Our Angry God

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The January 9, 2010, edition of The Times-Picayune gives the sad tale of an emergency room doctor–of all people–who let his road rage get the best of him. He’s going to prison for five years because of his lack of self-control.

Christopher Thompson of Los Angeles, age 60, was convicted in November for assault with a deadly weapon (his car), battery with serious bodily injury, reckless driving, and mayhem. What he did was to throw on his brakes suddenly, causing the bicyclists to slam into his car. One came through the rear window. Both were injured.

What led up to that moment we’re not told. But we can imagine.

If the cyclists were anything like those around this city, they were not obeying the traffic laws. I would wager not one biker in a dozen in any city in America knows that they are required to obey the same laws as automobiles, stop at the same stop signs, stay in the same lanes, give the same signals, etc.

It can be infuriating watching them dart in and out of traffic, scooting around cars in a line, speeding through four-way stops. Motorbikes and motorcycles are worse, of course, because they are bigger and faster.

You can get angry. But you cannot get even.

Road rage is a condition we experience when other drivers blatantly ignore written or unwritten laws of respect and safety on the highways.

It’s a rare driver who has not experienced that sensation. You’re tooling along the highway, it’s a lovely day, you’re feeling good, and suddenly out of the blue a speedster appears out of nowhere and fills up your rear view mirror.

He flashes his lights for you to move over, practically paints himself onto your back bumper, and endangers everyone in your car and his. Your first impulse is to stay right where you are, to slow down even, and to guarantee that this guy is never going to pass your car in this lifetime.

Not good. Let him by. He’s an accident looking for someone to happen to. Don’t let it be you.

Anger is a normal reaction of the human mind when we are crossed, offended, endangered, or hurt. Everyone gets angry now and then.

Even God.

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Kept By the Power of the Lord (I Peter 1:4ff)

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Call her a “kept woman” and you’ll be in big trouble.

The term implies that some rich guy is paying big for the favor of that woman’s company, covering her rent, maybe lavishing gifts upon her.

In the early verses of this First Epistle of Peter, the apostle twice speaks of that which is “kept” by the Almighty.

“…an inheritance….kept in Heaven for you who through faith are kept by God’s power….” (I Peter 1:4-5)

Our inheritance is kept for us in Heaven. We the Lord’s disciples are kept by Him on earth.

Financial advisor Suze Orman in a radio commercial counsels people not to withdraw their money from the bank and hide it in a mattress as one person told her they were doing. “Put it in a bank where the F.D.I.C. guarantees your deposits up to a certain amount,” she urges.

We want our money to be “kept” for us and available when we need it. We recall Jesus saying, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven….” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Many a bank, when advertising its services, will emphasize the word “security.” For good reason, it turns out, since the economy of any country is so iffy.

This week, President Obama has had sitdown meetings with officials in his administration whose agencies are charged with keeping the traveling public safe. This resulted from a Christmas Day incident in which a Nigerian man tried to set off an explosive in a plane beginning its descent into Detroit. From all reports, the proper authorities knew of this man and should have banned him from travel to this country. Either they did not communicate this to one another or simply were derelict in their duties, but the president is determined that the agencies will do their jobs.

Safety is a big issue and always has been.

At the moment, I’m reading a popular novel in which a vacationing family has their small daughter abducted from under their noses. The law enforcement authorities inform the parents that the kidnaper is a serial murderer and that they should accept that the worst has happened. The father is tortured by thoughts that he should have protected his child and did not.

Your inheritance is protected in Heaven.

You are protected on earth.

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Three Causes, Three Results (I Peter 1:3-4)

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Every once in a while, we’ll hear someone say that such-and-such is the most important doctrine in the Bible or the most important event in biblical history. “Because,” they’ll say, “if that had not happened, everything would have stopped at that point.”

We can say that about Jesus’ Incarnation, His Virgin Birth, His sinless life, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. Each one is a vital aspect of God’s plan for redeeming this runaway planet. But to say that one is more important than the other is like choosing one link of a chain as superior to the others.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you….”

That’s how I memorized these two verses a generation ago. Here is how the NIV says it:

“Praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you.”

One more? Here’s Eugene Peterson’s take on the same two verses:

“What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life, and have everything to live for, including a future in Heaven–and the future starts now!” (The Message)

Okay, first a brief analysis of the contents of these two verses, then the celebration of them.

Peter begins by blessing God. He should, and so should we. It all begins in the heart of the Father, everything you and I appreciate about being disciples of Jesus.

1. God is its Source.

2. Mercy is its Cause.

3. The resurrection of Jesus is its culmination.

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Why Politics Matter

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I sat in the theater Wednesday weeping and hoping no one would notice.

The Victory Theater is a part of the National World War II Museum just off St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, and I had taken my grandson who was out of school the week after New Year’s. The “movie,” I suppose we can call it that, was called “Beyond All Boundaries,” and showed how this war was conducted, how it affected everyone, how it changed everything.

I forget how many millions of lives were ended as a result of that war. The number is astronomical but gets into the stratosphere when we add the millions exterminated in Hitler’s concentration camps.

What hit me–and this was never an actual part of the story on the huge curved screens–was that much of the cause for the war was a failure in the politics of past years.

In saying that, I do not discount the sheer-genius and near-insanity of Adolf Hitler. No amount of diplomacy could have prevented him from doing what he did. He seemed to have understood only the language of brute force.

That said, it’s still true however that the greater war was a failure of the politics of the previous generation. And that’s what needs to be gotten across to our younger generation today.

Young people are bored with politics. Heads of states meet and deliberate and issue dull news releases. Embassies close down, secretaries of state exchange documents, summits are held, the television covers it all and newspapers blare it in their headlines. The football game is more interesting, so we turn to another channel.

Politics is (are?) mind-deadening to the vast majority of our people. Especially the young. And therein lies the problem.

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I Peter 1:1-2 Who We Are

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(Note: In the past, my Scripture notes on this blog have tied in with the particular book of the Bible which our denomination has selected to emphasize that winter. However, in recent weeks, I’ve been so blessed by reading the epistles of First and Second Peter, I’ve decided to focus on them for a time. As any pastor can tell you, I do this more for my own benefit and edification. If, however, readers find a use for these notes, you’re certainly welcome to use them any way you please. No permission required.)

The First Epistle of Peter begins with an interesting juxtaposition of two unusual expressions:

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, strangers in the world….”

Think of that: you are the elect of God; you are strangers in this world.

Then, as if to underscore this paradox, the apostle continues:

“…scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen….”

You are dispersed and scattered, but you are chosen.

Honored royally by God, treated disdainfully by the world. That’s almost always been the case with the Lord’s faithful. It is today in many places throughout the world.

So, we are the elect? Is that what you are telling us, Peter?

Yes, but be careful here. People have gone to town on this concept and never been seen again. They have used it as a springboard into the stratosphere and are still sailing out through the wild blue yonder, no longer being grounded in reality or the clear teachings of Scripture.

Let’s not make Scripture say what it doesn’t say.

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The Goody

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I write in books. I mark up the stories and circle the insights I want to be able to find later. I argue in the margins and sometimes warn future readers away in the front.

The books I write in most are the ones I plan to keep for future reference. “Know Doubt” by John Ortberg is one of those. The subtitle is: “The Importance of Embracing Uncertainty in Your Faith.”

It’s a mother lode of great quotes and insights.

Ortberg, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Menlo Park, California, is turning out best-sellers at a Max Lucado pace. The first one I read was “If You Want to Walk on the Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat,” and I’ve recommended it far and wide ever since. (In fact, I seem to remember that the Dean of the Graduate Faculty at our New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at the time, Perry Hancock, gave me that book. He’d used it in some of his classes, I think.)

Anyone who gives you a book by what turns out to be a favorite author has done you a great favor.

Growing up on the farm, the nuts and fruit we ate came from our trees and not from Sam’s Club or a grocery store. The best nuts on our farm were black walnut, partly, I suspect, because the “goody” was so hard to get at.

Black walnuts are mostly wood. The shell is hard and thick and must be broken with a hammer. The payoff–what we kids called the goody–was small, but delicious.

I’m not suggesting you skip purchasing Ortberg’s “Know Doubt” by telling you some of the “goodies” in it, but rather hoping to whet your appetite for the whole thing.

What follows are some of what I marked in his book….

1. “Every child is a testimony to God’s desire that the world go on. Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who doubts sometimes, has written that the reason so many babies keep being born is that God loves stories.” (p. 18)

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Aw, C’Mon, Man!

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ESPN Sports Network has a feature on their shows they call “C’Mon, Man!” They run clips of football players in the middle of games doing things that make absolutely no sense and are detrimental to their team. Sometimes it’s the coach making the foolish decision–like facing fourth-down-and-four and “going for it” on their own 30 yard line when they are ahead in the score and the clock is winding down–and once in a while it’s a fan pulling the bone-head play.

“C’mon, man” is something of a combination groan, “duh!” (remember those?), and “are you kidding me?”

A dad in Lacombe, Louisiana, did something truly foolish earlier this week and is paying for it dearly. (Note: I do not know the guy and have removed his name. This is all from the December 31, 2009, issue of the Times-Picayune.)

The man had driven to the Texas line to pick up his 12-year-old daughter and bring her home. Along the way–they were on Interstate 12 just east of Baton Rouge, not more than 50 miles from home–dad and daughter decided they would play a trick on the other motorists.

What they did was to duct-tape the daughter’s mouth and hands and make it look like he was kidnaping her.

Well, they succeeded. That’s exactly what the other motorists thought when they called 911 to report them. Then, while waiting for the Louisiana Highway Patrol to arrive, other motorists boxed in their pickup truck so they could not get away.

“It’s just a joke,” the dad and his daughter protested.

The police did not laugh. And neither did the judge who set his bail at $3,000. The dad was charged with criminal mischief and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The daughter was charged too and released into the custody of an uncle.

Now you know why mothers don’t want to let the kids go off with dad.

The rest of the world would like to shake this father and say, “C’mon, man! What were you thinking? Even if your daughter was bored, all 12-year-old girls are bored! And even if she suggested doing this, you are supposed to be the adult in this relationship! You are the one who thinks about consequences. It’s up to the adult to say, ‘I don’t think so, honey. Why, what if (such-and-such) happened?'”

Lately, I’ve been thinking about people in the Lord’s work who provoke a “c’mon, man!” reaction from the rest of us.

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“I’m Unhappy With Our Pastor”

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The most common complaint denominational people and guest preachers hear when they call on local churches is, “I’m unhappy with our pastor.”

Invariably, it’s some lay leader of the church speaking.

The outside “expert”–and that’s how they seem to the church member–is seen as one who knows about the inner workings of churches and might be able to help.

The visitor is immediately thrown into a quandary. Does he ask for more information? Does he run the risk of appearing to meddle in a church’s internal affairs? Does he just listen and try to offer good counsel? Or does he brush off the leader with the suggestion that, “You ought to take that up with your preacher.”

Let’s state the obvious here: some pastors we ought to be unhappy with. I’m thinking of one preacher who was known to curse, tell shady stories, gamble, and drink. When he was forced out of the pulpit–and he had to be ousted–no one shed a tear. Everyone had been unhappy with him, and rightfully so.

But what about all those other situations in which some church members are unhappy with their preacher?

Let’s see if we can do some good on this subject.

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Deacons: Protecting the Pastor’s Blind Side

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Sandra Bullock’s new movie, “The Blind Side,” has been the sleeper of the year. Word of mouth has kept movie-goers filling the theaters, earning a huge box-office for this story about a homeless kid taken in by a Christian family and who went on to become a football star.

The fascinating story carries a terrific message for life in a hundred ways. And for deacons in one specific way.

The movie opens with a slow motion depiction of a play that occurred perhaps twenty years ago in a game between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann was hit from his left–the blind side for this right-hand-throwing QB–by Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Theismann never played football again.

According to people in the know, that devastating play changed the way football is played. Thereafter, as soon as the ball is snapped to the QB, the left tackle moves back to protect him on his blind side. If he is a lefty, it’s the right tackle who protects him.

Sheltering and guarding the leader at his point of greatest vulnerability.

That is one of the chief roles of a deacon in today’s church.

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