Read This! 01.22.19

Mike Leake

An Open Letter to Baptist Pastors Considering Open Membership

I really can see both sides of this argument.

Sometimes We Should Give Up

There is beauty in the death of the person that we thought we’d become.

3 Things to Remember When People Leave Your Church

I needed to read this.

The Gospel Does Not ‘Float Downstream’ from Big Cities

I don’t normally link to a link to a podcast, but this topic is so near to my heart that I had to. And a hearty ‘amen’.

10 Reasons Racism Is Sin

I read something recently arguing that racism isn’t necessarily sin. Glad to see this from Kevin DeYoung.

3 Reasons Definite Atonement is Basic to Biblical Missions

You wouldn’t normally think of these two going hand in hand, but they do.

Worry is “Practical Atheism”

Yep.

What is the Role of a Christian Writer?

I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that verse before.

I’m posting this one for my son, he loves Bob Ross:

Well, We Survived Another Blood Moon

Mike Leake

“The end of all things is at hand” –1 Peter 4:7

What is your response when you hear something like that? If you are anything like me then your antennae goes up and you think to yourself, “Nut Job Alert!”

My first exposure that I can remember to weirdoes that say stuff like this was to a guy named Marshal Appelwhite and the Heaven’s Gate cult. In March of 1997 he and 38 followers committed mass suicide. Why? Well, they believed the world was about to be recycled. The end of all things is at hand. Thankfully a way of salvation from our space ancestors was provided. And that way of salvation was that the Hale-Bopp comet had a UFO traveling behind it. In order to travel with the spaceship though they needed to shed their earthly bodies. What I always found hilarious in this sad story is that each member had in their pocket a $5 bill and three quarters for inter-galactic toll prices.

But Applewhite isn’t alone in doing crazy things because he believed the world was going to end. What do you think of as typical responses to “The end of all things is at hand”?

  • Isolating away from society
  • Doing something strange for salvation/protection
  • Stockpiling goods (or giving away everything)
  • Gathering other followers to observe your same rituals
  • Panic

Now listen to this from 1 Peter 4:7:

“The end of all things is at hand”.

Therefore….(and here it is. Whatever follows after this will help us compare what Peter says to the other nutjob responses that we see). Be self-controlled and sober-minded. When Peter talks about the end being at hand he doesn’t say bunker down and isolate yourself from others. He doesn’t say get out your charts and graphs so you can know the exact day of the return of Christ. Nothing like that. Instead it’s the opposite.

Jesus could return any moment. Because of this we ought to be self-controlled and sober-minded. This isn’t something strange that we do in response to the fact that Christ could return any moment. We don’t need five bucks and three quarters.

What you often see with believers when they think and talk about prophecy stuff is panic and losing their heads. There is a show that I noticed on Netflix—I don’t know how many episodes but I watched one of them—it’s called Doomsday Bunkers. It’s people that are creating these elaborate sometimes million dollar bunkers to try to survive the upcoming Apocalypse.

Peter reminds believers to not be like that. Just live normal everyday Christian lives. This is a call to think sensibly in light of the fact that Christ is returning. And I love what Dr. Schreiner says on this:

The realization that God is bringing history to a close should provoke believers to depend on him, and this dependence is manifested in prayer, for in prayer believers recognize that any good that occurs in the world is due to God’s grace.

But we are also called to love one another and serve one another. Rather than isolating and going all crazy and trying to survive a zombie apocalypse in our bunker we are called to actually be hospitable. The way we respond to “the end is at hand” says quite a bit about what is going on in our hearts.

  • What if I panic? It shows that your confidence is not placed in God.
  • What if I’m calm? It might mean that you are trusting Christ. It might also mean that you are a sociopath. That’s why we also see the second thing
  • What if I don’t love, don’t show hospitality, and don’t use gifts to serve one another? It means that you aren’t really prepared for Christ to return. You aren’t about his mission—you are about your own mission. (This is in varying degrees—don’t assess yourself too harshly here, are you growing in these?)

So we survived another blood moon. And we’ll likely survive the next one too. But consider your hearts response when you think about “the end is at hand”. If it doesn’t motivate you to love one another and dig in to service, or if it causes you great panic, you might be missing something. A proper view of the end times will cause us to love our neighbor.

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Photo source: here

Read This! 01.17.19

Mike Leake

5 Ways to Last 20 years in the Same Church

16 to go…

Don’t Be Afraid to Repeat Yourself

This is a lesson I need to learn…and ironic enough one that I’ve heard quite a few times.

The Present and Future of Christian Blogging

Samuel James interacts with a Challies article I also linked to a couple days ago.

Why You Can’t Think Straight When You’re Sleep Deprived

I’m learning more and more about myself in this area.

How Discernment is Like Thrifting

Hannah Anderson is one of my favorite authors, this article is one reason why.

Top Reasons Young People Drop Out

There is a bit of connection in all five of these.

Are You Open to Spiritual Gifts?

Thanks to our associate pastor, I have Andrew Wilson’s newest book on my reading list.

How Anxiety Can Feed Anger, Irritability, and Frustration

I think a lot of this is because they have the same root.

I acknowledge that this isn’t Christian music but it is certainly what might be called “Christ-haunted” and I’m really digging this genre of music right now:

Who is Right About Job?

Mike Leake

“The whole book of Job is about the question, Who is right about Job: God or Satan?” –Dick Keyes

That bothers me.

Job’s family died. He lost all his possessions. He developed painful sores. He had to deal with a nagging wife and insensitive friends. The guy was put through the fire and his life was pretty much destroyed (at least for a season). And for what? So that God could win an argument with Satan?

In angrier moments–those foolish moments which Asaph talked about in Psalm 73—I’ve shaken my fist at God and placed myself in the position of Job. When suffering doesn’t make sense I figure God has a bigger purpose and plan, you know, like winning a chess match against one of his cloven angels. Who is right about Mike? God or Satan? Well let’s put him through some intense suffering and find out.

And that ticks me off. At least in my dark and angry and dull moments.

But you know why that upsets me? It upsets me because I value safety and security and smooth sailing above the approbation of God. But that’s not all the way true. I can handle speed bumps. I’m not looking for no suffering. It’s the really bad trials that confound me: the ones where I feel completely undone and lost and empty and helpless and hopeless. I’m talking about the times when I feel as if the darkness is going to swallow me whole. In those moments I’d prefer a cease to the suffering over the smile of God.

That’s really what God is doing, helping me value His approval as the treasure it truly is. And that’s what he was doing in Job’s life. This “chess match” isn’t for God’s own sake. “Who is right about Job?” isn’t a battle taking place so that God can win an argument. It’s taking place for Job. That’s hard to see when you’re picking at your sores whilst sitting on a heap of ashes and mourning the death of your beloveds. But what is going to happen is that Job is going to come through this fire and he is going to have something more valuable than anything.

so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The book of Job shows us that God is right about Job. And he’s right about Job because nobody can snatch Job out of God’s hand. All the forces of hell can come against him and his faith is going to stand—even when it totters and weakens and questions and looks as if it’s going to be dashed upon the rocks. His faith is going to stand because God’s purpose for Job will not be thwarted.

There is a line that I stole from another pastor that I say at almost every funeral I am given the opportunity to preach. I say something along the lines of this: “If ____ could come back for one moment, seeing what he/she has now seen, I’m confident that they would say that Jesus is worth it. He is the greatest treasure in all the universe. If you have Jesus you have everything.”

Do I really believe that? If I do, then I understand that “Who is right about Job” is one of the most significant questions of the universe. If God is right then everything is settled. And He is right not because of Job’s faith but because of Jesus’ accomplishment.

Checkmate!

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Photo source: here