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Don’t Settle for Fake
“You know the guy I’m talking about. He spends hours into the night playing video games and surfing for pornography. He fears he’s a loser… For some time now, studies have shown us that porn and gaming can become compulsive and addicting. What we too often don’t recognize, though, is why.”
So writes Russell Moore in his excellent article, “Fake Love, Fake War:Why So Many Men Are Addicted to Internet Porn and Video Games.” Dr. Moore is President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He quotes a recent book by a couple of psychologists who are arguing that “we may lose an entire generation of men to pornography and video-gaming addictions.” They worry that “the nature of these addictions in reshaping the pattern of desires necessary for community.”
Dr. Moore observes:
If you’re addicted to sugar or tequila or heroin, you want more and more of that substance. But porn and video games both are built on novelty — on the quest for newer and different experiences. That’s why you rarely find a man addicted to a single pornographic image. He’s entrapped in an ever-expanding kaleidoscope.
There’s a key difference between porn and gaming. Pornography can’t be consumed in moderation because it is, by definition, immoral. A video game can be a harmless diversion along the lines of a low-stakes athletic competition. But the compulsive form of gaming shares a key element with porn: both are meant to simulate something, something for which men long.
Pornography promises [pleasure] without intimacy. Video warfare promises adrenaline without danger. The arousal that makes these so attractive is ultimately spiritual to the core.
But Dr. Moore isn’t simply criticizing, or even just diagnosing the problem. He writes of “the good drive for ecstasy and valor,” and rightly observes that in marriage, God has provided a real fulfillment for the physical drives men have. And he notes that “a man is meant to, when necessary, fight for his family, his people, and for the weak and vulnerable who are being oppressed.” Both of these drives in men are actually deeply connected to the Gospel–the union of Christ and the Church, and the “Shepherd Christ who grabs his sheep from the jaws of the wolves.”
However,
When these drives are directed toward the illusion of ever-expanding novelty, they kill joy. The search for a mate is good, but blessedness isn’t in the parade of novelty before Adam. It is in finding the one who is fitted for him, and living with her in the mission of cultivating the next generation. When necessary, it is right to fight. But God’s warfare isn’t forever novel. It ends in a supper, and in a perpetual peace.
Moreover, these addictions foster the seemingly opposite vices of passivity and hyper-aggression…In both cases, one seeks the sensation of being a real lover or a real fighter, but by venting one’s reproductive or adrenal glands over pixilated images, not flesh and blood for which one is responsible.
Finally, Dr, Moore turns prescriptive, and urges us to “fight arousal with arousal.”
Set forth the gospel vision of a Christ who loves his bride and who fights to save her. And then let’s train our young men to follow Christ by learning to love a real woman, sometimes by fighting his own desires and the spirit beings who would eat him up. Let’s teach our men to make love, and to make war . . . for real.
There’s a lot to think about here. And we can take it further. It is pretty safe to assume that for many in our young adults group, video games are a diversion, and for some, pornography use may be a sin that needs to be repented of. But Dr. Moore is helpfully pressing us to see even deeper than simply acknowledging the problem. He wants us to see that a preoccupation to fantasy in general is harmful and sinful. It’s harmful because it promises something good but ends up harming us (whether by acting on us and twisting us, or by robbing us of time which should be spent on other things). It’s harmful because it wastes the good things God’s put inside of us on sin and nothingness. It’s the essence of what the scriptures call “dissipation,” like taking water meant to power a hydro-electric dam and letting it run all over the place in a big flood.
God did not give us life so we could waste it by avoiding reality to escape to fantasy. If we live our real lives waiting to get back to our fake worlds, we’re sinning–because we’re refusing to accept the gift of living that God gave us. It’s a high and holy thing God has given to every man and woman–to be made in the image of God and given life to live on his good earth. To whom much is given, much is required. So to refuse to step into that is, well, it’s evil.
You may have noticed that we haven’t even touched the issue of the actual presence of evil in the images and games themselves. it should go without saying for followers of Christ that we’re called to “set no wicked things before our eyes” and that love doesn’t rejoice in sin, but in truth.
So there is that, but there’s also this problem of escaping to fantasy. And friends, there are real people to love, and real things to fight for. Reality is always better than fantasy. And following Christ will lead you into actually discovering and living reality. We have things to do. God has good works prepared for us to walk in. Let’s repent of our infatuation with fantasy, all the TV and Netflix and You Tube and gaming and swiping– whichever screen it comes through–and let’s embrace the lives God’s called us to live.
Make the Most of Singleness
I just saw this post about a book that looks pretty helpful and timely.
In “5 Tips for Maximizing Your Singleness,” Marshall Segal makes some great points, like:
- “Perhaps the greatest temptation in singleness is to assume marriage will meet our unmet needs, solve our weaknesses, organize our lives, and unleash our gifts. Far from the solution, Paul makes marriage out to be a kind of problematic Plan B for Christian life and ministry.”
- “If God leads you to marry, you may never again know a time like the one you’re in right now. A season of singleness is not the minor leagues of marriage.”
- “We should think of a few people or families for whom we could lay down our single life. No one is expecting you to care and provide for others right now—no one, that is, except for God.”
He gives five helpful directions to those of you (like 98% of our group) who are single.
1. Remember that true greatness will often look like weakness.
2. Notice the people God has already put around you.
3. Practice selflessness while you’re still single.
4. Say yes to the spontaneous.
5. Do radical, time-consuming things for God.
Having spent my adult life hanging out with teenagers and young adults, I agree with his prescriptions, and the unspoken diagnosis behind it. If you are in your twenties and single, you should definitely not think of this time in your life as “waiting for real life (marriage) to begin.” The only day you can redeem is the one you’re living in right now. You can only live today for God’s glory. And you know, if you’re a follower of Christ, that our Lord commands us to do both of those things, in everything we do, always. So no, your real life is not in the future–your real life is right now.
How can you redeem this summer? What free time do you have in the next few months that God wants as his own? And if you long to be married, what are you doing, right now, to prepare yourself to be the kind of husband or wife that God would want to give to someone as a marriage partner? If marriage requires selfless sacrifice, endurance, cultivation of love, appreciation for someone who doesn’t live inside your own head, rigorous commitment to vows and another person…are you spending your single days cultivating and strengthening those qualities in yourself? If marriage requires being led of the Spirit to faithfully love someone else, are you cultivating an awareness of Him and a dependence on him right now?
Most crucially–are you cultivating the Spirit’s fruit of agape–that selfless, committed love scriptures command us to have for other people? A good-looking face and an exciting personality wont stir up agape in us, and attraction won’t make agape last. So don’t wait for life to begin. Don’t wait for marriage to start being a Christian. Don’t wait for a love-life to start walking with Christ. Redeem today. Maximize your singeless.
…and maybe check out Segal’s whole post. Or make the book your summer read. Either way, let me know what you think of it.
Dust of Death, Dust of Life
Here’s one more passage from Francis Schaeffer’s True Spirituality. In the last passage, he urged us to be honest seers of life around us as it really is. In this passage, he discusses the fruit in our lives that comes from seeing the world this way. He acknowledges that there is still “so much beauty in God’s creation,” a point which many Christian writers today emphasize, and a point which is of course true, “but equally,” he points out, “there is the Fall.”
He goes on to point out three advantages to seeing both of these aspects of our world.
“First,” he says, “in this way we have a realistic view of life and death, of beauty and ugliness, of the nobility of people and the consummate cruelty of people.”
In other words, we can’t truly understand our world if we only think about the beauty that exists in it because it is the work of our wise, generous creator. We’ve also got to really acknowledge, account for, and grapple with the horrible results of the fallenness of Man, especially as manifested in our love of, and our performing of, sin. He continues:
Second, in this comprehension we not only have a way to live in the light of the coming salvation (the total future healing), but right now we also have a way to stand against what is wrong and cruel in the world. There is a profound and intrinsic distinction between cruelty and noncruelty, between the right and the wrong, between what was meant to be and what is.
Third, we are kept from two destructions:
On one hand we are kept from the foolishness of a fixed smile on our faces as though all is right in the world, as though God is pleased with it as it is, as though faith means a ridiculous saying that things are all wonderful they are not.
On the other hand, we are kept from a negation of life rather than an affirmation of it. [Today, many] thinking people recognize that if death is the end of all things, then the dust of death is on all of life now. But we know the reverse of this: there is coming at Christ’s return the restoration of all things – death will be destroyed, the body and soul will be reunited, and all things will be healed of their abnormality.
Thus, the dust of life is on all things now, and we can intellectually and in practice affirm life now in the midst of this death that exists.
Looking the World in the Face
Here’s Francis Schaeffer, with a searching passage from his book, True Spirituality. It’s a great call to stop and look at things, all around us, as they really are. Schaeffer invites us to really see what the consequences of the Fall of humanity (recorded in Genesis chapter 3) are, within us, between us, and all around us. He writes:
For ourselves and for those who come into contact with us, nothing is more imperative than consciously to consider what our attitude should be to life as it in reality is. I would put this basically that our view of what salvation means is by us is usually considered in too small a framework. Thus we ourselves are poorer in intellectual comprehension and in the framework for our lives, in the light of reality as it is – and we are then also poorer in helping our generation.
To understand the breadth of salvation, we must realize that all is abnormal now. It is not what originally was, and it is not what it was meant to be. The abnormalities touch all of life.
First, we individually are each one separated from ourselves. The striking part of this is our coming physical death when the body will be separated from our spiritual portion. But also in the present we are each one separated from ourselves psychologically…There are degrees, but this present psychological separation is true of each of us.
Beyond ourselves individually, each person is separated from others. We can think of (and feel) all the personal and sociological separations that exist between all people. This is true in the terrible cruelty to refugees, but it is also true in the separation between the closest of families and friends.
And Man is separated from nature. And also nature is not at peace with nature.
In short, abnormality stretches out on every side. It is possible to argue strenuously for the historicity of Genesis 3, and yet not to view life in the reality of the resulting abnormality. This is not just a theological statement to be maintained as theology; rather, we are to understand this all-reaching abnormality and live in the comprehension of what the present situation truly is.
I could not stand this world if this comprehension was not present. In this world a person can only be complacent if he or she is young enough, has money enough, is well enough, and at the same time lacks compassion for those about him. As soon as we face reality, the obscenity of the present situation strikes us in the face.
How to talk to Bernie Sanders
Justin Taylor just posted a helpful round-up of pieces responding to the recent exchange between Bernie Sanders and Russell Vought, the nominee for deputy White House budget director. The exchange happened on Wednesday, and was transcribed by David French. And before you even read all the replies, go ahead and watch the exchange here (the relevant portion starts at 44:20). Or here on YouTube:
It begins like this:
Sanders: Let me get to this issue that has bothered me and bothered many other people. And that is in the piece that I referred to that you wrote for the publication called Resurgent. You wrote, “Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, His Son, and they stand condemned.” Do you believe that that statement is Islamophobic?
Vought: Absolutely not, Senator. I’m a Christian, and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith. That post, as I stated in the questionnaire to this committee, was to defend my alma mater, Wheaton College, a Christian school that has a statement of faith that includes the centrality of Jesus Christ for salvation, and . . .
Now, no criticism of Vought here, since we all tend to perform more poorly under pressure than we do sitting in front of our computers in an office with no one breathing down our neck. He used a version of this reply several times until Sanders angrily cut him off and said this to the Chairman of the committee:
“I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is really not someone who this country is supposed to be about.”
The pieces I linked to above do a good job of describing how unconstitutional all this is. But there’s something else we could all benefit from thinking through here.
I think we can all feel the weight of Sanders’ criticism here, at least in terms of how much cultural power it has behind it right now. I don’t claim that we can, by being clever in our discussion techniques, defeat a Sanders in an argument or even convert him on the spot. The time for that may be largely past. But many people listen in on these discussions, and while Christians may be turned down for posts all over the place in the coming future, we still will do well to be able to give clear answers to the fears and criticisms all around us.
So here’s one simple thought I think we should have ready for a line of questioning like this. It seems to me that the tip of Sanders’ criticism turned on the word “condemned.” Said by someone in his position, the word comes to feel like a threat. It is as if Sanders was saying, “Do you think that people of other religions should be condemned? That they should be killed or excluded or locked away?” And of course, the Christian says no to all that. Vought began to say as much at one point, when he replied to the repeated questioning on this matter by saying:
As a Christian, I believe that all individuals are made in the image of God and are worthy of dignity and respect regardless of their religious beliefs. I believe that as a Christian that’s how I should treat all individuals.
Again, no criticism. The man was under pressure. And it may be that he was saying exactly what the Holy Spirit was teaching him to say (see Luke 12:11-12). But as we all think through these things, and as we will all be called to give answers for our message in all kinds of situations, I think we might just want to be prepared to say something like this:
Senator, it seems like you’re taking exception to my use of the word “condemned.” But I should make it clear that that word refers to the final judgement which the Bible says will be rendered, by Jesus Christ, on those who have rejected him as king and refused his forgiveness. That’s what the word refers to when a Christian uses it. The bible teaches that all of us are liable for that verdict because of our sin until we repent and receive forgiveness from Jesus. Christians recognize that truth about all different kinds of people, and at the same time Jesus calls us to love everyone, especially those who have this condemning sin in their lives. We’re called to bless them, to sacrifice for them, to help them, and to faithfully point them to the forgiveness and life Jesus offers. That’s true whether we’re dealing with Muslims, or Jewish people, or anyone else. So a Christian in public office would be able to recognize the seriousness of a person’s separation from Christ, and at the same time respect and protect them in accordance with the law of the land. In other words, you have nothing to fear from me when I use this word condemned. I am called to extend compassion to all people.
In other words, if someone’s going to object to our message, and we get the chance, let’s help them be very clear on exactly what they’re objecting to. In doing so, we might not win the argument, but we might win some hearers, and continue to commend the Gospel to those around us, even in difficult times.
The King is Listening
Here’s a good, convicting, and short piece by Tim Challies. Enjoy:
Sometimes it seems like everywhere I go, I hear people grumbling about others. Maybe it’s me. Maybe people consider me a fellow grumbler and are comfortable unburdening themselves in my presence. But I’m inclined to believe it’s actually all of us and we all find some kind of catharsis in complaining about people. Even backstage at conferences with theological heavyweights it’s not unusual to hear names being used and misused, to hear facts being traded back and forth. I wish I was exempt, that I was nobler than this, but even I can soon slip into it. It appears to be a universal temptation and a near-universal sin.
I have come to hate it. I hate it in others and hate it far more in myself. I hate that we feel free to speak poorly of other believers. I hate how easily we drop facts that are designed to make us think less of others instead of more. I hate how we feel better about ourselves when we’ve made our friends feel worse about someone else. I hate that we try to elevate ourselves by demeaning others.
I’ve recently been struck by this thought, this illustration.
Imagine you are in a palace and speaking to one of the king’s friends or advisors. While you love the king, you have far less respect for his son, the prince. Within the king’s palace, you are going to be very careful with how you speak, very judicious with every word you utter. Why? Because the king is nearby! The king may even be just around the corner, within earshot. He may be listening, and the consequences will be fearful if he hears you speaking ill of his child. And it’s not just fear that will motivate you, but also love. You love the king and don’t want to hurt him by speaking wounding words about the child he loves. Who are you, his subject, to besmirch his child?
The fact is, the King is listening. The King is always within earshot. He is listening attentively and he loves his blood-bought child far more than any earthly king loves his prince.
If you would simply consider how much God loves that other person, you would never speak ill of him. If you would consider the work God has accomplished for that person and in that person, you would only ever speak words that esteem him. You would guard every word, you would commend every grace.
Sin Will Not Rule You, Full Stop
Here’s some essential, epic Charles Spurgeon, on Romans 6:14:
Sin is a domineering force.
A man cannot sin up to a fixed point and then say to sin, “Up to here shall you come, but no farther.” It is an imperious power and where it dwells it is hungry for the mastery. Just as our Lord, when He enters the soul, will never be content with a divided dominion, so is it with sin, it labors to bring our entire manhood under subjection.
Therefore we are compelled to strive daily against this ambitious principle. According to the working of the Spirit of God in us we wrestle against sin that it may not have dominion over us. It has unquestioned dominion over multitudes of human hearts and in some it has set up its horrid throne on high and keeps its seat with force of arms so that its empire is undisturbed. In others the throne is disputed, for conscience mutinies, but yet the tyrant is not dethroned. Over the whole world sin exercises a dreadful tyranny. It would hold us in the same bondage were it not for one who is stronger than sin, who has undertaken to deliver us out of its hand and will certainly perform the redeeming work.
Here is the charter of our liberty, the security of our safety—“Sin shall not have dominion over you.” It reigns over those who abide in unbelief, but it shall not have dominion over you, “because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The whole world lies in the wicked one, but “you are not of the world” and therefore “sin shall not have do- minion over you.”
If we are distressed by the fear that sin will ultimately get the mastery over us, let us be comforted by our text. Holy jealousy leads us to fear that though we have for many years been enabled to maintain a spotless character before men, we may in some unguarded hour make shipwreck of faith and end our life voyage as castaways upon the rocks of shame. The flesh is frail and our strength is perfect weakness and therefore, we dread lest we should make some terrible fall and bring dishonor upon the holy name by which we are called. Under such feelings we may fly for comfort to the rich assurance of the text, “Sin shall not have dominion over you.”
Cycles of Chaos and Destruction
Last night we began our summer trip through the book of Judges. We covered the first two chapter and part of chapter three. Here are the notes from the study:
Where Judges fits in the story of the bible:
In the story line of the bible, Judges fits in between the establishment of the nation of Israel in the land of Canaan and the time when God elevated his chosen king (a man named David). In the larger storyline of the Bible, this all points to a later time when God comes himself as King (Jesus). So the time the book of Judges records, happens after God miraculously brought the nation out of slavery in Egypt, and at this point He’s given them a land to live in as a gift, and yet the monarchy isn’t established yet. So it’s this in between time, when the people were supposed to have walked with God, cultivated the land he gave them, and enjoy what they had received. But what Judges shows us is that they never really did, because they pretty quickly turned away from God (who gave them the land), and began to be influenced by the people left in the land, people who were supposed to have been driven out.
What we’re going to see in the book of Judges:
- A culture with no center or direction
- The resulting anarchy at a national level, and all the way down to community level.
- A succession of leaders who are increasingly part of the problem
- A final loss of any ability to morally reason according to God’s way
- And inability of society to solve its own problems
So we’ll get an extended look at two things from this: First, it’s going to help us understand what’s really going on in the world around us—all the confusion and chaos and breakdown we see. We’re going to see the real spiritual roots of it all. Second, since the society we’re looking at in the book of Judges is actually God’s people it’s a warning to those of us who are currently God’s people—some of the issues that people faced are things we need to watch out for ourselves. So go ahead and Read Joshua 23:1-13, then Judges 1:1-3:6.
Judges 1 gives a bare description of what happened. Notice the downward spiral:
v. 1 They left Adoni Bezek alive and treated him in a Canaanite manner
v. 19 They could not drive out chariots of Iron.
v. 21 They could not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem
v. 27 They “did not” drive out the inhabitants of the land. (v.28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
v.34 They are defeated by the Amorites
The book of Joshua shows how complete the victories were before this time. God was with them, and they defeated every possible enemy in every battle. So the fact that they begin to lose at this time really demands some explanation.
Judges 2 gives the explanation for why this failure occurred.
Explanation # 1: Making peace with Evil (see 2:1-5)
God’s personal Angelic Envoy says: “You haven’t obeyed my voice.” (To make no covenant with them and break down their altars.) So God says that the issue is they’ve made peace with the people of the land, especially with their dark and evil spirituality, and therefore—they’ve made a truce with evil.
See also: 3:5-6
- They “lived among” the people of the land. They stopped the mission of expelling them, and just settle down to get along with them.
- They intermarried.
- They served their gods.
Explanation #2: Breakdown in Generational and Personal Connection to God (see 2:6-10)
- The current generation, and those that followed, had not seen the great works the Lord had done. (2:7)
- And, the current generation did not know the Lord and they did not know the work he did for Israel. (2:10) So, there was failure in the society, and at the family level, and it all boiled down to individuals who simply did not cultivate any kind of personal connection to God.
Now see 2:11-3:6. This section gives us a condensed description of the rest of the book, and of the entire time period.
In 2:11-13, we see that it wasn’t just that they made a truce with the evil in the Canaanite Culture, it was that they threw away their connection to God. God had personally joined himself to them, rescued them, loved them, and made them what they were as a people. His presence was demonstrably there with them in a way that he wasn’t for any other nation. So the heart of the heart of their sin was the personal betrayal of God. It was such a wrong thing to do—even on a human level it’s wrong to do this sort of thing to another person, and it’s even more wrong to do it to God. It was personal. A lot of times we forget this aspect of reality—and so we miss what a big central thing it is in the bible too. But again—they didn’t just leave him for some other equal God who was just as good or legitimate (as if there could ever be such a thing) they left him for things that were far beneath him, and for things that were just plain evil. It would be like a queen leaving her husband the king to go shack up with a broke criminal or something.
When Israel personally betrayed God, what it lead to was a downward cycle of personal and societal chaos and defeat.
In 2:14-21, we see that even in all this, God kept being gracious to them. He didn’t let their own sin, or even his judgments on their sin, destroy them. And at key times he raises up individuals who he helps bring some relief from the difficulties they were in.
In 2:22-3:6 we see some good things God accomplished through this process.
- Israel could prove out who they really were. Would they actually follow God in their hearts, and their practical daily lives, or not? (2:22, 3:1, 3:4) As the rest of the book shows, they end up failing the test—early, consistently, and completely.
- This generation of Israelites could learn what the past generations knew—how crucial the battle against evil was, and how to wage it. (3:2) Now, we know from the rest of the book that as a society they did not learn any of these lessons, but the things were still there to learn for any individual who wanted to learn.
Some Takeaways from these passages:
First, it’s helpful to string all this information together into an overview. What was the process of spiritual defeat in their lives?
- There was a generation breakdown in handing down the knowledge of God. Either the generations who had walked with God did not communicate what they knew about God and what they had experienced, or the generation following simply refused what the older generation taught, and opted out of that life. (2:10)
- The people did not listen to or obey God’s voice. (2:2)
- They experienced defeat in their lives—they were overcome by things that they should have had power over. (2:3, 2:14)
- They settled for defeat, and decided to live out their lives making peace with the sources of their defeat. (3:5)
- They joined their lives with people who were opposed to God. (3:6)
- They worshiped false Gods. (3:7)
The final outcome was that even when God helped improve their circumstances, they continued to experience a repeating cycle of oppression and defeat.
God gives us the story of Israel to illustrate the human condition—and to warn us as believers.
If you’re familiar with the story of the bible, you might be able to pick up on something as you read the OT.
The bible starts with the story of the first two humans. They’re created by God, given a special place to live, and told to rule it and cultivate it. But reject God’s authority over them and choose evil instead. This ends up ruining everything and leads to downward cycles of horribleness—until God begins to carry out this plan he has for fixing the world, and his plan has this nation of Israel right at its center. What we see in the book of Judges is that this nation ends up acting exactly like the first two human beings—they are given a good land but choose evil and mess everything up instead.
The point of both of these stories echoing each other is to teach us that this is the story of all humanity—of every one of us. We’re given life as a gift, we’re given the earth to live our lives out on, and we choose evil and mess everything up.
You see this when you look at chapter two—you can see some direct application to all of us, and to the human race as a whole:
In 2:10, that generation did not know the Lord. We don’t know the Lord. He’s like a stranger to us.
In 2:7, they had not seen the great works the Lord had done. The works he did for Israel were to give them the land. We’ve forgotten the power and generosity of the Lord in making the earth and giving it to us. So they tried to enjoy the land without the God who gave it to them, and they ruined it all. We humans try to enjoy the earth without God, and we ruin it all.
And when we think and live this way, it produces, all over the world, a repetitive cycle of chaos and destruction, which no one seems to have any answer to. That’s the diagnosis of our world the book of Judges makes.
Here’s where the Christian message is so powerful. God has an answer for this condition. He’s the only one who knows how to break the cycle. His answer has two parts. First, we need a king—we need someone with the ability to fix everything, we need someone with the authority to do it, and we need someone who’s good enough in his heart that he really will do it. It turns out we even needed more—we needed someone with a big enough heart—someone who was willing to suffer and sacrifice, and even take the responsibility and make the payment himself for all the evil we did. And what Christians tell the world is—that’s exactly who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ has the power, the love, and the right to be the king to fix this whole mess. This keeps us from getting mad at the world, and it keeps us from despair.
The more and more our world starts to look like Israelite society in the book of Judges, we just keep telling people about the king—Jesus died on the cross in our place, for our sin, he rose from the dead, and he’s coming back soon to rule the world.
The second part of our message is just as wonderful. God doesn’t only have a king who’s going to come back and impose a solution on the world—he’s also sent his Spirit too. What happens when we give our allegiance to King Jesus is that God sends His own Holy Spirit into our hearts, and then, one at a time, as individual men and women, we personally and experientially escape the madness. We change. We start to love good and hate evil. The cycles of chaos and destruction keep raging all around us, but we don’t personally opt in to them anymore.
So God has a real governmental solution, and a real individual heart solution. The message we preach literally changes everything. Because first, when we trust Jesus, he changes us. We really do change. And soon, he’s going to come back and change everything. If you’re not a follower of Christ, we’re inviting you to get to know Jesus the King. Place your trust in him. Receive God’s Spirit. Become a person who’s waiting for his return. It’s the only way out of the madness.
But for the rest of us, we need to say this. The book of Judges isn’t first and foremost a picture the world of people who don’t know God, but of God’s people—who did know God and should have kept knowing him—but because of their choices, Israel became like the rest of the world who lives in darkness because they don’t know him. First God’s people became like the rest of the world in their ignorance of God and his ways. Then they became like the rest of the world in their marriages and homes. Then they became like the rest of world in what they worship. OT scholar Daniel Block says this book is really just a picture of the people of Israel becoming thoroughly “Canaanized.” He says, “Through compromise and toleration,” they were “drawn into the mind-set and spiritual culture of the Canaanites.” (Block 117) They were supposed to defeat evil and drive it out but instead they loved it and got oppressed by it. So again, if you’re a follower of Christ—is there anywhere in your life you’ve settled down and decided to compromise with evil?
Is there anywhere in your life you’ve accepted defeat from sin that God calls you to rule over? You need to go read Romans chapter 6! Is your thinking Canaanized? Does your life reflect a different set of values than the values of everyone else around you? Does your life reflect the fact that you have a king?
God’s people aren’t supposed to be powerless in the face of evil in their societies, because first of all they’re experiencing victory over evil in their personal lives. And so his solution for all of us is the same: his king and his spirit.
That Rare Christian
A couple months ago, for my birthday, some students here at CCA decorated both double doors to our office with post-it notes, all with quotes—some bible verses, some quotes from conversations in our office, and many, many quotes from A.W. Tozer. It was a true showing of teenager love. After about a week, I gathered them up so I could read them all, and a couple days ago, I finally got to it. The Tozer quotes are gold. So edifying in the fullest sense of the word. I picked out the best, and figured I’d share them here. Enjoy!
God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan to do only the things that we can do by ourselves.
Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Carry your own cross but never lay one on the back of another.
Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.
What’s closest to your heart is what you talk about, and if God is close to your heart, you will talk about Him.
There are rare Christians whose very presence incites others to be better Christians. I want to be that rare Christian.
Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.
People on earth hate to hear the word repent. Those in hell wish they could hear it just once more.
When I understand that everything is happening to me is to make me more Christ-like, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.
We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.
To have found God and still pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.
Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.
If a man wants to be used by God, he cannot spend all of His time with people.
You can blame circumstances, but backsliding always begins in the heart.
An honest man with an open Bible and a pad and pencil is sure to find out what is wrong with him very quickly.
I don’t want the world to define God for me. I want the Holy Spirit to reveal God to me.
Jesus Christ knows the worst about you. Nonetheless, He is the one who loves you the most.
We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is.
Outside of the will of God there is nothing I want and in the will of God, there is nothing to fear.
And finally…
May God give us the courage to be obedient to His truths in this tragic, critical, and dangerous hour in which we live.
Amen.
Memorial Day Picnic Info
On Monday, weather permitting (and Lord willing!), we’ll do our young adults meeting at Tyler Park. It’s from 5 pm to 8 or when it get’s dark. Here’s the details:
- If you don’t know where Tyler Park is, plug this address into your GPS: 101 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA, 18940. (Or click here for a google maps pin.)
- We can’t reserve a pavilion, so we’ll be arriving and trying to get the best possible spot. Download the map below to see where we’ll be aiming to set up.
- Check our Instagram, Facebook, or this blog for up to the minute information about where in the park we finally set up. We’ll post our spot that day.
- …and also, check social media or this blog for cancellation information. If it’s raining, we’ll need to cancel.
- Bring a side or a desert to share if you can. If possible, we plan on securing some grills and cooking up some burgers and dogs as a main course…
- Also bring any “field game” type things you like… we plan on having our volley ball net set up. But you know, frisbees, corn toss, etc. are cool…
Here’s that map to download: tyler-picnic-map (pdf)
Get In Touch
Got Questions or anything else? It’d be great to hear from you!
Feel free to contact us and get in touch.
Hope to hear from you soon!