“Going Pro”

I’ll admit right up front: most of you won’t care about the subject I use for my illustration. Yes, it’s sports. In fact, more to the point, it’s Oklahoma State basketball. Don’t stop reading! Let me just give you the background. OSU has a freshman basketball player, Marcus Smart, whom many people assumed would leave school after his freshman season and go to the NBA. He was projected to be a top five pick in the draft and rake in a guaranteed $7-9 million over the next two years. Wednesday he announced his decision to return to OSU for his sophomore season! He stayed in school! He passed (for now) on millions of dollars! This is a quote from Berry Tramel, columnist for the Oklahoma City newspaper. “Smart is not starting a revolution. This won't turn back the tide in college hoops’ favor. For every Smart, there still will be 10 Ben McLemores headed for the lottery and 50 Amath M'Bayes headed overseas. But when it happens, when a 19-year-old kid in the materialistic 21st century makes a decision based not on financial bonanza, he should be celebrated.”

Why do I share this? To celebrate Oklahoma State basketball? Well, ok, yes – just a little. But…mainly to celebrate a decision made by a young man. We have ten high school seniors who, in a few weeks, will enter a brave new world. No more will some of them call Mom and Dad’s house “home.” No more will Dad text them at 10:30 to remind them to be home in 30 minutes. Mom may not be there to make sure they get out of bed on time. As the song says, “Times, they are a-changin’.” For the parents of these seniors, I offer my sympathies – and my congratulations. It HAS to be sad! I’m two years away and it makes me sad. But, I know most of these kids at least fairly well. Believe me, these are young men and women of which we can be very proud. My congratulations to the parents who have invested time and energy into shaping and molding these kids into respectable, honorable young adults. Will these kids go off and always make the right decision? Almost certainly not. However, we can all trust these young people have been raised with a healthy dose of Prov 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (NKJV). This does not mean these “children” will remain faithful or that they’ll all be absolute model citizens. But, it does mean they have a foundation upon which to build their physical and spiritual lives as long as they cling to it. As their church family, what can we do to help these grads and their families?

1)    Pray for them. In 1 Thess 1:2, Paul writes, “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers…”

2)    Encourage them in their faith as often as you can. Again in 1 Thess, Paul says, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For you are our glory and joy” (2:19-20). Let our kids know this.

The NCAA has a public service ad running which says, “Someday we’ll all be going pro in something.” Whether it’s going on to college, starting a trade school, or going to work, these kids of “ours” are going pro. Pray these young men and women make their choices, not based on financial reward or status or peer pressure. Pray all our children will choose their directions based on God’s Word and the teachings they have grown up absorbing. Encourage them to keep God #1 in every aspect of their lives, and they’ll all make the smart decisions. Congratulations Seniors 2013!

The “-Ism” Du Jour

We live in a world full of “-ism’s.” There are Atheism, Conservatism, Hedonism, and maybe the one which hits closest to home for me – Skepticism, just to name a very few. One which seems to be the “-Ism of the Day” for our culture is a relatively new term – Postmodernism. “Postmodernism is difficult to define, because to define it would violate the postmodernist’s premise that no definite terms, boundaries, or absolute truths exist” (allaboutphilosophy.com).  Simply stated, it’s the belief we cannot know truth, and that my truth may not equal your truth, but we’ll call them both “truth” nonetheless. (For a very thorough explanation of this thinking, see www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=12&article=269#.)

            How is this thinking affecting the church today? Sadly, I would suggest this thinking is one of our greatest detractors. Postmodernism claims to be the inheritor to the 17th century Enlightenment, which is the home of another “ism” – Progressivism, promoting and defending a New Age way of theorizing and justifying human life and progress. Postmodernists are typically atheistic or agnostic while some choose to follow eastern religion views and practices. However, it’s not always that clear.

            Many of you probably have heard me say I believe Satan’s greatest victory in our time is not tempting Christians into blatant and wanton sin. It’s convincing us – specifically our younger generations – everyone is spiritually ok as long as they basically believe in God. From where does this thinking originate? It’s certainly not found in Scripture. God plainly states throughout the Bible He expects obedience to Him and to him alone, and that this obedience follows a pattern He set forth (Rom 6:17; Heb 12:1). This religious “I’m ok, you’re ok” thinking comes from postmodernism.  We have been so bombarded by naturalistic and humanistic thinking – that is, thinking which doesn’t follow God’s teaching – we have been all but cornered into thinking we really can’t know the truth!

Christian, we cannot accept this thinking! We cannot tolerate this thinking in our families, and certainly not in the Lord’s church. Col 2:8 says, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (NKJV). We have to be people who think! Just because the world around us tells us one thing and the majority accepts it doesn’t make it right. In Rom 12:2, Paul writes, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” The world is desperately trying to conform Christianity to its way of thinking – “No one can know what is and isn’t right or wrong. It’s up to the individual!” We must be people who continually renew our minds. This doesn’t mean we follow God’s Word with an ignorant uneducated faith. It means we renew our minds by looking at His Word and the evidence to support (or refute) the things we believe.

The apostle whom Jesus loved, our brother John, writes in 1 John 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God” (bold mine – LCD). There is no better refutation for the idea that we can’t know God and His truth. God has provided the evidence for us to know Him and to keep on believing in Him and obeying Him…even if the “ism’s” of our day say otherwise.

You Love Me But You Don't Know Who I Am

OK - I've been away from this for a long time (even longer than the last post's gap) but I just had to get this off my chest in an open way. And yes, this is another reference to a 3 Doors Down song. (Why do I think those guys are so inspirational? Hmm...) So - read, enjoy, disagree - whatever. I feel better though! 

I love music – all kinds of music. I often find myself way over-analyzing lyrics and trying to make applications which may not truly be there. Truth is, that’s pretty sad since so many song lyrics are either goofy or foul; but, I digress. I was listening to a song the other day with the words, “You love me but you don’t know who I am.” The lyrics tumbled around in my head for some reason, and then it occurred to me why. Recently I’ve been struck by a couple articles I’ve read and some facebook postings I’ve seen – all of which were written by folks calling themselves Christians; yet, the words written were defaming the church or supporting things God condemns. It made me think, “How do you think God feels when one slanders His Son’s bride or when one stands in direct opposition to His teaching?” Do these people who claim to know God really know Him? Or would God say, “You love Me but you don’t know who I am”? 1^st John 5:3-4 reads, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith” (NKJV). By simply using logic we can conclude, to love God is preceded by our knowledge of Him. We have to know someone before we can say we love them, right? Therefore, it stands to reason one would also see that loving God demands our obedience to Him. It also demands we separate ourselves from the things of the world – even if those things are seen as popular in religious circles or as politically correct. To love God is more than a feeling, more than a concept. To love God means one is going to get to know Him. Knowing God is an intellectual pursuit which is evidenced by our actions. In other words, we learn from God’s Word who He is and what he expects, and then we do our very best to live it out. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “… as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us…” We have our guidance for life based on knowing God! So, when we continue in sinful behavior with no repentance, all the while professing to love and know God, we stand opposed to what we do know about God. (See above 1^st John reference.) When we profess to know all the ills of the Lord’s church and all that is wrong about simple, sincere, Bible-based worship, we are telling God we love Him…but He doesn’t know what He really wants. Jesus said, as John records in John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” You see, knowing God is knowing truth – attainable, revealed truth. Loving and knowing God is not goosebumps or emotions. Those can be there, certainly. But loving God is knowing Him based on what He reveals to us through His Word. Wouldn’t we all be better off if we could say, “I love Him…and I want to know more and more who He is.”