Ben's Birth Story

On Saturday, May 5, 2012, Mary Claire and I welcomed our second son, Benjamin David, into the world. It is was quite an adventure and not exactly how we expected it to happen. Mary Claire tells the story below:

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At my first prenatal visit, Dr. Wiley said to me: “You know, I think this baby is just going to fall out of you.” Sam came fast (about 7 hours of labor), and I was about 35 pounds lighter than when I was pregnant with him, so she had reason for her suspicion. I doubt, though, that she thought we would take it literally…

My pregnancy with Ben went well, except for a bout with polyhydromnios (excess amniotic fluid). The fear of pre-term and/or complicated labor had us on edge for several weeks. All of the extra sonograms suggested that Ben was a BIG boy, so Dr. Wiley brought up induction and c-section a few times, especially considering the severity of my tearing with Sam. I was not open to those kinds of interventions unless absolutely necessary, so we started praying that Ben would come a little early on his own, specifically Cinco de Mayo because I thought 5-5-12 would be a cool birthday. (By the way, we did the same for Sam, praying for 2-2-10 – kind of neat to be able to “pick” our sons’ birthdays.)

I had a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions all during my pregnancy with Ben, and during the last couple of weeks, they were coming frequently and with increasing pressure.  When Dr. Wiley checked me on May 2, I was about 4.5 cm dilated and fully effaced, so we were definitely on an “any day now” alert.  Still hoping for a 5-5-12 birthday, David and I decided to pull out all the stops the evening before. First we went to the Kimball with Sam so I could look at “some pretty pictures” while David walked me to death. We then headed to Terra for some eggplant dishes, and David gave me the pineapple off of his drink. (I later read that it would take eating 3 whole pineapples to have an appreciable effect on labor, but the slice was still tasty!) Later at home it was castor oil and evening primrose oil with ankle massages. We went to bed around 10:30.

I woke up several times to go to the bathroom and didn’t feel any labor symptoms. Then, at 3:15 am, I woke up with a strong “cramp.” I thought that it was the result of the castor oil at first, but given our history, I woke David up right after going to the bathroom and told him I thought I was in labor and that my water may have started leaking. He asked if it was time to call Betsy to come and watch Sam. I was hesitant because I hated to wake her at that hour, but knew by then it was time.  He was out of bed (3:20 am) and called Betsy (3:21 am). He left a voicemail and at 3:23 am she called back and asked if she needed to come right away. The answer at that point was a definitive “Yes!” After another contraction, I told David to get moving if he needed to do anything before we left, and he got all the cameras, bags, etc. together. I asked him to call Dr. Wiley, but he wanted to time a few contractions first so we had something to tell her, so he started timing at 3:30 am. I lied down in bed trying to do the relaxation techniques that we spent months practicing, but could not get my body to cooperate. I was shaking and could not relax. The intensity was overwhelming, and I started to really worry that I couldn’t get any control over my body through a contraction. I woke up in “hard labor” with Sam, too, but this was different. This felt more like transition than first stage labor.

After the first contraction in bed, I had to go to the bathroom, and my water really broke. I tried getting back in bed, but I still couldn’t relax. David was trying to coach me, but I just responded: “Bradley (the natural childbirth method we use) isn’t working. I can’t do this!” I got out of bed with a wave of nausea and headed back to the bathroom where I had two more excruciating contractions. At that point (3:45 am), David called Dr. Wiley, reported that the contractions were over a minute long and 3 minutes apart and told her that we were headed to the hospital as soon as Betsy arrived to keep Sam. Her response was: “Throw the kid in the car and go to the hospital NOW!” David hung up with her and tried to call Betsy back to see if it would be faster to get Sam in the car or wait for her to arrive. She didn’t pick up the phone. He then ran into the bathroom to get me dressed and in the car.  (A side note: Sam slept through this entire ordeal. Absolutely amazing considering there is screaming and ambulances to come…)

While David was making these calls, I arrived at the point of sheer terror as I realized that there was no way we could go anywhere. The last contraction that I had was so totally overwhelming that I instinctively reached down and when I did, I felt Ben’s head. When David came into the bathroom saying that we had to get in the car immediately, I completely gave in to the panic.  I just said (or maybe screamed): “No car. I’m having a baby right now!” Thinking that I was probably just using hyperbole to communicate how much pain I was in, he tried again, saying, “Babe, we’ve got to get you dressed and in the car.” I responded, “No car! Get a towel!” At that point, he looked down and could see Ben’s hair. He got a towel, helped me onto our bedroom floor, and called Dr. Wiley back to tell her we weren’t going to the hospital, we were having a baby then and there.  David had her on speaker, and while it was reassuring that he had some help, I went into a whole other level of panic when I couldn’t push. While lying on my back, I felt like it would be impossible to get Ben out. He felt completely stuck (something I was screaming over and over), and I physically could not push or even get my breath. David could see that Ben wasn’t aligned correctly to come out, and I heard Dr. Wiley ask if he could tell if the baby was vertex or breech. (Later at the hospital she commented that if the baby was breech her plan was to hang up on David, get back in bed, pull the covers over her head and pretend like nothing had happened. I can’t say that I blame her.) At that point, I seriously thought that Ben and I were going to die.  David assured us both that he was seeing a head, but I still couldn’t push. I remembered what it took to deliver Sam, knowing that those kinds of interventions weren’t an option for us at home.

Thankfully, David and I had talked only a few days before about using a different birth position for Ben given my difficulty in pushing Sam on my back. We had even talked to Dr. Wiley about it, and she was favorable to trying anything that might prevent such severe tearing. Probably the best thing that David did during all this craziness (other than remaining completely calm) was to have the wisdom and presence of mind to get me off my back.  He tried to get me to squat, but I couldn’t. I ended up on all fours and finally felt like the baby had a chance to get out.  At that point Betsy walked in the house to me screaming, “He’s tearing me!!!” She asked if David had called 911. He said no and she immediately called. 

Before the paramedics even arrived, David delivered Ben’s head. Then, all of a sudden, there were 15 medics and firefighters gathered in our bedroom with me on the floor, naked, delivering a baby. (Apparently, the Fort Worth fire department responds to 911 calls with the paramedics, and all of them felt the need to crowd into our bedroom for the show.) I remember the lead guy, Pablo, asking how far apart my contractions were and thinking, “You’re a little late to this party, dude.” David’s response to him was simply: “No contractions. Baby.” I would have loved to have seen Pablo’s face at that moment.  David let Pablo take over and Ben was born at 4:03 am, 48 minutes after I felt my first contraction.

The physical relief along with looking down and seeing my pink, crying baby was the most overwhelming feeling I’ve ever experienced. We didn’t die. He wasn’t stuck. He was healthy and beautiful. Amazing. All I could get out was: “My baby! Give me my baby! I want my baby!” Pablo was trying to tell me he had to do assessments and clamp the cord, etc., but David calmly said: “No, she’s going to hold him first.” Pablo tried to protest, but then there was Dr. Wiley on the speakerphone saying, “Just give her the baby!” So then I had sweet Ben in my arms.  David cut the cord, and then they put us on the gurney, and we headed to the hospital.

The ambulance ride was a blur. All I can remember is looking at Ben and arguing with Pablo that I didn’t need an IV or oxygen. I was pretty whoozy by the time we arrived, but I do remember Pablo saying, “I didn’t want to tell you this earlier, but I’ve never done THAT before.” Nice.

Dr. Wiley was in the delivery room waiting for us with this look on her face like, “Really, you two??” I think it was a first for her, too.  Had I not been so out of it by then, I would have told her not to predict that a baby would fall out of any more of her patients… It might just happen that way!

MYTHBUSTERS: What are the 10 Commandments Good For?

MYTHBUSTERS: What Are The Ten Commandments Good For?

What are the Ten Commandments are really good for. Aside from the issue of displaying them in courthouses and schoolrooms, what meaning do they have specifically for the Christian?

As I began studying I came across this quote in the Bible Knowledge Commentary:

Though believers today are not under the Law (Rom. 6:15), they are under obligation to abide by the holy standards represented in the Ten Commandments.

I’m trying hard to understand that. Are we under the law or not? Seriously, I don’t get it. Smart people wrote that book but that statement contradicts itself. I’m not trying to be dense or smart aleck, but the Ten Commandments are a big deal. What we believe about them affects how we choose to behave as Christians

This apparently contradictory statement represents a broad segment of (shall we call it?) “thought” among Christians. The three major branches to come out of the Protestant Reformation (Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican) all developed catechisms that explicitly assumed that the Ten Commandments are the basis for Christian ethics. But Graeme Goldsworthy writes,

“The problem with the Protestant catechisms is that they do something with the Ten Commandments that the New Testament doesn’t seem at all interested in doing. Nowhere in the New Testament epistles are the Ten Commandments as such expounded to teach Christian ethics.”

Goldsworthy goes on to explain that Protestant concentration on the Ten Commandments has enabled “the ethical laws to remain in force while the civil and ceremonial laws are somehow discarded.”

However, that still doesn’t answer my question:

Are we under the law or are we not under the law?

I don’t think we can have it both ways. Either we, as Christians, are under the law or we are not under the law. It is double talk of Orwellian proportions to say we are not under the law, but we are under the ethical obligations of the Ten Commandments. So which is it?

Let’s go back and look at the giving of the law and see if we can figure out what is going on here and how we, as Christians, should look at the Ten Commandments.

I’d like to refer to Goldsworthy again and his framework for understanding redemptive history. He defines the Kingdom of God as God’s People in God’s Place under God’s Rule. We see that represented in Genesis: Adam and Eve were God’s people; they were in the Garden which is God’s place and they were in direct fellowship and obedience to God under his rule; until they sinned and were separated from God, from God’s rule and kicked out of god’s place. The rest of the story is about how that is restored. Now we fast forward to Egypt. We find God’s People, but they are in an alien land and under alien rule. So God delivers them through the amazing Exodus and Passover that foreshadows his deliverance of all people from their bondage and slavery to an alien ruler through the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. And the first thing God does with His people is bring them to Mount Sinai and speak to them.

OBSERVATIONS:

1. It is interesting to me that this is the first time that God is dealing with people corporately instead of as individuals.

2. And the first thing that He does with them is to renew the covenant He made with Abraham. Remember Genesis 12 where God calls Abraham and makes covenant promises to him – promises to make him a great nation, to bless all people through him, to give him the Promised Land. Look at what God is doing with the children of Israel. He’s reiterating those promises even as they are being fulfilled. And so the law is given in the form of a Covenant Treaty. This passage of Scripture follows the pattern of how a sovereign would relate to his subjects in ancient Middle Eastern tradition. He tells them who He is and establishes His right to give the law. And He gives the law and then specifies how it will work and then gives the consequences for keeping it and consequences for breaking it. And they agree. In fact, they rejoice!

3. Not only is this a renewing of God’s covenant, but it is a fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham. God promised Abraham to make him a great nation. That was when he was one man. Around two million people left Egypt and now God speaks to them and calls them His nation. And He is taking them to the very land that He promised to Abraham, so we see God’s faithfulness as there is fulfillment represented, but it’s not THE fulfillment yet.

4. Beyond the renewal of the covenant and the partial fulfillment, this event is a significant leap in the progressive revelation of who God is. In the past, as God has dealt with individuals, he has done so directly, but since man left the Garden, it has always been shrouded in mystery. Abraham has him over for dinner, but he’s not sure who he is. Abraham tithes to Melchizedek, but who the heck is Melchizedek? Jacob wrestles with him, but again, it’s not until the next morning that he realizes, “surely the lord was in this place.” And Moses is listening to shrubbery.

But now, God reveals himself to his people. And he does so very explicitly. Look at all the show he puts on for them to demonstrate his majesty and holiness, his sovereignty and power. Chapter 19 is full of thunder and lightning and dark smoke. I love this: God tells Moses to take precautions that no one break through to see God out of curiosity, and Moses says, they can’t you’ve already scared them to death. He is God and there is no other. This is where the Ten Commandments start and it is reinforced by everything in the context. In fact, God goes to such great lengths to demonstrate his literal AWE-someness that the people insist that God talk to Moses, and they’ll listen to Moses. And we once again see the bigger picture: the need for a mediator. Because man is sinful and God is SO HOLY, man can’t interact with God directly. There must be a mediator. Moses fills that role here, but he’s just foreshadowing the ultimate mediator: Jesus. The one man who is God and is sinless and can go to God and make a way for those in Him to be acceptable before God. All of that is right here in verses 18-21.

5. There’s also the reflection of God as the one who creates with his word. He spoke and nothing became something, chaos became cosmos, the absence of anything but God became the universe that reflects God. And at Sinai, God speaks and with his word creates a nation out of a band of ragtag former slave refugees.

6. However, it is in the actual giving of the law that the utterly amazing occurs. God is holy; God is good and He’s powerful and sovereign, but Abraham and the patriarchs got most of that – maybe not as physically demonstrated, but they understood. But what does it really look like for God to be Holy and to have a people that are specifically assigned to represent him to all other people. It is in the giving of the law that the character of God is revealed in a codified, defined, WRITTEN form for the first time.

We grow up memorizing the Ten Commandments and so we lose some of the absolute sheer amazement of what it meant for God to define himself – not in terms that would limit who he was but in terms that would identify his people as such. Don’t take this for granted. It is an amazing revelation of who our God is. He is a God that wants to be identified with his people, he wants reconciliation, and he’s willing to come to their level. Once again, foreshadowing how that will happen ultimately in the incarnation.

7. The giving of the law is also a revelation of God’s grace! Hear me now, we so often set up the conflict between grace and law. We try to live by the law and we fail and we fall into the arms of the grace of God and it’s hard not to look back on the task master of the law with derision. This is concept that Paul is wrestling with so beautifully in the heart of the book of Romans. But the giving of the law IS GRACE! Look how the whole thing is predicated on what God has done for them. Verse 2: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” They are delivered (saved) before they are given the law. They are saved by the grace of God, not by the law. So, it begins with grace. And it is grace. God is saying here’s who I am. That revelation is grace. And as we look at the purpose for the law, it is not as if God expects them to be able to keep the law and therefore have access to Him through their law-keeping holiness. The law will reveal the depth of mankind’s depravity and thus our need for the ultimate mediator who will represent God to man and represent man to God and bring the reconciliation that can only come from the sacrificial death of the perfect sinless man, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And so, the law is all about grace.

8. And finally, the giving of the law is the foreshadowing of the person of Christ. Not only is he seen in the mediator role played by Moses, but the actual Ten Commandments describe Christ to us. They tell us who He is: the character of God lived out on this earth in a human body. Mount Sinai points us to Mount Calvary. Let’s stop on another mountain first though, the Mount of Olives. Moses went up on Mount Sinai and God spoke and gave him the Ten Commandments. But Jesus went up on another mountain and he, God, spoke and said, “you have heard it said, but I say to you,” in other words, not only is Jesus the total embodiment of the law, but he’s also the only one with the right and ability to correctly interpret it. He interprets it because He is it and it was all about him in the first place!

In reading any text, I try to decipher what the original hearers would have heard. It is awesome to see the foreshadowing and the fulfillment, but what did the children of Israel think about the giving of the law at the time? They rejoiced. They were overwhelmed that this God who delivered them would come to their level and tell them who he was and what he wanted. I think we often see the giving of the law as a heavy event, drudgery. “O.K., so here’s what we have to do to please God.” Rather, the people of Israel realize that they have a God powerful enough to deliver them from the tight-fisted grasp of the most powerful ruler in the known world at the time. And this God is not only powerful, but he has chosen them as the people he wants to be identified with. He will dwell with them. This is staggering, and so for him to define what it takes for them to accept this covenant treaty of being “HIS PEOPLE” is a wonderful thing. That’s the context we need to see the giving of the law in.

Finally, I would like to talk about the ultimate purpose of the law.

The meaning of history is not self-evident – especially redemptive history. Everything has to be interpreted through the lens that the whole story is about Christ. So, even though the children of Israel had no idea, we know from Paul’s writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the law was given – not only to express the character of God, not only to foreshadow Christ, not only to be the most perfect representation in written form of the way to organize a society – but in addition, God gave Israel the law to show everyone how different we are from him. (Remember, that was the “confusion” in the Garden “you will be like God”.) He is holy; we are sinful. Even when we know how to do right, we don’t do it. Paul explains this in Romans, how everyone knows that there is right and wrong, but God explicitly gave Israel the law to highlight that man is so messed up that he cannot save himself. He needs, in fact his only hope, is a perfect mediator who brings reconciliation. So here again the law points to Jesus. So Jesus comes as the fulfillment of all the promises; he takes all of the guilt on himself; through he sacrificial death and resurrection, he reconciles those in Him to God.

But the majority of Israel misses this. And so, Israel rejects her Messiah. But this also is part of God’s plan. Romans 11:32: “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” Let me say it this way: God’s plan all along has been to display his glory in the plan of redemption. The way He does that is by showing mercy to those who deserve nothing but damnation. But mercy means nothing if there is no standard of justice (holiness) and God is holy and just. So, he cannot just pretend that sin is not the heinous insult to his character that it is. He gives the law to show his character and to show mankind that no matter how hard he tries he cannot be like God. This is displayed ad nausem through the history of Israel (and through your and my life if we’ve tried to live according to the law). He knows that Israel cannot keep it, but He wants them to know they cannot keep it. He also knows that when the fulfillment of all the covenants comes on the scene they will reject him thus completing their total disobedience and rejection of God and his covenant with them. They are consigned to disobedience, so that they too can be brought into God’s people through mercy. It’s is amazing. And Paul immediately follows this explanation with this doxology:

Romans 11:33-36:

³³Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁴"For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?"
³⁵"Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?"
³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

So Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the law. How then do we relate to the law? We come back to the original question: Are we as Christians under the law or not under the law?

Paul says, “We are not under the law.” But does he mean that we are under the obligation to abide by the standards of the Ten Commandments? No, to my mind that’s absurd. Are they the basis of Christian ethics? Nope, not according to the New Testament. Then, what good are they? Paul says they are good in every way. Here’s how: The Ten Commandments tell us about Jesus. And it just so happens that as Christians we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us. In that way, you could say that the Ten Commandments are descriptive of us. We don’t obey the Ten Commandments in order to please God. Because we are in Christ, the Ten Commandments describe us because they describe him. So we can look at the Ten Commandments and rejoice with Israel at what an incredible revelation of God. But we have a better, fuller, more complete revelation: the person of Jesus. And so the basis of Christian ethics is not the Ten Commandments; it is the person of Jesus. The Ten Commandments are a shadow of him, but we can look at the full-color, three-dimensional image of him. So, the New Testament does not appeal to the Ten Commandments addressing behavioral standards (ethics), but rather they appeal to who we are in Christ.

Look at how this works with me in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. Paul is dealing with some rather challenging sin issues in the church he planted in Corinth. But he doesn’t say the sixth commandment means you shouldn’t sleep with your father’s wife. He says, Hey wake up, don’t you know who you are. You are a little Christ. Christ doesn’t act that way, so cut it out!

Six times in this one chapter, he says, “do you not know?” And each time he’s talking about an aspect of our identity in Christ. Paul’s argument is that behavior comes out of identity – not the other way around. That was the problem Israel had with God’s law in the first place. They tried to keep the law to prove they were God’s people; that doesn’t work! Knowing who you are produces behavior that is consistent with that. So, Paul’s focus is in telling the Corinthians who they are. Look at the heart of this passage:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Just like the Corinthians, we were these evil sinners described in 9-10, not because we did those things, but we did those kinds of things because that’s who we were. But not anymore. Jesus came, lived a sinless life, was crucified, dead buried and then rose again. And through that act, we were washed, we were sanctified, we were justified. We were made what we weren’t – so now we aren’t what we were.

So now you need to know who you are, so you can stop acting like who you were and start acting like who you are – not to become that but because you ARE that!

And so the reason that Christians don’t take their brothers to court is because that’s not what little Christs do. Little Christs judge the world and would rather suffer injustice than risk inflicting it on another.

And the reason that Christians don’t sleep with prostitutes is because that’s not what little Christs do. Little Christs realize the purpose of sex is the joining of spirits and they don’t want to join Christ’s spirit to a prostitute.

So, back to the Ten Commandments. We are not under the law. And we are not under the obligation of the standards representing in the law. And the Ten Commandments are not the basis of our ethics. But they are part of our history and in a mysterious, shadow way, they describe who we are as people of God. So as I read through the list in the Scripture I want you to listen with fresh ears. Do not hear me say this is what you have to do. Listen to me say, this is who you are.

Eliphaz's MBA

I recently read a business case written by a friend who works with businesses and individuals in implementing biblical solutions in their personal and workplace lives. I have tremendous respect for his work, skills and wisdom. However, I was uncomfortable with the primary conclusion of this business case.

The story goes that after a particularly successful year, a businessman decided to invest his tithe in his own business. The next year, a slam-dunk contract which was expected to be quite profitable nearly bankrupted the company.

According to the case study the businessman “knew that his disobedience sowed the seeds of judgment. In this case the judgment came in the form of financial disaster. Sin always extracts a price and frequently our sin impacts others. In this case, Robert’s presumption put his company at risk to fail, which threatened to leave hundreds of his workers unemployed during a time of severe economic depression. Now not only would Robert pay the price for his sin of presumption, but also his workers and their families.”

The conclusion presented is that because this man did not tithe appropriately God sent judgment to destroy his business and put his employees out of work. Therefore, you should tithe or God will wreck your business.

To be fair, I don’t think the author of the case study would say that was the point he was trying to make. However, it is clear conclusion drawn from reading the article.

So, what’s wrong with that?

While that may be consistent with common mischaracterizations of the personality of the Old Testament God, I would suggest that it missed the mark in 3 areas. It is a misunderstanding of the tithe; it is a misunderstanding of the character of God; and it is a misunderstanding of judgment.

The first misunderstanding is a frighteningly common one. It is the idea that the believer owes 10% of his or her income to God. Some have even taken it so far as making a distinction between God’s tithe and our offerings. This view doesn’t stand up to even historical investigation. The tithe was a law given to theocratic Israel. In fact, there were multiple tithe’s mandated and when they were all added up they often exceeded 30% of income. These tithes were used to support the national institutions of theocratic Israel including the Temple, the priesthood, the poor and the government. In other words, tithes were like taxes. The law given to Israel was fulfilled in the coming of Christ. The church on this side of the revelation of Christ lives in his fulfillment, not under Israel’s law. The worst part of this misunderstanding is the violence it does to the concept of stewardship. Suggesting that God owns the tithe implies we own everything else to do with as we please. But what do we have that we haven’t been given (1 Corinthians 4:7)? God owns it all and we as believers are stewards of God’s resources that he has places in our hands. Since we are in-Christ (rather than under the law), we take on Christ’s nature and character. He is a giver and so as we seek to steward his resources with his nature, we get to share in the joy of giving. Ten percent is a cop-out!

The second misunderstanding concerns the character of God. Once again it is a fairly common misunderstanding that God operates on a “good-get-blessed; bad-get-cursed” basis. This myth too has a basis in the Old Testament for that is precisely the way the Mosaic covenant was laid out: obey – blessing; disobey – curses. However, the Old Testament goes to great lengths to point out that while it is universally assumed that the good get rewarded and the bad get punished, our God has an even higher way. This is progressively revealed throughout the Old Testament but becomes clear in the coming of Christ who being perfect takes the punishment deserved by his people and gives to them the blessing deserved by him. One of the primary points of the book of Job is that Job’s friends who assumed good=reward, bad=punishments don’t get it. To me this business case sounds a lot like Job’s friends (hence the title) saying, “Your company’s in trouble? See, you must have disobeyed God.” God makes it clear — in Job and throughout the Scriptures — that he is not limited to formulas. He does as he pleases (Psalm 115:3). However, he is not arbitrary. He is consistent with his character and his character is good. While we don’t always understand what he is up to, God promises that he works all for the good of his people. God doesn’t make children go hungry because a businessman missed a payment on his tithe. This issue is closely related to the third misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding of judgment is probably just as common as the previous two. We use the word judgment to refer to when God gets fed up with people and rains destruction on them. To be fair, that is a common picture of judgment in the Old Testament. However, in the New Testament, God’s wrath was satisfied when it was poured out on Christ. As believers in Christ, we do not face the wrath of God. We have been spared God’s wrath at Christ’s expense. For Christians, God’s judgment looks like vindication. So rather than seeing business failure as a judgment punishing this businessman and his employees for his failure to tithe, it might be that God held up his business success to get his attention to direct him to the destiny he had in mind for him.

Isn’t that the same thing, just different semantics? It might look like the same, but the difference in the perspective of who God is and how we works with his people makes a huge difference in your ability to enjoy God and embrace working in partnership with him. Do you want a Sovereign partner or a vindictive boss?

OBAMANATION: Is Obama God's Judgment on America?

The 2012 presidential campaign has begun, which is just another way of saying that the 2008 presidential election is over. Barack Hussein Obama is President-elect of the United States and Senator John McCain is exactly that – senator. And oh the hand-wringing has begun. How many times have I heard evangelical Christians wondering (worrying) if the election of Obama is God’s judgment on our country? (More than once I’ve heard that the “choice” between Obama and McCain was evidence enough of God’s wrath.)

To their credit, I’ve heard many Christians committing to pray for President Obama and his incoming administration. In many cases this is a sincere desire to heed the New Testament admonition to pray for our government leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2). However, in some cases it is said with a sanctimonious attitude of certain knowledge that the Almighty is a Republican and any populace electing a Democratic administration needs prayers for mercy in the face of the inevitable divine wrath it has brought upon itself. It strikes me as a condescending (self-righteous) protest movement: “We’re morally superior, but we’ll be big about our loss and ‘pray’ for you.” I’d rather leave my McCain/Palin bumper sticker on the car and keep my prayers in my closet (Matthew 6:6).

Is the election of President Obama indeed a judgment of God on a wayward nation?

The very question frames the issue wrongly. The question itself betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the timeline of history. It assumes an Old Testament worldview. Behind this question of judgment are images of the great prophets of ancient Israel – Jeremiah weeping over the fate of Jerusalem, Isaiah imploring repentance, Elijah manically alternating from humiliating the prophets of Baal to frightened for his life fleeing from a mad queen. This Old Testament assumption is often made quite explicit as we quote from 2 Chronicles 7:14 (if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.) The problem is this assumption ignores historical context.

Israel was a theocratic nation in covenant with Yahweh. Without going too far afield into redemptive history, Israel was chosen by God – not for anything special about Israel, but because God wanted to use a people to demonstrate who he was and bless all the peoples of the world. Israel did this – finding its fulfillment in its Messiah, Jesus Christ. Prior to his incarnation, Israel was identified and governed by its covenant with its God. In that covenant God stipulated his law for Israel’s governance. He promised to bless them if they followed the covenant, but he also promised severe consequences if they broke covenant. The judgments, destruction, and exile that followed were in the context of this covenant.

John Winthrop not withstanding, America has no such covenant with God! The United States of America was founded on an amazing blend of Judeo-Christian presuppositions, Calvinist-inspired Puritanism, and Enlightenment Liberalism. It was and remains a grand experiment mixing a God-fearing people with a suspicion of human depravity but hope for the highest aspiring ideals of human nature and liberty. The creativity, pragmatism, resilience, energy, and progress created by this mix have produced an absolutely phenomenal 300 years or so. However, the United States is not God’s chosen nation; it is not the new “Israel”; and it is not a nation in covenant with Yahweh.

This is not America’s fault. God no longer makes covenants with nations in the way he did with Israel. The purpose of the covenant with Israel was to bless the whole world through the ultimate Israelite. That purpose was fulfilled in the God-man Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the seed of Abraham. Christ inaugurated a new covenant – one that has nothing to do with ethnicity. As God sees it, there are two nations on this earth – those in Christ and those not in Christ. There is a covenant with the in-Christ nation. It is a covenant in which the conditions have been completely and finally met by Christ himself. Those in Christ have nothing to fear from judgment. Judgment was once-and-for-all meted out on Christ at the cross for those who are in him. Those who are not in Christ will experience the wrath of God, but it has nothing to do with their geographical residence or electoral choices.

President-elect Obama is not a judgment of God on America. The financial crisis is not a judgment of God on America – not in the way that God enforced his covenant on Israel by summoning the Assyrians and Babylonians to sack the land and capture the people. The financial crisis does reveal in whom and what our trust is. The powerful gods of greed and materialism are looking pretty impotent at the moment. Crises like this one are used by God to remind us where to put our trust.

There is only one nation in covenant with God and its citizens are scattered over the face of the earth. As those citizens walk with their God and carry out their assignments of subduing the earth and making disciples, the geo-political states in which they reside will be blessed with righteousness and justice as these citizens gain influence by serving and blessing. However, regardless of the form of government or the head of state, these citizens must maintain their primary loyalty not to the state in which they reside, but to the kingdom in which they live!

The Resurgence

Two weeks ago I went to Seattle for the Acts 29/Resurgence Conference. I had been looking forward to the conference for several months. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, hosted the conference. John Piper, Matt Chandler, and Jim Gilmore were the guest speakers with a last-minute addition of C.J. Mahaney. Piper has pointed me to the majesty, supremacy and glory of God for more than 10 years. Chandler pastors The Village Church where my wife and I are members. He's a great communicator commited to preaching the gospel. Gilmore is the author of The Experience Economy. I'm still not sure what he said or why he was there. Mahaney leads the Sovereign Grace network of churches and is an incredible statesmen of the faith. And Driscoll...well, Driscoll is just Driscoll. I love hearing him preach the gospel as well. The conference was one of the most powerful I've ever been a part of. The audio of the conference has been posted on The Resurgence website and is available for free download. What follows is a summary (with links to the audio) of the highlights:

Driscoll kicked off the conference by dumping his announced topic and instead offering a message entitled: "Putting Preachers in Their Place." (There's a video link for this one as well.) Driscoll's introductions are famous for the breadth and length, and this one didn't disappoint. He began in Genesis with God preaching creation into existence and walked through the Scripture demonstrating the importance of preaching. Then he launched into a discussion of ecclesiology that was both thorough and well-reasoned. His conclusion is that preaching is a necessary but not sufficient component of a church. He distills the reformation formulas down to five basic requirements for a church ending with the suggestion that some attendees thought they were pastoring churches but were really leading cults. I highly recommend listening to and thinking through this message by Mark.

The second message was far and away the most powerful message of the conference for me. I ve heard a lot about C.J. Mahaney, but this was my first time to hear him preach live. I finally understand why those who've heard him love him so. The character of the man and his passion for Christ are so evident as he speaks and this one was a message I needed to hear. The title was "Pastoral Care & Loving People." He took as his text the first 15 verses of 1 Corinthians. The focus of his message was how to see those to whom you minister with a divine perspective. It was an incredible message, a convicting message, and a life-filled, hope-giving message. It's one I will be listening to over and over.

Piper finished out the first day with a message on "Why I Trust the Scriptures."

[I'll continueto edit and finish this post when I get a few minutes; have to run right now.]

UPDATE: O.K., so I never really finished this post, and no one really cares anymore, but I can't leave it that unfinished. So, the first day of the conference was the best and without a doubt C.J.'s message impacted me the most. I've referred to it countless times and had all of my Leadership Expedition staff listen to it. Matt's message was also good, but I think he was even better at this year's (2009) Desiring God conference: A Shepherd and His Unregenerate Sheep. So, the Resurgence Conference was great. You can get all the audio and most of the video on their website. And I'm finished with this post.

Sailboats and Libraries

While having lunch with a friend a few weeks ago we were talking about the encouragement of being around some of the elder statesmen in the faith – men in their late 60’s and 70’s who have been faithful in following Christ and leading his church for decades and are now in the “retirement” stage of their lives. I was shocked as he quoted one of these highly respected men saying basically, “I feel like a ship out on the sea with my sail up, but no wind. I’m really having to trust God through this stage because I feel like I have so much to give but no one is asking.”

Huh!?!?!?

How in the world can this be?

I have heard that the death of a wise old man is like the burning down of a library. In the case of the man above, it would be the library of a great university like Oxford (you’d probably know his name if I said it). I simply don’t understand how it could be that no one is asking for his wisdom, insight, experience and input.

I freely confess that I have never held the job of Pastor of a local church – maybe someday I will, maybe not. So, I don’t understand all that goes on in being “Pastor _____.” I do know that it is demanding. I do know that people’s expectations create a pressure cooker. But I don’t understand why the pastors I see refuse to use the tools and gifts and assistance this is available to them – such as the libraries who are the elder statesmen who are willing to give away wisdom for which they paid extravagant prices!

When Richard Bewes took over as rector at All Soul’s Church in London, he had huge shoes to fill: the legendary John Stott. Stott was still very much alive and still attending All Soul’s. What to do? It would be a shame for a gift to the body such as Stott to sit in the pews and remain silent. Fortunately, Bewes had the wisdom and security to form what he called a “hermeneutical community.” He and Dr. Stott, along with two or three young and promising preachers met once a week. Bewes laid out the preaching plan (he had one) for them and they discussed it and decided who should deliver each message. Typically Bewes preached twice a month with Stott and the youngsters splitting the other two or three Sundays. Then they would work together on the preparation. At the meeting a week and a half before the message was to be preached the assigned preacher would present his outline. Each of the other members of the community would offer insight, encouragement and constructive criticism. Can you imagine the joy of putting your sermon together with the input of John Stott? Who needs a commentary?

Dr. Bewes shared this system with me over dinner when he came to speak at the seminary I was attending – and I may have gotten a detail or two incorrect, but the concept is there. I thought it was revolutionary. What I don’t understand is why more churches (every church) aren’t trying it. We talk about team ministry, but it still seems like we want one-man teams.

I just don’t understand why there wouldn’t be a line of pastors at the door of my sailboat friend begging him to spend time with them, to sit in on elders and staff meetings and offer wisdom to disciple young people in the church and to meet weekly with the pastor as a spiritual mentor. And all that’s without sharing the pulpit.

I have never faced the weekly grind of having to produce and preach a sermon (or more than one) every week, but I do know that if I had to do one or two a month rather than four or more that the one or two would be better than all four put together. Why not make use of the libraries that are our elder statesmen – especially when it makes us look better too!! And where’s the place for raising up the next generation if they don’t get a chance to study with us and preach with us?

The point isn't who is preaching -- though I have to say I love the way my pastor (who is a great preacher) makes sure someone else is in the pulpit once a month just to remind the church (as well as himself I'm sure) that it isn't all about him. It's more than that. It is about the value we place on those men and women who have paid the price and demonstrated faithfulness with their lives. They have learned from their experience and as a result of years of walking with Christ they live with a depth that we younger ones can only envy. And yet, they are willing to share if only someone will ask.

In our effort to prove our own value and worth and capability and acheivement, are we so independent that we are neglecting the gifts that God has provided for our own maturing as well as the success of our mission? These sailboats and libraries have reached a point in life where their engery is on the wane; they sometimes face physical limitations. They don't need to run a church or organization -- they've already got those t-shirts. But they have something to give and we are just plain stupid to our own detriment if we don't seek out these realationship and the mentoring and maturing that can result. When's the last time you had breakfast with a "library"?

What is "Ceteris Paribus"?

Ceteris Paribus is the Latin phrase that means "all other things being equal." It is commonly used in the academic discipline of economics, as in "if the Fed raises interest rates, the rate of growth in the U.S. economy will slow, ceteris paribus." It refers to the fact that in doing economic analysis you try to hold all variables the same and move one at a time to see what changes that will bring. Why do I know this you ask. I majored in economics at Texas A&M University. And while I almost never use the technical aspects of my economics study, I do think that it greatly shaped my thinking process and approach to analytical thinking. Thus, my blog named Ceteris Paribus. That means that what I hope you will find here is not the raving rants that tend to be characteristic of many blogs, but a careful and well-reasoned argument and conclusion that treats the subject with fairness. That doesn't mean passionless, but it does mean that even things I feel passionately about I try to approach in a reasonable way.


My interests are wide and varied from theology for which I have a professional interest to things political to aviation (for which I have no explanation why I love so much). I hope you enjoy reading my posts and I welcome your comments.