Georgia goes to bed

Strange but true, when our yellow lab whose name is Georgia goes to bed at night she goes under the bed. Last night Nancy was able to get a photo. Nite-Nite!

Bible Reading Plans for 2009

Here are great options to get you started into Bible Reading for the 2009 year. Thanks to Between Two Worlds blog site for this article.

The ESV Bible Reading Plans can be accessed in multiple ways:

• web (a new reading each day appears online at the same link)
• RSS (subscribe to receive by RSS)
• email (subscribe to receive by email)
• iCal (download an iCalendar file)
• mobile (view a new reading each day on your mobile device)
• print (download a PDF of the whole plan)

There are about 10 plans available. Go to that link to access each plan in any of the options above.

Here are the three I would recommend:

ESV Study Bible (ESV Literary Study Bible contains the same plan)

With this plan there are four readings each day, divided into four main sections:

• Psalms and Wisdom Literature;
  
• Pentateuch and the History of Israel;
  
• Chronicles and Prophets; and
  
• Gospels and Epistles.

The introduction explains:

In order to make the readings come out evenly, four major books of the Bible are included twice in the schedule: the Psalms (the Bible’s hymnal), Isaiah (the grandest of the OT prophets), Luke (one of the four biblical Gospels), and Romans (the heart of the Bible’s theology of salvation).

The list of readings from the Psalms and the Wisdom Literature begins and ends with special readings that are especially appropriate for the opening and closing of the year. The list of readings from the Pentateuch and the History of Israel proceeds canonically through the five books of Moses and then chronologically through the history of the OT, before closing the year with the sufferings of Job. The list of readings from the Chronicles and the Prophets begins with the Chronicler’s history of the people of God from Adam through the exile, followed by the Major and Minor Prophets, which are organized chronologically rather than canonically.

I plan to print out this PDF, which is designed to be cut into four bookmarks that can be placed at the appropriate place in your Bible reading.

Daily Reading Bible

With this plan you go through:

• the NT twice,
  
• the Psalms twice, and
  
• the rest of the OT once.
  

If you like this plan, you may want to pick up a copy of the Daily Reading Bible (available in hardcover and paperback). It's not in the style where the Bible itself is rearranged by readings. Rather, it is a normal Bible, except that there are marginal notations that indicate where you are to start and stop reading.

E.g., on January 1 you are to read Genesis 1-2, Psalm 1, Matthew 1-2. When you open to Genesis 1, you'll see in the outer margin a notation that says in bold, JAN 1. That's where you start reading, until you get to JAN 2 at Genesis 3.. At the bottom of the page of Genesis 1 there is a box that says, JAN 1: Ps 1; Matt 1-2--which indicates the other readings for that day. Hope that makes sense. (Here's a sample from Matthew.)

M’Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan

With this plan you read through:

• the NT twice,
  
• the Psalms twice, and
  
• the rest of the OT once.

The plan begins with the four great beginnings or "births" of Scripture: Genesis 1 (beginning of the world), Ezra 1 (rebirth of Israel after her return from Babylonian exile), Matthew 1 (birth of the Messiah), Acts 1 (birth of the body of Christ). John Stott says of this reading schedule: "Nothing has helped me more to gain an overview of the Bible, and so of God’s redemptive plan."

If you go with this route, I'd recommend D.A. Carson's For the Love of God (vol. 1 and vol. 2 are available--vols. 3 and 4 are forthcoming). Carson's introduction and preface--which includes a layout of the calendar--are available for free online.

Since there are four readings each day, it's easy to modify this one so that you read through the Bible once in two years, by reading just the first two readings each day for the first year and the second two readings each day for the second year.

And here are a couple of plans from NavPress:

The Discipleship Journal Reading Plan

With this plan you read through the entire Bible once.

The unique advantage of this plan is that there are "catch-up" days:

• To prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan, each month of this plan gives you only 25 readings. Since you'll have several "free days" each month, you could set aside Sunday to either not read at all or to catch up on any readings you may have missed in the past week.
• If you finish the month's readings by the twenty-fifth, you could use the final days of the month to study passages that challenged or intrigued you.

Bethlehem Baptist Church makes available the bookmark-method for this plan:

• Bookmarks for 1st half of the year
• Bookmarks for 2nd half of the year

Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan

This book-at-a-time approach takes you through the whole Bible once in a year. It has two readings each day:

• the first reading alternatives between OT and NT books (about 3-4 chapters a day), with the Gospels spread throughout the year;
• the second reading is about a chapter a day of the wisdom literature and Isaiah.

As with the Discipleship Journal Plan, there are only 25 readings a month, allowing for catch-up and/or reflection.

Happy reading!

The social cost of pornography

From the Between Two Worlds blog site:

Hadley Arkes, Pornography: Settling the Question in Principle

Roger Scruton, On the Abuse of Sex

Pamela Paul, From Pornography to Porno to Porn

Norman Doidge, MD, Acquiring Pornographic Tastes

Jill Manning, The Impact of Pornography on Women

Ana Bridges, Pornography's Effects on Interpersonal Relationships

Kirk Doran, The Economics of Pornography

Gerard V. Bradley, Moral Principles Which Govern the Legal Regulation of Pornography

James Stoner, Freedom, Virtue, and the Politics of Regulating Pornography

Hamza Yusuf, Climbing Mt. Purgatorio: Reflections from the Seventh Cornice

Because of God's choice

Sovereignty and Free Will

Probably the most asked question from Christians is the following:
How does the Bible reconcile the sovereignty of God and the free will of man?
In this short audio Dr. John MacArthur gives a very good explanation of the why and how this is Biblical. If you are struggling with this question may I recommend that you listen carefully!

Sovereignty and Free Will- MacArthur

Higher Education

This is an actual sign in the window of Burger King in Memphis, TN. Hmmm...no problem here.

A Devotion for Christmas

It is rare when our immediate family comes together at the same place at the same time. Butner (25) has his own job, apartment, friends and Anna (21) is living full time in another city. Therefore the opportunity to spend time and just enjoy one another seems to be the exception now and not the rule.

On Christmas morning I took time to read from And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. The previous day I heard a sermon by Erwin Lutzer called “Space, but no room.” In the message he said, isn’t it amazing that the very Son of God comes to planet earth and is not born in a fancy palace made for a king, but in a manager. The fact that when Jesus finally arrives into this world there is not a single room available in the inn. Isn’t that typical for many today in our culture? There is technology like never before, we have time saving devices for which most of the world would marvel, and yet we have little room or time for Jesus. However, we read in the Bible that the world did find a place for Christ. And the very spot in which they made room for Jesus was at the cross. Yes, when Christ confronts us with our sins then we can receive and bow before Him as Lord, or shout as they did back then, crucify Him, crucify Him! Allow me to make the point one more time there was no room for Him in the inn but there was room for Him on the cross.
And yet when you read the words of the Lord Jesus in one gets a glimpse of His grace and mercy;
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

As a point of interest, the word for place and is the Greek word “topos” is the same word for room that we read back in Luke 2:7. So now connect all the dots and here the gospel message during this Christmas season. When Jesus comes there is no place for Him. However later on we see that the world does have a place for Christ and it is on the cross. And then we read in “...while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” And though we have no room for Him, except for room on the cross, He has a room that He prepares for us. What? How in the world can this be? For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Even though I would never want to make room for Him because of my sinful nature, yet now by His grace, through faith I now turn from my sins and turn to Christ alone. The room I didn’t have for Him is the room that He now prepares for me! Isn’t that amazing grace?

Did you hear about this?

I recently read this article from Challies.com called the Right Measure. Have you ever heard of a Boeing 767 running out of gas while 28,000 feet above the ground. Well click HERE for the rest of the story.

The top 10

Here are the top 10 "evangelical" stories of the year according to Christianity today. I was surprised that Rick Warren didn't make the list in some way, shape or form.

Family Christmas 2008

So what is the gospel? (Alan Cairns)

The latest church stats should concern us

Here is a recent article from CAMPONTHIS blogsite:

This is a most disturbing and yet revealing article. Not to surprising that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ (that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone) has been so distorted, accommodated and dumbed-down today that most American Christians, and therefore possibly most churches, do not affirm its efficaciousness as the only hope for the lost for eternal life. Even an atheist, according to Pew survey, will somehow get to glory though he/she rejects the very existence of God! Unbelievable (pun intended). Is it any wonder why I keep saying that the gospel matters; that truth matters; that doctrine matters; and that theology matters.

A review of Rick Warren 2004-2008

Here is some excellent research and articles that are provided by Lighthouse Trails Research Project website regarding Pastor Rick Warren. Hopefully this will provide some good information for those who are trying to understand Warren's background, beliefs, church and where he may be heading in the future.

Click on this LINK

Dr. Bukk says "take time for devotions"

What is legalism?

Here is a good article by Tony Reinke on the dangers of legalism. As we head into 2009 this is a good reminder for all of us who are disciples of Christ.

Ah the ole “L” word. Many of us use the word in our vocab. But what is it and what does it mean? That’s a question I’m asked on a frequent basis and one I like to revisit annually on this blog.

I can distinctly remember the time when this question begged for clarification in my own life. At one time three events collided (and all took place in the same week). I think each event reveals why clarifying the dangers of legalism are necessary and worthy of revisiting frequently.

First was a conversation with a woman who had decided to permit her daughter to skip church in order to participate in soccer games. “I don’t want to be legalistic about church,” she said. Another encounter was with a man who defined legalism as “living by lots of rules.” And the third encounter was with a man who labeled Christians who abstained from alcohol as legalists.

Let me say from the start that I’m not saying these people are right or wrong in their convictions. What is important to see is that each statement (I believe) reveals a superficial and fundamentally flawed view of legalism.

Let me explain.

Rules are not the problem

Almost 900 passages in the Bible contain the phrase “do not.” Which is to say that the Bible contains quite a lot of prohibitions. Jesus condensed some chief prohibitions for us: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother’” (). There are a lot of rules in the Bible.

Which is to say that if you apply the entire Bible to the Christian life, you can end up with a long list of helpful rules and reminders (i.e. the “one anothers”). Doesn’t this fact explain why Jonathan Edwards was compelled to compose his long list of resolutions?

See the fundamental danger of legalism is not living with rules or not living by rules—whether you attend church every week or not, whether you drink wine or not. Legalism points to a much deeper heart issue.

A false gospel

At its most dangerous level, legalism is a soteriological problem. That is, legalism is a false gospel and a false hope. Legalism is the lie that says God’s pleasure and joy in me is dependent upon my performance rather than the finished work of Christ.

It is legalism that causes the Pharisee to look proudly into the sky in the presence of a tax collector. It is legalism that causes a poor missionary in Africa to think God is more pleased with him than an American Christian businessman driving a Mercedes. It is legalism that causes the preacher behind the pulpit to think God is more pleased with him than the tatooed Christian teenager sitting in the back row.

Legalism is the lie that God will find more pleasure in me because my obedience is greater than others or that God looks at me with disgust because I am not living up to His expectations. It is the failure to remember that God’s pleasure in us comes outside of us (in the finished work of Christ). Legalism causes the heart to forget that God sings over us because of the work He has done, not because of what we have done ().

Believers equally bring pleasure to God because the pleasure He receives in us is the purchased pleasure of the substitution of Jesus Christ. Any imagined superiority to other Christians (not rules or a lack of rules) is the sure sign of the legalist.

The irony of legalism

The great irony (and danger) of legalism is this: If you think God is more pleased with you because you take your child to a soccer game instead of church, if you think God is more pleased with you because you do not live by rules, and if you think God is more pleased with you because you do drink alcohol—you are just as legalistic as the man who thinks that perfect church attendance, lists of rules, and abstaining from alcohol makes him more pleasing to God.

Rules are not the problem.

And whether our convictions are biblical or unbiblical is another issue altogether. Legalism is not so much objective (are my convictions biblical or not?) but subjective (what do my convictions get me?). And this is what makes legalism dangerous whether your convictions are biblically accurate or not.

From what I hear, often what is labeled as legalistic too often focuses primarily upon rules or a lack thereof rather than the gospel.

As I’ve seen in my own heart, what sustains self-righteous legalism is a failure to boast only in the righteousness of the Cross of Christ. Once I take my eyes off the Cross I begin boasting in my list of rules or boasting in my lack of rules. Either way, I know I have fallen into legalism.

Here is a comment posted in reference to this article from Jon Wymer

One way of thinking about legalism that I find helpful is this: when my standing with Christ is defined or determined by anything other than his bloody work at Calvary. The silk-shirted, beer-guzzling emergent can be just as legalistic as the three-piece-suit, King James only fundamentalist.

Incorrect Bible study

Here is a short video clip of how many Bible studies are done in the home. This is NOT how to do Bible study. Notice in this clip how the facilitator is asking each of those participating how they feel and what they think. Folks the question is not what you think but actually what is God saying to us through His word. The cardinal rule in Bible study is as follows:
The interpretation of any Scripture is equal to what the author meant at the time he wrote it. Therefore it becomes our job through prayer and the Holy Spirit to use good Bible study methods in order to arrive at the author's intended meaning.

Dr. Filbert Bukk returns for Christmas

My first cousin once removed Dr. Filbert Bukk was able to spend time with us during the Christmas season. Dr. Bukk has a consulting company and is considering his own podcast soon as part of this blog site.

Photography by Anna B.

You might be Emergent if...

This is from the book "Why we're not Emergent (by two guys who should be), Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

• You listen to U2, Moby and Johnny Cash's Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinnes in the evenings, and always use a Mac;
  

• if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N.T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D.A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Neslon Mandela, or Desmond Tutu;

• if you don't like George W. Bush or institutions or big buisness or captalism or Left Behind Christianity;

• if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-monerging, CEO salaries, consumerism, glorbal warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage;

• if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty;

• if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined you life;

• if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant;

• if you search for truth but aren't sure it can be found;

• if you've ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn't count);

• if you loathe works like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage and dance;

• if you grew up in very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid;

• if you support women in all levels of ministry prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic;

• if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus;

• if you believe who goes to hell is no one's business and no one may be there anyway;

• if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker;

• if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way;

• if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us;

• if you disdain monological, didactic preaching;

• if you use the word "sotry" in all your propositions about postmodernism-if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.

Santa Claus or Jesus?

The sights of Christmas

Open letter to Rick Warren

This letter to is from Joseph Farah to Pastor Rick Warren regarding his agreeing to participate in the inauguration of Barack Obama.

I'm writing to share my profound and abject revulsion at your agreement to offer the invocation at the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as president Jan. 20.

I understand you want this to be a time of "healing" for our nation. I understand you consider Obama to be your "friend." I understand your desire to bring "civility" to our society.

However, when we read the Bible, we see there are times for men of God to stand up to leaders, like Nathan did to King David, and confront them with the absolute truth of God's word and His laws. That's what all Christians should do when confronted with leaders embracing evil.

Evil?

That's a strong word.

But I use it advisedly.

Let's focus on just one of Obama's evil policies, though there are dozens more we should consider.

Barack Obama is opposed to any and all restrictions on the killing of unborn children and has pledged to work against the few that remain. In fact, as a state legislator in Illinois, he pushed a law that would require the killing of babies born alive after unsuccessful abortions. You know he will also open the floodgates to the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund abortion overseas through groups like Planned Parenthood and agencies such as the United Nations Population Fund. You should note the U.N. supports forced abortions and sterilizations in China. He has even promised to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which would make illegal even peaceful efforts to persuade mothers from aborting their babies. In essence, Obama holds and has pledged to enforce, a radical pro-abortion position that will curtail free speech, freedom of religion and ensure that many more innocent lives will be destroyed.

I call that evil.I would hope you, a pastor of the gospel of Jesus Christ, would also call that evil.

I'm trying to imagine Jesus giving an invocation at the inauguration of such a man. I think you will agree, it's unimaginable.

So why are you ready, willing and eager to do this thing?

I ask you, as a brother in the Lord, to examine your heart, your mind and your soul as to your motivations for offering this prayer.

Yes, we are commanded to pray for our leaders. But there is no suggestion in the Bible that we are ever to be used as political pawns by praying at their events – especially when they are promoting the wholesale slaughter of innocent human beings.

I understand your yearning for civility.

I yearn for it, too.

But civility begins with the understanding that we are all made in the image of God. It begins with the rejection of the shedding of innocent blood. It begins with the church standing boldly upon its absolute convictions in the Word of God and in His laws.

I'm sure you would not want to invoke God's blessing on the inauguration of a figure like Adolf Hitler, whose rise to power brought the destruction of millions of lives.

So, in principle, you agree there is a time for believers to stand up to elected leaders and rebuke them – even publicly. Apparently, you don't believe that time is now – that the deaths of untold numbers of born and unborn babies is not justification enough for such a stance.

I disagree.

I want you to know that.

God will not bless the Obama administration's plans for murder, no matter what you say on Jan. 20. It's time for Rick Warren to decide whether he stands with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or if he stands with the world and his "friend," Barack Hussein Obama.

Is the altar call Biblical?

One of the best articles I have read on why this pastor and church DO NOT use the altar call method. His name is Laurence A. Justice and here is the LINK to well written and clearly researched article. It continues to amaze me how we as evangelicals don't go back to the clear teaching of God's word on these things. We are caught up in tradition, culture and a desire for success that can be measured in terms of numbers.

Total Depravity and Human Responsibility

Is "lectio divina" dangerous?

If you want to get up to speed on the term "contemplative spirituality" in which lectio divina qualifies then here are some good evangelical links.

LINK #1

LINK #2

LINK #3

LINK #4

LINK #5

LINK #6

And listen to this audio segment from Chris Rosebrough from Extreme Theology blog site:

Lectio Divina - parody on Rob Bell

Pride is deadly

Romans 8:1

How the devil steals your church

This is an excellent post from Pastor Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries blog site:

There is a progression that takes place in liberal theology: It begins with a corrupt bibliology, a corrupt view of the nature and the inspiration of Scripture. They have a corrupt theology because once you are picking and choosing from the Bible what you want, your theology has to suffer from it, because your human reason is corrupt… every major theological seminary that has turned from orthodox Christianity began with disbelief of Biblical doctrine. There wasn’t a single exception.

This corrupt Bibliology then lead them to the next step. Their theology began to be touched by it, their view of the Cross, the Virgin Birth were both immediately questioned; then came the miracles of Christ… And finally they had emptied the Gospel of all its content; they were simply using the outward shell so that they go on collecting money from the people and the churches; because they knew that if the people in the pew knew that they were apostate, they’d throw them out. So the strategy was hang on to the trust funds; hang on to the money we’ve got; hang on the properties we control, and we will gradually educate the laymen into this new approach to theology.

And then finally we will take control of everything. The gradual process of feeding you theological poison until you become immunized enough so that you don’t know what’s happening to you. And when you wake up to what’s happening to you, it’s too late they’ve got everything. That is not a baseless charge, I stand prepared to prove that the Cult of Liberal Theology in the United States has deliberately and consistently followed this methodology to entrap, control and dominate the denominations and the churches of the United States and our educational institutions. (The Cult of Liberalism, available from Walter Martin Religious InfoNet)

The information age will blow your mind

Are you ready to see the rate at which information is coming at us? This short video shows us the world as it is now, and what advances are likely to take place in our generation. After looking at this you will be able to agree with this principle "we are all dumber than we are smart." Like my old boss used to say there is a limit to how smart you can be but there is no limit to how dumb you can be. Folks, may we not be dumb to the gospel of Christ. (Click on this LINK)

Knowledge of God

We live in a time where people know about God but they don't know God. How are we to know Him if we don't know His word? And why are so many being told that doctrine is divisive instead of critical for Christian growth into Christ-likeness.
In this short audio clip, Paul Washer discusses an indictment against the church in the lack of the knowledge of God. May we as a people of God get back to the word of God so that the word of God may get back into us!
Knowledge of God

The "Porpoise" Driven Life

Christmas Tree 2008

Last night was the official lighting of the family Christmas tree. Now that we are "empty nesters" there was not the usual struggle to get the kids to participate. Nancy and I teamed up and got everything done in a couple of hours. We fixed a pot of peppermint coffee and talk about the ornaments collected over the years. This is really a great time of year, if one can get away from all the commercialization of Christmas.

We need to take some time to reflect on Christ who came as fully God and yet as fully man to save us from our sins. Americans today have grown up in a culture of "if it's to be then it's up to me." But Jesus plainly says in "apart from Me, you can do nothing." Isn't that the struggle with Christianity among those who reject the truth of God's word? We will either be man focused and die in our sins or God-focused and embrace the cross, cast ourselves on the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus and gain eternal life. There is no amount of logic or reason that can get someone into the kingdom because only Jesus can accomplish that feat.

Merry Christmas to each of you that may be regulars or even new to this blog. And without further adue let's get on with the official Christmas tree lighting for the 2008 year!

Christmas Tree Part1


Christmas Tree Part2

Give Jesus a 60 day trial? What?

This hot off the press from "A little leaven" blog site:

Rick Warren's December 3rd, 2008 appearance on Hannity and Colmes was a mixed bag.

We'll give Warren props for not caving in on the issue of Jesus being the only way. But, once again Warren stoops to new lows in his quest to remove the offense of the cross by asking Allen Colmes to give Jesus a 60 day trial and "see if he won't change your life".

Warren, like a bad used car salesman is trying to sell the gospel via bullet point benefits. Once again Warren skirts the issue of man's sin and rebellion against God and he doesn't call men to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ but instead asks non-believers to "give Jesus a 60 day trial" claiming that "if Jesus doesn't change your life then you can get your money back".

Is there a way for us to have a recall on Rick Warren? We don't want him representing us Christians anymore on Television. We want a different representative. We want one who is not ashamed of the Gospel and will boldly condemn men's sins, call men to repentance and placard Jesus Christ's death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.

Warren's seeker-sensitive mushy non-offensive approach to "selling" Christianity is truly embarrassing.

Santa Christ?

This article by Sinclair Ferguson
I took the hand of my toddler son (it was several decades ago now) as we made our way into the local shop on the small and remote Scottish island where earlier that year I had been installed as minister. It was Christmas week. The store was brightly decorated and a general air of excitement was abroad.

Without warning, the conversations of the customers were brought to a halt by a questioning voice from beside me. My son's upraised index finger pointed at a large cardboard Santa Claus. "Daddy, who is that funny-looking man?" he asked.

Amazement spread across the faces of the jostling shoppers; accusing glances were directed at me. Such shame--the minister's son did not even recognize Santa Claus! What likelihood, then, of hearing good news in his preaching at the festive season?

Such experiences can make us bewail how the Western world gives itself over annually to its Claus-mass or commerce-mass. We celebrate a reworked pagan Saturnalia of epic proportions, one in which the only connection with the incarnation is semantic. Santa is worshiped, not the Savior; pilgrims go to the stores with credit cards, not to the manger with gifts. It is the feast of indulgence, not of the incarnation.

It is always easier to lament and critique the new paganism of secularism's blatant idolatry than to see how easily the church -- and we ourselves -- twist or dilute the message of the incarnation in order to suit our own tastes. But, sadly, we have various ways of turning the Savior into a kind of Santa Claus.

Santa Claus Christianity
For one thing, in our worship at Christmas we may varnish the staggering truth of the incarnation with what is visually, audibly, and aesthetically pleasing. We confuse emotional pleasure -- or worse, sentiment -- with true adoration.

For another thing, we may denigrate our Lord with a Santa Claus Christology. How sadly common it is for the church to manufacture a Jesus who is a mirror refection of Santa Claus. He becomes Santa Christ.

Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus. Like Santa, he simply asks us whether we have been good. More exactly, since the assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we have been "good enough." So just as Christmas dinner is simply the better dinner we really deserve, Jesus becomes a kind of added bonus who makes a good life even better. He is not seen as the Savior of helpless sinners.

Or Santa Christ may be a Semi-Pelagian Jesus -- a slightly more sophisticated Jesus who, Santa-like, gives gifts to those who have already done the best they could! Thus, Jesus' hand, like Santa's sack, opens only when we can give an upper-percentile answer to the none-too-weighty probe, "Have you done your best this year?" The only difference from medieval theology here is that we do not use its Latin phraseology: facere quod in se est (to do what one is capable of doing on one's own, or, in common parlance, "Heaven helps those who help themselves").

Then again, Santa Christ may be a mystical Jesus, who, like Santa Claus, is important because of the good experiences we have when we think about him, irrespective of his historical reality. It doesn't really matter whether the story is true or not; the important thing is the spirit of Santa Christ. For that matter, while it would spoil things to tell the children this, everyone can make up his or her own Santa Christ. As long as we have the right spirit of Santa Christ, all is well.

But Jesus is not to be identified with Santa Claus; worldly thinking -- however much it employs Jesus-language--is not to be confused with biblical truth.

The Christ of Christmas
The Scriptures systematically strip away the veneer that covers the real truth of the Christmas story. Jesus did not come to add to our comforts. He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves or to fill life with more pleasant experiences. He came on a deliverance mission, to save sinners, and to do so He had to destroy the works of the Devil (Matt. 1:21; 1 John 3:8b).

Those whose lives were bound up with the events of the first Christmas did not find His coming an easy and pleasurable experience.

Mary and Joseph's lives were turned upside down.

The shepherds' night was frighteningly interrupted, and their futures potentially radically changed.

The magi faced all kinds of inconvenience and family separation.

Our Lord Himself, conceived before wedlock, born probably in a cave, would spend His early days as a refugee from the bloodthirsty and vindictive Herod (Matt. 2:13-21).

There is, therefore, an element in the Gospel narratives that stresses that the coming of Jesus is a disturbing event of the deepest proportions. It had to be thus, for He did not come merely to add something extra to life, but to deal with our spiritual insolvency and the debt of our sin. He was not conceived in the womb of Mary for those who have done their best, but for those who know that their best is "like filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6)--far from good enough--and that in their flesh there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18). He was not sent to be the source of good experiences, but to suffer the pangs of hell in order to be our Savior.

A Christian Christmas
The Christians who first began to celebrate the birth of the Savior saw this. Christmas for them was not (contrary to what is sometimes mistakenly said) simply adding a Christian veneer to a pagan festival--the Roman Saturnalia. They may have been doing what many Christians have done in marking Reformation Day (which happens to fall on Halloween), namely, committing themselves to a radical alternative to the world's Saturnalia, refusing to be squeezed into its mold. They were determined to fix mind, heart, will, and strength exclusively on the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no confusion in their thinking between the world and the gospel, Saturnalia and Christmas, Santa Jesus and Christ Jesus. They were citizens of another empire altogether.

In fact, such was the malice evoked by their other-worldly devotion to Christ that during the persecutions under the Emperor Diocletian, some believers were murdered as they gathered to celebrate Christmas. What was their gross offense? Worship of the true Christ -- incarnate, crucified, risen, glorified, and returning. They celebrated Him that day for giving His all for them, and as they did so, they gave their all for Him.

One Christmas Eve in my teenage years, I opened a book a friend had given to me as a present. I found myself so overwhelmed by its teaching on my recently found Savior that I began to shake with emotion at what had dawned on me: the world had not celebrated His coming, but rather had crucified Him.

Doubtless I was an impressionable teenager. But should it not cause us to tremble that "they crucified my Lord"? Or is that true only in song, not in reality? Are we not there when the world still crucifies Him in its own, often-subtle ways?

The truth is that unless the significance of what Christ did at the first Christmas shakes us, we can scarcely be said to have understood much of what it means, or of who He really is.

Who is He in yonder stall
At Whose feet the shepherds fall?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! Crown Him, Lord of all!

And we might add:

Who is He on yonder cross
Suffers for this dark world's loss?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord! the King of glory!
At His feet we humbly fall,
Crown Him! Crown Him, Lord of all!

Let us not confuse Jesus Christ with Santa Claus.

Quote for the day

I should as soon expect a farmer to prosper in business who contented himself with sowing his fields and never looking at them till harvest, as expect a believer to attain much holiness who was not diligent about his Bible reading, his prayers, and the use of his Sundays. - J.C. Ryle (1816 - 1900)

Rob Bell's - Nooma videos

Here is an excellent review from Greg Gilbert on the Nooma video series from Rob Bell. Even though Rob is an effective communicator it seems that he is preaching and teaching a false gospel. I know those are strong words but when the gospel is only presented as a half truth then it leads to a no truth which results in a lie. The details about Bell and his theology is reflected in the series and this review gives one an excellent breakdown.

Just click on this LINK.