Here and Now

I often preach about the problem of abstract faith.  This is the idea that faith is something undefinable - it's kinda like believing in something that's kinda different from knowing something with an element of trust in there and maybe kinda more a heart thing than a head thing... Well, I don't know what that is, but it isn't the faith the Bible talks about.  That almost makes it sound as if what we have faith in may or may not be real, but who cares!  No.  The faith the Bible talks about is a faith based on what actually is - not what may or may not be.  It is a faith that is sure because the object of that faith - Jesus Christ - is as sure as it gets.   Can I get an Amen? However, there is a different kind of abstract faith that affects us as believers in Christ.  It is that faith that believes in Christ - believes in what the Bible says about Him and what it means for us - but that is abstract because we believe these things in principle...

Last week, a long-time acquaintance - a good friend of a good friend - died.  Without giving all the details, we'll just say that years of wrong living and abusing his own body caught up with him.  In the wake of his death, my friend asked me about the after life.  This friend of mine is a believer, though relatively new.  He wanted to know where our friend's spirit was now. The issue is that between his Roman Catholic heritage, much popular misunderstanding of what the Bible says - and doesn't say - about what happens after physical death, along with the influence of modern spiritism, he was unsure of what happens to a person - including an unbeliever, like his friend - when they die.  Is he in hell?  Does his spirit linger on earth?  Does he have a chance to get into heaven? It is sad, indeed, when someone dies and you cannot give those he left behind any assurance that they are "in a better place."  And the truth is that the Bible doesn't g...

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease.   We see the number of positive tests rising every day, along with, sadly, the number of deaths.   The world is full of sick people, dying people.   They need our prayers.   Those who are at risk of catching the disease, which, let’s face it, is everybody, need our prayers.   This disease is changing the world. And not only that, but… Fear is highly contagious.   We see people all around us, every day, being paralyzed by fear.   We see them acting in ways they wouldn’t normally act and saying things they wouldn’t normally say.   The world is full of scared, helpless-feeling people.   They need our prayers.   Those who have no reason not to fear, they need our prayers.   Fear is changing the world. BUT… Faith is highly contagious.   When we see people around us at peace because of their faith, we are set at ease.   When people see us at peace because of our faith, t...

In the eighth chapter of the book of Acts, we read of the persecution of the early church by Saul of Tarsus. After the martyrdom of Stephen we read: And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1 ESV) These early followers of Christ suddenly found themselves at great risk; their lives in danger. So they were forced to change their way of life, leaving their homes - everything was suddenly different! It was an inconvenience. No, something more... It was a trial. No, something more than that... It was an opportunity. God's people were forced out of their comfort zone and had to deal with new situations. And the Word of God spread like wildfire. Like He promised it would. It spread from Jerusalem to all Judea, and then to Samaria. And then, it spread to the whole world. Why? Because Christians were forced to change their situati...

We live in a divided country.  We are divided by our politics, by our beliefs, by our race, by our sexuality, by generation, by social class - by just about anything you can name.  And in these times, division means we must hate those who disagree with us, right?  It means we must tear down the character and reputation of whole people groups if they are "on the other side," right?  We should resort to ad hominem  attacks, legal attacks, and if that doesn't do it, physical attacks to defend our views, right? At least we, as Christians, don't do such things...   Right? Christians, where is our faith? The Apostle Peter, after instructing us to suffer for doing good in a world that will confuse good with evil (welcome to the 21st century) points us to our Lord: For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his m...

  A co-worker said something to me this week that really stuck with me.  It seemed so simple and yet so amazingly profound.  We are attempting to make some wholesale changes to the way we do things at my day job in an effort to improve not only efficiency and profit, but to improve the experience of working there for everyone.  And there is a lot of discussion about how to do that.  And it becomes very easy to get distracted from the actual doing when there is so much talk about how it should be done.  So, eager to start moving towards improvement, my friend said: "Nothing will change if you don't actually change something." - Thomas Ney  Brilliant!   You see, when we want change, we tend to want it a lot more in theory than we do in actual practice.  Whether it is at work, at home, in a relationship, or in the church.  And the same holds true for our Spiritual lives.  We all want to change for the better - to...

Howdy, y'all!  I thought I'd share some of the things I read this week that I found particularly interesting.  (And, in the interest of full disclosure: I have a few posts started but not finished, and I was REALLY pressed for time this week).  Enjoy! Check out this post about how to handle the atheist-created "reason vs. faith" myth here Next, check out some teaching from John Wesley on seeking God here Then, check out a GREAT defense of complementarianism (the belief that God made men and women to fill different but complementary roles) here Then check out this post in favor of pastors staying for a long time in their pastorate  here  (which is a good companion to my post from last week that you can find here  ) Finally, read a great post that a great friend sent to me about making friends who are different than me here (thanks, Leyla!!)