This Christmas Part 1

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Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?
You have planted them, yes, they have taken root;
They grow, yes, they bear fruit.
You are near in their mouth.
But far from their mind.

Jeremiah 12:1-2 (NKJV)

As the prophet Jeremiah cried out to the Lord, he communicated his aggravation at the hypocrisy of his fellow Jews. On the outside, everything seemed fine and fruitful. The praises of God were on everyone’s lips, and there were no shortage of prophets who asserted, “Thus saith the Lord.” But when it came to their minds, God was an absolute stranger. He was on the tip of everyone’s tongue, but he had no actual place in their personal lives. Their mouths and their minds don’t correspond, and what followed was a sad lesson of bondage and bankruptcy.

There’s a real lesson for us to learn from this, particularly at this time of year. Over the next few weeks, we will hear Christmas carols virtually everywhere we go. There are going to be innumerable references to the Lord on television and radio. The name of Jesus will be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, including those of us who are part of the church. This is wonderful in and of itself, but we need to be sure that the words of our mouth match the meditations of our mind. We need to examine whether or not Jesus has the place of distinction in our thought life during this season. If not, we are making the same mistake as those in Jeremiah’s day. What can we expect when our mouths don’t match our minds? Sooner or later, we can expect spiritual bondage and bankruptcy.

The Bible tells us to set our minds on spiritual things (Colossians 3:2), to think on the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good, and virtuous (Philippians 4:8). What better way to do this than to think about Jesus? Let’s not just give the Lord lip service this season, but let’s be sure to give Him His rightful place in our minds as well.

How will you make sure your mind matches your mouth this Christmas season?

Bona diagnosis, bona curatio
“Good diagnosis, good cure”
T

Proud Father

My Daughter Was Inducted Into

The National Honor Society

And

That Makes Me A Proud Father

Risk! (part 1 of 3)

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Risk! (part 1 of 3)

One thing I could never be accused of is being afraid to take risks. Risk has been so interwoven in my life it is akin to an old comfortable pair of shoes.

Watching those around me, I am constantly amazed at the fear of risk most people exhibit. Now I am not talking about stupid risks like walking on the edge of a tall building. I am talking about the fear of failure that causes life-paralysis in so many people. They stop truly living and surrender their dreams to the reality of an ordinary run of the mill life.

Not trying to realize your dreams, in order to remain comfortable, seems almost criminal. Someone once said, and it is my life-quote, “it is never too late to be what you might have been.”

Thinking about this subject has resulted in some interesting revelations about why some people try to avoid risk.

1. Embarrassment – Nobody wants to look bad. And if you take a risk and fall flat on your face, you might embarrass yourself. So what? Get over it. The only way to get better at anything is to take steps forward. That includes missteps that can cause you to fall down. Making small steps is even better than standing still. Success is not one step; it is a series of steps. If you stumble once in a while, shake it off, and let it go.

2. Rationalization – This is the “second guessing” trap. Second guessing everything they do to the point of procrastination. A great quote goes something like this, “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” If you take risks and fail, you will have fewer regrets than if you do nothing and fail.

"Timendi causa est nescire"
The cause of fear is ignorance

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Right and Wrong

Think about this.

A smart person is smart enough to know he’s smart.
A dumb person is often too dumb to know he’s dumb, so he thinks he’s smart, but he’s not.
So both of them think they’re smart, but only one is really smart and the other is dumb.

So here’s my question:

Do you think you’re smart?
If you do, is it because you are smart and you know it, or because you’re actually too dumb to know how dumb you are?

How do you answer that question?

There’s only one way to solve this problem.
You take a test.
That is, you need an outside, objective standard to resolve the issue.

This illustrates the problem of psychological confidence.
Most people feel they’re right about what they believe.
But everyone’s obviously not right.
Some people are right and some are wrong.
So how do you know the difference when each feels just as certain he’s correct as the other does?

The answer:

You need more than internal psychological confidence.
You need outside evidence.
That’s why careful Christians don’t just have “faith.” They have convictions.
They have beliefs that are anchored to objective evidence because they know the dangers of putting too much faith in mere psychological confidence.


Fortes fortuna iuvat
"Fortune favors the strong"

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Antithesis

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For a better understanding of what I am firmly convinced is the absolute truth I offer the following quote:

"If the truth of the Christian faith is in fact truth, then it stands in antithesis to the ideas and the immorality of our age, and it must be practiced both in teaching and practical action. Truth demands confrontation. It must be loving confrontation, but there must be confrontation nonetheless."

Francis A. Schaeffer

One of the major issues of our age is the absolute lack of unity of our professed beliefs and our daily actions. So many today make a claim to be "Christian," while their actions leave me scratching my head. It is amazing how much biblical knowledge can be gained today with our vast arrray of resources, yet the lack of literacy shown by believers, the many divisions within the body of believers, and simple pride makes one wonder if most people are even serious about their faith.

Schaeffer uses the word "antithesis" throughout his writings to accurately describe the foundation of an accurate worldview. When people have beliefs, and act in ways that are in direct opposition to what the Bible teaches, the worldview they profess to have doesn't represent the foundational antithesis required by the Bible. Therefore can this type of person claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ as described in the Bible?

It is not for me to judge someone's eternal destination. Only God and that person truly know the answer to eternity. Although without evidence of Biblical conformity, or an outright rejection of Biblical standards, there is a problem.

"We must acknowledge and then act upon the fact that if Christ is our Savior, he is also our Lord in all of life. He is our Lord not just in religious things and not just in cultural things such as the arts and music, but in our intellectual lives, and in business, and in our relation to society, and in our attitude toward the moral breakdown of our culture. Acknowledging Christís Lordship and placing ourselves under what is taught in the whole Bible includes thinking and acting as citizens in relation to our government and its laws. Making Christ Lord in our lives means taking a stand in very direct and practical ways against the world spirit of our age as it rolls along claiming to be autonomous, crushing all that we cherish in its path."

Francis A. Schaeffer


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Not Always Comfortable

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"If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort you will get neither comfort or truth- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end despair."
C.S. Lewis

Not everything that is comfortable is true.
Comfort is not necessarily an indicator of truth.
In fact; if we are never made uncomfortable, we may live out our
lives with the notion we are the creators of reality.
But some day...maybe not today, nor tomorrow...but some day we will
all bump up against the truth.
And if we "make it up," then on a really bad day we will be
unable to convince ourselves otherwise because
we cannot lie to ourselves forever.

concordia cum veritate
"In harmony with truth"

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Hiring The Right Person, Not The Right Resume

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There is a key passage in a book that I read several years ago, and as I read the book again this passage really speaks to church hiring problems.
The book is a very detailed book on the how, what, who, and why certain business are successful and others are not.

This is a quote from a paragraph dealing with one such successful business:

“Successful companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience.”

The church should take note of this fact, and face the hard reality that hiring people based heavily on non-character issues does not work well in the short term if it works at all, and will never work in the long run.

“We judge ourselves by what we are capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”
Longfellow

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Change Manifesto

"Change, when it comes, cracks everything open."

Dorothy Allison

Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

He was talking about the search for change, and the sad truth that most people have simply given up on the possibility.

Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

I believe that everyday, people settle for dead-end jobs, lower lifestyles, less money, and destructive relationships, all because it’s easier to ignore changes that could transform their circumstances and change their future.

The fact is, change is hard. It’s difficult to do well, and it’s even harder to develop a lifestyle of change. That’s why I’ve dedicated my life to educating people through writing and oral teachings. Change is here, and change is happening whether we like it or not.

Andy Warhol said, “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” This isn’t small, because I’m talking about making changes in your life that will help you discover truth.

This blog is about that kind of change - especially at the intersection of church, faith, and culture. The rules are being transformed, and we need to understand the revolution.

What fuels your passion?

I believe we all have a purpose. But if we’re ever going to discover true reality of that purpose, we need to understand change, and how to achieve long-lasting, revolutionary transformation in every area of our lives. Because if we can change ourselves, we can change the world.

"Audaces fortuna iuvat"

Fortune favors the brave

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