Tornadoes, Prayer and Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais is a comedian and an atheist who enjoys picking on Christians. Atheism is the new Kabbalah. Remember how every celebrity was suddenly in Kabbalah for a while? Atheism is like sitting at the cool kid table.

I do not mind atheists picking on Christians. If there is a group of people in the world who need picking on, it’s Christians. After the recent tornado in Oklahoma, Gervais picked on faith yet again.

The spat began when Gervais put out a Tweet for his followers to donate money for victims of the tornado. This was followed by a “MTV News tweet reading, “Beyonce, Rihanna & Katy Perry send prayers to #Oklahoma #PrayForOklahoma.”

Gervais responded with another Tweet saying, “I feel like an idiot now, I only sent money.”

Christians, who are so busy being persecuted and living separate from the world, read this tweet and immediately got huffy. Gervais obviously is against prayer and thinks people who pray are doing nothing. I am outraged!

This is all quite comical, although the comedy was probably not intended by Gervais. I’m guessing Gervais does not know the book of James very well, but seems to me James would have tweeted the same point.

“If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

Gervais is right! Praying for Oklahoma with no intention of helping Oklahoma is pretty close to pointless, if not sinful hypocrisy.

Again, let me say, prayer does not exist so we can avoid consequences. If you build a house in Tornado Alley, you have to expect this sort of thing. You can pray to have God put a “hedge of protection” around your Tornado Alley house, but bushes probably won’t help either.

I ask in all seriousness, when you say, “I send my thoughts and prayers to you,” what are you expecting that to do?

In my experience with Christians, any time I’ve heard someone say this to me, I know they are saying it to be nice. I have also noted that everyone who has said this to me has never actually done anything nice to follow it up.

I’m not telling you not to pray. I’m telling you not to use throwaway lines to cover up your inaction. That’s called “hypocrisy” and God does not take kindly to that.

Faith and Health Care

My back, right wrist, left elbow and both achilles hurt. They each hurt from different activities I have done in the past few days. Seems as though any time I move I hurt myself. I sneezed the other day and had back spasms for two days.

It is possible that I am getting old. It hardly seems fair that a nice guy like me should have to suffer and be in pain.

“The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves“

This is an important verse for thinking about faith healing and even the “health and wealth gospel.” There is the notion that those who have the Holy Spirit are exempt from pain. That true believers defy the laws of nature. We can do any manner of activities in our old bodies and not have to feel the effects afterward.

Everyone wants a life free of consequences for actions. Our actions are typically stupid, ensuing consequences tend to be more stupid. Wouldn’t it be nice to skip the reaping part of sowing stupid?

Indeed it would. Technology is driven by this desire. Hangovers can be cured with magic pills. Abortion occurs many times for the sake of convenience. Wheels were invented to get to other sins quicker. Seriously, they were. It’s also why Wal-Mart was created.

But not all consequences are removed by technology, so where does this leave us? I guess, once we’ve exhausted physical remedies, we turn to faith.

Faith is chalked up as the god-send to skip consequences. “You can sin, live like heathen scum and if you have enough faith, God will heal all the problems your heathen scum lifestyle produced.”

Faith isn’t just applied to escaping sinful consequences though, it makes an appearance to defy the laws of nature (parents convicted of killing their second child who died while not seeking medical attention because they believed they would be healed). If Christians were able to enjoy health and wealth as everyday experience, we would certainly attract a following. Mainly a following of people who want health and wealth.

Obamacare would never have been thought of if faith worked like this! (Although it does take a considerable amount of faith to believe Obamacare will help. . .)

The health and wealth gospel wants you to get God for your physical benefit, seemingly skipping the idea that even those with the Spirit groan and suffer.

Groaning and suffering are life. Then you die. This is true if you are heathen scum or if you have the Holy Spirit. This world was never the point. Faith was not invented to make your life here pain-free. It was invented to get you out of this world of pain and into the presence of your Creator.

C. S. Lewis on Individuals Being More Important than Nations

“If individuals live only seventy years, then a state, or a nation, or a civilisation, which may last for a thousand years, is more important than an individual.

“But if Christianity is true, then the individual is not only more important but incomparably more important, for he is everlasting and the life of the state or civilisation, compared with his, is only a moment.”

–C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity

“We Know Not What we should Pray for as we Ought” What Does that Mean?

Prayer is a subject that gets attention. One would think that with all the attention there would be some logic. Riiiight.

I recently listened to a sermon on the necessity of prayer to keep your life from falling apart. At one point the preacher said he wanted to keep praying so his life would stay together, he wouldn’t fail his calling, so that his church members didn’t have to be embarrassed to see their disgraced pastor walking down the street.

Now, I can sort of see the point. Not disgracing the ministry is a legitimate concern, but should it be the basis of our prayer life? Is avoiding embarrassment the point of prayer?

He also went on to say that prayer is what makes a ministry successful, that if you pray you will get converts and if you don’t your life will tank.

Again, I cannot argue against prayer aiding the ministry, but did not Jeremiah and Ezekiel pray for Israel? Didn’t Paul pray for Israel and yet repeatedly were met with failure? When Christ prayed, “Take this cup from me” it was not removed.

If our motivation for prayer is: “help my physical experience to be better,” and that’s it, we have some problems.

Romans 8 talks about prayer and the famous phrase about how we don’t know how to pray. I have heard this used to teach that

1) praying really isn’t all that big a deal anyway since we don’t know how to do it.
2) don’t expect answers to prayer because you don’t know what you’re doing
3) yes, Paul says we don’t know how to pray, but he meant sometimes we don’t know how to pray.
4) prayer is really hard, even Paul doesn’t know how to do it, what chance do you have?

I’ve rarely been comfortable with the applications I’ve been handed out of Romans 8:26.

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Notice Paul doesn’t say, “we don’t know how to pray.” Sure we do, the Bible tells us. Remember the disciples’ famous question, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Did Jesus answer with, “Sorry, no can do, you don’t know how to pray and I’m gonna leave you there.” No, He taught them to pray.

Paul does not say we don’t know how to pray, he says we don’t know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit helps us in this infirmity by interceding. There are two phrases about the Spirit’s involvement with our prayer

1) The Spirit helps our infirmity–the infirmity being that we are fleshly minded and desire fleshly results, which leads us to not pray for the right things, as James says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” In order to pray for the right things we must use the spiritual mind we’ve been given not base prayer on our physical desires.

2) The Spirit intercedes with groanings that cannot be uttered. This means either the Spirit does prayers for us that we don’t know about, or it may mean we are in a state of prayer that defies words. Perhaps it is both as I have heard both expressed by commentators.

One thing it means is that we need the Spirit to help us pray. I can’t imagine denying this point. The reason why is because we don’t have a clue what’s really going on and most of our concerns are physical.

Right before this verse Paul’s context is hope. In order to understand a passage you have to use its context. “hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Hope is all about the unseen; which leads Paul into prayer and how we don’t know what to pray for as we ought, which is why we need the Spirit. The Spirit is not seen. Most of our prayers are looking for a see-able answer. If we always got a see-able answer we would not have hope, nor need the Spirit!

God has big things in mind. Eternal things, things we can’t see yet. It’s part of the weakness of the flesh that only the Spirit can answer. It’s what Romans 8 is about.

Want Glory? Then Suffer

I love music. I particularly love loud music. I inherited this from my father who used to play his music loud. When my dad died, I inherited his stereo, which can put out some good sound and also has a big subwoofer attached.

I can rattle dishes upstairs.

It is awesome.

Obviously I would rather have my dad than his stereo, but I am grateful that I can enjoy his stereo now that he’s no longer using it. I did not take his golf clubs because I knew I would struggle to remember him fondly with those.

When we think of inheritance we always think of good stuff. Not long ago we were asked if we wanted to take some distant German relative’s inheritance. This sounds like a good deal, except that the German government does not tell you what the inheritance is, and it might be debts you are now liable for!

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” is the major portion of Romans 8:17 we hear. We love to talk about being children of God, inheriting heaven and the meek inheriting the recreated earth. Sweet!

Romans 8:17 has another bit with it though, here is the complete verse: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

Our inheritance in Christ includes glorification, this is true, and this glorification is a tremendous thing. But in order to get it, you have to suffer. This suffering is not limited to bodily suffering due to being a fallen creature in a fallen world, I believe it is specifically referring to suffering for righteousness sake.

Paul specifically says “if so be that we suffer WITH Him.” It’s not general suffering of all people, but a specific suffering with Christ, joining in His sufferings, akin to Paul’s goals in Philippians–that he may know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.

Before we start jumping to inheritance, it is important to go where Paul went in talking about inheritance–you have to suffer for it. Apparently, based on Paul’s verbiage, if we don’t suffer we have no reason to believe we’ll be glorified.

This does not mean we must suffer to be saved. What it means is that true salvation results in living godly, which leads to suffering. One of the tests of whether you are saved is whether you suffer for it. If you do, you then have the confident expectation of glorification.

There are reasons why Romans 8:17 is rarely fully quoted: no one wants to deal with this inconvenient truth, but since Paul brings it up, I imagine we might want to deal with it.

Sermon: Romans 8 Part Two

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Ticks, Mosquitoes and Judging Sin

Just pulled a tick out of my son’s head. In Northern Wisconsin, ticks are a risk. They carry Lyme’s disease and other increasingly bizarre diseases. They are nothing to mess around with.

I do not seem to attract ticks. Some think ticks don’t like everyone, that there’s some smell or something about certain people they don’t like (could just be I’m ticked off all the time). (Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week) (except tomorrow). But I’ve also found, and this is pure theory based on anecdotal evidence, that those who do not attract ticks seem to attract mosquitoes more!

Mosquitoes flock to me. I know other guys who hardly seem to be bothered by mosquitoes and yet they tend to get more ticks. Hmmm.

Bugs are annoying no matter what kind of bug they are. Those who attract ticks laugh at those who are constantly swatting mosquitoes away and those with all the mosquitoes laugh at the guy who is picking ticks off himself for half an hour every time he comes inside.

This is a manifestation of Bug Judgmentalism. “Why you swattin mosquitoes? They aint even bad?” “I don’t know, why you pickin ticks so much, I aint got a one.”

Yup, we all talk in that dialect when it comes to judging others. Similar to how we talk like a fat, Baptist preacher from the Deep South when we judge homosexuality, cussers and other sins that don’t affect us. Can I get an Amen? A-ha-men-ah.

Our ability to judge others’ experiences by our own is what gives Christians such a positive reputation among “sinners.” Since I do not struggle with homosexual or cussing temptations, I use all the more outrage against those who do.

However, when it comes to my favorite sins, I rarely mention them, don’t judge others on them and instead give others who don’t struggle with that sin an opportunity to return the judging favor.

Judging others harshly: it’s what makes the world go round.

There is a place for judgment, it’s goofy to deny that. But it must be done the right way and should always be done with “the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”

I don’t think this temptation is limited to falling into the same sin you are judging, but being tempted to be proud and an arrogant jerk as we attempt to restore a sinful person.

Sin is a bad deal, it must be dealt with, and part of the Church’s job is to help one another overcome sin, which means pointing it out and helping battle it. Go gentle with it though, cuz we all gonna get bit by sumpin sometime.