FAITH: elusive, exclusive, conclusive!

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Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls (I Peter 1:8-9).

A few years ago, a group of scientists were given the most prestigious award in the world, the Nobel Prize for science, for discovering that all around us, all around them, and throughout every cubic foot of the universe is reverberating tiny echoes of the original Big Bang, Creation itself. They called it something like a “humming,” which everyone heard to the point that they had quit questioning it.

You see the same wallpaper every day and eventually you quit noticing it. When the scientists decided to analyze the mysterious hum, they found echoes of the Beginning.

Faith is like that. It’s everywhere, everyone uses it, lives by it, orders their lives by it and around it, but rarely give it a thought.

The funny thing is how some dispute that they believe in faith or use it in any way. As they do so, they draw their breath by faith, stand on their spot of terrain by faith, and plan their next act by faith.

Defining faith is a little tricky. Everyone tries his hand at it.

The writer of Hebrews introduces the well-beloved 11th chapter, the Faith Chapter in our New Testament, with a definition:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)

Some kid said it’s believing what you know isn’t true.

Here’s my definition:

“Faith is a conviction that a certain thing is true and real and solid on the basis of solid evidence even though some important evidence is still missing.”

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Why is it so easy to mislead God’s people?

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“See to it that no one misleads you….. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many” (Matthew 24:4,11).

Our Lord knew His people.  He knew that there was something about their makeup which would make them susceptible to being misled.  By “being misled,” we mean being conned, scammed, hoodwinked, deceived, tricked, lied to, fooled, and abused.

In Old Testament days false prophets came through the land, preaching half-truths and whole lies and filling God’s people with false expectations and pagan ways.  The New Testament church, just beginning to find its way and choose its methods, quickly became the target of these scammers and con-artists.

In Matthew 24, our Lord cautions His people to keep their guard up concerning prophecies about end times: His return, signs of the end, fulfilment of certain prophecies, apostasies, portents and omens.

And yet, the false teachers keep arising and God’s people go right on swallowing their poison. Now, I have little confidence in those who build their ministries around interpretations of prophecy.  Generations of these teachers have published their books, drawn their charts, persuaded entire segments of the church, and taken no prisoners from those who disagreed with them, only to be shown by time as false teachers (that is, when their interpretations proved wrong). And then, a few minutes later a new generation of prophecy experts steps up to fill the gap left by the departure of the last group.

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Sarcasm has no place in the life of a believer

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“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person” (Colossians 4:6). “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

Mary Todd Lincoln was gifted in the dark art of sarcasm. Her sister Elizabeth said of her, “She was also impulsive and made no attempt to conceal her feelings;  indeed, it would have been an impossibility had she desired to do so, for her face was an index to  every passing emotion.  Without desiring to wound, she occasionally indulged in sarcastic, witty remarks, that cut like a Damascus blade, but there was no malice behind them.”  Lincoln’s biographer notes, “A young woman who could wound by words without intending to was presumably even more dangerous when angry or aroused.”  (Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln by Douglas L. Wilson).

Woe to anyone bound in marriage to one gifted in sarcasm.  Lincoln bore many a scar from the blade his wife wielded.

Pity the church member who sits under the teachings of a sarcastic pastor week after week.  Such a pastor’s ministry will bear bitter fruit.

These days, Christian leaders are finding themselves apologizing for public pronouncements–in the media, on cyberspace, in print, on radio or TV–in which they were sarcastic toward someone who criticized them or opposed them or questioned them.

We even have websites given to satire and sarcasm. And some claim to be Christian.

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My wish for every pastor

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“Brethren, do not be children in your thinking…..but in your thinking be mature” (I Corinthians 14:20).

I could wish that every pastor would use discernment. That he would “be smart.”

To put it another way, I wish every pastor would determine that in the new year, he is going to do nothing impulsively, out of fear, or motivated by false guilt.

The “un-smart” pastor–to coin a term–does things that are unwise and unhealthy and in the long run, not beneficial to the Kingdom nor to his people.

Here is my take what an unsmart pastor does about his preaching–

1) The unsmart pastor skips the hard work of sermon preparation. He is lazy.

The smart pastor knows this is his most important work and is always thinking about the next sermons, even to the point of rising from the bed and looking up something that occurred to him.

Pastors would do well to use this time just after Christmas and early in January when nothing much is going on to make long-range plans for his preaching.

2) The unsmart pastor refuses to do long-range planning for sermons, but decides this week what to preach next Sunday.  He is shallow–and will work himself into an early grave.

The best sermons are not microwaved but marinated.

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The Trinity: A man-made doctrine?

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“The Word was God…..The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1,14).

“No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27 and Luke 10:22.)

Try explaining God.

We’ll wait.  Let us know when you’re ready.

Oh, when you’re done with that, tell us how Jesus is both fully man and fully God.  And how God is One, but is also Father, Son, and Spirit.

If you decide to punt–and simply dismiss the entire discussion as man’s futile attempt to define an unknowable God–then the discussion ends there.  God’s people who love the Word and believe it want to know how it all fits together, what each piece is saying about our Lord, and thus to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord (2 Peter 3:18).

We believe that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  That’s Romans 10:17.

We never go wrong trying to understand God’s Word.  And the best commentary on the Word of God is the rest of the Word of God.

If you find all this too difficult, then let me propose an easier assignment.  Start by telling us how you yourself are composed of body, soul, and spirit. Where does one start and the other begin and how do they interwork?

I’m thinking that unless you can figure out yourself it’s a lead-pipe cinch you’re going to have difficulty figuring out the God of the universe.

That’s why this is such a difficult assignment.

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“Everyone wants a piece of me!” The pastor’s occupational hazard

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“Help! I’m being eaten alive by a school of minnows.”

“I felt like I was being stoned to death by popcorn.”

Ask any pastor.

In my opinion, the minister of the medium-sized flock has it hardest.

In most cases, the pastor of the tiny church has one well-defined set of jobs, while the leader of the mega-congregation another entirely.  The first has a few well-defined roles–preach, advise, do funerals and weddings–while his mega-church colleague has a vast team of helpers who free him up to doing his few, very specific assignments.

It’s the poor guy in the middle who has little say-so about what he will do today.

The pastor-in-the-middle–let’s say the shepherd of the church running from 150 up to three hundred or so, depending on situations, resources and available helpers–will always have more on his plate than he can get to.

The daunting task of the medium church pastor 

This pastor is the church administrator.  He is the boss of the employees.  He gives direction to everyone who works there.  He deals with problems and headaches.  He is the counselor for the congregation.  He is the hospital visitor and does all the funerals and weddings.  He is a member of every committee in the church and, if he doesn’t call the meeting and attend, nothing gets done. He is the go-to person for every question.  He dictates all the letters, and may even type them himself.  He follows up with the visitors and prospects, phoning or visiting them.  Meanwhile, he preaches all the sermons and even teaches some of the Sunday School lessons.  Add to this one overwhelming fact…

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Those who would serve God should expect opposition.

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“A great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (I Corinthians 16:9). 

“Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God?”   (Isaac Watts, “Am I A Soldier of the Cross?”)

This is a quiz.  Name the enemies George Washington faced in the Revolutionary War.

If you answered, “The British,” you’d be only partly right.

Washington did fight the British, as the thirteen colonies asserted their independence from the Mother Nation.  But Generals Howe, Cornwallis, and Clinton and their armies were only the most visible of the forces Washington had to contend with.

He had to fight the weather.  Think of Valley Forge and even without knowing the full story, your mind immediately conjures up images of a harsh winter with all the snow, ice, sleet, and freezing temperatures that includes.

Washington had to deal with starvation and deprivation.  No one knows how many thousands of his soldiers perished from the cold and starvation at Valley Forge and how many deserted in order to save their lives.  Many surrendered to the British at Philadelphia in the vain hope that the conquerors would feed and clothe them.

Washington had to deal with a Congress that was either ignorant, misinformed, or outright hostile to his situation. He wrote letter after letter detailing the misery of his army and pleading for help.  Finally, a delegation came from the national capital, temporarily at York, PA, to see for themselves, after which congress began to act.

Washington fought disorganization, a country that made impossible demands but gave minimal support, and criticism on every side.

Washington even had to fight certain members of his own staff, including several generals. Every schoolchild knows the name of Benedict Arnold, one of his generals who betrayed the cause.  There was also General Horatio Gates, forever undermining his own commanding officer in the forlorn hope that Congress would appoint him to Washington’s post.  Time and again, Gates was shown to be a coward who ran from battle, but blamed his failures on others.  There was General Charles Lee, another pretender to Washington’s position as commander in chief.  Lee, called “a carbuncle of a creature” by historians Drury and Clavin (book: Valley Forge), was known to run from a battle and then brag about how he had won it.  Some years after his death, a letter was found in Lee’s handwriting giving British General William Howe detailed plans for defeating Washington.  Drury and Clavin write, “That Charles Lee was a traitor surprised few.  That he had refrained from boasting about it shocked many.”

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The problem of immature church members

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“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

“By this time you ought to be teachers, (but) you need someone to teach you the first principles of God, and have come to need milk and not solid food” (Hebrews 5:12).

A church leader was venting.  “We have so many immature members.  And the problem is, they want to stay that way!”

The leader said, “How do we deal with our discouragement?  How can we keep from becoming Pharisees who constantly see their faults and not their potential?  And how do we love those who cause so much trouble in the church by their immature actions?”

The letter concluded, “I feel like I’m in danger of becoming like the Ephesus church, the one which had lost its first love.”  A reference to Revelation 2:1-7.

My first thought upon reading the question was: “You’re not alone, my friend.  Every spiritual leader fights that same battle, although not to the same extent.”

Let’s do a quick Bible study on the subject, then allow me to make some observations….

Paul saw the Corinthian church split asunder as a result of immaturity.  He said, “I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to infants in Christ.”  (I Corinthians 3:1).

Well.  That was pretty plain.  Wonder how they took that. (Paul was safely at Ephesus, and thus insulated from the barbs of the worst of the bunch.)

Paul continued, “I fed you with milk and not solid food….  For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?” (3:2-3)

‘Their immaturity showed up in a number of problems which are dealt with throughout this epistle:  lawsuits among members, immorality, splintering into cliques, favoritism, pride over spiritual gifts, etc.

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What worries pastors the most

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“Be anxious for nothing…” (Philippians 4:6).

“Why did you fear? Where is your faith?”  (Mark 4:40)

Worry, they say, is spending energy and resources on needless situations.  Crossing bridges we may never face.  Paying bills that never come due.

Worry is a waste of the imagination, someone said.  And almost everyone agrees that, for a believer, worry is sin.

But just defining worry is no help to anyone.  Telling someone not to worry is like instructing passengers not to panic when the plane is in a nosedive.   A lot of good that would do.

Now, what one person calls “worry” another may call “being concerned” or “caring deeply.”  When a husband tells his wife he does not worry about some upcoming crisis, almost always she interprets that as his not caring.  When the church treasurer said he lies awake at night worrying about our finances, I replied, “Not me.  The Lord is going to be up all night anyway; I let him worry about it.  I sleep like a baby.”  He was convinced I didn’t love the church as much as he did.

Even so, there are issues that do indeed occupy space front and center in the minds and hearts of God’s ministers.

Here are several that come to mind….

One.  Pastors worry about finding the balance between their responsibility to God and their accountability to the congregation.

It’s true that pastors are accountable to the people to whom they minister.  The episcopal type of church government tries to ease the pressure on the minister by creating a layer of administration between him (her, sometimes) and the membership.  But even in the Catholic church, the epitome of hierarchical rule, an unhappy congregation will generally persuade the bishop to make a change in their ministers.

Even so, a faithful pastor knows that while his governing board may sit in judgment on his work each month, there is One who oversees it moment by moment.  And ultimately, His is the only judgment that counts.

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Mediocrity in the pulpit

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“…you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold…” (Revelation 3:16)

Mediocrity is a warm blanket.

Mediocrity is remaining with the bunch that finishes neither early or late, that turns in work much like everyone else’s, that is satisfied with pretty good.

Mediocrity is the head in the sand when the storm is raging around us.

Close your eyes until it all blows over.

Mediocrity is the coward’s way out when life-or-death decisions are being made.  “Well, let’s give this some more thought.”  “Let’s not be too hasty here.”  “We don’t want people to think we’re extremists.”

There’s safety in mediocrity.  We’re like everyone around us.  We don’t stand out.  No one criticizes us. They don’t even see us.  We blend into the landscape.

Our English word mediocre comes from two Latin words, medi meaning “halfway,” and ocris meaning “mountain.”  Somewhere there is a list of everyone climbing to the crest of Mount Everest.  But no one ever bothered to note those who got half way up and turned around for home.

As a pastor, I’m tempted to criticize those who choose mediocrity rather than daring, who play safe and avoid risks.  Yet I often live that way too.  In my personal life and church leadership, I tend to choose the conservative, safe way.  The outcome I fear is not so much failure as criticism.  I’ve refrained from writing to the editor of a local paper on a controversial subject for fear of becoming the focus of criticism.  My ego is too fragile.  I’m confident I could not take it.  Or, is the caution I feel actually maturity telling me not to squander hard-earned trust on some cause not worth the price?  We’ve all seen foolhardy people who rush in where angels fear to tread, when they should have been quiet and stayed at home. Hard to know.

We want God to do a work in our midst, but we want Him to leave us alone. We desire seeing people saved and homes united, but not if it means God gets hold of us and insists on changing us. Work around us, Lord, we seem to say.  Not in us and through us. Self-defense mechanisms are all working overtime. If we would be or do anything for the Master, we must face and overcome this gremlin.

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