New Life'n

Wondering about things you've always heard

I’ve always heard that when you’re a Christian and maybe a big influence, or effective, or a strong follower of Christ that the devil goes after you.  And that the devil leaves the weak alone because he already has them ineffective.

In the animal world – God’s creation – predators first go after the weak, the sick, the old, the young, the ones on the fringe, the ones lagging behind on their own.  They leave the stronger ones alone.  Well, that’s what Discovery Channel says.  Predators have the image of might, viciousness and intimidation, but they always go after the easiest ones to pick off.  Maybe that’s part of their viciousness – they’re merciless towards the weak.

In the Bible, Satan is compared to a lion, a predator looking for someone to devour.   Protection comes in resisting him, being strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, being sober-minded, watchful and firm in the faith.  Being strong keeps you from being devoured.

So what could this mean when a person who seems strong falls?  Is it possible some are weaker than you would expect based on their reputation, influence or what you see on the outside? 

Another thing I’ve always heard is that when trouble and challenges suddenly descend on a godly person it’s an ‘attack of the devil’ -- again, because they’re threatening to be effective.  This make sense.  You hardly ever hear people attribute the trouble and challenges of striving godly people to the Lord.

Then you remember that attacking Job, the godliest man in the East, was not the devil’s idea.  It was God’s.  And Job did not fall.  But it doesn’t seem right to say if you fall it’s the devil attacking the weak, and if you don’t fall it’s the Lord strengthening you – that seems as simplistic as those other things I’ve heard.  Maybe it’s both.  It’s just something I’m wondering about.

There's nothing like it

The wicked flee when no one pursues… – Proverbs 28.1

That’s what a guilty conscience does to you -- makes you feel guilty all the time.  It makes you feel guilty even in areas where you’re not.  Which is exactly how it’s supposed to work so you’ll do something about it.

…but the righteous are bold as a lion. – Proverbs 28.1

A clear conscience has power beyond your own ability to just plow thru despite your guilty conscience.  It liberates you.  A clear conscience gives you a sense of freedom and joy that, just like the guilty conscience, carries over to everything you do.

Three periods and a comma

When Johnny Carson quit it was a comma for Ed McMahon.  Other commas came with Star Search, Bloopers, and the Publishers Clearing House commercials.  Ed’s period came this week.

Farrah Fawcett had a comma after one year as a Charlie’s Angel.  Other commas came after the poster and the TV movies and awards.  Her period was yesterday.

Michael Jackson had a lot of commas, with bold print in between – commas came after the Jackson 5, Thriller and the Motown Special, and then all that hyperbaric oxygen chamber, Bubbles, Neverland, plastic surgery and courtroom stuff.  We’re talking about Michael’s period today.

The Governor of South Carolina had a comma this week.  There will probably be more commas to come, though maybe not publically, so we may not know about them.  His period, of course, could be at any time – just like yours and mine. 

There are a lot of commas in life but you can’t ever count on another one, and you never know when a comma will turn into a period.  Once the period comes there are no more sentences. 

It can be pretty profound to realize you’ve been given some control of the sentences, but not the punctuation. 

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom – Psalm 90.12

Being brave

The Nester knows what she wants to do – that’s why she hates going to fabric stores.  The people there tell her she’s wrong, she can’t do that, it won’t work, it’s not right.  It’s not enough to help her by selling her what she wants.  She has to do what they think, the way they think it should be done.  They’re the guardians of right 

People are a big help.  But they’re not the final word.  You have to decide for yourself.

It can be the same in spiritual things.  People will tell you you can’t do that, you shouldn’t do that, it’s wrong.  (I'm not talking about the clear, pretty-much undebated sins in the Bible -- I mean more the projects and ministries and methods that Christians feel led to do.)  And there’s the added sledgehammer – implied or stated –  this isn’t me saying it, it’s the Bible.  And they’ll show you the verses.  Suddenly you’re unbiblical.  Oh God, anything but that.  Because unlike designer opinions and decorating status quo, in spiritual things there is a final truth.  And final, absolute truth does need guardians.  It’s way more important than window treatments.

But the guardians disagree.  You can’t make them all happy.  If you’re convinced by one, another will still say you’re wrong.  Some will not only tell you what the Bible says, but also what it means and they’ll apply it for you, too, and they do all that in one move and with 100% confidence and if you disagree with their application to you they’ll say you’re disagreeing with God.  Yikes.  But you better listen to only one of them, because if you listen to more than one you’ll have to take a vote because they’ll disagree. 

So what do you do when a guardian is trying to guard and you’re the threat? 

Being unbiblical is serious business.  So is fearing men.  In the end, you’re responsible to the Lord – be able to defend yourself to him based on what he’s written.  Deciding for yourself does not mean making up your own truth -- there's only one of those and you don't get to invent your own.  You can only hunger for it, search it out, turn your ear to it, call out for insight, accept it and apply your heart to understanding what you should do about it. 

Be convinced yourself.  Some men, well intentioned, are master arguers and love doing it and you will feel you’re wrong if you can’t answer all their points.  And you may be wrong, but the truth is not up for grabs to the best debater. 

Do your best.  Take it serious.  Accept criticism, consider it and handle it gracefully.  But make a decision and act.   Go.  With boldness and humility.

Why the cross is so offensive

Because it flies in your face if you want to get any kind of credit.  And it flies in your face if you want to hang onto anything except Jesus and the cross to get to heaven or to live pleasing God.  And you were born wanting credit.  Credit for being good, for doing the right things, for avoiding the wrong things, for being better than someone else, for joining the right church --  credit somehow someway for something.  And you can’t hang on to a bit of it.

It’s very challenging even to a small ego to give Jesus 100% credit for everything and to not take just a tiny one percent.  C’mon, one percent?  That’s offensive if you can be so humble that you only expect one percent and even that’s too much.  But it is.

It takes something supernatural for someone to say, yeah, Jesus and the cross, that’s what I want, and not only want but gotta have. 

When excitement turns to mud

You got into this all excited.  No one forced you.  It’s your baby and you’re committed.  You’re also swamped, slogging thru mud, surrounded by choices that all look the same.  You’re in no-man’s land – there’s no going back yet you can’t see how you’ll ever get to the end.

Pixar is making Toy Story and they’re way into it when they realize the story isn’t good enough.  They stop.  Pay people for five months to do nothing until they get it right.  Every project since then they have the same crisis (but they stop paying people for doing nothing).  Pixar is now on hit number ten in-a-row.

Apple has been working years developing the iPhone when Steve Jobs says he doesn’t like it.  It’s not something people are going to love.  Everybody goes back to work to make it love-able.  Is it worth it?

David is supposed to be king but it ain’t happening.  Just the opposite – the current king is trying to kill him.  It’s been ten years.  David gives up and deserts over to Israel’s enemy to get away from Saul but even Israel’s enemy doesn’t accept him and kicks him out.  Arriving home with his band of brothers, David discovers all their families have been kidnapped.  Even his best friends are now turning on him.  But “David found strength in the Lord his God” and within days their families are safe and David is king.

So you’re in good company.  It’s no guarantee of the results, but you’re probably going to have a doozy of a story. 

Influencing accidentally

Is the easiest way to influence.  And it can last a long time.  Melissa Gilbert met Michael Landon when she was 9.  During the time of Little House he became like a father to her, complete with loving hugs between scenes.  His strong, handsome, macho personality became what a man was supposed to be.

He influenced her another way, too -- “As a kid, I didn't know he sipped vodka from his coffee mug … but I'm sure he's one reason why, as a young adult, I almost always picked men who smelled like alcohol.”

Dad influence 101

Derwin played in the NFL so when I talked with him last week before he took his son to a football camp I asked, “So what do you look for as you watch?”  Being an NFL player, he’d see things the average person wouldn’t, right?

His son is 8.  Dad said he looks for three things:

1. Is he putting out a good effort?
2. Is he listening to his coaches?
3. Is he encouraging his teammates?

That’s quite a contrast to the dads on the sidelines yelling instructions and corrections about skills and technique.  And this is a guy who knows more of the skills and techniques than almost any dad, but that’s not what he thinks is most important.  What’s most important is what every kid can do and what every dad can encourage – the inside stuff that has to do with the kind of person you are.

Truckers and sailors and other specialists

When I first got into Christian radio and went to the conventions with the other specialists like me I was surprised at the conversations – it seemed all about the inside stuff of music rotations and songs and artists and other technicalities.  I had expected more talk and excitement about impact and results and purposes.

One of the tendencies of people – especially men – is to stick with your cronies and talk shop.  The Christian world can be the same as the rest of the world in this when pastors, scholars, theologians, and worship leaders (and radio people, and publishers, and…) hang together and talk the language of the field of their expertise with each other.  There’s a wonderful world of conferences and blogs where Bible experts man-up and challenge and encourage each other.  The blogs especially have been good for confronting me with the commitment and depth of so many godly people, and I thank God for specialists who guard the truth.

There’s a risk, though, in being a specialist.  I saw it in Travels with Charley when Steinbeck talks about the truckers he met:

The men had little commerce with local people…

On the road their interests were engines, and weather, and maintaining the speed that makes the predictable schedules possible…It is a whole pattern of life, little known to the settled people along the routes of the great trucks.

By listening to them talk I accumulated a vocabulary of the road, of tires and springs, of overweight…I soon learned not to expect knowledge of the country they had passed through.  Except for the truck stops, they had no contact with it.  It was driven home to me how like sailors they were.  I remember when I first went to sea being astonished that the men who sailed over the world and touched the ports to the strange and exotic had little contact with that world.

Then Z posts this quote from Larry Crabb’s book Inside Out:

Perhaps it is time to screw up our courage and attack the sacred cow: we must admit that simply knowing the contents of the Bible is not a sure route to spiritual growth. There is an awful assumption in evangelical circles that if we can just get the Word of God into people’s heads, then the Spirit of God will apply it to their hearts. That assumption is awful, not because the Spirit never does what the assumption supposes, but because it has excused pastors and leaders from the responsibility to tangle with people’s lives. Many remain safely hidden behind pulpits, hopelessly out of touch with the struggles of their congregations, proclaiming the Scriptures with a pompous accuracy that touches no one.

It's great to be a specialist but not only a specialist.

How dead people can help you

Read what they wrote.  They, though dead, still speak.  It can be very personal, as if they are talking to you.  Dan describes what it can be like:

I love Spurgeon because he is like a beggar who has happened onto a vast fortune, and delights in plunging his hands deep into the piles of gold coins, then letting them run and tinkle between his fingers for all to see and marvel — and he bids us come, dig in deep, and take to our heart's delight. Only it isn't gold, it's better. It's the riches of Christ, the glories of God's redeeming faithfulness, His condescending love, His precious promises. No one shows Christ as lovelier, nor God's grace as richer, than does Spurgeon.

But even more, Spurgeon reaches me because it isn't theory to him, it isn't interesting doctrine or textbook cures he's reading off…

…Scripture was life to him, as well as truth. He knew dark sorrow and trial, hatred and persecution, frightful depression. He had to run to the cabinet and find healing for his own wounds. What he holds out to me, he has tried first, and found more than sufficient. He knows the darkness I've known, and he's found light, and he points the way. His preaching is not only true; it rings true.

His sermons and writings have been a balm to my soul more times than I can say.

Spurgeon’s been dead almost 120 years.  One day you’ll be dead.  Is there anything you could leave behind that you may still speak?