Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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The New Testament quotes one Old Testament verse more than any other. It is Psalm 110:1, which says, “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” from Leviticus 19:18, comes in second.) It seems apparent that the divine author of the Scripture thinks those are pretty important concepts, foundational even. But if you are reading these words and can remember sitting through a sermon on Psalm 110:1, I wo...
The 12 disciples of Jesus were men obsessed with power, at least initially. This is no insult, but merely a summary of the available data. The Gospels show them arguing repeatedly over which of them would be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom. Do you think the Lord ever rolled his eyes? It’s OK to cut these guys some slack, though, as they were products of that time and culture. The most glory went to the one who proved strong enough to dominate everybody and impose his own will. That man was cal...
Choosing leaders is a spiritual issue. This is proven by the sheer amount of time the Bible spends giving us guidelines for how to evaluate them; teaching us with stories of both good and bad leaders; and, letting us in on God’s thoughts on the process. Choosing leaders is a spiritual issue. Yes, I just said that, but some things are worth saying again. This simple realization about the spiritual nature of these choices has been missed in America for a long time by people on both sides of the po...
So Thanksgiving is at hand, the holiday that shares its name with a type of prayer. In the interest of transparency, I’ll admit I’m not great at it. This bugs me a little because I see the Bible constantly urging us to give thanks. I’ve therefore given the matter some thought, and I’ve come up with these reasons why giving thanks is harder for us than it ought to be. First, I think we’re bad at it on the one day we ought to be great at it precisely because we don’t focus on it much all the oth...
Jesus said the two greatest commandments were commands to love. We are supposed to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. How would you answer if asked about your obedience to those rules? If you’re like most people, first of all, you’ll be afraid to admit there are some you don’t really love. You especially better not admit that on social media. Then, if you’re a thoughtful person, you may take the time to wonder what the real answer is. Do I love God, really? Do I love my neighbo...
Founding statesman John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The Constitutional Convention did not produce a document that could govern people who don’t govern themselves. As true as that is, there’s a sense in which it misses the point. It invites the question, “What form of government would be adequate for that other kind of people?” From a Biblical and historical standpoint, the answer is ...
Here’s my hot take for the day, which I will defend below: One of the best ways to serve the kingdom of God is to start a business. Offer goods or services that people will willingly part with their money to receive. Turn a profit. Glorify God. We’ve been taught to think in terms of overtly religious service as the best, highest, or only way to serve the kingdom. That’s all great stuff, of course, but Christians in the West used to understand that any honorable service to the wider commu...
Proverbs 11:1 says, “A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.” The word “abomination” there is a strong term. While it is true that all sin is sin, it is also true that some sins are more strongly denounced. In this case, the Hebrew word that appears in the ancient text signifies a sin that God finds particularly disgusting. So what is being said here? That God is a big stickler for accuracy in measuring devices? Not exactly: There is more at stake. The only...
We are plagued with preaching that narrows the message of Christ’s Gospel, until it is only about getting your little soul to heaven when you die. A friend of mine has perceptively called this an “incantational” Gospel. That’s probably not a real word, but he’s talking about a message that portrays the Gospel as a certain terminology — words in a certain order; and, a particular prayer prayed at the end of an evangelistic service. This version of the biblical Gospel is really more like a magi...
In the 8th Century, a Christian missionary ventured into a pagan community in what is now Germany. History knows him as St. Boniface. His mission, to convert the heathen to faith in Jesus Christ, was initially quite unsuccessful. He soon realized the big issue was a large, oak tree in the village that was worshiped by all, the Oak of Thor. So, in about 723 A.D., Boniface took a sharp ax to the tree and chopped it down in broad daylight. The crowd was horrified. Thor had been impiously...
The preaching you imbibe is either moving you toward Christian maturity, or it is not. You are either being stretched to grow, or you are being kept in a perpetual, spiritual infancy. We all realize this. Where we probably differ is in how we figure out which preaching is which. Some say their own church’s preaching is the good kind because the pastor only preaches the Bible. But this is like saying someone is a good parent because the children have food. Now, feeding your kids is good, but it’s...
One unfamiliar biblical doctrine is called, “The regulative principle of government.” To boil the idea down, it means that civil governments are not supposed to make it up as they go. Government is not accountable to the church, but it is accountable to God. God has defined what sin is. He has also defined which particular sins should be treated as crimes, and therefore prosecuted by the government. Sins that come with specified punishments attached to them are crimes. Examples include restituti...
One sticking point I encounter when seeking to apply Christian principles outside the walls of the church building is a prominent confusion over terms and definitions. The one I’ll tackle today is the term, “legal.” Christians have been wrongly trained to believe that the civil government has the ultimate right to define what is legal. Then, their own pulpits have taught them to equate legal with “moral.” Government declares something illegal, and whatever it is, apparently, God ratifies...
The deity of Jesus of Nazareth is a central theme of the Bible. The historic Christian teaching is Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully divine and yet fully human at the same time. He is the Creator, come to walk in the form of a creaturely human. The lines of evidence for this are many and varied. I don’t have space to document them all here, but I will catalog some. In the first category of evidence, Jesus is directly called God in several places. (John 1:1-14; Philippians 2:6; Hebrews 1...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor in Germany during the rise of the Nazi regime. He was imprisoned and hanged for his involvement in a plot to kill Hitler. As he watched the National Socialists rise to power and begin their reign of terror, he struggled greatly with the theological question, “What is the Christian’s responsibility when facing a government that is actively destroying its own people?” This is no new question. Neither has it grown irrelevant with the passing of time. It’s still a qu...
“O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.” (Psalm 119:97) Many Christians have been taught to fear or even despise God’s law. Generally, this fault can be laid at the feet of a particular, false theology that developed in England and America in the mid-19th century, called dispensationalism. It is true the Bible warns us against using the law in an unlawful manner; that is, using it in a manner the law never intended. This is the great burden of the whole book of Galatians, for i...
Much mischief has been done through uninformed preaching about the topic of submission to authorities. Wives have been turned into bond-servants of tyrannical husbands, and citizens made slaves of the government. It would help if we understood more about the Greek language that gave us the New Testament. For instance, when we read in English passages like Romans 13:1-7, or Ephesians 5:22-24, we see the Bible telling people to “be subject” to authorities, or to “submit” themselves to them. I...
Lord John Acton (1834-1902) famously wrote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We’ve come to accept it as an axiom, an obvious truth no one disputes. (I would make an exception for God here: he has absolute power and is eternally incorruptible. I’m happy to apply Acton’s axiom to all humanity.) I think his statement is a reasonable summary of Biblical teaching. I only wish that my fellow Christians believed it. Honestly, though, they don’t. Modern evangelicalism is...
When I suggest that Christians should consider the moral law of God as higher than any human law, as I did in my last column here, I routinely meet with some resistance, even from believers. “But, preacher, many people are not Christians. They don’t agree with God’s law.” There is a noble sentiment behind this objection. We haven’t been called to convert anyone by force, or to coerce them into agreement with us. We don’t want to shove our religion down their throats. On the other hand, thoug...
Some counties in New Mexico have stirred the pot, declaring themselves “sanctuary counties” in defiance of anticipated gun-control laws coming down from Santa Fe. This tactic is not new, even recently in America, as we have also seen “sanctuary cities” defying federal immigration laws; and, Colorado declaring federal marijuana laws null and void in its state. In response, some have spoken up and suggested that these lower levels of government have no business opposing the bigger, higher governm...
Born about 85 A.D., a man named Marcion became an important figure in the history of Christianity. His contribution to the growth of the ancient church was the novel idea that the deity pictured in the Old Testament was fundamentally opposite from the “heavenly Father” of the New Testament. So, according to this theory, there is a radical disjunction between the two Testaments: The earlier writings pictured a god who was petty, angry, and cruel; and, the latter revealed a nicer, loving, com...
“Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” — Proverbs 24:11 The Christian has a duty to speak out (at the very least) in defense of the weak and needy, who are being oppressed, ruined and destroyed by evil men. For the record, no, it doesn’t count that you pay a clergyman to do this for you. As individuals we must speak, just as we will stand before God someday. Hoping to discharge some of that noble duty, I would like to introdu...
My family loves science fiction or superhero-related media. We’re a bunch of nerds. So, it wasn’t out of character for us to check out the pilot for the Syfy channel’s new series, “Deadly Class.” Spoiler alert: We won’t be returning for more. It’s like a toilet backing up and filling the house with its contents. On the other hand, at the risk of sounding less than holy, you Christians might benefit from watching this first episode. Don’t expect harmless entertainment, though. That’s not what...
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus gives the most comforting invitation. He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” This isn’t rocket surgery. It’s pretty simple. It’s a straightforward announcement of good news that sits warmly in the center of our chests. But, there’s this thing about yokes. What...
It seems unavoidable, this thing with the calendar and the passage of time. My Puritan forebears did their best to break us all of our attachment to holidays. We humans, though, have proven stubborn about marking special days, seasons, and years. There’s no big mystery here: We like to party and also to get nostalgic about stuff from the past. I, for one, am ready to throw up my hands and admit that’s simply the way God made us. I don’t have the strength to keep fighting it. So, I’m joining the...