Everything That's On My Mind

I remember seeing Jonny Lang playing with B.B. King about 10 years ago when Lang wasn't even shaving yet. My thinking then was something like, "Wow. amazing talent, but these child prodigies rarely have staying power." I've heard his name now and then over the years, but never really paid much attention. Today I received his new album, Turn Around. An appropos title, to be sure. A few years ago, Lang had a powerful encounter with God and it really shows. You can read more about it in Sara Groves' interview over at Christianity Today.

Christian music today seems to be split into two camps, one camp producing modern worship music, the other singing ambiguous love songs hoping to "reach" the broader world. Lang's album is refreshingly and unashamedly evangelical. Turn Around is simply awash with Lang's heartfelt love for God and gratitude for God's grace. In that sense, it reminds me of old Andre Crouch albums.

Musically, the album has much in common with old Andre Crouch as well. He mixes electric blues with gospel, rock and R&B and creates a sound that is both old and new. He even throws in a bit of pop on "My Love Remains", which he co-wrote with Stephen Curtis Chapman. Lang's voice reminds me a little bit of Bob Carlisle, but with more grit and soul. This kid can really sing. He completely holds his own with Michael McDonald on "Thankful", and that's not easy. Lang's guitar playing is fantastic as well. Despite having grown up in the north (Minnesota and North Dakota), Lang clearly has immersed himself in the Chicago and Memphis blues traditions and that really shows in his guitar work.

This album isn't for everyone but if you enjoy blues and/or gospel music with a lot of soul like I do, you should give Turn Around a spin.

Now if someone could just put a Jonny Lang / Robert Randolph tour together, that would REALLY be something to experience!

Peter Chattaway blogged today about a new book and possible movie, Here, There Be Dragons. The premise of the book is that The Inklings actually were adventurers themselves, rather than just men who wrote about adventures. Color me intrigued. I might just add this to my daughter's Christmas list.

Good thing she doesn't read my blog.

To wrap up this series, at least for now, I want to review three decision-making “tools” that are seen in scripture and see how they apply to our decision-making process. These three tools are “open doors”, “fleeces”, and “casting lots”.

Open Doors

I’ve often heard Christians cite the “open door” policy when making decisions. What I mean is they say something like, “God opened a door, so I decided to go that direction.” It seems that many times, open doors are considered direct signs from God to be followed. Are open doors always a sign that God is leading us in a given direction? Do they short circuit the decision-making process? Let’s first look at the apostle Paul and how he handled “open doors”.

In 1 Corinthians 16, Paul finds an open door for ministry and decides to stay on at Ephesus to take advantage of that open door. Note, however, that the open door Paul recognized was not free of obstacles. To the contrary, Paul says there are many who oppose him.  Paul seems to define an open door differently than many do today. Nevertheless, Paul did use this open door in his decision-making process. In 2 Corinthians 2 we see Paul recognizing another open door for ministry at Troas. This time, however, Paul ignores the open door and moves on to Macedonia without taking advantage of the open door. His concern for Titus overrode the open door. Paul recognized the open door, but included other criteria in his evaluation and ultimately decided to ignore the open door. Paul clearly didn’t believe an open door overrode the decision-making process. It was just another piece of information he used in the process.

Open doors are perfect examples of circumstantial evidence, a term that is used commonly in the justice system. In the justice system, police officers use circumstantial evidence to guide their investigation of a case. They use it to help them find hard evidence. Once that case goes to trial, however, the prosecutors are not able to use circumstantial evidence to prove the case. In the same way, we should use circumstantial evidence to guide our decision-making, but it should not be the deciding factor in our decision-making. An “open door” does not relieve us of our responsibility to make a carefully determined wise decision. God certainly does open doors for us, but an open door in and of itself is not sufficient evidence to make a wise decision.

Fleeces

The story of Gideon in Judges 6 has inspired many Christians to lay their own “fleeces” before the Lord as a decision-making tool. I admit that as a young man I used this technique myself…with mixed results. Something along the lines of “if the phone only rings two times before she picks it up, then I should ask her out for a date.” Yes, that sounds really silly…and it is. Yet many Christians use similar techniques to make decisions.

Let’s analyze the idea of fleeces using Gideon’s story as a model. First of all, we must recognize that Gideon’s fleeces were miraculous. That is, there was no way that the result Gideon asked for could have happened without God’s intervention. There was no natural explanation for the ground being wet and the fleece dry, or the other way around. If we are to truly follow Gideon’s model, then our fleeces must be built the same way. We must ask God to give us a sign that cannot possibly happen naturally. Otherwise, the fleece is invalid.

Yet we must still ask the question, are fleeces a valid tool for making decisions? We must recognize that Gideon is portrayed as a man of very weak faith, constantly questioning God. Even before the fleeces, God had given Gideon a miraculous sign (Judges 6:22), yet Gideon asked for more. In addition, Jesus tended to reject and requests for a miraculous sign (See Matthew 12:38-39). Finally, it’s never advisable to build a doctrine based on a single passage of scripture, and we have no other explicit example of a “fleece” being used by anyone else in scripture. I’m not going to say that God cannot guide through fleeces. He certainly can. I just don’t believe the story of Gideon is meant to be a model for us.

Casting Lots

Unlike fleeces, casting lots was used many times in scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, to make decisions. You can find examples in Joshua 18, 1 Chronicles 24, and Acts 1. Proverbs 18:18 even explicitly recommends casting lots. This may seem strange, since casting lots is the ancient equivalent of drawing straws or flipping a coin. How can this be a valid decision-making tool? The answer is found in Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

This seems to invalidate everything I’ve discussed in this series. If flipping a coin is valid, why shouldn’t we just use that to make every decision? The answer is found in the scriptural examples themselves. Casting lots was only used when there was no other way to make a decision. In Acts 1, the apostles had set up criteria for choosing a replacement for Judas, but found two candidates that fit the criteria equally well. In effect, they needed a way to break the tie. Only then did they resort to casting lots. In the same way, we cannot use the flip of a coin to avoid using the decision-making tools God has given us. We are responsible for making a wise decision. Casting lots is available to us only as a last resort when we have exhausted all other means of making a decision.

I pray this series has been helpful. It’s been helpful for me to revisit this subject in preparing this series. I don’t have another series planned at this point so the blog will return to being more "reactive" in nature, at least for the time being. In other words…we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Ben Witherington, who was quoted in the Time article I mentioned in my last post, has extended comments about the subject at his blog. He includes a Letterman-esque "Top Ten Reasons Why God Doesn't Want You Wealthy." Check it out.

P.S. Witherington is a Gordon-Conwell grad, just like one of my other favorite theologians.

I finally got around to reading Time Magazine’s current cover story, “Does God want you to be rich?” All things considered, it’s a pretty balanced article…and that’s the problem. It accurately describes a dominant strain of current Christian thought. Dominant in bookstores and on TV and radio, at least. The Word/Faith “Prosperity Lite” teaching isn’t anything new, I’ve heard it all my life. As a child, I slept on folding chairs while my grandparents listened to the Kenneths (Hagin and Copeland) preach tent meetings. It just seems like it used to be more marginalized than it is today. I hope this is just a passing fad.

I’m not going to go so far as to condemn all these ministries. God uses imperfect vessels all the time, including every Sunday at our church. However, I will list a few problems I have with the name it/claim it folks.

• Creating promises ex nihlo: Not every statement in the bible is a promise. I’ve seen Word/Faith people use Psalm 90:10 as a promise we can claim for long life. To borrow an eloquent phrase from Rick Warren: “Baloney!” It isn’t a promise, it’s an observation David is making about the nature of human life. You don’t need a PhD to recognize that.
• Misappropriation of promises: Many promises in scripture are directed to a specific person or group of people. We can’t just “claim” every promise in the bible because we like the sound of it. Old Testament prophecies directed toward Israel are not automatically ours. Just because God gave the Promised Land to His people doesn’t mean I should just head over to the Holy Land and claim my share.
• Over-individualization of promises: The rampant individualism of modern society has infected the church, and it’s not a good thing. Many promises in scripture are to the faithful as a group, not as individuals. For example, Exodus 20:12 is a corporate promise to the Israelites, not a promise to every individual. Some might say that Paul applies this promise to individuals in Ephesians 6:1-3, but I don’t see it that way.
• Using an Americanized definition of “blessings”: Since when did the word blessings refer primarily to material things? Material things are a blessing from God, but that is not the sole definition of the word. It’s not even the primary definition. There are many ways God blesses us, but it is not our place to mandate how he will do so.
• Ignoring church history: Joyce Meyer is quoted in the article as saying “Who would want something where you’re miserable, broke and ugly and you have to muddle through until you get to heaven?” Ummm, let’s see…all of the apostles and most other Christians for the first few centuries. Except the miserable part, of course. Meyer seems to think that being broke and ugly makes you miserable. How shallow is that?
• Pandering to the audience: See Meyer’s quote above. Did Jesus sugar-coat his message to get a bigger audience? If you’re not sure how to answer that question, go read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and then come back. I’ll wait…

I could go on, but I’ll stop here. Does God want you to be rich? Maybe, maybe not. Does he want us to make the most of the talents and opportunities He gives us? Yup. Some will acquire wealth in doing that, some won’t. Those who do are required by God to use that wealth for the benefit of others and for His kingdom. I don’t think designer suits and alligator shoes qualify. They wouldn’t for me, at least.

Step 6: Choose the wisest option

I hear you saying, “Wait a minute, that’s it? You’re kidding, right?” No, I’m not kidding. If you’ve followed the steps above, you’re ready to make a decision. So make it already. In all seriousness, if you’ve prayerfully followed the previous steps the wisest option has most likely become very obvious by now. Good decision-making is not rocket science; it’s simply a matter of being deliberate and prayerfully choosing the wisest option.

The key word in that sentence is, of course, “prayerfully”. Each step of the process must be bathed in prayer. The Holy Spirit guides us in this process if we are paying attention. If an option violates God’s Moral Will, the Holy Spirit will warn us. If our motives are impure, the Spirit will convict us. He will guide us through our research and analysis, and God will grant us wisdom just as He promised through the Holy Spirit. If God so chooses, He will supernaturally intervene to influence our decision. In the end, however, we must decide and trust that His mercy and sovereignty will reign over the details that are beyond our knowledge or control.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’re talking about godly wisdom here as opposed to human wisdom. James makes it clear (James 3:13-17) that godly wisdom is guided by different criteria. For example, evaluating a career choice based on how our God-given talents can be best leveraged for the Kingdom, rather than simply based on salary and benefits. Choosing a true “helpmate” as a spouse or simply marrying a “hottie.” These are simplistic examples, but you get the point. Wisdom is an evaluation of criteria and as Christians we have different criteria.

Step 7: Make plans and stick to them until God gives other guidance

The decision-making process is not complete until you have decided not only what to do, but how to do it. Depending on the type of decision this may be a simple step or the most complex step of the entire process. Nevertheless, a good decision can be sabotaged by bad planning or a lack of perseverance.

Planning and perseverance are related topics that probably deserve their own series of posts. They both require humble submission to the sovereignty of God. No matter how thorough our decision-making process, our vision is limited. We don’t know what lies ahead. We make plans based on what we know, realizing that they may need to change in the future. James 4:13 does not discourage us from making plans, but it encourages us to do so humbly, with an understanding that only God’s plans are guaranteed to succeed.

Until God clearly points us in another direction, however, we must persevere. Opposition or difficulty is not automatically a sign that our plan is a bad one. Paul spoke of his plans to visit both the Roman church (Romans 1:13) and the Corinthian church (2 Corinthians 1:15-17), but in both cases his plans had thus far been frustrated. Nevertheless he persisted with his plans, seeing no reason to change them. If your decision was made wisely, stick to your plan until God makes it abundantly clear He has a new direction. Don’t quit just because things aren’t working out the way you planned. Until God clearly gives you a new direction, stay the course.

In my next post on this subject, I’ll address other decision-making “tools” such as fleeces. It will probably be my last post on this topic for a while…at least, that’s my plan.

I found a funny Freaks and Geeks quote about the tuba, but I didn't have the heart to copy and paste it. Intrepid readers will find it for themselves, anyway.

P.S. We miss you Adam!

Once the decision-making process has passed the test of God’s Moral Will, we can move on to the next steps. Before we move on, however, I have to re-emphasize the importance of steps 1 and 2. Too often we’re tempted to cop-out and give only a brief thought to these questions. Even when God’s Moral Will does not short-circuit the decision-making process, taking time to thoroughly evaluate God’s Word as it applies to our situation is infinitely beneficial as we move on through the rest of the process.

Step 3: Pray for wisdom

Paul prays for the Colossian church that God would fill them “with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” (Colossians 1:9) Here Paul explicitly states we receive knowledge of God’s will through spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul prays a similar prayer for the Ephesian church in Ephesians 1:17. That’s not a denial of miraculous direct revelation. Such revelation is always a possibility and we must be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit just as Paul was in Acts 16. It seems clear to me, however, that Paul had a holistic view of the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul recognized the involvement of the Spirit in all he did, whether there was a miraculous revelation or not. We should have the same perspective, realizing that the Spirit speaks through the miraculous and the mundane. The key is to seek godly wisdom in all of our decisions. James encourages us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” James1:5-6 Proverbs reminds us (in the voice of Wisdom personified) “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” Proverbs 8:17 Be careful to note that I’m talking about godly wisdom here, not worldly wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 makes clear that there is a distinct difference between the two. The wisdom that comes from God makes the spiritual and eternal things our highest priority, the wisdom of this world places the priority on the physical and the temporary.

Step 4: Do your homework

This is another step that many of us want to shortcut. There are no shortcuts, take the time to research your options and weigh the pros and cons. Nehemiah knew what he wanted to do, he knew it was God’s will for him to accomplish it. Yet the first thing he did when he arrived at Jerusalem was to evaluate the situation and gather information so he could proceed wisely. (Nehemiah 2:11-16) Joshua knew that God had promised him success in conquering the Promised Land, yet the first thing he does is to send out spies to scout out their situation. (Joshua 2) Even when we do receive direct, supernatural direction from God, it does not relieve us from our responsibility to be careful and wise in our decision-making. We cannot make good decisions without carefully counting the cost (Luke 14:28).

Step 5: Seek godly counsel

Once we’ve done our homework, it’s time to begin evaluating options. This should not be done in a vacuum. God has created us to be creatures of community, relying on the strengths of the body of Christ. No decision should ever be made without the input of wise friends and advisors within the body of Christ. This is true for all decisions at all levels. Even the Apostles made a corporate decision-making process. Flying solo in the decision-making process is a recipe for failure. (Proverbs 15:22)

When seeking out counselors, look for mature believers with a variety of perspectives. Don’t look for people who think just like you do. Seek the opinions of those who see things differently. If you’re an emotional person, seek out the opinion of someone who is more logical. If you’re an impulsive person, seek out the opinion of someone who is more deliberate. Get the perspective of the opposite sex. Seeking godly counsel is a research project of its own.

Hang in there, only two more steps to go!

"I'm a true believer in God and Satan. I may be one of the only people in the world that believes that Bible stories are literal. I literally believe that there is a character named the Devil who is definitely out for you and me. He's out there to get you and me to look away from Christ."

You're not alone, Alice. You're not alone.

HT: Thunderstruck

I love living in the Detroit area. I’m not blind to its problems but I’m not blind to its positive attributes, either. One of the best things about living in the Detroit area these days is the Labor Day weekend music extravaganza. The Detroit International Jazz Festival is one of the largest free jazz music festivals in the world and now with Pontiac’s Arts, Beats and Eats festival, there’s high quality music of every style imaginable available at the best price of all…free.

I’ve been heading downtown to the jazz festival for 25 years, though not every year. The last few years we’ve done Arts, Beats and Eats instead. This year, Lori and I went back downtown and had a blast. They’ve expanded the jazz fest over the last few years, both in size and musical scope. I still tend to gravitate towards the traditionalist forms of jazz. Here are some of the highlights:

• Jazzistry: What a cool idea. An audible journey tracing the history of jazz all the way from its roots 150 years ago to today.
• Ferndale H.S. Jazz Band: These kids are REALLY good, especially for a high school group. (Great job Josh!)
• Organissimo: I love the sound of a B3 played by someone who really knows how and Jim Alfredson really, really knows how. Unfortunately, I only caught the end of their set. I’ll have to try to catch them at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge someday.
• Jaco Pastorius Word of Mouth Big Band featuring Will Lee: This was some of the best jazz I’ve ever heard. Will Lee was…well, I just can’t find the words. Amazing doesn’t nearly cover it. Hiram Bulloch sat in on a few tunes and he was great, too.

If you’re a Detroiter, you have a rare opportunity every Labor Day weekend. Don’t miss out next year. Between these two events, you can’t go wrong.

In the next few posts of this series, I will attempt to outline seven steps for godly decision-making in light of a biblical understanding of God’s will. Some may find these steps to be “unspiritual”, especially for those raised in classical Pentecost. I believe, however, that these steps follow a scriptural model for decision-making that balances submitting to God’s sovereignty and understanding our responsibility to make godly decisions. Dallas Willard expressed it this way:

"[God] calls us to responsible citizenship in His kingdom by -- in effect or reality -- saying, as often as possible: MY WILL FOR YOU IS FOR YOU TO DECIDE ON YOUR OWN."
~ Dallas Willard, Hearing God

I am not suggesting (nor is Willard) that God is unconcerned about our decisions or that we should ignore God entirely in our decision-making. I am simply saying that God does not desire to micro-manage our lives. He generally* wants us to follow the guidance He has already given us in scripture, as the Holy Spirit enables us. Those guidelines are what I will attempt to outline.

Step 1: Evaluate the decision in light of God’s Moral Will.

This is the first and most critical step of the process. Our decisions must be ruled by God’s commands, first and foremost. When God’s Word speaks on a subject, the decision is made for us. This means it is vitally important for us to know God’s Word, just as David expressed in Psalm 119:11. However, it is rarely possible to read the entire bible looking for guidance each time we make a decision. That is why it is also necessary to bathe this step in prayer to allow the Holy Spirit to help us remember and recognize the areas of scripture that apply to our decision.

Another key point is that when I refer to God’s Moral Will, I mean all of His revealed will in scripture. It is not limited to sin-related commands (the “do nots”), but also positive commandments. For example, Romans 12:6-8 commands us to use the gifts we have been given for the benefit of the body of Christ. Whether or not you would consider it a sin to ignore this command (I would argue that it is), it is at least a moral imperative that must enter into our decision-making process. Likewise, it can be inferred that John 6:12 teaches us to not be wasteful (Proverbs 21:20 is more explicit), which I consider a part of God’s Moral Will.
 
Step 2: Examine your motives

Some would rightly consider this step to be part of step 1, and they would be right. Our motives are a moral issue before God, who knows our hearts. Jesus repeatedly condemned the Pharisees for doing the right things for the wrong reasons. (Ex. Luke 11:42) We must be concerned about the same in our decision-making. The “why” component of our decisions is just as important as the “what” component of our decisions. Our motives are an issue of God’s Moral Will, but because of the importance of motives and our tendency to forget about motives, I like to separate this into its own decision-making step.

No godly decision can be made before these two steps are completed. They are always the starting point. In fact, many decisions can be made simply by evaluating these two criteria. In any case, we can move forward in the decision-making process only if our motives are pure and our possible choices do not violate God’s Moral Will. Quite often, however, we must move beyond these two steps to come to a decision. And we shall…in the next entry.

* I believe there are times when God will supernaturally intervene in our decision-making through the voice of the Holy Spirit, but he does that in His timing and for His purposes, not ours. More on this to follow.