A Little Dose of Reality, Please

"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life." (1 John 1:1, NAS)

I caught a newscast about an atheist group in an American city that is advertising atheism. Well, its a free country. However, their ad caught my attention. Its tag line, playing off the Christmas song, says that we don't need God to make us be good; just "be good for goodness sake."

I know this sounds mean, but how do these people keep from drowning in the puddles of their own drool? Atheists, people who believe in a purely material universe, talking about "goodness"? Where did this goodness come from? Was it created in the first micro seconds of the Big Bang? Is it a newly discovered property of matter? Does it exist in the nether regions of the universe with anti-matter? No. It’s metaphysical. Meta-physical, that which comes after the physical. And in the atheists' materialistic universe, there is no metaphysical. They say we are the products of random combinations of atomic particles, chance combinations of conglomerations of matter. The metaphysical is simply an illusion or even a delusion (did you ever consider that, Dawkins?*).

In the atheists' material universe love, friendship, courage, honor and "goodness" cannot be real because they are metaphysical. Morality is simply the will of the majority. So what if the majority is made up of Nazis, Maoists, or even human-sacrificing Aztecs? Does their immorality become moral? And how do we even define morality itself? The very idea of morality is metaphysical.

A major atheist argument against God is that we believe in Him because we think we need God to make people behave. Hey, wise-men-of-this-age-who-are-quickly-becoming-fools, you can't even talk about behaving unless there is God to infuse the concept of "good" behavior with meaning. I don't need God to make me behave. I believe that right and wrong are real. And the reality of God is the reason they are real. Push atheism to its logical conclusion and it makes no difference whether a young person grows up to be a Mother Teresa or an Adolf Hitler. They chose. Worse than that, since they are the product of chance atomic combinations, we can't even be sure they freely, willfully chose what they wanted to be. But so what? Even that doesn't make any difference. No right or wrong, remember? Whether you chose for yourself or you are forced to make a particular choice, it just doesn't matter; there are no morally wrong choices.

Aren't people responsible for what they make of their lives? Responsible to whom? There is no God to whom they will answer. To mankind? What makes mankind's choices any more moral than theirs? Remember, atheists can't talk about morality like its "real." Morality is just a convention. I'm sure the Stalinists and the Maoists are relieved. They might have thought they were somehow responsible for the untold millions of people they murdered in the name of ideology. Or maybe they were honest atheists. Oops! Wait, in the atheistic material universe honesty doesn't have any real meaning. It’s a moral concept.

The atheists need others to believe in right and wrong, to believe in objective intellect and order, for them to be able to propagate their drivel. They need Christians to supply them with a predictably moral world so they can be atheists. Imagine that: atheists need Christians to be practicing Christians. I doubt atheists have the courage to live in the world they espouse. It’s the world where they don't fall in love, they have hormonal reactions; they don't really care about their children, they're not devoted to their children, they're just driven by survival instincts developed through evolution; they really don't have any principles to live by, because it doesn't make any difference how they live. It doesn't make any difference whether they live at all. This is just a cold, empty universe, and if they had died before they ever had a best friend, experienced great joy, or grieved at the loss of a loved one, it wouldn't matter. In their universe, none of that - friendship, joy, or loss - is real.

The concept of being "good for goodness sake" from the lips of atheists is ridiculous, that is, worthy of copious unadulterated ridicule. The Christian belief in God is not a leap into darkness, but a running into the light, into the very Light of Life. We're not talking about superstition or willful ignorance. We're talking about that which explains why what we all know is real is really, really real. And we're telling everyone, even atheists, about God loving us and reaching out to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Seen, felt, heard, he was real.

*Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion

The Audacity of Our Faith

Tonight at a missions fellowship the speaker talked about an early missionary going to China to teach the Chinese about God.  My first reaction was, "What she really means is to teach them about Christ; surely we aren't being so arrogant as to think . . . ." Then it hit me. Yes, we are. We are arrogant as to think that Christians have a responsibility to teach people about God. 

And we're absolutely right.

God has revealed himself to man through the creation, but also through the scriptures, through the history of the Jewish people, and ultimately through Christ. All other perspectives are tarnished with the speculations of fallen man, speculations about God who has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways . . ." (Isaiah 55:8).

Christian faith is an audacious faith. Jesus said that no one would come to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). There is not other name, we are told by Peter, given to men by which we may be saved (Acts 4:12). Too often glossed over in John 3:16 is the certain declaration that Jesus is God's "only begotten son." Arrogant! Audacious! Truth.

It's not that the world needs only to be told about grace through Christ, the world needs to understand that this grace comes from the heart of a loving God. Are we arrogant to think we need to teach a religious people about God? So be it.  That's the audacity of our faith.

Testing the Spirits

In I John 4:1, the apostle tells the believers to test the spirits to determine if they are of God. What kind of testing are we to do? As a teacher I test my students to find out what they know and the depth of that knowledge. John dealt with the theme of knowledge in this letter as he has addressed the gnostic crisis facing the first century church. But what the people involved knew wasn't the issue. So the testing here isn't to find out what is known.

Another kind of testing is the testing of trial. We are told by James, who uses the same word that John does, that we should rejoice when we encounter various trials (testings). Because of our obedient response to the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, difficult situations build us up instead of tearing us down. We are to value such testing in our lives because of the postive spiritual changes it produces in our lives. However, John isn't focusing on that aspect of the word.

Another kind of testing is referred to as "assaying". When minerals that appear to be precious metals are brought to the assayer, he tests them to determine the genuineness of the material. This same word for testing was used by the greeks to describe that which is genuine and that which has character. This is the sense in which John warns the first century believers to test the spirits. They are to assay these suspect spiritual leaders to determine if they are genuine in their faith. They are to plumb their character.

That ties the idea of testing the spirits with Johns theme of what it means to know God. Things may be said and taught that sound valid, but only that which is obedient to God is the genuine spirit, the tested and approved spirit.

The Students and Teachers of Righteousness

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, . . . that He may teach us concerning his ways, and that we may walk in his paths."  Isaiah 2:3

Israel had gone far from their obedience to God, but the world had even strayed further. It seemed that in a world filled with idols, that the demonic would have continual upper hand over the precepts of God. But Isaiah sees ahead to a time when the world will turn from idolatry and seek out God.

In their waywardness they had found ignorance. They did not know how to be pleasing to God. That result has always been the consequence of waywardness in life. If we do not follow God, if we do not honor God, we become ignorant of His will, His basic will for our lives. Sin blinds us to the paths of God. In our rebellion we need to be taught again. 

God meets us in that endeavor. Isaiah says the world sees that they can go to God and that a forgiving heavenly father will teach them what they need in order to be pleasing to Him.  When we exit from our season of sin, from our all too frequent rebellions, we find God is there in love to teach again paths of life, paths of peace, paths of right relationship with Him and with others.

It is the people of God who embody that process of spiritual education. God teaches through us. In these words from Isaiah is our commission to be ready to teach a hungry world what it has missed learning or forgotten in the darkness of sin. The world will turn. We must be ready for the day.

Education of Righteousness

" . . . Cease to do evil, learn to do good . . . " (Isaiah 1:16-17).


Is doing well a natural kind of knowledge? I mean, do we automatically know what to do when doing well is required? Does the suspension of evil always result in the commencement of good? For Israel there was a need to at least re-learn what they should have already known. Their nation was in shambles economically, politically, judicially and religiously. The people already had experienced the judgment of God. Their crying need was to first turn from their sin. But just repenting of their rebellious ways would not be enough. God expected Israel to proactively pursue righteousness. Specifically, God instructed them to "seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow" (v. 17).

It is possible to lose justice, to become so estranged from the proper function of the court that it is necessary to struggle to find the way back. What was lost was not just an understanding of justice, but a basic understanding of the character and nature of God. It is possible to become so complacent with ruthlessness that we have no word for the ruthless. Like children reared in a home with violence, we find ourselves condoning it, using it. To forget kindness is to forget that we must show to others kindness like that which God has shown to us. Defending the orphan, pleading for the widow can only come from those who value the least fortunate and least able to contribute to our common cause. But to neglect to do so is to forget what God has said He values and to fail to value it ourselves.

Not only can we come to a time where we must relearn goodness, but we can only do so by proactively seeking to do the things God calls to do. Like Christ, our obedience must be learned (Hebrews 5:8).

The Advocate

"My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (I John 2:1)

When I was a child, one of the programs my parent always watched on television was "Perry Mason". Mason was the consumate lawyer and the show is probably responsible for setting some very high public expectations of lawyers. Since that show there has never been a broadcast season that did not have its fair share of  "lawyer" shows.

We understand the importance of a good lawyer when we face legal issues. It seems that at times it is not the tone of the law or the preponderance of evidence, but the quality of the lawyer that determines the outcome of a court case. We may complain about the fees lawyer's charge, but the work of an effective lawyer is worth the amount he charges.

We want an effective advocate in the court, someone who can plead our case powerfully and with desired results. But there is one court where the Judge is impartial and the law implaccable. It is the court of God's perfect justice. We are charged by His law to be transgressors. And the truth is, we are. Where can we find an effective advocate for God's court? John says we have One in Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the epitome of an effective advocate. When we stand in God's court, condemned by God's law as transgressors, with the evidence of our lives against us, Jesus says, "This one is Mine." The perfect life and sacrifice of Jesus answers the demands of  law. We have an Advocate who will not fail, who alone is able to answer the charges for us, who stands beside us because He loves us.

We have an Advocate. His name is Jesus. He will prevail.

Striving for Success in Prayer

In Romans 15:30 Paul asks the believers that they "strive together" with him in prayer on his behalf. We understand "agonize" to refer to someone's personal pain, sometimes emotional, sometimes physical. But there was one particular group of people in the 1st century world to whom the concept of agonizing applied: athletes. For them "to agonize" meant to diligently strive for excellence in their sport, to be willing to pay the price in order to succeed.

We may be complacent about prayer, and perhaps it was a tendency among some believers of Paul's day. But Paul said to "strive", to "agonize" in our prayers. Prayer is powerfully transforming in our lives and the lives of others. This transforming prayer is worth striving together

We may think that Paul's request is for us to suffer in our praying. That is one aspect. But it reaches beyond our willingness to suffer pain and goes to the very seat of our will itself. It asks the question, "Are you willing to do whatever is necessary, even so far as to suffer, in order for your faith to be successful? Are you willing to even humble yourself, discipline yourself, to reach the goal of the calling you have in Christ?" To agonize, to take the measure necessary to live our faith powerfully, victoriously.

An Educator's Fast

"Is this not the fast which I chose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear gaurd. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom will become like midday." Isaiah 58:6-10

When I see my students, I hear God's call to the fast He chooses. They are youth who are enslaved by the bonds of wickedness their births and life have put on them. They are hopeless and angry because their past is burdening their present, and their future is destitute. They are bound by bonds of wickedness that others have placed on them and they have become like their captors. I hear the call of God to loose the bonds of wickedness, to break the yoke of their poverty and ignorance. I am charged with more than being and educator; I am a liberator - offering not just liberation from ignorance, but light for their spiritual darkness.

If I only help my students to know their math facts, I have failed the fast of God. I show them that there is the One who can set the captives free.

Holding On To What's Real

" . . . take hold of that which is life indeed" ( 1 Timothy 6:19).

   At an auction one night I found myself in a bidding war for a glass bowl that I thought would make an excellent gift for a member of my family. I won the auction at a dearer price than I had intended to pay, but when I got the bowl, I realized that it was not the quality product I had thought that it was. I had paid great value for what was not valuable.
   We can be confused about life like that as well. People will strive for a certain kind of life, a particular position in life and later find out it was not nearly as satisfying as they had anticipated. How do we keep from spending our time picking up life's fool's gold?
  Paul warns people not be blinded by the things the world says are valuable, but instead to put real value on the God's treasurers. When we are rich in generosity, when we measure our wealth not by what we keep or gain, but by what we can and do give away, then we are able to grasp life that is really life.

An Offering of Prayer

In Philippians 1 Paul talks about his offering of prayer in his prayers for the people of Philippi. It was prayer motivated by joy with the object of seeking God's blessing. We can "offer prayer" for those who bless our lives and for those we strive for. The offering of prayer is a gift that springs naturally from the grateful heart.

Into Philippians

Here is a group of believers that is a source of true joy for Paul because of what they are doing right. He makes sure that the leaders of the church understand that this letter is to them as well. The central core of Paul's joy in the Philippians is their participation in the work of the gospel. He expresses his confidence that what God has begun in them, He will finish. God will complete the work he begins in us. Does this always require our cooperation?