News Weakly - 1/4/2025

Over-Thinking
Paul tells each Christian "not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think" (Rom 12:3). Biden apparently never read that. He is touting five accomplishments he achieved in office, including navigating the pandemic (the vaccine was available before he took office), the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson (the judge who couldn't tell you what a woman is), student loan forgiveness (which the courts stopped multiple times), and the economy (which was so bad that it was a primary factor in getting Trump elected). Nice try, Joe, but ... no. Wait! Unless he made the economy so bad Trump got elected, and that was his accomplishment? No, I doubt that's what he meant. (As an aside, what are we going to do without Brandon to kick around?)

Jimmy Carter, RIP
Former president Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100. You may have not been impressed with him as a president. You may have disliked his politics, but no one can question his humanitarian work, and that is his most vivid legacy. Rest in Peace.

Anti-Murder Regulation
In New Orleans, a driver intentionally drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street during the New Years Eve celebrations and killed 10 people, injuring another 30. The event echoed a a similar event in Germany last week just before Christmas. Lawmakers are scrambling for new automobile regulation to stem this new tide of mass murders by car. Oh, wait, no ... for some reason that's not happening.

The Real Story
This week there was a mass shooting outside of a Queens nightclub, another mass shooting outside of a Montenegro cafe, the discovery of 150 homemade bombs at a home in Virginia, along with the New Orleans car attack now labeled a "terror attack" that caused, among other things, the postponement of the Sugar Bowl, a suicide by exploding Tesla Cybertruck and, obviously, more. Some think it indicates the need for better gun control. I'd suggest there's a much, much bigger problem, and it is not that "people are basically good."

Your Most Trusted Source for Fake News
On the passing of Jimmy Carter, the Bee reports that Biden has finally claimed the title of worst living president. Of course, at the same time, we learned that Jimmy Carter will not be attending Trump's inauguration. That's gotta hurt. Finally, in order to further their "sanctuary state" status, California has announced mass deportations ... of U.S. citizens. You know, to decrease the invasive influence of American culture and all. Nice move, Mr. Newsom.

Must be true; I read it on the Internet.

A Good New Year's Resolution

I was reading an article about things intelligent people do. The first thing the article listed was they will change their minds when confronted with valid information that contradicts their thinking. That is, the intelligent thing to do when you discover that you're wrong is not to defend it; it's to change it.

In Romans 12, Paul writes,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom 12:1-2)

That "therefore" refers to the entire 11 chapters that preceded it -- 11 chapters of the truth of the Gospel (Rom 1:16-17) that includes the problem of the sinfulness of humans (Rom 1:18-3:20), the solution of justification by faith apart from works -- by faith in the propitiation of the Son who died for us (Rom 3:21-31) -- and more, concluding with "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen" (Rom 11:36). "Therefore," Paul writes. On the basis of this Gospel and God's righteousness, surrender your bodies as a living sacrifice as an act of worship. Then, "Step One." Don't conform to earthly thinking. Don't shape yourself by worldly wisdom. Don't be like the world that hates God. Instead ... "be transformed by the renewal of your mind." Like that article's notion of intelligent people, we're supposed to change our thinking by submitting to the truth. According to Paul that truth is not the world's version.

How do we renew our minds? It is first and foremost accomplished in opposition to worldly thinking. So, it is in submission to Christ instead of "brave" self-determination. It is in living in nonconformity to this world rather than embracing the world's values. It is by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) and in the Word (Eph 5:26). It is in prayer rather than self-sufficiency (Php 4:6) and death to self rather than self-centeredness (Eph 4:22-24). It is in trusting the Lord rather than leaning on our own understanding (Prov 3:5-6). It's not ... normal. If we're operating on "normal," we're not renewing our minds. We need to change our way of thinking to conform to Him and His Word rather than the more comfortable, yet fatal, way of the world.

Contradicting Jesus

Jesus said, "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18), clearly one of the times that Jesus spoke erroneously. Why would I even suggest such a thing? Well, Jesus also spoke of the "good and faithful servant" (Matt 25:21) and the guests who were gathered for the feast, "both bad and good" (Matt 22:10) -- just two examples. So obviously Jesus was wrong when He said there was no one good but God. This is one of those cases that 1) honest believers have to look at and 2) decide whether we have a viable Bible or not. And it's just one.

The world (and a goodly number of self-identified Christians) will tell us that the Bible is a "good book," but "let's not go overboard." It's fine as far as it goes, but it's made by humans and, therefore, contains mistakes, errors, contradictions, even lies. Genesis offers us a "Creation story" that is clearly myth, as science today has shown. The God of the Old Testament is clearly the fabrication of an ancient, superstitious civilization that Jesus has demonstrated isn't that mean ol' God at all. The Bible clearly contradicts itself, and that, alone, makes it not divine, but human. Therefore, we get to figure out what is and isn't true. We get to shape the Bible and God Himself to what we "know" to be true.

The problem, of course, is that what we know about God and His Son, Jesus, and all that constitutes "Christianity" comes from the Bible. If that's only partly true, then Christianity is a construct of our own making. There is no actual, solid ground on which to stand. No "leading of the Holy Spirit" gives firm footing (since said "Holy Spirit" comes from the pages of the Bible and appears to lead different people in different directions that would require a reliable Bible to discern). We who believe do great harm by calling Christ a liar, by assuring others that Paul was wrong when he said Scripture was "breathed out by God" (2 Tim 3:16-17 ESV), by telling us that sin is no big deal in contradiction to God's original "you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17), the vast array of the Hebrew sacrificial system ordained by God, and, finally, Christ's own sacrifice for sin. Minimizing God's Word is, in the end, fatal to Christianity, slipping it in among all sorts of other "valid" religions and really not worth arguing about. It is, without a doubt, a dangerous, if not fatal place to stand. Christians, we need to accept that there are texts that appear to contradict and then see how they correlate rather than contradict. Playing Scripture against Scripture is futile. And a Scripture that is questionably true is useless.

Unrecognizable

Note: I write this today on the 32nd anniversary of my marriage to my beloved wife. I think you will see it's intentional. I love my wife.

Love is universal. It exists in every culture, everywhere humans exist. While various languages refer to it in various ways, the idea is everywhere. And, of course, biblically that's a certainty because "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Since God is omnipresent, love must be, too. So ... why is it a specific sign of Christmas, for instance, while in so many other places and times and interactions, it's absent ... painfully so? Why are there bullies and mean people and wars? And why have we, in our day, equated "love" and "sex" as if they're the same? Do we even know what love is?

First Corinthians contains the famous "love" chapter. In it, Paul describes (not defines) love (1 Cor 13:4-8). He lists many of its qualities. And our world sees it and even makes art of it to hang on our walls.

It seems to me, though, that the love that Paul describes is completely foreign to our current culture ... and possibly every culture prior to it. Paul describes it as "patient and kind." Yeah, okay. But "does not insist on its own way"? Of course it does. I mean, how many guys have used "love" as a coercion to get sex? "Honey, if you loved me, you'd ..." We know people love us if they give us what we want, right? Not arrogant? "Is not irritable"? Try to prove that from so many "loving" relationships. Love rejoices with the truth? Only as long as it's the truth we like and not the one we don't. Verse 7 has a list of "all things" that love does -- bears, believes, hopes, endures. Is that even remotely the case? Do we actually bear all things for those we love? Do we actually believe the best of those we love? Or do we cave when it gets difficult and get suspicious at any hint of something negative? The description ends with "Love never ends." Now, that's right out. We all know that love has a time limit, that love has a "best if used by" date, so to speak. "We loved each other once, but we fell out of love."

Imagine what it would look like if, at least, followers of Christ were marked by love of that kind (John 13:35). Imagine if we loved as Jesus loved (John 15:12). Imagine if we loved sacrificially, without seeking our own interests, rejoicing in truth, bearing and believing all things. Imagine if we loved one another with a love that didn't end. What would marriages look like? What would churches look like? What would friendships look like? What would families look like? It would be revolutionary ... because very few of us today recognize that kind of love.