Vital Attraction (Titus 2:9-10)

Posted on September 3, 2023 by salooper57

This sermon was preached in January 2021, during the series, Finally, Some Good News. We were all tired of COVID and were looking for good news. But in this message, we saw that we also needed to be good news to the people around us.

Viewing time: 29 minutes (approx.)

In philosophy, there are five principal arguments or proofs for the existence of God. One of those is known as The Cosmological Proof and argues there must be a sufficient and non-contingent cause for the contingent beings and processes that exist; and God is that cause.

We could talk more about the Cosmological Proof, but some of you are already nodding off; so, instead of the cosmological proof, let’s talk about what I call the cosmetological proof. This might be the first time those words have ever been used together, so I’ll explain what I mean. Cosmetology is the study and practice of applying beauty treatments. Christians are called to be cosmetologists. We are to make the teaching about God attractive.

This is Titus 2:9-10: “Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them,and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.” Later, we will think about the instruction in these verses but, at this point, note their purpose: to “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

That is what we do. Make the teaching about God attractive. The Greek word Paul uses here is “cosmeo,” from which we derive not only the word “cosmos” but also the word “cosmetics.” Cosmeo has the idea of ordering or arranging something, whether the universe or a person’s face and hair. When used of people, the thought is to make them attractive.

Some Christians are poor cosmetologists. Instead of arranging the teaching about God our savior to bring out its beauty, they derange it and make it look clownish and ugly. Take the hypocrite (someone who suffers from reality detachment). Going to him for teaching about God is like going to a stylist who suffers from a retinal detachment for a haircut. The end result in both cases will not be pretty.

For the last few months, we have been thinking hard about the gospel: what it is, what it means, and what we should do about it. Here is one thing we should do: make it attractive. Bring out its beauty. In Paul’s words, “make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

That idea is present in many places in the Bible. We are to be “wise in the way we act toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity” (Colossians 4:5). Paul tells the Thessalonians to order their daily lives in a way that is becoming (that is what the word he chose means) to outsiders (1 Thessalonians 4:12). St. Peter suggests a way for wives to make themselves – not just their bodies – beautiful (same word we have here) so that their husbands can be won over to God’s side.

In the same letter, Peter calls on all Jesus’s people to live in a way that will attract others to God, that will cause them (in his words) to “glorify God.” Peter was simply echoing teaching he heard from Jesus about being the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Salt brings out the flavor in food. Light reveals the beauty of a place. Jesus wanted his people to reveal the beauty of God and the remarkable flavor of the life spent with him.

There is an Old Testament text that can help us understand the cosmetological proof. God tells the prophet Jeremiah to buy and wear a linen belt. This was not like men’s leather belts today but a kind of sash that was worn around the waist and was meant to be stylish and attractive.

Then God told the prophet to take off the sash and hide it in a crevice in the rock. Jeremiah buried it in the crevice. When God later told him to dig it up, Jeremiah found it ruined – stained, mildewed, nasty. God used the ugly belt as a metaphor. He said, “…as a belt is bound around a man’s waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,’ declares the LORD, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor” (Jeremiah 13:11).

As Christopher Wright put it, “God wants to wear his people.”[1] They make God look good, enhance his renown, praise, and honor. His people – that is, we – are intended to live in a way that brings out the goodness, glory, and beauty of God for others to see.

The Cosmetological Argument does more than prove the existence of God. It proves him to be desirable. It is not advanced by philosophers’ dialectic but by our delight in God. We attract people’s attention to God by the attention we give God.

So far, we’ve seen (from Jesus, the apostles Peter and Paul, and the prophet Jeremiah) that God wants us to attract other people to him and his kingdom. We are his salespeople, his promoters, his advance team, his marketing team. Those words help us form an idea of what we ought to be doing, but we need to go carefully here.

Ideas are always context dependent. They make sense within a context. Outside of that context they may have a different meaning – or no meaning at all. The words I just used to describe our role (salespeople, promoters, advance team, marketing team) are found in a marketplace context. Salespeople coax shoppers to spend money on their product. Marketing teams try to capture market share. But the marketplace is not the best context for understanding our role.

Let’s try a different context that might help us gain a more biblical understanding of our mission. Instead of the Madison Avenue executive who attracts dollars, or the social media influencer who attracts followers, let’s substitute the revolutionary who attracts recruits.

I realize how controversial that image is in our day, when extremists are radicalizing young people and recruiting them to perform atrocious acts of violence. But I prefer it nonetheless because it has biblical resonances the other images lack. The good news we have been investigating is the gospel (the announcement) of the kingdom and of the king. It is the good news, as was said in ancient Thessalonica, “that there is another king, one called Jesus” (Acts 17:7).

Instead of a Madison Avenue context, try picturing a Majority World context where upheaval and discord have been the norm for a generation. The leader in power has been there for over 30 years, ever since a popular uprising and military coup landed him in office. But his government is corrupt. Tax monies, which are bleeding the nation dry, end up in the pockets of a dozen powerful men, along with vast sums of misappropriated foreign aid. Those men live in luxury while the rest of the nation is hungry and hurting. Whenever common people go to the streets to protest, the military is ordered to mow them down like grass.

But now a great national leader who has been abroad for decades is planning to return to put an end to the corruption and injustice. His advance team is in your town, and they tell you about him. He is a great man who is humble and kind, honest and just, wise and powerful. They tell you about his plans to install a government that will protect its people, not feed on them. You have questions. They have answers. At some point, they challenge you to join them, to come over their leader’s side in anticipation of his return – and you do.

Now it is your turn to recruit others. This is not about market share or follower stats. It is about freedom, justice, truth, mercy, grace. What hangs on this is the future. You are advertising for a ruler, not a dollar.

That is roughly the position in which we find ourselves. We are not trying to corner the ecclesial market. We are not fighting for our share of religious dollars. Our only competition is with those principalities and powers that have usurped God’s place. We have news of a king and his coming kingdom. He will change things and make them right – and is already making things right in our own lives. Our lives provide the proof – the cosmetological proof – that he knows how to make things right. And we can tell people with confidence that he accepts everyone who comes to him, no matter who they are, what they have done, or what side they have taken in the past.

This acceptance is known as the reconciliation. Listen to how St. Paul speaks of it (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of the reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of the reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

This is an important passage that deserves careful study, which is not something we can do today, but we will come back to it. Today, I just want you to grasp the context: God has begun the reconciliation and has given Christ’s people the role of his advance team, promoting God, appealing to people to join the coming kingdom, to come over to God’s side.

How do we do that? How do we make the teaching about God attractive to people who have never given it any thought – don’t even know there is anything to think about? How do we help them trust the unseen God, when there are so many things they can see that everyone else trusts?

We make the teaching about God attractive and motivate people to join his side both by who we are (or by who we are becoming, since who we are now is still so very incomplete) and by what we do. What we do is the outworking of who we are (or who we are becoming).

First, who we are (or who we are becoming). This only works if we are different from the people around us. God’s plan depends on it. It is the difference that attracts people to God.

A magnetic field depends on having a north and south pole. It is the opposite poles that attract. Likewise, our power of attraction depends on us being polar opposites to those around us. That doesn’t mean being weird or hostile but it does mean being different.

In Leviticus 19:2, God says to his people, “Be holy for I, the LORD your God, am holy.” More than one famous Bible scholar has pointed out this could be translated, “Be different for I, the LORD your God, am different.”

Because the LORD is different from other gods (both those in the ancient and the contemporary world), we who serve him will be different from people who bow to other gods, including money, political power, science, and education. (By the way, Christians should be involved in all those things. They are good things as long as they remain humanity’s servants. They are devilishly evil things when they become humanity’s gods, which is something we have seen played out before our eyes in recent months.)

But what makes us different? The fundamental difference is that we are God-oriented. If somehow God could be removed from our lives or we could be removed from our God (thankfully impossible), we would no longer be us. God is not just a part of our life, not even a big part; he is our life (Colossians 3:4). I’ve known people who have left the faith, moved from professing belief in God to professing disbelief in him, and the curious thing is that nothing really changed. I don’t see how that is possible – if they were really God’s people. Our lives, put bluntly, are about God.

Our values are also different. Most people’s chief values are: current comforts and pleasures (what St. John calls “the lust of the flesh”); future acquisitions of comfort and pleasure (“the lust of the eyes – gotta have that!”); and a position of status or prestige (“the pride of life”). I don’t say they enjoy those things – they don’t time; they’re too busy trying to acquire them – but they value them.

Our values are different. When we are granted pleasures and possessions and positions, we enjoy them; but we don’t need them and we won’t let them derail us from our pursuit of God, of love and of truth. That makes us different.

We don’t fear – or at least the person we are becoming is starting to overcome – the fears that control most people’s lives. They fear loss, humiliation, weakness, age, and death. It is ironic: in Western society, people lead the safest lives in the history of the world, yet they experience more anxiety than ever before. People have been taught to fear the next snowstorm, the next president, next market reversal, virus, disease, and internet outage. Unbelievable amounts of money are spent to protect people from their fears. But we fear God and, because we do, we are getting over our fear of everything else.

Another difference is our hope. In our day, distraction has usurped the place of hope, but that is not so in our lives. Even when we are nearing the end of life here, we continue to look forward. Our hopes transcend the next election, the end of COVID, our next vacation. The vacation may get cancelled; COVID may not get cancelled – it may continue; the election may usher the wrong party into power; but our hopes remain undiminished. Even immanent death cannot take hope from us.

We are not only different in who we are but also in what we do. I have a niece by marriage whom I really like. After her first baby was born – I’d never heard of this before – she ate the placenta. I’m sure someone will rush to tell me why that is a good thing, but it is different, at least by my standards. But it is not doing unusual things that makes us different.

One difference is our habit (it’s not just an occasional thing) of doing good deeds. Jesus taught us to let our light so shine that people “will see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Peter echoed this: “…they may see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12). Paul taught that God has prepared good deeds in advance for us to discover and perform (Ephesians 2:10). Most people try to get out of doing anything they don’t have to do. We go out of our way to do good for all people, especially our fellow Christians (Galatians 6:10). It’s a habit.

One of the big things we do that is different – countercultural, even – is we forgive. We don’t forgive because someone deserves it – forgiveness, by its very nature, is never deserved. We forgive because God forgives. We are different because he is different. When we forgive, we reveal what he is like. Forgiveness makes the teaching of God our savior attractive. When we forgive, we make it possible for people to believe that God will forgive.

When the people of Mother Emmanuel AME church in Charleston forgave Dylan Roof for the murder of their loved ones, they were different. That difference evoked a backlash from people who cling to unforgiveness as a kind of power. But how attractive Mother Emmanuel made the teaching of God our savior! If they can forgive, then maybe God can forgive me.

Go back to the passage in Titus, only substitute the words “employee” for “slave” and “boss” for “master”. (Titus 2:9-10) Teach employees to be subject to their bosses in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”  In the workplace, that kind of employee is different. That’s the kind of employee God wants us to be.

We could go one listing examples. I’ll just mention a couple of relatively easy ones that have biblical sanction. First, simply joining other Christians regularly for worship (which the Bible instructs us to do) makes us different. In an average week, only about 20 to 25 percent of our neighbors go to church (this was pre-COVID). If we go, we are different. Exploit the difference.

Another thing: the use of profanity has increased dramatically in American life, especially among religious people. If we will just refrain from using that kind of language (which the Bible instructs us to do), and from the anger and condemnation that underlie them, we will be different.

Remember the mission: to attract people to the king and his kingdom, where people live differently, live better, live forever. We have our orders. Let’s carry them out.

[1] Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God’s People, p. 137.

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The Surprising Place God Shows Up

Posted on September 2, 2023 by salooper57

The Book of Acts recounts the arrival of the Apostle Paul in the great city of Corinth. It was a Roman colony, which meant there was a large military presence there. Prostitution was ubiquitous and sexual immorality was more prevalent than any place Paul had ever been. It was the Las Vegas of the ancient world.

Paul entered this city and did what any devout Jew traveling alone would have done. He went to find a synagogue. In a city the size of Corinth, with perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, there were probably several, and it was not long before Paul had found one.

A synagogue in the ancient world was not like a church in modern America, which only fills with people on weekends. A synagogue was more like a community center. Everything in the Jewish community revolved around the synagogue. On Sabbath days there were religious services, but there were people hanging around every day of the week.

It was probably at the synagogue that Paul met Aquila and Prisca. Aquila was from Pontus, a city on the southern shores of the Black Sea. He and Prisca were also Jews and may have been, like Paul, Jesus-followers. They had recently arrived from Italy, forced to leave Rome by the decree of the Emperor Claudius.

That biblical note ties into secular history. Scholars know that Claudius issued the deportation order in the year 49, possibly because of conflicts between traditional Jews and Jewish Christians. The Roman historian Suetonius, writing 70 years later, says the conflict was over someone named Crestus, which seems to be a reference to Christ. It is possible, and perhaps even likely, that Aquila and Prisca were Jews who had already acknowledged Jesus as the Jewish messiah.

Paul hit it off with them right away. Both men were from what is now Turkey (Aquila from the north and Paul from the south.) Interestingly, Paul usually refers to Prisca by her nickname Pricilla, which would be like calling Susan, “Suzie.” Paul, like all rabbis, had been schooled in a trade: tent-making (or leather craft, since ancient tents were usually made from leather), and Aquila and Pricilla made tents.

Tent-making was probably a thriving business in Corinth, because so many visitors came to the city for the Isthmian Games (second only to the Olympic Games), and to the religious festivals that drew pilgrims from all over Europe. So, Aquila and Pricilla offered Paul a place to stay and gave him a job, and on weekends he went to the synagogue and taught about Jesus and tried to persuade both Jews and God-fearing Greeks to believe in him.

All this calls for reflection. Paul had found the perfect couple to stay with. Aquila already had a tent-making business and needed to increase his workforce. Pricilla was an intellectual who shared Paul’s love of the Scriptures. Ironically, the reason Paul ran into these people in just the right place at just the right time was because of an ugly ethnic prejudice and a distant Roman emperor’s unjust and inconvenient decree.

Perhaps that sounds familiar? It should. Once, about fifty years earlier, God made use of a town’s unfriendly attitudes and a different Roman’s emperor’s unfair and enormously inconvenient decree to move a young pregnant woman to a little town called Bethlehem, which was just the right place, at just the right time for the savior of the world to be born.

That is how good God is at what he does. He holds Roman emperors in his hands. And Turkish tentmakers. And people like us. Both the accidents of nature and the circumstances of life are forced to do his bidding. We’d prefer to see his hand when everything is going well, but it is often when we’re stuck at the intersection of unfair and inconvenient that God shows up.

If Paul had been on a mission to secure a comfortable station in life and settle down, he would not have had the opportunities he had to see God’s providential work. It is those who seek God’s kingdom, not their own comfort, who find God waiting for them with gifts in hand.

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Church Member’s Checklist 2 (1 Thessalonians 5:16-28)

Posted on August 27, 2023 by salooper57
https://youtube.com/watch?v=nlSgPic4w28%3Fsi%3DZOG3zfTWFRoYoCv6%26start%3D1211
Approximate viewing time: 25 minutes.

How many times, I wonder, have people come to me for counsel as they have earnestly sought God’s will for their lives? Right now, Karen and I are the ones earnestly seeking God’s will for us as we finish up the work here and set our eyes on what is next.

We want to know God’s will … that inscrutable mystery, that chronic uncertainty. And yet right in our text, in words that are easy to understand, we have God’s will spelled out (v. 18): “this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” No mystery, no uncertainty. This is God’s will.

What is God’s will? “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Here in the second part of the Church Member’s Checklist (if you missed the first part, click the link on our website to listen to last Sunday’s sermon) is God’s will clearly stated.

We have seen this once before, in chapter 4, so I want to remind you of what we learned then. We cannot expect God to reveal the hidden parts of his will for us if we are ignoring the revealed parts of his will. We cannot hope to learn his will for us personally when we are flouting his will for us corporately. We cannot presume upon God to reveal his will when we have big decisions to make if we are not acting on the small things we already know he wants us to do.

In verses 16 through 18, a particular aspect of God’s will is plainly revealed. If you are a follower of Jesus, what we have here is God’s will for you. If you want to be in God’s perfect will for your life, this is the perfect place to start.

Before we look at verse 16 though, I want to note a change in the church member’s checklist. In verses 12-15, the checklist is about relationships within the church – relationships between church members and their leaders and among church members generally. Starting in verse 16, the checklist transitions to the church member’s relationship with God in personal life and in corporate worship. Paul understood that a healthy church member has healthy relationships both with God and others.

Now let’s look at verse 16. Paul writes, “Rejoice always.” In English, when we want to say that something happens in all places, we use the word “everywhere.” It’s springing up everywhere! Why is it that when we want to say that something happens at all times, we don’t say, “everywhen”? The Greeks did. The word we have translated “always” is composed of two roots: every and when.

It is God’s will that we rejoice during every when of our lives. When we’ve landed our dream job. When we hate going to work. When we’ve completed our first ever marathon. When we can no longer cross the room without the help of a walker. When people applaud our accomplishments. When people ignore or even criticize our best efforts.It is God’s will that we rejoice everywhen.

What does that mean? Must I be happy even when things go wrong, when I’ve been misused, when my spouse has died?

That is an odd and interesting question? Must I be happy even when things go wrong? Why do we think of it that way rather than, Could I be happy even when things go wrong? Someone might object: “But if I’m not happy, I can’t simply tell myself to be happy. That doesn’t work. So, how can I rejoice? What does that even mean?”

The word translated “rejoice” has a range of meanings. For example, it is the common word used in greetings and is sometimes translated, “welcome.” When Jesus first saw the disciples after the resurrection, this is the word he used. The KJV translates, “Hail!” The NIV renders it, “Greetings!”

Perhaps one component of rejoicing everywhen has to do with welcoming each new event in our lives. We are not running from them; we are meeting them head-on in the certain knowledge that God will see us through. He will use this – whatever it is – for our good. Yes, we may hurt physically or emotionally or financially – we know that – but we cannot lose. God will use whatever is happening – even our deaths – to make us “mature and complete, lacking nothing.” He will conform us to the image of his Son. Our ultimate happiness depends on nothing else.

I think a high percentage of our misery in life comes from our belief that this thing that is going to happen will be too much for us. We fear it. Dread it. Our anticipation of the future makes the present miserable.

But if we were to welcome each new event in our lives with the attitude that we cannot lose, that we will be more than conquerors, that our capacity for happiness will be enlarged when this is over, our lives would be turned upside down. This is not the power of positive thinking; this is the joy of believing in the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

Some people not only don’t rejoice everywhen; they grumble everywhen. They complain about the presence of a vapor trail in a glorious sunset. They complain about the crying baby in an inspiring worship service. They find what is not right, even in situations that are full of hope and promise. Their attitude is inside out. That could describe me at many points in my past life. I don’t want it to describe me in my future life. I want to stop asking “Must I be happy even when things go wrong?” and start asking, “May I be happy even when things go wrong?”

How are you doing so far in the church member’s checklist? Can you put an x in the “rejoice always” box? Would you like to?

The next item on the checklist, verse 17, is “pray continually.” How can anyone put an x in that box? Continually? Can I really pray when I am deep in conversation with someone? What about when I am watching the Tigers – or must I give up watching the Tigers? (That might not be a bad idea if you are serious about putting an X in the “rejoice always” box.) Can I pray when I am asleep? How can anyone pray continually?

I have read devotional writers who believe that a person can be in an attitude of prayer at all times, when they are conversing, working, driving, even sleeping. I think that is intriguing and would like to know more about it, but Paul does not say, “Be in an attitude of prayer continually,” and I doubt that is what he meant.

The word the NIV translates “continually” could be literally rendered, “without leaving off.” I think that Paul is telling the Thessalonians, “Don’t give up on your prayers. Don’t have gaps where you go days or weeks or months without praying. Don’t get so busy that you leave off praying.”

It might help us to imagine Paul telling husbands and wives, “Don’t leave off talking to each other.” Husbands and wives can get so busy with life – with work, and kids, and projects – that they go weeks without having a real conversation. Impediments in their relationship can cause them to stop talking. That can go on for months or even years. Saying, “Don’t forget to pick the kids up from practice” is not a real conversation. Couples who live this way have left off talking.

Couples in a healthy relationship don’t talk nonstop, but neither do they get into the habit of not talking. Likewise, here: Paul wants these Christ followers to avoid the habit of not talking to God. The King James captured the thought by translating, “Pray without ceasing,” which just means, “Don’t leave off praying.”

Can you put a check in that box? Or have you left off praying for a few days, maybe for a few weeks, or maybe a few years?

The next item on the checklist is to “give thanks in all circumstances.” The King James, sticking close to the original language, translated, “in everything give thanks.” Not “for everything give thanks” (although Paul comes very close to saying that in his letter to the Ephesians), but “in everything.” But even with that change, is that possible?

I officiated a memorial service yesterday for a woman who died earlier in the week. She was deeply loved by her family. Does God really expect Christians to give thanks in a circumstance like that? Yes, I think he does.

But should a Christian give thanks in circumstances like that? Aren’t there circumstances in which they should be fighting instead of giving thanks? Fighting illness, fighting injustice, fighting foolishness? But this is not an either/or situation. If a fight is called for, give thanks while you fight. The best fighters are those who rejoice in the struggle, who pray as they contend, who give thanks while the battle rages.

Once again: we are not told to give thanks for all circumstances. Jesus was upset at the death of his friend Lazarus. He certainly didn’t give thanks for Lazarus’s death, but he did thank God while he stood at his friend’s grave. How could he do that? He could do it because of what he knew about God.

We’ll look at what he knew in just a moment, but first notice that rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances is God’s will in Christ Jesus. God intends Jesus’s people to do these things that other people do not do and don’t want to do. God intends for us to be different, to rejoice in the battle, to give thanks at the graveside. He wants us to be “children of God without blemish though [we] live in a crooked and perverse society, in which [we] shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). We don’t shine as lights by being like everyone else.

Jesus rejoiced in the battle, he didn’t leave off praying even when his Father did not do what he wanted (think of his prayer in the garden), and he gave thanks even in bitter circumstances. He could do this because he had confidence in his Father that we do not yet have. He understood that his Father was immediately present in what was happening. He knew that his Father would bring good even out of evil. He knew that he was safe in his Father’s care. He knew that death would not, and could not, stop him. He knew that all things work together for good for people who love his Father and are called according to his purpose.

Most people go through life rejoicing when their desires are realized and complaining when they are not. For them, everything is a matter of chance. It is bad luck when things go wrong, good luck when things go right. Jesus didn’t live in that world. He lived in a God-bathed world.[1]

But he also lived, just as we do, in a sin-sullied world, where many things go wrong. But when they did, Jesus knew his Father was immediately present and was making all things work for good. That confidence – there is a word for that: faith – enabled him to live above the world. He could endure the cross because he knew that joy was set before him (Hebrews 12:2).

We think that we are in charge, and so of course we cannot rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. Jesus knew that his heavenly Father is in charge. Such confidence in God makes all the difference. Faith, as John says in his first letter, is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

The apostle Paul understood this to an impressive degree. He understood what God has done through Christ’s death and the giving of his Spirit. He had experienced the “power of the gospel” in his own life. And so, Paul was always rejoicing, even when he was sorrowful (2 Corinthians 6:10). He could sing after being beaten and incarcerated. He could give thanks onboard a sinking ship in a raging storm (see Acts 27:35). He knew – not just in his head but in his heart, in his experience – what Jesus knew: that God is present and will make all things work for good for those who love him, those called according to his purpose.

This heart knowledge – this faith – is the thread that connects the three commands we just looked at: rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. To try to do these things when you don’t believe what Jesus and Paul believed is simply impossible. To do these things when you believe it’s all up to you is pure misery. Joy, gratitude, and a constant connection to God are the result of believing the good news. Faith really is “the victory.”

That faith is in God, who through Jesus saved us from our sins and altered our future and through the Spirit is with us and alters our present. If you don’t have that faith, you cannot have the life described in these verses. You won’t, for example, slip into prayer as Paul so often did and does again in verses 23 and 24. For Paul, prayer was as natural as breathing. He believed his God was right there with him. Of course, he would talk to him.

If you don’t have faith, you only can rejoice when things are going well, certainly not everywhen. And when things go wrong, you will complain; your life will be grumbling without ceasing.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But it will only be otherwise to the degree that you believe (with your heart and not just your head) in the God Paul trusted, the God and Father Jesus knew.

Look at Paul’s prayer in verses 23 and 24. These verses have encouraged me more than I can express. They are full of hope. “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

The God of peace. Apart from him, there is no lasting peace. “The God of peace sanctify you through and through.” Paul understood that there is more to us on the inside than on the outside – far more. Our unhappiness, lack of peace, and grumbling ingratitude come from the inside. And so, we urgently need to be sanctified – that is, every part of our vast interior needs to be brought under the loving authority of God.

It is a vast interior, a spacetime of the soul. Whatever has happened to us or through us years ago is still there and it all needs to be brought under the Lordship of Jesus. That is what the process of sanctification is about. But if I really am bigger on the inside than on the outside, if there are nooks and crannies of the soul I know nothing about, how can I be sanctified? And if that is what it takes to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in every circumstance, what hope is there that I will ever be capable of these things?

There would be no hope…if it all depended on me. But this glorious work of sanctifying us – of bringing our vast selves entirely under the loving authority of God – is not all up to me. I didn’t start it. God did. I can’t finish it. God will. What I can do is cooperate with it.

Paul says, “The God of peace himself” – “himself” is very emphatic in Greek, putting all the weight on God – “sanctify you through and through.” That includes your body, soul, and spirit—all the dimensions of your vast being. How does he carry on this great work? Much of that remains a mystery, but where he carries it on is clear. He carries it on in real life: our relationships, our jobs, our recreation, our trials, our successes, our victories, and our failures.

God – Jesus taught us this and we must fight to remember it – is not somewhere far away, only paying attention when we need help or, as some people think, when we mess up. He is here. He is involved. He is at work around us and in us, even when we do not see it.

It is not all up to us. Look at verse 24: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” He will do it, but I have the opportunity of cooperating with him. Cooperating with him begins when I trust him. It continues as I trust him. It concludes when I see him—and Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight.

Today, you may feel like you are caught between a rock and a hard place, between the hammer and the anvil. But if you belong to Jesus, you are kept between the nail-pierced hands of the Savior. You will be alright. You will be better than alright. Rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything – even in this – give thanks.

[1] Dallas Willard’s phrase from The Divine Conspiracy, chapter 3.

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Targeting Errors and How to Avoid Them

Posted on August 26, 2023 by salooper57

Matt Emmons is one of the world’s best shots with a rifle. He has won Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medals. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Emmons took gold in the 50 meter rifle prone with a borrowed rifle. His own rifle had been sabotaged.

Two days later, Emmons was competing in the 50 meter three-position event. He went into the last round with a commanding lead. If he struck near the bullseye, he would win a medal, probably another gold. He calmed himself, took aim, and fired. He thought he hit black but when he looked up at the TV monitor, he could not see that he hit the target at all.

He did hit the target; however, it was the wrong target. He had cross fired, shooting the target in the adjacent lane. Emmons had been a shoo-in for a medal but his failure to score any points on his final shot dropped him to last place.

Emmons’ mistake cost him a gold medal, but firing at the wrong target can be even more costly in everyday life. We may have the bullseye in our sights – a prestigious advanced degree, for example – and only find out numerous years and thousands of dollars later that we were aiming at the wrong target. 

I suspect that aiming at the wrong target is more common than we realize. It seems like an obvious mistake, but it is anything but obvious when in real life we try to look into the future where various targets stand side by side. It is easy to mistake one target for another.

This happens often in love. Many people confuse loving love for loving a person, but they are very different things. Loving love is easy; loving a person who has character flaws and annoying habits is not. We may simply be incapable of loving a real person; our character may not have sufficiently developed for that.

It also is easy to confuse targets when it comes to faith. We can think that we are believing in God when we are only believing in belief. This is a particular problem for those who espouse the prosperity gospel, but any of us can fall into this error.

I frequently have heard people say, “I believe in my faith.” I cringe and respond, “Don’t do that! Believe in God, not in faith.” Belief in God will enable a person to be faithful; belief in faith will not. Belief in God makes obedience to God’s commands possible. Belief in faith does no such thing. Without a worthy object, faith remains anemic. God is a worthy object. Faith is not.

Faith in faith leads to a triumphalist religion where clergy must function as spiritual cheerleaders. In this setting, the worship leader’s job is to whip up enthusiasm in the congregation. But this approach turns faith into fantasy and divorces belief from real life.

Another targeting error makes heaven the believer’s ultimate goal and treats God as a means to that end. The ubiquity of this view makes it nearly impossible for people to see it as an error. They have been taught that the whole purpose of religion is getting into heaven, even though the Bible itself says no such thing. The Scriptures speak of who God’s people are; some forms of contemporary Christianity focus almost exclusively on where God’s people will be.

The result is a “plan of salvation” that misunderstands what salvation is. It is more than a destination. It is a life, an eternal life that grows and transforms people in this age, then explodes into blossoms of glory in the next.

How can we know if we have made a targeting error? Emmons discovered his error by looking at the television monitor. We may find ours by looking into the Scriptures. There, we can see if our experience aligns with God’s revelation and with the lives of his saints. For example, do we feel a hunger to know God? Do we have an increasing ability to say no to temptation? Do we love people? We may not hit these bullseyes directly, but are we getting closer?

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Church Member’s Checklist (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15)

Posted on August 20, 2023 by salooper57
https://youtube.com/watch?v=rKSYZfY50po%3Fstart%3D1469
Viewing Time: 23 minutes (approx.)

In this final section of the letter, Paul writes like preachers talk when they realize that 20 minutes of their 25 minute sermon are already gone, and they’re only half-way through their notes. His writing picks up tempo and becomes positively staccato. At the beginning of the letter, Paul wrote a sentence with 81 words. Now he fires off machine gun-style phrases: “warn the idle, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” In Greek, each of those phrases is three words long.

Though the phrases are short, the ideas are large and demand our attention. Paul is giving his friends something like a church member’s checklist with which they can evaluate themselves as they interact with the church. We’ll look at verses 12-15 today, but we’ll come back to the checklist when we finish the letter next week. Let’s read those verses: “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.”

The 1984 edition of the NIV translated verse 12 as, “Respect those who work hard among you…” The 2011 says to “acknowledge them.” The Greek is simply, “know” them. It seems like an odd thing to say: “Know your church leaders.” Doesn’t everyone know them? The pastor stands up in front and talks for twenty-five minutes every week.

And yet I’ve met pastors over the years who are profoundly lonely. They smile, they shake hands, they know everyone’s problems … but no one knows them. They have no one in whom they can confide. They carry their hurts and disappointments alone, and they think that is the way it has to be.

There was a pastor in town some years ago who was publicly rebuked by a member of his congregation. She accused him of negligence because he had not visited her or others in the church for months. Somehow, the woman did not know that her young pastor had been diagnosed with cancer and had been going through chemotherapy. On the day he returned to the pulpit, the day she rebuked him, he had to sit on a stool because he was too weak to stand. But she did not “know” him.

We need to get to know our next pastor. Learn what his interests are, what he likes and dislikes. Don’t be nosy but ask questions. Encourage him often. Find out how you can help him carry the load that he bears. Pray for him. In Paul’s words, “know him.”

These church leaders whom we must get to know are described with three phrases. In Greek, it is clear that all three point to one set of people who are described as “those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord, and who admonish you.”

First, they work hard. A pastor who doesn’t work hard is a pastor who should not work here. Paul, who was a tentmaker by trade – a man who worked in leather – understood what hard work is, and the hardest work he knew was serving the church.

They “care for you in the Lord.” Nearly all other versions, including the previous edition of the NIV, have something like, “who are over you in the Lord,” or “who lead you,” or “have charge over you.” The Greek word means literally, “who stand in front of you” – probably pastors, elders, and deacons. Notice that not everyone is qualified to “stand in front of you,” just those who work hard among you.

They also “admonish you.” The Greek scholar A. T. Robertson paraphrases this way: “they [put] sense into the heads of people.”[1] When I had only been here a couple of months (maybe less than that), our youth pastor came to me and said, “We have a problem. One of our leaders is doing something that sets a poor example for people.”  

So, I went to that leader to offer some admonishment. It did not go well. But that leader, to their credit, thought about it, made changes, and proved to be one of Lockwood’s enduring treasures over the years. Admonishing people is in the pastor’s job description … but beware the pastor who enjoys it! The pastor who can admonish well is one who can receive admonishment well – that is, with humility – and benefit from it.

Paul says that we are to “hold [these leaders] in the highest regard in love.” The Greek is something like, “Esteem them abundantly.” The author of Word Studies in the New Testament says that church leaders are entitled to respect because of their office,[2] but that is not what Paul says. He says they are to be highly esteemed on account of their work. Not because of their title or the letters that pile up after their name, but because of their work.

“Because of their work” can mean one of two things or it can mean both. It can mean we esteem them highly because we see how hard they work on our behalf. But it can also mean that we esteem them highly on account of the work itself. We benefit the work (not to mention ourselves) when we esteem our leaders highly. People who are respected, who are honored and esteemed, find it much easier to get up and go to work than those who are criticized, ignored, and devalued. Highly esteemed leaders do a good job while the unesteemed dream about doing a better job … somewhere else.

A woman woke her husband up on a Sunday morning and said, “You need to get up or we’ll be late for church.” He just rolled over. She roused him again and told him to hurry or they’d be late. He said, “I don’t want to go to church.” She asked why. He said, “Because it’s boring. And people there are cold. And because nobody likes me.”

Her face hardened and she said, “But you’ve got to go to church.” He bleated, “Why?” So, she said, “Because it is not boring. Because the people there are not cold. Because people do like you. And because you are the pastor!”

A pastor who is esteemed will usually serve his church better than one who is not. The members of a church have far more to do with whether their pastor is energetic or sluggish, positive or negative, interesting or boring than they realize.

I have been grateful for the love and grace that has been shown to Karen and me over our many years here at Lockwood. I only ask that you esteem the next pastor as highly—or even more so. If you do, you will reap the benefits. Make sure that he knows that he is valued and important to the church family.

At the end of verse 13, Paul instructs the Thessalonians to “Live in peace with each other.” In Greek, unlike English, the word “peace” is a verb. We could translate, “Be at peace…” or more literally, “Peace it…” or (as people used to say) “Peace out among yourselves.”

We were talking a moment ago about the pastor’s energy and positive outlook. Nothing will rob a pastor of those faster than church family members who are in conflict with him or with each other. Notice that Paul sets no conditions on this and offers no exemptions. He simply says, “Be at peace.”

Well, that is easier said than done. There are always reasons for not being at peace. Reasons to stay angry, speak out, take offence, choose sides. The reasons for continuing a conflict are numerous and they are pressing. There is only one reason for being at peace: God commands it. But if you’re a follower of Jesus, that is reason enough.

In verse 14, Paul’s pans out to take in the entire church family and its relationships with one another. We have the wrong idea if we think that the care of the church rests only on the pastors, elders, and deacons. No matter how gifted they are or how hard they work, they cannot do it all. As Paul says elsewhere, “the whole body” – the entire church family – “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:16). God’s plan has always been for the church to care for each other.

That care is not always easy and it’s not always something that we want to do. Take, for example, Paul’s instruction in verse 14 to “warn those who are idle and disruptive.” The word “warn” is the very same one translated in verse 12 as admonish. Any of us might be called on to admonish a fellow Christian.

But before we do, we should humble ourselves before the Lord, be certain of our love for the person, and genuinely long for them to have the best life they can. If we can’t do that, we’re not the ones to do the admonishing.

In the case of the Thessalonian Church, there were people who were idle and disruptive. The NIV resorts to using two words to try to get across the sense of one Greek word. Etymologically, that word means “out of order” and could refer either to something that has ceased to work (is out of order) or to someone who is disorderly. The NIV 2011 doesn’t try to choose between them. If a Christian is idle, they are out of order and in need of repair. If a Christian is disruptive, they are out of order and in need of admonishment.

Repair and admonishment do not happen as often as they should, or as often as God intends, in the contemporary church. We are not close enough, do not love each other enough, do not trust each other enough to admonish. If someone does admonish, the usual result is anger, division, and departure. So, we cannot start with admonishment. We must start with love, intimacy, and trust, and that takes time to develop.

The next phrase in Paul’s litany is, “encourage the disheartened.” The Greek behind “the disheartened” is literally, “the little-souled.” These are people who have shrunk back from the fight. God’s intent for us is that we grow larger when we encounter hardship, but we’ve all had the experience of shrinking away instead. We can almost feel our souls getting smaller.

When that happens, we need someone to come along side us, get close to us, and urge us on. That is the idea behind the word translated “encourage.” We tell them, “You can do this. You can persevere. You can do it God’s way. And when you do, you will be an example to the rest of us. We’ll talk about your victory through Christ. It will be mythic. (The root of the word “encourage” here is μύθος, “myth.)

The disheartened are those who’ve had enough and cannot take any more. We say something to them like David said to Solomon: “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work … is finished” (2 Chronicles 28:20). Perhaps our words are different, but the attitude is the same.

The summer after my brother died, our Little League All-Star team, Elyria West, went to Williamsport and placed third. One more win and we would have been in the World Series. But I wasn’t there. I had quit mid-season, even though the All-Star team’s coach, who was my friend’s dad, had decided that I would be on the team.

I don’t know if it had anything to do with my brother’s death or if it was just that the pitching was getting better (and I wasn’t), but I lost all confidence at the plate. I was thoroughly disheartened, and my soul shrank. I hated to go to games. I needed someone to urge me on, to tell me that I could do it. I needed someone to put me in the batter’s cage and help me work out the kinks. But that didn’t happen. So, I told myself that the team was better off without me, and I quit.

That was an adolescent boy’s experience, but many adults – many of us – could tell similar stories. Only it is not baseball; it’s a marriage, or a job, or a season of illness. We’re telling ourselves that our family or our workplace doesn’t need us, and we are ready to call it quits.

But we need someone who will urge us on, bring life and freshness to our souls. We need someone who, after listening sympathetically to our lament, will tell us to be strong and courageous. We need someone who will remind us that the Lord will not fail us. We not only need someone like that; we need to be someone like that.

Paul also tells us to “help the weak.” This is not the usual word rendered “help.” This one means to hold fast to something or someone. When people are weak, in body, mind, or character, we hold onto them. We stick with them until they’re sure that we’ll be there when they need us.

Helping the weak is the opposite of scolding them, gossiping about them, or walking away from them. We might get the idea that healthy churches don’t have weak people, but we’d be mistaken. A healthy church has plenty of weak people—and sometimes we’re among them. But it also has plenty of helpers who hold onto the weak and don’t let go.

Paul next instructs the church to “be patient with everyone.” Why is it that we let go of the weak and walk away? Because we lose patience. Why don’t we live at peace with each other? Because we lose patience. Patience is more than a character trait we develop. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that grows in the lives of those who earnestly follow Jesus.

I’ve heard many people say, “Don’t pray for patience unless you want God to give you problems.” I think that is silly. It is good to pray for patience, because the only way for God to answer that prayer is to give you himself.

Finally, Paul tells the church members to “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.” Revenge fantasies originate in our pain but then travel across the brain’s reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens. In other words, when people think about revenge they experience pleasure, and that experience is addictive.

Revenge is a road that Christians are forbidden to travel. When we see a friend who is about to get on that highway – or rather, low-way – we are to make sure that he or she doesn’t do it. We intervene. We pray with them, plead with them, and direct them back to the Lord. Otherwise, they will get lost on that road and spend their days wandering through a desert of resentment and anger.

Once again, we can’t help unless we are close enough to see what is happening and trusted enough to speak to it. The Greek says, “See to it that no one returns evil for evil,” but you can’t see that from a distance. We need to be close to each other. For the most part, the American church is not there, but Lockwood must move in that direction. I expect that will be a major part of the next leg of Lockwood’s journey.

So, let’s wrap this up by restating the church member checklist and seeing what we can tick off. First item: Know your pastor and church leaders. Can you check that one off?

Second item: Hold those leaders in the highest regard. How are you doing on that one?

Third item: Be at peace with each other.

Fourth: Admonish those who are out of order.

Fifth: Encourage the disheartened.

Sixth: Hold onto the weak.

Seventh: Be patient with everyone.

Eighth: See to it no one returns evil for evil but does what is good.

Paul’s checklist is helpful for giving us a sense of where we are as individuals and as a church, but to make progress in checking off the boxes, something else needs to happen. That something else comes in two parts: First, we intentionally draw close to God. We pray, we submit, we seek him until we find him. And second, we intentionally draw close to each other. We make it a point to know each other. We invite people to our homes. We join Sunday School classes, small groups, and D-Groups. We enlist in a ministry team.

When we are drawing close to God and each other, we will be able to check off all the items on the church members’ checklist. But more importantly, our satisfaction in Christ will soar, so will our confidence that we belong to him, and our lives will be filled with hope.

Draw close to God. Draw close to each other.

[1] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament.

[2] Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 4, p. 47). Charles Scribner’s Sons.

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Lighter or Darker: You Are the Switch

Posted on August 19, 2023 by salooper57

Poets and novelists have always made symbolic use of light and darkness, with light representing good and darkness representing evil. It could be argued that Shakespeare reverses this in Romeo and Juliet, but clearly the Bard relied on those traditional associations to achieve the effect he desired.

Light and dark symbolism is much older than Shakespeare. Homer used it more than two millennia earlier, and he was predated by religious texts like the Vedas and parts of the Old Testament. In the New Testament Gospel of John, the Evangelist makes use of light and darkness in his first sentences and is still doing so in his last chapters.

In the Bible, light evokes joy, truth, productivity, and God himself. Darkness images falsehood, confusion, evil, and judgment. Jesus’s followers once resided in “the dominion of darkness,” but have been rescued and brought into the kingdom of God’s son, the kingdom of light. Jesus refers to his followers as “the people of light.”

Jesus uses the image of light to suggest clarity and safety. The person who walks by day does not stumble, but the person who walks by night “stumbles for he has no light.” It is in the light that good work can be done, but “Night is coming, when no one can work.” In the Psalms, light enables people to follow the path laid out for them.

With light comes clarity, guidance, and safety, but frequently in Scripture the light does not come all at once. When Jesus holds out the hope that his hearers might become sons of light, some sort of process seems to be in mind. Likewise, the Proverb compares “The path of the righteous” to “the first gleam of dawn,” which shines “ever brighter till the full light of day.”

In these images, the light increases; it grows brighter. This seems to suggest that the benefits of light, like clarity, guidance, and safety, might also grow. This fits well with the oddly phrased Psalm 97:11, in which the writer appears to mix his metaphors. He writes, “Light is sown for the righteous.” It grows like a seed.

The curious image here is of a farmer sowing light as if it were seed. Like the first gleam of dawn, the seed is barely noticeable, yet it portends big changes. It will, as Jesus says in a different context, produce “a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Then it will be like “the full light of day.”

The idea here is that light and the things associated with it, including clarity, productivity, and joy, come gradually but grow steadily. This certainly seems to fit with what Jesus taught about knowing truth, which is elsewhere described as a “fruit of the light.” He promised that anyone who chooses to do the will of God will come to know whether or not his teaching is true. Knowledge grows as people do what they already know to be right.

But what if they don’t act on what they already know to be right? Will the light fade? Jesus seemed to think so. The classic Amplified Version paraphrases him this way: “For to him who has [spiritual knowledge] will more be given; and from him who does not have [spiritual knowledge], even what he thinks and guesses and supposes that he has will be taken away.”

Just as dawn’s rays “shine ever brighter till the full light of day,” the murkiness of dusk grows steadily darker until the way “is like deep darkness” and those who walk in it “do not know what makes them stumble.” Could this explain why people who are lost in hatred, bigotry, and greed are incapable of seeing what is making their lives so miserable?

In Psalm 105, a psalm that celebrates God’s love and help for his people. The psalmist recalls how God punished Egypt by sending darkness on the land. He considered this punishment apropos, for the Egyptians had rebelled against God’s words, which was tantamount to choosing darkness. The darkness around them was a picture of the darkness in them.

Both light and darkness grow, and people are the switch that determines which will happen.

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I Thessalonians 5:1-11- Don’t You Know?

Posted on August 13, 2023 by salooper57
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LuPfnmhODRU%3Fstart%3D2627
Approximate Viewing Time: 20 minutes

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

A series of contrasts underlies this entire passage. Paul uses these contrasts to emphasize the magnitude of the change that happens when people become Christians. Before they came to Christ, they were just like the people around them; now they are not. They were in one kingdom; now they are in another. Their identity changed. Their loyalty changed. They changed.

This is an important theme throughout Paul’s letters. Again and again, he says things like this: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” (Eph. 5:8). “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!” (2 Cor. 5:17). “You were slaves to sin…but now…have become slaves to God.” (Romans 6: 20, 22).

The series of contrasts Paul uses in this passage include Light and Darkness, Knowledge and Ignorance, Expectancy and Surprise, and Soberness and Drunkenness. These contrasts come as Paul reminds the Thessalonians of What They Know (vv. 1-3), What They Are (now that they have Christ, vv. 4-5), and What They Should Do (vv. 6-8) – Know…Be…Do.  He ends the section by reminding them of What God Has Done and Why He Has Done It (vv. 9-11). We’ll take each of these sections in turn.

We start with Know. There is a huge emphasis in the Bible on knowledge. In the Book of Proverbs alone there are 41 uses of the noun and 16 of the verb, 32 uses of the noun for “understanding” and 12 more of the verb. 101 uses of just those word groups, and that’s just in Proverbs.

In the New Testament, the words, “you know” appear 67 times. People say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but the biblical writers would have disagreed. What you don’t know can make a mess of things. Paul reminds the Thessalonians of what they do know.

As I began to exegete this passage, I remembered something a beloved, old deacon said to me. I had just arrived here and so I didn’t yet know how to take this man. One day he asked me if I knew what it means when a preacher takes off his watch and conspicuously sets it on the pulpit. When I said that I didn’t, he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Absolutely nothing!”

I thought of that conversation when I read the opening line of chapter 5. Paul says, “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you…” but then he goes ahead and writes about it. What does it mean when an apostle says, “We don’t need to write you”? Absolutely nothing.

But that’s not fair, for Paul does not write about times and dates but about the fact that people do not and cannot know times or dates, for the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The church got this metaphor from Jesus himself and it was apparently part of the teaching that new Christians received. There is no doubt that Christ will come. There is no certainty about when.

Outside the church, people do not know that Christ is coming and so will be taken by surprise. Paul says (verse 3), “While people are saying, “Peace and Safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly.”

New Testament scholars like Richard Hays believe that “Peace and Safety” (or perhaps better, “Peace and Security”) was a political slogan in the Roman empire, like Neville Chamberlain’s, “Peace in our time,” or Herbert Hoover’s, “A chicken in every pot.”

If this was a first century political slogan, it is interesting to think of people chanting it at some massive rally before the emperor, who stands on the dais beaming. But he and they are oblivious to the fact that Jesus may come at any moment. And when he does, he will have his own slogan – or rather, a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet call of God.

And it is interesting to think that people chant similar slogans today, fed to them by political machines like Rome’s, still oblivious to Jesus’s return. Perhaps people will be chanting, “Finish the Job” or “Make America Great Again,” at the very moment the shout of command is given, and the trumpet of God sounds. But you, if you are a Christian who has been instructed in the way of Jesus, know that Jesus is coming. In terms of Paul’s contrasts, you are in the know, but they are in the dark.

They will be surprised (verse 4), but you should be expecting this day – “the Day of the Lord.” That phrase appears 30 times in the Bible and is referred to many more times as “the Day,” “that Day,” “the Day of God,” and in other ways. The Day of the Lord is the day when God rescues those who trust in him and judges those who do evil. Even nations will be held to account. This idea was not new: the prophets had spoken of it for centuries. The new information here is that the Day of the Lord will be kicked off by Jesus’s sudden return.

But the Thessalonians knew all this and should not be surprised. But that doesn’t mean they can predict the day when Christ will come. To use Paul’s illustration, which also comes from Jesus: a woman knows she is going to have a baby – there’s no doubt about that – but that doesn’t mean she knows when she is going to have the baby. Our first baby took us by surprise. He came three weeks early. When Karen roused me at two in the morning with the words, “My water broke,” I uncomprehendingly answered, “No, it didn’t,” and rolled over. I should have been expecting this. But I wasn’t ready.

In verses 5 and 6, Paul moves from knowing to being.The reason the Thessalonians know something their neighbors and friends don’t is that they are something their neighbors and friends aren’t. When a person trusts in Jesus Christ, when they surrender their life to him and confess Jesus Lord (which is what happens when a person trusts in Jesus Christ), they are changed. Remember what Paul said: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!”

It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of that change. Some people think that Christians are just like everyone else, only more religious. And it’s true that Christians experience temptations, limitations, and sinful inclinations just like everyone else. It is true that Christians are no smarter than other people. They are not necessarily nicer, happier, or morally superior. When they become Christians, their weight doesn’t change, their hair color remains the same, and their appetite for adventure, ice cream and alcohol usually persists.

So, has anything changed? It has. It is not a change that can be weighed or measured, and yet it means that nothing will be the same again. When a person trusts in Jesus Christ, his weightless and measureless spirit is brought to life (you could say it is enabled) by a connection to God’s Spirit. He is reborn. This is what Paul meant when he said that God “made us alive with Christ.” We become – and this is what changes everything – “alive to God in Christ Jesus,” as Paul put it in Romans 6:11. For the first time, there is a part of us that can respond to God, that can receive his guidance, encouragement, and correction—his life. That is transformative.  

That transformation begins with God, not us. It is what we call grace. The change is not the result of my determination (though that is important) but of God’s love.

Henri Nouwen tells of seeing a nativity scene in a small church that profoundly moved him. It was very simple: three small, wood-carved figures: a woman, a man, and a child. The figures were primitive: no eyes, ears, or mouths, with only the contours of a face. They were smaller than a human hand and hardly attracted any attention.

But then a beam of light shone on the figures and the inconspicuous trio grew into large, hopeful shadows on the sanctuary wall, outlines of majesty and glory. The change was remarkable, though the figures remained the same. It is the light from without that changed everything. And it is the Spirit from without, the Spirit from God, that begins the great changes that happen to us.[1]

In verses 5 and 6, Paul speaks about a change in the nature, the beingness, of the Thessalonians. They are – not should be but – “are all children of the light and children of the day. They no longer belong to – literally, they no longer are of – the night. The change in them has worked a change around them. They have become sons of the light, characterized by visibility and transparency. Because of the Spirit now in them, they thrive in light but wane in darkness.

Because of the change in who we are – our essential being – there is a change in what we do – our existential doing. That is what we see in the next verses. Since we are different now, “we should not sleep as the rest” (literal translation, verse 6), “but rather we should be awake and sober.”

It is surprising how often the apostles tell Jesus’s people to be sober. It makes you wonder if the early Christians had a problem with alcoholism. Certainly, millions of Jesus’s people have fought that battle, and literal sobriety is expected of Jesus’s people. But it is more than that. The idea here is about being clear-headed, not fuzzy, in control of one’s thoughts, not muddled.

There are many things besides alcohol, marijuana, and narcotics that can muddle a person’s thoughts. Envy will do it. So will anger, which works faster than most drugs. Greed, sexual desire, pride can all warp a person’s thinking without the person realizing it. A constant diet of social media, news media, and online shopping will dull the mind. The ability to think clearly, which is enormously important in the Christian faith, can be compromised.

The opposite of being sober is being drunk, in which thinking is distorted. The opposite of being awake is sleeping, in which thinking is disrupted. Paul wants Christians awake and sober and thinking clearly.

In verse 8 – we’re now in the do section of the know…be…do outline), Paul tells us how. A literal translation could go: “But we who are of the day should be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation’s hope.” The breastplate and helmet were the two most important pieces of defensive armor.[2] This is about protection. We choose faith and love rather than distrust and hatred for our own protection.

Many people think they are protecting themselves by assuming an attitude of distrust. They wield hate like a shield. But while distrust and hate may protect us in some ways, they will hurt us in others, like an asbestos suit may protect a firefighter from the flames but give him cancer in the process.

Paul also wants us to put on the helmet of salvation’s hope. That does not mean that we hope to be saved (though we do). It means that salvation through Jesus Christ gives a person’s hope, and hope provides powerful protection against “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” People who are filled with hope are shielded against discouragement, despair, and all kinds of sins.

The reason for this hope is stated in verses 9 and 10. God has destined us for salvation through Jesus Christ who died for us. The nature of salvation is brought out by the words, “that…we might live together with him.” Living together with God is precisely what humanity lost when Adam rebelled and was removed from God’s presence. Living together with God was Israel’s hope in the wilderness: “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). It was the promise of the New Covenant: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:3). It was the hope to which the prophet Ezekiel pointed: “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Ezek. 37:27). It is the note of hope that rings out at the close of the Bible: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things (the order established by Adam’s rebellion) has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

We begin to experience this salvation now when we come to Jesus and receive God’s Spirit, which is why Paul calls the Spirit the down payment of our inheritance. Experiencing God’s Spirit changes us and brings a foretaste of the life to come.

If you have not come to Christ but are ready to do so, or just ready to find out more about it, please come up at the end of the service to talk with one of our prayer helpers. They can give you more information.

But I want to close by speaking to those who have used distrust and hatred to protect themselves. I know that you’ve had to protect yourself from some bad things. You didn’t choose distrust and hate; you were forced into it. But distrust and hate are killing you. There is another way. It is not to gullibly trust everyone, but to intelligently trust God. If you are locked into a cell of distrust and hate, God can let you out. Ask him right now, and he will begin to answer you.

[1] Henri J. M. Nouwen in The Genesee Diary. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 14.

[2] Morris.

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Yours, Mine, or Ours: Morality in the 21st Century

Posted on August 12, 2023 by salooper57

In the conservative church circles where I have spent my adult life, it is common for people to think of themselves as morally upright. As insiders, we have been granted, in the example and teaching of Jesus Christ and through the writings of the prophets and apostles, divine revelation regarding what is right for human beings and what is wrong.

It is also common for us within the circle to think of those outside the circle as morally challenged. Because they do not know or submit to the moral teachings of Jesus and the Bible, we tend to regard them as immoral. Such an attitude, ironically, leads to a sense of moral superiority which both Jesus and the Bible condemn.

It is a mistake to assume that anyone who disagrees with our moral judgments is immoral. Immorality is not a lack of moral principles but a failure to live by the moral principles one espouses, a problem the Bible indicates is universal. Nearly everyone is guided by moral principles, however basic.

God gave humanity a moral compass. This was clear to me as I sat in jail with a man accused of rape and later with a woman accused of murder. Both understood that rape and murder are immoral. However, each wanted to believe their actions were caused or at least influenced by something outside themselves so that their culpability was limited.

That man and woman violated their own moral principles. It is a different matter when people violate mine. Even if they are acting immorally in the light of my beliefs, I cannot say they are acting immorally in the light of their own. This raises the question of whose moral compass is most accurate. Or asked another way, whose moral code best represents the good life for humanity?

In Moral Foundations Theory, first proposed by psychologists Jonathan Haidt, Craig Joseph, and Jesse Graham, there are six foundations for moral behavior. According to this theory, our sense of right and wrong originates in the following values, each of which can be stated positively or negatively: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation, and liberty/oppression.

When groups disagree on which value to rank first, their moral judgments will differ. This does not mean that one group is moral and the other immoral. They might both be acting in a morally responsible manner according to their understanding of what constitutes moral behavior.

Western cultures are undergoing a shift in moral priorities. In the past, sanctity/degradation exercised more influence on American moral codes, and care/harm exercised less. That has now reversed. The resulting moral earthquake has fractured the social landscape and left us standing on disparate tracks of moral ground.

One way to think about this is to consider an act that was once regarded as immoral by nearly everyone: having an affair. It violated key values like loyalty and sanctity. But with the ascension of the care/harm value and the decline of sanctity and loyalty, having an affair need not be considered immoral as long as “no one gets hurt.”

The legalization of marijuana in many states was made possible by the idea that no one gets hurt. The same is true of the rollback on sodomy laws. Changes in American’s views on abortion can also be traced to the ascendency of this value. A woman who must forego college or career because of an unwanted pregnancy would be hurt. Of course, if one grants that the fetus is also a person, its hurt also needs to be considered.

When we realize that people who differ from us on important moral issues are operating from a different moral code, we can finally get off our sanctimonious high horses. But then the real work begins: determining which moral theory or combination of theories functions best in real life. I would argue that Christian morality, often misstated and misunderstood, and rarely seen lived out, best serves humanity. It builds on all six of the foundations described by Moral Foundations Theory and, Christians assert, was formulated by humanity’s creator with our best interests at heart.

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How to Get Caught Up (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Posted on August 6, 2023 by salooper57

Writers have used lots of ink and preachers have spoken millions of words to talk about “the rapture.” This is the passage behind all that teaching. Paul did not write this to satisfy people’s curiosity about what will happen in the future, but to encourage people in the present.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Gj0bWr7eBGI%3Fstart%3D1890
Viewing time: 26 minutes (approx.)

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Back in the ’90s, a computer support tech had the following phone conversation that was recorded, so I can give it to you verbatim.

Tech: “How may I help you?”

Caller: “The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting it fixed?”

Tech: “I’m sorry, but did you say a cup holder?”

Caller: “Yes, it’s attached to the front of my computer.”

Tech: “Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped. Did you receive this as part of a promotional? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?”

The conversation continued for a couple of more minutes before the support person realized that the caller had been using his CD-ROM drive as a cup holder.[1]

People say that ignorance is bliss, but they’re wrong. Ignorance is usually just ignorance. It leads to broken computers, broken relationships, and broken hearts.

And yet everyone is ignorant – our ignorance always greatly exceeds our knowledge. That is not because we are stupid but because we are limited. Human beings have occupied a tiny recess in our universe for a fleeting moment of eternity, so our ignorance is understandable. It is not a sin, but there are times when it is a shame. That is especially true when it regards God and his plans for us.

The Thessalonians were ignorant about God’s plans for people who die. That wasn’t their fault. Paul, Silas, and Timothy had been run out of town in the middle of the night and simply hadn’t had time to teach them everything they needed to know.

When people lack accurate information, it is natural for them to fill in the blanks with their own ideas. The Thessalonians had apparently been doing that. The missionary team had taught them that Jesus was going to come again and that it was going to be a glorious and wonderful day. His people would be vindicated. Everything would be set right. They were eagerly looking forward to it and they expected that it would happen soon.

And then one of their fellow church members, perhaps more than one, died. Some biblical scholars think they might have died in some kind of anti-Christian persecution. And the church realized that they didn’t know what happens to people who die before Christ comes back. So, they did what people do when they are ignorant about a subject: they filled in the blanks.

They had learned from Paul and Silas that the day of Christ’s return would be a great day for Christians, a day of vindication, glory, and joy. Think of Christmas, the Cubs winning the world series, and Victory over Japan Day all rolled into one – and then some. But what about those who had the misfortune of dying beforehand, or of being martyred by their enemies? Would they miss out on that day? Maybe they would still take part in the resurrection, but what about the celebration, the victory?

And perhaps some wondered if those who died before Christ’s return were just gone for good. Until they had become Christians a few months earlier, the Thessalonians almost certainly shared their society’s understanding of death: it is the ultimate tragedy, the irredeemable loss, the end of everything that is good.

Before Paul’s time, the Greek poet Homer wrote of a dreamlike meeting between the hero Achilles and the ghost of his great friend Patroclus. In the dream Achilles reaches out to embrace his friend, but he vanishes in a puff of smoke and goes gibbering off like a madman to the underworld. Achilles awakes and says, “Then, it is true that something of us does survive even in … Hades, but with no intellect at all, only the ghost and semblance of a man.” Theocritus said that “hopes are for the living; the dead are without hope.”[2] Death was disaster and there was nothing anyone could do about it except face it with courage – and even that made no difference.

When Timothy returned from his emergency trip to Thessalonica, he reported that the church members were confused about all this. The unexpected deaths of their friends had thrown them into turmoil. So, Paul writes (verse 13) to supply the information they lacked and to save them from unnecessary grief.

Christians, unlike their neighbors and friends, have a reason to hope even in the face of death, a reason (verse 14) grounded in the good news about Jesus: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again.” The rest of the world believes no such thing. They agree with Aeschylus’s Apollo: “Once a man is dead, and the dust has soaked up his blood, you will not resurrect him.”

But the Christians could point to a time and place and, more importantly, to a real person who had died and rose again: Jesus. It was not only theoretically possible; it had happened. There were witnesses, hundreds of them. Hades’ impassable gates had been blown off their hinges. In Paul’s words elsewhere, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,” – and not only that, he is – “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). In other words, Jesus was the first to rise, but he will not be the last. Those who belong to him will do the same.

Verse 14 again: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” That is why we do not grieve like the rest of mankind. We know something they don’t know. Death is not the end. When Christ and Hades met, it was Hades who flinched. Hades cracked, cracked wide open. Jesus knows the way – is the way – out of death.

But that brings us back to what was worrying the Thessalonians. They would be relieved to know that their friends would be resurrected, but wouldn’t that happen later? They’d still be in the ground on the great day, Victory Day, the day of Jesus’s triumph.

Not at all, Paul assures them. “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” When Jesus arrives for that great day, our loved ones who have died will be with him. They get to be a part of it! In fact, as he will say in just a moment, they will be right in the middle of it!

But we need to go carefully here. It is not everyone who has died that God will bring with Jesus; it is only the ones who have fallen asleep in him. Or to be still more precise, those who have fallen asleep through him, as the Greek preposition is literally translated. But what could Paul mean by “fall asleep through Jesus”?

We need to think this through. First, it is important to know that when someone who was committed to Christ passed away, the early Christians would say that he or she had fallen asleep. They picked that up from Jesus himself who, when his friend Lazarus had succumbed to illness, told his disciples: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep” (John 11:11). The rest of the world feared death as the ultimate tragedy – and death is an ugly thing – but Jesus talked about it differently: it was like falling asleep.

Next, we need to know that nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus’s death ever described as falling asleep. Jesus did not fall asleep; he died. According to the author of Hebrews, “Jesus … for a little while was made lower than the angels, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone…” (Hebrews 2:9 Mounce).

Jesus experienced the horrors of death, which is the ultimate consequence of human rebellion against God, without any mitigation. Unlike us, his faculties were undiminished by sin’s rot, his emotions unblunted by alienation from God. Jesus felt death like no man since Adam has felt it. When Scripture says that Christ died for us, this is what it means. Because he died, we need only sleep, for our deaths have been swallowed up in his. By faith we have been, Paul says elsewhere, “united with Christ in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5). But again, this is not true of everyone, only of those who have been joined to Christ by faith.

In verse 15, Paul deals specifically with the Thessalonians’ concern that their deceased friends would miss out on the glory and celebration of the great day of Jesus’s return. He writes, “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.” They are not only not going to miss out; they’re going to be there before us, according to the Lord’s own word.

We don’t know to what word Paul is referring. It may have been a special revelation to Paul or some other New Testament era prophet. Remember how in the Old Testament we frequently read that “the word of the Lord came to” this or that prophet. This might be that kind of thing. On the other hand, it might also be a word we already have in Scripture, but the closest parallel is Matthew 24:30-31, and it is not very exact. Or it might be a word the Lord spoke when he was on earth that was not written down. Surely, Jesus said many things, just as he did many deeds, that the Gospel writers did not record but that his followers remembered. For example, none of the Gospels mention that Jesus said, “It is better to give than to receive.” We only learn of that from the Apostle Paul who mentions it in a letter he wrote twenty years after Jesus’s resurrection.

According to Paul, we have Jesus’s own word that our Christian friends who have gone before us will be first in line for the party. Or perhaps for the fight, for the language of verse 16 is militaristic. The word for “loud command” is routinely used to describe military orders. The trumpet was often used in battle.

However, the trumpet was also used to gather God’s people for assemblies, for festivals, and for the Day of Atonement. The day Jesus returns will feature an assembly the likes of which no one has seen before. And this time it will be “the Lord himself” who calls the assembly and leads it.

Paul says that when the assembly is called, “the dead in Christ” will rise (that’s the verbal form of the word meaning resurrection) first. They have pride of place. The dead in Christ “rise,” while the living in Christ are “caught up.” This particular word has given rise to volumes of teaching about “the rapture.”

We get the word “rapture” from the latinized form of this verb, which means to “snatch away,” to “grasp,” or to “catch something up.” This same verb was used of Philip the Evangelist whom the Spirit of the Lord “suddenly took away.” You could say that Philip was raptured from the Gaza Road to Azotus. It’s the same word that is used in Jesus’s Parable of the Sower. The birds snatch away the seed that falls on the path. The birds rapture the seed. When Paul was rescued by soldiers and carried away from a murderous crowd, this is the word that was used. The soldiers raptured him.

For many of us, this word has come to refer exclusively to the rapid, perhaps imperceptible removal (disappearance?) of Christians at the beginning of a period of tribulation that will bring this age to an end, but as we’ve just seen, the word did not have this technical meaning in the first century. In fact, that didn’t develop until the 1830s.  

Paul says that all this will happen – the Lord will descend, the dead in Christ will rise, and the living in Christ will be caught up – at “the coming of the Lord.” The Greek word here, which has entered the vernacular of the American church, is “parousia.” It is commonly translated as “coming” but that is a secondary and derived meaning. It’s primary meaning is “presence,” as in Philippians 2:12: “[D]ear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence…” Not only in my parousia.

The word did have a technical meaning in the first century Mediterranean. It referred to the arrival of some famous person, like a king or even the Emperor. The emperor’s “parousia” was a pull-out-all-the-stops, pageant or gala that happened when the exalted ruler made a royal visit to one of the great cities in his empire.

Here’s how it worked. When the emperor’s cavalcade, which included governing officials and military troops, neared the city, the city’s luminaries would lead a parade of citizens, peasants, slaves – just about everybody – outside the city to meet the emperor. There was cheering and exuberant celebration, and then everyone would return with the emperor to the city – his city. This is certainly what the Thessalonians would have thought of when Paul mentioned Jesus’s parousia. Jesus’s cavalcade will include military troops – angels and perhaps the blessed dead, and we will go to meet them. This was what the Thessalonians worried their deceased friends would miss, but Paul assures them that they will be right in the middle of the action.

Notice (verse 17) that the living (Paul was expecting to be among them, though a few years later when he wrote the Corinthians, he thought he might be among those who had fallen asleep) will be together with the dead in Christ. This is the Great Reunion. In Greek, Paul could have used one preposition to convey that we will be together, but he used two, “together with,” to emphatically make his point.

This is reminiscent of Isaiah’s great prophecy: “But your dead” – he is speaking to God – “your dead will live, their bodies will rise.” Then he addresses the dead: “You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy! Earth will give birth to her dead” (Isaiah 26:19). When that happens, we will be together with our loved one who have died.

But even more importantly, we will be together with Christ. “And so we will be with the Lord forever.” We are not going to join the dead in the grave; we are joining them in the clouds. A literal translation could go, “caught up in clouds to the Lord’s meeting.”

As so often with Paul, the language he is using comes from the Old Testament. Clouds serve as a prophetic image of the day of God’s judgment in the Palms and in Ezekiel. In Daniel, the Son of Man come for his coronation with the clouds. To meet the Lord in the clouds is to be present when, in the words of Daniel, Christ will be “given authority, glory and sovereign power; [and] all peoples, nations and men of every language [will worship] him.” Victory Day.

We, whether we die in the Lord or live in him, will be there. And whether we die in the Lord or live in him, we will be together. No wonder Paul says (verse 18), “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

There are a couple of things here that stand out. To “die through the Lord” guarantees that we will not miss out. But how terrible it will be to die outside the Lord. Who else knows the way out of Hades? He alone has turned the grave into an exit and not only an entrance. We need Jesus.

The Lord’s Meeting. The Great Reunion. The Day of Victory and Coronation. We are all invited. The way to accept the invitation is by entrusting yourself – that’s faith – to God by joining with Jesus. If you have not done that, or don’t know how to do that, I am going to invite you to do it today. We who have already done it can show you the way. If you have doubts but would like to explore this further, I or any of the pastors would enjoy meeting with you to answer questions and proved resources.

Finally, if you have Christian friends and family members who have died, do not grieve as those who have no hope. Our friends are fine! Better than fine. We have Jesus’s own word for it. And we will see them again. The Pauline phrases here are some of his most uplifting: “together with them … to meet the Lord …And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Be encouraged by those words.

[1] “Strange World,” Campus Life, Vol. 56, no. 6.

[2] David J. Williams, New International Biblical Commentary: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, p. 81, citing Bruce.

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Why Have 40 Million Americans Stopped Attending Church?

Posted on August 5, 2023 by salooper57

According to Religion News Service, the median sized Christian church in America had 137 people attending in 2,000. By 2021, that number had shrunk to 65. According to Jake Meador, writing in The Atlantic, more than 40 million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years.

Why is this happening? The pandemic has been a factor, but the trend began two decades earlier. The church’s failure to address abuse within the congregation has been another factor. But in a new book titled The Great Dechurching, authors Jim Davis and Michael Graham argue that there is a larger reason: contemporary American life simply does not make room for church. 

Referencing Davis and Graham, Meador concludes that “Contemporary America … is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success.” This leaves “little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children.” The church has become superfluous.

There is yet another reason for the decline: Christian parents and grandparents have failed to pass on the faith to younger generations. Samantha Saad, writing for Christianity Today, reported on a recent Ipsos Global Advisor survey of nearly 2,000 adults that found “countries with more baby boomers who say they believe in God … are less likely to have members of Gen Z who do.” It works the other way too. Countries with fewer believing boomers are likely to have more members of Gen Z with faith.

Why would Gen Z belief be down where Boomer belief is up, and vice versa? Boomers have failed to pass on the faith and, in some cases, have become an obstacle to it. A former youth pastor once said to me: “I’ve seen kids do well” – in terms of faith – “whose parents were genuine Jesus-followers. I’ve seen kids do well with addicted, abusive parents who don’t know God. But I’ve never seen kids do well whose parents talk like they’re Christians but live like they’re not.”

In the Bible, God “commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know [what God had done], even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.” It is not the church but rather parents who are primarily responsible to teach their children about God and model his ways.

But how can parents go about that? They must rid their lives of hypocrisy, as my youth pastor friend pointed out. That is a given. But what else can parents do?

Biola University’s Dave Keehn writes that parents must be intentional about passing on the faith. While faith is more “caught than taught,” it still needs to be taught. Personal experiences of God’s faithfulness must be shared. We should not expect it to happen by osmosis.

Parents should also pray for their children. This might include praying for them to grow wise, experience the reality of their connection to God, and have positive spiritual influences. One such influence might be a believing spouse.

Keehn encourages parents to look for teaching moments. Since people learn best from experience, relationship challenges offer a wealth of opportunities to point out God’s character and commands. So do TV shows, movies, and news reports.

Parents can go beyond looking for teachable moments; they can create them. This can be done by talking about church at Sunday lunch. What did you like, or think was important in the pastor’s sermon? Was there anything in it that we can apply to life? What did you talk about at youth group this week?

In the Book of Judges, we read that “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him….” Just one generation later, we read: “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done….”

We are living in a similar era. Parents should not wait for a national spiritual awakening to bring change. They should present a thought-provoking faith in the context of a joyful life. Nothing less will suffice.

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