Living In A Sound Bite Culture

                   

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We live in a sound bite culture.

By this I mean that we live in a culture that wants answers given in usually under two minutes.  Think about how this plays out even when you are using your smart phone to watch or download something.  It doesn't really matter that the download could be coming from the other side of the planet - if it takes more than 15 seconds, we are usually feeling like it's taking (as we often say) "forever".

We can discuss and philosophize about why our culture is this way (changes from the Age of Industrialization and growing specialization, massive shifts and advances in technology), but I'd rather focus on the impacts.  Here are 3 ways our sound bite culture influences us, particularly around issues of faith.

1. People don't have time to discuss the tough questions about God, faith, the Bible, and more.  People want answers now and oftentimes the assumption is that if you can't give a short and convincing reply in a minute or two, then it's probably not true, or at least probably not worth taking the time to listen.

This is dangerous because if we are honest not, much in life comes quickly.  Completing a degree, gaining physical strength, improving one's health or marriage - these don't happen overnight.  These kinds of life-altering changes take time, and so to assume that answering questions about the Creator and Sustainer of all things will happen quickly - it's just not reasonable.

2.  Reading has often become skimming.  While Barnes and Noble isn't going out of business, it is clear that the kind of reading most people do is in short snippets, reading from social media, light-weight papers, and the like.  Again, in wrestling through deeper issues of life, most authors take time to build an argument after laying a solid foundation.  But with deep and pensive reading becoming more and more rare, deep thinking is also becoming rare.

3. Christians are settling for merely a 'devotional time' and are not studying the Bible.  Reading any Scripture is helpful and life-giving (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17), but the fact that many Christians don't have time or interest in the study of Scripture has massive implications.  Training for battle by doing 10 push-ups and then speed-walking for 20 minutes a day will not cut it, and nor will a brief reading of 2-3 verses and then moving on with your next 23 hours and 56 minutes.  We need to steep in the Scriptures but the culture tells us that if it means sitting and thinking and praying, you're wasting too much time.

Pressing back against a sound bite culture is hard work, but it is vital - especially for the Christ-follower.  God has ordained the world to work in such a way that significant changes rarely come quickly, but instead through extended time and effort.  God could have written the Redemption Story in a few years but instead we are a part of the story thousands of years later.  I'm glad God didn't rush it, aren't you?

- tC

Risk Is Right: Better To Lose Your Life Than Waste It

Every once in a while I like to let people know what I'm reading.  If you are ever around when I am teaching, you'll probably have already heard about this book as I (like most pastors and preachers) often infuse what God is teaching me into my preaching and teaching.

Risk Is Right (click the title to purchase this on Amazon or you can get it free at www.desiringgod.org) is a short book - only 51 pages - that challenges the reader to live a risk-filled life for God.  Notice here that I didn't say a foolish life for the sake of risk or for an adrenaline rush.  Risking for God is very different than risking to impress self, others, or risking for a "high".

Piper challenges the reader to look at a variety of biblical models of risk like Esther, Paul, and Joab.
These characters saw that safety was not always the best option and that trusting in God for good things, for God-honoring things is right.

One of my favorite points of the books is that life is inherently risk-filled.  I love this notion because it presses us to think differently about risk.  The question is less about IF we risk and more so FOR WHOM will we risk.  Life is going to have risk, so let's at least make our risk worth something.

A deeper thought that arises out of this book and some of my own reflecting afterward is this: for the Christian all risk for God is worthy because in the end, we are guaranteed Heaven.  If we risk and fail, so we fail.  If we risk and are embarrassed, so be it.  But in the worst of all options we risk and lose our lives for Christ.  And the result?  We are eternity with Christ forever.  And so those doing things like planting churches in places like Turkey and Afghanistan - are they fools for Christ?  Perhaps, but then they are in the company of the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 4:10).

Risk is right if the goal is to honor and find joy in Christ.
This is a short and challenging read.  I recommend it.

- tC

The Gospel Isn't Good News...

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When you ask someone what 'the Gospel' is, some will tell you that it's a book in the Bible - maybe Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.  But while these are 'the Gospels', the Gospel is the good news (literally it means that - "good news") that Jesus Christ has died for sinner to offer us a way to restore our relationship with God in Heaven.

But here's the catch.
The Gospel isn't good news...unless there is bad news first.

If you came to me and gave me a handful of malaria pills and said, "You can thank me later", I probably wouldn't take them nor would I thank you.  I don't have any need for malaria pills.  I am not headed to a place in the world where malaria is a danger, and I don't live in a state in the U.S. where malaria is dangerous.

But if I was headed to a country in South America where malaria was a real danger, suddenly your gift takes on new meaning.

And so it it with the Gospel.

The Gospel - the Good News of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins - is not good news to a person who has no sin or who doesn't believe in sin in the first place.  So giving the Gospel to a person who sees no need for it will yield little response - maybe a "Thanks...I guess...".

Sin is necessary for the Gospel to be helpful, beautiful, and rescuing.  But the notion of sin is often alien to us today.  The idea that there is a holy and perfect God who has been offended by not just 'some people' but who has been offended BY ME AND BY YOU - that is something many people just don't believe.

This presses back to many questions but one falls on the desk and pulpit of the preacher.  Do people see a need for the Gospel in your preaching?  If they think they are doing quite well and just need a tweak here-and-there, that is exactly what they will look for in your preaching.  But if the full-counsel of God is communicated this will not be the case.  The full counsel of God will communicate not just stories of the Good Shepherd, but of the one who will return looking like this:

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in[d] blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Revelation 19:11-16

   

The Gospel isn't good news if there is no such thing as sin or no such thing as a righteous and holy judge.

But the Gospel is good news for the world, because sin is real and if we are willing to be semi-objective we know that to be true.

The Gospel is good news indeed because sin is indeed real.

- tC

20 Things That Don't Make You A Christian

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The last 2 posts were about things that don't make you a Christian.

But to be honest, as I've been thinking about it, that list could go on and on.
I mean - being a baker doesn't make you a Christian.
Going to France doesn't make you a Christian.
Being a Yankees fan doesn't make you a Christian (but you are getting closer at least).

Anyhow, let me - instead of putting together 10,000 more posts - summarize the idea with a list of some of the common things people think make them Christians.

It's important to note here that there is a difference between causality and correlation.  There are many things that are correlated to being a Christian i.e. there are many things that Christians do, say, or live out...but those things don't MAKE a person a Christian, they are just associated with being a Christian.

When it comes to causality, it is by grace through faith, period.  Paul makes that clear in Ephesians 2:8-9 (click the reference to read that passage).

But here's a list 20 things that many people think equals being a Christian:

1. Going to church
2. Giving to church
3. Reading your Bible
4. Praying
5. Being involved in youth group
6. Serving or caring for the poor
7. Liking Christian movies, preachers, t.v, or other media sources
8. Pointing your finger at the sky after a touchdown
9. Saying you are a Christian
10. Raising your hand at a conference, retreat, rally, or event
11. Praying the "Sinner's Prayer"
12. Being involved in church leadership
13. Going on a mission trip
14. Not swearing and/or drinking and/or/ sleeping around
15. Singing on a musical worship team
16. Serving in church
17. Saving grace before meals
18. Living in the south
19. Working for a church
20. Being a pastor

What's the point?  Being a Christian isn't caused by anything on this list.  Being a Christian isn't the same as doing any or all of the things on this list.

In our next post we will look at what makes a person a Christian and the fruit we can measure to test if someone is a Christian.

- tC

My Sabbath Day Experince: No Smart Phone and How It Felt

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Today was my sabbath...sort of.  When I say sabbath, I mean it was my day of rest, of stopping, of ceasing.  Sabbath actually doesn't mean 'rest' but instead it was the final day of the week in the Hebrew world.  But rather than get into that discussion, I wanted to tell you about my day of rest in hopes that it might encourage you to think about rest and ceasing and restoration.

Why take a sabbath?
Paul tells us that we are no longer under law but instead are under grace (Romans 6:14).  So that means we are not saved and loved by God because we follow all the commands perfectly (over 600 in the Old Testament alone).  We are loved by God because of the work of Christ on the Cross.  And so if that's the case, why bother thinking about or having a day of rest?  Well here are 3 reasons that strike me.

1. The rhythm of creation  described in Genesis 1-2 ends with God resting. He is God so it's not as if He was tired (see John 5:17), but He rested as a picture to humans of a work-rest rhythm.  God saw it fit to work and to rest, and He even made the natural world have that same rhythm - growing, producing, and then resting.  Since God saw it fit in His creation of the universe to show us and talk about rest, it seems worth considering.

2. Jesus said very clearly in Mark 2:23-27 that man wasn't made for the sabbath but that sabbath was made for man.  By saying this He was telling His hearers that man is not subordinate to the notion of sabbath, but that God gave sabbath to bless.

3. I need sabbath.  It remind me of many thing that I need to recall.
- It reminds me to rest when my tendency is to want to produce
- It reminds me that God is in control of all things
- It reminds me that I have a tendency to make myself too much the center of things
- It reminds me that the world continues to function just fine even when I am not active

My sabbath experience
Because I am a pastor and Sunday is a work day for me, and because we have 2 young children, 'rest' and sabbath look a bit different in this stage of life.  Today Jenny and I split the day and each had about 4 hours to sabbath.  We ended the day together by buying a pizza, eating with the kids, watching a short kids devotional on YouTube, and then getting them ready for bed.  It was good for me to not 'do' so much today.  I drove, I prayed, I had a meal, I went to the gym, I journaled - I did things that would help restore me for work in the week to come.

(Located on Facebook - artist unknown)

I also didn't use my cell phone other than to be in touch with people with whom I wanted to speak.  That meant no e-mail (work or personal), no Facebook, no YouTube - nothing.  And while I wasn't itching to tweet something or scroll through Facebook updates, I did notice one thing I had not noticed before: I enjoy e-mail because I get things done on e-mail.  I reply, I update, I get meetings planned, and more. It was interesting to experience that desire to 'do', and so I had to battle and say with the Psalmist that God is my reward and He is the one that truly satisfies - "LORD, You alone are my portion and my cup" (Psalm 16:5).  

This post isn't to give you all the info you need to Sabbath well.  It's to share part of my experience with you and to ask you a few questions:
- Do you take a day of rest during the week?
- Do you say you 'can't afford to'?  
- What does rest look like for you?  What does ceasing mean for you?
- What is God calling you to as you reflect on this idea of rest?
- Do you need faith to trust Him enough to rest?

Be blessed.  Rest.
- tC