Why We Love The Amish - By Tim Challies

Why We Love the Amish




We’ve got an Amish community not too far from here. It is the place to go when you need to stock up on produce, farm-grown foods, or heirloom-quality furniture. It is also known as the place to go if you really just need to see some Amish people doing what they do. And a lot of people like to do just that—to go and look, to go and gawk.

Even though we’ve got an extensive group nearby, we recently found ourselves in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, North America’s best-known Amish community. (Full disclosure: Our actual travel objective was Harrisburg and the overrated Civil War museum there, but every hotel in the city was completely full.) We did not stop on the road outside Amish farms to watch them do their work, and did not go on a bus tour, but we couldn’t help but see horses and buggies around town, and, of course, plenty of the distinctive Amish clothing.

As we headed north, back toward our home, I started to think about the Amish and why we find them so endlessly fascinating. Though they are small in numbers, everyone knows who they are and everyone knows at least a few of their unique customs; though so much of their religious practice appears insufferable, they are regarded as Christians who love and practice grace. They are the heroes of a million stories, the subject of a thousand documentaries. Why are they so fascinating? I have a few ideas.

The Amish challenge us. In a world where we are so completely dependent on our high-tech devices, the Amish somehow manage to survive without them, and even appear to thrive without them. Where we are convinced that newer is better and that we are only ever one innovation away from joy, the Amish seem plenty happy to do without. If you spend time around the Amish, or if you begin to learn about their ways, you necessarily find yourself asking questions like: Do I really need my smartphone? Are all of these devices really bringing happiness? What have I lost in all of this innovation? The Amish challenge so many of our deeply-held beliefs and assumptions.

We want to figure out the Amish. We are fascinated by the Amish because we so badly want to figure them out. Where they proclaim that they have great uniformity in their lives and laws, we see great contradictions. Their faith appears contradictory: They speak about the grace of Christ but live by law; they extend grace to those who harm them, but shun those who leave them; they rejoice in their salvation, but do not share Christ with others. Their laws appear contradictory: The men can have buttons, but the women must use straight pins; connecting to a phone network attaches them to the world, but connecting to a road network does not; they rely on doctors and lawyers, but will not allow their own children to be educated beyond eighth grade. When I see the Amish, with all their strengths and weaknesses, all their grace and legalism, I look for a key that unlocks it all. I look for knowledge that makes it all make sense.

The Amish recall a simpler time. Where life today is marked by endless complexity, the Amish are known for their quiet simplicity. As they go about their lives, they draw us to a simpler time. In some ways the Amish live in the best of both worlds—the world today and the world of centuries ago. They live their day-to-day lives in that simpler world, that quieter world, that slower world. But, when necessity dictates, and law permits, they take advantage of modern innovations. They use horse-drawn buggies to get to their worship services, but hire drivers to take them to the store. They have no electricity in their homes, but give birth and die while connected to modern medical equipment. Their simplicity attracts us. It draws us.

The Amish recall a purer time. The Amish call us to a simpler time, but also a purer time. This purity is an illusion, I think, but it still captivates us. Even though we love our modern technologies, we can’t deny that they have changed us. We tend to think that they have polluted us. Marshall McLuhan was right when he said that we create technologies in our own image and, soon enough, they return the favor. We are products of our technologies, dependent upon them, and shaped by them. When we look at the Amish, unshaped by radio and television, cell phones and web pages, we see something that looks pure by contrast.

We admire the Amish. We admire the Amish for their stubborn refusal to change and to adapt. We are amazed that they continue to live in this high-tech, always-on world in the way they do. Yet they live in it unabashed, unembarrassed by their eccentricities. They don’t allow external pressure to shape their deepest beliefs. With the modern world pressing in around them, they don’t only survive, but thrive. Their communities continue to grow, their land holdings continue to expand, their businesses continue to thrive. We admire them in many ways, but perhaps most deeply simply for being, and remaining, who and what they are.

So I suppose the most fascinating thing of all about the Amish is that they still exist. When they first came to national attention in the early twentieth century, prognosticators gave them a generation or two before they were gone. They thrived. When they received close study in the middle of the century, sociologists and anthropologists once again decreed that they would soon surrender to the world around them. They grew. And as the technological distance between them and us deepens and widens, they seem to be thriving all the more. Their very existence is a marvel; their practices are a challenge. We love the Amish because, in some ways, we long to be the Amish.

Barn photo credit: Shutterstock

Are We Headed For A Crash? Reflections On The Current State of Evangelical Worship - By Jamie Brown

Are We Headed For A Crash? Reflections On The Current State of Evangelical Worship

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Jamie Brown

Last week I spent a couple of days attending the National Worship Leader Conference, hosted by Worship Leader Magazine, featuring many well-known speakers and worship leaders. The conference was held about 15 minutes down the road from me, so it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I’m glad I went.

I met some new people, heard some thought-provoking teaching, enjoyed some good meals and conversations with worship leader friends, and experienced in-person some of the modern worship trends that are becoming the norm in evangelicalism. It was eye-opening in many ways.

Over the last few days I’ve been processing some of what I saw and heard.

Worship Leader Magazine does a fantastic job of putting on a worship conference that will expose the attendees to a wide variety of resources, techniques, workshops, songs, new artists, approaches, teachings, and perspectives. I thought of Mark Twain’s famous quote “If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait 5 minutes”. The same could be said of this conference. It’s an intentionally eclectic mix of different speakers, teachers, worship leaders, and performers from different traditions, theological convictions, and worship leading philosophies. You’ll hear and see some stuff you like and agree with, and then 5 minutes later you’ll hear and see some stuff you don’t agree with at all.

It’s good for worship leaders to experience this kind of wide-exposure from time to time, and the National Worship Leader Conference certainly provides it.

Yet throughout the conference, at different sessions, with different worship leaders, from different circles, using different approaches, and leading with different bands, I picked up on a common theme. It’s been growing over the last few decades. And to be honest, it’s a troubling theme. And if this current generation of worship leaders doesn’t change this theme, then corporate worship in evangelicalism really is headed for a major crash.

It’s the theme of performancism. The worship leader as the performer. The congregation as the audience. The sanctuary as the concert hall.

It really is a problem. It really is a thing. And we really can’t allow it to become the norm. Worship leaders, we must identify and kill performancism while we can.

It’s not rocket science.

Sing songs people know (or can learn easily). Sing them in congregational keys. Sing and celebrate the power, glory, and salvation of God. Serve your congregation. Saturate them with the word of God. Get your face off the big screen (here’s why). Use your original songs in extreme moderation (heres’s why). Err on the side of including as many people as possible in what’s going on. Keep the lights up. Stop talking so much. Don’t let loops/lights/visuals become your outlet for creativity at the expense of the centrality of the gospel. Point to Jesus. Don’t draw attention to yourself. Don’t sing songs with bad lyrics or weak theology. Tailor your worship leading, and the songs you pick, to include the largest cross-section of your congregation that you can. Lead pastorally.

I am a worship music nerd. I listen to a lot of it. I follow the recent developments. I know who’s out there (sort of). I try to keep up (it’s not easy). Even I didn’t know most of the songs that we were supposed to be singing along to at the conference. I tuned out. I sat down. I Tweeted. I texted my wife. I gave up.

You’re not reading the ramblings of a curmudgeony guy complaining about all the new-fangled things the kids are doing these days, with their drums and tom-toms and electric geetars. You’re reading the heart-cry of a normal guy who’s worried about what worship leaders are doing to themselves and their congregations. People are tuning out and giving up and just watching.

This is not a criticism of the National Worship Leader Conference, though I do think they could make some changes to more intentionally model an approach to worship leading that isn’t so weighted on the performance side. As I said, the conference exposes us to what’s out there in the (primarily) evangelical worship world.

It’s what’s out there that’s increasingly a problem.

Worship leaders: step back. Take a deep breath. Think about it. Do we really want to go down this road? It will result in a crash. Back-up. Recalibrate. Serve your congregations, point them to Jesus, help them sing along and sing with confidence. Get out the way, for God’s sake.

When It Comes to Work, We Are Never Alone by Bethany Jenkins

When It Comes to Work, We Are Never Alone

Posted: 20 Jul 2014 10:01 PM PDT

As a freelance writer, I often work alone. No one greets me when I come into the office or meets me at the water cooler to talk about last night’s game. In fact, right now, I’m sitting at a table outside a university library, working on my laptop, and waiting for a call. Although the table has three chairs, I’m the only one here . . . or am I?



Work Is Relational

The truth is that—even when I work alone—I’m actually in relationship with hundreds of other people. From the person who mined the bauxite that was used to make my laptop to the person who packaged my phone so that it wouldn’t be damaged in shipping, I’m interacting with hundreds of “co-workers," if you will. In this moment, we are knit together in a vast network of mutual service built on trust, honesty, sacrifice, and hope.

Work, therefore, is not merely a means of sustenance and survival. It is not just about utility, efficiency, and progress. It is, in fact, relational and personal. It is creative service because it is our opportunity to enact our creative agency on the world, so that we might cultivate the life of the world through service to others.

4 Changes that Jesus’ Second Coming Produces in Us ~ by J.D. Greer

I grew up in a church that talked about the return of Jesus a lot—about every week or so. I remember posters with dragons on them. Each year we hosted a prophecy conference, naming specific politicians as the antichrist (sorry, Jimmy Carter). We had our bumper stickers, “In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned.” It was such a big deal for us that, as a kid, I had recurring nightmares about my parents being raptured while I was left behind.

It’s easy to make fun of all that now, and I think that a lot of evangelical churches today downplay the topic of Jesus’ return because they’re afraid of looking like fundamentalists. But there are 318 references to Jesus’ second coming in the New Testament—roughly 1 out of every 13 verses mentions it. And nearly every moral command in the NT is tied to the second coming. It’s not an embarrassing, uneducated uncle of Christian theology; it’s essential to our faith.

Here are four changes that the imminent return of Jesus should produce in us:

1. Spiritual Alertness

Amidst the many ways my home church went wrong, they were absolutely right about one thing—the earnest expectation of Jesus’ return. The New Testament writers all eagerly wait for Jesus to come back. They are straining forward to that day, almost on tiptoes as they yearn for his return. They lived with spiritual alertness, as if Jesus could back at any moment.

Wouldn’t you live differently if you knew Jesus were coming back tonight? Wouldn’t it make you ask the question, Am I ready? Am I living today in a way that I’d be happy to see him tonight?

At my church we would often end our services with the pastor saying, “Maranatha,” which means, “The Lord is coming.” And we would respond, “And it could be today.” I think we could use some more of that attitude. It could be today, and this may be your last chance to repent, last chance to forgive, last chance to share the gospel.

2. Mission urgency

If you know the world has an end—and that it could be soon—that rearranges your priorities. It makes no sense to go around rearranging deck chairs if you’re on the sinking Titanic. And yet that’s what many of us are doing with our lives. We are so consumed by vacations, hobbies, possessions, and bucket lists, that our actions tell the world that the end is not soon and the mission is not urgent.

I’m not a guy who believes God never wants us to have or enjoy nice things. But I also know that life is painfully short, and when the Master returns, I want to have invested my talents to the fullest for his kingdom…not be found sitting on them. Sadly, there are many in the church that will hear the chilling words of Jesus on that day, “Why didn’t you invest what I gave you for my kingdom? Away with you, you worthless servant, to the outer darkness.” (cf. Matt 25:26-30)

3. Power to forgive

Tim Keller points out that believing in the return of Jesus gives us the power to forgive. When someone wrongs us, we want justice. So we run to the judgment seat of the world, hop on it, and help God mete out their due. But here’s the problem: we weren’t meant for that seat. It’s too big for us. And like the ring in Lord of the Rings, it distorts us. It makes us assume the worst in others, causes us to paint large groups with negative stereotypes, and blinds us to our own sin.

Apart from the doctrine of the second coming, we have no power to keep ourselves from running to that judgment seat. Only by knowing that Jesus is coming back, and his return means true justice, can I be content to stay off of it. I can endure injustice for the time being, because he’ll set things right.

4. Hope in suffering

Depictions of Jesus’ return often have him coming through the clouds or riding on top of them, but Jesus says that he’ll be coming back “in the clouds” (Mark 13:26). This is an important distinction, because it points back to the glory of the God in the Old Testament. Frequently, when God appeared to his people, it was in the form of a powerful cloud—when God led his people out of Egypt (Exod 13:21), when he gave them the Law (Exod 24:16), when the temple was dedicated (2 Chron 5:14).

This “glory cloud” was a sign that God was coming to dwell with his people, to undo all of the terror and pain caused by the fall. What Jesus says in Mark 13:26 is that his return means the permanent return of the glory of God. It is a promise that all of the pain and suffering in our lives can’t last forever. Or, as Cornelius Plantinga says, “The return of Christ is good news for people whose lives are filled with bad news.”

So if your son just died of cancer, if your marriage just dissolved, if you’re lonely, if you’re body is wracked with chronic pain, then Jesus is saying to you: Lift up your eyes! I’m coming back, and it might be today! There is reason to hope even in the midst of the darkest valley. As one author puts it, “The promise of the second coming shows us the ‘good ole days’ are always ahead of us.”


Posted by Pastor J.D. on June 11, 2014

The Closer ~ by Tim Challies

The Closer

Mariano Rivera has never been one of my favorite people. After all, for many years he was a fixture for the New York Yankees, divisional rivals of my own Toronto Blue Jays. When a game came to the final inning and the Jays were down by a run or two, Rivera would jog onto the field and shut it down. Once he came onto the field, the outcome was rarely in doubt.

But he has retired now, and I like him a lot better. No sooner did he retire than he got to work penning his memoir, The Closer. It’s quite a story. Born in abject poverty in Panama, Rivera grew up in, on and around fishing boats, working with his father to scrape together a living. When the tides were out, he and his friends would play baseball on the beach, improvising the equipment they needed: wadded up fishing nets for balls, rocks for bases, tree branches for bats, and milk cartons for gloves. It was an unlikely start to one of the great baseball careers.

When he was in his late teens, Rivera began playing shortstop for a nearby amateur baseball team. One day the pitcher played so badly that Rivera was asked to take over for a couple of innings. The results were so impressive that friends contacted a scout for the New York Yankees. Rivera gained a try-out, then a minor league contract. And the rest, as they say, is history. He went on to become the most dominant closer in the history of the game, earning 652 saves in the biggest baseball market in the world. He was an All-Star 13 times, won 5 World Series, and was once the World SeriesMVP. He had a storybook career and through it became world famous and fantastically wealthy, with his earnings topping $150 million. He has come a long way from that fishing boat in Panama.

But there is more to his story than baseball. In his early twenties Rivera was exposed to the gospel and became a Christian—an unashamedly outspoken Christian. While the book describes his life, it also describes his faith and, to borrow a sport’s metaphor, he leaves it all on the field. He tells how important his faith has been, how it has sustained him, and how the Bible has given him guidance throughout his life.

The Bible can’t tell you the story of my walk with the Lord, but it can tell you everything about how I try to live, and why the love of the Lord is the foundation of my whole life. For me, the Bible is not just the word of God, but a life road map that is packed with wisdom that you cannot beat even if you spent the next hundred years reading spiritual books and self-help books. It is the best kind of wisdom: Simple wisdom. This sort of wisdom, from the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, verse twelve: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

When it comes to his faith, Rivera describes just what he believes and why he believes it. While it becomes clear that he loves the Lord, it also becomes clear that he is not a theologian. Unfortunately, a few of the things he says are unclear or confusing and probably owe more to Pentecostalism than to the historic Christian faith. And yet, again, it is clear that he is passionate about the Lord and the spread of the gospel. In the aftermath of his storied career he has both moved on and stayed just the same. “For the last nineteen seasons, the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to play professional baseball for the New York Yankees. My job was to save games, and I loved every part of it. Now I have a new job—probably better described as a calling—and that is to glorify the Lord and praise His name, and show the wonders that await those who seek Him and want to experience His grace and peace and mercy.” To do this, he and his wife have co-founded a church where they serve as pastors.

As is the case with most sports memoirs, this one is dominated by descriptions of games and plays. Those who love sports, and who love the Yankees in particular, will find it riveting. Those who are a little less enthusiastic about sports may find themselves skimming over certain sections. And if you’re like me, you may find yourself silently finding yourself hoping he’ll lose the games, just because he’s pitching for New York. In any case, Rivera’s story is a good one and well worth reading.

Porn users have 'structural brain damage' - By Dr. Jim Dennison

Porn users have 'structural brain damage'

A research study published in the latest Journal of American Medical Association: Psychiatry concludes that the more pornography a person watches, the less gray matter, connectivity and activity they have in their brain.

Numerous negative effects of pornography are already well documented. For instance, boys who consume pornography daily show more interest in deviant and illegal types of porn. Frequent Internet pornography consumption among couples leads to a decrease in sexual satisfaction and a tendency to adopt pornography scripts. Accessing porn online leads to compulsive computer use. But this new research is the first to show that pornography is also linked directly to negative physical capacities within the brain.

Dr. Donald Hilton, a neurosurgeon and professor at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center calls this study "the real deal." According to Dr. Hilton, "the study shows that heavy porn users have structural brain shrinkage." So, what can we do to combat pornography in our culture?

I believe that behavior is the result of a three-step process: our actions are 

the product of our values, which are shaped by our worldview (our beliefs about the world). We can legislate morality with regard to actions, and often should. For instance, child pornography should be illegal, whatever our beliefs and values on the subject.

We can try to change values, but our principles are often in conflict with each other. For instance, 67 percent of Americans told the latest Gallup poll that they disapprove of pornography use. However, 66 percent of men and 41 percent of women consume pornography every month. Apparently a majority of us value telling researchers that we oppose pornography, but also value consuming it in private.

It's on the level of beliefs, our basic worldview, that systemic change begins. Imagine a society which agreed with Scripture that humans are intrinsically sacred as God's creation, our bodies are his temple, lust corrupts our lives, and sex is intended only for heterosexual marriage. How would our values and actions change as a result?

Now comes the dilemma. Human words cannot change human hearts. Nothing I say in this Cultural Commentary can convince our fallen world that God is right on the subject of sex and pornography. However, God's ambassadors in Scripture frequently seek to reason with their hearers, citing authorities and evidence accepted by their culture (cf. Acts 17). And we are called to declare God's word to the world by speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) and "with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15).

I conclude that when we reason biblically with others, the Spirit works through us to do what we cannot. He changes hearts and worldviews in ways we cannot see or measure. As we work, he works.

God called you to serve him where you are, and when you are. It was his providential plan that you are alive today and not a century ago. You have gifts and influence his Spirit can use to change your world. So don't be discouraged about the moral trajectory of our day, but do be urgent. Carl F. H. Henry was right: "The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time."

Andrew White: Being Jesus in the Kill Zone ~ An Interview by Timothy C. Morgan and Kate Tracy

Iraq is worse than ever. So says Andrew White, vicar of St. George's Anglican Church in Baghdad, where he pastors the only Anglican church in Iraq. Since March, 2,100 people have died in sectarian violence. With 260,000 Christians left in the country, where 1.5 million Christians used to live, White works for reconciliation between religious and political factions in one of the world's most volatile areas.

As Beeson Divinity School's Timothy George puts it in First Things, "If Jesus came back to the Middle East today, I think he would look a lot like the Reverend Canon Dr. Andrew White."

That's one reason why White is the newest recipient of the William Wilberforce Award, presented by the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. The organization recognized White with the honor Saturday, May 3, in Virginia for his work and influence in the Middle East. It's also one reason he is called a "prophet" by other supporters in the United States.

White heads the High Council of Religious leaders in Iraq, where he brings together Sunni and Shia Islamic leaders. He is also the president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East. White recently hosted an historic meeting between Israelis, Palestinians, and Iraqis in Cyprus, where he described the attendees as "coming as enemies and leaving as friends." White's most recent book is Older Younger Brother: The Tragic Treatment by Christians of the Jews. Kate Tracy, CT editorial resident, and Timothy C. Morgan, CT senior editor for global journalism, interviewed White several days before he received the award.

Growing up in the UK, did you want to model your life after William Wilberforce?

When I was a student, I lived in Clapham, where Wilberforce lived, and became aware of him. Then, I was ordained and my first post was in Clapham. Every day, I used to pass the house where William Wilberforce lived, and I prayed, "Lord, one day, may I be able to be just a little bit like Wilberforce?" But I never dreamt that I would get an award named after Wilberforce.

If Wilberforce was living today, would he be fighting in the British parliament or would he be on the frontline like you?

Fighting in the British Parliament is frontline. I'm very keen on politicians who take their faith seriously and bring about actual change. When I was in Clapham, I was also elected to the council. I was the only man in the country who was both an elected politician for the Conservative Party and clergy.

Are Iraq and Baghdad better or worse off since the 2003 invasion?

The situation is probably the worst it has ever been. There's a severe, serious escalation in the violence. There's extreme corruption in the government. We don't think anything will really change. Every day in Baghdad, we're having people killed in terrorist bombings.

The church is now surrounded by bomb barricades and you have to go through four checkpoints to get to it. It's almost like being in our own little green zone. It's frequented by so many people because it has a school there. It has a free clinic and patients are treated without charge for medicines and treatment. All tests are free and 95 percent of our patients are Muslims.

Is there no functional Christian community left in Iraq?

There used to be 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Now there are 260,000. Do you know where the most Iraqi Christians are today in the world? Chicago. There are more Iraqi Christians in Chicago than any other place in the world.

Do the Iraqi Christians gain any support from any sector of Iraqi society or are they on their own?

Christians gain support like everybody else gains support, but not a lot, nothing special. It's interesting so many of the Iraqi Muslims say the only people who do anything for them are the Christians through our services and the church office.

Why have so many Iraqi Christians moved north to Iraqi Kurdistan?

It's purely security. The North—Kurdistan—is in essence a different country. Evangelicals go there and say they are missionaries to Iraq, but they are not; they are in Kurdistan. Kurds have their own flag, their own government, their own president and their own language, so it's barely Iraq.

Is there any evidence that Iraq's political leaders value religious freedom and Christians?

The government really does do its part to respect the Christian community. I've got no problems with them at all. Other countries around could learn a lot from the Iraqi government.

Why are you working in Iraq with Jews?

There are six Iraqi Jews in the whole country and I'm their biggest supporter. I look after them. On Friday night, I'm the rabbi and then I go back to being the pastor. Friday night, I make Kiddush with the Jewish community, then I teach them on the Torah reading for the week. [Note: White studied Judaism at Hebrew University in Israel.]

For Muslims, I do reconciliation work between the different tribes and between Shia and Sunni, but recently we had a meeting between Israeli and Iraqi religious leaders—it's never happened in history.

Where do you expect this interfaith reconciliation to lead?

We don't just want to see peace in Iraq. We want to see what we can do to bring about greater peace in the Middle East. Some of my wonderful Christian Facebook friends said, "You must be the antichrist. You're trying to bring about world peace."

In these meetings, how do you address the generational anger and hatred?

The Iraqi religious leaders said, "We arrived here, hating Israel and hating the Jews. We never wanted to be here. We only came because you are our friend."

The rabbis said, "In these three days, we can sum up this meeting with three words: "Fear is cancer." The ayatollah said, "We arrived here hating the Jews. Now we love them." They had seen each other and enemies had become friends. So it worked.

The most important thing is that these people saw each other and they had never seen each other really before. I offer this quote, "Who is my enemy? It is the person whose story I have not heard." They met and heard each other's story and suddenly they that were enemies became friends.

Do you have second thoughts about the 2003 invasion of Iraq?

I may have supported the need for the invasion. What happened after was totally wrong and you never go into a country, bring about change and then leave it in total utter mess and that's what America did. They left us in tragedy and violence and in a desperate state and we are now worse than when Saddam was there. We have thousands of dictators.

Seriously, I am not allowed to walk down the street, never.

Because somebody's going to put a bullet in the back of your head?

Yes. All my team, none of us can walk down the street in Baghdad.

Most people couldn't deal with that level of anxiety for more than maybe three minutes and so now you've been in Baghdad for 15 years? One cannot imagine what your therapy bills are. Are you on anti-depressants?

Lots of medication, but only for my MS. This is what I love. When I go round doing my parish visiting, I have hoards of soldiers and police vehicles with guns.

Has anybody ever told you that you are more than a little crazy?

Every day—the thing is that unless you are called you can't do this work. There's no way that a normal person could function this way. It doesn't matter where you are if you are in God's will. That doesn't mean I'm not going to be shot or killed. I might be, but I'm where I'm supposed to be.

What do you say to your wife and sons?

My wife says she has never once worried about me. She has got a gift of God as well. The only time the boys ever worried was when the police came and surrounded our house in England because they were scared that the bad guys might get me even there.

Christians doing ministry in conflict zones sense the Holy Spirit and angels around about them. They see things from the heavenly realm. This must have happened to you many times perhaps?

Every day, all day, I mean incredible things; angels, resurrections, and healings. Nobody would probably believe it if we told what our daily life was like. It is so wonderful.

There are countless Iraqi Christians who fled their homeland. Is there any hope for them to come back?

No chance at all. It will never happen. It's going to become more dangerous for them as Christians and they are settling into where they are now. What's so terrible is that more people have come to America than anywhere else and they can't get jobs. They are faced with serious poverty.

What's the number one thing that American Christians should be doing? Yes, they will donate, pray, and call members of Congress. But what else?

I want them to look after the Iraqi Christians here, in Chicago, in Detroit, in San Diego. That's what they need to do. In Iraq, we can look after ourselves.

We are having to invest money here in the US for Iraqi Christians. We need all the money we can get for there, but I'm having to spend it here for Iraqi Christian refugees. This is where we need help. If you ask me what can Christians here do to help this tragedy in Iraq, look after the Christians who escaped.

My Wife Has Tattoos: Marriage and New Birth ~ By Spencer Harmon

My Wife Has Tattoos: Marriage and New Birth

Posted: 02 May 2014 10:01 PM PDT

My wedding was last Saturday. And I didn't marry the girl of my dreams.

If you would have told me when I was a teenager that my wife would have seven tattoos and a history in drugs, alcohol, and heavy metal concerts, I would have laughed at you, given you one of my courtship books, and told you to take a hike. My plans were much different, much more nuanced with careful planning, much more clean-cut, and much more, well, about me.

It wasn't my dream to marry a complicated girl. I never dreamed I'd sit on a couch with my future wife in premarital counseling listening to her cry and tell stories of drunken nights, listing the drugs she used, confessing mistakes made in past relationships.



This isn't my dream—it's better.

Many people wouldn't put Taylor and me together. In high school, we probably would not have been friends. She probably would have thought I was a nice, boring, judgmental Christian kid; I probably would have thought she was a nice, lost, party-scene girl who guys like me are supposed to avoid. People like us, with our backgrounds and histories, are not supposed to meet, fall in love, and covenant their lives to each other.

But everything changes when people meet Jesus. He takes rebellious teenage partiers and goody-two-shoes homeschoolers and puts them together in marriage to put something on display much bigger than their own handcrafted, perfectly planned love story.

Right in the middle of the mess of life, Taylor met Jesus, and he planted his flag in her life. She believed in him, and he transformed her. The Taylor who spent her life living from one pleasure to the next died, and a new person was born. A new person with new desires and a new heart that longed to please God, serve people, and treasure Jesus Christ above every other pleasure.

And this is how I see Taylor. She is completely new, completely transformed, and completely clean. This is not because she joined a helpful program or because she really "pulled herself together." It's because God, in his incredible, infinite kindness, took Taylor's dark, crimson life, and made her white as snow. He took all of her sins, placed them on his Son, and then gave her Jesus' righteousness to wear like a perfectly white wedding dress.

In reality, Taylor's story is my story as well. As she walked down the aisle toward me, I was reminded of how much I don't deserve the precious gift she is to me. I've spent much of my life singing a self-centered siren song. Nothing about my life cries for blessings; it calls for curses forever. Yet God has dressed me in white, put my sin upon his Son, and given me a heart that loves him.

I love Taylor with all that I am. She is gentle, kind, patient, joyful, beautiful, and loving. I don't deserve to be married to someone like her. I didn't plan for this, but I'm so glad I didn't get what I planned for.

Last weekend I was reminded of the beautiful reality that God exchanges the sin of our past for the perfect righteousness of his Son. Contrary to popular opinion, our wedding day was notour wedding day; it was a display of the most stunning reality in the universe—that God sent his Son to redeem a people made clean by the blood of his Son.

God's ultimate plan in putting Taylor and me together is to uniquely display his grace so that other people will praise him (Eph. 1:5-6). That's his purpose for our marriage, and that's his purpose in the world at large. Taylor and I have taken part in that display, and we hope you will too.

The False Teachers: Brian McLaren ~ By Tim Challies

The False Teachers: Brian McLaren



A few weeks ago I set out on a series of articles through which I am scanning the history of the church—from its earliest days all the way to the present time—to examine some of Christianity’s most notable false teachers and to examine the false doctrine each of them represents. Along the way we have visited such figures as Joseph Smith (Mormonism), Ellen G. White (Adventism), Norman Vincent Peale (Positive Thinking) and Benny Hinn (Faith Healing). Today we turn to a man who helped lead the Emerging Church and who was once named by TIME as one of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.

Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren (born in 1956) studied humanities at the University of Maryland and graduated with graduate and post-graduate degrees in English. Beginning in 1978, he taught college-level English, before founding Cedar Ridge Community Church in 1986. He served this church as its founding pastor until 2006, when he handed off the role so he could focus on writing and public speaking.

In 1986 Zondervan released McLaren’s first book, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix. This book established him as a leader and thinker in the church at a time when Christians were attempting to grapple with the dawning reality of postmodernism.

However, it was his 2001 work of fiction, a New Kind of Christian, that introduced him to the wider church and earned him Christianity Today’sAward of Merit in 2002. It was the first volume in a trilogy and quickly became one of the foremost texts for what was soon known as the Emerging Church movement. A New Kind of Christian tells the story of Dan Poole, a pastor who finds himself ready to give up on Christian ministry. Increasingly disillusioned, he has become less and less certain about what he believes. When he takes his daughter to a concert he meets Neil Oliver, a high school science teacher, and together they discuss a long list of core Christian doctrines. According to the publisher, “This stirring fable captures a new spirit of Christianity—where personal, daily interaction with God is more important than institutional church structures, where faith is more about a way of life than a system of belief, where being authentically good is more important than being doctrinally ‘right,’ and where one’s direction is more important than one’s present location.” McLaren became known as a Christian leader who was talking about life and faith in ways that seemed new and fresh.

McLaren followed this book with many more—nearly twenty to date. The most noteworthy of his books have probably been A Generous Orthodoxy which he calls “a personal confession and a manifesto of the emerging church conversation” and A New Kind of Christianity in which he offers responses to “ten questions that are central to the emergence of a postmodern, post-colonial Christian faith.”

In 2005 McLaren was named by TIME as one of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America under the heading “Paradigm Shifter.” They pointed to his ambiguous statements about gay marriage and said that he represented a kinder and gentler form of Christianity. The following year he joined with Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, Richard Rohr, and others to found Red Letter Christians, an organization dedicated to seeing Christianity liberated from both right-wing and left-wing politics in America. Where Christianity has been dominated for too long by discussions of abortion and homosexuality, this movement prefers to look to the words Jesus spoke and focus on issues related to social justice.

McLaren has traveled the world as a teacher, preacher, lecturer, and conference speaker, and has been granted honorary degrees from both Carey Theological Seminary and Virginia Theological Seminary. In September 2012 he made headlines for participating in a gay marriage ceremony for his son Trevor and his partner Owen Ryan. The wedding was officiated by a Universal Life minister, with McLaren leading a commitment ceremony built around Christian themes.

False Teaching

As McLaren’s theology has matured and taken shape over time and through his books, he has stepped forward as a leader in a new and revived form of theological liberalism. This displays itself most clearly in his view of Scripture.

In A New Kind of Christianity he insists that Christians have long been reading the Bible through the distorted lens of a Greco-Roman narrative. This narrative produced many false dualisms, an air of superiority, and a false distinction between those who were “in” and those who were “out.” These three marks of false narrative have so impacted our faith that we can hardly see past them. His book attempts to do that, and to reconstruct the Christian faith as it is meant to be.

Leading the way is his view of the Bible. He does not see the Bible as God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. He displays this, for example, in his interpretation of the account of Noah by saying, “a god who mandates an intentional supernatural disaster leading to unparalleled genocide is hardly worthy of belief, much less worship.”

He goes on to say, “I’m recommending we read the Bible as an inspired library. This inspired library preserves, presents, and inspires an ongoing vigorous conversation with and about God, a living and vital civil argument into which we are all invited and through which God is revealed.” After all, “revelation doesn’t simply happen in statements. It happens in conversations and arguments that take place within and among communities of people who share the same essential questions across generations. Revelation accumulates in the relationships, interactions, and interplay between statements.” He understands the Bible to be a slowly-evolving human understanding of God. “Scripture faithfully reveals the evolution of our ancestors’ best attempts to communicate their successive best understandings of God. As human capacity grows to conceive of a higher and wiser view of God, each new vision is faithfully preserved in Scripture like fossils in layers of sediment.”

This is nothing less than theological liberalism in twenty-first century, post-modern clothing (which is why Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism offers a rebuttal, though it was written 90 years earlier). Like Fosdick and other liberals before him, McLaren has assumed authority over the Bible instead of placing himself under its authority. His understanding of Scripture frees him to see Christian doctrine as evolving, and himself as an instrument of this evolution. In this way he revisits and reinterprets whatever does not accord with modern sensibilities. He has denied the literal nature of hell along with its eternality; he has denied the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ; he has denied Jesus Christ as the only way to the Father; he has affirmed homosexuality as good and pleasing to God. And he continues to think and to write, meaning that his theological development is not yet complete.

Followers and Adherents
McLaren has long been a leader in the Emerging Church, and almost all of those who “emerged” with him have known his influence. So too have many of his fellow progressive Christians. He continues to have a broad speaking platform and to write popular books.

What the Bible Says
The Bible insists that it is the living and active Word of God, breathed out by God himself. It is not a man-made document subject to error, evolution, antiquation, or reinterpretation. Jesus himself spoke clearly about the authority and relevance of Scripture, and showed no hesitation in unfolding its meaning and faulting others for misunderstanding it. In Mark 12:24 “Jesus said to them, ‘Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?’” He declared “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

Where McLaren casts doubt on the idea that we can ever really confidently know and understand the Bible, Christians have long held that God spoke and inspired his prophets and apostles to write because he actually intended to be heard as saying something, and that the message would be carried on and be understood forever after (see 2 Peter 1:16-21). This is why Jude calls it “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), and why Paul is so emphatic with Timothy that he “guard the good deposit entrusted to [him]” (2 Timothy 1:14). Kevin DeYoung says it well inTaking God at His Word: “The Bible is an utterly reliable book, an unerring book, a holy book, a divine book. … There is no more authoritative declaration than what we find in the word of God, no firmer ground to stand on, no ‘more final’ argument that can be spoken after Scripture has spoken.”

The Culture of Death Bares its Teeth: Planned Parenthood Leader Says Life Begins at Delivery ~ By Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Cecile Richards is no stranger to controversy. As the president of Planned Parenthood she leads one of the central institutions of the Culture of Death — an organization that was born in the dark vision of Margaret Sanger and now exists as the nation’s most visible promoter and provider of abortion. Cecile Richards has been an ardent defender of a woman’s “right” to abort her baby at any time for any reason. She also believes that women should be able to abort their babies for free, with taxpayers footing the bill.

Her support of abortion for any reason and for any stage of fetal development — including the most barbarous partial-birth abortions — was explained, perhaps accidentally, in an interview she recently gave to Jorge Ramos of Fusion TV. When Ramos asked Richards when life begins, she said: “It’s not something I really feel like is really part of this conversation … every woman needs to make their own decision.”

Her non-answer to one of the most fundamental questions of human dignity was shocking enough, but there was more to come. As it turns out, Richards does have a belief about when life begins.

Ramos was apparently surprised by her evasion of the question and asked, “Why would it be controversial for you to say when you think life starts?”

Richards offered another non-answer: “I don’t know that it’s controversial. I don’t know that it’s really relevant to the conversation.”

Seriously? When the conversation is about abortion?

Then she dropped the bombshell:

“For me, I’m the mother of three children. For me, life began when I delivered them. They’ve been probably the most important thing in my life ever since. But that was my own personal decision.”

So life begins at delivery. Until then, no life, no dignity, no sanctity at all. This defies any moral sense, but it also defies modern biology. Cecile Richards did not try to argue the now infamous trimester argument ofRoe v. Wade or a point of viability or any other argument about fetal development. As her comment makes clear, in her worldview the fetus doesn’t matter at all.

She identified her three children as “probably the most important thing in my life” since their delivery. Were they nothing to her in her womb? Each of those three precious children was precious in the womb — at every point of development.

Candid admissions of a worldview like this one are rare, but Cecile Richards’ statement perfectly explains her advocacy of abortion at any time for any reason. In her interview the Culture of Death bares its teeth.

China on Course to Become 'World's Most Christian Nation' ~ By Joe Carter

China on Course to Become 'World's Most Christian Nation'

Posted: 21 Apr 2014 08:28 AM PDT

The Story: The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America, reports The Telegraph.

The Background: The People's Republic of China remains, at least officially, an atheist country. But the number of Protestant Christians in China has grown from one million in 1949 to more than 49 million in 2010. Experts believe that number could more than triple over the next generation:

Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.

By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.

"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," Prof Yang said. "It's ironic - they didn't. They actually failed completely."

Why It Matters: In his book The Rise of Christianity, sociologist Rodney Stark estimates that during the first 350 years of Christianity, the religion grew at a rate of 40 percent per decade. During the 61 year period from 1949 to 2010, Christianity grew at a rate of 4,800 percent in 61 years, a rate of 89% per decade.

Part of the reason for the exponential growth is attributable to the sheer size of the population of China. With 1.351 billion people in the country, Christians comprise only 5 percent of the country. If current trends hold, in 2030 Christians in China will make up almost 9 percent of the total population. While the ratio of Christians to population would still be small, the total numbers are astounding. By mid-century, China may have more citizens who identify as Christians than the United States has citizens.

Christians in America often find reasons to be pessimistic about our religion's waning influence on our country. But we should remember that our land is not the last bastion of hope for the faith. The remarkable growth in global Christianity -- particularly in Asia and Africa -- should give us reason to be optimistic. The Holy Spirit is changing hearts and minds around the globe in a way that has not been seen since the first century after Christ's Ascension. For this we should be eternally grateful.

Those of us in the West should continue to support our Chinese brothers and sisters with finances, missionaries, theological resources, and -- most importantly -- prayer. In the latter half of this century, assuming the Lord tarries, we may need them to do the same for the American church.

Will Jesus Return in the Next 18 Months? ~ By Dr. Jim Dennison

Will Jesus return in the next 18 months?

Last week's lunar eclipse produced a "blood moon" as the sun's rays were refracted by Earth's atmosphere and turned the moon a reddish hue. It was the first of four blood moons to come, a phenomenon known as a "tetrad." Last week's event fell on Passover. The next will be on October 8, the Feast of Tabernacles; then on April 4, Passover in 2015; then on September 28, another Feast of Tabernacles.

A host of books has been published on this phenomenon, all claiming that something historic will happen in the next 18 months. Some predict war in the Middle East; otherspredict the return of Christ. However, NASA tells us there will be seven more sets of tetrads before the year 2100. That's 32 blood moons in all.

I have no idea if these events have anything to do with Jesus' return. But I do know that a "blood moon" was associated with his death. When Peter preached his Pentecost sermon, he cited Joel's prophecy: "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, that great and magnificent day" (Acts 2:20). Interestingly, on April 3, AD 33, a Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem. As a result, a "blood moon" rose that night over the Holy City.

Whether that event marks the precise date of Jesus' death or not, we know that he died on Good Friday and was raised on Easter Sunday. What he did is more important than when he did it. And what he did is intended to transform our lives for eternity and for today as well. But here's the problem: his resurrection can empower us today only if we experience it today. If the risen Christ is a figure of history and a fact of faith but not a Person we encounter daily, we miss his transforming power in our lives.

Here's how to know if you are experiencing the risen Jesus: are you awed by God?

When Isaiah saw the Lord he cried out, "Woe to me! I am ruined!" (Isaiah 6:5). When Jeremiah heard his call he responded, "Ah, Sovereign Lord! I do not know how to speak—I am only a child" (Jeremiah 1:6). When Ezekiel saw the Lord he fell facedown (Ezekiel 1:28). When Daniel received the vision of God, he says that his face "turned pale" (Daniel 7:28).

When Jesus first demonstrated his miraculous power to Peter, the burly fisherman pled with him, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8). When Paul encountered the risen Christ he was thrown from his horse and blinded for three days (Acts 9:1-19). When John saw the glorified Jesus he "fell at his feet as though dead" (Revelation 1:17).

I encourage you to make time today to be awed by God—time to worship him, to listen to his Spirit, to meet him in his word, to see him in his creation. Stay in his presence until you know you have met him, and you cannot be the same.

Mother Teresa told her students that if they would spend time praising Jesus, they would have all the power they needed for the day. Easter is not intended to be an event but a lifestyle. When last were you awed by God?

A Bubba With a Passion for the Gospel and Golf ~ By Joe Carter

A Bubba With a Passion for the Gospel and Golf

Posted: 14 Apr 2014 06:19 AM PDT

The Story: On Sunday Bubba Watson, one of the most untraditional golfers on the PGA Tour, was the winner of the 2014 Masters Tournament. But golf isn't Watson's top priority. What he considers most important can be gleaned from the description on his Twitter account, @bubbawatson ("Christian. Husband. Daddy. Pro Golfer.") and his website,BubbaWatson.com ("Loves Jesus and loves sharing his faith").

The Background: In an interview with Trevor Freeze of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Watson tells how he uses his Twitter account—along with his PGA platform—to share about his faith in Christ.

"For me, it's just showing the Light," said Watson. "There's people who want to put down Christians. I try to tell them Jesus loves you. It's just a way to be strong in my faith."

After his first Master's win in 2012 Watson's Tweeted: "The most important thing in my life? Answer after I golf 18 holes with @JustinRose99. #Godisgood." Later that day he posted on his account, "Most important things in my life- 1. God 2. Wife 3. Family 4. Helping others 5. Golf"

"Lecrae said it the best," Watson said of the Christian rapper he listens to on his iPod. "He doesn't want to be a celebrity. He doesn't want to be a superstar. He just wants to be the middle man for you to see God through him."

Why It Matters: Christians have always been involved in professional sports, so why is the faith of superstars like Watson suddenly worthy of the public's attention? Because athletes like Watson show that it's still possible for athletes to be open and unapologetic about their willingness to share the Gospel. Also, Watson may be one of the best in his sport but he understands the importance of keeping his priorities in order, winsomely admitting that their life's callings are secondary to serving the Creator who has called them. To a culture that is both obsessed and disillusioned with fame and fortune, this centered perspective provides a refreshingly countercultural witness.

Are Christians In America Persecuted? ~ By Kevin DeYoung

Are Christians in America Persecuted?

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 02:40 AM PDT

The short answer is “Yes, all the time.”

The not as short answer is: “Yes, Christians in America are persecuted, but not as frequently, consistently, or with nearly the intensity that Christians are persecuted in many other parts of the world.”

For a longer answer, keep reading.

What’s In a Word

I understand why non-Christians would say Christians in this country are not persecuted. It doesn’t help their cause to make martyrs of rank and file evangelicals. And besides, many secular people still think the Christian Right is intent on instituting a theocracy and punishing all infidels. Persecution is hardly in their purview.

I also understand why progressive Christians would say Christians in this country are not persecuted. Christians on the left are apt to see evangelicals as the meanies, not secularists. Progressive Christians hold to a narrative that blames conservatives for instigating the culture war and driving young people from the church. Persecution is not the problem; intransigence is. Progressives long for the day when—if we would just beat our fundamentalist spears into NPR pruning hooks—our churches would be full of Christian activists attuned to the sensitivities of our cultural despisers.

I even understand why many conservative Christians are reticent to use the p-word to describe our troubles. We think of persecution as church bombings and physical violence—the sort of stuff our brothers and sisters in North Africa and the Middle East and in parts of Asia face every day. We understand, rightly, that getting a forced hiatus from Duck Dynasty is not exactly suffering on the same scale. If persecution means “there’s a decent chance this year that someone will try to kill me or a family member for being Christians” then no, we are not persecuted in this country.

Bringing in the Bible

But is that what the Bible means by “persecution”? Like most Greek words, the word translated “persecution” in our English Bibles (dioko) has a wide semantic range. According to the standard lexicon for the New Testament (BDAG), dioko can mean “to harass someone, esp. because of beliefs, persecute.” In many place in the New Testament, persecution refers to violence toward Christians. Matthew 10:21-23 speaks family members killing other family members. Luke 11:49 references killing and persecution in the same breath. And in Acts persecution is linked with arrest, murder, and physical violence (Acts 7:52; 9:4; 22:4, 7; 26:11, 14; see also Gal. 1:13).

But there is reason to think dioko is not limited to these extreme acts of oppression. In Matthew 5:10, Jesus promises that those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake will be blessed. Then in v. 11 he further explains what this persecution is like: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” It’s possible that reviling and persecuting and uttering evil are three distinct acts, but considering verse 11 flows out of verse 10, it’s better to see these as overlapping categories. When verse 12 says “for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you,” Jesus does not mean every prophet was killed, but rather that all the prophets were reviled and spoken against, and in this manner (or worse) they were persecuted. Persecution may mean being put to death (Matt. 10:21), but it can also refer to being “hated by all for my name’s sake” (Matt. 10:22).

We are confirmed in this broader understanding of persecution by two other passages:

John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

2 Timothy 3:13 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Persecution is not something that befalls only a few Christians. While it’s possible to read Jesus’ words in John 15:20 as a unique promise for the apostles, the passage from 2 Timothy cannot be read so narrowly. The point is plain: while martyrdom is a special category set aside for a select number of Christians (Rev. 6:8-11), persecution is the normal experience of every Christian everywhere. From stiff fines, to family shame, to being kicked off college campuses, to laws against sharing our faith, to unjust trials, to public mockery and scorn, to arrest and brutality, if we faithfully follow Jesus in this world we all will face persecution at some point in our Christian discipleship.

Why This Matters

So what? What’s the big deal in proving that “technically” Christians are being persecuted in this country? Is this about feeling sorry for ourselves and finding more ammunition to blame the media for our troubles? Not at all. We should not think more highly of our suffering than it deserves.

But neither should we make it out to be something less than it is. There are at least four reasons it’s important we realize that Christians in America will be, and often are being, persecuted.

First, we do not want to miss out on the privilege of suffering, even a little bit, for the name of Jesus (Acts. 5:41). Being hated for Christian beliefs and Christian virtues is no fun under any circumstances, but the pain is made worse when we have no category for joining in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering (Phil. 3:10).

Second, we should not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes to test us (1 Peter 4:12). If we expect persecution to only come in the form of imprisonment and death, we will not know what to think of slander, derision, and disdain. The New Testament assumes that being hated for one’s Christianity is the norm, not the exception.

Third, if we overly limit the scope of persecution, we will neglect the Christian ethic incumbent upon us to pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44). “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them” (Rom. 12:14; see also 1 Cor. 4:12). When people slander us, mock us, or pass laws against us because we are thought to be anti-gay, anti-science, and anti-women, that is persecution. And as such, we are commanded by Christ himself to pray for those and love those who hate us so.

Fourth, if John 15:20 is true, and 2 Timothy 3:13 is true, and the expectation of the entire New Testament is true, then no amount of PR work is going to rescue the church from being thought by some as backwards and bigoted. Where in the gospels did Jesus promise that the world would love us if we just kept our heads down and tried to be good neighbors? Where in Revelation is war with the dragon presented as anyone’s fault but the dragon’s? I know many outsiders think of the church as being very “unchristian” and evangelicals as being political operatives for the Republican Party. So let’s have the humility to see if we are as obnoxious and unintelligent as many people surmise. But let’s not assume that bad press with the world means we’ve done wrong by God. This is Holy Week after all, where Jesus was hated by the crowd and abandoned by his own disciples.

As followers of a crucified king we should expect to be like the scum of the earth to some (1 Cor. 4:13) and like the aroma of death to others (2 Cor. 2:16). We should not think misinformed hatred and intolerant harassment mean the church has gone off the rails. The presence of persecution is no sign that Christians have failed to engage the world properly. In fact, from everything we’ve seen in the passages above we ought to suspect something is wrong with us if we have avoided all of the world’s persecution successfully.

Bill Gates Explains His Faith ~ By Dr. Jim Denison

Bill Gates explains his faith

Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $76 billion. He is usually listed among celebrity atheists or agnostics, due to statements such as this claim in 1997: "In terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." That quote got him included among "27 Celebrities You Probably Didn't Know Are Atheists."

However, Gates is now involved in his local Catholic church. In an interview for the current issue of Rolling Stone, he says, "The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important. We've raised our kids in a religious way; they've gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in." Gates is not yet what we might call a committed disciple: "I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know." However, despite his theological reservations, his religious beliefs have clearly evolved in the direction of God.

Perhaps his philanthropy has played a role: for the last six years he and his wife have focused full-time on strategies directed at health, agriculture, water, sanitation, financial services, and education. Perhaps being married to a Catholic Christian and becoming a father have changed his outlook. And perhaps he's just getting older and wiser.

The bottom line is simple: our hearts yearn for Jesus. We are among the Galilean crowds who "got into boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus" (John 6:24). We are one of the Greeks who said to a disciple, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus" (John 12:21). We are Nicodemus as he sought Jesus at night (John 3:2) and Zacchaeus as he climbed a tree to see the Savior (Luke 19:4).

More books have been written about Jesus than about any other figure in history. More people have committed their lives to him than to any other religious leader. More people attend church services in America than go to football games. We were designed for the kind of intimacy with God that our first parents knew in the Garden, so our hearts will always yearn for him. Our longings to be loved, accepted, and wanted all stem from this fact. Our world is broken, not because our longings are wrong, but because we try to satisfy them everywhere but in God.

Here's a good way to start the week: give yourself the gift of a wfew minutes with the One who loves you. Begin with a moment of worship, as you "enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise" (Psalm 100:4). Now ask the Spirit to show you a longing in your heart that you are trying to satisfy outside of Jesus. Name it, and ask Jesus to meet it. Now do whatever you sense his leading to do—be still, read Scripture, take a walk, listen to worship music. Let the Great Physician heal that pain in your heart. Ask the One who fed the 5,000 to feed your soul.

And he will.