THE FAMILY OF GOD

Do you want to hear about culture shock? Culture shock is a former Catholic walking into an assembly of the Woodmont Hills church for the first time in the fall of 1990.

Growing up a Catholic, I always had a tremendous appreciation for the church - the church BUILDING that is. At St. Joseph's in Parry, New York, the church resembled a mini-cathedral. Blocks of gray granite looked like marble to my small eyes. The interior was marked by high arches, statues of saints, altars to Mary and St. Joseph, and a lifesize sculpture of Jesus nailed to an oak cross.

But the people. The people didn't seem to connect. Whether they walked a few blocks that separated the church from the boundaries of the town or drove in from outlying farms, the silence required during the mass spilled over into the solemn faces of the parishioners both before and after an assembly. You would think it was a venial sin to talk to anyone. It was okay to shake the hand of Father Bilotta, but anything more than a nod or a hello for anyone else seemed out of place.

Well, we may not have a fancy church building - in fact, we don't have our own church building at all. But, oh, what we do have!

On my first visit four years ago, arriving for the 10:15 service, I had to wade through folks leaving the 8:30 service who were talking among themselves and welcoming those of us just coming in. There were people gathering outside with friends to hug and visit before going in and sitting down with each other. Inside, everybody was talking.

What's the deal? Don't you know that this is a church building? Don't you know this is a house of God? And where is the traditional service of genuflecting, standing, kneeling, sitting, standing, sitting, standing, kneeling, sitting, standing, genuflecting, and going home in silent procession?

People were singing - and I mean singing. Not necessarily raising their hands but lifting their voices on high as if they really expected God to hear them. There was still a spirit of reverence, too. It was simply shown in a more interactive way, with the congregation participating and not merely watching.

When the service was over and I left, there were people coming up to me and introducing themselves. They were inviting me back for the 5:30 service and to volleyball afterward.

I mentioned to someone - I don't remember who because there were so many people - that I had heard that the people at Woodmont Hills were a church community. I was warmly told that Woodmont Hills isn't so much a community as it is a family.

It was then that I realized that the church I grew up in may have been a "house" of God but that the people of Woodmont Hills make up a home or family of God. And family is still family, able to go with you wherever you go - building or no building.
[by Randy Wolcott from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 32, Aug. 24, 1994, p. 3]

Almighty and All-Wise Father in Heaven...You and you alone have the power and ability to see what the future holds. We morals can only see what is present. We can only make decisions concerning our future actions based upon the memories of our experiences of dealing with the present, hour by hour and day by day.

As we look back to our past experiences we find that many times we have run before you and acted on an impulse that was motivated by self-interests and desire to please ourselves. We have often made commitments before asking you for your counsel. We ask your forgiveness for our pride in thinking we could accomplish something good without your blessings.

Holy Father, we are now on the brink of making decisions that will affect us for all time. The authority to make binding decisions is only on a few people. It is for these people that we pray fervently. We ask that you make them sensitive to the leading of your Holy Spirit. We ask that you work within their spirits to give them pure and unselfish motives to glorify our Saviour Jesus as the end result of every decision that they make concerning these matters at hand.

We ask that you enhance their natural talents and abilities to attend to specific details in which they are trained to act. But we also ask that you keep them mindful that anything good accomplished comes not from might or power, but by your Spirit.

Dear God, we earnestly ask that in all the proceedings that follow in the next few days, weeks, or months that we will not forget for a moment the mission of this church. We know that you are able to accomplish much more than we are able to ask or think. You have proved your faithfulness to your promises in all the things that happened in the past. Even the obstacles that you allowed to be put in our path have proved to be blessings to us.

Help us to continue to learn from our painful experiences of meeting difficult challenges that you are never farther than a prayer away. We want to be faithful to the responsibility to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every nation. May we never be distracted from this mission by the challenges of business affairs.

May we all be blessed with the ability to submit to your will in all matters that pertain to our personal relationship with you.

In the name and for the sake of Jesus, our Savior, Lord and Master, we humbly pray. Amen.
[by Al Bradshaw from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 20, May 25, 1994, p. 1]

CHASTITY PLEDGE ASTOUNDS!

When a major league baseball player recently pledged himself to chastity before marriage, it made national headlines.

Bret Barberie plays second base for the Florida Marlins. He is a switch-hitter who once hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game while playing for the Montreal Expos. He's no superstar, but he is batting a respectable .260 as I write this.

Bret fits the stereotype of today's young athlete-celebrity. He is a 26-year-old California native with a passion for surfing. He drives a Porsche convertible. He owns a home in South Beach, sometimes billed as the "nightlife capital of Florida."

The thing that seems (in this ungodly culture!) not to fit the formula is his Christian commitment to sexual abstinence until marriage. When he made a public pledge to virtue, it made headlines across the country. Our own Nashville Banner carried the story in its sports section under the heading "Barberie Pledges Chastity."

My first reaction to the story was to be thankful for it. Right there in the newspaper was a positive story for young people to read. Not every athlete is so sexually irresponsible as Magic Johnson has admitted to being during his career. Not every celebrity is so obsessed with sex as Madonna or Color Me Bad. Some are morally responsible. Some are Christians who understand that their faith calls for behavior that honors the Lord.

A program called True Love Waits originated among Southern Baptists but has now been promoted by many conservative Christian groups. Several churches and youth groups within our fellowship are using it with teens. The program offers a healthy and biblical view of sexuality, asks teens to commit themselves to save sex for their marriage partners, and asks for a vow of sexual purity from the young people involved in the program.

Thank God for the program, introduced last year by Richard Ross of Nashville. Half a million American teens are expected to sign pledge cards by the end of the summer. The program will soon go to South America, Africa, and Europe. (For information on the True Love Campaign, call 1-800-LUV-WAIT.)

My next reaction, though, was a bit puzzling at first. It was one of sadness. The sadness surely came from the fact that it is so disheartening for public figures to pledge to behave virtuously and for it to surprise people!

Our world seems not only to have embraced sin but to be shocked when anyone doesn't plunge headlong into it. But is the only reason for refusing sin in our culture the lack of opportunity? Surely there are still many more like Bret Barberie who reject sin because they know it is against the God they love.

The battle lines are drawn. Be sure you know where you stand.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 20, May 18, 1994, p. 3]

FAITH MOVES FORWARD

Can you imagine thinking otherwise? Faith moves backwards? Faith stands still? Faith retreats? Faith gives up? These combinations of words just don't ring true. No, faith always insists on moving forward.

It is certainly true in personal spiritual development. One either grows or dies, becomes stronger or gets weaker. It is not an option open to believers to "hold our own." God expects us to advance, mature, and keep in step with the Spirit.

What is true of individuals is also true of churches. God wants a church to seize the opportunities before it, respond to his high calling, and move forward in faith. We are at one of those critical times in a church's life that we must make some decisions about being faithful to the heavenly call.

A church's identity is not tied to a piece of real estate or to a particular building. It is a body of Christ's people on a mission. Having a vision, we have that mission clearly in mind. But we are hampered from implementing many parts of it.

No more than houses make families does a building create a church. Yet families do need places of residence, and churches that intend to minister to people need some sort of structure as an operations center. That is just the reality of how things work.

The goal in making more space is not "numbers" but responding to the needs of real people who want to be part of our life.

Now is the time to demonstrate faith by moving forward.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 19, May 11, 1994, p. 3]

WE'RE AN OVERRATED DANGER!

The President, Surgeon General, and a U.S. Congressman have recently gone on record about the danger of conservative Christians to American democracy.

Their statements were the subject of discussion on David Brinkley's Sunday news program on ABC recently. And an editorial in the Wall Street Journal explored the significance of the charge made by these three national leaders.

I think we're getting too much credit. The things Christians are committed to do not dominate this culture. Our values are clearly not mainstream to the entertainment industry. We don't determine the laws being written by state and federal legislatures. We are a fragmented minority in America, and there is little danger that we are about to destroy pluralism and freedom.

For one thing, this country was founded by people who were fleeing political and religious intolerance. On the basis of a Christian principle called the Golden Rule, they argued for freedom of conscience and established a social order where pluralism could thrive. Atheists, Muslims, and Jews - as well as Christians - have been the beneficiaries of their foresight in separating church and state.

For another, most Christians I know understand that the Kingdom of God and the United States of American are two different entities. They are not under the mistaken impression that scripture's demands on believers are somehow to be bound on unbelievers through civil legislation. Christian faith must be freely chosen.

Surely what most Christians who speak in the public arena are doing is indicating their belief that certain principles embodied in their religion are also germane to public life. Furthermore, some are likely saying that they feel lawmakers are infringing on their rights in a pluralistic society to uphold their beliefs.

If the President voices his conviction that abortion ought to be a federally funded right for all women, Christians should have equal freedom to voice their conviction that abortion on demand is morally wrong. If Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders opines that drug legalization should be restudied and condoms distributed free of charge to high school students, Christians ought to be free in a pluralistic society to disagree. If Rep. Vic Fazio offers the view that Christian activism is "what the American people fear the most," fairness says the people he has targeted should be allowed to define their own agenda.

Granted that there is an occasional extremist within any group or constituency, it is difficult to think that Christians are such dangerous people to democracy that our beliefs ought to be excluded from the public marketplace of ideas.

If we become a banned minority, maybe the ACLU will come to our defense.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 26, July 6, 1994]

BLOWING OUT ANOTHER'S CANDLE

Jesus has sent his disciples into the world as light-bearers. He intends for Christians to be "the light of the world." A church is to be like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden; its light in a dark environment draws seekers to a safe place. Individual believers are to be like lamps; they give light to all whose lives they touch.

But some of us get so busy blowing out the lights of others that we fail to tend to our own!

It seems to be a common trap over the history of the church. Many of us have fallen into it. Harm has been done to those we have criticized and hammered, but the greatest harm has been to ourselves.

The underlying assumption for those who adopt a ministry of blowing out others' candles is that anyone who knows Christ is like me. Thus a church with a different worship style from ours is a sect; we, of course, are the "true church." A brother or sister who views the millennium or home-schooling differently is suspect in "soundness"; perhaps she is not a Christian at all.

In the name of doing God's will, some people are destructively evil. They lash out. They spread rumors and false information. Claiming that their only concern is to be biblical, they ignore all the Bible says about loving others, restoring sinners gently, and keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

When tempted to make a career out of blowing out others' candles, we might consider the possibility that we are mistaken about the locus of evil. Perhaps the problem is our own distorted vision. Maybe the evil is within. Instead of trying to destroy someone else, perhaps the sickness that needs to be destroyed is within.

People tend to attack others as a distraction from facing their own spiritual failures or to divert the attention of those who might discover those failures.

So be careful about believing the worst about someone. Be very slow to set yourself up as another's judge. Resist the temptation to crusade against anything outside yourself.

Any one of us will make a healthier contribution to God's purposes in the world by trying harder to be a light for someone else's dark path than by taking it on himself to blow out another's flickering candle.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 25, June 29, 1994]

CROSS-EYED IS CLEAR-SIGHTED

How does anyone know she is valuable? That he is loved in spite of failure? That the humiliation and despair of sin can be overcome? Standing at the foot of the cross, I see that God loves me and that the worth he assigns me is so much greater than I attribute to myself after sin's humiliation sinks in.

(Rom. 5:8; I John 4:10)

How does one know the worth of others and learn to treat them as they should be treated? In other words, how do we get past racism, sexism, and all the other "isms" that denigrate our fellows? How do we learn to love our neighbors as ourselves? Called to the cross, we see all others as our sinner-peers and can no longer find it in our hearts to look down on anyone.

(Eph. 5:2; Col. 1:19-20)

Where does a discouraged soul stand to find hope for going on? How does she learn to sing in her pain? What can convince him that sickness, loss, or betrayal can be overcome? Christ's triumph came from the unlikely scene of his gruesome death, and his experience is a promise of our own.

(Rom. 8:35-37; II Cor. 2:14)

Despite the angry cries, rusty spikes, and blood, there is no better place from which to see life clearly. It is in the shadow of the cross that the radiance of divine reality becomes obvious.

The only vantage point from which one can see life and all its issues clearly is provided at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 24, June 22, 1994]

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART

Practically all of us accept the proverb - quoted and used by Jesus - that a tree is known by its fruit. The point of the proverb is that a person's actions reveal to an observing world the innermost secrets of his heart.

Since proverbs are only "rules of thumb," however, it is certainly possible for one to be misled about another. The church has its occasional hypocrite. Marriage has its occasional gigolo. People mask their true feelings by smiling when they want to cry, giving gifts when they are basically stingy, or feigning love in order to exploit.

A much more reliable dictum about the heart is this one from Proverbs (Prov. 27:19). The problem with it, however, is that it requires such strident honesty.

While you may be fully skeptical of knowing my heart in spite of the deed you see me do, I look at my heart from the inside out. If I am willing to search deeply and earnestly, albeit with a degree of pain, I can know my heart.

And what is worth knowing about one's heart? What are the things which allow you to see a true reflection of the real you? Here are a few indicators. You'll think of more.

What do you think about most?
What do you want more than anything else?
Beyond the necessities, what do you spend money for?
What sort of humor makes you laugh?
Who are the people you admire most?
Who are the people whose company you enjoy most?

There is a tendency in all of us to give the answers to questions that we think people want to hear. The beauty of asking these questions is, however, that the person who has to distinguish between his immediate and honest answer on the one hand and the one he thinks it most proper to give knows he is playing games. He may fool others, but he knows his own heart. And he is aware that God knows it as well.

Only that man or woman who knows the real person within can set that true self before God for redemption. Socrates' "Know thyself" is more Christian than Greek. (II Cor. 13:5).

If you want to get in touch with the real you, listen to your heart.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 30, Aug. 3, 1994, p. 3]

FITTING ALL THE PIECES TOGETHER

She was 85 years old and had carefully passed the flame of faith to her children and grandchildren. From her youth, she had served Jesus. Through the ups and downs of marriage, through the pain of childbirth, and through the constant demands of childrearing, she had never wavered in her commitment to the church. Her hair went silver, and her children went away.

The day she buried her husband, she walked from his grave colder but no less committed. She would see her husband in heaven, she hoped. You could never know for sure, though. Would she go to heaven? Had she put all the pieces together just right? Had she left anything out? You just never know.

How about you? Over the years have you misplaced any of the pieces? Have you fit them together exactly right? Ah, remember those three pieces you forced into place a few years back? They lay smoother now, but you still know where the buckle is. It troubles you.

Evidently others never forced any of the pieces. They seem to have gotten all of them right. It's a little awesome, actually. They speak with such authority. They have all of the answers. But there's a ragged edge to their authority that grates. Sometimes their authority seems more like arrogance than authority.

Does it have to be this way? So many pieces to get exactly right. But being exactly right is important, isn't it? You wouldn't want to be exactly wrong, would you? And one piece out of place would make the whole puzzle just that - exactly wrong.

It is troublesome though, if you ever changed a piece. Hard to admit that you had a piece misplaced when you thought you had tham all just right. Worse still, if you had that one piece misplaced, then you were wrong. And what if you had died before getting that piece in place? Well, I guess you'd end up in exactly the wrong place. Maybe the best thing to do is to stick with the pieces we've got. Don't question. Don't think about it. And for heaven sake, don't change any of the pieces!

Others, who also seem to have all the pieces exactly right, are - well - different. Actually, they're neither fearful nor arrogant. What's the matter? Have they never forced one of the pieces into place? Have they never questioned?

Grace, he tells you, its grace. Blood, he tells you, it's blood. Mercy, he says, it's mercy. The cross, he says, it's the cross.

Well, sure those are important, but what about the pieces? What about having all the pieces exactly right?

Oh, you think you get to heaven by getting all the pieces right? Then why do you need Jesus? Just get the pieces right. Who needs the cross? Who needs mercy, when you can be saved by proper piece placement!

But if it's grace, then no one will care about getting the pieces right! Everyone will do what they want to do! They'll ignore the pieces!

It is grace, he says, and we don't ignore the pieces. Graces teaches us to say "no" to doing wrong; it makes us work all the harder. But it does even more. It floods us with hope. And it graciously humbles arrogance. He saves us, not because we get the pieces exactly right, but because he is right in mercy in great in love.

She is 85 years old. Will someone tell this woman the good news - of God who powerfully saves?
[by Randy Fenter from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 28, July 20, 1994, p. 3]

HEALTHY EYES/NO VISION

An article in the New York Times told of some research at a university in California. One hundred fifty women in the southern part of the state have vision loss that has no physiological explanation.

All 150 are female refugees from Cambodia. All lost their sight as a result of atrocities they witnessed under a communist reign of terror in their native land. One of the women had to watch as soldiers tied up her parents, slashed their throats, and threw them into a river. Another saw her child bashed to death against a tree trunk. "They just don't want to see anymore," said the researcher.

Exposure to horrible things can have a variety of effects. One of them is "functional blindness," a total loss of sight from psychological factors. Even before physical blindness, though, other things happen.

When people are doing destructive things to themselves, they often exhibit a trait called DENIAL. Forty-five pounds overweight, somebody dares suggest to Frank that he ought to diet or exercise. "I'm not fat!" he protests. "Just big boned." Uh-huh. With her drinking causing her to miss work and lose events from memory to blackout episodes, a friend tries to keep Linda from ordering a drink with dinner and encourages her to see a counselor about her drinking. Enraged, she snaps, "I don't have a drinking problem!" Right.

On the other hand, when people are having painful things done to them and feel powerless to change things or to flee, they typically become EMOTIONALLY NUMB. Abused children seldom either laugh or cry. Battered wives simply cower and take it rather than fight back or call police. They just learn not to feel anymore. They stare into nothingness. They tell themselves this is the way life is or that this is what they deserve.

Or, if the problem is just so overwhelming that one thinks there is nothing meaningful to do about it, she may PRETEND NOT TO SEE the situation. This is the person who watches drug deals go down in the neighborhood or at school practically every day. But she thinks there is no way to win the battle against drug dealers, that the police are corrupt, and that the courts have been bribed.

The cure for functional blindness is not physiological but psychological and spiritual. Women blind from witnessing atrocities will have to feel secure before they will allow themselves to see again. People in denial (e.g., alcoholics) have to find a new, supportive atmosphere in order to face their problem honestly. Emotionally numb persons (e.g., abused children) will have to know that somebody really loves them, will protect them, and will stay with them without hurting them to get their powers of emotional sensitivity back. People turning away in fear from life's dark side or pretend not to see it must band together to challenge and change things.

As one researcher said, people need to "cope with their fear and act" rather than sit passively, hold their breath, and wait for disaster. Maybe you are one of those persons who need to be encouraged to open your eyes, face a difficult reality, and take action in the strength of Christ.

He will stay with you through the difficult process of healing and recovery.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 20, no. 31, Aug 10, 1994, p. 3]

A MODEL OF COURAGE

"It's scary starting over, especially when the whole world is watching," Marla Hanson says. "But it's also exciting. It's time to get on with things."

Some Christians need to learn from her example. She's the model whose face was slashed by two men with razors two years ago. She wants to be known as someone other than "the model who was slashed" and is taking acting classes. She plans to attend NYU's film school this fall.

It is great to have a story of past deliverance to tell. It gives heart to others. It reassures people that others can understand their pain. But after telling that story for a while, it can become an end in itself.

The greatest spiritual adventure in the lives of some people is the one which occurred years ago when God rescued them from drugs, a suicide attempt, or a life-threatening illness.

But what about courage for today? A dream for tomorrow?

Christian, are you grateful that God saved you from something? Even with the sad memories and scars from those episodes, have you found them useful for ministering comfort to others? Sharing the gospel with lost souls? Wonderful. That is the proper use for them.

But now it's time to get on with things at another level of experience. You have not only been saved from something but to something. God saved you to live, not simply to feel relief over not having died!

So do something courageous today.
Be faithful when no one sees or will ever know.
Forgive the person who has hurt you the most.
Start putting substance under a dream you have.
Pray for God to give you someone to serve in love.
Share the gospel with a non-Christian.
Make the call you have been avoiding to a fallen saint.

Miss Hanson says, "You don't always have to accept things the way they are." Who should know that better than Christians! By God's power, you can find courage to get on with the things which are crucial to your life.

One model of courage can give boldness to others who are still timid.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, March, 198?]

EVERYBODY HAS SCARS

She was off from work for five months. Many people thought she would never be able to go back to her job. But there she was on the network morning news on her first day back. Radiant. Smiling. Marla Hanson is a model. She had been away from her job because an assailant with a razor cut up her face. The June attack hospitalized her and required more than 100 stitches in her face. One razor cut ran from the right corner of her mouth across her cheek. Another went from mid-nostril to her left temple, missing her eye by less than a centimetre.

The scars are still visible. They probably always will be. But she has a marvellous line about that. "Everybody has scars," she says. "Mine show; most people carry theirs inside." Miss Hanson is right. Every soul takes its blows. We are all wounded, bruised, and hurting in certain situations. Some people have to endure more pain than others, but everybody gets some.

Today may be one of your days to cry out in pain. Maybe someone has misunderstood you or treated you unkindly. Perhaps it was a thoughtless thing someone said which pierced to the depths of your soul. Maybe it's just that nobody seems to notice or care that your life is sad, lonely, and pained. It hurts.

Maybe the scar on your soul is an old one which just won't heal. You may be like one lady I know whose bitterness shows from every pore. Back down the line, somebody did her a disservice, neglected her at a time of need, or sinned against her. I don't really know what happened to her. But she has been keeping score and can't forget. Now she is bitter.

Some folks are scarred by jealousy. He resents that someone else got the promotion and raise. He envies the person who has a position which generates more notice than his. So he seethes. Can you identify with that awful wound and its scar? Other people carry the scar of monotony. Their lives are lonely because of a self-imposed exile from community. They lead dull lives because they will not extend themselves for the sake of others. They are self-absorbed and waiting for someone else to fix what is wrong with the world and make them happy. I certainly hope you don't belong to that sad group of people.

If there were no pain, wounds, or scars, there would be no need for a Physician. But there Jesus stands. Compassionate. Gentle. Able to heal your injury. So go and show him where it hurts. He can fix it and let you function again.
[by Rubel Shelly from Upreach, May, 1987]

EVER BEEN MISUNDERSTOOD?

Misunderstandings come in all shapes and sizes.

Little Stephanie was only four and was trying to help her mother clean house. She didn't know that the spray furniture polish her mother had been using would ruin the fabric when she sprayed it on an expensive couch.

Barbara tried to help Mary and Phil during a time their marriage was on the rocks. The marriage survived, but Mary falsely accused her of trying to seduce Phil. What was once a friendship between two women is now a painful shambles.

Sometimes misunderstandings can be cleared up through better communication. At other times, the person who misread the situation catches on, feels foolish, and takes the initiative. Sometimes there is nothing to do - except try to go on with your life without bitterness.

Jesus knows all about being misunderstood. One of the ways in which he was "tempted in every way, just as we are" has to do with being misjudged and taken wrong by both friends and enemies alike.

His homelife was less than ideal because his four brothers did not believe the messianic claims he made and mocked his mission.

When he tried to preach in Nazareth, his boyhood home, the people dismissed him with, "Isn't this the carpenter's son?" and took offense at his work.

Jesus must have felt terribly alone in those times when people misread him. And that feeling must have reached its crescendo when he was betrayed by one of his own and left to be judged by a Roman procurator who was in a hopeless posture to try to fathom a kingdom "not of this world." As Jesus looked ahead to that time and anticipated it, he revealed the secret to dealing with misunderstanding by others.

(John 16:32b)

At some point in your life, you may well be left a lonely victim of a misunderstanding. If so, may you have enough faith to remember what Jesus did about the Father.

And may the knowledge of his presence sustain you as it did him.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 13, Mar. 25, 1992]

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

We now live in the high-tech age, and in religious circles in America great emphasis is being placed on the practical "how" of doing things.

It seems that the spread and the growth of the church depends upon "diagnostic evaluations," "comprehensive analysis," "discovery and application of effective ministry methods," "comparative demographic studies," "batteries of psychological testing," etc. I don't want to stand against increases in knowledge and good methodology, but I detect an underlying conceit that says, "If we do it right, we will grow; we will be successful." I sense that man-centered wisdom is the thing, and when we get numbers we can boast about how WE did it. When a church made a million dollar contribution, it announced to the brotherhood, "WE did it." I am convinced that fund-raising methods, as well as techniques of evangelism that do not depend on the Lord and do not glorify Him, are religiously useless, even dangerous, to our spiritual well-being.

Human technology has not brought growth and increase in the churches of Christ for thirty years. What is the problem? What is the solution? I want to state as emphatically as I can that the problem with us is spiritual and that the solution must be spiritual! Wholly spiritual and holy spiritual.

I read a good book on how to study the Bible. The Holy Spirit was mentioned only once! I recently read a church growth magazine and the Holy Spirit was not mentioned at all. Looking through the most popular song books among us in 2,136 hymns, we have a total of twenty-five that give the Holy Spirit honorable mention and ten in a recent hymnal that has the Holy Spirit central in them.

Brethren, we cannot have the New Testament church without the work of the Holy Spirit. Neither can we have the kind of evangelism or church growth we need without Him. It is no accident that the Holy Spirit is referred to fifty-five times in the book of evangelism called Acts. We can learn techniques on how to collect crowds, but if the Holy Spirit is not in it, it profits nothing. It does not matter how beautiful the car is or how much horse power the engine has, without fuel, it is going nowhere. Until we have the spiritual condition of heart that welcomes, honors, and depends on the "praying in the Counselor," our engine will not fire up, and we will get nowhere.

Why were first century Christians able to evangelize the world? Because they were filled with the Holy Spirit of the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
[by Joe Cannon from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 12, Mar 18, 1992]

HOW THINGS GET MUDDLED

In the opening chapter of "Tom Sawyer", Mark Twain constructs a conversation between Tom and his friend Huck Finn. Young Tom is trying to persuade Huck to join him to form a band of robbers and to take captives much as pirates used to do.

Huck asks Tom what pirates do with their captives, and Tom replies, "Ransom them." "Ransom?" asks Huck. "What's that?" "I don't know. But that's what we got to do," explains Tom.

"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?" protests Huck. "Why, blame it all, we got to do it. Don't I tell you it's in the books? Do you want to go doing different from what's in the books, and get things all muddled up?"

Tom was wrong enough that he was almost right! He was wrong to think that the pirate books he had been reading defined the parameters of life. But he was right to think that a life has to have guidance from an objective source.

For those of us who wear Christ's name, there is a book that reveals the mind and will of God. It tells the story of his love for creatures in his own image. It contains both blessings and cursings, marks the strait and narrow path and warns of the broad and wide was to destruction.

We "get things all muddled up" when we fail to take the book seriously. Just think of the world's general moral climate. And consider the husks of religious form and legalism that are peddled by churches.

The Bible is meant to be taken seriously. By "taken seriously" is meant more than simply respected and studied. The Bible is to be obeyed. It is the Word of God and cannot be set aside at a whim or dealt with in some casual fashion.

Grace means that our status before God is a free gift at the beginning of our relationship with him, not the result we seek through rule-keeping. It does not mean, however, that we are at liberty to set aside any part of the divine will or to discount our obligation to obedience.

The Bible knows nothing of a faith that disobeys. Disobedience is nothing other than faithlessness. Rather than being some sort of penalty, obedience is what makes faith both alive and strong.

Tom was right, and some Christians whose lives are "all muddled up" would do well to check their passion for obedience to the Word of God.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 10, Mar. 11, 1992]

NEGATIVE RELIGION

True religion has several negative requirements. Do not murder. Do not lie. Do not love the world. Do not be yoked with unbelievers. Do not do this or that.

But it is a mistake of major proportions to mold your view of religion, God, or the Christian life around the don'ts in scripture. Doing so will make you critical of others, unsure of yourself, and vulnerable to apostasy.

Jesus once told this story...(Luke 11:24-26).

It simply isn't enough to banish either a demon or a bad habit. Neither will it be sufficient to "sweep clean" and "put in order" an old lifestyle. A clean-but-empty heart is an at-risk heart. Something will fill it. But religion has often stressed what must be banished without teaching what belongs in the place of those things.

I knew a man who battled alcoholism for 17 of his 32 years. He was a Christian and went to church faithfully. The church he attended took a strong stand against alcoholism. But it wouldn't allow an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in its church building. My friend found that out when he asked permission for his group to meet there.

Moreover, his request - made when his life had been "swept clean" and "put in order" for nine months - served to identify him as a recovering alcoholic to his elders. So they told him he would no longer be allowed to work with the church's teen program or lead any part of a public worship service. A few weeks later, he went to a bar, got drunk, and picked a fight with a man who pulled out a pistol and killed him.

A church's strong stand on religion's negatives without opening the door to positive alternatives isn't very helpful. The same is true of personal character formation. Greed must be replaced by generosity. Hatred can be overcome through forgiveness.

Rooting out evil begins with cleansing but is final only when that soul has been filled with something virtuous where evil once held sway. Banishing an evil spirit is only a half measure incomplete until you have been filled with God's Holy Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22-23).
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 10, Mar. 4, 1992]

I CAN'T HELP IT!

The last time I heard the words "I can't help being this way!" was from a man who had just beat up his wife. I have heard the same line from people addicted to chemicals, lazy students, procrastinators, habitual liars, depressed people, homosexuals, and irrepressibly happy people.

The notion that we are what we are because of circumstances beyond our control in an ultimate self-deception. Comforting perhaps. But a delusion nonetheless.

To be sure, all of us have certain inborn qualities that predispose us to things ranging from athletic skill to alcoholism to musical giftedness. And we are all conditioned by life events - especially, it seems, the very early ones - to live out scripts that others have written for us; so different ones of us learn to handle conflict by shouting, to ignore long-range outcomes for short-term goals, or to manipulate people through false flattery or contrived guilt.

It is also true that both the Bible and human experience teach us that people become "enslaved" to certain things. That is, one can forfeit part of his will and behavior to some person or thing, lose the ability to consciously control certain actions, and be incapable of changing his conduct without external intervention.

But to say that we are what we are without the ability to be otherwise is false. It denies human responsibility and makes all notions of reward and punishment meaningless. It contradicts the notions of freedom and choice for human behavior. And it contradicts the command of God through scripture for people to think, act, and be otherwise than we often are.

Did you catch the critical phrase "without external intervention" a few sentences back? Many people have foul mouths, bad tempers, or self-destructive habits they cannot alter without help - help that is available.

God has made each of us responsible for his or her own life. Things can change. And some must change for the sake of the accountability that lies ahead of Judgment Day.

It's high time for some of us to stop blaming parents, genes, or God for our foolish ways and to begin seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to change. The power of God to transform his people is greater than any negative behavior.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 8, Feb. 24, 1993, p. 3]

I CAN'T HELP IT!

A lady whom I will call Beverly was out of control. She had already wrecked two marriages, lost custody of her four-year-old son, gotten fired from nine jobs in five and a half years, and guzzled enough alcohol to float a barge.

Some of the people who still loved her just wouldn't give up on her. They stayed in touch with her. Stood with her through some tough times without excusing or pitying her. And finally teamed up (not ganged up!) to confront her about her chosen path toward self-destruction.

They really did believe that Beverly's hell-bent path was "chosen". At that moment, she was enslaved and overpowered by her lifestyle. Moreover, she was powerless to fix what was wrong with her. But staying on that path, refusing to get help, and dying was a choice she was making. She could choose other - and much better - options.

So they lovingly but firmly confronted her about what was happening. She shrugged, lied, denied, and got angry. But they wouldn't be intimidated. Gently, yet without retreating from the truth, they held the mirror of specific events before her. Beverly took her first positive step in years: She admitted her life was a mess and that she needed help.

Heartened by her confession but knowing that it must be followed up with action, one of her friends became her sponsor in Alcoholics Anonymous. Another linked her with a church that understood the Beverlys of the world and looked at her with compassion rather than pity, with concern rather than scorn, and with understanding rather than judgment.

A wonderful series of things started happening in Beverly's life. As she began making positive rather than negative choices, she began liking herself for the first time in years! She even became convinced that God still loved her and wanted her life to be good.

She had become a Christian in her late teens, and Beverly chose to recommit her life to Christ. As she "started over" with her life, she sensed an empowering of her purpose, choices, and new behaviors that she knew was from God.

Things had really changed for this woman who said she couldn't change!
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 9, Mar. 3, 1993, p. 3]

I CAN'T HELP IT!

People can and do change. It isn't easy. It doesn't happen all at once. And it certainly doesn't happen without effort, pain, and an occasional setback - sometimes major in nature. But it happens.

Yet I may have just seriously misstated things. Saying that people "can change" (active verb) and "do change" (active verb) would more correctly be stated this way: People are changed (passive verb) when they allow God to work in their lives.

(Rom. 12:2; II Cor. 3:18).

We do not have to be as we have been. Nobody has to remain enslaved forever to people, attitudes, or things that are destructive. God has provided the means to change through his own divine power. Bad habits can be broken and new, good ones put in their place. It is God's doing, but we have to be open and willing for him to act.

Step One: Admit the need for change. This is what the Bible calls "repentance". It is accepting the truth about oneself that things are not as they should be. It is ceasing to blame others and circumstances for the way things are. It is saying genuinely, "I am this way today because of my own bad choices yesterday." Only then can one say, "Now I choose to be otherwise."

Step Two: Permit external intervention. This just means allowing someone to help you. Stop trying to go it alone, and reach instead to the resources God has put at your disposal. It may be a mate, minister, psychiatrist, friend, AA group, videocassette, book, etc. If you don't know where to turn, talk to someone who has been through a similar ordeal. Whatever else you reach for, you will ultimately need to turn to Christ. This is what the Bible calls "salvation".

Step Three: Put positives where the negatives have been. Major in truthfulness, honesty, kindness, and virtue. Pick new environments and friendships, if necessary. Accept the truth that God's power is at work in you now to achieve holy goals. This is what the Bible calls being a "new creation."

Since Christ has come, nothing has to stay as it has been. (Phili. 4:13).
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 10, Mar. 10, 1993, p. 3]

AT THE WATER COOLER

In a world that cries out for relevance, John 4 stands out as a beacon for Christians who want to approach the lost with Christ's message of hope. The woman who met the Lord at Jacob's well resembles a "typical" member of our own society in many ways.

Most people today feel somehow disenfranchised - rejected by the society portrayed in media. There are few Cliff and Claire Huxtable families today; most are at least blended, and many approach the Murphy Brown model. No segment of society is immune to the current breakdown of the traditional family and the stigmas that accompany such a breakdown.

Most in our society still claim vestigial religious feelings. Recent surveys indicate that the number of atheists in society is small and getting smaller. Still a great amount of confusion exists over religious matters. Basic theological beliefs are lacking or misunderstood. While faith of some sort is on the rise, bigotry is still strong and growing as well.

Believers stand before society as Jesus stood before that woman. The message we are heard speaking must be his message. We must offer the world the gift of God, a thirst-quenching message that will both intrude and console. With love, humility, and not a little tact, we need to point the world to a higher standard.

The world must know of a God who requires only a worshipful response to the gift that he offers. Without shame, we can tell the world of Jesus and his unique way to the Father. And we can tell them of the hope of his return.

The response won't always be the same as that precious lady's, but many times it will be.

Other disciples may question our methods and choice of audience, just as the Twelve questioned Jesus. But once the fire of faith is lit, it will not be extinguished.

The world is hungry and thirsty for righteousness - a righteousness that was revealed from God through Jesus to a lonely and hurting woman who came to the well thinking only of her daily chores but left with the name of Jesus in her heart and on her lips.
[by Sid Millson from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 11, Mar. 17, 1993, p. 3]

WHAT PEOPLE HEAR AT CHURCH

Have you ever been surprised by what someone "heard at church"?

* The Randolph family has an outstanding story of one of its own who heard - and thereafter sung with great gusto - "It is swell with Lysol."

* My daughter told me of the little girl who was melancholy because she heard of "Sad, sad that bitter whale" at church.

* Another story is about the little boy who was glad there were going to be teddy bears in heaven. "Yeah, we sing about him at church: Gladly the cross-eyed bear."

There are, of course, those things that even adults "hear at church" by virtue of honest misunderstanding. The much stranger and more serious cases of what someone "heard at church" have to do with hearts that won't allow a person to hear the Word of God honestly.

* Some hear the message of grace as license to sin or use what they heard as an excuse to refuse to take any responsibility for their spiritual lives and fates. This is at least as old as Rom. 6:1ff.

* Others take a variety of biblical statements about obedience to God and generate from them an impossible system of perfectionism, works righteousness, and spiritual frustration. So Paul wrote Gal. 1:6ff.

* And still others choose to hear what applies to others without ever discovering that the message of discipleship applied first to self and does not call one to sit in judgment on others.

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." These words repeated no less than eight times in the Apocalypse have baffled some who read them. Maybe that are a bit clearer now. Just having ears - or even being able to say you "heard it at church" - is not enough to say that you really heard the Word of God.

By the way, what did you hear at church last Sunday?
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, Vol. 19, no. 12, Mar. 24, 1993, p. 3]

BE SURE YOU GET (AND LIVE) THE POINT OF THE GOLDEN RULE
Matt. 7:12

To deal with others as you want them to deal with you is at the heart of scripture's "Golden Rule." One way to explore its meaning is to set it beside its more popular alternatives.

The Iron Rule says that one must always win, be noticed, get his way, be thought special, and get a reward. This means, of course, that someone else in the relationship has to lose, be overlooked, feel slighted, be treated as unimportant, and get squashed. Iron Rule people feel good about themselves only when they're on top of the heap, and they know they have to hurt others sometimes to stay there.

Sounds terrible doesn't it? Yet that is how some employers and managers treat their work force. It is how some church leaders treat volunteer workers and members. And it even describes how some mates, parents, and siblings treat each other in families.

The Cream Puff Rule, by contrast, tells one to see himself as a loser, never voice an opinion, always give in to others, regard himself as unworthy, and just make the best of things. Some have been taught this rule in the name of Christian humility. These people are natural matches to Iron Rule folk - with Iron types eventually being repulsed by Cream Puff apathy and Cream Puff types seething with anger at Iron arrogance.

Cream Puff are eager to please and will do anything to keep the peace. They are taken advantage of at work and dumped on at church. They are compliant but angry mates and conforming but resentful children.

But Christianity's Golden Rule proposes a world of mutual respect where people look for ways to show respect for and bring benefit to all. It says that everyone's opinions and feelings matter. It teaches us that shared values, shared triumphs, and shared benefits are best. We don't have to compete with one another.

Yet most of us act like we are vying and seem to feel that we are obliged to outdo someone. What a waste of energy! How unlike Christ's example!

Can you think of ways your behavior would change for the better if you lived by the Golden Rule at work, with the church, or in your family? Will you try them this week?
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 6, Feb. 19, 1993, p. 3]

IMPORTANT VS. URGENT

Before reading the next paragraph, please answer the following three-part question to yourself or write your answers in the margin: What is the single most significant thing you could begin doing regularly that would:

(1) enrich your spiritual life?
(2) create a better atmosphere for your family?
(3) make you more effective at your work?

Now that you have named these vital and specific things that would make your life better, defend your choice to omit any one of these things from your schedule today.

I can hear some of the replies now: "But I'm just too busy for that today." "A crisis has already thrown my day into a tailspin." "This is our busy season." "The baby is sick." "If you only know the pressure I am under!"

All of us have urgent things that will have to be attended to today - phone calls, homework, appointments, deadlines, meals to prepare, interruptions, etc. But some of us will also do the things you named in answering the questions earlier - like reading scripture, praying, telling someone "I love you," helping children with schoolwork or parents with chores, planning next week's big presentation, or making three extra calls.

The difference in people who tend to life's really important things and those who simply react to events and live the scripts others write is discernment. Some look ahead to a desirable goal and take steps to get there. Others simply "get by" and "roll with the flow."

In contemporary American society, it is absurdly easy to fall into the activity trap. We can think that being busy is being productive. We equate having done huge amounts of unimportant things with having done something important.

Moving quickly and efficiently is important only if your movement is in the direction of a praiseworthy goal. Since you took the time at the start of this piece to name specific steps toward noble ends, why not take the time now to figure out how to perform them today?

You'll probably have to cut out some waste and cancel some foolishness, but you will feel better for it. You will have started practicing discernment between things that really matter in life and second-rate distractions.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 4, Jan. 27, 1993, p. 3 and vol. 21, no. 38, Sept. 20, 1995, p. 3]

THE DAY COACH STALLINGS SAID "NO"

On New Years' Day, Coach Gene Stallings and his football team won the coveted national championship of college football. The Crimson Tide defeated an excellent University of Miami team 34-13 in the Sugar Bowl. It was Alabama's twenty-third straight win and first national championship since 1979.

But there are reasons for respecting Coach Stallings other than his obvious ability as a teacher and tactician. Let me tell you about the day he won my respect forever.

A couple of years ago, I called Coach Stallings about the possibility of speaking at Jubilee. It was our year to coordinate the program, and we wanted him to speak at one of the men's luncheons being planned.

It was surprisingly easy to reach him, and he was most cordial. I told him a little about Jubilee, and he said it sounded like a great program. Sure, he'd consider it. What was the date?

When I told him it always took place the week of July 4, he said, "Oh, that's going to be a problem." He went on to explain that that week belongs to his family. It is their time to pull away from the public life and all other commitments to be together. The Coach is just Dad that week.

He started expressing his regret at having to refuse. "Whoa!" I interrupted. "Please don't apologize. You have your priorities exactly right. I wish I had done something like that years ago. I think my kids know I love 'em, but I wish I'd been smart enough and secure enough to do what you've done - while they were still around."

"Coach, we can do Jubilee without you - though we wish you could be here. You're going to be doing something more important that week. I really respect your willingness to say "no" to us in order to let your family know how important they are to you."

I'll never forget that phone call and how terribly small I felt in the presence of such a big man. He's the kind of man you like to see do well at his profession.

Long before the Miami game, he had showed the championship character that would make young men - and older ones - know they could trust and follow him.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 2, Jan 13, 1993, p. 3]

TWO PERSONAL IMPRESSIONS

As a frequent visitor at various congregations, I have two vivid impressions. First is the frequently-heard criticism that people do not attend enough services and give enough money - that people are just not interested in religion. Second is my own sense of wonder that people show as much interest as they do.

The old Congregational Church was once described as "the Republican Party at prayer." That label might fit many contemporary churches - white, middle-class, comfortable, and barely in touch with the times. Many churches have become "poor man's country clubs," offering reasonable benefits, respectability, and a measure of prestige at bargain prices.

Worship is often cold and ritualistic. Singing drags, prayers are sterile, and the sermons are as dull as TV re-runs, more background noise than inspiring calls to action. Giving, intended to be cheerful and sacrificial, is often grudging and penurious. The Lord's Supper, which should be a meditative communion with God, is too often a race against the clock, with expeditious service of the congregation the apparent objective.

Only the spiritually masochistic derive benefit from such religious experiences. Meanwhile, the world remains oblivious to Christ, and even those who claim to know him drop out in increasing numbers.

Our friends perceive us to be a bunch of spiritual know-it-alls who want them to sit quietly while we tell them what we know. Painful as it is to admit, people don't really care what we know because they don't think we care about them.

Jesus really cared for people - even the outcasts nobody else would touch. Only Jesus and his followers can know the indescribable joy of full devotion to a cause worth living for and dying for. When that joy is truly present in our lives it will be most visible in exuberant, life-changing public worship.
[by Phillip Morrison from Love Lines, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan 6, 1993, p. 3]

SAD SONGS AND HAPPY OUTCOMES

The song came on the radio the other day. I wasn't really paying attention at first, but soon I was overtaken by it. There was a passion to it that made my eyes mist over. I knew I wanted to know more about the song. But I already knew the source of the passion in it: pain.

It is one of the ironies of human life that it is our pain that most nearly links us all together. When Jesus went to the cross, there was no separation of himself from us in the event. It was the most thorough act of his identification with the race. He took to himself what all of his brothers and sisters in flesh know.

Now back to the song. It was Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven. I heard it almost exactly a year after the event it commemorates. Clapton's four-year-old son, Connor, fell to his death from the 53rd floor of a Manhattan apartment tower. He ran through a window left open by a housekeeper.

In Tears in Heaven, a 47-year-old man who has survived alcoholism and drug addiction sings of his greatest pain to date:

Would you know my name, if I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same, if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong and carry on,
'Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven...
Beyond the door, there's peace I'm sure.
And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.

There is no escape from sadness in this world. Few people will find the artistic power to express theirs in music. Most often the sounds will be muffled sobs on tear-stained pillows, cries of pain from hospital beds, or shrieks of terror at the site of a disaster.

Will there ever be a resolution to the problem? Can love really defeat hatred, life overcome death? Is there a heaven to set right the injustices of this world?

We would be shut up to our pain and questions without the possibility of an answer, except for one happening. Because of it, things are sure to turn out the way they were meant to. And those who know the central character in that episode will share in the ultimate triumph it created.

The person is Jesus, and the event was his resurrection. Thank God for a heaven where we will know each others' names and have no further need of tears.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 14, Apr. 1, 1992, p. 3]

THE CHARACTER ISSUE

George Washington was a great national leader in the early days of our republic, although he was also a slave owner. Pete Rose played baseball with exceptional skill and drive, although he was violating baseball's rules about sports gambling. John Lennon wrote some great songs, although he was an anabashed advocate for the drug culture.

One's ability to fill a given role well may have little direct relationship to his or her character. The cases above are frequently cited as proof that there is none.

But that is a very selective use of data. What about the impressions we have of the lavish lifestyles of the Marcoses and Ceaucescus, while their countries were blighted by poverty? What about the loss of office by Ray Blanton or Spiro Agnew for financial wrongdoing? What of Richard Nixon's resignation as president because of his unethical behavior?

This year's already-nauseating political battling has put the character issue before our society again. So the topic of the relationship between private morality and public life has come to the front. A recent Time magazine survey said 70 percent of Americans believe that private behavior such as extramarital affairs should be kept from the public out of respect for a candidate's right of privacy.

Sound-bite politics is very shallow stuff. While opposed to character assassination, it seems apparent that a person's ethical temperament tells a great deal about what we can expect from him or her in office. There are no flawless persons in politics, business, or religion, but the people who lead in any of these fields need qualities on which their followers can base trust: good judgment, integrity, respect for others, and trustworthiness. The sum of these is what we generally call character.

The Bible has more to say about the character of government authorities than space permits. Here are only a few statements of perpetual relevance: (Prov. 17:7; Prov. 28:3; Prov. 29:4).

Democratic nations are founded on trust within a social contract. What continues to unfold in Congress, in the contest for the White House, and in our judicial system is undermining trust daily. It is no wonder that fewer and fewer people have confidence in the system.

Despite the denials of some, character (or the lack of it) does matter.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 15, Apr. 8, 1992, p. 3]

THE MEETING PLACE

The encounter would be a hard one to arrange. The parties involved represented contrary interests. But if there was to be any hope for the future, a meeting place for the antagonists had to be found.

Justice adopted a firm, rigid posture. It would make no compromise with evil. More than that, it could not do so. Thus not a single item of holiness could be set aside. Not one commandment could be withdrawn, and no case of disobedience could be ignored. People who knew Justice believed that its position was proper and could not bring themselves to ask it to abandon the high ground it occupied.

Love, however, seemed to be in a very different situation. It grieved over the plight of men and women who were accountable to Justice. Without exception, people of every nationality, color, and language were under its judgment as lawbreakers. All were subject to punishment, and none had the means to set things right under law. Love's heart was breaking, for it could not bear to think of law's penalty enforced against objects of its concern.

Finding a meeting place for Justice and Love was so difficult a thing that only God could do it. Out of the depths of infinite wisdom, a most unlikely place was found where the two could be reconciled. They met with bittersweet consequences on a hill just outside Jerusalem called Golgotha.

On the cross of Jesus Christ, the full demand of Justice was satisfied and the goal of Love was achieved.

Divine holiness demanded that sin be punished with wrath. Divine mercy allowed Jesus to step between the death-blow and all of us who were due to receive it. Since he was personally guiltless and under no penalty for sin, he was permitted to absorb in his own being the penalty we were due.

(Rom. 3:23-26.)

Justice has been served. Love has been vindicated. The great reconciliation of God and sinners is complete at the cross.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 18, no. 16, April 15, 1992, p. 3]

THE BLESSEDNESS OF BROKENNESS

Every human being stands under the judgment of God. For some, that judgment means life. For others, it means death. It sounds strange that the same event could lead to such incongruous ends, yet the Lord Jesus Christ himself affirms it.

Have you never read in the Scriptures: (Matt. 21:42-44).

The two options Jesus identified for his hearers are at opposite extremes of the spiritual spectrum. Option One: Fall on the stone and be broken. Have your pride dashed and your heart broken. Emptied of self, be filled with God's presence and power. Option Two: Allow the stone to fall on you and be crushed. Continue in your self-willed way and be destroyed.

Everyone is broken before God, but few people admit to their brokenness. She has failed miserably in her life. His integrity is shot. We are beset by greed, lust, pride, and temper. Husbands cheat on wives. Children disobey parents. Politicians are dishonest.

Repentance is nothing more nor less than acknowledging the divine judgment that we are sinners. No excuses. No blaming. No denying. In our manifest insufficiency, we throw ourselves on the all-sufficiency of Christ.

The New Testament calls Jesus a "stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall" (Rom. 9:33). He is an offense to our self-will and self-righteousness. He forces us to admit our inadequacy. then, when we have fallen under the weight of judgment, he lifts us by his powerful grace. When we are broken open in acknowledgment of our deficiency, he fills us with his Holy Spirit.

It is the same today as then. Everyone has the same two options. And nobody can escape making a choice.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 34, Aug. 22, 1990]

YOU CAN'T LEGISLATE MORALS?

"Man, You're not even on the scene! Don't you know that you can't legislate morals!" It is a familiar refrain. The implication is that it's not possible to control the minds of people nor their actions, so why bother to pass laws about morality. The only law is to be "the law of self-discipline."

The shift away from morality has been so dramatic that the "bad guys" have now become those who speak out for restraint.

Is there no validity to restraint? Is there no justification for society's right to set limits on individual's behavior for the good of all? While self-censorship is the most effective, laws controlling morality are the legitimate concern of decent citizens. In the Old Covenant, God had laws of morality that He expected society to enforce (Exo. 20)--and such censorship was a Divine idea! It didn't come from Moses. Doing what was right "in their own eyes" led morally downward (Judg. 17:6) rather than to a "more realistic, free society."

The New Testament likewise urges God's people to approve, support, and assist government in legislating against evil, for our government is (Rom. 13:4).

Christians are to take an active public stand for right (Phili. 1:17; Acts 24:25). This negates indifference to pornography, obscenity, and public displays of immoral living. Parents are not to passively "let everyone do their own thing" when they see their children exposed to people who publicly advocate and display immoral living (Eph. 6:4; I Thes. 5:22).

Under the guise of freedom of the individual, it is argued that pornography is "an abstract term that cannot be defined," because what is pornographic to one person may not be pornographic to another. This reasoning denies a community's ability to arrive at norms for itself. Yet the community does exactly that in a variety of areas for the common good.

Pornography is as harmful to a society as drunk driving, speeding, or serving poisoned food. Morals may not be legislated in the heart. Morals can, however, be upheld through community control.
[by Bob Barnhill from Love Lines]

NASHVILLE "COMES OF AGE"

It has been hailed as a triumph for the artistic community in our city. Oh! Calcutta! came to Nashville for a two-day run. Its "evening of elegant erotics" graced the stage at TPAC's Jackson Hall and showed the world that this Bible Belt bastion is ready for the big time in entertainment.

It is much nearer the truth to say that Oh! Calcutta! in Nashville has demonstrated how deficient we are in moral sensibilities than how culturally refined we have become. It also showed how willing Nashville is to trash the "safeguards" which were built into the use of TPAC to prevent just such events as this from affronting so many of its citizens.

The matter of moral sentiment has to do with Kenneth Tynan's play which epitomizes the '60s defiance of everything associated with The Establishment. In particular, its scenes of total frontal nudity are intended to "provoke people when it came to puritanical attitudes about sex."

Many of us who are not Puritans are nevertheless within the Judeo-Christian tradition which sees public nudity as shameful. The original nakedness of Adam and Eve in the story of Eden represented their open, free, and unrestricted relationship with God in their original condition. After their rebellion against him, nakedness took on a totally different meaning. What once symbolized freedom now meant something else. They tried to "hide their nakedness" (Gen. 3:6-7), and God confirmed their intuition that they were henceforth to be clothed (Gen. 3:21).

From that time forward in Scripture, except with the intimacy of marriage, the public flaunting of nakedness is associated with shame and indulgence by persons in rebellion against God (cf. Gen. 9:20-27; Isa. 3:17; Hosea 2:3; Rev. 3:18). Nudity in theater, film, or print is not freedom and innocence. It is an evidence of rebellion against God.

The legal hairsplitting performed for Oh! Calcutta! was rather astonishing, too. A Tennessee state law forbids nudity on the premises of a facility which has a liquor license. So the bar was moved a few feet within the same building. (And I thought religionists were the world's best at identifying legalistic loopholes!)

Yes, something was proved by a two-day staging of Oh! Calcutta! But what that something was is hardly anything that deserves to be congratulated.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines]

ONE LIFE/TWO VIEWS

Suppose that you are a teenager who makes consistently good grades. You own a new Mustang convertible. The girl you have invited to be your date for the senior prom has accepted. Olympic medalist Greg Louganis considers you a personal friend, and you have visited with Michael Jackson in his own home. You'd be on top of the world! You would be living a fantasy. Your world would be perfect.

Hold on. You only know part of the story, and you might want to suspend judgment about changing places with this real person until you hear the rest.

This same teenage boy was found to have hemophilia and has had to be treated with an expensive blood-clotting agent for years. Then, in December of 1984, he was found to have contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. School officials in his hometown barred him from attending public school because of their unfounded fear of his new disease, and the courts had to intervene to get him reinstated to his classes.

Now do you wish you could have exchanged places with Ryan White? He died on April 8, 1990, at the age of 18. As he said so many times, all he wanted was to "be like everybody else." He said he would gladly trade his celebrity status, Mustang, and visits with superstars just to be a "normal teenager" - who was healthy.

There are scores of lessons to be learned from Ryan White. Warnings about ignorance and bigotry, fear and discrimination. Studies in courage and spiritual heroism.

But there is another perspective on the Ryan White story which I've not heard discussed. It has to do with appearances and what people think of others whose life they only know in part.

People who saw Ryan White with celebrities, driving his new car, and being interviewed on television might have envied him. People who knew the battle he was fighting with a killer disease might have felt compassion for him, but never envy.

If you are looking out on life with a sense of disappointment and frustration, don't think for a moment that the cure would be to swap places with someone you know. You would only be trading your set of known problems for someone else's as-yet-unknown-to-you problems!

We are all confined to narrow worlds. So live in yours with grace, dignity, and courage. Resist self-pity over the fact that some people don't understand your situation. Avoid the temptation to be jealous of others. And be grateful that you serve a God who sees you as you really are and who deals with you in truth and not by mere outward appearances.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines]

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS GOD WORKING?

Ancient civilizations believed in an assortment of gods. There were gods of the sky, land, and water. There was one god for crops and another for livestock. There were gods of the household, countryside, and city.

Every tribe and village had its god. So Artemis was the god of Ephesus. And on and on the story goes. Such a view of the narrow, limited scope of a god's influence was typical of "heathen" religions.

For some of us, Christianity has been "heathenized" by the view we have of God. Here are a few examples:

- God fights with Americans in our wars.
- American prosperity means this country is a New Israel.
- The United States is a Christian nation, and Iraq is a Moslem nation.
- God favors the Western political agenda and does not influence or intervene in Eastern-bloc nations.

The God who became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth is not the God of homeowners rather than street people, Americans but not Russians, or the Church of Christ instead of people who sleep in on Sunday mornings.

Jesus Christ is the GOD OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE. He is Lord of all nations, tribes, and languages. What is happening today in Eastern Europe is of significance to him, not just what is happening in Dallas. Souls hungry for the Word of God in Central America are all-important to him, not one particle less important than Christless souls in Alabama or Montana. Hungry children in Romania and Bulgaria grieve him, along with their peers in Chicago and New York.

We must learn to think globally rather than in narrow ethnic, geographic, or national terms. We must see our God as the God of ALL CREATION who both seeks and deserves the devotion of all humanity.

We must stop thinking in bounded, tribal, sectarian ways and learn to think as God does. We must care about the human family in all its colors, languages, and diversities.

It is time to outgrow the "heathen" mindset which believes in little gods ruling narrow provinces. It is time for us to take seriously the sovereignty of the true God and to take the gospel message of deliverance to the whole world. To do less is to be less than Christian.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines]

GOD ON THE GALLOWS

Elie Wiesel, in his book Night, has told of his boyhood experiences in the Nazi camp at Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald. Arriving at Auschwitz in the spring of 1944, when he was fourteen years old, he was separated from his mother and sister. He never saw them again.

Wiesel tells of a young boy, "a child with a refined and beautiful face...a sad-eyed angel," who was first tortured and then hanged by camp guards. Just before the boy was hung, Wiesel heard someone behind him ask in a whisper, "Where is God? Where is he?"

Hundreds and hundreds of prisoners were forced to watch the hanging-murder. Then they were forced to march by and look the victim in the face. Wiesel writes that he heard the same voice ask again, "Where is God now?" Then, he continues, "And I heard a voice within me answer him: 'Where is he? Here he is - he is hanging here on this gallows....'"

Just as Caiaphas prophesied without realizing it when he told the Sanhedrin that it would be "better...that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish" (John 11:50), Wiesel has come very near the same thing here. His anger and pain over his experiences left him, to use his own words, "terribly alone in a world without God and without man."

Wiesel is not a Christian. But what if he could see God on the gallows in Jesus Christ? What if he could view the cross as God's entry into our pain? His vicarious suffering for our sins? His solution to our lostness?

That is how I see it as a believer. It is how I must communicate Jesus to you. I want you to believe that God knows the awfulness of human lostness, that he feels our pain, that he came among us to take our sin to himself, and that his death is the means to your life.

What we cannot do, God has done. The problems secularism can see but cannot solve, God has taken to himself and answered in the cross. Things might have gone forever and for all people from bad to worse to hell. But God entered with picture, and things have changed.

Because God went to the cross, things will never be the same again.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines]

A HOSTAGE'S PRAYER

The world has watched with fascination as two hostages have come home. First came Robert Polhill, looking gaunt but exhibiting a sense of good humor following 1,182 days as a prisoner. Then followed Frank Reed, unsteady on his feet after 42 months as a blindfolded captive in chains.

One of the most moving parts of the drama was when the two men met and embraced at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland upon Reed's return to the United States. As a gentle rain fell, Reed uttered a prayer that "my mates left behind" will soon share his liberty and happiness. "God," he implored, "make it soon."

This entire scenario makes Christians think of the biblical imagery of bondage and freedom.

Paul represents men and women as "slaves to sin" (Rom. 6:16) and as being "in slavery to the basic principles of the world" (Gal. 4:3). Thus he traces out our salvation as a matter of deliverance from cruel bondage.

The great deliverer is Christ himself, and the cost of our redemption was his death on the cross. He put himself in our place. He became a curse for us. He set us free from bondage so we could be sons and heirs of God (Gal. 4:7).

Although we have been virtually helpless to do anything to get back the Americans held hostage in the Middle East, the Bible makes it clear that God took the initiative to pay our ransom. Because so high a price has been paid for our freedom, there is a sense in which we no longer belong to ourselves but to the Christ who redeemed us by his death.

Have some of us been away from sin's captivity so long that we forget how horrible a situation it is? Did some of us "grow up in the church" and accept Christ without having any intense awareness of bondage? Do we lack sympathy for and urgency on behalf of those who are still hostages?

The church should be a scene of intense passion on behalf of Christless souls. People in the world are not our enemies; they are in bondage to our enemy. We must care very deeply about their liberation, and we must take the word of the cross to them with compassion and urgency.

It would not be inappropriate for us to pray for "our mates left behind" to discover Christ, the great liberator, and to plead, "God, make it soon!"
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, 1990]

INTEGRITY LIVES!

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the term "professional athlete"? Perhaps you think of the monstrous salaries grownups get for playing children's games. Maybe you think of their celebrity status. Or possibly you reflect on off-the-field antics which have gotten some of them into trouble and spoiled their images as heroes before the young people who idolize them.

I'm not at all sure that these knee-jerk reactions are justified. Maybe it's just sour grapes from some of us who wish we had their skills and paychecks. Per chance there is a thinly veiled jealousy lurking beneath what we tell ourselves is righteous indignation.

Be that as it may, when a story of character and ethical conduct emerges from the ranks of these same men and women, it seldom gets much coverage. For example, Steve Elkington's recent action received hardly any notice at all. It certainly was not played up like the exploits of a Pete Rose or Wade Boggs.

Elkington is a professional golfer who played in the recent USF&G Classic at New Orleans. An Australian, he had scored his first American victory on the PGA tour only two weeks earlier at the Greater Greensboro Open. Here's the story...

Reading a newspaper two days after the tournament, Elkington saw the official results of the New Orleans event. It showed him with a final-round 79. That was good enough for a tie for 21st place and $10,000 in prize money.

The problem was that he had actually shot an 80 on that day. He checked and discovered that he had signed an incorrect scorecard for the round. Rather than keep his mouth shut and take his chances on getting away with it, Elkington contacted PGA tour officials.

"No big deal!" you say? Just drop down a place or two in the standings and collect a few hundred dollars less? Under PGA rules, signing an incorrect scorecard means disqualification from the tournament in question and forfeiture of all prize money.

It's only one man in a single tournament whose motives a cynic can second guess. But he did an honorable thing and paid a price for doing so. I'd rather believe the best about him and think that integrity still lives in the heady world of pro sports.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, 1990]

WE'RE GETTING OLDER

I "celebrated" another birthday last month. It wasn't a milestone event like number 30, 40, 50, or 65, so it passed without a lot of fanfare. I did get a few cards and a nice gift from my family. But it was otherwise an ordinary day not unlike the one before it and the one after it. In fact, turning 44 seemed a little too routine. And it was.

But my indifferent attitude toward the mid-forties changed somewhat when I discovered that in 1900, my life expectancy would have been only 47 years. If I had turned 44 in 1900, I think my view of life and the preciousness of time would have been considerably different than it is today at 44. Fortunately, that "magic number" has increased by 28 years since that time. It has now reached 75 years and is still climbing. And that's just an average. Many more people today are living alert, active lives well into their eighties and nineties.

If you haven't "celebrated" a birthday yet this year, chances are good that you will. In fact, more people than ever are celebrating more birthdays than ever.

We're getting older. We're getting older individually, and we're getting older as a society of people. We're getting older as individuals because the quality of medical care and the health awareness of the population in general has increased dramatically in the past 30-40 years. We don't get sick as often or as severely. When we are sick, we have available to us more and better ways to make us well. Therefore, we are living more years than ever before.

We're getting older as a society because while we're living longer, and fewer children are being born. The number of people over age 65 is increasing at a steady rate while the number of people under 16 is decreasing at a steady rate. The birth rate has been on the decline for over 20 years and shows no sign of reversing itself.

An American population that is getting older at an increasingly rapid rate is going to have a major affect on every segment of our society in the decades to come. It will obviously affect the family, the economy, the labor force, the educational system, and the health-care system. But it will also affect the life of the church. As church leaders plan for the future, they must not ignore the fastest-growing segment of their churches and their communities. Larger churches will need to consider adding ministers to their staffs who will develop and coordinate ministries by and to this group of people in the same way they have staffed for youth and singles.

Persons over 65 are not "over the hill." For the most part, they are healthy, wise, mentally alert, capable of learning, and ready to serve others. It is time for us to do a better job of tapping this great natural resource. Fortunately, it is a resource that's in plentiful supply right now. And since we're all getting older, the supply for the future looks assured.
[by George Miller from Love Lines, vol. 16, 1990]

LEST WE FORGET

There is a tendency among human beings to take things for granted. I am as bad as any, perhaps worse than most.

A recent month in Eastern Europe has me more consciously grateful for some things than I have been for a while. Stores with shelves stocked with food. Good health care. Freedom of expression. The easy availability of Bibles. Opportunities to worship.

We are approaching the time of year when Americans celebrate our freedoms. On the Fourth of July we have fireworks, speeches, and cookouts in the name of freedom. But we must not forget the price paid for it.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them."

What is true of our liberty, opportunity, and general well being in the United States is more notably the case with our spiritual state in Christ. We are not condemned to slavery. We are not without pardon, possibilities for serving God through good works, and spiritual security.

We have been set free from law, sin, and death. We are no longer in bondage to satan. Neither do we have to answer to one another to be judged by human creeds and tribunals. We have the joy of spiritual fellowship in Christ's church. We are given daily grace through the indwelling Spirit to overcome the cravings, addictions, and weaknesses of our sinful nature.

It is not enough to have an occasional assembly and speech about these wonderful things. We must recall that someone had to die to provide them.

The heart of the gospel message is that we are saved by the death of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not won through the accumulation of human achievement; it is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ. But that gift came at the expense of his life.

All your sin was laid on Christ when he was on a Roman cross just outside Jerusalem. The death penalty your sin deserved was paid in full when he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Because Jesus was bearing your sin (and mine) that day, his fellowship with the Father and Holy Spirit was broken on the cross. In order to pay our sin debt, he was separated from them. He experienced spiritual death. He tasted hell.

In your prayers today, when you next eat the Lord's Supper, or when you experience victory over temptation, don't be nonchalant about it. Don't treat the event lightly. Remember that Jesus had to die to provide it.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love lines, vol. 16, no. 26, June 27, 1990]

WHEN YOU'RE NOT LOOKING

Some strange things happen in this old world. Take the baseball game between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves earlier this season where two runs scored because the defensive player holding the ball got distracted and turned his back on the game.

With two outs, Atlanta had runners on first and second bases. The Mets' David Cone was pitching to Mark Lemke. Lemke hit a grounder between first and second, and Cone ran to cover first. The umpire ruled Lemke safe, saying that Cone failed to touch the bag. Cone flew into a rage.

The frustrated pitcher got into the face of umpire Charlie Williams. He protested. He screamed. One of his teammates grabbed him from behind and tried to get his head (and the ball he was holding) back into the game. In the meantime, with Cone's back turned to the infield, the two Atlanta baserunners scored. Cone was oblivious to everything around him except his argument with the ump. In the interim, the game was lost.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? Hard to believe anyone could blow a game over a single upsetting call, isn't it? A professional athlete should watch the larger game and not get sidetracked by something like that.

Before you're too hard on Cone, though, think how often the same sort of thing happens in life.

1. An angry blowup over some petty incident destroys a friendship that took years to build.
2. A couple's preoccupation with "getting ahead" keeps them from knowing and parenting with children.
3. Infighting over doctrinal minutiae or church politics keeps believers from making an impact on a Christless world.

Of his mysterious play, Cone said, "I snapped. It ended up costing us the game. I accept that responsibility."

Maybe you have already run through your own memory banks to some Cone-headed event in your experience. Maybe you are willing to admit that what happened was your fault and to accept the responsibility for how it turned out.

More important than owning up to yesterday's foul-up, though, is to learn from it and pray for strength not to make the same mistake again. The larger game is still going on. Victory is still in the balance in some critical areas. So don't get caught with your back turned, preoccupied with second-level issues while life passes you by.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 30, July 25, 1990]

POKEY, RANK, AND UGLY

The Trabant is the butt of a thousand jokes. It is the awful little car produced in East Germany for so many years. It has practically no power, therefore it is slow. And it spews pollution as it goes down the road.

The "Trabi" has a two-stroke, two-cylinder engine and can reach a maximum speed of 60 mph. One of the jokes mentioned earlier runs: "What goes from zero to 60 in 15 minutes?" Answer: A Trabant.

Its antiquated design uses a mixture of oil and gas, and riding behind one is not a pleasant experience. Its blue-grey trail of smoke contains ten times as many hydrocarbons as the exhaust from Western cars. It is a pollution monster. In non-technical language, it stinks.

On top of all these problems, Trabis are ugly too. They are drab-looking, boxy cars. Hood and side panels are made of plastic produced from a mix of cotton and resins. The design hasn't changed since 1964.

Yet this little car caught the fancy of the Western world last year. Some called them "Freedom Wagons" as East Germans fled to the West by the tens of thousands before the Berlin Wall was opened. With their strange looks and inefficient function, they got people to freedom.

It is enough to make one remember that...
1. The despised and rejected Son of God became our redeemer via a Roman cross; the "Rejected stone" become the "cornerstone" to God's building.
2. Pitiful, flawed, and stumbling churches are still the best havens for people seeking spiritual refuge; Noah's ark must have stunk, too, but think what it meant to be outside!
3. A perplexed or persecuted Christian life has more to it than meets the eye; God's grace assures a victorious outcome to what is sometimes a difficult journey.

Most of us tend to be discouraged at times over the fact that we don't have supercharged Christian experiences. There are still headaches brought on by theological confusion. We see brothers and sisters "who should know better" falling into Satan's traps. We have our own collapses of faith.

If a pokey, rank, and ugly Trabant can get an oppressed soul to freedom, don't get too upset about your flaws and setbacks. Stick with it. God knows your destination!
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 29, July 18, 1990]

SIMPLE FAITH/QUICK FIXES

Do you ever get the feeling that people are looking to God as a means to some selfish end? Health fails, so she gets religion. Business falters, so he joins a prayer group. Their marriage is in trouble, so they start looking for a church to join.

There is too much of the spirit of the age in some of us. We want bumper-sticker answers, immediate satisfaction, and pain-free solutions to problems. Life doesn't work that way. Things just aren't that easy.

Oh, there is a sense in which I am willing to affirm that Christianity has a single answer to every question worth asking. That answer is the cross of Jesus Christ. But that is a complex answer, not a simple one. Tracing out the implications of his cross for your life may lead you on a complex, tangled, and even painful voyage.

The path of the cross was complicated for Jesus. It led him from crisis to confrontation to death. Remember his agony in Gethsemane? Were things simple and easy that night? Did a prayer make his troubles go away?

But doesn't the Bible itself say that the summation of all things is to fear God and keep his commandments? Didn't Jesus reduce everything to just two commandments - loving God and loving your neighbor? Right. And if you've ever tried to live by either mandate, you know "simple" doesn't describe what is involved.

Why, then, do we insist on being so superficial?

At the level of wanting Christianity to be "simple," we are probably trying to avoid the demand of entering deeply in to the Word of God. There you are forced to grapple with the mind of God to understand and grasp the implications of the truth. Then comes the real test, when your will wrestles with what you have found. You choose to obey God and walk by faith, or you resist him and blame him for your resulting distress.

God is an ever-present help in our perplexities and distress. He provides a route of deliverance from every trial. He will not allow you to face more than you can bear. But he is not a magic wand for creating serene fantasy in the place of your severe reality.

To see your own situation clearly, it will first be necessary to see God authentically.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 28, July 11, 1990]

SATAN IS THE "FATHER OF LIES," AND...SIN NEVER GIVES WHAT IT PROMISES.

A while back I was listening to the radio on my way home from work. The announcer reading the news chuckled as he read the story of a fellow who robbed a convenience store clerk. What was funny about a criminal act?

The robber had a neat plan to give the clerk a $10 bill, get her to open her cash drawer to make change, and then grab all the money. The plan worked! He got everything in her cash drawer -- total of $4.34 -- and left the clerk with his $10. He went in the hole to the tune of $5.66!

The undeniable truth is that sin never gives what it promises. It always returns less than the sinner invests in self-esteem, integrity, and spiritual security. Want proof?

* Adam and Eve were promised freedom, wisdom, and life by Satan, only to be led to commit spiritual suicide.
* Sensuous Samson fell in love with a woman who did not love God and paid with his eyesight, freedom, and life.
* Ananias and Sapphira were going to get credit for being generous and wound up being buried for being liars.

In each of these cases, sin promised something it could not deliver. The same thing is still happening in our world today...

* Adolescents are led to see God, their parents, and their teachers as enemies and wind up in rebellion's deep pit.
* People date and marry without taking into account that the spiritual element is the critical part of a relationship.
* Some church members hide behind masks and fool themselves and their friends -- but not God.

Sin costs too much. You have to sell your soul to have whatever petty trinkets it offers you for the moment. Then you have to face a time of bitter reckoning. You have to "pay the piper." Yet whatever had been promised to you as a reward has already gone up in a puff of smoke or has slipped through your fingers. And Judgment Day is coming!

The basic lure of sin is the promise of quick gain, without regard to long term consequences.

Truth and holiness work differently. With total honesty about the difficult demands at hand, the God who cannot lie promises to reward you down the line. Obedience, purity, integrity, repentance, denial -- these are hard words and demanding deeds. But what lies at the end is invaluable!

Sin never delivers. Christ never fails. So don't get robbed while trying to pull a fast one on God.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 41, Oct. 3, 1990]

LET'S BE THE MAGI

What shall we tell our children tomorrow?...

We never managed, and never dared to see in our children the divine gift each person holds in himself. We never instilled in them the feeling that every man is a macrocosm -- infinite, beautiful and unique. We brought them up so that each one of them would be just part of the multitude. We deprived them of their individuality, hoping to spare them our own disappointments.

Used to regarding ourselves as interchangeable cogs in an unfeeling machine, we never thought there could be any other life for them. We were worried by their sensitivity, their imagination, their aspirations, for they augured ill in a world like ours. So to be on the safe side, we chose to map out their happiness for them.

We taught them to make compromises, to be calculating, cold and suspicious. We told them there was no need to say what they really thought, nor to bare their hearts. But then we suffered. When they were little children, they mockingly listened to our takes of Father Christmas, for their illusions had gone. They would go to bed without sifting the good from the evil in the day just past, and would get up without dreams for the new one.

Will we forgive ourselves, ever? What was the use of having guilt feelings and of making presents with which to fill the emptiness in their hearts? Why, knowing ourselves so well, did we have to make them tread in our own bleak steps? And it was such a wonderful world: the grass was green, the sky was breathtakingly blue, and the stars so near. But they didn't know that.

We carefully hid that from them, certain that we were sparing them disappointments and convinced that they were destined, like us, to live in smog, among drab people in drab towns. We were afraid for them. And we kept silent.

Now we have nothing to lose. We should just start anew. And it doesn't matter that it will be from scratch. The universe is vibrating. Its pulse is already in the veins of today's newborns. So let's be the Magi: let's give them everything our own children were deprived of.
[by Borislav Chalukov from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 42, Oct. 10, 1990. This article ran in the "Sofia (Bulgaria) News" and it raises issues which are fundamentally spiritual. It is so poignant.]

SO MANY STILL BELIEVE THE MONSTROUS LIE THAT...ARBEIT MACHT FREI!

It was two years ago now that my son and I walked through the gate at Auschwitz. Something over 4,000,000 people were Adolf Hitler's "guests" there between 1940 and 1945.

Over your head as you pass through that gate are the words Arbeit macht frei! In English, they mean "work liberates" or "work sets you free." It was a grotesque life. Auschwitz was an end-of-the-line death camp where 2,000,000 Jews and 2,000,000 "undesirable" Europeans died in a gas chamber, on the gallows, or in medical experiments.

There was no mercy in the death camp. There was only work without reward. Empty labor leading to earlier death. False hope of freedom for those who believed a lie.

Yet how many people do I know who live by the same lie in their spiritual lives! They have put their hope in obeying enough of the "essential" commandments, attending enough of the "required" assemblies, and developing enough of the "necessary" Christian virtues to go to heaven.

Such people feel no security in salvation -- and are absolutely mystified by those who do. "Duty" is the key noun in their theological vocabulary; "obey" is the operative verb. Yet they are never quite sure they have done their duty or obeyed enough of the right commands.

It is a scandalous and outrageous lie to teach that salvation arises from human activity. We do not contribute one whit to our salvation. Arbeit macht frei! is the falsehood against which both Romans and Galatians protest. Then there is his theological thunderbolt against it in Ephesians: (Eph. 2:8-9).

Because God's standard can be nothing less than perfection, no amount of our correct theology, good deeds, charity, and piety can equal that requirement. Therefore anyone who is saved must renounce everything but the cross as his or her hope for eternal life.

Abundant good works are the fruit of salvation, but the finished work of Christ at Calvary is the only act of merit in human redemption. Until we renounce everything but Christ, we are prisoners in a death camp. Embracing a lie. Forfeiting life.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines, vol. 16, no. 45, Oct. 31, 1990]

A critical lady from a nearby church approached me a few days ago. She squared her jaw and let me know that she "disagreed" with the notion of churches getting involved with homeless people, alcoholics, and the like. I suspect she wouldn't have wanted to get involved with other outreach projects either.

Why does a congregation go out of its way looking for chances to do things like these?
First, it puts us with the type of people Jesus sought out during his ministry among men (Matt. 9:10-13).
Second, caring about hurting people is frontline work in the kingdom of God (Gal. 6:10).
Third, it obeys Luke 14:12-14.
Fourth, it will spare us having to hear the awful words of Matt. 25:45.

The time and place weren't right to get into conversation with the woman, so I just shrugged off the challenge. What she chooses to think of such work doesn't really matter. But it is important for us to know why we are doing it -- and to stay at the task.

Thank you for taking Jesus seriously. Thank you for realizing that right doctrine and church attendance are only part of the Christian commitment. And thank you for loving people who need it most.
[by Rubel Shelly from Love Lines]

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