Lovers (of the World) Gonna Hate

Posted on June 28, 2022 by RC

Why, I have to wonder, is the slaughter of the unborn so low on the radar of so many evangelicals? Why do we get our dander up over racism or human trafficking, but not so much over abortion?

Before I seek to offer my perspective on those questions, let’s make one obvious thing perfectly clear. Human trafficking is wicked, vile, nauseating evil. So is racism. It is not my intention to weigh the relative demerits of these wrongs, but rather to explore the disparity in our outrage and involvement.

I suggest two reasons. First, abortion is near, human trafficking far. Now I’m not denying that human trafficking happens here in these United States, or that the murder of the unborn doesn’t happen overseas. The nearness of which I speak is more social than geographic. Evangelicals are far more likely to have procured an abortion (one in six abortions in the US are procured by a professing evangelical) or have a friend who has done so than they are to have been enslaved in prostitution or know someone who has. You might think that the more distant the outrage the less, rather than the more, we would be outraged. The trouble is, because we are sinners, our outrage exists more for ourselves than for the suffering. When the outrage is distant I can feel angry, morally superior, and never have to actually do anything. Distant outrage is the path of least resistance. My dander and self-esteem climb at the same pace.

Which brings us to the second reason. We have no neighbors that stand up for racism or sex trafficking. Indeed they are the ones most loudly objecting to racism and sex trafficking. We are surrounded, however, by neighbors who believe abortion is a virtual sacrament, a holy act of feminine liberation. Moloch is the God our neighbors worship, and they don’t take kindly to us when we speak ill of him. Because racism and sex trafficking truly are evils from a Christian perspective, choosing them as our causis belli doesn’t require us to betray our Lord. And it allows us to stand shoulder to shoulder with our unbelieving neighbors.

In short, with abortion we might be called to action, to do the unpleasant work of actually ministering to our neighbors by calling them to repentance, by going to spiritual war with them. We might have to get involved with the abortion vulnerable, in our neighborhoods and on our campuses. With abortion, in turn, we face the unpleasant prospect of being rejected by our neighbors, thought uncouth, backwards, fundamentalists, even mean spirited.

Fighting the scourge of abortion begins with tearing down our own high places- our worship of comfort and acceptance. Fighting abortion requires us not to look at a news report and judge but to look in the mirror and repent. Lord, give us the grace to love You and to be hated by the world. For the least of these, Your brothers.

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Psalm 29; Our Prodigal Father

Posted on June 28, 2022 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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What Now? A Post Roe World

Posted on June 27, 2022 by RC

Despite a month long head start in believing/hoping that Roe v. Wade was about to be overturned, it remains a daily shock to wake up to this new world. As others have wisely said, this is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but maybe the end of the beginning. So what are some things we should be doing in light of this change?

1. Repenting. No matter how diligent we may have been, we all have much to repent for. We allowed this law to stand for nearly 50 years. We became content, at ease with the murder of the unborn. One out of six of those over 60,000,000 million dead babies began life in the womb of a professing evangelical. The church of Jesus Christ has the blood of 10,000,000 of our own babies on our hands.

2. Giving thanks. Our repentance doesn’t preclude our joy over this change. That joy, however, must be grounded in gratitude rather than pride. This deliverance is God’s doing. Of course all things are God’s doing, but sometimes He makes it more obvious. That He would use a crass, self-interested, crude man, President Trump, and a spineless, oily lickspittle, Mitch McConnell, to get this done ought to make it clear that we are not the heroes of the story. God is always worthy to be praised.

3. Getting to work. We allowed this Roe v. Wade monstrosity to stay in place for nearly fifty years because we were content. Those states with trigger laws already in place (who previously passed legislation outlawing abortion in the event that Roe v. Wade was overturned) are ahead of the game, but can easily and quickly fall behind. Those states that can outlaw abortion must do so today. Those where abortion will continue, albeit without federal protection, are where we must labor most diligently. It is all too easy to let the blue states alone in their folly. Which means it is all too easy to forget that it is the babies who are the victims.

4. Loving children. I have long argued that the heathen will not murder their children when believers start believing children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127). There is a great gap between poisoning or barricading a womb to try to keep it empty and murdering a baby that is already there. There is, however, overlap. In both instances the parents do not want a baby. Believers, like our neighbors, are prone to worship convenience, even if we’re not willing to sacrifice babies to it.

5. Believing and proclaiming the gospel. While we are engaged in a spiritual war with the forces of death, we remember that every one of us once served in that evil army. We were “defeated” by our Enemy who died for us. Our calling is to love our enemies enough to tell them of His great work for us. We are not better than the baby killers. We are beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

As is always the case, these five callings were our calling before Roe was overturned, while Roe was in force and before Roe was ruled. They are our calling at all times and in all places. May we be found faithful.

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Prosecuting Murderous Moms

Posted on June 27, 2022 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Some Don’t Like It Hot

Posted on June 24, 2022 by RC

I get that people are not carbon copies of each other. I don’t even dislike those who take a different perspective. But I am not among those who like it hot. I like it cold. As I write we are in the midst of an early heat wave in northern Indiana. Record temps today and tomorrow, both in the high 90’s. And technically speaking, as I write it isn’t even summer yet. The blessing of living in norther Indiana is that while they may be intense, any heatwave will more resemble a heat ripple. That is, they don’t last long.

That some people could enjoy this is beyond me, but I suspect those same people feel the same about me. What annoys me, though I confess to enjoying to one degree or another, three of the four seasons, are those who insist they like them all the same. Had these people been a part of the Corinthian church you wouldn’t find them claiming allegiance to the Paul party, the Apollos faction or the Peter alliance but would have looked down on them all saying, “We are of Jesus.” “I like them all the same” is just too pious to be true.

In case, however, any of you are on the fence, consider these truths. First, the heat is draining. The cold is bracing. Second, the heat destroys ice cream. The cold protects ice cream. Third, the heat creates a miserably sweltering Independence Day. The cold creates a white Christmas. In the heat you cannot build an ice but in the cold you can build a fire.

My desire is that I would learn to give thanks in all things. The same Father who blesses with snow is the one sending the heat. And He only gives good gifts. But I find myself thinking the one good thing about the heat is that it makes the cold that much more sweet when it comes.

My ancestors lived in the north Atlantic, on the British Isles. I have the tender skin that comes with that territory. The skin on the top of my head must go without the protection of actual hair. Heat and sun are dangerous to me. For others, the thin blooded whose ancestors lived closer to the tropics, heat is what keeps them going strong. That said, technology backs me up as well. It’s true that when it is hot out one can come inside to the air conditioning. It is likewise true that when it is cold we can come inside to the heat. If your genetics, or circumstances put you somewhere in between, I invite you to join the some who like it cold. Go against the flow. In the coming days of the hot, look with me to the distant, but coming, days of the cold. Count down the days to the coziness of early gloaming, warm fires and well-worn sweaters. Let us show our warmth when the days come to give a warm welcome to Jack Frost, Ice Miser and Yukon Cornelius.

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That 70s Kid, Candy Lane; Pragmatic Principle

Posted on June 24, 2022 by RC

Today’s Jesus changes Everything Podcast

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Suffer the Children

Posted on June 23, 2022 by RC

I have spent years encouraging us to set aside our petty amusements, to put behind us the distractions of vanity fair, to throw off the sloth that luxuriates in the status quo. Like some spiritual drill sergeant I have been trying to get us to wake up and smell the war and to get to the front lines. We have a battle to win, a great enemy to destroy. We are called to an epic struggle that spans the epochs, from the garden of Eden to the Garden City of the New Jerusalem. We have a kingdom to build.

All of which may means that I have missed the point. When Jesus told His students to seek first the kingdom of God, He wasn’t dealing with the problem of complacency. He was not seeking to rouse a bunch of couch potatoes into action. Instead, Jesus was calling on those who were caught up in worry and fear, to set such things aside. Instead, Jesus is seeking to calm anxious hearts and minds, to remind those who are His that they are the children of their Father in heaven. It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.

Jesus makes much the same point in the gospel of Mark. We are all too familiar with the story. Jesus was in Judea, and the multitudes gathered around Him as He taught them. Many among the crowd brought their little children to Jesus, but the disciples rebuked them. Jesus, seeing this, we are told, was greatly displeased. Then He uttered these potent words: “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). We’ve all seen pictures of this glorious event. We see the children gazing up at the Lord with trust in their eyes. We see the joy and delight in the shining face of Jesus. We walk away, our hearts warmed by the tender love of Jesus toward the little children, and once again, completely miss the point. As touching as this scene is, as moved as we might be by the love of Jesus for the children that were there that day, and toward our own children, what we miss is the reason for all this. We miss the wisdom of Jesus who says, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (v. 15).

Jesus’ words present both a stern warning and a delightful invitation. The warning is clear enough. If we will not come as children, we will not come at all. There will be those in the end with their dignity intact, their maturity assured, and their eternity spent on weeping and teeth gnashing. Jesus does not say that if we do not come as children we will be least in the kingdom. He does not say that if we do not come as children we will miss out on joy. He does not say that if we do not come as children then we will lose some degree of fellowship with our Father. He says we will not come at all. We will, by no means, enter into the kingdom.

But there is invitation here as well. We enter into the kingdom as helpless as babies. We enter into the kingdom as needy as babies. We enter into the kingdom as ignorant as babies. We enter into the kingdom as useless as babies. We enter into the kingdom with nothing in our hands, not even a pacifier. We have no contribution to make and no agenda to follow. We come trusting like a baby, resting like a baby, and laughing like a baby. We enter into the kingdom with eyes wide with wonder.

We were taught to pray by Jesus, to our heavenly Father, that His kingdom would come as His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. We will enter into heaven as children. We bring heaven down to earth as we live our lives as children. We bring heaven down by living now as we will then. In the upside-down economy of the kingdom of God, the call to Christian maturity is the call to immaturity. As we age, as we acquire wisdom, we learn more and more that we know less and less. When we are born, we begin the process of aging, growing closer to death. When we are born again, we begin the process of getting younger, growing closer to life.

May God grant us the grace not merely to suffer the children to come, but suffer ourselves to come as children. For of such is the kingdom of God. The King, remember, entered into His kingdom as a babe. And no servant is greater than his master.

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What is Sonship Theology?; In the Beginning, First Yom

Posted on June 23, 2022 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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What do you love to teach about?

Posted on June 22, 2022 by RC

Though I have from time to time been typecast, sometimes as the family guy, others the economics guy, and still more the worldview guy, I’ve been blessed to be called to speak on a number of different themes. I’ve spoken at pro-life events, theological conferences, apologetics gatherings, homeschool conventions and more. I am grateful for all those opportunities, and I pray that I always speak from a position of biblical passion. That said, and not wanting to close off any opportunities outside of this sweet spot, there are some things I get more excited about than others.

Truth be told, however, that sweet spot is less about a particular theme, more about a particular approach. Whether I am speaking of justification by faith alone, the book of Exodus, C.S. Lewis, logical positivism, or the call of a husband the hope ever before me is that what I say might be used to help those hearing to be changed more fully into the image of Christ. My heart’s desire is to see the power of the Word of God make the critical journey from our minds to our hearts. I’m delighted to provide information others may be unaware of, but still more love it when I have the opportunity to take information we all already know, and show another facet that we might have missed, to lightly twist a diamond of truth to allow another facet to shine.

Truths, by themselves, are linear things. They give birth, however, to implications, which come at us from every direction. The truths, by themselves, are often content to remain as units of information, safely stored and sealed in our grey matter. The implications, however, live in fecund soil from which comes not just more implications, but implications that touch us where we live, or to put it another way, that touch us. The doctrine of total depravity says something about the nature of man. The implication, however, is that Jesus rescued me when I fought against Him. That God created all things by the word of His power says something about the creation. What it says about His power to remake us, having declared us to be just, drives us to our knees. In both cases, the former draws a response of “huh” while the latter creates tears of gratitude.

I fear that we fear implications precisely because they have the power to not just challenge us, but change us. True ideas can certainly correct false ideas, but if they stay just ideas, they remain self-contained. They don’t reach into us, as implications do. We, because we are actual sinners, want to stay the way we are. That’s why we reduce the moral commands of the Word of God to the banal and insipid, “Be nice.”

Whatever I am speaking on my desire is to draw from the ideas these most potent implications- we are, in ourselves, sinners of the worst kind. We are not, however, in ourselves, but in Him. And thus we are loved with an everlasting, immutable love. I love nothing more than for people to go away from my teaching riveted by these truths- I am worse than I thought. He is better than I thought. And He is for me. That, above all else, is what I love to teach about.

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Atin-Lay, Extra Mundum; Good News, Silence

Posted on June 22, 2022 by RC

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