The Invisibles

I have to give a little heads-up to the gentleman readers: this posting will touch on a topic that's probably not your favorite. Not to worry, I'll keep that part brief.

When I moved in with my sister last year, we began to "sync up." You might have heard this term before. Evidently, when women spend significant amounts of time together, their cycles tend to "sync up" with each other such that the women will ovulate/menstruate at the same time. There are several theories that attempt to explain this phenomenon, but a deep understanding of the science behind it isn't really necessary for my point. In essence, a woman can sense another woman's hormonal cycles and will readjust her cycle accordingly. Of course, the women are entirely unaware that this is happening. I recently moved in with a group of ladies, and we jokingly discussed how long it would take for all of us to start "syncing up." Other than just being a very strange phenomenon, I think it is also a useful analogy for the spiritual world.

Think about what happens in a woman's body when she ovulates/menstruates: it involves a complicated system of delicate processes that even changes in stress levels, exercise, weight gain/loss, etc. can frustrate. Just being in the same apartment as my sister (and most likely with my new housemates) has caused this entire system within me to rearrange itself. And I haven't been aware of these changes for even one second. Remarkable!

Many people, if they believe in a spiritual world at all, think that whatever is happening "out there" doesn't have anything to do with us. We go about our daily lives usually not giving a second thought to the spiritual world. No doubt, a major reason why it's so easy to ignore is because we don't usually experience the spiritual world with our senses; we are hardly ever conscious of it. And, unless we seek it out and/or pay special attention to it, we often can't tell when we've been affected by the spiritual world. So we mosey along oblivious to it all.

But the Bible tells us that not only is the spiritual world real, it is more real than the physical world. The beings of that world are powerful, personal, and motivated to interfere with our lives. God is Spirit. We have no need to worry about what He's up to. But what about our enemy? Is there any reason to be on guard? I think so. To be sure, the Bible says that we "do not wrestle with flesh and blood." The true enemies of our souls are spiritual beings. And they are prowling about us "like a lion, seeking whom [they] may devour." Thankfully, we have protections against this. Through Jesus Christ, we can overcome our enemy. Once again, scripture brings us back to the spiritual world. The Bible explains that our weapons "are not carnal" (not physical weapons), but are "mighty through God" (Spirit).

In short, the spiritual world--though invisible--is a constant reality. Every day, spiritual things, beings, and phenomenon are buzzing around us, potentially affecting everything we do. Again, think about the menstrual cycles discussed above: major changes can be happening within/around you, and yet you aren't the slightest bit aware of it. Our obliviousness to the spiritual world doesn't minimize the impact it can have. Add to that, spiritual beings are not just biochemical processes. They are living entities with real personalities. And they are actually trying to influence us--for better or worse.

Matters of the Heart

The Bible has some interesting passages about the "heart." I use quotation marks because I am referring to the "heart" as the hub of emotion and its other symbolic meaning. I, of course, am not referring to a part of our anatomy.

Proverbs 4:13 states, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Jeremiah 17:9 states, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked."

These verses reveal several things to me, including the following:

1) The heart is an important part of who we are and greatly influences the way we experience the world.

2) The heart will seek to guide us; it will no doubt contribute its two cents to every decision we make.

3) At the same time, the heart is wickedly deceptive, and we can almost be sure that it will lead us astray.

4) Knowing its importance, and its tendency to err, we ought to guard it carefully.

Add to that the words that follow in Jeremiah, "Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives."

5) God sees our hearts. God judges our hearts. Only God is capable of discerning the things of our hearts.

Finally, add the following words from Proverbs 4, "Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil."

The Bible tells us that our hearts are deceptive. Indeed, they are the more deceptive than anything else. So what do we make of the old adage, "follow your heart?" I've heard that more times than I can count. How about, "What does your heart tell you?"Usually it comes up in pop culture: it's a cute way of telling people to do whatever they feel like doing and not to be bothered with righteousness and truth. Or worse, it's our way of convincing people that there is are such things as righteousness, truth, and justice, and if we want to find them, we need look no further than what our hearts--or guts--tell us. But God gives no such instruction. Fortunately, we have access to something the promises truth and to never lead us astray: the Word of God and his Holy Spirit.

When we fervently seek the wisdom of God, and when we set our heart's/emotional inclinations aside, the smoke begins to clear. To be sure, God can and does change hearts. By the power of his Spirit, we can actually experience moments of purity of heart. But when we are in that place, we don't say that we know we are righteous because our heart tells us so. Rather, we can say that our hearts are finally--even for a moment--in line with what we've already learned is truly righteousness. We've always desired to want to do the right thing, but our heart was never on board. Then it happens, and it is wonderful. But do not get too comfortable. Our hearts cannot be trusted; only God's eternal Word is completely true and unwaivering. Rest your decisions on it. Judge your actions and thoughts by it it. And Weigh your instincts against it. You will never be led astray.

What is an "Atheist Convert," Anyway?

I'm curious why atheists try to "convert" believers. Some atheists make a living at it; Dawkins and Hitchens are two examples. Some atheists attempt to convert believers by trying to make us feel stupid, irrational, and delusional. Why? These tactics seem inconsistent with the fundamentals of atheism. Let me explain:

Atheism is the worldview that there is no god. There is a negative manifestation: denial of the existence of god; and there is a positive manifestation: belief that there are only laws of nature, matter, science. In most cases, atheists think they are following what is simply truth: that no god exists is as true and intuitive as 2 + 2 = 4. By definition, there is no moral value in espousing atheism. Atheism does not guide the conscience; it does not prescribe an ethical code; it does not promote justice. If true, atheism just is.

We can easily contrast this with religion. The major religions come with a moral code. That is, God's existence entails consequences for humanity. In some cases, eternal consequences. God might have something to say about ethics, justice, family, and all the rest. And most religions are mutually exclusive: there is only one God, and He has the knowledge and authority to dictate His will to us. Further, believers acknowledge the faith element to religion. That is, believers understand that our worldview involves...well...belief. It follows that believers would want to convert as many people as we can: literally everything is at stake. Yet, believers rarely approach evangelism by attacking atheists. Surely many believers think atheism is foolish, and some make a living debating and fighting atheism. But this is usually a defensive move. Religion has to defend itself against the attacks of atheism. Which gets us back to my concern: atheism has no business attacking in the first place. Atheism is just not the kind of thing one should concern himself with spreading. Or is it?

Atheists will say that religion is dangerous: violence, oppression, tyranny, all in the name of God. We've heard it all before. The problem is that the same tragedies and injustices occur in the name of democracy, justice, productivity, and much more. Yet, no one goes around (at least no one we'd take seriously) saying that we should abolish all governments and business.

Atheists might say that religion is unhealthy to the believer: it's delusion, fantasy, like wishing on a star. We'd be better off if we'd follow the more enlightened of the world. The problem here is that there's no evidence that faith hurts anyone. There is, however, much evidence to the contrary. Believers tend to be more generous, hopeful, and happy. The only ones who seem to be bothered by faith are atheists. But they should feel no more threatened by believers than by a child who believes in the Tooth Fairy or the Boogeyman.

Perhaps what is really going on is that atheism requires just as much faith as does religion. Some might say it requires more faith to believe that life evolved by chance out of lifeless particles in space (never mind the bigger question: where did the particles--and the space for that matter--come from?). Perhaps atheism is the ultimate arrogance, believing that there can be no higher intelligence than our own. Perhaps atheists are searching, as everyone does at some point, to make sense out of the world, and it bothers them that believers have such a simple answer.

Any thoughts??

They Meant Well

The saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It’s an interesting cliché. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how true it is.

I noticed this as I was reading Genesis—the story of Adam and Eve being tempted in the Garden of Eden, in particular. We all know the story: God creates man and woman for each other. God gives them instructions. There is only one thing they aren’t allowed to do: don’t eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That’s it. Everything else (as far as they knew) was all good. Why did He give them that instruction? That’s an entry for another day. For my present purposes, let’s just agree on this: Adam and Eve needed an opportunity to choose; if there was no way for them to sin, then their “decision” to follow God (an offer everyone is entitled to accept, or reject) would have been essentially involuntary. And since God is not in the business of creating robots, He gave them an opportunity to choose not to sin.

So there they were, in paradise, in perfect relationship with God and each other. Then, here comes Satan. One might wonder (if we didn’t already know the story), what could he possibly come up with to convince Adam and Eve to disobey God? How could he lure them away from paradise? There was only one thing they couldn’t do. And that one thing didn’t seem all that special. One tree they couldn’t eat from out of all the others. Sounds simple enough, right? Not so much.

I’ve heard sermons on this story many times. Often teachers focus on Satan’s appeal to their pride. He appeals to their desire to be like God, a temptation Satan knows a lot about—after all, that’s what got him in trouble. I agree. Adam and Eve were prideful, placing their desires above God. And how absurd the desire was! God had given them everything, well except one thing. Even with everything they had, all they could think about was that one thing they couldn’t have. Sound familiar? How often do we have so much going for us, yet we think, “If I could only have this.” But I digress.

I don’t want to focus on the prideful nature of their desire. I want to focus on the desire itself. Ultimately, they were convinced because they were told they would be like God. That’s not such a bad thing, is it? Aren’t we supposed to desire to be more like God? So at its root, there was some nobility in their intentions. Satan convinced them to pursue a good intention the wrong way. And he’s been using the same trick ever since.

Think about some of the times you’ve sinned. Now think about whether, at the root of that sin, there might be a kernel of truth, a hint of some noble intention that, by the time you got to the sinning part, had been perverted beyond recognition. Got an example, yet? I bet you don’t have to think too long.

So now what? How do we guard ourselves against this? If you’re asking yourself these questions, you’re on your way because the first thing you’ll have to do is be on the lookout for the trap. The second thing you might do is take a moment to be thankful for the noble intention, whatever it may be: a desire to get closer to God, a desire for an intimate relationship with another person, a desire to make a difference in someone else’s life. After you recognize the good of the situation, you’ll want to pray for help. Ask God to help you avoid walking down the road to perversion. You want to keep the noble intention, but shake the temptation to sin.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well so did Adam and Eve’s instructions, and we all know how that story ended. I admit all of this is easier said than done. But God never said we have to do it alone. Seek God for help. Find an accountability partner. Guard you mind and heart fervently with the Word and with prayer. And free yourself to enjoy all the good God has given you, just as he gave our ancestors at the beginning of mankind.

The Art of [Spiritual] War

Imagine for a moment that the most evil, least redeemable person in history (Hitler is an obvious choice) arrives at your door. He is not a ghost, and you are not dreaming. He is alive, well, and somehow happens to need a very small favor from you. He was so caught up in managing the Nazis that he forgot to tell a friend that he can’t make it over for dinner. He wants to use your phone; or, if you’d prefer, he’d like for you to call his friend on his behalf. Your task is an easy one, a negligible inconvenience. Yet, what is your instinct here? To just slam the door in his face? Perhaps you can think of something even more colorful you’d like to like to do to Hitler if given the opportunity. The point is that no matter how apparently subtle the task, you would not want to help the likes of Hitler.

The Bible warns us that there are very few, if any, neutral actions (if you need a reference, Ephesians 6 is a good place to start). We live in a complicated world with both physical and metaphysical dimensions, both tangible and spiritual components. To be sure, the physical realm of reality is merely the tip of the iceberg, while the spiritual realm is the more substantive mass we do not see. Everything we do in the physical realm has spiritual significance, not only because there are spirits watching and reacting, but also because we are part spirit. And our spirits, so long as we are on this earth, are necessarily connected to our physical bodies. Conceivably, there are some things that are entirely benign. Tying your shoe might be one example. But the majority of our actions affect more than we can see. C. S. Lewis explains that everything we do turns that inner part of ourselves—our spirit—into either a more heavenly or a more hellish creature. We decide.

So we know that there is a spirit realm and that our actions have spiritual consequences. Add to that a bit of what we know about our spiritual enemy. First, we know that he (I do not just mean Satan, but for simplicity’s sake, I will use him to refer to all that is evil) is infinitely more evil than Hitler or any other human that comes to mind. We know that his primary goal is coax us into becoming the most hellish creatures we can be. He cannot take God’s love from us; he cannot force us into submission. But he can certainly entice us through temptation and encourage us to reject God by affecting our thoughts and circumstances (if you want to see this enemy at work, read the Book of Job). If you are an unbeliever, you are no threat to the enemy. Indeed, you are just where he wants you to be. There is no real need to threaten your surroundings. There may be occasion to tempt you, but this may be more for his amusement than productivity. He would be happy to let you remain content, and tickle your senses just enough to keep you from paying attention to much else. Of course, God gets in the way of this. Somehow He manages to get our attention no matter how hard the enemy tries to keep us in the dark. Sooner or later you find yourself seeking, yearning, questioning, failing and praying, trying and hoping, as your spirit reaches out to God as it was made to do. I won’t go into this much further because this is not my main point here. Just know that the enemy never has the last word.

Now when you become a believer, the enemy has lost his main tactical advantage: anonymity. He is no longer the stealth force that orbits your life under the radar. You are aware of him and his limitations. If this were a battle in the physical realm, how would your enemy adjust? What might the enemy do differently if you could now identify him and knew exactly how to defeat him? No doubt his approach to battle would change. And no doubt our spiritual enemy’s approach changes when we come to know Christ and His power over the enemy. He is no longer happy to ‘let us be.’ But, so long as we find our worth and fulfillment in our salvation and relationship with God, there is not much the enemy can do because he cannot take our salvation. Instead, he has to find a way to thoroughly disrupt our lives to get us to refocus our attention on something outside of God, preferably outside of the spiritual realm altogether. But he must be careful to do so in a way that does not force us tighter into God’s arms.

The first step in the enemy’s approach is easy; he’s been paving the way for a long time, and we have helped him along. To get us to find our worth in things outside of God requires only that he get us to pay attention to almost anything or anyone around us. We might be distracted by incessant need for success, money, or a shiny new gadget. He might get remind us how lonely it is to be single, how complicated it is to be married, or how tragic it is to not be able to have children. If individual attacks don’t work, he might draw our attention to humanity in general: how devastating the state of the world, how bad of shape we are all in. Before we know it, we are dissatisfied with ourselves, our circumstances, our spouse, our government, what others think of us, or something equally irrelevant to salvation.

Once we begin to equivocate our happiness with something outside of God, the enemy need only start disrupting whatever that other thing is. If we find too much value in money, he might help us lose a job or take a foolish gamble on a stock that subsequently tanks. If we find too much value in a relationship, he might inspire some ridiculous bickering or tempt us into infidelity. If we are particularly vain, our looks may collapse. Whatever the strategy, the result is the same: he gets us to place our worth in something fallible, and then he helps it fail. We find ourselves devastated; all that we’ve worked for, prayed for, held onto, is crumbling before our eyes. What’s worse is that we don’t know where God is in all of this. Why has God allowed this to happen? Soon we are miserable, confused, and on the verge of willingly renouncing God. And the enemy has won.

[Nevermind that God told us from the beginning that these things can be tampered with and so we should not stake our worth on them. Nevermind, too, that God instructs us to be on our guard against temptation and to be good stewards of our money, time, and other resources, and that had we followed those heedings, we would not have fallen so deeply into the mess we are in. And nevermind that no matter how far we fall, God can pull us back up, and that even when we are not at all to ‘blame,’ when bad things just ‘happen to good people,’ we have no reason to fear because God always has the final word.]

Remember our scenario at the beginning? Now put it all together. We have an enemy, much worse than Hitler. Whether you are giving him the satisfaction of keeping you away from salvation, ushering you out of it, or simply doing him a small favor along your way, you are still working for him. If you were sickened by the thought of helping Hitler cancel his dinner plans, how much more repulsed must you be at the thought of helping God’s enemy wreck his havoc on mankind.

Want to avoid becoming the enemy’s pawn and avoid starting down that dark road to becoming his altogether? The Bible tells us how. Again, you can start at Ephesians 6 if you’d like to see what the Bible has to say directly on the subject. Here, I will paraphrase and provide some practical suggestions.

First, if you have not done so already, answer the call of God, the quiet yearning in your spirit that is anxious to know Him. How, you ask? Just say yes. Tell God you want Him in your life, and He is more than happy to grant your request. Indeed, He has been standing by the whole time.

Second, detach your sense of worth from anything fallible. Do not stake your worth in others’ opinions, your success, your intelligence, or anything else that is easily shaken or removed. Find your worth in the fact that God thought you so valuable, that He sent His Son to pay your debt, that His Holy Spirit is always with you and desires for you to have joy and to prosper, and that your Creator orchestrated all of this so that you would have the opportunity to know Him and to spend eternity with Him, far away from all this other nonsense. [Note: I do not mean to suggest that there is nothing to be happy about now, or that we cannot enjoy the things of this world. Certainly we can: it was God who created anything worth having anyway, including family, beauty, health, and even the ‘riches’ and other delights of this world. He does not forbid pleasure; rather, He warns us not to worship any of it.]

Third, be very careful of dismissing anything as neutral / without spiritual significance. Remember that the enemy’s best weapon is secrecy, so you want to render his covert attacks unsuccessful. You have already taken the first step by inviting God in. The next step is to be mindful of your actions, words, and surroundings. Read the Bible so you are aware of God’s teachings and the enemy’s traps. Find a solid community that will help you along, one that will remind you of what is truly valuable and reach out to you when you become distracted.

God has great plans for us all. God promises that His way is liberating, light, and full of life. The enemy’s way is burdensome, heavy, and will lead to death. It is not difficult to choose life, but it is certain that you are choosing, whether you realize it or not.