God Is Treating You As Children When You Are Persecuted

It is becoming more and more difficult to be a Christian. That's not to say that this difficulty is the same in every country. Since I live in the U.S.A. I can only speak for us in this country. Here the challenge is to deal with hostility in a quite differing manner than in some other places. Here we face what the Hebrews writer calls hostility in a different way than say in a predominately Muslim country. Listen to what he says.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. - Hbr 12:3-8 ESV

The Greek language has a unique word for hostility, one used primarily in this letter and once in Jude. The word is anti-logia. It would be what we call contradiction or dispute. The primary manner by which we Christians face hostility here is by indirect contradiction. In other words, much of what we stand for is considered irrelevant or narrow-minded. Plenty of examples of this:

• Christians are anti-scientific. They are the idiots who claim that evolution did not happen when all of the rest of the world knows that it did. These dimwits claim that the world is only about 6,000 years old while all the rest of the scientific world knows that our planet is billions of years old. 

• Christians are anti-scientific in another way as well. They claim that the entire world was once covered with a flood that wiped out all mankind except one family. There is no evidence of this. None! And yet they hold to this silly little concept because their sacred book says something like that. 

• Christians insist on something they call a soul. Now we all know that this is an outmoded concept. We are nothing more and nothing less than biological machines that have evolved along with all other forms of life. And soon the day will come when we will be able to download this biological information into advanced computers, eliminating the need for outmoded human bodies. We won't need then to talk about souls or spirits—a medieval, non-scientific mental construct. 

• Christians insist that their's is the only religion. What nonsense that is. As any thinking person knows, all religions have something to contribute to the mankind's search for meaning and relevance. Consequently what is called for in these modern times is dialogue, open, honest dialogue and respect. Then we'll all learn from one another. 

I could go on and on to talk about how many in the upcoming generations are taught by their teachers and the media to view Christians as quaint and well-meaning at best. Above all they are sidelined in a way that says, "We'll put up with you as long as you don't interfere. But be sure that you stay out of the way. We have far, far more interesting and important things to do." 

This, I suggest, is what much of modern hostility is about. And, if you are a Christian committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of Holy Scriptures you know what I mean. We Christians in the U.S.A. are not hauled into court directly for being Christians and then thrown to the lions. No we have to deal with the lions in our workplaces, in our schools and even in our homes. There we are challenged, mocked and despised and then driven at times to weariness and exhaustion. We get so tired of having to take up yet another confrontation, another dispute. Why, why? 

The Holy Spirit's answer to all this is (in Greek) paideia. This was the whole training and education of children. It was the work of parents, mentors and teachers. It was the task of getting children to use their minds, deal with the challenges of making decisions in the right way. It was the task of correcting them so that when they make a mistake they learn from the mistake, grow from it and become better prepared the next time they face the challenge. This is why the LORD allows us to be attacked, vilified, mocked and despised. It is part of the paideia, the discipline and training the LORD is putting us through so that we might grow up. 

More on this next time. 

Honey and Water From The Rock

In my meditations upon the psalms during this Lenten season I came upon this phrase from Psalm 81:7, "In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder." A search of the Internet brought me to the following poem I commend to you today. 

The poem is from D.L. Tanner's  first book A Truly Successful Life . 

In the Secret Place of Thunder

(Psalm 81: 5, 7 NRSV)

In the black silence of night

I hear a voice whispering

That I had not known:

“In distress you called, and I rescued you;

I answered you

In the secret place of thunder.”

As the storms of life rolled overhead

My God was there

In the secret place of thunder.

As the lightning flashed and the sky shook

My God was there

In the secret place of thunder.

When the rain pelted me

And I stumbled and fell

And cried in the night –

When the floods boiled about me

And threatened to drown me

In murky darkness –

In the midst of it all

My God was there

In the secret place of thunder.

So when my life is dark

And the thunder rumbles,

I know I am never alone.

Even in the fiercest storm

My God is there

In the secret place of thunder.

Psalm 81 concludes with these encouraging words to God's children: "But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you" (Psalm 81:16). This reminds us that the Lord brought His people to a good land, as He promised to do. Speaking of their journey from bondage to freedom, the Apostle Paul encourages us to learn from them and trust in the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ (Romans 10:4). 

Who Is Setting Your Table?

Recently I've become very concerned about the influence of the world's culture upon my family, friends and readers of this blog. When I mentioned this in an email to the writers of our ezine by the same name as this Blog, I received a couple responses. One interested me especially. The writer, a pastor, mentioned that he too is concerned. He suggested we view it with the image "Who is setting your table?" In other words, who is providing the spiritual food you and your family are eating day by day? And what's it doing to you and for you? 

This is, of course, an old question, one with which the church has struggled from the beginning. A hundred years ago, in 1913, J. Gresham Machen, Presbyterian professor at Princeton and founder of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, wrote a very helpful article in the Princeton Theological Review, Vol. 11, "Christianity and Culture."  For the next couple days I'd like to comment on his article. Here is his conclusion.


"The Church is puzzled by the world's indifference.  She is trying to overcome it by adapting her message to the fashions of the day.  But if, instead, before the conflict, she would descend into the secret place of meditation, if by the clear light of the gospel she would seek an answer not merely to the question of the hour but, first of all, to the eternal problems of the spiritual world, then perhaps, by God's grace, through His good Spirit, in His good time, she might issue forth once more with power, and an age of doubt might be followed by the dawn of an era of faith."


We are indeed puzzled by the indifferent world. Why are people not flocking to our churches by the thousands, begging and pleading for us to tell them the secret of eternal life? Why the indifference? 


The way to overcome such indifference seems obvious to many pastors and church leaders. Adapt the message to the fashions of the day. Does that mean we are to adapt the message to the very internet and computer with which these words are being written? And what about video and TV and drama and yes, what I'm particularly interested in, the art of novel writing, as well as all the other arts? 


But I move ahead of Machen and myself. 


Before getting wrapped up in all that, we must take his concluding advice very seriously. Before the conflict, before the battle, before the clash of swords, let us move to the secret place, the hiding place (Psalm 32:7) who is none other than our Lord Himself. There find solace and comfort, forgiveness and mercy for all the failings of the past. He instructs and guides us in the way we should go from here on, whether we are a pastor, parent or a friend in prayer for a beloved one. 


From our Lord seek answers not merely to the questions of the hour, for these come and go. Instead seek answers to the eternal problems of forgiveness, life and salvation. These our Lord supplies in His Word, in the Gospel. Thus armed we will come back with power to address the doubts and confusion that surround us on all sides. Perhaps we shall yet be used by Him to bring faith. 

What Kind of Spiritual Guidance Do You Want?

Today I want to briefly revisit the question of spirituality—once more from the peculiar view of the Bible. Here's a passage that rather narrows it down.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

In earlier postings I pointed to the Biblical teaching about how one determines if a person is guided by the Spirit of God . Today I'd like to focus upon those so-called teachers who claim to give guidance on spiritual matters. Here's a partial list:

• Spiritual guidance - trance channeling by Abby. 
• Spiritual guidance and personal growth from the Tarot
• Free online psychic readings
• Spiritual growth through cognitive-behavioral therapy
• Spiritual guidance through Magic
• Spiritual guidance through Yoga

The list goes on and on and on.
The warning from Scripture in spiritual matters comes from the Lord Jesus Himself: "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

I know we live in a multi-cultural world. I live in Houston where there are over 100 languages and dialects spoken. I can go to any public place and hear people speaking in tongues that have no meaning to me. In such a situation we are urged to be ecumenical and open to spiritual guidance from many directions. There are, we're told, many paths to God. Consider what Lee Strobel wrote a couple years ago in a very interesting blog: Are There Many Paths to God? It's a very good response. His answer: No. Impossible. To even suggest so is to deny everything that Jesus taught.

All that sounds very narrow, but the truth is, unless we die with Jesus we can never find life (Romans 6:1-14). To deny this truth is to choose death, regardless of how spiritual any teacher claims to be.