Thursday, April 27, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Don't Let Satan Tempt You



I have a friend who one day saw an unfamiliar dog sniffing around in his back yard.  The dog was a beauty ---- seemingly thoroughbred, with clean lines and friendly disposition.  My friend called the dog over to him and saw there was a dog collar which had the name, address and phone number of a person, presumably the owner, who lived on the other side of town.

My friend said he had two conflicting thoughts.  Should he call the person identified on the dog collar to come and collect his dog?  Or, should he take the collar off and adopt this beautiful animal for himself?  Clearly, my friend was being tempted.

What is "temptation"?  Webster says that to "tempt" is "to entice to do wrong by the promise of pleasure or gain."  It seems to start when we become aware of a desire inside of us.  It may be a sinful desire, like the desire to get revenge or to control others.  Or, it may be a legitimate, normal desire, like the desire to be loved and valued, or to feel pleasure.  But "desire" starts to become "temptation" when we think about giving in to a harmful desire, or to fulfill a legitimate desire in a wrong way or at a wrong time.  Temptation always starts in one's mind, not in the circumstances outside of us.

Next, in the progress of a temptation, some doubt arises about whether what we are tempted to do is really wrong.  Clearly, this dog was the property of another person, but every dog needs shelter, food and love, and my friend was ready,willing and able to provide those things well.  Would God really not want my friend to keep the dog?  Didn't God mean this prohibition for someone else or some other time?  Didn't God want my friend to be happy??!  

The next step would be deception, a step that some people attribute to the work of Satan.  In this view, Satan has clever ways to mislead us, and he is always ready to use them.  Satan offers his lies to replace the values God has already given us.  One can expect Satan's little voice inside us to say things like:  "You can get away with it.  No one will ever know.  It will solve your problem. Besides, everyone else is doing it.  It is only a little sin."  But a little sin is like being a little pregnant ---- it will eventually show itself.

Finally, my friend needed to act or not act, on the thought he had been toying with in his mind. What will happen?  Will a mere idea now be born into behavior?  Will he now give-in to the desire to keep the dog?

Just understanding how temptation works is helpful in itself.  But there are specific steps one can take to prevent wrong choices.

In his book, "The Purpose-Driven Life," Pastor Rick Warren says that some Christians feel ashamed just for being tempted.  This is a misunderstanding, says Pastor Warren.  One never outgrows temptation.  It is not a sin to be tempted.  Jesus was tempted.  Temptation only becomes a sin when one gives-in to it, says Warren.

Pastor Warren goes on to urge us to recognize our patterns of temptation and to be prepared for them.  He says there are certain situations that make us more vulnerable to temptation than others.  Some circumstances will cause us to stumble almost immediately, he says, while others don't bother us much.  Ask yourself, "When am I most tempted?  At work?  At home?  At a sports bar?"  It may be when we are tired or lonely or bored or depressed or under stress.  It may be when our feelings have been hurt, or when we are angry, or after a big success or on a spiritual high.  Wise planning reduces bad outcomes from temptation, urges Pastor Warren.

Importantly, Rick Warren says that heaven has "a twenty-four hour emergency hot line."  Pastor Warren believes God wants us to ask for assistance in preventing bad temptation choices. When
temptation choices develop, he says, you may not have time for a long conversation with God --- you simply cry out!

Rick Warren concludes by asking, "If God is willing to help us defeat the unwise temptation choice, why don't we turn to him more often?  Perhaps sometimes we don't want to be helped. We may want to give in to temptation even though we know our choice is wrong.  At that moment we think we know what's best for us, more than God does.  At other times we are embarrassed to ask God for help because we keep giving in to the same bad temptation choice over and over.

Oh, and what did my friend finally do about the temptation to keep that handsome, wandering dog?  Just then, his wife came home and found him struggling with the temptation.  "Don't be silly," she said, "give me the dog collar so I can call the dog's owner!'
________________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your personal spiritual growth this spring at CPC.
________________________________________________________________________________


Tuesday, April 18, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Amazing Grace



Perhaps you remember the parable told by Jesus in which he describes a father and his prodigal son. (Luke 15:11 - 32)

One day the son asked his father to give him the son's share of the father's estate, even though the father was still alive.  The father complied.  Soon after, the son gathered all his wealth and set off for a distant country, where he squandered his fortune in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.  So he hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.  The son longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he realized his father's hired servants had food to spare, and here he was starving.  He decided to go back to his father and say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me one of your hired servants."  So he got up and went to his father.

But, while the son was a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. The father ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But, the father said to his servants, "Quick!  Bring the best robe and put it on him.  Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let's have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found."  So they began to celebrate.

Was this father rewarding irresponsible behavior?  What kind of "family values" would this father communicate by throwing a party for such a renegade?  What kind of virtue would that encourage, if any.  There was no solemn lecture, no "I hope you've learned your lesson!"

Instead, Jesus tells of the father's exhilaration ---- "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found" ---- and then Jesus adds the buoyant phrase, "they began to make merry."

The story of the prodigal son delivers an astonishing message.  From nursery school onward we are taught how to "succeed" in the world.  We hear continually that:  "The early bird gets the worm."  "No pain, no gain."  "There is no such thing as a free lunch." "Demand your rights." "Get what you pay for."

We know these rules well because we live by them, day to day.  We do work for what we earn.
We do like to win.  We do insist on our rights.  We do want people to get what they have earned ----- nothing more, nothing less.

By insisting that we earn our way, people think we are being prepared for the "real" world, with it's relentless ranking of who is greatest.  However, we often do not realize how quickly this has obscured our view of God.  Perhaps we do need some unmerited divine assistance, to regenerate us?  Church people call this gift "grace."

If we care to listen, we hear a loud whisper from the Gospel that we did not get what we deserved.  We deserved punishment and got forgiveness.  We deserved wrath and got love.  We deserved debtor's prison and got instead a clean credit history.

But, the world does not seem to run on grace.  Everything often depends on what  I  do.  But, Jesus' kingdom calls us to another path ---- one that depends not on our own performance, but God's.  We do not have to achieve, but merely follow God in our hearts.  On the Cross, Jesus has already earned for us the costly victory of God's acceptance.

Author Philip Yancy asks:  "What belief is unique to the Christian faith? ---- GRACE.  The notion of God's love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seeming to go against every instinct of humanity.  Other religions offer a way, a path, to earn approval.  Only Christianity dares to make God's love unconditional, requiring only that we focus our lives on God, and not just on ourselves."

So, grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it.  Grace comes from outside, as a gift and not as achievement.  How easily it vanishes from our dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, look-out-for-number one world.

Grace does not depend on what we have done for God, but rather on what God has done for us. Grace comes undeserved, at God's initiative and not our own.  God loves people because of who God is, not because of who we are.  Grace baffles us because it goes against the intuition everyone has that in the face of our selfishness, some price must be paid.  Grace makes its appearance in many forms.  Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more ---- and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.
________________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this spring at CPC.
________________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Are Any of Us Evangelical Christians?



Out of town last fall, I joined several members of my family in meeting another family who will be joining ours by marriage, later this year.

There was plenty to eat and drink as we progressed through the weekend.  But much more memorable were some of my conversations with other guests.  In particular, I had a long chat with the prospective bride's Uncle Ron, who had flown in from El Paso, Texas.  He was a few years younger than me, and works as a medical technician at a local El Paso hospital.

At one point, I remarked to Uncle Ron about the beauty of the little church I had passed on my way to that evening's family gathering.  Ron agreed, but added that as he saw religious faith, it was not about beautiful buildings and ritual ---- it was about adherence to some basic Gospel principles.  

He explained that he was an evangelical Christian, and to him salvation by faith was all about the sin-atoning death of Jesus Christ, which he had come to believe in through personal conversion; the authority of Scripture; and the importance of preaching to non-believers, as contrasted with mere ritual.

At that point, I had to sit down.  Ron was a bit wound up now, so I thought I had better ask him some questions to clarify my understanding of evangelical Christianity.  Ron told me that "evangelicals" do not form a distinct denomination ---- it is an umbrella term applicable in varying degrees across many Protestant denominations.  

Ron explained that American Evangelism has had two core convictions:  (1.) that a personal encounter with the risen Christ is necessary for our salvation; and (2.) that Scripture itself (especially the Gospels) offer a wholly trustworthy guide to God's will for mankind.

Ron told me that ever since American Evangelism broke with the mainline Protestant churches about 100 years ago, the hallmark of evangelical theology was a vision of modern society as a sinking ship, sliding toward depravity and sin.  He said that for evangelicals, the call to the church alter was the only life raft ---- a chance to accept Jesus Christ, and thus rebirth and salvation.

I was glad he had brought our conversation back to the centrality of Jesus Christ.  So, I asked Ron what he meant by "a personal encounter with the risen Christ"?  Did Jesus appear to Ron in a dream?  Was there a distinct voice in the darkness of night?  Or, did something happen on a mountain top?  How did Ron know when there had been a "personal encounter" with the risen Christ, in his (Ron's) life?

Ron said he had read the Gospels over and over, so he already had an intellectual understanding about Jesus Christ, even though it left some questions unanswered.  But, at some point, Ron said, he began to feel an emotional attachment to Jesus.

He continued:  "This analogy is quite simplistic, but it was a bit like my courtship with the girl I eventually married.  When we were dating, I learned much about her interests, friends and life experiences, and she learned many factual things about me.  But at some point I began to have feelings for her as well as factual knowledge.  On an emotional level we began to have sort of a "personal encounter."  I thought about her a lot, even when we were not together.  I continued to have my old impulses and appetites, but I could see myself moving closer to her impulses and her way of seeing the world.  Then, whenever we were together, we really felt close."

"I think a 'personal encounter' with Jesus Christ is somewhat like that," said Ron.  "It is a process over time. When people say they have been 'born again', I believe that they are simply saying that at that point in the longer-term process, they know they have progressed in their relationship to knowing they are 'in love' with each other.  And my 'personal encounter' with Jesus Christ was like this."

"These days," Ron said, "many younger evangelicals take a less limiting view ---- less limited to just our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  For them, the 'born-again' experience of accepting Jesus is just the beginning.  What follows is the long-term process of 'spiritual formation', involving the application of the teachings of Jesus in our daily lives, here and now. Modern evangelicals do not see society as a dying vessel.  They talk more about the biblical imperative to fix up the ship by contributing to the betterment of their communities and the world."

Ron noted that modern evangelicals support traditional charities, but also public policies that address health care, race, poverty and the environment.  "Beginning in about the 1970's, emphasis seemed to shift from just winning souls, to also saving bodies ---- evangelical "mission" became as much about making the world better as it was about populating Heaven," Ron said.

Ron went on to say, "We shouldn't allow a child to live under a bridge or in the back seat of a car.  We shouldn't be satisfied if elderly people are being abused or neglected, even though they are living in a nursing home."  Ron, the evangelist, really resonated with me when he said, "You can't just say 'respect life' and mean it exclusively for the unborn babies."

Quoting evangelical Pastor Rick Warren, Ron suggested that if more Christians worked to alleviate needs in their local communities, the church would become known more for the love it shows than for what it is against.

At the end of the evening, I thanked Ron for sharing so frankly his approach to faith.  At first I had been a little overwhelmed, but Ron had left me with much to think about.  I especially remember his closing comment about today's evangelicals:  "People in my age group are much more attracted to participatory theology," he had said, "and are very resistant to being told what to do or what to think."

As I drove home the next day, I recalled my conversation with Ron, and wondered ---- are there not some members of CPC who would be very happy embracing some of the modern evangelical theology?  Perhaps I am one of them!

_______________________________________________________________________________
These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal spiritual growth this spring at CPC.
_______________________________________________________________________________


Tuesday, April 4, 2017

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Humankind Longs For Freedom



When I was an adolescent, and sometimes into my twenties, I was impatient for the freedom to be my own boss ---- to find the "real" me and freely pursue my own dreams.  I thought that real freedom was to have no restraints or restrictions ---- to be able to do whatever  I wanted.  Now, I wonder about the notion of "freedom."  Many years later, I am not so sure that total freedom is a worthwhile goal!

I have come to understand that when people say they need to be "free" to do what they really want, they may be naive about how the human heart works.  People have a lot of wants, and those wants often contradict each other.  For example, on the one hand people say they want to eat anything they feel like eating, and freedom of access to eat as much of it as their stomach will hold.  On the other hand, they want to have good health.  So, what is freedom?  They have to decide which one of those wants is the liberating one, and which one will bring them trouble.  And right away they have started to alter their "freedom" model.  They have started to realize that freedom can't just be a lack of restrictions, but finding the right restrictions.

Another issue for those desiring "freedom," involves the complexity of motivation.  What is it that drives, or motivates people?  There are hundreds of choices we must make every day, and usually they are between good options.  Why do we choose the ones we do?  Every person has some objective they hold up above all others ---- what the Bible sometimes calls an "idle."  We believe that if we could just attain that "one thing" (perhaps it's money or status) we would find freedom.  I know now there is a trap here ---- unless that "one thing" is God, the object of my pursuit ends up controlling me, and I actually will lose some of my freedom.

A third aspect of simply seeking freedom is what we could call "the fabric of reality."  Reality is like a fabric.  There is a pattern, a given design to reality that must be honored or the fabric tears or unravels.  A classic illustration is the fish.  A fish has two features that make it perfect in water ---- gills that absorb oxygen from the water, not the air.  Secondly, fins that move through water, but do not work on land.  The fish must honor its given design.  It is designed for water, not for land.  That is a restriction on its freedom.  If the fish is in the wrong environment, it is not able to honor the way it fits into the fabric of things, and it dies.  If it does honor its given design it is free to do all it was designed to do.

Sometimes we see human beings, in the exercise of their "freedom," tearing the fabric of their lives by the use of drugs, alcohol or other fabric-tearing choices which their freedom makes available to them.  

What are human beings designed to do?  The clue may be to look at how human love works. John Stott put it this way:  "True freedom is to be one's true self, but my true self is made for loving, and loving is self-giving.  So, in order to be myself, I have to deny myself and give of myself.  In order to be free, I have to give up my freedom. In order to live, I have to die to my self-centeredness.  In order to find myself, I have to lose my freedom."

This brings me to the conclusion that real freedom is not in doing what we most want to do. Real freedom is choosing among the things we most want to do.  It is linked with what we were designed for.  Real freedom is in finding the right restrictions for each of us. Jesus actually urged us to give up some of our most fundamental freedoms of choice.  The reward is to obtain an even more profound freedom.

Isn't that why Jesus says:

----- "If you hold to my teaching . . . you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
                  (John 8:31 - 32)

----- "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
                   (Matthew 10:39)

----- "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke
                    upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will
                    find rest for your soul.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
                    (Matthew 11:28 - 30) 

________________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this spring at CPC.
________________________________________________________________________________