Tim Keller=Brainache.

I am absolutely loving the first of the two Keller books purchased recently.  I don’t know how any(genuinely seeking)one could read this book and remain ambivalent toward Christianity.

More to come on this thought once I finish the book.

More verses I’ve never heard on "Christian" broadcasting.

This is the latest in a series.  To read the series from the beginning, click here.

Romans 1:18 in combo with Romans 3:23

I’ll give it to Christian radio.  They might have actually played these as the “verse of the day.”  But I’ve never head it.  The first one says that the wrath of God (not exactly a ratings-hog of a concept) is poured out against the unrighteous.  The second verse then clarifies (in the same book, a couple of chapters later) that all of us are unrighteous. (Even and especially religious folks, see Romans 2:17-29, especially verse 23)

Neither positive, upbeat, nor encouraging, as I read it.  God’s got a whooping stick with my name on it.  And yours.

But here’s where not taking the verses out of their context is helpful.  Romans is Paul’s most in-depth systematic treatment of the gospel.  He spends 11 chapters explaining it’s theology, and the remaining 5 explaining how that theology ought to change the way we live.  He nails all of us to the wall in the first three chapters, and then spends the remaining 8 of the first section showing us how Christ satisfies the law, and saves us, from the mass-murderer to the serial rapist to the smug, self-satisfied religious guy (who is worse than both, if you ask me).

Without the bad, discouraging, and condemning verses like Romans 1:18 and 3:23, the gospel makes no sense.  Rescuing someone from a building that isn’t burning down is foolish and annoying.  If you die during that rescue (as Christ did), it adds tragedy to foolishness.  But if a building is burning down, it’s the ultimate display of love to die in the act of saving someone.

These verses show us just how much our spiritual “building” is crumbling in burning embers around us.  And that’s encouraging, no matter how you phrase it.

Signing a Declaration? Really?

I followed a link today to www.IBelieve.com sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and was shocked to find this thinly guised signup for the BGEA and Christianity.com mailing lists:

It’s sad, Franklin Graham, that you would be a part of this.

The verse on the “declaration” is that our LIGHT would shine, not our WORDS.  Indignantly declaring that we are Christian (with strong undertones of how we feel that makes us better than the ones “afraid to take a stand.”) will in no way cause the watching world to “glorify (our) Father in heaven.”

Yeah, I’m a Christian.  No, I’m not going to prove it to you by signing up for your mailing list.  And it’s precisely that type of underhandedness that makes “letting my light shine” more difficult.

Earth.

Have you seen the movie Earth?  It’s narrated by James Earl Jones, so that alone should convince you.  That man could read the labels on a tube of lipstick to me and I would pay attention.

But the narrator is not why I’d suggest you go see Earth.  The movie is a fascinatingly well-done documentary that literally was shot from the North Pole to the South Pole.  We watched it at a family gathering this week, and the combination of Linda and Ron’s ginormous TV and the breathtaking images in the film made for a great time.

There are several scenes in the film where predator meet prey, with predictable result.  Ron, an especially animal-loving family member, said of the film “It was too violent for me, I like coexistent animals.”  The toughest scene to watch was the baby gazelle being targeted by the world’s most perfectly designed predator, the cheetah.  The camera they used to capture the scene shot at something like 1000 frames per second, and the image it produced was mesmerizing, and sickening.  A full-grown cheetah chasing down a baby gazelle.  There is something that is just not right about it.

And that’s why I’m a Christian.

Only the Christian worldview agrees with Ron, that it is not OK for the baby gazelle to get it.  The predominant western worldview, postmodern secular humanism, is based on the baby gazelle getting it.  Survival of the fittest.

Eastern worldviews would say that the baby gazelle was a money-hungry investment banker (or other such evil-doer) in a past life, and therefore deserves getting it.

Pantheistic and Panentheistic worldviews would say that the cheetah and gazelle are both a part of the divine, and therefore whatever happens must be ok.

The Christian worldview, on the other hand, says that someday Jesus is coming back to make things right.  In fact, in Isaiah 11:6 we get a great word-picture of what results the second coming will bring.  The wolf and lamb will dwell together.  The leopard and the young goat will peacefully coexist.

And, if we’re lucky, James Earl Jones will tell us stories around a campfire.  But I couldn’t find a verse to indicate that.