Your Display of the Gospel Is Bound to What You Do with Trump

The public face of evangelical Christianity is about to be tested and determined this month.

Evangelical leaders of different ministries and denominations are about to decide what to do about Donald Trump as a candidate for president. A meeting of nearly 500 evangelical leaders is set for June 21 with Trump and his staff. This is a call for all of us to pray, because regardless of what you think they should do, you can pray for discernment and wisdom and faithfulness to God. They will need it. There are all sorts of wrong reasons that could tempt and persuade someone to support a politician, and they will be present in force that day.

It's also time for us to get serious with each other. What these leaders decide to do is going to reflect on Christianity and the entire church. We all have a right to participate in politics and voting as citizens, but nothing can separate the choices we make there from what people see of our faith and our beliefs about God. When people see what you value and support as a Christian, and how you make decisions, you are testifying to them about what is important to you and what you believe is right. Michael Gerson explains why what these evangelical leaders do is going to mark the church, either with the behavior, attitudes, and vices of Trump or with the convictions we stand on in remaining apart from him. The church is much more than just the political involvement of its members and leaders, but we can't convince people to set aside what we do politically as Christians from what they know about our faith and beliefs. Actions demonstrate beliefs. Choices demonstrate values.

We are ambassadors for Christ - each and every one of us - whose entire lives are a witness of the kingdom of God and the Gospel. Every minute we are testifying to what we believe and what the Gospel is about - even when our testimony is false because our actions are out of step with the Gospel. We're still portraying it a certain way to people, and they see the message our actions send even when we are getting the message wrong. Which is why Paul says: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel[.]” (Phil. 1:27). The manner of your whole life. Every part. All your conduct, even in how you eat your lunch - as Paul confronted Peter: “But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’” (Gal. 2:14.)

The nomination for the Republican Party belongs to Trump now, despite all efforts to prevent that. But we don't belong to any party or kingdom on earth. We belong only to Christ, and the first and absolute priority of how we act in this world is to be faithful to Him and display the Christian faith and Gospel accurately. I shared some of my concerns here about how it harms the Gospel when Christians endorse a candidate as "the Christian choice." But even when we don't say we think Trump is a Christian, or we specifically say we don't agree with his statements on religion or his values, we are still showing the world something if we say we support him. Many of these evangelical leaders may go the same way that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and other Republican elected officials have gone, submitting to Trump with excuses or resignation. We have to pray and decide whether we will follow those leaders, or whether the great responsibility and privilege of reflecting the Gospel to the world requires us to take a stand and choose between God and political influence.

I pray we have the courage to be faithful to God, even if it requires us becoming irrelevant politically this year. There has never been a clearer example of a candidate who put us to the test of whether we will do that. As Gerson so clearly articulates it: "Support for Trump involves a massive, disorienting shift, especially given the reputation of the religious right. It is, well, unexpected for evangelicals to endorse a political figure who has engaged in creepy sex talk on the radio, boasted about his extramarital affairs, made a fortune from gambling and bragged about his endowment on national television." 

Yet that's the choice before us. Which is why I wrote a couple of months ago that Christians Must Have the Courage to Lose this Election (if Necessary). I stand by it. Ready or not, now is the time for Christians to prove what they worship and who they put their trust in: men or God. There's no halfway here. Either stand firm in faith, waiting on the Lord, or you are bowing your knee to worldly power and saying that political power and control of government is something you can't bear to surrender even if it tarnishes the image of the church. Even if your associations and alliances become the picture of the Gospel and Christian community that the world sees.

"Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation."
Psalm 146:3

"Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!"
Psalm 31:24

As you ponder how to respond, I commend Matt Lee Anderson's article here, with which I wholeheartedly agree: Evangelicalism After Trump
This is a good example of wrestling with the reality that our choice about Trump is inseparable from what it means to be a Christian.

Spiritual Coffee: Truth Doesn't Divide, Unbelief Does - Helping Women Cherish Being a Weaker Vessel - Novels for a Christian Mind

Here's the best of what I've seen recently for building up your mind in Christ and refreshing your heart. Prior roundups are under Spiritual Coffee.

Division Begins with the Departure from the Truth, Jared C. Wilson (For the Church)

Most of us in the Church have been battered and browbeaten with the modern myth that anyone who insists upon something as true is divisive and disruptive. When a person wants to go their own way, those of us who try to call them back are labeled judgmental and closed-minded. Wilson does a very concise and clear job of demonstrating that it is actually the person who has chosen to depart from what we shared as a belief who is being stubborn and closed-minded. Most orthodox creeds and statements of doctrine were created in response to someone abandoning truth for what is deceptive and misleading. They were reactions to the stubbornness of error and rebellion. This is a welcome reset of our perspective, reminding us we don't cause division and conflict just by remaining true to what we believe.

Fragile, Honored, Undaunted: Women as the Weaker Vessel, Abigail Dodds (Desiring God)

"Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered." (1 Peter 3:7).

This verse provokes so many emotional reactions from both men and women. In our age, obsessed with independence and autonomy, the idea of being weak carries with it the implication that you aren't able to assert yourself independently and be free of social stereotypes imposed on you by tradition and culture. No one wants to be weak. I know women struggle over understanding this comparison between men and women, and I know men who struggle with wanting to explain it away out of sympathy and support. Yet it's a teaching of the Bible, and that means that there is something good for us here that we shouldn't miss. We hide from it or dismiss it at our peril, because every time people try to ignore or defy what God has designed and force things into roles and shapes they weren't meant to have, tragedy follows.

Abigail paints a beautiful portrait of the strength and preciousness that coexist with fragility and weakness, illustrating that being weaker does not mean inferior or less capable. The excerpts below speak for themselves - and have a lot to say to both men and women. Although I'm not a woman, I've been married to one for 16 years and I am very familiar with how she has pondered and wrestled through verses like this. She commended this post as among the most helpful things she has read on this verse, and I am grateful to have words like this with which to encourage her. 

"It helps to first acknowledge that what God says through Peter is true. We are weaker, or we could use the synonym fragile. Not stupider. Not less human. Not incapable of reason or achievement. Not emotionally broken. Not more sinful. And not even without great strength, as the Scriptures testify. But weaker. And yet many of us are, or have been at some point, uncomfortable with this because it’s inimical to the spirit of the age and it feels like an offense to our pride. So much so that we may stubbornly spurn 1 Peter’s verity, even as we take every precaution when walking alone in a dark alley.

"Our weakness — the fact that no matter how much time I spent in the gym, I’d likely never be able to overpower an average-sized man or beat him in an arm-wrestling match — is not a sign of something gone wrong. It is to be handled with care, because in it resides exquisite beauties, abilities, and feminine strengths — like the beautiful strength of thick beveled glass."

12 Recent Novels for your Summer Pleasure, Byron Borger (Hearts and Minds Books)

I include this because it is a great joy to discover fiction that brings truth to life with creativity and wisdom, and also because Byron Borger is a voice you should know if you love books. He reviews them often on his Booknotes blog, and his depth of knowledge is astounding. If you're looking for a guide to uncharted wonders and rare jewels in Christian literature and non-fiction, this is your guy. This is the kind of bookstore you wish you could go around the corner to every week. (The one that particularly intrigued me from this list of novels is the sixth one, This Is Why I Came.)

Every year, Byron and his wife Beth put together a remarkable portable bookstore for the Christian Legal Society National Conference, filling a gallery with hundreds of handpicked selections in every imaginable category a Christian may want. Take one look at the organization and care in arranging a room that size with so many useful titles, and you'll know why their experience and knowledge of books is so valuable.

Spiritual Coffee: Safeguarding Church and Family Culture - Who Is David French? - Know Jonathan Edwards in 30 Minutes

Some evening fuel for thought, or a head start on your morning coffee time.
Prior roundups of current links for feeding the Christian mind under Spiritual Coffee.

Carl Trueman Adopts Rod Dreher's Benedict Option ("Eating Locusts Will Be (Benedict) Optional"),

Carl R. Trueman (First Things)
Rod Dreher has been known for the past two years for the idea of "the Benedict Option," which essentially argues that the Church at this cultural crossroads needs to focus on preserving Christian culture in our churches and families and communities rather than putting all our attention into trying to change the wider culture of the world. Dreher has observed that while we were trying to change the culture in society, we lost track of preserving the unique culture of the Church. Now we're in danger of losing that altogether in the next generations. I think Dreher is right, and the Church needs to hear this, so it's encouraging to see more theologians and scholars affirm this. The namesake for his idea comes from the Order of St. Benedict, and the fact that much of the learning and history and philosophy of the world was preserved through the Middle Ages by monks living in private Christian communities. Dreher doesn't advocate for monasticism itself, but he has some really good points about how we should learn from that concept and apply it to safeguarding Christian community and beliefs.

If you want to read more from Dreher on the Benedict Option, here and here are some good pieces to give you the overview. If you prefer video, then use this.
And if you really want to dig into all his historical and anecdotal examples, this is long but very thoroughly explained.

It's not the only thing the Church should focus on, but I think Dreher is spot on that we have failed to realize we aren't preserving a separate and unique culture and community in the Church. We've been so busy trying to shape the wider culture that we lost track of safeguarding and passing on a uniquely Christian culture in the Church, and largely failed to pass Christian faith and teaching in a coherent form on to the next generation. Moreover, we aren't on the offensive against culture now. We're on defense. We need to give great attention to preserving what is Christian in our lives and churches so it doesn't get pushed out by social pressure, because that's what is most likely to happen if we keep trying to wage a culture war the same way and don't re-examine what's happened to our churches.

Who Is David French? And Why Is He Running?, Denny Burk
This is worth reading not just because David French's third-party candidacy is intriguing, but much more because what Burk shares about French's past words and character is a tremendous demonstration of Christian character and faith put to the test under the harshest conditions. Bookmark this for raising your kids to be men and women who take courage in the Lord and honor Him with all their hearts.

Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God, Dane Ortlund (Equipping You in Grace - servantsofgrace.org)
Want to understand what makes Jonathan Edwards such an important Christian theologian, and how some of his remarkable ideas energize faith and the fruit of the spirit in Christian living? Dane Ortlund has got you covered in this podcast. Ortlund is the vice president of Bible publishing at Crossway, and author of several books including Edwards on the Christian Life.

Christians Must Have the Courage to Lose this Election (if Necessary)

This election year has put Christian souls in more danger than just about any other I remember. The desperation to have the winning candidate for President, which people assume will save the country and turn things in the right direction, is all-consuming. I am stunned at how many Christians are saying things like: “It doesn’t matter who the Republican nominee is; we have to beat Hillary no matter what. No matter how bad Trump is, we can’t afford to lose.” Or there’s this: “I can’t stand Trump, but it looks like he’s going to be the nominee, so we have to join up and support him. Otherwise we might not win the election.” The same echoes can be heard on the Democrat side too. It seems that no matter how outrageous or shameful some candidates become, there is actually no point at which we’ll stop supporting them, as long as we think they will win.

Nobody likes to lose. When you feel like you are losing a fight for something important, the temptation to do whatever it takes to turn the tide and win the fight is powerful. It creates a desperation that clouds your judgment, making you too distracted to think about other consequences, even to your soul. Questions like “Am I honoring God by acting this way?” and “Can I really approve of that and call myself a Christian?” give way to “How do we get those final votes so we have enough?” We see things in our country at risk, and instead of trusting God, we go running to try to “save” the situation.

This is exactly what destroyed Saul as the first king of Israel. He was the Lord’s Anointed, handpicked by God to be king. He had God’s support in battle and in leadership. God’s prophet Samuel was supporting him, and had promised to come and offer sacrifices to God for Saul. But Samuel didn’t appear. Saul was nervous he was going to lose his protection in the coming battle unless he did something now. So he did not wait for Samuel, but dishonored God by offering up sacrifices without regarding God’s commands about worship:

He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 1 Samuel 13:8-14

Instead of gaining the advantage he wanted, Saul brought the opposite upon himself: God rejected him as king and took his favor away from Saul because of Saul’s irreverence and compromise. Because Saul stopped listening to God in response to events that made him afraid, God ceased to hear Saul. That is far more terrifying and heartbreaking than losing any battle or election.

No matter how saddened or shocked you are by the changes in our country, you must see an election as a small thing compared with your relationship with God. God is not in peril. He is not shaken or reeling from events in our nation. The purpose of the Lord stands firm, and He cannot be moved. But we can be foolish enough to move away from Him in our anxiety to make things the way we think they ought to be. So many Christians right now seem to be completely consumed by the idea that this nation must look a certain way, no matter who we give power to in order to get us there. They are ready to stand publicly and approve and praise politicians who dishonor God and swim in immorality as long as they’ll vote the right way on some major issues. But one of the basic qualities of a true Christian is being willing to lose rather than risk dishonoring God. There is actually a time to say, “I can’t join in this and still be completely faithful to the Word of God.” What really proves you’re a Christian is that you’re willing to stand firmly beside God even if it means you lose the world.

Do you have the integrity to choose to vote for a candidate who acts rightly and shows respect for what is good, even if he can’t win? Is the name of Christ important enough to you that you will refuse to publicly support or defend a candidate who says and does things offensive to God, even if it means you don’t get to be part of the winning team? Do you have the courage to stay true to God even if it means you have no influence at a convention? If you decide you have to vote for “the lesser of two evils,” will you have the courage to cast your vote in private but refuse to call the “lesser evil” good, or try to make excuses for it? Or will you do whatever it takes to win, because this election is just too important?

Nothing other than Christ can be “too important to lose.” Every time you are forced to choose, the answer must be the same: Christ or nothing. If I have anything else in addition to Christ, it can only be mine if it doesn’t diminish my whole-hearted devotion to Christ. Your citizenship must always submit to your Christian faith. Your political platform must always give way before your Christian faith. A person who sacrifices his grip on Christ in order to avoid losing hold of a culture or a country or a majority has cut off his own legs. He has sawn off the tree limb he was sitting on, and without the trunk it will not matter one bit that he has a firm grip on the limb when he hits the ground.

The Lord disdains and rejects those who try to proclaim allegiance to Him and at the same time put limits on their obedience in order to make peace with other gods or with men. (Zeph. 1:4-5; 2 Kings 17:41; Mark 7:6-13; Rev. 2:12-16). When you let go of Christ in order to grab hold of something floating away from you, you have just lost hold of the only life preserver in the middle of a raging ocean, all so you can save your wallet or car keys. Imagine how well your wallet will hold your head above water as you cling to it. No matter how precious or important a thing may be, it is never necessary or vital enough to be worth losing hold of Christ. Christ will bear you up even if you lose everything. Nothing else will.

The only way to honor God is to show that He is so precious to us that we won’t trade any part of our relationship with Him for any political advantage. If the expectation for our participation in a successful campaign is that we laugh off what is sinful or make excuses for what is cruel or dishonest, Christians cannot agree to participate. If people looking at what we support cannot recognize the character of Jesus Christ in it, we are in the wrong place. We can compromise political platforms and positions on legislation or policy in order to bring people together and make progress. But we will not compromise faithfulness to God.

What will that prove? If we lose, doesn't that make us irrelevant, and thus make what we stood for in Christ irrelevant too? No, because it is the fact that we remain faithful to Him that God judges and accepts. Success, if it comes, is a gift of God, not something we offer up to God to prove our value. And to the world, when we show that we would rather lose than compromise our love for Christ even once, we show we can't be bought or bargained away from what we believe. Further, we prove Christ's worth. Christ must be so precious to us that when others don’t take Him too seriously, we insist upon doing so. Lord, grant us the courage to be outsiders if that’s what is needed to remain true to you.

Get Used to Failure if You Want to Overcome It

Failure is something we all dread. The fear of failure often produces tremendous anxiety. The experience of failure often produces depression and shame and bitterness. Notice those are all emotions that Christians are told to resist and overcome. We are not meant to sit alone after a loss, feeling sorry for ourselves and wondering if we have what it takes. We are meant to put our trust in God and keep going. (See 2 Corinthians 1:8-10.) Easier said than done, of course. But here is one of the most encouraging lessons I've seen on why you should simply make peace with failure and keep pressing on through it.

Naval Admiral William H. McRaven, a Navy SEAL for 36 years and ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, gave an extraordinary commencement address in 2014 to the University of Texas at Austin. You may have seen it shared widely on Facebook and in many blogs and business and professional magazines. The YouTube video embedded below has had over 3.4 million views, and rightly so. The speech is remarkable because Adm. McRaven drew on ten lessons from Navy SEAL training that apply to pretty much everything in life and work for anyone. They're all good, but there is one that made a huge impression on me. It's the lesson of the "sugar cookie."

Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough. Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges. But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle — it just wasn't good enough. The instructors would find "something" wrong.

For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand. The effect was known as a "sugar cookie." You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day — cold, wet and sandy.

There were many a student who just couldn't accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right, it was unappreciated. Those students didn't make it through training. Those students didn't understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie. It's just the way life is sometimes.

If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. 

Mark this: the people who gave up and went home - the ones who didn't become Navy SEALs - were the ones who couldn't accept failure. The ones who succeeded and became SEALs were the ones who learned to get used to failure and keep going. The point of the exercise was to ensure that everyone ended up a "sugar cookie." No illusions here that some people always get it right while others fall short. The only way forward was to accept that you were going to fail, and to keep trying anyway. What sent some of the men home was simply pride. Our fear of failure, and our avoidance of situations where we might fail, does not come from an urgent need to accomplish important things. The people who accomplish important things are the ones who keep trying and failing until they get it right. Our fear and avoidance is due to our vanity in wanting to look successful and impressive. The ones who went home were the ones who couldn't handle the idea of having to look like a failure in order to get to the point of success. 

Bonus points if you're thinking: Kobayashi Maru. This was the infamous test at Starfleet Academy in Star Trek that every person training for command must take. And it was deliberately impossible. This quote by Spock in the 2009 Star Trek film captures it perfectly: "The purpose is to experience fear. Fear in the face of certain death. To accept that fear and maintain control of oneself and one’s crew.” The purpose of this training exercise was never to succeed. The purpose was to learn to maintain courage and control even when everything failed; to avoid giving in to panic or despair. The lesson is to never let your perception that you are failing or your fear of losing tempt you into giving up. The people that succeed are the ones that refuse to give up after failing (or after thinking they've failed).

The application for Christians is critical: more often than anything, it's our doubts about how we're doing and our own insecurities that discourage us and cause us to get derailed. Very often we are on the right track spiritually but we lose heart because we can't see that things are working out. Our perception is that we've failed, and we shrink back from what seems hopeless. 

Keeping our faith fixed in God includes persevering in doing the right thing even when the evidence of our senses tells us we're losing. We trust in God's point of view instead: "When I thought, 'My foot slips,' your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul." (Psalm 94:18-19). One of the precious comforts in Scripture is that God often does His most glorious work when it looks like it's already too late. Think about how the disciples felt for those three days after Jesus died upon the cross. And then...

We need to stop keeping score of our "successes" and worrying if we think our "failures" outnumber them. We need to stop measuring ourselves against other people or against what we think a successful Christian should look like. Everybody ends up a sugar cookie sooner or later. Instead, we need to keep following Christ in every way we can, and trust Him to make the most of the results.

"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." (Hebrews 10:35-36)

Christianity, Superstition & Gullibility (G.K. Chesterton)

As only Chesterton can say it. Believing in something supernatural is no reason at all to take other supernatural or spiritual ideas at face value without careful scrutiny. The Christian is in an excellent position to resist superstition and gullibility precisely because he is acquainted with something truly spiritual and supernatural.

"'I should hardly have thought, sir,' he said, 'that you had any quarrel with mystical explanations.'

'On the contrary,' replied Father Brown, blinking amiably at him.

'That's just why I can quarrel with 'em. Any sham lawyer could bamboozle me, but he couldn't bamboozle you; because you're a lawyer yourself. ... It's just because I have picked up a little about mystics that I have no use for mystagogues."

The Arrow of Heaven, in The Incredulity of Father Brown, 1926

"'Besides, you have no business to be an unbeliever. You ought to stand for all the things these stupid people call superstitions. Come now, don't you think there's a lot in those old wives' tales about luck and charms and so on, silver bullets included? What do you say about them as a Catholic?'

'I say I'm an agnostic,' replied Father Brown, smiling.

'Nonsense,' said Aylmer impatiently. 'It's your business to believe things.'

'Well, I do believe some things, of course,' conceded Father Brown; 'and therefore, of course, I don't believe other things.'

The Dagger with Wings, in The Incredulity of Father Brown, 1926

"'You see, it doesn't quite do for a man in my position to joke about miracles.'

'But it was you who said it was a miracle,' said Alboin, staring.

'I'm so sorry,' said Father Brown; 'I'm afraid there's some mistake. I don't think I ever said it was a miracle. All I said was that it might happen. What you said was that it couldn't happen, because it would be a miracle if it did. And then it did. And so you said it was a miracle. But I never said a word about miracles or magic, or anything of the sort from beginning to end.'

'But I thought you believed in miracles,' broke out the secretary.

'Yes,' answered Father Brown, 'I believe in miracles. I believe in man-eating tigers, but I don't see them running about everywhere. If I want any miracles, I know where to get them.'"

The Miracle of Moon Crescent, in The Incredulity of Father Brown, 1926

"It's part of something I've noticed more and more in the modern world, appearing in all sorts of newspaper rumours and conversational catchwords; something that's arbitrary without being authoritative. People readily swallow the untested claims of this, that, or the other. It's drowning all your old rationalism and scepticism, it's coming in like a sea; and the name of it is superstition.' He stood up abruptly, his face heavy with a sort of frown, and went on talking almost as if he were alone. 'It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can't see things as they are. Anything that anybody talks about, and says there's a good deal in it, extends itself indefinitely like a vista in a nightmare. And a dog is an omen, and a cat is a mystery, and a pig is a mascot, and a beetle is a scarab, calling up all the menagerie of polytheism from Egypt and old India[.]"

The Oracle of the Dog, in The Incredulity of Father Brown, 1926

Father Brown's friend Professor Openshaw, after the priest debunked the fear and mystery surrounding a book which appeared to make anyone who opened its pages vanish:

"'But you must admit the accumulation of incidents was rather formidable. Did you never feel just a momentary awe of the awful volume?'

'Oh, that,' said Father Brown. 'I opened it as soon as I saw it lying there. It's all blank pages. You see, I am not superstitious.'"

The Blast of the Book, in The Scandal of Father Brown, 1935

Take the Adventure God Has Appointed For You

The world is changing in ways we find unimaginable. Things seem out of control and beyond reason. And many Christians are very uncertain about what place we’re going to have in society as these changes develop.

Yet these words could have been written of almost any century in which the Church has existed. In fact, the Church has endured so many cultural shifts and waves of hostility over the years that we ought to look at the latest one as just another hurricane making landfall. God has given us an example of how to respond to this: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)

Russell Moore set a perfect example of this conviction and steadfastness on Friday in The Washington Post:

“Some Christians will be tempted to anger, lashing out at the world around us with a narrative of decline. That temptation is wrong. God decided when we would be born, and when we would be born again. We have the Spirit and the gospel. To think that we deserve to live in different times is to tell God that we deserve a better mission field than the one he has given us. Let’s joyfully march to Zion.

“The witness to marriage will be, like the pro-life movement, a long-term strategy that is multi-pronged. This is no time for fear or outrage or politicizing. We see that we are strangers and exiles in American culture. We are on the wrong side of history, just like we started. We should have been all along.

“Let’s seek the kingdom. Let’s stand with the gospel. Let’s fear our God. But let’s not fear our mission field.”

This is what the Lord has prepared us for. We didn’t expect it, but He did. Our mission is still the same. As C.S. Lewis wrote, we must take the adventure Aslan sends to us. (The Last Battle). When the path of the kingdom goes around twists and turns and even through impassable labyrinths of razor-sharp rocks, we don’t give up and turn back. If God is laying out the path, we have no excuse not to follow it.

Consider this: where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Yes, our society and culture are changing (and have been changing for some time) in ways that are unrecognizable. But something else is coming too. We are about to see God act in ways you have never seen Him act before. You have never seen a culture like this. But you have also never seen God acting in power in the midst of a culture like this. You’re about to see something new. We don’t welcome the sin just so we can see the displays of grace, but we are comforted and encouraged that when sin does come, the outpouring of grace is inevitable.

We have a choice about what kind of believers to be. We can spend our time sitting in dismay as we look helplessly at the things happening around us – which is nothing but a prescription for perpetual depression - or we can be eager to see what God is about to do and to play our parts in it. The idea that a cultural change like this can defeat the Lord’s gracious work of salvation is absurd. So don’t let it quietly creep around in your mind under the disguises of discouragement or helplessness. Take the adventure God is handing you today and watch to see what the Lord will do.

The Invincible, Unfailing Source of Courage

I know that there are a lot of reasons that Christians are feeling anxiety and intimidation about what the future holds in the United States after yesterday's ruling on same-sex marriage. As a lawyer myself, I am well aware of the types of concerns that people are worrying about. Some are worrying about what may happen to their jobs. Some are anxious about what's going to happen to the culture and the school system their children grow up within. Some are worried about what may be required of them as members of the clergy regarding marriage ceremonies. Some are simply anxious and dismayed because things are changing so radically around us.

I am confident that many of these concerns will not actually be something we have to worry about. Hopefully I will have the chance in the days ahead to talk about some of those things specifically. But above all, the most important thing that I can say is that no matter what the future might hold, we have no reason to be anxious or afraid. This is not an all or nothing moment in the culture. The fact that the laws have changed radically on one issue and we find ourselves very much on the outside does not actually pose any new threat or risk to Christianity or to the Church. The Church has always been in tension with the culture, and in fact has often been most powerfully and clearly the Church of God when the tension has been very clear. God is not checkmated. No matter how laws may shift or governments may act, nothing surprises Him or intimidates Him. The fierceness of whole nations and the plotting of whole cultures is nothing to Him. Legal changes cannot hinder the Gospel. The Gospel will still advance. It simply may take some different routes now since the landscape has shifted.

Our biggest problem is not how we will solve these problems or how we will win over the culture. God will give the right results if we remain faithful and live the kind of lives He has called us to live. Our biggest problem is that we are afraid and anxious even though God is firmly in control and unmoved. We need to shed that fear. No matter how things may look as the years ahead unfold, there is no reason for us to fear whatever it may be. And the solution is the same as it has always been, as the early church discovered:

"23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

26                  The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed’ —

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness." (Acts 4:23-31)

The response to hostile government and opposition is simply to put the matter before God in prayer and ask Him to give us the courage and boldness to be steadfast and defy intimidation. What makes you brave is that you trust God to put a spirit of bravery in you. It's easy to be intimidated or anxious when you forget that there is a spirit within you that is more than a match for everything you have to face. As Paul exhorted Timothy, remind yourself that "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." (2 Timothy 1:7).

Notice also that Acts 4:31 says they were "all filled with the Holy Spirit" and boldness. It was not only the apostles or the leading members who received boldness. It was everyone - thousands of people. The most untrained and timid among them was still filled with the courage of God. That's your source of courage.

For another great example of invincible courage, here is how Martin Luther displayed peace of mind in the midst of vicious opposition. His peaceful indifference to the dangers and challenges around him, grounded entirely in his rock-solid confidence in the Lord's power and authority, always wakes me up to how fretful and pointless my own fears can be. Fretting when God is not at all disturbed is simply wasting the energy He gave us to accomplish good.