In this post we resume our discussion of the film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.  Toward the end of the film, Ben Stein asks atheist Richard Dawkins what he would say to God if perchance he did encounter Him in the afterlife.  Dawkins, apparently quoting Bertrand Russell, said he would ask God: “Sir, why did You take such pains to hide Yourself?”  Let’s consider whether Dawkins’s response will hold any water before God.

First, the Scripture says that God has revealed Himself in and through the human conscience:

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.  (Romans 2:14-16)

From where do men derive a sense of right and wrong?  If God does not exist, there can be no such standard of right or wrong that transcends mankind.  Yet we instinctively seem to sense right from wrong, and our conscience alternatively accuses or excuses our behaviors to us.  From where has this come?  The Bible tells us in Romans 2:14-16 above.

Second, according to the apostle Paul, God has not hidden Himself from anyone, but inundates every person with a constant and unwavering revelation in and through the created order:

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. (Psalm 19:1, NASB)

or,

because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20, NASB; emphasis added)

“Nonetheless,” writes Dr. Russell Moore, ”this revelation is universally suppressed as every human heart, left on its own, clamors for idols of mind or matter (Rom. 1:22-23). This, the apostle writes, leaves him “without excuse” (Rom 1:20).”

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:18, NASB; emphasis added)

Why do they suppress the truth?  Because the idea of the existence of a righteous and holy God elicits “universal revulsion” from unregenerate human beings, because men love darkness rather than light:

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19, NASB; emphasis added)

Such are, ”like a father in denial about the obvious drug addiction of his teenage son, or an elderly smoker ignoring the ominous signs of that persistent cough.  He wants to believe the unreal so much that he convinces himself that all is well… Just like all sinners, does not want there to be a God to whom he will be held accountable.  And so he “suppresses the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18 NASB), convincing himself all along that “there is no God” (Ps 53:1),” writes Dr. Moore.

In sum, Dawkins’s exuse will hold no water before a holy and righteous God who states that He has clearly given enough evidence of His existence.  Enough, in fact, that Dawkins and those like him will be “without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).

The promises of God are sure.  How can we know this? 

1. Because they are grounded in His character: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?  (Numbers 23:19)
2. Because they are grounded in His sovereign power. Neither man nor devil can thwart God’s purposes.  We claim that we can trust our heavenly Father’s promises, and yet it is not at all clear what such faith is grounded in if His purposes can be frustrated by anyone or anything. ”I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.  (Job 42:2)  All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’  (Daniel 4:35)  But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

Yes, we can have full confidence in the LORD and in the promises He has made to us in His word.  Think on these things today.  Meditate on them and rejoice in them as you go through your daily tasks. 

Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:4)

According to an annual report released Wednesday by LifeWay, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC),  the number of people baptized in Southern Baptist churches fell for the third straight year in 2007 to the denomination’s lowest level since 1987.  Membership dipped slightly as well.  The dropping number of followers in the SBC — the nation’s largest Protestant denomination — reflects a trend seen in other mainline Protestant churches. 

While various reasons for this are suggested, I cannot help but wonder if at least part of the blame for this trend shouldn’t rest on the churches themselves.  American churches in general seem to have exchanged the true gospel for a watered-down version that portrays God as a sort of weak, pathetic character who “is something like a Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.” So say sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, who conducted an extensive survey of the attitudes and beliefs of Christian teenagers in America.

I have observed this proclaimed from the pulpit in recent years.  I will never forget the statement one pastor made from the pulpit a few years ago of a God who pitifully “pleads” for help from His followers, unable to step beyond “an imaginary line that He Himself has drawn.”  For effect, this part of the message was interspersed with tearful whimpers and outstretched arms to illustrate God as He pleaded with the prophet Isaiah for help.  I couldn’t help but recoil at such an inaccurate portrayal of the omnipotent, transcendent Lord of the universe.  But this is not an isolated incident.  Even the president of a very large Protestant denomination has recently written that God is “struggling along with disobedient men, doing the best He can to convert them, but not able to accomplish His purpose.”  Such a god would seem to call forth, NOT our worship, but our pity.  No wonder the typical American no longer fears God, and sees the church as irrelevant.  Instead of a thrice-holy Lord, sitting upon His throne high and lifted up (cf. Isaiah 6:1), God the Father is portrayed as a weakling, and Jesus as our “buddy” whose only purpose is to help us live a moral life.  Away with this nonsense!  The God of Scripture is instead a “transcendant God, untamable and wholly unlike us.”

In the study already mentioned above, Smith and Denton,  sociologists with the National Study of Youth and Religion, offer the following, rather grim diagnosis:

It is not so much that U.S. Christianity is being secularized.  Rather more subtly, Christianity is either degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith.  (Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 171)

According to Timothy George, founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, “We live in a transcendence-starved culture, and a transcendence-starved evangelicalism.  We’ve so dumbed down the gospel and dumbed down worship in a good effort to reach as many people as we can that there’s almost a backlash.  It comes from this great hunger for a genuinely God-centered, transendence-focused understanding of who God is and what God wants us to do and what God has given us in Jesus Christ.”  

My prayer is that Christians everywhere would pick up their Bibles and study… That they would stop entertaining such low views of God and such high views of themselves… That they would be renewed in their passion for sharing Christ with a lost world with the full knowledge that the Lord’s hand is not so shortened that it cannot save (Isaiah 59:1).  “Is the Lord’s power limited?” (Numbers 11:23).  Absolutely not!  We can share Christ with the confidence that He will save a people for His name.  We just need to act in obedience to His command, for Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

It’s high time for American Christians to wake up and quit playing around with eternal matters.  We must proclaim the gospel accurately and faithfully.  We must recover our theology, including our doctrine of God and our doctrine of salvation, from the Bible.  “Pop” Christianity and its myriad of false, unbiblical teachings must be tossed in the trash where they belong.  God help us… Lord, send revival to your church!

“The battle over evolution is only one skirmish in a much larger war,” Richard Dawkins tells Ben Stein in an interview shown in the movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Ben Stein’s much anticipated documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, has been showing in town at the Rogers Town Center 12 Malco Theatre this week.  Believe me, this film is a “must see”! You won’t be disappointed.  I have been to see it twice now, and plan to see it again today.  The quality of the film: cinematography, research, subject material, etc. is exceptional.  Top scientists on both sides of this important issue — Neo-Darwinism & Intelligent Design — are interviewed throughout, and it is very enlightening. 

Expelled begins with an expose of the controversy surrounding evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Sternberg, formerly of the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History.  Dr. Sternberg lost his job at the Smithsonian after he chose to publish the peer-reviewed paper, “The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories” by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.  It turns out that at the end of the paper, Dr. Meyer mentions “intelligent design,” which (apparently) are fight’in words when said in the presence of Neo-Darwinists. You can read more about it here.  But Dr. Sternberg’s plight is only the tip of the iceberg.  You’ll also hear about Dr. Caroline Crocker, Dr. Michael Egnor, Dr. Robert Marks, and Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez; all top-notch, highly credentialed scientists who, prior to revealing their concerns about the inadequacies of Darwinism, were extremely well-respected members of the academic community.  The sad fact is that we are seeing a loss of academic freedom in the natural sciences.  Freedom of inquiry and the ability to “follow the evidence wherever it leads” is being suppressed in many quarters of academia.

I have much more to say about this movie, and about Neo-Darwinism, science, and God, but not now.  In the meantime, let me encourage you to go see this film.  I assure you, you won’t be disappointed.  But hurry… this may be the only week the film will be available in theaters in our immediate area.

(Below) Ben Stein examines a statue of Charles Darwin in the movie, Expelled

Where do people in the pews on Sunday spend the majority of their time throughout the week?  At work, of course!  Yet according to Dr. David Miller, executive director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School and assistant professor of business ethics, “My research shows that sermons seldom wrestle with biblical teachings and theologies of work, which is where most people in the pews are spending their time.”

My advice?  Stop waiting around for someone to hand-feed you with a biblical theology of work.  If Dr. Miller is right, you might be waiting a VERY long time.  Besides, it will mean more to you if you’ll pick up the Bible and do the hard work of studying it for yourself. 

Working as a hospital pharmacist during the last several years, I decided to make Colossians 3:22-24 my own “philosophy of work.”  Substituting the words “employees” and “employers” for “slaves” and “masters,” I typed it out on my computer and taped it to the back of my name badge:

[Employees], obey in everything those who are your earthly [employers], not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Whenever I began to get frustrated, angry, or to get that nagging sense of “futility” that the daily grind sometimes brings, I would just look at the back of my name badge and meditate on those verses of Scripture. It helped me to remember that all of life must be lived unto God.  Our work is no exception.  Note again, the verse from Colossians states, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord…” Why?  Because if you’re a Christian, you ARE doing it for the Lord:  “You are serving the Lord Christ” (v. 24). 

Whether you are a nurse, a physician, a housekeeper, a janitor, a maintenance man, etc, any and all honorable work is to be done “as for the Lord.”  Did you get that!??  What an honor and a privilege!

Why don’t you try implementing Colossians 3:22-24 into your daily routine.  See if “name badge theology” doesn’t work for you, too.

Rarely does a day go by that I don’t thank God for my wonderful wife, Debi.  In August of this year we will celebrate 25 years of marriage, and I can honestly say that I love her now more than ever. Unlike me, Debi placed her faith in Christ while still a mere child, and I never cease to admire her unwavering faith and mature, steady, rock-solid walk with God.  Consequently, over the years I have come to listen to her and prize her advice.  So many times in my life, God has used her as His mouthpiece to speak words of wisdom and warning to me at just the right moment.   

No, it hasn’t always come easy, but anything worth having rarely does.  We’ve literally grown up together, and in the course of doing so we’ve endured the temptations, challenges, and outright assaults on our marriage that any other married couple experiences.  By the grace of God, however, we’ve survived them all.  And we’ve learned a few things along the way.  For one thing, for any marriage to survive in today’s world, both parties must realize that godly marital love is a conscious decision.  Marital love cannot be based solely on emotion and feelings, for emotions and feelings are subject to change from day to day.  But when a marriage is founded on a concious and committed decision to love the other person regardless of what comes your way, you don’t have to worry about “falling out of love.”  The “I’ve fallen out of love” excuse for leaving one’s marriage is just a cop-out for extreme selfishness. 

Yes, I love my wife.  I frequently tell her I don’t deserve her — and she often concurs!  In fact, she usually replies, “I don’t deserve you either!”  (hmmm… I’m not quite sure just how she means that!).  All joking aside, Debi is my best friend.

Let me challenge you today to invest in your marriage. Perhaps you’re marriage is struggling. Don’t give up!  Recommit to making it work.  Pray about it.  Start spending more time together.  The Bible commands us to love each other unselfishly. Renew your decision, under obedience to the lordship of Christ, to love your spouse just as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself up for her.  Listen to these words from Ephesians 5:22-33…

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.  However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Have a great weekend!

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
(1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)

 In my last post I talked about the steps that lead people down the pathway to adultery.  Unfortunately, sexual sin is all too common inside the church as well as outside of it.  Today I want to discuss steps we can take to protect ourselves from falling into this trap.  One of the very best books I’ve ever read is Disciplines of a Godly Man, by R. Kent Hughes (Crossway, 1991).  In his chapter on the discipline of purity he quotes the verse above, then comments:

“For a professed Christian to reject this teaching regarding sexual purity is to reject God, and this may indicate a false faith! If we are Christians it is imperative that we live pure, godly lives in the midst of our Corinthian, pornotopian culture… or the church will become increasingly irrelevant and powerless, and our children will leave it.  The Church can have no power apart from purity.”  (p. 28)

Hughes then lists the following seven things we can implement to maintain a pure life that pleases God:

1. Accountability.  You need a friend of the same gender who understands your sexuality from the inside out, and is willing to hold you accountable on a regular basis.
2. Prayer.  There really is a lot of truth in the old worn out cliche: “7 days without prayer makes one weak.”  Do you pray daily and specifically for your own purity? 
3. Memorization.  The psalmist said, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).  A good verse to start with might be the one shown above.  Other helpful passages you might consider are: Job 31:1, Proverbs 6:27, Mark 9:42ff., Ephesians 5:3-7, and 2 Timothy 2:22, among others.
4. Mind.  Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl” (Job 31:1).  The eyes are a portal to the mind and heart.  Jesus said, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.  It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell” (Mark 9:47).  He wasn’t advocating literally plucking out your eyes, but was using exaggeration to illustrate the radical seriousness with which we should take personal purity.  
5. Hedges.  We should put disciplined “hedges” around our lives to protect our lives and marriages, such as:
   • Refraining from verbal intimacy with persons other than our spouse.
   • Do not touch or treat persons of the opposite sex with casual affection.
   • Whenever you dine or travel with someone of the opposite sex, take a third person along.
   • Never flirt, even in jest.  Flirtation is intrinsically flattering.  You may think you are being cute, but it can arouse unrequited desires in another.
6. Reality.  Be real about your sexuality.  Never trust yourself saying, “I would never do such a thing.”  It can, and has, happened to many who thought just that.
7. Divine Awareness.  This sustained Joseph in his temptations with Potiphar’s wife:  “How then could I do such a wicked thing, and sin against God?” he said (Genesis 39:9).  Then he fled!

Let me challenge you to implement these into your life today, “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.”

He who commits adultery lacks sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
(Proverbs 6:32-33, ESV)

Having worked in hospitals nearly my entire adult life, I’ve seen, heard, and experienced many things.  While adultery and extramarital sexual excursions in the workplace are nothing new, I can say that I have witnessed many a health professional “step into stupid” over the years.  Doctors — spending more time at the hospital or in the office than they do at home — grow distant from wife and family, becoming “ripe for a fall” in the process.  No one is immune. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, administrators, office workers, etc. any and all are capable of developing an attraction to another co-worker, leading to ”harmless” flirting on the job.  Before they know it, many of these end up throwing everything away — all for that “someone else” – leaving behind them a path strewn with ruined marriages, broken families, and trashed reputations. 

How does adultery “happen?” People don’t just decide one day to hop in bed and be unfaithful to their spouse. According to author Keith Drury, adultery is the culminating act of a dozen or more tiny steps of unfaithfulness. Each step in itself does not seem that serious or much beyond the previous step. Satan draws a person into adultery one tiny step at a time. And he does this over time so that our conscience is gradually seared. This makes it easier to take “just one more step” thinking such a tiny step won’t hurt us.  But as Puritan pastor William Gurnall writes in his classic book, The Christian in Complete Armour:

Many have yielded to go a mile with Satan, that never intended to go two.  Thus Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by winding stairs, that let them not see the bottom where they are going: first, he presents an object that occassions some thoughts, these set the affections on fire, and these fume up into the brain and cloud the understanding, which, being thus disabled, now Satan dares a little more declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to what it would otherwise have refused.  Give not place to Satan!  No, not an inch in his first motions; he that is a beggar, and a modest one outside the doors, will soon command the house if let in.” 

Keeping Gurnall’s “spiral staircase” in mind, consider the following.  In his book, Money, Sex, and Spiritual Power (1992, Wesley Press) Keith Dury lists “15 steps” which analyze how adultery “happens.”  These steps are based on scores of interviews, counseling, and correspondence with church folk who fell into unfaithfulness. Their question: “How did this happen… what were the tiny steps which led to this mess?” While the order varied from case to case, the following is the general progression which surfaced in most incidents. This is not some sort of theoretical list. These are the actual steps taken by scores of church people who wound up committing adultery and regretting it later. Some of these people sobbed deeply as they shared, hoping that their own pain and failure might save other marriages. This information comes to you at great expense.

This information doesn’t have any preaching or analysis… that is left to you. Here, Drury offers you cold word-for-word quotes. You can draw out the lessons. How did these lives get ruined? How does it start?

• “We just had so much in common, it was uncanny.”
• “She and I both enjoyed music, and we were attracted to each other.”
• “He was so spiritually-minded… I’d been looking for someone to share my spiritual struggles with.”
• “We both loved horses, and started riding together.”
• “We both shared a burden for the church and especially children’s work.”
• “She was the first woman I’d ever met who liked the outdoors, even hunting and fishing — I was fascinated!”

2. Mentally comparing with my mate.

• “My husband wasn’t interested much in spiritual things, but this man knew so much about the Bible.”
• “She was slim, attractive, and dressed sharp — quite a difference from my wife who didn’t take care of herself much at that time.”
• “She was so understanding and would listen to me and my hurts — my wife was always so busy and rushed that we didn’t have the time to talk.
• “My husband just would never communicate — he’d come home from work and just sit there watching TV. I finally gave up on him. Then this man came along who was worlds apart from my husband — he was gentile, loved to talk, and would just share little things about his life with me.”

3. Meeting emotional needs.

• “He understood how I was feeling and offered me the empathy I was hungering for.”
  “She was there when I needed her.”
• “My ego was so starved for affirmation that I would have taken it from anyone — I guess that’s what started the whole thing.”
• “No one had ever really believed in me until he came along. He encouraged me, inspired me, and believed so deeply in what I could become.”
• “My wife was busy with the kids and not at all involved with my work. This girl admired me and treated me like I was really somebody. It felt so good.”

4. Looking forward to being together.

• “I used to dread going to work, but after we started our friendship, I would wake up thinking of how I would see him later that day… it seemed to make getting up easier.”
• “I would think of being with her the whole time I was driving to work.”
• “I found myself thinking of him as I got dressed each morning, wondering how he would like a certain outfit or perfume.”
• “I looked forward to choir practice every week because I knew he would be there.”
• “Every time I drove by her house I would think of her and how we’d see each other that Sunday.”

5. Tinges of dishonesty with my mate.

• “When my wife would ask if she was with the group I’d pretend I couldn’t remember… right there I started building a wall between us.”
• “I would act like I was going to practice with our ensemble, but actually I was practicing a duet with him.”
• “Once my wife asked about her, but I denied everything, after all, we hadn’t done anything wrong yet. Now I see that this was one of those exit points where I could have come clean and got off the road I was speeding down.”
• “Whenever we got together as couples I would act like I didn’t care about him, and afterward I would even criticize him to my husband. I guess I was trying to hide my real feelings from my husband.”

6. Flirting and teasing.

• “I could tell from the way she looked at me. She would gaze directly into my eyes, then furtively glance down my body then back into my eyes again — I knew then that she was interested in more than my friendship. But, I was so flattered by her interest that I couldn’t escape.”
• “Then we started teasing each other, often with double-meaning kind of things. Sometimes we’d tease each other even when we were together as two couples. It seemed innocent enough at first, but more and more we knew it really did mean something to us.”
• “We would laugh and talk about how it seemed like we were “made for each other” so much. Then we’d tease each other about what kind of husband or wife the other one would have been if we’d married each other.”
• “He had those killer eyes. When he’d look at me in that “special way” I would just melt. It was hopeless fighting my urges — he had me.”

7. Talking about personal matters.

• “We would talk about things — not big things, just little things which he cared about, or I was worried about.”
• “We’d meet together for coffee before church and just talk together.”
• “I was having problems with my son and she seemed to understand the whole situation so much better than anyone else I talked with. I’d tell her about the most recent blow-up and she would understand so well. We just became really deep friends — almost soul-mates. That’s what’s so weird about all this — we never intended for it to go this far.”
• “I had lost my Dad just before we got to know each other and he had lost his mother a few years earlier. He seemed to understand exactly what I was going through and we would talk for hours about how each of us felt.”
• “I was so lonely since my husband died and hungry for someone to share life with. Then he began to call just because he cared. I loved hearing his caring voice at the other end of the line, even though I knew he was married.”
• “We spent so much time together at work that I swear she knew more about me than my wife ever did — or even cared to know.”

8. Minor yet arousing touch, squeeze, or hug.

• “He never touched me for months. Then one night after working late, we were walking toward the door when he said ‘You’re so special, thanks for all you do…” then he turned and hugged me tenderly, just for a second. I loved how I felt for that moment so much that I began to replay it over and over again in my mind like a videotape. Now I know that I should have stopped it all right then. I never intended to ruin my family like this.”
• “She was always hanging around our house and was my wife’s best friend. Often she would stay late to watch TV, even after my wife went to bed. She would sit beside me on the couch and I was drawn to her like the song says… like a moth to the flame.”
• “He would often pat me on the shoulder — you know, in appreciation for a good job I’d done. But I knew it meant more than that.”
• “The first time she touched me was when we were doing registration together. We were sitting beside each other. I’d say something cute or funny and she would giggle, then under the table she’d squeeze the top of my leg with her hand. That was really exciting to me.”
• “Every time she shook hands with me at the door she seemed to linger, sort of holding my hand more than shaking it. No one else would notice, but I knew there was more to her touch than appeared to the eyes. She knew too.”

9. Special notes or gifts.

• “He would write these little encouraging notes and leave them in my desk, pocketbook, or taped to my computer. They didn’t say anything which could be traced. If anyone found them they wouldn’t suspect anything. But we both knew what was going on, we just didn’t want to stop yet.”
• “I would sometimes call him and leave a short message on his answering machine. He would leave little notes in my Bible.”
• “He would buy me a little gift — not that expensive, but it always showed he had taken extra thought to get exactly what I liked. Of course everyone else thought he was just being a good boss.”
• “She started leaving unsigned notes to me in my desk sharing her feelings for me. It scared me at first, because I thought someone would find one. But after a while I found myself looking forward to the next one, even though I knew the risk.”

10. Inventing excuses to call or meet.

• “I started figuring out ways I could drop off something at her house when her husband was gone. He and I knew each other and I would always return borrowed tools in the afternoon when I knew she’d be there alone.”
• “I would wait until the end of the workday then I’d call him just before closing time about something I’d made up as a ‘business question’ and we’d talk.”
• “The more entangled we got, the more I planned times where he and I could practice together. We started meeting more often.”
• “She started arranging her schedule so that her husband dropped her off at committee meetings. I would hang around and offer to take her home, acting with as much nonchalance as I could muster up.”

11. Arranging secret meetings.

• “By now we both were so far gone that we started meeting secretly at the mall parking lot. It know now how foolish this was, but I was driven by something other than good sense at that time.”
• “We started arranging to work evenings on the same nights, then we would leave early and meet each other in the dark parking lot.”
• “I started making sure he knew my travel schedule so we could attend the same conferences. We still weren’t involved physically at that time, but there was such excitement and romance to it all… even the secrecy seemed to make it more exciting.”
• “She would sometimes call me just before lunch and we’d sneak through a drive-up together, and then spend the rest of my lunch hour talking quietly to each other.”

12. Deceit and cover ups.

• “Once we were meeting secretly I had to invent all kinds of stories about where I’d been to satisfy my wife. By now I had built a towering wall of dishonesty between us.”"
• Pretty soon my whole life was full of lies. I’d lie about where I was going, where I’d been, and who I’d been with. The more suspicious my husband got, the better liar I became. But he knew something was going on. It’s hard to lie without people suspecting it.”
• “I joined several groups so that I would have an excuse to be away in the evenings.”
• “She would ask when I’d gotten off work. I’d simply lie about it, and she never knew what hit her. How can I ever regain her trust now?”
• “We agreed that if anyone saw us driving around we would both tell the same story: that my car wouldn’t start, he stopped to help, an we were going together to get a new fuse to replace the broken one he’d discovered.”
• “By now my whole life was a lie, so I began telling them regularly to cover up our little meetings.”

13. Kissing and embracing.

• “The whole thing seemed so exciting by now. I was such a fool. We were meeting secretly and both of us were fearful of being caught. But that only seemed to increase our common ground. When we’d meet, we would embrace as if we’d not been together for years — like in the movies when someone comes home from the war.”
• “Once we started meeting secretly the end came fast. We kissed and hugged like two teenagers going parking for their first time.”
• “It just felt so good to be hugged and loved by somebody who really cared about me.”

14. Petting and high indiscretion.

• “At this point my glands took over. I forgot reason altogether and was willing to risk everything for more.”
• “It was like I was a teenager again — going too far, then repenting and promising to do better; then just as quick I was hungrily seeking more sin.”"
• When my husband and I were dating we struggled with ‘how far to go.’ Well, here I was again struggling over the same issue. Friendship with this guy didn’t seem so wrong. But now were we’re going further than I ever intended. But, I felt curiously justified going exactly as far as I had with my husband when had been dating. In a way, I think some of my resentment against my husband’s constant pressure on me started coming out. I’m not saying that it wasn’t wrong. Just that I kind of felt justified.”
• “At about this time I began fooling myself into thinking I was heroic for not going “all the way.” That’s what I wanted to do. But by doing “everything but” I fooled myself into thinking I was successfully resisting temptation. What I didn’t realize was that, not only was what I was doing wrong, but that eventually I would take the next step. It’s just not possible to freeze a relationship — you have to go ahead with it, or break it off totally.”

15. Sexual intercourse.

• “Soon I quit resisting and was swept into outright adultery.”"
• One thing led to another and finally we ended up in bed with each other.”
• “Though we never intended it to go that far, we eventually went all the way and had sex.”
• “One night we couldn’t seem to stop ourselves (at least we didn’t want to) so I completed my journey of unfaithfulness to my husband — I had sex with this man.”

***********

Whew! Can we learn from these testimonies?

What are the common links you discover from these recollections?

What words keep popping up repeatedly?

What lies were these people believing?

What generalizations would you make from their testimonies?

If you summarized the advice these people would probably give, what would you say? 

Can a man take fire to his bosom,
And his clothes not be burned?
Can one walk on hot coals,
And his feet not be seared?
So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.
(Proverbs 6:27-29, NKJV)

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, began every season with a team meeting. Scanning both the veteran and rookie players surrounding him, he would hold a football high above his head so that each player could see it. With all eyes fixed on him, he simply said: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Such was Coach Lombardi’s way of reminding all of his players that success begins (and ends) with the basics–the “fundamentals” of the game. While that may seem perhaps a little oversimplified, it succinctly illustrates the need for each player to master the core fundamentals before moving on to more complex aspects of the game.

This concept applies equally well, if not more so, to the Christian life:  If we ever begin to neglect the basics of prayer, Bible study, fellowship with other believers, etc., it’s only a matter of time before we end up “stepping into stupid” (as I heard one preacher put it).  Fact is, I’ve observed this principle time and time again in my own life and in the lives of others.  When a Christian man or woman begins neglecting these “fundamentals” of the Christian life, they’re headed for a downfall in life–defeat is not far away.  This is why we can never, in a sense, “master” the fundamental disciplines of private prayer, Bible study, fellowship, etc. in the Christian life.  We will never reach a point where we can say, “Whew!  I finally got THOSE out of the way… Now I can move on to the more important stuff!”  No!  The spiritual disciplines ARE the important stuff.  If you don’t have those, you can’t keep anything else.  But don’t get me wrong: we don’t practice those disciplines as an end in themselves, or to win favor with God.  We practice them as a means of getting to know God better, and to grow in the Christian life in a way that’s pleasing to God.  THAT’S why we practice the disciplines–because we love Christ and want to know Him better.  So we can say with the apostle Paul, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ…” (Philippians 3:8, NASB).  What about you?  Are you practicing the basics… the “fundamentals” of the Christian life??  “Gentlemen, this is a Bible…”

Unless you live the sequestered life of a hermit, you’ve surely noticed that militant atheism is on the rise in America. Just take a gander at the titles in your local bookstore and you’ll see books authored by atheists among today’s top sellers. The spokespersons for this movement include people like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. These militant atheists are dominating best seller lists with books that denigrate and ridicule religious belief as dangerous foolishness. And as one author points out, “These authors are merely the leading edge of a far larger movement — one that now includes much of the scientific community.”

For decades now, Neo-Darwinism has maintained a stranglehold on public education, suppressing all other theories on the origins of life - especially those that hint of a “designer.” Now, these militant proponents of the “new atheism” are working overtime to push God out of science, academia and (if they could have their way), the world. Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford and author of The God Delusion states, “Certainly I see the scientific view of the world as incompatible with religion.” This movement has enjoyed, and continues to enjoy, a large measure of success in molding the worldview of Americans — adults and children, Christians and non-Christians, alike — despite the fact that the vast majority of Americans do NOT believe we’re the result of “random chance.”

In view of this, let me encourage you to consider attending one or both of two events happening in our community THIS WEEK:

(1) Answers in Genesis Conference. Today is the second day of a two-day conference being hosted at the Church at Pinnacle Hills. The event is open to the public, and tickets may be purchased at the door. Don’t miss it.

(2) EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed, is an upcoming feature film opening THIS FRIDAY, April 18th, in which host Ben Stein (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) goes on a quest to expose the suppression by science’s anti-theist elite, and unveil new scientific facts that may suggest evidence of intelligent design in the universe. For more information and/or for a list of theaters showing the film, visit the website at: expelledthemovie.com. If you have any doubt about whether it’s worth seeing, I encourage you to watch one of the three trailor options below (Note: when you run you’re mouse over the icon, you have the option of watching a “Teaser Trailor,” a “Bad to the Bone Trailor,” or the “Super Trailor.” I suggest the “Super Trailor”).  I think you’ll agree that this movie is going to be a “MUST SEE,” so check it out:

Several years ago I was working as a Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit of a large hospital.  On that particular day I was caring for a gentleman who, though conscious and alert, was intubated and breathing by means of a ventilator.  He was scheduled to have surgery later that day, and return to the ICU following the procedure.  But as the time approached for me to send him to the operating room, I began to have a growing inward sense that I should talk to him about Christ and pray with him.  Not wanting to be seen as “weird” by the patient, however, and afraid of what my fellow nurses might think, I resisted.  “It’s just me,” I said to myself, trying to brush my thoughts aside.  But the conviction that I should speak to the man about Christ only grew.  Finally, I reached a point that if I didn’t speak to him I felt I would be acting in willful disobedience to the Lord.  So, I must confess, it was with nervous reluctance that I finally went to his bedside and began to speak to him about Christ.  I don’t recall exactly what I said.  And although he could not speak, he nodded his head in agreement when I asked if I could pray with him to come to Christ. 

The story doesn’t end there.  Shortly after sending him to the OR, I received word that complications developed and he had died on the operating table.  I will never forget the feeling that came over me when I heard the news.  Had the Holy Spirit (knowing this man was about to cross the threshold into eternity) prompted me to speak to this patient about his soul?  What if I had failed to obey those inner promptings? 

Every Christian healthcare professional should realize that they are in a uniquely strategic position to be used mightily of God.  But I ask you: Do you see your job as ministry?  Are you cultivating a daily relationship with God so that when He desires to use you to touch someone’s life you’ll be ready with something to give?  Are you being sensitive and open to those “inner promptings” which the Lord sometimes uses to direct us?  Don’t underestimate God’s ability or desire to use you right where you are.  For every Christian in healthcare, work is ministry!

“Our theology has to be so real that we will, by faith, believe that God is good, even in the midst of adversity.” – Kathy Ferguson

In the process of preparing lessons on the topic of “Tough Questions” in life, I’ve been reflecting a lot on what C.S. Lewis called “the problem of pain.” When faced with overwhelming evil and suffering in this fallen world, our natural inclination is to ask God, “Why?” In the midst of our pain, doubts may threaten our faith by causing us to question the goodness or love of God. How we handle such doubts and questions is critically important if we are to weather the storms of life. Our theology must be biblical and solid. In his book, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil, evangelical scholar D.A. Carson reminds us:

Christian beliefs are not to be stacked into the warehouse of the mind; they are to be handled and applied to the challenges of life and discipleship. Otherwise they are incapable of bringing comfort and stability, godliness and courage, humility and joy, holiness and faith.

One person whose strong faith in God and solid biblical theology sustained her through a particularly difficult storm of life is my friend and co-worker, Kathy Ferguson. Kathy lost her husband, pastor Rick Ferguson, in a tragic auto accident. This is her powerful story…

Christian doctors, there is only one way in which we can really make men whole! Modern medicine has gained much for mankind and it may yet gain much more. But, when it has done its utmost it can only prolong man’s life for a few more years. It cannot do more than repair a man’s mind and body. It has to leave him there. It has nothing to say to the most vital element in man’s nature. At this point, Christianity alone can step in. When it does so, however, it can impart to the man something of incomparable worth. But before any of us can share it with others we must become Christians ourselves. Every doctor needs himself first to go to Christ. Then, with confidence, he can become a servant of the Lord of the New Testament who went about making men whole.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, M.D.
Physician & Pastor
(from “Fullest Care”, in Healing and the Scriptures, (c)1982 Thomas Nelson Publishers, p. 118).

A key purpose of Between Patients is to encourage and assist healthcare professionals to integrate Christian faith into their daily practice.  To do so, we must first see and realize that the work we do and how we do it is indeed very important to God Himself.  Consider Colossians 3:22-24 below (Note:  in order to bring home the point I am trying to make, I have substituted the words “employees” and “employers” for “slaves” and “masters,” respectively):

[Employees], obey in everything those who are your earthly [employers], not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Note that, whatever we do for a living, we are to “work heartily, as for the Lord.”  Why?  Because we “are serving the Lord Christ.”

To help us to think about this issue, today we’ll turn to one of the greatest and most important evangelical theologians of our time, Dr. J. I. Packer.  Dr. Packer currently serves as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is the author of a large number of important works, including the best-seller, Knowing God.  In the four short video clips that follow, Dr. Packer addresses four aspects of this important topic from a biblical and theological perspective.  Enjoy!

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.
Pigs treat us as equals.”

(Sir Winston Churchill)