For a Limited Time Only

Not long ago I noticed an advertisement for a very unusual clock. It doesn't tell you the time. Rather, based on the year of your birth and your age, it tells you how many days you have left on the planet. That number of days is an average of course! Your actual departure might come sooner or later. But the clock reminds us all that our career on Earth is not open ended.

Moses knew that. He wrote, "Teach us, O Lord, to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom." [Psalm 90:12]

It's instructive to recall that Moses lived out most of his days in some pretty brutal settings. Forty years were spent in the brutal Sinai wilderness working as a shepherd. And his final forty years played out in the same region, this time as the leader of a stubborn bunch of nomads! (And you and I complain about having to deal with irritating co-workers in air conditioned offices!)

I mention that fact because many of us are fairly dissatisfied with this particular moment of history where our calendars have been placed. We've been watching this economic cycle grow deeper and more unsettling for nearly a year now. Still there's no end in sight! And there are heated debates raging at the highest levels of government about what must be done.

It's tempting in anxious moments like these to place our lives "on hold." It's hard to maintain a postive attitude. It's hard to think about anything else. It's easy to complain and swap headlines about the latest conundrum facing the world.

But here's what I keep saying to myself: "You're life isn't really on hold." The fact is that my days are numbered in a very real sense, and the pages of the calendar are still turning. Sure, some days are happier than others, but all days are equal in value. What's more, difficult days are generally the most productive ones for ministering to others and helping people in darkness see the light. So you and I don't have time to waste waiting on better news.

We already have the Good News, and that kind of news already has a market. People are more spiritually hungry today than they were even a year ago. And the only way you and I will receive a fresh batch of better days is by trading in the ones we already have. So don't trade them in. Use them. Stop looking for a break, and start looking for broken hearts.

That's what Paul means when he tells us to redeem the time for the days are evil. The idea is that I must be intentional about making the most of every day, especially when the circumstances are bleak.

He's Just Not That Into You: Part 2

We've been thinking about this peculiar phenomenon that has surfaced in the US Church since we "rediscovered" God is love (and selfishness is spiritual.) It has become a sort of fashion statement to express solidarity with all kinds of sinful human beings. Trendy believers take pride in their ability to love Islamic terrorists; to sympathize with condemned serial killers; to laugh heartily at blasphemous jokes from jaded Hollywood celebrities.

It seems we can supernaturally love anybody in the world except some of our fellow saints in the Church of Jesus Christ. For those who are more conservative than us- or more liberal than us- or less sophisticated than us, it seems we have absolutely no milk of human kindness. This is all the more frustrating when we recall that Christ explained the way the world would know us would be through our love for one another. Loving other Christians- even the ones different from me- is the trademark that proves I belong to Christ.

You know the drill: Jesus loves the whole sinful world, but He's just not that into you. That must be why I am excused from loving you.

• We envision reaching the whole world with the amazing love of Christ, but our outreach committee is locked in battle over how to spend the $1,000 advertising budget.
• I constantly point to the gentle way Jesus dealt with sinners, but I can't say a kind word about one of our ministers who doesn't share my take on Reformed Theology.
• I am convinced that I would gladly be burned at the stake in order to advance the Gospel, but I am completely unwilling to apologize to another church member who was offended by a remark I made in passing.

Just think how much more exciting the Spanish Inquisition could have been had Torquemada been able to use e-mail. Religious rumors, gossip, and out of context comments could have spread faster than the speed of light. And just think how many more fanatics could have been enflamed by Facebook rants! Today we fire off passionate messages via e-mail and press the "Send" button without ever weighing our words or the impact they could have if misunderstood or read with the wrong inflection. I have a feeling that online communication has probably increased anger and division in most churches by 20% or more!

I cringe when I hear concerned church friends begin a sentence with "Bless her heart,..." because it promises to finish with something like "she couldn't shut her mouth if you held her at gunpoint!" The love of Christ takes no delight in heaping scorn on brothers and sisters, even when the insult in framed as a faux-blessing.

You and I can't fix the whole church. But I can work on me. And you can work on you. And when we're together, we can hold each other accountable for living for Christ and loving his peeps. Just a thought...

He's Just Not That Into You

You would think we are the first generation of Christians to discover that we worship a God of love. We are endlessly reminded that we must not be judgmental. It is forbidden that we should ever think harshly of non-Christian people just because of their sexual habits or their philosophy or the way they dress.

So we receive these constant reminders that we should preach less and love more. God loves abortionists. God loves homosexuals. God loves Hugh Hefner, Hugo Chavez, the Dali Lama, Islamic terrorists, etc., etc., etc.

Of course all that stuff is true. Jesus came to love sinners into the Kingdom of God. If that was His modus operandi, it’s the way we should work as well. But I’m thinking that some of us who have adopted this message are still missing the point. That is, you can love Hugh, Hugo, Charles Manson and Madonna, and still fail the test.

Jesus taught, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples- that you love one another.” He was talking to his closest friends in the budding church. The trademark of the Church is the way we love each other. John later asked, “If you can’t love someone you have seen, how can you be so sure you love someone you’ve never seen?” He was talking about claiming we love God, but it also applies to "the lost world."

If everybody is now enlightened that God is a God love, when are we going to show Him that we are a Church of Love? When are we going to move beyond admiration for the world’s sophisticates and begin to love the world’s unsophisticates- other Christians? You know- the ones with ties too short; the ones who say "Jee-zus;" the ones who spend too much time talking about "sin" and "sin nature." Those guys!

I just finished yet another tender book dedicated to the ideal that God is loving and laid back. Chapter after chapter mentions all the individuals and demographic groups Christians must “get over and start loving.” But when I finally made my way to the last chapter, I discovered the author has absolutely no love for the “fundamentalist extremists” who are hi-jacking the church “like Muslim extremists have taken over Islam!”

That’s not very loving is it? What does it say when I can love everybody on the planet except people in the Church who see the Bible as more demanding than I do? Is it loving- or even accurate- to compare law abiding Christians to suicide bombers and masked men who chop off the heads of innocents? Other Christian critics don't use the term terrorists, but they label conservative Christians as haters, hypocrites, Pharisees and losers. Sure, Jesus criticized the Pharisees, but were they Christians? And their problem: was it the lack of love, or was it the absence of faith? Christ died for them anyway.

This is a problem for more of us than just some fashionable Christian writers who lust for the approval of the world. Rejecting and resenting other Christians is a cancer that has spread through the ranks of the Church. Is this really a biblical response to other believers: Jesus died for the world, but he’s just not that into you?

Out’a space. I’ll finish this next week. Selah.

Fourteen Karat Faith

I read last week that in all of history only 161,000 tons of gold have been mined. That's right, among all the nations in all recorded time, the Earth has given up enough gold to fill just about two Olympic sized swimming pools. One of the main reasons gold remains so valuable today is because it is so rare.

Ancient Egyptians used it to adorn their dead Pharaohs. Present day Americans use it for the rings they present to husbands and wives. Between then and now, the value of this sought after metal has fluctated up and down, but it has always remained precious. Other treasures have not been so fortunate:

• Salt was so valuable in the ancient world that Roman soldiers gladly received a part of their pay in salt. Their term salarium gave us our word "salary." But you and I would not appreciate being paid in salt today.
• Frankincense and Myhrr were so precious that they were used for the most sacred purposes. Worth a king's ransom then, those spices sell for a few bucks a pound in our world.
• Imported apes and baboons were a luxury only kings could afford. They were a gift for royalty and a prized source of entertainment. When you call someone a baboon today, it's generally an insult.
• Ancients paid vast amounts of money for silk, and for fabrics of red and purple. Today we can find those items at Wal-Mart or Target.

So isn't it fascinating that when John the Apostle described the majesty of Heaven, he wrote "And the street of the city was pure gold, as through shining glass." You don't see salt, frankincense, silk or apes anywhere, but you see gold everywhere. Even today, centuries later, gold is so glorious and rare that people give their lives for it. In Heaven, it's merely paving material.

God knew centuries ago that gold would hold its value on the Earth while other substances would not. That's not all He knew either. God realized centuries ago that economies just like ours would crash and burn, and that corporations too big too fail could do just that. So He gave us a glimpse of Heaven to remind us that the most precious treasures of the Earth are like dirt in the Kingdom of Heaven. And that which is most precious in Heaven is the face of Jesus Christ, the son of God whose cross has never lost its value.

Anxious saints in 2009 should learn a lesson from Paul. In these days of chaotic markets on the Earth, set your affections on things above "for you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." When God wipes the dust from His feet, it's always 14kt.