Christ. And to use psychological categories, Jesus was the healthiest, most actualised, balanced person who has ever lived. He was the most secure person who has ever lived. He operated at all times out of concern for the other and never out of insecurity. And God does want us to be like this. But the way he does that in Scripture – and therefore the way we must approach it – is to fix our eyes on Jesus. Here’s the thing: naval-gazing doesn’t work. We don’t fix our insecurity problem by looking inside ourselves, or talking about our parents. Modern psychology tries to fix people’s self-esteem problems with mantras like ‘you are a worthwhile person because you exist’ and ‘you have value because you are human’ and ‘look inside yourself and you will find a hero’. This is all half-true. We do have ‘inherent’ value because we’re made in God’s image but actually it’s not inherent because we only have value because the Valuer values us. There is something of a paradox here. We can look inside ourselves and try to find reflections of God’s character and his glory. But sin so tarnishes and distorts that glory that what we actually find when we look there is selfishness, greed, envy, pettiness, insecurity, pride and sin. We may look inside ourselves in order to feel good about who we are, but after looking there we almost always feel worse about who we are because we discover all the sin and wickedness.

This is actually why the Puritans did encourage introspection. They thought it was extremely helpful, even necessary to examine ourselves and find the sin in our hearts so we could identify it and repent of it. So they encouraged introspection, but for the opposite reason to many modern day psychologists. It wasn’t to find our inner goodness but to find our inner badness. It wasn’t to feel better about ourselves, but to feel better about Christ.

Insecurity is an enemy of godly living. Perhaps it’s the enemy to godly living. It’s the enemy because it destroys love. Insecurity and love are mutually exclusive. Our only hope to live lives that truly honour god and that truly bless others is to rid ourselves of insecurity. This is an enormous challenge. In fact, this is an impossible task on our own. The only way this can happen is by the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel:

Paul says in Romans that ‘hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us’ (Rom 5:5; cf. Titus 3:4-6).

It is a supernatural work. It is the work of renewal and regeneration and only God can do it. By the power of the HS, God’s love comes to us and comes into our hearts, convicting us and assuring us that we are loved by Him. And this is more powerful than 1000 counselling sessions, or 1000 self-help books or even 1000 sermons (!). The love of God is what transforms us:

‘At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.’ (Titus 3:3-6)

Again:
‘For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self–controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.’ (Titus 2:11)

What am I going to do to grow in this knowledge of God’s love? I’m going to immerse myself in Scripture. I’m going to pray every day and ask God to reveal his love more and more to me (as Paul prayed for the Ephesians in ch 3). I’m going to soak in Christian fellowship and teaching. I’m going to obey the word as Jesus said to do. I’m going to practise other spiritual disciplines. I can’t manufacture this supernatural work of God. I can’t create the stream. But I can try to put myself in the stream of God’s grace or manoeuvre myself into where he has promised the stream will flow. The battle for security rages in me every day and I will fight it until Jesus takes me home. Come Lord Jesus.

Why doesn't Satan repent?

2009-07-29T16:36:00.003+10:00

Satan knows he’s lost. Satan knows he can’t beat God. Why doesn’t he repent, receive God’s forgiveness and enter back into blissful relationship with God?

The Bible never talks about weather it is possible for Satan to repent, as in, if God would accept his repentance and forgive him. It would seem to me that God is gracious and merciful and he would forgive him. But there is no indication at all that Satan would ever repent. Why? He could be so much happier if he repented and he knows it. Why doesn’t he? The answer seems to be that he is evil. And it’s the nature of evil that is so fascinating and which I want to explore.

Evil is a strange thing. For one it’s irrational. I was reading Luke 15 this morning – the Parable of the Lost Sons. Jesus says that the prodigal son ‘came to his senses’ (15:17) and decided to return home to his father. He realised the stupidity of his ways and decided to humble himself and return home, even though he would have to be a hired servant. There is, in the Bible the idea that sin is ‘stupid’, that it doesn’t benefit:

Rom 1:21 ‘For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images…’

There is this idea in the Bible that sin is foolish, it’s stupid. But people still sin! Why? Well, sometimes its because they don’t see the folly in what they’re doing. But often they do. Often people see that what they are doing is stupid, but they still do it.
In The Great Divorce, CS Lewis talks about this:

‘Milton was right’ said my Teacher. ‘The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.’ There is always something they insist on keeping even at the price of misery. There is always something they prefer to joy – that is, to reality. You see it easily enough in a spoiled child that would sooner miss its play and its supper than say it was sorry and be friends.’(p. 71)

You see this with adults too, but it’s more sophisticated. Let’s say a husband has mistreated one of his kids and his wife is unhappy about it. They have a special date night planned, but the wife tells the husband she won’t be able to enjoy the date night unless he says he is sorry. The husband thinks he may have over-reacted slightly, but the child basically deserved the beating he received. So he won’t apologize. The husband just wants the wife to move on and forget what happened. The date is planned for his favourite restaurant so he’s really keen to just move on and enjoy the night. But the wife can’t move on. What her husband did was wrong and scary. And she sees a pattern of behaviour emerging that really concerns her. She needs him to acknowledge this and apologise to her and to his son. She tells him the date is off unless he apologises. By this stage the husband is furious. He really wants to go out to the restaurant, and this just seems like a total over-reaction. There is no way he is going to apologise. The two reach a stalemate, and after some intense screaming at one another the wife calls up the restaurant and cancels the booking. The two of them spend the night in separate rooms furious with each other, brooding.

What’s going on here? Pride. The husband would rather hold onto his pride, than go and have a nice night with his wife. It’s pride. It’s illogical, but it’s powerful. He’s miserable, but he’s happy. He’s happy in the sock sense. He’s happy in the sense that his pride hasn’t suffered. He hasn’t backed down. He hasn’t apologised.

It’s the same with Satan. He is proud. He is so proud, he will never repent. He knows he will suffer eternal torment in hell, but he doesn’t care. He’s so angry at God and so puffed up with himself, he would much rather spend eternity in hell than humble himself and repent. It’s stupid. It’s irrational. But it’s what he wants. And THAT is evil. That is why Satan doesn’t repent and never will.

It’s the same with people. Again, C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain:

‘There are only two kinds of people – those who say ‘Thy will be done’ to God or those whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in hell choose it. Without that self-choice it wouldn’t be hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.’ (p. 79)

The sick thing about evil is that it loves to be evil. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be evil. That’s one way to define it – it loves the wrong thing. It loves sadness.

And Tim Keller in The Reason for God:
‘The people in hell are miserable, but Lewis shows us why. We see raging like unchecked flames their pride, paranoia, their self-pity, their certainty that everyone else s wrong, that everyone else is an idiot! All their humility is gone, and thus so is their sanity. They are utterly, finally locked in a prison of their own self-centredness, as their pride progressively expands into a bigger and bigger mushroom cloud.’ (p. 79)

Could Jesus have had bipolar?

2009-07-21T13:40:00.002+10:00

The question is 'Could Jesus have had bipolar?' but the real question behind the question is 'Are mental illnesses sin?'

Just been thinking whether my comparison with anorexia is warranted or not. I still think it is, but they're not exactly the same. I think you could argue clearly that Jesus would not be and could never have been anorexic. But it's not as simple when you come to bi-polar. As I think about it now, I don't think Jesus could have been bi-polar because he had so much hope in God and so much joy in God and so much faith in God. He certainly got distressed and despaired. Isaiah says he was a 'man of many sorrows'. And Luke tells us that he sweated drops of blood in the Garden. So he clearly got 'sorrowful' and 'distressed'. But I don't think he ever got 'depressed' or 'anxious'. I think he was like Paul, 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing' (2 Cor 6:10). This may seem like splitting hairs but i think these distinctions are crucial. God and Jesus get sad. They get distressed. It's a natural and right response to the tragic amount of pain and sin in the world. But to get depressed and anxious -that's a wrong and sinful response because God is in control and he is good and he is working out all things in conformity with his will (Eph 1:11) and one day he will fix everything. The person who truly (100%) hopes and trusts in God (which none of us can ever do this side of heaven) will never get anxious or depressed. So given the DSM criteria for depression and bi-polar, I don't think a sinless person could fit these criteria. But a lot of these mental 'illnesses' are caused by things that happen to us (nature and nurture) and choices we make. A person who never makes a bad choice is perfect like Jesus and they cannot get depressed or bipolar, no matter how bad their nature and nurture is.

If we think of it mathematically - we could say that to get 'depression' or 'bipolar' one needs 100 points of 'damage'. But here's the rule: Since mental illnesses (unlike biological illnesses like colds) are always a product of BOTH (1) bad/sinful things that happen to us (nature and nurture) and (2) bad/sinful choices we make, in order to get to 100 points YOU HAVE TO HAVE AT LEAST 1 PT GIVEN FROM EACH OF THEE TWO THINGS. That is, unlike say a cold or cancer, you can't get depression (or any mental illness, except perhaps for schizophrneia) just from bad things happening to you if you always make perfect choices (ie. are sinless). So for Jesus, even if he was molested as a child, had his whole family raped and murdered in front of him and was raised by a schizophrenic, gay, abusive, drunkard transexual - that would still not be enough to give him depression. That would be the worst possible environment and it would contribute the maximum 99 points 'damage' to him, but Jesus still would not get depression because his faith and hope in God is so strong and so perfect that he would be able to cope with all the trauma. Should his hope and faith waver slightly, then his (2) choices might contribute 1 point and that could tip him over the edge and he would get depressed.

Now obviously none of us are perfect. We all make bad choices. We all fail to trust and hope in God like we should. We don't delight in God like we should. And to the degree that we fail to delight and trust in God, we are more likely to get mental illness. But FOR SOME PEOPLE LIFE IS SO HARD AND SO TRAUMATIC THAT THEY DON'T NEED TO BE VERY SINFUL TO END UP WITH DEPRESSION OR BIPOLAR. SOME VERY GODLY PEOPLE END UP IN THE PSYCH WARD BECAUSE A POWERFUL AND DAMAGING COMBINATION OF NATURE AND NURTURE HAS LEFT THEM VERY DAMAGED. We need to be careful not to condemn these people too harshly. Sure, if they were perfect, they wouldn't be in the psych ward, but nobody is perfect. And their condition may be 98% due to stuff that has happened to them, not their own sinful and stupid choices to chase after idols and not delight in God above all things.

So we need to be careful saying 'depression is just sin' or 'bipolar is just sin' because it is always a combination of sin as well as circumstances that are outside our control. If my dad was gay, I would have a much higher chance of being depressed now. If my parents were divorced I would have a much higher chance of being depressed now. I have no control over those things and those things WHEN COMBINED WITH MY LACK OF FAITH AND LACK OF HOPE IN GOD could lead me to depression or some other mental illness. But it is always a combination. Sometimes it's 50/50. Sometimes it's 80/20. But it's always a combination.

Is shyness a sin?

2009-07-21T13:19:00.002+10:00

Last week at Summit I caused a bit of a stir when I said that it was a sin to be shy. I clarified it a bit but I want to clarify it more here and explain clearly what I meant.

First, some context. I was preaching on Revelation 21 – the new heavens and the new earth. I was saying as an application of this text that we Christians should be people who are full of ‘life’ because when God’s Kingdom comes and we are glorified, we will be amazing, beautiful, creative, life-giving people with new bodies and renewed minds. In the new heavens and the new earth there won’t be any ‘boring’ people. Infused and ignited with the fire of God’s Spirit every person will radiate the glory of God. And we are supposed to be like that now. We are God’s Kingdom here on earth. We are meant to be the Kingdom now. And we have God’s Spirit and we are being ‘transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.’ (2 Cor 3:18)

So it seems pretty clear to me that what we are meant to be as Christians are people who are full of life. And by life I mean beauty, creativity, love, grace, laughter, warmth, gentleness, kindness, self-control, intellectual rigour, relational connectedness and so on. We are meant to be fully human. Sin makes us sub-human. Jesus was fully-human. We are being changed by God’s Spirit so that we become more like Jesus, which is to become more human.

It seems to me that perfect people – which is what we are called to be – won’t be shy or boring. So I said it’s a sin to be shy or boring. Now this needs some qualification. I am fully aware that shy people are often shy because of their upbringing. And I certainly don't want to beat up on shy people.

What I want to do is encourage us towards love and flourishing. And it seems to me that loving people involves work, it involves investing in people and, most important for this topic, it involves words. Being shy is therefore, in one sense, unloving. Being shy means that you don’t talk. There is a reason why Jesus is called the Word (John 1:1). There is a reason why Jesus said he came to preach. God loves us and gives himself to us through words. If you want to relate to someone on a meaningful level you need words (even sign language is a form or word). This means that if we want to be people that really love others and really relate to others, we can’t be shy.

I’m not saying we all need to be extroverts, but I am saying we need to strive to love people. And this means getting involved. This means getting our hands dirty a little bit. This means speaking up. This means speaking words of encouragement, comfort, rebuke and challenge into people’s lives. We mustn’t let fear or laziness get in the way of this.

Then there’s being a boring person. I can’t wait to get to heaven because there won’t be any boring people there. So many people on this planet are profoundly boring. And it wrong! It’s a sin! How can a glorious creature made in the image of God be boring!? There’s only one way – sin! Being less than human means that we’re boring. Again, in heaven we will all be ignited with God’s Spirit, saturated with the life and energy and creativity of Jesus. We will be witty and funny and we will always have great and glorious things to say about Jesus, not to mention the (new) world he has created. We will wax lyrical about science and about surfing and about the victories of the cross and the beauty of God’s actions throughout history. We will be fascinated by everything and we ourselves will be fascinating. That’s us when we’re fully redeemed. That’s us when God’s work in us is complete. And God wants us to be that now. So I say, it’s wrong to be boring! It’s a sin! I’m not saying there won’t be times when we are feeling really sick or tired or grumpy, but on the whole, we should be people around whom life happens. We should be like Jesus – people should want to be around us because we radiate life and love. I think this is something of what Paul means when he says ‘let your conversation always be seasoned with salt.’ (Col 4:6) We are meant to be interesting people. J.I. Packer says as much at the start of Knowing God when he says that meditating on the infinite (God) causes the mind to expand. People who think about huge things become interesting. People who think about small things become or stay, boring.

The world today is full of people who watch mundane, trivial, banal TV all day and subsequently are profoundly boring.

Christians are meant to be the exact opposite. We are meant to be people who reflect on greatness. We are meant to be people who reflect greatness. We are meant to be people whose minds and bodies are infused with the life-giving Spirit of God, pulsating with all his energy, life and creativity. How can this kind of person be boring? So I say, it’s wrong to be boring. If this world is a party, Christians should be the life of it because we are meant to be a city within the city. We are meant to be the light of the world. We are meant to be a foretaste of the Kingdom.

So maybe it’s unhelpful to say ‘it’s a sin to be shy’ or ‘it’s a sin to be boring’ but I do want to say to you and to myself, ‘Flourish! Become more human!!’

Meditations on Meditation

2009-04-12T08:50:00.000+10:00

I want to do some thinking about thinking. I like Robbie Williams’ song which goes ‘I’m contemplating thinking about thinking…’ I do that a lot – think about thinking. I think that thinking is really, really important. But what kind of thinking? Any thinking? Is all thinking helpful to us? There are millions of things we could think about. We can meditate on anything – a sunset, a movie, a flower, a magazine article. But because there are so many things we could think about it’s worth thinking about what we should think about so we don’t waste our time thinking about the wrong things.

There are at least four kinds of meditation that are not beneficial:

1. Meditation to empty the mind

Most eastern forms of meditation involve emptying the mind so that you remove all thought. It’s about quieting your spirit so you can find peace. This sounds quite nice but is actually quite unhelpful because you’re opening yourself up to Satan and demons to come in and feed you lies. You don’t ‘find yourself’ by emptying your mind (you actually empty yourself when you do this), you ‘find yourself’ by filling it with truth (But actually ‘finding yourself’ is not a very helpful concept. You only find out who you are as you discover who you are in relationship with others – people and God. People are people through other people. ‘You’ does not exist outside relationships).

2. Meditating on half-truths

Some truths like ‘if I kill this baby, it won’t cry anymore’ maybe true, but they are not beneficial to think about. There are I suppose, ‘evil truths’. Another example would be ‘if I have sex with this prostitute it will feel good’. That may be true enough, but it’s not a beneficial thing to meditate on. These examples actually show that in each case the person is not mediating on the whole truth of the situation, but just focusing in on one small truth, while neglecting to mediate on bigger truths or the metanarrative. So it is actually the case that ‘truth’ if taken to mean ‘the greater truth that encompasses all truth and gives correct weighting to every single smaller truth’ is almost always beneficial for us to meditate on. I say ‘almost always’ because there is another category of truth that is unhelpful to us and that is…

3. Meditation on ‘truths’ which God has deemed it best for us not to know yet.

An example of this might be how divine sovereignty and human responsibility work together. We see in Romans 9 that Paul gets to the end of a long line of reasoning (about predestination etc.) and then stops. The best explanation for this seems to be the Deut 29:29 one: ‘The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.’ Some things are true, but they’re just not helpful for us to know at this time. They will be helpful ultimately, and we will know them all ultimately when we get to heaven and see God face to face, but there’s a timing issue here.
So for reflection to be beneficial, it needs to be ‘true’ in the fullest sense of the word.

4. Meditating on Evil

Evil people reflect. Evil people meditate and plot and scheme about all sorts of things. They have lustful, evil fantasies. They ponder how to get rich, how to take over a company or a country, how to molest a child, how to rob a bank, how to rape a woman, how to have an affair, how to get divorced and not pay child support, how to cheat on an exam. Millions of hours are spent meditating on evil things or how to accomplish evil things but this is in vain because it won’t lead to lasting life or peace with God.

So what are we to think about? I think the best things to think about are things that are true and things that lead to wholeness and happiness. And so I think that the most beneficial, productive thing to meditate on is the Bible. The Bible is truth, it’s pure truth and it’s written for our encouragement and flourishing (Job 23:12; 2 Tim 3:16)

Here’s what the Bible itself says about meditation:

Josh 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Ps 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 48:9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
Psalm 77:12 I will mediate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.
Psalm 119:15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
Ps 119:27 Let me understand the teaching of your precepts, then I will meditate on your wonders.
Ps 119:48 I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love and I meditate on your decrees.
Ps 119:148 My eyes stay open through the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promises.
2 Tim 2:7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

So the Bible wants us to – no, commands us to – meditate. But not just any meditation, only meditation on certain things which are beneficial. In this list that includes God’s Law, his love, his works and mighty deeds, his wonders, his commands and his promises. ‘Beneficial’ things are all truthful things but not all truthful things are beneficial.

What is good is guided meditation – meditating on God’s Word, his truth, his character, his deeds. Since our thoughts are evil , unguided mediation is very dangerous. In fact, unguided mediation will always lead us down the wrong path and result in futility, frustration, error and sin. We need God’s truth as a starting point so we can mediate on the right things and head towards truth, life, contentment and satisfaction. It’s like a scientist who begins with a false premise or a false ‘paradigm’ and spends decades researching something based on a false theory or a false paradigm. The scientist will get nowhere because they are barking up the wrong tree. The fundamental assumption or premise upon which all their research and experiments are based, is false. And this is what happens with the non-Christian. They may be really intelligent and they may work hard and think a lot, but if their life is based on a lie (namely that God doesn’t exist etc), then they will get nowhere and their life will be full of futility and frustration. And this is exactly what we see in the world.

So in conclusion, I want to encourage you to think and to meditate, but only on what is true and pure and noble: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.’ (Philippians 4:8)

Communication Freaks

2009-04-12T08:40:00.001+10:00

My colleague Lachlan Outhred and I have for a while now had a running joke about us both being ‘communication Nazi’s’, especially when it comes to writing e-mails. We both feel it is very important to be extremely clear when writing e-mails to people, because there is so much ‘ill-communication’ (to quote a sweet album title from the Beastie Boys).

We’ve realized that the same goes for text messages and indeed, all forms of communication – writing letters, talking on the phone and talking face to face.

But I want to take this a bit further. I actually think that we as Christians have an obligation, or perhaps duty, to be ‘communication Nazis’. I believe that every Christian should strive with all his or her might to be the best communicator possible: to be clear and precise as well as gracious and truthful in our communication for the glory of God and the betterment of one’s life. Here are my reasons:

1. We want to have good relationships with people (and so be happy) [1]

Since relationships are at the centre of reality[2] and relationships are all about communication, then if we want to have good relationships, we need to be good communicators. This is the first thing you learn if you do any marriage counselling. You are told that you have to communicate how you feel clearly so that the other person understands your idea or your emotion. In my experience, most conflict – in both my marriage and my friendships – is caused by mis-communication. The fact that Annie and I hardy ever fight is due to a number of factors, but a big one is I think the fact that we are both careful with our words all the time, especially when we are aware of a potential conflict situations. I think hard about what I want, how I feel and then how to express those things in a way that Annie will a) understand, and b) feel loved and respected by, and Annie does the same. The result of this is a great marriage that is loving and efficient (bad word to use in regards to marriage I know, but true nevertheless).

2. We want to be understood (and so be happy)

This is similar to the first reason, but different enough I think to warrant its own point. I see people and I know people who are bad communicators. The result is usually they don’t have many close friends and/or they are frustrated with life and unhappy. We all want to be known. ‘To know and to be known’ is at the heart of what makes us happy as human beings. In order to be known deeply by other people (God knows us regardless of how well we communicate) and thus to be happy, we need to be good at communication.

But there is another aspect to this. Not only do we want to be understood relationally, but we also want to be understood intellectually. That is, not only do I want you to know who I am, but I also want you to know what I’m thinking. Now obviously there is much overlap here, but the first has more to do with emotional communication and the second has more to do with intellectual communication or the communication of ideas. Bad communicators never feel they can get their ideas across. This is extremely frustrating because no one ever seems to get them, let alone be moved or persuaded by their ideas. They thus feel insignificant and ineffective.

So bad communicators are unhappy. They’re unhappy because a) they don’t have good relationships (because they’re not able to be known deeply) and b) because they’re unable to express their ideas and influence other people or even draw the right information out of people that they need to learn.

But there is a third reason why we should all strive to be good communicators, and this is the most important.

3. We want other people to have a (good) relationship with God (and so be happy).

The reason language and communication exists is because God wants us to be in relationship with Him. There are many profound reasons why Jesus is referred to in Scripture as ‘the Word’ (John 1:1, 14). But possibly the main reason is that Jesus is the revelation of God. He is God with us; he is God revealed. Hebrews 1:1-3 says: In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.’ (emphasis mine)

We see here that the history of the world is fundamentally about God acting and speaking to people so that they may have life through relationship with Him. God speaks to us in ‘various ways’ – dreams, visions, prophets, a burning bush (Ex 3), donkeys (Nu 22:28), stone tablets, even ‘a whisper[3]’ (1 Kings 19:13). Notice that all of these ways of speaking involve words. There are places in the Bible where it speaks of God speaking through creation (Psalm 19:1-6[4]; Rom 1:20) but the primary way God speaks to us and the clearest way is through words.

Now obviously words by themselves are not really enough to constitute a meaningful relationship. There needs to be deeds as well. And while the Bible speaks of Jesus as ‘the Word’, we know that Jesus did more than just preach and teach. He also healed people, performed miracles, was tortured, died, rose from death. In other words, he did things as well as said things. So why doesn’t John 1:1 say ‘In the beginning was the act’? Why does it say ‘In the beginning was the Word’? The first answer is that John is deliberately echoing Genesis 1 and the first thing God does there is speak: ‘And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.’ (Gen 1:3). So creation came into being through words. And John wants to say that this ‘word’ was in fact Jesus: ‘Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men’ (Jn 1:3-4). So ‘life’ came into being by a ‘word’ or the ‘Word’.

Now meditate on this of a little while. This is an astonishingly high view of communication! It’s hard to imagine a higher view of communication than that it brings life! But that is exactly what it does. Not only did God’s Word bring creation into being (Gen 1), but God’s Word, Jesus, brings life to all who believe in Him (John 1:4, 12; 3: 16). Both creation and salvation come through words. In other words, all life comes through words!

What a powerful weapon God has put into our hands that we can speak! Now we start to understand why there is so much instruction in the Bible about the way we use words. They have so much power both for good and for ill: ‘The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.’ (Prov 18:21)

We have the power to bring life to people by preaching the truth of the gospel to them and we have the power to bring death to people by speaking lies to them. There is this message – the gospel – that people need to hear in order to be saved:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15)

And we can either communicate it clearly – beautifully, compellingly, convincingly – or we can communicate it poorly – lazily, sloppily, inarticulately, unconvincingly. This is why it is so important that all Christians be good communicators! We want people to be saved! We want to present Jesus Christ to people and make him look as valuable and as glorious as he really is! And we can only do this through good communication.

So what does this means for us as Christians? It means we need to read the dictionary and expand our vocabulary. We need to read books and improve our syntax and our grammar. We need to think hard about our body language and our tone of voice (even our use of emoticons!). We need to think hard about the words we use and/or don’t use and the emotional impact they are having. We need to work hard at understanding the person and/or persons we are trying to communicate to. This means being good listeners. We need to know ourselves and be self-analytical. We need to work hard at knowing the truth and then knowing when to convey it and how to convey it so that we can have good relationships, we can be happy, other people can be brought more into the light of Christ (and so be happy), and through all this, God may be glorified. Put simply, we need to be communication Nazi’s.[5]

[1] Noticed I have couched all three points in the ‘Christian hedonism’ framework (by the use of the word ‘happy’). That is because I believe in the Christian Hedonism framework – that is, that all Christians are to be radical hedonists and strive to be as happy as we possibly can. See John Piper, Desiring God.

[2] Because God is at the centre of reality and He is in relationship with himself as three-in one or ‘Trinity’.

[3] Or ‘thin silence’. 1 Ki 19: 11-12 Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹²After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

[4] The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. ² Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.³ There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

[5] We also need to be slow to speak and quick to listen (James 1:19), tame our tongue (James 3), not gossip or slander or let any foolish or unwholesome talk come out of our mouths (Eph 5:4).

Pure Love Is Not Selfish or Altruistic

2009-04-12T08:28:00.001+10:00

I’ve just had a baby – a beautiful baby boy. Declan is today (10 March 2008) 8 weeks old. I always thought that becoming a father would teach me lots about God. So far, I haven’t learnt much. But I am starting to fall in love with him. I didn’t really at the start. It was a weird feeling. I kept getting distracted by what I was supposed to feel. I stare at him a lot and think about why I love him. A few weeks ago he was very similar to my old cat, Jordan - in terms of intellect and responsiveness, he was about on par. Actually Jordan might have been a bit more advanced than Declan – he could walk, run, kill, eat by himself, go to the toilet in the right place, clean up after himself, groom himself, burp himself, and put himself to sleep without any fuss. Declan can’t do any of these things! But when I look at Declan I think ‘He is a more hi-tech version of Jordan.’ And I think what fills me with love and wonder when I stare at Declan is potential. I can see what he can become. I imagine what he will achieve when he grows up. He will be so smart and so good at sport, and he will know Jesus and tell jokes and love people and have emotions and profound thoughts. In just a few months he will have left Jordan for dead.

So I got thinking about God’s love for us. I’ve always found it hard to believe that God loves us. We’re too crap. But maybe God loves us because he sees potential. Right now, with all my sin and brokenness, I am just like Declan. I am not much use to God. I don’t respond to Him very much. But God sees what I could become. When I die and go to heaven and am restored and made perfect, I will be a spectacular, glorious being. I will be a creature God can delight in. But actually God delights in me now, because he sees that potential in me. He is frustrated right now that I am not living up to that potential and he is sanctifying me day by day so that I am becoming more glorious and mature and holy and delightful.

But then I got thinking on a deeper level. What is pure love? If I just love something for what it can do for me, is that really love? If a woman loves a man because he can dispense lots of money, we wouldn’t call that love. We would say that they love money, not the man. But when someone says they love their car we believe them. But actually what they love is the prestige that the car gives them. Or they love the speed at which the car can take them. They don’t actually love the car in and of itself. Its not pure love. It’s proxy love. We don’t actually love money. We love what money can buy. When people say they love someone, how much of it is really love? And how much do we just love the things that person can give us? Like sex, or companionship or money, or security, or significance. And for love to be pure, do we have to get nothing out of it?

GK Chesterton, in his famous book Orthodoxy seems to go down this path. He says that we need to have an ‘irrational’ love for God and the church. By that I think he means ‘unconditional’ love. He says we need to love God and the church, not for what we can get from them, but simply because. We just love. Now this is curious. Do humans ever do something or love something for no reason? And even if they can, should they? I don’t think they can and I don’t think they should. However, I see where Chesterton is coming from and I think it’s helpful.

I think there does come a time in your Christian life, as in a marriage, when obvious benefits seem fairly lacking. There are times when God seems distant and the cost is high. There are times in a marriage when its just hard work and the fun times are few and far between. There are times when you just have to love your wife because you promised you would. There are times when you need to delight in her even though the ‘delights’ are very few and far between. When your wife is sick, depressed, becomes paraplegic, gets old and ugly, gets grumpy – will you still love her and cherish her? When suffering comes and God’s gifts – health, money, family, his presence – dry up (although arguably God’s presence can’t dry up), will you still love and serve God? Will it be unconditional love? Will it be pure love?

What is pure love? Does it have to be disinterested? I don’t think love has to be disinterested, but I think the purest love is. I think God’s love is, at one level, disinterested. He loves because he loves to love. You cannot go deeper than that. You can’t find an answer beneath that to the question ‘Why does God love us? Why did God send Jesus?’

The answer is simply because he loves us. And if you ask ‘Why does God love us?’ you will get nowhere. We can ask this question with human, sinful love: ‘Why does he love pizza?’ Coz it tastes good. ‘Why does he love sport?’ Because it’s fun and there’s comradery etc. ‘Why does he love her?’ Because she’s attractive, smart, nice, funny etc. But why does God love us? What doe she get from us? He has everything already. He’s not lonely. He’s not poor. He’s not bored. God gets nothing from us. As the Bible says: ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” (Rom 11:33) And ‘he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.’ (Acts 17:25)

God doesn’t need us. He gets nothing out of creating us or dying for us.

However God is not altruistic. I do not believe in altruism. There is a sense in which God does ‘get something’ out of creating us and sending his Son to die for us. What he gets is trueness to his own nature. God is love. God delights to love.

Deuteronomy 7 puts it most clearly:

‘The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; cf. Deuteronomy 4:37).

God loves because he loves! That’s it. You can’t really say any more than that! It’s just his nature, his character. There is no reason as such. There is no reason, in the sense that we would look for a reason in human terms. There is a reason, but it is far beyond us. God operates on a completely different level to us.

And he wants us to operate on that level too. He wants us to be like Him (Matt 5:48; Eph 5:1), and one day we will be (2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Pet 1:4). One day our love will be pure, like God’s. But love is a very tricky word. I think it would be wrong to stop using the word love, to describe lower forms of love. If we did, we would virtually remove it from the dictionary, since we could never use it will reference to a person’s love, only God’s. I guess the Greeks were onto it, with 4 different words for love. I wonder why in English we’ve cut it back.

………………

Ok, today is the 17^th June 2008 and I’ve been reflecting on love some more. My ‘potential’ theory’ is totally wrong. I don’t love Decal because he has potential and god doesn’t love us because we have potential. I was thinking about Declan - if Declan had down syndrome or some other disease or condition that meant he would never develop intellectually or emotionally beyond a cat or even a vegetable, would I still love Him. I would. Why would I love him? It’s very hard to answer that and here we get right into the mystery that is love. Maybe I’d love him because he’s mine. But also just ‘because’. I think that’s part of the definition of love – it is unconditional – it loves because it loves. It’s Deuteronomy 7. You can’t go any deeper than that. This doesn’t mean I believe in altruism. The thing about love is that it loves to love: It delights to love. It derives pleasure from loving. So it’s not altruistic. But it’s not selfish either. It’s love. Love is nether selfish or altruistic, it’s in it’s own category all together.

So was God selfish in creating the Universe? Well yes and no. He didn’t need to do it, but he delighted to do it. That doesn’t make God insufficient, or incomplete; it just means that it’s in his nature to create or to spread (probably a better word). As Jonathan Edwards wrote, ‘it is no deficiency in a fountain if it is prone to overflow.’ God’s creation is the overflow of who he his – his beauty and glory and creativity flow over into creation.

So the reason the question of love is such a complex one is that love is at the heart of who God is and God is complex. God is love. We don’t know why he is love, we just know that he is. I don’t think he ever chose to be love or to be loving, that’s just the way he has always been. And love exists in the world because God made the world and it bears the marks of God. Actually I think I would argue that love doesn’t exist in all creation, but only in human beings. As far as I can tell, animals don’t love. I saw a documentary last night where adult female elephants were protecting a newborn baby elephant from a marauding 6 tonne bull elephant who was trying to mate with the mother who had just given birth (she must have been in heat which seemed strange to me given she had just given birth). The baby elephant was getting in the way of the bull elephant and he was getting quite annoyed with it and was kicking it out of the way. He could have killed the baby but the other females from the group came and surrounded it and protected it from the stomping feet of the bull. This is the closest we get to ‘love’ in the animal world. But I think most evolutionary biologists would say it’s just a survival instinct – a ‘selfish’ act performed in order to pass on one’s genes or the genes of the family (the females helping were the baby’s aunts and sisters). It’s a ‘survival of the fittest’ mechanism. I can’t think of any examples in the animal world of genuine, non-altruistic, compassion on another species or even on another animal of the same species but different family. But even if there are some examples (and there could well be), what would that prove? That God has put traces of himself even in animals. That would still not amount to them being made ‘in his image’ (Gen 2:24).

So, re-reading the first few paragraphs of this essay, I think I have changed my mind and I was wrong in what I said at the start of this essay. I don’t think that God loves us because he sees our potential. It’s even debatable that we do have potential (in the good sense)! Some of us have more bad potential than good potential. Some of us are getting worse and worse and heading towards hell. And that’s not because we haven’t ‘realised our potential’ as human beings. We have to remember that we have just as much potential for evil as we do for good. And God sees that potential too.

If I love Declan because he has ‘potential’, what will I do if he doesn’t live up to that potential? What will I do if he never achieves great things? If he has an accident and becomes paralysed? If I only love him because he has potential, then I will stop loving him as soon as he loses that potential or fails to deliver on that potential. Now that’s not love. At least, it’s not the love that God has for us. I’m not prepared to say that God loves us ‘unconditionally’ (not yet anyway), but I can say that God’s love is not based on potential because he sees people who have no ‘potential’ (in the good sense of the word), but he still loves them (in at least one sense of that word).

I made that last comment because it is clear – both by reason and by Scripture – that God doesn’t love all human beings in the same way. If you even remotely believe in predestination or God’s sovereignty, then this is obvious. If God decides which baby is born into a nice, clean, wealthy, loving Christian family in Australia and which child is born into a poor, dirty, AIDS infested, pagan family in a slum in Nairobi (Acts 17:26), then clearly God’s love comes to human beings in different ways, but that’s another story and Don Carson’s little book deals with all that...