Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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L.P. Hartley’s 1953 novel, “The Go-Between,” opens with these words: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” As we approach the end of another calendar year, our tendency is to gaze backward and analyze the time that was, if only briefly. That’s fine. As another writer has said, the unexamined life is not worth living. There’s benefit in going back and “watching the game film” like an old football coach, seeing what we did well and what we need to work on. But I hear a caution in Hartley’s memorable line: You...
It’s Thanksgiving. This is another holiday that has fallen victim to the secularization of society. Whatever you watch, you’ll hear that Thanksgiving is about gathering with friends and family to belly up to the trough and eat like there’s no tomorrow. There might be some murmurings about Pilgrims and natives and how one group managed to save the other, depending on your own political spin. My favorite football team will almost certainly lose in spectacular fashion. Some will dare to say we should focus on what we’re thankful for. But, the ver...
Standing on the banks of the Jordan River, about to cross into Canaan and three years of warfare, the fledgling nation of Isreal listened to the final address of Moses. In Deuteronomy 10, one of the old man’s points was that God could have chosen anybody. The whole world was his, after all. He literally had every option open to him. God chose Abraham, though. God set him apart and lavished his love on the man. Then God chose Abraham’s descendants and blessed them. God revealed himself to this holy line, while leaving the other nations in rel...
The story is told of a tight-rope walker 100 years ago. He amazed crowds by working high above the ground, without a net. He displayed superhuman dexterity. He would go across the chasm of certain death, perched on a single, thin cable. He went forward and backward. He used a large pole for balance and then went without it. He’d cross on a unicycle, then on a unicycle while juggling. The crowds were delighted. He certainly seemed to have that high wire mastered. At one point, he pushed a wheelbarrow across and back, to thunderous applause. U...
My Bible tells me that God exists outside of time. God created time. God works in and through time, but time does not affect God. Scripture says of Jesus that “his goings forth have been from of old, from eternity.” It says in another place that a thousand years are like a day to him. The Lord’s experience of time is necessarily different than ours because he is the one who created it, the one who owns and controls it. On the other hand, here we are, stuck on earth, clicking through moments one second after another. We can’t speed it up when...
Mark’s Gospel records this teaching: “And Jesus called them to him and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” (Mark 10:42-45) The Greek word translated “great ones” there is megas, fro...
“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:15) This is the closest thing I’ve found in the Scripture to a definition of a spiritual person. There are two more that are similar. In Philippians we’re urged to develop the ability to distinguish between things that are excellent, versus those that aren’t. Hebrews says that maturity in the faith means having your senses trained to discern good and evil. “Discernment” is the watch-word in all of this. True, mature spirituality is about being a...
Revelation 1:5 calls Jesus Christ “the faithful witness.” If I can get on my preacher’s soapbox for just a moment: Christians have so focused on the Revelation as a map to the end-times, they routinely miss what the stated purpose of the book is. According to its opening words, it is “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Whatever you think the proper interpretation of the book’s images may be, or what it was meant to predict, it is first and foremost a revelation, a “revealing,” of Jesus. It’s about him, not the antichrist. Revelation’s main...
In the Bible-reading plan I’ve designed for myself, I come to the book of Ecclesiastes about twice a year; and every time I read it, I end up thinking, “I should read this more often.” As a brand-new believer in my 20, all those decades ago, Ecclesiastes was confusing to me and even a little depressing. Now, it’s a welcomed friend who continues, somehow, to keep reminding me of the things I’ve managed to forget since I last read it. Young men, as designed by God, should be filled with fire, eager to conquer the world and unsatisfied until it...
Evangelical Christians might be scandalized to realize how strongly the God of the Bible comes down on the side of festivals, parties, and days off. They know what tithing is, but they’ve never seen the rule saying that a third of the tithe was meant to save up for the feasts. Basically, one facet of tithing was to build up your vacation fund. It gets worse, though. God comes right out and encourages the (moderate) enjoyment of wine and other strong drink during those festivals. Jesus would not be a good Southern Baptist. There were initially t...
“Pastor, isn’t the church full of hypocrites?” That’s a common objection. There are people who don’t go to church at all, and they’ll tell you the reason is because of all the hypocrites. They don’t want to be like them. That’s a noble desire. But is the charge accurate? Is the church full of hypocrites? I’ve certainly known a few. That’s for sure. But they were hypocrites as they walked through the doors. The church didn’t make them that way. One consequence of freely inviting sinners to join you at church is that some of them take you up o...
“Pastor, all that stuff you talk about is fine for you, all that Gospel stuff. But I live in the real world. I’ve learned that promises are made to be broken. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times it’s happened to me, but I can show you the scars. When a thing sounds too good to be true, it is. I need real help, and all you’ve got for me is pie-in-the-sky fairy talk.” Maybe you’ve never said or thought something like that. Well, I have. I’ve been hurt so deeply that when people repeated to me the promises of God, they did not strike...
The most popular Google search about the Bible is, “What does the Bible say about cremation?” The short answer to that: Nothing. When God decides not to give us a rule, this is because, either way, there is no harm done and we should not be in the business of making rules to govern non-issues. The bottom line on cremation seems to be, what we do to deal with the remains of our lives is only a temporary solution. The Bible teaches a future, general resurrection of the dead. It’s called general, because all the dead will be raised to life again...
My last column addressed the objection that says the Bible can’t be trusted because of how often it has been translated and hand-copied through the centuries. My point was that the documented history (in over 5,000 ancient manuscripts) shows the result is really the opposite. That is, the many manuscripts, from different centuries and regions, prove there has been stunning consistency over the last 2,500 or so years. By comparing old ones with newer ones, we can see plainly where any copyist errors or bad translations were made. This is not s...
“Pastor, how can you believe in the Bible when it’s been translated so many times?” That’s a common objection. Meaning no insult, but it’s an argument based on ignorance. The objector doesn’t know anything about how the Bible came to be and assumes the worst: a shadowy history littered with corruptions both accidental and nefarious. It’s assumed that we got the Scriptures through a process much like the old party game, “Phone Message.” In that game, you line up several children in a row. A long sentence is told to the first child. He takes o...
I was reading one of the thousand or so articles that pop up on my email homepage, about why people reject religious faith: “17 Challenges Atheists Have for Believers.” These are always good for a chuckle. One objection caught my attention. It was this: If God exists why doesn’t he show himself? Well, how big a show would it take for you to believe? Would 10 consecutive, pre-announced plagues, reducing the world’s most powerful nation to rubble, be enough? How about splitting the Red Sea so people could cross through on dry land? You simply...
I’m seeing a particular objection to Christianity repeated often on the internet. It started, I believe, among some Muslims, but has spread to the larger culture. The objection is this: In the Bible, Jesus never claimed to be God. He never said, “I am God. Worship me.” I’m not sure what has made this criticism so popular recently. Can I be harshly direct and say it’s stupid? Maybe not. Maybe I should be lighthearted about it and say it’s “all hat and no cattle.” It’s a vacuous statement either way, especially if you’ve ever bothered to read th...
In my regular Bible reading, I was back in Genesis the other day and here’s the thought that struck me as I went through the life of Abraham: Abraham and Sarah did not have the kind of marriage that a lot of evangelicals promote as ideal. Specifically, a lot of modern conservatives, such as the Duggars on television and those informed by material from men like Bill Gothard, advocate for a “biblical patriarchy” in which the husband rules over everyone else. He gets the final say about everything, over everyone, and things are ordered according t...
I made the mistake of watching some talking heads on a mainstream news channel the other day. When will I learn? My wife’s not holding her breath. Anyway, there was a panel discussion on the scary, new political faction on the scene. Religious zealots have arisen out of nowhere, apparently. The news has dubbed them Christian Nationalists. A pearl-clutching lady pointed out one of the horrifying doctrines of this group. These cultists think that our rights come from God, and not from any government. You may have to read that sentence again. T...
Psalm 51:8 - “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” Whatever you think of the Harry Potter books, the author created a creepy monster called a Dementor. It was meant to be the personification of clinical depression. Dementors are invisible, heartless, and relentless in their desire to suck all the joy and happiness out of a person. One victim said the monster’s effect was to make her feel like she’d never be cheerful again. Live long enough and you’ll come to a place where you fear death less than you fear...
Psalm 51:5 – “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” David is direct, even blunt, here. He’s not sugar-coating anything. Even so, these words are routinely misunderstood, especially by new readers of the Bible, or older ones who’ve never paid attention. The sense is the same as if he had said, “I was born into the tribe of Judah, and therefore Judah is my tribe.” Only, here, the tribe in question is that one we call “humanity.” As cats bring forth cats, and dogs have litters of puppies, so the d...
The truth is that within Christian churches we have a history of allowing people to “identify” as something they merely feel or wish they were, but for which there is no objective evidence. Not only have we done this consistently, but we have a little sub-culture in which this is enthusiastically encouraged. We make quasi-celebrities out of the preachers who can convince the most people to make this (false) identification. We call this evangelism. Sometimes we hold special services called revivals, in which the goal is to get as many peo...
At one point in the Gospel story, Peter confesses his belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus responds with a promise that he himself would build his church, and that the gates of hell would not overcome it. They were in a city called Caesarea Phillipi when this happened, and the location is important. Caesarea Phillipi was set on a large shelf or terrace 1500 feet up the side of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon marked the northern border of Israel. On the other side was Syria. The slopes on the southern side of the mountain are called...
The new year stares us right in our faces like a gunslinger in a classic Western. Its gaze narrows. Its trigger finger twitches, waiting for a signal. The last several years have come after us like low-down, mangy desperados. After what we’ve seen, it’s normal to wonder what fresh misery has been brewed up for us in days to come. You may think you’re prepared, but you’ve thought that before, and still wound up having to ask, “Where in the world did all that come from?” This is a completely understandable way to think. We’re gun shy. We’ve be...
Many churches that follow a traditional calendar in their activities will regard this upcoming Sunday as the third Sunday in the season of Advent. In the first, they focused on themes of hope and expectation. Last Sunday was about promise and fulfillment. Looking over the suggested Scripture readings for the third Sunday, the theme of restoration is prominent. The people of God who had managed to hold on to their faith at the time of Jesus of Nazareth were in need of restoration, severely so. Beginning with the captivity in Babylon, at the...