Fisher of Men

For many in the West, if not most, Christmas will be spent in relative peace.  Time together with family and friends, presents under the tree and a hot dinner typify the day of celebration.  Christmas is a national holiday in the United States, and most people will have a paid day off from work.  You can sleep in if you’d like, assuming that the kids or grandkids don’t run downstairs and tear into the presents at an unreasonably early hour.  While there’s been a move over the past generation to stigmatize the use of “Merry Christmas” as a greeting, with politically correct types preferring the more sanitized and non-descript “Happy Holidays,” still there is general acceptance and understanding of what Christmas is. No one will beat you up for buying a Christmas tree or ...

Elijah had been used of God to hold back rain from the people for over three years, because of their sins. Obviously, he was not well liked as a preacher. I can imagine the stress he experienced during those years. Something strikes me, however, that seems to further complicate Elijah’s situation. Consider 1 Kings 18:1: “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” According to a couple New Testament passages, this “After a long time” was actually three and a half years. The famine was three and a half years long. For three and a half years, the people apparently continued to sin, Elijah continued to hold on by faith, but God said nothing. God was apparently inactive… not speaking… even to Hi...

GQ Magazine, which isn’t exactly famous for promoting a God-fearing view of the world or social issues, is enjoying a meteoric boost in publicity these days due to writer Drew Magary’s candid interview of “Duck Dynasty” star, Phil Robertson. In his interview published in GQ’s January 2014 issue, Phil “the Duck Commander” Robertson voiced traditional Christian views of marriage and sexuality with his trademark straight-shooter, non-nuanced style: “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men. Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom...

Time off work, a year-end bonus, receiving gifts on your wish list… none of those things are bad in themselves. But you can get all of those things without Christmas. So, they can’t be the ultimate reason you need Christmas, right? Maybe you’re on the opposite side of the spectrum: you don’t think you need Christmas at all. The decorating, awkward family gatherings, shopping, and traveling add so much stress. Or maybe Christmas makes you feel incredibly lonely. You’d love to sleep straight through Christmas and wake up just in time to ring in the New Year. What both these mindsets have in common is that they each focus on things that are ancillary to the true significance of why Christmas happened and why we celebrate it. Why do we really need Christmas? What does Christm...

Introduction               On the fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV), we celebrate God’s faithfulness in sending Jesus, and we remember that faithfulness as we look forward to Christ’s second coming. The Scripture and Theology of the Fourth Week of Advent Scripture readings for Advent IV focus on the coming of the Messiah who fulfills God’s covenant with David, bringing salvation for all people and the eternal reign of God on earth. Old Testament Readings         Old Testament passages for the final week of Advent reflect on prophecies, which are fulfilled by Jesus’ birth. Isaiah 7:10 recounts the story of King Ahaz, king of Judah at a time when Judah was facing a foreign invasion. Ahaz hoped for help from the king of Assyria. The pro...

Every year at Christmastime, like clockwork, you can expect the mainstream media to come out with some sort of “fresh” perspective on Jesus. We see this on TV specials and in magazines and reports. Since December has just begun, I thought I’d be pro-active in answering the critics. The basic questions are these: Can we trust the Bible? Can we trust the Gospels? If they were put on trial, as in a court case, how would they hold up? One man who contributed significantly to Christian apologetics was one of America’s great legal leaders. Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was a professor at Harvard Law School (1833-1848). He contributed a great deal to the school, expanding it, including its library. Greenleaf wrote a major textbook used widely, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence.  Contrary to so...

Years ago, my friend Elizabeth came to me with a question.  A young lady in her church asked if she would be her mentor.   The young lady picked an excellent choice, because Elizabeth is a wise, spiritually mature, Godly woman.  However, as Elizabeth was discussing this request, she turned to me with a bit of apprehension and asked, “What exactly does she want me to do with her?” Elizabeth faced the same perplexing question any mentor faces.  Many believers have never experienced the blessing of a spiritual mentor in their own life.   Without an example to follow, it can be intimidating to agree to mentor a younger believer. Elizabeth wanted to be a positive influence and provide spiritual encouragement in this young lady’s life.  However, she didn’t...

Guilt. When everything else is quiet, it’s the disquietness within you saying, “I wish I had never done that.” “I wish I could go back and do that differently.” Older men may have guilt for failing to be present and intentional in their children’s lives when they were small. Women sometimes have it over their role in early pregnancies. Teammates have guilt for missing the winning catch or shot. There’s no undo button in life, but we wish that our feelings of guilt could go away forever. And we need a better solution than just not talking about it, avoiding people and places that remind us of the guilt, suppressing our guilty feelings somehow, or busying ourselves to the point that we have no time to think guilt-ridden thoughts. If we could remove the status of guilt—the objective part of b...

Introduction The third Sunday in Advent (Advent III) shifts from a tone of expectation of Christ’s coming to one of rejoicing at the arrival of God’s kingdom with the coming of Jesus. The Scripture and Theology of the Third Week of Advent Scripture readings for Advent III reflect on the salvation and restoration Jesus brings, which is cause for rejoicing and perseverance. Old Testament Readings         Old Testament readings for Advent III highlight the universal restoration Jesus accomplishes. In Isaiah 35:1, the prophet looks forward to the future promised for the people of God—a future inaugurated at the first coming of Christ and consummated at his second coming. When Jesus returns, the effects of sin’s curse will be removed: the wildernesses and dry land will bloss...

  Introduction The second Sunday in Advent (Advent II) continues on the path started in the first week by looking forward to Christ’s first and second coming. Advent II focuses on John the Baptist, the Gentiles being included in God’s family, Christ’s coming in judgment and peace, and the church’s hopeful expectation of the completion of his promises. The Scripture and Theology of the Second Week of Advent Whereas the Scripture readings for Advent I speak broadly about God’s promise to bring Israel out of exile, the readings for Advent II focus more specifically on the Messiah and what his coming will look like. Old Testament Readings Old Testament readings for Advent II reflect on the type of kingdom the coming Messiah will bring: one of judgment and peace. Isaiah 11:1 says, “There s...

“Don’t drink, don’t chew, don’t go with girls that do.” It may be bad poetry, but at least it has the virtue of being clear. And fifty years ago, many American Evangelicals would have agreed that alcohol consumption was a sure sign of worldliness, if not a lack of genuine faith altogether. But times have changed, as a recent CT article shows, citing Moody Bible Institute lifting its ban on alcohol and tobacco use for full time employees. This change is part of a larger shift in how Evangelicals think about cultural activities once deemed questionable. Consider, for example Brett McCracken’s recent book Gray Matters: Navigating the Space between Legalism and Liberty, which discusses Christian consumption of food, music, movies, and alcohol.[1] Emotions run high on this issue. This is unders...

By now you may have heard that Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year is “selfie.”  Clueless?  It’s a reference to a smartphone self-portrait, now shorthand for any self-taken photograph.  Pictures used to be taken, and later shown, as a way of saying “We were there.”  Now, they are taken and instantly relayed through social media to say, “We are here.” It’s a good word for our day, as without a doubt, it has become a very “selfie” world.  Or as Christopher Lasch presciently noted, ours is a culture of narcissism. In Greek mythology, Narcissus is the character who, upon passing his reflection in the water, becomes so enamored with himself that he devotes the rest of his life to his own reflection.  From this we get our term “narcissism,” the preoccupation with s...