Lord, give me more faith in Christ than in my sins

Today, for my quiet time with God, I prayerfully reflected on Luke, chapter 13. Two verses particularly caught my attention. Jesus is the speak in both:

"...unless you repent, you too all will perish." (v. 3) 

"...unless you repent, you too will all perish." (v. 5)

Jesus has evidently sensed the desire of the crowd surrounding Him for His take on two recent tragic events that people were talking about.

One the murder ordered by the Roman governor, Pilate, of Galileans (natives of the region in which Jesus was raised), who were at the moments of their deaths, offering sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. (As I read this today, I found myself thinking of the Christians engaging in Bible study at the South Carolina church where a racist white man gunned the believers down last year.)

The other incident to which Jesus refers is one in which eighteen people were killed when a tower at a place called Siloam collapsed on them.

I infer from how Jesus couches His words in these verses in Luke's gospel, that He hears a note of judgment in the crowd's discussion of at least one of these events.

When horrible tragedies happen, people are desperate in their search for explanations, in their craving for orderliness, and in their hope that their own virtues will exempt them from the bad things that happen to people in this marred and imperfect world.

But Jesus tells them not to get any ideas about easy explanations or about their possessing a moral superiority that will make them bulletproof in the face of life's harshest possibilities.

Then, He tells the crowd, twice, that without repentance, they will perish. Of course, when Jesus speaks of perishing, He has in mind eternal separation from God, the only Source of life.

I feel chastened by this passage, not because I judge life's victims guilty for the tragedies that befall them. God forbid!

I know that bad things happen to faithful people. Job, in the Old Testament, was a righteous man. Yet he was hit by multiple tragedies. And personally, I've known many people--faithful, loving, believing people--whose lives have been dogged by tragedy and loss or who themselves, died too young.

Furthermore, Jesus makes it clear that repentant believers aren't exempt from pain in this life. "In this world," Jesus said once, "you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33)

And He says that God "...causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45).

Sure that God isn't a monster who picks out life's "winners and losers," I would never think of blaming the victims of tragedy for their tragic circumstances.

But Jesus' words still caught my breath today. He chastened me by His serious, implacable, non-negotiable call and command that I repent.

I realized that sometimes, more often than even I know, I'm sure, I take God's grace so much for granted that I fudge on repentance.

I often offer perfunctory mouthings of confession with little intention of changing the way I do business from day to day.

Truth be told, at a functional, life-level, I can be more interested in God justifying my sins--"O, that's OK, Mark. Nothing damaged," I imagine the chump version of God I seem to sometimes erect in my mind--than in justifying, rendering righteous and new and horrified by sin, this clump of God-stuff, Mark.

The good news is that Mark can be justified. (You can be too.)

But to receive the justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, which is the central promise of Christian faith, bringing new and eternal life to all who trust in Christ, there must be a genuine brokenheartedness--not necessarily emotional, but real--for my sin.

There must be a genuine desire--not measured in goosebumps, but in the surrender of my will--for God to flush from my life, to rip violently from my existence, the sins of which God's Word and the Holy Spirit have made me aware.  I must cling to God and not to my sins!

No one is without sin, of course. No one can be aware of all of their sins when they lay themselves with honesty and transparency before God. And no one repents perfectly even when we do repent with a broken heart and a surrendered will. That's OK. God judges our lives on the grace curve as we trust in Christ.

But, here's the point: Freedom from sin isn't permission to sin.

Grace isn't a blank check to spit on the revealed will of God.

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery who He had protected from a judging crowd that had been about to stone her to death, "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11). I've preached and taught many times that, while that woman lived on this imperfect earth, she could never lead a sinless life. (Any more than you and I can.) But, I've also taught that, after Christ protected her from the eternal consequences of her sin--which is what God's forgiveness does for us--the intention of her heart, in light of such grace, should have been not to sin again.

That should be my intention too, every time I repent and know that I am forgiven.

Often though, after repenting, I turn around and commit the same sin for which I just repented, whether in word, dead, or thought.

I confess egotism and self-absorption, then think egotistically or with self-worship.

I confess coveting something, say "Amen," and covet again.

And so it goes.

Though I know better, I act as though I think some sins are more serious than others. It is true that some sins can have graver earthly consequences. In this world, murder brings worse consequences on the murderer than taking God's name in vain does on the speaker. In the civil realm, this is perfectly understandable and appropriate. But, in the eyes of eternity, all sin is equally horrible as violations of God's holiness and of God's will for me as a human being. I know that. But I don't always live like I know it.

Repentance isn't an onerous duty, of course. Repentance brings joy as the repentant, entrusting her or his sins to Christ, is set free from sin's power and enabled by the Holy Spirit to live in that freedom.

All too often though, I treat God's forgiveness as though it untethers me from the life-giving bond of love for God and love for neighbor that all sins violates. I misunderstand my freedom and I go from bondage to bondage, exchanging chains for chains, if I don't prayerfully and actively live in the freedom of forgiven sin.

Father, when I repent, help me to leave my sin with You. Holy Spirit, through the Word, through Christian friends, shout Your directions to me and give me more faith in Christ than in the momentary pleasures of my favorite sins. In Jesus' name. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin

What the World Needs Now: Christ!

Colossians 1:1-14
A woman with whom I was once briefly acquainted told me that she worshiped at her church every Sunday. She loved what she called “the inspiring sermons” given by her pastor each week and, though she never got involved with the church, thought that the people there were friendly enough. “I’m a Christian,” she told me.

But one of the first things she ever asked me was when my birthday was and when I told her she said, “Oh. So, you’re a Scorpio. Interesting.” I didn’t know the woman very well, so I didn’t pursue the subject. But what I found interesting--horrifying, really--is how she could consider herself a Christian and, at the same time, put any stock in astrology.

I was certain that her mixing of belief systems was what lay behind what, over time I could see, was her vapid, meaningless Christian faith.

We live in an age in many people, like that woman, strive to mix belief systems so that they can have the version of God they want to have. Or, the version of religion that leaves them with no God.

This phenomenon is nothing new. It’s what scholars call syncretism. It all seems so open-minded, doesn’t it, taking one from column A, one from column B, add a dash of this and that?

The problem for Christians, of course, is that the One we confess as God in the flesh, Jesus, has insisted that He is the only way to life or truth or God. Jesus even insists that it’s only through Him that we have the power to live lives of love and purpose.

The issues raised by that woman are precisely the issues engaged in the short New Testament letter, Colossians, that we’re going to be considering today and over the next three weeks.

Colossae was a town in Asia Minor, roughly today’s Turkey, located about 100 miles southeast of the more well-known Ephesus. Unlike the Galatian Christians, who thought that they needed to add adherence to Old Testament law to their faith in Christ, and to whom the apostle Paul wrote maybe twenty years before he wrote this letter, the Colossians Christians, were mixers and matchers of all manner of idol worship and religious practices.

Because of this syncretism, the faith of the Colossians Christians was quickly devolving into a Christianity without Jesus. We’ve seen this sort of thing, haven’t we? Churches in which members confess Jesus as Lord in their creeds while dismissing Jesus as only a good man, the Bible as only a book, or the Gospel as just one way to God?

Many of today's Christians, like the Colossian Christians to whom Paul wrote, are often syncretistic. Paul wrote the Colossian Christians for two reasons:

• (1) To point to Jesus, the fullness of God, the only God, the only way to God. 
• (2) To call the Colossians to live the kinds of lives of love and passionate engagement with the world that only Jesus can set loose in us. 

The world needs love, for sure. The sad events of this past week in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas confirm that.

And Jesus Christ is the only certain source of love. That’s what Paul wants us to know.

Take a look at our lesson, Colossians 1:1-14, please.

After greeting the Christians at Colossae on behalf of Timothy, his young assistant, Paul says beginning in verse 3: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.”

Notice that here, Paul uses three key words: faith, hope, and love. This is not the only time that Paul has spoken of faith, hope, and love, you know. In 1 Corinthians 13, what's often called "the love chapter," Paul concludes, saying: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

But what did Paul mean by those words faith, hope, and love? And what is Paul telling us in today’s lesson about those three things that might be different from what he wrote to the 1 Corinthians?

Faith, of course, is trust in God. Christian faith isn’t a philosophical proposition, it’s a relational term. As Christians, our faith is in a personal being, the God we know in Jesus.

When we have faith in--believe in--Jesus, we trust in Him in all the ways Scripture refer to God. Jesus is our rock, our redeemer, our Lord, our Savior, and our King, among other things.

We trust that whatever Jesus leads us through, no matter how hard, as long as He is leading, it’s OK. Through Jesus, we follow God into eternity.

We trust that He forgives our sins, helps us face things we could never face in our own strength, and helps us see the light of God’s love even when the world has gone dark.

That’s faith.

Love isn’t necessarily having great feelings about somebody. As I’ve said before, it’s impossible for me to imagine that as He suffered on the cross, Jesus had sentimental feelings about the people who taunted Him, spat at Him, mocked Him, and crucified Him. But He loved them. Love is what motivated Jesus to die on the cross for us.

He exhibited it even as He was drawing His dying breaths. Ge prayed for those who murdered Him.  (Let that one sink in for a moment!) “Father, forgive them,” Jesus prayed from the cross, “for they do not do what they are doing.”

Love is the commitment to do and be the best for God and others, even when we don’t feel like it.

That’s love.

Hope is the most important thing that Paul talks about in these opening verses of Colossians.

Paul isn’t talking about hope the way we do when we say things like, "I hope it doesn't rain tonight." Or, “I hope that we’ll have a good turnout for the Family Film and Fun Nights.”

That kind of hope is fine, of course. But hope as Paul speaks of it here has to do with following Jesus and knowing that no matter how things go in this fallen world, we have a hope that cannot be destroyed.

I visited a gravely ill man in the hospital. "It's OK for you to pray for my healing, pastor," he told me. "If God does heal me, it means that I'll be around a while longer. If God doesn't heal me, it means I'll be with Him in eternity. It's a win-win."

All who turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ as their God and King live each day in the hope that one day, we will live in direct fellowship with God in eternity. No matter what happens to believers in Jesus, nothing can defeat them.

That's hope.

Paul had never visited Colossae. The church there was started by another member of his ministry team, Epaphras. But he tells the Colossian Christians that he thanked God for the faith and love evidenced in their lives, a sure sign that they were drawing hope from its only source, Jesus.

Please slip down to verse 9. Paul writes: “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.”

Paul tells the Colossian Christians what he prays for them.

He doesn’t pray for their health.

He doesn't pray that God would bring them wealth.

He doesn't ask God to give them success.

He doesn't pray that God will give them ease.

He doesn't even pray for the well being of their families.

Paul almost never prays for things like these. And he never asks that others pray for him for such things.

Instead, Paul says that he prays that Christians in Colossae...

• will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, 
• will be given give the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit can give us for everyday living,
• will lead lives worthy of association with the name of Jesus, 
• will experience the seeds of Christ’s grace, forgiveness, and love bearing fruit in lives of love and good deeds done for others, 
• will know God intimately, 
• will be strengthened by the One Who calls all followers of Jesus away from thinking and living like the darkness of this world. The darkness of this world to which the Bible often refers is the very darkness that we have seen in recent days in video clips from Louisiana, Minnesota, and Dallas.

By their tight connection to Jesus, Paul was praying, the lives of the Colossian Christians would reflect the very light of the world, Jesus Christ Himself.

Do you see what Paul is praying?

He’s praying that the Colossian Christians will grow as disciples: followers of Jesus, people whose every thought, action, impulse, and word reflect Jesus, God enfleshed.

This week, I’d like to ask you to take verses 9-12 of our lesson as your own personal prayer.

Pray them for your family.

For Living Water.

For the North American Lutheran Church.

For yourself.

As you turn Paul’s prayer petitions into your own prayer petitions, eventually expressed in your own words, pray that God will help you and help the Church to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Listen: America needs Christ and the Church as it never has before. The world needs Christ and the Church as never before.

And, God has given each of us who bear the name of Christ a critical role in helping others to know and follow Jesus Christ.

There's a little story told about a scene in heaven that unfolds right after the risen Jesus gave the eleven remaining apostles the Great Commission. In the story, an angel is standing with God the Father witnessing this commissioning. "Jesus is giving the responsibility of spreading the Gospel and His love, making disciples, to those eleven guys?" the angel asks. "Is that the plan, Lord?" "Yes," God responds, "that's the plan." The angel can't believe it! The eleven didn't have an impressive track record. "What," the angel asks God the Father, "is plan B?" Says God: "There is no plan B."

When it comes to living, praying, and spreading the transforming love of Jesus Christ, it's our move, Church! That's God's plan. In the face of the world's darkness, it's up to us to spread the light!

Listen, please: Disciples in whom the love, grace, power, and sovereignty of the God revealed in Jesus Christ is present and growing are the only means by which America, the world, and people everywhere are going to live in the faith, hope, and love that only Jesus Christ can give.

Please make Paul’s prayer in today’s lesson your prayer each day this week.

I guess the logical response to my request is, “Why? Why should I bother?”

Why shouldn’t people just cast about for the mix and match combination of religious beliefs that makes them, you, and me feel comfortable and in control, like the woman I mentioned at the beginning of this message?

Paul answers that question in the last two verses of our lesson: “For [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

To honor the God Who has rescued us from sin, death, and hell; to honor the God Who has changed our eternities through Christ, I ask that you pray that God will help us and help all for whom we pray to be faithful disciples, to grow as faithful disciples, who live our faith with authenticity and who love others as Christ has loved us.

How can we give less than our all to the Lord Who has given everything to us? Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

A time for prayer

Posted this yesterday over on Facebook:

Praying God's comfort for the families of the fallen Dallas police officers.  

Praying also for the families of the fallen African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota.  

Praying that God will, through Jesus Christ, give insight to our nation so that we may live in peace and have justice.  

I pray for law-enforcement personnel, who have a difficult and important job.  

I pray for those who seek equal justice under the law.  

I pray that the culture of violence will be conquered by the God revealed in Jesus Christ.  

God, "teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine."

Cherish the Past, Let Christ Alter the Present & Future

[This was shared during the celebration of life and memorial for Jack earlier today.]

I only met Jack once, just a few weeks ago, when I spent about an hour with Jenny and him at their home. But I felt I knew a little bit about him before the moment I stepped through their front door. I’ve gotten to know more about him in the days since his passing. This knowledge, limited though it is, has come to me through family he loved deeply and who loved him deeply in return.

His life story is a remarkable one, really.

It’s the story of a young Jack, whose loving dad believed in his capable son. Jack suffered from dyslexia. But his dad found a school that could help his son on the pathway to achievement.

Jack’s is also the story of a man who himself was a fine husband, father, grandfather, and uncle. A man who built a remarkable business with talent and ability, who mentored people--children, fledgling engineers, nephews, even classmates; sometimes a taskmaster, but always affirming. A man of good humor, as I learned as soon as I met him and a friendly man, who reached out to shake my hand and called me Mark from the beginning. (That's rare; I'm usually called other things besides Mark.) A man who continued a tradition begun by his dad which, until this day has taken him and his extended family to Kentucky Lake in June every year.

Jack was a man loved and appreciated by his wife, Jenny, with whom he spent fifty eight years. And he was a man who, among other things, bequeathed a hearty laugh to his sons.

How do you fill the void left by the passing of a man like this? You don’t! You can’t! And it’s right that you should grieve your loss.

But there are two things I think that you should also do. The first is: Learn from his example. Love well. Work hard. Care about people. Laugh heartily. From what I know of Jack, the world could use more of his kind. I think that he and Jenny have done a good job in creating and nurturing more people who are like themselves. Keep learning from their example.

The second thing you can do is this: Put your trust in the God revealed to all the world in Jesus Christ. It’s Jesus (and only Jesus) Who can help us be the kind of people that we were made to be.

You know, we come into this world willfully self-centered. Sin is our default mode. In the book of Galatians in the New Testament, this common human default mode is called “life in the flesh.” According to Galatians--and according to the news you probably saw on TVs or your computer screens this morning, life in the flesh leads the human race to all sorts of destructive, hurtful ways of living.

But when we let Christ into the center of our lives--when we turn away from our sin and set our hopes for this life and the next on Jesus Christ--God unleashes the power of His Holy Spirit to work good in us. Galatians calls this “life in the Spirit.”

The fruits of this life, Paul says, are things like “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

I’m sure that there many of you here today who can attest that you’ve seen such “fruits” in the lives of believers in Christ, even though there isn’t a single believer in Jesus who is perfect. Trusting in Christ can change the way we live.

But trusting in Christ can also give us hope for eternity.

A moment ago, I read the Bible’s account of what happened in the village of Bethany after a friend of Jesus, Lazarus, had died. When Jesus, Who had already performed so many miracles and claimed that He and God the Father are the same being, one of Lazarus’ sisters, Martha, greeted Jesus with what can be seen as a note of scorn. Certain of Jesus’ power and oneness with God, Martha said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

We can feel that way some time. Even though we know that death is part of life in this fallen world, we can be angry at God when we lose someone we love. It’s understandable. Deep in our DNA, we know that we were meant for eternity. Death violates the way things are meant to be.

But remember this: You can only be angry with a God you believe is there.

Jesus doesn’t argue with Martha. He understands her grief.

Instead, Jesus makes a simple statement: “Your brother will rise again.” Martha affirms her faith in that proposition. She says that she knows that Lazarus will rise on the day of the resurrection of the dead.

But then Jesus underscores that the resurrection of the dead isn’t an abstract theological proposition. It’s not a religious fairy tale. Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

The God we meet in Jesus Christ has sole proprietorship over the resurrection of the dead. Resurrection is rooted in Him. It is a physical reality given to those who follow Jesus. All who believe in Jesus--the original Greek word in the New Testament which we translate as believe is literally, trust, or we could say, total trusting surrender--all who believe in Jesus have eternal life.

Resurrection isn’t just a promise, then.

It’s a reality as strong as the Savior Who secured it when He died on the cross, taking the condemnation that you and I deserve because of our default orientation to doing and living the way we want to without regard to God.

It's a reality as strong as the same Savior Who did not remain dead, affirming His power over life, death, and all that grieves us in this world.

Jesus lifts the death sentence that hangs over every human life apart from faith in Him.

Romans 8:1 says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” There is hope when we trust in the God of the universe, Who makes it His business to give life with Him now and life made perfect with Him in eternity, to all who turn away from sin and turn to Him each day they live.

Jesus promises that those who endure in trusting in Him will live with God!

You have lost a good man whose influence can be a positive and inspiring one for as long as you live. Cherish that. Learn from his example of a life well-lived! Celebrate his life and its lessons even as you mourn. Thank God for how blessed you were to have Jack in your life.

And trust in Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Who can fill you with the power to live a life of purpose and meaning today; Who gives life with Him that starts now and cannot be brought to an end even by death.

You can live with the same conviction and hope that we see in Romans 8, that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Count on the truth of those words today. Jesus died and rose to make them true for all who trust in Him.

Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

Racial Indifference...and My Repentance

The Barna Group has released this bit of polling: "73% of adults agree that Christian churches play an important role in racial reconciliation."

Even granting that some of those Americans are clueless about the Church, its message, or its role--including many Christians--I think that this sizable majority of our neighbors (a way larger number than the number of people who will vote for the winning candidate in this presidential election) are right.

We Christians and we of the Church do have a role in working for racial reconciliation.

My efforts in this area have been in fits and spurts for years.

And I still think that political action is the least important thing that individual Christians can do on any social issue.

Mostly, I believe, that if we can teach, preach, and live the whole truth of Scripture--that all people are sinners in need of the forgiveness and life-changing grace God offers through the crucified and risen Jesus Christ--hearts, minds, wills, and racial attitudes will be changed.

But we are also called to speak words of justice. And in this, I find myself wanting.

As a boy, I was taught to sing, "Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight." I believe that...with all my heart. I preach that. I teach that. I believe that it's a truth that comes straight from my Savior, Who is Lord of all peoples.

And yet, there is more to be done. Not necessarily by the Church or by pastors, but by all Christians energized by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And not necessarily, as I say, by political actions, but in actions of all kinds streaming from hearts made clean and new and eternal by Christ.

I suspect that many of us need to repent when it comes to our racial attitudes, whether they're the attitudes of indifference buttressed by remaining enveloped in our own race cultures or racism itself. Indifference may be the worst of these two things, as horrible as racism is, because, as has been observed, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference.

In my heart, I'm not indifferent. But I have been indifferent in my praying and, in recent years, in my living. For that, I repent, and ask that God would show me what I can do through Christ, to bridge the chasms between people.

Tonight, my heart is broken by, among other things, the ongoing tensions between black and white America, the continuation of racism and injustice, which we must acknowledge, I think, whether it's determined that what happened in Louisiana and Minnesota were justified police actions or not.

Speaking for myself and, I believe, the wonderful police officers I've known throughout my life, the videos of those two incidents are horrifying. Horrifying! (I think especially of the little four year old girl who was in the car when four bullets ripped into the body of the man behind the wheel.)

But even beyond these incidents, we must acknowledge that there is a barrier between blacks and whites. If you are a Christian--conservative, liberal, whatever, you and I know, brothers and sisters, that, among us at least, race should not be a barrier.

Jesus died for all.

Jesus rose for all.

And all who trust in Him, whatever their race, can have life with Him as they turn from their sin and follow Him.

Tonight, I ask Christ to help me to turn away from my past racial indifference and to show me the way living my life with less indifference and more of the love of Christ.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

73% of adults agree that Christian churches play an important role in racial reconciliation pic.twitter.com/lRXmb17YVC

— Barna Group (@BarnaGroup) July 7, 2016

Is there a "polite persecution" of Christians in the USA?

The phrase "polite persecution" comes from Pope Francis. It's cited in this article from TIME. I have no interest in the political aspects of things mentioned in the piece by Mary Eberstadt, since I believe that the Church should step into the political arena only rarely.

But she cites incidents that seem to support Francis' belief that "polite persecution" of Christians is a reality in the United States:

According to recent Pew Research reports, the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as religiously affiliated has shrunk while the percentage describing themselves as unaffiliated has grown from 2007 to 2014. The percentage who say they are “absolutely certain” God exists fell to 63% from 71% during the same time period.

This new vigorous secularism has catapulted mockery of Christianity and other forms of religious traditionalism into the mainstream and set a new low for what counts as civil criticism of people’s most-cherished beliefs. In some precincts, the “faith of our fathers” is controversial as never before. 

Some of the faithful have paid unexpected prices for their beliefs lately: the teacher in New Jersey suspended for giving a student a Bible; the football coach in Washington placed on leave for saying a prayer on the field at the end of a game; the fire chief in Atlanta fired for self-publishing a book defending Christian moral teaching; the Marine court-martialed for pasting a Bible verse above her desk; and other examples of the new intolerance. Anti-Christian activists hurl smears like “bigot” and “hater” at Americans who hold traditional beliefs about marriage and accuse anti-abortion Christians of waging a supposed “war on women.”

Some Christian institutions face pressure to conform to secularist ideology—or else. Flagship evangelical schools like Gordon College in Massachusetts and Kings College in New York have had their accreditation questioned. Some secularists argue that Christian schools don’t deserve accreditation, period. Activists have targeted home-schooling for being a Christian thing; atheist Richard Dawkins and others have even called it tantamount to child abuse. Student groups like InterVarsity have been kicked off campuses. Christian charities, including adoption agencies, Catholic hospitals and crisis pregnancy centers have become objects of attack.

Eberhardt goes on to point out that instances like these hardly warrant the overwrought characterization of Christian "persecution" in the US as the equivalent of what happens to Christians in territory controlled by Isil, for example. She's right!

Yet [she says, again rightly, I think] we must also acknowledge that when some Americans citizens are fearful of expressing their religious views, something new has snaked its way into the village square: an insidious intolerance for religion that has no place in a country founded on religious freedom.

I linked to this over on Facebook and received this thoughtful response from Steve, a junior high classmate:

From my experience, there are a number of Christians who are overly sensitive to even the least disagreement of their beliefs, especially when those Christians are loudly calling for everyone to conform, and they call this mild disagreement persecution. That is laughable on its face. I wish people, of whatever or no belief, would be secure in their own selves that they didn't have to seek justification in numbers. Sadly, a lot are not that secure. Jesus himself warned that believers would be persecuted for righteousness' sake, but they would be rewarded for it. So it's rather curious to me why Christians would complain about persecution.

I responded:

Steve, thuggish Christians, a term that should be oxymoronic, are a scourge to the Church. I'm totally opposed to efforts by both the Christian Right and the Christian Left to impose their versions of Christian ethics on society as a whole. Christian ethics are meant to be a voluntary outgrowth of one's relationship with Christ, not a regimen of theocracy. 

And while I don't agree with everything the author of this piece says, the facts she marshals to show the shunning, marginalization, and ridicule to which Christians are subjected these days conforms to my own experiences. To speak openly about one's faith in Christ and belief in the Bible as the definitive Word of God, is to be seen by many as bigoted, closed-minded, irrational, and superstitious.

Some of this reaction--evidenced throughout modern culture--can no doubt be traced to the legalists who call themselves Christians acting as though they speak for Christ on political issues. They engage in an idolatry of a false Jesus--conservative, white, legalistic--who bears little resemblance to the Lord who transformed this one-time atheist to a believer saved by God's undeserved grace through faith in Christ.
There is simply no way to draw a straight line between Christ and a particular political program. People who say otherwise are either deceived or deceivers. I lament the bad rap that people like these give to Christ and Christians. 

When a crowd, their bellies full with food that Jesus had provided to them, sought to make Jesus their political king, he condemned and rejected their impulses. As Jesus said elsewhere, His kingdom has invaded, but is not of, this world. 

That shouldn't lead Christians to quietism when it comes to the affairs of the world. Karl Marx was totally wrong when he described all religion--he especially had Christianity in mind--as an "opiate of the people." Versions of Christianity that lull believers into a passive acceptance of injustice, whether at personal or societal levels, encouraging people to wait for "the sweet by and by," are wrong and faithless. Jesus threw the extortionist currency-exchangers out of the temple for the injustice of their business, all done in the name of God. Jesus wasn't passive and told believers to give to Caesar--the government--what's owed Caesar and to give God what is owed God. Christians are to be active, constructive participants in the lives of their communities, nations, and world. Micah 6:8 in the Old Testament tells believers: "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good and what the Lord has required of you, but to love justice and to do mercy and to walk humbly with your God." 

All of this has led me through the years to seek to be a constructive participant in my communities' lives: tutor at a local school; chair of a public school district's levy campaign; member of a county Developmental Disabilities board, another county's juvenile drug abuse prevention task force, and of a county social services commission; president of the board of a countywide Boys and Girls Club; candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives; and so on. 

But not once in these activities have I claimed that the positions I took on policy issues were God's will and that those who disagreed with me were wrong. In fact, I've always tried to make sure people understood that I knew I might be wrong. 

Yet I fear that church bodies and Christian groups who take a "thus says the Lord" approach to public issues have created a backlash against what is, essentially, a cartoon version of Christian faith. 

That is one contributing factor to the subtle "persecution" of Christians in contemporary culture.

Others include: the brainless refusal to examine the truth claims of Christian faith by supposedly intelligent people (I believe that they are intelligent, but willfully ignorant when it comes to what Christianity is really about); the incuriosity of a culture more interested in being entertained and immediately gratified than in probing why they exist and why their world isn't right; and materialism which can insulate people from reality, deluding them with the unspoken belief that they are "gods" to whom life owes them something. 

Of course, many who are bitter and angry with Christians are people who have been mistreated by Christians or gone through hard lives for which there are no easy explanations. To people like these, Christians should listen. Christians should pray for such people. And Christians should seek to bring such people God's love and God's justice. Sometimes the job of Christians and the Church is to clean up the dung spread by others in the name of Christ. (I fully own that I have sometimes, inadvertently and thoughtlessly, been guilty of dung-spreading, by my life and my words. I repent for it.) 

These factors are what I think lay behind much of the sometimes subtle anti-Christian ferocity that exists in the US and the West these days. 

None of it comes as a surprise to me. And we're not suffering like our sisters and brothers in other parts of the world. And sometimes all too comfortable Christians see persecution where it doesn't exist, such as on Starbucks cups at Christmastime. But Jesus warned that Christians would face fierce opposition and spurning for their faith. It's just surprising to see how fierce and uninformed it can be.

Steve answered:

Great reply Mark. I'm going to re-read it tomorrow. I think it's obvious you've done a lot of thinking about this, as have I. Sometimes I think a lot of American Christians have no real understanding, at all, of Christ's teaching. They are great cherry pickers. I try to live and let live. We all have to get through this life the best way we can, and whatever religion or philosophy helps one get through life, I'm all for it. As I said, some people feel threatened when, after offering their religion, the recipient says "no thank you". I believe in "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". No one should be persecuted for their beliefs, ever. Thanks for taking the time to write that response, I am glad for any opportunity to further understand these issues.

Steve is a terrific guy and I am looking forward to seeing him and his wife Kim, a classmate since elementary school, at our high school class reunion later this month. I also look forward to reading his reply.

So, what do you think?

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

The Great Demon Debate

Yesterday, over on Facebook, I posted a link to an intriguing article by a psychiatrist who also teaches psychiatry at a New York college, on a controversial subject. Titled, As a Psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. And sometimes, demonic possession. It appeared in the Washington Post.

The title is somewhat misleading because in the article itself, Dr. Richard Gallagher says that he doesn't diagnose people as being possessed, only certifies for those who come to him that the cases in question don't lend themselves to a medical diagnosis of mental illness. But Gallagher, like the late M. Scott Peck, also a psychiatrist, is convinced of the existence of demonic possession.

That's provocative enough, of course, coming from a man of science who looked into possible demon possession with skepticism. But Gallagher writes:

The same habits that shape what I do as a professor and psychiatrist — open-mindedness, respect for evidence and compassion for suffering people — led me to aid in the work of discerning attacks by what I believe are evil spirits and, just as critically, differentiating these extremely rare events from medical conditions.

He condemns those who engage in quackery, treating the mentally ill as though they were demonically possessed. And he claims to know the difference:

A possessed individual may suddenly, in a type of trance, voice statements of astonishing venom and contempt for religion, while understanding and speaking various foreign languages previously unknown to them. The subject might also exhibit enormous strength or even the extraordinarily rare phenomenon of levitation. (I have not witnessed a levitation myself, but half a dozen people I work with vow that they’ve seen it in the course of their exorcisms.) He or she might demonstrate “hidden knowledge” of all sorts of things — like how a stranger’s loved ones died, what secret sins she has committed, even where people are at a given moment. These are skills that cannot be explained except by special psychic or preternatural ability.

I have personally encountered these rationally inexplicable features, along with other paranormal phenomena. My vantage is unusual: As a consulting doctor, I think I have seen more cases of possession than any other physician in the world.

Most of the people I evaluate in this role suffer from the more prosaic problems of a medical disorder. Anyone even faintly familiar with mental illnesses knows that individuals who think they are being attacked by malign spirits are generally experiencing nothing of the sort. Practitioners see psychotic patients all the time who claim to see or hear demons; histrionic or highly suggestible individuals, such as those suffering from dissociative identity syndromes; and patients with personality disorders who are prone to misinterpret destructive feelings, in what exorcists sometimes call a “pseudo-possession,” via the defense mechanism of an externalizing projection. But what am I supposed to make of patients who unexpectedly start speaking perfect Latin?

I approach each situation with an initial skepticism. I technically do not make my own “diagnosis” of possession but inform the clergy that the symptoms in question have no conceivable medical cause.

The article is, as I say, provocative and it has provoked some discussion over on Facebook.

Andrew, a one-time neighbor whose parents are dear friends of ours and who grew up with our son Philp and served as Phil's best man when Phil and his wife were married last year, probably speaking for many, wrote the following:

The people who are being diagnosed as demon possessed aren't getting their mental illnesses treated. Highly highly irresponsible of this charlatan "psychiatrist".

I responded:

I wonder, Andrew, if you read the article. I agree that what you're describing happens. So too, would the author, a psychiatrist and man of science who appears to be open to the facts speaking for themselves.

And also:

Incidentally, the late M. Scott Peck, also a man of science and psychiatrist, was led to a view similar to that of the author on these things. He details his experiences in 'People of the Lie.'

Andrew replied:

I did read the article. And the author obviously doesn't agree with me since he is "diagnosing" people with demon possession. Anyone he decides is demon possessed is not getting the psychiatric help they need. As someone who suffers from mental illness I find it incredibly irresponsible that you're promoting this. You can't pray away depression or anxiety or especially personality disorders and schizophrenia. When I was in the church my treatment was delayed because people in authority told me I could pray it away or that I must be sinning. The church has a horrible history in helping people with mental illness and this kind of unscientific bs just makes it worse.

I responded:

Andrew, he specifically said he doesn't do the diagnosing, but lets others know that there is no scientific explanation for some of the cases he's run up against. He says that in the overwhelming numbers of instances, scientific diagnoses can be made. And he would concede, as I would, that you cannot pray away physiologically rooted instances of anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and schizophrenia.

Quacks who say otherwise are destructive and irresponsible. The evidence would indicate to me that this guy is no quack.

Andrew joined (see what a good relationship that we have, that we can talk about something like this and keep talking to each other!):

We don't know what's causing this mental illness - therefore demons seems like a textbook definition of quackery.

My response:

But to the open-minded, other explanations are worthy of consideration.

Andrew's answer:

Being open minded means looking at all the evidence and then coming to the conclusion that that most closely fits that evidence regardless of your previous position. There is zero evidence for demon possession. The author doesn't even bother to present any. He even goes so far as to try to explain away the lack of evidence by talking about how demons are too smart to be recorded on video. In skeptic circles this is called the shyness effect. The same sorts of explanations are given to explain why there are no pictures of Bigfoot or UFOs. So I would ask you to be open minded and follow the evidence where it leads and to acknowledge when there is no good evidence for a claim you're making.

At this, Jeff Schultz joined the conversation, writing:

"Being open minded means looking at all the evidence and then coming to the conclusion that that most closely fits that evidence regardless of your previous position." With respect, I believe that's what this psychiatrist is doing, and what you're unwilling to do. It seems your assessment is based on a purely materialistic view of reality. In that case, then what this psychiatrist is doing is indeed quackery. But what if we don't live in a purely material universe? What if there is a spiritual dimension to reality that can't be scientifically explained, measured, and controlled? The unwillingness to consider that possibility seems like another kind of close-mindedness which would lead to another kind of malpractice.

Andrew replied to Jeff:

What if we don't live in a purely materialistic universe? What if there are Demons? Psychic powers? Faith healing? Show me the evidence for any of these phenomenon and I'll believe it. Seriously. Show me.

But there isn't any, as the excuses in this article suggest. I was a Christian once. I've assessed the evidence. It is lacking. I'd ask you to attempt to do the same.*

Jeff responded:

I don't wish to be difficult or argumentative. You've stated there isn't any evidence. I took that to mean there is no evidence that would satisfy you, especially as you've stated that you also concluded that lack of evidence led you to abandon faith in Christ. Since we see things from such different perspectives, there doesn't seem to be much sense in putting forth reasoned arguments or evidence.

You maintain that believing in the supernatural is baseless and foolish faith that leads to quackery. I maintain the same thing about materialism. But my contention is no more close-minded or inherently dangerous than yours. That's all I'm asking you to consider.

Andrew answered Jeff:

But it is. People are being treated for demon possession by exorcists instead of for mental illness by doctors. You really don't see how that's not inherently dangerous to people?

I answered:

Andrew, I feel that you're arguing against a straw man. At the outset of the piece and in my remarks, the author and I both have said that there are irresponsible flim-flammers treating physiological or emotional disorders as though they were demon-possession. They're to be condemned. And that has zero to do with what we're talking about here.

The psychiatrist who wrote this piece and, as I mentioned earlier, M.Scott Peck, are/were people of science. One came at the subject of demon possession skeptically. Peck was a Buddhist when the reality of demon possession began to impress itself upon him. Both warn that demon possession is rare and that in the lion's share of cases that have been presented to them, the people in question were suffering from psychiatric disorders. (I recommend Peck's book, 'People of the Lie.' By the time he wrote this, he was a Christian, in part because his encounter with the demonic had convinced him of the existence of a non-material world.)

And I agree with Jeff, that the author of the 'Washington Post' article did present phenomenon inexplicable by traditional scientific means.

As to the existence of a non-material world, I commend a book to you: 'Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine' written by a medical doctor, Larry Dossey, not a Christian, who refers to many studies done at places like Harvard Medical Center, in which persons who did not [know that] people were praying for them, experienced markedly greater rates of recovery and lower rates of mortality than persons for whom no one was known to be praying for them. Many dozens of such studies have taken place over time and are highly suggestive of the existence of the non-material.

Just anecdotally, here in Dayton [there's] a hospital where the surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists often ask [if] they can participate in prayer[s] I offer for surgical patients and [attending] medical staff before procedures. The doctors' experiences over the years have convinced them of the efficacy of prayer.

Of course, the only way for a person to believe is to be open to it. Erickson rightly said that the first and most fundamental issue we must face in our lives is trust v. mistrust. I believe that this issue is with us our entire lives. Much about this life can delude us with the notion of self-sufficiency or that we must be self-sufficient. The fact is that it is difficult for us to believe either in the God we cannot see--but who, I believe has been revealed definitively in Jesus--or in the dark powers at work with ferocity in our world.

When I was an atheist, I refused to trust in a God I couldn't see. But, in the people of what became my home church in Columbus, I saw the evidence of a higher power acting in the lives of ordinary people: the man who had dealt with a lifetime of emotional issues who drew uncommon and inexplicable strength--despite setbacks--from Christ as he underwent treatment; the devoted husband who lost his wife yet could say on the day of her funeral how good God had been to him; the seminary student who described the encounter with Christ that led him to go to seminary.

I realized that God is a gentleman. He wants love to be real [to love Him back voluntarily, not because we have to]. He will not force us to acknowledge His lordship or His call on our lives. I came to the God wasn't the Allah of Islam. Nor was He either the indulgently passive deity or the harsh cruel master of popular opinion.

While taking a class called 'Life with God,' trying to understand why the Christians I met in that congregation were so real and so together, I realized that I could only know the God revealed in Jesus Christ by letting Him into my life. I didn't yet believe. But I wanted to believe. I still struggle to believe, [to trust]. I've found that as I open myself to Christ--not the Christ of my imagination nor the Christ of popular preference, but Christ as He revealed Himself to the apostles--I experienced life differently. Christ in me [empowering me and inciting me to do things I can't and am not inclined to do] was and is evidence of a non-material world.

I myself have had to be treated for anxiety over the years, occasionally requiring prescriptions. Members of my extended family have suffered from depression and anxiety and have received treatment for it. I have met people in my counseling through the years who clearly suffered from mental or emotional issues that required the healing God provides through the medical profession.

I agree with you--I think that Jeff Schultz does too--that it's far more likely that someone displaying some behaviors is medically ill than that they are possessed by demons. But when people exhibiting symptoms similar to the mentally ill also manifest the ability to speak a language they've never known or to see...events in the lives of persons they've never met, common sense, experience, and God's revelation all suggest that something else is going on.

You may choose not to believe it all, of course. I did once. But that doesn't give you license to say that the evidence that has been compiled through the centuries and even more recently in rigorous scientific studies doesn't exist. I think it does exist.

I love you, boy! There's always a place in my heart for you. And, whether you want it or not, I pray for you. Be happy.

Here's Andrew's answer:

I'll just leave this here and leave it at that then. This quote sums up my feelings on the article well:

"By accepting their delusion, you are reinforcing it, making it even harder to treat. You are victimizing the people you are supposed to be helping, by failing in your primary duty as a professional to be detached and evidence-based."

Believing and propagating the lie of demon possession causes real harm to real people.

http://theness.com/.../a-psychiatrist-falls-for-exorcism/ NeuroLogica Blog » A Psychiatrist Falls for Exorcism theness.com

That's where the "demon debate" stands at this point. I believe that it's been conducted with love and respect, as it should be.

I'm thankful to Richard Gallagher for his article and to the Washington Post for publishing it. It addresses an important topic.

*Andrew evidently didn't remember that I was once an atheist. It was the people of what became my home church who caused me to investigate the truth claims of Christian faith. I had previously seen them as irrational. But I realize that atheism is even more irrational. It argues, basically, that scientific observation, giving, as it does, information on the processes of life, means that all truth is scientifically observable. Science is important; it answers questions about the what, how, and (maybe the) when of the universe. But it cannot and we cannot reason our way to answering questions of why and who. Nor can it tell us definitively if there is or isn't non-material (spiritual) life.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

"If you've had any experience at all with computers, would you really want one driving your car??"

That's a question posed by Annie Gottlieb over on Facebook as she linked to this article about self-driving Tesla involved in a fatal accident. My answer is, "Yes, when you're talking about the right computer."

My experience with PCs has been horrible: They'r unreliable, prone to crashing and early deaths. 

But my experience with Apple products has been amazing. So, if Microsoft were to produce a self-driving car, I would be wary. But if Apple perfects their self-driving car for the market, I would immediately put it on my wish list. 

I love to ride in cars, but I don't care much for driving. Even before there were computers, I remember as a kid fantasizing about having a car that I could enter and simply tell it where to take me. On the trip, I could read and write and think and pray and play music at an incredible volume. 

So, yep I want a self-driving car!

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

[UPDATE: Writer and editor Annie Gottlieb and I have continued our little dialog on self-driving cars over on Facebook. She responded to what I posted above:

Mark Daniels -- what you are describing already exists in large part. It's called a "train" ... ;))

Smart aleck! :)

She goes on:

I love to drive -- maybe because for a female it was so empowering when little else was (sign o' the times: I dated a couple of guys who wouldn't let me drive their cars), or maybe it's just genetic -- my father and his mother loved to drive (though she had no sense of direction and once left Chicago for New York, only to be surprised when she arrived at the Mississippi River). I also once had the (empowering) experience of minimizing an accident with my driving reflexes. So driving is how I like to be in a car ... though it is also a strain, which us why I also like ... the train.

Annie makes some good points. I responded:

In some places, trains can take you where you need to go--such as if you're a commuter in places like New York, Philly, San Francisco, or Chicago. If I lived in places like that, I'd take the train.

But the train won't work for most of my transportation needs. And even when a train will do (or a plane or a ship), i still need something like a car to get me to the station, airport, or dock.

Now about how you like to "be" in a car: Whenever we travel together by car, my wife drives. She's a self-confessed control freak. Some years ago, a friend loaned us the use of a new house she'd built on a mountain outside of Durango, Colorado. We decided to drive in order to see parts of the country we really hadn't seen before. We took our kids and my mother-in-law. Five licensed drivers in the car...and my wife drove every mile there and back. While we razzed her about that, I didn't mind--I'd describe myself as a confident, if unenthusiastic, driver.

But, here's the thing. In addition to being a control freak, my wife also claims to get carsick if she has to be a rider for long. She HAS to drive, she claims. It seems like a rationalization to me. But this is one manifestation of her control issues I don't mind. It's led to some good trips.

Because my kids were prone to carsickness too--and I never have been--it led to one of the best, most enduring traditions of our longer car rides: I read to my family...now just my wife.

When we took the kids to Disneyworld over twenty years ago, I read all seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia on the way to and from Florida. The practice continues. Right now, on our weekly forays to see our parents I'm reading Jon Meacham's new bio of George H.W. Bush. Yes, there are audio books, but I prefer reading to listening...and maybe that's my way of being a control freak. And I seriously doubt that fellow passengers of the Amtrak would much like hearing me read out loud during their trips.

With all of that said, I think that Brit motor racing enthusiast and one time pub owner--a man with a great name--Mark Daniels, plays the trump card on whether we should worry about riding in a computer-driven car in his comment to this post. He says this to the wary:

And yet most people get on board a plane without realising that it's a computer that's in charge of pretty much the whole flight...

True.]

Freedom Through Christ's Indispensable Family

Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18
One of the most commonly overlooked aspects of Christian life today in North America and western Europe is this: Whenever and how we profess our faith in Christ, we are saying, “I am not in this alone. I’m part of the Church. I care about other believers. I’m accountable to other believers. I need other believers to live in the freedom Christ died to give me.”

We chafe under this kind of thinking as Americans. We like to think we’re self-sufficient.

But the fact is, we’re all dependent on countless other people. They produce the food we eat and guarantee its safety,  give us running water and electricity, make the cars we drive and the computers we use, and provide the medical care we need, and so on.

The notion that any of us is self-sufficient is a dangerous lie, dangerous because it makes us think that we don’t need God, when in fact, everything--even safe food, running water, cars and computers and medical care--ultimately comes from God.

The lie of self-sufficiency is even more dangerous within the Church. In fact, it’s demonic.

Romans 6:19-20 reminds believers that we are totally dependent on God for our lives and for the eternal life Christ gives to those who repent and believe in Him: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. [A purchase Jesus made on the cross where He spent His life to save us.] Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (That means with our whole selves!)

And Jesus tells believers in John 15:5: “apart from Me, you can do nothing.”

We need the God revealed to us and the rest of the world in Jesus Christ.

But we also need and are called to sacrificially love those who make up Christ’s Church.

Jesus says to His Church: “ A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” And then, Jesus says: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [John 13:34-35] The credibility of Jesus and the Church’s message about new life for all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ depends on whether Christ’s Church sees itself, collectively and individually, as mutually-dependent, mutually-accountable sisters and brothers of faith in Jesus.

Romans 12:4-5, drives home the call to mutual dependency, telling the Church: “...just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

The New Testament repeatedly refers to the Church as “the bride of Christ.” One truth we see from this metaphor is that the believer’s relationship to Christ and His Church is more important than the relationship of a husband and wife. Marriages end at the grave. But the Church endures for all eternity!

We Christians need each other and we are commanded to live in love with each other and in accountability to each other for the sake of Christ’s mission in the world.

But let's be honest: Whether among husband and wife, friends, family members, or the disciples who make up a Christian congregation, conflict happens.

And conflict isn’t inherently bad. Conflict can be creative and lead to new ways of people looking at things and relating to each other, if the parties are healthy, loving, and Christian toward one another.

Over the past several weeks, in this series called Freedom in Christ, we’ve been looking at the words the apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Galatia in about 49 AD. Paul wrote to correct a dangerous heresy, a false belief, that had taken root among some of the Galatian Christians. They believed, in effect, that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient to give those who repent and believe in Jesus life with God, that the men had to be circumcised and that all believers also had to add to it good works proscribed by Old Testament law.

There was a conflict in the churches at Galatia between those who believed what Jesus taught--that all who turn from sin and believe in Him are saved and have new, everlasting life--and those who believed that what they did was what saved them. Paul called one the life of the flesh and other, the life of the Spirit. Clearly, the two perspectives contradicted each other. There could be no compromise between them: one was of God and the other wasn’t. It was to correct those who had strayed from God’s truth that Paul had written this letter.

In today’s second, Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18, probably praying that the first sections of his letter had reminded those who had strayed what God’s truth and the way to life really were, Paul wrote to encourage all the Galatian Christians to repent, reconcile, and move on with their life as Christ’s people in the world.

Take a look at our lesson, please. Paul writes: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.”

Unrepentant sin on the part of just one Christian disciple in Christ’s Church has an impact on the whole Church. There may be times, then, when it becomes the responsibility of another member of the Church to approach the person engaging in unrepentant sin.

It isn’t easy. I’ve told before about the Christian I knew and respected who used God’s name to make exclamations or punctuate sentences. Finally, I asked, “Why do you use God’s name like that?” “I’m not cussing,” he said defensively. “No, you’re not cussing. But you are using God’s name for something other than prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. That disses His holiness.” The man thought for a moment and said, “You’re right.”

Now, listen: I didn't tell that story to paint myself a hero. (If you knew how much my knees were knocking when I confronted that brother in Christ, you'd know that I'm no hero!) But, hers my point in telling you that story: It was at the moment that I helped that man see the need for repentance for taking God’s name in vain though, that I was in the most danger as a Christian. Do you hear what I'm saying?

It was right for me to be concerned--in Paul’s words “to carry that fellow believer’s burdens”--about unrepented sin. Lovingly confronting him was a way to fulfill Christ’s law that I love others.

But had that little confrontation become an occasion for me to cave into self-righteous crowing, even within my own mind, I would have fallen into sin myself.

We’re to speak the truth in love to help our fellow believers hold onto Christ, not to make ourselves look or feel better than others.

Let’s slide down a few verses now, to verse 7, to see Paul’s warning against self-righteousness in dealing with conflicts and disagreements: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Earlier in Galatians, you’ll remember, Paul spent some time distinguishing between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh.

Life in the Spirit is life lived with the freedom of knowing that while I’m not perfect, as I trustingly turn my sins to Jesus and seek to follow Him obediently each day, the life of faith, I am being saved from sin and death.

The life of the flesh is life lived according to the beliefs of this world. Whether their belief system is religious or secular, people who live life in the flesh look at themselves and pronounce, “I’m good enough to pass muster with God and the universe.”

The Galatian Christians who got circumcised and claimed that their good works would save them were living life in the flesh.

But, Paul was warning, any time we rationalize or forget our own sins while looking down our noses on fellow Christians or other people because we think they’re not as good as we are, we’re sowing our own eternal destruction.

If we want to live in the grace of Christ, we need to extend the grace of Christ to others. Jesus says bluntly in Matthew 6:15: “...if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

In the Church, Paul is saying here in our second lesson, “You must call each other to account. You must call each other to live in the freedom of forgiven sin, helping each other out of the traps of sin and death with which life this life is littered. But you must also forgive. Otherwise, you’ll fall into death too, via the sin of self-righteousness.”

Finally, Paul writes to anyone who may be inclined to say, “Who is this Paul character to tell us how to live out our faith in Christ?” Verse 14: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.”

“My only brag,” Paul is saying, “is in the power of Jesus’ cross to crucify the old sinner in me and in all of us, so that the new self can live in the freedom of forgiven sin, new life, and holy purpose."

Folks, nothing else matters! Only faith in Jesus Christ sets us free to live as we were made to live by God. Only faith in Jesus Christ sets us free to live as a vibrant church.

The cross of Christ is our only brag too.

The cross is where freedom comes from, both for individual disciples and for Christ’s Church.

Our common confession is that in order to live in the freedom to be all God made us to be, to claim the victory over sin and death that Jesus won on the cross, we need Jesus Christ and we need His eternal family, the Church. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

"In any art you’re allowed to steal anything if you can make it better, but the tendency should always be upward instead of down. And don’t ever imitate anybody. All style is, is the awkwardness of a writer in stating a fact. If you have a way of your own, you are fortunate, but if you try to write like somebody else, you’ll have the awkwardness of the other writer as well as your own."

That's Ernest Hemingway on writing, the quote excerpted in Brain Pickings from a book, With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba.

Some other pieces of advice on writing from Hemingway:

When you first start to write you get all the kick and the reader gets none, but after you learn to work it’s your object to convey everything to the reader so that he remembers it not as a story he had read but something that happened to himself. That’s the true test of writing. When you can do that, the reader gets the kick and you don’t get any. You just get hard work and the better you write the harder it is because every story has to be better than the last one. It’s the hardest work there is. I like to do and can do many things better than I can write, but when I don’t write I feel like s..t. I’ve got the talent and I feel that I’m wasting it.

These observations interest me for several reasons. The biggest one is that it runs counter to what you think might happen in the mind of an artist who becomes successful. Hemingway is saying, in essence, that when he first started writing, he did it for himself, to give himself a "kick." After he gained success, he wrote to give the reader a kick.

I'm sure that not all artists operate in this way. In the two-hour CBS News documentary on Paul McCartney done in 1989, the musician told reporter Bernard Goldberg that in the early days, the songs he and John Lennon wrote were for the fans. But success, he said--I'm paraphrasing here--had given them license to write in order to please themselves.

Hemingway was saying that for him anyway, it worked the other way around. His discipline as time went on was to write for the reader and not himself.

The other thing that strikes me about what he said in that block quote above is that, though he felt he could do a better job at things other than writing, he had to write.

This may seem indecipherable to some. But to me, in talking about writing, Hemingway was describing a life's calling.  He wrote because that was what he was called to do, even if he may have been a better fisherman, boxer, or accountant.

I once read or heard about a fellow who was contemplating going to seminary with an eye to becoming a pastor. He decided to get the counsel of his own pastor, who told him, "If you can do anything other than being a pastor, do it."

This pastor wasn't telling the younger guy that being a pastor was bad. He was saying one should be a pastor only if the idea of becoming a pastor won't go away.

I often describe how it felt before I "caved in" and went to seminary: It was as if God grabbed me by the lapels and wouldn't let me go until I applied for admission. This happened precisely at the point when I had gotten my toe in the door of the profession I'd always dreamed of being part of, politics.  It also happened when I was on the most solid financial footing of my life. But I could not not be a pastor. It was one of my callings in life.

We all have to put food on the table and care for family members, of course. And we all are likely to have other practical responsibilities. So, there will be times when we have to take jobs we don't like and don't feel passionate about. I once calculated that I'd worked at twenty-eight different jobs before my calling became clear Most of the jobs were part-time and I took all of them mostly to pay the bills or to feed my ambitions, and certainly, with no sense of calling.

But I think that Hemingway's revelation of his compulsion to write and that old pastor's advice to the prospective seminarian probably convey something to us about the work we should undertake in our lives--whether in our full time jobs or in the avocations we pursue:

What good, useful, God-honoring, people-helping thing do you find yourself incapable of avoiding? 

Whatever it is, do that.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

What Jesus taught me today about refusing the selfish way

During my Quiet Time with God today, I read the fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel. It includes Luke's account of the forty days when Jesus, fasting, was tempted by the devil in the wilderness.

I was struck today by the exchange between Jesus and the devil in what Luke says was the third temptation offered up against Jesus:

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” [Luke 4:3-4]

Here, as in the entire chapter, we see Jesus refusing to use His divinity for selfish ends.

Although He is hungry and could do what the devil challenges Him to do, Jesus persists in accepting all the limitations of being human when it comes to His own needs or desires.

He does this, it seems, in order to make His redeeming connection to the human race complete, pure, unadulterated. (We see this also from about the same time in His ministry, when Jesus insists on John the Baptist performing the baptism of repentance on Him despite the fact that Jesus, unlike John and the rest of the human race, was sinless. “Let it be so now," Jesus tells John, "it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” [Matthew 3:15].)

In fact, it appears that the devil notices Jesus' insistence on accepting the limitations of His humanity when it comes to His own interests in Jesus' response to the first two temptations. The devil customizes the third temptation to do an end-around.

He refers to a promise made in Psalm 91:11-12. That psalm is addressed to human beings, "whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High."

The devil's temptation is clearly meant to sneak past Jesus' defenses by tempting Him with a promise made to an ordinary people. The devil surely hopes that Jesus will reason, "The devil isn't pushing me to misuse my deity by being selfish, but only wants me to prove to have the same kind of faith that an ordinary human being is called to have."

But Jesus will have none of it. He answers as a man steeped in God's Word. He gives an answer that any ordinary believer who knows the Lord could give. Jesus' response, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, effectively tells the devil:"God's promises don't cover me when I do willfully stupid things to test whether He's good for His promises."

Testing God is unbelief. And it was from the scourge of unbelief and its consequences--death, futility, and darkness--that Jesus came into the world to save all who trust in Him.

Had Jesus gone to the cross without belief--trust--in God the Father, having tested the Father to gain momentary relief or pleasure, His death would have been meaningless and we would be without any hope, for this life or the next. Only a sinless Savior Who trusted in God could be the perfect sacrifice who expunges the power of sin and death over us.

Through this encounter with God today, I realized that I need to be human, accessible, and vulnerable to others, even as I live under God's rule. Jesus refused to exploit His deity in selfish ways. By the power He gives to believers through the Holy Spirit, I need to refuse to lord it over anyone. Jesus is both the model of this life and the One Who, as I lean on Him, gives me the power to live in this way.

I need to not use my status as a child of God (or as a pastor) to try to get my way, to be in charge. I need to simply trust God to lead me where He wants me to be in any given situation.

This passage assures me, as it always does, that I can rely on the power of God to help me to resist temptation and to live for God, even when it's easier to live in other ways.

The words of Paul in Philippians 2:3-11 keep coming to mind.

Lord, help me to steep myself in Your Word by beginning to memorize Scripture this week. Forgive my unbelief. Help me to rely totally on Jesus. In His name. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

You've Got a Friend by James Taylor

Carole King wrote it. Taylor changed a few of the words and made the song his as well.

"Keep your head together and call my name out loud
"Soon I'll be knocking upon your door...

"Winter, spring, and fall, all you gotta do is call."

Presumably summer too.

Prayer: Simpler is Better

You can trust that the simplest prayer--such as, "Lord, help my friend. In Jesus' name. Amen"--offered with faith in the God-man, Jesus Christ, is heard by God.

Don't worry about how big or strong your faith is; come to God with whatever faith and whatever will to faith you have. The effectiveness of our prayers doesn't depend on the strength or largeness of our faith, but on the strength and greatness of the God to Whom we pray. (Jesus says that faith as big as a tiny mustard seed will do.)

When you pray, don't try to micromanage God's answer. You can't do it anyway and it can be an indication of a lack of faith in God when we try.

Finally, don't worry about being eloquent when you pray. All we need do is place our needs and the needs of those for whom we pray before God through our faith in the only One Who gives us access to God, Jesus. God's "Spirit helps us in our weakness. [Because we] do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."

In prayer, the simpler, the better. And, the most trusting, the best.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

Free from, free for

Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Most of us probably read Robert Frost's poem, The Road Not Taken, for English class. "Two roads diverged in a yellow road…” it opens, starting a meditation about the choices we make in life, the roads we travel.

In fact, there really are only two pathways through life, two pathways through eternity. They’re not the roads that Frost talked about in his poem. But, just like the narrator in the Frost poem, we must choose between two roads each day of our lives nonetheless.

The apostle Paul talks about them in today’s second lesson, Galatians 5:1, 13-25.

Take a look at the lesson, starting at Galatians 5:1, please. Paul writes: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Another translation, The Message, may make these words a little easier to understand: “Christ has set us free to live a free life."

Those who have come to faith in the crucified and risen Jesus have been set free from the condemnation for our sins we all deserve from the moment we’re born and from the demands for moral perfection that exist in God’s Law.

Because Jesus lived a morally perfect life and accepted our earned punishment for sin, those who believe in Christ are set free to live life as God intended human beings to live when He made Adam and Eve. Live in that freedom, Paul says.

Paul goes on: “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

The specific situation among the Galatian Christians was that they had come under the influence of people we now call Judaizers, people who told the new Gentile believers in Galatia that more than just trust in Jesus Christ, they had to engage in good works and obey Jewish ritual and civil laws in order to be saved from sin and death. They were saying, in essence, that Jesus’ cross wasn’t enough to save them.

Paul begged the Galatian Christians not to fall for this nonsense!

If the law could save human beings from sin and death, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to die on the cross. Paul is saying, “After Jesus has set you free from sin and death, don’t turn right around and make yourselves slaves to rules that cannot give you life.”

Doing that would be like an inmate getting out of prison, then showing up the next morning at the prison gates asking for readmission because he couldn’t stand his freedom.

Trust in Jesus, not rules. And don't trust in your own actions, reason, or feelings, Paul was urging.

We may think, “I get all of that, Pastor. That’s Lutheranism 101. We know we’re only saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.”

That’s true, of course. Grace, charitable forgiveness, is the remarkable character trait of God’s by which He decides not to hold our sins against us as we repent and trust in Jesus. And, as we often sing, God’s grace really is "amazing." God’s grace does set us free!

And God's grace in Christ is powerful! A long time ago, a man I knew came to me several years after he had left his wife, divorced her, and married the woman with whom he’d had an affair while he was married to wife number one. He was, after a time, conscience- stricken. He wondered: Could God’s grace in Christ still reach Him? Could he be forgiven? Could grace set him free from condemnation for the sins he confessed?

I listened to this man. Part of me was revolted by what he had done. I knew his first wife. I knew what pain his actions had caused her, their family, their friends, their church.

But I realized that if the grace of God given in Christ couldn’t set this repentant soul free, then Jesus’ death on the cross was for nothing.

Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, John the Baptist said. Nowhere does the New Testament say that Jesus can take away the sins of only some sinners. Nor does it say anywhere in Scripture that Jesus' death on the cross can only bring forgiveness to some sins. All who repent and believe in Jesus are set free by God's grace.

“Yes,” I told the man. “God’s grace can reach you.” Slowly, then joyfully, this man began to walk in the freedom of forgiven sin and new life.

But, let's conduct a little thought experiment about this man.

What would have happened had he viewed God’s forgiveness as license, as a get out of jail free card?

Where would he have stood with God then?

Is the freedom Christ gives to us the freedom to do anything we want to do?

Had that man decided that it was OK for him to have another affair, or commit any other sin that came into his mind because God is gracious, he would have shown that he didn’t live in freedom at all.

He would prove to be as trapped and helpless and far from God as the religious legalists who told the Galatian Christians that they needed to obey God’s law in order for God to love them or forgive them.

Jesus came not just to free us from things, like sin and death, but also to free us for things.

Jesus came to set us free for a new and different way of living.

And what exactly did Jesus set us free for when He died in our places on the cross? That’s what Paul tells us next: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

When Paul talks about “the flesh,” he’s talking about the way we think about things as sinful human beings.

Walking in the flesh living is born of the desire we inherit from Adam and Eve to “be like God,” to be in control.

The Judaizers told the Galatian Christians that they needn’t depend on Jesus for their salvation. They could take control. If they were good people, they told the Galatians, God would have to take them into His kingdom, as though a human being is capable of bringing God to heel and bending God to accede to our will.

Sinful human thinking also may tell us to do whatever we want to do, to follow our inborn inclinations to sin, that once God's grace comes to us, it doesn't matter what evils we perpetrate.

But to legalists and unrepentant sinners alike, Jesus’ message is the same: “Repent.” “Follow Me.” “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Grace and freedom come through surrender to Jesus alone.

Grace isn’t a get out of jail free card. Grace is a set free for real living card!

Jesus died and rose to set us free, not to let us do whatever we want, but to live for the purposes for which we were made:

• to love God,
• to love neighbor,
• to tell the world about the greatness and goodness of God,
• to employ our talents, gifts, passions, and experiences alongside our sisters and brothers in Christ to be all we can be,
• to help others be all they can be through Christ.

We are free when we let Jesus call us away from the sins that we want to do and, instead, walk by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul draws the stark contrast that exists between life in the flesh--earthbound, death-bound thinking and living--on the one hand, and life lived with dependence on the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus to all who believe in Him, on the other hand.

Look at what he says next, starting in verse 19: “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The way of the flesh is the road away from God.

But the path of the Spirit is different. When the Spirit comes to live in us and we let Him set us free--as we confess our sins and receive Christ’s forgiveness, as we come to the waters of Holy Baptism, as we receive Jesus’ body and blood in Holy Communion--God’s ways take root in us.

When we keep in step with God’s Holy Spirit, day by day, each of us can be “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season” (Psalm 1:3).

Paul talks about the fruit--the behavior patterns--that can be seen in those who draw life from God’s Spirit and not from the world: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. [And then, Paul says, I think, with a smile,] Against such things there is no law.”

Notice that all the works of the flesh are things we do, the things that we do when we take control and follow our own thoughts, impulses, judgments, and inclinations; but the fruits of the Spirit are the things that God does through those who believe in Him.

We don’t have to be good to get God’s love; we get to do good because the God Who is good lives in those who are sold out, body and soul, to Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us then: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Jesus Christ frees us from sin and death so that we can live.

As we let Him daily crucify the portions of our lives that seek to replace God’s will with our faulty judgment, He raises us up as new people, filled with the blessings of heaven even as we walk through this fallen world.

At the end of his poem, Frost writes: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

As I mentioned earlier, the two roads Frost talked about weren’t the two roads Paul speaks of in our lesson. But it is true that when, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we choose to walk in the Spirit instead of the way of the world--the way of the flesh--it makes all the difference.

Pray to God today and every day that God will help all of us to walk in the Spirit. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]