The Planet vs. the Poor

by chuck colson

To drill or not to drill may be the hottest issue in Congress this month and this fall’s political campaign. Drilling supporters argue it will lower gas prices. Opponents claim it poses too many environmental risks—and besides, they say, paying $4 per gallon for gas is good for us because it will force us to develop alternative energy sources.

So what’s the answer?

Christians need to weigh the arguments—and find a balanced approach. Of course, we care for the creation; we are stewards, as the Bible commands. But our highest priority should be looking out, not for the planet, but for people, and especially the poor.

Nobody feels the pain of high gas prices more than working-class and poor Americans. High gas prices are also driving higher food prices, which really pinch poor families. America’s environmentally correct elites may be able to afford $4 a gallon for gas and $4.50 per gallon for milk—the poor and working folks cannot.

Sure, we must conserve, and develop alternatives to oil. But in the meantime, the costly “lessons” the elites want to teach us are being borne on the backs of the poor, and are shaking the world’s economy. All the while we have ample oil reserves offshore and in Alaska which would enable us not to be held hostage by Middle East tyrants.

Why do radical environmentalists seem so indifferent to the poor? It is a matter of worldview. If you deify nature instead of God, if you believe humans are just another species of animal with no greater moral status than a kangaroo rat—well, you don’t have to worry much about the poor or marginalized. But if you believe God created humans in His image, and gave each one of us a unique and privileged place within His creation, then your concern for the poor far outweighs concerns for nature—especially speculative concerns like global warming.

If you are a Christian, you also see humans as producers and stewards, not as consumers and polluters. And while secular environmentalists fear that too much economic freedom will damage the Earth, the reality is the opposite: Countries with the greatest economic freedom eliminate pollution much more quickly than less free countries. That’s because economic freedom lifts people out of poverty, and once out of poverty, they begin taking better care of their surroundings.

Whether we drill need not be an either/or choice between people and the planet: In an excellent book titled Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Tradition, published by the Acton Institute, 25 Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic thinkers argue that sound environmental stewardship “must attend both to the demands of human well-being and to a divine call for human beings to exercise caring dominion over the earth.” But we are to be good stewards of the environment first and foremost because it is good for human flourishing—not as an end in itself. Human well-being and the integrity of creation, they write, “are not only compatible but also dynamically interdependent realities.”

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly condemned His people, not for despoiling the pristine wilderness, but for forsaking the poor and needy. Is this not His same message to us today?

Excellence: In Faith

In 2 Cor 8.7 the Apostle to the Gentiles asks his Corinthian audience to excel in a number of things. The first in the list of areas that the dutiful follower of Jesus is supposed to excel in is faith. Of course, this is because everything in the Christian life is by faith. Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God. It is what God responds to. We see this in the life of Jesus- he is rarely amazed or astounded by things- except faith, or the lack of faith in his disciples. He is amazed and encouraged when he finds it in the Centurion, and the Syrophonecian woman; and he is equally disturbed when the disciples cannot seem to find enough of their own to cast out demons, heal the sick , comprehend deep spiritual truths, or go and preach the gospel.

Faith is, of course, so important to God that we followers are known as "beleivers". We trust in the saving work of Jesus on the cross, we trust that the presence of Christ is with us, and we trust God to work out his plan in our lives for the amazing future that he promises to us. When faith is lacking or deficient, we are out of communication with God.

Promises come to us by faith- the scripture tells us that faithful adherence to the "faith' passed on to us (ie., those corporate teachings of the Apostles who walked literally with Jesus), is guarranteed to bring salvation to us. That faith is a collection of understandings formed out of the teachings of Scripture that create a faith world view. Real followers of the Lord must learn what he says about the various teachings. (One of the tragic circumstances that exists today is that we have 'born again' believers who are ignorant of what the teaching of the Word is on important subjects- an in the vacuum of that knowledge they live spiritually weak, duplicitous, even sinful lifestyles. This shames the King and his Cross.

The life of faith is not soley preoccupied with dogma and doctrine. It is optimistic in that it sees the "God quotient" in every equation. It demonstrates the existence of faith by refusing to limit its vision to the mundane circumstances or even the hostile climate that it exists in. The Christian ought to see the future positively. Not out of some form of weak inability to handle the true curcumstances, but out of an inner strength that refuses to see the glass half empty. Think for a moment about your outlook. do you approach life with a tragic and scarred psyche that is afraid to believe God for the best today? God says... excel in faith!

And, of course, the world view of the people of faith is defined by the God of their faith. That is why the closer we get to Jesus- the more infectious our faith. We can say to the lost "God has better than this for you"; and to the hurting "God will heal you"; and to the lonely " God will comfort you". What will make the church more effective? Better preaching? More programs? Slicker Media ads? No- What the world needs to see is exactly what they lack- an infectious faith in the living God.

Saving Our Daughters from the Hook up Culture

I am increasingly concerned about our college aged young people. On one hand they are increasingly more astute, savy, and mature with regard to many issues. Yet they may still be more likely to sleep in til 11 after a night of hard gaming. They are a mixed bag. Purposefully more mature in some areas and resistant to stepping into the responsibilities of adulthood as quickly as their parents. And they will live longer so they can put off child rearing and building a family and getting serious about living. What they aren't doing en masse is abstaining from adult sexuality. In fact the articles about the hook up culture are frightening for those of us who are serious about the teachings of Jesus on sexuality. This can be blamed partly on those services that are supposed to help them make those decisions. Dr. Miriam Grossman recentl wrote in an article of her expereince as a Campus physician.

She writes, " I was a campus physician for years, and know firsthand how students suffer from the toxic Sex in the City lifestyle on our campuses. College health and counseling services are packed with casualties of the anything-goes sexual mentality; many are girls who practiced “safer sex.” They did as they were told and used “protection,” but still paid a hefty price: genital warts and blisters, pre-cancerous conditions, worries about slipped condoms and HIV—to say nothing of chaotic, empty relationships and broken hearts.

These young women had been misled, and had a false sense of security. They were led to believe—not only by Hollywood, but by the nation’s leading sex ed organizations and popular health education sites like Columbia University’s GoAskAlice.com—that they are just like men, that sex is easily separated from emotions and procreation, and that with “protection,” casual liaisons can be a natural, positive part of growing up.

That philosophy is a result of social activists of the last century: Alfred Kinsey, Hugh Hefner, Gloria Steinem—figures that Bristol’s generation study in history class. Even the HIV-era notion of “safer sex” was developed years before they were born. While you’d hardly know it from the advice these kids get from sex educators or Columbia’s Alice, the world has changed. In this century, we’re fighting a horde of bugs, and the bugs are winning.

Canonized by the sex ed industry and considered transparent truths, “safer sex” guidelines are out of date. In 2008, it’s not enough to communicate with “partners,” get tested for STI’s, and use condoms. These days, young people—especially girls—who wish to avoid sexually transmitted infections need a different plan.

If we are serious about protecting our daughters, we must spell out a clear, no-nonsense message: the ideal is to delay sexual activity, and eventually commit to someone who also waited. The closer she can get to that, the better. Then provide her with some critical facts she’s unlikely to hear elsewhere:

A young woman has unique biological sensitivities that increase her vulnerability to the consequences of sexual activity. For example, intimacy releases oxytocin, a primarily female hormone that fuels feelings of attachment and trust. This chemical turns red lights green. It alters brain chemistry, so she’s more likely to overlook a guy’s faults, and to take risks she otherwise wouldn’t. A girl surely doesn’t want her brain drenched with oxytocin when making critical decisions like: What do I think of him? How far do I want this to go? This might explain the recent unpublished data from Princeton University indicating that for 80 percent of female students on that campus, hook-ups were followed by regret.
A young cervix has a delicate area only one cell thick, placing teens at risk for HPV. This is the case even if she’s been vaccinated. With time, the cervix grows a thicker, tougher surface, making infection less likely. A guy’s genital system doesn’t have a vulnerable area like that.
Most guys who have an STI don’t know it, even after they’ve been tested. While it’s easiest to share viruses when warts or sores are present, transmission can also occur at other times, when everything looks OK. So a woman could get an incurable genital infection from someone who doesn’t know he has it. Condoms reduce the risk by only 60 to 70 percent.
Other activities, such as oral or anal sex, can also be hazardous. Having more than five oral sex “partners” has been associated with throat cancer. As for anal penetration, the Food and Drug Administration—the agency responsible for promoting and protecting the public health—puts it well: “Condoms provide some protection, but anal intercourse is simply too dangerous to practice.”
As millions of American parents send their daughters off to college this week, many have a silent prayer on their lips. For good reason: sexual behavior is a serious matter, and a single encounter can have life-long consequences, especially for a woman.
Listen up, Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, and Columbia University: That’s not sexist—it’s biology. And ignorance or denial of this fact only increases a girl’s vulnerability.

We need to remind girls that the characters on Grey’s Anatomy are not real. In real life, Meredith would have herpes or warts. In real life, she’d be paying a price for her choices. Young women must know that now more than ever, it’s wise to follow the lesson of hard science: be very, very careful about who you allow close to you."

hmmm- perhaps the wisdom of Scripture isn't that strange and foriegn to healthy sexuality. Maybe the Father really does know best ;-)

If there is no God

by Dennis Prager

We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion.

What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies.

For all the problems associated with belief in God, the death of God leads to far more of them.

So, while it is not possible to prove (or disprove) God's existence, what is provable is what happens when people stop believing in God.

1. Without God there is no good and evil; there are only subjective opinions that we then label "good" and "evil." This does not mean that an atheist cannot be a good person. Nor does it mean that all those who believe in God are good; there are good atheists and there are bad believers in God. It simply means that unless there is a moral authority that transcends humans from which emanates an objective right and wrong, "right" and "wrong" no more objectively exist than do "beautiful" and "ugly."

2. Without God, there is no objective meaning to life. We are all merely random creations of natural selection whose existence has no more intrinsic purpose or meaning than that of a pebble equally randomly produced.

3. Life is ultimately a tragic fare if there is no God. We live, we suffer, we die -- some horrifically, many prematurely -- and there is only oblivion afterward.

4. Human beings need instruction manuals. This is as true for acting morally and wisely as it is for properly flying an airplane. One's heart is often no better a guide to what is right and wrong than it is to the right and wrong way to fly an airplane. The post-religious secular world claims to need no manual; the heart and reason are sufficient guides to leading a good life and to making a good world.

5. If there is no God, the kindest and most innocent victims of torture and murder have no better a fate after death than do the most cruel torturers and mass murderers. Only if there is a good God do Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler have different fates.

6. With the death of Judeo-Christian values in the West, many Westerners believe in little. That is why secular Western Europe has been unwilling and therefore unable to confront evil, whether it was Communism during the Cold War or Islamic totalitarians in its midst today.

7. Without God, people in the West often become less, not more, rational. It was largely the secular, not the religious, who believed in the utterly irrational doctrine of Marxism. It was largely the secular, not the religious, who believed that men's and women's natures are basically the same, that perceived differences between the sexes are all socially induced. Religious people in Judeo-Christian countries largely confine their irrational beliefs to religious beliefs (theology), while the secular, without religion to enable the non-rational to express itself, end up applying their irrational beliefs to society, where such irrationalities do immense harm.

8. If there is no God, the human being has no free will. He is a robot, whose every action is dictated by genes and environment. Only if one posits human creation by a Creator that transcends genes and environment who implanted the ability to transcend genes and environment can humans have free will.

9. If there is no God, humans and "other" animals are of equal value. Only if one posits that humans, not animals, are created in the image of God do humans have any greater intrinsic sanctity than baboons. This explains the movement among the secularized elite to equate humans and animals.

10. Without God, there is little to inspire people to create inspiring art. That is why contemporary art galleries and museums are filled with "art" that celebrates the scatological, the ugly and the shocking. Compare this art to Michelangelo's art in the Sistine chapel. The latter elevates the viewer -- because Michelangelo believed in something higher than himself and higher than all men.

11. Without God nothing is holy. This is definitional. Holiness emanates from a belief in the holy. This explains, for example, the far more widespread acceptance of public cursing in secular society than in religious society. To the religious, there is holy speech and profane speech. In much of secular society the very notion of profane speech is mocked.

12. Without God, humanist hubris is almost inevitable. If there is nothing higher than man, no Supreme Being, man becomes the supreme being.

13. Without God, there are no inalienable human rights. Evolution confers no rights. Molecules confer no rights. Energy has no moral concerns. That is why America's Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed "by our Creator" with certain inalienable rights. Rights depend upon a moral source, a rights giver.

14. "Without God," Dostoevsky famously wrote, "all is permitted." There has been plenty of evil committed by believers in God, but the widespread cruelties and the sheer number of innocents murdered by secular regimes -- specifically Nazi, Fascist and Communist regimes -- dwarfs the evil done in the name of religion.

As noted at the beginning, none of this proves, or even necessarily argues for, God's existence. It makes the case for the necessity, not the existence, of God. "Which God?" the secularist will ask. The God of Israel, the God of America's founders, "the Holy God who is made holy by justice" (Isaiah), the God of the Ten Commandments, the God who demands love of neighbor, the God who endows all human beings with certain inalienable rights, the God who is cited on the Liberty Bell because he is the author of liberty. That is the God being referred to here, without whom we will be vanquished by those who believe in less noble gods, both secular and divine.

The Challenge of Change

I don't like change- unless you are the one changing! Change produces anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, and even sadness and depression. Yet we want people to promise us change. Don't believe me? When was the last time you heard a politician say " Vote for me- I'll keep things status quo". Not exactly bumper sticker stuff. If the truth be told, we like it when things are a little stirred up so that it defeats the boredom of life with no change. Irrespective of whether you love change or hate change- it comes.

At my house, change is coming. My youngest is taking off to college. I am excited that he has some things figured out and is looking forward to his future. But it is going to throw my house off. Who will slam the door beneath my bedroom at 2 am? What voices will my wife and I hear in the house except each others? (and the ones in our heads!) Thousands of dollars will go out the door to that collegiate institution (that's no chump change!) And I am going to have to lift all that heavy stuff that I used to ask him to lift for me. That will be a change!

But with God, change is a promise of a different future. And as much as I am comfortable in my present- blessed, happy, productive, and settled- I am going to have to accept the changes. When everything is different, and all things seem unsettled and in the process of flux; when all the world is talking at the same time, and the rug under my proverbial feet is being tugged by change- then it is incumbant upon me to really know God. He says in the scripture- "I am the Lord and I change not". I guess that is because he is God and perfect and any change for him would be a step backwards away from perfection. So for me- change is working something better- Something truly good; not comfortable, not beautiful, not even acceptable- just good. You see, I am not good enough.

So it is with my hand in the hand of the unchanging one that I reluctantly accept change. His steady hand guides me through the stormy seas and uncertain times.

Oh, Unchanging One, perfection -moral and otherwise, grant me the firm faith to face the challenge of change; let there not be a retreat to fear but only an increased and confirmed belief that change is your way of bettering me. I yield to your disruptive grace. Amen.

What to do with the Chinese Olympics

Well are you going to watch them? Some aren't because China has such a record of human rights abuses and persecution of Christians. As China has approached the games they have increased the persecution of our brothers in faith. The chinese government leads persecuting countries in executions. Of course, they have given lip service for decades to religious freedom, but history has shown these words to be hollow. Life for members of the chinese church is not easy(see article). Recently the New York Times told the story of a brave chinese christian woman. "She never broke when she was tortured with beatings and electrical shocks, and even when she was close to death she refused to disclose the names of members of her congregation or sign a statement renouncing her Christian faith.

But now, months later, Ma Yuqin abruptly chokes and her eyes well with tears as she recounts her worst memory: As she was being battered in one room, her son was tortured in the next so that each could hear the other's screams, as encouragement to betray their church.

''They wanted me to hear his cries,'' she said, sobbing. ''It broke my heart.''

Ms. Ma, a steel-willed woman of 54, was brave enough to tell her story of the persecution that Christians sometimes still face in China. Dozens of members of her church are still imprisoned, and those free are under tight scrutiny, but several church members dared to meet me for a tense interview after we all sneaked one by one into an unwatched farmhouse near Zhongxiang, a city in central China, 650 miles south of Beijing."

The dilemma of conscience for me has to be decided before the 8th. I will not knowingly buy Chinese goods, especially Olympic goods. I certainly question the wisdom of our President in going to China for the Olympics. Didn't we learn this lesson in Berlin under Hitler? Are we giving China a stage to legitimize it's brutal regime? What do you think?

Biblical Balance

I don't really know where everybody is going so quickly- but it is scary how fast we move in an indiscriminant direction. I was driving the other day and some guy passed me going about 80-85 mph. He was young, and had his whole life ahead of him. I suspect that in spite of all that weaving in and out of traffic, he made it to where he was going. But he probably was still late!

I got to thinking that we are sure in a hurry. I have just gotten back from a vacation. So the pace of life, meetings, services, prep time, family time, a date with the wife, a lunch with a parishoner, a gathering with a family in the church, etc. really overwhelmed me. We move fast- at least some of us do. I guess we are trying to accomplish something. And we may even be doing it for the Kingdom of God!But if we don't learn to balance out the extremes of overwork and excessive leisure we will not find ourselves in Biblical Balance.

Biblical balance is the state that we Christians strive for. it is a progressive march and growth toward maturity. It is the striking the perfect chord- a three part harmony with the Lord. This is an idyllic state that we strive for. I keep trying to balance things out. Working a 60 hour week and finding time for myself; reading, studying, and preparing and leaning on the Lord's improptu; hard work and resting in him.

Leisure is important. The ancients called it re-creation because the soul's energy was recreated in that moment. Learning to gather strenth is as important as learning to expend the energy one has. To lean on work without leisure or rest is like commiting to only exhaling. Without intake there is not exhaling. The truth is that rest makes us work harder.

Certainly the author of Hebrews is correct (chpater 4)that there remains a rest for the people of God. We need to work hard to find that rest (smile)!

Cessationism; An undefendable tenet

Did the gifts of the Holy Spirit cease after the completion of Holy Scripture? That is the belief of many Christians. D. Matthew Allen is one such pastor. His ardent defense of the doctrine of cessationism is found easily on the web. His points are clear. I will engage them individually to show that the "doctrine of cessationism" is not only undefendable but contradicted by the very Bible that these precious folks pretend to defend.
Mr. Allen develops the the following points as his reasons why the revelatory gifts have ceased.
(1) Jesus is the cornerstone of the church and the foundation upon which the church is laid (Eph. 2:20; 1 Cor. 3:11). Jesus is also the culmination and completion of God’s revelation to man (Heb. 1:1-2).I suppose that Mr Allen feels that the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit is a threat to the doctrine of Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would testify of Christ and his teaching (John 14.26)and that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev 19.10). The purpose of the revelatory gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 clearly is to glorify God by the working of the Holy Spirit (v11). Clearly the Apostle Paul, who privately practiced the revelatory gifts(tongues 1 Cor 14.18), did not see his practice of these gifts as contrary to the work of Christ or any threat to the foundation of the church. And while the revelation of God in Christ is certainly complete in Jesus (as Allen references in Hebrews1.1-2) the author of the Hebrews makes clear that the gospel was attended by signs, wonders, and gifts of Holy Spirit as a confirmation of that great work of Christ (Heb 2.4). I suggest that to set the gifts and the revelation of Jesus over and against each other is foreign to the scriptures and the product of an anti-supernatural bias. Let me be blunt- no where in Scripture are the revelatory gifts contrary to the teaching of Jesus or a threat to the finished work of the cross. The gifts of the Holy Spirit attend the preaching of that glorious truth with personal revelation.

(2) Apostles and prophets were raised up in the 1st century as New Testament witnesses to Christ, ap-pointed by Him to bear authentic witness to his resurrection and redemption of man (Acts 1:2, 8, 21-26; 1 Cor. 9:1, 16; 15:1-4, 8-11; Gal. 1:1, 15-16). Compared to Jesus, apostles were the foundation of the church only in a secon-dary and inferior sense. (Eph. 2:20). To limit the ministry of the NT prophet and apostle to bearing authentic witness is another extra-biblical idea. In fact, Acts 1.8 makes clear that the entire group in the upper room (120 not just the 12 apostles) were to be empowered to bear witness by the miraculous presence of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. And while Allen may feel less threatened theologically by calling these NT apostles and prophets inferior, it was Jesus himself who promised that they would do GREATER miracles than he did (John 14.11-14). Certainly, these miracles (and the context is miracles!) are more than salvation. Mark 16.20 tells us of the accompanying signs and wonders that "worked with" all who believe (not just apostles) as they preached the Word.

(3) Apostles were directly commissioned by Jesus for a unique missionary work (Mark 3:14-15; Acts 1:21-26; Rom. 1:1; 2 Cor. 11:5; 12:11-12; Gal. 1:1). As a unique office and gift, apostleship ended in the first century A.D. (Cf. Matt. 19:28; Acts 12:2). This, of course, is a half truth. Miracles were routinely done in the book of acts by people other than the 12 Apostles. Acts 8 tells of the great revival of miracles and wonders done by Philip- a deacon. The next chapter tells of Ananias laying his hands on Saul and a dramatic healing. In Acts 13 prophets and teacher (not apostles) are used to call out the Apostle Paul and Barnabus to their work. This happens by the gift of the Spirit.

Apostles beyond the 12 unique Apostles of the Lamb not only were selected and sent out during the first century (Andronicus and Junias, Barnabas,etc are called apostles) and they continue to this day. Certainly there is nothing in Eph 4.11ff that would lead us to believe that some of those gifts were temporary. They are all gifts to the church to lead the church to maturity "...to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Unless Allen is willing to say that the church has achieved the lofty goals set out in Eph 4 he must acknowledge that the terms and purpose of the apostolic gifts continue to this very day. And while there may be some differences between the 12 Apostles of the Lamb and those called out to be apostles today there is much work to be done.


(4) In the 1st century, the gift of prophecy was closely related to the gift of apostleship (2 Cor. 12:12). The purpose of prophesy in the New Testament was to edify and strengthen the early church (1 Cor. 14:3-4; 14:22).
This assertion seems to link the two giftings together- another assumption from outside the Scripture. These two giftings, while working together on many occassions are never conflated together. They function differently and and not be be confused, as any cursory reading of Eph 4 would lead one.

(5) In essence, then, prophesy served the church as a specific witness to Jesus Christ at a time when it lacked the written revelation of Jesus Christ in the form of the New Testament. As Gaffin has stated, “With this foundational revelation completed, and so too their foundational role as witnesses, the apostles and, along with them, the prophets and other associated revelatory word gifts, pass from the life of the church.” Another half truth that places artificial and unbiblical limits upon the gift of prophecy. In fact, the Apostle Paul urged that all prophetic utterances be judged by those hearing the word of prophecy (1 Cor 14.29). How would those utterances be judged? Because apostolic doctrine was daily preached in the NT church (Acts 2.42-44) and the prophetic utterances would not violate the tenets of said doctrine. Paul knew that prophecy would always be subjective in nature and as such needed to bow before the objective truth of the apostolic teaching. To invert that is circular reasoning and confuses the purpose of the gift with the effect of the gift.

(6) Several Scriptural passages make this point:
a. Jude 3 says, “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” The word “faith” re-fers to the body of truths taught by the apostles or the “things believed.” (See also Gal. 1:23; 1 Tim. 4:1). It is a reference to the propositional truth of the gospel -- a truth now found only in the written pages of Scripture. The word “entrusted” (paradidonai) is the word used for handing down authorized tradition in Israel. (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-3; 2 Thes. 3:6). Moreover, the phrase “once for all” (hapax) indicates that the faith -- the objective content of Chris-tianity -- was entrusted to the saints one time, conclusively. Once this process was completed, there was no further need for additional revelation beyond the apostolic age.

In this final sentence of this point, Allen betrays the weakness of his argument. The revelatory gifts come to minister to the body of Christ. In 1 Cor 12 the church was certainly saved but still needed both the ministry of the gifts and the opportunity to be used in the gifts. The once and for all entrusted faith is not linked to the scriptures- the NT scriptures are not anywhere in view in the writing of Jude. How could they be, they were still being written!? (Jude!) Certainly, the Word preached and received is what is in view for the author of Jude.

b. Jesus promised his disciples that, after His departure, the Holy Spirit would give them “all truth” (Jn 14:26; 16:12-13). 2 Peter 1:21 amplifies the method by which the Holy Spirit would give the apostles truth; Scripture is the result of the Holy Spirit’s carrying the authors along as they wrote. This is an inexcusable interpretation. To say that Peter is commenting on the methodology that John had in mind while recording the words of Jesus?! The Sriptures are inspired and are used as a plumb line with which to judge prophetic words and revelatory ministry gifts. And certainly truth comes in the objective and propositionally authoritative writings of the Apostles, but the very meaning of the words in John 14 and 16 is that the Spirit would bring subjectively to the remembrance of the individual disciples the teachings of Jesus. This Holy Spirit is not just given to the church authorities- it is the Holy Spirit given to all who believe!

c. The apostle John said that anyone who adds to the words of the book of Revelation would be cursed (Rev. 22:18). While his words apply specifically to the revelation given to him as recorded in the last book of the New Testament, inferentially, they equally apply to the canon of Scripture as a whole.

Here again, a leap that even Allen must acknowledge. That the curse of Rev 22.18 is applied to those who prophesy after the close of scriptures canon is ludicris. The canon wasn't fully selected and defined for hundreds of years. The councils worked diligently and fought political pressures et al to preserve holy writ. Are we to think that after the writing of REvelation in 95 AD there was no prophetic ministry that was valid and not under a curse? The Didache, a gathering of teachings regarding church behavior from around 95 AD, clearly teaches otherwise. It acknowledges the itinerate ministries of evangelists and prophets and apostles.


In sum, because prophecy and other “revelatory” gifts have fulfilled their purpose and are no longer neces-sary to provide a witness to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, they have thereby ceased to exist; it is Scripture that now takes their place as God’s special revelation regarding salvation. It is now the written Word of God that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, in short for life, to equip man for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16). The view that God directly speaks to man today through the continuation of revelatory gifts seriously undermines this principle.


Clearly, the NT expects the Spirit to be empowering the believers to do ministry. I am a Pentecostal because that expectation is CLEARLY delineated in Scripture. It is not always neat; it is not always without problems or issues. But it is the result of the study of the Word of God. Cessationism cannot be defended. It is certainly not the result of the reading of the Scriptures. And it is definitely frought with bias and based upon personal experience rather than solid exegesis (bible interpretation) . I encourage you to read the NT for yourself. Ask yourself what the expectation of Jesus and the Apostles was for his church. Was it to be an authoritarian circle of dogmatic doctrine keepers or an empowered lot of believers changing their world?YOU be the Judge!

Cash or credit

Intercessory Prayer

Looking at the lives of most christians you would define their prayer theology as one that is very passive. By that I mean, that if you were a fly on the wall in most Christian's homes prayer would be an extraordinarily small part of their lives. The theology behind this is insidious. It is a belief that God always gets his way (He doesn't) and that if you don't participate God will find someone else to carry your slack (He won't necessarily). This leaves Christians with an apathetic view of prayer. It is a good and fine thing to do unless... you ahve soemthing else to do.

Scripture, however, defines prayer as very important. It is those who ask who recieve , and those who seek who find, and those who knock who have doors opened. The Greek tenses in these verbs are continual tenses. Ask and keep asking, knock and keep knocking, .. in other words pray and don't give up. This is crucial for the christian and imperative for the prayer warrior. Little happens that is not provoked by prayer. Especially, in the life of those who are estranged from God. If you are praying for an lost friend or loved one- you may be the ONLY link between them and God. This would explain the Enemy's intensity in fighting your prayer life. But don't give up under pressure- instead press on to defeat the enemy and bring men and women into deeper intimacy with Jesus.

Alice Smith is the US Prayer Track coordinator of 2000 AD and she writes the following tips for prayer

When the pressure is on to give up, don't! As believers, we are not to live according to our feelings but according to our spiritual position in Christ. Satan is no match for an intercessor living securely in the following positional truths:

1. YOU ARE AN OVERCOMER. There is no defeat for those who have confidence in the Spirit of God to give them overcoming life. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).

2. YOU ARE COMPLETE IN CHRIST. There is no lack for those of us who are in Christ (see Col. 2:8-10). But if we view ourselves as lacking, we have defined our experience. Look at yourself from God's point of view, not man's.

3. YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN AUTHORITY. We have been given the keys of the kingdom. Is it any wonder then that Satan attempts to provoke us to apathy, discouragement and depression? He simply can't afford to ignore a believer who is exercising her authority in Christ through prayer (see Matt. 16:19; Luke 10:19).

4. YOU HAVE SPIRITUAL WEAPONS. Christ, the Mighty Warrior, has given us not only defensive armor but also offensive weapons (see Eph. 6:11-17; 2 Cor. 10:4). These weapons are spiritual, not earthly, and they have but one purpose: winning spiritual wars!

Yet even the most powerful gun is harmless until someone pulls the trigger. We must be willing to pray until the target is in sight. Then we must continue to pray until the target is destroyed!

It is time for believers to pray. Perhaps like never before! Step up to the high calling.

Larry Norman

Back in the 70's I heard the Father of Christian Rock sing at a small coffee house in Oaklawn. He passed away this year. Larry Norman was quite a voice for the Jesus Movement! Here is one of my favorite songs by Larry.

THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL


i was born and raised an orphan
in a land that once was free
in a land that poured its love out on the moon
and i grew up in the shadows
of your silos filled with grain
but you never helped to fill my empty spoon

and when i was ten you murdered law
with courtroom politics
and you learned to make a lie sound just like truth
but i know you better now
and i don't fall for all your tricks
and you've lost the one advantage of my youth

you kill a black man at midnight
just for talking to your daughter
then you make his wife your mistress
and you leave her without water
and the sheet you wear upon your face
is the sheet your children sleep on
at every meal you say a prayer
you don't believe but still you keep on

and your money says in God we trust
but it's against the law to pray in school
you say we beat the russians to the moon
and i say you starved your children to do it

you are far across the ocean
but the war is not your own
and while you're winning theirs
you're gonna lose the one at home
do you really think the only way
to bring about the peace
is to sacrifice your children
and kill all your enemies

the politicians all make speeches
while the news men all take note
and they exagerate the issues
as they shove them down our throats
is it really up to them
whether this country sinks or floats
well i wonder who would lead us
if none of us would vote

well my phone is tapped and my lips are chapped
from whispering through the fence
you know every move i make
or is that just coincidence
well you try to make my way of life
a little less like jail
if i promise to make tapes and slides
and send them through the mail

and your money says in God we trust
but it's against the law to pray in school
you say we beat the russians to the moon
and i say you starved your children to do it
you say all men are equal all men are brothers
then why are the rich more equal than others
don't ask me for the answer i've only got one
that a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son


see him perform it live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTlr-73DQq8

Thanks Larry for the blessings.

Coloring in the Lines

We are taught that in kindergarten and preschool. Lines keep the colors in their places. Lines give the picture distinction. Lines help communicate the vision of the artist. Makes sense to me.

So the Proverbs(22.28) say "Do not move the ancient boundary Which your fathers have set."

Rules are lines. The problem I am addressing today is people's inability to follow rules. Is it just rebellion? People seem to see two classes of people -those that need the rules and then the other class of people- the exceptions (themselves). The height of arogance and pride- that your situation is special. You see see it everywhere. The jerk that endangers the entire highway by driving down the emergency lane 100 miles an hour. The guy who always double parks. The one guy who thinks he alone is trustworthy to eat and drink in the facility. The person in the theater who has the "special privilege" to speak aloud to his neighbor. the lists go on and on.

But rules are to keep peopel safe. Rules are to help communicate priorities. Rules are so that everyone is treated the same. If you are a special case- the rest of us apologize to you! But we need some predictability! WE need to know that we can live together, work together, and YES worship together without someone getting hurt. So we have rules.

Then there are the assumptions that there are perfect rules. You know the ones that fit every situation. But of course, there are no such rules. Rules are general principles that help us live together. They really don't fit every situation but we need you - yes, even you- to abide by them so that we can do those things that we do without danger to others.

Now I hate stupid rules. Berwyn has a tax on pets. Can you believe it? What cost does a dog incure to society? That is a stupid rule. It provokes the rebellious side of me. Is God using the crazy rules of our society to test my ability to deal with my rebellion?

I don't have all the answers- I just know that there needs to be a healthy respect for rules. God help me to honor the lines. What do you think?

oprah's cult (from fox news)

Oprah Winfrey may have gone too far in exploiting and distributing the teachings of a questionable New Age writer.

On Monday night, Winfrey conducted her weekly Web "event" seminar with New Age writer Eckhart Tolle. His message: "Life is the dancer and you are the dance."

Got that?

The seminar was No. 7 in a series of 10. On the first 90-minute Webcast with Tolle, Oprah extolled the author’s virtues, calling his best-selling "New Earth" book "one of the most important books of our time," the seminars one of "the most exciting things I’ve ever done."

Imagine that Winfrey considers her conversations with Tolle, a man with a shady and un-checkable background, more important than her schools in Africa and Mississippi for underprivileged children, more important than her Angel Charity network or her zillion-dollar syndicated TV show. Tolle must be something else!

But it’s not like Winfrey is endorsing Maya Angelou or Toni Morrison, serious, educated artists with portfolios. Tolle is more like Kilgore Trout, Kurt Vonnegut’s science-fiction crackpot alter-ego.

And what’s different about the Tolle connection for Winfrey is that for the first time in her much-applauded Book Club’s history, she’s gone into business with the author. And the author is not one of a novel, memoir or cookbook; he’s the mysterious creator of a philosophy that Winfrey endorses and suggests her readers live their lives by.

But is Eckhart Tolle an appropriate spiritual leader? He told an interviewer that he stopped going to school at age 13 and didn’t resume any education for at least a decade. In the same interview he says he graduated "with the highest mark at the London University."

The press rep at the University of London says there’s simply no way to verify that. "You might as well say you graduated from here," joked the person I spoke to. Clever.

He says in interviews that he had a personal epiphany in 1977 at age 29 after a life of suffering from suicidal depression. For the next 15 years, no one knows much about what happened to him, and he’s not saying. He says he spent time wandering and sitting in London’s parks, with "no relationships, no job, no home, no socially defined identity," but a sense of "intense joy."

In seminar 1, Oprah’s new guru tells her: "I was living in England, and I had this strong impulse one morning … I had to move to the West Coast of North America without knowing why … So I moved to Vancouver and then I took a Greyhound bus to California, knew only one or two people, and I said, 'Why am I here?'"

"Three weeks passed, somebody put me up in a room near San Francisco, and suddenly this came. I bought a notepad and suddenly the strong stream came through and I wrote, 'What Is Enlightenment?' The beginning of 'The Power of Now.' The moment I wrote that, I knew this is the book that wants to be born. So rather than me wanting to write a book, there was a book that wanted to be written."

And so on.

Oprah’s response to this: "It’s like Michelangelo says the angel’s in the marble and he just cuts away the marble."

Well, not quite.

His books, "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," are the same gobbledygook as most New Age stuff. They’re all about self-empowering and how to find out who we are. "Awakening" is Tolle’s key word. Tolle is very busy enforcing moments of silence and showing his readers how to find their "pain-body."

Nothing new there. And nothing new for Oprah, who’s now so wildly wealthy that she’s exceeded literally any famous person she might interview. Parade magazine puts her 2007 income at $260 million, the most of any celebrity and $150 million more than Steven Spielberg, the most successful filmmaker of all time. So what can she do besides anoint presidential candidates or start a religion?

Indeed, Winfrey already has flirted with several cult-like New Age deals. She’s enthusiastically embraced the Scientology celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. She’s even gone into business with Kirstie Alley, whom she’s planning to give a forum in her own talk show.

She’s also promoted televangelist Marianne Williamson’s kooky "Course of Miracles" and a book of New Age clichés by Australian Rhonda Byrne called "The Secret." (There’s a good piece on the latter at salon.com.)

Winfrey is nothing if not gifted at recognizing what’s already popular in the culture and exploiting it. But her association with Tolle is way over the top. It involves sponsorships with General Motors (Chevy), 3M Corp. (Post-Its) and Skype Internet phone service. In one broad stroke, she’s managed to accomplish what Scientology never has achieved: bringing corporate America’s implicit approval into religion.

What’s interesting is not so much Tolle, with his German accent and blank stare, proselytizing his nonsense. He talks a lot, literally, about looking at flowers and trees in a new way, much like Chauncey Gardner in "Being There."

It’s more about Oprah herself, free associating, selling out her own world as she gushes over those flowers and trees. For example, in seminar 1, she socks it to Hollywood, the source of 50 percent of her guests. This is the same Oprah who does a live special the day after the Oscars and often plugs the worst films just to get ratings.

In that segment, Oprah seems to forget who she is to score points with Tolle, or rationalize why she’s involved in this beyond the corporate money being reaped:

"Everyone complains about the media and the movies. I mean, if you just look at the Academy Awards this year, and the kinds of movies that were made this year, and it’s all a reflection of who we are. You say in the book," Winfrey says to Tolle, "that we’re the species that will go and watch people be maimed and killed and murdered for our entertainment."

We can assume she wasn’t talking about "Juno," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "The Savages," "Enchanted," "Atonement," "La Vie En Rose," "Michael Clayton," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "Into the Wild," "Away from Her" or "Charlie Wilson’s War" — all films that had nominations. Just three films featured overt violence this year — "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood" and "Sweeney Todd."

But it’s the zealous excitement in Winfrey’s eyes when she says it that makes the difference. Those three films are now the whole Academy Awards, and therefore "the media." You can already feel hearts pounding! She’s right! Hollywood had better look at flowers and trees in a new way.

What makes Oprah’s seminars even more creepy are the "study groups" she has lined up for Tolle at bookstores and other locations around the world. They’re all hooked up to the seminars through Skype, and the members can ask questions. They all have that same glazed-over look as people giving testimonials on late-night infomercials.

"I consider this to be a sacred moment when we can all come together … and share in this work," Winfrey says at the start of seminar 6. And why not? You’ll notice that she, not Tolle, has the sole copyright on the broadcasts. Ka ching!

But don’t worry about Eckhart Tolle. His "power of now" is all about his store. All roads lead to his merchandise, which is prominently featured on his Web site and accessed from Oprah’s.

His is a costly philosophy. Books, tapes, DVDs — all of it becomes quite expensive when added up, making Tolle no different than Scientology, Kabbalah or any other shiny new religion. Tolle even sells teaching tools "for professionals" — "A Guide for the Spiritual Teacher and Health Practitioner" — even though it’s unclear what is the basis of his own educational background.

Are we supposed to take this seriously? As Tolle, himself, says to Oprah, "It’s better to laugh at madness."

Thoughtful Conversion

Most people don't think. Okay, that may be a bit harsh. We DO ponder things like what we will have for dinner, what movies we might watch, what political candidate we most likely agree with. But we DON'T think about the things that we believe. When you are speaking to a friend about the change that Christ has made in your life you are likely not using Jesus' name very frequently. You hem and haw around the subject. You speak of how things have changed "since you started going to church' or now that you have found "faith". But many people have faith in some crazy stuff! And there are lots of churches to attend. So in a way you are distracting your own argument. What you need to be saying is, "Hey, Bob, the craziest thing happened to me. I went to church and really felt something! It seemed like God was calling out to me. Did you ever have that?" Suddenly, Bob- your unchurched friend- is asked for his opinion and confronted with the possibility that God might actually be speaking to both you and HIM! That is important because Bob never thinks about God. And he certainly never questions why he is so unfulfilled in his present faith relationship that he never attends church. He, in fact, in scared of God and is really afraid of surrendering to his will. (He might end up a missionary in Africa!)

Real conversion begins with the thoughtful processing about what we believe and why. This world view assessment is crucial for repentance. God spent much time trying to get Israel to examine their deeds and lifestyle choices. He even brought judgment for the purpose of turning back the hearts of his children to prayer. The thinking process isn't an easy one. I demands of a person the ability to say I have been wrong up until now. This rarely happens in older people. They are afraid to admit that they have made mistakes walking the wrong way in this life. Sad really. That our faith is trapped behind the formidable doorway of our pride. For the believer, God has permission to crush your pride, in the interest of your soul. But for the unbeliever our evangelistic job is to prod them with questions and thoughts that the Holy Spirit can use to get them to think.

After thinking that there just might be a God who is trying to get my attention I am open for an expereince with that God. If he turns out to be a loving, caring and benificent God then I am more likely to fall in love with him.

Someone asked me the other day if I get defensive regarding the gospel. Well the truth is I know it is TRUE. And since that is my mental stance, I find myself less threatened by the bloviation of the "other side". See, I was on the other side when God reached down to me. So how about you, are you sure you are walking in the truth?

Why Go?

So you think I am crazy! Every year I take my boys fishing with their uncle and cousin and we "enjoy" the arduous workout of paddling a canoe for some 20-30 miles to camp on some mosquito infested island. It is hard work. This years trip was more arduous than most. We traveled between 45-50 miles round trip. We went through bogs that were deeper than our waistes, we climbed hills (Heart attack Hill!)for what seemed like hours, we portaged an 80 pound canoe over a mile on one portage, we descended down slopes that scared me without a pack on my back, and we got cold, wet, and rained on. The mosquitoes are worse than in the Costa Rican rainforest. The black flies were flying into our eyes and mouths all day long. Fun, eh!

At 50, I am personally challenged by the outdoors. It stands challenging me to persevere, to overcome, and to rise to the occassion.In that way, it is like life. Life has significant challenges that cause many to shrink back in fear. I have friends that turned back in fear at various moments of their lives- failed to pursue the goal of meeting the challenges. To me, to turn back in fear or to fail to meet the challenges is like dying. If life is a challenge- death is failing to meet it. And I ain't dead yet!

True enough, I am more tired when I return from those kinds of vacations. It takes a little recuperating time. But if you notice there is a smile on my face. It is satisfying to face the obstacles and come out on top. Tired yes- but more alive than ever before... Inspite of the fact that I have to eat my own cooking!

Big Name, Big Bucks; Big Problem?

"Yes, Pastor we would love to come and speak at your church," the email read," our customary fee for (Big Name Speaker) is $7500 for 4 one hour sessions..." My jaw dropped. Now I am not the best at math, but I think that $2000 an hour to speak a warmed over message on marriages is a bit crazy. Please realize that housing said speaker, flying them in, and feeding them would (of course!) be in addition to the fee.

What is going on here? When did the minister start charging $2000 per hour? Now don't get me wrong - this guy has some good material. I have read his book. But I can't imagine this price!!! Who knows if he practices what he preaches? Too bad because we desperately need his message!

So in addition to the book royalties that he is recieving, he is making $400,000 per year? Not bad work if you can get it. Not only will I not have him in, I won't recommend his books anymore either. This is a Big Problem.

What these guys need to remember is that there will be a judgment on those who merchandise the anointing in such a manner. Church- there is a big problem here. And the time has come for judgment to begin in the house of God. So I am asking God to deal with it officially in this blog.

God, you have a renegade in your house. As you would expect me to do to a pompous little teenager in my house, I am asking you to do to this brother. I rebuke the greedy materialistic spirit that he is operating in right now. Please- bring humility, balance, and compassion for real people with real problems to him. In the Biggest Name of all. Amen.

Evil- happens all the time

A friend's car got broken into today. She seemed violated in the worst way. To know that her things were rifled through, that some creep sat in her front seat and jerked out her stereo, and to know that the window he broke may just cost more than the things that he stole is a bit overwhelming. She is left to try to rebuild this little corner of her life. The gapping hole in the dash will be a reminder for a little while that evil happens all the time. Even to nice people.

Of course, there are much greater evils in the world. Huntas starving people who need food while feasting on the best themselves. Nations dying of AIDS. Great abuse at the hands of people who are supposed to be loving. Evil marches on.

There is something inside of me that gets so frustrated at evil and injustice. I think it wouldn't take much to push me over to vigilantism. But I also recognize that there will never be a complete dealing with evil by mankind. We are overwhelmed by it. It is simply too pervasive, too powerful, too personal- it is impossible to overcome as a society. That is another reason we need a Savior to return from heaven and bring divine justice.

But I will plead for mercy until then. For I know that I was a thief; I stole and broke things that were not mine; and I still wrestle with evil. God be merciful to me, a sinner! I can personally overcome evil with good in my life- so I will probably help her rebuild her life. My hope for justice isn't wrapped up in the election cycle or the court system or even the newspapers freedom to expose the prominence of the need for change. My hope comes from the heaven- it is in the Lord my King.

Why most Christians don't do much for the Lord

Compromise. There it is. That is the secret to no success. When Christians compromise in areas of their devotion to God, their morality, their acceptance of sin, and their lifestyle they become unuseable to God. Sad.

I know the temptation is to embellish this with more writing but really, do we need to? I see Christians fall prey to the sexual mores of the world around us and they are moved to the sideline like a star running back with a broken ankle. They cannot help the team; they cannot move the ball forward. Sadly, star ball players recognize more readily their contribution (or lack thereof) than the saints do.

And we could talk as well about the party spirit, the materialism, the tongue waggin' that goes on in the compromised lives of believers. They are all destructive.


Know that when we mess up God may or may not get his will done on the earth- but YOU LOSE. You miss the blessing of being a tool in his hand, an impliment of healing, a catalyst for change. And that costs the body of Christ as well as you.

However, even the most meager steps to live a life of earnest devotion to Christ can be blessed by God. Which puts you under "the spout" where the blessings come out. You get blessed, the body of Christ is strengthened, and people in the world can finally find a legitimate example of real life Christianity. And they desperately need the witness. What do you think?

Is Your Marriage Normal ?

The following article is a great check list to measure the health of your marriage.


Is Your Marriage Normal? by tim gardner

I picked up an eye-opening book a few years ago called In an Average Lifetime. Compiling data from a variety of sources, author Tom Heymann provides a wacky list detailing the amount of time that a "normal" American spends on certain activities throughout his or her life.

For example, if you are an average American, during your lifetime you will eat 1,483 pounds of candy, including 801 pounds of chocolate. You will buy 47 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, drive 413,226 miles, sit in traffic for nine months, change TV channels 325,893 times and spend one year looking for misplaced items and a total of five years waiting in line. You'll spend $6,881 in vending machines, have three flat tires and lock yourself out of your car twice. That is, of course, if you're normal.

But we all know people who defy the averages. There are those who lock themselves out of their car twice a year, buy Girl Scout cookies by the case and are up to seven figures on the remote control. Having grown up driving through fields and brush country while working on a farm and hunting, I have long since stopped counting the number of flat tires I've changed. That makes me think that for the national average to be three, there must be swarms of lucky guys out there who have never had to struggle with stuck lug nuts on a cold winter's night. I guess all those guys just aren't normal—and they're probably okay with that.

When it comes to what is and isn't typical in marriage, however, we tend to be much more concerned about being normal. We don't worry if our vending machine expenditures to date don't even approach $500—hey, we're healthier than most. But to hear that average couples have sex 2.3 times per week while our frequency is 1.8 begins to make us feel like, well, somehow we're just not normal.




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When you're thinking like a couple,
you realize that 'us' is more
important than 'me.'



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Or you observe couples who always seem to be involved in myriad activities around the church, frequently go out with other couples, and both the husbands and the wives seem to have strong best friends outside the marriage. It looks exceedingly normal, but you and your mate find that you benefit more from being involved in only one church ministry, going out together, alone, and having each other for a best friend. You both like it this way, but others give the impression that your approach to marriage somehow isn't quite normal.

The list of comparisons and the quest to find what's normal goes on and on. How many kids should we have? How often do other couples fight? Does everyone struggle with finances? Just what is normal? Well, the short answer is: it doesn't matter.

Ask a Better Question
The important question is not what is normal? but rather what is healthy? One of the reasons you married your mate is that you believed this person was the best match for your needs, values, goals and dreams. If you only needed someone to be normal with, you could choose a partner at random, get out the "normal marriage checklist" and go about being married.

But in modern Western culture we have marvelous options. We choose a mate and then, also out of choice, we are free to apply the principles God has given us to create a healthy marriage. It has nothing to do with being normal. Rather, it's based on what is best for the couple within the parameters of a committed, Christ-centered relationship.

What, then, does this type of relationship look like? In short, a healthy marriage can be measured by six interrelated criteria:


1. A Sense of OnenessWith a spirit of oneness, couples realize and experience the uniqueness of what "God has joined together" in marriage. They believe God has called them into a relationship in which they can become much more together than they ever could individually. They have a couple mindset, meaning that if I am one with my mate, I take him or her into consideration in every decision I make. I value what my mate thinks and who he or she is. And I realize that us is more important than me.

Couples who have a sense of oneness have learned the practice and power of what I call T.O.Y.S.: Think Outside YourSelf. You are aware at all times of what it means to look out for your mate's interests and desires. Couples who are one realize they are stewards of the love and life that God has given them, they relish the mystery of oneness and they are determined to use their marriage to honor him.

2. An Atmosphere of AcceptanceCouples with healthy marriages value acceptance and openness and share a commitment to resolving conflict. One of the greatest gifts you can give your mate is to accept him or her for who he or she is: God's gift to you. (I must, however, add the caveat that this does not mean you simply endure abusive or addictive behavior.) But barring such destructive behavior, most husbands and wives keep trying to change their mates into whom they think they should become. That sort of remodeling project is the opposite of acceptance, and it doesn't make for a healthy relationship.

In a strong marriage, both husband and wife feel known and accepted. Closely connected with that is openness—the ability to express your thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams and failures freely. Along with that is the ability to hear and appreciate what your mate is telling you.

Add to that a third essential skill, that of resolving whatever conflicts arise. We may think "normal" couples never raise their voices in conflict. But as researcher John Gottman has proven, volume is less important than the content of what you say. Couples living in an atmosphere of acceptance and openness don't demean each other, put each other down or destructively criticize one another. Those habits are what lead to resolving conflicts.

3. Passionate Sexual Intimacy
You can have an average marriage without a good sex life, but I firmly believe that you cannot have a great marriage without a great sex life. But that can't be defined by frequency, variety and response since "normal" is not necessarily healthy.

A healthy sexual relationship is one in which egos and personal agendas are left outside the bedroom door. Both the wife and the husband are free to express their wants, desires, likes, dislikes, turn-ons and turn-offs in a way that celebrates God's gift of sex. They see their sexuality as a way to express their love, serve each other and celebrate the oneness created by God. And they do all of this in an emotional environment that is free of criticism and manipulation.

4. Commitment to God and Each Other
Commitment is a vital component of any healthy marriage. The vows you spoke before God were not just nice platitudes. "Till death do us part" is just what it says. (Again, I'm not talking about extreme cases of violence and abuse.) Couples who dissolve their marriages are usually the ones who, in the back of their minds, always gave themselves an out in case things didn't work as they planned (or selfishly hoped). In contrast, a couple who can look deeply into each other's eyes and pledge again "for better or worse" on each anniversary will have a marriage that is strong, above normal, and, yes, healthy.

5. A Spirit of ForgivenessFrom reading the teachings of Christ, it's obvious that forgiveness goes hand-in-hand with commitment. However, far too few couples offer the gift of forgiveness to their mates.

How do you react when your spouse expresses concern about something you did or neglected to do? Do you respond with humility and gratitude for being given the opportunity to change and improve your marriage (no, that is not a joke)? Or are you more likely to launch an accusation of your own: "Oh yeah, well let me tell you what you did!" If the latter, that's a strong indication that forgiveness is not a regular part of your marriage.

I can't succeed in loving and caring for my wife as long as I harbor a long list of wrongs I believe she has committed against me. Our culture tells us we have every right to be upset. Well, you may have cause to be upset, but God calls us to confess the wrong that we have done and to extend forgiveness to others. And that begins at home.

6. A Clear Marital Mission
Couples with a healthy marriage know that their relationship has a divinely ordained purpose. Books on excelling in the business world stress the importance of understanding why we exist: What is our niche? What do we want to accomplish and why? Such a focus works wonders in the corporate world, and yet studies have shown that fewer than 3 percent of married couples have any goals that go beyond financial planning.

Part of understanding oneness in marriage involves recognizing marriage's bigger purpose. What we can invest in that will not only bring great returns to our own relationship but will also contribute to the Kingdom of God.

For one couple, a "normal" marital mission might be to minister to orphans in Romania. For another, it may be using their marriage to show hospitality to their neighbors in suburban Dallas. The more you approach marriage as a secure base from which to serve others and bring honor to God, the more you will see and experience how alive, exciting and fun marital love was created to be.

A great marriage is one that begins with a strong sense of oneness and grows to include a shared mission that enriches the lives of others. Along the way, a husband and wife practice mutual acceptance and open communication (even when disagreeing), passionate sexual intimacy, an unswerving commitment to God and to each other and generous amounts of forgiveness.

Far from being average, a healthy marriage will exceed your highest expectations and your wildest dreams. With that kind of potential, who cares about being normal?



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Dr. Tim A. Gardner is author of Sacred Sex (WaterBrook) and Director of The Marriage Education and Policy Center at the Indiana Family Institute (an affiliate of Focus on the Family).

11 Signs of a Good Church

1. Biblical Preaching
Obviously, the call of God to the church is to preach the Word. Expositional preaching should be mixed with motivational and inspirational messages that provoke a contemporary faith and a "real world" faith experience.

2. Wholly Biblical Theology
The church should hold to a theology that is based upon the whole counsel of God's Word and not based on experience, historical denominationalism, or stunted views of God's plan and purpose.

3. Biblical Understanding of the Gospel
The gospel is the heart of Christianity. We have sinfully rebelled against our Creator and Judge. Yet He has graciously sent His Son to die the death we deserved for our sin, and He has credited Christ's right standing to those who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus' death and resurrection.

4. Teach Real Conversion
We need to have a radical change at the root or core of our being. While conversion need not produce emotionalism, it needs to be thoughtful and deep and have works that back up the new found faith. There must be a break with the past.

5. Practice Evangelism
Must find creative and relavant ways of presenting the Gospel without abandoning or compromising the core truth of the message.

6. Biblical Understanding of Community
The community should reflect a living commitment to a local church in attendance, giving, prayer and service; otherwise it is meaningless, worthless, and even dangerous. To be a member is to commit to the others in your fellowship and to live out a life of Christ's love.

7. Biblical Church Discipline
Church discipline gives guard rails to church membership. Discipline is a positive thing that demands holy living with out being judgmental.

8. Expectation of Christian Discipleship and Growth
A demand that each of us practice and plan to study and grow in knowledge, faith, practics and praxis.

9. Submission to Biblical Leadership
There should be a plurality of elders and deacons in each local church. This plurality of elders is not only biblical, but practical. The church should not only provide a covering for ministry within but shoudl be submited to leadership that is accountable to others.

10. Practice of Biblical Worship
This is the highest calling of the christian and should be a part of every christian's assembly. Having a dwarfed experience with God diminishes one's theology. This subjective act of worship should be on an equal footing with objective study of the Word.

11. Practice of the Spiritual gifts
Making room for all biblical gifts is an imperative. Submission to Five fold ministry, inclusion of the 1 Cor 12 gifts, and the practice of these in services and privately are imperative. Also the motivational gifts should be sought out (Rom 12)and employed.

When you have found a church like this - stay there, plug in, grow and work for change in the world around you. You can be certain of the blessing of God.

Peacemaker?

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” Matthew 5.9

It may come as no surprise that I am not a pacifist. I believe that there are situations in which a man must defend his family and his own person using violence, if necessary. I believe that the failed policy of banning hand guns has proven only to escalate violence and I am interested in giving an armed citizenry a shot to see if that would diminish crime. (Though I am not absolutely sure this will work in lowering crime). Ironically, Colt named one of it’s most famous side arms the Peacemaker.

So how can I consider myself a peacemaker?
Matthew Henry in his commentary tells us that the idea of being a peace maker consists of 2 things. The first being in a consistant habit of both loving peace and making peace, to have a disposition of peace about yourself. The second is to bring peaceful reconciliation between parties in conflict. While we might be tempted to think generally of warfare’s cessation here, this is primarily an interpersonal word. He writes, “The making of peace is sometimes a thankless office, and it is the lot of him who parts a fray, to have blows on both sides…”*

This makes perfect sense to me. I am a “son of God” when I am reconciling because my God and Father is the reconciler of men. Why then , do we allow this passage to be ripped from it’s contextual moorings and thrown into the face of the church as if it were some great command for pacifism? Have we become so distant from the sacred text that we let the truth that it proclaims be slighted and maligned without comment?

Every Christian should determine the exact circumstances under which he or she might be provoked to use violence. Certainly that is a challenging subject in a hostile world. But this understanding of the text reinforces the teaching of Paul to the Corinthians, where he insists that the call of those in the sacred service of his majesty Jesus is to reconcile . As reconcilers, we bring men and women together in the restoration of marriages, we bring men together who are at odds with one another, and we bring mankind toward the loving God- who sent his Son to be our reconciler.

So what circumstance would make you act violently? As a Christian, what are the boundaries of your violence?

*(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

James and Pride

Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4.7-10

When James pictures for us the pride that God hates he does so by countering nearly everything that Pride stands for. Pride is submitted to self. It demands that things be done its own way. Pride wants to operate in autonomy, wiht allegiances only to those things that are plainly beneficial and self serving. Pride wants do anything but submit. The proud person must submit if he/she wants to have a serious walk with God.

Pride plays right in to the devils hands. It is easily stirred up into the flames of pride and causes the enemy to 'hang around.' When Satan sees pride it encourages him to linger near you just a little longer in hopes that the will of god will be thwarted and frustrated in your life by the pride that exists in you. It also prohibits your ability to draw near to God, since you have that devilish arrogance and rebellion hanging on your neck.

It leaves you with hand filthy with guilt and rebellion that can't be washed off without scourning off the pride too. And so the proud heart is incapable of genuijne faith. It can only partially believe and wrestles with doubt and double mindedness. It really demands a change of mind toward yourself and your pride in order to be accepted by God. The greek word for repentance (metanoia) means the change of mind toward something. Often we imagine repentance involving tears and sorrow but this is only the outward expression of the inner change. When someone is truly sorry it is because he has changed his view of a particular thing. The pride that once brought a delight is now scorned for what it really is- illinformed self reliance and haughty condescension toward others. Imagine how foolish it is!

And so the Apostle challenges us to Humble ourselves. humility is the beginning point of our healing from sin and self. It deflects the presence of the Lord and removes the stains of our guilt when we recognize that we cannot undo our predicament. God will ultimately humble all men- but those who humble themselves can live out their lives under the blessing of God in this life- instead of in his face.

The Danger of the Foolish Heart

Prov 29.1 A man who remains stiffnecked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed- without remedy

The danger of the foolish heart is that it can and does remain foolish. The only way that one can truly come to the place of enlightenment or wisdom is by receiving the correction for your foolishness. Too often the rebellious heart fails to come to the place of humility to receive truth. Usually, there is a desire in the heart of the unrepentant and rebellious to prove their superiority on some level. For the playground bully it is physical violence; for the rebellious teenage son it is the alternate lifestyle; for the unrepentant and fallen minister it can be slander and blaming others for his own actions.

I have seen, unfortunately, the lives of ministers crumble under the unweildy weight of their own foolishness. Some even blame the church or even their former bosses for their own demise. They are stuck. They cannot push beyond the place of their failure and foolishness because they refuse to admit that they are the fool. So they lie to others, they try desperately to justify themselves and their actions, they push the blame and they continue on in their pride. It is sad that they cannot get beyond their foolishness. They louder they cry for vindication of their foolishness, the more they reveal the rebellion that caused their failures and foolishness. Sad really. They just need to heed the rebuke.

Fortunately for us fools, God desires our hearts to repent. He longs to connect with us- so desperately that he brings people into our path to rebuke us. Now no one likes to be rebuked- but the Lord sends them as an act of mercy. Certainly, we don't want to be rebuked by people who are no better than us. But the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers shows that God is willing to us even a donkey to rebuke us so that we don't persist in our sin.

Heeding the rebuke demands a humility. The casting off of one's own blaming others and the casting off of reinventing history and covering tracks. It demands full dsiclosure of your foolishness. An admission of guilt. This is what makes it so hard to turn from foolishness to walk in the wise way. But the fact that destruction comes to the fool suddenly and surely is an additional incentive. I have seen it happen a number of times. Fools who persisted in their own ways and brought destruction on the lives of their children, their marriage, and their businesses.

As one fool to another- heed the rebuke, gain a heart of wisdom, repentant, and find joy again in your life.

Rejecting the Sop; Recieving Satan

John 13:21
21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."
NIV
On the night Jesus was betrayed...Jesus was troubled in spirit. He knew it was coming. Presumably he understood this from the Holy Spirit's revelation I can't image what that feels like- to look your betrayor in the eyes, and love them in spite of what he was about to do. We have all been affected by those who turn their back on Jesus- whether by disobeying, denouncing, or denying Him. The results are tragic- and we see their failure and the disloyalty to the Savior. We are filled with distain, with disappointment, we even distance ourselves from these people. Jesus- amazingly sops bread with Judas Iscariot.

The sop was an action of some intimacy. It showed closeness and proximity and honor. Jesus was honoring Judas by giving him the choicest morsel. It is simply breath-taking. The betrayal came after the extended hand of intimacy and friendship. Betrayal always comes when intimacy with the Lord is taken for granted. Betrayal always comes when the Lord's extended hand is slapped, his love spurned, his grace spat upon, and his kindness rejected.

Satan entered him at that moment (v27. It seems the kindness of God leads us either to repentance or, if we harden our heart, it leads us to become the habitation of demons. This is the danger of our hearts getting further and further away from the Lord. This is the danger of my taking his loving kindness for granted, or choosing intimacy with the world over intimacy with him.

Yet Christ's love never changes for the betrayor. And all of us who have betrayed him should be glad that the hand of friendship, the sop of intimacy, the love once spurned can be embraced in a moment. This is truly- Amazing Grace!

Did I say that?

John 13:36-37
36 Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?"

Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."

37 Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
NIV

Do you think that Peter recognized that he had offered to the Lord more devotion than he could legitimately muster up? Do you think that he knew it as the words came out of his mouth? At any time, before the cock crowed, did it dawn on him that he had bit off more than he could chew? Or did he, like we, think himself able to truly live for God?

I am a failure. Not as a father so much, not even as a pastor, nor as a husband- but as a disciple. I tell God on those "mountain top moments" that I will follow him anywhere! Only to be embarrassed as he points out that we have had this discussion before. On Sunday I can sing "I surrender all" but early Monday morning negotiations start- my surrender looks more like a temporary cease fire.

God, thank you for loving me even though I am unable to love you completely. Help me to recognize the vocalizations of my foolishness as they leave my lips; and be gracious to me, a dullard who knows not his own limitations. Amen

The Sign Post of Love

John 13:33-35
33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
NIV
It is tempting, when we disagree with so much that is going on around us to be anti-everything. Certain preachers seem to relish the negativity that they stir up with dogmatic assertions on trivial matters, hard stands on weak points, and simple bullheadedness. After several decades in ministry I have come to this conclusion- you can't yell loud enough to wake those sleeping in conplacency. neither can you argue anyone into the kingdom of God- God has a better way.

It is a life of love. I know, it isn't very mindboggling. It is simply the way Jesus lived. And he calls those who claim followership of him to walk in that way. It is too bad we write it off so easily- this living like Jesus! he wants us to love one another and so demonstate the changed nature of our lives. No demanding first place, no bowing to the demands of ego and flesh, no insistance that we are right- just love. "...All men will know that ou are my disciples..." becuase it is that different than everything in the world!

Love covers sin. Love suffers long. Love never gives up. Love believes the best. Love rejoices in truth. Love is the motivation of faith. Love is the manifestation of faith. Love is the purpose, the source, the grace, the truth. It is what we are called up to.

God for give us the laziness that lets us do it our own way. Rather, these days as we meditate upon your heart of love- that pushed you to the cross- let us contemplate the manner that we may be loving others. Show my hands how to love, my voice how to speak word of love, my eyes to see what love sees and to ignore what love despises.

May we have words that cover sin, build up, are willing to believe the best and suffer alongside. Positive words of love- that so infect our soul- that we incidentally point to Jesus in everything we do!

scrubbing my filth

John 13.6… Lord, are YOU going to wash MY feet?

I don’t know the future- but Jesus did. And as I am reading John 13 I am profoundly affected by the kind of love that Jesus shows us, demonstrates for us, as an example. It is obvious that Jesus knows that his disciples are going to betray him, to flee from him, to run from any connection to him, and to deny him. He prophecied it to both Judas and Simon Peter. But there in verse 8 Jesus lives a life of love far beyond my ability to know.

Imagine yourself washing feet. Not the “just got out of the tub” kind of feet but the feet of fishermen and tax collectors. The streets of Israel were well traveled by donkeys, goats, sheep and other livestock. Do you know what they do in the road? The germs of the leper, the filth of the livestock, the spittle from the mouths of the vilest of humans are collected in the road and, consequently, on the feet of these disciples. So there is Jesus- washing the dung, and dirt, the germs and filth from the feet of the disciples. He knows full well that they will receive this act of self abasement and love and then… abandon him. ABANDON HIM! And yet he washes, still speaking of the greatness of the Father’s love and still hoping for the revelation to hit pay dirt in the hearts and minds of these disciples.

Faithless friends are a challenge to love. By that I am not speaking of those friendships with those who express no religious allegiance but rather the relationship we have with traitors. Pretty hard to deny the difficulty in that. But there they sit all humbled and needy. And here Jesus kneels… Loving and washing… serving an undeserving humanity. The world isn’t worthy of a love like that… and that is why it is so marvelous!