Barney Wiget's Blog, page 54

How to Live When it’s Late (Part 1 of 2)

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Before reading this post, listen to this song.

A few years ago my oncologist warned me that the cancer reducing chemo that they gave me predisposed me to a slight chance of contracting an assortment of other deadly cancers and conditions. Ugh! But so good so far! Still kickin’. Whether or not my life is cut even shorter, it does give me pause to think about how I need to live my life with urgency and not get sidetracked from the task at hand.

The day after the news came from the doctor of doom this passage about serious living in serious times came to my attention.

11  This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires. Romans 13:11-14 (NLT)

Paul exposes a problem and offers a prescription…

A problem

The problem is “Time is running out!” It’s happening for everybody everywhere. Right? I mean no one is exempt. We’re all closer to death today than we were yesterday and will be nearer the end tomorrow than we are today!

It’s “urgent,” Paul says, because of the nearly spent night and the day that is about to break. We’re all running out of time. There’s an old saying, “Repent today, because tomorrow you’ll have less time to repent in and more things to repent of!”

No one in Houston or Puerto Rico woke up the day before the news broke that Hurricane Harvey was on its way assumed it might be his or her last day on earth. None of the concertgoers in Las Vegas were thinking they might breathe their last before Jason Aldean finished his set. And most Americans are confident that the North Korean psychopathic president won’t flip the nuclear attack switch and wipe out half our population today. But you never know.

I’m no fear monger; I’m just stating the fact that we don’t know our own expiration date. It was Paul who brought all this up. Unsettling though it is, I’m just reminding us of what he said.

Paul could’ve been referring to the brevity of time for the whole human race before Jesus calls it a day and returns to take total control of this mess. I don’t hear people these days talk much about the coming of the Lord, and granted there are many theories about how it will all unfold. But one way or another, at one time or another, Jesus will be coming back! And when he does, we won’t have any more time to steward the earthly lives he gave us. After that there will be no extra credit assignments or take-over tests. Our grade will be what we have achieved (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:10-14).

Whether Paul is talking about the end of our lives or the end of the world, we have less time than we used to have. It’s situation critical and time for us to wake from our spiritual slumber!

Most Christians don’t live with that kind of urgency. They’ve been lulled to sleep by a misplaced confidence in technology, in our internationally feared military, or in American ingenuity, as though those things guarantee us long problem-free lives. But there are some things that can’t and won’t be fixed by good old American know-how.

I’ve been wondering what kind of disaster it would take to awaken us from our slumber. What will it take for kingdom people to start living like it? What needs to happen before we live, like Tom Sine says, “Like we give a damn!”?

So what’s to be done about it? We’ll have to wait till next time to answer that and talk about Paul’s “Prescription.” Stay tuned…

In the meantime, I’d like to ask for prayer as I pursue publishing my second book. It’s called Reaching Rahab: Joining God is His Quest for Friends. It’s about sharing our faith with God’s trashed but treasured people. I’m running into some delays in the process, so please pray that time (at least my time) won’t run out before it comes out…

…listen to the song again. 

Conceited

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“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” Isaiah 5:21

Conceit is one of those sins that, if you’re smart––which is not the same as “wise”––you can disguise it with a humble looking demeanor. I learned early on to do that and have become quite adept at the ruse. It’s only when I’m tuned in to the Spirit, whenever I think of myself as better than others, I immediately feel his displeasure. If you don’t struggle with conceit you can be proud of your superior spirituality to mine.

Especially in these times of great tension over religion, politics, race, sexuality, social justice, and any number of other issues, we should all make an appointment with Dr. God to get tested and treated for conceit.

Spoiler Alert: Though both the test and the treatment are invasive and painful it should be done routinely. It’s not a one-time deal!

Why can’t we seem to disagree agreeably these days? Conceit is the reason. I’d like to blame Facebook and Twitter for this, but social media just gave us a platform to vent our true conceited selves. The kinds of things we say to each other in cyberspace should appall us all. It most certainly is appalling to “the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name” (Ephesians 3:14). It’s not our disagreements that grieve him, but the rancor with which we communicate them and the disrespect that we show each other.

It’s a slippery slope that deposits us into a diseased cesspool of meanness. Watch this…

I can’t believe everyone doesn’t agree with everything I say. (Conceit)


They’re obviously a bunch of idiots. (Conceit on steroids)


If they were smart, they’d stay out of my way because I’m packin’! (Nuclear-powered, ‘roid-rage conceit)

The conceit disease begins in the heart, is passed around in families, is encouraged in political, social, and religious ideologies, spreads through leaders (like politicians and even pastors), and sickens nations whose citizens have taken the bait to think of themselves as superior to everyone else. In their eyes, their race, their class, their ideology is clearly exceptional.

National pride, an admirable quality in itself; yet when you stir in conceit, it morphs into nationalism, which is one of those toxic “isms.” Race, socioeconomic status, and religious distinctions all have their “isms.” They all can be traced back to pride run amok, and before it costs lives, must be avoided at all cost.

The usual words for sinful pride in the New Testament mean, “to appear above” and to be “wrapped in smoke” or “puffed up” (as in bigger than they actually are). Arrogant people view themselves as higher and bigger than everybody else, while in reality they’re just a puff of smoke.

OK, so I share these thoughts in hopes that you’ll feel as bad about being conceited as I do. I’m tired of feeling this way all by myself!

For your reading pleasure (and for the Spirit’s conviction) check out the following New Testament passages:

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Romans 12:16

To keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 2 Corinthians 12:7

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Galatians 5:26

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. Philippians 2:3

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 1 Timothy 3:6

Some are treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. 2 Timothy 3:4

They are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, and evil suspicions. 1 Timothy 6:4

Lord, help us be more and more like you!

Help for Hoarders

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Those who have followed along might well breathe a sigh of relief to know that this is the final post in this series on the Luke 12 passage. For now. I didn’t mean for it to be either as long as it is or as blunt. But indulge me one last time (on this passage anyway).

To summarize…

In “Every Christian for Himself” we eaves-dropped on two brothers arguing about splitting up their inheritance and their insistence that Jesus interrupt his sermon to settle the dispute. He calls them out on their greed and reminds them that living is more than possessing stuff.
Next, we introduced the “certain rich man” of Jesus’ parable who, like the greedy brothers, idolized his money. He tried to make his possessions his life. His life and his livelihood were all mushed together.
Then, we listened in on the man’s “prayer” to himself about how he was going to maintain and maximize his profits and “eat, drink, and be merry.”
In the most recent post, we talked about how closely akin are “consumerism” and what Jesus deemed foolishness.

Let’s pick up the parable at the point at which God interrupts the wealthy hedonist’s self-indulgent strategy:

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”
“But God said.”

The man’s “prayer” excluded God, but that doesn’t mean there’s no God to whom we must give an account. He may leave us to our own devices while we leave him out, but not forever. We all have to attend our own performance review, called “The Judgment Seat of Christ.” The Lord does all he can to prepare us for it, he may even delay it when he knows we’re not ready for it. But ready or not, here it comes!

In this case, the performance review regards the man’s performance with possessions and the heart behind it. It’s not about believing the right things, saying a prayer of “accepting Jesus” and everything’s fine and dandy. There’s a lifestyle that has to follow such a prayer and healthy doctrine. Here Jesus points out the intrinsic connection between how we steward our possessions and how genuine is our faith. He shows us that a straight causal line can be drawn between the physical and spiritual, between money matters and what really matters.

“You fool!”

It’s serious business when God calls you a fool. Jesus told us not to call each other fools (Matthew 5). I assume it’s because we’re not qualified to dispense such harsh judgment. But God knows a fool when he sees one and reserves the right to call it as he sees it.

A “fool” is not someone who is mentally deficient, but one who is morally defective. David said, “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” The original language there is probably better translated, “The fool says in his heart, ‘No, God!’” It’s not so much that he doesn’t believe that God exists. He or she knows he does, but still has the audacity to reject his rule and say “No” to him! Sounds pretty foolish to me.

“This very night your life will be demanded from you.”

Only God can say these ominous words: “This very night.” We don’t know when that night is. The time of our death when he will require us to give an account of the way we’ve lived is his purview. We don’t know how long we’ve got, so we should make the best use of the minutes we have instead of working, working, working to be able to consume, consume, consume.

“This very night,” i.e., I’ll give you the rest of the day to think it over and repent!

Fat and happy one day and dead by night. “Night is coming when no man can work.”

He’s rich and about to get richer and concocting a plan to retire surrounded by his riches. He must have assumed that since things were going so well that God’s blessing was on him––you know, the whole “I have plans to prosper you” thing!

“… your life will be demanded from you.”

I gave it to you to see what you’d do with it, now give it back! I demand it back. Tonight! My life is God’s gift to me, what I do with it is my gift to God.

“Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

Pretty gnarly, right? –– You’ve prepared a bunch of stuff for yourself. You consume a lot and contribute little. You prepare, but only for yourself on earth and are therefore not prepared for the place I’ve prepared for you in heaven. To coin a phrase, “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

“Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

Very gnarly, right? –– You won’t be getting what you prepared for yourself, because you prepared it only for yourself. Plus, I’m demanding your soul tonight. So, who will get all this wealth that you’ve hoarded for yourself? You weren’t willing to part with any of it during your life, but since you will soon be parting from earth, who will get what you should have given before your parting?

Finally, Jesus sums up his teaching on the harm of hoarding:

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

He sets two things in contrast with the other. We either store up things “for [our]selves” or we can be rich “toward God.” They’re opposites in the same way Jesus said we “can’t serve God and Mammon” at the same time.

I reiterate that it’s not a sin to store up wealth, to have a savings account or a 401-K. It’s putting it in store “for ourselves” to which God objects.

“Rich toward God” is an interesting concept, don’t you think? One version paraphrases it: “…is not rich in what matters to God.” Nothing matters but what matters to God!

You can be rich toward God with or without earthly riches, although it will be more difficult to if you have them––the old camel and the eye of the needle thing.

How could all this be considered “Help for Hoarders”? First, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Now we know that there is great harm in hoarding. It harms us and it harms those who need some of what we have hoarded for ourselves. We know how hard it is to hang on to our wealth and onto to Jesus at the same time. We know that whether rich or poor in the tangible, if we share what little or much we have with those who don’t have enough, we’ll be rich in the spiritual.

We know that though Jesus never rails against six-figure incomes, it seems obvious that he would be resolutely against a six-figure lifestyle in a world where children are starving. In other words he challenges us to make a radical break from the patterns of over-indulgence, consumerism and reckless waste, to live more simply that all may simply live.

Speaking of hoarding, the last thing you want to hoard is your friendship with Jesus. Show him all the time and share him often. For help along those lines, keep an eye out on Amazon for my soon to be published book on evangelism called Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends.

Confronting Compulsive Consuming (Part 3)

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“Beat it! The country’s full!”

 Full of what?

“Today consumerism determines what is important. Consuming relationships, consuming friendships, consuming religions, consuming, consuming… We have turned our society into a huge multicultural showcase tied only to the tastes of certain ‘consumers’, while so many others only ‘eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table’.” Pope Francis

I’ve never really liked being called a “consumer.” It’s not something I can square with my idea of a biblical identity. Consumers consume. I don’t think that’s what the Maker put us on his planet to do.

Economists talk about “Consumer Confidence” which I take to refer to the confidence that people have enough money to consume as much stuff as they wish. They even have something they call a “Consumer Index,” by which economists measure how much money people who sell stuff can expect to make off of people who have been convinced that it’s their patriotic duty to contribute to the country’s economy by consuming stuff. Is it just me or does anyone else feel just a little bit manipulated?

“Our consumer society,” said Walter Brueggemann, “is grounded in the generation of artificial desires, readily transposed into urgent needs.”  

I’m not trying to jam you up for how much you spent on Christmas. Really, I’m not. My thoughts on this passage were initiated more by the current political climate than anything else. The tax bill that was recently passed, the needs and concerns of the 800,000 “Dreamers,” the health care debate, and on and on are the things that are on my mind.

In three previous posts we’ve been looking at a story that Jesus concocted called the “Rich Fool.” I can’t help but think that Jesus would repeat the parable to our lawmakers, their wealthy donors, and corporate heads today.

Remember the backstory? Two brothers were arguing about how to spilt up their inheritance and they tried to get Jesus to mediate. Instead of helping them split up their money he warned them about trying to find their lives in their possessions. That’s when he broke out the story of a farmer who had a good year and wondered to himself how he might leverage his bumper crop into a wealthy retirement.

The man’s self-talk went like this…

“This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”

Notice how many times he says “I” will do this and “I” will do that! There’s no disputing it; the I’s have it!

“I’ll say to myself…” So he’s talking to himself about talking to himself? Where’s God in the equation? He doesn’t consult anyone else: friends, counselors, family members. His ship has come in and he’s devising a plan on how to keep it for himself without consulting anyone outside of his own gluttonous heart. He’s the typical self-made man.

I have to admit that at face value it sounds like a good business plan. He reflects the essence of the American Dream (in contrast to God’s Dream). It’s this kind of “success” that we applaud and try to emulate in our society. He’s the kind of guy that goes on a book tour and appears on TV with testimonies about how he did it. His story would go viral and he’d be a role model to millions. He would get richer by the big money he’d charge for his seminars, complete with “You too can be rich!” slogans.

Not to be downer, but Jesus doesn’t seem the least bit impressed. In fact, he calls the man a “fool”!

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with building bigger barns and retiring with a nest egg (or two), that is, unless God has plans of his own for us. Maybe what makes us “fools” is when all we do before retirement is acquire for ourselves and then after retiring all we do is live for ourselves. Maybe that’s what Jesus deems “foolish”: to live our lives just to make money and to spend it!

I’ve heard a lot of Christians say that if they get enough money they’ll give more of it away. It sounds good but I’ve found that the amount they need to make in order to give some of it away keeps increasing. Someone asked a rich man, “How much does it take to be happy?” His answer was, “A little bit more.” Those who wait to get “enough” in order to be justly generous with it usually aren’t just or generous when they get there. Plus, there’s no guarantee that they’ll live long enough to reach the place where they can begin their lives of liberality.

On the other hand, we might take Jesus’ counsel and begin today with pulling our heads out of our . . . well . . . let’s just say, out of the sand, and realize that there might be someone in the world worse off than us that we can help with daily bread. And, whether in abundance or poverty, rather than just consulting ourselves, we might check in with the Lord of both the rich and the poor about how to steward our resources for the good of humanity.

If you can stand it, I have one more post along these lines. I know this can all sound pretty harsh, but we’re all just trying to be good stewards of what we see in Scripture. I’m certainly open to some pushback from a biblical vantage point.

A Shalom-Filled 2018 to all!

One more thing, my book on evangelism is nearly out. Look for it on Amazon. Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends.

Confronting Compulsive Consuming (Part 2)

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In the last couple of posts we’ve been looking at Jesus’ teaching that is commonly called, “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” Rembrandt was so taken by the story that he rendered it.

Watch this brief video explanation of the painting. 

“What shall I do?” said the rich man who just got richer. Now that’s a great question! We should all be asking that question in times of plenty and of poverty. “What shall I do?” Problem is, this guy wasn’t asking God the question. He was talking to himself. And then he answered his own question out of his own head! The whole conversation went on between him and himself. He wasn’t consulting God, he was looking to himself.

“He thought to himself” What’s wrong with that? Thinking is good, right? Aren’t we supposed to think for ourselves? Yeah, but not to ourselves. And, as followers rather than mere fans of God we’re supposed to think through the lens of Truth and from the vantage point of our love and devotion to him. “In all our ways,” we’re told to, “acknowledge him, and he will direct our paths.”

“The ground yielded…” As I said before, the foolish farmer had little to nothing to do with the bumper crop. He worked the ground but the way Jesus framed it, it was the “ground” that did it. It wasn’t necessarily the result of his hard work or his strategic planning.

We could speculate that God purposely expanded the harvest that year, which begs the question of why would he do that if he objected to the guy’s plans to build bigger barns to store more bounty? Maybe he wanted Farmer Rich-Guy to give some or all of it away or to bring unemployed people into his business and teach them how to farm so they can make a better living of their own. Got more than you deserve? Share some with some neighbors––what a concept!

Just because we win the lottery doesn’t man God wants us to be rich!

I have a friend who lives a very Spartan existence. At one point he came into a small fortune from an insurance settlement and felt that God wanted him to give almost all of it away within a year’s time, which he did. He didn’t assume that the money was his to do what he wanted to do. He saw it as an opportunity to give more to people who needed it more than he did.

“I have no room to store my crops” Augustine said of this parable, “The rich fool didn’t realize the bellies of the poor were much safer storerooms than his barns.” In other words it’s better to give than to gather!

Jesus doesn’t object to six-figure incomes. It’s the six-figure lifestyle in a world where children are starving that troubles him.

I have some other friends who decided while they were in college that they would live at or below the poverty level for the rest of their lives in order to follow Jesus simply and have more to give away. They’ve done just that for over 40 years even while raising two girls, both of whom now in their adult lives have chosen careers that serve the poor.

It’s better to give than to gather!

Viv Grigg advises: “Earn much, consume little, hoard nothing, give generously, and celebrate life.” Before we self-destruct, American Christians (so-called) need to hear and respond to Jesus calling.

Let’s leave it that till next time when we talk about eating, drinking, and being merry!

On another note, if you’re making a list of New Year’s resolutions, I have a suggestion for you. For me, I resolve not to any more Christmas cookies until next Christmas! Besides that, I want to share Christ with more people and in a more effective way. You too?

I’ve written a book to help us do that very thing, called Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends. Keep an eye out for it in the next few weeks on Amazon. In the meantime, consider asking God what he wants on your resolutions list. Who knows, if enough of us resolve to share more of Jesus more often more effectively this year, maybe our resolutions will initiate a revolution!

Confronting Compulsive Consuming (Part 1)

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“The amassing of property, without an accompanying love Godward and manward, is suicidal. Increasing material and power are not safe except with proportionately improving character. Society can endure for a time without new inventions; it is doubtful how long it can endure without a better spirit.” George Buttrick (1901)

In the previous post we eaves dropped on what Jesus said to the siblings who asked him to settle their dispute about their inheritance. “Watch out!” he told them. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

To reinforce his point he told a parable about a hoarder. 

I knew a card-carrying hoarder once. Her tiny apartment was stacked with old magazines, wrappers, and God knows what buried underneath. I always cut my visits to “Glenda” short and I couldn’t wait to get outside again where I would breathe. She’s gone now, no friends to speak of, the ones she had, had long since wearied of the clutter and chaos.  

Hoarding comes in forms other than piles of trash and stacks of knickknacks. There are more socially acceptable brands of the disease for which you can earn a university degree, which can be just as self-destructive and harmful to other humans. It’s my view that there is a sociopolitical systemic hoarding of seismic proportions happening in our country these days. You can see it, for instance, in the way we budget.

Budgets are moral documents. They clearly reveal the priorities of a person, a family, a church, a business, a city, or a nation. They show what we most care about in comparison to other things we care about. In terms of big picture budgets, Jim Wallis said, “The government’s budgets are a disaster for the poor, a windfall for the wealthiest, and thus directly conflict with biblical priorities.”

The rich and powerful are obsessed with getting richer and more powerful. The middle class is terrified of losing ground. And the poor are, well, they have little to hoard to begin with. And people in each of these economic strata are afraid of anyone getting ahead of them in line.

I guess, among other factors, this craven fear of not having enough was exacerbated by 9/11 and the 2008 economic downturn. Enter elected officials richer than Solomon who pour accelerant on those fears and we follow like hypnotized sheep to the slaughter. And what grieves me most is when the Christian community drinks the same Kool-Aid as everyone else. If we lose our way, brothers and sisters, what can we expect of those who don’t have the Spirit to guide them?

I could throw out a bunch of Scripture about what God thinks of us fearfully clutching our possessions and barring those far needier than us with laws and walls, but let’s just look again at the story Jesus made up (or not) about a man he called a “fool.”

He wasn’t suggesting that there are no poor fools in the world. You can just as well be poor and foolish as rich and foolish. Whether it resides in the heart of a poor person or a rich one, Jesus had in mind a particular form of hoarding that’s brought on by the compulsive power of consumption.

At first glance you might wonder what was Jesus’ problem with the guy who just seemed to want to expand his business and save up for retirement. Does God object to diversifying, expansion, or having a savings or retirement account? Not necessarily, but the man in his story was afflicted with the same heart condition as the disputing brothers––a heart of greed.

“A certain rich man” The man was already rich before his bumper crop came in. It wasn’t like he needed this particular harvest to make the ends meet or pull him out from poverty. He was wealthy to begin with, and then, apart from his own doing, an exceptional harvest came in that stood to make him even richer, rich enough to retire and take it easy for the rest of his life.

Is there something inherently wrong with the rich getting richer? Well, no, but it would depend on how they got rich, how they managed it, how much they had an internal “need” to get richer, and how generous they were with their riches.

Our country is facing a crisis that includes an decadent distribution of wealth. Allen Green said, “When human systems distribute God-given resources in a way that places a small fraction of humanity in luxury while a billion people live – or die – on less than a dollar a day, can that be anything other than sin?” I don’t think it can.

“Unto whom much is given much shall be required.”

Let’s unpack the parable further next time and see if we can relate.

Dear Mr. POTUS,

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Dear Mr. POTUS,

By declaring Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital with the intent to move our embassy there you’ve made the world a more, rather than less, dangerous place to live. No doubt you gained the political capital that you aimed for from your white evangelical base. But not everyone who identifies as such is either part of that base or applauds your senseless move. Here is one white evangelical male who doesn’t consider your decision the least bit heroic. It was self-serving and more of your posturing to which we’re becoming habituated––as in a frog in a warming kettle.

Given what you said after Charlottesville, a champion for the Jewish people you’re not. That became clear when the protestors screamed, “Jews will not replace us!” and all you could say that day was there were “very fine people” on both sides. No, Mr. President, this was purely political fodder on the same lines as your supposed support of religious freedom and rights of the unborn.

I love the Jews and their land with all my heart. As a Christian I respect the people, their history, and their place in the grand scheme of birthing our Messiah. From my study of eschatology they may even have a place in the last days leading up to the return of Jesus, but the idea that some of my brethren hold that everything they do is righteous is inane. I do pray for the “peace of Jerusalem,” but you’ve just pushed peace further away and swelled the violent tendencies of both sides of the conflict.

I have to say that this was a reckless deal from someone who considers himself a “Deal Maker.” If you were going to make this outrageous move, at the absolute minimum you could have gotten something back from the Jewish state like getting them to stop building and maintaining settlements in the West Bank.

The Jesus you claim to know said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” Just like you’ve done with North Korea, you have managed to antagonize an already incendiary situation and stalled any chance for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

I’m sorry, Mr. President, I can’t join any chorus of praise to you for keeping a campaign promise, when your promise was just so much grandstanding to begin with. I don’t believe that you actually care about the Jewish people or what they call their capital. The argument that since the status quo approach hasn’t worked to bring peace, so let’s shake it up and see what happens, is not only a bad strategy, but an inhumane one. I wonder if you had loved ones living in Jerusalem, would you have gone ahead and poured gas on this tinderbox?

Your swagger, Mr. President, in such situations, at the very least makes our country look ridiculous to the rest of the world, and at worst is getting people killed.

I pray for you everyday to be a better person and a better president.

“Peace on earth and good will toward men.”

Barney Wiget

White Evangelical Patriot

Every Christian for Himself!

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Come over here, Jesus, and bless me first! My brother can’t wait his turn!

Who would pray a prayer like that?! Most people wouldn’t have the audacity to say it out loud or say it in just those words, but I’ve heard a lot of prayers and observed a bunch of “Christians’” lifestyles that say just that. They seem more devoted to the philosophy of Ayn Rand than the teaching of Jesus, and are so interested in getting “theirs” they couldn’t care less if it comes at the expense of those who couldn’t reach theirs with a fireman’s ladder! Under the auspices of the American Dream, they retranslated the Golden Rule: Do to others before they do it to you.

It’s: Every Christian for himself (and herself)!

The first shall be first and the last shall be last!

It takes no discernment to see it on the job, in their homes, and, yes, even––if not mostly––in their politics.

It’s nothing new. Jesus encountered and confronted this Me-First Spirit in Luke 12. 

Two brothers were arguing about their inheritance and asked Jesus, who was in the middle of teaching a crowd, to jump into their drama and arbitrate, which he wisely refused to do. These brothers are in the presence of The Truth speaking and they interrupt him in hopes that he will leave teaching the needy masses and mediate their relatively petty dispute over money. As usual, he chose to address the heart of the matter, which in this case was greed.

They weren’t listening to his sermon; they presumed their issue was more important than the eternal realities he offered to everyone there that day. This is how greed works. It makes us the only people in the world that matter. It thinks only of itself and cares nothing for the needs of others.

Their parents’ bodies probably weren’t even cold and they’re in a pissing contest about money! How many families are shattered and scattered over money? It’s despicable that people care more about their fair share than their family, their neighborhood, or their country remaining in tact.

There’s such a thing as greedy prayers. Do you recognize them? God, make me rich. God, solve my problems first. Others may be sick, starving, abused, and in pain, but Jesus, come and fix my problems first.

The brothers didn’t get the response they hoped for. They each expected Jesus to get him his fair share of money, instead, the Lord read their hearts and replied, Let’s talk principle here, the heart principle.

Yes, God fixes stuff in our lives. Yes he wants us to ask him for help. But that simply can’t be the extent of our prayers or the extent of his job description. Of course he cares about the intimate details of our daily existence, but he’s most interested in the heart of every matter.

He addressed the selfishness that drove those brothers who didn’t act much like brothers. They should have found a way to divide the money in some equitable way, instead all they could think about was their own cut. It’s not the dollars and cents that matter to Jesus as much as what’s percolating on the inside that makes us want to protect what we have and procure what others have at the expense of our relationships.

“Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions,” Jesus warned. In other words, we don’t have to be well off to be better off!

Paul proposed that greed is a certain form of idolatry, the worship of things.

Making our lives (or America) “great” has little-to-nothing to do with making our lives monetarily richer. Life isn’t about stuff. If anything, it’s about prohibiting our lust for stuff to drive a wedge between us and other humans.

Speaking of a wedge between us Jesus’ half-brother James, said to brothers and sisters:

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.” (James 4:1-2)

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed!” Greed is insidious, like a snake, stealthy like the devil. Watch your step lest out from under his rock the snake strikes.

Peter says there are some people whose hearts are “trained in greed.” The term he uses for “trained” is from the one from which we get the words gymnasium or gymnastics. It’s as though some people go to the gym and work out to have stronger greed muscles! I fear that in our culture we’re being unwittingly trained by the rich and famous, the people who reached the top of their game, and now act as role models for the rest of us.

Every Christian for him(or her)self?

“Watch out! Be on your guard!”

We’ll continue unpacking this passage next time when we talk about how “It’s Better to Give Than to Gather.” In meantime, happy Christmas shopping. And don’t hurt anyone in the Walmart toy aisle fighting to get what’s yours!

God’s Kiss

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Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. J.R.R. Tolkien

How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God and that is what we are. 1 John 3:1

*I’m over sixty now, and I’ve always had plenty of hair—a good foot and a half of it in the 1970s. Barbers often commented, “Wow, what a bush!” I think one actually charged me extra because of it. Well, that’s not really the case these days. The bush has fallen over dead! Chemo killed it. They say it grows back and that sometimes it reappears different than it was before. When I was being marinated with cancer-killing chemicals I said that if it comes back blond I’m gonna start surfing. It didn’t and I didn’t.

Instead of a gradual receding of my hairline over decades of aging, I lost all my hair—right down to my eyebrows and eyelashes—overnight. You just don’t look right without eyebrows––sort of extraterrestrial. The top of my head looked like a clear-cut forest. Though disconcerting, my new look wasn’t a complete shock to me. Among all the other unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy—chemo-brain, nausea, debilitating fatigue—the premature loss of my hair seemed trifling. Some people look better bald—but I wasn’t one of them.

My oncologist told me that chemo poisons bad cells, which is what you want it to do. Yet at the same time, it exterminates a bunch of good cells, ones that you’d prefer, if possible, to keep (like hair-producing ones). Chemo is not discriminating in that way. It just assassinates everything that gets in its way, preferably without killing you at the same time.

So when you see your hair falling out in clumps, you could choose to celebrate it as an indicator that the chemicals, like assassins are hitting their targets, so chalk up the loss of mane as collateral damage. I didn’t need a blood test or an x-ray to tell me that cells––the good, the bad, and the ugly ones––were being gunned down by the new sheriff in town. The evildoers were being brought to justice and getting what they deserved. Unfortunately, the sheriff shoots with a scattergun, which kills more than bad guys. Nevertheless, when I felt, to put it mildly, bad, it boosted my morale to know that something good was happening at the same time.

As a bonus, the assault on my hair-producing cells uncovered a pleasant surprise on my noggin—a birthmark I didn’t know I had. After all, I’d never seen my scalp before. As long as I can remember, it’s been covered with hair––once black, then grey. I guess I was bald as a baby, but I don’t remember and wasn’t accustomed to looking in the mirror until about Junior High.

Upon careful inspection, my friend Mark said the birthmark looked like Africa; Dan said, Brazil; and my daughter in law, Tori, said it resembled a heart. I decided to go with the heart, claiming that God kissed me when I was entering this sometimes-heartless world! I never got enough of kissing my babies on the top of the head, and when I can get away with it, I still like to do it. I liked to think that God stood there in the delivery room, awaiting his opportunity to gently and affectionately brand me on the crown of my head as one belonging to him with a kiss.

His benevolent trademark exists in some way on everyone who comes into his world. He wants everyone to have a good beginning. Sometimes we just have to be ravaged by one form of suffering or another in order to see his logo and appreciate its worth. He kisses everyone, but often his love becomes obscured.

I’ve since grown a new coat of hair, and the heart-mark is once again concealed. But when I begin to doubt my place in his heart I look at the pictures of my hairless head and remember that I’m indelibly marked as his beloved.

*This is an excerpt from my memoir, The Other End of the Dark, which, even if I do say so myself, would make nice Christmas gifts for some friends (or foes, as the case may be). The proceeds go to Freedom House, so you’d be killing two birds with one stone.

Keep your eyes peeled for my next book, called Reaching Rahab: Joining God in His Quest for Friends. This one’s about sharing Christ with the people he loves. It won’t be ready for Christmas, so begin making plans for New Year’s gifts!

Demons and the Divided Soul (Part 2 of 2)

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If you haven’t already read Part 1, I urge you to do so. I broke this essay into pieces just to keep it from being too daunting to tackle as one long post, but this one will make a lot more sense alongside what we said last time. Plus, I encourage you to read the passage we’re unpacking: Luke 11:14-28.

In some Christian circles demons and demonization are never discussed and in others, that’s about all they ever talk about. Whichever camp you’re in I hope to encourage you to move to a place somewhere in between the two where you recognize demons when you “see” them and know what to do about it.

Last time, based on Luke 11:14-28 we talked about how Satan and his imps move into people’s souls and vehemently protect their usurped legal right to stay there. When we let him Jesus overpowers the “strong man” and kicks him out. Problem is, demons don’t like to live in limbo and look for any opportunity to return to their former space and squat there until identified and evicted.

Let’s pick it back up at verse 25 in The Message version:

“[The formerly ejected spirit says] ‘I’ll go back to my old haunt.’ On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he’d never gotten cleaned up in the first place.”

What makes the re-invaded soul such an easy target for the enemy is that he is “swept and dusted, but vacant.” Some would say this can’t describe a true Christian, and maybe they’re right. But I’ve seen too many “true Christians” who seem to be swept and dusted, yet empty. They have not submitted themselves to God’s deep cleaning and refurnishing that prevents the adversary from coming back with colleagues.

The most ominous part is when Jesus said, “The final condition of that person is worse than the first.” Talk about a terrifying prospect!

So, what’s the positive takeaway here? Jesus included a number of implied challenges his teaching here for those he delivers to maintain their freedom:

First… not to worry, Jesus is stronger than any “strong man.” He says it outright. He delivers––and when necessary, redelivers––by the mere flick of a divine “finger”!

Second… he says two things essential to maintaining a devil-free zone: The 1st is “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” The 2nd is “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” This is the way to live a life of freedom from a re-intrusion of hell. In other words, you won’t be such an easy target for the evil one if you stay near the One stronger than the strong man and you gather others to do the same!

Thirdly… the reason the foul spirit could find its way back into its former house was that it found it “swept clean, put in order, and vacant.” What’s so wrong with being cleaned up and looking good? I personally like lean, tidy spaces. Shouldn’t Christians have nice tidy lives, cleaned up from the past and everything put in its place?

The problem lies of course in the house being “unoccupied.” The soul might’ve been tidy but it was empty! This sounds to me like a person who comes to Jesus to get cleaned up and to have a nice orderly life. They want a fresh beginning, a new record, and a less chaotic existence. Nothing wrong with that so far as it goes, but there’s more if we’re going to live lives free from bondage and full of purpose.

Some people treat Jesus like a janitor they hired to come in and clean. They write him a paycheck and send him on his way. He doesn’t get to live there as the Head of the house. His job was to clean and leave, not move in and take over. That’s an arrangement for ultimate disaster.

Jesus said when he overcomes the strong man he “divides up the plunder” that he gets in the victory. I said earlier that this means he shares the riches of his kingdom with those he’s set free. He doesn’t just clean up the house; he fills it with “rare and beautiful treasures” (Proverbs 23:4). He’s a live-in Savior, not a spiritual janitor. He doesn’t come at our beck and call, when we need some spot cleaning and reorganizing.

Though Jesus distributes his treasures at the point of salvation, it still takes us a lifetime to discover, enjoy, and employ those riches. As we do, we become more and more impermeable to the adversary’s intrusions. The degree to which we let Jesus have run of the house and permeate every corner is the degree to which our former inhabitant has less and less opportunity to eek back in place.

Fourthly… going back up to the first thing Jesus said in response to their accusation that he was casting demons out of people by the power of Satan: “A house divided against itself will fall.” As I said, in his metaphor, the house is the person’s soul. Jesus cleans, organizes, and inhabits our soul, but the adversary is skilled at exploiting the vulnerable soul. He says a “house (a soul) divided against itself will fall.”

The repercussions of such a divided soul are grave. It’s an open invitation for problems worse than before. There is great danger for the divided soul, a soul devoted to the Deliverer only in spots, and that tries to maintain a salvation with half our heart working in opposition with the other half.

That said, an undivided heart, a house that is swept clean and full of new treasures brought in by the live-in Master of the house, is impenetrable. This heart is “strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, clothed with the full armor of God” (Ephesian 6:18)!

Lord, give us “an undivided heart, that we may fear your name.” Psalm 86:11