Brian Castelli – With His Heart

I used to work as a grunt in a machine shop. Whatever dirty job the boss wanted done was assigned to me. The problem–besides the dirt and tedium–was that my boss usually only told me half of what I needed to know to complete the job. When I got half done, I’d ask for additional directions and get–you guessed it–half of what I needed to know to finish. This process would repeat itself. Purists in the audience will be quick to point out that the theoretical conclusion of always getting half meant I would never actually finish! Luckily the tasks were entirely practical and I was eventually able to get close enough to declare the jobs complete for all practical purposes.

I would have benefited tremendously from some kind of road map to my end goal, how a task fit into the larger scheme of things, and the step-by-step directions for how to get there. In chapter 1 of J. I. Packer’s Knowing God, the author provides all three. In fact, The Study of God delivers with three main thrusts:

• Road map
• Reasons
• Recipe

Road Map

Packer opens the chapter with a discussion of the universe. He asserts that God made the universe, that it operates according to principles He put in place, and that where we’re going in the book requires us to at least agree to think about it in this way. As such, Packer invites the skeptic to table their doubts for a time and join him on the journey. His request:

I ask you for the moment to stop your ears the those who tell you there is no road to knowledge about God, and come a little way with me and see. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and anyone who is actually following a recognised road will not be too worried if he hears nontravellers telling each other that no such road exists.

In the same way we trust MapQuest or our GPS to show us the way–until the directions tell us to take a left turn into a corn field–Packer is inviting us to trust him that there is, indeed, a road to God that can be followed. He says that if we give him a chance we’ll see the road and not the corn field.

More on Road map, Reasons, and Recipe in subsequent posts…

My edition of J.I. Packer’s Knowing God has two prefaces, a short one penned for the update in 1993 and a longer one for the original edition penned in 1972. The latter contains a most interesting description of Packer’s intended audience.

Referring to a previous work by theologian John McKay, packer describes “balconeers” and “travelers.” One could think of the balconeers as those:

…sitting on the high front balcony of a Spanish house watching the travelers go by on the road below. The “balconeers” can overhear the travelers’ talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead anywhere, what might be seen from different points along it, and so forth; but they are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only. The travelers, by contrast, face problems which, though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical–problems of the “which-way-to-go” and “how-to-make-it” type, problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action, too.

As he approaches God in this book, Packer is staking claim to writing a book for travelers–those who not only wish to know God but also wish to know how to live, how practical knowledge of the creator affects their lives.

Packer was motivated to write the book–really a series of articles that became the book–by his perception that the church of 1972 was weak–weakened by an ignorance of God. I wonder how much worse it is today–in a society where many young people do not even know that the Bible has two testaments. Of the ignorance, Packer identifies two causal trends:

Trend one is that Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit: the spirit, that is, that spawns great thoughts of man and leaves room for only small thoughts of God. The modern way with God is to set him at a distance, if not to deny him altogether… Furthermore, thoughts of death, eternity, judgment, the greatness of the soul, and the abiding consequences of temporal decisions are all “out” for moderns…

Trend two is that Christian minds have been confused by modern skepticism. For more than three centuries the naturalistic leaven in the Renaissance outlook has been working like a cancer in Western thought. [Many] came to deny… that God’s control of this world was either direct of complete, and theology, philosophy and science have for the most part combined to maintain that denial ever since.

Packer’s invitation to the reader comes from Jeremiah 6:16:

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good path is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

Packer is calling us back to the old paths, on the ground that “the good way” is still what it used to be.

Usually, I speed read through the books I select. I write all over them, with underlines, marks, and extensive notes in the margins. Reading for me is like a relentless march to the sea. once in a while, however, I discover a book with a depth that puts me in full stop. one such book is Knowing God by J. I. Packer. Last year I read through page 166 of it’s 279 pages–and stopped dead. The book–constructed from some 22 solid lessons about God–did not bend to my will, did not succumb to my fast pace. At page 166 I paused long enough to realize I had missed something, and the realization prevented my return. There is something deeper there. A slower pace is required. I have resolved to begin again. It is my intention to document my journey in this space.

The old man looked up from his coffee, a pained expression on his face. “I don’t understand why you don’t believe!” he exclaimed, emotion welling up in his voice. “I don’t know,” the younger man seated across from him replied. “I guess I just can’t believe that one religion has it all figured out. I mean, how can we know God–if he’s really there?”

Like the old man, I’ve encountered several people who believe that no religion has God figured out, that there are any paths to God. Some of them have used the “elephant and the blind men” analogy to explain their position. The analogy goes something like this:

Four blind men were asked to describe an elephant. The one who grabbed the trunk said, “An elephant is like a snake.” The one who touched a side said, “An elephant is like a wall.” The one who grabbed a leg said, “An elephant is like a tree.” And the one who grabbed the tail said, “An elephant is like a whip.” None of them had it right because none of them could touch the whole elephant.

This analogy doesn’t hold up when talking about God. The only way we *know* that the blind men have it wrong is that we are observers in a position to see and understand the whole elephant. We can only declare that the blind men have partial knowledge because we have complete knowledge. To make the same claim about God–that no one religion has it right–is to presuppose that we have knowledge of the whole of God. We can only judge that any one religion’s understanding is partial if we have a greater understanding. This is absurd. None of us is in such a position. The argument fails to hold up.

What does hold up is that God revealed the truth to us. One way to God *can* be supported when it was God himself who showed us the way. That is one of the reasons I follow Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

“Aren’t you offended when someone says, ‘I am so blessed?!!?’”

The speaker was upset because, in her mind, the latter statement demonstrated arrogance and superiority. “I mean, God lets some children starve. Does that mean he loves the rich more?!!? I should hope not!”

The answer depends on your world view.

If you believe in luck–a.k.a. blind chance–to say, “I am blessed,” because you were born into relative affluence is an acknowledgment that you had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t by your own power or initiative that you were born then and there. The only way one could find this offensive, in my opinion, is if one was really upset that credit for the situation could be given to God.

If your world view includes a belief in God, then “luck” can’t be part of the equation. If there is a creator, is it really plausible that he’s playing dice with the universe? Does it really make sense that he’d just let things happen by random chance? I don’t think so. Therefore, “I am blessed,” is a very humble acknowledgment that, “I didn’t earn this.”

It seems to me, then, that the only way to consider such a statement offensive is to have a firmly held anti-God stance–so firm that you don’t want him getting any credit.

No one knows why God gives material or health blessings to some and not to others. If someone claims that they understand that, they are either wrong or lying. What’s clear in the Bible is that God does not favor the rich over the poor. In fact, in most cases where God rails against nations it’s because the nations have failed to care for the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan, in their midst. God cares very much about the plight of the poor, and he seems to expect those of us who aren’t to lend a hand.

As we headed to MFUGE the summer of 2007, I had Lou (Not his real name) in my sights. Although Lou, a 9th grader, put on a “good” show for us at church, I had it from a reliable source that his behavior in school was horrible. He’d sit in the back of the class and mouth off to the teacher. He’d yell at her to shut up. He’d regularly get sent out of the room where he’d stand and bang on the door to get back in. My plan was to try to get Lou one-on-one to have a discussion about his dual personality.

God got there first.

Lou was deeply affected by the Colored Marker sermon (see next post). That night, Lou spoke to our youth pastor and committed his life to Jesus Christ. We started to see changes in Lou that very night. He ended the week at camp by sharing a story of how he led a little boy to make the same commitment to Jesus that he had made.

Lou followed up his camp experience by coming forward at invitation time at our church last Sunday. He came forward to make his commitment public and to ask the church to hold him accountable.

I spoke to Lou on my way out of church on Sunday. I reminded him that he is a new creation – in every part of his life. He is now going to behave differently at home, school, and around his friends. He agreed with me.

Isn’t it just like God to already be working in an area that I thought needed him?

Someone recently asked for advice about their faith. He wrote that he was a former Catholic who had become “a nothing” – his words. He was looking for direction. I was once in his situation. I chose to become an atheist due to my doubts and my lack of faith in the Catholic Church. More than 20 years ago, however, I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. I now live as a Jesus Follower.

I don’t follow the Catholic faith for a very simple reason. It’s the same reason that Martin Luther and others used to start the Reformation that led to the formation of the Protestant church. That reason is that the Catholic church teaches that the Bible is only *part* of God’s revelation to man. They believe that the other part is the ongoing history and traditions of the church. In other words, they give equal weight to the Bible and to their established teachings and traditions. For reasons I will probably never understand, they have ignored the warnings in the Bible that say *not* to follow the traditions of men and to *not* add anything to the Bible. They teach that it isn’t possible to get to heaven without the church, that the church somehow connects a person to God. This is contrary to the Bible’s clear teaching that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is both sufficient and exclusive; he is the only way and there is nothing anyone can do to add to what he’s done for us.

Where I have found clarity of faith is in the Protestant focus on the Bible. It is a sound, reliable document that has *not* been altered by the church. (Did you know that modern biblical translations are based on the oldest, most reliable ancient manuscripts? Many predate any possible “editing” by the church or anyone else to suit their theology. Pick up a copy of the NIV or NASB and read the translation description at the front. You will be blown away by the level of scholarship you find…)

You aren’t “nothing”. Each of us is one of God’s creations. He put each of us on this earth for a specific purpose. Go find God and that purpose.

Here’s a web site that might help you think correctly about your approach to religion.

http://www.family.org/faith/A000000724.cfm

A few months ago I read a fascinating book, “How Now Shall We Live?” by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcy. The book looks at the Christian worldview and compares it to the secular and pantheistic worldviews that run counter to it. A couple of points caught my notice:

1. “In every action we take, we are doing one of two things: we are either helping to create hell on earth or helping to bring down a foretaste of heaven. We are either contributing to the broken condition of the world or participating with God in transforming the world to reflect his righteousness. We are either advancing the rule of Satan or establishing the reign of God.”
2. Any worldview we try to live by ought to answer three questions:
   • Where did we come from and who are we? (creation)
   • What has gone wrong with the world? (fall)
   • What can we do to fix it? (redemption)

Both of these points come from Chapter 2, Christianity is a Worldview.

The first is rather daunting. Everything we do. Do you go through your day considering the kingdom-building or -destroying implications of your choices? Beginning to think this way has been challenging to say the least.

The second is interesting in that the people I interact with usually create or take on their worldview without much thought. It “feels” right or “fits”. I think if more people would consider the origins of their worldview and the way it maps onto reality we’d have fewer problems in our world today.

I am saddened by the reaction of many of my fellow Christians to the election of Barak Obama as the next President of the United States. It’s not that I am an Obama supporter – I’m really not. It’s just that I am a God supporter. The Bible tells us very clearly that no one comes to power and authority without God allowing it. President-elect Obama is no different. If it wasn’t part of God’s plan, he wouldn’t be planning to take the Oath of Office in January.

I think the response of my fellow Chrisitians ought to be that they will be praying for President-Elect Obama in the coming days, months and years. Pray that he has a steady hand and a clear mind. Pray that he comes to understand (if he doesn’t already) that it it God, not him, who rules.

I pray that God will bless President-Elect Obama and the United States of America.