Counting the Cost

Many of you may have heard about the developing story of Abdul Rahman, the afghan medical aid worker who converted to Christianity from Islam 16 years ago, who is currently being brought up on charges by the Afghan government that could result in the death penalty.

There is much political wrangling and positioning going on by American and foreign governments to attempt to diffuse attention away from the issue at hand--that basic human rights, such as freedom to practice your religion peacefully, do not exist in Islamic controlled countries. What is interesting is that one of the prosecutors has introduced the idea that Rahman could very well be mentally disturbed and that would mean that he would be set free, because Islamic law doesn't allow punishment of mentally handicapped individuals. To which I say, Hogwash!

It is the easy way out to declare him insane. To anyone who has seen Rahman speak or read anything he has said, it is clear that he is in possession of all mental faculties. The "madness" that has allegedly caused him to embrace Christianity might be better categorized as "Holy Spirit".

Please be praying for Abdul and all fellow Christians in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries who are forced to hide their belief in Christ. May God continue to give him boldness in the face of losing his very life. May the Holy Spirit speak through him powerfully as a testimony to all who hear him.

This is an amazing case of someone who has truly counted the cost, taken up their cross, and said like Paul "to live is Christ and to die is gain". May it be an example to all of us comfortable American Christians who are too timid to share Christ to our neighbors and coworkers because they may think differently of us.

I leave you with this passage: "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the words that I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me." -John 15:18-21 (esv)

Blinking All The Way to the Bank

It may be getting hard out there for a pimp, but don't tell that to Lakewood Church's Pastor and pop-psychology guru Joel Osteen. The Houston Chronicle reports today that Osteen's new book deal with Simon and Shuster is one of the most lucrative ever. Soon Osteen will be blinking and blinging away to the tune of at least 13 Million dollars of guaranteed up-front money.

You can certainly scratch a basketball arena full of itching ears for that kind of dough. As for the title of the upcoming book, there hasn't been any official word from Osteen's camp, but my money is on Your Utmost Very Bestest Life Now.

Apparently Osteen's wife, Victoria Osteen, will also be getting in on the publishing act soon. My sources tell me the topic of her book will deal with Air Travel Ettiquette.

True Fellowship

I listened to one of Dr. Tom Constable's audio lesson's on Philippians Chapter 1 last night and he commented on Christian fellowship. He defines fellowship as "participating in and sharing the things of God with other believers."

These days in church life just about anything that includes two or more people in a room together at the same time is counted as fellowship, but often the meetings are hollow of any sharing of the things of God. I took this to heart.

Many times I have spent hours with Christian brothers with nary a mention of the things of God and thought in my mind afterward, "what fellowship we had!" I'm not advocating that 100% of our time hanging out with Christian friends or at church functions should be spent in serious spiritual conversations, fervent prayer, and accountability. However, I perceive that I can be much more intentional in this area.

Today I had the chance to have lunch with a dear brother in Christ and it was a time of mutual encouragement, spiritual sharing, and genuine cultivation of holiness. We certainly had some laughs and by no means was the entire time spent talking about spiritual issues, but I came away feeling like we had just lived out Dr. Constable's definition.

One of the first things my brother said when I told him that God has opened up the door for me to teach full time on Sundays, was that he was excited and happy for me. His words were genuine and I know that he had a God-given joy in his heart because of something God was doing in my life. This is how Godly fellowship should play out in our lives more often. Do we have true joy in our hearts when God is moving in the lives of our brothers and sisters? Are we sharing and participating in the things of God with them? My challenge to everyone this week (to myself, foremost) is to be intentional with fellowship. Don't let an opportunity pass you by to be joyful in your heart when God chooses to display His glory in the life of a friend.

The McLaren Files

Frankly, many of us don't know what we should think about homosexuality. We've heard all sides but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say "it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us." That alienates us from both the liberals and conservatives who seem to know exactly what we should think. Even if we are convinced that all homosexual behavior is always sinful, we still want to treat gay and lesbian people with more dignity, gentleness, and respect than our colleagues do. If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships, we know that the biblical arguments are nuanced and multilayered, and the pastoral ramifications are staggeringly complex. We aren't sure if or where lines are to be drawn, nor do we know how to enforce with fairness whatever lines are drawn.

Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. In the meantime, we'll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they'll be admittedly provisional. We'll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we'll speak; if not, we'll set another five years for ongoing reflection. After all, many important issues in church history took centuries to figure out. Maybe this moratorium would help us resist the "winds of doctrine" blowing furiously from the left and right, so we can patiently wait for the wind of the Spirit to set our course.

--Brian McLaren

Some of you may have run accross this beauty from self proclaimed grand pubah of all things Emerging Brian McLaren on Christianity Astray, err Christianity Today. In case I get called out for taking this quote out of context, please go here to read the entire article.

This piece has stirred quite a hornets nest among the emergers lately. McLaren has even drawn the ire of fellow emerging leader Mark Driscoll. If you follow the trail on Christianity Today's site, there are lots of fiery comments and a few rebuttals from McLaren himself.

Nobody blurs the lines of clear truth by twisting language quite like McLaren. I swear if he worked for Clinton he would still be president.

Volumes and volumes have been written on the web and in the blogosphere about this article, so I won't bother to add more. All biblical proof aside, McLaren ignores 2,000 years of clear and unanimous historical church teaching because he suddenly was faced with a "pastoral dilemma".

I just want my readers to be aware of the kind of thinking currently swelling in popularity among the young, white, middle-upper class, cool emerging church. There needs to be a moratorium on pastors who blatantly oppose clear biblical teaching in favor of loving, accepting, and tolerating. Is his message really any different than the garden-variety politically correct mumbo jumbo easily found on the nightly news each night?

Pee-Wee's Postmodern Playhouse

Heh, heh, today's secret word is "Christian-Atheist" boys and girls. You know what to do when you hear the secret word don't you?

The bizzaro world of postmodernism continues to dazzle and amaze. Tim Challies points out an interesting article about a self-proclaimed Christian-Atheist who is a member of a Presbyterian Church. Challies has one of the best known and best kept blogs (actually more like a website) in the Christian blogosphere and he is one of my daily must-reads.

This type of story should be no surprise to discerning believers who see through the facade of postmodernist inclusivism and general lovey-doveyness. This my dear readers is where the rabbit trail of postmodern theology eventually leads. The truth is treated like play-dough and the characters are nuttier than Conky the Robot. The Brian Mc Larens, Rob Bells, and their band of emergent merry men are on the same trippy path to feel-good apostasy that inevitably leads to this kind of outcome.

What would Captain Carl and Cowboy Curtis think about all this hooey?

All I can say is mecka lecka hi mecca hiney ho.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Today, in the "out there" column on Fox News I found a story about a man so fed up with the explicit immorality going on right next door to his house that he decided to fight back in a most creative manner.

Mr. Payne's decision to build a not-so-secret garden of colorful prophylactic beauty may be shocking to most passers by in Cape Coral, but I have to say I personally admire the idea. I don't know if Mr. Payne is a Christian or not, but his artistic integrity cannot be questioned.

It's interesting that the mayor's response was that the display was repulsive. Does he find the rampant fornication taking place on a daily basis as repulsive?

As a society, are we repulsed by our sin or are we repulsed more when someone has the gumption to point out our lifestyle as sinful? The answer for Mr. Mayor was clear, just clean up the mess and move along. Nothing to see here.

In light of the touch-feely postmodern, McLaren-Bell, amorphous "engage culture" theology that is quickly becoming the rage with 20-30 somethings, I am reminded how important it is for true believers to still call a sin a sin. We cannot love homosexuals and fornicators and adulterers in the way that Christ loves them if we don't stand firm for the clear biblical teaching on such matters. This will mean that people won't like us. This will mean that the world will find us repulsive sometimes. And this will mean that we are becoming like Jesus.

Transcending Relevance: An Unchanging God

I had the opportunity to speak to a group of young single adults last Sunday evening and the talk focused partly on this question:

What does being relevant really mean?

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary has two definitions:

a. having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand
b. affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion

Postmodernism's influence has turned "relevance" on its ear to the point that churches have adopted it as mantra, or in some cases part of their very own vision statement. In my opinion, this Christian buzzword has morphed in meaning so much so that it is now code for "a cooler way of doing church." Sadly, what this usually results in is the North American, white, middle-upper class, Gen x-y preference list for doing church.

What I'm not saying is that it is wrong to use updated music or movie clips as part of the Sunday morning worship, or even for our pastors and youth pastors to wear sandals and have soul patches. Let's get that out of the way first--in fact many good friends of mine have soul patches and I believe some of them might actually be saved. But who can really say for sure?

Now, back to the point. It's not that our churches' attempts to appear inviting to outsiders or welcoming to those who may not have grown up in church are inherently misguided or wrong. My view is that they are asking the wrong questions.

If we as Christians say that we are followers of Christ (and the church I attend has a motto that says "equipping fully devoted followers of Christ")and if we believe the apostle Paul when he said countless times in the new testament that we are in fact "in Christ", then our paradigm is not how we "do church better" or even how we appeal to the outsiders in a way that feels welcoming. It also is not about cooler music, more modern clothes, or using recent movie clips as illustrations in a sermon. All of those things are time dependent. They may be cool today, but by the time our kids grow up they will be about as cool as penny loafers and tight-rolled jeans. Some of my readers may shudder to think that one day in the future wearing a soul patch may not be any more popular than wearing an eye patch. May it never be!

So then, what is relevance about? If the preferences named above are dependent on the whims of culture than they shall surely sway like a reed blown by the wind. Our glorious God exists above time and beyond the trappings of whatever today's culture wishes to impose. His truth does not change. Do you believe that God's truth has meaning in the lives of people? Is God growing in knowledge, learning new things or is He all knowing for all times?

J.I. Packer says in Chapter 7 of his classic work Knowing God,

"People sometimes say things that they do not really mean, simply because they do not know their own mind; also, because their views change, they frequently find that they can no longer stand behind things that they said in the past. All of us sometimes have to take back our words, because they have ceased to express what we think; sometimes we have to eat our words because hard facts refute them.

The words of human beings are unstable things. But not so the words of God. They stand forever, as abidingly valid expressions of his mind and thought. No circumstances prompt him to recall them; no changes in his own thinking require him to amend them. Isaiah writes, 'All flesh is grass...The grass withers...But the word of God will stand forever'(Is 40:6-8 RSV). Similarly, the psalmist says 'Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens...All your commands are true...You established them to last forever.' (Ps 119:89, 151-52.

The word translated true in the last verse carries with it the idea of stability. When we read our Bibles, therefore, we need to remember that God still stands behind all the promises, and demands, and statements of purpose, and words of warning, that are there addressed to New Testament believers. These are not relics of a bygone age, but an eternally valid revelation of the mind of God toward His people in all generations, so long as this world lasts."

What a mighty picture of a God who transcends time! Is God still just? Is he still merciful toward sinners? Is his gracious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ still available to men and women? Does the Holy Spirit still perform the mysterious work of convicting sinners and bringing them to salvation? Does the blood of Christ still have effect? Still today?

If so, then what a striking indictment on the popular definitions and views of what it means to be relevant. Does He fit the Merriam-Webster bill of having a significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand? You bet he does. What is at hand are the very souls of men and my friends, they will not be saved by coolness, modern music, labyrinth prayers, candles, or omitting the word "sin" from our vocabularies.

Does he also 'afford evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion' as Merriam-Webster's second definition suggests? Colossians 1:16-17 says "For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together"(ESV). Folks, allow me to say it plainly. He is the evidence of truth. The world was created for Him and by Him. All things exist and are held together by His power. Can we trust Him? Always? If your answer is yes, then He is the only thing truly relevant we need worry ourselves about.

An unchanging God for a world bound by time, He is what is relevant, what matters. Let that be the song of our lives, the cry of our hearts, and the message of our testimony as we walk in a world that desperately needs Him.