Chief of Cardiology

I have a history with coronary disease.  Cardiac episodes have been common in my extended family.  Apparently I got the “achy breaky heart” genes myself.  Lots of coronary tests, a heart attack and two stents have made me an amateur cardiologist who is definitely interested in heart disease.  No amateur cardiologist is God. He is the Chief of Cardiology. 

The prophet Jeremiah was a preacher of the heart, wearing his heart on his sleeve as he ministered among hardhearted people.  He knew the terrain of the heart as well as anyone which makes his observations about the conditions of the heart all the more significant.  The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick – who can understand it?  I, the LORD…  test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve (Jer.17: 9 – 10).

The heart is deceived or “crooked.” The heart is hopelessly bent out of shape. Though Jeremiah seems very much in touch with his heart he informs us that no one can genuinely understand his or her heart.  The heart is the ultimate con man. John warned us that our heart could rise up and condemn us even when God did not:  if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts (1 Jhn. 3: 20).  The essence of deception is to believe what another says rather than what God says.  The heart is a notorious liar deceiving us 24/7. 

The heart is diseased.  The phrase desperately sick could be translated “beyond cure.” Everyone suffers from spiritual coronary disease; a condition which is always fatal.  One statistic which should never be overlooked is that for every one birth there is one death. 

The heart is diagnosed by Dr. God. Only He can diagnose our heart’s true condition; charting the manifestations as well as the motivations of the heart. The best physicians are partial in their diagnosis but not God.  Every sin hidden from the view of others is known to God.  Every thought embarrassing to us is noted on God’s clinical records.  God knows the pathology of sin in each of our lives and holds us accountable.  Some illnesses may be unrelated to any choices we have made and consequently we are spared any blame for our sickness but sin in the heart is different; it must be accounted for.

Account for our sin we must, but we can never atone for it. We cannot atone for a single sin on our best day at our finest hour.  For this is what the LORD says: Your injury is incurable; your wound most severe.  No one takes up the case for your sores.  You have nothing that can heal you (Jer. 30: 12 – 13). We need a heart transplant from Dr. God Who offers to plant a new heart in us.  I will give you a new heart … I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36: 26).

A new heart is just a prayer away.   

 

This post originally appeared as a column in the Daily Press.

 

 

What makes a Leader?

I’m a college football junkie.  If I were a member of Congress I would sponsor legislation requiring college football 12/365!  Marginal college football news is major news for some of us.  I could talk college football all day every day. 

But before those of you who don’t share my passion for pigskin turn the page I want to draw a lesson from the game for everyone – even those who don’t love it.  The lesson is found in the recent NFL Draft.  I like Pro Football; I love college football.  This means I tend to look at professional football through the lens of the college game.  I am interested in what motivates pro owners to spend thousands on a young man based on his performance in college.  Among the many variables considered in forecasting professional prospects is performance under pressure at the college level.

Think about quarterbacks. Quarterbacks playing for an elite team may fail to develop the skills necessary to succeed at a higher level since they were so protected.  Did USC produce quality NFL quarterbacks during the height of their program? You could ask the same about Florida State and Miami. In these cases you can observe that dynasty programs may produce distinctive quarterbacks during their early periods, before having overwhelming advantages.  Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Brad Johnson, and Carson Palmer come to mind. On the other hand, quarterbacks from elite football programs tend to fail.  Witness Steve Walsh, Craig Erickson, Gino Torretta, Matt Leinart, John David Booty, and Mark Sanchez.    

Moral of the story?  Tough times produce tough men and women who can lead in tough times.  Tough times demand an ethic acquired only in other tough times.  The ugliness of life can certainly make us ugly but it can also make us beautiful.  Hardness may weaken us to such an extent that we will never recover.  It may, however, prep us for even greater hardness.  The fire may destroy us, but then again, it may temper us for greatness. 

The first century B. C. freed slave, Publilius Syrus, known for his maxims said it well: "Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm."  The pilot who steadies the helm in high seas is typically the one who has been blistered by wind driven brine before.

If this principle is true it can certainly be found in our Bible.  It can!  “Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself.  Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me.  But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’  Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.  So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ.  For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12: 7 – 10).

This post appeared originally as a column in The Daily Press.

We Should Own Stock in Liberty University... Well Maybe We Do!

My daughter, Jessica Autry Byrnside, graduated Saturday from the Liberty University School of Education with her Masters of Teaching in Special Education.  This makes two LU degrees for her and 13 for the family.  In another year we expect the family total to climb to 16.  All five of our children have undergaduate degrees from Liberty as do the spouses of the three who are married.  My oldest son holds a Masters of Divinity from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and his wife has three (count 'em) masters from Liberty.  My youngest son expects to complete his Masters of Counseling next May at the same time his fiance receives two undergraduate degrees from LU.

Do we own stock in Liberty?  Well maybe it is the other way around!  Perhaps Liberty owns stock in us!  The University has invested heavily in our lives and I pray for many returns.  Let's pray that Jerry's original vision is fulfilled in the Autry family and champions have been trained for Christ and that they change the world one degree at a time!

Sloppy Church

Let’s face it: church life is sloppy!  Not because our Lord is sloppy but because life is sloppy.  It has always been that way.  Paul famously said, “Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom”  (1 Cor. 6: 9 – 10).  Had he stopped right there we might make an argument that there are a whole lot of non-sloppy churches.  Permit Paul to finish his thought: “And some of you used to be like this” (1 Cor. 6: 11).  Imagine that – a church full of formerly flagrant sinners!  The very idea!

Arguably the sloppiest church and city in New Testament times, Corinth was a cesspool of every imaginable sin and a number of unimaginable ones.  In Paul’s time they had coined the term “to Corinthinize” which meant to engage in public acts of the most degrading sins. You name the embarrassing sin and it was found in abundance on the streets of Corinth.  Any church in Corinth doing anything approaching real life ministry was bound to be populated with these morally awkward people.  When Paul came “announcing the testimony of God….with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2: 1, 4) many were pulled from the pit dripping with the raw sewage of sensual sin.

There are two kinds of churches, not “Sloppy” and “Non-sloppy” but “I Admit We Are Sloppy” and “I Pretend We Are Not Sloppy.”   Every church is sloppy.  Some are sloppy by design; others are sloppy by default.  Some churches are strategically seeking to reach the lost and the least and are knowingly filling their building with souls broken hard by deep, devastating sins.  Other churches are just as passionate about steering clear of any and all social and spiritual rejects in an effort to insure a membership of the “right kind of people.”

Problem is: The mystery of iniquity works everywhere and as long as you have people you will have sin.  In fact the more people you have the more types of sin you have.  One church admits it wants said people while the other church hides the fact it already has such people.

Give me Church A that openly acknowledges the power of God to lift the depraved and damaged over Church B that pretends no such critters are found among their number when people about town know otherwise.

In our drifting and soon to be drowning culture, Paul’s list of “undesirables” is becoming the new normal.  My mantra for such a sensual season is C. T. Studd’s:  “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”

Lest we become disheartened over the predicament of the church let’s tack on the exciting finish of Paul’s Corinthian thought: “But you were washed… sanctified… justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6: 11). Yes!

24

I admit it.  I am an incurable “24” fan!  In my totally unbiased and extraordinarily accurate opinion Jack Bauer is the all time undisputed hero of dramatic television. Jack Bauer is who James Bond dreams about when he sleeps.  He is Captain America without the uniform.  Jack Bauer is who Chuck Norris wants to be when he grows up.

Okay, you get the picture.  I really, really, really, like “24.”  I was totally stoked when Fox announced Jack was coming back for “24: Live Another Day.”  The world will once again be safe for democracy!

“24” follows the efforts of Jack Bauer, a counter terrorist agent, as he stops ultimate bad guys in 24 one hour episodes which represent one day in his life.  The coming reintroduction is a mini-series of only 12 hours.

Is there a point to your madness, Pastor?  Actually there is.   “24” is fiction.   I wish threats to world order could be resolved in a mere 24 hours by the heroics of a single man with a receding hair line and great one liners.  Over a half century of life argues loudly that it simply isn’t so.  We might give “24” some credit though; most other dramas suggest crisis can be reduced to ashes in an hour including commercial breaks.

There are too many flag draped coffins and somber soldiers playing “Taps” in lonely cemeteries for us to believe for one skinny minute that the “24” narrative can ever be true.  We applaud the heroism displayed in living color by our brave men and women in uniform so we can sit comfortably in our dens and cheer for fictional characters like Jack.

The danger for those of us styling ourselves as followers of Christ is the pipe dream that all our battles can be started and finished in a 24 hour solar day.  They just can’t!  Experience has taught us and re-taught us that pain often stretches well past sunset and sorrow often hangs around for quite a number of sunrises.

Isaiah mused 2700 years ago that “those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint” (Isa. 40: 31).  Conventional wisdom interprets this as a progression from the heights of spirituality to the lower regions of faith.  Soaring like eagles is the ultimate and running and walking are lesser substitutes.  I have believed for some time that is backward.

Most can soar for a time if given enough religious excitement.  They might manage a good gallop.  What requires the greatest grace is the gritty determination to plod on when it looks as if you have made little progress today and perhaps yesterday also. 

I wish we could lick every foe and settle every difficulty in 24 hours just like Jack but observation and revelation alike shout that the Christian life is a lifetime gig.  We don’t just live another day; we live every day as the heroes and heroines Jesus made us.

This post appeared originally as a column in the Daily Press

The D Word

It’s a subject not discussed in polite Christian company.  We agree without even conversing that the matter is taboo.  Dare speak of it and be greeted with raised eyebrows. Am I referring to some twisted sexual perversion or radical ideology?  No, I am referring to (hushed tone) depression.  There, I said it!  Already some of you are looking for another article to read!

Christians just don’t talk about depression.  By our silence we suggest that Christians don’t suffer from depression.  But Christians do suffer from it ranging from low grade depression to acute depression of the clinical variety.  By our refusal to talk about it we sentence out brothers and sisters living in that dark place to shiver in the sinister shadows of the soul all alone.

Recently, a ministry leader suggested to a group that a speaker on the subject of depression be enlisted to minister at their next event.  The idea was quickly dismissed.  Their reasoning?  ‘’That would be too depressing.’’  We don’t want to go there.  However, many believers have been there and many remain there and we exacerbate their pain but declining discussion of the numbing reality called depression.

A quick read of the Psalms along with the deep inky darkness of Job and you will be convinced that God does not consider depression the taboo stigma we do.  Christian history has had its share of notables who suffered from this ghoulish punisher. Accomplished hymn writer William Cowper was menaced throughout life by such inner torment that he sought to end his life.  Preacher extraordinaire Charles H. Spurgeon was pained by chronic gout which often bled over into a depression requiring extended stays in warmer climes for recovery.  Magisterial reformer Martin Luther was given to melancholy moods nothing short of morose.  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, royal physician turned pulpiteer, considered spiritual depression one of the greatest maladies impacting the church.

Elijah would have been voted by the best of us ‘’Most Likely to Succeed.’’  We would think him inviolable to such dark demons as those associated with depression.  He is, however, the quintessential biblical case study in depression.  1 Kings 19 tells his bitter struggle with the typical cluster of psycho-spiritual-physical symptoms of full blown depression.  Erratic eating and sleeping patterns, a persecution complex, isolation from others, a preference for dark places and spiritual inertia were all waded up in his experience.    

By our silence we have left members of the family of faith to seek all their help from the medical and mental health community.  No thoughtful Christian would deny the important role these groups play in diagnosing and addressing the pain of depression.  It is also true that thoughtful Christians recognize the ministry to the miserable which can only be offered in a believing, caring community of saints.

I am not asking that we become experts in the subject of depression; only that we quit lying to ourselves and our fellow church members and offer the soul solace they need.  They may need us during the holidays more than any other time.

This post previously appeared as a column in the Daily Press.

 

The Big Question

The question most asked through the years has been: ‘’How do I know the will of God?’’ Little sense and much nonsense are tossed around in Christian communities about God’s will. Some treat God’s will as some grand mystery discovered by mystics while others prefer to demystify God’s will by reducing it outside forces controlling our lives.  Believers are left wondering if anyone knows how to know God’s will. 

How sad because God’s will can be known.  God’s will is found in the dovetailing of four things: (1) The principles of God’s Word, (2) The peace of God’s Spirit, (3) The people of God’s church and (4) The providence of God’s sovereignty.  However, any of these taken in isolation may make shipwreck of life. 

Obviously God is never going to contradict His Word and or direct us to do something in opposition to it.  Our problem comes when we are anxious to do a certain thing and tear through the pages of Scripture looking for any text that appears to support whatever we desire to do.  Treating the Bible like a spiritual Ouija Board never works.

Part of the Spirit’s fruitage is peace and if I am walking in the Spirit I should have peace.  My problem may come when I look in the mirror, have a conversation with myself and leave convinced I’ve talked with God.  Emotions are suspect guides in this wasteland we call life.  What I think is peace may be the impulse of my impetuous spirit.

God put us in a world of billions, a family of some size and His church so we do not have to figure everything out in a vacuum.  We don’t need countless counselors but we do need some who are spiritually mature and vested in our success. What we learn early is that if we go to certain people we will get certain advice!  If I want to be told to do a specific thing I have my heart set on then I just go to the “counselors” who will tell me to do that thing and conveniently avoid any others.

The principles, peace and people of God can be warped to my wishes and so can providence. Our nearsighted perspective prevents us from seeing the God factor in our quandaries.  I may look at a situation and sigh, “That will never happen!”  I may review circumstances and exclaim, “This is done deal!”  But what appear to be eternal barriers to something fall like dominoes and what present themselves as open doors slam at our Lord’s command.  The same God opening doors closes them.

If all these approaches to God’s will are fraught with failure where do we turn?  Remember, it’s in the dovetailing of all four.  When I prayerfully and submissively seek the God’s will in Scripture, surrender to the Spirit’s guidance generating peace, listen attentively to savvy, spiritual confidants and observe the providences of God about me I can say safely, “This is the will of God.”

This post previously appeared as a column in the Daily Press.