In This Age of Outrage, Jesus-followers Are Kind

(Me and Joe LaRoy in Bangkok)

We need a wave of kindness to roll over all who identify as followers of Jesus. In a recent praying time God told me this would happen. So, I am praying into this. 

Kindness has transforming power. Rudeness deforms people.

As a result, I am studying love, again. The greatest words ever written on love are found in 1 Corinthians 13. There may be no better book to read on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 than Lewis Smedes' Love Within Limits: A Realist's View of 1 Corinthians 13.

Chapter 2 is "Love is Kind." This is good for me, since in our age of outrage I need to grow the fruit of kindness. (See Ed Stetzer, Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at its Worst) Your outrage does not give you license to to be unkind and unloving.

"Kindness," writes Smedes, "is the will to save; it is God's awesome power channeled into gentle healing. Kindness is love acting on persons." (11)

Love is power. Love is gentle. 

Kindness is one quality of love. Harshness, on the other hand, is sin.

Kindness is power. Kindness moves people. The Word says, Speak the truth in love. 

God is sending his kindness to combat the outrage. "Kindness," says Smedes, "is enormous strength - more than most of us have, except now and then." (Ib.)

Outrage is enormous weakness. Outrage is nontransformational. Outrage mutates.

"Kindness is the power that moves us to support and heal someone who offers nothing in return. Kindness is the power to move a self-centered ego toward the weak, the ugly, the hurt, and to move that ego to invest itself in personal care with no expectation of reward." (Ib.)

Only a free person can love in such a powerful way. Waves of the Father's love set people free.

When I ask God to "set me free," I am thinking of this kind of thing; viz., freedom to love; freedom to be kind.

To war against outrageous behavior with outrageous behavior only elicits more outrageous behavior. 

I must remember - I am a follower of Jesus, not a reactor to social media hatred.


**
My three books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Encounters with the Holy Spirit (co-edited with Janice Trigg)

I''m still writing Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart.

Then, the Lord willing, Linda and I will write our book on Relationships.

Letter to My Church Family - April 9. 2021

 

April 9. 2021

Good Morning Redeemer Family!

Here are some things coming to Redeemer.

UNDERSTANDING POSTMODERNISM: A 1-hour Zoominar. To more deeply understand what's going on in our culture, especially when it comes to issues of morality and truth, it is important to understand the influence of postmodern thinking. In this 1-hour, live, zoom event, Pastor John Piippo will explain postmodern thinking, and how, as followers of Jesus, we can respond to this. Emasil me for the link. johnpiippo@msn.com

OUR ANNUAL SUMMER CONFERENCE is in Green Lake, Wisconsin, and the National Christian Conference Center. June 27 - July 1. Go to hsrm.org for details.

Youth Bake Sale - Next Sunday - The youth will be selling baked goods to raise funds to go to Green Lake this summer.

Books for Girls-available for parents of girls to check out in the lobby area

Planning Center -  This is a church wide tool that we would like everyone to be a part of.   It is currently being used to effectively serve the Hayfords, connect with the youth, and much more.  Please see Maria in the lobby at the end of the baptisms today and she can get you started.

Blessings!

PJ

Moving From Unkindness to Kindness

(Foggy morning, Monroe, Munson Park)

There is a lot of unkindness on social media. People who are unkind are far from Jesus. Unkind people do not represent Jesus.

An unkind person is a branch, disconnected from Jesus, the Vine.

Followers of Jesus have no excuse for being disconnected.

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else."

1 Thessalonians 5:15

Always. 

How kind am I? How kind have I been? In general, I think the further I go back in my life the less kind I have been. 

Linda and I are kind to each other. When I've been unkind, I've always asked her to forgive me. She's that way towards me, too. We confess, forgive, and move on. We love being kind to one another!

The further back I go in my life, my "kindness circle" shrinks. I tended to be kind to those who were kind to me. As Jesus said, anyone can do that.

Sadly, I used to privately, and sometimes publicly, make fun of other people. I mocked people. I stood on my self-righteous perch and judged people. I have spoken negatively about people I don't even know! This is unkind.

Unkindness pays back wrong for wrong. You get wronged; you wrong the other person. Tit-for-tat; an eye for an eye. Unkindness breeds unkindness, which breeds more unkindness, and so on ad infinitum. 

Unkindness is spiritual cancer. Unkindness is... antichrist-like.

In 1 Thessalonians Paul addresses Jesus-followers. N.T. Wright comments: 

"Each Christian, and each Christian group or family, has the responsibility to look out for the needs of the others, to give comfort, warning, strengthening and example whenever necessary. It isn't enough to avoid trouble and hope for the best. One must actively go after ("pursue") what will be good for other Christians, and indeed for everybody." (Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, 132)

The kindness circle extends to all who claim the name of Jesus for themselves. If this were followed, churches everywhere would be revitalized. But the real concern here is: me.

Years ago, in an interview, I was asked, "What is the #1 problem you see in your community?" I answered: "It's me." I was serious! If I change, our community will be better and stronger. The old hymn does not sing "Change their hearts, O God..." Nor does it sing "It's them, it's them, it's them O Lord, standin' in the need of prayer."

I need to be kinder.

Does the kindness circle extend even to our enemies? Of course, because it includes you and me. 

·                You and I were once Christ's enemies. (Romans 5:10)

·                God's kindness to us led us to repentance. (Romans 2:4)

·                Christ is being formed in us. (Galatians 4:19)

·                As fruit-bearing people attached to Jesus the Vine, we exude kindness. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Being kind to others is not equivalent to agreeing with others. Christ included us in his kindness circle, and we were his enemies. Enough said!

The kindness circle extends to those in your own home. If we don't show kindness to those in our own home, our marketplace-kindness is fraudulent. The person who is unkind to their family members while opening doors for strangers is a fake. Linda and I have talked about this. I don't want to treat others with kindness, and not be so towards her. That would be hypocritical.

How can I grow in kindness? This happens as I abide in Jesus, the Vine, now.

Then, the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of kindness within me.

I slowly transform into someone who walks in kindness towards all. That's how wide and deep and long and high God's kindness circle extends.

(Further, kindness has power to heal. See former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection In a Sometimes Lonely World.)

Soft Totalitarianism on Display at Wayne State University

 

                                           (Photo of light coming through a glass brick)

Want to see something morally absurd?

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) is a university campus-based Christian ministry. Linda and I were in campus ministry for eleven years at Michigan State University. InterVarsity is a group we are familiar with, and think highly of.

Here's the Detroit Free Press article on what happened after InterVarsity submitted its constitution to the university, which campus ministries and other para-university groups are required to do annually.

"The application was approved, but a day later, the group received an email from Ricardo Villarosa, coordinator of student life for the school, saying its constitution must be rewritten because "Neither membership, nor officer requirements may violate the university anti-discrimination policy — please amend the officer requirements accordingly and resubmit."

After more exchanges with Villarosa and lawyers for the university, the school revoked InterVarsity's status as a registered student organization and canceled the group's scheduled activities on campus.

InterVarsity said it was denied access to free or reduced rent space on campus, space in the student center to recruit new members and excluded from two campus recruiting events, FestiFall and WinterFest. 

It also was booted off the list of official student groups posted on the school’s website; and denied access to an online school platform used to communicate with students and to post a schedule of events, according to the suit."

In other words, IVCF doesn't allow non-Christians to hold officer positions. That's discrimination, according to Wayne State University.

This past Monday "a federal judge ruled that WSU violated the constitutional rights of a Christian student group that required its leaders to be Christians."

"The judge found that other groups on campus were not required to amend their charters in a similar way. He cited as examples club sport teams that are limited to a single gender as well as single gender fraternities and sororities.

The Iraqi Student Organization requires its leaders to be “dedicated Iraqi students." The Student Veterans Organization limits both membership and leadership roles to military veterans and ROTC members.

The Muslim Student Association said in its registration that it would remove leaders for violating "an Islamic principle that deems him/her unworthy to serve as a Muslim leader on campus.” The Coptic Christian Club requires its leaders to be “Coptic Orthodox Christian.""

But of course, right?

This is what Rod Dreher calls "soft totalitarianism," here exemplified in Wayne State University's treatment of Christians. (See Dreher.)

"The university is reviewing the ruling."

Welcome to 1984.

***

See also: "InterVarsity Wins Suit Against Wayne State."

Hope: God Will Make a Way

(Faces - by Gary Wilson)

For those who feel hopeless today: there is hope.

To access the emotion of hope, draw near to God.

Trust in the Lord with your entire being.

Don't waste time trying to figure out the impossible.

Instead, in all you do today, acknowledge Him.

He will lay out the path before you.

Proverbs 3:4-5 (my translation)

"Hope," writes Miroslav Volf, "is love stretching itself into the future." (Volf, A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Public Good, Kindle location 978)

Hope is expectation. When I hope, I expect something and prepare for it. And that "something," when it comes to hope, is seen as good. "In our everyday usage, “hope” is, roughly, the expectation of good things that don’t come to us as a matter of course." (Ib.)

Make your focus today God. Expect the unexpected.

Hope is different than optimism. "Optimism has to do with good things in the future that are latent in the past and the present; the future associated with optimism is an unfolding of what is already there. We survey the past and the present, extrapolate about what is likely to happen in the future, and, if the prospects are good, become optimistic." (Kindle Locations 989-991) 

Hope is different. Hope "has to do with good things in the future that come to us from “outside,” from God; the future associated with hope— [Jurgen] Moltmann calls it adventus—is a gift of something new." (Kindle Locations 991-993; emphasis mine)

Hope is about a promise, given to us from God. 

Because God is love, we trust in God's faithfulness. "God then brings about “a new thing”: aged Sarah, barren of womb, gives birth to a son (Gen. 21:1–2; Rom. 4:18–21); the crucified Jesus Christ is raised from the dead (Acts 2:22–36); a mighty Babylon falls and a new Jerusalem comes down from heaven (Rev. 18:1–24; 21:1–5); more generally, the good that seemed impossible becomes not just possible but real." (Kindle Locations 994-996)

God desires to fulfill His desires in you. God is working all things, all things, together for good, in you, today. Linda and I have much experience with this!

Consider yourself a fruit-bearing branch as you connect with Jesus. Now. Today.

Volf writes: "The expectation of good things that come as a gift from God—that is hope. And that is love too, projecting itself into our life and our world’s future. For love always gives gifts and is itself a gift; inversely, every genuine gift is an expression of love. At the heart of the hoped-for future, which comes from the God of love, is the flourishing of individuals, communities, and our whole globe." (Kindle Locations 997-999; emphasis mine)

How does a person become a hope-filled person? By living in constant connection to God. Hopelessness is a dis-ease that breeds outside the house of God. But within God's house, we live close to the heart and voice of God. This is where we hear and receive the multiform promises of God.

Hope does not dwell in the house of fear. (See Henri Nouwen, Lifesigns, where he distinguished between the "house of faith" and the "house of fear.")

Hope is the emotion, as an orientation of my being, that arises in God's presence, where I hear his promises to me, and to us.

*
My three books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Encounters with the Holy Spirit (co-edited with Janice Trigg)

After a break I'll continue writing Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart.

Then: Technology and Spiritual Formation.

Then, the Lord willing, Linda and I will write our book on Relationships.

The Soul, and What Happens to a Jesus-Follower When They Die (Easter Sunday - 4/04/2021)

EASTER SUNDAY AT REDEEMER!

For my message, fast forward to 1:06.

3 Books on the Nature of the Human Soul (Soul-Body Dualism)

 

It's Easter Sunday!

This morning at Redeemer I am preaching on what happens when we die, and the reality of persons being a composite of a nonphysical soul and a physical body.

Here are three very good resources if you want to really dig in to this.

Jesus is risen!

The Soul: How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters, by J. P. Moreland

A Brief History of the Soul, by Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro

Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality, by Gary Habermas and J. P. Moreland

Celebrate! It's Easter Sunday!

 

See William Lane Craig:

"The Resurrection of Jesus"

"Forum on the Resurrection of Jesus"

Jesus' Body Lies in a Tomb Owned by Joseph of Arimathea

(Ancient tomb in Jerusalem)

SCRIPTURE - MATTHEW 27:57-66

⁵⁷ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. ⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. 

⁶² The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ⁶³ "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' ⁶⁴ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
⁶⁵ "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." ⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard."

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THESE VERSES?

As a new Jesus-follower I learned of factual, historical pieces of evidence that strengthened my faith. One is this: Jesus' dead body was placed in a tomb owned by Sanhedrin member, Joseph of Arimathea. This provides a piece of evidence that, along with other facts (esp. Jesus' postmortem appearances - see, e.g., Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony), forms an strong inductive argument for the resurrection of Jesus. 

On the Saturday following Good Friday Jesus' body lay inert in Joseph of Arimathea's family tomb. We can be certain, historically (which means "inductively certain"), that this was the case. How so? Here are two reasons: 

1) this story, in the four Gospels and Paul, is found in independent sources that together attest to this; and 

2) by the "criterion of embarrassment" a story of a member of the Sanhedrin helping Jesus' family is unlikely, and not plausibly invented by Christians. This argues in favor of its historicity.

1) We have sources that together attest to Jesus' burial in a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea.

Paul Barnett writes: "Careful comparison of the texts of Mark and John indicate that neither of these Gospels is dependent on the other. Yet they have a number of incidents in common: For example, . . . the burial of Jesus in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea" (Paul Barnett, Jesus and the Logic of History, 1997, pp. 104-5). Regarding the burial stories, the differences between Mark and the other Synoptics point to other independent sources behind Matthew and Luke. (Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the "Synoptic" gospels.)

So what's the point? It's this. If, e.g., a police officer had multiple, independent (unrelated) witnesses to a crime, and they all gave the same report (even if worded differently and with variations), this would provide stronger evidence than if only one report had been given. We have this re. the burial stories, in the Gospels and Paul. Here is the key Pauline text.

1 Corinthians 15:3 ff.: For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

William Lane Craig writes:

"This is an old tradition, handed on by Paul to the Corinthian church, which is among the earliest traditions identifiable in the NT. It refers to Jesus' burial in the second line of the tradition. That this is the same event as the burial described in the Gospels becomes evident by comparing Paul's tradition with the Passion narratives on the one hand and the sermons in the Acts of the Apostles on the other. The four-line tradition handed on by Paul is a summary of the central events of Jesus' crucifixion, burial by Joseph of Arimathea, the discovery of his empty tomb, and his appearances to the disciples."

2) Most NT scholars say it is highly likely that Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea. 

Sometimes I hear someone say, "OK, but Christians just made these stories up." This is improbable. As a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin that was opposed to Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to be a Christian invention. In this regard New Testament  scholar Raymond Brown says burial by Joseph of Arimathea is probable. Why? Because it is almost inexplicable why Christians would make up a story about a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin who does what is right by Jesus. That would, for a Jesus-follower in the days after Easter weekend, be an embarrassment. 

Craig Keener writes: "Given early Christian experiences with and feelings toward the Sanhedrin, the invention of a Sanhedrist acting piously toward Jesus is not likely." (Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio- Rhetorical Commentary, 690)

Why is this important? It's important because the location of the tomb where Jesus' body was placed was known. Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" (the mother of James and Joseph) knew where it was, as did the chief priests and the Pharisees. On Sunday, the tomb was empty. If Jesus' body was still in the tomb, it could and would have been seen or exhumed on the days following Easter. 

Why would Joseph of Arimathea offer his tomb for Jesus' body to be placed in? The answer is: he had become a disciple of Jesus. (Matt. 27:57) Both he and Sanhedrin member Nicodemus saw something in Jesus, and stepped out of the box to follow Him. Joseph is a risk-taker who is willing to put aside his place of political and religious power to go after the truth and love he sees in Jesus. He doesn't realize what's going to happen on Sunday. But he wants to make sure his new Lord receives a proper Jewish burial. 


REFLECTION

1. Joseph of Arimathea risked his reputation and career to follow Jesus. Reflect on how you are risking all for Jesus.


***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

I'm now working on...

Transformation: How God Changes the Human Heart 

And, when all this settles, Linda and I intend on writing our book on Relationships.

Self-Forgiveness Often Includes Making Amends with Others

                                                     (The River Raisin, in Monroe County)

Are you having a hard time forgiving yourself for things you have done to others, or to your own self, or to God? If so, the book to read on this is Everett Worthington's Moving Forward: Six Steps to Forgiving Yourself and Breaking Free From the Past. 

When this involves another person or persons, Worthington emphasizes the connection between self-forgiveness and seeking the forgiveness of those we have wronged. He cites studies showing "that people could forgive themselves more quickly and thoroughly if they felt forgiven both by God and by the person they wronged." (85) 

This is because, when we hurt another person, we damage our own character. In wounding others, we also wound ourselves. When we choose to restore relationship with the one we have harmed this "restorative moral action will narrow our own injustice gap and help restore our sense of self as a moral person." (Ib.)

How can we narrow the injustice gap our actions have created? For one thing, "to regain trust from someone you harmed, you need to show the person that you are taking full responsibility." (86) 

If I hurt you, then I am responsible, with your permission, to acknowledge your woundedness and the healing process. For example, the adulterous wife or husband must talk about their evil tryst, intentionally and proactively, so that their spouse does not have to keep asking all the many questions that are now in their mind. 

Worthington writes: "add substance to your commitment to take responsibility by acting to narrow the injustice gap." (Ib.) 

These responses begin to break the chains of self-hatred.