Instead of another insipid round of self-evaluation like I would normally engage in on an occasion like New Year's Eve, I decided to focus on awesome things that God did this past year. Here goes!
1. I was let go from Walmart on December 26th, 2012 and spent a month searching for work in an economically stagnant Hanover. The day before I would have had to go through the application and hiring process again, I got a call from the HR office saying they'd like to bring me back on as a permanent employee. I was later told that I was the ONLY seasonal cashier that they called back. They were authorized to call one person back and I was the one they picked. That was a God-thing.
2. In February, I flew out to Phoenix, AZ to interview with the Arizona Teaching Fellows. I didn't make it into the program and was a bit bummed out by that fact. Mere weeks later, I realized that I really wasn't interested in teaching again after Korea. Can you imagine if I'd made it into that program, moved out to Phoenix and THEN realized I didn't like being a teacher?! God saved me from stepping in a big pile of it there!
3. After coming back from Phoenix, I started work at a turkey-processing plant in New Oxford. It was miserable and I hated every minute of it. I went back to Walmart and pleaded with them to give me my old job back. God made sure they hadn't hired another person to replace me yet and I was able to finish out the week and then return to a job that I didn't mind as much. And I got a great pair of galoshes out of the deal too!
4. I found a great place to live that I could afford on my budget shortly after that fiasco. Living on a part-time Walmart job isn't a great financial base and I had to pass up a few places before finding this one. It's been such a blessing though. The landlady is great, it comes furnished, and I even have money for extras now and then.
5. I started experiencing major tooth pain in April but I didn't have the income to see a dentist right away. The dentist referred me to a credit offer that would allow me to have an emergency root canal done with no interest for 6 months. I applied and was approved. I had the procedure done and God provided the money I needed to pay off the whole bill within the 6 month time frame.
6. God provided the finances I needed to travel down to Lynchburg in September for an interview in Student Accounts at Liberty. I didn't get the job but I had a great time visiting friends and resting. I think God just knew I needed a little break to enjoy myself but that I wouldn't "waste" money doing it just because.
7. When I felt the financial noose tightening in November, I became really upset thinking that I wouldn't get any sort of a Christmas celebration. The worst moods were the week before my hours started shooting through the roof and the 10% grocery discount went into effect. God gave me a terrific Christmas and even lovingly reminded me on Christmas Eve that He really was the greatest reason to celebrate and that I shouldn't be so fixated on giving or receiving gifts or enjoying nice food.
8. God has opened the door for me to really get to know my dad better. His schedule is pretty full but we've had enough time to visit just the two of us together a couple of times. I am thankful that I have this opportunity.
9. God did so many little things this year that I can't list because I don't remember them. I've become more aware of how richly He has blessed me in the past couple of months. Every Sunday, I learn more about His love for me and His grace and compassion. I've gotten to meet with my mentor Bruce several times. I'm getting ready to retake my driver's license test. I've become involved with two small group bible studies. I've been a member of eHarmony for a few months and have met people on there that I'm getting to know better. I've gotten a couple pieces of furniture that make my house feel more like a home. And on and on and on. And He's done these things in the face of my sinfulness and rebelliousness. He. Is. Awesome!
31 December 2013
29 December 2013
A Christmas 2014 Challenge
Every year I hear people talking about how Christmas has become too commercialized and every year we continue to just grumble and become stressed about the whole holiday season and just wish it was over. It is literally the same every year. First comes Thanksgiving, then special sales, then parties and gatherings, then Christmas Eve services, then opening many, many presents, then big meals, then "relaxing" and visiting. Have you noticed the presents? Most of them are so superficial. Everybody gets excited about them as Christmas Day approaches but by mid-February most (if not all of them) are forgotten. We buy a whole heap of stuff but usually by the following Christmas we struggle to remember what it was we got last time. Why is that? No, really. Why? So much money gets spent on presents but what we get out of them is not proportionate. Hence my idea...
Next Christmas, let's just NOT buy a whole TON of gifts! We'll save a little bit of money which (contrary to what some economists tell us) actually really helps the economy; especially when it's money that we don't have (aka credit cards). Now I'm not saying to not have gifts next Christmas. I'm not saying that staring at each other around the Christmas tree thinking "Gee! It's great being non-materialistic!" I'm not saying that at all. What I AM saying is let's THINK of one (or two) gifts that will really, really be appreciated by our loved ones. Let's stop thinking superficially about Christmas gifts and get things that really speak to each others' personalities. For some people, this will mean working little by little on a big art project from August to December. For some, this will mean writing something to a person that will stick with them as being really, truly heartfelt. For some, this will mean taking a lot of photos and compiling a scrapbook. For some, this will mean learning about ice fishing, buying a few cheap supplies and planning a trip up to Minnesota for father-son or brotherly bonding time. You get my point. Basically, let's think about what really matters to our loved ones and going above and beyond to give it to them for next Christmas. I challenge you. Choose one or two people that you really want to express your love to as a gift next Christmas and then do it.
After all, this is EXACTLY what God did for us at Christmas time. He had been thinking for millennia and gave the absolute perfect gift that is beyond our wildest dreams. Imagine if He had chosen to give us 10,000 little things but left out the big one. The exact same thing that happens for most of our Christmases would have happened on a grand scale. We'd have gotten tired of the novelty and forgotten them fast. Let's give gifts next Christmas on a small scale like God gave us on a large scale.
Next Christmas, let's just NOT buy a whole TON of gifts! We'll save a little bit of money which (contrary to what some economists tell us) actually really helps the economy; especially when it's money that we don't have (aka credit cards). Now I'm not saying to not have gifts next Christmas. I'm not saying that staring at each other around the Christmas tree thinking "Gee! It's great being non-materialistic!" I'm not saying that at all. What I AM saying is let's THINK of one (or two) gifts that will really, really be appreciated by our loved ones. Let's stop thinking superficially about Christmas gifts and get things that really speak to each others' personalities. For some people, this will mean working little by little on a big art project from August to December. For some, this will mean writing something to a person that will stick with them as being really, truly heartfelt. For some, this will mean taking a lot of photos and compiling a scrapbook. For some, this will mean learning about ice fishing, buying a few cheap supplies and planning a trip up to Minnesota for father-son or brotherly bonding time. You get my point. Basically, let's think about what really matters to our loved ones and going above and beyond to give it to them for next Christmas. I challenge you. Choose one or two people that you really want to express your love to as a gift next Christmas and then do it.
After all, this is EXACTLY what God did for us at Christmas time. He had been thinking for millennia and gave the absolute perfect gift that is beyond our wildest dreams. Imagine if He had chosen to give us 10,000 little things but left out the big one. The exact same thing that happens for most of our Christmases would have happened on a grand scale. We'd have gotten tired of the novelty and forgotten them fast. Let's give gifts next Christmas on a small scale like God gave us on a large scale.
14 December 2013
Christmas Letter of a Single Bachelor
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I remember when I was younger (perhaps 11 or 12), I used to really want to write a Christmas letter for my family because the idea was just such a romantic (in the sense of idealistic) one and I was already pretty serious at that age. So after seeing a couple different ones this year on Facebook and another blog I decided to have a go at it myself. Now the problem is that I'm the only one that's a part of my family unit (or at least the only visible one). And it's that parenthetical addition that let me feel that writing a letter from an unmarried, childless guy wasn't an exercise in narcissism or self-centeredness. Because when you know God, you're not the only one in your family unit and it makes all the difference in the world as you grow in that knowledge. So here's the story of me and my God and the goings-on of the past year.
I'll start a little bit before last year to give more context. I arrived back from two years of teaching English in Korea in August of 2012 planning to return in a month or two after a chance to regroup. I decided to do this myself and didn't bother consulting my Father about the decision. I simply decided that of course I would return because it was a good source of income. I'd been searching for a new school for the past couple of months and continued (in theory) for a couple weeks more into my vacation. My vacation consisted of traveling from Baltimore, MD to Amsterdam, NY to visit a close friend pastoring a church up there. I spent about 10 days with him and his new wife and their families. Mike was the first to urge me to reconsider returning to Korea. He knew it had been anything BUT a walk in the park for me spiritually and emotionally and urged me to consider the wisdom of it and consult my Father. He didn't press me on it, though, and my journey continued to the town of my alma mater, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.
So I stayed about a week in Lynchburg visiting my old haunts, seeing several friends and old church comrades. One of the nights while I was down there I had a rotten sleep and the thought "Should I really return to Korea?" kept flying around my head in a circle. I thought about the various logical aspects and weighing my desire to get married, the shortage of women who spoke fluent English over there, the spiritual struggles I'd encountered and the intense feelings of loneliness and isolation that had swept over my soul from time to time. In the end, I came to the conclusion that the ONLY reason I wanted to return was the money. So I consulted with a couple of older friends and they didn't feel that returning for solely financial reasons was honoring to God and displayed a lack of trust in His ability to provide for my needs. Well at that point I was a bit dazed realizing that I likely wouldn't be returning to Korea despite my having stored a lot of my personal possessions in a suitcase over there.
To complete my vacation, I flew out to the West Coast to visit another close friend and his wife and son in the small northern California town of Yreka. While there, I contacted my dad and expressed the situation I was in having decided not to return to Korea and needing a place to live. He and my stepmom, with incredible grace and understanding opened their home to me for a few months while I figured out how to get back on my feet again. A job was the first order and I found one shortly after starting my search at Walmart in October 2012. I have (more or less) been there for a full year making various excursions to different places in the search for more gainful employment.
The real theme of my life during the past year has been grace and contentment balanced by continuing to venture out to move forward in life. Among the things I can say I am most thankful for this year are my church (Hanover Valley) where I have sat under a man who preaches the fullness and depth of God's love for people who are weak and sinful and ignored or rejected by the world, my mentor Bruce for letting me share my life with him, and (more than anything) for the reality that my Father loves me so patiently when I get life wrong again and again and again and again and when I fail to love Him as He ought to be loved and fail to love others as I ought to. It's that love that, little by little, changes me to be more loving and giving and gracious to people.
So that's my year. I hope you have experienced the depth of God's love for you too.
Merry Christmas,
Wesley
I remember when I was younger (perhaps 11 or 12), I used to really want to write a Christmas letter for my family because the idea was just such a romantic (in the sense of idealistic) one and I was already pretty serious at that age. So after seeing a couple different ones this year on Facebook and another blog I decided to have a go at it myself. Now the problem is that I'm the only one that's a part of my family unit (or at least the only visible one). And it's that parenthetical addition that let me feel that writing a letter from an unmarried, childless guy wasn't an exercise in narcissism or self-centeredness. Because when you know God, you're not the only one in your family unit and it makes all the difference in the world as you grow in that knowledge. So here's the story of me and my God and the goings-on of the past year.
I'll start a little bit before last year to give more context. I arrived back from two years of teaching English in Korea in August of 2012 planning to return in a month or two after a chance to regroup. I decided to do this myself and didn't bother consulting my Father about the decision. I simply decided that of course I would return because it was a good source of income. I'd been searching for a new school for the past couple of months and continued (in theory) for a couple weeks more into my vacation. My vacation consisted of traveling from Baltimore, MD to Amsterdam, NY to visit a close friend pastoring a church up there. I spent about 10 days with him and his new wife and their families. Mike was the first to urge me to reconsider returning to Korea. He knew it had been anything BUT a walk in the park for me spiritually and emotionally and urged me to consider the wisdom of it and consult my Father. He didn't press me on it, though, and my journey continued to the town of my alma mater, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.
So I stayed about a week in Lynchburg visiting my old haunts, seeing several friends and old church comrades. One of the nights while I was down there I had a rotten sleep and the thought "Should I really return to Korea?" kept flying around my head in a circle. I thought about the various logical aspects and weighing my desire to get married, the shortage of women who spoke fluent English over there, the spiritual struggles I'd encountered and the intense feelings of loneliness and isolation that had swept over my soul from time to time. In the end, I came to the conclusion that the ONLY reason I wanted to return was the money. So I consulted with a couple of older friends and they didn't feel that returning for solely financial reasons was honoring to God and displayed a lack of trust in His ability to provide for my needs. Well at that point I was a bit dazed realizing that I likely wouldn't be returning to Korea despite my having stored a lot of my personal possessions in a suitcase over there.
To complete my vacation, I flew out to the West Coast to visit another close friend and his wife and son in the small northern California town of Yreka. While there, I contacted my dad and expressed the situation I was in having decided not to return to Korea and needing a place to live. He and my stepmom, with incredible grace and understanding opened their home to me for a few months while I figured out how to get back on my feet again. A job was the first order and I found one shortly after starting my search at Walmart in October 2012. I have (more or less) been there for a full year making various excursions to different places in the search for more gainful employment.
The real theme of my life during the past year has been grace and contentment balanced by continuing to venture out to move forward in life. Among the things I can say I am most thankful for this year are my church (Hanover Valley) where I have sat under a man who preaches the fullness and depth of God's love for people who are weak and sinful and ignored or rejected by the world, my mentor Bruce for letting me share my life with him, and (more than anything) for the reality that my Father loves me so patiently when I get life wrong again and again and again and again and when I fail to love Him as He ought to be loved and fail to love others as I ought to. It's that love that, little by little, changes me to be more loving and giving and gracious to people.
So that's my year. I hope you have experienced the depth of God's love for you too.
Merry Christmas,
Wesley
22 November 2013
Know God
Don't just know about him. Learn to trust him. Spend time with him daily. This is the only way to fight temptation. Imagine a married man working late at the office one day when his secretary tries to seduce him. Whether he gives in to temptation or not has everything to do with the quality of his marriage. Temptation in our lives cannot be fought effectively by constantly thinking of our justification any more than a man can resist the pull to have an affair by trying to remember his wedding ceremony. By all means, let the fact of your marriage lead you to spend as much time with your spouse as possible but don't just repeat the mantra "I'm married! I'm married! I'm married!" in the face of temptation as it's one of the least effective strategies. No mantra will ever bring you success in fighting temptation. You must KNOW your spouse to be beautiful and worthy of your commitment and more enjoyable than any other woman. Being able to resist temptation has much more to do with your ongoing, day-to-day walk with Christ than with the fact that you once trusted him as your savior. Abiding in his presence day by day is so necessary to ensure the health of your marriage. Pursue him today. NOT in order to become better or fight temptation more effectively but because of your justification. Spending time with your spouse in order to resist temptation is absurd! It's such a dishonor to your spouse! You're effectively saying that if you spend enough time in THEIR presence it'll make you want to never have sex with anyone ever again. In the same way, spending time with Christ can't be used IN ORDER TO resist temptation. It's an insult to him. You're effectively saying that if you spend enough time with Christ, you'll eventually just be content to be joyless and depressed. Christ is in the business of increasing desires, not shrinking them.
And don't be content with head knowledge! Beseech God for heart knowledge. Because that's the only kind of knowledge that really counts in the end.
And don't be content with head knowledge! Beseech God for heart knowledge. Because that's the only kind of knowledge that really counts in the end.
18 November 2013
An Extended Joke About Walmart's Bags
Once upon a time in a far off land called Wally World, there was a chain of stores called Walmart. The leader of the business, a man named King CEO, was a man of great means. He had a nice house, a helicopter, and even a bomb shelter equipped with enough supplies for more than a year. He was well-respected by everyone who crossed paths with him and enjoyed many things that the commoners of Wally World didn't even know existed. Speaking of the commoners, thousands of them were employed as serfs in his stores. They worked hard, treated each customer as well as they could and did it for a small allowance of money that King CEO deigned to give them. The customers loved King CEO's stores because of the low prices that helped them live better. And because the lowly serfs always seemed relatively happy, they assumed that all was well in King CEO's kingdom.
But things were not well. The king, wanting to conserve his wealth, organized his kingdom so that the work of 10 people could be accomplished by only 3 or 4. The pay of the 3 or 4 would stay the same but they were required to accomplish the same amount of work. Some of the serfs were trained as cashiers. Their duties included greeting each customer, helping them check out with their purchases and bagging the items so as to make it easier to carry out to their various modes of transportation. In the early days of King CEO's reign, the bags were made relatively well and customers had the opportunity to choose between paper and plastic. The bags would occasionally tear but on the whole they were of a fairly high quality. As the years went by, though, the king desired to save even more money so he told his noble lords to decrease the bag quality so as to retain more of the kingdom's wealth. So they did. Then they did it again a few years later. Eventually, they did it so much that sometimes quantities of bags were delivered from the factories with defects that prevented them from being used. Even the customers began to hate the bags after a while. Some of them had experienced bags breaking in the parking lots or at home and food or other goods being ruined by falling. All was not well.
One day, a lowly cashier named Bob made his way to King CEO's palace to propose an idea to the wise monarch. He was cautiously ushered into the inner sanctum where King CEO sat enthroned on a grand throne made of recycled shopping carts dipped in liquid gold.
"Your majesty," spoke Bob.
"Yes, peasant?" replied King CEO.
"I have a wonderful idea, my lord. One that could increase both the luxury of our stores and the cost of operating."
"Have you? Let me hear it!"
"If my lord will permit me, I will show him a bag made of such fine quality and such extraordinary durability that it is absolutely invisible to anyone who is foolish."
"Show me!"
At this, Bob performed a flourish with his hands to present the so-called bag. Of course, there was nothing there.
"Now of course your majesty is not a fool so you can clearly see what wonderful fabric this bag is composed of and feel the thickness and durability of the material," said Bob as he placed the "bag" in the open hands of the king.
Not wanting to be thought a fool by this peasant, the king exclaimed, "By Jove! What a wonderful bag this is! How is it that I have never seen or felt a bag such as this yet? It must be very expensive!"
"Not at all, sire! As a matter of fact, I have found a factory that is willing to produce this bag for 10% less than the bags your stores are using now!"
"Great Scott! Order the factory to begin at once! Tell them that they will be the only supplier Walmart works with!"
"One more thing, your majesty!" exclaimed Bob.
"Yes? What is it?"
"We in your stores feel that the great honor of being the first customer to check out with such a wonderful bag should be you, our sovereign leader."
"I agree!"
"It will take about three days for the factory to produce as many bags as will be necessary to replace the bags being used now. So I propose that in 3 days, my Lord shall enter the Walmart store here in Benton-villia where national news crews will capture our gracious Sovereign being the first to use these magnificent bags."
"Wonderful! If you weren't a serf, I would make you second in command of the vast Walmart empire but as it is it would cause far too much scandal. So instead, I will award you one dress down day wherein you can wear any clothing you desire as long as it is not obscene."
"Thank you, sire! Oh thank you! Thank you so much! From the bottom of my heart! Oh my kind Lord!"
On this, Bob exited the royal pavilion and returned to save customers money so they could live better.
Three days later, the Walmart store in Benton-villia was far, far too crowded. Many film crews had arrived from both local and national news networks. It was around 10 am when King CEO appeared in the store. The first place he went was electronics. When they told him they didn't have any iPhones dipped in gold, he disappointedly walked to the grocery section and, on seeing the many flavors of yogurt, picked up many of them. Moving down to the pasta aisle, he suddenly got a craving for spaghetti and loaded his cart with many exotic flavors of sauce and many different jars of salsa. Finally, he bought all of the Ben and Jerry's pints in the ice cream section.
"Welcome, my lord, my liege!" exclaimed Bob as the king entered his line.
"Hello, young squire!"
"Did you find everything you were looking for today?"
"You didn't have iPhones dipped in gold. I was a bit disappointed."
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, my Lord! Methinks you should propose the idea to Congress. Perhaps they can legislate the release of such a product."
As each item was scanned, it was placed in the bagging area by Bob's agile hands. The king moved forward and began to load each "bag" into his cart. The moisture from the yogurt and ice cream, mixing with Bob's lotion which he applied abundantly, made the spaghetti and salsa jars fairly slippery. The entire order took about ten minutes to ring up while many customers and other serfs gazed on in wonder as the king slowly loaded each "bag" into his cart. Several times, a jar of tomato sauce or salsa slipped through the king's hands and smashed on the floor, soiling the king's pants. Bob would instantly say "What wonderful bags these are, aren't they, my king?" "By Thor, they're wonderful!" The serfs held their breath with each broken jar knowing that they could be liable to be terminated on the king's command. Finally, a little boy in one of the carts looked at his father, laughed, and said, "Why doesn't that silly man use bags?" On this, the serfs could no longer hold it in but busted out laughing. The king, humiliated, ran from the store as tomato sauce, yogurt, salsa and ice cream dripped from his legs and crotch.
The End
But things were not well. The king, wanting to conserve his wealth, organized his kingdom so that the work of 10 people could be accomplished by only 3 or 4. The pay of the 3 or 4 would stay the same but they were required to accomplish the same amount of work. Some of the serfs were trained as cashiers. Their duties included greeting each customer, helping them check out with their purchases and bagging the items so as to make it easier to carry out to their various modes of transportation. In the early days of King CEO's reign, the bags were made relatively well and customers had the opportunity to choose between paper and plastic. The bags would occasionally tear but on the whole they were of a fairly high quality. As the years went by, though, the king desired to save even more money so he told his noble lords to decrease the bag quality so as to retain more of the kingdom's wealth. So they did. Then they did it again a few years later. Eventually, they did it so much that sometimes quantities of bags were delivered from the factories with defects that prevented them from being used. Even the customers began to hate the bags after a while. Some of them had experienced bags breaking in the parking lots or at home and food or other goods being ruined by falling. All was not well.
One day, a lowly cashier named Bob made his way to King CEO's palace to propose an idea to the wise monarch. He was cautiously ushered into the inner sanctum where King CEO sat enthroned on a grand throne made of recycled shopping carts dipped in liquid gold.
"Your majesty," spoke Bob.
"Yes, peasant?" replied King CEO.
"I have a wonderful idea, my lord. One that could increase both the luxury of our stores and the cost of operating."
"Have you? Let me hear it!"
"If my lord will permit me, I will show him a bag made of such fine quality and such extraordinary durability that it is absolutely invisible to anyone who is foolish."
"Show me!"
At this, Bob performed a flourish with his hands to present the so-called bag. Of course, there was nothing there.
"Now of course your majesty is not a fool so you can clearly see what wonderful fabric this bag is composed of and feel the thickness and durability of the material," said Bob as he placed the "bag" in the open hands of the king.
Not wanting to be thought a fool by this peasant, the king exclaimed, "By Jove! What a wonderful bag this is! How is it that I have never seen or felt a bag such as this yet? It must be very expensive!"
"Not at all, sire! As a matter of fact, I have found a factory that is willing to produce this bag for 10% less than the bags your stores are using now!"
"Great Scott! Order the factory to begin at once! Tell them that they will be the only supplier Walmart works with!"
"One more thing, your majesty!" exclaimed Bob.
"Yes? What is it?"
"We in your stores feel that the great honor of being the first customer to check out with such a wonderful bag should be you, our sovereign leader."
"I agree!"
"It will take about three days for the factory to produce as many bags as will be necessary to replace the bags being used now. So I propose that in 3 days, my Lord shall enter the Walmart store here in Benton-villia where national news crews will capture our gracious Sovereign being the first to use these magnificent bags."
"Wonderful! If you weren't a serf, I would make you second in command of the vast Walmart empire but as it is it would cause far too much scandal. So instead, I will award you one dress down day wherein you can wear any clothing you desire as long as it is not obscene."
"Thank you, sire! Oh thank you! Thank you so much! From the bottom of my heart! Oh my kind Lord!"
On this, Bob exited the royal pavilion and returned to save customers money so they could live better.
Three days later, the Walmart store in Benton-villia was far, far too crowded. Many film crews had arrived from both local and national news networks. It was around 10 am when King CEO appeared in the store. The first place he went was electronics. When they told him they didn't have any iPhones dipped in gold, he disappointedly walked to the grocery section and, on seeing the many flavors of yogurt, picked up many of them. Moving down to the pasta aisle, he suddenly got a craving for spaghetti and loaded his cart with many exotic flavors of sauce and many different jars of salsa. Finally, he bought all of the Ben and Jerry's pints in the ice cream section.
"Welcome, my lord, my liege!" exclaimed Bob as the king entered his line.
"Hello, young squire!"
"Did you find everything you were looking for today?"
"You didn't have iPhones dipped in gold. I was a bit disappointed."
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, my Lord! Methinks you should propose the idea to Congress. Perhaps they can legislate the release of such a product."
As each item was scanned, it was placed in the bagging area by Bob's agile hands. The king moved forward and began to load each "bag" into his cart. The moisture from the yogurt and ice cream, mixing with Bob's lotion which he applied abundantly, made the spaghetti and salsa jars fairly slippery. The entire order took about ten minutes to ring up while many customers and other serfs gazed on in wonder as the king slowly loaded each "bag" into his cart. Several times, a jar of tomato sauce or salsa slipped through the king's hands and smashed on the floor, soiling the king's pants. Bob would instantly say "What wonderful bags these are, aren't they, my king?" "By Thor, they're wonderful!" The serfs held their breath with each broken jar knowing that they could be liable to be terminated on the king's command. Finally, a little boy in one of the carts looked at his father, laughed, and said, "Why doesn't that silly man use bags?" On this, the serfs could no longer hold it in but busted out laughing. The king, humiliated, ran from the store as tomato sauce, yogurt, salsa and ice cream dripped from his legs and crotch.
The End
06 November 2013
Absolute Hilarity
Okay! Prepare yourselves! I'm actually going to post something on this blog that is NOT serious! Not at all! In the interests of becoming a bit more down to earth, I'm going to share something about myself that's just funny. Neither of my parents would have said our family was just chock-full of laughter. All of us were serious the majority of the time. And when we DID laugh, it would usually be limited to a small to moderately-sized chuckle. And don't get me wrong... being serious is a good thing sometimes. But taking ourselves too seriously is always a recipe for disaster. So here goes:
After leaving my parents' home, my sense of humor slowly deviated from theirs. I developed a far more random streak in what I found funny. And in some ways I was just learning what it meant to let loose and have a good belly-laugh. But the thing was that, not being used to laughing, it sometimes popped out of me at inappropriate times. For instance, in my freshman year at Liberty, we were studying the poem "Out, Out--" by Robert Frost in my composition class. The poem starts out as though it's going to just describe a very rustic, peaceful setting. There is a boy cutting wood in the front yard with a buzz saw, he's looking at the scenery and describing it when all of a sudden, the kid's hand gets whacked off by the saw! The way the professor was talking about this poem, I decided, was simply the most hilarious thing I'd ever heard. "Whooooo! There goes his hand!" The laughter started building up in my chest the way storm clouds swiftly rolling in signals the downpour that's about to start. And then came the torrents! I just started laughing crazily, my whole body shaking with the hilarious image of that amputated hand just flying up into the air! "Wheeeeeeee!" And the most hilariously embarrassing thing was that the content of the poem hadn't inspired so much as a chuckle from most of my classmates. I was just sitting there trying to stop myself from crying at this hilariously absurd image. I think the professor had been intending his description to elicit a mild snicker from his students but when only a couple of students had done so, he was happy to see someone that appreciated this mildly amusing phrasing and was going to town with it. My friend sitting behind me had commenced patting me on the back whispering "Calm down, Wes. It's okay. Relax." And after a while, the laughing ceased and calm resumed. Now for one more!
Similar in content, this story was, perhaps, an escalation of my level of excitement. In my Sophomore and Junior years, I studied German to fulfill my language requirements. However, halfway through completing my requirements, the German courses were dropped due to the fact that the one and only qualified German professor left. So I was forced to find a new language (fortunately, they let the two credits stand as going toward the ultimate goal of studying a language) and decided on Greek. My first Greek professor was a lot of fun but he, unfortunately, only taught the first class in the subject. So for my second semester of Greek, I took a (somewhat eccentric) middle aged professor. I believe this guy had been using the same jokes sprinkled liberally throughout every semester for as long as he'd been teaching. He thought they were really good jokes and would always make himself chuckle when using them during the lecture. The first time, they were very mildly funny. They perhaps elicited a very mild chuckle from the students. But by the second time, they were no longer funny. By the fifth time, they'd most definitely worn out their welcome. By the tenth time (sometimes reached within the period of two subsequent lectures), they did not elicit any response at all. But, and perhaps he intended this, when they rolled around for the twentieth or thirtieth time, they suddenly became great! Or rather, the jokes themselves hadn't become great but the fact that he still laughed at them himself became great! So one day I am sitting there next to a friend when they roll around just one time too many and I just start to lose it. I scribble a quick note to my friend whilst trying (somewhat successfully) to restrain my case of the giggles. "I've cracked!!!" it read, and was accompanied by a hilariously scribbled picture of someone who'd clearly gone insane. My laughter became so hard to hold in that I actually started slipping from my chair as my body was wracked with laughter too hard to control. "I think Wes liked my joke!" came the statement from the head of the classroom. This simply made me shake harder with undiscovered reservoirs of laughter that had perhaps lain dormant for most of my life. All the giggles I should have had as a kid, a preadolescent, a teenager, and a young adult had seemingly been tapped into and I tried to squeeze out the words "May I please go to the bathroom?" between the uproarious squirts of glee. So I got out, got a drink of water, and came back and (for the most part) that was that. So there you have it! Two stories of absolutely hilarious goings-on in the life of Wes. Hope you enjoyed it!
After leaving my parents' home, my sense of humor slowly deviated from theirs. I developed a far more random streak in what I found funny. And in some ways I was just learning what it meant to let loose and have a good belly-laugh. But the thing was that, not being used to laughing, it sometimes popped out of me at inappropriate times. For instance, in my freshman year at Liberty, we were studying the poem "Out, Out--" by Robert Frost in my composition class. The poem starts out as though it's going to just describe a very rustic, peaceful setting. There is a boy cutting wood in the front yard with a buzz saw, he's looking at the scenery and describing it when all of a sudden, the kid's hand gets whacked off by the saw! The way the professor was talking about this poem, I decided, was simply the most hilarious thing I'd ever heard. "Whooooo! There goes his hand!" The laughter started building up in my chest the way storm clouds swiftly rolling in signals the downpour that's about to start. And then came the torrents! I just started laughing crazily, my whole body shaking with the hilarious image of that amputated hand just flying up into the air! "Wheeeeeeee!" And the most hilariously embarrassing thing was that the content of the poem hadn't inspired so much as a chuckle from most of my classmates. I was just sitting there trying to stop myself from crying at this hilariously absurd image. I think the professor had been intending his description to elicit a mild snicker from his students but when only a couple of students had done so, he was happy to see someone that appreciated this mildly amusing phrasing and was going to town with it. My friend sitting behind me had commenced patting me on the back whispering "Calm down, Wes. It's okay. Relax." And after a while, the laughing ceased and calm resumed. Now for one more!
Similar in content, this story was, perhaps, an escalation of my level of excitement. In my Sophomore and Junior years, I studied German to fulfill my language requirements. However, halfway through completing my requirements, the German courses were dropped due to the fact that the one and only qualified German professor left. So I was forced to find a new language (fortunately, they let the two credits stand as going toward the ultimate goal of studying a language) and decided on Greek. My first Greek professor was a lot of fun but he, unfortunately, only taught the first class in the subject. So for my second semester of Greek, I took a (somewhat eccentric) middle aged professor. I believe this guy had been using the same jokes sprinkled liberally throughout every semester for as long as he'd been teaching. He thought they were really good jokes and would always make himself chuckle when using them during the lecture. The first time, they were very mildly funny. They perhaps elicited a very mild chuckle from the students. But by the second time, they were no longer funny. By the fifth time, they'd most definitely worn out their welcome. By the tenth time (sometimes reached within the period of two subsequent lectures), they did not elicit any response at all. But, and perhaps he intended this, when they rolled around for the twentieth or thirtieth time, they suddenly became great! Or rather, the jokes themselves hadn't become great but the fact that he still laughed at them himself became great! So one day I am sitting there next to a friend when they roll around just one time too many and I just start to lose it. I scribble a quick note to my friend whilst trying (somewhat successfully) to restrain my case of the giggles. "I've cracked!!!" it read, and was accompanied by a hilariously scribbled picture of someone who'd clearly gone insane. My laughter became so hard to hold in that I actually started slipping from my chair as my body was wracked with laughter too hard to control. "I think Wes liked my joke!" came the statement from the head of the classroom. This simply made me shake harder with undiscovered reservoirs of laughter that had perhaps lain dormant for most of my life. All the giggles I should have had as a kid, a preadolescent, a teenager, and a young adult had seemingly been tapped into and I tried to squeeze out the words "May I please go to the bathroom?" between the uproarious squirts of glee. So I got out, got a drink of water, and came back and (for the most part) that was that. So there you have it! Two stories of absolutely hilarious goings-on in the life of Wes. Hope you enjoyed it!
22 October 2013
Is Christianity Just About Positive Thinking?
There is a growing movement of people in Christianity these days who are well versed in the popular psychology enunciated by Norman Vincent Peale in his book "The Power of Positive Thinking". Mr. Peale, a professing Christian himself and a minister, advocates channeling our thoughts away from negative things like hurt, loneliness, anger, depression, and fear. His book, when released in 1952, caught on like wildfire. And it's very understandable why this happened. After all, who doesn't want to start living a hopeful, upbeat, happy, brave life? As a matter of fact, this idea seems to be backed up by certain portions of Scripture. For instance, Paul tells us "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on these things." And those of us who know God know that He doesn't want his children walking under condemnation, fear, loneliness, and despair. But is Mr. Peale's methodology simply straight, truthful Christianity or does it deviate from the gospel of God's grace? Does being a Christian really just mean thinking happy thoughts and learning to turn off anything that speaks negatively? Joel Osteen and other contemporary pastors certainly seem to think so! And the man seems to be such a happy, upbeat kind of guy that we think that he must be on to something.
My main problem with this "Gospel of Positive Thinking" is that when it is backed by God's Word, the Bible, large portions of scripture must be ignored. When Paul tells us that we should think about things that are true, noble, right, etc. he's being inspired by the Holy Spirit. But that same Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to write "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart." and, two verses later, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure." And Jesus himself said that "Blessed are those who mourn..." in Matthew 5:4. These Scriptures are a bit depressing! If I was hanging out with Solomon, I might have thought "Geez! This guy is a downer!" but what he says is truth. I don't think Mr. Osteen or other pastoral advocates of Peale's philosophy would want to preach a sermon on these texts! So they simply ignore them.
Another problem I have with this false gospel is that it is incredibly calloused and insensitive to people who are going through legitimate, extremely painful sufferings in their life! There is a man in my church who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) a couple of years ago. This disease is horrible! Over the past couple of years, my friend has lost control of his muscles. The only things he can do now are smile, cry, and use his eyes to type very brief messages with great difficulty on his computer. Can you imagine how much pain it would cause him and his family to show up at their house on a bad day and say "Come on guys! Cheer up! This situation isn't so bad! Just forget about the disease and think about what a nice day it is outside and how great it is just to be alive! Stop being gloomy!"
The central problem where this entire philosophy breaks down is that people focusing on thinking positively have to ignore so much of reality! There is a veritable cornucopia of really horrible, bad, nasty things that these people have to dodge thinking about. School shootings, cancer, AIDS, poverty, hate crimes, racism, tumors, bullying, mental disease, physical disease, emotional bondage, etc. The fact of the matter is that we live in a world where these things exist and they suck! You'll never hear a sermon on "The Positive Side of Sexual Assault". To maintain a positive mindset in this philosophy, you must ignore or downplay a wide range of really bad, really evil, really painful things.
So am I saying, then, that Christians should be gloomy, depressed, discouraged, overwhelmed, fearful people? No! As a matter of fact, there are promises in scripture that God's people will be full of joy and peace. When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." How does the Christian come into this loving, joyful, peaceful life? By ignoring the bad stuff and focusing only on the good stuff? No. I say again, no. The Christian is completely aware that there are really bad things in this world. Really hard, depressing, discouraging, frustrating things. But these people have seen the grace of God, the kindness he shows us, and the power he has in this world. They have seen the bad things face off against the good things and they know the good, the beautiful, the lovely will ultimately win. They sometimes lose sight of the goodness of God and his power because the proximity of the really bad things seems so much closer than the good but they always come back to knowing that God has power over the evil. They know that even when the bad things seem to have the upper hand and it looks like they're going to overpower God's grace and sovereignty, it is not the end of the story.
When Jesus' close friend Lazarus became sick, Jesus postponed visiting him until after he was dead. Why? Because he was trying to stop focusing on bad things like sickness and death? No. Because he wanted his disciples to see that the ultimate bad thing (death) didn't even stand in the way of the grace and power of God. When he finally showed up, did Jesus look at Mary and Martha and say "Come on, guys! Cheer up! It's okay. Eventually, you'll get over your brother's death and you'll be able to enjoy life again. Focus on that hope."? No. In the shortest verse in Scripture, it records "Jesus wept." He did not stand stiffly optimistic or try to draw their attention to something good they had going on. He cried with them. And I know he cries with us still. But the gospel of God's grace is that HE WILL WIN! Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not for a hundred thousand more years of living in this wretched, stinking, hell hole we call Earth. But in the end THERE IS NOT A CHANCE OF SEEING DEFEAT! We may live miserable, discouraged, boring, depressing lives every day that we are alive and we may lose sight of His hope on a daily basis and go around living under condemnation and fear and despair for long periods of time but he WILL NOT LET GO OF US! That is the gospel of God's grace. Breathe it in again.
My main problem with this "Gospel of Positive Thinking" is that when it is backed by God's Word, the Bible, large portions of scripture must be ignored. When Paul tells us that we should think about things that are true, noble, right, etc. he's being inspired by the Holy Spirit. But that same Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to write "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart." and, two verses later, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure." And Jesus himself said that "Blessed are those who mourn..." in Matthew 5:4. These Scriptures are a bit depressing! If I was hanging out with Solomon, I might have thought "Geez! This guy is a downer!" but what he says is truth. I don't think Mr. Osteen or other pastoral advocates of Peale's philosophy would want to preach a sermon on these texts! So they simply ignore them.
Another problem I have with this false gospel is that it is incredibly calloused and insensitive to people who are going through legitimate, extremely painful sufferings in their life! There is a man in my church who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) a couple of years ago. This disease is horrible! Over the past couple of years, my friend has lost control of his muscles. The only things he can do now are smile, cry, and use his eyes to type very brief messages with great difficulty on his computer. Can you imagine how much pain it would cause him and his family to show up at their house on a bad day and say "Come on guys! Cheer up! This situation isn't so bad! Just forget about the disease and think about what a nice day it is outside and how great it is just to be alive! Stop being gloomy!"
The central problem where this entire philosophy breaks down is that people focusing on thinking positively have to ignore so much of reality! There is a veritable cornucopia of really horrible, bad, nasty things that these people have to dodge thinking about. School shootings, cancer, AIDS, poverty, hate crimes, racism, tumors, bullying, mental disease, physical disease, emotional bondage, etc. The fact of the matter is that we live in a world where these things exist and they suck! You'll never hear a sermon on "The Positive Side of Sexual Assault". To maintain a positive mindset in this philosophy, you must ignore or downplay a wide range of really bad, really evil, really painful things.
So am I saying, then, that Christians should be gloomy, depressed, discouraged, overwhelmed, fearful people? No! As a matter of fact, there are promises in scripture that God's people will be full of joy and peace. When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22, he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." How does the Christian come into this loving, joyful, peaceful life? By ignoring the bad stuff and focusing only on the good stuff? No. I say again, no. The Christian is completely aware that there are really bad things in this world. Really hard, depressing, discouraging, frustrating things. But these people have seen the grace of God, the kindness he shows us, and the power he has in this world. They have seen the bad things face off against the good things and they know the good, the beautiful, the lovely will ultimately win. They sometimes lose sight of the goodness of God and his power because the proximity of the really bad things seems so much closer than the good but they always come back to knowing that God has power over the evil. They know that even when the bad things seem to have the upper hand and it looks like they're going to overpower God's grace and sovereignty, it is not the end of the story.
When Jesus' close friend Lazarus became sick, Jesus postponed visiting him until after he was dead. Why? Because he was trying to stop focusing on bad things like sickness and death? No. Because he wanted his disciples to see that the ultimate bad thing (death) didn't even stand in the way of the grace and power of God. When he finally showed up, did Jesus look at Mary and Martha and say "Come on, guys! Cheer up! It's okay. Eventually, you'll get over your brother's death and you'll be able to enjoy life again. Focus on that hope."? No. In the shortest verse in Scripture, it records "Jesus wept." He did not stand stiffly optimistic or try to draw their attention to something good they had going on. He cried with them. And I know he cries with us still. But the gospel of God's grace is that HE WILL WIN! Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not for a hundred thousand more years of living in this wretched, stinking, hell hole we call Earth. But in the end THERE IS NOT A CHANCE OF SEEING DEFEAT! We may live miserable, discouraged, boring, depressing lives every day that we are alive and we may lose sight of His hope on a daily basis and go around living under condemnation and fear and despair for long periods of time but he WILL NOT LET GO OF US! That is the gospel of God's grace. Breathe it in again.
06 May 2013
Grace in the Midst of Grief
My mom died 6 years ago on this day. At the time, it was terrible. I got an email from Pastor Drew telling me to call my dad. My bed was unmade and we were about 15 minutes from convocation. I was bewildered. I felt like I was in a dream. I stumbled into my SLDs room, told him, and just started crying. He just hugged me. He had no words. But I didn't need words. I eventually wandered over to Convo and spent the whole music time thinking "If I can praise God today, my faith must be real." I can't remember if I went to classes that day. I can't remember where I went after Convo or who I talked to. I do remember telling my friend Annie. She and my friend Aimee made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for me. I remember that. I remember Marty Kieffer driving all the way down from Hanover to get me and bring me back for the funeral. I remember nothing of our conversation though. I remember going to Walmart to get proper clothing for the funeral. I remember telling people at dollar tree and I remember them sending over a gift basket. I very much remember the feeling that all of Hanover was wrapped in a cloudy blanket of so much sadness that nothing in the whole town would ever be remotely fun or happy or non-depressing ever again. I remember agonizing the night before the funeral about what I would say there. How could I hope to sum up a relationship of 24 years in a short composition? I remember realizing that reading The Giving Tree would be perfect because the memory of my mom reading stories to me as a kid is still one of my most treasured memories. I remember such greats as The Slithergadee, Abu Ali, and the 7 Chinese Brothers from the Childcraft volumes. I remember Tikki Tikki Tembo, Waltzing Matilda, and Mouse Soup. And The Giving Tree was such an allegory for our relationship. Mom didn't have nearly as much to give me as the tree gave to the boy but what she had, she gave. I don't remember much about the funeral itself but I do remember the sermon. Drew preached on the raising of Jairus' daughter. He pointed out that in this story, along with many other stories of Christ encountering a dead person, He did not hurry; He arrived late. Very late in some cases. He didn't see death as that big of a problem. For Christ, death was not considered a formidable obstacle that He had to make special arrangements to deal with. He showed up, told the little girl "Wake up, sweetheart!" and she was alive again. Death isn't a big deal for God like it is for us. But He still cries with us because its really big for us.
I remember going to the Baltimore greyhound station with Paul Trask. And I remember Dr. Honeycutt picking me up on the Lynchburg end of the trip. I remember breaking down at the Michael W Smith concert when he played This is Your Time. I probably got snot all over Steve's T-shirt but he's just the kind of guy who doesn't mind so much and will just keep hugging you.
Anyway, my whole point in writing is not just to remember how bad everything was but to stand in awe at the lavish wisdom and love of God in taking her when He did. It hit me a while back that talking about God's wisdom and love in relation to pain and suffering is NOT about putting the best face on something, being optimistic/positive, or mere froth and white wash. I thought about how the time from May 2007 to now would have been different had mom not died and I realized it would largely have been filled with discouragement, pain, depression, and suffering. He was SO good and kind to take her! I certainly didn't feel it at the time but it was nevertheless true.
Mom would have come to my graduation. She'd have been so proud of me but she would've wanted me to move back to Hanover and would've been upset when I stayed in Lynchburg. She'd have gone through so much sadness and pain when I moved to Korea. Her pain might have made me decide NOT to take that opportunity. If I'd gone, she'd have just cried and been so upset and would've grown increasingly miserable with every holiday I was away. When I returned she'd have wanted me to stay. When I moved back in she'd have been overjoyed and my dad would NEVER have been able to get me to move out without their marriage falling apart. Had I NOT gone to Korea, I'd be in the same lousy situation and Korea, while filled with loneliness and difficulty, did change me in a profound way.
I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are in a painful situation, it's okay to cry and feel depressed but God is loving you throughout anyway. Don't lose heart. Continue seeking Him. Embrace the work God wants to do in you as you struggle.
I remember going to the Baltimore greyhound station with Paul Trask. And I remember Dr. Honeycutt picking me up on the Lynchburg end of the trip. I remember breaking down at the Michael W Smith concert when he played This is Your Time. I probably got snot all over Steve's T-shirt but he's just the kind of guy who doesn't mind so much and will just keep hugging you.
Anyway, my whole point in writing is not just to remember how bad everything was but to stand in awe at the lavish wisdom and love of God in taking her when He did. It hit me a while back that talking about God's wisdom and love in relation to pain and suffering is NOT about putting the best face on something, being optimistic/positive, or mere froth and white wash. I thought about how the time from May 2007 to now would have been different had mom not died and I realized it would largely have been filled with discouragement, pain, depression, and suffering. He was SO good and kind to take her! I certainly didn't feel it at the time but it was nevertheless true.
Mom would have come to my graduation. She'd have been so proud of me but she would've wanted me to move back to Hanover and would've been upset when I stayed in Lynchburg. She'd have gone through so much sadness and pain when I moved to Korea. Her pain might have made me decide NOT to take that opportunity. If I'd gone, she'd have just cried and been so upset and would've grown increasingly miserable with every holiday I was away. When I returned she'd have wanted me to stay. When I moved back in she'd have been overjoyed and my dad would NEVER have been able to get me to move out without their marriage falling apart. Had I NOT gone to Korea, I'd be in the same lousy situation and Korea, while filled with loneliness and difficulty, did change me in a profound way.
I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are in a painful situation, it's okay to cry and feel depressed but God is loving you throughout anyway. Don't lose heart. Continue seeking Him. Embrace the work God wants to do in you as you struggle.
16 April 2013
Why I Oppose the Teachings of Joel Osteen and the Prosperity Gospel
I want to preface this controversial note by saying that I write it not out of a desire to show that Joel Osteen is bad and I am good or that I know more or am smarter than Joel Osteen. Both Joel Osteen and I are in desperate need of Jesus and that apart from God's grace I would be a far worse sinner than Joel Osteen (or you) could even dream of. The reason I am writing this is to point any and all who read this to the salvation lavished on any and all who put their faith in Jesus Christ, stop trying to earn God's approval through anything they do or don't do, and come through Christ's mangled body on Calvary into a right relationship with the triune God on the resurrection side of Christ's tomb.
Before I point out the heresies in Osteen's teaching, I want to point out that the Bible clearly says there ARE false teachers who mislead people and teach falsehood and that God is very concerned that we not be led astray by them. This means there is a danger in Christianity of hearing people who claim to be the mouthpieces of God but are not and being led away from the Good Shepherd by their words. 2 Peter 2:1-3 says, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."
We must NOT blindly accept anyone who claims to be speaking the Words of God or we will be led astray from the truth. God is warning us in this passage to keep our eyes open and listen carefully to what people who claim to speak for Him say. We must line it up against the rest of scripture to see if what they're saying is supported by God's Word all the way through. Here are three signs to look for when you're listening to a person who claims to be speaking for God:
1. Are they preaching the whole counsel of God? Are they covering both the negative things God says (warnings, threats, curses, etc.) and the positive things God says (encouragement, promises, blessings, etc.)? God says things both positive and negative to His people. Remember when Peter swore to Jesus that he would never let Jesus be hurt? Jesus did not say "Thank you, Peter, I appreciate your concern." He said “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”! Can you imagine being called Satan by Jesus? That was not, from our perspective, a kind, good, encouraging word from Christ! Jesus warned him that he was thinking from a human standpoint. Equally dangerous, though, are the teachers who never have any encouragement for the people of God but are always warning them about this or that. More often than not, these false teachers are very legalistic and unkind to those who are struggling. They are always telling them what they should and shouldn't do. The Pharisees were this kind of teacher. Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” Jesus does not want His people to go around feeling dejected and exhausted by having hard commands wrapped around their necks. He says “Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest... My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus opposes both kinds of false teachers. Look at a pastor's teaching! Does he only talk about blessings and promises and warm fuzzy things? Does he ever talk about God's anger? Paul talked a bit about God's anger in Romans 1. He said it's against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Does he only ever talk about God's anger and warnings and threats? What about Romans 8 where we learn that when we put our faith in Christ nothing can separate us from God's love? You see the full counsel of God needs to be heard, understood and believed. Now all teachers are going to have more of one than the other. There's nobody perfect but you're at least going to hear the full counsel on occasion. A pastor may speak about God's love 51 Sundays out of the year and on His holiness on 1 only. But if you NEVER hear mention of God's holy anger at sin and our need for brokenness and repentance you're not hearing the full picture. The full message of the gospel is not God loves everyone and is happy with everyone and is going to pour out blessings on your life. Nor is it that God is angry with everybody and is going to delight in smashing any unrepentant sinners for all eternity. The full message is that God hates sin in every form and fashion and that we are, in our natural state, rebels who are at war with God and living in open defiance of His kingdom. Apart from God showing mercy to us, we are all headed to hell of our own free choice preferring to rot for all eternity rather than submit to His rulership. But God, rather than destroying all of us for spitting in His face and defying Him, chose to send Jesus Christ the God-man to suffer and die, taking the sins and rebellions of His people upon Himself and freely giving us His righteousness. When we trust in God to justify our wicked lives for the sake of Christ, he takes our sin and puts it on Jesus and takes Jesus' righteousness and puts it on us and starts the slow process of changing our hearts from wickedness to holiness. God's personality has many facets. His patience is tempered by faithfulness, wrath with forgiveness, warnings with promises, justice with mercy. If a pastor is preaching only one side of these things all the time, never mentioning the other side, he is a false teacher.
2. Are they living in a way that magnifies the beauty of God? God is the most desirable thing in all the universe. He is more to be cherished and loved and feared and worshipped and sought after than anything in all of creation. Does a teacher push you to know God at any cost even though you might lose all your money, your home, your family and all other things in your pursuit of Him? Paul wrote in Philippians 3 that he considers this whole world as dung (literally translated as "shit") compared to knowing Christ Jesus. Jesus was not a means to an end for Paul. Jesus was not a ticket to happiness or a good family or a new house or car or emotional peace or a healthy body. Jesus was everything to Paul and He must be everything to us. He considered all the good things he once had as worth nothing that he would gain Christ. For the first three centuries of Christianity the only thing that coming to Jesus would do for you is promise you a long, slow, unimaginably painful death. If people found out you had become a Christian you would usually lose your home, all your possessions and your family. Often, the whole family would be taken and tortured with your children being murdered before your very eyes. Jesus compared himself to a treasure in a field and a pearl of great price. The one who found this treasure went and sold everything he had to get at that treasure. The people in the early church lost everything when it was discovered that they were Christians. Does the teacher you are listening to encourage you to not mind losing possessions or being fired from your job or having your family leave you? Does he point you to Christ as your only treasure or does he encourage you to want your life here on earth to improve so you can have a better car or a better house or a happier family? What does he want you to be hoping for? More importantly, does he practice what he preaches? Does he buy the biggest house for himself when many in his church (or abroad) are struggling financially? Does he only drive nice cars? Does he eat well every day and try to enjoy this life as much as he can? Or does he live in a small house and drive a normal car? Does he give as much as he can to help people that can't afford healthcare or need help buying groceries or paying rent? Now I'm not saying that having lots of money is a sin but LOVING money and trying to find ways of getting more and more stuff to enjoy is clearly described as sin in 1 Timothy 6:9-10 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Ask yourself why a teacher says it's good to want things that the Bible says will bring great suffering into your soul.
3. Do they show the fruit of the Spirit?
This one you've got to get involved with their lives to see. If you don't know them personally it's hard to find this criterion. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self control. Do you see these things? Now you may be asking “What about unbelievers that you see these things in?” This is why you have to be involved in the teacher's life to see these things. Everyone can put a show of these characteristics but it's not until life knocks them down that you see if they are a show or real. Everyone can be patient for a little while but after a long period of time of that patience being taken advantage of or not acknowledged the film starts wearing thin. Look at how they react when life punches them in the gut or their good nature is tested. That's when you'll see if it's real or not.
Now back to Joel Osteen. I don't know Joel personally so I can only use the first two criteria. Is this guy preaching the whole counsel of God? Has he ever talked about God's anger or His hatred of sin? Has he ever issued warnings to his flock about persisting in sin? Has he ever warned people that if they run from God or reject Christ that they are under God's wrath? I'm not asking if he talks about it all the time; I'm asking if he has EVER talked about it? And when he has, has he confronted it head on and warned people that sin will destroy you and end in eternal punishment? Well, the fact is that Osteen has talked about sin before. But not from the pulpit and not in an urgent call to repentance and faith in Christ to save from it. The only time he has talked about sin is on television appearances and only when poked and prodded by the host. And when he talks about it it's from the perspective of "trying harder" to make good decisions. He never warns people! And he subjectivizes a lot. “Well, for ME, I think this is sinful but I'm not going to judge other people and tell them that this angers God.” On at least one occasion he has expressed unconcern for people following other gods and other religions. Jesus told people that He was the only way to get right with God. Osteen doesn't tell people that. He says he will leave the judgment up to God. But God has already judged. When we confront people with sin we are not judging them but showing that they are already judged in scripture and that they can only have that judgment reversed by running to Christ. Most of the time, Christ is not even the focus of what Osteen says. Faith is. If things are not going well, it's a problem with your FAITH! You need to have more FAITH! FAITH is what really counts! Pray for more FAITH! Friends, faith is, in one respect, the least important aspect of salvation. You are saved by grace THROUGH faith! Not BECAUSE OF faith. Faith is the empty hand that accepts the medicine from the doctor. Can you imagine how conceited/stupid a patient in a hospital would be who, after receiving medicine from the doctor, boasted that his hand moving the medicine into his mouth had cured him and thus he had been healed by himself? Faith simply receives. If you're struggling spiritually you don't need more faith; you need to put your faith in the right thing. When once you have put the smallest pittance of faith in Jesus, your criminal record is erased in heaven and you are declared a beloved child of God. Nothing you do after that will ever change God's love for you. You can lose faith completely and wander away from God for even years and God still looks with great favor on you. He will never remove his grace from you. You can wallow in sin and start getting drunk every night and you can murder thousands of people and have sex with hundreds of prostitutes and your family can leave you and your house burns to the ground and your car blows up and your bank accounts emptied and God still looks at you and says “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” and “Nothing... in all of creation will separate you from the love of [me]...” He will bring you back to faith eventually but it will be HIS doing and not your efforts to have faith again. Ephesians 2 makes it clear that God gives us faith and not we ourselves.
So we can see that Joel Osteen does NOT preach the whole counsel of God. And the fact that he says some things that are correct only shows that Satan often comes as an angel of light just like 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 tells us.
Number two. Does Joel Osteen live and speak in such a manner that people are driven by his example to forsake all else in their pursuit of Christ as the supreme treasure? Or does he encourage people to use faith in order to make themselves happy in this current life? Is he wanting people to enjoy this current life or is he warning them that pursuing worldly treasures (big house, new car, happy families) will destroy them in the long term and “pierce [them] with many pangs”? Does his life echo the prayer in Proverbs 30:8-9 “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
Short answer? He is clearly focused on enjoying this life. 2 facts: he has a book entitled “Your Best Life NOW” (emphasis mine); he lives in a 10 million dollar mansion. He moved to the 10 million dollar one from one that was a little over 2 million. Now of course he gives away millions of dollars every year but the gospels tell us a story about something similar:
Mark 12:41-44
“And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’”
Jesus didn't have anything nice to say about the rich who flooded the treasury with large portions of money but he sure used that destitute widow to teach us a lesson. I'm not saying God wants us all to live in poverty but neither does He want us looking for good ways to enjoy ourselves more in this life. Whether the blessing you seek is a happy family or a bigger house or a thriving business or a good, happy mood all the time or a positive mindset, God is greatly dishonored when you seek Him for what He can give you. It's like a woman marrying a man so she can get into his bank account! It's so wrong to pursue God for any reason besides Himself! No wonder God gets angry at people pursuing Him just to be happier and more satisfied with life! Wouldn't you burn with anger if you got married and pledged yourself to another person only to find out that they didn't really care about you but about how you made them feel or what you could do for them emotionally, mentally, physically, financially and sexually? If when you told them you loved them the only reply was “I'm tired now. Can you go away while I sleep?” or “I'm hungry. Go make me dinner.” People who pursue God for His blessings and what they can get out of Him are a stink in His nostrils! He hates being taken advantage of and ignored.
One more thing. Come to Luke 6 with me. In this passage, Jesus is issuing a set of promises juxtaposed with a set of warnings. Which side of the table does Joel Osteen (or any teacher) fall? This is another great way to guard against false teachers.
Luke 6:20-26
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Jesus Pronounces Woes
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Before I point out the heresies in Osteen's teaching, I want to point out that the Bible clearly says there ARE false teachers who mislead people and teach falsehood and that God is very concerned that we not be led astray by them. This means there is a danger in Christianity of hearing people who claim to be the mouthpieces of God but are not and being led away from the Good Shepherd by their words. 2 Peter 2:1-3 says, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep."
We must NOT blindly accept anyone who claims to be speaking the Words of God or we will be led astray from the truth. God is warning us in this passage to keep our eyes open and listen carefully to what people who claim to speak for Him say. We must line it up against the rest of scripture to see if what they're saying is supported by God's Word all the way through. Here are three signs to look for when you're listening to a person who claims to be speaking for God:
1. Are they preaching the whole counsel of God? Are they covering both the negative things God says (warnings, threats, curses, etc.) and the positive things God says (encouragement, promises, blessings, etc.)? God says things both positive and negative to His people. Remember when Peter swore to Jesus that he would never let Jesus be hurt? Jesus did not say "Thank you, Peter, I appreciate your concern." He said “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”! Can you imagine being called Satan by Jesus? That was not, from our perspective, a kind, good, encouraging word from Christ! Jesus warned him that he was thinking from a human standpoint. Equally dangerous, though, are the teachers who never have any encouragement for the people of God but are always warning them about this or that. More often than not, these false teachers are very legalistic and unkind to those who are struggling. They are always telling them what they should and shouldn't do. The Pharisees were this kind of teacher. Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” Jesus does not want His people to go around feeling dejected and exhausted by having hard commands wrapped around their necks. He says “Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest... My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus opposes both kinds of false teachers. Look at a pastor's teaching! Does he only talk about blessings and promises and warm fuzzy things? Does he ever talk about God's anger? Paul talked a bit about God's anger in Romans 1. He said it's against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Does he only ever talk about God's anger and warnings and threats? What about Romans 8 where we learn that when we put our faith in Christ nothing can separate us from God's love? You see the full counsel of God needs to be heard, understood and believed. Now all teachers are going to have more of one than the other. There's nobody perfect but you're at least going to hear the full counsel on occasion. A pastor may speak about God's love 51 Sundays out of the year and on His holiness on 1 only. But if you NEVER hear mention of God's holy anger at sin and our need for brokenness and repentance you're not hearing the full picture. The full message of the gospel is not God loves everyone and is happy with everyone and is going to pour out blessings on your life. Nor is it that God is angry with everybody and is going to delight in smashing any unrepentant sinners for all eternity. The full message is that God hates sin in every form and fashion and that we are, in our natural state, rebels who are at war with God and living in open defiance of His kingdom. Apart from God showing mercy to us, we are all headed to hell of our own free choice preferring to rot for all eternity rather than submit to His rulership. But God, rather than destroying all of us for spitting in His face and defying Him, chose to send Jesus Christ the God-man to suffer and die, taking the sins and rebellions of His people upon Himself and freely giving us His righteousness. When we trust in God to justify our wicked lives for the sake of Christ, he takes our sin and puts it on Jesus and takes Jesus' righteousness and puts it on us and starts the slow process of changing our hearts from wickedness to holiness. God's personality has many facets. His patience is tempered by faithfulness, wrath with forgiveness, warnings with promises, justice with mercy. If a pastor is preaching only one side of these things all the time, never mentioning the other side, he is a false teacher.
2. Are they living in a way that magnifies the beauty of God? God is the most desirable thing in all the universe. He is more to be cherished and loved and feared and worshipped and sought after than anything in all of creation. Does a teacher push you to know God at any cost even though you might lose all your money, your home, your family and all other things in your pursuit of Him? Paul wrote in Philippians 3 that he considers this whole world as dung (literally translated as "shit") compared to knowing Christ Jesus. Jesus was not a means to an end for Paul. Jesus was not a ticket to happiness or a good family or a new house or car or emotional peace or a healthy body. Jesus was everything to Paul and He must be everything to us. He considered all the good things he once had as worth nothing that he would gain Christ. For the first three centuries of Christianity the only thing that coming to Jesus would do for you is promise you a long, slow, unimaginably painful death. If people found out you had become a Christian you would usually lose your home, all your possessions and your family. Often, the whole family would be taken and tortured with your children being murdered before your very eyes. Jesus compared himself to a treasure in a field and a pearl of great price. The one who found this treasure went and sold everything he had to get at that treasure. The people in the early church lost everything when it was discovered that they were Christians. Does the teacher you are listening to encourage you to not mind losing possessions or being fired from your job or having your family leave you? Does he point you to Christ as your only treasure or does he encourage you to want your life here on earth to improve so you can have a better car or a better house or a happier family? What does he want you to be hoping for? More importantly, does he practice what he preaches? Does he buy the biggest house for himself when many in his church (or abroad) are struggling financially? Does he only drive nice cars? Does he eat well every day and try to enjoy this life as much as he can? Or does he live in a small house and drive a normal car? Does he give as much as he can to help people that can't afford healthcare or need help buying groceries or paying rent? Now I'm not saying that having lots of money is a sin but LOVING money and trying to find ways of getting more and more stuff to enjoy is clearly described as sin in 1 Timothy 6:9-10 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Ask yourself why a teacher says it's good to want things that the Bible says will bring great suffering into your soul.
3. Do they show the fruit of the Spirit?
This one you've got to get involved with their lives to see. If you don't know them personally it's hard to find this criterion. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self control. Do you see these things? Now you may be asking “What about unbelievers that you see these things in?” This is why you have to be involved in the teacher's life to see these things. Everyone can put a show of these characteristics but it's not until life knocks them down that you see if they are a show or real. Everyone can be patient for a little while but after a long period of time of that patience being taken advantage of or not acknowledged the film starts wearing thin. Look at how they react when life punches them in the gut or their good nature is tested. That's when you'll see if it's real or not.
Now back to Joel Osteen. I don't know Joel personally so I can only use the first two criteria. Is this guy preaching the whole counsel of God? Has he ever talked about God's anger or His hatred of sin? Has he ever issued warnings to his flock about persisting in sin? Has he ever warned people that if they run from God or reject Christ that they are under God's wrath? I'm not asking if he talks about it all the time; I'm asking if he has EVER talked about it? And when he has, has he confronted it head on and warned people that sin will destroy you and end in eternal punishment? Well, the fact is that Osteen has talked about sin before. But not from the pulpit and not in an urgent call to repentance and faith in Christ to save from it. The only time he has talked about sin is on television appearances and only when poked and prodded by the host. And when he talks about it it's from the perspective of "trying harder" to make good decisions. He never warns people! And he subjectivizes a lot. “Well, for ME, I think this is sinful but I'm not going to judge other people and tell them that this angers God.” On at least one occasion he has expressed unconcern for people following other gods and other religions. Jesus told people that He was the only way to get right with God. Osteen doesn't tell people that. He says he will leave the judgment up to God. But God has already judged. When we confront people with sin we are not judging them but showing that they are already judged in scripture and that they can only have that judgment reversed by running to Christ. Most of the time, Christ is not even the focus of what Osteen says. Faith is. If things are not going well, it's a problem with your FAITH! You need to have more FAITH! FAITH is what really counts! Pray for more FAITH! Friends, faith is, in one respect, the least important aspect of salvation. You are saved by grace THROUGH faith! Not BECAUSE OF faith. Faith is the empty hand that accepts the medicine from the doctor. Can you imagine how conceited/stupid a patient in a hospital would be who, after receiving medicine from the doctor, boasted that his hand moving the medicine into his mouth had cured him and thus he had been healed by himself? Faith simply receives. If you're struggling spiritually you don't need more faith; you need to put your faith in the right thing. When once you have put the smallest pittance of faith in Jesus, your criminal record is erased in heaven and you are declared a beloved child of God. Nothing you do after that will ever change God's love for you. You can lose faith completely and wander away from God for even years and God still looks with great favor on you. He will never remove his grace from you. You can wallow in sin and start getting drunk every night and you can murder thousands of people and have sex with hundreds of prostitutes and your family can leave you and your house burns to the ground and your car blows up and your bank accounts emptied and God still looks at you and says “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” and “Nothing... in all of creation will separate you from the love of [me]...” He will bring you back to faith eventually but it will be HIS doing and not your efforts to have faith again. Ephesians 2 makes it clear that God gives us faith and not we ourselves.
So we can see that Joel Osteen does NOT preach the whole counsel of God. And the fact that he says some things that are correct only shows that Satan often comes as an angel of light just like 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 tells us.
Number two. Does Joel Osteen live and speak in such a manner that people are driven by his example to forsake all else in their pursuit of Christ as the supreme treasure? Or does he encourage people to use faith in order to make themselves happy in this current life? Is he wanting people to enjoy this current life or is he warning them that pursuing worldly treasures (big house, new car, happy families) will destroy them in the long term and “pierce [them] with many pangs”? Does his life echo the prayer in Proverbs 30:8-9 “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
Short answer? He is clearly focused on enjoying this life. 2 facts: he has a book entitled “Your Best Life NOW” (emphasis mine); he lives in a 10 million dollar mansion. He moved to the 10 million dollar one from one that was a little over 2 million. Now of course he gives away millions of dollars every year but the gospels tell us a story about something similar:
Mark 12:41-44
“And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’”
Jesus didn't have anything nice to say about the rich who flooded the treasury with large portions of money but he sure used that destitute widow to teach us a lesson. I'm not saying God wants us all to live in poverty but neither does He want us looking for good ways to enjoy ourselves more in this life. Whether the blessing you seek is a happy family or a bigger house or a thriving business or a good, happy mood all the time or a positive mindset, God is greatly dishonored when you seek Him for what He can give you. It's like a woman marrying a man so she can get into his bank account! It's so wrong to pursue God for any reason besides Himself! No wonder God gets angry at people pursuing Him just to be happier and more satisfied with life! Wouldn't you burn with anger if you got married and pledged yourself to another person only to find out that they didn't really care about you but about how you made them feel or what you could do for them emotionally, mentally, physically, financially and sexually? If when you told them you loved them the only reply was “I'm tired now. Can you go away while I sleep?” or “I'm hungry. Go make me dinner.” People who pursue God for His blessings and what they can get out of Him are a stink in His nostrils! He hates being taken advantage of and ignored.
One more thing. Come to Luke 6 with me. In this passage, Jesus is issuing a set of promises juxtaposed with a set of warnings. Which side of the table does Joel Osteen (or any teacher) fall? This is another great way to guard against false teachers.
Luke 6:20-26
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
Jesus Pronounces Woes
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
02 March 2013
When Grace Enters
When Adam ate the forbidden fruit he set off a chain reaction. His view of God became distorted. Then he had kids. Because Adam had a distorted view of God he gave an equally distorted view of God to them. We live what we believe. Adam no longer believed 100% of what is true about God. Oh I'm sure he SAID he believed all the right things about God but his life no longer lined up with his profession. All sin comes from a gap between what we KNOW is true about God and what we BELIEVE is true about God. Adam probably KNEW God was kind, loving, just, etc. but his personal sense of those truths was lost. He no longer lived his life as though those things were true. His kids picked up those heart beliefs from him. They saw God through their father's life and since that life didn't line up with doctrine the thing they took away from the relationship was a skewed understanding of God. Then they passed it on to their kids. Their kids passed it on down to the next generation. And on down the line.
When I am in Walmart I see the fruit of that last paragraph everywhere. The cycle continues. Parents yelling at their kids. Husbands and wives cutting each other to pieces with their words. Families that have given up talking to each other. And a thousand different examples. When I see parents yelling impatiently at their kids I think "Each one of those harsh cutting remarks is going to become a barrier that God will have to rip down if he's ever going to save that kid." And then I look at the parents and wonder about THEIR familial relationships when THEY were growing up. Probably exactly the same. They probably had parents who were exasperated just like I was witnessing.
The beauty of the gospel is that God doesn't tell people to get their relationships "together" before He comes to them. He just loves. He doesn't shake His head thinking "Why can't these families get their acts together to become more harmonious?" He says "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you... My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I've seen firsthand how a dysfunctional family can wreak havoc on one's walk with God. My family life was much better than some as far as yelling and crying and anger go but I still struggle to have the perception of God that lines up with truth. There are deep wounds in my heart that are just part of life in a post-Genesis 3 world. But the gospel says that I CAN and WILL be healed of them as I abide in the presence of my friend and healer, Jesus Christ. So won't you come with me to be healed? One touch from Him is enough. Let us come to the doctor not trying to hide our wounds and diseases but be open and honest with Him. He loves us so!
When I am in Walmart I see the fruit of that last paragraph everywhere. The cycle continues. Parents yelling at their kids. Husbands and wives cutting each other to pieces with their words. Families that have given up talking to each other. And a thousand different examples. When I see parents yelling impatiently at their kids I think "Each one of those harsh cutting remarks is going to become a barrier that God will have to rip down if he's ever going to save that kid." And then I look at the parents and wonder about THEIR familial relationships when THEY were growing up. Probably exactly the same. They probably had parents who were exasperated just like I was witnessing.
The beauty of the gospel is that God doesn't tell people to get their relationships "together" before He comes to them. He just loves. He doesn't shake His head thinking "Why can't these families get their acts together to become more harmonious?" He says "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you... My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I've seen firsthand how a dysfunctional family can wreak havoc on one's walk with God. My family life was much better than some as far as yelling and crying and anger go but I still struggle to have the perception of God that lines up with truth. There are deep wounds in my heart that are just part of life in a post-Genesis 3 world. But the gospel says that I CAN and WILL be healed of them as I abide in the presence of my friend and healer, Jesus Christ. So won't you come with me to be healed? One touch from Him is enough. Let us come to the doctor not trying to hide our wounds and diseases but be open and honest with Him. He loves us so!
06 February 2013
The Simpsons
I wanted to do a post on the television show The Simpsons. A lot of people complain that the show has deteriorated since the 1990s and that the show is not worth watching anymore. Now the guy who really introduced me to the series was what I once would have described as a conspiracy theorist. He said a lot of wild things about the way the Antichrist was right now in the process of lining things up for his takeover. He was one of the most committed Christians I'd ever met though and his devotion to God had a huge effect on my walk with Christ. He told me that The Simpsons was his favorite TV show because they were sending out secret messages through the show. Those were his exact words. Naturally, I was skeptical. But over the past few years of watching the show I can honestly say that I think he was right. My definition of "conspiracy theorist" has changed. Now these aren't the sort of secret messages that tell you the winning numbers for the lottery or arcane mysteries from Nostradamus' prophecies. As a matter of fact, it's rather sad that most people can't pick up on these secret messages because they're the kind that are right in front of our faces. They deal with the deterioration of American society; the downfall of our country; the crumbling of our civilization. For those of you who have been living under a rock the past 25ish years, the show centers around the eponymous family which consists of father and mother, Homer and Marge Simpson, and their 3 children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Many messages become readily apparent when we realize that the show is not about The Simpsons as specific people but about US. We are the Simpsons. Homer Simpson is seen as a comical character but he was intended as a mirror. As a society, we are becoming fatter, stupider, and more lazy. Look at this article:
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/02/05/study-americans-spend-up-to-80-percent-of-work-time-cyberloafing/
A lot of Americans are doing EXACTLY what they laugh about when Homer does it! We laugh at his propensity for eating but America has been known for its obesity for a long while now. We chuckle when Homer says or does something stupid but we are being systematically dumbed down ourselves. Doubt it? Look at most of the movies and tv shows we watch. These days, most of Hollywood seems to be recycling the same series of movies again and again with slight differences in plot and characters. Look at the books we read (those of us who still read, anyway). How many vampire novels have been released in the last 10 years? And how many of them have made any notable contributions to the literary arts? Have any of them tackled any difficult topics or brought a significant thought to bear on human existence? Any philosophy? Heck! Anything besides love, sexuality, or violence? We may not be exhibiting such overt idiocy as Homer does but give it time!
How much time do you spend watching TV? How much time do you spend reading? How much time do you spend "plugged in" to computers, cell phones, and video games? There is another series of "secret messages" coming through the show that deal with the accessing of information. Lisa is belittled for her love of books, learning, and study. Why? Because much of our society does just that. They tell us that losers and geeks are concerned with non-pop culture culture. Such people are viewed as out of touch with reality or incredibly conceited by much of the populace. Most students have learned two things from our educational system: to hate serious study and always expect knowledge to be spoon-fed to them. Creativity is highly discouraged in many classrooms. Conformity is the order of the day. If a teacher sees independent thoughts arising in a discussion they push the thinkers toward the desired goal for the class's conclusion. And conformity is not just pressed down on us in schools! In all strata of our society we are told how to see the world. Hollywood tells us that we are unattractive (or at least less attractive) if we don't have shapely bodies, symmetrical faces, and fashionable clothing. We are each given the same cookie cutters through which to see people. It is the matrix which is being pressed down on each of us. There's a little box for entertainment, for smart people, for science, for literature, for science, for comedians, and on and on. Back to the Simpsons, Lisa's independent thoughts are viewed as a threat by the school system. Homer, whenever he crosses paths with real intelligence, verbally assaults it with great glee and passion. Martin is constantly the brunt of bullying whenever he makes a particularly verbose exclamation. Ignorance and idiocy are rewarded and held up as a shining example for Springfieldians to follow.
Television and Internet are held up as the gods of information in Springfield. Something occurred to me a while ago. In one of the more recent episodes (Holidays of Future Passed) computers had advanced to the point of using a cable which ran from the laptop directly into your neck when you wanted to surf the Internet. While people are plugged into the system they go completely limp and appear to be sleeping. Well, what occurred to me was that when we are using electronics (or at least when I am using electronics) our tendency is to completely immerse ourselves in it. When I get on a computer the world just fades away. My mind becomes completely immersed in my electronic activities. I don't hear people around me, I don't notice things going on, and I even stop feeling hunger and thirst as acutely. Only thing missing is the physical cable stretching from my computer to my neck!
One more thing... Mediocrity. Cutting corners. Compromise. To put it more bluntly, half-assedness. In a kingdom of mediocrity, excellence is a dangerous commodity. "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man," says Springfield's town motto. Would that it were a way of life and not just a motto. Mediocrity is glorified in our society. Most students no longer strive for academic excellence. Why try for an A+ when a C+ will do? More than that, we've even adapted the grading scale. An A+ no longer represents true academic excellence. Oftentimes it simply represents work that has been completed. In the workplace, mediocrity abounds as well. Why do the best job possible when an acceptable job earns just as much money and respect? As a matter of fact, excellence is often dismissed as foolishness or it's simply rewarded with more work and no appreciation. One big complaint that I know a lot of people have is the state of the economy. There aren't enough jobs. The jobs we have don't pay enough. Prices are too high. And on and on it goes. Folks, the problem isn't primarily any of these things. These are symptoms. The problem (or one of the main problems) is mediocrity. One of the pure and simple keys to a good, powerful, robust economy is a good, strong work ethic. Hard work. Nobility. No corner cutting or mediocrity or half-assedness. Maybe it's enough in this country but in the global market, excellence is still sought after. If it isn't found in the US they'll go elsewhere to get it.
In the season 8 episode Homer's Enemy, we are introduced to Frank Grimes, a man who has had literally nothing but struggle after struggle after struggle to accomplish ANYTHING his whole life. He has worked harder and suffered more than anyone else and has finally received a degree in nuclear physics. Mr. Burns, the owner of Springfield's nuclear power plant sees his special interest story on the news and decides to hire him. The next day, however, Burns has forgotten the news story and gives Grimes some menial, pencil pushing job that has small importance, significantly below Homer Simpson's pay grade. Grimes is astounded and enraged at the deeply incompetent behavior and lackadaisical attitude Homer has toward his job. Homer becomes desperate to win Grimes' approval and invites him to dinner with his family to bury the hatchet. When Grimes shows up he flies into a rage upon seeing the size of Homer's house, his beautiful wife, and his (seemingly) happy, well-off children-- NONE of which he has had to work hard for! From that point on, Grimes is bent on destroying Homer's unearned reputation at the nuclear power plant. In the end, Grimes decides that, in order to be successful, he will start to act exactly like Homer; neglecting his job, eating a lot, and being a jerk to everyone. I won't spoil the ending for you, though!
There is a higher motive, though, than reward or recognition for excellence. Especially for Christians. Don't take away from the episode I just described to you the idea that mediocrity and ignorance are worth it to get rewarded. The episode is supposed to slap the status quo in the face! It's supposed to say "Look at yourself! This is screwed up and you know it so fix it!!!" This is injustice! It should make you angry! The episode should motivate you to fix society, not just sit back and accept that mediocrity gets rewarded and excellence gets overlooked!
In George Orwell's book, 1984, Winston Smith, the protagonist, remarks that if there is hope for the society of Oceania it lies in the proletariat; that vast body of humans that makes up the general population. For 24 years now the Simpsons have been trying to wake up the proles; to wake us up to the injustices happening every day in our society, to the matrices which our civilization pushes down on us, and to the flaws that are crippling our society. So wake up. Please, please wake up. It's not too late to wake up.
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/02/05/study-americans-spend-up-to-80-percent-of-work-time-cyberloafing/
A lot of Americans are doing EXACTLY what they laugh about when Homer does it! We laugh at his propensity for eating but America has been known for its obesity for a long while now. We chuckle when Homer says or does something stupid but we are being systematically dumbed down ourselves. Doubt it? Look at most of the movies and tv shows we watch. These days, most of Hollywood seems to be recycling the same series of movies again and again with slight differences in plot and characters. Look at the books we read (those of us who still read, anyway). How many vampire novels have been released in the last 10 years? And how many of them have made any notable contributions to the literary arts? Have any of them tackled any difficult topics or brought a significant thought to bear on human existence? Any philosophy? Heck! Anything besides love, sexuality, or violence? We may not be exhibiting such overt idiocy as Homer does but give it time!
How much time do you spend watching TV? How much time do you spend reading? How much time do you spend "plugged in" to computers, cell phones, and video games? There is another series of "secret messages" coming through the show that deal with the accessing of information. Lisa is belittled for her love of books, learning, and study. Why? Because much of our society does just that. They tell us that losers and geeks are concerned with non-pop culture culture. Such people are viewed as out of touch with reality or incredibly conceited by much of the populace. Most students have learned two things from our educational system: to hate serious study and always expect knowledge to be spoon-fed to them. Creativity is highly discouraged in many classrooms. Conformity is the order of the day. If a teacher sees independent thoughts arising in a discussion they push the thinkers toward the desired goal for the class's conclusion. And conformity is not just pressed down on us in schools! In all strata of our society we are told how to see the world. Hollywood tells us that we are unattractive (or at least less attractive) if we don't have shapely bodies, symmetrical faces, and fashionable clothing. We are each given the same cookie cutters through which to see people. It is the matrix which is being pressed down on each of us. There's a little box for entertainment, for smart people, for science, for literature, for science, for comedians, and on and on. Back to the Simpsons, Lisa's independent thoughts are viewed as a threat by the school system. Homer, whenever he crosses paths with real intelligence, verbally assaults it with great glee and passion. Martin is constantly the brunt of bullying whenever he makes a particularly verbose exclamation. Ignorance and idiocy are rewarded and held up as a shining example for Springfieldians to follow.
Television and Internet are held up as the gods of information in Springfield. Something occurred to me a while ago. In one of the more recent episodes (Holidays of Future Passed) computers had advanced to the point of using a cable which ran from the laptop directly into your neck when you wanted to surf the Internet. While people are plugged into the system they go completely limp and appear to be sleeping. Well, what occurred to me was that when we are using electronics (or at least when I am using electronics) our tendency is to completely immerse ourselves in it. When I get on a computer the world just fades away. My mind becomes completely immersed in my electronic activities. I don't hear people around me, I don't notice things going on, and I even stop feeling hunger and thirst as acutely. Only thing missing is the physical cable stretching from my computer to my neck!
One more thing... Mediocrity. Cutting corners. Compromise. To put it more bluntly, half-assedness. In a kingdom of mediocrity, excellence is a dangerous commodity. "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man," says Springfield's town motto. Would that it were a way of life and not just a motto. Mediocrity is glorified in our society. Most students no longer strive for academic excellence. Why try for an A+ when a C+ will do? More than that, we've even adapted the grading scale. An A+ no longer represents true academic excellence. Oftentimes it simply represents work that has been completed. In the workplace, mediocrity abounds as well. Why do the best job possible when an acceptable job earns just as much money and respect? As a matter of fact, excellence is often dismissed as foolishness or it's simply rewarded with more work and no appreciation. One big complaint that I know a lot of people have is the state of the economy. There aren't enough jobs. The jobs we have don't pay enough. Prices are too high. And on and on it goes. Folks, the problem isn't primarily any of these things. These are symptoms. The problem (or one of the main problems) is mediocrity. One of the pure and simple keys to a good, powerful, robust economy is a good, strong work ethic. Hard work. Nobility. No corner cutting or mediocrity or half-assedness. Maybe it's enough in this country but in the global market, excellence is still sought after. If it isn't found in the US they'll go elsewhere to get it.
In the season 8 episode Homer's Enemy, we are introduced to Frank Grimes, a man who has had literally nothing but struggle after struggle after struggle to accomplish ANYTHING his whole life. He has worked harder and suffered more than anyone else and has finally received a degree in nuclear physics. Mr. Burns, the owner of Springfield's nuclear power plant sees his special interest story on the news and decides to hire him. The next day, however, Burns has forgotten the news story and gives Grimes some menial, pencil pushing job that has small importance, significantly below Homer Simpson's pay grade. Grimes is astounded and enraged at the deeply incompetent behavior and lackadaisical attitude Homer has toward his job. Homer becomes desperate to win Grimes' approval and invites him to dinner with his family to bury the hatchet. When Grimes shows up he flies into a rage upon seeing the size of Homer's house, his beautiful wife, and his (seemingly) happy, well-off children-- NONE of which he has had to work hard for! From that point on, Grimes is bent on destroying Homer's unearned reputation at the nuclear power plant. In the end, Grimes decides that, in order to be successful, he will start to act exactly like Homer; neglecting his job, eating a lot, and being a jerk to everyone. I won't spoil the ending for you, though!
There is a higher motive, though, than reward or recognition for excellence. Especially for Christians. Don't take away from the episode I just described to you the idea that mediocrity and ignorance are worth it to get rewarded. The episode is supposed to slap the status quo in the face! It's supposed to say "Look at yourself! This is screwed up and you know it so fix it!!!" This is injustice! It should make you angry! The episode should motivate you to fix society, not just sit back and accept that mediocrity gets rewarded and excellence gets overlooked!
In George Orwell's book, 1984, Winston Smith, the protagonist, remarks that if there is hope for the society of Oceania it lies in the proletariat; that vast body of humans that makes up the general population. For 24 years now the Simpsons have been trying to wake up the proles; to wake us up to the injustices happening every day in our society, to the matrices which our civilization pushes down on us, and to the flaws that are crippling our society. So wake up. Please, please wake up. It's not too late to wake up.
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