One hundred years ago tonight, 2,233 passengers were sailing across the Atlantic on the RMS Titanic.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”–yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. (James 4:13-14)
Powerful words of warning from Russell Moore:
John Edwards cheats on his wife, impregnates his mistress, and thinks he can keep the child, and the affair, a secret… while he’s running for President of the United States.
Arnold Schwarzenegger also has an affair and an illegitimate child, and thinks he can keep it all a secret from his wife… while keeping the woman employed in their home for over a decade.
Newt Gingrich on the campaign trail admits that he cheated on his wife with another woman… while he was castigating the then-President of the United States for similar behavior and voting for his impeachment.
And now U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) is in trouble for allegedly sending inappropriate pictures of himself to a woman… via a publicly accessible social media tool… and only a few months after another congressman lost his career for similar pictures.
Crazy. Irrational. I don’t know the full story behind any of these, but, in every one of these situations, the behavior seems self-evidently self-destructive. So why do they do it? Why do people risk their families, their careers, their reputations, in such reckless ways?
The most dangerous thing we can do is to assume that these famous people are somehow crazy. They don’t lack intelligence or skill or foresight. They would have never attained the positions they have if they did. Something else is going on here.
As Christians, we believe that temptation isn’t merely biological. There’s something wild and wicked afoot in the universe. These beings have an ancient strategy, and part of that is to shield us from the future. Desire gives way to sin, James tells us, and “sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). Temptation only works if the possible futures open to you are concealed. Consequences, including those of Judgment Day, must be hidden from view or outright denied. That’s why in humanity’s ancestral sin the serpent told our mother Eve, “You will not surely die” (Gen 3:4).
The tempting powers come after all of us in much the same way. Whatever our particular point of vulnerability is, they seek to distort the way we see our future. It doesn’t matter if I know that eating deep-fat-fried doughnuts every morning can raise my cholesterol levels, unless I can also imagine having a heart attack. I choose to give my children building blocks and not matches to play with because I can imagine what it would be like to see my house burning down.
Almost every adultery situation I’ve ever seen includes a cheating spouse who honestly believes that he or she is not going to get caught. The cheater often doesn’t want the marriage to end in divorce. Instead, like the characters in today’s headlines, he or she instead wants to keep everything the same: spouse, kids, and lover too. That’s irrational and completely contrary to the way the world works. Anyone can see that.
But you can convince yourself… or be convinced… that it will work for you. You’re special, after all. That’s the way temptation functions. We put consequences out of our minds, both temporal and eternal consequences. We start to believe that we are gods, with power over good and evil and life and death. And then we do crazy things.
This doesn’t have anything to do with intelligence. Satan is hyper-intelligent. And yet, even knowing that he will ultimately have his skull crushed, he rages all the more against Christ and his people, “because he knows his time is short” (Rev 12:12). In terms of the most basic principles of military strategy, that’s crazy. What we need is not intelligence, but wisdom. Wisdom includes seeing where the way I want to go will lead (Prov 14:12).
I don’t know who you are, reader, but I know you are probably not smarter than Anthony Weiner or Arnold Schwarzenegger or John Edwards. And neither am I. Both of us, you and I, are on the verge of wrecking our lives. We’re probably not on the verge of a situation quite like any of those men, but the gospel tells us we have vulnerabilities just the same, and they all can lead to destruction.
The answer isn’t found in talent or in strategy or in brilliance. It’s found in fear, the fear of the Lord and the vision of his future.
Lord have mercy.
A visualization (click to enlarge) that harmonizes the four Gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life. The individual threads are helpful for an examination of the “who,” “what,” and “where” of events leading up to and through the resurrection.
For example, below is a closeup of the chart showing Jesus in Gethsemane and his betrayal by Judas.
First, Jesus draws Peter, James, and John aside and entreats them to pray while he also prays. Then Judas and a crowd arrive; Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, Jesus is arrested, and the disciples flee, while Peter and John follow at a distance. The visualization shows you the main characters in the story and provides Biblical references for you to read the story yourself.
[via the Bible Gateway Blog]
With the dawn of a new year looming less than a week away, this is a natural time for self-evaluation, reflection and planning. Regardless of our plans for 2011, we would do well to remember the wise warning of James 4:13-15.
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Could I ask you a personal question? Has 2010 been more like a desert or an oasis?
For some of us, 2010 has been like a desolate wasteland. We feel isolated and hopeless. We’ve wondered what the point of it all is. We’ve trudged from one happiness-promising-mirage to another and repeatedly ended up with handfuls of sand. We’re bitter, calloused and pessimistic.
For some of us, 2010 has been like an oasis. Having wasted and wandered in the past, we’ve made the discovery of a lifetime, and it has made all the difference. We’ve been led beside still waters and made to lie down in green pastures. Our souls are thriving. We’re joyful, content and optimistic.
What about you? Has 2010 been more like a desert or an oasis? Regardless of your answer, there is good news. Life in 2011 can be more abundant and fruitful than you’ve ever imagined. There is a living God who is willing to lead us in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
He can turn the desert of 2010 into the living spring of 2011. Hope is available through a healthy, vibrant, consistent connection to him. I’ll have more to say about that in the next few days, but here is the point for today: desert-to-oasis transformation begins with a very specific posture of heart.
__________ O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
_______________ my soul thirsts for you;
__________ my flesh faints for you,
_______________ as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
__________ So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
_______________ beholding your power and glory.
__________ Because your steadfast love is better than life,
_______________ my lips will praise you.
__________ So I will bless you as long as I live;
_______________ in your name I will lift up my hands.
__________ My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
_______________ and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
__________ when I remember you upon my bed,
_______________ and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
__________ for you have been my help,
_______________ and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
__________ My soul clings to you;
_______________ your right hand upholds me. (Psalm 63:1-8)
If the desert of 2010 is ever to turn into the living spring of 2011, you have to decide whether or not you’re tired of choking down sand. Are you thirsty for God? Not just casually thirsty—looking for refreshment on your own terms and in your own time—but so parched that your soul is eager to cling to him as your greatest treasure? For 2011 to be the year of abundant oasis, you’ve got to be desperate for more of God.
Are you desperate?
Fixing little girl hair before school is not one of my greatest talents. I try. Oh, how I try. But it never comes close to hair done by my wife, Shelly. I’ll never forget what Chloe, our oldest daughter, said to Shelly over the phone a few years ago after one of (what I thought was) my better attempts: “Mom, you would not believe my hair. You would be so embarrassed.”
This morning was one of those mornings. We were in a rush. It was time for Chloe to leave for school. Shelly was occupied. The clock was ticking. That left me.
Chloe has gotten to the point where she’s pretty self-sufficient when it comes to her hair, but I stepped into the bathroom just to check. She had done a great job with the front (better than I would have done a few years ago on my own) and thought she was good to go. One problem—a massive tangle on the back of her head. I saw it, but she couldn’t. I was determined to help, but she couldn’t understand why. I persisted, and she grew frustrated. The whole thing could have quickly spun out of control were it not for a second mirror. I held it up and showed her what she hadn’t seen on her own. We quickly worked together and rushed out the door.
The whole episode got me thinking on the way to drop her off at school. That’s been me. That’s been you. We think we’re in pretty good shape. We can clearly spot where others have failed to measure up. We don’t need any help, and when someone suggests that we do, we react in less than flattering ways.
But all too often, there are things we don’t even see. We could use the help. In fact, we need the help of others. On our own—bullheadedly marching along with feelings of self-sufficiency and personal satisfaction—we actually look pretty foolish from behind.
Odds are, it won’t be long before someone encourages you to look in the mirror. Maybe it happened earlier today. It could happen at some point this evening. Live long enough, and it won’t be long. At least we should hope that it won’t be, because we need it.
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25)
When that opportunity comes, I want to strive to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). I want to remember that most everyone who works up enough nerve to hold up the mirror for me is doing so because they actually care about me. I want to take the time to thank them for their concern. I want to remember to thank my heavenly Father for his patience and wisdom when I’ve acted as if I need neither.
When that opportunity comes, I want to be ready to respond in the right way. How about you?
Matthew 4:18-22 sets the scene for us:
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Pay special attention to the way Jesus called these men. They were fishermen. That’s what they knew. That’s what they did. And as Jesus called them to follow him, he used what was familiar to them. He didn’t want to completely strip them of their identities. He didn’t want to brainwash them into robots. He wanted to use them.
Peter had a past that Jesus could use.
Andrew had a profession that Jesus could use.
James had a personality that Jesus could use.
John had passions that Jesus could use.
And so do you.
Are you:
Jesus wants to take your past, your profession, your personality, and your passions, and use you for the glory of God. He can use you. And he is inviting you to follow Him.
Isn’t that good news?
In Matthew 4:18-22, we are told:
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
This lesson, taken from that text of Matthew’s gospel, walks through the account in an effort to understand what Jesus said and why he said it to these four common fishermen. But it also explores a practical question: if we are to be modern-day fishers of men, what must we do and be?
SERMON AUDIO :
At 3:34 am local time, today, February 27th, a devastating magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. According to Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera, at least 120 people are known to have been killed so far. The earthquake also triggered a Tsunami which is right now propagating across the Pacific Ocean, due to arrive in Hawaii in hours (around 11:00 am local time). The severity of the Tsunami is still not known, but alerts are being issued across the Pacific. The Big Picture blog will be adding pictures of the devastation throughout the day.
Let’s pray for all who have been impacted in Chile and across the Pacific. Let’s continue to pray for those who are still recovering in Haiti. But as we pray, let’s also look in the mirror and reflect.
What would have been left unresolved?
What would have been my last words to my spouse?
What would have been the last impression I left with my children?
What relationship rift would have been left unaddressed?
What war of words would have been left without reconciliation?
What burned bridge would have been left in shambles?
What trespass would have been left without an apology?
What secret sin would have been left unconquered?
What if you never woke up this morning?
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:13-17)
Good thoughts from John Piper below:
The veneration given to Mary in the Roman Catholic church is beyond what is warranted by the New Testament. In fact, it is astonishing how little we see of Mary in the New Testament. Let us honor her unique motherhood. Let us count her blessed as the mother of our incarnate Lord. But let us not put her on a pedestal that neither she nor Jesus would have approved of.
After she turns up with the disciples praying in the upper room in Acts 1:14, she is never mentioned again in the New Testament. This is astonishing to anyone who thinks that the veneration of Mary was an essential part of early church life. It was not important enough to be mentioned in any of the New Testament books after Acts.
In fact, in the one place where Paul comes close to mentioning Mary, he chooses not to, and simply speaks of generic “woman”: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman” (Galatians 4:4).
And when she is mentioned in Acts 1:14, she is “Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” This inclusion of the brothers has the effect of minimizing any emerging elevation of Mary as having significance only in being the mother of Jesus, rather than the mother of his brothers as well.
Mary is unique among all women in being a virgin when she gave birth to her firstborn son. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Matthew 1:23). When she asked the angel how this can be, he answered: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
Yet amazingly this fact—the virgin birth of Jesus by Mary—is never mentioned again in the New Testament. That doesn’t mean it is untrue or unimportant. It simply means that it was not prominent in the life of the church. Celebrating it was not an essential part of the worship of the New Testament church. Otherwise, it would have been mentioned somewhere in the letters to those churches.
When Mary is referred to during the adult life of Jesus in the Gospels, she is not treated in a way that sets her apart in any unusual way. At the cross, for example, Matthew refers to her without even mentioning that she is Jesus’ mother: “There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Matthew 27:55-56).
Calling Jesus’ mother “the mother of James and Joseph” is striking. We know that this is Jesus’ mother because of Matthew 13:55, “Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?” “James and Joseph” are the sons in both Matthew 27:56 and 13:55. So Matthew refers to Mary without calling her the mother of Jesus, and a few verses later, he simply refers to her as “the other Mary” (27:61).
Most striking of all is the way Jesus intentionally deflects a certain kind of honor from his mother. Once a woman in the crowd “raised her voice and said to him, “˜Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!’” But Jesus replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11:27-28). Jesus ranks obedience to the word of God above the special veneration of his mother.
Similarly Jesus was once told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But Jesus answered, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:20-21). Again Jesus ranks obedience above the standing of his mother.
Mary was a magnificent person.
Therefore, remember her. Admire her. Bless her. Be inspired by her. But do not go beyond what the New Testament portrays. Our calling is to be the mother of Jesus more than to venerate her (Luke 8:21).
