Living the Good Life—How To Be Content

Sunday morning I spoke on contentment at Shiloh. Here are some hints to help us be content (and I know I owe others who have shared with me to help me compile this list.) Remember:

1. that our worth is not measured by our things but by our God.

2. God made us in his image, and Jesus valued us so much he died for us.

3. to accept God’s invitation to live inside of us. This fuels us to join him on his mission.

4. that contentment is learned. See Phil. 4:11-12.

5. to look up to God instead of out to what other people have.

6. that contentment is not dependent on external circumstances.

7. that contentment is not linked to keeping circumstances under our control; it is linked to a God who has all circumstances under His control.

8. to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. Thermometers display the “temperature” around them; thermostats regulate the atmosphere around them.

9. Philippines 4:13—“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” You CAN be content.

10. that like Jeremiah (Jer. 1:4-5), God created you for a mission.

One of the biggest robbers of contentment is envy. What do you do with envy? Here are 10 suggestions from Solomon Schimmel’s book THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS: JEWISH, CHRISTIAN, AND CLASSICAL REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN NATURE:

1. Reconsider the underlying assumptions you have about what makes a person worthy.

2. De-emphasized the value of the envied objects either for yourself or for the person who possesses them.

3. Think of the positive things you have that the envied person does not.

4. Compare yourself to those less fortunate than you rather than to those more fortunate than you.

5. Consider that the person you envy deserves object or quality which he has as his just reward and that there may be good reasons why you do not.

6. Reflect upon how irrational your envious feelings are. Envy hurts you and does not improve your situation.

7. Think about the potential danger of your envy. It could lead you to do things, which harm others or yourself.

8. Consider your envy as inconsistent with the kind of person you'd really like to be.

9. Associate your envy with negative qualities. [Here I would encourage you to think about some of the characters from literature that represented have represented envy: for example—consult the works of C. S. Lewis or Frank Perretti.]

10. Cultivate feelings and thoughts that are incompatible with envy and emotions it evokes.

My Opinion: LOVE WINS by Rob Bell

     [On December 26, 2011 and January 1, 2012, I'm going to be running my two top viewed posts for 2011. I hope you enjoy these once again--or for the first time.

       I'm pleased that today’s blog, which I first posted in April, was highly read. It's my take on Rob Bell's controversial book LOVE WINS. ME]

        

            I tell you—I want to believe it. I think millions of Christians DO believe it.

            “It” is what Rob Bell has written in his latest book, LOVE WINS. If you watch news shows like GOOD MORNING AMERICA or watch news channels such as MSNBC, you may have seen Bell interviewed the past month.

            Rob Bell, in case you don’t know, is a very popular preacher out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the creator of the NOOMA videos, which are extremely popular in mainstream Christianity. Bell has also written some bestseller books. SEX GOD is one of the best treatments of the subject of sexuality I have ever read.

            If Rob Bell had stopped after the first 93 pages of LOVE Wins, I have a feeling there would be no fuss. Most of those pages are things he has already said, and he makes some very good points. For example: the way Christians, and I am using the term loosely, often come across so negatively to nonbelievers, is lamentable. Research continues to bear this out.

             In chapters two and three, Bell does an excellent job of channeling great thinkers such as C. S. Lewis and N. T. Wright, in explaining how heaven and hell don’t begin in the life to come—they begin today.

            My one negative critique of chapter three is, Bell invested an enormous amount of stock in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, seeing it as an indicator of what life will be like in the age to come. I, personally, believe that parable is more of an explanation of Jesus’ attitude toward the poor. To be fair, many others join Bell in using the parable in this way.

            Bell accurately points out how little the word “hell” is used in Scripture. This can be misleading. The concept of judgment is found throughout the Bible, culminating in the book of Revelation. I join the majority of Christendom as seeing these references as signs pointing to an ultimate eternal separation from God for many.

             In Bell’s weakest moments, he pulls a number of judgment passages out of context, seemingly having them argue that God will offer mercy, redemption, and restoration to those recipients of judgment in scripture. He seizes upon the parts of Scripture that are ambiguous about the afterlife and combines them into a view that God will save everyone, or almost everyone, ultimately. To put it succinctly, God's love will change, virtually, everyone on the other side of death into a follower of Jesus.

            I need to be careful here. I follow where Bell is going with some of the Old Testament examples. I get his point that God’s earthly judgment, for example, with the Israelites, does not mean they will be banished to hell forever. Nevertheless, I see it as going beyond the scope of biblical revelation to say this is the prototype for how God will relate to every human in the after life.

            Again I say, if God so chooses—great! Who am I to judge? (I’m sorry… that last sentence made me crack up. :) ) However, this does not seem to square with the way God seeks to portray himself in scripture. It is almost like Bell is saying—I know this is what the Bible says about the character of God, but I want you to know, he does not mean it.

            I've got to admit; it sounds awfully good. But here is the problem: the overwhelming essence of Scripture attests to a coming judgment, where some will be saved and many will be lost. The character of God revealed in Scripture seems to support this understanding as well.

            Herein lies part of the problem with Bell in this book. Bell, like many of this age, has focused on love of God—to the extreme. God's holiness, God's justice, and God's anger take second place. He is more balance in this book than I thought he would be, but this is faint praise. I found something that Tim Archer, of HERALD OF TRUTH, wrote last week, which applies well here, “More often than not, we choose not to believe in God or some aspect of God’s nature because of our own wishes and desires, the way we wish things were.”

            I saw LOVE WINS coming a few years ago, when I saw Bell’s video THE GOD’S AREN’T ANGRY. That video was another masterful work, but it also put God in a box. It connected the concept of God's wrath to the needs of ancient peoples, who visualized their deities as angry, wrathful, and demanding of appeasement.

            Bell converted the wrath of God into a metaphor designed to address the fears and beliefs of ancient peoples. It was almost as if he was saying, “We’re past that now. Civilization has grown up.” Again, his is not the only voice that says this. Many in Christianity feel the same way. Bell has simply articulated these views to a new generation, in a powerful and engaging way.

            Frankly, it’s not fun to disagree with Bell. To do so, sometimes, comes across as the equivalent of stereotypical old man, sitting in a lawn chair wearing shorts, dark socks, and dress shoes shouting, “You kids get off my lawn!”

            I read LOVE WINS with the impression, he was seeking to find a way to package the Gospel, to make it more palatable for unchurched people. This I can understand, because so many unchurched people hate Christians. Consequently, I see Bell's message here “selling” well.

            Not everyone in the secular world seems to be buying it though. Journalist Martin Bashir zeroed in on Bell in a recent interview on MSNBC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjAdRJZib3Q Bashir pointedly and repeatedly asked, if what Bell wrote is true, was not Jesus irrelevant?

            I saw the interview, before I read the book, and thought Bashir was sharp and perceptive. After reading the book, I found Bashir’s “questioning” to be unfair and inaccurate. Frankly, I wondered if he had read the book, or if he was instead relying on reading summaries provided by his staff.

            Bell very much comes across as supporting the idea, Jesus is the only way. In LOVE WINS, it is Christ's work and love, which ultimately point to salvation. Any Hindu, Muslim, Jew, unchurched person, or anyone else, will find salvation only through Jesus. What Bell does is offer them the hope of finding salvation after death.

            At some point, Bell believes, even the hardest of hard-hearted sinners will turn to God—because of God's relentless love. To put it in a sound bite, Bell is saying you can surrender to Jesus now—or surrender to him later, but you WILL ultimately surrender to him.

            The idea conveyed is, in the afterlife, lots and lots of people are going to be enjoying life with God. Those who continue to reject Jesus, will be on the outside looking in—a self-imposed exile. Sooner or later, they are going to give it up and join the party.

            At the end of the book, Bell writes, if the reader wants more on hell, to consult C. S. Lewis’ THE GREAT DIVORCE. Having been a few years since I read that book, I did consult it.

            I found a number of passages I had underlined in Lewis’ book. The more I skimmed it, the more I realized Bell’s view of hell in the eternity sounded similar to Lewis’ view. Lewis did not get into near as much trouble, perhaps, because he expressed his thoughts in the form of a fictional story.

            Bell offers a scriptural Jesus, the Son of God in skin, who happened to also live the perfect human life. And if, you choose to love Jesus now, you'll enjoy the abundant life of knowing Him now. God’s reign, “heaven”, is expanded a little more on earth.

            I’m reading where some Christian leaders are wanting to disfellowship Rob Bell. (Of course, they don’t want to disfellowship C. S. Lewis. Maybe it’s because years ago, Chuck Colson said C. S. Lewis was okay with him.)

            Beware. If they do, they are going to have to disfellowship half of Christendom. The dirty little secret is a lot of people in the pews believe the same thing as Rob Bell—God is going to save most, if not all, people. 

            I suggest they not worry so much about Rob Bell. He has a high view of Jesus and of sharing good news about Jesus. He affirms the saving work of the cross and the glory of the resurrection. A lot of people in our pews don’t believe, on an emotional level, even that. Perhaps, that is what we first address.

            Obviously, I don’t have all of the answers on hell. I gave it my best shot for my church yesterday morning in a sermon I called—not jokes please—“Why Hell?” (I just finished an overview of the book of Revelation; I thought I could relax by taking on a popular subject.  J) All modesty aside, I am grateful that the sermon was well received, and you are welcome to listen to it by clicking on this link: http://srmp3.kentdavis.com/04-03-11am.mp3 Meanwhile, I’ll keep attempting to grow.

Why Hell?

            I mentioned last week, I am doing a sermon series answering some of the questions I receive. This one definitely fits contemporary cultural conversations—why is there a hell? (Of course, for some in our culture, I’m sure the question is, “Is there a hell?”)

            I’m sure there are a lot of reasons. To be concise, let me summarize my answer in three:

1. God wants the devil and his angels to have an eternal dwelling place away from Himself and anyone associated with Him. Jesus, in Mt. 25:41, makes reference to this reality.

2. Justice must be served.

            Everyone yearns for justice; everyone wants Hitler, or the mass murderer, to face justice. Of course, our desire for justice ends when we are found guilty.             That’s why a lot of us redefine our standing before God. We compare ourselves to other people, who we think are worse than us. What this leads to is a distorted view of God’s holiness, and our own. The result is, we feel comfortable consigning Osama Bin Laden to hell, but not many more people. 

            The Bible is not a partner to this way of thinking. The God of Scripture does not think highly of our holiness. Our sin must be addressed.

            I don’t like saying this. It is not popular saying this. I hope I’m wrong saying this. Unless justice is served in this lifetime, there is a realm in eternity that will administrate justice in the life to come. The Bible calls this hell.

3. The high value God holds for freedom.

            Some have written that perhaps Jesus’ greatest miracle was offering humanity freedom—the freedom to choose or reject Him.

            Love cannot be purchased nor demanded. Only love freely given inspires great works. As Philip Yancey wrote in his book, THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW, the communists found this out in the old Soviet Union. You cannot mandate society’s behavior from the top down.

            The predominate attitude in scripture is of people rejecting God’s desire for relationship, in order to seek their own way. God, at last, gives them up.

            Here, let me channel something Tom Nelson preached in a sermon I heard years ago. These are his ideas (and, in some cases, I’m sure, his words). They have helped me, and I’m simply passing them on:

            A lot of people complain about hell and call God bad names; they say that God is mean. You know why there is hell?

            Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, you have: a king, subjects, and willing obedience by those subjects. The subjects rebel, and they lose the Kingdom of God.

            God spares Man, but Man continues to rebel. His conduct reaches the point that God destroys the world except for one man and his family—Noah.

            After the flood, God says, “You are going to have a new kingdom. You are going to live under my rule.” What happened? The tower of Babel and Man’s failure.

            So, God says, “Let’s try again.” So God takes Abraham out of Mesopotamia and says, “Through you and your descendents, I am going to bless the world....”

            Then God rescues these descendents through a leader, Moses. He then gives these descendents land and Law. Now you have: a king and willing subjects—Israel.

            But Israel rebels and rejects God as King.

            So God gives Israel men to serve as kings.

            What happened? Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Assyrians to discipline them.

            Israel rebelled. So God sent them the Babylonians to discipline them.

            They rebelled. So God sent the Persians. He sent the Greeks. He sent the Romans

            Finally God said, “Since you have rebelled against me and everybody else, I’ll send my Son.”

            Jesus came and said, “The Kingdom is at hand!”

            What did the Jews (and Romans) do? They killed Jesus.

            So God took that Kingdom from the Jews and gave it to a bunch of Gentiles: Middle-Easterners, Romans, Greeks, Celts, French, Spaniards, Dutch, Anglos, Latinos, Africans, Chinese...

            But what has happened? Most people have rejected him.

            Someday, Jesus will come again. And when he does, he’s going to say, “I have done all I can do. I’m going to raise all of the dead, those who accepted me and those who have not. And I’m going to present all of them along with the living-those who have accepted me, and those who have not-to my Father.”

            And God is going to take the wicked and say, “I’ve done everything I can do. I gave you the creation, your conscience, the law, Israel, the prophets, my Son, the proclamation of the church, my written word. And you wouldn’t take it.”

            He’s going to start with Cain, and He’s going to go to the last rebellious person that is alive at the second coming. And he’s going to say, “There’s only one thing I can do with you. You go to hell, because I can do no more.

            “I’m going to put you in a place where I will never bother you again. You will never again be bothered by light or beauty or anything that calls your attention to me.

            “And through eternal judgment, I’m going to call attention to the sensation of what you have lived for all of your life—and that is you. And you will have nothing but the sensation of yourself forever.

            “Because that is your God and that is what I will give you. I will give you what you want: your freedom.”

            God gives hell as a monument to the freedom of man.

            These sentiments echo something that C. S. Lewis wrote in THE GREAT DIVORCE, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Your will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock, it will be opened.”

            I hope you will reflect over these thoughts this week. Next week, I want to come back with another thought, one I think will be more hopeful:

Eternity starts now.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Yeah Texas A & M! I always want Texas teams to win national games. I’m thrilled for the lady Aggies. And what about Gary Blair? This guy can coach.

2. The Texas Rangers are 9-1. I think if they win ninety percent of their games, they have a good chance of winning their division.

3. It’s income tax season and that is my yearly sign that I must be getting old and cranky. The older I get, the more I think the flat tax is a good idea.

            With several thousand pages of tax codes, even accountants cannot keep up with all of the laws; much less agree on how to interpret them. Even those within the IRS disagree with one another on some interpretations.

            Incidentally, I write as a preacher. I am blessed by the tax treatment I receive. I will continue to welcome these blessings as long as the law encourages this. However, there has got to be a better, simpler way.

4. Remember, when I say it, it is Christian principle. When you say it, it is politics. :)

5. Where did you go, James Dobson? I miss your wisdom on the family.

My Opinion: LOVE WINS by Rob Bell

(I had to edit this post--again! I could not live with myself without doing so. 

Sorry: April 20, 2011)

             I tell you—I want to believe it. I think millions of Christians DO believe it.

            “It” is what Rob Bell has written in his latest book, LOVE WINS. If you watch news shows like GOOD MORNING AMERICA or watch news channels such as MSNBC, you may have seen Bell interviewed the past month.

            Rob Bell, in case you don’t know, is a very popular preacher out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the creator of the NOOMA videos, which are extremely popular in mainstream Christianity. Bell has also written some bestseller books. SEX GOD is one of the best treatments of the subject of sexuality I have ever read.

            If Rob Bell had stopped after the first 93 pages of LOVE Wins, I have a feeling there would be no fuss. Most of those pages are things he has already said, and he makes some very good points. For example: the way Christians, and I am using the term loosely, often come across so negatively to nonbelievers, is lamentable. Research continues to bear this out.

             In chapters two and three, Bell does an excellent job of channeling great thinkers such as C. S. Lewis and N. T. Wright, in explaining how heaven and hell don’t begin in the life to come—they begin today.

            My one negative critique of chapter three is, Bell invested an enormous amount of stock in the story of Lazarus and the rich man, seeing it as an indicator of what life will be like in the age to come. I, personally, believe that parable is more of an explanation of Jesus’ attitude toward the poor. To be fair, many others join Bell in using the parable in this way.

            Bell accurately points out how little the word “hell” is used in Scripture. This can be misleading. The concept of judgment is found throughout the Bible, culminating in the book of Revelation. I join the majority of Christendom as seeing these references as signs pointing to an ultimate eternal separation from God for many.

             In Bell’s weakest moments, he pulls a number of judgment passages out of context, seemingly having them argue that God will offer mercy, redemption, and restoration to those recipients of judgment in scripture. He seizes upon the parts of Scripture that are ambiguous about the afterlife and combines them into a view that God will save everyone, or almost everyone, ultimately. To put it succinctly, God's love will change, virtually, everyone on the other side of death into a follower of Jesus.

            I need to be careful here. I follow where Bell is going with some of the Old Testament examples. I get his point that God’s earthly judgment, for example, with the Israelites, does mean they will be banished to hell forever. Nevertheless, I see it as going beyond the scope of biblical revelation to say this is the prototype for how God will relate to every human in the after life.

            Again I say, if God so chooses—great! Who am I to judge? (I’m sorry… that last sentence made me crack up. J) However, this does not seem to square with the way God seeks to portray himself in scripture. It is almost like Bell is saying—I know this is what the Bible says about the character of God, but I want you to know, he does not mean it.

            I've got to admit; it sounds awfully good. But here is the problem: the overwhelming essence of Scripture attests to a coming judgment, where some will be saved and many will be lost. The character of God revealed in Scripture seems to support this understanding as well.

            Herein lies part of the problem with Bell in this book. Bell, like many of this age, has focused on love of God—to the extreme. God's holiness, God's justice, and God's anger take second place. He is more balance in this book than I thought he would be, but this is faint praise. I found something that Tim Archer, of HERALD OF TRUTH, wrote last week, which applies well here, “More often than not, we choose not to believe in God or some aspect of God’s nature because of our own wishes and desires, the way we wish things were.”

            I saw LOVE WINS coming a few years ago, when I saw Bell’s video THE GOD’S AREN’T ANGRY. That video was another masterful work, but it also put God in a box. It connected the concept of God's wrath to the needs of ancient peoples, who visualized their deities as angry, wrathful, and demanding of appeasement.

            Bell converted the wrath of God into a metaphor designed to address the fears and beliefs of ancient peoples. It was almost as if he was saying, “We’re past that now. Civilization has grown up.” Again, his is not the only voice that says this. Many in Christianity feel the same way. Bell has simply articulated these views to a new generation, in a powerful and engaging way.

            Frankly, it’s not fun to disagree with Bell. To do so, sometimes, comes across as the equivalent of stereotypical old man, sitting in a lawn chair wearing shorts, dark socks, and dress shoes shouting, “You kids get off my lawn!”

            I read LOVE WINS with the impression, he was seeking to find a way to package the Gospel, to make it more palatable for unchurched people. This I can understand, because so many unchurched people hate Christians. Consequently, I see Bell's message here “selling” well.

            Not everyone in the secular world seems to be buying it though. Journalist Martin Bashir zeroed in on Bell in a recent interview on MSNBC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjAdRJZib3Q Bashir pointedly and repeatedly asked, if what Bell wrote is true, was not Jesus irrelevant?

            I saw the interview, before I read the book, and thought Bashir was sharp and perceptive. After reading the book, I found Bashir’s “questioning” to be unfair and inaccurate. Frankly, I wondered if he had read the book, or if he was instead relying on reading summaries provided by his staff.

            Bell very much comes across as supporting the idea, Jesus is the only way. In LOVE WINS, it is Christ's work and love, which ultimately point to salvation. Any Hindu, Muslim, Jew, unchurched person, or anyone else, will find salvation only through Jesus. What Bell does is offer them the hope of finding salvation after death.

            At some point, Bell believes, even the hardest of hard-hearted sinners will turn to God—because of God's relentless love. To put it in a sound bite, Bell is saying you can surrender to Jesus now—or surrender to him later, but you WILL ultimately surrender to him.

            The idea conveyed is, in the afterlife, lots and lots of people are going to be enjoying life with God. Those who continue to reject Jesus, will be on the outside looking in—a self-imposed exile. Sooner or later, they are going to give it up and join the party.

            At the end of the book, Bell writes, if the reader wants more on hell, to consult C. S. Lewis’ THE GREAT DIVORCE. Having been a few years since I read that book, I did consult it.

            I found a number of passages I had underlined in Lewis’ book. The more I skimmed it, the more I realized Bell’s view of hell in the eternity sounded similar to Lewis’ view. Lewis did not get into near as much trouble, perhaps, because he expressed his thoughts in the form of a fictional story.

            Bell offers a scriptural Jesus, the Son of God in skin, who happened to also live the perfect human life. And if, you choose to love Jesus now, you'll enjoy the abundant life of knowing Him now. God’s reign, “heaven”, is expanded a little more on earth.

            I’m reading where some Christian leaders are wanting to disfellowship Rob Bell. (Of course, they don’t want to disfellowship C. S. Lewis. Maybe it’s because years ago, Chuck Colson said C. S. Lewis was okay with him.)

            Beware. If they do, they are going to have to disfellowship half of Christendom. The dirty little secret is a lot of people in the pews believe the same thing as Rob Bell—God is going to save most, if not all, people. 

            I suggest they not worry so much about Rob Bell. He has a high view of Jesus and of sharing good news about Jesus. He affirms the saving work of the cross and the glory of the resurrection. A lot of people in our pews don’t believe, on an emotional level, even that. Perhaps, that is what we first address.

            Obviously, I don’t have all of the answers on hell. I gave it my best shot for my church yesterday morning in a sermon I called—not jokes please—“Why Hell?” (I just finished an overview of the book of Revelation; I thought I could relax by taking on a popular subject.  J) All modesty aside, I am grateful that the sermon was well received, and you are welcome to listen to it by clicking on this link: http://srmp3.kentdavis.com/04-03-11am.mp3 Meanwhile, I’ll keep attempting to grow.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. Two good games in the men’s Final Four on Saturday. I’m sticking with my prediction of Connecticut to win the National Championship tonight.

2. Two fantastic girls’ games last night. Way to go A & M! I’m picking the Aggies on Tuesday night.

3. Way to go Texas Rangers—way to sweep the Red Sox!

4. I think GLEE is channeling humanity’s deep, instinctive desire for community, love, and acceptance. It offers a watered down imitation of the experience church should offer.

5. I’m finishing up the book MOON SHOT by former Mercury Astronauts Alan Shepherd and Deke Slayton.  A great read about the NASA space program—through Apollo. I saw the documentary years ago in Argentina; it was good too.

What To Do About Evil

           Throughout History, people have wrestled with the problem of evil, especially when they have felt overwhelmed by it. A lot of our art, literature and movies reflect this struggle: SLEEPING BEAUTY, LORD OF THE RINGS, and THE BROTHERS KARAMOZOV to name of few.

            Symbols of evil have evolved: Darth Vader from STAR WARS, the swastika, and the Pittsburgh Steelers uniform. (Okay, the last one represents the view of die-hard Dallas Cowboy fans.)

            Nowhere in the Bible is there any attempt to answer the question, “Why does a good God permit evil?” Evil is a fact. It is real. It will be here until Jesus comes back. So now what?

            This issue lies at the heart of Revelation 6-7. In the first four seals, we see how evil has been wreaking havoc throughout history. Each of the four horsemen represents harm to humanity: conquest, war, famine, and death.

            By the time the fifth seal is opened, you want to join the martyrs around the altar crying out, “How long, oh Lord?” Where is this powerful, risen Christ of chapter one? Of course, he is present in chapter six—He is the Lamb.

            As one commentator has noted, the cry of the martyrs reminds us that we want God's work to get over with in a hurry, but God will not compromise. By the end of the first century, many Christians were asking the question, “If the Kingdom has been established by Jesus, and if I have been redeemed by Jesus, why are all the Roman armies still around? And why are there so many of them? And why are they so powerful? If the gospel declares God's love to the world, why do the Roman authorities put the people who believe in this love into prisons and upon crosses? Christ lived, died, and rose again, and yet the world is getting worse, not better.

            Still, power emanates from the lamb. Throughout history, He has judged evil, and He will continue to do so until He brings about the end of this world. Until then, we behave, as Eugene Peterson writes, like the angels.

            Evil does not dismay them. They carry out God’s commands. Evil exists, but God contains it. God’s work continues. The angels serve at His command—and we do too.

            It is staggering to consider what God could do through us, if we took evil more seriously. I don’t think we recognize the work of the Devil, as God does.

            Just this past week, a friend sent me an article from CNN about pornography. The one item in the article that screamed out to me: if members of churches ceased accessing porn, the destruction to the porn industry would be like an economic tsunami. It would survive, but it would be severely damaged. That is but one example of how the church has compromised itself in the mission of God in an evil world.

            Like the beings in heaven, we Christians press on in worship of our God. We don’t always comprehend the spiritual forces around us, but we join the battle.

            Earl Palmer, in his commentary on Revelation, calls attention a classic encounter in the C. S. Lewis novel, THE HORSE AND HIS BOY.

            A boy named Shasta is on a dangerous mission. He is seeking to warn the king of an impending attack.

            In the darkness, riding an unfamiliar, disobedient horse, Shasta becomes aware of a presence, and becomes very afraid. It is the great lion, Aslan, but Shasta does not know this.

            He calls out, “Who are you?”

            The being, Aslan, replies, “Tell me your sorrows.”

            Shasta does. He tells him how he lost his parents, how he was raised by a stern fisherman, how he has had terrible experiences with beasts, how he is cold, hungry and thirsty.

            Then Shasta is shocked by Aslan’s response—you are not unfortunate. As Palmer writes, “… Shasta learns many things about his own life and journey, and the path where even now he has a task to do. The danger is still real, Shasta is still tired and hungry, but he has been blessed, and he now knows where he is, dangerous as it really is, is still where he should be, and even where he wants to be. But best of all, he has met the great lion himself, Aslan.”

            We, too, have met the Lion... of Judah. We have met the Lamb. We travel with God in a world full of evil. We do so with gratitude, praise, and worship.

Five Things I Think I Think (with a nod to Peter King for this idea)

1. It is nice to be right for once. I picked the Packers to win the Super Bowl, but I would have loved to see the game go into overtime. Incidentally, Ted Thompson, the Packers’ phenomenal general manager, grew up in Atlanta. That’s Atlanta, Texas.

2. I saw a nice article about Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, and Colt McCoy being recognized for their faith last week during Super Bowl festivities.

3. The internet with YouTube and everything else is challenging the copyright world. Tim Henderson passed along this quote the other day from Academy Award winning director Francis Ford Coppola:

            “Don't worry about whether it's appropriate to borrow or to take or do something like someone you admire because that's only the first step and you have to take the first step...

            You have to remember that it's only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

            “This idea of Metallica or some rock n' roll singer being rich, that's not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I'm going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?”

            I definitely do not agree, but I find it interesting that Coppola was willing to voice that opinion.

4. I am badly in need of mathematical redemption, so I started last week reading King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry by Siobhan Roberts. I am hoping this book will jumpstart my understanding of geometry like Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography—Einstein: His Life and Universe—jumpstarted my understanding of physics.

5. Congratulations ETCA girls’ basketball team. Not only were you undefeated in district play, you were never even behind in a game. Good luck this week in your pre-playoff warm-up with 3A public school Van Alstyne.