Tuesday, January 29, 2008

First Catechism revision

I teach 2nd-4th graders Catechism for our church. A catechism is series of questions and answers summarizing doctrine, especially for children to memorize.

We've got different editions of the catechism book, and they (Great Commissions Publications) changed an answer!

I can see their dilemma: once saved, must I do anything? It's easy to "fall off the horse" in both directions. Here's what's different.

Question 58 originally said:

Q. What must you do to be saved?
A. I must repent of my sin, believe in Christ, and live a godly life.

Now the new edition reads:

Q. What must you do to be saved?
A. I must repent of my sin and believe in Christ as my savior.

What should we teach our kids? I would feel fine with my kids* being taught either. I think God has designed Christians to live in tension between "God has accomplished everything you need to be saved" and "you must do good deeds to be saved". It's a glorious tension that can only be resolved if God himself works in us the good deeds needed to survive the judgment (as in sheep-and-goats, Matthew 25).

*Theoretical kids, we don't have kids yet.

God runs the whole universe

God runs the whole universe. From Satan, to sunsets, to car-wrecks, to global warming, to sex--he's completely in charge.

He made all things, and made them good.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, told him to that he was a liar ("we won't really die") and that they should be God. Such rebellion introduced death, disease, futility and malfunctions into the world. We inherited a rotten nature from Adam and carry his rebellion on today. How can we prove our rebellious nature? We know that something/someone everlasting and powerful made a world full of beautiful things, but we give it/him less than 60 seconds of thought or thanks a day.

God, who foreknew our rebellion, initiated toward us with goodness. Goodness through food and sunshine. Also goodness through pain, that we might see the terribleness and futility of rebellion and turn back to him. He also gave his law to us through prophets to show us how to turn back and live for him.

All have broken the law and lack the glory of God.

Lastly, God sent his own son, Jesus, to us; born of a woman 2,000 years ago. Jesus loved God and loved his neighbor like we are supposed to. At every point where we have lied and stolen, Jesus was tempted like us but without sin.

When Jesus was crucified, he had harmed no one, but people spat on him, pulled his beard, mocked him, the Romans lashed his back with a scourge, ran nails through his hands and feet and hung him on a cross until he died. And worse than that--much worse than physical pain--God the father forsook him on the cross. The wrath God has in store for a violent, God-belittling humanity was emptied out upon Jesus. He made him sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

More than just forgiveness! For God's chosen, he credits Jesus' beautiful life as theirs. He sees Christ's record; and not your filthy one. At the cross Jesus takes on all your grossness and cleanses you of it. And all this can never be taken away.

Jesus, after being buried, rose again on the third day. He ascended to heaven and all authority belongs to him. He will judge every single person on the last day.

Don't like injustice in the world? God has set a day to judge all things and set them right. His special love for his chosen people met that justice at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Without that cross, you will receive a fair judgment from God. Fair = an everlasting prison sentence to a horrible place designed to torment Satan and his angels. It is only fair, for God is infinitely valuable. And we all have treated his worth and beauty as ridiculous and preferred less-satisfying lovers all of our lives.

Lord, save me.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Most depressing week

Depressed? I'm fighting depression. Last week (the last full week in January) is supposed to the most depressing of the year.

Factors: Bottom of winter, but without Christmas. Christmas bills coming due. Hope of keeping resolutions? Probably gone. Aspirations for 2008 being different? It's not. And it's not close enough to being Spring to be able to look forward to it.

So this post is an encouragement! The most depressing week is over.

Blue Monday's wikipedia article.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Moment of Truth on Fox

We turned on the TV last night, and got Moment of Truth on Fox.

It is trash, but watch it!

Contestants answer personal and embarrassing questions in a "hot seat" with the potential to win $500,000. They have to undergo a lie-detector test beforehand. Last night a football player to the lower levels ($15,000 or $25,000), but had to answer in front of his wife, friends, 23 million viewers (and God):

Have you ever flirted with women on the internet after getting married?
Have you ever had sex with someone within 24 hours of meeting them?
Is there any secret you have that would cause your wife to not trust you?
Have you ever touched women as a physical trainer more than was necessary?

(No, Yes, Yes, Yes)

Who can stand before God with clean hands?

He has appointed a day for the Moment of Truth. That's why I want you to watch this show once. It has made me extremely desperate to find a right standing before God.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Why not Evolution?

I was a evolutionary thinker from age 8 until age 22. I ridiculed my future spouse about not accepting billions of years of life and all species created from natural selection.

God caught me before I perished.

Here's one of the "glitches in the matrix" of evolution: sleep. We humans have to shut down our senses and go completely vulnerable for hours every day. That's not the predicted outcome of millions of years of biological innovation tested out in a kill-or-be-killed jungle.

This is a puzzler for evolutionists. I think this NY Times article captures a lot of the frustration.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Sicko, the movie

Stephie and I recently watched Sicko, the Michael Moore film.

If in 5 years we've moved to France, it all started with this movie.

The movie raises this question--Why are we spending twice as much, but doing worse than other countries on health care?

I think part of our disadvantage is military spending. Other countries have a smaller budget item for war, so they have more for health care.

Even if all our war dollars were spent on health care, it wouldn't mean free health care--the insurance pay-per-procedure system is broken and more money won't fix it. Doctors are paid not to be your doctor but per test and procedure.

Here's what happened to doctors/hospitals. Medicare/insurance pays per test or procedure that a doctor runs. To make more money, doctors run more tests/procedures. Medicare responds to higher costs, with lower payments for procedures. Doctors feel financially squeezed and need to run more tests. Costs surge. The main beneficiaries are drug companies, medical device companies, and insurance companies.

So: socialize medicine? I don't know. What does the church do if the state takes care of the sick? Does the Bible say anything to this?

Here's what supports socializing medicine--God judges nations. Egypt, Edom, Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Sidon all get the smack down as a nation. What were their crimes--typically idolatry and oppressing the poor. We have built a system that oppresses the poor in health care. Getting sick can bankrupt or enslave the middle class in debt. The poor just die. America could have Canadian-style health-care for all. But many, many people are getting extremely wealthy off our system.

How much money would a business be willing to spend if its $10 billion company is about to wiped out by socialized medicine? Probably about $10 billion. CIGNA is worth $14 bil. Wellpoint is worth $45 bil. United Health $67 bil. Pfizer $150 bil. That's a lot of money, and it' a partial list.

So the possibility of US free health-care looks impossible by worldly estimations. In fact, if you consider the budgets of the health-care companies to invest in politics, they should only get stronger and richer in the coming years.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Givin til it hurts

CNN Money has a section called "Do the Right Thing", it's a financial ethics column. I've enjoyed it. They ran a column recently called "Giving 'til it hurts".

Question: My mother, a widow in her early sixties, works in the administrative offices of a big conservation organization. While her pay is OK, she makes very large contributions to the organization she works for. In return, Mom is duly honored. But in the meantime, she has only a small nest egg, and it’s not getting any bigger. Aren’t the development people where she works, who know that her means are limited, wrong to solicit and wrong to accept so much of her money?

Our answer: Absolutely. Soliciting money from someone for something you know they can’t afford is wrong. Period... [response continues]

The columnists response continues on to be logically sound. If the grandmother is giving away too much of her income she's presuming upon others for her support later in life by not saving enough.

But Jesus wrecks our logically sound arguments. “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

And I don't think I'm supposed to fully explain it. My reaction should be, "oh crap, I'm not even close to doing this."

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Midlife crisis

NY Times exposes the truth of a male midlife crisis--Crisis? Maybe He's a Narcissistic Jerk.

But you have to admit that “I’m having a midlife crisis” sounds a lot better than “I’m a narcissistic jerk having a meltdown.”

Another patient, a 49-year-old man at the pinnacle of his legal career, started an affair with an office colleague. “I love my wife,” he said, “and I don’t know what possessed me.”

It didn’t take long to find out. The first five years of his marriage were exciting. “It was like we were dating all the time,” he recalled wistfully. But once they had a child, he felt an unwelcome sense of drudgery and responsibility creep into his life.

Being middle-aged had nothing to do with his predicament; it was just that it took him 49 years to reach a situation where he had to seriously take account of someone else’s needs, namely those of his baby son. In all likelihood, the same thing would have happened if he had become a father at 25.

Why do we have to label a common reaction of the male species to one of life’s challenges — the boredom of the routine — as a crisis? True, men are generally more novelty-seeking than women, but they certainly can decide what they do with their impulses.



While the effect of a midlife crisis might be terrible, we should all be having one. Each of us might be past our midlife point.

It sounds like a gift from a loving God to us saying, "Wake up! Everything that you've been chasing is meaningless.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live"
The questions of a midlife crisis are wonderful to ask. What's the point in life? Where am I going? Why haven't I found happiness? Oh crap! I'm going to die.

Christians should ask themselves these questions regularly.

Our default programming is to be like the guy in the article--to wake up, say "I deserve better!" and take what we want. I pray at that at my next midlife crisis, I wake up, repent, and dance that God is 100% for me in Christ.