Max and Me

I just love my cat

Lord, I just...

Back in Seminary, the Grey Wizzard had us pray at the beginning of class and he specifically asked that none of us ever use the word "just" when we pray. As in, "Lord, we just come to you today, and, we just want to thank you for all your blessings, etc..." Maybe you've been a victim of having to listen to "just" prayers, or maybe you are a "just pray-er" yourself. I have to admit, it's an easy pattern to slip into, and it sounds awfully evangelical. But after my brother railed against "just prayers" the other day, it reminded me of a conclusion I came to before and I thought I'd just share it with you.

Here's how the thinking goes. The anti-just-prayers say, why would you "just" pray anything, as if prayer was a matter of asking God for the bare minimum. "Just" in this sense could be substituted for "only" or "merely." "I just want one!" you say as you grab that naughty chocolate truffle on the table of your host, as in, "I only want one." Or, when you yell at your kid, "Just get in the car," as in, "Just get in the car! Is that too much to ask?" So, when you come to prayer and and you say, "Lord, we just come to you in prayer and we just ask that..." it could sound as if you were unintentionally saying that you really didn't want to bother God with your measly requests but you only wanted to bring before him some little thing that you had on your mind.

Now, if that's just what "just" meant, I would agree. However, there just happens to be other uses of the word "just." In fact, in its adverbial form (which is what we're talking about), there's at least seven meanings. Here are seven listed in the American Heritage Dictionary:

1. Precisely; exactly: just enough salt.
2. Only a moment ago: He just arrived.
3. By a narrow margin; barely: just missed being hit; just caught the bus before it pulled away.
4. At a little distance: just down the road.
5. Merely; only: just a scratch.
6. Simply; certainly: It's just beautiful!
7. Perhaps; possibly: I just may go.

The objection to "just-prayers" is certainly in reference to Meaning Number 5. However, there are other ways "just" can be used also. For example, the man frustrated when his computer crashes says, "I just don't understand." In this case, "just" might mean "really" or "truly." Or when I email my parents to thank them for my graduation gift, I might have wrote, "I just want to thank you for the check you sent..." In this case, "just" is similar in usage to meaning number 5, as in, "I'm merely writing to thank you for the check." However, "just" doesn't convey the same sense that "merely" does, does it? I didn't mean to say, "I'm only writing you a thank you note because you sent me a gift." And nobody would have interpreted it that way. It means something more along the lines of, "This is a little note only to let you know you that I appreciate the gift you sent." Therefore, my conclusion is that "just" doesn't neceserilly minimize the significance of the verb it is modifying.

So, I would advise you "anti-just-pray-ers" to ease up a little and to let people pray how they want to pray. Just give it a rest, would ya?

Church Membership

Dear Readers,
I heard the other day that "church membership" is an aging phenomenon. A time is coming, and has now come, when people have church options and participate as much or as little in whichever church they feel like going to on Sunday morning. Their response to the idea of "joining" a church would be, "what for?"

I can see how this is a possibility, but I think that this kind of consumerist approach to church has such obvious implications that no right thinking person would ever approach the body of God in such a way. There's an obvious practical problem -- how are you ever going to get to know anybody or feel "connected" if there's no regularity. Secondly, church is sort of an acquired taste. You don't eat sushi once in a while if you don't like it. If you don't like it, you don't eat it. But if you do like it, you want to eat it all the time.

But I also think church operates much like other social institutions, and it seems that the idea of membership is as operative today as it ever has been. We're constantly "signing up" and becoming members of social networking websites (MySpace, facebooks, etc.), gyms, PTAs, country clubs, Frequent Flier clubs, societies, etc.

Being a "member" is cool. I'm a member at a gym. If you're not a member, you can't work out at my gym. I like that. I wonder if the problem with church membership is that the membership carries with it added responsibility, but not an obvious added privilege. Maybe people don't consider membership to a church because they can get what the church has to offer without signing up. Or can they? And if they can't, are we making that perfectly clear by how we do Sunday morning worship?

Bad news

Apparently, this look is the cause of untold trouble for me. The "neutral" expression on most people's faces is between blank and mad. Mine borders on "what the heck is your problem?!!!"

Grand Rapids fun times

Rubbing Off

I met with a "student" of mine this morning. He asked me to teach him, but as I disciple him, I realize that I learn and change in this relationship also. He's a Puerto Rican from Hoboken in his mid-thirties. But I have him saying "dude." Like, "Dude, you never would believe what just happened to me." His friends are all, "Why you sayin' 'dude' all the time?" He says, "I got this white friend who always says it." I'm the 'white guy.' I think he's rubbing off on me, too. He thinks its funny that God used a burning bush to get Moses' attention. He says, "Any other jokah would'a tripped out, but Moses... He sees a bush burnin' and he's gotta come close and check it out... Like, 'why the he** ain't that bush burnin up?'" He's right. Moses is funny. And so is Paul. Paul is some crazy cracked-out jokah.

I think we do rub off on each other. Another friend told me what his mother said when he was young. In healthy relationships, we bring out the best in each other. She's right. But I think what's more true is that in relationship, we bring out the other in ourselves. We're bound for equilibrium as we become more and more like each the people we live with.

Commencement

Graduation from Calvin Theological Seminary. What a blast. I leave Calvin with warm feelings. I'm quite sure that I will always enjoy a visit back. I'm confident that the education I received there has laid an adequate foundation for future ministry and learning. It was a good time.

Ben Boasts about his Sufferings as an MK

¹⁶ I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. ¹⁷ In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. ¹⁸ Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. ¹⁹ You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! ²⁰ In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. ²¹ To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!

What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. ²² Did they grow up in a foreign country? So did I. Are they MKs? So am I. Are they they descendants of church planters? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have been on more deputations trips, lived in more houses, taken more trains and flown on more air planes than any of them²⁴ Five hundred times I received from my parents the four spanks minus one with a rice paddle. ²⁵ Three times I was dragged out of church screaming, once I was ganged up on by ruffians , once had "inarizushi" spit on me, three times I was delayed in airports. ²⁶ I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from crazy drivers, in danger from yakuza, in danger of missing the train, in danger from BB guns, in danger from pagans; in danger in the US, in danger in Japan, in danger on boats in hurricanes; and in danger from my "friends". ²⁷ I have labored and toiled and have often had jet-lag, I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without fastfood; I have been cold without central heat and hot without central air. ²⁸ Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the church plants. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am lying. ³² In Tokyo the governor under Emperor Hirohito had the imperial guard arrest me for shooting BB guns on neighborhood roof tops. ³³ I was escorted in shame and handed over to the hands of my father.

Praying for God's Will II

In my previous post, I said that the trick with prayer was to determine God's will.

Trick is a stupid word to use in this context. The Bible is filled with ideas about what God's will is. We know that in all situations, God works for the good of those who love him. So, we can pray that in the situations of our lives, whether good or bad, that God would work them for our good. We know that God's kingdom is being firmly and irrevocably established on earth. So we can pray for God's kingdom to come, as the Lord's prayer says. We know that in every situation, God's will will be done. So we can pray for God's will to be done. We know that God desires all people to come to a knowledge of him. So we can pray that too. We know that God desires our obedience. So we can pray that God help us to obey him. We know that God's Word does not return to him empty handed. So we can pray that our preaching is powerful and that it changes lives. When you think about it, there are lots of prayers we can pray that have a guaranteed "yes" from God. I think I'd do well to learn all of them, maybe to chart them out, and then to pray them as much as possible.

Praying for God's Will

"Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," reads the Lord's prayer.

I've discovered the key to always getting what you pray for. In any and every situation, if you pray for what God is already going to do, you will never be dissapointed. Is it possible to reach a point where I could allign my will so closely with God's that whenever I prayed, I received that for which I asked? I don't know, but I think its a worthy aspiration.

Repeatedly in the NT, the Bible teaches that Christians will receive what they ask for if they pray in Jesus' name and in groups. As a pastor, I find myself advocating for greater trust in the power of prayer. I want people to know that praying is not a waste of time, that it does make a difference. I point to these passages. But at the same time, I wonder why Jesus would say "you can ask for anything in my name" if he didn't mean it literally. I don't know of a single Christian who has always received what they've asked for in prayer. There's a man I know who's dying of sirocis of the liver. We prayed for a healing. He is still dying. In fact, he's worse now despite the interferon medication. Obviously, Jesus could not have meant that we'd receive whatever we asked for in every situation. Imagine the disasters we'd bring upon ourselves if God always gave us whatever we asked for.

So, despite the unconditional sound of the promise, it can't be unconditional. What's the condition? I think the condition is God's will. We will receive whatever we ask for in prayer if we pray for God's will to be done. The trick is knowing God's will.

Idolatry IV

So here's my tentative conclusion. All sin, no matter what commandment it falls under is also a violation of the first commandment. I divide "not having other gods besides Me" into 1) acknowledging, obeying and worshipping the one true God 2) not acknowledging or obeying or worshipping or listening to other gods (include the god of self). 3) not acting in such a way as to insinuate that God is not God.

Therefore, to answer my original question, we, like the Israelites of old, should pay attention to the prophetic warnings concerning the first commandment. Though we may not burn incense to Baal or have sex with shrine prostitutes, we defy the first commandment every time we go against his will. To go against God's will, as I've said before, is to spit on the feet of the one who deserves all glory and honor. To give God anything less than everything is to deny what's due him. When we sin, we throw God aside in favor of another "god," be it an imagined god or an idea or a desire, etc.

(As a side note, idolatry is probably not the best catchall to describe sins breaking the first commandment. What would you call them?)

Sovereignty Bordering on Pettiness?

Dear God,
Last night, my wife woke me up at 3:30 am. She stomped on the floor and then turned the fan up from "light" to "medium" in order to drown out the noise from the TV downstairs. She wanted me to go down and wake up their parents to ask them to tell their kids to turn it down. I didn't want to do that because I feel bad bothering people on petty things. So, I told her that if she wanted them to turn the TV down, she should go down there and ask them herself. She's a big girl. She can do it. She was very angry, so she did. She knocked on their door. Nothing happened.

She came back up. We lay down and try to fall asleep despite the noise, still audible despite the fan being on medium. I went down there myself. I rang on the door bell twice. I knocked a few times. No response. I went back to bed. God, that is when I prayed to you, "Please make it stop." You did not listen. The noise did not stop. We could not fall asleep because we could not ignore the noise. It was 4:00 am and still, the TV sounds continued to bother us. Lord, I begged with you, "Please make it stop." You said, No. And you let the noise continue. Why? Why would you wake us up at 3:30. What good does that do anybody? Are you trying to teach us a lesson? Are you trying to make us get by on less sleep? Do you want us to be grumpy and tired all day? Do you want us to confront our neighbors for being inconsiderate with their loud TVs in order that by some chance, we might develop a better relationship with them?

God, please help me to understand.

Idolatry III

So are we guilty of having other gods or not, that is the question. What is the positive and negative import of this command? What sphere of applicability does this commandment pertain to?

Let's go to the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q. What does the Lord require
in the first commandment?

A. That I, not wanting to endanger my very salvation,
avoid and shun
all idolatry, magic, superstitious rites,
and prayer to saints or to other creatures.

That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God,
trust him alone,
look to him for every good thing
humbly and patiently,
love him, fear him, and honor him
with all my heart.

In short,
that I give up anything
rather than go against his will in any way.

This answer is divided up into 1) the "negative force" of the command, the 2) "positive force," and 3) a summary. Every "though shall not" carries with it a range of things that are included or implied by the command itself. The command functions as a synecdoche of the whole. The negative force seems to prohibit any meddling in religious practices that does not directly pertain to God himself. The implied "positive force" is the range of injunctions that are included in the command. For example, "do not hit your mother" would imply, "be kind to your mother." The positive force is the opposite of the negative force. All our religious allegiances, practices, reverence, worship, etc., ought to be directed to the one true God and ought to be done to the extreme measure (with all my heart).

The summary is funny, but it gets back to what I had mentioned earlier, that idolatry seems to be a stepping stone towards all other immoral behavior. The catechism summarizes, "have no other gods besides me," as "do everything you can to stay within God's prescriptive will." How does the catechism jump from "don't have other gods besides me," to "do exactly what I want you to do all the time"? Is breaking even a minor law always simultaneously breaking the first commandment? If you take the catechism literally, then yes.

How and why? I'm not sure, but I'm going to take a stab at it. Say that I steal a car for no purpose other than because I want the car. I've broken the Eighth Commandment. By breaking the commandment, I've intentionally resisted and contradicted God's rule for my life. In this situation, I not only reject God's rule, but I've rejected God himself. To reject God's rule is to deny that God's moral standard has bearing on my life. The only person who has the audacity to do such a thing is the person who, if even for an instant, denies that God is God. I cannot simultaneously believe that God is the creator of the universe who holds my tiny life in his merciful hand and then intentionally spurn that hand. Either I'm crazy, or I have no fear of God. If I have no fear of God, then I do not know God and I've rejected him as God. Therefore, I've broken the first commandment.

Think of it this way. Imagine that the we lived in a dictatorship under a man who had absolute control of the entire country and could give the death sentence at a mere whim. In this culture, remember that spitting upon the feet of a man is considered the greatest offense to his honor. And say that this man, with all his pomp, occassionally bestows upon his small nation the pleasure of his presence as he parades through the capital city on foot amid throngs of his people. Now, say that an angry person who dislikes the dictator pushes his way towards the dictator and spits on his feet as he passes. Either 1) he wishes to die and does so intentionally, 2) or he does so for the sheer fact that he desired to do so, but he does not expect to die. In the first case, the man is clearly mad. In the second case, the man has demonstrated that he does not truly believe that the leader of his country is a dictator. Either he thinks that there's a greater power out there that will rescue him for his intollerable action (another god), or he thinks that this dictator will simply dismiss the insult and move on. In that case, he has mistaken the dictator for someone else. Any way you look at it, the man is either mad, or he has gotten the question wrong as to who has the ultimate authority in that country. When we sin, we spit on the feet of a benevolent dictator.

There is a second way in which stealing the car is a violation of the first command. The fact that I'm rejecting God's moral rule means that I've preferred a law (or moral system) which allows me to steal the car. Only gods can impose moral systems on humans. Therefore, either I've exchanged God for another god, or I've made myself the god of my own life. In either case, I've broken the first commandment.

broken arm update

Followed up with an orthopedic doctor today. Yes, it is broken, but the least serious kind of break, a non-displaced fracture. It's close to the elbow on my radius which makes twisting my forearm very painful. But good news: no hard cast. I'll have it in a sling for two weeks, and then I can take the sling off and begin using it for very light light movement.

Idolatry II

Please see Dana's quote in "Idolatry I." It's very helpful. Stephen Charnock believes we make idols out of things that we use to supplement our happiness instead of focusing in and relying on God (for our happiness). Or, perhaps, we supplement God with others things in order to create a hybrid chief good, instead of believing that God alone is the chief good.

The reason I'm leery to go this route, however, is because I distinctly remember hearing something that the Rev. Dr. VanReken (Calvin Sem) said about the first commandment. He cautioned us on accusing the alcoholic of making alcohol his god, or the billionaire of making money his god. A sort of popular notion of an "idol" is anything we "worship." Thus, it's natural to jump to the conclusion that since the alcoholic spends all his time, money and energy on that next binge, he "worships" alcohol--alcohol becomes his idol. However, alcohol is not a god for the alcoholic in the same sense that the golden calf was a God for the Israelites. Nor does the alcoholic worship the alcohol in the same sense that the Israelites worshipped the idol.

When the Israelites took off their necklaces and rings and built a golden calf, this is what they said: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." They attributed their salvation to the object that the priests had designed for them and Yahweh was joined with the calf, worshipped together as "your gods."

The reason for Dr. VanReken's caution was that the command to not have other gods besides God is in direct reference to other actual gods, be they imagined, created or demons. The alcoholic does not believe that his alcohol is a god, or that the alcohol carries his salvation. In fact, most recovering alcoholics I know felt under bondage to alcohol and despised their addiction to it.

If having other gods is strictly a matter of having other actual gods, are we in the secular west safe from breaking this commandment?

The Instrument of Death

possible arm break

Yesterday I prayed that God would begin to prepare me for effective ministry in the city and that he would teach me any lessons I needed to learn despite the cost. Last night, I was feeling fearless and used my "mentoring session" to solicit my mentee's advice on a cool new skateboard. We went to the mall and I bought a sweet one. I took it to my church parking lot only to have some AA members ask me if I was ok. I quickly got up from the ground to show them that I was alive, but I was pretty sure I'd broken something because of the sheer pain, hot flashes, and profuse sweat which poured down my face. Lesson learned: wrecklessness has it's cost and no, I'm not cool.