Only By Grace

I was sitting out on the back patio of our home over the weekend.  In a quiet time, I started looking around at all that I saw, thinking about how it all got there and why I was so privileged to enjoy it.

I must confess that I don’t have answers to those questions.  Ultimately, I believe that God created all that we see and know, and all that we don’t see and don’t know.  However, just how the park woods which borders our back yard came to be, and how the tallgrass around the fish pond came to be what it is, with its seed pods high in the air this time of the year…I haven’t a clue.  And even the goldfish, the roses, the birds…all of that and more are beyond me in terms of how it all got there for me to enjoy.

The question of why I was privileged to enjoy it is even more puzzling for me.  I don’t deserve any of it.  I don’t deserve to have a back patio that borders Pawnee Prairie Park.  I don’t deserve to have a fish pond or tallgrass surrounding it.  I don’t deserve to have rose bushes that bloom even now.  I don’t deserve to have eyes, ears, or a brain to perceive, understand, and enjoy these thing.  I don’t even deserve to be here.  Yet here I am…in the middle of all of this beauty and enjoyment.

One might say, “You’ve worked hard all your life.  You deserve to have some nicer things.”  No, I don’t.  Yes, I’ve worked hard.  But no, there is no guarantee that any of that will result in enjoying nice things.  I’m not even guaranteed to be alive tonight, let alone next week.  Why should I think I’m entitled somehow to have running water, air conditioning, transportation, and a bed?

No one owes me anything.  God owes me nothing.  The government owes me not one thing.  If anyone is indebted, it is I.  And I’d better make sure I understand that.  If anyone is indebted, it is I.  I am indebted first to God.  I am indebted to those who have sacrificed to make this nation what it is.  I am indebted to the sheepdogs who keep the wolves away from us sheep.  I am indebted to my family, my parents, my ancestors, my friends.

The next time you get the feeling that the world owes you something, or that God is repaying you for some great thing you’ve done for Him, remember the story of the rich fool in Luke chapter 12.  After surveying all that he had accumulated, he decided to take it easy and live off of his largess.  But that very day, God comes to him and says, “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

It is fine to enjoy the things God may grant to us from time to time.  It is good to benefit from the grace given to us.  But we must remember…it is only by grace that we can enjoy these things…and that they are in no way guaranteed to us.

American Prosperity

One of the announced candidates for President in 2020 has reportedly said “An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity.”

I am not naming the candidate as I don't wish for this to become a political article. But just stop and think for a moment about this statement. While I understand that “American prosperity” can mean different things to different people, let's look at it from a rational point of view.

Has the generation the candidate references (a younger generation) had the privilege of clean water? Showers? Toilets? Hot water? Microwaves? Refrigeration? Transportation? Communication? Education? Health care? Energy (electricity and heating fuel)? Shoes? Underwear? If so, the generation HAS indeed seen American prosperity, because those things are sure signs of it...signs that most of the world can only dream about.

It is disingenuous to say the least to talk of an entire generation of Americans not seeing American prosperity. It is also incorrect in so many ways. American prosperity does not mean all are millionaires. It does not mean that there is no need to work hard for a living. It does not mean that all have everything they may desire. And it doesn't mean that anyone owes that generation...or any generation...anything or should collectively feel apologetic for the state of the world today.

No generation is entitled. No generation is deserving. No generation has an automatic lock on wealth or the American dream (whatever that means). Each generation must work, be good citizens, demonstrate a pragmatic and decent moral compass. Each generation must find its own prosperity, for only in doing so will that generation appreciate, cultivate, and hold dear to the principles which have made this nation the envy of the world.

American prosperity? If you have running water, you are ahead of most of the world in terms of prosperity. It's time we began to appreciate and cherish what God has given us.

Factual Evidence Matters

I just started a book called “The Virgin Birth of Christ by J Gresham Machan.  Published in 1930, it remains one of the apologetic standards regarding the birth of Jesus Christ.

In a preliminary discussion on opposition to the virgin birth, Machan has this to say about those in antiquity who were anti-Christian, and of course dismissed the virgin birth as a figment of the imaginations of Christians.

“…the early denials of the virgin birth by opponents of Christianity have no weight whatever against the historicity of the event.  The opponents presuppose the Christian doctrine, and have no historical tradition of their own to substitute for it.  The mere fact of their opposition is of no importance whatever, for it is only what was to be expected.  Unless they were to become Christians, they could hardly accept the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.”

Going beyond the doctrine itself, do you see what Machen has done here?  He has dismissed as having no importance at all the mere opposition to the doctrine.  And he has done so at least in part because the opponents have offered no contrary evidence…they are just opposed…which, he says, they naturally would be since they are not Christians.

OK.  Carry that forward to today’s world.  The mere fact that someone is opposed to something is of no importance UNLESS and UNTIL they can offer some concrete evidence supporting their opposition.  This works in all arenas of life…politics, family relationships, religion, education, and so on.  For example, the fact that you may be opposed to tariffs on Chinese imports has no standing unless you can offer some solid, factual evidence that supports your opposition.  Or as another example, the fact that you may be opposed to instrumental music in worship carries no weight unless you can offer some solid, concrete evidence that supports your assertion.  Or you may be opposed to vaccinations for your child.  You need to support that with good, solid, factual evidence or your opinion matters not.

Let me say it again…just being in opposition to something has, or should have, no importance unless you can offer a reasonable alternative and support it with good evidence.  It’s time we ceased being noisy opponents without solid foundation and started looking at all kinds of issues in life reasonably and carefully.  In so doing, we formulate our opinions based on factual evidence and can support our opinions with that evidence.

And let me clarify here that good, solid, factual evidence does NOT consist of Facebook memes, what your brother-in-law thinks, or what you heard on talk radio.  Factual evidence is evidence that has a solid, proven foundation compiled by people who are as unbiased as can possibly be regarding the subject.  This means that sellers of homeopathic remedies are not the best source of evidence for the ingestion of those remedies.  It means that athiests are not the best source of evidence contradicting Christian doctrine.  And it means that Democrats generally are not the best source of evidence to oppose a Republican idea or ideology (and vice-versa).

So, before you become a noisy opinion-teller, stop and think about the facts that support your opinion.  And do so with as much of an unbiased heart as you can muster.  Then realize that other people of good will, intelligence, and patriotism have opinions that are the opposite of yours, and speak with care and with love.

Such Should Not Be

A long-time Facebook friend and fellow church-member unfriended me yesterday.  I’m not exactly sure what the issue is, but suspect that it has to do with the fact that I called him out on a post he made that was political/societal in nature.  I happened to not agree with the tone of the post, as to me it seemed as if it was advocating an attitude that in my mind is unbecoming of a Christian.

He is more to the right than I am.  I consider myself more middle-of-the-road and in fact am an Independent.  That had little to do with the post, however.  The post called out those rich who would sleep well at night even though they know that they are accumulating wealth on the backs and with the lives of many in developing nations.

My comments had to do with the fact that we all are rich in this nation and we all are guilty of doing much the same, while sleeping very well at night.  We purchase and possess diamonds and gold that could well have been mined in Africa by laborers making pennies a day in work conditions that would shorten the lives of anyone who labored there.  We buy sneakers, underwear, and other apparel that may well have been assembled by people in sweatshop conditions earning a dollar or less a day.  We know it; we know where the stuff we buy is coming from.  Yet we do anyway and think nothing of it.

The post itself, in my mind, presented the author (and by extension those who posted it) in a “more righteous than they are,” attitude.  Such an attitude is, in my view antithetical to the Christian world view.  And I let him know that.  And I was unfriended as a result.

In this global economy, it would be very difficult to divorce oneself from all instances of worker abuse.  We can try as best we can to do so, but the fact is that we will not be able to eliminate it from our material lives.  That wasn’t my main point, however.  My point was the apparent “more righteous than they are” attitude.  Just the fact that it was posted betrayed, at least in my mind, that attitude on his part.

So, for one Christian to unfriend me based on that exchange…I can’t help that.  I wish him well and trust he will continue in his walk with God through his life and I will see him again.  I have to wonder, though, just how many of these kinds of relationships have been damaged by a Facebook post or a Twitter comment.  How many people have severed ties with someone else based on an ideological disagreement or a political difference of opinion.

Such should not be.

Christians are not all Caucasian, heterosexual, western culture Republicans.  Christians come in all colors, flavors, and ideologies.  People from “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation,” are even now gathering at the throne of God to praise and worship their Creator and Redeemer.  We’d better be ready to be surprised at who gathers ‘round with us when that great day comes.

Wondrous Apprehension

Today, I hung a framed, 11 by 14 photo of the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters constellation, on the wall of our church office.  It joins an enlargement of the earth as seen from the moon, the Pillars of Creation, Horsehead Nebula, and a Hubble Ultra-Deep Field photo, along with a photo of the full earth and a full shot of the dwarf planet Pluto.  I have another photo…a panoramic photo taken on the moon by the Apollo 11 crew…in process.  If you can’t tell by now, I like astronomical photos.

I’m not sure why I have a fascination for these kinds of things.  After all, I can’t see this stuff with my eyes only, nor do I have the telescopic means to observe them directly.  I must rely on someone else to see the beauty in the skies and take a high-enough resolution photo that I can have it enlarged and printed.  (The photos themselves, by the way, are in the public domain, having been taken by one or the other governmental agencies.)

For me, observing the beauty in the skies through these kinds of photographs is a kind of worship.  I know how they came into existence and know who holds all of it together.  Of course, I don’t have the scientific knowledge…I have the knowledge that comes by faith…the preponderance of the evidence accompanied by a stepping out of the bounds of mere human experience and into the realm of the reality of the spiritual.

You may have some other means by which you approach the God of the universe in worship.  For you, it might be music.  Or perhaps the miracle of metamorphosis or migration in nature is your thing.  You may look at the human body and marvel at the design.  Or you might see the intangible things such as love, joy, and peace and see their origin in the God of it all.

Whatever it may be, know that you aren’t alone.  Untold millions have looked at the Pleiades, a newborn baby, the monarch butterfly, and other untold phenomena and have broken out in unbridled worship and praise to the God who made it all.  It is a glorious and wondrous thing to be able to transcend the scientific explanations (or lack thereof) and grasp a truth that begs to be apprehended…begs to be known…begs to be embraced.

The Manifold Wisdom of God

I have always had a special fascination for a portion of the Bible found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  In chapter 3 starting with verse 8, Paul says, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.  This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Just what is it that the church is doing here in conjunction with the “manifold wisdom of God?”  If I am part of the church, do I have a role in whatever this activity is?  Who are the “rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places?”  And just what is this “mystery” which Paul talks about?

This is deep stuff.  I would suppose that, were I teaching on this passage, I would say something like, “It doesn’t get any deeper than this.”  This passage affects everyone who is part of the church of Christ (church of Christ is meant in the universal sense throughout this blog).  For (according to Paul) it is the Church that reveals God’s wisdom…even to those spiritual beings in the heavenlies.

James Montgomery Boice in his pinnacle work “Foundations of the Christian Faith,” says this about this passage.  “Any reader of the New Testament will understand that the church is important in this age, just as God’s dealings with Israel were important in the Old Testament period.  But the text from Ephesians says more.  The fullness of God’s wisdom is being revealed in the church even now, and the principalities and powers—the phrase refers to spiritual powers such as angels and demons—are scrutinizing the church to learn of the wisdom and plan of God revealed there (emphasis mine).  It is as though the church is a stage upon which God has been presenting the great drama of redemption, a true-life pageant in which it is shown how those who have rebelled against  God and wrecked his universe are now being brought back into harmony with him, becoming agents of renewal and healing instead.”

Do you see that?  Do you understand what Paul is saying here?  Do you truly “get it” in that a part of what you as a member of the church of Christ do is display the awesome and unfathomable wisdom and plan of God in the redemption of His creation?

So, dear reader, how are you coming along with that?  How is that going for you?  How are you working to display the marvelous wisdom of God and in the revelation of what, until the days of the church, was a great mystery, seen only through a glass, darkly?  Are you doing your part in demonstrating to even the evil spirits and demons the wondrously incredible plan of God to redeem not only his people, but the entire creation?

OK, it’s time to do some soul-searching.  It’s time to understand truly what it means to be part of the church of Christ.  We may be pressed on every side by evil, indifference, ignorance, intolerance, and apathy.  But God is bigger than all of those things.  And it is His power, working through us, which enables us to show even those satanic, evil spiritual beings the power and wisdom of God.