Are We Defending God's Truth? Or Tolerating the Enemy's Lies . . .

"A dog barks when his master is attacked.
I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."

~ John Calvin

. . . It's sorta' the theme of my entire blog. (See the definition of Apologia in scrolling text of the header.) And I have learned over the years that one of the most challenging places to stand firm and defend the truth of God's Word is in the company of other church-goers.

Are you tilting your head wondering, "uHmmm??!"

It doesn't take too many clicks of your television remote, or even a trip through a grocery store checkout aisle, to be convinced that we live in a time of complete spiritual confusion and blind exploration. Satan has indeed conquered the world in terms of winning it over. Which makes one of Satan's most preferred workplaces in our current culture -- the "church." The spiritual confusion is just as readily found inside the church as it is outside the church. Just because you're sitting in a church building does not mean you are surrounded by Bible-believing saints!

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,
so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel . . . "

~ II Corinthians 4:4

Peer pressure within the Christian world to "match-up" our faith with fellow Christians is great. And the pressure to accept and tolerate ideas and doctrines and theories that are flat-out against God's Word is rampant. Satan has become very proficient at working within this subset of culture known as the Evangelical Church.

Making matters worse in the fact that so few churches really offer expository preaching/teaching from the Bible anymore -- nor do they teach people how to study the Bible. One well-known mainstream Christian pastor has admitted that certain passages of Scripture are offensive to his followers and he will not preach from them. How can Christians defend something they are not familiar with?

The Result: Satan has been given a place of honor in the life of every Christian who is unable to or refuses to defend God's Word.

Take the Harry Potter craze for an example. The Bible is very clear about the sin of witchcraft, abstaining from the appearance of evil, and about casting down imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. End of discussion.

Or is it?

Satan's job is to attack God's Word and to twist it and to confuse its true message and cause Christians to accept or tolerate the untruths and he does not rest in his quest to achieve this goal. Enter: J.K. Rowling. How many Christian kids do you know who are fans of J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter series? And how many Christian parents do you know who tolerate it. Whose fault is this?

The parents?
The church?
The pastor?
How about anyone who sees God's Truth attacked and remains silent!?

What about the self-help industry? Consumer psychology and the self-help industry are among the biggest money generators in our society. And the biggest problem in the self-help industry is that many (not all) promoters make false promises. They promise hugely unrealistic results, as if reading a single book or attending a single seminar will produce all the permanent changes you need to make your life absolutely perfect.

Yet Christians still purchase these products as frequently as non-Christians because they really want to believe the marketers are telling the truth. And probably more notably, people are keenly aware that they do indeed need help.

For the most part, secular psychology has attacked if not completely dismissed God's Word. And lamentably, many Christians have accepted it. And if they haven't accepted secular psychology for their own lives, they have learned to accept and tolerate it in the lives of their friends and family .

If every God-fearing Christian (there is no other kind) would stand up for God's Word and God's plan for psychological wholeness, the self-help industry would most certainly go broke! Romans 3:23-24 says more about self-improvement than 10,000 self-help books. But until God's Truth is spoken and defended and accepted and one's attitude is changed, Satan wins the battle and God's Word is not only attacked, but dismissed.

How many Christian friends do you know who are caught up in secular psychology? Whose fault is this?

The psychologist?
The person's friends?
Family?
The church?
How about anyone who sees God's Truth attacked and remains silent!?

Let's talk politics.

Okay. . . second thought, let's not.

But surely you can fill in the blanks here. To try and put GOD and the Truth of HIS Word into the confining and humanistic box of politics makes Him a very,very small God.

Yet . . . it is abundantly clear that our current political climate has made a mockery of God's Truth on everything from the value of human life itself to the work ethic of those who are allowed to live. Whose fault is this?

The politicians?
The President?
The church?
How about anyone who sees God's Truth attacked and remains silent?!

When Christians choose to remain silent when God's Word is attacked, we have effectively learned to accept and tolerate the Enemy's lies and Satan does indeed gain a foothold; and this primes the church for accepting the New Age Movement much more easily.

Sure . . . as "good Christians" we can pick and choose our causes. We can rail against abortion or pre-marital sex or witchcraft or even Mormonism or Catholicism. Some of us even like to take on "false versions" of the Bible in order to gain credibility as a "real Christian." Our individuality does drive us to hand-pick what we will defend from God's Word. But this is NOT what the Gospel calls us to do!

Christians must "bark" when our Master is attacked. On any subject. If we don't, then Satan wins another battle and God's Word is not only attacked, but eventually dismissed altogether. And then . . . what's the point?

"A dog barks when his master is attacked.
I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked
and yet would remain silent."

~ John Calvin

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes,
you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything,
to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. . . "
~Ephesians 6:13-14

~ Esthermay V. Bentley-Goossen
© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife
[This article also submitted for outside publication]

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Loneliness . . .. . . and "Yada, Yada, Yada"

“Rather than turn from loneliness,
what if we turned toward it?
Could it be that loneliness is not a curse. . .
but a gift?
A gift from God?”

~Max Lucado,
Traveling Light: The Promise of Psalm 23

It was the 153rd Episode -- the 19th Episode of the 8th Season of the TV show, Seinfeld. The "Yada, Yada, Yada" episode. Surely you remember it . . . .

George is -- as usual -- overanxious and sensitive. He is concerned about his girlfriend's use of the phrase, "yada, yada, yada," as a way of getting past what to her are meaningless details.

Alas, Elaine steps in to reassure George . . .

George: You don't think she'd yada yada sex?
Elaine: I've yada yada'd sex.
George: Really?
Elaine: Yeah, I met this guy. We went out to dinner. I had the lobster bisque. We went back to his place. Yada, yada, yada. I never heard from him again.
Jerry: But you yada yada'd over the best part.
Elaine: No. I mentioned the bisque.

Needless to say, Seinfeld fans everywhere have forever secured "Yada, Yada, Yada" in their unconscious thesaurus as a synonym for sex.

Kinda' ironic since the Hebrew word "yada" refers to "knowing" another so intimately and completely that it is a Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse. We read in Genesis 4:1 that "Adam knew" ("yada") Eve his wife; and she conceived and bare Cain...."

Forgive my sacrilege, but this is precisely how too many Christians have come to describe the most important, personal and relational aspect of being a Christian -- Salvation. For the most part, we "yada, yada, yada" over the actual salvation experience, racing right past (or skipping altogether) the acceptance of our depravity before a Holy God and the cultivating of an intimate and deep relationship with the only ONE that can save us from our sin and depravity.

A great number of churches today confuse human intellect and the ability to act like a Christian and think like a Christian and perform like a Christian for the real thing! The defining characteristic of a Christian is not necessarily a lifestyle (or lack of a certain [undesirable] lifestyle), but a relationship with Christ Jesus as Savior.

Our ability to rationalize and convince others we are a "Christian" by the way we act and think and speak and behave and dress and vote and how we spend our time and money is a hilarious substitute for the real thing. A substitute with eternal consequences.

French philosopher René Descartes coined the phrase, Cognito, ergo sum, translated: I think, therefore I am. Yeah, I've seen the various humor-indulged versions:

I think, therefore I imac,
I think, therefore I vote Republican, etc.

Funny. But while our ability to think and reason and behave does indeed set us apart from the rest of Creation and make us unique among other human beings, a biblical understanding that we are created in the image of God makes us relational beings as well! Like our Creator, we have been created in such a way that we require both human and Divine connection. So much so that lack of connectedness (or loneliness) truly is a critical state of existence!

And . . . [This is key:] a complete and full understanding of our condition before God shows us that it is not fellow human beings that we are disconnected from, but God Himself!!

Hence: The entire unfolding of the Plan of Salvation beginning in the Book of Genesis when human beings became lost and alone and cut-off and secluded and forlorn and abandoned. . . .

Hey! All synonyms for . . . lonliness!
...So basically, loneliness defines the human condition!

“Rather than turn from loneliness,
what if we turned toward it?
Could it be that loneliness is not a curse. . .
but a gift?
A gift from God?”

~Max Lucado

Is loneliness a "gift" from the Creator sent that we might find a greater gift? The gift of Genuine Salvation? Salvation by Grace Alone? Salvation apart from our own ability to do anything? Even our ability to think and reason and rationalize . . . and perform?

I think so . . .

I also think that the pseudo-loneliness that we feel when we are physically apart from -- or without -- friends and loved ones is greatly diminished when we can truly rest in the arms of our Savior. We all know "lonely" people who have found immense joy in their Salvation. Joy that quashes human "loneliness." These people are not lonely - they are alone. There is a big difference.

Then . . .

To confirm it -- this:

I read this Status Update on my Facebook over the weekend and I just had to wrinkle my forehead a bit at its implications . . .

Facebook Friend lol oh! I mean L-O-N-E-L-Y. So [bleep] lonely. I'm hyper bored and so lonely layin in bed watchin tv and doing computer. FB is all I have. i should sleep but it’s too early. I’m just so lonely it hurts feels like i ant gonna find any friends ever. It hurts

Sat at 7:41pm · Comment · Like

I think my Facebook Friend has recieved the gift of lonliness, but hasn't yet unwrapped it . . . .

~ Esthermay V. Bentley-Goossen
© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife
[This article also submitted for outside publication]

This installment of InOtherWords is hosted by Loni on her blog, Writing Canvas.

5:02 AM | 17 comments | Read More