Sycamore

“In Ephesus, they created a temple of Artemis, a wonder of the ancient world, and it became their DisneyWorld, an enormous tourist attraction, and as a result Ephesus became fabulously rich and became a business center, a financial center.  And Artemis became the goddess of business.  If you wanted to make a lot of money, you sacrificed to her, and you served her and you honored her. See, they were afraid of the idea that, if people aren’t sacrificing to Artemis, our whole economy might collapse!

Isn’t that awful? And very often there was child sacrifice to Artemis…

I live in an Ephesus called New York City.  And all over New York city, there’s the practice of child sacrifice.  Because, see, the goddess of business in New York City says that if you want to get in the financial world and make a lot of money, you have to sacrifice your family.  The jobs are set up that way.  You will not be a good father or mother, you can’t be.  And so that’s what you do.  If you’re going to get the money, if you’re going to get the power, you have to sacrifice to the goddess.

But do we want to say, “Oh, okay, well then no Christians in the financial world?”  I don’t think we want to say that.  I think we need to say every single part of the world is Jesus’ world, and that making money is not intrinsically wrong and that finance is not intrinsically wrong - it can be a great thing.  And yet for Christians to walk into a place dominated by this god, this idol, that demands child sacrifice, is really tough.  How do you get in there, and still do your job, and not bow down?  How do you make money just money -  so that it’s not your identity, so it’s not your main value, so it’s not your salvation - it’s just money!  Only with the gospel.” -Tim Keller, The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry

Don’t think it’s just about the business world.  How do you use the gospel to take on your own idols?

1.  Figure out what they are.  Ask God to show you what idols are in your heart, then ask yourself the questions, “What can’t I live without?  What am I secretly worried that God might take away from my life?  What are the things that I need in my life, or my future?”  It’s likely that you’ve been having an affair with some of the gods on that list.

2.  Spend some time with God, praying through that list and repenting of the ways you’ve loved and sacrificed to your idols when you should have been loving and sacrificing to God.

3.  Go to war.  Find some verses to memorize that can help you fight the temptation to love your idols throughout your day.

4.  Remember your first love.  Worshiping idols while acting like a Christian isn’t that hard, but worshiping idols while loving Jesus from your heart is impossible.  Make sure you carve out time every day to spend with the God who sent His Son to save you from your sins and turn you from being a child of wrath into a child of His.

At the end of the day, two things are true of every idol on your list.  First, not a single one of them can die for your sins.  They will always fail you when it counts, then tell you that it’s your fault for not sacrificing more.  And second, there is no idolatry so great that Jesus death on the cross isn’t enough to make you a clean, forgiven, beloved child of God.

Every life is dominated by idols unless it is dominated by the glory of God.

There’s been a bit of a stir about Tullian Tchividjian, a pastor in Florida, who was recently taken to task by members of his church for not preaching conservative political messages from the pulpit like their old pastor did.  They were so incensed that they actually moved to have him ousted as pastor, and the entire church had to take a vote.

Sadly, this isn’t that unique. Pastors all across the country are threatened with removal by a vocal minority pretty regularly.  Why all the press for this guy?  Because his grandfather is Billy Graham.

Well, Tullian survived the big vote, by a significant margin, and now Christianity Today has an interview with him about the aftermath.  Lots of people have had lots of responses - the internet has made both news and opinions spread faster and wider than they used to.  But I thought the most succinct response was also the best: the one Tullian’s grandfather gave.

Have you talked with your grandfather about this conflict? What would Billy Graham say about this?

I have talked to him about it on numerous occasions. His encouragement to me is simply, “By God’s grace, I’ve weathered many storms just like this, and if you submit to what God is trying to teach you, he will make you wise and humble and useful.”

You should put that quote in your Bible, on your dashboard, and on the desk in your office.  It works for just about anything.

Some of the doozies over the last couple months:

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. -Tuesday, Sept 15

Letting someone gossip to you is like having an affair with a married man - if he’s unfaithful to his wife, it’s a good bet he’s not going to spontaneously grow a moral compass and be completely faithful to you.  And you’re not a victim.  By hearing hateful speech, you’re participating in someone’s murder, and encouraging the gossiper to keep going.  You’ve got to shut down gossip and slander in every form the minute it starts.  My personal favorite responses include, “How is this helping (insert name here of person being slandered)?”  And then asking, “Well then, how can we help them?”  All of a sudden you’ve turned a sinful conversation into a brainstorming session on how to lift build someone else up in the Lord.

You must feel a prayer before God can hear it. -Friday, Sept 18

What a giant, mystical, wishy-washy, gospel-less lie.  God does not hear your prayers because you really, really mean it this time.  God doesn’t hear your prayers because it’s something you really want, or because you’re crying, or because you’ve been particularly good that day.  God doesn’t hear your prayers because you’re on your knees or you have your hands in the air or you’re dancing, God doesn’t hear your prayers because you made the right decision or because you’re really sorry this time.  God doesn’t hear your prayers because you read your Bible this morning, or because you “felt His presence” or because you said the right words. God hears your prayers because Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died in your place for your sins, rose again and ascended to the Father, and now has made you perfectly clean, forgiven, adopted, and beloved.  Don’t you dare think anything else makes your prayers heard.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

We draw near to the throne of grace not because we “feel our prayers,” but because we have a high priest named Jesus.  No other name gets you heard by the Father, especially not the name of “your feelings.”

Memorizing verses from the Bible has become a kind of lost art in Christian culture, and it’s a shame, because I don’t think we stopped needing to know the Word well once we graduated from AWANA.

Here’s three ways to make scripture memorization actually happen in your life:

1.  Don’t memorize random “important” verses the way you crammed for a test by memorizing “important” biology facts for science class.  While there’s some merit to having large stores of scripture in your mind, the main purpose of scripture memorization is to have a weapon against joy-robbing, soul-numbing, Christ-obscuring sin in your life.  John Piper does it right:

“I’m not into mechanical memorizing. I’m into fighting the fight of faith. I want to memorize Scripture so that I can defeat the devil at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, that’s why! It’s so that I can minister to a saint in the hospital at 10 o’clock at night if I’ve forgotten my Bible. This is for our soul.”

This means that you don’t memorize a verse you haven’t meditated on.  You’re not cramming for an exam, you’re letting the Bible sink down deep into your soul - each and every word.  There’s no point to being able to reproduce a verse in the Bible that doesn’t mean anything to you.  But there’s a lot of power in looking temptation in the face and having each God-breathed word of a verse saturating your soul.

2.  Bring the verse with you wherever you go - in your heart and in your hand.  It takes some effort to make scripture memorization a reality, so buy yourself a few index cards, right down the verses you need to fight that day, and carry them with you wherever you go.  In lieu of an index card, you can use this verse card maker, which has some handy features and helps you memorize verses on a schedule so that you don’t get frustrated and give up.

3.  Pray that God would show you how giving in to temptation during your day steals your joy and tells you some created thing is more magnificent than the risen Lord Jesus.  Get emotional about it.  Be affected by the fact that the Devil walks around like a lion during your day, ready to take away you first love.  Then you’ll be sober and serious about fighting for your joy with the sword God has given us in His Word.

From Donald Bloesch, theologian:

In the perspective of the Bible spirituality is not simply negated but converted to the service of the true God… Spirituality in the biblical context signifies the demonstration of a life liberated by grace as opposed to an attempt to appease a wrathful God or make reparation for sin.

If you are still trying to make up for past sins or prove that you are a good person, there’s a serious chance you are not a true Christian.  The very heart of Christianity is the belief that Christ already paid for your sins and that you are now completely clean in God’s sight.   Too many Christians succumb to the temptation that God requires more of them than what Christ provided.  You’ve been forgiven and freed if you trust Christ alone - don’t add any weight to his easy yoke and his light burden.

…but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. -Romans 5:20-21

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? -Galatians 3:2-3

With a bang up quote for your Monday:

If Christ has died for me – ungodly as I am, without strength as I am – then I can no longer live in sin, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend. I must be holy for his sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?  -Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

(HT: Shane Vander Hart)