I preached on John 20 this past Sunday, which includes the well-known story of “Doubting Thomas.”  Personally, I think Thomas has gotten a bad rap.  Two reasons…

::     O  N  E     ::

People perceive Thomas as a failure because they perceive that doubt = bad.  That’s not true.  Doubting something can lead you to investigating it and discovering its veracity (or lack thereof) for yourself.  Having doubts – even about faith – can actually end up strengthening faith.  Thomas’ time of doubt concludes with him confessing to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).  From this famous (or infamous) doubter comes “the greatest confession of the Lord who rose from the dead” (George R. Beasley-Murray’s commentary on John’s Gospel, p. 385).  This can be anyone’s experience, assuming you decide to actually wrestle with your doubts.  If you say you have doubts about faith but do nothing to work through your doubt, then I’d call it cynicism or flat-out disbelief, not doubt.

Because people perceive doubt = bad, I think many hear disappointment or impatience in Jesus’ words when he says to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side.  Stop doubting and believe” (20:27).  I do not believe that accurately captures the tone of Jesus’ voice or the language of His posture.  Instead, I see Jesus simply doing what He always does – taking the initiative, doing what it takes to draw, to woo people to Him.  So Thomas is not a failure.  He serves as part of the picture of what Jesus can and will do to strengthen people in their faith.

::     T  W  O     ::

The other reason Thomas has received a bad rap is because he is often portrayed as the only doubter in the room.  It’s only been one short week since the rest of the disciples were in the same room, “the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders” (20:19).  Why were they huddled together in secrecy and fear?  They had heard the report of Mary Magdalene, that she had seen the empty tomb and the living Jesus.  Why else were they huddled together in secrecy and fear except for the likely reason that they doubted Mary’s report.  They, too, wouldn’t believe the report without proof!  A week before the events concluding John 20, the room was filled with doubters.  In John 20:25, Thomas is the only one doubting now, yet he’s the one we single out and call Doubting Thomas.  The poor guy.  (Gail R. O’Day writes about this in her commentary on John’s Gospel, pp. 846, 849.)

Personally, I receive comfort in reflecting on how I am in good company when I have doubts, knowing that the very first disciples experienced the same thing – and had their doubts taken seriously and resolved.

Art:
”Doubt of Thomas” by modern Japanese artist Sadao Watanabe.
www.scriptum.com/art.cfm?rec_id=1544

To follow up on what I wrote last week, Jesus desires relationship with us more than watching us be busy with religious activity.  Notice I am not saying that activity is bad; rather, it needs to be the happy by-product of knowing and loving Jesus, following and obeying as He leads.  How sad it is when our busy activity distracts and disconnects us from our Lord!

In his commentary on John’s Gospel, Gary M. Burge writes:

Faith, then, is more a matter of relationship than of creed.  (p. 577, discussing John 20)

Now, I don’t think the author is bashing creeds, confessions, or catechisms.  I think what he is saying is that faith is more than only storing the correct information in your head and being able to let it pour out of your mouth.  Not that knowledge and speaking up are useless; it’s just that those abilities do not necessarily equal having true faith.

I think the Reformed tradition has accurately (though perhaps excessively) been accused of focusing too much on the head and too little on the heart.  Granted, there’s something appealing to sticking exclusively with intelligence: You can convince yourself that you have mastered it as you would a course at school; you can appraise and judge other people and traditions by how closely they believe the same things you do; you are less vulnerable than when emotions get involved.  Unfortunately, keeping faith as only a cerebral thing can result in us keeping Jesus at arm’s length.  I guess there’s something appealing about that, too:  We’ll feel we can avoid following Him when He leads where we don’t want to go.  But we’ll also miss out on deeply experiencing His power and enjoying His close friendship.

Here again is Dr. Burge’s comment in the context of its paragraph:

Faith, then, is more a matter of relationship than of creed.  On occasion it means accepting that a message given is true and trustworthy, but for the most part, faith springs from confidence in the works Jesus has done and results in a desire to invest all hope in Him.  Faith is personal and transforming since it is dependent on a Person who has demonstrated Himself powerful and trustworthy.  It is the decision whereby a person gains eternal life and … become[s] a child of God, and so marks himself or herself as a member of Jesus’ community.

If you could have asked the apostle Paul whether he was religious, I think he might have answered, “No.”

In Acts 17:22, Paul describes the first century people of Athens as being “very religious.”  The study note in my TNIV Study Bible says that the word religious in 17:22 can also be translated as superstitious.  While Paul might be congratulating the Athenians for their spirituality, I think it’s more likely he is criticising them for their religiosity.  (We might call it churchianity today.)

It’s as though Paul is saying, You are religious? Well, you have received your reward in full.  Paul is not interested in people becoming “more religious” or swapping one religion for another, per se.  Instead he passionately invites people to trade in their religion(s) for a relationship.  Paul introduces people to the Man whom God has appointed, the One who He raised from the dead (see 17:31) – namely Jesus.

In some contexts, religious might not be a bad way to describe yourself.  However, when you’re asked about faith-related matters, consider saying that you are relational instead of religious, that you are in Christ.  There is nothing superstitious about Him; He is very real and very present.

This is good stuff, these daily devotions I mentioned the other day!  Today’s takes seriously our stories of faith and how God uses our stories to bless others.

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” – Romans 1:8

Can you imagine someone thanking God for you because your faith – your story – is being shared with people all over the world?  Maybe that is too much too imagine.  How about your story – the story of how your walk with God has helped you not only get through the tough things you’ve gone through but has enabled you to live your life with joy and fulfillment – can you imagine how that story could be of some inspirational value to the people you work with, or your neighbours, or perhaps people within your own family?  You will never know what God can do with your story until you start sharing it.  Remember God uses ordinary people like you to spread His love.  So how about it? Not sure what to share?  Just answer these questions…

What difference has walking with God made in your life, your marriage, your family, your purpose, your joy, your fun, your work, your friends?

What experiences have you had that have reassured you that God is real and that He has a purpose for you?

How has walking with God made thing different for you, your marriage, your family, your life?

For Discussion:  Take some time to answer the questions above, and share those answers with someone(s).  Can you think of some concrete ways in your life that you can share your faith with other people?

Prayer:  Lord our God, we want to share our faith in you with everyone, including our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbours.  Please give us the wisdom and the courage to do that, and to know when to do it. Amen.

– written for CRC Home Missions by Steve Elzinga

We live in a “right now” world.  Overnight delivery.  Microwave dinners.  Fast food.  High-speed internet.  We are forgetting how to wait, forgetting how to persevere.  A week-long series of devotionals in anticipation of Reformation Day begins with speaking about the courage (yes, courage!) it takes to wait…

As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we have witnessed the advent of new and innovative technologies. From iPhones and iPods, to YouTube, MySpace and Twitter, the method of communicating and transferring information has dramatically changed.  It is no secret that it is much easier now than 20 years ago to move knowledge, insight and information around the globe. But at what cost?  The recent economic crisis has shown us that now more than ever we reside in a microwaveable society, where human beings need and want everything right now.  We have to have a house, right now.  We have to have a new career, right now.  We have to have the latest clothes, computer or car, right now.

The Reformation reminds those of us in the body of Christ of the need to develop the courage to wait; and not just wait for new things, but wait for God to renew our minds, body and soul.  The early reformers of the church had a mission: to bring the church back to a Bible-centred approach in regard to its doctrine and practices. Reform was (and is) not easy; but through many trials and tribulations, the reformers did not give up or give in.  They had the courage to wait for renewal to come; to the church, in particular, and the body of Christ as a whole.  As Isaiah 40:31 so eloquently states, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

For Discussion:  Talk about something you thought was important, that you had to wait for.  Was it a new toy?  Summer vacation?  Your favourite TV show season premiere?  Now think about how we wait for something much more important: God’s renewal in our lives.

Prayer:  God, we ask you to give us the courage to wait for You to renew us, in mind, body and soul. Amen.

— written for CRC Home Missions by Ed Rockett

The Sacred Marriage seminar with Gary Thomas last weekend was a tremendous blessing.  Marriages were strengthened.  I’m certain some were even saved.

A realization I personally came to is how most people (myself included) get married for selfish reasons.  Before meeting and marrying Monica, I recall thinking things like, When am I going to find a wife so I won’t be lonely?  When will I find the special someone with whom I can share my joys and struggles?  I wanted to get married to be loved.  The word selfish probably never came from my lips, but, consciously and/or subconsciously, that’s how my mind worked.  I badly wanted the joy of being married; ironically, selfishness never leads to joy.

Most people get married in the hopes that they will be loved.

What if most people married in order to learn to love?

Catch the difference?  Whether it’s conveyed explicitly or implicitly, when individuals marry to be loved, they do so thinking, What’s in it for me?  As soon as one’s partner’s love wanes in the ebb and flow of life together, one may begin thinking that it’s time to abandon his/her marriage.

On the other hand, when we marry in order to learn to love, the focus shifts away from oneself and towards one’s spouse.  Now the other’s character and needs and wants become the highest priority.  The marriage is stronger because it is not as easily threatened by seasons of decreased romance and passion.  The value of our marriage and of our spouse is no longer calculated based on our spouse’s performance, by the grade we’ve assessed his/her current level of love expressed towards us.  Instead, with perseverance, we’ll keep asking ourselves, What am I doing to love my partner deeper and better?

Asking questions like that keeps me from acting like I’m still single despite being married.  Questions like that will train my brain to think more of we and less of me.  And apparently it takes 10-15 years to really begin figuring this out.  How many people forfeit the joy that could be theirs by bailing out before the me truly turns into a united we?

Christians are called to love each other.  That’s about as basic as saying “The sky is blue” or “The grass is green.”  Yet Christian couples sometimes say the reason they are separating or divorcing is because they no longer love each other.  This is a terrible indictment not only on their relationship, but also on their faith, as Gary Thomas makes clear in Sacred Marriage…

One of the cruelest and most condemning remarks I’ve ever heard is the one that men often use when they leave their wives for another woman: “The truth is, I’ve never loved you.”  This is meant to be an attack on the wife – saying in effect, “The truth is, I’ve never found you loveable.”  But put in a Christian context, it’s a confession of the man’s utter failure to be a Christian.  If he hasn’t loved his wife, it’s not his wife’s fault, but his.  Jesus calls us to love even the unlovable – even our enemies! – so a man who says “I’ve never loved you” is a man who is saying essentially this: “I’ve never acted like a Christian.” (p. 40-41)

Related:
:: More quotes from Sacred Marriage are here.
:: Sacred Marriage Seminar beginning tomorrow at Rough Acres Bible Camp.
 

The Sacred Marriage Seminar is happening this weekend at Rough Acres Bible Camp.  I’m looking forward to hearing Gary Thomas speak and elaborate on what small groups in northern BC churches have been discussing over the course of this past year – namely the principles within his book Sacred Marriage.

The subtitle reveals much about its contents: “What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?”  It’s quite different than any other book I’ve read about marriage.  I would not call it a “how to” book.  It’s a book that seeks to nurture a person’s walk with Jesus – a person who happens to be married.  It delves into numerous intersections between faith and marriage.

God invites us to find fulfilment in Him.  How many people get married expecting their spouse to consistently fulfill them, to completely satisfy them, to continually make them happy?  Before Monica and I met, I remember thinking, “I’ll be happy when I find the right person.”  While words can never express how wonderful a blessing Monica is, things can easily go awry when I begin to expect that she will be my only source of fulfilment.  What a horrible burden to put on someone, expecting that s/he will singlehandedly make your life meaningful and give you joy!  Some would call that being your saviour.  You’re only setting your marriage up for failure.

But what if Jesus is your Saviour?  What if you find your ultimate identity and fulfilment in Him?  Then you free your spouse to be your partner, to be a fellow broken yet image-bearing child of God.  Together you and your spouse can explore how God is building character in you both.  And together you can discover God’s purposes for you as individuals, as a couple, as a family.  This does not necessarily make marriage easier; perhaps sometimes it makes marriage harder!  But it makes it richer.

In Sacred Marriage, Gary Thomas rightly sees the theme of reconciliation running through the apostle Paul’s writings in the New Testament.  Reflecting on this, Thomas says:

The very nature of Christ’s work was a reconciling work, bringing us together again with God.  Our response is to become reconcilers ourselves…  Everything I do in my life is to be supportive of this Gospel ministry of reconciliation, and that commitment begins by displaying reconciliation in my personal relationships, especially in my marriage.  If my marriage contradicts my message, I have sabotaged the goal of my life: to be pleasing to Christ and to faithfully fulfill the ministry of reconciliation, proclaiming the Good News that we can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ…

If I’m married only for happiness, and my happiness wanes for whatever reason, one little spark will burn the entire forest of my relationship.  But if my aim is to proclaim and model God’s ministry of reconciliation, my endurance will be fireproof.  (p. 34, 36)

As someone said in the Sacred Marriage small group in which Monica and I participated this past year, doing what makes God happy makes us happy – including, perhaps especially, when it comes to our marriage relationships.

Read more:
I’ve quoted Sacred Marriage in previous blog entries…
:: “Practical Holiness” (25 May 2009)
:: “Savoury Relationships” (10 July 2009)

One more thing:
If you’re thinking about coming to the Sacred Marriage seminar this weekend and haven’t told the organizers, please fill out the registration form and contact them ASAP!

Last week, David Letterman of CBS’s Late Show admitted to having had sex at undisclosed points in time with women who work for him.  His admission was a response to a blackmail threat he received from a CBS employee who allegedly threatened to go public with this unless Mr. Letterman gave him $2 million.  By publicly admitting this, Mr. Letterman is attempting to diffuse a scandal: Now that the secret is out, the blackmail letter is useless.  The whole business has received publicity across American and Canadian networks (e.g. CBC’s pieces with their ensuing online discussions are here and here) and the video of the admission has been uploaded numerous times to YouTube…

I’m intrigued by the language David Letterman uses in this clip.  He quotes the blackmail letter writer as telling him: “I know that you do some terrible, terrible things.”  Accompanying the letter was a package, and “contained in the package,” says David Letterman, “was stuff to prove that I do terrible things.”

Although he expresses guilt, never in the clip does David Letterman admit that he himself recognizes that what he did was indeed terrible.  The closest he gets is saying that what he did was “embarrassing” to himself and the women involved.

At first I thought of David Letterman’s words as a confession.  But I don’t think that accurately describes it.  It’s more like he gives an admission to doing something, and I’m starting to see that admission and confession are not the same thing.  When you admit something, you’re not necessarily disclosing something bad that you’ve done.  On the other hand, when you confess something, you own up to the fact that what you did was indeed bad.  I will confess to my wife if I polished off the last of the ice cream.  I do not confess to my wife that I went and bought a bucket of ice cream.  (Well, uh, maybe I do need to confess how much ice cream I buy…  For another example:  I do not confess to my wife that I’ve washed and put away the dishes.)

Admission is the easier thing to do: It’s just stating a fact.  You let people know that you did something, but assign no moral value to that action.  It’s rather politically correct.  After all, what you did is your own business and no one has the right to suggest that your moral compass is wrong.

Confession is the harder thing to do: It indeed reveals that the morality of what you did is questionable at best and just plain wicked at worst.  That, in turn, prompts you to further action such as seeking forgiveness and repenting.  And when you repent, you declare that you are turning 180° away from what you did and towards something different.  When disciples of Jesus repent of their sins, they turn away from those sins and instead – by the grace of Jesus and with the help of the Holy Spirit – turn towards God and His will.  In one of his sermons, Matt Chandler from The Village Church in Highland Village TX defines repentance as “making war against your sin.”  This is politically incorrect, even offensive in a culture where everyone is entitled to their own sense of morality and where suggesting that what someone does is sinful could label you narrow-minded or a bigot.

Yet it is through repentance that we receive hope.  In her book, Speaking of Sin, theologian Barbara Brown Taylor writes that “the recognition that something is wrong is the first step towards setting it right again.  There is no help for those who admit no need of help … [and] no repair for those who insist that nothing is broken.”  After quoting Rev. Taylor, Peter Schuurman, a father of two and a professor at Redeemer University College, writes in Christian Courier: “‘Sin’ may be a four-letter word for many, but without it there can be no redemption.”

David Letterman may have minimized a scandal and perhaps even assuaged his guilt through his admission a few nights ago, but I wonder whether he is experiencing the marvellous, redemptive freedom gained by true confession.

Telkwa CRC has launched “The Truth Project,” a 13-week comprehensive Biblical worldview study.  It asks us if we really believe that what we believe is really real, and then challenges us to compare how we think, speak and live against the truth of Scripture.

A day or two before the first session, I read another insightful piece in Kevin Harney’s book Seismic Shifts: The Little Changes that Make a Big Difference in Your Life that connects with knowing and living God’s Word in everyday life.  If we stop wielding “the sword of the Spirit,” we give Satan way too much room to fill our minds with his destructive lies.

When we read the Bible regularly and feast on the truth of God’s Word, we are training for the battles that lie ahead.  Owning a sword does not make a person a warrior.  Having ten swords around the house does not make someone more powerful.  Only practice will prepare us for battle.  Reading, studying, and knowing God’s Word prepares us to stand strong against spiritual attacks.  Too many people today have a stack of Bibles around the house but no idea how to use them.  It is time to train to fight the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  We don’t have what it takes to win this battle in our own strength, but when we are armed with the Word of God and are trained to use it, we are ready to fight.  (p. 79)

Related: 
:: I quoted something about prayer from Seismic Shifts the other day. 
:: Swords picture comes from here.