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“The End of the World will be Livestreamed” by Russell Moore

12 May

Dear God, I was listening to the weekly short thought of the week or whatever they call it from Russell Moore at Christianity Today this morning. The episode is called “The End of the World will be Livestreamed,” and he talked about a novel from the early 1970s called Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy. Apparently, this novel pretty presciently foretells of a time in America that is now seemingly much like the one we are in now. I need to go back and listen again, but what I really liked is the resolution for the main character. In the midst of everything just falling apart, with the left dedicated to its progressive agenda, and the right diametrically opposed to the left’s agenda there is no room in the middle. There is no middle. One must choose side. So the society starts to collapse. The are left states and right states. Left cities and right cities. Ne’er the twain shall meet.

But then the main character, a lapsed Catholic, walks by a church or something (I need to check out this novel and read it for myself) and hears an invitation to just follow Jesus. In the midst of everything: “Follow me.” That is the ultimate resolution, I believe, for the book the way I heard Moore describe it (and I might not have heard him correctly). But I liked the idea that this man just started doing his one little part in your creation by being one of your created billions of people by starting to follow you. Forget the right. Forget the left. Forget the wisdom of this world. Just follow you.

Right now, I see all kids of things happening in this world that I simply cannot affect. I was reading about the continuing civil war in Sudan that I’ve been hearing about for decades. I cannot imagine the pain those people are in. Oh, Father, relieve their pain and bring healing. I think about the immigrants living around me who wake up in fear of being pulled over or an agent coming to their home. Oh, Father, comfort them and give them a good, healthy path forward. I think about my friend whose husband is gravely ill. Oh, Father, heal, comfort, guide, and love them. Don’t let this pain be wasted. Make it count. Be glorified in their lives. I think of my friend mourning the loss of his wife. Oh, Father, comfort him. My job isn’t to fix the Sudan, immigration, my friend’s husband, or even help my other friend to no longer mourn. My job is to follow you, and love those who are withing my reach. That includes the men I will love this evening through the Bible study we will do. Most of these men are on probation and feel forced to be there. Help this to change their lives. I give my service to you, Jesus. I will follow you. Lead me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on May 12, 2025 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Acts 10:30-33

01 May

Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying in my house about this same time, three o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me. He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God! Now send messengers to Joppa, and summon a man named Simon Peter. He is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore.’ So I sent for you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.”
Acts 10:30-33

Dear God, I love how grateful Cornelius is: “…and it was good of you to come.” For this Roman captain to be so humble in front of Peter is impressive. A life submitted to you is humble. Am I that humble?

I was also thinking about how I would have felt if someone like Cornelius said to me, “Now we are all here, waiting before God to hear the message the Lord has given you.” At this point, Cornelius doesn’t know about Jesus. He has no idea what message he’s in for. For all he knows, Peter is just a Jewish prophet who will be your mouthpiece to him. But if we read ahead, what we know is he’s about to experience something he never imagined. But that’s tomorrow’s story.

There is so much wonder in this story. Cornelius and the men who are helping him, as well as the rest of his family, are in wonder at what is going on. Peter is in wonder at what is going on. You are breaking paradigms everywhere and at all levels. What joy! What bliss!

I don’t know if this has anything to do with anything, but I was listening to a former pastor, John Mark Comer, who now helps people with spiritual formation speak yesterday. It was on the Russell Moore podcast. He was describing living on the West Coast, both in Los Angeles and in Portland, Oregon. He described Portland as possibly the most liberal city in the nation. There was part of me that started to wonder if I wouldn’t like living there. NOT because I am liberal—far from it—but because It would be an opportunity to stand out as a witness for you. In my current deep red-state environment, I sometimes find myself actually pushing back against conservatism because I think it is going to far in trying to take advantage of its majority and imposing its will on others who do not agree. It doesn’t feel like what Jesus would do. But if I were in an environment where being a conservative is a severely minority position, I might find myself feeling free to just love others and spread your “gospel” to them. Could yesterday have been the first time I was ever attracted to a mission field?

However, as I thought about it more, I got to thinking that the religious environment Jesus was in was not that dissimilar to the one in which I currently live. He wasn’t converting the non-believers. He was convicting the churched but spiritually dead.

Father, I will encounter many Corneliuses today throughout my day. And I’m no Peter, but I might be as close as some of them experience. Give me your words for them. Give me your love for them. Give me your patience. Give me wisdom and words. Give me insight and action. Give me courage. And help me to simply rest in you. You are my vine. Help me, Holy Spirit, to fully attach my vine to the Father, Jesus, and You.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on May 1, 2024 in Acts, Cornelius

 

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Parable of the Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29)

19 Oct

26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”

Mark 4:26-29

Dear God, I was watching a Christianity Today interview this afternoon with Beth Moore. Then I watched another one with Philip Yancey. This parable ties in nicely with some of my thoughts while I was watching the interviews. The biggest tie-in is Jesus’s line for the farmer, “…but he does not understand how it happens.” We can be oh so clever and try to figure out how things are working out, but the truth is that we have no idea. Whether it be in our families, our personal lives, our churches, our denominations, our governments, or the world in general. We do not know what you are doing. We do not know how the Kingdom of God works. We do not understand you. We do not understand your ways. I do not understand your ways.

So what are you like? Well, you are mysterious. You work behind the scenes. You are doing things we cannot see. But the a leaf blade pushes through. Head of wheat are formed. Grain ripens. And you give us two jobs in all of this: two plant seeds and then harvest the grain. So what kind of seed planter am I?

This morning, I was starting to feel a little down and overwhelmed about what awaits me when I get back from vacation. There is a lot of hard work to do. I don’t know how all of it is going to work out. I don’t know if I might fail at some of it. I started to get scared and overwhelmed. Then, I just happened upon these interviews. It’s still a mystery to me how they came up, but I was so blessed by them. The Beth Moore one really helped me as she talked about some of the struggles she has recently had and how you were with her through them. When it comes to Philip Yancey, I have been reading his memoir, Where the Light Fell, and his whole life and the work he has done regarding exploring different aspects of your nature were born out of his childhood experiences with your church and his family, including the loss of his father before he was old enough to know him. You were working in both of their lives. You are still working in both of their lives.

So you used these two interviews to encourage me. To buoy me. Your Holy Spirit spoke to me and inspired me for the work that lies ahead. It has also encouraged me to not let the joy and opportunity of these last few days of rest be wasted. To let them be rest. And this is where the parable comes in: even though it looks like nothing is happening in the rest, the blade is growing and preparing to be fruit.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, first, thank you for being my paraclete today. Thank you for being my comforter, advisor, and counselor. Thank you for the healing you have done in the friends I’ve prayed for. Thank you for the healing you are continuing to do. I have some friends right now who are facing a particularly scary situation in the health of the wife. Oh, Lord, be a healer for them. And use this to do something we cannot imagine. But this couple is dear. They are wonderful. Help them, oh, Lord. And continue to be with the others (I can think of five right now in my head) we are praying for as well.

I pray all of this with great joy to be able to call you; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; my God,

Amen

 
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Posted by on October 19, 2023 in Jesus's Parables, Mark, Parables of the Bible

 

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The Church, Suffering, Marriage and Politics

04 Jul

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

Dear God, I have a lot of things seemingly converging on me this morning.

  1. There is an article in the new issue of Christianity Today called “Vanishing Vows: Can the Church Save What’s Left of Marriage?”
  2. I saw an interview with an Evangelical leader on the national stage talking about how the church is losing the next generation because they see us as more interested in politics and shaping the world instead of being who we are supposed to be as the church (and he was repenting and pointing the finger at himself as part of the problem).
  3. I have all of the anger and vitriol I am seeing in social media from some Christians about the government infringing on our freedoms, making us wear masks, etc.
  4. My encouragement of others to read the book Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas, which has the thesis: “What if God intended marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”
  5. I have my own personal struggles, but also remarkable blessings.

So I’ve grabbed myself some breakfast tacos (already eaten), come to our town square at 8:00 in the morning, brought my copy of Christianity Today, my Bible, and my keyboard; and I figure I will just kind of hash some of this out with the Holy Spirit this morning. This is likely gong to be a long one, but that’s good. It’s good to just kind of curl up with you and see if I can get a look into your heart and my own.

I guess I’ll start with this Christianity Today article on marriage.

“Vanishing Vows: Can the Church Save What’s Left of Marriage?”

I just want to take some notes on quotes from the article that strike me as I read it:

  • “Rachel” met a guy through a dating site, got married, and later became a Christian, but getting marriage and becoming a Christian “felt like a package deal.” Before she became a Christian, “sex was less meaningful, cohabitation was defensible, and marriage was a piece of paper issued by the state…After coming to faith and joining a Southern Baptist church, she now believes that Marriage is a covenant before God and a sacred relationship.”
  • In 2005, 50% of men between 25 and 34 were married. By 2018 the number was 35%.
  • “Ander,” a 25-year-old med student in Spain is engaged to another med student. They’ve dated for 6 years. What’s he afraid of regarding marriage? “Not to be free. Tied to someone. Compromised. Things you don’t know you don’t know. maybe we’re okay now, but not later. Differences arise in a couple. The other person is different that you thought they were.” When asked if six years of dating hadn’t enabled him to know her he replied, “I feel like I don’t know her that well.” He recognizes his fears about marriage have taken on a life of their own: “This fear is not pathological and is stopping us n some way from doing a good thing.”
  • In the United States, 72% of men who attend church weekly will marry by 35. That number is 50% for men who don’t attend church regularly.
  • In 2014, 56% of Evangelicals between 20 and 39 were married. By 2018 it was 51%.
  • Cohabitation for Christians went from 3,9% in 2014 to 6.7% in 2018. Support for cohabitation over that time went from 16% to 27%.
  • The idea of commitment should help relieve fears of uncertainty, but the author’s research showed the uncertainty of the future kept people from committing.
  • “What people expect from marriage has changed profoundly, even through that marriage offers has not.”
  • Russell Moore in The Storm-Tossed Family: Marriage is increasingly a “vehicle of self-actualization” rather than a setting for self-sacrifice.
  • New attitude as stated by “Chloe”: “You have your 20s to focus on you, and then [after that] you try to help others.” Author’s conjecture: Self-sacrifice is learned behavior, not a gift for your 30th birthday. [my own comment–the same is true for philanthropic giving and tithing]
  • 28-year-old Pentecostal woman from Lagos: “When I have everything I want. When I am able to achieve everything I want to achieve for myself. Then I will get married.”
  • “Farah” is a 25-year-old single Lebanese Christian woman. Lots of devout Lebanese women wait. When they do marry, they seem to work more, not less, since the cost of living in Beirut outpaces salaries. Spare time is swamped with domestic responsibilities: “When both spouses are working, they come home tired. Even before they have kids, the couple doesn’t have the time to sit together, so they delay their discussion time. They delay things to Saturday, usually, so Saturdays or weekends become overloaded, which becomes very tiring. This challenging condition is creating a new image of marriage.”
  • Author opinion: While most people marry with affection–as they should–marriage, when you observe it across time and place, still concerns the mutual provision and transfer of resources within a formalized sexual unction. That may sound unsexy and old-fashioned, but it’s not untrue. Matrimony has long depended on an exchange based on inequalities between the spouses: He needs shat she has, and vice versa. Many balk at this notion.
  • Author opinion: In an era of increasing options, technology, gender equality, cheap” sex, and secular inaction, fewer people–including fewer practicing Christians–actually want what marriage is. That’s the bottom line.
  • Since the secular inaction of the West feeds on and sustains the flight from marriage, the life of faith is key. But if the church becomes marriage’s primary defender n the West, how exactly do we protect and encourage it for those inside and outside our sanctuaries?
  • When talking to couples who had embraced marriage: “Meeting a mate seemed more likely to occur–or be on its way soon–when our interviewees focused on holiness before loneliness.”
  • Author opinion: Marriage is an earthly arrangement, on that our Lord noted will not be found in the post-resurrection kingdom of God (Matthew 22:30). It’s a tool for material flourishing and a vehicle for spiritual progress that provides daily (if not hourly) opportunities to exhibit sacrificial incarnational love.

Interview with Rob Schenck, President of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute

  • “There was a Faustian deal made with Donald Trump which went something like this: Donald Trump promised, “I will give you everything you’ve ever wanted on your laundry list of political deliverables if you will give me what I want and demand, and that is religious cover. I need you to say that I’m blessed of God and that everything I’ve done is good.”

Going back to the passage from Mark 8 above and combining it with the article on marriage and this video, are we weakened as individuals and as a church when we get the power and influence over culture that we want? Are we better off when we are persecuted and struggling? Isn’t that how the church in Acts grew? Isn’t that how the Israelite nation grew in Exodus? Have we made an idol of political influence? Have we made a idol of our comfort and our own personal agendas? What if you want to make us holy more than to make us happy?

  • The Southern Baptist Convention reports 13 straight years of decline with the last year being the largest (biggest single year decline in more than 100 years)–and Baptists aren’t alone. And the younger the age group the more alarming the drop. Would people be more attracted to the church if they saw it struggling and caring instead of its members yelling and demanding? “Young people especially are leaving Evangelical churches in droves. And why? Because they see the hypocrisy. They see an identification with establishment power. With political force and influence. They are tired of the combat. The social conflict…”

Conclusion

Father, while this is all good sermon material, what do you have here for me? Where do I compromise my call for my comfort? Do I overlook the needs of others because it’s too much work for me? Do I get too involved in seeking influence and compromise my convictions? Do I fail to take a stand for what I feel is right in deference to those who might financially support the nonprofit where I work? Holy Spirit, give me ears to hear, eyes to see, and words to say. Help me to be your influence on those around me through them seeing yours love and glory in me and not my judgment and self-righteousness.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen

 
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Posted by on July 4, 2020 in Miscellaneous

 

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