2 Chronicles 21:6-7

“And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughters of Ahab was his wife. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD. Yet the LORD was not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.”

I have little to say today, except I am overwhelmingly thankful that God keeps his promises. Here are a few verses of my favorite hymns. It is by Charles Wesley.

Depth of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

A recent article suggests that Americans have fewer close friends in their lives than we did 20 years ago

Nearly a quarter of people surveyed said they had “zero” close friends with whom to discuss personal matters. More than 50 percent named two or fewer confidants, most often immediate family members, the researchers said.

What are the causes? The article suggests busy lifestyles as one reason, but implies something else that may be partially to blame.

“It’s one thing to know someone and exchange e-mails with them. It’s another thing to say, ‘Will you give me a ride out of town with all of my possessions and pets? And can I stay with you for a couple or three months?” Smith-Lovin said.

There is a false sense of friendship that Xanga, Blog, My Space, E-Mail, etc. can give. We are connecting in cyberspace, but are we connecting with people in person? Some have said that because of email, letter writing is a lost art form. Will the same be able to be said about relationship in the near future?

With technology comes new dilemmas. It is great to stay in touch with others and keep up via websites and cell phones, but is it also costing some real relationships? I am often amazed that I can find out personal news, announcements, burdens and concerns of people I do not know before anyone close to them even knows it is going on. And once we have expressed these things on our blogs, there can be a temptation to say, “I got that off my chest” and never tell anyone in person about it. Sometimes strangers see and hear about life events before close family and friends. We have a false feeling of closeness with people we never see or spend time with.
What does this do to the church? It can create cyber-clicks. If you don’t read about it on the net, you will never know. It can tear down meaningful communication and reliance upon one another. It is much easier to have someone that cannot be near you bear your burdens, but is it the most helpful? We can feel we have communicated, because we typed it on the web, but never really open up with one another. Do we really want surfers to know us more than the body of Christ? Maybe this is a reminder to shut off the computer and call someone up for lunch, or to not type your next post and go home and talk it over with family first, or to be more concerned about the lady at the checkout lane that you see every week than the xanga site of the person you have never met or never see.

Why Solomon Why? Why would such a wise man turn to idols. 1 Kings 11. We don’t think much about idols today. Many may think that idolatry is really just an Old Testament idea. The sin of worshiping idols is just as relevant today as then though. J. C. Ryle warns that it is a sin we all need to be on guard against.

It is high time to dismiss from our minds those loose ideas about idolatry, which are common in this day. We must not think, as many do, that there are only two sorts of idolatry—the spiritual idolatry of the man who loves his wife, or child, or money more than God; and the open, gross idolatry of the man who bows down to an image of wood, or metal, or stone, because he knows no better. We may rest assured that idolatry is a sin, which occupies a far wider field than this. It is not merely a thing in pagan lands, that we may hear of and pity at missionary meetings; nor yet is it a thing confined to our own hearts, that we may confess before the mercy-seat upon our knees. It is a pestilence that walks in the Church of the Living Christ to a much greater extent than many suppose. It is an evil that, like the man of sin, “that sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
It is a sin that we all need to watch and pray against continually. It creeps into our religious worship unnoticed, and is upon us before we are aware. Those are tremendous words which Isaiah spoke to the faithful Jew—not to the worshiper of Baal, remember, to the man who actually came to the temple (Isaiah 66:3): “Whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.

For Solomon the sin of idolatry was not derived because of frustration with God, or lack of trust in God, or even true trust in the idols he worshiped, but he worshiped the idols because of his love for his wives.  His disobedience to God in the clear and simple commands lead to greater sins.  Without going into polygamy, it is clear that he should not have married his foreign wives because they worshiped other gods.  We can therefore conclude that the root of Solomon’s sin of idolatry was a love of the things of this world.  This is the heart of idolatry.  Loving the created more than the creator!  There may not be wooden statues in our homes, but idolatry is still a sin to battle.

Here is a brief article that is worth reading on the debate of Faithfulness and Relevance. This division is a difficult one. I struggle much with many friends who claim to believe the same things I do, but are ready to follow methodologies in church practice and leadership of those who hold differing theologies. Do I need to change? Do they really believe the same things I do? This article does not give all the answers, but sheds interesting light onto the discussion.

Here are a few quotes:

I think the most basic pratical division among evangelical pastors today may be between those who pursue faithfulness and assume relevance and those who pursue relevance and assume faithfulness.

I remember taking a walk with Don Carson once, and Don remarking something to the effect that the first generation has the Gospel, the second generation assumes the Gospel, the third generation loses the Gospel.

Dever argues that this division may give an arminian and calvinist more in common than 2 calivinists if one calvinist is seeker-sensitive and the other is pursuing faithfulness. Sadly, I am finding him to be right. My conclusion, methodology and theology are too closely related to divorce the two in church practice and leadership.

That sounds like a great country song, but this is reality. Friday my dad called and asked if there was a fire on our street because he had seen smoke near us. I walked outside to see the neighbor’s house across the street nearly destroyed. No one was injured, but the house and memories are nearly all gone.

As we are reading through Acts, my thoughts go back to Peter’s denial of Christ just prior to his death. What an awful emotional experience that must have been as he tried so hard to stay close to Christ in Christ’s darkest hours and yet failed so miserably.

When I was in college our Brock West dorm had a flag football rivalry with a dorm team from Lawlor Hall. Our junior year we faced off in the semifinals of the playoffs. Basically this game would determine the champion for that year. The first pass thrown to me was a sideline pattern. It was a high pass, I jumped, and it sailed right through my hands. I was very frustrated with myself. That first pass was important both for my confidence, and more so for the quarterback’s confidence in my ability to catch his pass. The defender saw my frustration, and said, “Don’t worry, you won’t drop another one.” And he was right! I even snagged a hail mary at the end of the game to give us a last second victory and the title.

I use this illustration to point to the fact that sometimes our failures are used to bolster our faith. God uses them so that we will not drop another pass. Look at Peter, what terrible failure, and yet he didn’t drop another pass. What power and boldness he proclaimed Christ with throughout the rest of his life. Never again would he deny his Lord, and upon him and the other apostles, Christ built his church, his bride.

Failure is an awful feeling, but in the Chistian life God works this together for our good. This does not mean that we blame God for our failures or try and fail more. Peter was entirely responsible for his failure of denying Christ, but God used it to make a powerful apostle. What about you and your life, have your failed Christ at any point? Seek forgiveness and let it bolster your faith so that you do not drop another pass.

Yesterday we took a family trip to see the Dayton Dragons play. I had won VIP tickets, so it was a real thrill for the kids, okay me, to get to go out on the field and sit in the dugout before the game.

Here is a great article by Donald Whitney, author of many books including Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. It is written with the concern that only 1 out 20 pastors will still be in the ministry by the age of 65. It warns of the pitfalls and dangers that need to be avoided, both internally and externally. There is a great paragraph on success:

They may get ruined by success.
They become CEOs, not shepherds. They become managers, not ministers.
Their model is business, with its emphasis on numbers, units, products,
marketing, and customers, rather than a family with its emphasis on
love, relationships, new births, and maturity, or a farm with its
emphasis on sheep, fruit, and growing things.

And here is the ending paragraph:

The world, the flesh, and the devil
outnumber you, and they have you in their sights. Whether you are fresh
out of seminary or a veteran in the ministry, unless you make the kind
of spiritual progress that’s spoken of in the Pastoral Epistles, you
will be hit by enemy fire. Take pains with the things of God. Be
absorbed in the Pastoral Epistles. Pay close attention to your life and
to your doctrine. Don’t let the ministry keep you from Jesus or keep
you from learning.