The Long View

There is a tendency in modern Christianity to cherry-pick verses and plaster them on shirts, mugs, and memes without examining the context. One favorite is Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Yes, that’s an encouraging word of God’s sovereignty and foreknowledge, but it wasn’t given to individual looking at his or her immediate future. The context is Israel’s captivity in Babylon. The first part of the chapter says,

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives… multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile… For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My promise” (see vv. 4-10).

This was no promise of “just hold on a little while and you’ll get out of trouble.” This was a directive to wait a lifetime and the next generation would see national deliverance. It’s not unlike the forty years in the wilderness before Israel could enter the Promised Land following the exodus from Egypt.

We go astray when we read Scripture solely through the eyes of our Western individualized culture. Much of the Bible was written to the nation of Israel, not to individuals. That’s not to say that individual application is always wrong. There can be a lot of overlap. But it is clearly wrong to interpret verses like Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise of individual success and prosperity. Many Christians have leaned toward facets of a prosperity gospel without even realizing it. For example, youth may be led to believe that if they hold to certain Christian standards they will be guaranteed a better job, better marriage, and better life—almost equating Christianity with the American dream.

What then can we glean from Jeremiah 29? God is sovereign and omniscient, and His perspective is always long term. He is working out His divine plan over many generations in many thousands of years. He will fulfill His purposes for individuals, nations, and all of history, but that purpose does not necessarily include comfort and success for each person in their lifetime. We have to hold onto God’s perspective—the eternal reality—when we face suffering and difficulties. Our future and our hope are grounded in the truth that this life is not all there is. We can then endure as long as necessary because this life is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternal joy in His kingdom.

“You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

What's Your Choice?

Last week’s “You’re Not Crazy” podcast reflected on Galatians 2:11-21, where the Apostle Paul says that he had to confront Peter for hypocritically drawing back from the Gentiles when Jews came to visit. The podcast leaders commented:

Ray Ortlund- “What if thousands of our churches across the country right now are nullifying the grace of God as Peter did without even realizing?”

Sam Allberry- “Let’s face it, he did it by who he ate with and who he didn’t eat with. Something as seemingly innocuous as that can actually contradict the gospel.”

That is convicting enough on its own. What daily choices are we making that nullify the gospel by implying that certain people are beyond the reach of God’s grace and that certain sins are unforgiveable? Who have we chosen not to associate with out of fear, prejudice, lack of love, or some other motivation? What misperceptions are we creating among those who are watching us?

Then if anyone needs more to think about, TGP posted this article, Should Christians Relocate to Conservative Areas? As Christians are vacating California and other blue states in droves, what does that do to the witness of the Church in those areas? As citizens of the heavenly Kingdom we are already exiles in a foreign land, so how appropriate is it for us to seek out like-minded people as our neighbors? What’s driving our choices?

A related choice is schooling. Even though I’m not a parent, I hear quite a few debates about Christians sending their kids to private school vs. public school vs. homeschooling. As a child, I wanted to go to a private school (mostly because of bullying) but was not allowed to. Looking back, I can see how I was challenged to live out my faith in public schools in ways that ultimately (though painfully) made me stronger and hopefully influenced other students as well. I don’t know what I would choose if I had kids, because the world is increasingly hostile to the public exercise of Christian beliefs.

We all have hard choices to make for ourselves, our families, and our churches. The question is, are we prayerfully weighing those decisions against Scripture? Are we choosing what’s easiest or what’s best? Are our choices based on worldly wisdom or God’s wisdom? Are we serving God’s Kingdom or our own agenda?

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and length of days, that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deut. 30:19-20).

Faithful Christians may come to different conclusions on a variety of life choices, because there are different people and circumstances to consider. But whatever we choose, we need to be sure we’ve sought God’s perspective and not just that of our friends and family. God is the only one who knows every detail of our lives perfectly.

“Choose this day whom you will serve” (Josh. 24:15b).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Pursuit of Happiness

The U.S. founding fathers declared that mankind is endowed with the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our culture in recent years has taken that last part to an extreme—declaring that happiness is all that matters and there should be nothing that stands in its way. Unfortunately, that has had a negative impact on the church as well. There is a perception among unbelievers that “If your beliefs don’t make you 100% happy, then they can’t be that good.” That then carries over to believers thinking “If I’m not happy all the time then there must be something wrong with my faith,” or “I’ve got to fake it till I make it.”

I see some problems with these ideas. One problem is that it assumes this life is all that matters. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’” (1 Cor. 15:32b). But if in fact the dead are raised, we need to take the long view. We can accept some limitations and difficulties today if we know that there is something far better that will last for all eternity. Just as the dieter passes up some foods, knowing that the health of their body depends on it, so we too can pass up certain temporal pleasures because we know “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 417).

Another problem with putting happiness on a pedestal is that it discounts the wide variety of personalities and experiences that make up humanity. There’s a vast spectrum of temperaments Whether you like Myers-Briggs or DISC or Enneagram or something else, I think most of us can agree that we have different traits and it is foolish to expect everyone to respond the same way to their circumstances. And life presents each of us with different experiences that shape us. Someone who has grown up in an abusive household is not going to approach life the same as a “favored son” will. Some people may be both more melancholy by nature and also have had to deal with very painful experiences. So, to imply that they need to put on a happy face because their Christian witness depends on it actually creates more shame than benefit.

Some might ask “How then do they make their faith known if they aren’t visibly happy all the time?” I have seen plenty of people who have exhibited an enduring faith in God in the midst of trying circumstances. They aren’t happy and joking all the time, but it is clear that they are undergirded by a strength beyond their own ability. Some people might have every reason to give up on life, but they keep enduring because they have hope and faith in the eternal life in Christ. These are the kind of people I want to turn to when life is hard—people who can comfort others with the comfort they have received from God (2 Cor. 1:3-7)—and I believe they also attract unbelievers who are struggling with life in a broken and fallen world in a way that the “happy and you know it” people don’t. As I heard Matthew Spandler-Davison say in a TGC podcast, “I needed to serve from a place of brokenness, not from a pretense of wholeness… Church membership is burden sharing… I needed to be a part of a burden sharing and burden carrying community of believers.”

This is a personal challenge for me, because I live with clinical depression. I get frustrated with comments from those who imply that someone’s (my) faith is weak because they’re not “rejoicing always.” On the Christian radio station last week, they were talking about studies that show that on average kids laugh 300 times per day while adults laugh only 15. Even as a child I don’t think I averaged 15 laughs per day because I lived in an almost constant state of anxiety. I don’t understand people who live at the opposite end of the spectrum. I’m not endorsing a grumpy and complaining attitude, but I’m saying that we all need to bear witness to the God who is with us in the midst of every type of circumstance. He should be as real to us in trials as He is in times of great blessings.

There is a reason for the diversity of the Body of Christ. Some people are better at mourning with those who mourn, while others are better at rejoicing with those who rejoice. We need each other. In worship we (should) use a variety of songs and Scriptures from week to week, because not every member is in the same place mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. On the weeks I don’t feel like singing praise songs, I know that others delight to and I need to hear them do so, and vice versa.

In Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, he records Jesus as saying, “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh… Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6: 21, 25). We could find ourselves on dangerous ground if we value an emotional experience over faith in Christ alone. In the last day, many will discover that they’ve sought worldly pleasures and lost out on eternal joy. Let’s make sure our focus is on the right Person.

“For everything there is a season… a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:1, 4).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Under Control

I’ve been reading Tony Reinke’s book 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You. Ironically, Facebook got knocked out of commission for several hours Monday. Perhaps God was encouraging me (and everyone else) to consider the message of the book even more seriously. My social media use tends to increase over time until I make a conscious effort to pull back, and this is one of those times.

As I was reading about the decline in reading comprehension and the growing determination to catalogue our lives in post-worthy images, I imagined how a few scenes from Jesus’s life on earth might have been different:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit… meek… merciful…” -Yeah, whatever. Keep scrolling.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted…” -Retweet!

Hey, I got 136 likes on my post! Who’s the greatest now? LOL -“The greatest among you shall be your servant.”

Who are we missing on this Zoom meeting? -Well, Andrew went fishing, Peter’s mother-in-law is sick again, and no one knows where Judas is tonight.

“One of you will betray Me.” -Wait, what did He say? I was checking my messages.

OK, so maybe we aren’t much different from the disciples. We all wrestle in varying degrees with pride, distraction, and desire for attention and approval. Smartphones and social media connections just give us a quick and easy way to do so.

Reinke writes about a theology of remembering:

“Whatever else is at play in the digital age, Christians are commanded over and over to remember. We must not lose our past and our future for moment-by-moment tweets and texts on our phones… All spiritual growth is rooted in remembering what Christ has done in me… Remembering is one of the key spiritual disciplines we must guard with vigilance amid the mind-fragmenting and past-forgetting temptations of the digital age” (187-188).

I would add to that a different sense of the word remember. We need to re-member who we are created to be as the Body of Christ. Social media is great at fragmenting us into camps that are at odds with one another over all kinds of issues. We interpret likes and follows as affirmation that we are in the “right” crowd, even as we’ve simultaneously alienated friends and neighbors that we go to church with. We essentially dismember one set of relationships that’s based on eternal principles for another set based on the illusion of superficial agreement.

“Jesus boils down the purpose and aim of our lives into two goals: treasure God with your whole being, and then pour out your God-centered joy in love for others. On these two commands all other smartphone laws depend: (190).

Reinke asks some good questions, including: “Do my smartphone behaviors move me toward God or away from him? …Do my smartphone behaviors edify me and others, or do they build nothing of lasting value?” (194). I’m sure we could all find areas where we could improve our words and actions to better love God and our neighbors.

“I am not my own. I am owned by my Lord. I have been bought with a price, which means I must glorify Christ with my thumbs, my ears, my eyes, and my time… I do not have ‘time to kill’—I have time to redeem” (180).

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16).

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© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV. Image courtesy of Amazon. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

One Eternal Family

Sometimes you run across theological assertions that are just plain bizarre. In James A. Nichols, Jr.’s book Christian Doctrines, the last chapter states:

“Death will be abolished, and all children will grow up to know the Lord from infancy free from Satan’s temptations. This means that saved people of flesh and blood will always exist on this earth begetting children and adding forever to the increase of the eternal kingdom… [Ezekiel 37 predicts His] subjects will dwell in this land, ‘they, and their children, and their children’s children, for ever’ —a clear implication that this is to be a continually growing kingdom with God’s ‘sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.’” (302, 304).

Nichols may have been highly influential among Berkshire College students while he was a professor, but not all of his theology was biblically sound. (He also had a comment that when the earth gets full, there’s a whole universe of planets to fill!) His statement bothered me for several reasons.

1) He seems to confuse temporal and eternal fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. A much more logical interpretation of this Scripture is that the children of the nation of Israel (and subsequently Christians), born prior to the final Judgment Day, will enjoy the new heavens and new earth for eternity (2 Pet. 3:13). It’s not the childbearing that is eternal, but the dwelling in the land. This would actually be more consistent with Nichols’ view on annihilation of the wicked as well: it’s not the punishing that is eternal, but the resulting death.

2) He ignores Jesus’ own words in Matthew 22:30, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” If there is no marriage, how can there be legitimate childbearing?

3) He downplays the relationship between Christ as the Bridegroom and the Church as the Bride of Christ (Matt. 9:15, Rev. 19:7). There will only be one marriage in the end. That final marriage is the one to which all earthly marriages now point (Eph. 5:23-32).

4) He puts too much emphasis on human marriage and childbirth as a primary way in which God receives glory. The Apostle Paul had a different view: “For the present form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife” (1 Cor. 7:31b-33). Those who are unmarried or childless are no less valuable to the kingdom and no less able to give God glory through their lives of trusting obedience.

I have written before about some of the misconceptions of marriage and singleness that Christians hold, and I’m indebted to Sam Allberry’s books and articles. “Is Celibacy Cruel?” posted on TGC today was a refreshing reminder to me of a more biblical view than Nichols held. If Nichols were correct, then those of us who remain single and childless would forever be a different class of believers. (Not entirely unlike the Mormons!) But if marriage and childbirth will come to an end, then we all need to consider how we can be building eternal relationships within the Church that supersede biological families. We need to focus more on what we have in common in Christ now than in life-stage commonalities that will end.

“Now you are the Body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor. 12:27 emphasis added).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

What's Ahead

I started reading a book this week from a Christian author pointing out dangerous trends in our nation in recent years. (I won’t name the book as I don’t want to imply endorsement of it.) After a few pages I was feeling pretty discouraged. I stopped to read a couple reviews of the book on a Christian website. One reviewer said the author greatly overstated his case. The other said he didn’t overstate it; if anything he understated it. That wasn’t terribly encouraging either, so I stopped and turned to Scripture. I happen to be reading in Ezekiel currently and picked up in chapter 31, which is a prophecy to Pharaoh and Egypt. God declares through the prophet,

“Whom are you thus like in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the world below. You shall lie among the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, declares the Lord God” (v.18).

Egypt has had a complicated history, but the point is that there are no more pharaohs and Egypt is far from being the world power that it once was. The prophet Daniel said that God “changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings” (2:21). That is no less true today than it was in Old Testament times. Each person in authority around the world today is there only because God allowed them to get there. That is true in the U.S. and it’s also true in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and North Korea.

It can be incredibly discouraging to see what’s happening around the globe and in our own country. There are truly evil acts that are being perpetrated, and the Church should be a defender of orphans and widows and the oppressed. But we shouldn’t presume that by doing so we can create some kind of utopian society. Scripture is clear that things are not going to get better until Christ returns.

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matt. 24:6-8).

We do need to observant of the signs of the times—not so we can turn things around and “make America great again,” but so we can be a voice of truth, pointing others to the one true God and to salvation through Christ alone by faith alone. I have no doubt that the intolerance and persecution of Christians will increase in every country, including the U.S., over time and perhaps sooner than we think. We need to be prepared by knowing what we believe and why we believe it. But we don’t need to live in fear of national trends, conspiracy theories, and election results. God is still on His throne. Whatever may come, we can trust that He will carry us through—in life and in death.

We don’t know exactly where we are on God’s timeline, but He does, and that should give us great assurance. The Judgment Day will come—whether today, or next year, or next millennium—when God will put an end to all evil and suffering and will call all of mankind before the Throne. On that Day, I want it to be clear that my faith for salvation is in Christ alone, not in any ruler, political party, nation, or system. There is no other source of eternal life.

“For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him… And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven” (Col. 1:16, 21-23a).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Honor Abounding

I’ve been enjoying the TGC podcast “You’re Not Crazy.” The recent episode “Staying Honest, Showing Honor” has stayed on my mind for a couple weeks for multiple reasons.

For much of the episode they reflect on Romans 12:10, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor,” and they note how rare this is even within the church. “Churches typically live on a starvation diet of encouragement and honor, and being lifted up by one another.” We’re much better at sarcasm and poking fun at people or just remaining silent than in honestly and publicly letting people know what we love and appreciate about them.

There are people living out their faith all around us, and many of them need to be reminded and encouraged that what they are doing matters. We need to let go of our reluctance to say something and start building one another up in love. There’s so much negativity in the world already. Let’s not add to that, but let’s become a refuge for the weary and worn by setting the example of outdoing one another in showing honor.

Another comment Ortlund makes in the episode is this: “One of the most important things right now in my existence is preparing to die well. I want to die honorably.” How often do any of us think about the personal and spiritual legacy we will leave for our family and friends? The Apostle Paul wrote on this theme repeatedly in Philippians:

“It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death… Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel… that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain… that by any means possible I may attain from the resurrection from the dead… What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (1:20, 27; 2:15-16; 3:11; 4:9).

I confess there are many times when I succumb too easily to temptation, when I avoid the good works set before me, when I don’t pursue the means of grace in the spiritual disciplines, when I don’t want to sacrifice comfort and pleasure for the sake of holiness and the growth of the Kingdom of God. I think far too much of my own interests and far too little of living (and eventually dying) honorably in the sight of God and man.

If we all focused more on honoring God in our lives and honoring others with our words, think how much more pleasant the world would be! What if we approached social media each day with the thought “Who can I honor?” instead of “Who do I disagree with?” What if we made our daily decisions in light of what would most honor God instead of our own preferences and desires? How would our work places, churches, and homes be different?

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).

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© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church