Month: August 2018

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Thank God for Workers!

This weekend, we will celebrate Labor Day. For many, this is just a long weekend. For others, especially people who live in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, it is a time of intense labor as they work to make this a place of rest and recreation for the people who come here.

I would like to encourage you to take some time this weekend to think about the workers that contribute to your life and prosperity and to the life and prosperity of your communities.

In our day, people want to be independent. People imagine that they don’t need people and can do everything themselves. The irony is that we are more dependent on more people to do the things we do on a daily basis than we have ever been. Greater technology requires more hands, more minds, and more resources.

Take this computer on which I am typing this article. I could not put it together. The various components come from all over the world and involve the labor of innumerable hands, from those who brought the petroleum for the plastics and the metals for the sensitive electronic parts from the ground to those who assembled the various parts in factories around the nation and around the world, the amount of people involved in this one thing is staggering!

To write this article, I use a program (WordPress) that I did not invent using an extensive network that links me to computers around the world (internet).

To run this computer I need electricity. This electricity is not something I could generate. It comes from the massive planning and projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Workers for Sevier County Electric labor night and day to make sure that this electric grid is up and running and that electricity is available whenever I need it.

In light of the astonishing amount of people and labor that is involved in just one aspect of my life, I should be much more grateful than I am! This is a reason to celebrate and reflect on Labor Day.

Of course, the ultimate source of all of this is God Himself. He is a Creator and maker. When we do menial tasks that involve getting dirty, we may wonder if God cares about it. But remember! God made the dirt. He Himself designed this material world in all its intricacies and said that it was very good.

He also created human beings to be workers like Him. When He created them, He blessed them out and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it!” In other words, don’t just take the world as it is! Take it up, re-shape it, re-combine it, and make it more and more serviceable for you, and this will bring me glory! God says.

Christianity is rightly called a religion of grace not of works because God offers a renewed relationship and reconciliation with us as a free gift to be received by faith. No one should boast about their relationship with God because it’s all His gift!

However, part of this gift, is that He restores us to what He intended us to be. We are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

And what if we can’t do the things we used to do? We are still valued as God’s handiwork. That doesn’t change, and one day God will restore our worn out bodies in the resurrection in the new heavens and new earth where things won’t break down anymore. He still loves us and values us.

God is a worker. He has created workers. He values workers. They contribute to our lives in innumerable ways, and so we should thank God for workers.

This Labor Day, give thanks for all the workers who contribute to your life, and be sure to thank the workers you meet for their continued service to you and to your community.

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God Wants a Relationship with You

I have always loved science fiction. I have always wondered about what life could exist in the vast expanse of the universe.

Within the past decade, scientists have taken a step forward in their quest to answer that question. Amazingly, they have been able to “see” planets orbiting around other stars in our galaxy. In fact, astronomers have discovered over 4,000 of them. This is astonishing in light of the fact that there are two large planets in our own solar system that you cannot see with the naked eye (Uranus and Neptune), and these new plants are thousands of times further away.

Among those 4,000, a few of them seem to be similar to earth in size and are located in the habitable zone of their solar system. Astronomers have focused their radio telescopes on these planets “listening” for patterns of communication that would be an indicator of intelligent life there.

And what are they looking for? They are looking for patterns that would be improbable in nature. For example, if you find two sticks in the woods that are shaped in a V, you will probably not conclude that they were there by intelligent design. However, if you find sticks arranged in the form of the word BIOLOGY or even a series of 40 V’s in a row, then you probably cannot not conclude that they are there by intelligent design. That’s the sort of pattern astronomers are looking for.

But I think they have forgotten one very important question. Is there intelligent life . . . on earth?

A friend of mine recently described his laughter at seeing that question as a title of an article, but it brings up an important point. Is there evidence of intelligent life besides our own on earth?

I think there is all sorts of evidence of it, but one of the most astonishing is the language that exists inside your body: DNA. DNA is almost like a computer language. It contains information that is the basis of the construction of our bodies. The information contained in even one cell is so extensive that it could fill several libraries. It includes code that makes it able to reproduce itself over and over again.

If we found that sort of code in space, we would easily make the induction that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. So why not with the code in our own bodies? I believe that this code demonstrates that there is intelligent life other than humans. That intelligent life created us (for a more detailed case, see Stephen Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell).

So, who is this Creator? There was a man who lived 2,000 years ago who actually claimed to be the Creator of all things. His name is Jesus.

Normally, when someone claims to be God, you should start to worry. Better yet, run!

But Jesus is not the sort of person from whom we would run. He’s such a compelling person that even his enemies admit the power of his teaching. So, how could a person whom people would normally think is a liar or a lunatic be one of the most eloquent teachers of all time? The only conceivable answer is that he is who he said he was. In this person, our Creator has actually come down to live with us. As C.S. Lewis, the atheist turned Christian, said, he is either liar, lunatic, or lord.

If that is true, I think there are certain things that follow:

  1. God is very interested in connecting with us.
  2. Our lack of interest in him and refusal to connect with Him is very serious. This is often called sin. How do we know it is serious? Because Jesus had to die for our sins. He didn’t come just to teach but to do something: to live, die, and rise again.
  3. However serious sin may be, it is dealt with because Jesus was raised from the dead. This is not just a metaphor. It actually happened.

And this is the good news: God wants a relationship with us that is by grace and not by works. It’s a free gift to us that we simply say, “yes” to. God has done everything necessary to clear the way to a restored relationship of love with us.

I did a wedding earlier this summer. One woman was talking with another woman and said, “I’m not going to put up with this s—.” Then, she saw me and said, “OMG, I’m sorry!” presumably because she knew I was a minister.

Well, she didn’t understand the God of grace. God doesn’t run from us or smash us in our sin. He comes near to us in our sin. He is a God of grace, and his ministers should be ministers of grace.

Jesus shows us this. He comes right into the middle of a world that is totally messed up and distorted by evil and the effects of evil, real wrongs that real people have done to real people. He comes right into people’s lives and loves them where they are.

Now, here is where people get really nervous. They start to think, then that means people can do whatever they want. Well, honestly, if people never ask that, you probably aren’t preaching the God of the Bible, the glorious Father of Jesus, and the God who made our DNA.

But there is an answer to that. God comes near to us in our sin, but He doesn’t leave us there. He restores us to what we are supposed to be. That’s part of His grace. Eph. 2:10 says that God’s grace saved us so we are His “handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepare in advance for us to do.”

What that means to me is something like this. We may not be in a relationship with God, but He wants to be in a mutually loving relationship with us. We may think we’re worthless, but God has significant things for us to do. Our relationships may be a mess, but God wants to make us a center of healing. We may be depressed and struggling, but God wants us to be able to enjoy Him and His creation.

That’s the healing power of grace. That’s how the God of grace comes near to us and restores us to what we were meant to be. That’s the relationship God wants to have with you–a relationship by grace and not by works.

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Myers Briggs Simplified Into Four Temperaments

I find personality tests too confining and too alluring. It’s easy for me to put everyone and everything in a box, but I can’t stand being put in a box. Of course, that’s just what you’d expect from an INTJ.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator derives 16 different types from four preferences symbolized by eight different letters (extroverted or introverted [E or I], sensing vs. intuitive [N or S], thinking vs. feeling [T or F], and judging vs. perceiving [J or P]). From these, you can derive your personality type, such as INTJ or ESFP.

For a long time, I resisted taking the Myers Briggs personality test, even though everyone said it was helpful. When I finally did take the test, I was quite shocked at how right they were. It helped me lean into my strengths, see my weaknesses clearly, and sort out relationship differences.

You can take the test here or here.

Since I took that test, I’ve talked to dozens of people about Myers-Briggs. I’ve also found that the 16 personality types, while helpful, can be a bit overwhelming.

David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates wrote a classic on the Myers-Briggs types (check out their book Please Understand Me here). One thing I would like to give greater exposure to is their simplification of the Myers-Briggs types into four temperaments. By temperaments, they simply mean that there are four categories of four personality types that have much more in common with each other than they do the other 12 types.

The four temperaments are based on two letters they share in common in the personality type indicator. Here are the names of each with the letters they have in common: Guardians (SJ), Artisans (SP), Idealists (NF), and Rationals (NT). Allow me to briefly explain each temperament (see also the descriptions at keirsey.com).

The SJ Guardians include ESTJ, ISTJ, ESFJ, and ISFJ. This is the most common type, close to half of the population. They are the guardians of tradition. They are committed to duty and engage in service to those around them. They are loyal.

I have really come to appreciate the Guardians. They are the ones who will volunteer and make sacrifices. They will be consistent when others aren’t. They will make plans and carry them out well for the ones they love and care about.

The SP Artisans include ESTP, ISTP, ESFP, and ISFP. The Artisans are about action. They can be just as intelligent as other types, but they learn more by doing and repetition than by thinking through plans and principles. They often become the most skilled at doing things because they enjoy the doing of them, so I sometimes call them “the doers” rather than Artisans.

This category is probably the most fascinating to me because it includes my opposite (ESFP) and is least like me. I always wondered how musical artists could perform the same songs over and over and over again. If I had to do that, I would probably die of boredom. The Artisan, however, loves the performance. They are wired to enjoy doing it again and again. That’s why they can attain great skill without even seeking to attain it. It’s not practice but the love of performing and doing that gives them that enables them to accomplish amazing things.

The Intuitive (N) types are much rarer than the Sensing (S) types. They represent the only set in the eight letters that is significantly imbalanced in the population (roughly 3 to 1).

The NF Idealists include the ENFJ, ENFP, INFJ, and INFP. These are the poets, the novelists, and the crusaders. They are devoted to causes. They look beyond the surface to find the greater purpose and meaning of life. Their quest is for authenticity.

The idealists will go to almost any length for the people and causes they care about. They know how to take the common things of life and turn them into things of beauty, style, and grace. Without the idealists, we would have few novels or lasting expressions of the highest human sentiments. They devote themselves to the higher purposes of life and often fill the ranks of human services and religious organizations.

The NT Rationals include the ENTJ, ENTP, INTJ, and INTP. They look beyond the surface to see how things work. They are the scientists and the engineers. They look for the causes behind things and the way to categorize reality. Keirsey & Bates suggest that their main interest is “[t]o be able to understand, control, predict, and explain realities” (48).

I am one of them, so I’ll make one small criticism. We are Rationals, but that doesn’t mean we’re the smartest. We may be able to explain astronomy, but sometimes we’re so dumb we don’t have any idea that we were completely ignorant of how people felt about what we were talking about! On the positive side, the rationals can consider a lot of details, find the patterns in them, and organize new ways of putting them together. They come up with strategies and new ideas that can benefit others.

These are the four temperaments of Keirsey and Bates. I have found them pretty helpful in explaining some of the ways people interact around me. People are more than personality type, but I find that a remarkable amount of human behavior is colored by these temperaments.

And how can Myers-Briggs and the four temperaments help us? It can help us appreciate the differences. I can appreciate the service-mindedness of the SJ, the active nature of the SP, the authenticity of the NF, and the rational inquisitiveness of the NT.

Understanding these temperaments can also help us learn to accept ourselves. People do sometimes look down on others because of their differences. We may have thought that we were weird or had something wrong with us because we are, for example, introverted. Instead, we can realize that the way we are is just another way of being human, and that’s good! Each temperament has important contributions to make, including yours!

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Power to Change the World Around Us

There are some things we can learn fairly quickly like “Don’t throw a rock at a baby skunk.”

Other things take a long time, even a lifetime, of meditating upon in order to become habits of thinking and acting.

These include the basic ways we think about life and the principles we live by.

How do we transform the world? We need to get people to see things differently, to have a different vision for life and live by different principles.

This is so important and significant. What if we could see the world the way God sees it? What happens if someone really believes God is there? What happens when someone really believes that our moral actions matter before God for now and eternity? What if a person could see God’s amazing love and believe that it was for them? It would make a huge difference.

The way to change the world is to help people see differently. In Ephesians 1:3-14, the Apostle describes in lofty terms the beauty and glories of the good news that God is restoring all things and has chosen the people of the church in Ephesus to be a part of that marvelous plan (see my post on this here).

But it’s not enough to talk about it. We can’t just give people our words. We have to give them our lives. When Paul heard about the Ephesians and their faith, he praised God for them. He gave thanks for them. He had an affection for them, and he said so.

Most importantly, he prayed for them. He didn’t just give them the message. He knew that the work of seeing God’s truth was a work of the Spirit of God. This work of God’s Spirit is available for the asking, and so Paul kept asking.

And that’s what we need to do. We need to keep asking. How do change the world around us? We ask. We ask the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus to help people see differently.

Former Senate Chaplain Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie captured this sentiment in these words: “We are not a powerless minority in the face of evil. We can change the course of history, we can alter the trend of evil in our society, we can liberate people—if we will pray in the name of Jesus Christ.”

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God’s Marvelous Plan

We have a choice in life: we can find joy based on circumstances or find a joy that transcends all circumstances.

The Christian faith, in my view, provides unparalleled resources to find joy that can transcend all circumstances.

A leader of the early church named Paul demonstrated this in his life and words. He shared his life with thousands through his travels. Throughout the Roman Empire, he started little communities of people who had put their hope in Jesus.

As he traveled, he wrote these communities letters (sometimes called “epistles,” but they were just letters). He wrote several of them from prison.

What is striking about these prison letters is the note of joy and optimism that marks them. In his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus, Paul explained the basis for his hope.

I would encourage you to read the whole passage (Ephesians 1:1-14) as a beautiful example of the heart of the Christian life in praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is so much fruit for reflection in these verses, but consider just one: God’s marvelous plan.

Paul’s confidence was that whatever may be the explanation of any specific circumstances, God had let them in on the secret of the ages. God was going to take everything that was broken and put it back together under the leadership of Jesus (Eph. 1:9–10). That was God’s plan, and God had chosen Paul and the believers of Ephesus to be a big part of it (Eph. 1:11).

Because of that, Paul could rejoice. Whatever the circumstance, he knew that he was playing a part in the plan of the ages, and it was good for him and for everybody else.

As I have thought about this, I have begun to apply it to my own life. I have been working on a Doctor of Ministry degree for the past 3 years. I am now working on my final project. I went to the library at Johnson University to do some research. After gathering some books, I sat down and opened my computer and . . . all the files from all my classes had disappeared! I eventually was able to get most of them back, but it was frustrating, especially the loss of a paper I was working on and a large amount of notes.

As I thought about it later, I realized that as frustrating as it was, I was still part of God’s marvelous plan. He had chosen me to be a part of what He was doing in bring all things together in unity in Christ. What was a few lost files compared to that? This thought helped me to have joy above my circumstances.

Recently, I was thinking about my time at college. I really enjoyed college, but I made some choices that I have often questioned since, especially in the way I carried out those choices.

After reflection, I was comforted by the thought that whatever regrets I may have, the big plan is still in place. It was going to be OK. God was restoring all that was lost in Jesus, and he has chosen me to be part of that glorious work. That is a great comfort.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is what our faith is all about, lifting our hearts to the Triune God and seeing the big picture of His marvelous plan for the world and being amazed that He has made us a part of it.

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