That isn’t inherently bad so long as you then go out and live the gospel. But how many “Christians” today do that? Too many people with an icthus on their cars drive like maniacs and “revenge drive” when cut off in traffic. I’m perhaps blind or cynical or both, but I just don’t see it that often, even in myself. That troubles me.

Wiersbe again here:

 

Suffice it to say now that a true disciple is not a reservoir but a gushing fountain, an artesian well of spiritual blessing. He does not live to get; he lives to give. What he receives from the Lord, he shares with others; and in sharing, he receives even more. He is careful to guard the precious spiritual investment God has put into his life, but he also invests that treasure in the lives of others.

 

Wiersbe, W. W. (1988). Prayer : Basic training. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

Amen? So what’s happened? Why? Why you? Why me? Where is our love for Jesus Christ?

The God Delusion

The movie starts by investigating the reason as to why some scientists and professors were fired for mentioning or publishing even references to intelligent design and shows Stein asking why they might consider intelligent design as science. He addresses the point of intelligent design as religion and shows that, while it need not be divorced from religion, it need not be married to religion either; the two can coexist. Several of his intelligent design interviewees are open to religion but not themselves religious.

He then heads to the Darwinists to get their take. They pretty well confess to outright attacking religion so as to remove it from academia (and possibly society). Comments range from religious being “stupid” and “ignorant” to “dangerous”. All flat out deny any possibility of intelligent design as a possibility, yet none can offer any sensible answer to “How did life begin?” without either sounding utterly ridiculous or starting with some form of life already in existence. The supposed explanatory film of Darwinian evolution even uses “something” as the method by which life came to be. Yes indeed; that’s some very scientific terminology.

I can see why the Darwinists would be upset by this movie. It doesn’t try to prove intelligent design only show that it should be allowed into the debate; yet it uncovers some extreme silliness and massive persecution in the scientific community. I wonder how a thinking person could seriously consider elitist Darwinism as an end-all answer.

A friend of mine is currently reading The God Delusion and commented that while Dawkins’ arguments are very sound on a case-by-case level, the whole book almost laughs at Dawkins in the questions that remain un-addressed in the overall themes of the cases. You might imagine that Dawkins, in an attempt to prove forests didn’t exist, walked toward a tree and, going tree by tree, showed that each tree did not prove he was in the forest while all the while forest animals stood looking at him strangely.

Of course, it gets worse. Stein is able to show the connection between Darwinism and an extreme to which it can lead: Naziism. Many of the Darwinists find this an appalling connection, but history shows this to be a case, though certainly not the only case. The connection is easy enough to deduce for anyone willing to actually think on it for a few moments, so I won’t belabor the point.

Finally, I must applaud Professor Provine of Cornell University for his forthcoming statements regarding Darwinism and nihilism. (He didn’t call it that, but nihilism is none-the-less what he described.) The descent to Darwinism and natural selection usually ends with the loss of religious faith, at least in those interviewed. It allows for rationalizing the murder of crippled, handicapped, poor, elderly and unwanted children (abortion). In the end, once one has lost religion, the only real option left (despite what some fools would tell you) is nihilism. And at the end of nihilism, the only real question, in the ideas of Nitzsche, is whether or not suicide is okay. After all, you are only alive to die, right? If such is the case, what does it matter if you kill? That’s the idea of Nitzsche’s “superman“. For anyone familiar with Doestoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, this idea is really not so pleasant.

But back to the movie–I think Ben Stein has created a wonderful and important film on the need to continue to question and seek truth. The established science community is suppressing what has always made science great: the quest for answers and truth. Ben Stein sees that as a suppression of freedom and a potential to lead our society in the direction of Naziism again. Intelligent design has just as much validity to be taught as Darwinism, and together may help us understand our world and our beliefs better. I pray that the message is heard.

I talked with one such brother
Tonight about how our souls
Need your indwelling Spirit
To ignite our darkened coals.

You see, we’ve oft not listened
Nor hearkened to your voice
That all your Spirit’s whispers
Have ceased to be our choice.

Tonight, however, we chose
To hold each other true.
We won’t forget to listen
And cease to talk with You.

Born in utter sin
And full depravity,
Yet still you gave your Son
For the lives of him and me.

Jesus Christ, our Lord
Now sits enthroned on high!
We long to be there with Him
In the sweet by-and-by.

So fill us, Lord, we ask You,
With the Helper from your Son,
That we may walk forever
With you, the Holy One.

My friend Todd Richards came over tonight after church, and we had a terrific time catching up, confessing to one another, and encouraging one another in the Lord. We both recognized that we do not seek Christ as we ought, and we have both recently been struggling with really walking in the Spirit. Yes, for all of my posts on doing just that, I find myself learning more about it and doing it less. Forgive me. Let it end. I am merely a vessel; fill me, and let me shine for the name of the Lord.

Jesus told a parable regarding how we should always pray and not lose heart. He ended by asking if the Son of Man would find faith on earth when He returned.

This makes me wonder: what does faith really look like? Obviously we must trust and believe in and on Jesus Christ, but this can’t be a statement only; it must be lived. How do we live out our faith each day? Do we go out in power believing and trusting the Lord’s will be done? Or do we go out hoping maybe today we will finally live up to our own expectations of what a “Christian” should be?

Unless we exercise the former, I don’t think we live in faith. We must move past our foolish notions of a morality, rules-based Christianity and walk humbly in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God our Father (1 Corinthians 6:19). This is faith. This is that to which we must preserve to the end.

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” John 21:15

Of what do you first think when you think of sheep? They appear to be rather stupid animals because they are so flighty and typically stick to the flock. (Wikipedia notes that a University of Illinois study found them to be on the same level of cows in IQ.) The flocking nature also lends well to following the voice of their shepherd. Sheep are a prey species and therefore have to be tended and guarded to keep them alive. Unlike other prey species, most do not have natural defensive abilities and are already prone to ailments and infections such that even should a sheep survive an attack, the sheep would likely die from infections.

In a biblical context, sheep were historically used as food, currency and sacrifice in many cultures. Sheep were prized, and large flocks denoted great wealth. Jesus used sheep often in his teaching to refer to his true followers (e.g. Matthew 9:36, Matthew 10:16, Matthew 12:11-12, Matthew 18:12, Matthew 25:31-46). In other words, we are sheep.

Now, what image springs to mind when you think of a shepherd? My first thought is of David, the youngest of all his brothers, sitting alone with his father’s flocks and defending them against both lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:34-37). David is of course exciting, but what about Rachel? Jacob first encounters her leading Laban’s sheep to the well, so not only men but women, too, were shepherds (Genesis 29:9). During his earthly ministry, Jesus claimed to be the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18). He was also the Lamb of God, the lamb who was slain (Genesis 22:8; Isaiah 53:7; John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:12, 7:17). In other words, Jesus Christ is our Shepherd, because He was the lamb who was slain and was raised again to give us eternal life (1 Peter 1:19-21).

So here we’ve come to learn that we, the followers of Christ are sheep, and Christ himself is the Good Shepherd. We hear his voice and follow him. Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). But Christ has been raised and glorified, and we now anxiously await his return. He has called us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16). We are his body here on earth (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). And in our text, he has told Peter to tend and feed his sheep.

What then does this mean? Are we to be shepherds of the flock of God? Yes, but we are not The Shepherd. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the chief shepherd whom all the flock of God hear and follow. We are to lead the flock to Jesus, and like the Good Shepherd, we are to find the lost sheep and return them to the flock (Luke 15:3-7). This command is somewhat a parallel to the command in Matthew, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). In the pursuit of shepherding and disciple-making, it is always our job to lead people to Christ, not to us. We ourselves are also mere sheep, following the Good Shepherd.

Now the question becomes two: “Who is your flock?” and “How do you recognize the lost sheep?” These are more challenging questions, though some of us already know at least part of the answer to both. First, we know the answer is not everyone who does not yet know the Lord. Jesus spoke of sheep versus goats (Matthew 25:33) and of wheat versus weeds (Matthew 13:24-30; Luke 3:17). There are some in this world who are meant for destruction; however, we cannot know that just by looking (Jeremiah 17:10). Therefore, we must trust the Helper to whom Christ entrusted us; the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). So the Spirit will speak to us of those whom we should pursue as lost sheep, but we must listen. We must love the Lord and seek him diligently, for we are his. We must abide in him, then we may ask anything and know we will receive it and in this way glorify the Father and the Son (John 15:7-11). To abide in Christ, we must keep his commandments, and we keep his commandments by trusting in his Holy Spirit and in his power to keep us for himself (John 10:28). So in our abiding, we will be able to ask and to know, but we must abide.

Finally, the last question: “What will this cost me?” Just as Jesus laid down his life, so we are to be willing to lay down our own lives. This is indeed how Christ ends his series of three questions to Peter, by telling him the kind of death he was to die (John 21:18-19). We have laid them down to death with Christ in our baptism (Romans 6:4). What prevents us from doing likewise now? There is no greater thing than to live for Christ (Philippians 1:21). He is our resurrection, our promise of eternal life (John 11:25-26). Jesus said, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11, 17-18) and “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Are you willing?

Granted, in our day, we are not likely to be asked to give up our lives on a daily basis. Given this, what prevents you from reaching out to your neighbor, co-worker, family or friend? What keeps you from asking tough questions of your brothers and sisters in Christ? Are you waiting for someone to shepherd you first? We should not wait for someone else to pour into us, for we have been “equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). However, we should seek someone to shepherd us, for this is good and right. We all need others to help us hold course, to stand firm (Ephesians 6:13). We are not asked to do this alone or to somehow rise above our brothers and sisters in Christ, for in Christ we are equals (1 Corinthians 12:21-22).