The sanctity of work

If you are a Christian who attends a Bible-teaching, Christ-exalting church, have you ever heard a message that includes an annecdote about a young man or woman who is particularly gifted and studying to become a brain surgeon but then "God gets ahold of their life," they chuck all their studies, and soon they turn their full attention to pastoring or the mission field? When you hear such a tale told, the tone is usually giddy. What a great thing this person has done!

Should a believer be concerned about such a radical shift?

We would expect an eye-roll from the world for usually fiscal reasons. Dude, think of all the money you've wasted. Think of all the money you won't be making. To which the career-shifter will smile thinking about the treasures that they are storing up in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). But even a Christian might raise a justifiably skeptical eyebrow at such a move?

Before I go any further, a few thoughts. Many need God to get ahold of their lives because they are careening down the causeway of self toward certain catastrophe. God often alters the direction someone is going in their life and even their vocation (Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, and Paul to name a vivid few), but as much as God calls men to leave their nets to follow him, much, much more God calls men to stay at their nets and follow him.


Jarome Iginla, Captain - Calgary Flames
Christ follower



Here is my concern. The call of many well-intentioned biblical teachers to "chuck it all for kingdom work" draws a line that the Bible does not, a line of superiority between secular vocation (mechanic, parent, and plumber) and kingdom vocation (generally pastors and missionaries), between secular service (changing oil, changing diapers, and changing toilet rings) and kingdom service (praying, passing out tracts, and potlucks). Vocational work and church-building work are both work that God has given man to do.

Paul admonishes the Corinthians at the end of the section on Spiritual Gifts and love to "be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58). Contextually, this speaks to their wide and varied ministries in the church. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul emphasizes the sanctity of all work when he says,

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." (3:23-24)

Now, you cannot be a hooker unto the Lord. Drug dealing for the glory of God doesn't fly. Willful violation of what God has revealed as good and right will never earn his favor.

On the other hand, God is pleased by a well designed insurance building at the hand of a man who does so for the glory of God. God is pleased by the hockey player who hits the weights, skates lines, and shoots thousands of pucks to hone his skills to be the best possible team captain he can be if he does so as serving his true King. God delights in the mom who wipes noses, bandages knees, washes and folds laundry, prepares menus, and...and...and...with joy knowing that her labor that God has assigned her is never in vain.

Please, saint, don't be guilted because you are not in the jungles of Africa (there are men there who ought not be). Don't rue being a school teacher or a home school teacher or a school janitor or a home contractor. Don't be coerced into giving up what has been your passion (very likely God-given) for something else about which you are not white hot...unless God is making this thing very plain to you. Then pursue with leonine veracity.

Whatever you do, whether trying to build a church on the arid coast of Chile or build a restaurant in downtown Chattanooga, labor as unto the Lord and that labor will not be in vain.

(I heard a great sermon on the sancity of work this past weekend by a local pastor.  If you have the time, you'll find it here. If you only have a few minutes, pick it up at about the 14:30 mark and listen for fifteen minutes. It's worth your time.)

What lens? "Reality Check"

A few seasons ago I started this blog to continue conversations with men that had begun at our church. A number of us really wanted to look at all aspects of life with God's eyes as best we could, and that meant that we had to examine the world around us through the lens of God's word, the Bible. Apart from that sure foundation, all is mere conjecture.

This past weekend, my eldest son, Jeremy Pond, wholly apart from this blog and any impetus from me began an audio blog, Reality Check, with much the same purpose.  His first piece introduced the concept in just under two-minutes. His second dives right into the deep-end and provides a clear, concise seven-minute synopsis of what's been happening between Israel and Hamas, Egypt, the Palestinians, Gaza, etc. You can find them both at www.realitycheckcommentary.com. I invite you to bookmark the site. You'll want to check back from time to time.

So what is the lens through which you look at the world? You do, you know. Something informs the way that you look at things. If you call yourself a Christian and have never before considered examining all things through the lens of God's word, let me encourage you to start now. The best place to begin is with God's word. You've got to know it to be able to seeing things through such a matrix. While my son's audio blog and this written blog intend to assist you to that end, even these must be considered from the sure foundation of God's word.

Give Reality Check a listen. It's worth your time.

Bill Nye, the ideology guy

My boys loved Bill Nye when they were little. Truth be told, I loved Bill Nye. How could you not love a goofy guy who made you hungry for science.

But that was then, and this is now. Bill has bounded out of the realm of science into philosophy, and not content with philosophy, he has donned the mantle of authority when it comes to how parents should train up their children.

Mr. Nye is a staunch evolutionist. In a recent video titled "Creationism is not appropriate for children," he said that when you ignore evolution"your worldview becomes crazy, untenable, itself inconsistent (1)." Honestly, most creationists think the same thing about an evolutionary worldview. Crazy. Untenable. Inconsistent. Fantasy.

Yet, despite incessant indoctrination from kindergarten through post-graduate studies, 46% of Americans remain young earth creationists according to a recent Gallup poll. Thirty-two percent believe God used evolution and only 15% believe (interesting word) in atheistic evolution. For that large a swath of the American fabric to still hold to a six-day creation, there must be something more substantial, more evidential to cling to than a fairy tale.

Mr. Nye doesn't think so and lets the insults fly:

"I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, that's completely inconsistent with the world we observe, that's fine."

Gee, thanks, Bill. Should they pad my room, too? He has gone beyond observation and experimentation into philosophy.  Despite over a century and a half since Darwin published Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, no proof has been found indicating one kind of animal has ever transitioned to become another kind. Dogs beget still dogs. Fish beget fish. Chimps beget chimps and yes, man begets man.

Had he only coughed up that hairball, we could get busy with dinner, but Mr. Nye went further:

"But don't make your kids do it (deny evolution).  Because we need them.  We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.  We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems."

That's creepy stuff. You need them?! So, Bill, you don't want me to teach my kids what I am convinced is true and that I am convinced gives dignity to humanity within the created order? You don't want me to teach him the foundation of "love your neighbor as yourself?" or why all mankind is equal?

To Mr. Nye, only an evolutionist is equipped to teach science of any kind (Astro? Aero? Civil engineering??) to our children. That's disturbing.

Teaching my kids a responsibility to the God who made them does not them scientifically illiterate. It didn't slow down Blaise Pascal or Robert Oppenheimer. 

Does worshiping the God who raises up and puts down kingdoms make one ill-qualified to vote? It seems to me that President Obama appreciates my tax-dollars despite my believing in the one who suggested that I render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's (which is everything, by the way). 

And how, pray tell, does believing in a Creator impair one from being a creator or problem solver? Wouldn't that naturally follow? 

Al Campanis, the general manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was rightly fired the day after the racism of his heart overflowed in a Nightline interview in 1987. But for the Bill Nyes of the world, it's okay to denigrate those who take God at his word. Such animosity is in season (here).

Few will bat an eyelash over his propaganda and slurring of Bible-believers. Well, Bill, not that you care, but you've lost one fan.

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 (1) Taken from CNN's "Bill Nye slams creationism" here.

I pledge allegiance

Much has been said, and we will say much more, about Major Malik Nadal Hasan's allegiance to Islam and how it conflicted with his allegiance to his uniform and to his nation (that's us).  It has opened a discussion that about which I have heard little.  What do we do when our relationship with God runs counter to what our government asks of us?

Houston, we have a problem.

More and more we find this clash amongst those who hold a strict Koranic view of Islam within non-Islamic societies.  Hence, Brits have kowtowed to Muslim immigrants and permitted Sharia within certain burroughs.  Hence, Muslim cabbies in Minneapolis needn't pick up passengers with seeing-eye dogs.  Hence, Muslim cashiers needn't check out patrons purchasing pork or Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Now we have soldiers who want to join the military but who want to take a sabbatical when they're fighting Muslims.

This God and country dilemma not only conflicts the hard-core Muslim, but it troubles (or should trouble) the Christian, too.

During the days of the Revolution, many Christian patriots loved England, but hated what the king was doing.  During the Civil War, many families were split north and south, with the north unable to abide slavery and the south unable to abide the erosion of state sovereignty.  During the World Wars, immigrants of most every Christian creed turned around to battle against their former homeland for the cause of freedom.

In the past, for those Christians who held to God as their highest allegiance, because of the Judeo-Christian bedrock upon which our nation was founded, they faced no conflict between God and country.  Serving one's country did not mean that one had to compromise in their service to God because the nation and its military stemmed from that firm foundation.  For those that examined the word of God, they did not find his principles nor his precepts violated as they took up arms against those America opposed even if they were Christians.  National conflict is a very different thing than personal conflict within the pages of the Bible.

But erosion has taken its toll.  Post-modern America has rejected its biblical underpinnings opting for a more secular function of government, culture, and international interactions.  As such, many Christians and many who serve in the military have begun to find themselves at odds with national policies.  Many find it repellent that we would allow our women to face the heat of combat.  Many grieve that the military is fast approaching the normalization of that which but a few decades ago was seen as deviance and contrary to good order and discipline.  Many wonder why we would kiss the ring of misogynist kings but would shun the only nation in the Middle East with a remotely free government.  Many cannot abide the legal killing of a child not yet born.

So like Major Hasan, many Christians find themselves at odds with God or country.

But there's a diametrical difference.  Christians do not turn their arms treacherously against their own.  They may have had to refuse their assigned duties.  They may have had to claim conscientious objector status.  Many face punitive action for not carrying out commands and orders, but to turn their weapons against their own is a repugnant and unbiblical idea.

As often as Islam is lauded as a religion of peace, there is much within a plain contextual reading of the Koran that would lead one not only to a position of conflict with one's nation but also to take up arms against that nation (slides 33, 34, 43, and 44 in Maj Hasan's PowerPoint presentation here exemplify this militant response).  You'll not find such militancy commanded of the Christian believer within a contextual reading of the Bible.

As our nation races faster and faster toward banishing any vestige of God from the public sector, the Christian will find himself more and more in conflict with the nation they have loved.  When those times come, the Christian would do well to follow the examples of Daniel's friends (Daniel 3, esp. vv. 16-18) and Peter and John (Acts 4:1-20, 5:29) by obeying God and submitting themselves to whatever consequence comes at the hand of the appointed governor (Romans 13:1-7). 

It has been in the persecution of the saints and the blood of the martyrs that the Church has flourished and God has been honored, not in the butchering of innocents or in the murder of comrades in arms.

Double vision

An odd thing happened as I opened my eyes this morning.  With daylight savings time finally giving way to sanity, sunlight pressed upon the blinds in our bedroom.  My head resting upon my pillow, I saw the blinds clearly, and yet something seemed amiss.  My eyes which were focused at the distance of the blinds traveled to the doorknob adjacent to them.  I saw two door knobs.  I looked at the book case beside my bed.  There seemed to be multiples of each book.  I felt like I was in an episode of "Gilligan's Island."

Considering my eyes were just waking up, too, I forced them to fixate upon the words on the bindings.  Ah, focus!  But the book case was at a different distance than the blinds.  I looked back to the blinds and my sleepy eyes retained their book case focus.  Again, the peripheral things did not appear as clear as the blinds.  Because I was laying on my side, my eyes did not focus on a single slat in the blinds, instead one eye focused on one slat while the other eye focused on an adjacent slat.  This could only happen if the line between my pupils was exactly perpendicular to the slats in the blinds. 

This was freaking me out.  As I sat up and my eyes got out of the perpendicular, everything focused in its proper perspective in an instant. 

I thought of my wacky perspective this morning as I read yet again Nancy Pelosi's take on the recent off-year election.  "We won last night" she said.  I've often thought the Representative from California akin to Marty Feldman, but such a freakish viewpoint on the heels of the political drubbings in New Jersey and Virginia took the cake.

Such perverse focus can be found in any party and in any person.  This very morning, I could not come to terms with the blinds hanging on my bedroom window.  Even after refocusing on another concrete object (words on the binding), when I went back to the other issue (the blinds), I utterly mis-saw reality.

This is man's nature.  We think we see an issue with utmost clarity, but in conjunction with adjacent issues, something's askew.  Even when we recheck our bearings bearings against concrete reality, when we go back to our particular issue, our focus often times remains incorrect.  Only when we become righted in total can we see the world around us with proper clarity.

So it is with man in all things because he stands in rebellion to God.  While still created in God's image, the image is marred.  The eyes with which man sees are set now 90-degrees out from God's perspective (Jeremiah 5 is a pretty good descriptor).  Our problem?  We cannot aright ourselves.  Only God can right our listing ship ("Open my eyes that I might see wondrous things from your law" - Psalm 119:18).

Few wonder about the double vision in their periphery.  Most do not even know that clarity stands available as a free gift from the ultimate Optometrist.  I remember when my eldest first got glasses.  Not an eager man was he.  He thought about how he would look and the pain of spectacle upkeep.  Then he put on his glasses for the first time.  "I can see leaves on the trees!"

Many go through life contended with their jumbled world.  Such a one does not surmise that something's amiss.  Rather than turn to the light (John 9:5) and live,

"He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?""

Isaiah 44:20

How much better to know healed vision like the man born blind and be able to declare, "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see!"

Dorian Gray

UPDATED: Since writing the following post I've learned that Hollywood is taking Wilde's novel to the silver screen (again). Unfortunately, most of what's come from filmdom of late has left the screen mostly pewter.

Here's what I anticipate: Rather than the measured, use-your-imagination prose of Wilde, we'll be treated to something that borders on the pornographic. Rather than get a spectacular movie with three-dimensional characters and with a profound moral message, we'll get an engorgement of pointless hedonism that leaves us wondering "Why?"

Wilde, the homosexual, Wilde, the adulterer, concludes that endless pleasure, the endless satisfying of the libido, will not bring us to betterment, will not elevate us to a higher state of consciousness. Likely through his own unsatisfying experiences, Oscar Wilde exposes the reality that our pursuit of self, that our endless quenching of any desire, will only rot the soul (and I might add, only drive us further from the God who created us and will provide that ultimate completion to our soul).

The original post:
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The last few days, God saw fit to move me away from computers (for the most part). No Letterman digging to new depths for a laugh. No government taking more of my money. No anarchists taking law and hatred into their own hands. No international hoodlums threatening nuclear annihilation. Just nine hours of highway.

In driving from Wichita Falls, Texas to Pueblo, Colorado, I got to transit one of my favorit pieces of highway in America, US 87 between Dalhart, Texas and Raton, New Mexico, where dormant volcanoes poke their slumbering peaks out of vast seas of sun-leeched grassland. Cattle meander across the plain annoyed from time to time by the roving pronghorns. Descending out of Des Moines (yeah, they have one in NM, too) toward the Capulin volcano, the Rockies darkening the horizon bring the sprawling sea to an abrupt halt.

Since I had no one with which to chat on my drive, I checked out "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (unabridged) from the local library. Playwright Oscar Wilde penned only one novel, that being Dorian Gray. He's known primarily for his wry wit, exhibited in spades in "The Importance of Being Earnest." He's also known, despite being married and siring a few children, for his blatant homosexuality, quite the scandal in Victorian England.

That said, you'd think Dorian Gray would be either a laugh-a-minute or a vehicle to laud nineteenth century debauchery. It's neither. I have never read (or heard, in this case) a more vivid description of the corruption of the human soul. Despite Wilde's distaste for the church surfacing from time to time, he paints a detailed portrait of the rot that comes to the spirit when he follows after pleasure. He provides as biblical a picture as an exegetical sermon.

He has captured the world as it is, and unlike most "Christian" novelists, he does so without the bludgeoning subtlety of a jackhammer. If the storyteller has to tell you what he's telling you, he's not telling his story very well. Wilde draws you in with deft depiction and a well set scene.

I'll not spoil it for you. I hate when folks tell me what's going to happen in a movie. But what would do if you could savor whatever your heart desired with no implication to you? Would it be the be-all, end-all?

And what is so rare today, Wilde illustrates utter corruption without even nearing a PG-rating. He crafts crass and course characters without a single foul word. Again, subtlety. Surprising. Refreshing.

To my shame, I'd only known of Dorian Gray through a terrible film, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." I don't know what I'd read that piqued me toward giving it a look, but I'm glad I did. After listening to it, I will have to go back and read it at some point to better savor the irony, the nuance, and decoration Wilde provides to each scene, and to gnaw upon the empty philosophies espoused by the foundationally bankrupt Lord Henry.

As you drive into your summer, if you're thinking of sinking your teeth into a book and don't know which way to turn, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" will give you plenty upon which to chew. A satifying read!

QotD: On Lewis

"He didn't set out to write theology. But his imagination had been thoroughly baptized, and Christ was the only hero who could emerge."

Janie B. Cheaney, "World Magazine"
On C. S. Lewis' inspiration for The Chronicles of Narnia

QotD: An alien perspective

The following quote comes from Kobi Drori, the spokesman for the Raelian movement. Who are they you ask? It's a group who doesn't believe in angels, demons, or gods (God), but they do believe that mankind blossomed forth from seeding done by space aliens. Really. No, seriously.

If the following is not the absolute antithesis of Christ, Christianity, and civilization, I don't know what is:

"The second goal is to expedite the establishment of a society based on the principles of non-violence, solidarity, self-fulfillment and pleasure. To establish one global currency, one global government and harness science to the service of humanity, and not against humanity," he concluded.

I highlighted and italicized a bit. I guess I could have done that to the entire quote.

Considering the quote's source and that their advocating mass orgy to further their cause, they'll likely be dismissed, but this is the very hope, the very heresy that will lead the world further astray. It is the setup that will occur as mankind seeks to live apart from God during the time of the end.

Stay vigilant for your enemy prowls like a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour.

Blackbelt Christianity

I stumbled upon this article during my morning surf. It's a good Christmas read.

After reading it, I thought of a good friend, a liberal friend, who believes himself to be a Christian, and I forwarded him the article.

The author is a staunch political conservative (on all issues).

And this is a truth you will find: If you take the Bible at its word, if you don't read between the lines and you don't twist and contort the text well outside the realm of context, there's close to a 90% chance your political understandings are conservative as well. No, it's not a Gallup Poll stat. It's a Keith's-not-so-scientific-observations stat.

Considering we are two days out from Christmas, I decided on a little experiment. Off to my usual wellspring of conservative thought, Townhall.com. I found two articles today with religious undertones, one on Hanukkah and one on Christmas. The day before, another three to four were found.

Then I made a sharp turn to the left and sauntered over to the Huffington Post. No articles on Christ or Christmas today. Plenty on Rick Warren (one actually positive). Oh, and there was a sexy shot of a bare-chested president-elect while in Hawaii.

I could not find a link to check out yesterday's articles, so I did a search. This provided some articles on Christmas, but they were exclusively about money, presents, the environment...the here and now and what's coming in the future. Not one peek into the manger. Not one article about what God-in-flesh then means for man-in-sin today.

For folks like the Towhall author, Christ and His advent aren't just another part of their lives. He doesn't divorce golf from God. His work comes under the authority of One who is Wonderful, Counselor. Christ, the Creator, is the foundation for all that we are supposed to be; He is to inform every aspect of my life. That's not something you find from the writers and thinkers of the Huffington Post.

I asked my friend to send me the link to such articles if he comes across them. I'll let you know.

And so I appreciate Chuck for having the courage to go against the grain of his industry, giving them a roundhouse kick upside the head to awaken them about the Child who has come and the King who is coming.

What do you really believe?

I contend that most Catholics in America treat their religion like a good luck charm, a get-out-of-hell-free card if you will. If America's Catholics were sincere about Catholicism, they would follow the direction of the papacy and passionately oppose any one running for any office who favors abortion. McCain would win in a landslide.

Protestants aren't any better. While many mainline denominations have doctrines the consistency of tepid oatmeal, the source book, the Bible, has not changed. If Protestants weren't hedging their bets, they'd get into God's word and see what it says, how it applies to every aspect of their lives, and McCain would win in a landslide.

As Harry Jackson's article a couple of posts ago noted, we are in an era where the Bible has been dismissed. It no longer affects the Christian's life. It's relegated to a couple of readings on Sunday (if church is attended at all). Somewhere in the house you might find a Bible. Where was that thing?

Today, Father Jonathan Morris published an essay at FoxNews discussing "spreading the wealth" and why such economics are abominable (read it here). Most of America seems to think it a grand scheme, but Morris concludes

...we know from history, from very sad periods of history, there is no real justice—no progress and no lasting peace—when its pursuit involves beating down some to lift up others. And we also know, by the dictates of reason and the practice of all ages, that when the government decides it can suspend the natural right to private property, through repossession or redistribution, or whatever they choose to call it, that government is on the wrong side of truth.

I do not agree with Fr. Morris that Obama has been right about many things as he alludes to in his piece. In fact, for him to be the great bridge-builder, I do not know of a single issue where I agree with him nor do I see him building a bridge toward me. (In fact, in Morris' archive at Fox News, he has two posts where he hammers Senator Joe Biden on his abortion position.)

Were our relationship with Almighty God more than a thing to check off our to-do list each week, we would not be facing such a dramatic display of opposites for candidates. The parties would look more similar than disparate. I might even be struggling with which candidate I would cast my vote.

Today, sadly, the choice is very clear.

If Americans followed the