Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 215

Morality, Markets, and the Audience of One: Os Guinness, Part 3

In this third and final blog post from an interview with Os Guinness (check out part 1 and part 2), Os talks about living for the Audience of One, and the relationship between calling, markets, and morality.

R&L: Throughout your discussion of calling, you cite many who, out of their own sense of calling, opposed barbaric and tyrannous regimes—people like Dietrich Bonhoffer, Vaclav Havel, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. What is it about calling that enables men and women to stand against the tides of the times?

Guinness: One of the themes introduced by the Puritans is the notion that people live by calling, in other words, living by faith to the glory of God and having one audience—the audience of one. Today, so much of modern society is so other-directed, so audience-driven, and so seeker-sensitive, that much leadership is actually codependent on follower-ship, which gives rise to leaders who are really panderers, not leaders.

I think of the difference between Winston Churchill and his friend, David Lloyd George. Churchill was described “as impervious to public opinion as a diver in a bell.” Lloyd George, on the other hand, was described as so amazingly attuned to public opinion that when he was alone in the room, there was no one there. Most modern leaders— not only in politics but also, sadly, in the church—are closer to David Lloyd George than they are to Winston Churchill. But the person of calling has one audience, the audience of one. So, if one believes on the basis of conviction and conscience that the majority is wrong, it becomes necessary to challenge received opinion, to take on the majority.

R&L: I would like to read a quotation from your book. You write, “Calling, which played a key role in the rise of modern capitalism, is one of the few things capable of guiding and restraining it now.” Could you unpack that a bit for us?

Guinness: I have no problems admitting the extraordinary superiority of market capitalism; it is a remarkable engine of dynamism, fruitfulness, productivity, and so on. I question that not at all. But it is only a mechanism, and the problem comes in when people make it a source of meaning.

You see in the New Testament that those of us who are followers of Christ always have a choice. Either we love God and use money wisely and fruitfully, which is terrific, or we love money—call it Mammon—and try to use God, which is a dangerous form of idolatry. Calling helped produce the rise of capitalism; it also has the power to reintroduce a philosophical, theological, ethical notion that can be the guiding and disciplining force to channel capitalism so that it is purely creative and not destructive.

R&L: What, then, is the relationship between markets and morality?

Guinness: Unless capitalism has an ethical boundary, it will always create two problems. One is the problem of insatiability, never knowing when to stop, always wanting just a little more. The other problem—you can see this very clearly in America today—is commodification. The good society draws a line between what is and what is not for sale, but, in modern America, almost everything is up for sale, including much that should not be. We need powerful faith with strong ethics and knowledge of what is legitimate to buy and sell—that’s the market at its best—but certain things are not for buying and not for selling, and we should know why.

Source: "Rediscovering "Calling" Will Revitalize Church and Society." Religion & Liberty. 8.4 (1998): 1-4. 

      

The Call to Follow Christ: Os Guinness, Part 2

I’m posting a series of blogs from an excellent interview with Os Guinness titled “Rediscovering ‘Calling’ Will Revitalize Church and Society.” (Check out part 1 if you missed it.) In this excerpt, Os talks about his book The Call, which I highly recommend.

R&L: In the first chapter of your book, The Call, you mention that you have been reflecting on the concept of calling for nearly twenty-five years. Why does this concept so appeal to you, and why did you write this book?

Guinness: On a personal level, it was the concept of calling that helped me discover my own purpose in life. Furthermore, in my travels through the English-speaking world, the questions I have been asked most frequently have to do with calling. All across the West today, people are seeking a deeper sense of individual purpose.

As Fyodor Dostoyevski put it, “The secret of man’s being is not only to live, but to live for something definite.” Or as Søren Kierkegaard put it, “The goal is to find the idea for which I can live and die.” I come across such longing in people again and again, and there is no question that the Call is this longing’s deepest answer.

R&L: How do you define “the Call”?

Guinness: Simply put, the Call is the idea that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we have, and everything we do is invested with a dynamism and a devotion because it is done as a response to His summons. In other words, those two words of Jesus Christ—“Follow me”— changed the world as millions since have risen up to follow His call.

R&L: In the book, you note two primary distortions of the concept of calling. Can you elaborate on them?

Guinness: Over the course of the past two thousand years, the concept of calling has been distorted in two ways. I label these—although this is slightly unfair—the Catholic distortion and the Protestant distortion, and both are reflections of a spiritual/secular dualism.

The Catholic distortion is the idea that spiritual things are higher than secular things; so, calling is reserved for monks, nuns, and priests, and lay people are let off the hook, so to speak. This idea was introduced first by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, and was picked up by great thinkers like Augustine and Aquinas.

The Protestant distortion is the other way around. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin taught that calling includes your work, but about one hundred fifty years after the early Puritans, we see the words calling and vocation become merely synonyms for work and employment. Over time, that was distorted until it came to be seen that one’s work simply was his calling. So, we have a situation where calling is being secularized and work is being sacralized.

Source: "Rediscovering "Calling" Will Revitalize Church and Society." Religion & Liberty. 8.4 (1998): 1-4.

      

No Freedom without Truth: Os Guinness, Part 1

If you’re not familiar with Os Guinness, he is an author and social critic who lives in the Washington DC area. He’s written or edited more than 25 books and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at political and business conferences in both the United States and Europe. When Os and I were both speaking at the C. S. Lewis conference in Oxford in July, Nanci and I had a delightful dinner with him and his wife Jenny.

Recently I ran across an interview with Os in a 1998 issue of Religion & Liberty, a publication of the Acton Institute.

I’ll be posting a series of three blog posts with excerpts from the interview, which is titled “Rediscovering  ‘Calling’ Will Revitalize Church and Society.”

In today’s excerpt, Os discusses freedom and truth. 

R&L: In your book The American Hour, you say that America, at her best, is a liberal experiment. In this context, what do you mean by “liberal”?

Guinness: I mean it, not it its modern sense, but in its nineteenth-century sense of liberalism in the relation of faith and freedom. I think the framers were clear that faith and freedom were integral.

Faith was foundational to the United States at three points. The first was winning freedom; just take the enormous influence of the “black regiment,” the preachers and thinkers behind the American Revolution. The second was the ordering of freedom; nothing is closer to the genius of the United States than the First Amendment and its establishing the separation of church and state in such a constructive way. And the third—which is less stressed today— was the sustaining of freedom; refer to James Madison’s argument that faith is vital to virtue, and that virtue is vital to freedom. So, those who think you can have an empty or ungrounded freedom misunderstand the framers.

R&L: Would you say, then, that freedom is not freedom from, but freedom for?

Guinness: Paraphrasing Lord Acton, “Freedom is not the permission to do what we like, it is the power to do what we ought.” The trouble is that, today, freedom is purely negative: freedom from parents, from teachers, from the police, and so on. We have lost sight of it as freedom to be that which we can be or ought to be. We need to recover the idea that, as Lord Acton stressed wisely and as the present pope has written of so well, freedom is the power to do what we ought. That assumes, however, we know the truth of who we are and what we ought to do. That is the freedom the modern secular liberal tends to forget.

R&L: And does being a follower of Christ tutor us in how to exercise our freedom in relation to the truth?

Guinness: Absolutely. To me, one of the most appalling things in this country at the moment is the capitulation to the postmodern view of truth—the view that truth is relative, socially determined, and all a manner of human construction, and that any truth claim is really a disguised bid for power.

What proponents of this view do not realize is that when all claims to truth are reduced to forms of bids for power, you just open yourself up to power games. That is an incredibly dangerous, Nietzschean moment.

When Vaclav Havel and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn resisted the Soviet regime, they did so on the basis of truth. “One word of truth,” Solzhenitsyn wrote, “outweighs the entire world.” Or in the words of Havel, “Truth prevails for those who live in truth.” Many Western liberals applauded them at the time, but they do not have the same, strong concept of truth to do the job today.

People thought that postmodernism promised a brave new world of knowledge, but they are suddenly beginning to realize it is a highly manipulative and very dangerous world. And when you see the dangers, suddenly you see the enormous significance of the words of Jesus: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” There is no freedom without truth.

Source: "Rediscovering "Calling" Will Revitalize Church and Society." Religion & Liberty. 8.4 (1998): 1-4. 

      

94-year-old woman reunites with 77-year-old daughter conceived by rape

A friend sent me the following Associated Press article about a now 100-year-old woman, who at age 94 was reunited with her 77-year-old daughter. The child was conceived when the woman was raped as a teenager, and then placed for adoption.

I mentioned this story in the prolife message  I shared at my home church this past weekend.  (Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for me. The EPM staff will be posting the message, both audio and video.)

The story is so powerful because the rape, as evil as it was, in no way diminished the mother and child connection, and the joy they’ve experienced in the last six years. It’s a great example of how a child conceived by rape is as precious as a child conceived by love, because a child is a child. The point is not how she was conceived but that she was conceived. She is not a despicable “product of rape” but a unique and wonderful creation of God.

After I shared similar thoughts in a message at my church in 1989, a dear woman in her mid-twenties came up to me, sobbing. I’ll never forget what she said: “Thank you. I’ve never heard anyone say that a child conceived by rape deserved to live. My mother was raped when she was twelve years old. She gave birth to me and gave me up for adoption to a wonderful family. I’ll probably never meet her, but every day I thank God for her and her parents. If they hadn’t let me live, I wouldn’t be here to have my own husband and children, and my own life. I’m just so thankful to be alive.”

Women often think that a child conceived by such a vile act will be a constant reminder of their pain. On the contrary, the innocence of the child often has a healing effect. But in any case, the woman is free to place the child for adoption, which in some cases is the best alternative. Aborting the child is an attempt to deny what happened, and denial is never good therapy. One woman who had been raped and given birth to the baby said to me, “A baby is the only beautiful thing that can come out of a rape.” 

Woman meets child born out of rape, given up for adoption 77 years ago

SAN CLEMENTE, CALIF.—For most of her 100 years, Minka Disbrow tried to find out what became of the precious baby girl she gave up for adoption after being raped as a teen.

She hoped, but never imagined, she’d see her Betty Jane again.

The cruel act of violence bore in Disbrow an enduring love for the child. She kept a black and white photograph of the baby bundled in blankets and tucked inside a basket.

It was the last she saw of the girl — until the phone rang in her California apartment in 2006 with the voice of an Alabama man and a story she could have only dreamed.

Disbrow, the daughter of Dutch immigrants, weathered a harsh childhood milking cows on South Dakota dairy farms. Her stepfather thought high school was for city kids who had nothing else to do. She finished eighth grade in a country schoolhouse with just one teacher and worked long hours at the dairy.

On a summer day in 1928 while picnicking with girls from a sewing class, Disbrow and her friend Elizabeth were jumped by three men as they went for a walk in their long dresses.

Both were raped.

“We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t know what to say. So when we went back, nothing was said,” Disbrow recalled.

Months passed. Her body began to change.

Disbrow, who had been told babies were brought by storks, didn’t know what was happening.

Her mother and stepfather sent her to a Lutheran home for pregnant girls. At 17, she gave birth to a blond-haired baby with a deep dimple in her chin and named her Betty Jane.

In her heart, Disbrow longed to keep her. But her head and her mother told her she couldn’t bring an infant back to the farm.

A pastor and his wife were looking to adopt a child. She hoped they could give Betty Jane the home she couldn’t.

Read the rest of the story.

      

 

Doctors Recommended that Tim Tebow Be Aborted

This is a follow-up on my Wednesday blog about Tim Tebow messing up my plans this week.

You’ve heard about the fact that John 3:16, Tebow’s favorite verse, was Googled more than anything else after his victory Sunday. Since John 3:16 is about the good news of salvation in Christ, it’s hard not to be excited about that.

I have to smile at some of the sports announcers and writers who don’t know what to do about Tim Tebow. I don’t read many sports articles, but I thought this one about Tebow from DJ Gallo was both funny and insightful:

He started the season as the third-stringer, and everyone freaked out. Then he got a start and won, and everyone freaked out. Then in his second start, he played horribly and got crushed, and everyone freaked out. Then he went on a winning streak, and everyone freaked out. Then he went on a losing streak, and everyone freaked out. Then he won a playoff game, and everyone freaked out.

Victim count: football scouts, football media, Tebow haters, Tebow supporters, John Fox, John Elway, his teammates, me, you. At some point along the way, he's made everyone look stupid...

Brett Favre used to be the go-to name for members of the sports media in need of a column or segment topic. But he went away, and the collective football media panicked. Fortunately, in stepped Tebow. This alone could turn thousands of grateful sports media members to religion. And I'm as guilty as anyone else. In the past two months, I've written approximately 127 Tebow columns. But I've also started tithing. Thanks Tim!

...Will a wholesome, handsome ex-football star who can draw the religious vote and appeal to the tens of millions of Oprah-loving pop psychologists win 51 percent of the vote in the 2024 presidential election? No, he will win 91 percent of the vote in the 2024 presidential election. The 9 percent who don't vote for him will just be hard-core Raiders, Chargers, Chiefs, Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Ron Paul fans.

…He can't be stopped. He can't be killed. He just keeps coming for you. Coming for us all. He doesn't want to kill you. He doesn't want to eat your flesh. He just wants to win. He's the world's first wholesome, positive zombie. The only screams you'll hear are his ... celebrating another touchdown.

Since I’m working on pulling together a prolife message this weekend, filling in for Bob and Pam Tebow who will be in New England instead of at our church, I thought I would say something about Timmy’s entrance into this world.

I’m pulling from a few different sources, including an interview from Pam and also Tim’s comments in his book, Through My Eyes.

In 1985, the Tebow family, with four children, was living in the Philippines as missionaries. Pam Tebow contracted amoebic dysentery, likely from contaminated drinking water. She fell into a coma and received strong drugs to combat the infection.

It turned out she was pregnant with her fifth child. Those drugs caused the placenta to detach from the uterine wall, depriving the fetus—which I prefer to call the child—of oxygen.

When it was realized that she was pregnant, doctors stopped the drugs but said that the high doses of medicine had already damaged the fetus (you don’t call him or her a baby when you want him aborted, but in fact that “product of conception” was Timmy Tebow, the same person who is now just older and bigger).

The doctors believed there was danger to Pam and that the baby would not survive, or if he did, would have very serious problems.

His parents went to the best doctor in their area of the Philippines. The doctor told his mother in a slow monotone that “An abortion is the only way to save your life.”

As Tim says in his book, “According to [the doctor], the ‘mass of fetal tissue’ or ‘tumor’—me—had to go.”

Pam refused to have an abortion and asked for God’s help. She was in bed rest at a Manila hospital for the final two months of the pregnancy.

Bob and Pam prayed for a healthy baby, but left that up to God.

After Timmy was born, the doctor who delivered him said only a small part of the placenta was attached, but it was “just enough to keep your baby nourished all these months.”

After birth, both Pam and Tim faced serious challenges. Pam said, “We were concerned at first because he was so malnourished.”

Looking at this photo of Tim warming up before last week’s game with the Steelers, I’m thinking malnutrition wasn’t a long term problem. :)

Okay, so I’ve told the inspiring story about doctors being wrong—wrong about Pam dying if she didn’t get the abortion, and wrong about Timmy’s long-term health. (By the way, as much as I respect the medical profession, physicians are sometimes wrong in their medical predictions, and even when right they’re not always the best moral guides. That’s why I cringe when I hear people say “abortion should be a decision between a woman and her doctor.” I’ve talked with many women who didn’t have Bob and Pam Tebow’s resolve, but who now wish they hadn’t listened to their doctor when he advised an abortion.)

Returning to the doctors who recommended Pam to abort, suppose they had been right about Timmy having health problems if he survived. Suppose that instead of looking like he does, Timmy had ended up like this boy:

Is this child any less precious in God’s sight than Timmy? No. Should he be any less precious in our sight? No. Would the doctor have been right to advise an abortion in the case of this child? No. A child is a child. He doesn’t have to be a superstar, and he doesn’t have to be “normal.”

Who makes disabled people the way they are? Some people think it’s the devil, many think it’s just a tragic accident. What does the Bible say?

The LORD said to him [Moses], “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11)

So let’s celebrate that God preserved Pam Tebow and her son Timmy. But let’s also remember there are countless disabled children and families who need our love and support. (Joni and Friends is one of the wonderful organizations EPM supports that serves them.) And that even if the doctor had been right about Timmy’s prognosis, killing him by abortion would have been just as wrong, and just as tragic. 

Finally, if you want a refreshing view of the heart and priorities of a professional athlete, check out this video link sent to me by our friend Diane Meyer. Tim Tebow talks here for seven minutes, mostly about prison ministry. Whether Tim Tebow and the Broncos win or lose against the Patriots Saturday is insignificant compared to the values reflected in this video. 

      

How Tim Tebow Messed Up My Plans and Forced Me to Preach This Coming Weekend

I was one of those people tweeting and Facebooking to celebrate Tebow and the Broncos winning their playoff game Sunday. They say that after that game there was more immediate social network activity about Tebow than any athlete ever; my Facebook post got 600 plus likes, over 200 of those within ten minutes.

When it appeared the Steelers were within field goal range on the easiest field in the NFL to kick field goals, the Broncos sacked them and took them out of range. Then they punted and in the first play of overtime, Tim Tebow threw a perfect pass to Demaryius Thomas, who stiff armed and ran for an 80 yard touchdown (yes, I am aware, as is Tebow, that there are actually other players on the team). It was electrifying, and Tim Tebow was once again the most talked about person in the country.

What I love about Timmy is exactly what irritates some people. It’s the way he always says, and clearly means it from his heart, “I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Many athletes say “I thank God,” but then people can define God however they wish, vaguely and without evoking any of the biblical meaning of His nature and redemptive plan in Christ. What takes guts is saying the actual name of Jesus.

Jesus as Savior is a bold statement. But Jesus as Lord? Meaning He’s in charge of the universe and my personal life, and has the right to be in charge of your life too? Now that really means something, and it does not always sit well with others, including some well-known Christian athletes. But I admire it, and I hope he keeps it up. May each of us seek to please above all Him whose opinion ultimately matters, the Audience of One.  

With all that has been said, can I say anything new about Tim Tebow? Yes, I think so. Because, humanly speaking, he ruined my week. Well, not ruined, actually. In the sovereignty of God, Tebow was his instrument to force me to make major adjustments. I had set aside this week for much-needed research and writing, as well as two speaking engagements. Then I was going to reward myself by watching football with Nanci most of the weekend (attending church during the game I least wanted to watch). Wasn’t that a nifty little plan?

Well, my plans were jettisoned in a heartbeat due to that overtime 80 yard pass play from Tebow. Now, I must also prepare a sermon, and preach it three times this weekend (all three of them during playoff games).

Okay, let me explain, and to do it I’ll tell a story. We have cheered for Tim Tebow since we met him when he played at Florida. Nanci and I and our good friends Stu and Linda Weber spent a weekend with Bob and Pam Tebow, Timmy’s parents (the family calls him Timmy, and the jerseys and photos he gave us were signed Timmy, so that’s the name permanently engrained in us).

Since he was then living near the University of Florida, Nanci and I stayed in Timmy’s room at the Tebow home. Nanci is an incurable football fan. So when she opened the closet to hang something up, she took out a jersey and said, “This isn’t just a Tim Tebow jersey. This is actually Tim Tebow’s jersey!”

 

We kept bumping into things, like a football signed to Timmy by Emmitt Smith, a Heisman football signed by previous Heisman winners,  the ESPY Award given to the best male college athlete of the year, and so on—and on and on (I don’t actually own an ESPY award myself; I was narrowly beaten out some years ago.)

Fortunately we didn’t have to worry about tripping over the Heisman Trophy, because it was twenty feet away, safely tucked in a corner of the living room, where Nanci and I managed to find it and get the obligatory photo. (Then I took one of Bob and Pam, who I’m sure had never before had a picture with the Heisman. We have no Heisman in our living room, so it was kind of cool.)

We had a great evening fellowshipping and telling stories with the Tebows and Webers. (Bob and Stu had attended Portland’s Western Seminary together, where I attended a few years later.) We laughed and laughed, and talked about our love for Jesus, and told each other about our families. The next day we went early to the Florida Gator game. We were with friends and family of players as they came through the brick lined “Gator Walk” before the game. Tim stopped to greet his parents and meet us.

How early were we there? Check out the empty stands!

Then the stands started filling up:

The game was crazy loud. Afterward we were at a sort of tailgate party in a fenced in area. But Timmy escaped the crowd outside and came into a trailer where I was, and sat down across from me, three feet away, for about an hour. Half that time we talked, the other half he talked with little kids that were sent into the trailer to meet him. He gave these kids 100% attention, listened and interacted, just as he did with me.

I’ve never told any of this story publicly in the four years since it happened, but since I’m doing it, I may as well include something else. The previous spring we had been visiting our friends Chuck and Gena Norris, when Tim was asked in an interview to name someone he really admired. Tim’s answer was, “Chuck Norris.” Chuck really got a kick out of this. They’d never met or talked, but knowing we were going to this game, Chuck called me right then to see how it went. I said, “Well, I’m sitting here with Timmy right now.” Then I looked at Tebow and said, “Want to talk to Chuck Norris?”

The expression on his face was priceless. After seeing so many people in the previous hour blown away to meet Tim Tebow, it was fun to see Tim Tebow blown away to talk with Chuck Norris. “Mr. Norris, is this really you? Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Glad to speak with you too, sir.” (BTW, Timmy called me sir, too, and he would call the janitor sir, and the respect would be just as genuine.)

In the thirty minutes or so that Timmy and I talked, I encouraged, challenged and warned him about Satan’s target on his chest, the importance of humility and staying close to God—all things his parents and pastors taught him so well and I’m sure he’s heard from a hundred other people. I was struck with his sincerity, his genuine love for children, and his determination not just to win, but to honor Christ. Since that day, yes, I have been a Tim Tebow fan, and I have prayed for Timmy whenever I’ve heard his name. Which means—you may have noticed his name coming up in the media occasionally—I have actually prayed for him quite a bit. (I mean, for an old Seahawks fan to become a Broncos fan was not a natural transition!) 

Later that night, we went to Timmy’s apartment and hung out with him and some teammates and family. At the far right are Timmy’s brother Rob and tight end Riley Cooper, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles. (BTW, that night someone told Riley I write novels, and he said, “Would you name a character after me?” I said, “Sure,” while one of his teammates said, “Riley, you’ve never even read a book!” So, in my novel Courageous, I named a young police officer Riley Cooper; I sent him a copy a few weeks ago.)

So...now we go from the background story to how my plans for this week got messed up by Timmy Tebow. Last spring my home church, Good Shepherd Community, invited Bob and Pam Tebow to speak for a Sanctity of Human Life weekend, January 14-15, 2012. Pam would share on the prolife theme, telling the story about the doctors recommending they abort Timmy, etc. And Bob, a veteran evangelist, would preach the gospel.

Bob and Pam said yes, but with one condition. Since that weekend would be the second week of the playoffs, in the unlikely event of Denver going to the playoffs, and still playing in the second week of the playoffs, naturally the Tebows would want to be at that game and wouldn’t be able to be at our church. So our church would need to have a backup speaker, just in case.

Knowing we knew the Tebows and we share the prolife burden, our lead pastor Alan Hlavka called me and asked me to be the backup speaker. Now, put yourself in my place. Nanci and I both love the NFL playoffs. I try my best to never be speaking during the playoffs. But for crying out loud, the Broncos were 4-12 last year, tied for the worst record in the NFL!

So I thought, “The Broncos make the playoffs? And still be alive in week two of the playoffs? Oh, yeah, now THAT'S a big risk.” :) So, cheerfully, while stifling laughter, I said to my friend and pastor Alan, “Sure, I'll be the backup speaker.” Which is sort of like telling your friend you’ll teach his Sunday School class that week if he makes the finals of American Idol.

Meanwhile I looked forward to the Tebows coming to town and being at our church and spending an evening together with them and the Webers and Hlavkas. The way it looked last spring is that we’d probably sit around a living room and speculate about whether Tim would be traded and get a chance to be an NFL starter, or whatever. I would “serve” as the backup speaker without having to serve at all, since there was no way I would actually be needed. Hey, would God reward me for agreeing to do something that involved zero sacrifice and investment? (As it turns out, I will never know.:)

The Broncos started the year 1-4, perfectly on pace for another 4-12 season. It was a done deal, right? Playoffs? Impossible. No need to think about a message in January.

Then Timmy takes over as quarterback. They win one, lose one, then win six in a row, with four unbelievable come-from-behind finishes. I’m thrilled, having a blast, praying for Timmy, firing texts off to Bob game after game, and celebrating with the Tebow family. They really could make the playoffs! But then they lose three games, and while they’d had an unforgettable run with Timmy at QB, if Oakland wins their last game the Broncos don’t go to the playoffs. But, of course, Oakland loses. So after cheering and praying for Timmy all year, the unthinkable happens—they really are in the playoffs!

BUT there is still no need to think about message preparation. Why? Because as my football-expert son-in-law Dan Stump (to whom I entrusted my youngest daughter) points out to me, they are playing the 12-4 STEELERS, for crying out loud, a team many of us always WANT to lose, but who seldom actually DO lose.

Then comes Sunday night. Denver takes an early lead. I start thinking about a message. Then Pittsburgh comes back and ties it. I stop thinking about a message. Then Pittsburg gets into long field goal range, and I will neither be celebrating nor preaching. And then, it’s OT, and in one eleven second play, the Broncos have won. Nanci is jumping up and down screaming, I am texting Bob Tebow, and then reality hits. My week was filled with other things. I had made other plans, lots of them. And suddenly I had to find time to prepare a message!

As everyone in America has mentioned at least once in the last three days, Tim’s favorite verse is John 3:16. And when he led his team to win in overtime, he had 316 passing yards, 31.6 yards per pass (the math is easy when there are 10 completions). Now, in college, where the eye stuff was allowed, unlike in the NFL, he often had Philippians 4:13 under his eyes. Personally, I don’t expect Timmy to throw for 413 yards against the Patriots. BUT then…I’m the guy who thought it was safe being a backup for his parents in the second week of the playoffs! All I can say is, if he does throw for 413, the new verse I would recommend for him is John 10:10. Or Psalm 119:105.

So I will be preaching during two of the four playoff games this weekend, including Denver’s. Timmy has proven that you can be a backup and come in and perform okay, but still, I would appreciate your prayers as I come off the bench and substitute for the Tebows.

I am considering asking ushers on Saturday night to confiscate all smart phones from people at the door, lest people who pretend they are looking at their ESV Bibles on their phones be giving me broad smiles or fist pumps or looks of disappointment or despair unrelated to my message. (It is possible that my message itself could be reason for despair, but that is another issue.) Seriously, Nanci and I REALLY do want to watch the game later in its entirety without knowing ahead of time the outcome. (Strangely, when I say this there are usually people who think it’s funny to tell me the score or drop hints or say “you’re going to/not going to like it.” Have you ever had that happen and wanted to strangle someone? That’s a subject for another blog.)

The truth is, God ordained from eternity past that I would be preaching this weekend, that Timmy would be playing, that Bob and Pam would be in New England watching their son, and that you would be where you are, hopefully seeking to represent Jesus with boldness and humility.

“Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do [including playing football, being there for your son, preaching a message you hadn’t planned on], do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

      

P.S. I may tell part of the Tebow prolife story at church in my message, and if so, I may put it in a blog post this Friday.

"You Are in Danger": Mark Driscoll Preaches on Hell

In this powerful nine-minute video, Pastor Mark Driscoll answers the question about whether those who die without faith in Christ go to hell.

The Bible speaks of an eternal hell as something that should motivate unbelievers to turn to God, and believers to share the gospel with urgency. If we are as loving as we claim, we’d better learn to speak Christ’s truth in love—telling people that if they reject the best gift of a holy and gracious God, purchased with His own blood, what remains, in the end, will be nothing but hell.

      

Enjoying Maggie Grace

Nanci and I are enjoying our first week with our new Golden Retriever puppy, Maggie Grace, who is nine weeks old.

She’s pretty adorable, so I keep pulling out the camera. These are two slideshows, one of which I posted on Facebook Monday night, the second of which I haven’t posted until now.

God graciously links the hearts of people to their animals. That was his plan from the beginning. You’ve heard of therapy dogs? Most dogs are therapy dogs, to the families they’ve been entrusted to. Maggie has already been therapy for us. We thank God for her.

“The godly care for their animals” (Proverbs 12:10, NLT).

First slideshow of our Maggie, 2:13 min.: 

Second slideshow of Maggie, 2:26 min.: 

And for those who can’t get enough of dogs, here’s a fun video of two dogs in the snow:

      

Some Thoughts on the Importance of Christian Biographies, and Recommended Reading

A few months ago, someone asked me on my Facebook page what Christian biographies I would recommend. Reading and discussing biographies of faithful believers can give both children and adults footprints to follow, especially through our suffering. When we read the biographies of missionaries and reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Carey, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Harriet Tubman, William Wilberforce, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael and countless others, we find the pages riddled with suffering, all of which God used to build their characters and expand their ministries.

Rather than depressing us, these stories inspire and challenge us to say no to time-wasting trivia, seize the day and invest it in what matters. As Robert Moffat said, “We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour before sunset in which to win them.”

Some biographies I’ve read and appreciated:

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas, a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity by Kevin Belmonte, story of William Wilberforce (the book which the movie Amazing Grace was based on).
Here I Stand , Roland Bainton's classic bio of Martin Luther.
John Newton: Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitken.
Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George Marsden.
131 Christians Everyone Should Know is a collection of bios from Christian History magazine, and most of them are great.
Also good is Warren Wiersbe's 50 People every Christian Should Know . If you read the short bios, it will help you pick out those people you want to read more about.

Do you have a favorite biography you would recommend?

      

The Gift and Task of Sanctification

I always enjoy J.I. Packer. I read this in his book Great Joy, and as I meditated on it, I thought of Colossians 1:29: "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."

Sanctification, we now see, is both a gift (that is one side: God working in us to renew and transform us) and a task (the task of obedience, righteousness, and pleasing God). And we must never so stress either of the two sides that we lose sight of the other. Think only of the task, and you will become a self-reliant legalist seeking to achieve righteousness in your own strength. You will not make any headway at all. Think only of the work of God in your life, and the chances are that Satan will trick you into not making the necessary effort and not maintaining the discipline of righteousness so that, in fact, even as you rejoice in the work of God in your life you will be dishonoring it by your slackness. Hold both sides of the matter together in your mind, if you want your living to be right.