COVID-19: What does the Bible say?

Franklin Graham drew the ire of the press when in a recent interview he tied the coronavirus to the sin of mankind. We have to be careful that we don’t put words in his mouth. He did not point to a specific sin as causing the disease, but he highlighted that sickness and death, and yea, even COVID-19, are in the world because of sin generally, because of man’s rebellion against God (Romans 3:623a). That's what he said.

Which then begs the question: what can I know specifically about God and such plagues from the Bible? Is COVID-19 a judgment upon the world?

In the past, a few pastors have grabbed the limelight by linking natural disasters to God’s specific judgment of the sin of particular groups of people or of specific individuals. The problem with such  positions and such assertions is that they cannot be supported from God’s word to mankind, the Bible.

In wanting to distance ourselves from such heartless heresies, we’ve gone to the other extreme and often said nothing about God’s certain judgment against sin. The media carries on about the worst pandemic in a century as though God has no part of it and has nothing to say about it.

Both positions miss the clear teaching of the Bible.

WHAT I CAN’T SAY

Dirty Harry famously declared, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Nowhere is that more important than when we look to see what God has declared to us in the Bible. I must discern not only what does it say but what doesn’t it say.

WE CAN’T KNOW IF THE PANDEMIC WAS CAUSED BY SIN

In John 9, the disciples are with Jesus, and as they pass a blind beggar, the disciples are curious about whose sin brought about the man’s blindness: his own or his parents’. Two things to note about the disciples question. First, the disciples recognize the sin of the man from his birth. God’s word makes plain that there is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10b) and that inherent sin nature within each person begins at conception (Psalm 51:5). None is born righteous. Each of us is born in sin. Second, the disciples understand that without even knowing them that the parents are sinners, too. Little within sociology can begin to refute the sinfulness of each person, that each one does not uphold God’s perfect standard of holiness.

Notice, too, that in John 9, Jesus doesn’t correct the disciples implications about the sinfulness of the three people in question. In John 8:11 he didn’t deny the sin of the woman caught in adultery either. Almighty God alone understands the magnitude of each one’s sin which is why a sacrifice of the magnitude of the death of the Son of God was required to pay such a penalty for all humanity. We are all steeped in and saturated with our sin.

A brief rabbit trail. While it wasn’t the specific sin of the man or his parents that brought about his blindness, we do recognize that such a condition is traceable to the brokenness of the world that was brought about by the sin of Adam and Eve. What we call natural evil (i.e. blindness, deafness, earthquakes, tsunamis, famine, and pestilence)—all have their root in the original sin of mankind. Death (Genesis 2:17, 3:19) entered the cosmos not as a natural mechanism but as a result of man’s treason against God. With that sentence of death came the decay that accompanies it, both within man himself and within the world created for him (Romans 8:19-22). As such, all sin, all disease, all natural evil within the cosmos can be traced back to the rebellion of man against his Creator. That was Franklin Graham’s point.

I CAN’T KNOW SPECIFICALLY WHY DISASTERS COME

This passage in John 9 isn’t the only time in the Bible that Jesus highlights that we cannot know God’s intention behind a terrible situation. In Luke 13:1-6, Jesus is confronted by some about Pilate’s atrocity of mixing the blood of some Galileans with his sacrifices. When Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?” he highlighted their implication within the question, that is that they suffered this fate because they were worse sinners.

It’s natural, gut-level response. We think that because something terrible has happened to someone, it is because they have done something terrible. We have let the idea of karma within eastern religions infect our thinking. One need only look to the cross of Christ to understand that the only holy Man to walk the planet, the One in which no sin dwelt, Jesus of Nazareth, received not what he deserved but what all of humanity deserved in total.

He dispels their faulty thinking in four words: “No, I tell you…”

As we look to bad things happening in the world, as we look to the wildfire spread of COVID-19 across the globe, no one can point an indicting finger and declare that anyone’s particular sin is the ultimate cause. Prophets of old with God’s divine authority brought such declarations and the coming judgments against specific nations were born out in the days that followed. Or by God’s authority upon his special revelation to them, they (alone) could declare the reason of a cataclysm as God’s specific judgment upon specific sin.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a prophet.

WHAT GOD’S WORD DOES SAY

Jesus Christ absolved the man born blind, the Galilean martyrs, and the eighteen who died when Siloam’s tower collapsed of being causal behind the particular evil, but as we already noted, he did not absolve them of sin. That is what Jesus wanted to drive home in the current events lesson of Luke 13. When he said, “No, I tell you” in answer to whether or not it was the Galileans sin, he continued, “but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). He might just as well have slapped each one in the face. In case they missed it, he repeated the lesson when he brought to their mind the eighteen who died when the tower of Siloam collapsed, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5)

Jesus Christ, God the Son, was (then) and is (now) issuing a wakeup call. And he suggests that it is the darkness and disaster in the world that should snap us out of our complacency.

We, each one, stands in rebellion against God. None righteous. No, not one (Romans 3:10). The Romans 3 passage continues with more troubling detail than an MRI, “no one understands. No one seeks after God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless…there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:10-18). No sin-stained soul can make a case for themselves against the blistering holiness, goodness, and righteousness of God. And God is warning us.

To think that we can make a case for ourselves before God only seals our condemnation (Luke 18:10-14).

This condemnation is not merely a physical death but an eternal spiritual death separated from God and in eternal punishment (Matthew 10:28, 25:41).

Well, then what hope do we have? Heed what Jesus said in Luke 13. Man must repent before God. It was the sermon of John the Baptist as he prepared the way for the Lord (Matthew 3:3ff). It was the first message of Jesus Christ to the masses when he started his earthly ministry at age 30 (Matthew 4:17). If we cannot fathom that our relationship with God is amiss and a mess in the first place, our relationship with God can never be made right.

When disasters strike, the news feeds will be filled with the question, “Why?” Why did this happen? Who is at fault? Who is to blame? Is it greenhouse emissions? Or is it greenback greed? Jesus shakes his head. Sin has brought these things into the world. Yes, they are a result of sin, but whether it is a particular man’s sin, we cannot know. That is the purview of God.

What we can know is that the obvious consequence of a broken world must slap us with the realization that the world and everyone in it stand condemned before God’s righteous judgment. And we must turn to God. Repentance is serious business. I must recognize God alone is holy. I must recognize I am not, and that I have been a rebel from the womb. In truth, I come to God with nothing to offer. Like the tax collector in Luke 18, I can only beat my chest and beg that God have mercy upon me, a sinner.

This is not an act whereupon receiving God’s mercy and forgiveness, the man then returns to the place of his debauchery and deceits. Repeating the Shammah five times didn’t release him to go back to adulteries and assaults. Like Zacchaeus the tax collector, he goes and makes things right, never to return to his treacherous practices. Half his wealth to the poor. He returned four times that which he stole. This is a man who was truly changed.

But how does this change come?

THE GLORY OF GOD AMID DISASTER

In John 9:3, Jesus gave an amazing reason behind the nightmare of the man’s blindness. No, it wasn’t the sin of the man or his parents, “but,” Jesus said, “that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The entire chapter is an extraordinary story of blindness. The disciples. The people. The parents. The Pharisees. None seeing the reality. And at the end of the story, the only one who “sees” clearly apart from Jesus is the one blind who was physically blind at the start.

The amazing work of God is not physical sight—though that is not to be dismissed as a small thing—but the spiritual sight. Throughout the story, the man testifies to this one who healed him. He recognized the truth of this man, that he must be from God. A prophet?

At the end of the chapter, Jesus asks him if he believes in “the Son of Man,” a phrase that Jews of that day would understand to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. The man asks Jesus in utter sincerity, “Who is he?” When Jesus reveals himself as the Son of Man, the man-once-blind said, “Lord, I believe,” and John tells us that the man worshipped Jesus (9:38).

Here is God glorified. When he is worshipped for who he is. When man understands his wretchedness through the miraculous touch of God, and upon hearing what God has done for him, he explodes in love and worship for God, God is glorified. Man finds his delight and his satisfaction in the One who created him.

COVID-19

None of this dismisses nor diminishes the darkness of disaster and death. Again, the price paid on the cross by Jesus Christ only magnifies the gravity and grotesque severity of the problem.

But God’s word does point us to the truth that even in the middle of suffering, God calls his creature, each one, to consider where they stand before him. And he does it not that we be overwhelmed in a guilt trip, but that we would reach out to the priceless provision he made on our behalf. “Jesus paid it all,” the song declares, and more than that, the Bible declares it (John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 2:13-14).

Why is COVID-19 ravaging the world? I don’t know specifically; the Bible does not say. But God does make plain to us that such situations are wake-up calls for us even today. Now is not the time for us to hit snooze but to respond to his call.

The little, extraordinary things of God

I attend and serve in a small church on a nondescript corner in a small, north Texas town. Passing through town, you could take the "Flyover" and miss the traffic lights that would slow you on your way to your destination. And you would miss the town

What can God do in such a town? It's not a metropolis where tens of thousands can be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ. The sizable churches here can be counted on a couple of fingers, and I'd be hard pressed to call any of those a mega-church.

But with such an attitude, I would miss the truth that the God who holds the beauty and majesty of the solar system and the cosmos in place is the same God who blooms a flower in northern Canada that no one will ever see. All for his glory and his good pleasure. Big and small. For his purposes clear or confusing.

The God of the metropolis is the God of small town. He cares for and works in all those who would call upon his name.

Eighteen years ago, we began attending a tiny church, Messiah Baptist Church then, with a small congregation of passionate people who loved the Lord. The pastor, Keith Stone, had begun the church six years before that, 1995, when the Lord moved his heart to begin that work. It met in his home. And grew. They then paid cash for an abandoned building in our mostly deserted downtown area.

Pastor Keith Stone & his bride, Debbie

Since then, through various circumstances, all with God's mighty hand at the tiller, Troy Scott, Lukus Counterman, Luke Love, Josh Longoria, and an occasional pinch-pastor, have shepherded this little church in north Texas, now Wichita Falls Baptist Church. Each one used of God to invest in and nourish this small body of believers in the hot plains of northern Texas. 

Today, through God's good providence, the current pastor, Jeremy Mollenkopf, got to meet the first pastor, Keith Stone, as the latter and his bride, Debbie (our first pianist), were back in town for Debbie's high school reunion. In sweet providence, Jeremy was preaching on Haggai 2:1-9, a passage that highlights that the size of a thing does not correspond directly to what God thinks of the thing. We might think it meager but God is doing an amazing thing in that which appears puny.

Pastor Stone & Pastor Jeremy Mollenkopf

Jeremy highlighted this truth by referencing the time when Jesus, in the Temple, witnessed a poor widow place two mites, two small copper coins, in the coffers of that majestic facility, a pittance in relation to the amounts that others were giving. Jeremy noted, "Two coins didn't make much noise" going into those coffers. 

But what did incarnate God think of such? She "has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on" (Mark 12:43-44).

God doesn't call us to create the harvest. He just calls us to be faithful to use the few talents he has given all who believe in this life for his glory. The harvest is in his hands. Perhaps I teach a Sunday school of three or three thousand. Perhaps I give ten dollars or ten thousand. Which is better? Which is bigger? In truth, only God knows. Which has poured out heart and soul in service and love to God in their service? Ah, there's the rub.

Today, my soul was blessed of God to see these two men stand side-by-side. They bookend the last twenty years of my life and all that God has done for me within this small, "insignificant" ministry in a small north Texas town. I praise God for the noise he has made through these two small coins and all those in between.

The ugliness of the Left...

...and the Right

When folks are struck by the events of recent days, they'll often reminisce about what it was like in days of old, thinking their rose-colored glasses beheld the past with crystal clarity. I do this and ache for times less caustic and crass. Then a friend will slap me up side the head and declare, "They were as ugly then as we are today."

Perhaps.

But then I'll read something in history that will make me stop and think, "No, perhaps it was better, more restrained." 

I'm in the midst of Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs, really a look at his time growing up through the end of the Civil War. A couple of things that he wrote indicate that things have changed. Consider this anecdote. When writing about the ornery nature of pack mules, Grant wrote, "I am not aware of ever having used a profane expletive in my life; but I would have the charity to excuse those who may have done so, if they were in charge of a train of Mexican pack mules at the time." Really? A man who rose through the military ranks, became a general in time of the most gruesome war, and then went on to the office of President of the United States and to never use profanity?

Not only that, he would excuse those who had to work with Mexican pack mules. This would lead one to believe that he would not (and perhaps did not) in other circumstances. Considering the expletives that substitute for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs today all when discussing things of such gravity as whether the next Star Wars movie will ruin the saga or if it's already beyond repair, I would say its fair to say that we have changed much from one-hundred and fifty years ago.

What struck me last night as I read was how Grant looked back on the aftermath of the Battle of Vicksburg, one of the turning points of the war between North and South, brother and brother. After the siege was ended, Grant wrote,

"Our men had had full rations from the time the siege commenced, to the close. The enemy had been suffering, particularly towards the last. I myself saw our men taking bread from their haversacks and giving it to the enemy they had so recently been engaged in starving out. It was accepted with avidity and with thanks."

These men had been shooting each other. They stood opposed to each other politically. Each had invaded the home-soil of the other.

Grant allowed no retribution, "The prisoners were allowed to occupy their old camps behind the intrenchments. No restraint was put upon them except by their own commanders. They were rationed about as our own men, and from our own supplies." And then wrote about what he witnessed of the interaction between Gray and Blue in his matter-of-fact style:

"The men of the two armies fraternized as if they had been fighting for the same cause. When they passed out of the works they had so long and so gallantly defended, between lines of their late antagonists, not a cheer went up, not a remark was made that would give pain. Really, I believe there was a feeling of sadness just then in the breasts of most of the Union soldiers at seeing the dejection of their late antagonists."

There was no loathing. None rejoiced at the defeat of the other. Oh, certainly they rejoiced in their victory, but they did not turn and rub the noses of the defeated in the blood of their shattered comrades. 

Where is this today? As the surrender of Vicksburg approached, the fact that it was going to occur near the 4th of July weighed heavy on both sides. Why? A common heritage. A love for the Declaration of Independence and all for which it stood. Where is the common ground today between the Left and the Right?

Can we all not rejoice in peace overtures on the Korean Peninsula?

Can we all not recoil in horror as Syria gasses its own people?

What happened to our ability to restrain the darkness of our hearts and not blurt out its every venomous inkling on Twitter or in response to some perceived slight on social media?

Why will we not go the extra mile and try to defeat an idea with argument as opposed to slander or some glib meme all the while holding the dignity of the opponent in high regard?

This is a different day, a different time. I am no perfect man. I would love to raise more glasses and debate more issues with those with whom I disagree. It seems the sun is setting with greater speed on the likelihood of such opportunities. 

Will we take them while we can and share the rations of our haversacks?

Memorize

Really, this is for Christians. If you are not, you are still most welcome to read on.

Tonight, I had a conversation with a fellow believer who said he that while having a conversation with another believer, that man couldn't figure out the big deal with memorizing verses or chapters in the Bible. My jaw slacked. Then my eyebrows raised. This would be like someone who was committed to fitness eschewing cardio.

I didn't know what to say.

John Piper makes clear in this wonderful video that Bible memorization is not commanded in Scripture. Well, okay. It is for the most part assumed as needful:

"I have stored your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11)

Considering most could not afford to have a "Bible" at their disposal during Old and New Testament times, Bible memorization became a normal Christian discipline. Help the poor. Memorize God's word.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

But memorizing God's word has fallen out of vogue. We have an app, after all. I can listen to it on my way to work and one and a half times speed. Nice, but for the one who has toiled to bring God's word deep into their soul, wrestling with that's and which's, they would contend that to struggle with a passage is to better understand God and his grandeur because they better understand that which he has spoken.

So what? I want to encourage you to memorize. AND I want you to encourage me to continue to memorize. I DO NOT want you to memorize simply to memorize. I want you to memorize to:

• Know and love your Savior with a hotter and deeper passion
• Ache for the holiness to which he calls you and to strive thereto
• Seek the Source of sanctifying wisdom given to man
• Be the saint he has gifted you to be in the Church
• Be nourished with the only food that will satisfy your soul
• See God as he has revealed himself in his word

To encourage folks in this endeavor, I have started a Facebook page: 1Chapter. If you would like to be apart of the encouragement that comes from having others spur you on to memorize God's word, let me know and I'll add you to the group. No cost. No gimmicks. From time to time we'll drop some encouragement onto the page to spur you in your journey. We'll provide links and ideas to help you memorize. 

Last June, I encouraged folks to take the next two months and memorize one chapter of God's word. Here we go again. Between now and Thanksgiving you have three months. You can do it. One chapter.

Join the page and let me know your chapter. We can encourage one another.

Perspectives

We spent the day at the lake yesterday. My younger daughter, a young lady who oozes patience and delights in any and every event that is good, began digging in the sand. At first I thought she was just building pyramids. No. It was a tunnel she was excavating. 

After a time of digging, my elder daughter joined in the excavation.

Soon they connected the two holes and a few scoopfuls later, got it deep enough to find moisture. Not being content with damp, they began to tote water in 16-ounce intervals from the lake to the tunnel, tagging-out between digging and toting with each bottle-full. During one of the trips, the eldest inadvertently created a skylight in the tunnel.

An aerial shot (no drones)

My son, whose foot you can see in the above photo, then entered the picture lowering his phone into the tunnel to see what he could see. What he saw? Magic.

Extraordinary beauty in extraordinary places. Who'd have thought? All because a young woman began digging a hole on a beach.

Blade 32

Callsigns used by USAF aircraft are a wonder of originality and irony. Some make sense ("Blade" for the T-6, a propeller-driven pilot training aircraft at Sheppard AFB) while others will leave you scratching your head (AWOL for the T-38's at the now closed Williams AFB). Some reference the squadron ("Hound," the callsign of the commander of 524th Fighter Squadron, "The Hounds of Heaven") and in others the base is acknownledged ("Shepp" the cross-country callsign for T-6's at Sheppard AFB).

There's another part to the callsign. A number. That number is usually two digits. To external agencies, I was Scud 01, but within the flight I was simply Scud 1.

As I have taught now in the T-6 simulator for the past seven and a half years, the callsign is pretty benign. Blade for missions where the student is with an instructor, Turbo if solo, Lucky if it's his very first solo, and Ally, Shepp, Dicey or Madcat if the mission is off-station. Really, there is little I can do to spice up the callsign; it is what it is.

But unbeknownst to all of my students, every callsign I use contains an Easter egg. Today was the last time my student will be "Blade 31." You see, my student's have been Blade 31, Turbo 31, Lucky 31, etc. for the past year. Tomorrow my student will be "Blade 32" or "Turbo 32." They will have the 32 suffix to their callsign for the next year when the have a mission with me. Why?

Tomorrow my bride and I will have been married for 32 years.

Each time I write "Blade 31" or "Blade 32" on the whiteboard, I am reminded of the commitment I made 32 years ago, I am reminded of the one who has invested so much that I might serve our nation for 24 years and continue serving our country by teaching our nation's newest pilots what it means to be a military aviator.

Without the sacrifice, investment and love of that treasure, there would be no "Blade 32." When I write "Blade 32" on the whiteboard to prepare for the simulator mission, I thank God for how he has blessed me, and I think of my precious bride.

I love you, babe.

Your pastor is boring. Now what?

Imagine visiting a church for the first time and during the sermon, the pastor clings to his manuscript like a drowning child to a life preserver.

Imagine that when the pastor at last does look up from his papers he stares at the back wall as he drones on in a painful monotony.

Imagine his rigid hands never rising from the papers, no gestures to be seen.

Imagine a pastoral professional assessing this delivery as perhaps the “most mediocre the Church has ever known.”

Would it matter to you that he handled God’s word with care, preached it with accuracy and drew applications relevant to your lot in life, or would you leave never to return?

In a culture nursed on the shaky-cam and bingeing any program at any time in any location, the average Christian will look for a pastor to grab their attention and compel them with stories and anecdotes. The pastor must have a flare for theatrics, for mastering the pregnant pause, and convicting the soul with mere vocal inflection or eyebrow twitch.

And thus, most Christians would have passed on Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest preachers history has known. All of the above descriptors of the desperately dull pastor are descriptors of Edwards' manner of preaching.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a pastor having compelling oratory and being able to command an audience with gesture and expression, but have these become paramount? If so, we would have passed on the apostle Paul, too.

PAUL

Paul told the Corinthian church that he thought little of his speaking skills (2 Corinthians 11:6), and he thought his preaching to them to be dull of speech, weak, and missing the persuasion and nuance the Greeks had come to expect (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Paul! His power was not in his manner but his message. The power of the gospel.

Consider how the Berean church received this middling orator. Luke tells us, “They received the word with all eagerness.” Picture a puppy when its master approaches with his dog dish. Tail a-wag, bounding its front paws off of the floor. Why did the Berean’s receive the word in this manner? Luke explained, “They were more noble” than the Thessalonians..

THE NOBLE CHRISTIAN

Someone who is noble is thoughtful and discerning, not rash in their conclusions, and sober and temperate with their emotions and attitudes.

When we are about to hear a sermon on Sunday, are we expectant and eager knowing that we are about to feed upon the good food of God’s word? Or do we sit like a movie critic, pen in hand, waiting to shred the the actor? What we glean from the Berean example is that how God's preached word affects us depends upon us. Jesus said the same thing in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23). The problem lies not with the seed (the word of God) nor with the sowing of the farmer (the delivery of the good word), but the reason the seed does not take root is a problem in the heart of the hearer.

WHAT CAN I DO?

How do I prepare myself to hear the word? Here are a few suggestions.

Repent of a critical heart. Through the internet we can hear great preachers preach great sermons 24/7, and then on Sunday, we expect our pastor to live up to MacArthur, Piper, Chandler, and Evans? That’s like a husband expecting his wife to look like a super model after three children and thirty years of marriage. Such expectations are unfair. God will use the weakest vessels to most exalt his word and himself. Such a critical heart has no place in the Christian.

Rejoice in the pastor God’s provided. If your pastor strives to teach what God’s word says with accuracy and to apply that truth to the situations of our day, and if God is glorified and Christ is manifest within the preaching, you have much for which to be thankful. Praise God for such a man.

Pray for your pastor. Preparing for a sermon is a rigorous endeavor. God suggests that many ought not desire to do it because of the great responsibility to not dishonor God and his word (James 3:1). 

• Pray for him throughout the week during his time of preparation that such times would be fruitful for him and that he would be free from distraction. 
• Pray for him on the morning of the sermon that he might honor God with the delivery of his word.

Be expectant. If a pastor does nothing more than read God’s word, what a great feast you will find therein. If he goes on to explain and apply that word, he has set for you a rich table indeed. The Christian who listens to God’s word proclaimed with a Berean eagerness and expectation will find much for which to glorify God and much to apply to their lives.

Be biblical. The Bereans scoured Scripture. Liking or not liking a sermon can be equally shallow if you have no idea if it corresponded to God’s word. Open your Bible. Follow along. Take notes. Go back later in the day or during the next week to rethink on the teaching and track down some of the cross references or things that came to mind to compare and contrast within God’s word. This is part of discernment and spiritual nobility.

Provide feedback. “Great sermon, pastor,” will bounce off of him on Sunday morning like the buzz of the fluorescent lights. It’s expected. A note during the week on how God used his preaching in your life will be like a cup of cold water after toiling in the yard on an August afternoon. There may even be a time to bring up something you did not understand or that you felt was unclear in the message. Most pastors worth their salt would like to know if they erred or were hazy on a particular point. Please, be gracious here. Consistently critical feedback from you will wear upon him like the blows of a boxer.

Perhaps if we do these things, we will be considered “noble” Christians as well, the kind of church member to which any pastor would love to preach.

Adieu, 2016

Before 2016 had shaken the first page off its calendar, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Glen Frey, and Abe Vigoda died. When the next month brought the passing of Antonin Scalia, Harper Lee, and George Kennedy, the year seemed to possess a sinister darkness.

Soon we toss the remnants of this calendar in the trash, and many will cry "None to soon!" as in shock we saw Debby Reynolds follow her daughter Carrie Fisher in death separated by one thin day.

But is 2016 any different than any other year? Not really. On average, fifty-five million people will die this next year. That's a 150,000 every day. 2016 really isn't a creature to loathe--and we know this--but really this year that is soon past, like every year, is merely a segment along a continuous river. The river is Time. At some point along the way, we got into this Life Boat and at some point, we will disembark in death leaving our tombstone along the bank of Time as the boat continues to travel down stream to its ultimate End.

In years past, the masses lamented when James Dean died in an automobile crash and when Elvis died with peanut butter and barbiturates at his bedside. The 2017 segment of the river will bring other celebrities' lives to an end. Clint Eastwood ain't getting any younger.

CONSIDER

What then do I do with this? In the Bible's most Eeyore-esque book, Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart." He wants us to see that the deaths we see around us must make us to consider that our time to disembark the boat of life might well be nigh. What then?

Many console themselves with Ms. Reynolds words on her final day aboard, "I want to be with Carrie." Such sentiments flow from the mouths of Christians and non-Christians alike. But is this reality? What happens after death? Where do we go? Will we be with those we loved while on the boat?

Despite Todd Burpo's multi-million dollar claim, no man of himself and while still on the boat knows the full answer to that question, but God, the author of this story and creator of the river, did not leave man to be clueless about the eternity that he would face upon his death. He declares with crystal clarity:

"It is appointed unto man once to die but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)

Judgment? Yes. That's no fun. True, but because man stands in rebellion against God, each one will stand before him to give an account of his life (Revelation 20:11-15). Considering, though, that before God "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), our guilt and condemnation are as certain as death.

HOPE

Here is the good news (or "gospel"): God didn't leave men to die. God tells us that Christmas is about God becoming man, Jesus Christ, but the purpose of Christmas was Easter, that God's judgment for man's rebellion would be poured out not on deserving mankind but upon his sinless Son. God himself would take the just punishment and condemnation that we had earned. "He made him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

What then is left? Taking hold of that free gift. Jesus himself declared "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Only Jesus' death on the cross covers the sin of man. To reject such a gift is to reject man's only hope in the afterlife. 

Here is the painful and sober question: Where are those we adored while we rode the boat together down this stream of history, those who disembarked in 2016? For many, we do not know. In condemnation, none will party. None will celebrate. Grief, agony, and despair await. In Christ alone, there is joy and relationship and celebration and glory.

That may seem harsh, but that is God's own declaration and not mine. The gift is free for any who desire it--in truth, who desire HIM. Free. Open to all. For those who do not wish that gift, for those unwilling to bow the knee to God and his truth, for those who want no part of him, he will give them what they desire.

Eternal life with God is exclusive not in regard to whom it is offered but it is exclusive only in regard to whom will receive it.

We will not venture far into 2017 before the next celebrity dies. Will we then hate this segment of the river, too, or will we delight in the journey and those with which we travel? Will we fantasize about those who disembarked or will we consider what has been revealed about the way to eternal life and the choice we have made in that regard as we hasten down the river?

Growing up

At some point, some calendar long ago, the sun rose and exposed that I was no longer the sixteen-year old me. What caused me to know that the care-free, pleasure-soaked life of then would not follow me into the now. What happened? When does the sobering clarity of life slap us from the rolling-hilled forest of youth?

One evening this past week at the dinner table, my youngest son--now twenty-two--spoke of my life and my career as though I were the Bill Gates of my vocation. When I explained to him that in my career field I was a few miles south of latitudinal average, a shadow fell across his jovial face and he winced. After a few moments of awkward silence, we continued our meal and the conversation turned lighter. 

In that instant, I believe I saw my son grow up. 

Is that when it happens? Does the cold mountain of adulthood become clear when we see that our old man is just a man and perhaps not a very good one at that?

Oh, the illusions that we hold in our youth about our fathers. He can ride a bike without holding the handle bars! He knows how to win at every game. He can catch and hit a ball. He drives a car. He pins you and all your brothers at the same time!

We were little and didn't understand that every dad can do those things.

It's one thing to recognize that your dad is ordinary. It's another thing to expose that to your son yourself.

Target: Boycott or no?

Christians wonder what to do about Target and their wide-open stance regarding bathrooms. Many react on emotion.

Might I suggest stepping back, reading, and thinking a bit? Here's Albert Mohler's two cents on the topic:

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It is always important for Christians to think very seriously about the moral and worldview implications of how we operate in the economy as consumers, as economic agents. The most recent flashpoint for that discussion comes as the retailer Target has announced that it will be the first major corporation to have a policy on bathrooms. And, in this case, it is a very wide open policy stating publicly that the corporation expects to allow anyone to choose to use any bathroom based upon their own self-perceived gender identity. On its own website, Target announced that it is,

“…continuing to stand for inclusivity.

“So earlier this week, we reiterated with our team members where Target stands and how our beliefs are brought to life in how we serve our guests.

“Inclusivity is a core belief at Target. It’s something we celebrate. We stand for equality and equity, and strive to make our guests and team members feel accepted, respected and welcomed in our stores and workplaces every day.”

But the statement from Target on its corporate website goes on to cite the very kind of legislation that we previously discussed in terms of Donald Trump when the company states,

“Target supports the federal Equality Act, which provides protections to LGBT individuals, and opposes action that enables discrimination.”

Now when you look at those words carefully and consider the context and the syntax of that sentence, it’s very clear that this is a corporate statement opposed to any definition of religious liberty that would in any way be considered discriminatory by anyone on the LGBT spectrum. Furthermore, it puts this company in the position of making very clear moral judgments.

Now that’s really important when you consider the Wall Street Journal and another article with the headline,

“Big Business Speaks Up on Social Issues.”

Mark Peters and Rachel Emma Silverman have written this article together in which they document the rather astounding revolution whereby American corporations, and especially America’s largest corporations, now have decided that it is in their corporate interest to crusade upon certain moral issues, certain social questions. And the fact that this is such a revolution is what explains the story on the front page of a section of the Wall Street Journal. As Peters and Silverman report,

“Companies used to avoid hot-button social issues, fearing that any strong stance could alienate customers and staff. Now, executives say it is far more risky to stay silent on issues such as gay rights.”

Now as I began, this raises a host of issues about how Christians should operate faithfully in an economic context. The first thing we need to recognize is that we are economic agents. That’s a part at least of what it means to be made in the image of God. And wherever you have human beings you will have transactions being made. Adam Smith pointed out in the most fundamental work on economics in human history that that’s necessary, because eventually, if you put two people together in a community, one values or needs something the other has and is willing to offer something else in exchange. That at its very essence is an economy, and thus it is laden with moral importance from the very beginning. Nothing we do in an economic world is not connected in some way to a basic moral question. And yet we’re also, we remind ourselves secondly, living in a fallen world in which there is no perfect economy and there is no perfect economic stance from which to operate without some complicity in larger moral questions in the economy.

That gets to the third issue, and that is this: when Christians are thinking very carefully about how to be faithful as Christians in an economy, we do so knowing that we have choices we can make, but we do not have the choice of not being economic participants. So many Christians are asking the question, should we now boycott Target? Just judging from an historical perspective, oftentimes boycotts do not work. They are far easier to declare than to carry out, and even when they are carried out they sometimes do not have the effect that was intended when the boycott was organized and declared.

Now this doesn’t mean that an individual economic action is unimportant. It does affirm the fact that as Christians are considering where we will do business and where we will not, there are a multiplicity of issues that complicate the question. But the bottom line is, would we spend money in a corporation, in a shop, in a store or restaurant, in any kind of business where that business might be publicly not only not allied with our convictions, but perhaps even publicly stating opposition to them?

Now once again, this isn’t as easy as it might appear. Because if you’re considering Target making this announcement, it could be—and we’ll have to look at this much closer—that Target is merely stating publicly, perhaps for its own publicity, what other corporations are actually doing more covertly or quietly. One of the issues that is raised by the Wall Street Journal article is the seeming inevitability of most American corporations, especially publicly traded corporations that are active in the stock market, from inevitably turning in the same direction. It’s a question of when, not if.

Christians will indeed decide if they want to do business with Target, knowing that Target has now targeted our own convictions in terms of the company’s website. But we will also have to be honest in understanding that there are other companies that are going to fall in exactly the same line, and we’ll get there perhaps sooner even rather than later. And furthermore, there are other companies that may be participating in things that we would also oppose of which we are not aware. That again doesn’t mean that the boycott is wrong. It does point to the fact that boycotts often just don’t work, because as the economy moves, people move on and the boycott becomes something of a forgotten history.

Christians have to understand that in a fallen world, every aspect of an economy is fallen, and that means that there is no safe place to stand, there is no safe business in which to shop. Even if we know the owner of the shop and we know how he or she organizes the business, there’s a supply chain behind and a web of relationships beyond. That doesn’t mean this isn’t important. It does mean that it is complex, and you can’t reduce faithfulness to something as easy as the question of boycott, yes or no? 

Should Christians boycott Target? That’s a question that I do not believe has an answer. Should you boycott Target? That is a matter for your Christian conscience. Those are two separate issues, and it is the second question that should have priority for individual Christians.

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The above was taken from his daily "The Briefing" podcast dated April 26, 2016, linked here.