In my previous post I related how a sermon by our pastor on Psalm 115 inspired me to write about God verses idols. There is something else about this Psalm that after more than four decades as a follower of Christ has proved to be the very essence of my faith, and it is found in these three verses in the middle of the Psalm:
9 All you Israelites, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield. 10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield. 11 You who fear him, trust in the Lord— he is their help and shield.
A perfectly biblical three times, trust in the Lord! The context, God verses idols, and the claims of the nations (v.2) that God is MIA, is what makes these exhortations so powerful. If we don’t trust in the Lord, what or who do we trust? The older I get, and the more I learn, the more significant I realize how important it is to always consider the alternative. I call this in a phrase, the consideration of the alternative. As I argued previously, there is no Switzerland, no metaphysical or spiritual neutrality. We have to believe, or trust (the biblical Greek word translated faith), in something or someone. People don’t give up belief or trust without religion, they just place it somewhere else. (more…)
On Sunday Our pastor preached on Psalm 115 in a service we actually attended in person, praise the Lord! It was a powerful sermon on a profound Psalm that addresses our everyday experience in the 21st century. The first verse sets the tone:
Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
More on this in a moment. The context is the nations and their idols who think that Israel’s God, our God, is MIA, missing in action. Oh, but he certainly is not! The writer compares God for Israel, and us, to the useless idols of the nations: (more…)
I came across this video at the The Ten Minute Bible Hour of the proprietor, Matt Whitman, giving his de-conversion, and back, story, and at the end of the short video he critiques the now common deconstruction stories, as I discussed in my last post. Growing up a Christian he thought he had this whole Christian thing nailed down, until he didn’t. Around the age of 29 having moved away from his faith, he made an incredible discovery: Christianity wasn’t about him! He did something radical in response to his doubt: he actually read the Bible! From the beginning. At about the six minute mark he describes the discovery that brought him back:
The plot of the bible can’t be the improvement of people’s behavior, and the increased accuracy of people’s thinking about God. It’s gotta be the story of God redeeming things that are broken and messed up, creation, people, everything. That’s a completely different religion.
On Friday I came across an article at Breakpoint about a movie called The Master Designer—the Song, and I, my wife, and son watched it in dumbfounded awe. It’s so refreshing to watch a documentary about the wonders of the natural world and not be told over and over that “nature” or “evolution” (unguided, random, material processes) is responsible for it all. Such a notion that random chance can produce anything, let alone the Bison that has four, count ’em four, stomachs to digest its food, is ridiculous. Just plain old stupid nonsense. Yet if you are in academia or among our cultural elite and question evolution, you are hounded as “anti-science!” I challenge anyone to watch this documentary, look me in the face with a straight face, and say, nah, there’s no God. You want to inoculate your kids from atheism and agnosticism? Watch this documentary with them. (more…)
In this unique time, to say the least, of an over-hyped pandemic (no doubt about that at this point), work and what it accomplishes, private property, is increasingly being seen for what it is, essential. How perverted is it when government tells us what is essential and what isn’t when it comes to providing for our families. Every job is essential! I’m reminded during this time how precious is our Christian faith and worldview, and the Jewish religion that gave it birth. In a book I referenced in my last post, How Christianity Changed the World, the author discusses private property as a uniquely Christian invention that goes back to our spiritual forebearers who brought us the law, the Ten Commandments. Nowhere in Scripture does God say such a thing as “private property” exists, but it is assumed everywhere, and two of the ten reflect that it is the God-given, natural order of things: 8, you shall not steal, and 10, you shall not covet. That which is stolen or coveted belongs to someone else, it is theirs, they own it, and have a right to it before God. The profound implications of this are difficult to overstate. (more…)
Given that many Americans are unemployed through no fault of their own, and are chomping at the bit to get back to work, a few thoughts on Christianity and the dignity of work are appropriate. I’m currently reading How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin J. Schmidt, and making my way through the chapter on “Labor and Economic Freedom Dignified.” I recently wrote about how Christianity transformed the world into which it was birthed, and in due course gave us the modern world and its myriad blessings. As I said, the Christian roots of these blessings are completely ignored today, and no more so than in the area of work. I’ve known about the importance of the Christian influence on work for a long time, but it struck me as I read this chapter how radical a notion it was that work was actually dignified just by being work. (more…)
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